#(that's actually one of the reasons i'm distressed and why i came to a boiling point over smth small now. probably.)

[daz4i]

oh i need to KILL MYSELF kill myself huh

[ewingstan]

We sort of touched on it in a prior post, but you’ve gotten a fair few details on how Mark and Carol raised Victoria by this point.

From what details you recall, how does her handling/raising of Kenzie fall into compare and contrast with those details?

Wooh. Hm. Well, I think she has Kenzie's ultimate wellbeing in mind more than Carol probably did while raising her and Amy. At the same time, when Victoria's first reaction to Kenzie getting publicly pilloried was "lets get you in front of cameras to argue your case, and also while we're at it lets keep our cape-network plan from falling through by jumping on the public-Scion-reveal grenade" I thought well. Yeah that's something Carol's daughter would think to do huh.

Its a dangerous relationship they're in. Victoria legitimately wants to keep Kenzie safe and stop her from overworking herself. She also really wants this cape group thing to work. She'd probably not consciously let the latter get in the way of the former, but she will let Kenzie fight as a hero if it seems like that's what Kenzie wants. The problem, of course, is that Kenzie wants what Victoria wants. Kenzie will act in whatever way will make the people around her happy, and so if she thinks Victoria wants her to be a hero (which you don't exactly need to be an observation tinker to notice), she's gonna make being a hero her whole thing. Not to mention that Kenzie also knows Ashley wants her to be an active cape, Sveta enjoys being on a hero team, etc....

I'll also say that the way Victoria's treating Chris.... kind of reminds me of how Carol treated Amy growing up? Victoria sees him as her responsibility: he's a member of the group Dr. Yamada asked her to shepherd, and he's a kid, and now that Dr. Yamada's gone that responsibility is even greater. Victoria is burdened with Chris in the same way Marquis burdens Carol with Amy; sure, Victoria does it a lot more voluntarily.... but she's also doing it more because she agreed to care for "the group," not for Chris. Chris is a responsibility that came packaged with what she wanted to do. And while the care she has for Kenzie seems to come from a place of genuine concern and affection, her keeping tabs on Chris feels strictly procedural. She's responsible for him, she'll keep tabs on him, nothing more to it. There's a lot of resentment and some frustration that boils into how Victoria treats Chris as a result. Insert your arrested development "I don't care for Chris" image here.

Hell, despite otherwise having pretty wildly different viewpoints when interacting with people, Victoria ends up resembling Taylor a lot in how she thinks about Chris, because it matches up so well with how Taylor thought about Regent. Its another case of "That guy I'm not as close to as the others, the dangerous one, the one whose probably a sociopath waiting to be let loose." I remember thinking that Chris seemed like "the Regent of the group" in my early reading, but they're really not so alike personality-wise, or even in terms of their place in the team dynamic; they're just positioned the same way in the mind of each text's narrator.

I read Taylor's reaction to Alec as one part fear-response to people who seem to delight in other's pain for no obvious reason, and one part a reaction to all the stuff she doesn't like about herself projected onto some twink in leggings. Her fixation on the idea that Regent must just like hurting people, that its just the kind of person he is, comes from the same scared confusion about why her best friend and the whole of the school started torturing her for no apparent reason. Its a reaction from a person who still categorizes everyone as bullies or victims, and is distressed about whether there's more to that and where she is on the spectrum. In her mind, he's a kinda evil dude that likes to hurt people because hes a bully and that's what bullies are, but actually maybe he's fine to hang around with? Which is getting churned in her head alongside her pledging to protect people by becoming a horrifying warlord and making long arguments to Pariah and Flechette about how villains can be helpful and heroes can be bullies. Taylor's relationship to Alec and her distance from him is symptomatic of her evolving views about who people can be, what power can be used for, and why people act the way they do.

Of course, Taylor conversely forms one of her strongest emotional bonds with someone who reminds her of her bullies even more than Alec does. But I think this makes sense for the same reason Chris and Kenzie could both remind Victoria of Amy but inspire such differing treatment. Bitch's first encounter with Taylor was a seemingly random attack that Taylor directly compares to the trio's assaults: she instinctively looks for a reason to hold back like she did for them, and then finds freedom in not having one. But while Rachel at first seems to directly fit the "bullies because she's a bully" model, Taylor learns pretty early on that Rachel has perfectly understandable reasons for her behavior, and that she can be predicted and made into a close ally if she just pays attention and puts in the work. Taylor's relationship with Alec is her sticking to the idea that the world is bullies and victims, and you have to find your place in it without understanding it because there's nothing more to understand. Taylor's relationship with Rachel, meanwhile, is her finding out the world isn't just bullies doing bad things because they're bad people. Rachel is the possibility of understanding the world, bringing it to heel, learning to love it and make it love you.

Similarly, Victoria's relationship with Chris is a reflection of everything she internalized from the Wretchening, while her relationship with Kenzie is her reacting against those internalized lessons towards something more hopeful. Chris is a medical freak who becomes a horrible misshapen monster on a regular basis and who suffers horribly for it, yet keeps choosing to do so. He's wretchening himself at the slightest provocation—he's impatient to wretchen himself! Add to that how his emotions rule him to the degree that they physically transform him, and that he shows absolutely no desire to reign them in, and its pretty clear why Victoria is often so negative to him. He's a powderkeg waiting to go off in a horrible way like his sister was, filled with strange and offputting desires turned into strange and offputting flesh, and unlike Amy he doesn't even have the decency to shamefully repress it. Chris is Amy as the deviant who qua deviancy will inevitably be a danger to everyone around him. Kenzie, meanwhile, is Amy as the sister who gave too much of herself. Victoria's shown at times that she hasn't forgotten how she loved Amy as a sister, how she wasn't inherently evil. She spoke with regret about not listening to Amy when she begged Victoria not to hug her. And she's pretty much said in-text "I don't want Kenzie, who I love as I once loved my sister, to exhaust herself to the point that she becomes lost in the way my sister did." Victoria looks at Chris and is reminded of all her fears of what strange and dangerous people will do, of her belief that bad people do bad things because their bad people. Victoria looks at Kenzie and remembers that's not true, and that she can do something about it.

[thechibilitwick]

going on a tangent about stupid little milgram details that are probably unimportant or wrong yippee

one detail i like is how side character lack features or are different from the focus character, and what it actually means in each MV. The reasoning can vary from character to character, but the general idea is that it's supposed to emphasize their role in the character's eyes and also changes the level of humanness(?) they have. (idk it's hard to phrase)

two really good examples of this are muu and kazui's MVs.

in After Pain, the only other character besides muu who has a full set of facial features is her classmate rei. Every other character is seen without eyes, which let's the audience understand how muu believed her actions were perceived without actually making the background characters feel 'human' or 'real'. Rei having no alterations also implies the importance of her to muu, and also might be muu trying to tell the audience "hey look, with the way she looked and was acting, i had no other choice right?" (muu enjoyers apologies if i'm reading into this wrong i'm not too invested into her character i just really like after pain)

then we move on to INMF, where her previously eyeless classmates have now turned into bug people, while rei remains unchanged. Her classmates being subordinate bugs while she's the queen represent how she views them as 'below' her. Her classmates also do appear as they looked in AP, but here their appearance seems more to represent how their importance to muu kinda boils down to social image and validation (or smth like that). Rei is still rei, and we see her looking on at muu and her group with disgust, we see her dead again, and then at the end we see her decided to fight back. I need to get more into muu, cuz damn her relationship with rei really is interesting considering the fact that her appearance doesn't alter at all whatsoever. Like damn what was their relationship actually like?

in Half, there are only three side characters shown: hinako, the bartender, and the lady from the bar. And oddly enough, the only one with an actual face is the lady. Both hinako and the bartender lack facial features (mainly their eyes). Considering that half is more or less kazui lamenting on his mistakes that led to hinako's death, it'd make sense he'd want to kinda 'block out' anything related to the incident. Which if that's the case, it implies the bartender had enough significance for kazui to want to 'block out' (haha gay) while the lady didn't and thus she's just as is. (so it's kinda like the opposite of muu in a way?)

moving on to Cat, hinako has a face now! (and she's really cute!!) No one else does, though. This is most likely to emphasize how kazui's focus has now shifted from the sadness and grief of the entire ordeal to why and how everything came to be. Hinako herself is basically in the center of it all, being the victim to kazui's deceit, so it'd make sense that we'd get to see her emotions (tho it's from kazui's perspective). Hinako being happy throughout kazui's lying and only turning to shock and distress when kazui is honest is most likely just kazui trying to tell the audience that lying is the only way for him to live life without troubling others. Also mr. bartender makes an appearance again and still has no eyes, which probably implies that he's related to something that kazui still hasn't come to terms with yet (cough homosexuality cough cough)

but yeah that's my little rant, it'd be cool to go into a little more detail for this feature for everyone but idk if i have the mental capacity to at the moment lol

[blackvahana]

So you may have seen it's been a hot minute since I talked about the Mira. Well! Well. yeah. well.

À lots been going on, I mean first of all I guess this is how I work 24/7 where I start things and put them back down again because it's either time or not time for things... But also the Kos mask needs to take a huge backseat because I'm more interested in what I am that resonates with this fictional character. I'm so much more interested in the Mother of Eyes than the (fictional character we happen to have a tag for called Mother of Eyes). But the Mira... They're odd. I see them almost like eye floaters, in that they have my specific brand of Madness: they are inside the eyes, inside, moving around like parasites in the vitreous humor. They evolve into what you expect them to be, like my psychosis inducing Madness does - it follows your own line of thinking and tightens the mirrors of your eyes that watch reality until you're looking at yourself withour noticing - they evolve as tiny vision instances and are definitely... atomic particles as the fluctuations in a field comparable to the field of my own existence

I put them down after realising I was seeing them as squid things when they're really ("really") just little points of distortion in reality - and they aren't fully made or birthed, they're usage of the Unborn. Which. Can you fucking tell why this came out attached to the Kos mask? Imagine Kos dragging her beached body around surrounded by floating foetuses that are half recognisable pan-foetus (foetuses for many species look the same), half hallucinogenic squid things blinking in and out of existence like a hoard of bubbles, or eyes... Yeah that was just the shit happening in the astral lmfao. But there's more to us than appearances, which was part of the lesson.

I got a litttllleeee annoyed, for reasons I absolutely have discussed now so you can guess, at the fact that they werent manifested and grounded and real, so I left them alone for a while, but uh. No. They were exactly what they needed to be. There's use in the entire spectrum between Mental and Astral, a good chef knows how to work with breast and thigh but a great one knows how to use all of the chicken, because where would chicken flavoured things the world over be without stock made from bone and discarded meats. They're supposed to be fluctuations and distortions in reality...

The only thing now is the dawning awareness they're, again, fluctuations on a field, and the field is hungry. The field has wants and needs. Like the Flock, they're pecking at my consciousness but in an entirely different way, surfacing like tumours on the brain, worming their way into and out of my skin, talking to me in things like that vision there of them cut up and boiled alive in stew to be eaten. This is all. normal. for how I talk lmfao it's comforting to be able to be myself nowadays, but specifically they convey two things with it: a need to be made into things, selves, to have selves, and they hunger and want to be fed and created and birthed

It's such an odd part of me that they have. It's... Not motherly anymore, it's visceral parenthood in the way of a bloated pregnant pale-like-a-whale body, part fish, part god, part environment itself like if you walked into a server room one day and one of the machines was just a hanging human torso squishy and blending into the machine parts, not distressed, simply existing as it always had.

Lev wanted to create things with me in the way of conception, and I think that's probably why these are surfacing. I'm not... entirely sure on that? They feel like they could be eggs used to birth things into the. my god. we are abyssal today. Birth things into the depths, but I wonder if that's not more an Unborn thing in general rather than the Mira, which seem to be a specific kind of mirror built from the Mercury of Madness.

Either way. They're back. They're hungry. They're really sweet actually they aren't the mechanically chittering laughing corvids of the Flock, they're so much... oh. god. so much like how Lev presents as the ever-watchful foetus in the bottom of the Abyssal depths, wide-eyed, sweet, just waiting. Huh. yeah. I forget we're...... similar

[solarstellarstar]

A Letter Addressed to No One || dialover OC shortfic

Written by Lady Sakamaki Beatrix

Summary: A letter from Beatrix that doesn't have a clear recipient, but a lot of her personal feelings are disclosed. Warnings: none (the fic is SFW but obviously there's a process of how babies are made- it's only implied and nothing is described) Word count: 783 Author's notes: Lore dump time! I find it really fun to reveal tidbits of my OC's backstories by writing them out in little fics (if you can even call this one) of some sort. If you do actually get to read to the end, I'd like to ask you something: did you see this coming? Note that this is heavily edited from canon like all fanfictions are-

No matter how many times I am going to be told that I'm a "filthy courtesan that not even the best man could silence the greed that boils inside me" by that woman, I simply will not believe it. I am not a courtesan and... I'm certainly sure that everyone is greedy deep down inside somehow.

