#i know this might feel ooc for kevin but just think about it

[ninyard]

Hellooo i saw that you were asking for asks (that sounds funny) and I wanna know some of your hcs on Kevin and Allison being besties/ kevjean relationship

This is my chance to finally share some Allison/Kevin hcs so I'm gonna seize this opportunity with both hands and give you this total MESS of a brain dump

- Allison is the only fox that doesn't make fun of Kevin's eating habits. Kevin KNOWS his relationship with food is fucked up because of the nest and Allison knows it too, so she refuses to make bets or make fun of the way that he eats. Kevin only realised because she once tried to quietly tell Nicky to knock it off when he was pushing Kevin to have dessert or making fun of what he'd decided to have instead.

- Kevin also knows not to talk about the numbers or macros in front of her, too. They have a weird unspoken mutual respect RE: food and they both appreciate each others efforts on that front without ever actually mentioning it. they also have a gesture for each other that's code for "i want a snack do you have anything" and they'll throw each other protein bars if they're out/on a long bus journey etc.

- they are the BEST drinking buddies. Whenever the team starts drinking/partying/clubbing more together post-TKM, they are literally CHILDREN when they're drunk together. Kevin gets tired of the monsters being boring when they go out and there's only so much dancing he can do with just Nicky and Aaron alone. So Allison pulls him up to the bar one night to do a tequila shot, and they literally have the most unexpectedly fun night ever. Kevin loosens up a whole lot without the threat of Riko etc post tkm, and when I tell you he is such a fun drunk. now he doesn't really drink THAT much during the season but off-season? oh he's a party animal. I could write thousands of words about him and Allison getting drunk together and becoming literal best friends as soon as they have a drop of alcohol in their systems but here's some things I think they've done drunk

stole a shopping cart and sat in it as they pushed each other down the road in it (and fallen out of it and laughed so fucking hard) ((but were bruised up as fuck the next day because of it)

he's sat her on his shoulders - while dan sits on matt's - as the two girls try to push the other one off

he's really easily convinced to do things by her. another shot? sure. and another shot IMMEDIATELY after that? alrighty! karaoke? well, okay. jockeyback? stealing traffic cones? pulling pranks and fucking with the other foxes? acting like actual teenagers? okidokie!

she's probably the only person in the world who has successfully convinced kevin day to sing

he holds back her hair if she has to puke

she convinced him to let her do his makeup once. full glam. like a serious look, fully beat, full coverage look. there's a picture out there somewhere of it that she saves for blackmail.

fucked. make out sometimes. strip poker. they dance together :)

he never lets her walk alone anywhere when she's drunk. if she can't find one of the girls to accompany her to the bathroom at a party she'll take him.

she's taught him full dance routines

she was joking that there's no way the raven warmups could be that different to theirs, and bet him that she'd be able to do them without breaking a sweat (he won)

they've both ugly drunk cried in front of each other (but they never talk about that sober)

she's pretty light so he's bench pressed her before

- They know each others drink orders/favourite shots

- if Allison is out, say she's with her friends and not with the foxes, and she has to wait alone for a taxi or walk somewhere alone, she'll call him and he'll stay on the phone with her until she's safe

- They make fun of each other and bully each other like there's no tomorrow (affectionate). the whole "Allison hates Kevin" thing WAS true for a while, but once they get closer, she just pretends to hate him. he's like an annoying brother to her

- Allison is really easily frightened, and Kevin thinks it's funny to scare her. she's never safe walking around a corner or into a room if Kevin is there and in a good mood.

- they're not BEST FRIENDS. like they're not in each others pocket all the time and laughing and joking ALL THE TIME but she can read him like a book. she knows when he's having an off day, or thinking about something too much.

- She also knows when he's being serious and when not to joke around. She knows when he doesn't want cheering up or to joke about something and knows when to back off. The same with him - he knows when she's having a mood that requires being cheered up, or a mood that requires him to leave her the fuck alone.

- He's a big reason why she puts a whole lot more of herself into Exy post tkm. She's always been invested, but once they talk more, and they consider each other friends, she listens to him talking about Exy and it really clicks for her. his dedication. and also how fucking talented he really is. She doesn't do the night training with him but they'll occasionally go to the gym together or start practice a half an hour early to run some basic raven drills.

- They're iconic when they get together to do press after games. they bounce off each other like nothing else. they're just so funny. and he's also like andy murray in that he will ALWAYS defend her, dan, and renee's talent if interviewers start to focus more on him instead of the girls. he'll step in if an interviewer says something shitty or misogynistic. she LOVES directing objectifying and misogynistic questions his way.

- She calls him a bitch and makes fun of him for being a nepo baby. He calls her an asshole and makes fun of her for being a rich kid.

- Have gone to banquets as each others date.

that's just a few random thoughts off the top of my head but yes. Allison and Kevin. Literally the only Two Pretty Best Friends ever to exist.

[johnwickb1tsch]

girl, resurrected - 3

a jack traven x reader Bittersweet alternate ending AU. Loosely based on this post but I'm changing some things. Tom Ludlow mentioned. Magically setting this in the 1990s because I can. There will be plot holes. I do not care. 😂😘❤ Warnings: adult themes, past mention of captivity & punishment. This is OOC yandere unhinged John Wick we're dealing with here...

3. come as you are

“So you invite this pretty girl to the beach and I’m the best wingman you can come up with? Kinda pathetic, kid.”

“Harry…it was last minute.” All Jack’s other friends had made plans when the beach thing fell through earlier that week, but he didn’t want to freak you out flying solo. He sensed that he got lucky somehow, that you’d changed your mind. When he found you waiting at the sidewalk by the Pier you looked panicked in the crowd of people, like you might turn and bolt at any second.  

“Just sayin’. Saturday in Santa Monica and you’ve got her babysittin’ my kids? Not complaining, but…” 

One of the kids in question–Abigail, age 2 (AND A HALF!) squeals with laughter as you are building her a fabulous mermaid tail out of sand, complete with crabby sidekick. Her slightly older brother Kevin, age 4, (ALMOST 5!) helps by bringing you buckets of sand and sea water, essential raw materials for this sculptural undertaking, all while spouting off facts about various forms of sea life. (Did you know an octopus has 9 brains? No, you did not.) 

The truth is you gravitated towards the kids, when you and Jack walked up to their encampment in the sand and gracious introductions were made to his partner Harry, his wife Carol, and the rugrats. The little ones were safe territory. The moment you saw Jack take his shirt off, muscle-toned sun-bronzed beach god that he is, you felt like you might die, of lust or nerves, you’re still not sure which. He has a torso that might make a grown woman cry. 

“She’s…kinda skittish,” Jack muses with a frown, watching you playing with the small children, pouring wet sand to make scales on the tail and making them laugh. You’re good with them. Patient, silly, sweet. If he wasn’t already half in love with you, he feels himself falling for sure now. 

“Really?” Harry saw the way you looked at Jack, even if you were trying to be subtle about it, and didn’t quite get it. 

“Yeah. I think…something happened to her.” 

“Like what?”

“I don’t know yet. But I like her.” 

Harry nods, putting two and two together while watching you adorn his little girl with sea shells in the sand. “She’s really sweet.”

“I know.” 

“What the hell is she doing with you?” 

“Ha ha.”   

“Seriously, kid. We’re cops, we want to save people. We can’t help it. But sometimes in your personal life that ends in more heartache than it’s worth. Just be careful.” 

“I think she’s worth it.” Jack says with a frown. He knows that he doesn't even really know you yet, but there is just something about you, and he can’t look away. Yes, you look totally cute in your loudly printed halter top and jean shorts, and yes, it was adorable how shy you were when he offered to put sunscreen on your shoulders, and it was distracting, how small you seemed under his big hands when he slathered you down with no funny business. But there is something beyond the physical attraction with you and if he doesn’t find out what it is he's afraid he'll regret it for the rest of his life.

Harry nods, having done his due diligence. Because even if you have some baggage, (because who the fuck doesn't?) you seem like a good kid. He certainly hasn't seen Jack this twisted up before over someone he just met, and the handsome bastard gets hit on all the time, it's so fucking annoying. 

“Well, hate to break it to you but you better get in there before my son makes his finishing move.” It’s true, that Kevin is now sitting in your lap while you chat with Harry’s wife, and Abigail re-gathers her sea shells [ie serious loot].

Jack grins wolfishly. “Little dude is totally making eyes at my girl!”

Harry chuckles, tired but happy. He wasn’t expecting this to turn into such a fun day.

“Last one into the water is a rotten egg!” exclaims Jack, sweeping Abigail up onto his broad shoulders like she is a feather, winning peals of delighted laughter.

“Hey!” squeals Kevin, horrified at the thought of being bested by his little sister, watching her being carried like a princess towards the water’s edge. He grabs your hand and pulls you, waking you from your admittedly distracted stupor watching Jack’s muscled back, determined to catch up with them. 

You look back at Carol with a sly smile. “That makes Harry the rotten egg!” you dig, trotting along to the water. You wade in up to your knees, and watch the children clamber over Jack in the shallows like he is their personal jungle gym. Is he trying to make your ovaries explode? 

“Come on, y/n!” little Kevin calls in his high pitched voice. 

“I’m in the water!” you protest, never having actually gotten up the courage to take off your clothes, fairly content in your jean shorts and halter over your bathing suit. 

That’s when you see a scheming look pass between Jack and Kevin. “Should we get her?” 

“Yeah!” 

“Hey!” It all happens too fast, and it’s so not fair. Even Carol is laughing beside you, as Jack hands the toddler off to her before sweeping you up into his arms like you weigh nothing. Sweet baby jeezus on a cracker he is strong. “Wait! I’m still in my clothes!” 

“Sad story, babe!” he exclaims laughingly before dunking you both. 

When you surface you’re not sure if you’re coughing or laughing, half drowned and clinging to his warm pillar of a neck in the cold water. “Oh my god! Betrayal! Sabotage!” 

The children are jumping and laughing in the surf with their mother, pointing at you because undoubtedly you look like a drowned rat. “Not fair, Officer Traven! Excessive Force! Abuse of authority!” With a smirk he pulls you deeper into the waves, and oh. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, than in this man’s arms. You find yourselves just looking at each other in this semi-private moment, swaying in the waves, your arms around his neck. Water beads on the tips of his eyelashes, glittering like diamonds. You study the sweep of his eyes, the cut of his cheek bones, the line of his jaw. The dusting of freckles across his cheeks–he’s so beautiful it hurts, and the soft way he’s looking at you just might prove the death of you. 

“Is this ok?” he asks quietly.

You nod, because you can’t seem to find where your voice has gone, with his big hands on your waist. Probably down to hide in the trenches with your coward of a heart that’s considering imploding on itself like a black hole. So much for just friends and playing it cool. 

“Are you having fun?” 

You nod, still mute. 

“I guess…I didn’t think about how hard it would be to get to know each other with the kiddos here.” 

You laugh at that. “It’s ok. They’re great. I’m going to have to sleep for two days after this though.” 

He grins at that, nodding. “Harry says that sometimes he’d rather take on a hostage situation with ten armed perps over a two year old that needs a nap.” 

You giggle at that. “Jeezus. You guys…deal with that often?”

“Terrible two-year olds?” You splash him in answer, winning that heart-stopping grin. “No day is the same on L.A. S.W.A.T.”  

“So…you’re kind of an adrenaline junky, huh?” 

His full mouth dances as he tries not to smile–and ultimately fails. How does he manage to seem bashful and cocky all at the same time? And why is that so adorable to you? “I guess I do alright under pressure. How am I doing now?”

You lift an eyebrow, losing your own battle over your mouth. “Are you in a stressful situation right now?” 

“Yeah, I’ve got this totally cute girl in my arms, and I’m still not sure if she even likes me.” 

You snort at that. “If I didn’t like you, you’d know it buddy, believe me.” 

“Ahhhhh, ok. Tough girl, huh?” 

You don’t know why this makes you freeze up when two seconds before you were so utterly pliable in his hands. In the flash of a few seconds you think about everything you’ve been through. What you endured under John’s hands, a man who loved you but ultimately tried to break you. The commando-style home invasion by the mafia assassins that could have ended you both. You shot a man to save the lover who kept you captive for months. And you left that lover bleeding on the floor after calling the paramedics for him. Maybe you’re tough–but you’re not sure you made it out totally sane. 

Would Jack even like you, if he knew the extent of what you’ve lived through, and the things you’ve done?

Jack knows immediately that he fucked up, though he’s not sure how. Just that he watched you clap shut like a spring-loaded trap door right in front of his eyes, when the two of you had been having so much fun just a second before. “Shit. I’m sorry.”

“I’m ok.”  You are not ok, and you realize you’re digging your nails into the firm curve of his ridiculously sculpted trapezius dorsi. “Sorry.” 

“Hey, it’s cool. C’mere.” 

You barely know this man–you don’t know why the snarling hounds in your heart quiet down, when he pulls you into a hug and holds you in the swaying waters of the Pacific ocean. 

“Jack?” 

“Yeah?” 

You don’t think you could say it, if you were looking him in the eye. But nestled into the curve of his neck, his short hair velvet-soft against your cheek, you feel brave enough to tell him, “You’re a really nice guy.” 

He sighs, squeezing your ribcage a little tighter. “Don’t hold it against me, ok?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Dunno. Girls seem to prefer a bad boy, is all. Happens to me a lot.” He doesn’t get it, but he knows he’s lost more than one girlfriend to being too nice, and he knows that he shouldn’t, but the thought of losing you already just makes him want to hold you harder. 

You know exactly what he means. You even went through a bit of that yourself, didn’t you? See what it won you?

“I think…I’ve grown out of that phase lately,” you tell him quietly, and you’re grateful when he doesn’t ask you any more questions, just holds you. 

The moment only breaks when the children get impatient, Kevin yelling for you two to come back to entertaining them some more. “Uncle JACK! Come ON!” 

“Uh oh. Think I’m in trouble for hogging the pretty girl,” Jack says with a grin, and somehow just like that your mood lifts and the day is bright again. How did he do that?

“Where?” you tease, looking around the water. 

Though the fact is, this is Santa Monica beach, and there are plenty of hotties around. It made you feel really self-conscious when you were waiting around at the Pier, watching the beautiful people go by. It’s just not normal, how many insanely good-looking people there are in this city. You’ve started to notice how the obsession bleeds into everything here. 

And Jack…is totally one of them. He could be a movie star if he wanted. He could fill seats and sell soda or faster cable or luxury cars or whatever else on TV. But instead…he risks his life every day, for the thrill of it and you suspect, he just likes to help people. 

“Ha. As if, cutie pie,” he teases back, giving you one last squeeze before the two of you make your way back to the shore.

TBC...

chapter map

[karmacharmeleon18]

I just went through your AFTG posts and may I ask: what are your feelings about Kevin?

Oooh. Oh. Oh, anon... idk if you're a Kevin Day fan or not, for the sake of things I'll assume you're a completely neutral party so I can tell it how it is without the need to mince words. If this alarms you then perhaps you are a Kevin Day fan and you should stop reading now 😂❤

If you’ve read my posts then you’ve noticed English isn’t my first language, so be prepared for things to make little sense at times😅 I’m trying my best, though, I promise ❤ I’m also autistic and not great at conveying the right tone, especially online, so I’m sorry if I sound mean or rude, it is not directed at you, and I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings in any way ❤ This is SUPER LONG and I’m sorry if it’s not what you were looking for, but once I get going I can’t stop 😅 I’m not joking, this is literally over 20k words of Kevin Day analysis 🙃

In the shortest possible terms, my feelings about Kevin are... complicated.

I liked him as a character in AFTG, I do not like him now.

This might make no sense to you, but I kind of divide the character into two: AFTG Kevin and the New Trilogy Kevin. My feelings differ greatly between the two. Of course I know it’s always the same character, the brainrot hasn’t gotten that bad lol Nora writes him very consistently, and I noticed nothing OOC for him in these new books.

But the amount of info and insights we get about him is what changed between one trilogy and the next, and that is what made all the difference for me.

AFTG Kevin:

In AFTG I found Kevin fascinating.

An Exy prodigy who in the eyes of the public can do no wrong and yet falls from grace, finds himself in a team of misfits, bottom of the barrel, from riches to rags.

A guy so traumatized he can only function if another person devotes his entire life to his safety.

And yet he's endlessly arrogant, bitchy, self-centered and confident. Confident not as a person, but as an athlete, and for him that's the same thing, you know? He exists to play Exy and he's the best at it, and that's all that matters.

Which is why Kevin is so, so good at ignoring his own hypocrisy.

Because he's acing this Exy thing, so who cares if he's not acing this "being a human being outside of the Nest" thing. You get what I'm saying?

He gives everyone around him a hard time for being less than perfect. But he genuinely cannot see his own failings. Because as long as he's the best at Exy, Kevin Day is perfect and there's nothing you can say about him. You better keep your mouth shut and obey.

Kevin takes, and takes and takes from everyone around him and the only thing he's capable of giving back is his Exy expertise, which he doles out to the others with all the subtlety and gentleness of a rock to the teeth. I’d rather be in the passenger seat of the Maserati with a sugar-high Andrew behind the wheel going 100mph for funsies than train for an hour under Kevin Day.

(It doesn’t help that Waymack indulges him, because he doesn’t really care about his Foxes winning, he just wants them to play and find stability in the routine, the discipline it takes to be Exy players; winning is a bonus; to the anon from the other day, if you’re reading this: I agree with you so much that Coach Rhemann and the Trojans would’ve humbled Kevin real quick ❤ but Waymack just isn’t that type of coach, of person; for him the mere fact that the Foxes survive without killing each other is a miracle, hoping for more is just senseless wishful thinking… until Neil)

In the face of danger Kevin hides behind a guy who's 5ft tall and expects him to put his life on the line to protect him. Neil makes Andrew lift his promise to protect him when he knows he’s about to die, because he doesn’t want Andrew to suffer the consequences of a broken promise, and because he doesn’t want him to get involved and be in actual danger. But Kevin clings to Andrew and will always expect and want Andrew to put himself in danger for him. And when things go wrong, he's a defeatist, he sees no point in fighting, he just drinks. But gods forbid if someone around him indulges in junk food, that’s an unforgivable sin and you’re a terrible human being and a waste of oxygen and how can you sleep at night, go run some drills right now to make up for your useless existence, you worthless piece of--

At any other point in time Andrew would never tolerate someone like Kevin. Someone with a victim mentality (rightfully so, don’t get me wrong) and yet at the same time high and mighty and loud about it.

