#But half of my other name ideas aren’t “socially acceptable” either

[zero-braincells-left]

why do names have to be so hard :(

[qwilman]

Losing your Twitter Audience: Some Shit of the Top of  My Head, by Me

Reposting a Twitter thread I just made because it's got a lot of thoughts I've had stuck in my head lately:

I don't have a fully-formed version of these thoughts, but I think what a lot of artist are asking when they say "where will we go after twitter" is actually asking "where are all of the normal people going to end up?" I can name a half-dozen sites that are ready and waiting for more artists to come flooding onto their platform. I'm sure there are just as many for writers, musicians, filmmakers, everything else. The actual question everyone needs an answer to is where is the AUDIENCE going.

I've been terminally online for well over two decades at this point. I've been obsessed with the internet since middle school and I can honestly say I've never seen anything like twitter's user base in my entire goddamned life. I've never seen a website that EVERYBODY uses. The closest comparison I have is Facebook, which was really the first internet community that normal people ever truly appreciated. At it's core though, Facebook was a tool that kept you connected with people you knew in real life. As much as it changed, that idea was its bones. Twitter isn't really like that. It doesn't have shared calendars or photo albums or a base instinct to keep you hooked into communities you're already in. Twitter has performance in it's core. It's a bullhorn you pick up to shout to as many people as possible. As much as it's changed that's still it's core feature, the thing it's always going to want to do. That's why it's so appealing for every performer in the world, and I think since most people who don't want to be on stage want to watch a show, that's why it got so huge.

So a bunch of performers can reach enormous audiences and a bunch of us managed to make a living off of it. The question now that this stage is burning down with us on it is where is the next one, and I just don't think this massive audience is ever going to move in unison. I think the thing we all need to be prepared for is that we're going to fragment. We're going to find our own corners again and the more savvy members of our audiences are going to find those same corners as they seek out what they love, but our causal viewers will veer off. Twitter has been an incredible tool for us to put our art in the faces of people who would never think to look for it. This was a big part of what the people who found success on Facebook benefitted from as well, the audience who treated social media like television.

The people who are just looking for an entertainment box to turn on and comfort them without effort are most likely never going to use a Pillowfort, or a Tumblr, or a Cohost, and DEFINITELY not a Mastodon, because they all require a base level of interaction and engagement. And to be clear, this isn't me calling those people stupid, or a "bad" audience. People have their own lives and their own interests. Curating a feed of content requires effort and seeking out new artists is a skill. A lot of people just want to crash after they got off work. So those people aren't going to follow us to new sites. Either because those new sites are improved, but more esoteric, or just because signing up for a new site is a hassle of it's own. We're going to lose that audience. Period. Mourn them if you need to, but accept that.

I think success for artists online in the future is going to look a lot more like what it was in the early 00's-10's. Artists and willingly-engaged audiences seeking each other out. I just don't think putting as many eyes as possible on our work will be a winning strategy. Instead of finding as many people as possible, we need to be focused on finding the right people. 100 followers who are excited that their you, specifically, just posted are as valuable as 1000 followers who don't remember you that well and just want to see some cool art. A lot of people stopped trying to find their 1,000 true fans and focused completely on reaching 10k, 50k, 100k followers, no matter how closely they're paying attention. Honest to god, I think the later is going to be suicide in five years.

FWIW, I've never actually been any good at doing that. The biggest following I've ever had in my life is a little over 3,000 followers in TikTok. I think I just feel weird seeing a bunch of artist who have "made it" panic that they'll be losing everything when Twitter's gone. If you have 10k, 50, 100k followers right now, I don't think it's useful to focus on how many you're about to lose. Instead focus on who the best 10% of those followers are, the ones who've supported you financially and by sharing your work, do what you can to meet them where they live.

Anyway this started as an attempt to excise a stray thought I've had stuck in my head all week, didn't mean to spend 45 minutes on it. The point is get ready to post like it's 2007 again. Best case scenario, the internet is going to be asking a little more effort from all of us pretty soon, but I think at the end of the day if things go right we're all going to come out the other side better for it. If you made it this far, dig through your feed, pick one or two of your favorite artists who have links in their bio to give them money, then give them a little money. I promise you they'll notice.

[squishneedsahero]

Maybe It Isn’t all Bad

Awesomest of Them All 2.0

Part 2 of 13

Word Count: 1714

Batman x Batmom!Reader

You know what the bat family needs? Someone to pull them together and give them all the love they deserve. Who better to do that than you? An author rising to stardom in Gotham who catches the eye of a billionaire with your standoffish attitude at a huge social gathering. You are yourself and never pretend to be more or less than that. Plus you're the most stubborn person in the world, refusing to let good things go without reason.

This is a rewrite of my story Awesomest of Them All, I wanted to see how much I've improved over 3 years.

It had been two months since you published your book, and it had taken off. Tons of people loved it and even more had read it. Because of this you were suddenly a popular public figure of Gotham, and of course like all other public figures you were invited to one of the many galas that happen in this city. You hated it. You, y/n l/n the nobody who lived in a shabby apartment and just happened to get lucky with your book. What you wouldn't give to go back to being a nobody so you could spend your Friday night watching Netflix alone on your couch.

Unfortunately you weren't sure how the snobby rich people,who thought they were better than everyone else, would take you rejecting their invitation the first of probably many. But this was a charity gala hosted by Bruce Wayne: play boy, billionaire, and one of the few people present that seems somewhat genuine even if you didn't think he had a single thought behind his eyes. So maybe it wasn't all bad cause all the rich people were donating to charity and Bruce usually made sure the money went somewhere good.

You had worn an elegant gown, preferring it to the ones that let your ass hang out the bottom. The dress was fabulously elegant and made you feel like a queen. You had paired it with your your highest high heels, stilettos that you could stab someone with if it came down to it. So far the night had been filled with pointless conversations and lots and lots of introductions, all while dancing a waltz.

Lets be honest you won't remember most of the new people you had met, you could've met the Queen of England and not have known it. You didn't remember not because you had been drinking, even if you had thought about it many times, but because there were so many people that wanted to get you and your new found popularity under their thumb and gain through you.

You had finally gotten a break by standing by the buffet table and eating the food they seemed to be letting go to waste. If nothing else you would singlehandedly make sure the food didn't get wasted. You kept trying to think of an excuse to go home, but so far couldn't think of anything. Your planning was interrupted when yet another person came up to you, except his face is somewhat familiar. "Hi," you say after you hurriedly swallow a bite of food.

"Hello, Miss (y/n) (l/n)," he begins, knowing your name but you not knowing his, "may I have this dance?" He asks, great another dance luckily you were used to being on your feet thanks to waitressing otherwise you'd be worried about them falling off with all this meaningless dancing. Why couldn't rich people be more fun with their dancing, most of them were white, playing some pop songs, and the Cupid Shuffle could only make things better.

"Yes, Mister..." you pause as you try to place him, you know you know him but you'd seen so many faces like that tonight that it was a blur.

"Wayne," He finishes for you.

"I'd love to dance with you Mr.Wayne," you lie through that smile that was plastered to your face. You offer your hand and wish desperately you had taken your chance to escape when you'd had it only moments before.

He takes the hand you offer to him and leads you out to the dance floor, waltzing yet again, at least you didn't have to lead cause you had no idea what you were doing. "My son read your book," he begins, trying to start up a friendly conversation, "he's keeps trying to convince me to read it."

"That's nice," you respond awkwardly, what were you supposed to do? Try to convince him to read it too? Hell no, you are not going to act like an airhead and promote yourself.

"He doesn't know that I've already read it," Bruce says. You laugh before you can stop yourself, you almost apologize but he laughs as well. "I enjoyed reading it, it was very well written." Maybe he did actually have real thoughts in his head unlike how the media portrayed him.

"Thank you," you say a slight blush making is way onto your cheeks. He was quite attractive after all and here he was complimenting you. The smile on your lips becomes more genuine as the two of you continue dancing, making light conversation, and surprisingly it was quite enjoyable.

Before you know it the party is over. And you'd spent almost half of it dancing with one man. "Thank you for the dance."

"It was my pleasure," he says, and you find yourself blushing for the millionth time that night. Maybe these parties weren't all bad, you'd found a friend you could have intelligent conversations with after all.

You find yourself invited to almost every gala that happens in the city over the next few months and every time Bruce is there the two of you spend most of the time dancing and talking with each other. The conversations between the two of you are pleasant, covering many topics, and most importantly they aren't meaningless like all the other conversations you were forced into at galas.

Bruce would get your opinion on things such as how the money he got for charity should be spent since you had been more recently living among the people he was trying to help. Like you weren't bad off by any means but you hadn't owned a car, relying on bus routes to get around the city and working 40+ hours a week to keep your head above water. You had been better off than many in Gotham but you had been closer to the poverty than Bruce had, even considering his night job. The fact that he genuinely cared and wanted your opinion amazed you. He was the first and probably only friend you made among the one percent at those parties.

Of course the two of you didn't only talk business, other more casual subjects came up. The two of you bonding over having dead parents, even if he was more traumatized and your wounds more recent. Then talking about school and how you had decided to skip college in order to pursue writing while he had been homeschooled then traveled the world instead of college, not that either of you were too old for college though. He was was 23-24, still young despite having adopted an 8 almost 9 year old and you were close to the same age as him.

The both of you being young, and single, did lead the two of you to have more than a friendship but that was after nearly a year of just talking at galas. Okay a year of just talking was a lie. It was probably only six months before the two of you found yourselves out in a garden and shared your first kiss. But it was an entire year before he finally asked you out, claiming it was a dare from Dick and to ease the pressure of the press.