First things first, let me make this absolutely clear: Karl Heinz is my one and only husband. What I did does not (in no way, shape or form) renounce the love and utmost respect I hold for him.

What I did was simply me being nostalgic. Do I regret doing so? Yes. Do I wish I could abandon the thing that was produced of it? No.

I have made many mistakes during my lifetime and by writing this letter, I hope that it can explain (not justify) why I chose what I did to do.

I originally derive from the Kanemoto clan where my parents housed me and my sister. It was quite obvious who held their favour the most. My sister is a very pretentious woman, but she does have her own fair share of talent. Most, if not all, of the men that sought out our family, were just to request her hand in marriage. For some reason, she had turned every single one of them down.

As someone who had grown by her side all my life, I believe I can understand why she did so. Eventually, constantly being overwhelmed by an abundance of marriage proposals can invite unwanted distress.

So when my parents suddenly arranged for me to marry a man, that just supplied me with many more questions than answers. Why me?Why not... her?

Upon meeting this man officially for the first time, he actually was quite a humorous fellow. Although he was awkward and made me question why I was going to marry such a frivolous person, this man actually made me feel feelings of security and affection even though we never met outside of arranged dates and meetings by our family.

You can only imagine how I felt when we found out that he met the unfortunate fate of being murdered. It was really one of the darkest moments I had ever lived. We were only told that by his family, so not once have I ever got to see him one last time. No ceremony celebrating his life was held and his gravestone was nowhere to be found.

Obviously after experiencing such a dreadful loss, I refused to invest any more time or energy into such relationships. I could never love again.

Or so I thought.

It happened when I was still mourning the lost time I had invested into love. "Fantastic, another man that seeks my sister." I thought to myself.

That man turned out to be Karl Heinz.

I will not get into the details, but what happened was like some sort of miracle. Of course, I still had some doubts when I found out he sought out me- not my sister. Why me? Why not... her?

It was like all my grief and sorrow were swept and washed away by him alone. There were a few impediments- but I must not question his choices as I'm sure he has a valid reason why.

Centuries into the marriage and having 2 dear sons, I suddenly received news that my first fiancé was alive.

I am not sure what came over me, perhaps it was desperation for me to live my youth once again (I didn't even question why or how this has come to be) but I immediately set off to meet my first love.

There he was, alive and well. Nothing could make up for all that effort we had lost and was destroyed.

One thing led to another in our reunion and that's how I came to carry my third child.

There was absolutely no way under any circumstances that I would endanger the child by revealing her to the Sakamaki household, meaning I decided to hand the girl over to my sister.

I may have birthed the child but I cannot raise her or love her as my own. As much as I want to love her as the child I had with my first love, she cannot be my daughter.

Which means she cannot call me 'mother' once.

She cannot hold my hand once.

My last wish for my sister is to not make the same mistake I had already made when raising Shu and Reiji. That's all I ever ask for.

My sister decided to give her the name 'Lily', isn't it beautiful? She even has my eyes.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝑀𝑦 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑃𝑡.2 (𝑆𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑔ℎ𝑤𝑎×𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

Part One/ Part Three / Part Four

Pairing: Badboy! Park Seonghwa (Ateez)/ Reader (Female)

Genre: Angst, Fluff, College Au.

Summary: Y/N has no idea what to make of the mysterious Park Seonghwa. Does he really like her or is he simply playing with her?

✿❯────「✿」───❮✿❯──「✿」────❮✿

Flipping the light switches off, Y/N typed in the security code into the pin pad before closing the door behind her, the faint beeping from inside letting her know that the alarm was functioning properly. She honestly wondered at times about if anyone would ever think about robbing a coffee shop. Granted it made a lot of money during certain seasons, but unless you actually work in one, you probably wouldn't think so. Yet it was surprising to know it could make as much money as any famous fast food restaurant. Well.....with those sky high prices, it made sense.

She stopped and checked to make sure she had everything in her bag, not wanting to risk having left her keys inside and find out until she reached her apartment. Satisfied by the confirmation, she began her walk home. If it had been fall or winter, she would have seriously considered taking a bus, even though it wasn't that far away. But it was summer and thankfully there was still an hour left before the sun finally set. She truly believed she was lucky to have found a place to live that was close not only to her workplace, but also her school, even if it was a tiny studio apartment. She felt proud to say it was hers.

Feeling something tug on her sneaker, she looked down and realized one of her shoes was untied. She bent down and began tying it up again, carelessly placing her bag right next to her on the street. She was so focused on her task in front of her, she failed to notice the looming figure in front of her.

"You know anybody could just whisk away your bag and run at this moment?"

She snapped her head back up and saw Seonghwa standing in front of her, an amused smile on his face. He bent down and picked up her bag, dusting off the dirt that had gotten on the bottom part of it in the process.

"Tsk. Tsk. And here I thought you were a more.... what's the word? Meticulous person."

Y/N gave him a questioning gaze before standing up, quickly grabbing her bag from him.

"Not even a thank you?" Seonghwa shook his head.

"What are you still doing here? I thought you went home." Y/N said, clearly confused as to why he'd be there still.

Seonghwa raised an eyebrow at her.

"I thought I told you back in the shop that I'd see you later?"

Y/N recalled the moment, it did seem weird to her that he'd say that.

"Well doll, it's later......and I wanted to see you." He explained, a slight smirk tugging on the corners of his lips.

Y/N let out a tiny scoff.

"Why?"

Seonghwa blinked at her response.

"I thought I made myself clear the other day Y/N. I like you."

Y/N blushed slightly at the memory of him confronting her back in school. She was hoping the shadow from the building in front of her casted enough to hide it from him.

"And I said there would be plenty of time to get to know each other.....well I'm free right now and obviously so are you. So why don't we get something to eat? My treat."

He grinned at her, obviously not expecting her to turn down his offer. Any other girl wouldn't say no to Seonghwa. But Y/N wasn't any girl, and she wasn't about to say yes to someone she hardly knew. Especially not when he acted so strange for her liking.

"No thank you."

She quickly responded and took a step to walk away from him, but his hand reached out and stopped her from moving any further.

"Why not?" He asked.

Y/N tried to think of an excuse, any quick excuse to get out of this.

"I'm not hungry." Was the best thing she could think of.

The loud grumbling of her stomach was a dead giveaway of her fat lie. After working 8 hours straight with only a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a muffin on her only break, of course she was borderline starving and needed something in her stomach before it began eating itself. Her hands clutched her stomach, hoping to silence the obnoxious noise, but ultimately just making it more obvious.

Seonghwa looked down at her figure and snorted softly.

"Seriously, I know a really good place here that sells burgers and shakes. Are you really going to say no to free food?"

At this point she could either tell him to fuck off and stomp away home, but ultimately she'd leave even more hungry and would still have to whip up something on the stove that would take approximately half an hour or more. Or she could accept his offer, but it'd mean interacting with him, not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but she honestly didn't know what to make of him. He's been straightforward with her all this time, but how was she to know he was being serious? For all she knew, he could just be playing with her. After all, isn't that what all bad boys are known for?

Guess there was only one way to find out.

✿❯────「✿」───❮✿❯──「✿」────❮✿

Y/N looked around at the 50's themed diner she was in:

Black and white tiled floor that was so clean it almost looked slippery. Cherry red leather seats, either in the form of booths, tables or chairs on the front white counter that stretched at least 40 feet. An array of old records hanged on the wall, whether or not you could actually play them on a record player or if they were just flimsy decorations would forever be a secret. An old juke box was stationed in one of the corners of the counter currently playing The Beatles, its color combination of yellow and blue not quite appealing to the eyes. And of course, a pinball machine was placed near the entrance for kids to waste their quarters on. They even had a light blue 1955 convertible Chevrolet Bel Air for people to go take pictures of or with. At this point it wouldn't have surprised Y/N if waitresses came out of the kitchen in roller skates and started singing songs from Grease or Hairspray.

It became an even more ironic thought when she saw Seonghwa walk back to her with their food. Dressed in a white shirt, distressed jeans, black combat boots and black leather jacket with his hair slicked back, he could almost be a modern day Danny Zuko and for some reason, that thought made her bust a tiny giggle.

"What's so funny?" Seonghwa asked as he sat the tray down in front of her.

"Oh....nothing." She was not about to get caught.

Seonghwa looked at her funny, but ultimately decided not to pry.

"Here you go."

He slipped her food in front of her: a burger the size of her two hands and a 32 ounce chocolate shake with whipped chocolate and a cherry on the top. A well sized platter with regular fries and curly fries made it obvious that they were going to share them. She didn't mind though, the portions were so big she doubted she'd even finish half of it.

She dug into the food, her stomach thanking her for finally putting something in her body. She was so hungry that she didn't care if she was eating like how she usually ate when she was at home, messy and slobbish. She was halfway through her burger, when she caught Seonghwa just staring at her. That's when she started to feel self conscious. She quickly swallowed what was currently in her mouth and grabbed a napkin to wipe the corners of her mouth.

Seonghwa giggled at her.

"Don't worry about it. It's pretty refreshing to see a girl not care about how she looks like when she eats, and to actually eat. You have no idea how many girls I've brought here who only get salads and nothing else."

He cringed slightly at past memories of awful dates that make him wanna kick himself for even thinking they were attractive. He blamed himself though. He tended to only look at pretty faces and end up regretting it when he found out they were all self-centered, shallow, and prissy girls that just made his blood boil.

"Maybe that's why I like you. You're different."

He didn't even realize he said that out loud until she whipped her head up at him. He was stunned that he accidentally let that slip, but he was able to play it off coolly.

"How......how can you..... we've never even..?" Y/N couldn't even completely form her question but Seonghwa knew what she was referring to.

Sighing softly, he began:

"Well I'm going to sound like a total creep now but that's inevitable. It was a few months back, when you had changed majors and had to be transferred to our class..."

Seonghwa ignored the usual reprimand of the professor, telling him he was late again. As if he didn't do it on purpose. He just hated this class. It was undoubtedly one of the most boring subjects one could possibly take. He began to stare off into space, not even bothering to listen to what was being said.

He looked around at the familiar faces he saw in class, the same people from last year. Until a head of (insert hair color) hair caught his eye. She was definitely not there before. Seonghwa tried to think if he had ever seen her around before, but couldn't quite remember.

Unknowingly, he found himself staring at her more and more each time they had class together. He found out she had a habit of tapping her pen against her cheek when she was trying to concentrate, she kept everything in her bag organized and hardly socialized with anybody.

One time he followed her to her locker, just to briefly see what was inside of it. You can always tell a lot about a person based on how they decorate their locker. But Seonghwa only saw a few pictures of what he assumed was her family, few friends and a lot of sticky notes with motivational quotes written on them in various sharpie colors, with either stars or diamonds as decorations.

That just peeked his curiosity even more in trying to decipher who the mysterious girl was, and his curiosity turned to fondness for the girl, so he had no choice but to admit that he was attracted to her and wanted to get close to her.

"Wait. Is that why you were staring at me in class the other day?" Y/N asked after he told her all that.

"Took you long enough to notice too. You were so oblivious to it that it was kinda funny." He chuckled.

Y/N looked back at that moment and realized she still had so many questions left.

"But then why did you look angry after I looked away?"

Seonghwa shifted his position, sitting up straighter so he could look at her.

"Why? Cause you looked at me with such a bitch face and even rolled your eyes at me. I was kinda angry and hurt that you did that given how I feel about you." He explained.

Y/N looked at him confused.

"I did not roll my eyes at you."

"Uh....yeah. You did. You looked at me as if I was a bug or something." He corrected her.

"Well..... I was tired and hungry! I'm not in control of my actions or emotions when I'm in that state." She tried defending herself, feeling somewhat embarrassed that she had no control over her facial expressions.

"Yeah, I've noticed. You weren't all that happy 25 minutes ago when I asked you out on this date." Now it was Seonghwa's turn to roll his eyes at her previous behavior.

"This....this isn't a date!" Y/N exclaimed.

Seonghwa raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Oh no? Do enlighten me then. What is this?"

Y/N thought about it for a moment.

"We are just 2 individuals, having a meal together and conversing." She stated.

"Why are we conversing though?" Seonghwa continued to pry.

Y/N hummed.

"Because you said you wanted to get to know me better?"

Seonghwa smiled at that.

"Sounds to me like a date then."

Y/N mentally face palmed. She practically walked into that one herself. She sighed as she picked up one of the fries and dipped it into her milkshake before eating it.