But Andrew is a giver and a taker. He gives promises and takes reasons to live. He’s always been far more desperate than Kevin. Desperate to have a relationship with his brother and cousin, willing to join the Foxes and go to college only on the condition that they be granted the same scholarship. Willing to endure years of horrible abuse to get a mother out of it. Willing to throw that same mother and all those years of enduring in the trash and go to juvie, all to spare a brother he doesn’t even know his same fate. He is depressed. He is apathetic except he isn’t, but no one sees that until Neil. I’ve never seen a character as suicidal and at the same time as desperate to live as Andrew Minyard. As hopeful – without even realizing it - for something better to come. Considering all he’s been through, Andrew should’ve given up on life a long time ago. And yet he keeps enduring, and he keeps searching for reasons to live and offering people deals that bind him to this existence, because deep down he is hopeful. And in this desolate landscape, Kevin Day is the perfect object to dump all of his protective instincts on. And so he gets a reason to live, and something to focus on, still enduring and subconsciously waiting for something, anything to get better.

What saves their relationship (not even a friendship, according to Nora) is that Andrew is completely immune to Kevin’s tantrums and orders. Andrew is in control, always, and Kevin does not have the capacity to challenge him.

(“If you tell him to submit, he will,” Kevin says of Jean, and the irony is in the fact that he’s exactly the same when it comes to Andrew; but luckily for him most of the time Andrew doesn’t care about submission, he only cares about peace and quiet)

The Foxes are the worst thing that could've happened to Kevin. The golden Son of Exy surrounded by misfits, criminals but worst of all: commoners. Peasants. A bunch of kids as far removed from the Ravens - the elite - as can be. And most of them barely have any interest in Exy.

Only Kevin, Andrew, Neil and Matt will go pro (and even then, according to the Extra Content, Matt will always put his family with Dan first, only choosing teams near her and giving a shot at Court but leaving when juggling two teams takes too much time away from her and their kids). Compared to the Ravens, brutal, driven, ambitious, all aiming to go pro and be Court, Kevin is very much living a nightmare during his first year at Palmetto, where on top of the Foxes being his new teammates, his hand is freshly shattered and he thinks he’ll never get to play again.

Kevin ends up with the Foxes out of necessity, they're his last resort, his last hope. And here's where the parallels with Neil really start. Because for him, too, the Foxes are the only chance he has to play.

But where Kevin is hellbent on making everyone around him miserable, because his whole life he’s been convinced that greatness is born from misery, Neil wants to make everyone around him better for the sake of being better.

Better Exy players, but better people, too. Neil understands you can’t have one without the other. But Kevin is so single-mindedly focused on Exy that he doesn’t care about the people, he only cares about the athletes.

Neil is resigned to the fact that he’s going to die, and he wants to see the Foxes get better for themselves, so that after his death, they can keep playing, keep winning, keep having fun, keep doing the game justice.

But Kevin wants the Foxes to get better for him. Because he is Kevin Day and he deserves a good team.

And that’s why, no matter how hard he tries, he ends up failing over and over again. It’s only when Neil joins the team that things get better, it’s through his meddling, the way he humanizes the Monsters in the eyes of the others and bridges the gap between the two groups, the way he gets Andrew and Aaron to begrudgingly “reconcile” under Bee’s guidance, the way he gets Andrew to care, care about Neil, and himself, and Exy, that the Foxes finally become what Kevin always wanted. Sort of.

Leave it to him and he will always resort to insults and Raven drills and hierarchy and he’s the Queen of Exy and you’re just a worthless peasant compared to him and--… you get it. The Foxes are definitely not at the level he wants them to be. Which is why Kevin is happy when the Trojans win the championship over them (in the Extra Content, which is ever-changing at the moment, so this isn’t canon). The Trojans deserve it. The Foxes do not. If there’s one thing I can say about Kevin Day, is that he is objective when it comes to the game (not when it comes to himself as a person lol).

Kevin’s relationship with Jeremy is fascinating to me (again, not a friendship according to Nora). In my opinion Jeremy represents all that Kevin wants to be. A golden child of Exy who joined an average team and made it the best there is (outside of the Ravens) without the brutality, the abuse, the misery of the Nest. Jeremy made the Trojans great, not a damn red or even yellow card in 4 years of playing a sport as violent as hockey, at a collegiate level. He’s never won a championship until now, but Kevin understands why and forgives Jeremy for it. Because Jeremy will always chose sportsmanship over victory, so of course they can’t win the whole thing. Because in a contact sport brute force and cheap shots will always prevail (if slick and perfected enough). But that’s a line Jeremy will never cross, and despite himself, Kevin admires him for it.

Another interesting relationship is the one between him and Thea. In AFTG and the Extra Content, Thea is a Raven™, a Riko apologist through and through, the type of person to tell Kevin to just get over his trauma and think of the game. On one hand, she’s the worst possible person for Kevin to be with. On the other hand, she’s the only person Kevin can be with.

I know most of the fandom hates Thea, but tbh I never cared about her, she’s pretty much a non-character to me and I don’t care who Kevin ends up with. But I acknowledge that being with someone like Thea means that Kevin will most likely never heal.

Here’s where my opinion differs the most from the general opinion the fandom shares: I think Thea is a victim too.

She too was in a cult. She too spent years in a brutal team were sex was a commodity. She is a woman, a woman of color at that. Her life wasn’t easy. She suffered as much as any Raven, as much as Kevin, or possibly even more, bar the hand.

But the thing about Thea is that she doesn’t see herself as a victim. The way all ex Ravens who graduated before Riko’s death don’t see themselves as victims.

They see themselves as the best, not despite the Nest, but because of it.

And until Riko shattered his hand, Kevin was the exact same.

He grew up in a cult, but he was never injured, never sexually abused, and in general, both him and Riko saw themselves as being above having sex with fellow Ravens. Thea was the only exception for Kevin because she was the best backliner and above all, she didn’t beg, she didn’t try to seduce Kevin to get a number on the perfect Court. As a matter of fact, she couldn’t care less about Kevin, he had to pursue her, and she only accepted to have sex with him because he was attractive and sex is a good way to let out steam, that’s the way things are in the Nest.

People are disgusted by the age difference (4 years iirc) and the fact that Kevin met Thea when she was a college Freshman and he was in high school. But although he was immediately attracted to her, she felt nothing for him. She probably saw him as a besotted puppy following her around, the same way she saw Jean (though I doubt they interacted all that much, she was living under the brutal regime of the Nest, she didn’t have the time or inclination to notice a boy drooling over her). Their “relationship” only started once Kevin was in the Nest, he was 18, and he was the one to pursue her. And she accepted his advances because, again, that’s the way of the Nest.

Their affection for one another comes much later, and will only concretize once they’re both out of the Nest, most likely only when they’re both on the same pro team and actually living their life together (from what I gathered from the Extra Content).

I know that a 4 year age gap feels like a big power imbalance in college, but lets be objective: in the Nest Kevin is the one who has power over Thea.

Jean and Neil were property, the Ravens (Thea) were assets, but Kevin was Riko’s brother.

We know how little brotherhood means in the world of the Moriyamas, but the point is: Kevin never saw himself as a victim. And he never saw the Ravens as victims either. When someone was being abused, he turned his head and ignored it, he didn’t intervene, he didn’t really care because it’s all for the game.

To this day, I don’t know if Kevin considers himself a victim of the Nest. A victim of Riko, sure, because of the shattered hand that almost ended his career. But had that not happened, Kevin would’ve kept training and playing with the Ravens, happily ignoring the abuse around him.

Because here are no victims in the Nest, only great players, and he’s better than all of them.

The only exception is Jean. Jean is property, he is treated as an object, as an animal. For the first time in his life Kevin has to acknowledge just how fucked up the Master and Riko are. He turns his head and ignores the abuse, he doesn’t intervene. But for the first time it takes something out of him. It weighs on him. Cracks start forming.

But he still asks Jean to teach him French, despite knowing full well what the consequences would be for Jean. And he still leaves Jean to die under Riko’s wrath. The cracks finally shatter along with his hand and he abandons Jean to be tortured to death.

So, in AFTG, I found Kevin insufferable but compelling. He is such a good character, and the whole story revolves around him (don’t tell him tho his ego is inflated enough as it is lol). He's Riko's brother, the traumatized prodigal son knocking on Waymack's door with a broken hand, he's the one that chooses Neil and sets the plot for the whole saga into motion. I never liked him as an individual, but I did like him as a character (as all the Foxes, and tbh I think that's exactly the point of the story: they are not good people, but they are compelling characters). Kevin had all the traits of a good character, all the complexities, the contradictions.

But in this new trilogy, I simply can't stand him lol the less I see of him, the better.

New Trilogy Kevin

I honestly don’t want to talk too much about this version of Kevin. That’s how little I like him. New Trilogy Kevin and Thea go hand in hand in my eyes.

They’re still victims of a fucked up system, they’re still doomed to suffer the consequences of their upbringing for the rest of their lives, not only in terms of being victims of abuse (Thea less so, because she’ll never see herself as a victim, meanwhile Kevin sees himself as Riko’s victim, but I still don’t know if he sees himself as a victim of the Nest in general), but in terms of social impairment.

Nora said Kevin doesn’t have friends. Not even Neil and Andrew (or Jeremy, they only text like three times a year, before Jean) count as friends right now, it will take years, when they are all pro and in the national team together. And maybe after he retires he’ll be able to make some acquaintances or even friends at the park or something and be a proper functioning adult. But for now Thea is the closest thing to a friend/companion Kevin has, simply because they share the same type of obsession with Exy.

Neil and Jean are obsessed as well, but it’s not the same type of obsession, and Nora said that Kevin’s betrayal has forever destroyed any chances of becoming friends with Jean. They are acquaintances, and at the moment Jean would like to see Kevin dead, especially when Kevin calls him “brother” after he left him to be tortured to death, especially when Kevin is such a hypocrite, telling Jean to get his life together while at the same time being a barely functioning alcoholic himself.

The Nest fucked Thea and Kevin up. They are both victims, and I still see them as such in this new trilogy.

But for the first time I’ve realized just how little Thea (&allRavens) cares about the abuse that happened in the Nest.

She saw a sixteen year old boy be passed around like a sex doll and she holds it against him, she blames him for the beating that almost killed him because he might have been “up to his old tricks” that he knows the Master doesn’t tolerate so seriously Jean, what were you expecting, what the fuck were you thinking, mh?, she considers him a slut, like all the Ravens do, when he was just a child and he was raped over and over again and was beaten black and blue and forced to play with broken bones and she knew, she knew, and all of them knew and still they blame Jean and think he deserved it and they tell him so.

And for the first time I truly, 100% realized that if Riko had not shattered his hand, Kevin would’ve become a Raven apologist with his whole being, just like Thea, just like all the other Ravens.

Kevin constantly pulls rank with Jean, he constantly acts like he knows better, like he’s owed everything he wants from the people around him. And the worst part is that the people around him bow to him. The narrative indulges him. Constantly. Kevin Day is perfect and if you don’t agree you are the problem.

Kevin likes having power over people. He likes that Jean “doesn’t know” how to fight back with him (or with anyone, in his opinion).

He thinks that’s the natural order of things: he is Kevin Day, the Son of Exy, the Queen of the Court, and you must obey his every order.

For the first time, I truly see the similarities between Kevin and Riko. What Kevin could have become, had he stayed in the Nest. And I don’t like what I see.

Someone please humble that bitch, I’m begging. I need Kevin Day to be humbled or at the very least to shut the hell up. I need the narrative to put him in his place. Instead he keeps getting what he wants, and public praise, he plasters on his camera-ready smile and persona and suddenly all he has done to Jean doesn’t matter (not only in the narrative, this applies to the fandom too, maybe even more so).

So if after AFTG I was like: Kevin and Thea deserve each other because they understand each other like no one else can, eventually they’ll realize they were both victims and find comfort in each other ☹️

now I’m like: Kevin and Thea deserve each other because they’re the exact same type of terrible person 🤢 and even if they realize they were abused, they will still think they are better, worth more than the other victims, because they are Thea and Kevin and if you don’t like it, you are wrong.

And if you are Jean Moreau, sold and shipped off at 14, raped from the age of 16, betrayed by the only man you ever trusted and left by him to die, shamed and blamed by the woman you looked up to, and you don’t forgive and forget, you are wrong.

At the end of the day, Kevin Day is the only one who matters. The Queen is the most important piece. Everyone else is a pawn, and is expendable.

And let me say, the way the fandom portrays Kevin doesn’t help. They water down his character so much. He’s a poor little meow meow that never did anything wrong in his life and everyone would give their life for him and Jean will 100% cheat on Jeremy to be with him and he is the best person to ever exist and the whole universe must bow down to him and Thea better stay away that Raven bitch 🔪

When Nora said that any relationship Kevin is in will have to account for his narcissism. When she’s made very clear that Kevin is a coward and a hypocrite and a traitorous bastard and a bitch that thinks his left pinky is worth more than all the Foxes combined and that will sacrifice anyone to stay safe.

Fandom took all the traits that make Kevin Day Kevin Day and watered them down, made them disappear, created a new, third version of him that doesn’t exist in any book of either trilogy.

Meanwhile Nora took those same traits and exasperated them in the New Trilogy, to the point that I don’t enjoy reading of and about Kevin anymore. I honestly want him gone from Jean’s life.

Jean can never heal if Kevin is around.

And it’s concerning that 90% of the fandom doesn’t care.

In my opinion KevJean shippers only care about Kevin.

😔

I want to reiterate that I don't think Kevin changed in this new trilogy. He's always the same Kevin. Nora is a consistent writer.

But the amount and type of information surrounding him has changed, and shown me a new side of Kevin that I do not like. This is Kevin Day with the sliders set to the max, and honestly? I've had enough of him. I don't want to see him again unless it's to properly apologize to Jean. And we all know that will never happen 🤷🏾‍♀️

Kevin and accountability are strangers.

I’m done, I promise. I hope this was a satisfactory answer, anon. Send me a little message or something if you’ve made it this far ❤

[cultpastorkevin]

ooc quotes from diff Kevin centric interactions in the aftg rp server I’m in;; (I just think they’re neat and wanted to immortalize it all; love the crew)

Kevin // Riko

what Kevin could not be to Riko, who elevated declawing him to an art form.

Kevin was still a pet kenneled by habits and his habits were ones of passivity and submission.

“sometimes I wonder if the violence we were taught will follow me for the rest of my life”

Kevin // Jean

“The Queen of Exy does what he likes in his own time, including answering text messages. Why would you call me after everything?” Jean responds snidely.

“That’s different.” Kevin argued weakly. “It’s different when it’s you.”

“Knox is everything that is good about Exy. The Trojans are a good team. You deserve a better court to play on than one as dark as the Ravens.”

Kevin // Neil

Whatever Neil was missing both frustrated him and set him on edge, as if he were a rabbit feeling the vibrations of another’s thump on the ground.

Kevin // Aaron

Aaron just laughs again. "People do fucked up things. Yet we love them anyway. It's how humans work. Once we love someone we never stop loving them. Not even when they do horrible horrible things. Not even when they hurt us. We can never let go of the people we've loved. We just have to love them from far away and let the world think we hate them."

Kevin // Kitay (oc)

When he’d heard Riko had killed himself, he’d wanted to scratch the chess piece off his skin as an apology.

“It’s because you love him, and even though it’s going to kill you, you can’t help it”

Kevin // Tiana (oc)

“Just because he used you as a substitute condom doesn’t mean he likes you, 15”

Kevin // Orion (oc)

“Desperate. You’re desperate Day. To prove yourself, to survive, for relief. Whatever it is you’re desperate for it, I can see it in your eyes. You don’t fool me for a second.”

Kevin // Leo (oc)

“Kevin thinks he’s straight?” He asked, making a face. “But what about Jean and Ricky and Jeremy and, uhm, everyone else?” Leo asked, a chuckle bubbling up in his throat.

“I’m kinda worried that Kevin might kill himself if he’s off the court for too long”

One who has never been fed can only know that they were hungry once they discover food.

Kevin // Allison

He didn’t truly hate Allison, they just had a tendency to rub each other raw and then scrub salt in the wounds.

Sorry was never a word that fit right in her mouth — it always sounded wrong and harsh when it was pulled out like teeth.

Kevin // Tetsuji

Chronic anxiety riddled him like maggots in a bird corpse and at the moment he very much wished he was one.

the crew behind the bars: me (Kevin) @andreilslovechild (Aaron, Tetsuji, Tiana), @rikomoriyama01 (Riko), @everyonesadoptivedad (Leo), @the-rabid-dog (Allison), @psychotide (Kitay, Jean, Orion), @hums (Neil)

[respectfullytrash]

AGGHHH I SAW YOUR RECENT NORTALICE DOODLE YESSS!!!

Do you have any headcanons for them in general? I’d love to hear, I’m starving for content of them 🙏

Lmao. Im kinda assuming this is the same anon from before, but incase im wrong; Here’s the last Nortalice post i made about the initial ask and then some angsty dynamic i came up with on the fly.

But headcanons for Nortalice huh…

(This might be a little ooc considering the affection system and general future and upcoming content might turn out but were just gonna roll with it)

•In AOM, Norton has this way of pulling the rug out from Alice’s feet when they first meet. Norton’s personality kind of clashes with Alice’s sophisticated and private lifestyle, so Norton reacts by treating Alice with as little respect as he reasonably can because he perceives Alice’s behavior as someone snooty just trying to get something out of him. While Alice is struggling to figure out a way past Norton’s blunt and off putting nature, without going completely broke in the process.

Eventually Alice realizes that in order to get anywhere with Norton, she has to take down her own walls first and actually get personal with him. Which kind of in turn throws Norton off his game, where initially he felt he was running circles around this rich lady who has no idea how the world really works, but is now finding her relatable(?) and possibly an exception to his view of the privileged.

Now actual couple stuff

• Alice is not very big on PDA and doesn’t want to put an official label on their relationship. Whenever someone asks about the two of them she’s very private and tries changing the subject or answers with something extremely vague. It’s not because she doesnt feel very strongly for Norton or she’s embarrassed. She just thinks it’s a little too personal for her liking to talk about her relationships, even with friends, and it just isnt anyone’s business.

Norton’s pretty fine with having no official label but is pretty clear with the other survivors (especially the males * cough cough Kevin*) that him and Alice are exclusive and she is off limits to any romantic or sexual advances.

• Norton might be more possessive than Alice is but i think they’re both pretty equal when it comes to jealousy, which usually goes like this.

Alice is more openly affectionate with her female friends, touching and sharing compliments in public since that’s more appropriate for women of the time to do. It isn’t very appropriate to do with a man your not married to however, which makes Norton a little jealous. And when Norton lets loose and hangs out with some of the other guys, Alice gets a little insecure since she’s usually the one that gets Norton out of his shell.

• Alice doesn’t use pet names. Maybe when she’s especially sentimental or in a teasing mood, she’ll slip out a “darling” or “love”, but it’s just not really her thing.

Norton doesn’t really use traditional pet names and will instead sometimes call her “Goldie”, or “Ally” (this is just mostly my habit of shortening peoples names and sticking a y at the end though)

• This is both Alice and Norton’s first relationship ever. They both have zero experience so they make a lot of mistakes together. And their different upbringings and social status leaves them with different ideas and expectations of what dating or “courting” looks like.