You of course called him on those lies and pointed out the fact that there had not been a single other woman in his life since the two of you met. And said the only way you'd go out with him was if he'd, "just admit you like me." Needless to say he did.

That was part of the reason that he was so attracted to you. Despite what he knew about you from the one day he saved you from Joker, you were just unafraid to be yourself. You had never pretended or tried to pretend to fit in at the galas. You'd never been afraid to call him on his shit, even if it had risked your one friendship that made those galas bearable.

To your surprise when you had called him a dumbass for thinking it was acceptable to give a 9 year old unlimited access to the internet he laughed and said you were probably right. Then for some reason he thought it was a good idea to ask you for parenting advice and you told him that was a worse idea. You had less of an idea how to be a parent than he did, the only reason a 9 year old shouldn't have unlimited internet access was because he was a bit young to already get unrealistic expectations from porn. Mainly you had no idea, it just felt weird to turn a kid loose on the internet but then again you'd been a kid who ate mud and called it fun.

So, all the talking and asking opinions and just spending a ton of time together leads to Bruce asking you out. The press saw this coming from miles away and caught you both on your date, not that they didn't have pictures of the two of you hiding from people on a balcony. But an actual date?!? Amazing! All the internet fans were happy for you, the paparazzi loved you and would do anything to get pictures of the two of you.

The two of you became Gotham's it couple overnight but the best thing about it was that it was real. Both of you were blatantly honest, calling each other out when needed and defending each other at other moments. There were no secrets between the both of you and you wouldn't trade that for anything. It was amazing to you that you had finally found a man who saw you as his equal and if anything he was a man known for being a womanizer.

So that's how it all started, in the space of a year the two of you fell in love and were head over heels for each other. Dick played match maker every chance he got, since he adored you for some odd reason. And of course, when you finally met him Alfred approved of you and Bruce being together, the one person able to call him on his shit and have him listen. It was a miracle that Alfred had thought he'd never love to see.

[stargaze-issei]

— 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐤 𝐭𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 + 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧 !

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭; karasuno and fukurodani react to their manager doing the body count/bodyody audio tik tok ! [insp by this tik tok]

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞; crack(?

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬; suggestive themes, maybe a little swearing i can't remember ajaksjq.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞; the trend it's to put pictures of all the people you've slept with, in case anyone doesn't know!!

karasuno !

-> it was a joke, it wasn’t supossed to get out of the thrid year managers gc.

-> the girls found it hilarious and was a good conversation topic for hours, discussing who you put or didn’t put.

-> they knew, of course, it was fake. you hadn’t slept with oikawa, KYOUTANI, BOKUTO, tendou, atsumu, TERUSHIMA and OSAMU.

-> it was SO obvious it was a joke for them that nobody felt the need to point it out.

-> they just said things like “the most quiet are the worst ones” “OMG DETAILS ABOUT THE TWINS!!” “did terushima yk,, made a good use of his percing” because they KNEW nothing was real.

-> until tanaka and sugawara asked kiyoko for her phone to watch some videos of the new play they were trying.

-> and misaki, from johzenji, sent a “forget about teru— 🤢 can’t even say it,, Y/N I WANNA HEAR ABOUT BOKUTO!!! ik man’s  p a c k i n g”

-> tanaka looks at suga and suga looks at tanaka and they’re like .......tf

-> suga’s finger “slips” and they see the other messages until finally they reach your video.

-> you’re there looking pretty as usual and above your head reads “seems like were showing our body counts with this sound? here it’s mine 🤪”

-> tanaka is about to say “it can be what we’re thinking” but when OIKAWA’S picture appears both their jaws hit the floor.

-> nishinoya sees them and ofc he wants to know what’s so shocking, so he gets closer.

-> he drags hinata too, and shoyo’s like “that’s the great king!! play it again!! play it again!!”

-> fyi: suga paused the video because wOW and they don’t know who’s left in your video.

-> sugawara looks straight in the eye at nishinoya, going “keep hinata, kageyama and yamaguchi away and bring the team” with the MOST SERIOUS EXPRESSION

-> noya is lowkey scared??? like wtf??? but does as he’s told bc suga seems super intense.

-> kiyoko and yachi left to fill the bottles and pick some needed implements from the club room, you had classes for a few more minutes, therefore, there was nobody to stop them.

-> once the rest of the team, including tsukishima because everyone seemed to have forgotten he was a first year too, is together, suga plays again the video, while the littlest ones watch from afar in curiosity.

-> the silence, you will never hear them in a more tense silence.

-> they read what’s your tiktok about, daichi’s eyes go O.O, asahi goes RED, nishinoya seemed to be ready to FIGHT THEM ALL, ennoshita awkwardly laughs, even tsukishima blushes a little.

-> then oikawa appears. EVEYRONE’S EYES ARE FULLY OPEN AND NOYA LET’S OUT A GROAN???

-> but when kyoutani shows up they’re in SO much shock they kinda forget oikawa before, and daichi whispers an “oh god”

-> then it’s BOKUTO’S TURN and tsukishima just stops functioning. asahi is static on his place contemplating, withouth being able to form a coherent thought.

-> suga highkey wants the tea.

-> tendou feels like a betray to asahi, tanaka and tsukishima. noya, just for a second, wonder what was that like.

-> ATSUMU AND OSAMU FUCKING MIYA AND THEY EXPLOTE.

-> THE EXPLOTE LIKE WHAT????? WAS IT AT THE SAME TIME???? Y/N?¡¡¡¿¿1

-> they aren’t ready for the cherry on the top at the end, a picture of terushima sticking his tongue out, sweaty after a match, SMOKING HOT, and it’s not a picture he posted to his social medias or anything.

-> it’s only suga, and daichi a little bit, who realize that if that picture isn’t public, then either he send it to you or YOU TOOK  IT.

-> that’s when you walk in the gym, just to say hi before going to change.

-> the first year are playing among each other and you are like ????

-> they don’t even notice you’re there so you go nearer to see what they’re watching. and you see the picture of tersuhima yukie, from fukurodani, once sent asking misaki WHY her kouhais where that hot. it was also the only picture you had of him and the one you used in you video the day before.

-> the phone in suga’s hands seems familiar and... that’s kiyoko’s

-> “Y/N” screams asahi when he sees  you and the rest looks like they saw a ghost.

-> a second of silence goes before everyone blows in questions and you just hear names between bambling, “OIKAWA MNASNANPGDF” “MANASKL BODY COUNT ASLKLAS” “MAD DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

-> and daichi makes himself heard despite the screams.

-> “y/n, i know you’re 18 and capable of making your own decisions, but we have to talk about... physical relationships, with our rival teams”

-> kiyoko arrives and quickly puts two and two together and asks yachi to go check on the first years.

-> she looks at you and sees you like WHAT TF DO I DO and nods and say “you shouldn’t have gone through my phone, no matter how curious you are, sugawara-san” COLD AS ICE ISTG.

-> AND SHE CONTINUES “what who y/n does or doesn’t do on her free time is none of your business, all of you, if she decides to get together with anyone it’s just up to her. you should be ashamed of yourself, specially the third years. you weren’t just violating y/n’s privacy, but mine, kaori’s, yukie’s and misaki’s. it may have been a joke, or not, but it doesn’t give you the right. if you ever do something like this again, we will be talking with coach ukai and takeda sensei” SHE GRABS YOUR ARM, TURNS AROUND, CALLS YACHI AND YOU THREE LEAVE LIKE QUEENS????

-> once you’re in the club room, both you and kiyoko start laughing because the team was FROZE in place. not even daichi was so scary.

-> the team then apologizes to both and send an audio to the groupchat too, and never bring the subject uo again.

-> still, they all wonder everyday if you really did or not.

-> and of course, they get so defensive when they see any of the boys in the video it’s hilarious to you and the other managers.

— fukurodani !

-> damn yukie making up dares that always ended up bad for either you or kaori.

-> mostly you doe.

-> at a sleepover, she was like let’s make fake body count vids and who falls asleep first has to show them tomorrow at practice!!! it will be fun!!!

-> you accepted because you usually fell asleep after one of them did but that time it was like they gave you a sleeping pill because you fell like a rock after a few hours.

-> as to why you were there, the day after, about to go ask the team if you should post it.

-> you list consisted on kenma, kita, sakusa, daichi, and just for the fun of it, konoha.

-> the girls call konoha aside so he doesn't ruin the prank, and you proceed.

-> "hey guys, should i post this?? i’m not sure if i look good enough to be seen by the world” bokuto practically yells at you that you always look pretty before taking your phone from your hands.

-> “why don’t you ask yukie or kaori?” asks akaashi, that was a question you hand’t thought about and by pure luck, you were saved by bokuto yelling at the team to come and see what you’ve done.

-> konoha is about to head their way and yukie just grabs his arm like “no ❤️"

-> and nobody can contradict yukie’s no so he has no choice but to stay.

-> anyways

-> the team gather around bokuto, who is about to press play. at first it’s just your face, and everyone agree you look pretty.

-> but then they read “did anyone say body count? ;)” and they look at each other like ......what

-> washio leans to stop the video because he genuinely doesn’t know what body count is, sarukui explains it a little too loud, grinning, and washio goes "oh–"

-> thanks to sarukui’s explanation bokuto confirms his idea because one part of him did think it was how many people you’ve killed.

-> they press play again and kenma appears and bokuto just stares, doesn’t react.

-> akaashi’s eyes widened and he GASPS, washio can’t hide his disappointment mostly because why would you make this video and then show it to them.

-> when kita shows up bokuto lets out a surprised squeak, along with washio that’s just question your and his whole existences-

-> sarukui is smirking, his complete expression yells “way to go y/n!!!”