"And now I've learnt one more thing about you: we have similar tastes in eating."

Y/N watched as he mirrored her actions and dipped his fries in his strawberry milkshake. Y/N decided to just finish eating as soon as possible so she could go home early. The sun was starting to set and she didn't like walking home in the dark, even if rarely any crime happened in this neighborhood. She was planning on not saying anything else, but then something popped in her mind that made her ask:

"Wait a minute! The day after the.....incident." She began.

"You mean when you were a total bitch?" Seonghwa teased.

"Haha, funny." She threw a fry at him, causing Seonghwa to laugh even harder.

She had to admit though, he had a cute laugh.

"Anyways, the day afterwards, I heard 2 girls talking in the bathroom about you. They said that you were pissed off at me-"

"I kinda was." He interrupted her again.

"Let me finish!" She cried out rather annoyed.

Seonghwa bit his lip as he stifled another laugh. He found it adorable when Y/N got agitated.

"They made it sound like you were going to beat me up. Something about 'giving it to me'" She held up her fingers in quoting signals.

Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, trying to decipher what she meant. Then it hit him.

"Oh! No. Trust me, I wasn't going to beat you up. As for 'giving it to you' "

He mimicked her quotation signs, causing Y/N to glare at him for teasing her again.

"I was referring to the notepad you dropped. Remember? I gave it back to you?"

Now she face palmed literally as she realized she hadn't thought about that. And here she thought she was dead meat for sure.

"Was that why you were avoiding me the rest of the week? You actually believed I was going to fight you?"

Y/N swirled her milkshake with her straw, unable to look at Seonghwa in the eyes anymore.

"Y/N? I'm talking to you. You really believed that?"

The authority in his voice made her look up at him, his expression showing offense and indignation at the thought that she actually believed him capable of such a thing.

"Why would you think that?" He continued his interrogation.

"Well..... I don't know! Ok? Maybe cause I've heard so many rumors about you. You don't exactly have the best of reputations at school. Everyone says how you're...."

Her voice trailed off, afraid to finish her sentence, afraid to offend or hurt him in anyway .

"That I'm a delinquent? A criminal?"

Y/N blinked when he said that, as if he could read her mind.

"I know what people say about me, I'm not blind nor deaf to their gossip." He stated, not at all unfazed by what he often heard.

"So does that mean none of it is true?" She couldn't help but want the answer to her question.

"Well depends. Have I gotten into a lot of fights with other guys? Yes. Do I have a temper at times that gets me in trouble? Yes. Have I fucked a bunch of girls just for fun? Definitely. Do I smoke or drink often? I'm not denying it."

Seonghwa reached into his pocket and took out his lighter, twirling it around in his hand a few times so Y/N could get a glance at it before putting it back in his pants.

"But have I ever vandalized, stolen or done anything remotely illegal? No. Have I beaten someone up for no good reason? No."

Y/N listened to his words very carefully. She was amazed how he was calmly telling her all of this.

"And I most certainly have never even thought about lifting a finger against a woman. Especially not one I'm interested in." He confessed abruptly, causing Y/N to gulp her drink a little fast, nearly making her choke.

"I'm sorry." She apologized.

Seonghwa chuckled softly.

"Don't be. I get why you'd be scared. I just wish you'd get to know the real me......"

He reached his hand out and lightly brushed his finger on the top of her knuckles.

"Kinda like how I want to know you..."

The physical contact sent a weird feeling down her body. It was chilly, yet warm at the same time. She wanted to reach out and lace her fingers in his, and she would have, until a high pitched voice interrupted them.

"Seonghwa! Is that you?!"

They looked over to see a purple haired boy waving his hand in the air, as if his loud voice didn't make his presence already known. A pink haired boy was standing next to him, looking embarrassed as his friend jumped up and down. Having had enough of that, he pulled the boy by his arm and ran over to Seonghwa and Y/N's table.

"Hi! What a coincidence to see you here! Why didn't you tell us you would be here? You could have joined Yeosang and I. He promised to take me out to eat." He pulled whom Y/N assumed to be Yeosang closer to him.

The purple haired boy spoke so loud and fast Y/N had a hard time understand what he was saying.

"Promised? I was threatened." Yeosang replied, causing the other boy to let out a loud laugh, making Y/N think of a hyena.

"Hyung, where are your manners? Aren't you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?"

Seonghwa blushed and cleared his throat. It was the first time Y/N saw him get flustered and it was definitely funny.

"Y/N isn't my girlfriend-"

"Oh really? Great! Cause she's cute."

The boy wasted no time and held his hand out to her.

"My name is Wooyoung, I'm single, Bi, and I have a driver's license." He winked at her.

"For a moped." Yeosang corrected him.

Wooyoung sent a glare towards his friend.

"Y/N, these are my friends: Wooyoung and Yeosang. They go to our school, but you've probably never seen them cause they're a grade below us."

Y/N nodded and waved awkwardly at them.

"Yeosang, Wooyoung, this is Y/N. She's not my girlfriend, but she's off limits. Ok?" Seonghwa made sure to lock eyes with Wooyoung, silently warning him not to step any further into his territory.

"So if she's not your girlfriend, does that mean she's a fuck bud-"

Yeosang stepped on Wooyoung's foot, causing him to bend over in pain. Yeosang however smiled sweetly as if nothing happened.

"Anyways, it was nice seeing you Hyung. We wouldn't want to take up more of your time. Besides, we'll be seeing you tomorrow at Hongjoong's party. Right?"

Seonghwa nodded.

"You know I never pass up an opportunity to party."

"Will you bring Y/N with you?" Wooyoung asked, hoping she'd come.

Seonghwa looked over to Y/N, who tried to think of an answer.

"Uh... no thanks. I wasn't invited so-"

"Who cares? No one needs an invitation these days. It's a frat party anyways, a bunch of strangers end up coming in the end." Wooyoung insisted.

"I'll....think about it." Y/N knew she wouldn't.

"Ok! I'll take it as a yes. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Taking a hold of Yeosang's hand, Wooyoung made his way over to another table, the pink haired boy already looking exhausted at the thought of spending at least 2 more hours with his highly energetic friend.

Y/N smiled softly at them. They were definitely an odd pairing, but they seemed to compliment each other.

"It's getting late. Want me to take you home?" Seonghwa asked her.

"It's fine. I can walk. It's not that far." She refused.

"I insist. I want to make sure you get there safely." He insisted.

Y/N smirked at him.

"Are you really concerned for my safety or do you just wanna find out where I live?"

Seonghwa's mouth dropped at her insinuation.

"I don't..... ok you got me there."

She chuckled at his reaction, but ultimately got up.

"Ok. Fine. Take me home. The worst you can possibly do is murder me and throw my body in a lake."

Seonghwa shook his head and picked up his jacket. He made sure to hold the door open for her when they went out. Y/N didn't even notice he had stopped walking until she heard him whistle behind her. Turning around, she saw him standing next to a black Harley-Davidson motorcycle. She raised her hands and gestured him to explain.

"I told you I was taking you home."

He tapped the seat.

"So come on. Hop on doll."

He began taking out the spare helmet for her to put on. She walked back to him and placed her hands on her hips.

"You kept it parked here the entire time?" She asked him.

"Uh huh." He responded.

Her face was full of shock.

"Did you know that I would say yes to coming here with you?"

"Well not exactly 'knew'.......more like....hoped."

He winked at her before placing the helmet above her head, making sure to strap it tightly.

"Safety first."

After putting on his own helmet, he got on the motorcycle and waited for her to get on. She awkwardly threw her leg over the seat and hesitated to wrap her arms around him. Seonghwa huffed and simply grabbed her wrists to put them on his stomach.

As soon as he started revving up the motorcycle, Y/N tightened her grip around him. Even through his shirt, she could feel rock solid abs underneath it. It made her wonder what he looked like without a shirt. The thought temporarily distracted her from the worry of actually riding in a motorcycle for the first time.

Sensing her fear, Seonghwa grabbed one of her hands and gave it a light squeeze.

"Don't worry doll. I'll keep you safe."

✿❯────「✿」───❮✿❯──「✿」────❮✿

*part 3 coming soon*

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

apologies if this burdens your ask box, but i really have to get it off my chest.

during 4th and 5th grade i studied under the strictest teachers of my school, the 'nightmare duo' as the students called them. they'd constantly shovel advanced problems at us students curiously all of those problems happened to be maths. oh i wondered how such strange occurrings could have happened in this corner of southeast asia, not like the bias towards 'respectable' subjects had anything to do with it. and by 'advanced' i mean 'taken from 6th to 8th grade', and you can't reasonably expect a bunch of sleep deprived 4th graders to submit such works on time with flawless presentation, no? no?!

they also claim to promote creativity in the classroom despite repressing any signs of 'disobedience' with severe forms of punishments, oftentimes corporal like hitting palms and pulling ears and sometimes slaps in the head too. those punishments are the reason why i'm still struggling with perfectionism, sleep deprivation and creative insecurities to this day. the teachers were obsessed over perfection and high grades. i think they thought of us more in terms of badges and accomplishments than actual little human beings.

in addition, having undiagnosed adhd and (possibly) autism didn't really help my case, either. constantly fidgeting and submitting late homework and doodling in the edges of my textbooks and messing everything up didn't really improve my image in the eyes of those teachers. and to be denied all those things just really felt like living hell for tiny me. i was called 'lazy' and 'uncooperative' and 'isolated' and 'goofing around' so much when i was just trying my best. it almost feel like my identity at that time could be boiled down to 'the incompetent girl'. it hurt. still hurts.

perhaps i am qualified to be called 'gifted kid'. perhaps i am not. i was reasonably good in english (it's my second language) and i had some sense of poetry and....that's about it. of course that's all a ditzy, messy girl could do. how was i supposed to enjoy maths when all i knew of it was waves after waves of assignments with no connection to reality being bombarded into my rotting brains? how was i supposed to enjoy learning anything with that style of teaching, if i may ask?

my parents and later teachers are doing everything they could in their power and knowledge to help me academically and i am eternally grateful of that fact, but it still stands that many of my most deep seated wounds came from that period. i still get nightmares from it, and sometimes in my most desperate moments before exams i hear the nightmare duo's voices berating me, saying i'll never be more than a disgrace to society and my loved ones never truly considered me their own. it's a horrifying thought. i don't think i'll never truly escape their shadows even with all the recovery i have so struggled to make.

maybe i'm just overreacting. maybe i'm living a life so sheltered, never having to worry about finance and food. from my opinion i've been leading a privileged life comparing to the rest, and yet i still don't think i deserve all this luxury. perhaps i should really get on my feet soon and stop wallowing in old pains.

anyway, apologies if the vent got too personal or rambling and thanks for having listened to me.

Hey anon,

It can be really distressing to have teachers tell you you're lazy or a bad student. You didn't deserve to be treated that way. It's not okay at all that they hit students. That is physical abuse and is absolutely unacceptable. I'm sorry you're not being supported to learn. What you're describing is not an environment in which children are even able to learn. It's incredibly difficult to learn when you're being berated, hit, and berated.

Even if your parents and teachers were trying their best to get you an education, that doesn't mean their methods didn't harm you. It is possible to support a child to learn without belittling them, hitting them, or calling them names. It's okay to be upset about how they treated you.

I don't think you're overreacting at all. What you've gone through matters. Even if you have food and shelter, that doesn't mean you deserve to endure abuse. It's great that you acknowledge you're privileged in some ways, but that doesn't mean you can't have gone through struggles.

Take care.

- Mod Misa

[bestbonnist]

hii i was wondering if u could explain a little about chapter 146! like why funa was there in the start and what is going on between mizuha and hanna, its all confusing to me but im still curious to understand this chapter. im terrible at keeping track of the story which is why i read your analyses!

Sure I can explain! Actually, I'm going to explain a lot just in case. Let's start with what Funa was doing on the first page.

Fushi started Chapter 145.2 in Funa's form and then returned it, knowing that if no one else is occupying an empty body the ghost who it belongs to will be automatically sucked in. Their intention was to make sure the knockers wouldn't be able to repossess Funa's body, and ideally they would have recreated her body somewhere far away from Mizuha. But the school is fairly well maintained and any roots Fushi left lying around would be torn down. So with nowhere to reconnect to Fushi only had the duration of their conversation with Mizuha to stretch their roots as far as they could, which was not very far. I have helpfully pointed out Fushi's roots going in the same direction that Funa is coming from below:

Because they put her in a spot relatively close by, Funa assumed that Fushi wanted her help and came back. There was no real reason for her to keep quiet, but from what we've seen of her personality I'd say she wanted her entrance to have an element of surprise.