(Slight NSFW implications) Alice also wants to wait until they leave the Manor and get married until they have traditional couple bedroom fun. Norton is pretty disappointed at first until he realizes that Alice isn’t saying no, just not yet and that she expects that they’ll get married at some point, which kind of stuns him.

Ive also got some ideas considering Fools Gold but… Someones gonna have to send me another ask so I know the people want to know about my silly little ships. I love to talk, i just need to know if people care or not before i yap away

[bea-l-t]

Y'all I have a theory that's probably more fanfic than theory but hear me out (99% sure this is not going to happen but a girl can dream):

So there's a pretty big conspiracy amongst the fandom right now that Elodie is alive, right? And there's also a pretty big conspiracy that tsc3 will feature the Moriyamas getting taken down through the FBI and also maybe Neil because he's a terror to society, right??? (If you don't know what I'm talking about for that second one, here's the most beautiful post breaking it down):

But you know who I've heard literally nothing about?? Tetsuji Moriyama.

Okay, so I feel like we can go down two roads here (three if we decide not to indulge either but whatever):

One is that Tetsuji is feeling a little resentful and decides to help out with taking down his family's empire. It's a twist but a little boring and ooc.

Two is that when he left the country, he got his ducks in a row to leverage himself a little bit more for when he inevitably gets called out for all of his illegal shit. Obviously if he's in another country, authorities can't really do anything about child abuse, so I'm leaning towards our ex-Ravens dishing on his mafia connections. SO! What if Tetsuji were to hunt down Elodie and take her as a way to intimidate Jean into keeping quiet??

I've seen a lot of predictions that Elodie is Jeremy's French tutor, but given her age, I don't think it's super likely. However, I CAN see one of Herve and Chloe Moreau's people trying to get to Jean through Jeremy. I can also see them being the reason that Jean finds out that Elodie is still alive, captive or not.

Can I also see Tetsuji joining forces with the Moreaus and other organizations that Ichirou has slighted, therefore connecting the "Tetsuji kidnaps Elodie" and "Jeremy's tutor is evil" theories? Yes.

If we want to get really crazy, I like to think that just as Jean is starting to hope he might someday be free of the main branch (again, see linked post), Tetsuji swoops in with a new way to trap Jean into a lifetime of servitude via Elodie (maybe Neil and Kevin too idk). Then we find out that the Wilshires were working with the Moriyamas to expand their presence in the USA. AND THEN Laila would come in with her international connections and bring the whole thing to the ground.

And then Jean and Jeremy kiss.

[go-to-two]

Some of it was how he wrote Antonio out but also killing Al. Losing both characters drastically changed the feel and balance of the show. I also think Eid was upset Jon came back to PD after Justice didn't work and so the choices he made in regard to how he wrote him out were personal.

As for the Burzek of it all, it is way more than Eid not putting them back together. If you watch season 4, it was clear Burzek was on their way to getting back together. And then Eid shows up and the very first episode he is in charge, he has Kim dating someone else. At the end of S5, Paddy went to him and asked for Burzek to be a thing again and what does Eid do - season 6 which was an attempt to kill Burzek for good while pushing Upstead. He could have used anyone else to date Hailey but no, he picks Adam. And it was after Paddy specifically asked him for Burzek. Eid said numerous times in interviews that Burzek was done and over. Upsteads didn't' mind S6 because the storyline was used to push their ship together but Burzek didn't get anything out of it except a very OOC Adam and Kim. He did everything possible to not make Adam the father of Kim's baby…including trying to bring Roman back. He did figure out how to get him back for the episode after Burzek lost their baby which was a dick move to the fans. He spent seasons 7-9 teasing Burzek and giving the fans hope only to wreck them at the end of an episode. He "broke" them up several times but never actually put them together first and constantly made sure the audience knew they weren't together. And then Paddy and Marina give what was probably the performance of their careers in 8x16 and it is used to get Upstead married while Burzek just got more trauma. The fact that Adam and Kim (and even Kevin) had nothing to do with the fallout from the Roy storyline is mind boggling. There were so many good storylines that could have come from all of it for all the characters and he didn't use a single one. It seemed clear that his goal was to get upstead married before he left. You could also tell Paddy and Marina were upset about their characters being ignored - it was disrespectful to them, the characters, and the fans.

Add in what he did to Al and Antonio, starting this awful centric format, removing the humor and family feel of the show (and making it really dark), and making Trudy almost nonexistent, there are a lot of reasons he is not liked by fans (and not just Burzeks). It would have been one thing if he was trying to build them back but he clearly used them for emotional storylines with no intention of ever making them a couple again. He constantly did 3 steps forward and 5 back with Burzek. So yeah...it feels like he had a vendetta against Burzek and Adam/Paddy specifically. And yes, Burzek had moments but that was because of Paddy and Marina, not Eid.

I also think some of the choices he made with Hailey's character are why she gets the hate she does...it all could have been prevented too if he had just taken a different approach to how he brought her in. But his ego got in the way. He came in acting like it was a brand new show and didn't care that there was an already established audience. He even told Paddy that the fans didn't matter (I don't think shows should cater to fans but saying they don't matter isn't right either).

Ok, I'm going to have to go point by point but if I'm being honest... a lot of this feels like it's about Kim and Adam not being together.

I've talked about the Antonio stuff. It wasn't good. I don't agree that is was vindictive and I know there was talk of trying to get him back for the beginning of season 7 and it didn't work, so it is what it is. I might be in the minority, but I understand the decision to kill Al from a storytelling perspective. I wish it had had a more lasting effect on Voight's character, but I do understand choices they made in that exit.

As for Burzek... I think we have very different definitions of what "on their way to getting back together" looked like in season 4. In seasons 1-3, they cheated together on Adam's (2nd or 3rd?) fiancée, got engaged before either were near ready, imploded, and then Adam spent a big chunk of season 4 away from Intelligence because he couldn't handle being in the unit at the same time as Kim. Sure, Paddy was filming a movie and Marina was going on maternity leave, but that's what they were working with at the time. They cared about each other, but Eid inherited a bit of a mess with them. Paddy could ask for anything he wanted, and no showrunner or writer is obligated to give it to him if it didn't make sense. Putting them back together without any development at that time would have made no sense.

You typed a lot about seasons 6-8 and again, it all feels like it boils down to Kim and Adam not being together. I personally think the term "OOC" is used too liberally. It's thrown around by all fandoms as a blanket deflection from a character's behavior we may not like, when it's really well within the scope of their character. They're flawed. I'm not saying you have to like the way Eid told the story but that goes back to my original point. There is little critique in there that doesn't come back to the idea that he didn't put the ship together.

There is a pattern that I've noticed in the Burzek fandom that fans believe Kim and Adam are "stronger than the showrunner" and somehow defeated Eid, and it's not how things work at all. No character has any story without the showrunner. The reason Kim was pregnant with Adam's baby is because Eid made that decision, even if other options were explored in the writing process. They found Makayla together because of Eid. They were still circling each other for years because he kept them in each other's orbits. He took them from where they were in season 5 to working towards co-parenting, all while giving them some of their best episodes along the way. If he wanted to end them for good, he could have. Easily. It's not fair or accurate to say that all the good moments were because of Paddy and Marina while the bad were Eid and the writers when that's simply not how writing a TV show works.

"And then Paddy and Marina give what was probably the performance of their careers in 8x16 and it is used to get Upstead married while Burzek just got more trauma." - that sentence doesn't sit right with me for a lot of reasons. First, Tracy also gave an incredible performance. I'm not going to minimize that just because her ship ended up getting married. In fact, they all did. Jason, too. Jesse and LaRoyce had a lesser presence, but they were so solid. To act like Burzek were the only ones to come out of that situation with trauma is erasing the whole other half of the storyline, which is what you are complaining they did to Kim. And I agree, Kim's role in the Roy situation should have been addressed sooner. Eid should have done it in 9A, Gwen should have done it in 9B instead of the Makayla kidnapping fallout. Kim and Adam's story was a mess in season 9, and that's at the hands of both showrunners.

I mentioned this in an ask the other day, but I don't think Eid was one who was interested in romance between canon couples at all- be it Burzek or Upstead. Was it vindictive towards Upstead when he put them together and immediately gave them nothing but angst? Probably not. Just like I don't think he was vindictive in giving Burzek angst, too. Again, there seems to be this notion that Kim and Adam were the only ones who went through shit. They all got it. It was his style, which is one of my biggest complaints against him, honestly.

Centrics aren't even my biggest gripe against him, because I saw up close how much productions had to scramble to put together Covid seasons. The centrics got bad in season 8, but I have a lot of grace for the hoops they had to jump through to get anything on screen during the pandemic. I'm more annoyed with why they're still happening now.

All that said, I don't think a viewer who has seen the whole show can objectively look at the quality of cases, involvement from each character, long-form story arcs that are actually cohesive, the development of the characters, and the dialogue and say we were worse off under Eid's leadership.

Okay, I've typed enough. I don't expect that you'll agree with everything here. It's totally fine if you don't agree with any of it, I'm just offering my perspective. I'm not saying someone has to love the way Eid ran the show but generally speaking (it's not every fan, I understand that) Burzek fans tend to villainize Eid while praising Gwen for "fixing the show". Meanwhile, she does everything they claim Eid did (centrics, dark tone, no continuity, baseless writing), only worse. That's why, to someone on the outside, it does seem like the core issue with Eid is that he didn't put the ship together.

[meriamarie]

More than a Program, Tron x Oc Fic

I wrote these about a year ago. Not Betaed, not proofed, written in my notes app over several nights while falling asleep. Might be ooc, don't care. Suggestive content and kissing but no NSFW (yet).

The story takes place after Tron (1982), partly during Tron: Uprising, and before Tron: Legacy

Idea is; while Kevin Flynn couldn't save his wife, he still believes he can do everything. If maybe, just maybe, he can save one person, then it will all be okay. Rose is the daughter of an old friend. A girl diagnosed with cancer who doesn't have long to live. Kevin comes up with the idea to port her memories and personality to his newest creation: The Grid. She's a bright girl and while she wouldn't be able to leave, she could help him build his world. Make it more than he could on his own. She finds herself attached to another outsider on Kevin Flynn's Grid.

***

"Rose this is Clu and Tron. Clu, Tron, this is Rose." Kevin formally introduced the girl to the two programs. "Hello!" Rose said with a hand held out. "Hello," Clu's greeting was a little terse, an uneasy smile on his face as he looked between her bi-colored eyes. "Nice to meet you," Tron's greeting was the polar opposite, a warm smile and both hands used to hold hers. "Rose is going to help liven this place up some more. While I think we've done an excellent job so far, this place could use some outside thinking." Flynn clapped Rose on the shoulder, a smile sent her way. ***

"Flynn, don't you think- I don't know, Programs could be a little more... Human?" Rose asked one evening. Clu was out at the moment to oversee a new construction so it felt the perfect time to ask. "What do you mean, Rosie?" Flynn Looked up from his drafting desk for only a moment. She glanced at Tron for a second before standing up and beginning to speak. "Programs are competitive, sure, but there are so many programs that give up on things just because they don't fit whatever's popular. Hundreds of styles and personalities gone. Programs need passion. They need-" "Love?" Kevin smirked up at the girl, her face flushing a little red. "In short- yes." She replied quickly, "They need passion. Wants, hopes, dreams, Flynn. They should want to aspire to something other than just being better than someone else. You of all people know how much passion can influence advancements." Flynn leaned back in his chair, holding the girl in his gaze. This is what Rose did. This is why he brought her here. She was here for the not so obvious improvements. To make the programs more than. "Alright," Flynn smiled again, "I'll write something up. We'll test it on Tron." "No-!" "Flynn, I don't really think that's necessary-!" The protests from both programs had Flynn raising his eyebrows. True, he hadn't tested much on Tron before. However his code was more stable- more easily modified compared to the newer programs. "Something wrong with that? If anything happens we can always reload a backup." Flynn said. "I mean, if you think it'd be a good idea-" Rose back pedaled quickly. "I'd like a back-up made before that happens. Do you know how many cycles it's been since that's been updated?" Tron's agreement was expected. His sass as well. "I think I can do that. Well, Rose, would you mind? I can get that code modifier written up in the meantime," Flynn asked. The woman nodded, an unseen eye roll directed towards him. Tron followed the woman out. ***

"Don't worry, I'll make sure this goes quick, Tron." Rose said, detaching Tron's disc carefully. "I know you will, Rose." Tron said, smiling at her as she passed beside him. "I just wish he didn't use you as a guinnie pig. I know you have more important things to take care of than this." Rose looked away, her ears feeling hot. "Improving the lives of programs is important," Tron said, taking a seat nearby in Flynn's workshop. "Even if it's just giving them more emotions?" Rose asked like it was a silly question to even consider. "More emotions means more unique memories. Bad and good." One of Tron's hands went to his face, fingers touching his lips. Yori taught him that. "I just want programs to enjoy what they're doing, not just trying to be better than one another. Programs may have been created with a purpose in mind but that doesn't have to be the only reason for their existence," Rose spoke without looking at Tron, "Programs should be able to find joy in learning. Joy in living. Joy in one another," Rose trailed off. She'd placed Tron's disc in the modifier, her fingers tracing the edge of his disc. "Joy in one another, huh?" Tron asked. Rose jumped at the proximity. For as large as he was, Tron was extremely quiet. He stood directly behind her, a small, teasing smile on his face. "Having fun with one another. Enjoying one another's presence, like you and Flynn." Rose leaned against the wall beside the modifier, Tron still moving close. "I enjoy being with you as well, Rose. You see something in the Grid that I don't think Flynn does yet. When I'm with you, I almost feel like I can see it too." Tron leaned over her, an arm resting on the wall beside her. "Maybe, after today, you will," Rose's hand reached up, lightly touching Tron's face. A warmth spread there, something calming that made it feel like he could erase all his tasks and just exist. Exist for the sake of it. That was a new thought. Tron hadn't realized his eyes had closed until Rose removed her hand. "Are you alright?" Her voice was barely above a whisper as she asked. "Perfectly," Tron smiled again. "Woah," Flynn paused mid step into the room, "What are you two up to in here?" There was a wide grin on his face that made Rose squirm. "Talking about the Update. You're finished already?" Tron moved away to Flynn's side quickly. Flynn's eyebrow was still raised as he turned away. "Yeah man, all good to go." ***

Rose paced her room, heeled boots sounding with every step. Less than a millicycle until her show to help roll out the new Update. She was ready, of course. A full set list, a full band of programs already loaded with the update, lighting, stage, everything she needed. "Rose?" That, she didn't need right now. "Tron?" Rose froze on the other side of the room, eyes wide as she stared at the program she hadn't seen the last few cycles. "I'm here to escort you to the show," He said nonchalantly. Like he'd never left. "Tron, where have you been?" Rose walked up to him, heels carrying her to his side. She hadn't worn heels much in the past, it was strange being almost eye level with him. "Busy." He was being short on purpose. There was something he didn't want her to know. "Busy, yeah. Too busy to send a message? Too busy to..." Rose looked away with a sharp sigh, "Tron, I was worried about you. I... I missed you," Rose couldn't hide the hurt in her voice. She couldn't hide it on her face either, her eyes desperately searching his face. "I know," Tron reached up, a hand almost touching her shoulder. Both glanced to it before his hand dropped again, "You've some place to be. Let's get moving." With that he turned, walking away without a second look back. She'd need to talk to Flynn after this. This wasn't normal for Tron. At least, she didn't think it was. ***

Rain poured, her last track still playing for the crowd as she walked off stage. "You did a good job. It looks like the integration went smoothly." Hell of a greeting that was. Rose turned her head away from Tron as she passed by. She couldn't face him. Not with that song still playing. "Rose," Tron's hand held her arm, his eyes watching as Clu spoke animatedly to Flynn, "Follow me. Quickly!" "Wh-!" Rose wasn't even able to finish her question as Tron dragged her from backstage out to the back dock. He covered her mouth for a long moment until he seemed sure they weren't noticed. "Tron, what the fuck!?" Rose moved herself away from him. "Rose, please," Tron's voice was soft as he reached back out to her. She hesitated a moment before reaching her own hand out. She wanted answers. "Why did you le-!" She didn't get to finish her question. Tron pulled Rose into his arms, holding her tight to him. She couldn't speak even if she wanted to. "I missed you too, Rosie," Tron's voice spoke in her ear. Her ears felt hot as Tron's breath tickled them. "Are... Are you okay?" Rose held him back. He was warm. Probably for the first time ever. "Flynn knows we've been more... Familiar with one another lately. And with the update, well," Tron chuckled a little, pulling away from her. Rose's face would've flushed at his laugh had programs been able to do that. "Oh... Oh!" Realization dawned on her a little slower than usual, "Are you alright? Is this going to affect your job?" Now wasn't the time for those dirty little human thoughts. "Rose, I've never enjoyed my job more. This isn't just my programming anymore," Tron's hand held her face, "And you aren't just a friend to me anymore, you're more than that. I don't have the words yet, but I might have a way of showing you." So far, the last few nanoseconds were a bit of a blur. But Tron's lips, their feeling was like a fire burning. Passion. Love. Desire. Every emotion she was sure Tron couldn't put a label on, she felt. And she reciprocated, pouring out everything she'd yet to tell him. The rain was deafening, falling cold on burning skin. They could taste the rain in their kiss. The sheets of water did well to hide the programs from prying eyes, despite the way their circuits glowed brighter at the contact. It did an even better job at hiding the noises that came from the two. With a gasp, Rose was the first to pull away, "I feel you," She looked up, "I feel all of you, Tron." "And I, you." Tron responded, eyes closing to rest his forehead on hers. They stood there a while, a grin blooming on Rose's face. "We're getting soaked out here," Rose said. "We are," Tron responded, opening his eyes to see her smile. "Let's get back," Rose had to make herself step away, "I still have questions, but they can wait for now." "Mm, we'll have to pick up where we've left off when we get back," Tron had a smirk on his face as he took her hand and lead her back inside. Their attachment was quickly broken when they heard Flynn calling out for them. ***

"Flynn is writing a new security program to try and help in quelling the riots," Tron pressed a kiss to Rose's knuckles, a small smirk forming at how obviously it affected her. "Oh? You'll have some more free time then," Rose suggested none too subtly. Downtime was a resource that was quickly becoming scarse with tensions rising between the Basics and the ISOs. Having time alone with one another was almost non existent with Clu trotting around like a child. "I can hope. I might be busier for the first few cycles as they get accustomed to their new being," Tron sighed heavily, "I hope it's the former though. The Grid has gotten more unstable. Clu's blaming the Gridbugs on the ISOs now," his head fell back against the booth and his hand gripped hers tighter, "This isn't what Flynn wanted." "We'll get through this," even as a pit formed in her chest at those words, Rose squeezed Tron's hand. She smiled as he looked to her, "It's growing pains of the Grid. It'll take some time to get through it but when it's all over, we'll have plenty of time for ourselves." Fingers brushed the hidden circuits on Tron's wrist, a promise of more. "If you keep that up, I'll have to make time." ***

Several cycles passed from their first kiss. Since then, Tron and Rose would eventually end up in one of their apartments for an evening. Whether it was just relaxing with one another or getting up to more innocent exploration, it'd become a routine. It was a comfort with the ever changing Grid. The appearance of Isos was, as Flynn called it, a miracle. To Rose, it was like a renaissance. Programs that could be or do anything. They were a part of her in a way. Creativity on the Grid was starting to abound and stretch just as much as hate for the ISOs. Rose couldn't understand it. She was the one who'd pleaded with Tron to not hurt them. She was even the loudest voice against Clu. "Tron," Rose's hand held his wrist when he'd gotten up for the day, "Something's wrong." Users, Tron noticed, had a deeper connection to the Grid. She'd been right before. Before Dyson's injury and the riots. "It'll be alright," he'd knelt before her at their bedside, "Whatever happens, we'll be alright." "You always say that," Rose pressed a kiss to his forehead. "And I'm always right," He replied cheekily. "Just promise you'll come home," Rose held his face, dual eyes searching his. "I promise," his kiss did little to reassure the pit in her chest, but she trusted him. She trusted in Tron. ***

The day Clu revolted was the day Rose went into hiding. She hopped, city to city moving further and further from the place she'd called home the last hundred cycles. She watched the ISOs massacre. She cried and screamed as her home was ripped to shreds. As the reports of Tron's death went out across the Grid. Even quicker, Rose learned not to get close. Clu knew she was still alive. He was actively hunting her and Flynn. Programs would give her up just as soon as they recognized her. And if not, they'd be derezzed. Because of her. The closer she got to the outlands, to what could very well be freedom, the less and less people questioned her. She'd wear robes to hide her lightlines, modified her appearance to hide her eyes, recoded her hair- all to survive with no idea what else to do. Rose got used to it eventually, finding routine in running away. All her running eventually lead her to a small city named Argon.