-> sakusa comes as a shock to every one of them, even sarukui loses the grin for a bit.

-> “how did you manage to...?” whispers akaashi, half amazed, half grossed.

-> bokuto then has to pause it for a little to keep his composure, he looks at your like WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME GO THROUGH THIS

-> but when they resume it and daichi welcomes him he thinks it just can get any worse.

-> washio is like “isn’t that karasuno’s–?”

-> “HELL YEAH IT IS” SHOUTS SARUKUI AND THE GIRLS BEHIND YOU LAUGH SO HARD BECAUSE HE IS SO PROUD OF YOU.

-> the rest is like 🧍‍♂️ while sarukui is SO happy for you LMAO.

-> it’s at the end when no one smiles. konoha’s picture smiles at them and bokuto just stops the video to look at him, only a few meters away.

-> he looks at the picture and then at konoha and so on.

-> can’t get his mind around it????? lowkey no one can.

-> akaashi isn’t even blinking and his eyes are concerningly open, washio is regretting all his past choices that led to this moment.

-> sarukui death stares at konoha. no more fun sarukui, he crossed the line.

-> kaori and yukie are wheezing WHEEZING I SAY and konoha is so confused.

-> his teammates look like dogs about to attack but he hasn’t done anything to upset them?? has he??

-> like robots, akaashi and bokuto get up and walk towards konoha. a part of you tells you to protect him but... what are they going to do tho...

-> “you’re out of the team” THEY SAY AT THE SAME TIME AND ALL AND KONOHA GOES WHAT

-> your co-managers can’t even breath istg NO HELP

-> you then intervine trying to keep konoha in the team lmao “IT’S FAKE GUYS!! A PRANK!! KAORI!!!! YUKIE!!!! BACK ME UP!!! I’M KIDDING DON’T KICK KONOHA OUT”

-> akaashi partially believes you, but bokuto?? nope.

-> you planted the seed on his mind.

-> the whole team acts weird when they see guys from your vid and are looking for chances to bark at konoha.

-> “AKAASHI HAS TO STAND BETWEEN YOU TWO ALL THE TIME” that’s the new rule he set.

-> just to see them freak out, konoha sometimes flirts with you at practice ;)

[strssed-out]

Cancel Culture and “Educating” On Twitter

WARNING: THERE IS A LOT OF BIAS AND OPINIONS IN THIS, I WAS JUST RANTING MY THOUGHTS ON TWITTER.

thank you and enjoy :D

Before quarantine, many content creators were not as big as they are now—Dream, Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Ranboo, Corpse, so on so forth. They have grown enormously ever since the start of lockdown. With growing that fast in under a year, a vast fanbase starts to form as well. Twitter has now almost wholly controlled the MCYT fandom (Minecraft Youtubers) and having at least one to two things on the trending tab about their content creators. Many things can go wrong with a huge fanbase. But having a fanbase that is controlling a big social media site makes it worse. We have seen some of those moments throughout this year.

Twitter has two sides when they want to give content creators criticism. It’s either “educating” them with threads or just bluntly saying how they need to get better. However, both things start with the “trigger warning” represented like this: //(insert content creator name) neg. The neg is short for negative. Many of those negative thoughts get trending whenever a content creator does something their fandom doesn’t like. It’s almost expecting them to be perfect. They analyze every tweet and move their content creator makes. Once they finally find them trip a little, they announce it. Now there are some relatively rare times where Twitter is correct. As in making content creators stop some type of ACTUAL hurtful behavior. (when I refer to actual I mean behavior that affects EVERYONE on social media, not just Twitter. So, when people on other social media sites are talking about it, and are having similar views.) In this situation, you would expect them to use the educating type of idea. Well, no. Twitter users like to make it more threatening, and from what I understand, it makes the content creators understand better…? This is just wrong and disgusting to find these tweets about these small mistakes these content creators make.

Talking about those content creators. Each of them resolves the problem(s) differently. It’s either writing a lengthy apology on Twitter or apologizing on stream. Sometimes, their apologies are well made, and Twitter is happy. But if they are not good enough, people would tweet things as in, “what a half-hearted apology” or “what type of apology is that”. Usually, those apologies that aren’t the best are like that because of constant Twitter pressure. Yup, who would have known. If a content creator is still active during the trending of their name, like trying to get a video out, Twitter will start attacking them. In short, Twitter expects the BEST apology in a short amount of time. What they don’t understand is that content creators also need to figure out what the hell they did wrong. It’s not easy. Twitter doesn’t understand the stress of having thousands of people constantly attacking you on the spot. Twitter just thinks they know.

Now, you see how I keep referring to Twitter and only Twitter. Well, on other platforms like Tumblr and Youtube, people have very different opinions compared to Twitter. If it’s something to do with people of color (POC), Twitter is the one to over-react in these types of situations, while POC on other platforms seems to just laugh at that joke. Most of these “over-reactions” are because most of these people tweeting are white, not POC. Pretty much, it’s just white people speaking for POC. To make it clear, if you are someone who is ACTUALLY hurt by what the joke targets, go ahead and voice your opinion. It's just, I HATE IT when white people speak for POC. Expressed by many POC, they don’t like that and never will. So, in short, Twitter is just a place with overly sensitive users. (haha)

Now, my opinion on this whole thing. As a POC, most of these jokes that seem to hurt Twitter are honestly not that bad; they are pretty funny. Sometimes, I don’t understand how people get so overly sensitive over those jokes. I'm not saying that you can't hate on them. It's human nature, you gotta at least dislike something in life. I've seen it many times, people on Twitter like to put a trigger warning to the person and content creator Schlatt. Haha, yea, A REAL PERSON. I get it, he has made some REALLY messed up jokes, that I don't even find funny, but putting a trigger warning. Come on now. The real problem with Twitter I have had for a long time is how they can take things WAY TO FAR.

Two good examples are the Karl Jacobs drama and Tommyinnit drama. Karl Jacobs is a friend of the famous Youtuber, Mr. Beast, and a part of the DSMP (Dream SMP). Some old tweets were resurfaced about Karl supporting a content creator that has said slurs and very racist jokes. Of course, Twitter starts their routine by trending the two words, “karl neg.” This is trending for a few days. Eventually, Karl begins to stream for this whole drama on Twitter. His apology was acceptable, but the thing that pissed me off was when someone had called Karl asking him if he had eaten. Twitter had affected Karl’s health, causing him to starve himself. This is quite similar to what happened to Tommy. Twitter had affected his health, but instead of apologizing, they use that against him. Tommy streams on his alt account, and the stream was just a QandA stream. Eventually, they hit the topic of “tommy neg.” (He streamed a day after tommy neg was trending) He starts apologizing but started mixing his words up. He was very nervous and anxious about the whole thing. Why do you think he was scared? Twitter! Haha… He starts going on the topic of him going to therapy. A few minutes, tommy neg is trending AGAIN. Two days in a row. On the first day, there were some good tweets about whatever Tommy had done, but the second one was just stupid remarks towards Tommy. People on Twitter used his anxiety and therapy talk against him. They were still getting mad at him. This was vile to see and read. Who has the guts to use someone’s mental health problems against them? Oh well, that’s Twitter for you. Continuing about Tommy’s alt stream, there were multiple times when he looked like he would have a panic attack or just start breaking down. His whole stream lasted for about an hour. Eventually, tommy neg was filled with people with the same opinions as me. Such as how horrible it was to see people use his therapy against him.

In short, Twitter has become a very toxic place for both people in the fandom and their content creators. They are affecting mental health as well. Having many white people speak on our behalf in these jokes or stereotypes is tiring. We understand you have the privilege, but please use that privilege when it is ACTUALLY needed. Honestly, I find it so funny yet heartbreaking that white people are over here trying to "teach" a GAMER about how to be better when they can use that "white privilege" for other topics that are ALSO discussed on Twitter. (yea! other topics are discussed on the platform! I was even surprised) The DSMP fandom on Twitter is just a place of overly sensitive users.

- a POC

[mikeshanlon]

i really enjoy the way young royals explores the theme of legacy and how detrimental it can be to have to live up to a legacy or be obsessed with reputation. (analysis and thoughts under the cut)

i think wilhelm resents the fact that he has to live up to the role of being in the royal family and yet is very afraid of ruining that legacy bc of all the pressure. before he was sent off to hillerska he went to a normal school and wanted normal people around him and was content with erik having to take on the responsibilities of crown prince. and when he does have to assume that role he says he can never be erik, that he’s always had to be compared to him and obviously doesn’t like that. but even before erik passed and he had to take on those duties he was afraid of fucking up the legacy of the crown, when he sees that sign in the hallway that says you are in charge of your own legacy after he holds hands with simon, his anxiety worsens. you can tell it’s been instilled in him for a long time that what is most important is the crown’s reputation rather than his own wants. in the scene where him and simon fight about alexander being caught, he obviously wants simon to stay, but he focuses on how him doing drugs will fuck up his family’s reputation if it gets leaked. as much as he cares for simon, his legacy and his duties are like this oppressive cloud hanging over him. 