Hanna was out in the hallway because in Chapter 145.1 she saw Mizuha go up to Fushi to talk about something related to their matching hair-ties. She probably intended to intervene earlier, but then heard some things that made it very difficult to step in. After Funa shushed her, she decided that fantasy battles weren't something she was equipped to deal with and that there was nothing she could do in that situation that could help Mizuha, felt useless, and left. From a narrative standpoint, that's why Funa was there at the start of the chapter.

Now I'm going to try to boil down the conflict between Mizuha and Hanna to its essentials on both sides. Hopefully, after reading this you'll have a better idea of what's at play during Chapter 146.1 as well as in future chapters.

Mizuha and Hanna's interactions have always been formulaic: Hanna reaches out to Mizuha to lessen her physical and emotional burdens, and Mizuha reaches out to Hanna to test her friendship and to maintain their distance. They're caught in a loop where both of them want to be closer, but fundamentally misunderstand the intentions of the other. Let's start with Mizuha's part:

Mizuha wants a relationship with someone who will accept her weaknesses, but that wish has been altered by a childhood with Izumi, who can't handle anything less than perfection. Because of that, she's divided all of her relationships up into the person who's perfect and the person who's not, the one being controlled and the one doing the controlling, the trophy and the winner. Because Hanna lets Mizuha dictate the nature of their relationship, she must be the perfect friend Mizuha's been searching for.

But Mizuha—who like Izumi, prioritizes perfection—finds Hanna disappointing. She was hoping for someone who would center themselves around her like a planet orbits a star, but that's not what Hanna thinks friendship is. For the most part, she follows Mizuha's lead, but when she sees Mizuha in distress and reaches out, it's an infringement on the pattern they've set. Ultimately, Mizuha's more comfortable with someone who'll follow whatever instructions she gives them, like Fushi. But more than that, Hanna can't give Mizuha the second thing she's been searching for: immortality.

So she's not the perfect friend. If her friend is perfect then Mizuha will have room to be imperfect, but Hanna isn't so she can't so logically Mizuha should sever their relationship like she has with everyone in the past. Despite this, Mizuha still makes a feather hair-tie to give her so that they can share their prize and proof of friendship. This is Mizuha's first and final attempt to explain that Hanna might not be unique or perfect, but she's special to her.

Fushi drives a huge wrench in this because they're everything Mizuha has been looking for in a friend, no matter how unrealistic those expectations were. It's why she confided in Fushi almost immediately after they met while it took her over a year before she began testing Hanna. Compared to the bright, shining Fushi, Hanna's dullness is obvious until it becomes apparent that Fushi isn't as perfect as she first thought, and was using her like a trophy too. So Mizuha is emotionally all over the place and in Chapter 146.1, her thoughts about Hanna explode to the surface.

Hanna thinks that being Mizuha's friend is more of an obligation than something she does willingly. Mizuha is a pretty fish and Hanna is the dirty bucket: she needs the bucket to breathe but she's meant to be in the ocean. She didn't know that Mizuha valued their relationship at all, so when she asked Hanna if she would be sad that Mizuha died, Hanna didn't know how to respond.

After that, Hanna realizes that her hesitancy has hurt Mizuha quite a bit, and when they find her and Hanna gives her a hug, it's proof of her resolve to change. Even if Mizuha says she's fine, Hanna's learned that that's not necessarily true, so she's decided not to take Mizuha at her word anymore. Ironically, following her without question was exactly what Mizuha wanted Hanna to do.

When Mizuha tells Hanna this in Chapter 146.1, it comes as a shock because Hanna stopped putting her on a pedestal a while ago, and she tears off the hair-tie she gave to Mizuha because she's angry at herself that Mizuha still assumes she thinks of their friendship like it's nothing.

[castielearmy]

[07:43PM]

Pairing: Roomate'sFriend!Chan (Stray Kids) x reader, Roomate!Felix x Platonic!reader (mention)

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Warnings: stalking

Word count: 1k +

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

You were on your computer, doing an assigntment for your psychology class in the study, while your roomate's friend Chan was doing some work on his laptop in the living room. Your roomate Felix had classes till late, so Chan decided to wait for him here.

A single doorbell ring was enough to break your focus and make you groan in annoyance. Felix is not getting off class for another hour at least. And he has a key. Who could be ringing the bell this late?

You walked over to the door and with an easy twist of the knob, you pulled the door open. Your eyes met with someone you would never expect to see at your appartment's doorstep.

"Professor Kim", you said little confused.

"Y/N", he smiled at you.

"What are you doing here?", you asked.

None of your professors ever came to your appartment. Why would they? All of them have a strictly professional relationship with you, as they should. Professor Kim over here was in his late fourties and looking very suspicious visiting one of his young female students this late.

"Ah well, I just wanted to check up on you.", he said while fixing his glasses, eyes traveling up and down your body, lingering on your hips, which were accented because of the yoga pants you had on. You shifted your body a little, starting to feel uncomfortable by the stare the old perv was giving you.

"Are you alone?", it was after he said that and looked around your appartment, when you felt alarmed. Why does he want to know if you're alone?

"No, she's not", the voice behind you made you jump slightly.

You turned your head a little to the right and saw Chan moving to stand in front of you. He pulled you behind him, putting his hand on your hip, not taking his eyes off of the creepy and now surprised looking professor standing in the doorway.

"Y/N, who is this?", professor asked you, looking over Chan's shoulder as if Chan wasn't standing right in front of him, looking like he could kill him right then and there.

"That's none of your concern old man", Chan's deep and angry voice gave you goosebumps. In that moment even you were little scared of Chan. Not because of what he could do to you, because you knew he would never lay a finger on you, but because of what he could do to the old man standing in front of him.

"But Y/N, I'm talking to you, why are you not answering me?", a hint of panic was evident in professor's voice and visible on his face as he grew more impatient.

You felt Chan tighten his grip on your hip a little and noticed that his arms were getting slightly veiny from the blood boiling inside of him. You quickly put your cold hand on Chan's forearm to remind him to stay calm. He felt your touch and relaxed a little, but in professor's eyes Chan still looked like he could end his life in matter of minutes.

"I think it's time for you to leave professor", you said, fearing that your voice would show how much you were scared right now, but luckly it didn't.

"But you didn't even invit-"

"She told you to leave", Chan interrupted distressed looking professor with grit of his teeth.

You were surprised at how the old man was still standing on his feet and not fainting from the fear visible in his eyes. You were also impressed at how Chan was keeping himself from tearing apart the older male in the hallway.

"Right, I'm sorry I interrupted your evening Y/N, I'll make sure to come by at reasonable hour next time. Goodbye", at that, the crazy looking man took off and didn't bother you anymore.

Chan's eyes followed him until he was out of the sight. After he could no longer see the figure of the tall professor, he closed the door and locked them.

"Are you okay?", Chan turned around and grabbed your shoulders, looking at your face in concern.

It's funny how his expression turned from an angry one that could kill to a soft one that melted your heart.

"You're shaking", Chan took your hands in his gently while moving his thumbs over your knuckles.

"A little. That was creepy", you said relieved that it was now over. You also feared that the creepy professor would visit you again, when you're alone.

"Does he do that often?", Chan asked you while walking you over to the couch in the living room.

"He is a little too close to me in class, but this is the first time he actually came to my appartment", you explained.

"Does Felix know about him?"

"Of course, I tell Felix everything", you said with a nod of your head.

"Alright, well I'll text Felix that we won't be going out tonight", Chan said reaching for his phone.

"Oh you don't need to cancel your plans because of me", you didn't want to stand in the way of them catching up on the past week and hanging out.

"Y/N there is no way in hell I'm leaving you alone tonight after what just happened", Chan said while looking at you, not ready to change his mind. Something sparked in you when your eyes met, releasing wild butterflies in your stomach. It was short, but strong.

He took his phone and unlocked it with a swift move of his thumb.

There was a short silence and a sound of a keyboard filling up the small room. A lamp standing by the couch was the only thing that gave out any source of light in the room, lighting up Chan's face dimly. You never noticed how pretty he was. His jawline visibly sharp, his lips plump and soft looking, his eyes tired but beautiful. You found yourself not being able to remove your eyes from his face.

"You're staring", he said not looking up from his phone.

"I'm admiring", you said calmly even though your heart skipped a beat.

"Oh stop it, you're gonna make me blush", he said jokingly, still not looking up from his phone, smiling afterwards making his cute dimples carve themselves in his cheeks. You couldn't help but smile after seeing his bright and happy expression.

"Thank you", you said sincerely while moving towards him and giving him a quick small kiss on the cheek.

He looked at you surprised, eyes widening and turning into round puppy like ones.

"I did make you blush"

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

[the-mad-starker]

How about Omega Serial Killer Peter and he has the Billionaire Alpha Tony Stark wrapped around his finger?

This actually has very little smut to it? But it got lengthy so I hope it’s okay. PS, I was chanting a certain phrase after writing this, more to do with Hannibal but 😅

Length: 3k

Notes: Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, Blood, implied sexual assault between Peter/OC (but it’s really not), first time, off screen oc deaths, marriage

💗💗💗

The first time Tony caught the scent of an alpha in his home, he was angry. Just tipping over into rage. It was better than the heartbreak he’d surely feel when he caught his omega, his beautiful Peter, fucking around with some alpha that couldn’t even begin to appreciate the boy.

But this wasn’t anything unprecedented. Even though Tony was the perfect alpha, there were people that just wanted to use him for his money and reputation. They got too comfortable, didn’t remember that on top of all the money lining his pockets, Tony was actually a genius. And then when they got greedy and showed their true colors, Tony would cut them out.

He got better at sniffing the gold diggers out and he really thought that Peter–

He barged into one of the guests rooms, a tiny voice grateful that at least Peter hadn’t used the master bedroom, and stopped dead in his tracks. It never occurred to him that despite thinking Peter was entertaining a guest, it was too quiet in the house.

His baby boy was shaking, face blotchy red. No, that wasn’t because of the tears. Peter’s face was splashed with blood, designer clothes that Tony had bought and dressed him in, ruined by it.

Tony’s face drained of all color and he rushed to the distraught omega’s side. Once Peter realized he was there, he threw himself at the older man. The boy’s thin, wiry arms held him tight even as Tony lifted him out of the bed and into his arms.

“Alpha… alpha…” Peter mewled against his shoulder, hot tears soaking into Tony’s suit.

“Peter, what–” Tony didn’t have to ask as he caught sight of the burly alpha on the floor.

His pants were undone but underwear still pulled up. Tony didn’t need to ask the boy what had happened.

“Shh, shh,” Tony murmured, stroking his fingers through Peter’s hair. He took them out of the guest room, taking Peter to the master bedroom where he had an ensuite bathroom.

The omega was withdrawn, quiet and traumatized as Tony prepared a bath. He was pliant and submissive, limbs limp as Tony undressed him.

Tony’s lips curled into a terrible snarl when he saw the bruises blossoming on Peter’s porcelain skin. It was proof of what the strange alpha had tried to do. Bruises on the boy’s hips, on his arms, his wrists… Tony could imagine just how the alpha had tried to pin the small omega down to get his way. It filled him with rage and a deep sense of gratitude that Peter had managed to fight back and save himself.

“I'm… I’m sorry, a-alpha…” Peter whispered when Tony placed him in the warm bath. The clear water turned crimson as the alpha washed him up.

“For what, sweetheart?” Tony murmured quietly as he eased the bath sponge over his shoulders.

“I let the man in…” Peter shivered, curling in on himself. Then abruptly, he wrapped his arms around Tony arm, whimpering. “Please… He…”

He touched me… Don’t leave me… I’m a bad… omega… “

Tony soothed him again, uncaring that his suit was getting soaked in the bathwater. It was ruined already anyway. Some of the blood on Peter’s clothes had transferred onto it. He’d have to burn both their clothes. Realizing this, he’d have to do much more than that.

“I’m not leaving you, baby,” Tony promised him.

His sweet boy was so innocent, it shouldn’t have surprised Tony that Peter had gotten tricked into helping someone only for them to take advantage.

“But I… I killed him,” Peter’s eyes grew wide, the realization finally settling in. Panic was next to come and the boy started shaking again. Tony had to climb into the tub, pulling Peter in his arms.

“I should’ve been here,” Tony growled, upset at himself, “You’re okay, baby, that’s all that matters. Alpha will take care of everything… Will take care of you. You’re okay. People will understand–”

The omega only clung to him that much harder.

“Please, just… just make it go away–” Peter mumbled against his shoulder.

Go away? Did Peter mean…?