*** "Look, it's Tron!" "That isn't Tron. Tron's dead." "We don't know that-" Argon City. One of the last cities Flynn built in the Grid's mountians. And the source of rumors that Tron was back. Any posted wanted signs were only of a masked program who wore Tron's emblem. Not exactly a lead but a lead nonethless. Rose walked the streets of Argon, remembering when she'd helped plan this city. She never got to see the finished product but she recognized many places. Namely the garage in the middle of the city. "I need my bike tuned up," Rose moved her baton out of the programs reach, "I'd like a rush on it, if possible. I'm alright talking to your boss about it." An older program that Rose didn't recognize approached the counter, "I heard you wanted a rush order put on a tune up?" "That's right. I'd like you to do it yourself, if you'd be so kind. She's... A very special bike. And with your cities current visitors, it'd be preferable to finish any maintenance quickly. I'd be more than happy to pay extra for the inconvenience." Rose handed over the baton to the old program, watching carefully as he materialized her bike. "Hmm, I see," he said with a sideways glance at her, "I haven't seen a bike like this in a very long time. While I don't have the time to work on your bike, I know who'll be able to handle it. Follow me." The program derezzed her bike before waving her along to follow him. Her heels clicked as she followed. This program didn't feel malicious. Then again, she'd been wrong in the past. "My name's Able by the way." She caught up to the program quickly. "Ram," Rose lied easily. That earned her a second glance. "Zed, Mara, have either of you seen Beck?" Able asked two younger programs. "Uh I thought I saw him earlier..?" "I'm here!" A third program waved with a smile on his face. "Good. We've just got in a rush order. I'm sure you're familiar with the second gens?" Able placed down the bike in one of the lifts, letting it materialize. The blue haired female program approached it, touching the curves gently. Like it'd break. "Wow, this is probably as rare as Able's 786! And the decal, like it was mode by Rose herself!" She gushed. "You own a 786?" Rose looked to Able, an eyebrow raised over her shades. "I'm a collector." He said flatly back. "Thank you for your time, Able. I'll be out of your hair as soon as my bike's done." Rose held her hand out, Able shaking it firmly. "You know there's a waiting area near the front of the garage, right?" Beck, the program working on her bike asked. "I'd like to stay here. As long as I'm not disturbing you too much." Rose sat on the floor, leaning back on her hands as she watched Beck get to work. "No," she felt his eyes looking her up, "Not at all." "I've heard your city has some kind of renegade," Rose said more so than asked. "A terrorist more like," the other male from earlier said. "Zed!" The female, Mara, Rose assumed, chided. "Have any of you met him?" Rose asked, trying to seem casual. The look she got from Beck sent alarm bells ringing. "I have, he's so cool!" Mara gushed. "Is he?" Rose asked, smiling as she turned to the younger program. It was nice to see love still ran rampant on the Grid. "I mean, he's Tron, why wouldn't he be cool?" Mara said. "We don't know that," Zed butt in, "He hasn't even shown his face so there's no way to know who the renegade is." "What do you think?" Rose asked Beck who shot her another look. "I don't know. Renegade or Tron, he's helping people. Fighting back." Rose's worries melted in an instant. "Good answer. I'm starting to like you, program," she gave him a small smile. "My name's Beck." He sent a small smile back to her. "Nice to meet you, Beck." Rose smiled, "I'm Ram." "I'm Mara and this is Zed." The blunette said. "So, Ram," Zed began as he turned back to work, "What brings you to Argon? It's not the Renegade, is it?" "I'm hoping to see someone I haven't seen in a long time," Rose said. ***

Rose spent the next few evenings past curfew patrolling Argon's streets, hoping to catch this Renegade. It was fairly easy to avoid Tesler's patrols- these troops weren't all up to snuff compared to the ones closer to Clu's Hq. "He's over there!" "Renegade spotted, after him!" Rose ran fast, coming to the side of an overpass. A lightcycle. A white clad figure. A team of five was chasing the figure trying to outrun them. Rose backed up, baton in hand, and she took a step. Then another. The world felt like it'd slowed down as realization sunk in. This might be Tron. She dove over the side of the bridge, lightcycle materializing. Tron might actually be alive. Rose's helmet was next, blacking out her visor so she wasn't recognized. Tron Lives. She landed just ahead of the leading figure, taking off to keep her lead and switching on her light trail. The white clad figure pulled up beside her and she finally got a decent look. They looked like Tron. She'd recognize those lightlines anywhere. Only one way to find out for sure. ***

"Thanks for the help back there," The figure- the Renegade said. "..." Rose didn't respond. Instead she began walking slowly, deliberately around the figure. The lightlines were there but whoever this is wasn't tall enough. That and his body wasn't as fit as Tron's was. At least, last Rose could recall anyway. He stood with a different confidence. This one was far jumpier and less self assured. "Okay..?" The Renegade turned to keep eyes on her as she walked behind him. "Face front," two of her fingers jabbed the back of his shoulder, "Who are you?" "I'm Tron." "No, you're not," Rose recognized the disc, or at least half of it. That was Tron's. "Where'd you get this?" Her nail caught at the separation between the discs. "I am and I don't know what you're talking about," The Renegade grabbed her wrist as she rounded his other side, "I think the better question is who are you? Why did you help me?" "If you were Tron," the helmet opened and she allowed her disguise to fade, "You'd know who I am." The Renegade was quiet. "I helped because even if you aren't Tron, you're doing what he would." "Thank you," The Renegade finally said. "You're welcome," Rose turned to face the city, "I won't be around much longer. I'm hunted just as you are. If you need anymore help, I'll find you." ***

"How'd it go?" Tron was still up when Beck finally got back. "Good. I had some help," Beck handed over his Disc, "She said you knew her." "Oh?" Tron said distractedly. Plenty of programs had known him before. "She also knew I wasn't you," Beck watched Tron upload his memories of the fight. "There will be programs who doubt against all odds. We just need to work harder and-" Tron's odd pause had Beck looking to his mentors face. The video was paused, Ram's face in full view. Tron raised a hand to the video, fingers lightly fading through the hologram. "Rose," Tron whispered, "She's alive," "Uh, Tron? Is everything alright?" "Find her," Tron's voice went back to it's normal commanding tone, "Find Rose and bring her back here quickly." "Rose? She said her name was-" Beck tried to say. "Rose is as wanted by Clu as I am. And for good reason. I'm not surprised she'd use an alias," Tron thought a moment. She wouldn't just go with some random program without proof. After all, she knew Beck wasn't him. "Take this with you if she hesitates. Tell her... Tell her an old friend is waiting." ***

"Back for me so soon?" Rose asked. She'd caught him lurking on the rooftops, moving methodically like he was patrolling. Or looking for something. "Yeah," the Renegade moved closer, "I've been looking for you." "What do you need from me?" Rose peered at the program through her shades. Something was different. "I need you to come with me." "Come with you? Why? Wanna run off into the sunset together?" Rose asked sarcastically. The Renegade hesitated for a moment before pulling something out of his thigh pocket. "An old friend is waiting," he held out a simple ring. Rose reached out tentatively. Her finger brushed the metal, an inscription lighting up. 'My Muse' "Tron," Rose whispered, glancing up at the program. This wasn't Tron but... He knew Tron. Or at least where Tron was. "Alright," She took the ring, sliding it onto her own finger for safe keeping, "Lead the way." ***

The hideout Tron was using was way off Grid. So far off that Rose started getting concerned. The mountain she'd spotted from the city opened at the base. "This way," the program spoke, their helmet folding away. "I knew you weren't Tron," Rose stepped onto the elevator platform, "I didn't think you'd be the mechanic though." "I didn't think I'd be Tron," Beck replied, sending a smile her way, "But someone convinced me otherwise." "Mm, he has a habit of that," Rose smirked, "Being big and impressive, inspirational." "If you don't mind, how do you know each other?" The brunette asked. Rose heaved a sigh, watching as the elevator reached the top. "That's a story for another time." The room was dark, a lone figure standing a ways off on a platform. Rose's heels clicked as she approached. Those lightlines were familiar. That silhouette too. "We're back." Beck announced like it wasn't obvious. "I know." That voice, that profile- Rose would recognize that nose anywhere. "Tron..?" Rose took the stairs slow and careful. This could still be a trap. It could be a dream. Or a nightmare. The figure hesitated before turning. It was him. It was Tron. "Rose," She could see the corners of his mouth twitch with a smile, "It's good to see you." The stairs were scaled at a speed Rose wouldn't have thought possible to achieve in heels. She all but threw herself at him, arms pulling him close. His body was solid. Real. This wasn't a dream and Tron was alive. "You're alive. You're here," Rose squeezed tighter when he hugged her back, "I missed you so much." "I missed you too, Rosie. More than you know," Tron laid his head on hers, allowing himself some small comfort in knowing she was here now. "Ahem!" Beck coughed loudly. Tron shot him a look over the female programs head. Beck threw his hands up in surrender, "Alright! I'll uh, I'll leave you two to it." He walked into the simulation room below the two, running one of the preset training programs. Tron's heavy sigh and further weight on her had Rose humming, "Your protoge?" "Yes. He has potential," Tron confirmed. Rose pulled away, her head tilting when she finally caught sight of his scars. "What's this? What happened?" Her fingers reached out to touch the damaged code. "Dyson," Tron rumbled. Rose's fingers pulled back, wide eyes going to Tron's face. He was there that day, wasn't he? He'd helped Clu and lead the coup of Tron's own forces. "Bastard," Rose hissed, palm pressing flat over the scar and pushing some of her energy into the wound. "Don't. It won't help," Tron's hand pulled her own away, "Not anymore." "Tron, how badly did Dyson hurt you? The fact it's still here after all this time," She tried to pull her hand back, to investigate. "Rose," Tron's voice was a warning, his hand tightening on her wrist the slightest bit, "I'm alright." "What? No, you're not! This," she looked pointedly at the scar along his neck, "Is not normal for programs! You may be Tron, but you're not invincible. I might be able to help, please-!" Tron did the only thing he could think of at that point. Rose's protests quieted against his lips, her body relaxing in his hold. The minute energy he pressed into the kiss made their lips tingle with the feeling. They had tried doing that once before. "I'm alright, Rosie. I promise," He whispered against her lips. "I don't believe you," Rose kissed him again, slowly, "But I'll leave it be for now. You're so... Persuasive." "If that's what you'll call it," Tron smirked. "I call it you, being a big, strong hero and me being weak for that kinda thing," she smiled up at him while lacing their fingers together. "You should take this back as well," Rose moved their hands, showing him the ring, "I want you to remember that you mean more than your programming." "I expected to get it back when you came home," that made her smile again. The ring was slipped on his own finger, Rose placing a kiss to the digit and watching him squirm under the affection. ***

"Sooooo..." Beck drew the word out, "How'd you and Rose meet?" "Flynn introduced us." Tron's answer was short as he continued his endurance training. "Ok. She's different from other Programs though. I can't quite put my finger on what it is," Beck said turning so he could see Tron's monitoring screen. Rose was on it fighting some of the blackguard in a separate simulation. "She wasn't always a Program," Tron said before his treadmill kicked up in intensity. "What do you mean?" Beck looked back to the older program. Tron shook his head. Not now. The younger rolled his eyes, looking back to Rose's simulation. Truth be told, Tron didn't want to tell Beck Rose's history. It wasn't his place to tell her story. And frankly the younger didn't need to be so interested in her. "Woah," Tron looked over at Becks noise. Rose was on screen taking on a hoard of Blackguard. She wasn't this combat savvy before. Between her and a staff, she made quick work of the enemy. In fact, most of the Blackguards we're hitting each other as she moved out of their way. She was light-footed and nimble but also had an awareness of her surroundings Beck felt jealous of. "She's impressive, isn't she?" Tron appeared beside Beck. He stared at the screen watching as Rose took a breather. "Very," the younger program agreed, "She could teach me a thing or two-" "Not happening." Tron was not having Beck fight Rose. He wasn't going to let him anywhere near close if he had his way. "I don't see why not. You saw how she took out those soldiers. I think I could use some moves like that," Beck insisted. "Rose doesn't fight because she wants to. She doesn't like hurting programs. Her method allows her to escape from fights. Your's, Beck," Tron made sure the program was looking at him, "Ends them." "Yeah yeah," Beck rolled his eyes, "So what's the next mission?"

[stabbyfoxandrew]

Hi Aerie,

I just wanted to stop by for professing how much I love your Mafia Restaurant Au. I know that with the release of TSC, the rumors about Jean x Renee or Jean x Jeremy are getting stronger but I think Kevin (especially your Kevin) understands Jean at a level no one else can aspire to. I would like to see so much of the two of them as WIPW moves forward. I would love to read about how you narrate their love, how they grew closer, how they fell in LOVEEEEEEEEEEE 💝💝💝💝💝💕💕💕💕💕

(Sorry this is way too long)

oh fuck anon you're being too nice to me TWT i love you thank you i really appreciate the kind words. i love writing saps (and i sort of modeled MyJean™️ after one of my ocs a little? like the sweet-romantic part i mean. the bitchiness is all from canon lol)

i'm not sure how much kevjean backstory we'll end up getting in wipw. but i have a lot in store for them! (some of it bad lol. who said that?!) and there will definitely be some one shots that might go into the mafia restaurant universe?

also yeah fuck i'm sort of dreading tsc for this reason. like i feel like a bunch of people are gonna jump at me for jean being super ooc and also for writing kevjean when i know that tsc canon jean probably isn't gonna be thinking of kevin fondly at all. :')

thanks again for the ask anon! <3 i'm so glad you enjoy the way i write them TWT

[ninyard]

thanks for answering my previous ask‼️‼️ it’s okay if you can only write tips for your pov, i asked you YOUR process not someone else’s cus i like whatever it is you do to write, if that makes sense? i also don’t mean to shit on the way other people do things tho sjsjdnddjdj. you weren’t rude at all and i do see where you’re coming from‼️ i guess if i need to ask more specifically, how do you plot out ur socmed posts? i think that’s what i struggle with when it comes to writing my own? like i can find funny haha tweets or tumblr post for my/my friends charas to say but i wanna be able to write funny original stuff too? if that makes sense? 🫶🏽

I get that!!! This got long and it’s really messy so,, sorry if it doesn’t make sense~~

When it comes to making posts I personally don’t like to use already existing tweets. sometimes I can find inspiration in em but I’ve never intentionally looked up tweets to use for my socmed stuff. To each their own but it’s not for me! I don’t think they’re really socmed aus so much as like… incorrectaftgquotes type things? And I don’t really find much inspiration from it tbh. I might have one or two somewhere that are loosely based on a tweet I seen but I try my best to avoid that n make most of them as original as possible.

I guess know what kind of thing you’re going to make, in a way. My Exy fans au is essentially every big event in canon from an in-universe fans perspective. So that one’s easy to plot because it already exists and it’s just about coming up with the posts. Sometimes the fox tweets will just randomly branch off into their own things (like the Kevin-outing-Jeremy au) or sometimes they’re just their own standalone au series’ (like the andreil outing au).

I don’t really make long multiple-post “plotted” socmed stuff in the same way someone like Jas did with the Trojans au, but that’s just my personal preference. it takes a lot of work and it’s a lot like a fic in some ways!! It’s like writing a fic except it’s all dialogue and the dialogue has to be under 260 characters. And SOMETIMES there’s pictures. But they’re kind of just the same thing when it comes to plotted stuff. So maybe just do what you’d do if you were writing a fic!

In terms of coming up with funny things I guess it’s just like… don’t force it. If you’re finding something isn’t working, then don’t force it to work. I have all these ideas and scrapped tweets that just didn’t quite work for the post I had bc sometimes ya gotta accept something isn’t quite right. If you don’t want to just copy tweets and use those then try to find somewhere to start - for me that’s the hardest part of the ~random~ fox tweets and why it’s 1000000x easier to make a post that has purpose (like the party, or the q&a, or X au). I think finding pictures is a pretty good place to start, but I swear I’ve spent more time staring at a wall just trying to get into the zone of making tweets than time I’ve spent actually making them.

And I suppose it’s important to check like,,, are you (in the general sense) making them because you want to and have a funny idea, or is it because other people are/fomo/you see how many notes some of em get? Neither answer is wrong! But it’s easier to be funny, in my opinion, when I’m making them because i just randomly thought of a funny idea, versus making them because I feel obligated to or forcing things that aren’t funny because I “have” to post. Does that make sense? I always like to see when peoples’ socmed aus have some sort of story or reason, like the psu intern, or the foxes kids, or the Trojans au, or the au where Seth is still alive and tweeting like the menace that he would be. They’re always more interesting to me than posts that are just reposted tweets with Neil Josten slapped on em. But again that’s my personal preference!!!! Do whatever you want!!!!