i do think that wille cares for his family of course but to me it’s different that the sort of loyal unconditional care with simon and his sister/mom. erik and wille had unconditional love, erik understood how difficult being a prince in the public eye was, and wille obviously cared for him deeply and felt like he could to talk to him about issues. his relationship with the queen is much more strained, she wants a tailored, doctored representation of him in the media, he cannot be anxious and bite his nails, she makes all the decisions for him. family is important to wille partially because it has to be bc of how special his family is. he helps his family, he helps august pay his tuition, and then makes a point of disowning august after his betrayal as his new “brother”. but again, because of the royal status and expectations upon the family, that supersedes and colors all of their relationships with each other. it seems to be more a sense of “duty” than unconditional love. especially after erik’s death, wille always has to consider how the crown’s image will be impacted, even though he never wanted to have this responsibility, or even the responsibility of being the “regular” prince under erik. being a family unit that is under constant public scrutiny is going to strain relationships. the queen knows that the anxiety of fucking up his legacy will get to him, and she uses that to get wilhelm to back out of admitting it was him in the video and coming out. wilhelm has to choose between his own happiness and their reputation, is forced to think that denying it’s him in the video is the only way. he loves simon and wanted to live freely, but that pressure of legacy won out.

i don’t know if i think wille necessarily values the crown over his own personal happiness and relationships, like in the way maybe the queen does--i don’t think it comes from a place of “i’m lucky to be prince and owe my duty to the crown, so i do what i have to do to stay that way” (like how the queen said the crown is a privilege not a punishment), but from fear of destroying the legacy and his family. afterall, he still wanted to pursue a secret relationship with simon, i think if he fully valued the crown and uplifting legacy and fulfilling his duties he wouldn’t have tried that. he wouldn’t have made a point to tell simon he loves him. hopefully we get another season because i think with the iconic ending revolution rendition and him looking in the camera, which also parallels the shot of him being forced to apologize/go to hillerska, he is realizing that focusing on legacy is taking away what’s important to him, and he’s going to shake shit up.

august is definitely the most obsessed with legacy, wanting to carry on his father’s business, being persistent on befriending wilhelm and trying to social climb, wanting power and perfection with being prefect, rowing captain etcetera. he is so obsessed with perfection and reputation he gets addicted to drugs, he fucks with simon and makes him get stuff for parties he can’t afford because good parties will make him look better, he manipulates sara multiple times, he mostly wanted felice because of her nobility, he fucking films wilhelm and simon and OUTS him, his own cousin. he hates that wille has everything he wants but isn’t as interested in preserving and more importantly improving the legacy he’s inheriting. meanwhile august’s familial legacy is dwindling, and he holds on to the last bit of assets and names that he can.... v much sick and a weirdo that shows how harmful being obsessed with legacy is

the queen is of course v focused on legacy and it really breaks my heart and makes me angry that she doesn’t care about wilhelm’s happiness more than their reputation, and moreso doesn’t get august in trouble for literally leaking child p*rn of her kid for the sake of appearances?!?!?! like how is he even remotely trustworthy she is wrong for that! like i said earlier the obsession with legacy puts a strain on their mother/son relationship. she doesn’t even really say anything about wille’s sexuality or his relationship, and barely comforts him, mostly goes in with a plan she’s already concocted without him to fix everything. 

erik seemed to understand and accept his role as crown prince but obviously had issues with it as well, like when he makes the plan for him and wilhelm to run from the press, or when he tells wilhelm to enjoy himself while there aren’t so many eyes on him that care. erik shows someone who has more unconditional love and empathy but still has to focus on legacy and is much more inclined to continue his legacy, but we do see those glimpses over how even the most “ideal” attitude of preserving legacy causes issues.

felice is expected to live up to her mother’s legacy, of being an equestrian, of being the lucia, but she doesn’t want either of those things. her mother wants her to be thinner and straighten her hair, and find someone of nobility to be with. obviously she does find wilhelm attractive lol but i think the main reason she pursued him and definitely why she pursued august was because she was expected to social climb and have royal kids. felice feels the need to portray a false narrative of herself on social media to uphold a certain image of herself. it’s very fucked up that her mom wants those values instilled in her but i love that felice was putting up boundaries and pushing back against her mother and the narrative she’s supposed to live up to. her giving sara the role of lucia and focusing on supporting her friends more in the latter half of the season shows growth and i’m excited to see where her story goes. 

sara is interesting because she seems to want to reject the legacy of her family and being working class and to fit in with the elite of hillerska. sara hates micke, hates that simon contacted him because it’s bringing in this “shameful” and painful part of their past (which i mean is def fair). other than sara’s betrayal in 1.06, i think the scene where she tells her family that she wants to reside at hillerska really exemplifies where she’s at in her relation to legacy/class. after dining at hillerska and living amongst the elite she gets annoyed at eating around the TV, she blames her mother for not leaving micke sooner, she gets angry with simon for caring for her. she wants to lead her own life, be popular and wanted because people want her, not for pity (even though i think simon of course truly cares abt his sister she feels annoyed with his protection and care). felice says early on that she thinks sara doesn’t care what other’s think or having friends, and sara says she still wants friends though. i think sara’s biggest thing is she wants to belong, her and simon moved schools after she was bullied for being autistic so i think that definitely affected her even though she tries to act nonchalant about hillerska at first. we see sara’s longing to fit in in smaller ways at first, like her asking her mom for a better piece of her uniform because hers are “cheap” and already worn out. she gets annoyed at simon for chewing loudly, or her mother sitting casually at the table. as she gets closer to felice and madison and all the other students, the allure of the upper class and their lifestyle draws her in more. so much to the point where she gets very anxious and upset at the idea of her and simon leaving hillerska because he’s having his own crisis and doesn’t consider his pov. so much so that she effectively betrays simon and felice, the people she’s closest to, to make a deal (and make out lol) with august to room there and “be just like him”. personally i think sara’s attraction to august is mostly that allure of the elite and that he seemed to “desire” her when he kissed her because he was being a manipulative dickhead--again that want to fit in and be wanted. and  i think there is a really interesting angle of jealousy and competition in female friendships, even if it is really subtle or not intentionally insidious or anything, sara does slowly start to trying to assume all the roles/fashions/mannerisms of felice to live that life she wants. i do think felice and sara’s care for each other is genuine and one of my fave parts of the show, but i think a lot of people who experienced being a teen girl know how we are always pitted against each other even in our subconscious because of how society treats and values women.

simon seems to be the character that is least interested in upholding legacy and tradition or giving a fuck what anyone thinks (as omar said here lmao) and that makes him a really interesting foil to wilhelm. there could be something said about micke fearing that simon is following in his footsteps, but to me that plot more so reveals how the upper class (august) continually exploit the working class for their benefit, and the trappings of generational oppression. the other thing that can be said is simon signing up for private tutoring and rowing, but again i think that serves to further show that he is forced to “play” by the game of the elites because the school/society is corrupt, and also, that simon has further ambitions outside of where he’s at. he wants to get good grades because he wants to explore new places and avenues. to me simon’s biggest motivations are his passions, the things and people he loves--music, his family, wilhelm. he isn’t loyal to others just because he’s expected to be, or uphold a certain image but because he really cares. he doesn’t watch out for sara because that’s his expected role as her brother to do so, but because he cares. he wasn’t interested in knowing wilhelm because he’s a prince like everyone else, he makes it clear he thinks the royal family are privileged and exploitative, but he is interested because he saw the real wilhelm. he’s out and proud even though his elite classmates are more conservative, he doesn’t care about voicing his unpopular opinions, he has no problem walking away from august’s dickhead behavior or calling him out on his shit. simon doesn’t care if people don’t think of him in the best light. (the only exceptions ig are the drugs conflict and the video, though literally anyone would have a problem with that because it’s much deeper that public opinion and has ramifications and is deeply traumatic--but just adding that before someone is like “well actually!”) i also think it’s interesting that most of the songs simon sings has themes of pushing back against the societal norms, and being remembered in history, plus of course the revolution song motif, and how much those songs affect wilhelm, he seems to connect deeply, like he wishes he could do those things but simon is the one who gets to sing them and actually live them.

[fairyhee]

Chocolate eclairs (pt.1)

“Aren’t you a Valentine’s day hater, though?”

“Only because I don’t have a date and I’m bitter about it, but you can change that.”

🍫optional bias x reader (h/n means his name)

🍫enemies to lovers, kinda slow burn?, flirting (smut in pt.2)

🍫inspired by: 5sos-valentine

[I know Valentine’s Day has already passed but I got this idea while daydreaming a few days ago and I couldn’t help myself. And also maybe I love this made-up celebration a bit too much and I don’t want to accept it’s over. If you dislike cheesy stuff this might not be for you lmao]

When it comes to Valentine’s, people are always either hardcore fans or hardcore haters. While you were definitely part of the first category, you just couldn’t understand how anyone can dislike a celebration that’s meant to spread love. And also, the pretty lingerie, the sweets, the champagne and the sex, hello?? You would have them any day of the year if you could. And if you had someone to celebrate with, in the first place.

As for people in the other category, they could hate it all they want but in your eyes they were probably just painfully single. Not that you weren’t, but you never wanted to let that spoil the fun. So what if you were single? What one can do with a partner, you could very well do on your own. So every year you made plans to do everything you wanted, but on a solo date instead of with somebody else. Love yourself first, right?

So on the morning of february 14th, after you were done with your self-pampering ritual, you stepped out for coffee and pancakes. The plan was that after breakfast, you would stop by the lingerie store and treat yourself to a nice set, then buy some sweets from the french bakery, then go home and get all dolled up for the evening, when you had reserved a table at a pink-themed restaurant, beautifully situated on the top floor of one of the highest buildings in your town. It was definitely among the most popular spots for that day, but you couldn’t care less that you were going by yourself. You could have gone with one of your girl friends, if they weren’t all already taken and spending the day “watching netflix”.

Thinking about the peaceful day that was ahead of you, you had almost reached your first destination. Your favorite cafe held an event today and served red pancakes with chocolate hearts as a special menu, as well as v-day themed coffee cups that you couldn’t wait to take photos of. As you entered the cafe, you spotted a familiar silhouette by the counter. He didn’t have to turn around for you to confirm it was him, because as soon as you heard him order his ice americano, your perfect day was already ruined. It was h/n. 