“Okay, sweetheart,” Tony agreed softly. “Don’t worry. It’s okay…”

Tony’s soft, loving words soothed the boy so that the trembling eventually stopped. He took Peter to their own bed, tucking the smaller boy in, and making sure he was warm beneath the blankets. The omega’s fingers around his wrist stopped Tony from leaving, but he had things to take care of.

Sat on the edge of the bed, Tony dialed a number he didn’t think he would’ve ever needed and arranged to have the body taken care of. Peter was distraught and even the mention of others knowing had sent him spiraling in distress.

Not to mention that even though Peter was innocent, Tony hadn’t called the police right away. He’d taken care of the boy first, possibly messed with evidence by doing so. There was only one way to make the omega feel safe and happy again and it was to do as he asked, to make it go away.

Tony had the means and the desire to do it so he did.

The only indication that anything was happening was the light set of footsteps creaking up the stairs. Peter was curled up against him with Tony petting his silky brown curls while outside, masked men were erasing the past several hours from the guest room.

The body was never found and little by little, Peter went back to his old self. Tony signed him up for defense classes, then fired the personal coach when he found out the beta was only teaching Peter how today defend himself against other omegas.

Tony taught Peter, himself, and his boy excelled at self-defense. The alpha was also careful, installing better security and panic buttons in case Peter ever needed him.

They didn’t talk about the body, but Peter was either brushing it off or burying it deep. He didn’t seem to be too upset beyond that first night.

It was shortly after that they had their first night together. His baby boy was a virgin and it was one of the reasons why Tony had been enraged when he found out what happened.

Peter was so sweet… so innocent. To have another alpha touching him in such a way and for it to be unwanted… It had made Tony’s blood boil…

That first night, the older man did everything in his power to make it perfect for the Omega. Slow and sweet with plenty of kisses.

Tony took Peter’s virginity as an act of love their eyes locked together as Peter gasped and gave in to the pleasure. The kiss afterward had been so sweet.

“I’ll teach you everything,” Tony promised, erasing any and all bad thoughts.

Peter picked up quickly and became quite a minx. He grew confident in his relationship with Tony, often demanding attention and reveling in all the dirty things they did.

Tony was head over heels by then, his feelings compounded by the thought of losing this effervescent creature. This perfect omega who smiled and laughed and had him wrapped around his delicate little fingers. Peter had that gleam in his eye that made the alpha pretty confident that the feelings were mutual.

The dead alpha was a one time thing and Tony was grateful that nothing harmful bad happened to his sweet omega. A one time thing until it wasn’t.

The second body was one of his employees. Technically. The alpha was hired to look after the gardening and landscaping of the house.

When Tony came home that evening, the man’s body was cooling in the rose bushes in the back. He didn’t know until much later since he was met by his gorgeous omega at the door.

Dressed in baby blue lingerie, Peter barely had a second to greet his alpha before Tony was whisking him away.

The alpha didn’t even have the patience he normally did, he was so frustrated from the business meetings. Panties pushed to the side, a quick thrust of his fingers in hasty preparation and Tony was sliding his erect cock right in, groaning at the tight, wet heat of Peter’s body.

Peter made such a mesmerizing sight. Beautiful smooth skin flushed in exertion and the look of ecstasy on his face as he rode Tony’s cock.

The way his mouth dropped open, a breathless gasp when Tony knot slipped in.

“Alpha… alpha…” Peter murmured to which Tony pulled him close, lips pressed to his in a deep, sensual kiss.

“I love you, alpha,” Peter confessed as the sweat cooled on their bodies. And Tony, who had known for a while now, purred into his hair and kissed his temple.

“I love you too, Pete,” Tony replied, breathless and aglow with happiness.

The omega’s hand was resting over his naked chest, fingers splayed apart. Tony took it in his own, examining the slim fingers, the manicured nails. His fingers were so much thicker and calloused compared to Peter’s dainty ones.

“What size do you think you are?” Tony wondered absentmindedly.

“Mm…?” Came Peter’s sleepy reply.

“Nevermind,” Tony said, kissing the dozing boy’s temple. He could find out Peter’s ring size without bothering the boy.

He found the body when he went to get coffee. He stood in the balcony, sipping his hot beverage and noticed a pale face looking up at him. He dropped the cup and stared, disbelieving. He almost jumped a foot in the air when Peter’s warm, wiry arms circled his waist, pointed chin settling on his shoulder.

“Alpha?” Came the innocent voice of his omega.

“Peter. What happened to…?” Tony’s throat was dry. He looked away and was caught in Peter’s lovely brown eyes. They were so wide and unblinking, watching every minute change in his expression.

“He said I should leave you,” Peter told him softly. “Said that the money couldn’t be worth what little affection you gave me. And when I said you loved me, he said you were just using me. That you’d throw me away… But that’s not true, is it, alpha?”

The words confused him because he’d never know any of his employees to act inappropriately around Peter. But Peter was beautiful and amazing… It wasn’t far-fetched to believe that others would try to steal him away…

“Of course not,” Tony assured, holding him close when he saw a flicker of worry creep in his lover’s eyes. “I…” Peter’s hand in his, the boy’s soft, wisps of hair tickling his chin and neck… “I wanted to buy you a ring… Mate and bond you like you deserve.”

His omega was a smart boy but perhaps he hadn’t expected this level of dedication from Tony. Tony, himself, could scarcely believe it. Peter threw himself at the older man, clinging and laughing, tears in his eyes.

“I need you…” Peter whispered against his lips. “Love you… Can’t live without you, alpha… Tony…”

That was the spark that ignited the passion inside then both. Tony took Peter right there, bent over the railing and overlooking the beautifully tended gardens.

His fingers carved bruises into Peter’s slim waist as he fucked into his bride to be. Tony’s world was made up of nothing but Peter. The scent of him, sweet and ripe, an alluring omegan scent that drove the older alpha wild. The taste of his skin, salty sweet sweat along the hollow of his neck, the dips of his collarbones… The sound of his breathless moans, the hitched gasps, and delightful squeals as Tony filled him up.

All that mattered was Peter.

No one found the second body either.

There was no third body waiting for him after they married but there was a tape. It was the security footage of the house that first day. His now mate leading alpha number one inside, no struggle, no coaxing.

Just Peter smiling innocently, a glint in his eyes as the unknown alpha made his interest a little too obvious. How easily Peter had taken him down, the small petite thing he was. No one expected such a small omega to be so vicious, so fast and adapt at a knife.

Especially not his first victim, alpha number one had gone down hard. Red spilled abundantly with every beat of the alpha’s heart and Peter had closed his eyes in the spray of it, only opening them to look directly at the camera before the footage cut off.

Tony’s heart was in his throat, his own breathing shallow. He had watched all that blood stain Peter’s designer clothes, his hands…

The same hand that was now adorned with a beautiful band of gold and sparkling diamonds. Their honeymoon lasted for two weeks. In that time, it was bliss. Peter was everything he wanted and more. Tony thought about the tape, often at night when his new mate was sleeping next to him, purring softly in contentment.

It was easy to push it to the back of his mind. Just another horror show. His Peter was so sweet, so loving to him. And the alpha had bothered Peter, hadn’t he? Tony didn’t think too much on it.

On their return, there were changes anyway and Tony had to adapt to this new world with Peter by his side.

Peter wasn’t the typical omega who was just happy to stay at home and play wife, no, his Peter was passionate. Passionate about Tony and everything Tony had his fingers in. He got involved in all of Tony’s businesses which made Tony actually very proud as the omega took charge of several departments.

Peter was a genius, Tony had always known, but his baby boy didn’t often show it. He was happy that Peter took an interest in SI though.

Happy wife, happy life. Or so the saying was.

There was nothing that made Tony happier than seeing his Peter commanding an entire room of people. They all tripped to obey and it wasn’t because of Tony who just sat in the sidelines. Peter, himself, had earned their respects.

It was shortly after they celebrated their one year anniversary that Tony started to… worry. He would never doubt his Peter’s faithfulness but the omega had been coming home late now and then. He never smelled like another alpha, his scent was either too sterile or wrapped up in Tony’s for the alpha to ever think his mate was cheating.

But then… His mind turned to other possibilities and Tony both shirked and yearned for the truth.

What was his Peter doing? A part of him already knew, but he’d never be able to accept it until he saw with his own eyes.

Because that would mean… His Peter was dangerous. beyond knowing how to fight alphas, his Peter was… something else. It was hard to merge the two ideas because Peter was such a loving mate.

Tony shied away from the possibilities that one day… One day, perhaps towards him, Peter would…

He couldn’t even think of it.

One night, Tony couldn’t help but follow his mate. The company was under a lot of stress, leaked data somehow making its way to a competitor’s hands. Stress on the company meant stress on Tony and to him, just finding out this one thing would help ease his mind

He needed to know what his omega was doing when he snuck out of the house.

Tony’s heart was pounding as he followed behind his little mate. Then it dropped when he saw the sign. Property of Hammer Industries.

It was an old unused warehouse. Tony’s veins were filled with ice as he kept tailing Peter. The omega slipped inside a side door and Tony waited a few seconds before he tried it.

He really thought he was slick, but apparently not.

His sweet omega was waiting right on the other side, his boyish smile lighting up his entire face when Tony walked in.

“Tony,” Peter greeted warmly, as though they agreed to meet right here and now. “I’m glad you made it… I’ve wanted to show you for a long time.”

In the middle of the floor were two figures, blindfolded and gagged. Peter led him to them by the arm, his voice comforting and familiar in the strangeness of the situation.

“I was thinking we should have steak tonight,” Peter was saying. “After we finish up here– Oh. Let me introduce you, alpha. This is… Mr. Stone. He works in the accounting department and has rather sticky fingers…”

Mind snatching the information up quickly, Tony turned towards his mate. “He’s the leak?”

A smile, sultry and sweet, curled the corners of Peter’s lips. “Mhmm. it took me a while, but I found them. This is his accomplice… There’s one for each of us.”

“Each of us…?” Tony’s mind slowed, going over the facts. He had worried that Peter would eventually set his sights on him, but the boy was smiling as though pleased that Tony had finally caught up to him.

“Did I do well, alpha?” Peter’s voice brought Tony’s attention back to him.

The pieces clicked together. Peter luring him in, winding him tighter and tighter around his little finger… The way Peter had clung to him, asking for his help… Making Tony an accomplice instead of getting rid of him.

When he turned back towards the omega, the boy looked so eager, so happy that he had done something for Tony.

“Of course, sweetheart,” Tony said pulling Peter close to place a chaste kiss on his lips. He felt Peter press something into his hands and looking down, his eyes widened when he saw a knife.

“Go on, alpha…” Peter said breathlessly.

He looked into Peter’s eyes then back down at the knife where Peter’s hand was pressed above the hilt. His wedding ring glinted brightly even in the low light.

“I’ll teach you… everything.” Peter smiled and it was then that Tony was finally able to see who exactly he married. His sweet but deadly omega.

Tony’s heart pounded, just as it did when he first viewed the tape. With the knife in his hand though, the alpha could finally admit… It wasn’t fear that made it beat so harshly.

It was excitement. With one hand holding Peter’s and the other curled around the weapon, Tony stepped forward and accepted the role his omega offered him.

[my-keyboard-did-it-not-me]

The Storm That's Brewing

Summary: morning in Spain, breakfast

Warnings: food/eating

(first, previous and next chapter links at end)

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Chapter 9- A Morning Of Chocolate, Charging And Charming

Waking up was always hell, Virgil thought. Waking up to the smell of burning chocolate, and the sound of faint cussing from another room, though? Virgil wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Of course he was mad about waking up, and if it were up to him he'd nestle back under the covers and sleep for another week, but he was already on his feet before the thought crossed his mind.

Out of habit he checked his phone before anything else: one message from Patton, reading 'Okay! See you tonight!' followed by a heart, cat, and tea emoji. He replied a simple 'ok' emoji and shut off his phone. Then he did what his instincts told him and followed the chocolate.

Stepping out into the hallway, Virgil pondered over why he wasn't completely freaking out right now. For once, he had plenty of reason to: he'd just discovered that his roommate could teleport, meaning that he and Patton weren't the only superpowered ones out there and there could be countless others, that his life was probably going to get a lot more complicated very quickly, and also that he was in Spain. He was sure a breakdown was inevitable. Yet, walking barefoot towards a stranger's kitchen, in a stranger's house, in borrowed clothes, he felt completely fine. Probably because of shock. Or denial. Either way, he preferred it to stressing.

As he neared the kitchen, the cursing stopped, and he noticed quiet music playing from Roman's phone on the table. Behind, Roman stood, frantically jumping between the tasks of mixing bowls, setting the table and presumably not burning the place down.

Roman hadn't noticed Virgil sit down at the table, until he went to place a cup next to him and jumped out of his skin.