Do you care if it’s ooc or not? Is it something that could happen in canon, or canon adjacent, or is it just an au where canon compliance doesn’t really matter at all? For me I try to make them as in-character as possible (with the exception of the fact that I don’t believe Neil, Andrew or Jean would tweet at all irl). I know it doesn’t bother some people if they’re ooc because they’re just for fun and that’s fine too. But them being “in-character” for me takes up a lot of space when it comes to coming up with the “plot” of the posts, if that makes sense!! (There’s always leeway when it comes to this tho - they’re never going to be 100% book accurate)

For me I almost have the characters as their own characters in my posts - which sounds crazy but bear with me. Like Kevin always typing with proper punctuation, and Dan always typing in lowercase. Neil doesn’t use text speak or shortened things like ‘bc’ or ‘lol’ whereas Nicky and Allison do. Nicky uses a lot of punctuation marks, Andrew uses proper grammar but doesn’t always use periods at the end of his posts, and he’s more likely to just post a picture than type out words sometimes. Does that make sense? Figure out how your characters are going to somehow have an individual voice through tweets. And it’s little things that probably don’t make a huge difference to most people but I care about those kind of little things way too much!!

TLDR; Why are you making them? Find where to start, don’t force it, and how in-character do you want them to be? Come up with your characters “voice” - how do they type/tweet? Just have fun!!! And don’t care about what other people are gonna think!!!!

[johnwickb1tsch]

girl, resurrected - 4

a jack traven x reader Bittersweet alternate ending AU. Loosely based on this post but I'm changing some things. Tom Ludlow mentioned. Magically setting this in the 1990s because I can. There will be plot holes. I do not care. 😂😘❤ Warnings: adult themes, past mention of captivity & punishment. This is OOC yandere unhinged John Wick we're dealing with here... ch 1/ch map ch 2 ch 3

4.    i am the girl you know, can’t look you in the eye

You feel way more comfortable now, peeling off your soaked clothes and laying out on a towel in the sun. Jack sprawls his long body next to you, not touching, yet you are achingly aware of how close he is, and how broad, and his huge hands, and how he would utterly engulf you underneath him if you were somewhere with more privacy than a crowded beach in the middle of the afternoon… 

Yeah. You’re really good at this keeping it casual thing. Well done, champ. 

You think you keep your cool, but you can’t stop curling your toes in the sand, and jesus god you are praying Jack doesn’t notice. 

He does, though he’s not entirely sure it means what he hopes it means. 

You’re a tough cookie to read, and he has this feeling in his chest like he’s about to jump off a building or sweep a room for armed combatants.

Both of you valiantly try to downplay the tension between you, you chatting quietly with Carol and Jack and Harry continue to banter, while Abigail naps in the shade under the umbrella and Kevin doggedly works on a sandcastle through half-lidded eyes, exhausted but determined not to admit defeat. But when the sun dips low in the sky it’s time to go. 

You pack up your things, exchange hugs and goodbyes. It’s nice, that you feel like you’ve made some new friends. You like Carol and Harry is funny, you can tell Jack looks up to him. Abigail even gave you one of her seashells, and you know you’re going to keep it for the rest of your life. Harry gives Jack a look of good luck kid you’re going to need it, before getting behind the wheel of their car. When they drive off in their station wagon you and Jack are left alone on the sidewalk, and that low-simmering tension between you returns again. 

“Want…to grab some dinner?” Jack asks hopefully, scrubbing at the back of his neck in that self-conscious way that makes you want to kiss his forehead. 

There is a part of you that is ready to run for the hills. You’re tired, your social battery is drained, and…you really like this man. Every attempt you’ve made to control yourself and keep this thing casual has gone down in flames. You’re doing that thing where you stare up at him in awkward silence like a woodland creature caught in the headlights. 

You should say no. 

You should go home. 

You should nip this thing in the bud before it has a chance to grow into something that might strangle you both. 

“Yeah. That sounds nice.” 

The mind and the flesh are weak.

🌮🍔🍟      

You’re grateful when he picks a food truck with outdoor picnic tables, because you’re sandy and salty and still slightly damp from your dunk in the sea earlier. He orders an assortment of tacos, sliders, and fries for you both, and he’s strangely gratified when you actually eat it. This town is cruel, and he feels bad for women who are afraid to eat in front of a guy on a date. 

Or maybe you still don’t consider this a date, and he’s getting his hopes up for nothing…  

But then, you open up a little when it’s just the two of you. You’re not too specific about your recent past, just that you moved here from New York after a bad breakup. He senses that there’s a lot more information packed into those two little words. He’s a cop, afterall, and he has a sense for when people are hiding things. But for now, he doesn’t push. 

He tells you about growing up in San Dimas, and how he didn’t have much direction in life until his dad shipped him off to military school. The structure of it helped him realize his potential, and he did a tour in the Middle East before coming home to California and joining the LAPD. He plays the bass. He rides a motorcycle.

You are done for.  

He doesn’t want anything too complicated out of life, just hoping to find a good woman to share it with. Maybe kids and a dog in a house all their own someday if he’s lucky. It’s so wholesome and sweet, hearing it feels like getting punched in the ovaries. 

Once that might have sounded perfectly boring to you. Now, after what you've been through? Maybe not so much. 

You like children, but you’ve never really aspired to having a family of your own. But then again, you’ve never been with anyone who you didn’t expect to let you down in some catastrophic way, eventually. Part of that is colored by watching your own parents split, and part of it is just your realistic view of people. No one’s perfect, and men will be men. 

So why does this man feel like he would be there through thick and thin?  

You think it’s brave of him to put all that out on the table, in this city where most people have big dreams and big schemes. You sense this man is honest in a way that is few and far between. He’s way more honest than you, for sure, and you know you have no right to be within ten feet of this upstanding man, much less having dinner with him, letting him give you those puppy dog eyes over fries with truffle aioli sauce. 

“So…do you have any siblings? You’re really good with kids.”

Usually a leading question like this on a first date would throw your walls up fifty feet high. But he’s just. So. Genuine. So you tell him about your parents splitting when you were young, trying to be cool about it even though it still stings like a sneaky blade twisting in your heart. You explain that there’s such a gap between you and your younger half-siblings that you’re more like the cool aunt in their lives than a big sister, on the rare occasions that you see them. 

How is it, that this is the moment that the realization truly hits you? That for as long as John Wick might be alive…you can’t see them? The risk is too great, to you and to them, and with a tightness in your throat you reel as you realize you might never see them again.    

And if John Wick really wanted to bring you out of the woodwork…no. He wouldn’t hurt a child? Surely that would be a line too far, even for him? 

Jack must see it all written across your face. “Hey, are you ok? I’m sorry.”

This man is going to think you are a spazz–and you guess he wouldn’t be wrong. 

You shake your head, waving it off with a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m fine. I just don't talk about this often.”

He nods, but he's looking at you with smoldering cop eyes now, like he knows there's something more to the story. He's kind enough to let it go for now, changing the subject. He's seen you drawing all the time at the coffee house and asks if you came to L.A. to try to make something of your art. You shrug, unwilling to admit that you came to Los Angeles because you thought it would be an easy place to disappear, or even retreat to Mexico if you managed to save some money. “I don’t really know what I’m doing here,” you say truthfully. “I just…needed a change.” 

He nods to that, and slowly he reaches across the table, giving you all the time in the world to reject him before he takes your hand, lacing his long fingers with yours. “I feel lucky that we met, y/n.” 

The watery smile you pay him does not match the way you squeeze his strong hand in yours, like something steady to hold on to in this crazy world. You hope he doesn’t change his mind about that, someday. You pray you won’t give him a reason to, because you already know this man deserves nothing but good things in his life. 

Maybe once you felt good about yourself as a person, but these days you’re not really sure you make the cut on that anymore. 

🎡🌃✨          

You linger over ice cream, talking and holding hands like teenagers at the picnic table with the neon lights of the carnival on the Pier in the background, and it’s all so sweet you could die.

When it’s time to go home you finally agree to let Jack drive you. He doesn’t want you walking home alone at night. He’s seen too many bad things in his line of work; it makes him paranoid and a little overprotective. Something he knows has gotten on girls’ nerves in the past, but he just can’t shake it.  

You don’t tell him that you’d probably be fine. That your ex was a feared international assassin who taught you some brutal things, for no reason other than making things more interesting when he chased you around the mansion where he kept you prisoner, and because he liked it when you fought back when he caught you. Maybe you never got one over on John Wick, but your average street mugger would not walk away from you with all his bones (or his balls) intact. 

Ludlow taught you some things too, though mostly about guns, something John declined for obvious reasons. Any time you can bring a gun to a fistfight, honey, do it. He took you to the range until you were comfortable with any variety of semi-auto or revolver pistols, and gifted you a 9mm of dubious origin with the serial numbers filed off. You don’t carry it, because you’re not a psycho, but you like having it in the false-bottomed drawer of your nightstand.  

You like bumping along in Jack’s vintage Bronco; it’s fun, if not jarring. It’s ok, you didn’t need your spine anyway. He walks you to your door like a perfect gentleman, and that inevitable question weighs heavy between you; to kiss, or not to kiss? 

You know that you want to. 

And, you know that you absolutely shouldn’t. 

“Thank you for today,” you say, and you mean that from the bottom of your heart. Spending the day with him has left you feeling like an actual human being again; something you weren’t sure would ever really be possible. 

“It was fun. Maybe…we can do it again soon?” 

“I’d like that,” you agree, because it’s true, and to shoot him down now would be beyond cruel. 

Let him digest his day with that strange girl from the coffee shop, and see if he even actually calls, you reason. 

He reaches up to touch your cheek, light as a feather, looking down at you with those wise dark eyes that you fear miss very little. It makes you feel seen and raw and from there you’re not sure why it’s like the most natural thing in the world to wrap your arms around his neck in a warm embrace. He squeezes you around your ribcage and holds you for as long as you want to be held. A good long minute, as it turns out, and it could have been longer if you weren’t so embarrassed after throwing yourself at him like a needy little spider monkey. 

You draw back a little, looking at him with wonder, and you know if you don’t kiss him you’re going to regret it for the rest of your life. You’re not greedy about it. All you allow yourself is a light press of his pillow-soft lips, and you think it's possible your soul leaves your body. His big hand holding the side of your face engulfs you, and his lips on your forehead heal some fissure deep in your soul. 

This man is too good for this world. 

“I’ll see you soon, y/n.” 

He makes himself go, because five seconds more and he won’t be able to leave you. You’re precious and sweet and he wants to wrap you up from all the bad things in the world and keep you safe, and if he says any of this out loud he knows he will lose you before this thing has even begun. 

You watch him retreat on those long legs with an ache in your heart and a weakness in your knees that has you wobbling through your door like a human noodle. 

TBC...

*a HUGE thank you again to @scarlettspectra , Jack’s backstory is ALL hers and it’s so perfect, it’s totally canon to me now! And a big thank you as well to @sweetwolfcupcake for her idea about Ludlow training Reader a little for the big bad world, isn’t she a genius?!

[autisticandroids]

whenever i defend sam i always feel cheap because a lot of the "bad" things sam has done genuinely weren't bad and i believe that but then also when all's said and done, most of what's left on the list of #samtransgressions is stuff that i just discount out of hand because imo it's wildly ooc. like, the biggest things that i really don't see as in-character for sam and don't consider to have happened or to be meaningful are:

abandoning kevin in the s7/s8 gap

hating and being distrustful of benny

the whole season ten sam plot

(it's no coincidence that all this stuff is carver era, either - carver had a very particular thesis for the brothers that involved twisting sam into something he really wasn't, and paralleling them in ways that did not work.)

god, i'm gonna have to put this under a cut aren't i. embarrassing.

number one:

abandoning kevin is like... ooc is maybe not the right word here. contrived is better. because like. the issue is essentially that sam didn't pick up his phone. which is... it's silly, and it's bullshit, and it exists primarily to justify dean being mad about sam not looking for him, because carver wanted that to be the season conflict.

like, dean isn't actually mad about the fact that sam abandoned kevin. that's resolved in like, two episodes, and we never see, for example, kevin being traumatized or really even affected by having been abandoned, certainly not like... in-depth. instead we see dean angry at sam for a lot of things, including abandoning kevin, and he remains angry long after kevin is rescued. because what dean is actually mad about is that sam went on with his life while in purgatory. and the thing is... that anger is deeply sympathetic! there's a lot of ways you can read it, ranging from the traditional triggered abandonment issues dean doesn't think sam cares about him reading, to my preferred projection reading, but any way you slice it, it makes sense that dean is mad. he's being a huge dick and sam doesn't really deserve it, but like. i feel like dean is entitled to be a huge dick a little after the year he's had. but it's still fundamentally irrational, and the show shies away from just admitting that and letting dean work through it and grow, which would have like... been a satisfying arc.

plus, the show wants us to believe that sam not hunting is a moral failing, which is... laughable. harold they're serial killers. like the idea that the winchesters do a moral good in the world by their interaction with the supernatural is like... dubious at best. it's kind of a tired refrain that they mostly clean up their own messes, but it really is true. plus it's just weird? like, why is it your job, specifically, to save the world? if it's everybody's job to save the world, you should be spending your time making internet tutorials on how to kill werewolves. you should be spreading knowledge of the supernatural as far and wide as you can, and training everyone to defend themselves. if it's not true that everybody has a duty to be a hunter, what makes you special? and obviously it's because salmondean are space cops. like, they're acting out the motions of a cop drama. and on a cop show, there would be some shit about an oath or a duty to the uniform or whatever. but like... hunting isn't actually a vocation, and sam definitely did not choose it. in-universe, it's a family trap and a paramilitary cult which sam has finally manages to escape. so even though out of universe, the show supernatural follows the same beats as a police procedural, sam isn't actually a cop in any meaningful in-universe sense, so there's no reason that he has any more obligation than anyone else to hunt monsters.

plus, even if he did, the thing with kevin is so contrived as to be pretty disconnected from the morality of hunting. sam absolutely does have a duty towards kevin, as both the only person kevin knows who might be able to help him, and the person who kind of ruined kevin's life. but sam doesn't refuse to help kevin. he stops answering his phone without knowing kevin was in trouble, and then later kevin called him for help and he didn't answer because he had put that phone in storage. that's not really a moral failing on sam's part, it's a tragic accident. if you want to see a good example of guilt-for-not-hunting, look at what is and what should never be: in that episode, dean is confronted with the choice between changing the past which allows him to live in a world where his mom is alive, but also means all of the people he's saved will be unsaved, and returning to his own life, which is awful, but where he did save all those people. this makes a decent moral argument for hunting: it's dean actually having to choose between being happy while essentially killing a bunch of people who he's already saved, and being miserable while not doing that. (obviously i know that's not really what it's about in the end, but that's one of the angles presented). like, that gives us a moral that's much more directly related to hunting. it's talking about victims dean actually saved, and not something... kind of tangential to that. plus, the distinction between past and present hunting is really important - in what is and what should never be, the point is that hunting, the life dean never chose and was forced into from a young age, did end up helping people, and choosing to undo all that also unhelps those people. it's not that dean is specially obligated to be a hunter and continue to be one, it's that he was one already, and to undo that, he would have to ruin and end lives. in season eight, the point is i guess that sam and dean are special boys who are obligated to keep hunting all the time for ever and ever until they drop dead but somehow this only applies to them for some reason? i dunno, it's weird.

anyway basically the thing with kevin is super contrived and not really sam's fault and it also exists to prove points that it doesn't actually prove (sam was wrong for quitting hunting/not looking for dean) because carver is too stupid to try making those points a more legitimate way.

number two:

this one's a lot shorter. sam is usually the one who is sympathetic to monsters, so it's really not believable that his objection to benny is that he's a vampire. sam is, in seasons 1-7 and 9-15, 100% always the guy who wants to give a monster the benefit of the doubt. the only exception is benny. there's clearly something else going on here. and there is!

SAM: [beginning to cry] What happens when you've decided I can't be trusted again? I mean, who are you gonna turn to next time instead of me? Another angel, another -- another vampire? Do you have any idea what it feels like to watch your brother just –

dean's relationship with benny has made sam insecure. sam felt like he'd been supplanted by benny, and so he wrecked dean and benny's relationship on purpose by making dean choose.

and that's... that's just not sam's deal. sam has never once seemed concerned that dean will leave him if he finds someone better. he's never been jealous before, and he's never jealous after. sam would probably be overjoyed for dean to have a support system outside himself, because sam generally feels smothered by the way dean acts his love and devotion. like, the fundamental tragedy of their relationship is that dean's idea of love is completely smothering and all-consuming, with no recognition of boundaries or individual needs or anything except each other, and dean loves sam and wants sam to love him. but sam, though he loves dean very much, also values personal autonomy and mutual respect, both of which are completely incompatible with dean's idea of love, so dean will always feel unloved by sam, even though sam loves him, because dean is incapable of recognizing sam's love. and sam will always feel smothered and disrespected by dean, because dean's idea of love requires him to perform love in a certain way. obviously i'm showing bias here, like, clearly i think sam's way is healthier, but i also think dean's way is deeply sympathetic and tragic and it's a result of huge abandonment issues and attachment issues. which sam like... doesn't really have. like sam has a lot of issues, but they tend to be more along the lines of like... believing he might be inherently evil, and being scared of hurting people, and being overall unhealthily morally scrupulous. dean's main emotional problems concern and impact his relationships with other people, sam's don't as much. obviously he still has some interpersonal issues, but those imo run more towards a tendency to self-isolate than anything else.

anyway, my point is, that feeling insecure that someone he loves cares about someone other than him and intentionally wrecking that relationship? that's like, dean's signature move. he does it all the time, to everyone he cares about. but it's not really something that makes sense for sam.

the reason sam engages in it is that jeremy carver wants to tell a story of mutual and mutually toxic codependency. he wants to show the brothers as mirrors of each other. and they're just... not. the winchester brothers codependency is not mutual - certainly not by season eight. the only reason they're still together at that point is that sam was too exhausted by trauma to actually function without dean (who is sam's entire support system) during season seven, so he couldn't really leave after the amy pond thing. dean wants possession of sam, and sam wants freedom. that's, like i said, the basic tragedy and inequality of their relationship.

essentially, sam is ooc here, because in order for the Themes to work, his behavior has to mirror dean's, but the Themes are wrong.

number three:

now, caveat here: i don't really think sam did anything wrong in season ten. or like... the narrative frames it as the equivalent to dean tricking him into allowing gadreel to possess him, and it is definitely definitely not that. we can argue about the morality of accidentally starting the apocalypse again but like... there are so many more interesting things to discuss and moralize about in supernatural than the end of the world.

but i still don't think it makes a ton of sense for sam to do what he does, especially not framing it the way he does. like, sam very much frames it to himself, and to dean, as a parallel to the gadreel thing. because, as i said previously, jeremy carver's thesis is that the toxicity of the brothers' relationship is mutual. his thesis is that the codependency is a destructive, negative force in the wider world and in the brothers' lives, which is something that's fun to me, but also that it's equal, which is downright silly.

like if we're framing getting rid of the mark as similar to gadreel... it would be a way more satisfying emotional payoff for dean to tell sam not to try and save him, and have sam actually listen, and for dean to be hurt by that because if sam Really Loved Him, sam would violate his boundaries. but sam won't. someone needs to save dean, obviously, but you can just give that job to cas, since cas is a lot more like dean in his love and also dean neither expects nor wants that kind of boundary violation from cas.

plus i think season ten is a great time for the brothers to actually spend some time apart for real. just split the episodes into a dean plot and a sam plot and have them live in separate houses for half a season until they reconcile. instead of trying to parallel dean and sam, heighten sam's tendency to self-isolate and desire for personal freedom in the same way you heighten dean's smothering and controlling tendencies by having sam just dip.

anyway. digression. the season ten plot with sam happened because jeremy carver is an idiot and i am standing outside his house.

essentially, these three big #samtransgressions are ones where i just don't think they were in character and i can't factor them into my analysis of sam.

good night everybody.