Instead of saying hi, you groaned as you approached the counter. “Who drinks iced coffee in february? You have serious issues.”

He turned around, seemingly suprised to see you at first, but he quickly got to back to his usual self. “Only cool people can drink iced coffee, you wouldn’t understand. And also, a ‘good morning’ would have been enough.”

“It was good until I saw you, so now I can’t say that anymore, can I?” you said while scanning the menu. “One rose lemonade and the special strawberry pancakes with fresh cream, please.”

From where he was standing, you heard a dramatic gasp. “How can you tell me I have issues when you ingest so much sugar from this early in the day? If this is what you have for breakfast, what the hell are you having for dinner?” You wanted to slap that overly exaggerated shocked expression off his face.

“None of your fucking business. Now if you don’t mind I’m gonna walk to my table and go on with my day. If I spend another minute with you I’m afraid it might turn bitter and cold, like you and your beloved americano.”

You were beyond irritated that you had to put up with his shit today, too. You had met h/n at a party during university because of a mutual friend, and you immediately found out you had absolutely nothing in common, except both wanting to excel in your field and to be right at all times. Both of you had strong opinions and just wouldn’t back down. Every time you met, your personalities clashed, and the useless arguments and snarky remarks wouldn’t stop coming. It certainly didn’t help that he was so handsome and so good at what he did (he was a singer in a band) and that everyone else always complimented and admired him, because that made his ego grow and everything just annoyed you even more. Handsome boys always had to be over-confident and you hated that with a passion. The worst part was that he had every right to be confident, but you would never admit that. You weren’t sure what his opinion was of you but you didn’t care to know.

While you were sat at your table, scrolling through your phone and trying to block the previous conversation from re-entering your mind, he just casually sat down across from you at the table, putting down not one, but two iced americanos.

For a few seconds you stared at him blankly. “Can I know what the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m gonna try to convince you that americano is the best coffee.”

“Ha, nice try. What makes you think I would even try it? It’s way too cold outside to drink. Haven’t I told you I don’t want bitterness in my life?”

He smirked. “I asked the barista to put 3 pumps of sugar syrup in it so it can be at least remotely drinkable for you. You will also need someone to watch over you, since I expect you to have a heart attack from all the sweetness, so, before you ask me to, no, I don’t want to leave your drink here and fuck off. So since you’ll be stuck with me until you finish your breakfast, tell me, what have I done to make you dislike me so much?” he placed his chin on his left hand and took a sip of his americano. “I’m curious.” rather than annoyed with you, he looked rather playful.

“Wow, you seem to be having a lot of fun interrupting my day. Glad at least one of us is having a good time. If you want me to touch that drink, you better take out at least half of that amount of ice cubes. After that, we can talk.”

You didn’t expect him to actually do what you said, but he stood up without a word and slowly walked to the counter to ask the barista to fix it. He was so tall, that the strings of the heart shaped helium balloons that were floating around the ceiling reached his eyes, so he walked around the cafe shielding his face with his hand. Why did you find that cute all of a sudden? It’s like you had just realized that his height was very attractive to you. When he turned around, you were smiling at him.

He gave you a wide-eyed look while he was placing your drink down for the second time. “Now you’re smiling at me? Did the sugar from those pancakes get to your brain already?”

“It’s just kinda funny seeing you between all those heart-shaped pink balloons after our last argument.” He had argued that all these holidays, like Halloween, V-day, Mother’s day and so on are made up for purely capitalist purposes and people who celebrate just feed into the consumerism. Besides, his social media posts had appeared on your feed the other day, because he had shared a bunch of memes poking fun at the cheesy traditions. “So what are you doing here today anyway, I thought you were a Valentine’s day hater?” 

“Only because I don’t have a date and I’m bitter about it, like you said. But you can change that.”

You quickly looked up from your plate to check for any sign that he’s joking, but he definitely wasn’t laughing. His eyebrow was cocked up and an annoying smirk was planted on his face. He looked so hot, it was absurd.

His proposal, combined with your own thoughts, made you burst into laughter. You were annoyed at the fact that you were considering it. “Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself? Of course I can change that, but do you really think I will?” you asked ironically. You took a sip of the iced americano, hoping it would cool down your brain and help you think straight again.

He smiled. “I don’t know, but the fact that I just made you laugh is a good sign. Also,” he said pointing at the coffee, “you just drank that and didn’t complain. You just accepted my drink and I got you convinced it’s not bad, both at the same time. That’s three wins in a row for me.”

Shit, he was right.

“I love it when you talk back to me, so I’m almost feeling sorry I left you without any comeback to that.”, he laughed. “So what other plans do you have today? What else do I have to try to ruin?”

“Oh, just a bunch of uninteresting things. I’m sure a self-proclaimed cool dude like yourself would be bored just hearing about it.” That was it. Your defense had fallen, you were actually starting to like him, but you still wouldn’t admit it, so now you were adamant to prove you were completely uninterested in him and he didn’t affect you even in the slightest. You were even willing to accept him tagging along when you went shopping if he wanted. Half because you wanted to spend more time with him without actually accepting his half-hearted date proposal, and half because you wanted him to think you don’t care even if he tries to bother you.

“Well, I don’t have anything better to do today. You asked me what I’m doing here, I actually simply came to get coffee. So do you mind if I come with you? Annoying you is more fun than doing nothing on a sunday.” 

Perfect, you thought. You fake-rolled your eyes. “Whatever. You’ve already ruined my day, it can’t get worse no matter how much you’ll talk. Let’s go shopping, I know men are absolutely crazy over this activity, so let’s see how much fun you’ll have there.”

“Try me.” he said while finishing his drink. 

You smiled and, having finished your breakfast, you stood up.“You might want to have another americano to-go, to keep you from getting tainted with my sweetness. Get up, we’re going to buy chocolate eclairs.”

...

part 2

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Chapter 147 Review:  Toxic

Story: Preview to a catastrophe

I’m going to do something a little unusual.  Rather than give a summary of what happened, I’m going to save everything else that happens that for the meta and focus the story itself on just one thing.  Garou’s return.

For a guy of many many words, Garou here is wordless, a creature of instinct, rage, and an unstoppable desire to put down any hero he encounters. Social niceties be damned.

no, Fubuki, you don’t belong in this battle

Bomb realises very quickly that this isn’t going to be a fight that he can afford to not engage fully with.  He wastes no time unleashing his trademark long-range offensive move, although he’s no slouch in close- up fighting either.  I love how the panel below superimposes several snapshots in time in a single image, as if the cameraman hasn’t enough time to separate the action into individual frames. It sells the speed and fury of the fight better than many blurry images.  Also Murata is flexing on us with regards to his portrayal of fight choreography, he’s allowed. :)

For his own part, Garou flows effortlessly from conventional to unconventional in his fighting, bending improbably out of the way one moment, parrying in an orthodox manner the next.  Eventually the seeming balance between the two breaks inexorably in Garou’s favour, leaving Bomb marvelling at the former’s incredible evolution.

Nothing for it, there’s no choice but to kill Garou if possible. Bomb hides a hand behind his back as he readies his iron-cutting fist one last time.  It’s unfortunate that Garou has long since intuited how to do the same when he faced off against the Monster King, half a day ago ( I know, it’s been years for us), and does exactly the same, matching up timing and intensity perfectly with Bomb’s, thus cancelling it out.

Bang finally catches up to where the two are fighting to find his elder brother defeated.

Just as at the end of chapter 83, master and disciple face off.  But the atmosphere between the two could not be more different, and the stakes are about as high as they could possibly get.

What new awakening will come from the next fight?  Portents are dire.

Meta: Elsewhere

What doesn’t kill me has made a tactical mistake

For a story whose big schtick is that surviving what should have killed one makes one stronger,  it’s surprising the amount and variety of mileage it gets out of that idea.

Making light of the idea, we have Genos literally rocketing back to his feet and casually dusting himself off after being smashed into a hole in the ground by Black Sperm.  After being thrown into or through so many bits of masonry and earth, getting up with elan is nothing to him.  Damn, he’s become tough! Awesome.

On the opposite side, making dark of the idea, we have Fuhrer Ugly, whose strength of hatred and rage is such that he keeps continuously reforming despite being continually digested by Gums’ digestive fluids... and has turned that into a new ability, able to melt anyone who touches him, kill with his spit, and reform after being cut.  Terrifying.

And on the other other side, a perfect hypotenuse of awesome and terrifying, we have Garou.  He has disinterred himself from the remains of the Monster Association base and while apparently fighting more by instinct than reason, his moves reprise everything he’s learned to date through his life-and-death fights with incredible fluency.

And of course, there’s Tank Top Master whose tank top seems to have magically preserved his life.  I wonder what Fubuki has in mind for Pig God to do to help her help Tank Top Master.

Anyway, talking about serious injury...

Let’s talk about gore, baby

I’ve said before that I’m tired of all injuries accruing to either Genos or Zombieman and wanted some flesh-and-blood to be mangled.  I don’t take that back: share the pain, baby!

But even for my evil heart, hoo, the brutal suddenness with which Fuhrer Ugly ended Zambai’s life was yikes!  Heroes may never die, but those next to them have no such protection.  I’m sorry man.  You paid the highest price for supporting a hero.

Heroes may never die but that doesn’t mean they can’t suffer horribly.  If Tank Top Master being turned into a human patty wasn’t grisly enough, finding out that SuperAlloy’s famously resistant shine isn’t chemically resistant is enough to give one a shudder of horror/disgust:  his hands have been defleshed down to tendon and bone.