"Heckedy heck! Five abs and a peck! Warn a guy before you sneak up on them."

Virgil laughed. He'd never seen Roman so disgruntled before- dressed in sweats and an oversized Disney tee, hair unbrushed and face bare, discounting the line of flour he had across his cheek. Virgil rarely caught Roman in the mornings before either of them left for work, or for social purposes in Roman's case. He liked plain Roman- he seemed less like an annoying preening peacock, and more like an annoying, cute robin. Not like Virgil had any issues with Roman looking dressed up though, both were very pleasant sights.

"Well that's... An image. But yeah, good morning to you too Princey." He said, aiming for sarcastic, but just sounding tired (which he was). He glanced behind Roman, where he could see smoke. "Uh, something's burning."

Roman quickly turned the oven off, scowling into the previously smouldering bowl. He placed it, as well as another onto the table.

Virgil peered into one of the bowls and saw a mass of clumpy, charred chocolate. He bit his lip. "This looks... Good?"

Roman sighed and flopped into the seat opposite Virgil. "I know, I know. It's burnt. It's inedible. It's unsalvageable." He draped an arm across his head. "You've found my weakness- it's chocolate."

Virgil laughed under his breath. "What were you even trying to do? Burn the house down?"

Roman titled the other bowl for Virgil to see; inside were a load of piped, yellow-y shapes.

"Churros?"

Roman nodded solemnly.

"Why is this one shaped like a deformed dinosaur?"

"I was trying to make some Mickey mouse shaped."

Virgil tried to hide his smile. <i>Of course <i/>he was. "Alright well the chocolate is salvagable. Did you make the sugar dip thingy?"

Roman perked up. "I was just about to but..." He poked the chocolate lump with a spoon. "Really?"

Virgil stood, "Is there a kettle?"

"Why, of course!"

Roman outstretched his hand and, with a slight pop, a kettle appeared.

"Dude. How do you do that?"

"I don't know, I just-" He looked suspiciously up at Virgil, "I usually can't do it with people watching."

Virgil raised an eyebrow.

"Here." Roman handed Virgil the kettle.

Virgil placed it underneath the tap and filled it. A silence fell over the cabin. Virgil realised that he and Roman hadn't actually ever spent that much time together since their first day in the apartment. He reckoned, now that some new secrets had come to light, that was going to change. Was that a bad thing?

Once the kettle was almost boiling on the stove, and Roman had (manually) found a spare bowl and several types of sugars, Roman tried to initiate a conversation. Unfortunately, it wasn't one that Virgil wanted to have so early in the- morning? Afternoon? What timezone should he even go by?

"So uh... Do you just do lightning or are you like Storm?" Roman tried.

Virgil glared at him.

Roman summoned a white flag into his hand. "Alright, alright, Lightning McQueer, we'll talk about it later."

Virgil narrowed his eyes. Did he hear Roman correctly? He huffed out a small laugh despite his best efforts not to.

Roman beamed. "Virgil smiling within an hour of waking up? What magic is this? "It's straight out of a fairytale."

Virgil shook his head. "Yeah right, as who, the villain? The evil witch?"

Roman gasped. "Of course not! You are clearly the princess. The damsel in distress." He lifted Virgil's hand and tried to spin him.

"I have a kettle full of boiling water in my hand, you dolt!"

Virgil gently pushed Roman away, careful not to

Roman chuckled. "You certainly have the distressed part of damsel in distress going on."

"Dream on Princey." Virgil poured some water into the closest mug. He looked around for a second, then at Roman, "Spoon?"

"Me?"

"Do you have a tea spoon?" Virgil asked impatiently.

Roman smirked and handed Virgil a spoon he'd gotten from seamingly nowhere. Was he creating them or bringing it from another place? If so, where? Virgil would've asked if he hadn't already waved away Roman's question about his lighting/Storm powers.

Virgil muttered a "thank you" and poured a spoonful of boiling water in the charred chocolate and began mixing.

Roman quietly mixed some sugar and then began to reheat whatever oil he'd been using to cook the churros.

It didn't take too long for Virgil to revive the chocolate.

"How did you save it?" Roman asked incredulously. He placed a plate of freshly cooked churros, and a bowl of mixed sugars, in the centre of the table. He tried to pick up one of the churros but dropped it, blowing one his fingers to try cool them down.

Virgil grabbed Roman's dropped churro. He dipped it in the sugar and stirred it idly in the chocolate.

"If you somehow hadn't noticed, Patton likes to bake cookies, like, all the time."

"Uh-huh."

"Well he doesn't like to read recipes and we both get distracted pretty easily- plus, neither of us have any sense of time- so we've burnt a lot of chocolate. And we did this one time at the apartment and Logan came out of his room for once and got all Lecture Mode and told us that when you burn it you basically remove loads of moisture or whatever so you just re-moisturize it." Virgil took a bit of the churro then reconsidered his words. "That sounds weird. But... Yeah."

"I guess the know-it-all does know some useful facts after all. Let the record show, I always had full faith in him."

"You just called him a know-it-all."

"Unimportant." Roman said, dismissing the statement with a wave of his hand. He reached for a churro but they were still steaming hot. It was possible he'd overheated the oil a bit.

To Roman's surprise, Virgil grabbed and ate another churro without issue.

"How are you not burning yourself? These churros are hotter than Hades' hair."

"They're not that hot." Virgil shrugged.

"Virgil, they're steaming hot." He poked one. "Like me but in a less fun way."

Virgil suppressed a laugh. "Drama queen."

"Emo nightmare." Roman retorted.

Virgil began to think of a witty reply but found that 'emo nightmare' was really more of a compliment. He instead replied, "Thank you."

Roman summoned a fork and stabbed a churro. He did his best to fully cover it in sugar and chocolate without dropping it and, somehow, did so successfully. It was a truly heathenly way to eat a churro, he knew, but he was hungry.

After several churros (which never seemed to cool down, by the way), Virgil finally worked up the courage to ask, "So... When are we going back to America?"

Roman wiped some chocolate off of his chin. "What's the rush? Do you have work? A date? Some emo band concert tickets?"

"Ha-ha." Virgil deadpanned. "But no. No plans. Just... You know... America?" <i>Smooth.<i/>

"Alright, My-Chemically-Imbalanced-Romance, as you wish. How about I escort you home after we both get ready?"

"Both get ready? God, we're never leaving." Virgil sniped.

"Ha-ha. I don't take that long to get ready-"

"You're the reason Logan made morning bathroom schedules."

"-<i>But<i/> I have no plans today so I have no need for makeup. Just a quick shower. I'll use the en suite in the main bedroom if you want to use the main; I know you prefer to shower at night but since you were a little busy last night..."

<i>'A little busy' was an understatement,<i/> Virgil thought, but he agreed.

-

Despite Roman's promise to be quick, Virgil was ready a whole half an hour before Roman, who sauntered in at 5:30pm (Spanish time, which Virgil didn't know how to convert to his normal time), a whole hour after breakfast.

"Dude."

"Alright, it took a smidge longer than I'd previously anticipated- outfits and all- but I'm here now. You ready to go?"

Virgil ended his conversation with Patton, who'd been texting him from work, and slipped his phone is his hoodie pocket. He stood up. Roman walked over and took him by his hands. "What are you doing?"

"We need to be touching, apparently."

Virgil recoiled. "Apparently?"

Roman laughed nervously. "I've never teleported with someone else with me."

Virgil sighed and offered Roman his hands, "Great."

Roman accepted. He held Virgil's hands tightly, which sent sparks up and down his spine (possibly literally, it was hard to tellwith him) and closed his eyes for a second, then let go. He proposed, "Why don't we for a walk first? There truly are some splendid views around here."

"Roman."

"It must be almost sunset, very picturesque-"

"Roman."

Roman collapsed onto the couch. "It didn't work."

"What do you mean 'It didn't work'?"

"I tried to take us back to the apartment, back to my room, your room, behind the apartment, backstage at the Mind Palace... Nada."

"Why?"

"I can't do it when people are watching," Virgil raised his eyebrows. "Or cameras. I guess somebody's home."

"You don't say."

"No need to fret, though, we can try again a bit later. Somewhere's got to be empty eventually."

Virgil flopped down onto the couch next to him.

"Actually," Roman turned to Virgil, "I have another solution. May take a while though. Need to send a few texts. Want to go for a walk?"

Virgil bit his lip. He hated having no control. "Okay."

"Curses, my phone's dead. Please spare me a second."

"Give it here." Virgil said, already regretting it.

Roman handed over his phone with very little hesitation. Virgil's phone was his lifeline; he doubted he could hand it over as easily as Roman had.

Virgil placed the phone between both of his palms, like a sandwich. He glanced towards Roman then back at the phone. Energy coursed through his hands, like constant static shock, although a lot less painful. He watched as the minute switched over to 17:29, and as the battery percentage steadily increased. He stopped at 20%, which took a minute, as it was 17:30 when he was done, although Virgil hadn't noticed the time passing, too focused on his task.

He could've charges the phone up fully, or a little faster but if he'd learnt anything from the seven phone batteries he'd killed within a week, it was best to take it slowly. The last thing he wanted was to ruin Roman's nice phone.

"There." Virgil handed the phone back to Roman.

Roman desperately wanted to pepper Virgil with questions about his (awesome) powers, but he'd been raised a polite gentleman and opted to only thank Virgil, no questions asked. He knew both of them were equally curious of the other's abilities, but perhaps it wasn't the right time. He'd let Virgil ask the first question.

Roman sent a series of texts and received a response almost instantly. It was technically part of her job.

Plans were made- which Virgil knew not of, for no reason other than that he didn't ask, and this wasn't something Roman paticularly wanted to be known- for an hour's time. That left plenty of time for a nice walk, and hopefully an enlightening chat, Roman thought.

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Taglist: *insert audio of the zoe 101 oOh*

Chapter 1:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 10: in progress

[maxheadley]

Saturday; Wake Up

Darkness swallowed Timothy. Shadows wallowed in her prepherial vision. A cold draft caressed her skin, causing goosebumps to rise all over her arms and legs. She shuddered unintentionally. Her ears depicted the sound of heavy breathing and water dripping from a faucet on the other side of the dark room. She grasped onto her knee, which unfortunately throbbed painfully, underneath her fingers and against her palm, swollen flesh lay. She vaguely remembered what happened the night before. The one memory she had; was Terra slamming an aluminum silver baseball bat across her face. After that, Timothy blacked out.

Timothy went over the events of the previous day. Everything had been perfect, except the last two hours of her life. Friday was a nightmare came true. She hated Winnie for what she'd done. Why kidnap her? Why intentionally harm her? She frustratedly sighed, reaching for anything she could haul herself up. Exploring the smooth, wall, her fingers brushed a cold, iron bar and immediately launched herself up. She groaned, painfully as she accidentally put pressure on her leg. She decided to call out. Obviously someone else was in the room. Hopefully, someone who could help her.

"Hello? Is anyone else in here? I can hear your breathing." Timothy's voice echoed around the room and she grimaced, hating the way her voice sounded. Desperate and pained. Couple seconds later, her husband's voice hit her ears. He croaked, his throat parched. "Timothy? Where are you?" She heard shuffling and suspected he'd gotten up.

She swallowed the gathering salvia in her mouth and ran a hand through her disheveled hair. "I'm on the other side of the room. I can't walk.." She murmured, limply pushing against the wall.

"Alright, I'll come to you."

Wondering how Harley could possibly find her in the dark, Timothy rubbed her throbbing knee. She depicted his footsteps and the creaking sounds where his feet stepped. She reached out and collided with his chest. "Now, I know it's you." She smiled, even though the darkness concealed her face.

Harley's rough fingers covered her hand and inched closer til their chests brushed. He cupped her cheek with such gentleness Timothy thought he might be thinking she was suspiciously susceptible to being broken. She wasn't that fragile. Goosebumps scattered across her porcelain skin. "Are you okay?" He whispered, his lips close.

"My knee hurts, but otherwise I'm okay." She whispered back, placing her hand on top of where his heart beat like a drum. She could tell his heartbeat was irregular. His heart hardly raced. Panic and worry probably sent anxiety trailing all through him. "Are you?"

She felt his shoulders slump immediately, like the tension had been burned out and replaced by mush. "My head hurts to tell you the truth, other than that minor problem, I am fine. I am worried about what's going to happen to us. Any idea where and why we're here?"

Timothy opened her mouth, intending to respond, but a sudden burst of light sent her recoiling. She covered her eyes. The brightness made her dizzy. She adjusted, although continued to squint. She saw the lights had been switched on and the door swung open revealing two dark silhouettes. Both appeared female.