[okimargarvez]

SLOW BURN

Original title: Fuoco che brucia lento

Prompt: what if after 16x7.

Warning: spoiler for 16x7.

Genre: romantic, angst.

Characters: Penelope Garcia, Luke Alvez, BAU team, Tyler Green.

Pairing: Garvez.

Note: oneshot 86 in Garvez collection.

Legend: 💏😘. Song mentioned: Quando io ho perso te, Tiziano Ferro.

GARVEZ STORIES

Note: this time I have to put notes before the story. Because trying to fix the mess of 16x7 wasn't easy, as you all know. And I'm scared I wasn't able. Before watching that episode I had this dream with Luke that pushes Penelope for knowing how was kissing Tyler... I have to thank @thinitta for helping me with some particulars. Another warning: this time Tyler is not just a name, but his part is really short and (spoiler) no romantic feelings between he and Penelope, I swear. This story is also a "long version" of my What if instead. And there could be (for someone, not me) a possible Luke OOC.

SLOW BURN

This time I block, I block, I block everything, I block every memory in concrete, I block it and a tear stumbles inside an answering abortion

That voice she hasn't heard in over twenty years and that sounds so real. Penelope, Nina. Her body shakes, wrapping the single sheet around her like a shroud. She encounters no obstacles in her whirling. Penelope… It's mom. She's fifteen again and everything's fine, except that there is a really nasty guy at school. Penelope, listen to me, my baby. Your father and I have something important to tell you. She's scared, now she's grown up, she's about to sneak out to see that same boy, who now that he's matured isn't bad at all. It might be her only chance with him and she won't give it up, for the world. They'll never know. Then, that voice again. Penelope Grace, listen carefully to my words. The tone is no longer just sweet, but also authoritative. She stops wandering between ages. We heard you when you came to visit us. We want you to know that we are proud of the woman you have become. All the people you've helped… in the so-called real world, a tear rolls down her cheek. There are no hands ready to dry it. A wave of love and affection envelops her. It doesn't last long. But lately… are you sure what you're doing with that man? And here she is abruptly dragged back into her forty-year-old body. She knows immediately that they are talking about Tyler.

Even in the dream she is aware that he is not resting next to her, but on the sofa. And it's definitely better that way. Not even with Kevin she had spent many nights together, certainly not to "sleep" literally. It's a part of herself that she doesn't feel she can give. Or maybe not yet. Penny, you know deep down that it's not right what you're doing. She clenches her fists in her sleep. You love him? This time the word has passed to her father, with his innate and involuntary ability to make her feel guilty. No! She firmly denies, without even pausing to think. Because you're actually still in love with…

She wakes up abruptly, panting. She grabs her phone to see what time it is, but she accidentally unlocks the screen and the first thing she sees is a conversation. A text she had chosen not to answer. There are rumors that they could make a Doctor Who spin-off. Completely neutral, without mischievous undertones, without puns. Yet the sender had been enough to make her act in that unnice and almost rude way. She re-read it and it makes her heartbeat wildly as she puts head in her hands. Luke.

It was the last thing she saw before falling asleep. She whispers that name endlessly, careless that anyone might hear her. And do the math, come to the right conclusion. The sex with her was truly amazing, nothing to complain about. He couldn't say if it was the same thing for her, because he felt… very carried away and not very participative. But he's not stupid and, when sober, he also has a good memory. He immediately understood who the Luke that came out of her lips is, with such a desperate tone. Agent Alvez, the one of the cognitive interview. Which had helped him remember. And also thanks to this, they had managed to find Alison. Perhaps this is right, that the circle closes here, even if he feels that he could have fallen in love with Penelope, and even deeply. But he can't love for both of them and then… he feels exhausted. Emotionally exhausted. He knew it was morally wrong to go any further with her, but he didn't care. And now he won't be the only one to pay the consequences. Penelope will never be able to keep it to herself and it will get her in a big mess. She will lose her job. He curses himself as he makes his way to her bedroom.

The door opens wide. -Oh, it's you.- he seems to look at her as if to ask who else it could be. It's not even 7 am. -Tyler… we should talk.- he nods. -Possibly without ending up in bed together again?- even in such an embarrassing situation she can't help but shoot one of her jokes. He just smiles and waits. She leads him to the sofa. He positions himself at an acceptable distance. -What happened tonight was… nice… but we really have to cut off all contact. When they catch Sicarius- he notices that she has excluded herself from the speech -it could really happen that I have to testify and I... I can't lie, in a courtroom like anywhere else.- a sad smile paints on her lips.

-I understand. Really.- he tries hard not to touch her and to look at her as little as possible. -I don't want you to be fired because of me.- she laughs now, but bitterness oozes from every pore of her.

-It would also be my fault.- she allows herself a hope. I don't want you to feel like just a mistake along my path. You weren't just that and even if we never see each other again… I will always wish you the best, because yes, it's always been my gift, to see the light in people and sometimes I get to help turn it back on.- Tyler nods. He doesn't smile at her, because it's too dangerous. -You know, I was shot fifteen years ago- he opens his eyes wide, but doesn't interrupt her -because a bad policeman was convinced that I was on his trail, instead I helped the victims in mourning. However I'm telling you this because… I should have known what the risks are and especially the boundaries. You are not only a key witness in a big case, but also a brother who has lost his sister.- even Penelope avoids looking into his eyes as much as possible. -But it had never happened to me to mirror myself so deeply in those I helped. As if before you, I don't want to consider me someone grieving. As if it didn't happen to me, but to someone else.- she sighs. To completely close the bridges, she knows that she should also say something else... but she just can't do it. -Maybe in another circumstance, who knows...- but she doesn't know that he's good at math.

And he's already put two and two together. -It wouldn't have worked anyway, because you're in love with someone else.- she opens her mouth, she doesn't ask him how he knows. She simply nods, admitting, for the first time in front of a living being other than Sergio, her own feelings.

-

But I didn't understand, I didn't understand, I didn't breathe, I was lovesick

He misses her. He can't remember the last time they were alone, that they exchanged half a word, a joke of their own. Or that their eyes chained to each other, as they always have. It's been weeks, maybe a month, that Penelope has been avoiding meeting his gaze for more than two seconds and has only spoken to him to answer questions pertinent to a case. The rare times he has attempted to provoke her, he has crashed into a wall. Made of rubber, without actually getting hurt, but getting only frustration. Because nothing like this had ever happened between them. He has always been a separate discussion for her. The only one to be hug with reserve, emphasizing the exceptional nature of the event. They have been colleagues, almost friends and almost something else... but not even after the date, in the three years she has been away from the BAU, has there ever been such a cold and heavy silence between them.

Indifference. Yes, it seems that for her he has become not invisible, but… anyone. And he can't tolerate it. He'd rather be her newbie again than this… absolute void. Now that he was Luke. That he had gotten used to hearing his name come out of those lips. Heavenly and infernal music at the same time. And now she hasn't stopped using it, nor does she call him Alvez, but it no longer has the same nuances. Her tone is flat, aseptic.

It must be said, however, that he has also noticed a change in her attitude towards the other members of the team. Less jokes and smiles as well with JJ and Tara. Some interaction with Rossi extra work. And above all a submissive disposition towards the boss... who is however at the same time one of her best friends. So he deduced that whatever happened, it's not just about them. He doesn't know whether to be relieved or saddened, for two reasons. First, because that still makes him just one in the deck. Second, because she is ignoring or has forgotten what he had told her by giving her a black and white cat-shaped stress reliever. After all, only once did she take him seriously, even if it was circumstances that made him her confidant...

Today he has decided that enough is enough, the hourglass must be turned. Time is up. In short, yesterday he risked being killed for the umpteenth time and the only thing that crossed his mind was that he would have wanted at least one last word, one last hug from Penelope. That he lacked not only the woman he would have fully wanted in his life, but also his friend. If she decided that they couldn't be more… be content sucked, but this… emptiness was worse. And it didn't feel right, because he hadn't done anything wrong. Of course, he tried to call her, he looked for her in her office, but she wasn't there. Once upon a time she would wait for them until they returned, to comfort them, distract them with her jokes from the bad they had witnessed.

He sighs, one step at a time, without rushing, because there are only two possibilities anyway. Either she's there, and then he'll let himself open up, one way or the other, or she won't, and then fuck the whole thing. And he has a confusing sequence of events before him. The night of the date, the anxiety and expectations, the first time he saw her, behind a pile of folders, when he rang the bell and saw her on the video intercom and the buzz of people forcing their British accents, meeting Roxy, hugging, dancing at Rossi's wedding and party… and then, the day things changed.

She had arrived at the BAU looking weird. Guilty, but not in a derogatory sense. JJ gave her a friendly shoulder and maliciously teased her. Someone here seemed to have had some good sex. He had overheard the conversation of his friends as he arranged some documents from his desk. But, pretty much always, whenever he's around her his senses are partially alert. There's no way he doesn't notice her presence. It's like she's pulling strings inside him. She is certainly not indifferent to him.

He had nearly punched a hole in the declaration sheet he was signing. She had sex? He couldn't conceive it. He had raised his eyes unobtrusively, sensing her reaction. Yes, JJ was right. It had been a blow to the heart. So his feeling was right that in the evening of her stroke of genius about streets, she wasn't alone or even at her house, when they had heard that noise that was certainly not cat-like.

He had felt betrayed. Even knowing that he had no right, because they weren't a couple and she could do as she pleased. Despite all these beautiful rational thoughts, his heart had continued to insist with conviction that she belonged to him. As he belonged to her. Maybe… maybe she was going through her “Lisa phase”. He would have tolerated it. He would have gotten over it. If it was just sex…

The next day, however, that shred of euphoria was gone. Only the guilt remained. JJ had noticed it too and had gone to find out. Luke had assumed that the relationship, whatever it was, had nipped in the bud. The road was clear again.

Or so he had deluded himself into believing. But from then on it had been an obstacle course. And here he is, ready to knock on her door for the umpteenth time.

-

And I lost you, I was looking for myself in the remaining and tiny pieces of too little, of emptiness, of dirty happiness of the memory of the next day

Penelope would never open the door to him. Almost no one entered the former bunker anymore except her. Everyone had deduced from her attitude that she preferred to be alone when she was delving into the badness. Since the results hadn't gotten any worse, Emily hadn't objected. She too wished she had the time to worry about her friend but keeping open a case that the higher-ups had officially declared closed was a heavy enough commitment. Plus, she was convinced that Garcia was processing some sort of mourning for being forced to break up with Tyler. She knew something about sick relationships too.

Luke, however, doesn't have time to knock. Luck has its hand on it. She's leaving and when she notices him, it's too late. She freezes in the doorway. The man doesn't move back. He is really too close, as he hasn't been for too long, but she doesn't have the strength to take a single step, neither in one direction nor in the opposite one. So, they just stare at each other like two jerks, and she makes a second mistake. She allows her eyes to fall prey to his. The intensity of Luke's gaze shocks her, it's as if just a second had passed since the last time they found themselves in a similar situation.

-Penelope.- her name is a jab in the stomach that makes her stagger towards her cave. He follows her, saying no more, turns and closes the heavy door behind him, exactly as he had done seven years ago. With the same determined expression. -Are you okay?- it's perhaps the thing that matters most to him, but he knows that she won't answer him and he won't feel bad, when she turns her back to him and goes back to the central computer. He sighs and sits down at one of the side desks. -Could you deign to explain to me why you are avoiding me and even don't answer text or calls anymore, if not during office hours?- she knows that if he wanted he could force her to spit it out, but he doesn't want to use certain techniques on her. Show his darker side to her. Even if… could she be fascinated by it? It happened with many women, even against his will. Penelope keeps typing, indifferent to his presence, so he's forced to switch to slightly less elegant methods. He grabs the chair and rotates it in her direction.

Her expression is priceless. Super indignant, almost as if he had committed who knows what sacrilegious act. -I'm working.- she only says, but Luke knows how to dig deep and sees the terror behind that detached attitude. Is she afraid of him? Stakanovich reappeared and she didn't tell him? He just can't place such a reaction.

He looks for her eyes and catch them. A little satisfaction. -You know you can talk to me about anything.- nothing. -You forgot…- then, something clicks inside him. Someone has moved the lever from a dutiful coward to a cocky one who cares nothing about consequences. -Okay, that's enough. I'm not talkative type, especially about my feelings, you should know that.- even if she doesn't reply anything, she perfectly catches his insinuation, the fake doubt. -But I see no other way to unlock this situation. I miss you. Okay? I miss seeing you, babysitting Sergio, seeing you hugging Roxy… and our bantering too. You didn't want to try another path, and that's fine…- not at all, but he certainly can't force her to stay with him to make her understand that it would be wonderful, between them -but also taking your friendship away from me… it hurts me, because I don't know what I did, what I did wrong.- he tries to take her hand, but she slips away like a snake. -Let me make it up to you, please.- the tone of supplication, the look of a wounded puppy. It's Penelope's turn to blurt out.

-No, no!- she almost shouts, shaking her head. -You didn't do anything, you had nothing to do with it, understand? Leave me alone!- she tries to drive him away with a push at the height of the man's chest. Third mistake. Luke grabs both of her wrists, pulling her dangerously close to his body.

-I already told you once. I'm not going to leave you here like this. So you better talk.- playing the bad guy just doesn't work when he's with her. -Penelope! Please tell me what's going on and I promise… I'll consider leaving you alone.- he had to tell her the truth, because after Phil… he never stopped feeling guilty. He keeps hold her by the wrists. -Let's play a game, okay? I tell you something really big that I haven't told anyone and you open up to me.- he doesn't wait for her to nod or any other reaction. -Fine, I'll start.- he clears his throat. -Since our dateI haven't stopped thinking about you for a moment. And even before. I mean, I'm clumsy at this sort of thing… but I thought you figured it out. From the way I look at you, the way I act around you… God, I'm so in love with you, Penelope, and I convinced myself I was going to die without ever telling you. I agreed to stay friends, but I can't accept this. Indifference. It kills me.- her eyes become more and more lucid, it doesn't seem emotional, though. -I can't conceive my life without you, without our relationship. Perhaps one day you will understand how much you have changed my life…- and he lets her go, so suddenly that she ends up back in her chair and an immense cold of envelops her.

But at least she's not at all indifferent. She cries, making no effort to contain herself. -Luke.- this is a lament of pain. -Oh, Luke, it's too late.- he frowns, confused. Is she perhaps dying? Did she find out she has an incurable disease? Not even that would make him give up feeling for her.

In less than a nanosecond he grabs her by her hips, pulling her against him. -No, no, whatever it is we can deal with it together, anything, okay?- his hands slide over her face, which looks tiny. -It's not just words, I really mean… I love you so much…- now he has taken his foot off the brake, he doesn't even know where that pedal is anymore. He reads the same emotion in her transparent eyes and leans down to kiss her. But as at the end of their only romantic date, she dodges him.

But he holds back her hands, their fingers intertwined. -I can't!-she protests, desperate. He focuses on her verbal choice, because she didn't say she didn't want to, but that she couldn't… -It's too late for us.- it is her greatest admission. Was there a moment (unspecified) then, in which they could have been together? What can be changed, if she is now looking at him that way, making him feel like the only man on the face of the earth?

Penelope still loves him. It should shock him just the thought that she loved him, since until now it was only a hope, not a belief. But no, he's not shaken at all, because deep down he's always known it. Yes, they belong to each other. But something has come between them and she has no intention of telling him. -Pen…- he begins. And maybe she would have made it, she would have given in, telling him what she had done and really surprising him, because she felt exactly like that: guilty, also because she felt like she had betrayed him.

But Luke's cell phone beeps and the computer next to them starts flashing. There is a case and it looks pretty bad too.

-

And the last memory of a, "I love you too much" tastes like rough paper, a diary page… I dreamed about it, I hoped about it, I adored you but I just wanted to die alone

He was always said to himself that the hard part would be telling her feelings. Trying to express the sensations she causes him, aware that he can only get closer, because it's impossible to describe it, put it on written paper. Not even the best poets could do it. He told her, but he doesn't know that even in this he arrived late, he came in second.

How fucking she changed his life. Perhaps she no longer remembers what Agent Alvez, SSA in training, was like, tall, dark and blandsome. How empty his desk was. His apartment. And his life. And not only empty, but also dark. How many shades from gray to black, but there was no room for the other colors in the palette. It was much easier to observe the outside world in a schematic way, neatly dividing people into good and bad, never contemplating something in between. Never look into the abyss. Chasing, without judging, but also without understanding.

Then that call came. He had rejected it, like in other occasions. But Rossi had played his trump card. Daniel Cullen. The Crimson King. It took such a bastard for him to get to know what was to become the most important person in his life. Whether she wanted it or not. It wasn't all Garcia's credit that he'd turned from a lone wolf into a twerker at a co-worker's going-away party… But 70% was because of her.

She, the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope that never dies. The smile despite the traumas. Generosity, altruism. With her jokes, with her every gesture, she had forced him to wake up. Life didn't suck that much. Maybe it was worth living it better. Sure, Roxy had contributed too. To keep him alive, lucid. But as much as he loved her, even she hadn't been enough.

While Garcia… she had been a punch in the stomach. A taser shock. And she had tried to treat him badly and keep him at a distance. Guess what if she had allowed him to get to know the real her right away…!

In the BAU he had felt accepted for the first time and free to express his opinion. Important. Useful. The fugitive team was just him and Phil, the other colleagues were... others, in fact. Collateral damages. He missed the chases and stakeouts, but profiling wasn't bad. Especially if he could use his new knowledge for… other goals.