Never mind fear; it’s going to be a while before  SuperAlloy *can* fight at all. And with his chest being burned as well, I think that he will be lucky not to come away with disfiguring scars.  He might start wearing a shirt after this...

  ONE, have some mercy for your heroes or half of them will never work again. But not too much mercy, they’ve had it too easy for too long.

There’s more to help than rescue

If you’d told me that this day would see Genos earning the trust and respect of the heroes he has called the bitch and the witch respectively, and that feeling would be mutual, I’d have told you to stop fantasising.   I’ve spent enough words talking about the unexpected compassion he showed to Fubuki when the latter was beside herself with worry for her sister.

Tatsumaki has internalised the advice Blast gave her so thoroughly that she’s come to think herself as being beyond help.  But there’s more to help than haplessly accepting rescue.   Help can also be someone intervening only when you most need it, respecting that you can generally take care of yourself.  Help can be sharing the burden, enabling you to achieve more, more easily.  Help can be having your back so you can fight without fear of ambush.  All of these forms of help Genos has provided to Tatsumaki from the moment the battle pitched high into the sky.  And she’s had his back too.  Seeing her consciously acknowledge that and lean into it was an amazing gift I didn’t know I needed. 

from allies in name only to comrades-in-arms, what a fearsome pair!  Gambatte!

Of course it can get worse

The heroes’ situation seems to be getting worse and worse.  Their number is being whittled down to size: Tank Top Master is out for the count, Bang is tied up, Superalloy Darkshine is maimed, Atomic is out of his main weapon, Child Emperor is lost somewhere and Puri Puri is looking for him, Zombieman and Amai Mask are still pulling themselves together, and Tatsumaki and Genos are standing more by spite than strength. 

On the other hand, the monsters aren’t out of monster by any means.  There’s still lots of Black Sperm, Evil Natural Water is surely sloshing around somewhere,  Vomited Furher Ugly is a pungent threat, and Homeless Emperor is watching proceedings with an amused eye.  I called the monsters the sundew monsters for a reason -- they waste heroes by outlasting their efforts.

The standing heroes are going to need respite, or a diversion, or reinforcements pretty soon or they’re going to all die for real.   Preferably all three.  We’ll take two out of three.

Further notes:  The Cyborg is Listening

The first thing Kuseno says to Genos when the latter comes back after a bruising encounter with a monster is ‘are you alright?’  That we know.  The second thing has to be ‘did you bring me good data?’  Everything that happens to Genos, everything he touches, everything he sees, everything he hears, all that information is recorded for later recall and distillation into useable data.   We’ve been admiring how capable and tough this new upgrade has proven to be.  It’s all hard-won insights, built one on the other.    Does that mean I’m discounting what Genos does?  Hell no.  It’s his extreme courage and willingness to step into the most hopeless situations that has enabled this valuable data to be gathered in the first place.  And it’s his using these wonderful upgrades to push as hard as he can despite the risk that makes it worth Kuseno’s while to stay up late to craft them.  Now I’m super-interested in finding out what new insights the pair will glean from today’s fighting.

...polite engineer for ‘fuck you’

Sure, like many serious things in One-Punch Man, it initially appears as a gag,  but if you’ve not been paying attention to date, hear this: good data is like gold dust in this world.   And people will kill for it.   As we watch the dissipating contrails where Drive Knight was as he carries his precious samples home, don’t way you weren’t warned.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 142

Another late chapter... I’m really batting a thousand lately, seems like.

So, work has been insane, but @baelpenrose reminds me to post when I forget, thankfully. And this is SUCH a fun chapter.  I hope you all enjoy!

I dropped into a seat in Mess Hall Seven with a groan, so exhausted that I barely managed to get soup and a grilled cheese from the console.  Tyche yawned and nodded in agreement before poking at her sushi bowl idly. It was six Von-days after the last drill, and between coordinating increased training schedules for Shelters Three and Seven and helping Charly plan kink-night at the Undine, we were wiped.

“People are ungrateful,” she muttered before managing to barely balance a piece of salmon into her mouth.

I muttered something that hopefully sounded like agreement before I scooped up a bite of my soup with one wedge of sandwich, too lazy to even bother with the spoon. “Remind me why we don’t have Vati and Hannah handling the practice schedules?”

“Because they are handling the extra evacuation drills with Jokul and Arthur.”

Personally, I thought they were getting the better end of this deal, but since the raging success of their first Food Festival, it really was only fair. “And the relocations for those who need it,” I admitted. “Except mine.”

“Conor may actually strangle one of them if any of your plants don’t make it,” she pointed out, gesturing with her chopsticks for emphasis after having given up and using her fingers to eat her lunch. “Not to mention I wouldn’t wish packing with Maverick on anyone.”

“He’s letting me pack the books and textiles.” I shrugged in acceptance after taking another bite of soup-dipped sandwich.

We picked at our food in silence after that, grateful for something resembling a reprieve, before we were interrupted by a flurry of grey hair and enthusiasm landing in one of the nearby chairs with a heavy thunk. “Good afternoon, Madams Reid.”

“Hey, Jokul,” I muttered as Tyche just waggled her fingers at him. I really think I liked it better when he was trying to kill me. Right now, I might even let him do it.

“I know you are both on your meal period, but I wanted to test the waters on potentially scheduling a community activity,” he rushed out.

Tyche guarded her lunch with an almost feral aggression, having heard what happened the last time Jokul had interrupted my lunch. “That should really be something you run by Al-”

“Worthington, yes, I know,” he interrupted. “However, I know you are both quite busy and I wanted to be respectful of your time. As such, I will make this as brief as - ow!” He snatched his hand back away from the other half of my sandwich, rubbing where I had slammed my spoon down onto it.

“I have no idea where the food stealing comes from, but don’t,” I warned him.

“Rude, got it,” he nodded in a terrifying impression of Charly’s normal demeanor. “As I was saying, I recently learned a new type of game from Terra, from the Before.  It involves teamwork, and encourages creativity and escapism, and I think it would be a very good community activity - “

I surrendered to my urge to groan. “We are not doing a redux of Settlers of Cattan. Arthur stabbed someone last time.”

“I didn’t press charges…” Jokul pouted, glancing at the scar on the back of his wrist briefly. “Besides, it was only a fork. Clearly he didn’t mean it, there were four knives in arms reach counting my own.”

Tyche cocked an eyebrow at me. Seriously?

I pursed my lips and wrinkled my nose in response. Yep.

“So what game is it this time?” I asked hesitantly.

I was reward-bombarded with a grin. “It’s called Dungeons and Dragons! Somewhat like a video game, but with more people, and using writing implements and paper. Oh, and different kinds of dice, very important. One person is something of the narrator, to give the game a kind of structure, while the other players act as characters in the game… Ivan introduced me to it, and it is quite challenging with the right people.  The dungeon master - that is the narrator - has to re-evaluate the story based on the actions of the other players, but the players themselves don’t know what the dungeon master is going to do. It is very much a social diversion, and there are many classes….”

As Jokul continued to gush, he was rather oblivious to the fact that Tyche and I were stuffing our faces as quickly as possible to avoid interrupting him or laughing. We had both played when we were younger - in fact, we had been introduced to the game by our mother.  There had even been a very overwhelming pop-culture movement in our youth around the game, which further emphasized just how far out in the boonies Jokul had grown up.  As shocking as it was that he was just now discovering the game, it came at exactly zero surprise that he enjoyed it so much - it was right up his alley of interests.

About fifteen minutes and two more grilled cheeses into his retelling of the campaign he was part of, Charly and Arthur squeezed in with us, their own lunches in tow.  As seemed to be a growing trend, Arthur reached over and snagged one of my sandwiches before I could react, shoving half of it in his face.

That was apparently enough to snap Jokul out of his story. “Hey! Why didn’t you hit him?”

“His deathwish, not my problem,” I shrugged.

Around the remains of my lunch, Arthur managed to enunciate. “Told you, Noah fissed the dairy allergy.”

“Bleargh,” I gagged comically. “It’s okay, think I’m done anyway.”

Jokul’s hand swatted Arthur’s out of the way to steal the rest of my food. “As I was saying, Ivan was quite clever with his resolution to deal subdural damage to the player who was very much ruining the storyline by insisting his character was immune to magical sleep…”

“Oooooo! I love tabletops!” Charly squealed, bouncing in her seat. “What setting are you playing in right now?  My favorite was always Exalted…”

“Miss Harper, I think we are discussing different activities.” Jokul sounded supremely confused, but my heart broke a bit.

Arthur shook his head. “Maybe not Exalted, but what about Ebberron? Swordhaven, maybe?  Just tell me it isn’t Ravenloft… I know you haven’t been fucking around in a Dark Sun, but I beg you to tell me you aren’t playing Ravenloft.”

“I’m not sure what those are… Ivan introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. There is only one setting.”

“So… Greyhawk or homebrew,” Arthur nodded. “Best place to start, get the basics down.”

Jokul’s head pivoted toward me and Tyche, squinting in annoyance. “You knew, didn’t you? And you let me prattle on…”

“You were so… happy….” I explained plaintively. “We didn’t want to ruin that for you.”

Tyche nodded. “We both remember how fun that first campaign is. And honestly? We’ve been having a kind of crappy day.  It was nice to hear someone be excited about something that isn’t work related.”

“But I came to you to discuss making it a ship activity…”

“Originally, yeah,” I shrugged. “That was maybe the first thirty seconds.  After that, you were doing what literally every tabletop roleplaying person has done since the beginning of time… telling stories about the fun, dramatic, and frankly stupid shit the people in your party are doing.”