They both stepped into the light, revealing themselves as Winnie and Terra. Timothy suppressed a growl. If she weren't injured, she'd claw Winnie's eyes out on the spot. She glowered from afar as Harley stood halfway in front of her, protectively. He, too, glowered.

Winnie held a tray in her hands. Assortment of food was scattered all over as well as juice pouch. Terra also had a tray with similar food choices on it. They both wore different types of workout clothes and had their hair in buns. Timothy suspected they dressed comfortably simply because if they were to end up in an altercation with the couple, they wouldn't have problems. Unfortunately, for Timothy, her injury prevented her. Harley stood rigid and his body language told her, he wasn't about to jeopardize the situation and act out. He preferred knowing all the facts and information rather than act a fool. Another reason she trusted him.

"Hello." Harley cleared his throat. His voice strained.

"Hi." Winnie said, almost too cheerily. Her mother shot her a scornful glance. Winnie recoiled, averting her bright eyes to her green Nike's.

Terra sat the tray she carried on a round, old black chipped wooden table and spoke nonchalantly. Her charcoal eyes glancing at the couple. "We came to bring you some food, I presume you're both starved and parched." She also placed Winnie's on the table. Timothy actually happened to be starving, but made no sudden moves to take off the duo's offering of food. Not yet anyway.

"Thank you for the food, but what is going on?" Timothy intercepted Harley's response. He probably would not be respectful, and in any case, that'd not be wise.

Terra quickly responded. "We kidnapped you, brought you to a disclosed location, and plan to help institute a relationship between my Winnie and you guys. If you don't comply, we will use more harmful methods." She had confidence, which Timothy gave her credit for. "And as long as you cooperate nothing dire will happen to you." Winnie added, smiling confidently.

Harley's dark eyebrow raised as did both of Timothy's. Immediate release of thoughts filtered through her mind. She blinked, astonished. "You can't institute a relationship when the subjects are reluctant to comply or give effort." Harley sighed, looking like he deflated.

"And the fact you kidnapped them is worse." Timothy added, sliding down against the wall. Making sure her left leg was straight out to avoid injuring her knee further.

"We weren't planning to harm you, but we will in any case of reluctance." Terra said, glowering at the couple. Her dark eyes strangely alluring. No wonder her husband fell in love. She was incredible.

"What do you want exactly?"

"Winnie is in love with you. She wants a relationship. I'll be happy to oblige and give her whatever she needs/wants."

Timothy and Harley shared an uncomfortable look. She rolled her dark eyes and skewered Winnie. "Wanting a relationship huh? And yet you kidnap us. Good luck in coercing us to do the "falling in love " thing." She air quoted and leaned her head against the wall.

"We'll do what it takes." Winnie said, before the daughter-mother duo departed the room.

Few hours passed, leaving Harley and Timothy staring down at their empty trays. As soon as Winnie and Terra departed, they dug in, like they hadn't ate in moons. Timothy's stomach ached and bloated like a balloon full of helium. She couldn't help but eat every single morsel off her plate neither could Harley. He consumed the heap of food in less than five minutes and fell asleep afterwards. He woke up shortly after though.

"Why don't we pretend?" Timothy suggested promptly.

"Pretend what?"

"To fall in love with her, give her affections and into her affections. We must make her believe we are in order to be let go. We don't have to be captives for very long."

Harley considered Timothy's brilliant idea and pointed out. "Wouldn't that conspicuous? We should act reluctant and then come around. We have to succeed and if we're inconspicuous we will but not the other way around."

"We'll be reluctant for the first part, then slowly give in. We'll get out of here some how. I promise." She planted a swift kiss on his cheek and leaned on his shoulder.

"I believe you." He swallowed hard, thinking.

Winnie sat on a deep red, old sofa. Her short fingers buried in a black, fluffy pillow. She absently plucked at the furry fibers. Her thoughts were overwhelming, disturbing, and distressing. The way Timothy and Harley acted that morning flummoxed her. Why were they not surprised? Did they already suspect Winnie's plot? Or were they expecting Winnie to do something drastic either way? She knew how dramatic she can be. She knew what drastic measure she took, alot of the time she made a scene. Timothy and her husband are imperturbable. Why did they have to act complacent? And logical?

Winnie thought they may plot their own plan or something. She decided trusting them very little. She threw her pillow at the ground and got up. She rounded a corner, entering the kitchen, stepping over the threshold. Smells of spices and meat overwhelmed her. She saw a pot of chicken boiling and a skillet of stirfry cooking on the stove. Her mother leaned against an old bar. Her arms crossed, her dark eyes closed, and her face directed towards the ground naturally. She appeared sleep like, but Winnie knew that wasn't the case. Terra never slept and if she did, she liked pure quietness and alone time. Insomnia had it's claws deep into her mother. Unfortunately.

"Ma.." Winnie said, staring at her hands.

"Yeah, Winnie?"

"Do you think we'll succeed in what we're doing?"

Terra's fluttered open. Her dark eyes landed on her daughter's flushed face. She maneuvered to the skillet, not averting her eyes and picked up a tan wooden spatula. "Honestly.. It depends on how far you're willing to go and how long it takes to break them?" Terra stirred the frying pieces of green and red peppers, satiated mushrooms, and white onion.

"What if they are unbreakable?" Winnie prompted, looking warily uncomfortable. The fact Terra would be willing to break anyone for the sake of Winnie's desires was off putting, yet Terra had secrets and a closet of skeletons which explained her unique support for Winnie. She was just as dangerous if not more.

Terra switched off the burner and turned around, the skillet in her hand and sat it on the bar. She had a devious, baleful grin on her dark face. "Oh, Honey, everyone is breakable. There are people who are repeatedly broken over and over, and remain strong like your father. There are people who pretend they're not broken or breakable, but behind close doors, they break down and show the walls what someone or something else has done to them. There are people who are tough as dragon's skin and are ferocious because they have been broken. That is me. And then there is you, the person who is close to being broken but haven't. You don't let anyone. Everyone is breakable, in some way." Terra touched her daughter's cheek lovingly and met her eyes. "Timothy and Harley will endure pain and suffering til their breaking point. I have no doubt you can be the punisher. You are after all, your mother's daughter."

Winnie blinked, gazing at her mother before she turned and went back to creating the meal. Winnie left the kitchen, not wanting to engage in anymore conversation. Her mother was dark and damaged. No wonder Winnie presented the same. She walked outside, settling on a rotting wooden step, and stared into the abyss of green.

Trees surrounded the cabin, lively, and vibrant. Faint sounds of the city filtered in the air and chirping birds rung. I don't deserve their love, but I will get it. I'll do what it takes. Winnie promised herself. She heard cracking of twigs, she stood up, and saw her father and Tad carrying wood back for the fire tonight. She hoped her heart would steady. Sometimes the woods gave her slight scares. She smiled, seeing her father and Tad. "Hey guys!"

"Hey." Tad winked, his dark green eyes glittering under the weak film of sunshine. Winnie thought for a guy, who liked guys, he was probably one of the most attractive dudes ever. She walked up to him and took a couple logs off his log pile. "How was hunting for wood?" She asked, casually.

"Boring for the most part until I tripped and landed in a mud puddle by the lake. Your dad practically died of laughter. I was so mad, but I ended up laughing and throw mud at him. We had a blast." He put the logs on the triangular stack and gestured to his muddy clothes. His face looked rather pristine. Winnie assumed he used the lake water to wash off his face and hands.

"Sounds like you weren't meant for the nature thing." Winnie air quoted, chuckling at his ruin white t-shirt and yellow jeans. She had to admit the mud brought out his bronze pigmentation.

Tad shrugged, running his hand through his dirty, dark blonde hair. "Not really, but I make the best of it. How's the guests?"

"They're fine. Me and Ma talked to them and brought them food. I assume they ate. We're going to bring them dinner when Ma's finished cooking and talk to them again. Want to come?"

Tad's nonchalant expressed turned bewildered. "I don't know. That's not really my area."

"Come on, you can create more of the story if you knew their thoughts, words, and conditions? It'll be helpful in the long run."

"Fine, but you owe me!"

She rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Three almond joys and starbursts!" He said cheerily, following her up the steps and into the house.

"Done and done."

[oumakokichi]

Because you were talking about Juzo, I'm curious, why was Kirigiri one of your favorites as well? I feel her character development was minimalistic at best and was dropped after the first game, especially in the dr3 anime

Although Ouma is definitely myfavorite ndrv3 character, I’ve been joking a lot lately that Saihara is the one Iactually relate to the most—because I too am an anxious depressed mess, feelsocially awkward at all times, and am a huge Kirigiri fan.

While Kirigiri is certainly nota character to demonstrate her emotions very noticeably outward, I wouldn’t saythat her development is minimalistic in the first game. If anything, Kirigiriis one of the characters whose growth and development is followed the most bythe first game, after Naegi.

The thing is, her developmentstarts from a different position than Naegi’s. Rather than starting from astandpoint of being naïve and overly optimistic or trusting, Kirigiri startsout rather like Ouma, actually. She’s rather cynical at heart, especially indr1, something many people tend to forget about her character. As a detective,she accepts what neither Saihara nor Jin Kirigiri want to accept about theirjob: that people have to be doubted, suspected, and questioned.

Dr3 certainly does drop theball on her character development, but, well—it did that for everyone’scharacter development, pretty much. Future Arc started strong, showed lots ofpromise, and then sadly ruined all the potential it had with weak writing. Bydelegating Kirigiri to the role of “damsel in distress” and “beautiful self-sacrificingcinnamon roll” all at once, dr3 did a really bad job at remembering whyKirigiri became so popular in the first place, because she never used to fitinto those character tropes typically reserved for female characters in the DRseries.

While I’m glad she lived (Seiko’santidote bottle was something I noticed right away when her “death” episodefirst aired, so the foreshadowing was definitely there), I don’t feel dr3 didher justice by any means. She was forced to take a backseat role; just as Chisawas used as nothing more than an object for Munakata’s character arc, Kirigiriwas forced to parallel her by being used as an object for Naegi’s arc. And thatwas a pretty huge insult to her character, in my opinion. Had the switch beenthe other way around, with Naegi sacrificing himself (in a wonderful throwbackto dr1 Chapter 5) and Kirigiri taking an unexpected protagonist role, I would’vebeen a lot more satisfied.

But unlike other DR characters,there are plenty of other materials besides just dr3 to give us insight intoKirigiri. The Kirigiri light novels, for one, as well as the new visual novel,Kirigiri Sou. Kirigiri’s continued popularity is a testament to what sherepresents to the DR series, from a mystery perspective. Just as Junko isiconic for her role as an antagonist, Kirigiri is iconic because of her role asnot only a detective, but thedetective. All the insight she provides Naegi and the player in dr1 about whatsolving a mystery entails, about how to reflect on the mindset of both victimsand culprits, as well as what exposing the truth really means, are themes thathave come up not only in dr1 but in every other DR installment to date,including ndrv3.

Kirigiri is perhaps thecharacter whose advice and teachings have lasted the longest. She instinctivelyunderstands, and helps the player understand, what a real mystery is all about.Where ndrv3 leads the player into a false sense of security before lampshadinghow ridiculous and utterly dangerous it is to trust people blindly, Kirigiriwarns Naegi of the dangers of blind trust and extreme paranoia as early asChapter 1 in dr1. While she’s certainly aloof and uninterested in socializing,especially at first, she’s someone who grasps what the “heart” of a mystery isall about, and helps guide Naegi and the player into understanding it too. Andunderstanding the “heart” is the first step to understanding any mystery presentedin the future, too.

Kirigiri starts dr1 as someonewho is level-headed, reasonable, and extremelysecretive (excessively so, sometimes). She’s smart, calm, and collected, butcertainly not infallible; having replayed dr1 quite recently myself, I’venoticed several instances in which her failure to take action as quickly as shecould’ve causes her to be surprised and blindsided when murders take placeelsewhere. Like Ouma, she often prioritizes her own objectives in: 1.)exploring the school and exposing the mastermind behind the whole game, and 2.)finding out the truth about her own memories, backstory, and talent, so smallerhurdles and culprits among the group can and often do throw her off guard.

Most importantly to note, she’snot a team player, especially not at first. Kirigiri’s cynicism and paranoiamakes it difficult for her to trust others besides herself, though notimpossible. The one major difference between her and Ouma is that Kirigiribelieved in the necessity of trust after doubting others first. Her bond oftrust with Naegi is something gradually developed throughout the course of dr1,slowly and steadily. It’s not something she would have developed with justanyone, but rather something she and Naegi both developed specifically becauseof their shared experiences with one another.