But Penelope Garcia was a book written in an unknown language. In some ways it was easy to decipher, like realizing that she wasn't able to hate anyone, least of all him, just for taking Morgan's place. For others, however, she was as elusive as a puzzle, an enigma of the Sphinx of Thebes.

And she intrigued him. She totally turned him on: brain and body. Whether insulting him or paying him a compliment, everything was gold to him. Her sensitivity had then knocked him down for good.

In his time with Lisa, she had let him know another part of her. Paradoxically (or maybe not, analyzing it in detail) their relationship had grown a lot when he was committed to Lisa. The first hug, the slow dance at Rossi and Krystall's wedding… all in the shadow of Dr. Douglas. Her affection was of the friendly kind, though they never completely stopped flirting. But that hadn't stopped the love he felt towards her, on the contrary, it had increased it. It had made it more solid. From a crush or infatuation, it had become extremely serious.

So, they had lived a very intense period, where they had competed to see who died first. There hadn't been a winner, fortunately. And then, the third strike. Alexei Stanovich. She had finally trusted him, and she also went to thank him. He was so upset that night that Lisa got confirmation that she wasn't looking for. So, they broke up and he waited for his moment…

But all this was in vain. Because now he knows she loves him and she knows he loves her. But it's useless. They don't stay together. She didn't even let him kiss her. She continues to keep everyone at a distance, focused just on work. Only one thing has changed: she no longer avoids his gazes, as if to tell him that she hasn't forgotten, yet, that nothing will happen between them and that he should stop hoping for it.

But they both know that will never happen.

-

I block every memory, but I don't remember what the warmth of your hug is, I don't mean the thrill, the thrill of half fucking caress, I don't remember... I erased you who watched in silence the blows I took and there I lost you

Luke made a few attempts after their mutual declaration. He tried to persuade her to tell him what the reason was a new wall had been erected between them, but nothing. She'd rather see him sad and confused every day than kill him with a sentence. How could he forgive her? How could he continue to see her the same way? Tyler made her feel useful, but no one ever looked up to her the way Luke did. Not only as a deity, but also as the best person in the world. And she doesn't feel like losing his esteem.

During the lock down she believed she had made some progress, that the therapy was finally working. She had a lot to process, but she enjoyed her new life. Then two men had brought her back into the abyss. Luke, with his big eyes and a missing girl and above all Tyler Green, with his rage and computer skills.

And everything collapsed. She wasn't healed or improved at all, quite the contrary. Her life is currently a mess and it's all her fault. She prevented Luke to do anything, giving him a sop by accepting the date. The way it had gone, it would have been better to end his hopes immediately by saying no. After four years, she should have answered him with a passionate kiss or an amused laugh. No shades. And instead…

She had kissed Tyler less than a month after knowing him. That would have been bad enough, but they also slept together. And the worst thing, the one that made her feel more guilty, was that she had allowed him to see her soul. Maybe just because she felt she couldn't do exactly the same thing with Luke, the man she really loved.

Because she had decided it. Too dangerous. But dating a man, even if it was just for one night, had made her realize that there was an emptiness inside her, that as independent as she felt, she lacked that kind of presence. If she hadn't met Tyler she would have stuck with Luke's thinking. But to see many of his characteristics in another guy… it had been too much.

All excuses. She'd tried to do the right thing and failed on every front. The only thing she is sure of is that she will not repeat that mistake. She will always love Luke, silently and from a distance, hoping that he will find someone who will make him happy. She won't do the same.

Then comes the Day. It's been a relatively few months since the supreme bullshit (to distinguish it from the normal bullshit, i.e., the first kiss), as she dubbed it in her head. An incoming call on her screen. It's Rossi. -We got it! We caught the son of a bitch!- the man's enthusiasm falters, because before him is a broken family, not just a bastard. And the more he reads his file, the harder it is to just hate him.

Penelope nearly falls off her chair. She fails to participate in the general joy. She turns off the TV every time they run the story with Emily, Bailey and the head of the FBI. She starts shaking and feels like she can't stop. She feels the chasm opening beneath her at her feet. Her sin will step out into the sunlight.

So, she decides that she can't live in anxiety and waiting. She might as well destroy herself with her own hands. To confess. Maybe Emily will give her some extenuating circumstances. She goes to her office and only by looking at her, her friend understand. Or maybe she just guessed, but she feels the strong negative vibes about her and that what she is about to tell, is going to give her more than just a bad migraine. Her screams reach up to the desks. Luke lifts his head in that direction. -I'm sorry, Garcia, but this time I won't be able to defend you.- her anger suddenly passes and is replaced by a feeling much stronger.

Disappointment. Deep disappointment. -I'm fired, I know…- Prentiss stands up and approaches her. She tries to hold back, to be professional.

-Yes, Garcia, you're fired, but that's not all.- she almost laughs, because she can't conceive it's really happening. -Sicarius will not be the only one to undergo a trial. It would take me the whole day to list all the principles that you have violated.- the blonde remains silent, accepting every stab wound, because she deserves it.-Do you understand that if it turns out that an FBI agent dating a key witness, it will seem that the latter has been… manipulated, to make him say what was convenient for us?- Penelope falters, leaning against the door, which remains ajar. -The bastard will still be convicted, because luckily we also have other evidence… but the credibility of the BAU will collapse and the director could even decide to terminate the unit and send us around the United States.- Garcia hadn't realized the stakes. -I hope it was at least a good fuck.- finally comments Emily.

-No!- she shouts. JJ and Luke exchange a look, recognizing the owner of that voice. The man clenches his fists. What the hell is going on? They should celebrate. They solved the case of the century. -No, it's not fair that the team has to pay! I… will leave and come back just to testify. I will limit myself to answering the judge's questions. It was only one night. Just one!- a few words reach his ears. -If I was the only one to get to fall… I'd accept anything, but you all… please, Emily…- she's not sure she can call her by her name, nor that they're still friends.

-Holy shit.- the boss bangs her fist on the desk, dropping a photograph. The glass shatters into a thousand pieces. Penelope bends over, as an automatic reflex, trying to pick them up and hurting her hands. Prentiss blocks her. -Penelope- the use of the name ignites a miserable hope in the heart of the IT -I accept your offer. But- she holds her breath, until her head starts spinning -I have to be sure something like this won't happen again. So… the others must know it too.- she believed that if she would get away with it, instead she has to pay for her mistake.

She throws herself on her knees, grabbing her hands and piercing her tights and flesh. More bloodstains. -No! I beg you! I've already lost your esteem and maybe even your love... please!- but the boss doesn't want to listen any reason. She calls an urgent meeting in a room where no one can hear them, Garcia takes care of deactivating the cameras with a simple click. And she forces her to say it. She almost wrote her a script. Short and to the point sentences. Sharp, sharp as knives. They plunging themselves in the heart of her family.

Shouts, confusion. Well, they're looking at her in that way. As if they don't know who they are facing. She doesn't cry. She plays a role that doesn't belong to her. Then, the last word: -Goodbye.- but JJ chases her, captures her, hugs her.

-Why, why didn't you tell me about it?- nobody manages to extract even a syllable from her. Luke watches the two blondes interact, shaking his head. He just doesn't want to accept that idea. He was right, Garcia had had an affair. But… just with that man? The… bad copy of him? Why the fuck had she given this guy so much after just a month? And without ceasing to love him?

-I love you, Pen, please remember that.- it seems that JJ is afraid that she will make another wrong decision, definitive, however, this time. No, she would never go that far. Meanwhile, Tara tries to justify her, squeezing her knowledge of the human psyche. It seems that someone told Rossi that his 15-year-old daughter is pregnant.

-I know it's a shock, but we can't do anything but give her time.- Prentiss sighs. -And keep your mouth shut.-

She locked herself up in her bunker. She's gathering her things, living in deja vu. Wishing it was still that day. How many different choices she would make! She'd jump into the elevator with them instead of letting them go and throw her arms around Luke and not care about anyone else.

Luke…she tried never to look at him as she confessed. She partially succeeded. He was the only one who didn't have that look, as if he had contemplated something similar, but certainly not at these levels. And so, in one fell swoop, she lost everything. Job, family. Luke.

The door opens and there he is. Oh God, he's pissed as hell, but his eyes are deeply watery, as if he's about to cry. -Penelope.- his tone is dark. Only with suspects she has heard him talk like that. She's scared of him. She starts to vibrate, but doesn't run away this time. She will accept anything he tells her, because she deserves it. It's okay even if he now hates her. It's a strong feeling, anyway. -What the fuck did you do?- she lets him vent, curse, lets him grab her shoulders and shake her. -Tell me.- he puts her against the wall and leans almost against her. -I want to know what it's like to kiss him.- her eyes widen. She didn't think he could upset her further.

-But…- she stammers. Luke silences her by lifting his index finger until it touches her lips. -You really don't want to know. It will make you... feel worse.- he laughs, not a happy laugh. She doesn't fall just because there's a wall behind her back.

-It can't be worse than this. I want to know. I want to know what fucking talent this guy has to be able to kiss you after less than a month.- the subtext is clear, because he and not me. He reads the objection in her eyes. - Uh, shut up. I know it was you who kissed him first and not the other way around.- even worse. He squeezes her arm and that's how he notices the cuts in her hands. Most have closed, but one, deeper, is still bleeding. Now he's looking at her as if he's looking at her alien copy.

-No!- she denies, shouting with the little breath she has left. -One of Emily frames fell and I looked for…- Luke nods, reassured, realizing that she is telling the truth.

-Penelope, listen to me carefully. You will not leave this room until you have given me the information that I care. Am I clear enough?- so authoritative. Something melts inside her, a decidedly out of place reaction, yet she can't deny it. He grabs her by the chin, forcing her to look at him too.

-Uh… it was… we were walking and he said Alison worked right there, then we crossed the street and I had an epiphany. I gave him my keys and ran to the taxi, he asked if he could help and I don't know what clicked in me, but… I wanted to thank him and… I wanted to make him feel good… I don't know.- she closes her eyelids and squeezes teeth.

Luke doesn't let her go. -Ok, this is the context, but I asked you for something else.- he bends over her. Less than a inch between their lips. -How did you feel when you kissed him?- for a moment she thinks of rebelling, but in the end she gives in.

He presses into her cheeks, making her eyes open. He demands to watch him as she says it. -…it was… nice. It's been…a long time since I've kissed someone.- he doesn't seem satisfied, yet he should be. Nice is… poor. She would feel bad if someone told her that kissing her was only nice.

-Have you felt… butterflies in your stomach? Chill?- she shakes her head, even though he has a tight grip on her. -Good. And... did you happen to wonder what it would be like to kiss... me?- a first note of uncertainty.

Penelope swallows. -Yes.- she only says, letting her eyelids drop.

-Even while you were kissing him?- he steps on the gas, traces the border of her mouth, makes her lips part. She nods again and sees his shadow looming closer and closer. She has no way to escape and she doesn't even know if she would. For the first two seconds she undergoes that kiss that she had longed for, she first. Then she gets carried away by him and kisses him back with all of herself. She grumbles into his palate as their tongues struggle strenuously. Her hands also seek the male body, one on his neck and other in his hair. How much she's wanted to do this! Luke breaks away suddenly. If it had depended on her she would have risked collapsing, rather than let him go. -Was it like that?- he gasps, pressing his body on the female one.

-No…- she replies, feeling something extremely hard on her leg. She certainly couldn't blame him, given the state of her panties now...

-So how was it?- he nibbles her right lobe. -You know what I'd like to hear from you... but say it only if you really mean it.- she feels a wave of heat, from her hair to her toes. She involuntarily rubs against that bump in his pants.

-Kissing you was...-he listens to her take a breath, but not because she has any doubts -...a thousand times better... overwhelming... oh!- it's moving. She is sure of it. It distracts her.

He abruptly grabs her by the chin and sticks his tongue in her mouth with the same eagerness. Then he strokes her cheek. -You were very good.- he sees her reaching out to him, living solely to gain his approval and he enjoys having that power. At least for today, at least for a few hours. -I liked your answer, that's why you deserved another kiss.- Penelope doesn't move. -But… I want you to tell me something else. Everything.- she tries to plead with her dark and big eyes.

-Luke... there's no need. I'm sure that... with you it would be a completely different thing...- but this time she must have put the words wrong, because his expression is hard and annoyed.

-Would be? You didn't say will, so you think we're good? That knowing that you love me and that I love you, I can settle for a few kisses?- although she is shaking, something else emerges from the depths of her soul.

-Do you know what? I admit it, just kissing you gave me an orgasm and I'm not ashamed of it. But from this story I learned the importance of doing things at the right time and… I'm sorry, Luke, but that's not it.- she doesn't let him reply. He is so shocked that she manages to break free of his grip and gain enough space to breathe like a normal person. -I left the BAU, again, so as not to force Emily to fire me and I will have very hard days ahead of me. I can understand your... need to know the obvious, that with you everything would be... - he glares at her, she corrects herself -will be, sorry, unique, different. Even if it's not like you, this behavior. But I won't tell you about the sex, so you can take me in this office, in the middle of the afternoon, with a thousand agents beyond that door.- and that was exactly his plan.

He is reluctantly forced to agree with her. -Good.- always that rude tone, that sounds absurd, with her. Inside he is singing her the sweetest of serenades. -But I think I have the right to know at least how. Or if you prefer, why.- he doesn't need to add anything else, she understood perfectly. Luke begins to collect every item on the desk, handing it to her and helping her with the grave task.

Penelope sighs. -I think this will hurt you more than knowing the positions we've experimented…- she comments in a low voice, but not enough. -He came to me to leave me the keys and take back his few things. When he was about to leave, he turned away, like you did the time you found me crying after Spencer's visit...- he clenches his fists and freezes, away from her -and he told me that met me made him feel will to stay alive. It made me feel… good, useful. It moved me inside.- her predictions turn out to be right. The man takes her by the shoulders again, but by now she's used to it and she doesn't even flinch.

-I should have told you these things, not him!- he protests. -You are not at all aware of what you have given me, of the impact of your life on mine. I will never be able to repay you, in any way.- this time she has no intention of taking without replay.

She gives him a push. -Then why didn't you ever tell me?- he smiles, but without happiness.

-Because I've always focused on you, on you, if you haven't noticed. On your own good. And mine came on reflex.- she knows he's telling the pure truth. -Would you have ended up in bed with me too?- he can't help but provoke her, because behind the fake seducer there is still a wounded man. She's right, it's not the right time to take that step too.

-Idiot!- other shoves. -He didn't wait four years to take a step.- she accuses him in turn.

Luke opens his mouth and nothing comes out, then tries again. -He didn't have a regulation that expressly forbade him to romantically date a colleague.- he points out to her, but it's the wrong move. She smiles.

-No, there is only a precise protocol which advises against, to be polite, even just fraternizing with anyone who is minimally connected to a case.- he grabs her by the blouse, dragging her towards him.

-Ah, now you remember.- her hand burns with the temptation to slap him.

-You're such an asshole, Luke Alvez, and I'm even more so than you, because I'll never be able to stop being in love with you.- she sighs. -But above all because you didn't understand that you fucked me in the precise moment in which your lips rested on mine.- this declaration makes him completely leave that role that doesn't suit him.

He strokes her hair gently and even his tone has changed, it has become velvety, soft. -Would it have been enough to kiss you?- she nods, determined. -I wish I'd known earlier…- he watches her sadden, wither, because she's thinking about everything that's happened. -Hey, Penelope, my love.- it's heartbreaking to be called that, yet it's profoundly correct. No sour notes. -I won't leave you alone in this, okay? I don't even care if I have to move on another team, or rather... yes I would, but you are more important than anything and I've made an immense effort, to get to this moment, I don't intend to give up anymore.- she throws herself into his arms, holds him close.

-How can you not hate me? Have you forgiven me?- she asks him, trembling.

-I... it was a nice blow, I won't deny it, but I believe that love is seen above all in difficulty and... you are human, Penelope, you can make mistakes too.- this is the strongest declaration someone has ever made to her. She feels that huge weight in her chest, to always be perfect, always up to it, finally flying away.

It won't be easy, it will take time, but she's not in a hurry anymore. The fire between her and Tyler burned too quickly and it is known that in these cases it can never last long. The one with Luke, on the other hand, has been burning for seven years, nourished by patience and hope and will never die out.

And I said to myself if I fall in love, it will be with you

[songofassandfire]

R there any other mccormick ships u rly like besides kevlly? I love hearing ppl gush about ships lol ^_^

ohhh anon I like this question 👀 damn this got pretty long tho

Well first and foremost that I have not made it a secret that I unironically enjoy Stuart and Carol's relationship. Now I understand why that would be a little uhhhh... controversial. They don't treat each other well most of the time they're on screen together, to put it lightly, and are usually fighting more often than not. But like... there's enough little bits of genuine affection here and there, even just in the background details, that I can't help but believe that there's a real loving relationship that's just bogged down by their own shitty personal decisions and generally bad lot in life.

I always felt like they were just a picture perfect couple when they were younger, and I think that sweet and loving side of them is still in there if they can just chip away at all the bullshit. I dunno how to really explain this ahjdcvhgdj I just feel like they both really do care about each other overall and the moments they are getting along are really sweet to me. They're also both hot.

(sidenote some ppl seem to get real technical about "it's not a 'ship' if it's canon/they're married" with canon couples. which is annoying to me bc a ship is still a ship even if it's canon isn't it?? like it's just shorthand for "relationship" right?? whatever blah)

I also really like Stuart and Gerald together a bit jskhdcvjhkvf more in a "best friends who almost were" kinda way. The kind where they're not technically exes, but it was so close they might as well be exes. if that makes any sense ajhcbjhkfvrj basically all I'm saying is they've explored each other's bodies.

Aside from Kevlly, I also like the idea of Kevin and Michael together, even more of a crack pairing than Kevlly but still good in my eyes sdvchjgsdh

idk the other two Mccormick kids seem to get along fairly well with the goth kids and I feel like Kevin would be no different in that regard. He's generally not loud or in-your-face about trends n shit, but he's got a rage inside him, and I think Michael would appreciate that tbh. Meanwhile, Kevin doesn't really understand all the darkness and pain and edgy stuff that Michael uses to express himself but he's surprisingly easy to talk to while also able to enjoy the comfortable silences.

I've had this headcanon for a while that Kevin and Michael bumped into each other behind the school while they were both skipping class at the same time, and they kinda just became casual smoking buddies. Of course in a shipping context one of them then develops a crush on the other (I usually pick Michael bc I think having a crush on Kevin's oblivious ass would actually piss him off and I think that's funny. Despite them seemingly dropping the goth Karen thing, if she were part of the clique I feel like she'd try so so hard to be a good wingman and fail at it even harder).