“Says the two-foot eight halfling rogue,” Arthur scowled.

“I rolled it at random, it was fifteen years ago, get over it!” I threw my hands up dramatically. “At least I wasn’t mated to a frickin’ deity.”

Charly giggled uncontrollably while Jokul goggled at us. “Exalted is broken in all the fun ways.”

“You literally sacrificed, and I quote ‘all of your fucks to give’, for necromancy.”

“That was your idea!”

Jokul turned toward Tyche, waiting for her to say something. She just held up her hands defensively. “I was a murder monk-bunny.”

Arthur snorted. “You were the Black Rabbit of Inle….”

“Well if my wife would have just stopped dying…!”

“At least none of us were the Platinum Knight who pissed his pants every time he confronted his favored enemy,” I laughed. “He never did live that one down. Every. Single. Dragon. He would crit fail his roles.”

“Oh, please,” Arthur intoned drily. “Did I ever tell you about the time one of my players managed to make ‘Notice me, Senpai’ into the most terrifying in-universe warcry imaginable?”

Charly choked before swatting his shoulder. “Not in front of my pasta. Please.”

Jokul, however, looked both horrified and intrigued, egging Arthur on. “Barbarian whose entire clan worshipped a god named The Senpai…. Just imagine, a barbarian in a rage, bellowing ‘NOTICE ME, SENPAI!!!’ before just scything down thirty men with a broadsword.”

At this point, I was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my face. “Please, please tell me there was a kilt and pigtails involved….”

Jokul touched his own hair, before straightening as seriously as possible. “They are warrior’s braids, Councillor.”

That was it, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just put my head down on my folded arms and waiting to either pass out from laughing so hard or from exhaustion.  A few deep breaths and a spinning head later, I managed to wipe my face on my sleeve and realized the conversation was continuing without me.  Just as I was clearing my throat to let Jokul know he should be fine to start organizing something and to send me a rough outline, Arthur dealt the final blow.

Leaning over, he whispered over my shoulder. “By the way, the barbarian’s name was Drystan of the Doki-doki tribe.”

I was proud that I managed to get up and dash into the hallway before collapsing against the wall in maniacal laughter.  I barely registered Hannah’s voice behind me asking everyone at the table if I needed medical assistance, and that did not help.

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[femmeharringrove]

see, it's not like steve's ever been good at coping.

it's bad after starcourt, but instead of dealing with it then steve just puts everything into healing others. he comforts eleven, stays on the phone all night with lucas or dustin, helps will learn not to fear the cold, gives billy a shoulder to cry on and a place to live.

and so billy gets a front-row seat to steve's self-destruction.

he doesn't think it's his place to speak, initially, but he does worry when steve leaves early in the afternoon and comes back wasted, bruises on his throat and traces of powder on his clothes. some weekends he doesn't come home, he goes to indianapolis and shows up late sunday evening with a massive hangover and billy just gets him to eat and drink a little before getting him in bed. steve's not eating enough, he's losing weight and billy worries because this is his best friend, not even heather matches their level. and steve's done so much good for him but he doesn't know how to return the favor - not until steve barrels out of the bathroom one night shaking like a leaf, tears streaming down his face. billy takes one look inside, catches sight of two life-changing sticks, and rushes out after him.

and it's then, when he finds steve out by the quarry in a panic, that he knows how to help.

"i didn't mean to get pregnant," steve sniffles, and the moment billy crouches next to him the brunette is shuffling closer, scared and in need of comfort. and billy's still working on the physical thing, learning it's okay to be affectionate, but he doesn't hesitate to hold steve as close as he can.

"i know," he murmurs. "it's okay. we'll figure it out. you aren't doing this alone, you hear me?" and initially billy thinks he's fucked up because steve starts crying again, but when this round of sobs passes the other boy gives him a shaky smile.

"you promise?"

"cross my heart and all that shit." and that's just it. whatever steve needs, billy's got him.

steve initially doesn't want to go through with it, but decides ultimately it could be a good thing. he's thought about parenthood before, always wondered if he could be a better father than his own. this is a chance to prove it. and billy gives him all the support in the world. nobody messes with the only child of the harrington family, they can't afford the fallout, but he's always gotten dirty looks after coming out and they get worse now that he's pregnant. but billy follows him everywhere now amd anyone who gives him a look has to face the blonde's anger. and sure, he's not where he once was. he's still putting on muscle and learning to use his hands again, but half of what makes billy hargrove scary is the way he presents himself, the glare that suggests he knows people won't mess with him. and they don't, amd they don't mess with steve either for the same reason.

and when billy isn't around to do the protecting, steve's got others. joyce has kicked people out of melvad's before, for harassing a fifteen year-old steve. and five years later she still does it, voice calm and eyes steely. claudia is at every appointment he has, making sure the other nurses and doctors call him by the right name and pronouns. she's there when steve sees the baby's hand for the first time and has a breakdown because he's growing a whole person and doesn't know if he'll really be able to take care of them.

and claudia, she remembers being confused and a little judgemental when steve came out as steve, but that was before she caught him shuffling down the aisles of the library one day, small and clearly anxious about everyone he came across. thirteen year-old steve had lacked the easy confidence he sported now, and it was when she saw him that it sort of clicked. she didn't understand how someone could be a gender other than the one they were born as, but she made a point to greet him as steve any time she saw him and made an effort to accept him. now he's like the older son she never had, dustin's big brother, and when he weeps frantically over the daunting trial of parenthood she takes him by the shoulders and gives him the most serious look she can muster.

"nobody is ever ready for parenthood," she tells him, and one hand comes to wipe his tears away. "but you have exactly the heart for this job. you're going to be the best father in this whole town."

which steve doesn't agree with. the best dad in town is hopper.

hopper, who's been harassing people for harassing steve for years, but is more aggressive about it now because steve really means something to him now. sometimes, eleven calls him her brother, and hop figures, yeah, the kid could use a dad. so he makes a habit of checking up on him, and it gets more frequent now because he's also checking on billy, and with a baby on the way hopper's protectiveness is at an all-time high. nobody wants to fuck with the chief, so no one fucks with steve.

when the harringtons find out, steve's dad is livid, but it's steve's mother who keeps him from lashing out. the couple can't stand the blow to their social life and so it's off to lansing for them, a fresh start or whatever. the house stays under their name, though, and steve and billy make it theirs. the cosy master bedroom becomes steve's, billy finally decorates the guest room downstairs as his own. his mother calls sort of regularly, she's not thrilled about the situation but she's eager for a grandbaby to spoil, and steve counts that as a blessing.

of course, the party freaks out when steve announces his pregnancy. it's not like they didn't know steve could get pregnant, but they've never considered the idea that he would. eleven, max, and will are immediately thrilled, discussing baby names and wanting to pat his belly - especially el, who's never really experienced a pregnancy. mike and lucas are a little weirded out, but mike brings steve a bunch of baby books left over from holly and lucas donates his own old toys, declaring that baby harrington was going to be the coolest baby ever if he got to help look out for the little one. dustin doesn't know how to feel initially, which stresses steve out, but when someone throws a slur at steve three weeks after that dustin flips out, yells himself hoarse at the fucker, and declares himself steve and the baby's most ardent protector. the whole group has already discussed babysitting schedules and, yeah, maybe steve did cry about it, but he's pregnant and it was probably the hormones and not anything else, thank you.

robin gently berates him about sleeping with strangers out of town when she finds out, but after that she takes her position as aunt very seriously. within four weeks she buys three outfits, five stuffed animals, and a french record to help the baby learn the language.

"no such thing as too early," she says as she drops it on the dresser in steve's old room. the new nursery.

it's a labor of love, mostly by billy. woodworking is a big help with his hands so he was all too happy to make a crib himself. again, steve cried, but this time he feels it's justified. billy's put a rocking chair in too, and a record player too - "your taste in music is shit," he'd deadpanned as he brought the thing in. "someone's gotta culture the little snot." amd billy does that all the time, he's called the baby a snot, a turd, a little shit, all that jazz. but his face is softer than it's ever been and that makes steve smile every single time.

steve's labor of love starts five weeks early, much to his horror, and it hurts like a bitch. he gives birth early in the morning after a rainy night. she's a little replica of steve, down to the moles on her cheek, and he doesn't think he's ever known love until he looks at his daughter and feels the almost painful swell in his chest. he cries as he hugs her against his chest and swears on his life he'll do right by this wondrous little girl. her name is nikita - no, not after the elton john song, though later when she asks that's what he tells her, just so she can throw her head back and groan, "daaad!"

no, she's named after his grandmother. and she gets rosaline for a middle name after billy's mother. because, even if they didn't say it, it's clear billy intends to co-parent. he doesn't call it that, he just says he's helping a friend, but he's the one who changes her diaper at night and bounces her to sleep listening to metallica and teaches her to eat spaghetti.

and originally, he's the one she calls dad.

first it's baba, which steve thinks is in reference to the fact that billy bottlefeeds her, and billy thinks it's similar enough to "billy" to not be anything more than that. but she gets older and learns to say billy and steve, and still calls him baba. baba and papa. and to the outside world it makes sense, they're a little family, steve and billy ooze a chemistry anyone else can't deny. but it takes them three extra years to get with the program and become a couple.

to this day, niki claims there aren't more clueless people out than her dads when it comes to love.

[fanficsfromyesteryear]

DOUBLE TROUBLE

A STRANGER THINGS ONE SHOT

— PAIRING: Steve Harrington x Reader + Dustin Henderson — WORD COUNT: 1,027 — WARNINGS: Steve getting bullied again- None?? Like, one curse word- — REQUESTED BY: Anonymous

Hey if you dont mind I got a fallow up idea to movie buff? The reader and Dustin met for the first time and drive steve crazy cuz now theres two people making fun of his movie knowledge

— A/N: Sorry for the wait on this one!! It’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, but I think it turned out ok?? Something’s better than nothing, though, right? It was a fun concept, I just went through a period of writer’s block, but I finally pushed through. Anyway, I hope you guys like it!!