But she certainly didn’t careto explain her motivations or objectives to the rest of the group, nor did shebelieve in telling even Naegi about what she knew on anything more than a “need-to-know”basis. She’s extremely sensitive about people butting in on her personal life. Inher FTEs she says point-blank that she feels emotions just the same as otherpeople, but that she intentionally hides them behind a mask of composure—becauseshe has nothing to gain by tipping other people off as to what she’s feeling orthinking at the moment. In this sense, she’s also quite similar to Ouma. Butwhere Ouma’s mask is all about feigning every emotion, usually in a veryexaggerated fashion, Kirigiri’s is a mask of stoicism.

When others in the group wantto know where she’s been or what she’s been doing, she doesn’t feel any need totell them. Even when it clearly begins putting the group in a more disorganizedstate and things begin reaching a boiling point in Chapters 4 and 5, sheremains extremely closed-off and secretive, and it’s clear that there’s no onein the group she would trust with any of her personal information besidesNaegi. And even Naegi, she never tells the whole story to.

Naegi had to make a consciousdecision to cover for Kirigiri’s lie in Chapter 5—it wasn’t something sheprepared him for, and she knew there was a chance she might actually be sendinghim to his death, if Alter Ego failed to kick in. Still, it was a sacrifice shewas willing to make if need be, and that’s something incredibly cold andpragmatic and that I love to see in characters who are all about “the endsjustify the means.”

Just like Ouma, she wasabsolutely dead set on investigating things to the end. She couldn’t let thingsend with her death, which is why she refused to sacrifice herself in Chapter 5,just as Ouma initially refuses to let himself die in ndrv3 Chapter 4. Hertunnel vision towards stopping the mastermind and figuring out what happened toJin Kirigiri and how far he was involved with the killing game means that shedoesn’t want other people sticking their nose into her business.

Her feelings towards Jin arethe main proof of the fact that Kirigiri can also be driven by personalvendettas, pettiness, and unresolved anger and frustration. As someone who canperfectly understand the resentment towards an absent father figure, I alwaysappreciated that Kirigiri’s conflicted feelings about Jin were handled quitewell in dr1. The narrative ultimately focuses on the fact that yes, Jin lovedhis daughter and was a caring father, but he was also careless, overlytrusting, and thoughtless about how his actions would influence others.Kirigiri was allowed to be angry at Jinwhile also still caring about him, and that was a deeply realistic and humanreaction.

I appreciate the fact thatKirigiri, especially in dr1, was a character never played for fanservice, andnever used as an object of male character development or waifu-baiting. Therewas little to no forced romance between Naegi and Kirigiri in the first gamewhich is what led me to enjoying naegiri quite a lot on my own—when thenarrative isn’t trying to push it in a romantic connotation, I tend to warm upto these sorts of ships a lot faster. Dr1 was very emphatic about appreciatingtheir dynamic as friends first, withanything more than that being a matter of personal interpretation.

The fact that she’s extremelyintelligent, capable, and arguably a protagonist in her own right thanks tospinoffs like DR: Kirigiri and Kirigiri Sou now is a large part of the reasonwhy she’s still #2 on my overall DR ranking. Before Ouma came along, she wasactually #1 and I didn’t think anyone would ever shake her position. I stillreally enjoy her every time I do a reread; if anything, Ouma’s character hasmade me appreciate Kirigiri even more, given the noticeable similaritiesbetween them.

Anyway, these are just my personalthoughts on the subject! I’ve always appreciated that Kirigiri was a characterwho both embraces and embodies the role of a detective, but who alsounderstands the full meaning of “the truth,” and isn’t afraid to lie, cheat, orrely on other cold and calculating tactics in order to achieve her objectives. She’san extremely compelling female character in my opinion, and I’ll always have abig soft spot for her. Thanks for asking, anon!

[agent-85]

Hi sorry, I don't remember everything.^^' It was just after the ep and I was wondering what's left for me in this show? I mean I'm not very interested about Daisy, and I don't care about ward and hydra, these chapters were dead and should have stayed that way. Then they broke the only logical reason why Jemma and Daisy would be fine irl with the backdoor. They have no I.V. and no medical support so they will die of dehydration and before that they will "wet" themselves and worse... (sorry)

(2) They’ve gone way too far with Fitz, a freaking nazi sociopath :/ They tainted his character. Worse! another useless “love” triangle and this one is even more disgusting because merged with theme of non-con/violation/rape theme and if you add the fact that Fitz helped building her which has a father-imagery to it, it’s just urgh!! They don’t learn anything. So my main thing is FS and with Elizabeth quote, we’re going with the same kind of nonsense path than with GR arc…

(3) What’s the point to make Jemma save him if they don’t interact? I only watch to see that interaction. And with Jed quote, they don’t even have the decency to plan an ending… If it’s the last season, such a disappointment and whatever 1min “happy” scene they put at the end it won’t balanced all that nonsense. I’m sorry to tell you all that really, but I feel sad and lonely in my case and I love your blog so… sorry.(end)

Hey there, anon! Thanks for resending the first ask. I want to make sure I understand where you are coming from.

Okay, first of all, I think it’s a little premature to judge 4C after watching one episode. This was all setup, and we haven’t gotten to the real story yet. My guess is that we won’t really get to it until 4x18, since 4x17 seems to be Setup Part Two, in which we see where the other characters are (including, possibly, Elena and the real world crew). 

I get really annoyed at people who gave up on the show after 1x5 because they were disappointed that no superheroes showed up. That’s not what this show is about, and if they’d taken the time to look at the show for what it is, maybe they would have liked it. 

I am 1000% here for FitzSimmons, and I get by on amazing team dynamics when the FitzSimmons is stupid. So, if you’re not into Hydra or Daisy, may I suggest that we have a great story going on outside of that. Daisy is one player in this, and Hydra is just a weapon. The REAL villain is Aida, and since Aida has stolen Fitz, Jemma will have to fight Aida to get him back. That is something I am DYING to see.

Jemma spent all of season three as a damsel in distress, so to me, it is vital that she has this chance to save the day. It’s not that Jemma doesn’t fight; it’s that she fights in quiet, subtle ways, like she did when she tried to win Fitz’s heart in 3B. Meanwhile, Fitz gets to jump through holes in universes for her. My favorite thing about FitzSimmons is that they are equals—in intelligence, in courage, and in morality. So they should get equal chance to get the meaty, action hero roles, don’t you think? I do! Also, I just love Jemma and I’m so excited for her to get some screen time.

As for being trapped in the Framework: the purpose is to raise the stakes. If Jemma and Daisy can get in and out whenever they want, the story is over in five minutes. They want a bigger story than that, so we’re getting higher stakes. Before, they were trying to find the physical location of their teammates. Now, they have to actually navigate this new world in order to save themselves as well. To me, that’s a more interesting story. How are they going to get themselves out of an impossible situation? What happens AFTER? I’m so excited to find that out. 

Cut for length!!

As for Jemma and Daisy’s physical bodies: they’ll probably be fine. If we can suspend our belief about an evil robot stealing minds, I think we can assume that Elena and Piper are doing a good job looking after them.

As for Fitz: yes, he is technically a Nazi, but he’s not a sociopath. Radcliffe is a sociopath, because he lacks any morality whatsoever. Framework Fitz, on the other hand, is doing what he thinks is right. Part of that is that he is trying to protect Madame Hydra, and I think there’s a bigger part we haven’t seen yet. Radcliffe would never get that angry about protecting someone else.

And here’s an important thing about Fitz: he has been deceived. His memories have been wiped and replaced with new ones, and our responses are often shaped by our experiences. I think of this as abuse rather than rape. He is making his own choices, but he is making them based on the information available to him. He doesn’t know that this information isn’t the truth. The writers like to play with this all the time, making a character make the “wrong” choice because they have bad information. 

Jemma is the best example of this, because she’s usually the writer’s favorite victim. In season two when there was a possibility that then-Skye could be an Inhuman, Jemma talked about it like it was a plague. This scared Skye, and rightly so! But Jemma had a good reason to see it that way, because of the facts that were presented to her. Think about what Jemma saw happen in that temple! Mack was possessed, Trip was turned to rubble, and Raina became a homicidal porcupine. If you see those three things happen to people who go inside the temple, and your friend also went inside that temple, are you going to be worried about your friend? HECK YEAH! Of course, Jemma had no idea about Inhuman DNA or terrigenesis, and that was important information! As soon as she understood what was actually happening, she did a complete 180, because Jemma is a good person who was only trying to help her friends in the first place.

Something similar is happening to Fitz here. He is being lied to. He is being used. Madame Hydra needs his creativity to create this world and do whatever nefarious things she has planned, so she’s keeping him close and playing off his desires. He wants Jemma, so she stands in as Jemma. He wants to protect people, so she puts him in a position where he has to protect her. This is brainwashing, just like Jemma said!

The thing I was most worried about when it came to this arc was that there would be an implication that this is how the characters really are inside. I’m excited about this arc because that’s clearly not the case. Does Coulson, in his heart of hearts, believe that Inhumans are evil and that Hydra should stop them? NO! He has literally fought against those ideas. But he does have a tendency to be a company man, and now he’s been made to believe that Hydra is the company. His weakness has been exploited, just like May and Fitz’s weaknesses have. And they are being exploited in a way that serves Madame Hydra’s goals. The real question is this: when they see what’s true, will they change? Will they do what’s right? I think they will. They didn’t choose this life, and they’re already subconsciously fighting against it. Give them a chance to fight consciously, and we’ll see them tear this place down. That’s the whole point of Jemma’s “You are not your programming” speech. They HAVE been programmed, but they are more than that and they WILL overcome their programming. 

Gonna go out of order here and talk about Fitz and Jemma not interacting: again, this raises the stakes. What we saw with the Ghost Rider arc was FS getting pulled apart (this was one of those times I subsisted on team dynamics), and this is about FS fighting their way back to each other. Fitz will probably fight in a small, quiet way and Jemma will be dramatic and loud for a change. So yes, they won’t be in the same room, but the story will be about their relationship. That was all set up by Daisy’s “you belong together” speech. I want to see them fight for each other! AND, eventually they WILL be together—this is all buildup to that payoff. I want that payoff! We got buildup of Fitz’s feelings in season one with the payoff of, “You’re more than that, Jemma.” We got the buildup of Jemma’s feelings in season two with “Maybe there is.” I know it’s going to be painful for them to be apart, but they will be in each other’s thoughts, and the payoff will hopefully be worth waiting for.

So, I’m not sure which Elizabeth quote you’re talking about, because there are a few. She said Jemma would be worried that she’d never get Fitz back, and we’d have to see if she forgives Fitz. But the thing about Elizabeth and anyone else is that their job is to promote the show. As my friend @aretsuna would say: the enemy is shooting at us. They are trying to stir things up to get you to tune in. If Elizabeth said, “Well, you know, Jemma is worried, but she really shouldn’t be because they find Fitz and everything’s okay,” she’d be doing a bad job. So, you have to take what she says with about a mountain of salt. All you can really get from that is that in 16, Jemma is worried about getting Fitz back. Doesn’t mean she’s not going to get Fitz back. Just means that she hasn’t figured out how to do it yet. 

Honestly, I pay zero attention to anything they say about the future. That’s all a mind game they’re playing. What’s interesting is listening them talk about the past and their reactions to things that have already happened.

I agree that we absolutely need a fifth season. This is why I’ve been trying to encourage people to do things that will help the show get renewed. They said at the beginning that they had a five-season plan, and I don’t want to see 4/5 of that plan. I’d be okay with 6/5 or 7/5 of that plan, if they did it right. 

BUT, there are a lot of factors going on here, and it boils down to basically a gamble. They are betting that the show will be renewed. In a way, that’s smart, because it’s easier to cancel a show when the writers/creators have stopped fighting. They also know that if they leave the story unfinished, WE will demand more. This is how Nashville got picked up by CMT after it was cancelled: they wrapped up every storyline but one, leaving a HUGE cliffhanger. The fans didn’t stand for that, and they ended up getting the rest of that story. That strategy can work for us. The other things that work for us is the fact that Marvel is backing them up, there’s a new Inhumans show to play off of (Arrowverse style), and a lot of the other ABC shows are not doing so great. We have a chance, and the more noise we make, the better the chances are.

That said, my guess is that they’re smart enough to do something that can work as both a series or season finale. The finale of Agent Carter is a good example of this. At the very least, we have the hope that anything that isn’t resolved here is resolved in other MCU series or movies.

Well, anon, I hope that addresses your concerns! That’s the best case I can make! Obviously, these are all my opinions and you have a right to your own, but I hope you don’t feel alone. I hope you can find a little optimism for how 4C will unfold. If it’s terrible, I promise I’ll call them out on it like I have in the past. For now though, I’m looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us. I hope I’ve helped you look forward to that as well.