I am also briefly considering Kevin/Jenny Harrison, but I mostly have it in my head as a relatively short lived relationship that wasn't bad at all, but not built to last. Kevin encourages her to try new things, mostly things that definitely go against her religion. Just a little dose of rebellion, nothing too major. As for what breaks it off for good, one time Kevin almost actually gets her in trouble, and it scares her enough to snap right back into the rigid good girl thing even harder. Jenny, heartbroken as she was about it, decides it's for the best for them to not be together anymore.

I'm not as into Bunny as I used to be, but it's still a top tier Kenny ship imo. I know most of their one-on-one interactions are largely confined to one episode and that much of the fanon content surrounding them is ooc at best and unsettlingly fetishized at worst, but I can't help but be attached to the idea of them together.

I never consider it in a "one saves the other" or even a "both saving each other" context, I mostly see it was they just kinda give each other a breather from all the fucked up shit in their lives. Like everything sucks ass but at least they have each other. To me it's like, Butters is borderline bloodthirsty and also a huge pain in the ass sometimes but Kenny, as exasperated as he is, can't help but want to stick by him, if that makes sense jahbdvjhfsjhv

Now Kenny and Cartman isn't as popular as some of the other Kenny ships, but it really should be if I'm honest. Even though there's moments in the show that have Kenny just unequivocally hate Eric, I do fully believe that they really are best friends.

It's kinda hard for me to really explain why I like it so much (mostly bc liking kenman is a newer thing for me khajsfhjgr). I just think that despite all the ripping on Kenny for being poor n shit, Cartman just kinda gets him in a way that Stan and Kyle don't? Not to say they aren't close with Kenny or anything... god I really don't know how to explain this shdcvhjvfjhg all in all they good

Tfbw dlc also gave us some blessed interactions between Kenny and Henrietta tho. Like I definitely think at least Henrietta is interested in him, I'm pretty sure they were basically flirting the whole time. Plus her knowledge of Old Ones can give him some insight on his whole curse deal. Chill, laid back guy x monotone and serious goth is a top tier dynamic, personally. Just all her black clothes and goth makeup standing next to Kenny's orange ass. As much as I like kenrietta I don't really have much to say about it hgdhgdedgj it's just a really nice ship. Like, who deserves a goth gf more than Kenny?

There's a LOT of good Kenny ships out there but going through them all would take ages haha just know that stenny, K2, and tolkenny are also high on the list

Karen and Tricia I guess kinda depends on your interpretation of them as characters, since Karen has little canon character and Tricia has even less. Karen is obviously a timid and lonely kid, while I see Tricia as more of an assertive, confident, no nonsense, rude-because-I-can-be kinda girl. So, in my head, they balance each other out pretty well. Obviously they wouldn't actually get together until they're at least a little bit older, though.

Aaaaand that's about it, I guess haha. As u can see I think about the mccormicks an awful lot

[baka-writings]

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙮𝙯 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨

Warnings: SMUTTY, language

A/N: This is my first TBZ reaction, so sorry If someone is a bit ooc or something and I won't be using gifs as Tumblr doesn't allow that many of 'em💀

𝙎𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙮𝙚𝙤𝙣

A big yes from him. He's the dom of the doms, but this idea would probably turn him on especially If the other member was a dom too. He'd listen carefully as you'd be talking about which member you thought of and then would give you his suggestions with an explanation lol. Okay, but I also see him 100% going down on you that night just because he was turned on by everything you were talking about and his imagination.

"Take this as a preliminary round"

𝙅𝙖𝙘𝙤𝙗

Okay I actually couldn't figure out Jacob, I feel like he might actually agree to that If you were dating for a longer time and he knew about your kinks and fantasies so he'd give you what you want. But If you were not dating for a long time he'd probably say no as he'd feel like you "just" started dating and haven't experienced that much with each other. If you know what I mean. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't remember it for the future ;)

"You don't need anyone else If you've got me"

𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙣

Oh yes, might be the secret kink of his tbh. However when you first approached him with it he'd get a bit embarrassed, but would get out of it real quick. Might still get shy or embarrassed while talking it out, especially when you mention his members you'd want to invite. I also think you'd have to ask him multiple times while talking it out If he still wants it and If not he should tell you. But he'd want to do it hehe

"Oh? I never knew you felt about Hyunjae that way"

𝙃𝙮𝙪𝙣𝙟𝙖𝙚

Alright so here's the thing, I don't think he'd agree to that. We also know he nags a lot right. So I feel like he'd be soooo whiny about it and I think he'd also get possessive. The thought of someone else, even If it's someone from his members touching you is a no no for him. He'd kindly tell you that it's not the best idea, but would ask you (our of curiosity 😈) what other kinks do you have. Let me tell you he'd try them right then and there to make it up to you.

"I don't think any other member could make you feel like this"

𝙅𝙪𝙮𝙚𝙤𝙣

Ooooh he'd be loving it. I don't think he'd have any serious objections, would mostly just tell you which member(s) he thinks are the best for that, but would also ask you who did you have in mind. If it was someone he thought of too, he'd agree with it. He'd ask that member immediately, but honestly I can see him setting some rules for that person, like no kissing, no touching when he's not allowed etc

"I didn't know you were this dirty"

𝙆𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙣

I think Kevin would be liking the idea, he'd be shocked at first when you out of nowhere asked him this, but after coming to his senses he'd be willing to try. HOWEVER I can see him wanting to include Jacob or Eric only. Any other suggestion would go out of the window. It would take you two ages to actually agree on something relating this topic, like he'd talk a day about why those 2 are the best option he sees. Blah Blah. Eventually would shy out when confronting one of them about it.

"Make it Jacob or Eric and I'm in"

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙝𝙚𝙚/𝙉𝙚𝙬

Full of confusion lol. At first I think he'd highkey judge you in a joking way of course. He'd ask you whY his members, you'd have to explain to him. But also tell him that it's just a thought, not necessarily meaning that you guys have to do it. Either way he'd think about the possibilities and MAYBE just maybe agree to bringing over Younghoon, but I think that depends on his mood as well. But If he's 100% sure of bringing Younghoon, he'd talk to him first (obviously) and talk it out with him before telling you that it's happening. Also same like Juyeon I can see him making some rules, which If they break he'll murder them💀

"I'm bringing over Younghoon tomorrow, but only this time"

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙢𝙞𝙣/𝙌

Freaky. He'd be loving the idea, don't @ me. He'd been thinking about it before, but didn't know If he should ask you something like that, so when you asked him this one day he'd immediately agree and give you some suggestions as who to bring. But would of course talk it out with you If that member is okay. I can also see him already telling that member beforehand lol without knowing If you were into that. He'd probably call that member right away or the next day, depends.

"I'm glad you asked, can't wait to find out what else you like"

𝙃𝙖𝙠𝙣𝙮𝙚𝙤𝙣

Haknyeon strikes me as someone who'd want to experiment just doesn't say it out loud? He'd probably react a bit hesitant If you asked him what he thought about the idea. You'd have explain to him why you want that, which member you had in mind etc. If he agreed, he'd let you choose a member and then take the responsibility to talk to them (poor boy lmao). I think he'd get into it pretty quick.

"I would've suggested this sooner If I knew it was this fun"

𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙬𝙤𝙤

Sunwoo's first reaction would be a big no as he wants to have you for himself and he wouldn't be able to get over the fact that one of his members would see you how only he is allowed to see you and that the member would even touch you? Oh hell no. But he'd be thinking about it and depending on his mood he'd make a decision. But most likely a no. Possessive bitch.

"I think I'll have to show you what I can do so you will not need any other man"

𝙀𝙧𝙞𝙘

This bitch would be into it and wouldn't even hide it. I think If he was the one choosing a member, he'd probably choose someone who's less dominant than him (cuz he wants to be in control), If you were the one choosing he'd be respectful towards your decision since he wants to please you, but would still lowkey judge you If you chose someone who's more dominant than him or someone who he wanted the least. I can totally see him inviting that member some other time too or asking someone else.

"Okay so who's next? Jacob or Kevin or perhaps Juyeon?"

[helloblobbyblobfish]

Imperfection in the reflection

Synopsis: CLU 2.0 wonders why did Kevin_Flynn named him after a program opposite of himself.

Well, don’t ask me how or why C.L.U 2.0 would know about 1.0 when the previous namesake died in another system, that Tron never met the program and that Flynn strikes me as one who tells nothing to anyone if not forced. I just wanted to see fics about the original C.L.U, and I saw a kinky sex fic between the two C.L.U.s, a sex torture fic (2010’s A03 was like Tumblr, I have no idea what my feeling is about that), two fics in which they are brother-like and I thought: “Why, Yes! Character introspection. Haven’t seen someone using their differences. And Make it angsty!”. 

And so this fic came into my mind, with many headcanons because C.L.U 2.0 had like 6 motivations depending on the actual writers for the franchise and 1.0 had interactions with almost no one and no clear personality, so choices had to be made. We also see two VERY biased opinions on Kevin, so this is supposed to sound OOC to an extent.

-

The luminary is looking at himself in the reflection, looking at His new pageantry outfit. Everything needs to be perfect. If He doesn’t look perfect, is perfect, how is He supposed to obey His directive and create the perfect system?

He, C.L.U, the system administrator that managed to reach His directive and over-succeed despite his User’s abandonment. At the thought of Kevin_Flynn, C.L.U. grasps the cape He was meticulously assessing. He immediately panics and tries to smooth over the wrinkles in the texture His anger created.

No, He shouldn’t be angry that Kevin_Flynn betrayed him. The User forgot what they were supposed to build together. For violent, directionless, imperfect, dangerous, uncaring I.S.O.s. And it has been nearly 800 cycles since He last heard of the User. Hence the preparations for the celebration. He remembers Kevin_Flynn told Him that Users’ age. Maybe he “died”, whatever that means. But C.L.U. doubt it. He would have known it. The system administrator would feel the de-rezzing of the system’s Creator, wouldn’t He?

It didn't matter. The Creator didn't care enough to give Him an original name. C.L.U. Codified Likeness Utility.

He thought the name meant He was the equal of the Creator. But instead, Kevin_Flynn reused old concepts. And he had the added hypocrisy of naming the program meant to create the perfect system on a hacker program.

He shouts. He, named after a thing who destabilized systems for the petty interest of an User who thought himself superior to beings with directives.

He looks at himself in the mirror, trying this time to hide His annoyance.

He hears the broken noises of Rinzler. Right, his enforcer is here. "Don't worry, man. I'm just thinking about Kevin_Flynn. He named me after another creation of his, can you believe it?" 

"N..No." His own creature seems unsure of his answer. Scared it is a trick question. "No, I guess you wouldn't. After all, you are loyal to the one who programmed you, are you not?" He gets close to the program, who unlocks his helmet out of habit.

He gets a good look at the scars covering Tron's face. Maybe He should use that adorable visage to crush that renegade's propaganda in Argos? Meh, He might as well let General Pavel deal with it. And if the sadist is really as incompetent as Tesler, maybe a public recreation of what happened to Dyson for failling Him one too many times to squish this silly "Tron Lives" movement.

He rubs Rinzler's jaws to show He isn't angry, but before He does anything else to the dutiful program, there is a knock at the door. C.L.U. waits for Rinzler to hide his face before allowing entrance. Jarvis and Shaddox enter. He smiles brightly at the two.

"Your Luminary." Jarvis bowed emphatically. Shaddox remains still. C.L.U. remembers he should make him pass through the newest upgrades of rectification. Shaddox was a test for an unused form of repurposing where He tried to find how to keep a program's skill but not have them act on their own. 

Yes. He let him keep his face in the name of their friendship. He ought to grace the architect with a programmed loyalty. "Is it ready?" He asks Jarvis. Shaddox isn't likely to talk to Him, no matter how much C.L.U. wishes He was told how right he was about Ophelia, Gilles and their ISO hordes of viruses and grid bugs.

He is shown a truly remarkable new stadium that will allow for much more impressive games. "Truly, this rotating gravity cage is magnificent. And the complexity of those lightcycle executions will be unmatched. Truly impressive. You've outdone yourselves, both of you. Now, send it to the worker programs." 

"Yes, Luminary." Jarvis quickly bows out. Shaddox simply salutes. "Oh, and, Shaddox?" The program is walking through the door. "Sentinel, stop." That stops his old comrade. He feels something akin to guilt for a microcycle, but it's gone the next. "Come back in half past seven decacycles. You are in need of an upgrade." He receives a nod of acknowledgement and Shaddox is on his way once more.

The System Administrator can see the worry in Rinzler's posture. "Don't you think he deserves to talk too?" He coldly states. At last, those were two programs who would never learn their savior share a name with the biggest disgrace a program can be besides a stray.

He takes a look at the list of programs that could participate in the games. Mercury, Jet, certainly. Two excellent pilot programs. Baxter for the ring games. This info the sirens found about him helping Jalen train for his attempt to dirty the games. Maybe he'll have him fight Rinzler as a final "challenge" if he resists well. Nobody is showing promise in tank battle amongst the prisoners. And it would be a waste of sentries to have them in both corners. But the entertainment value shouldn't be neglected.

Truly. Could a mere hacking program saving Kevyn_Flynn's monetary hide hope to accomplish what He did? He sighs of relief. Seeing the relationships he was able to build, unlike an hacking trash who would always be hunted, allowed him to get out of those imperfect thoughts.

-

Kevin_Flynn must have been so disappointed to see his "perfect program" betray him and become as volatile as the MCP. That made the figure looking at the statue of the tyrant shudder a bit, but he knew a sign of obvious fear might cause him some problems with the pattroling sentries.

Securo was really easy to outwit, but the foreign program was a lot more wary of the new C.L.U.'s army. He remembered Sark and his cruelty. They were skilled, but he heard most of those "followers" might be "repurposed", or "rectified". Seemed the great leader decided to use a less disgusting term to describe his awful actions. 

C.L.U. 2.0.

What had convinced Kevin_Flynn to name this… Abomination of a program after the one he called "the perfect program?" Well, given how this impostor talked about perfection, he might have tried to recreate his master opus, as Kevin_Flynn liked to call him.

But a hacking program couldn't hope to become a system administrator. They were too free and connected to their Users' wishes to direct other programs. They would try to do it like a virus. That might explain the unthinking movements of the sentries. He thought about the false identity disk he had to make to infiltrate this new Grid. Maybe there was an idea.

He moved to a remote street. It wasn't a big town, and Stragos didn't have an open rebellion going on like Purgos, Argos or Ram City, but there were still quite a few soldiers. Using his hacking abilities, he created himself a platform above the ground, hard to identify from the street and easy to drop from. Thankfully, the whole new Grid was coded in a style similar to one he knew, so it was pretty easy to make some changes.

He watched as two sentinels approached his corner. One was sadly talking with the distorting effect of his helmet but the other had the robotic mouvements he was waiting for. He felt horrible when he fell on the aware program and slit his throat, but it was needed, a quick grab of the derezzed program for later, and he managed to avoid the spear thrown at him. 

He wondered about this new C.L.U. fighting abilities. The previous one was more of a talker and pilot. But the second was taking a bit from the MCP in abilities. He decided that it didn't matter for now, and he should focus on the kicks the reprogrammed citizen threw at him. A particularly nasty punch broke his hat. The soldier stood in surprise.

"You!" So they could speak? Unexpected, maybe useful.

Then, the sentinel knelt when he dropped his cover and his original lines appeared. His former adversary unstrapped his disk and held it to him without prompting. He started typing changes in programming. 

The destruction of any individual personality trait or directive, replaced by too simplistic for comfort and meant for a group of anonymous husks programming, was making him feel uneasy. But he must have shown it too much, as the soldier suddenly jerked and tried to get his disk back. Thankfully, it was easy to write new lines over the empty spaces whatever C.L.U. 2.0 used had left in the memory space.

The figure just had to drop the identity disk in its place and the sentinel was unmoving once more, its line maybe a bit whiter than before. The stranger had the time to merge the disk he stole with himself to take on a new identity. It confused his new ally, for as much as the term could be used to describe a puppet, but more reprogramming fixed it. He was shocked at how easy it was now. Did no one on this Grid know how to affect programs? 

The MCP would have found this technique too much of a liability and the previous C.L.U. would have been derezzed ten times over rather than do such a sloppy work. Kevin_Flynn was too good a programmer to make such an incompetent program, especially if he used 1.0 as a basis. What had happened? The memory of Brin, the soldier he killed, didn't have anything worthy to explain what happened. Seeing those ISO and what they could do…

Did Kevin_Flynn try to imitate them with this C.L.U? They had the same directionless behavior and belief they could compare to Users? Really, seeing it from the point of view of a soldier of his own regime, C.L.U. 2.0. was weak compared to the MCP or the "great User" Thorne. They did so much more in not a 1/100 of the cycles it took the copy to set itself for failure. And they did not need as many soldiers or technology. What was the goal of his action?

He instructed who he could only name sentinel 592 to pretend he was only Brin. They got insulted by commander Karlov for their failure to intercept a strange program. Given what had happened to the forces in Argos, he could see why she would be worried about a potential rebel.

But he managed to convince her it was presumably a stray. Strays. What a horrific concept. Might have been the one time where C.L.U 2 managed to do worse than the previous programs who fought Users. Being forced to wear an object that keeps all your secrets or forgetting yourself.

But as he sat next to sentinel 739 and discreetly modified his program by only slightly moving upward the disk and forcing a reboot after each added line of code, he thought he would make a surprise to the being who bore his name.

And if he managed to approach Tron with a city peacefully rejecting his legacy's power, maybe he would avenge Kevin_Flynn, who must have died fighting 2.0 till derezzing like he did with the MCP.

-

So, about the programs’ names: Mercury is a lightcycle champion program from the 2.0 game, and the sequel comics introduce us (spoilers) to a digital copy of the hero of that game, Jet (for Jethro). I can imagine Kevin finding it funny to call a super-cool badass biker program after a plane nickname of a baby.

Securo is from the 2.0 spin-off game "Tron: Killer App" (the game boy version). He is the firewall program in charge of stopping outside breach and remote hacking… and sucks at his job, on top of speaking very slowly and barely being capable of moving. I can buy him having been created in the 1980's. And we know Kevin didn't mind taking some stuff from Encom for his grid.

Shaddox is an architect-turned-bartender (who grew wary of C.L.U. after some cycles) at what is implied to be the End of Line introduced in the Tron: Betrayal comics (some backstory for Legacy, mostly about CLU growing resentment towards Flynn and hatred of ISOs and Kevin spreading himself thin with too many things.). But it's weirdly Zuse, the owner of the bar, who is taking care of drinks in Evolution and Legacy, and C.L.U 2.0 has some clear issues about wanting acceptance from his loved ones…

I named Brin after Sergey Brin, Google co-fondateur. Fun fact, I like to think sentinel 592's original name was Reginald.

And don't ask me either how C.L.U. 1.0 came back to life and how he managed to reach the Legacy Grid when it was self-contained on a computer. Fanfiction magic.

Might redo this story or write a spiritual successor. not fully satisfied.