Steve knew he was in for trouble when you and Dustin Henderson walked into Family Video side-by-side. He had no idea how the two of you knew each other, but as far as he was concerned, it was a match made in Hell. Actually, you didn’t have a clue as to who the curly-haired boy was who had held the door open for you, but much to Steve’s dismay, you were about to.

You didn’t have a movie to return this time, so just to humor Steve, you went to peruse the shelves before making a beeline to the counter with the sole purpose of bugging him. Dustin, however, wasted no time making his way over to where Steve stood, carefully watching the two of you.

As you half-heartedly scanned the movie selection, it hadn’t been your intent to eavesdrop on the conversation between the two boys, but it was nearly impossible not to—they weren’t exactly trying to be quiet, so their voices easily carried through the otherwise empty store. You couldn’t tell what they were saying, though—Steve and Dustin were talking over each other to the point that their words mingled and overlapped to form a jargon indiscernible to anyone but them. Every once in a while, however, you picked up bits and pieces of sentence fragments.

“—not even that good!” the curly-headed kid was saying. “You just think Molly Ringwald’s hot!”

Steve scoffed. “Oh, come on,” he said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “What’s wrong with the Breakfast Club?”

“What’s wrong with the Breakfast Club?” Dustin repeated. “Are you shitting me? There’s no plot, and—”

“No plot? You’re joking, right?” Furrowing his eyebrows, Steve leaned forward to study the younger boy. “The Breakfast Club, like, defines our whole generation! We’re all caught in these social constructs, but with the power of friendship, we can overcome our differences!”

“Since when do you,” Dustin said, jabbing a finger towards Steve accusingly, “care about overthrowing the social hierarchy? Last time I checked, you wouldn’t date a girl because you thought she’d bring you down a rung.”

“I’m a changed man!” Steve placed a hand to his chest to punctuate his words with conviction.

“Oh, sure,” Dustin answered dubiously. “Either way, the Breakfast Club is so slow I’d rather watch paint dry.”

“He’s got a point.”

The two boys turned, clearly startled, as if they’d forgotten you were there, and stopped their bickering to look to where you were leaning against the end of the counter.

Steve groaned. “Oh, no,” he said. “Don’t you start up, too!”

You held your hands up defensively. “All I’m saying,” you said, “is that the Breakfast Club isn’t nearly as good as everyone makes it out to be.”

“There it is,” Steve muttered as he dragged a hand through his hair, his voice barely audible above the large sigh that followed his defeated statement. 

Dustin, ignoring Steve’s already fed-up attitude, extended an arm to you and raised his eyebrows at Steve as if to say, ‘See? I told you so.’

“After what happened with St. Elmo’s Fire,” you continued, focusing your gaze on Steve, “I’m a little surprised you’re not upset over the fact it’s not about a club for people who like eating breakfast.”

“What happened with St. Elmo’s Fire?” asked Dustin, a toothy grin spreading across his face in excited curiosity.

You opened your mouth to explain but were cut off by the sound of Steve’s hand as it loudly slapped against his forehead. “Jesus, Y/N. Are you ever gonna let that go?”

“Probably not,” you said, smiling smugly. “I mean, you thought Elmo was gonna pop over from Sesame Street to make a surprise appearance.”

“Seriously?” asked Dustin, his tone wavering as he held back a laugh.

“Oh, yeah. I couldn’t make something like that up.”

“Alright, are you guys done?” Steve said, nearly shouting to be heard over Dustin, who was doubled over in a fit of giggles. “Because believe it or not, I actually have stuff to do, so, if you guys are through being little dickheads, I’m gonna be on my way.” Instead of walking away from the conversation, however, Steve simply crossed his arms with a frown and puffed out his chest to give himself the appearance of a man who meant business.

Reaching across the counter, you grabbed one of Steve’s arms and gave it a tug. “Aw, Steve, don’t be like that,” you said. “We’re just messing with you. Right—” Turning to Dustin, you realized that you had no idea what his name was, despite your immediate connection. After an awkward moment’s hesitation, you finally settled on, “—kid?”

“Totally!” Dustin agreed, offering a reassuring smile to Steve. “Your redeeming qualities definitely outweigh the bad ones.”

This seemed to appease Steve, but before he could properly accept your apologies, Robin appeared from the back of the store, her arms laden with VHS tapes. She looked between you and Dustin with raised brows. “Did you losers even come here to get anything?”

Dustin snorted. “No,” he answered.

Robin shook her head in amusement. “Scram,” she told the two of you with a small smile. “We’ve got work to do. These videos aren’t gonna shelve themselves.”

When Steve’s shift ended a few minutes later, he found you and Dustin seated on the curb in front of the store. “What are you guys still doing here?” he asked as he approached.

“Hm?” Your conversation with Dustin came to a screeching halt as Steve joined in. Resting your chin on your shoulder, you peered up at the older boy. “Oh, we were just talking about going to catch a movie.”

“They’re showing Alien downtown,” Dustin chimed in.

Steve grinned. “Cool!” he said. “I’ll drive.” He dipped his hand down into the pocket of his jeans to fish around for his keys while you and Dustin exchanged a look.

“Don’t bother,” you said, getting to your feet. The hint of a playful smile flashed across your lips. “It’s a grown-up movie. You probably won’t understand it.”

With a roll of his eyes, Steve threw his head back and let out a groan like a temperamental child. “Oh, come on—”

[juminsmysticmc]

so i’ve been ghosted from one of my closest friends and could you maybe make the mc lose confidence afterwards and have more and more panic attacks because like everything seems to stress her out? if you’re okay with that i’d love to see that with all of the RFA + the trio! either way i hope you’re doing good and life’s not too hard! i love your hc‘s so so much and honestly they’re somehow my safespace! <333

RFA + Minor Trio getting ghosted by a close friend and feeling very bad because of that 

Trigger Warnings: Mention of Panic Attacks, Fears, sensitive content  

Hello baby! Thanks for your request, we already talked about this privately and I will say it again but when I actually read the request, I kind of felt ,,happy’’ that I wasn’t the only one. I always thought ( and I still believe ) that as soon as I lose a loved person it’s only me who is in pain and misses them. I hope my writings can stay being your safe space  for you and everyone, I will be always here to listen to you, I mean it. Love you! PS. These scenarios are all based on true stories and Mc is me and how I reacted.

Jumin

Your husband kept observing you.

This morning everything was alright, but suddenly you were odd, as if something switched in your head, you became distant. Your fingers didn’t stop typing on your phone screen and you seemed to tremble.

However, he didn’t want to get in your way. Maybe you were doing something important.

He reacted when you suddenly got up and walked to your shared bedroom without saying a word.

Jumin pressed his lips together and decided to just follow you.

He was happy that he did what he felt like he needed to do, because you were currently on your bed crying.

Maybe even hyperventilating or panicking.

Jumin didn’t really know. All he knew was that you were in pain and that he had to help you.

And so, your husband quickly went to the kitchen and took a bag, immediately bringing it to you to make sure that you could breathe into it.

,,Ahhhh,’’ you gasped and cried. Jumin felt so helpless as he saw your eyes turn red and teary.

He never stopped stroking your back as he observed you with sad eyes.

It took you quite a while to get better and be able to breathe again.

,,Mc,’’ he whispered. You were still hiccuping, but at least you were breathing again.

,,Sorry,’’ you whimpered.

,,I thought… I had the feeling that the air would cut my throat and I couldn’t breathe,’’ you explained.

,,Aish, what’s wrong…?’’ you asked yourself.

,,Want to tell me?’’ he asked you and tilted his head to be able to look at you and look into your eyes.

,,I- I don’t know why… but my childhood friend…’’ you began to hiccup again.

,,Everything is spinning… ahhh, Jumin, she suddenly began to ignore me, not answer my texts, and block me from social media as if she never knew me!’’ you cried.

Your tears didn’t want to stop anymore.

Jumin pulled you into his arms and hugged you with all his love.

,,I… I had such a great time lately and now my whole world is falling apart… I’m so so sad… I helped her so much. Why is she doing this? She said that she wasn’t the kind of friend to just let go of me, Jumin, why?’’ you kept crying.

Jumin wished that he could help you. However, he had no idea.

,,Sometimes,’’ he whispered, ,,people just have a hard time… and then they just do this. She had her reasons and she doesn’t know that she’s hurting you that much… I know it’s hard, but try to let go… and one day I’m sure she will tell you why…’’ Jumin whispered and stroked your head.

,,I know it’s hard, but you don’t need her. You have me… I will be your rock, your husband, and your best friend…’’ he consoled you, hugging you again.

Zen

,,She’s odd somehow,’’ you told Zen as you guys came back from a family gathering.

Your boyfriend, who was currently chewing on his gum, looked at you.

He knew who you meant because he saw how your cousin behaved.

He saw how she ignored you, how she looked away, and acted as if there was nothing to talk about with you, even though you two always talked about God and the world.

,,I… I don’t know… I can’t handle losing someone again…’’ you mumbled.

He knew that you lost a lot of friends in the last few months. You went through a lot and Zen tried his best to support you.

You suddenly teared up and began to distract yourself, using your nail to pinch your fingers.

Zen of course saw what you were doing and quickly took your hand. ,,Don’t, Mc…’’ he begged you in a whisper to stop.

You pulled out your phone and read your messages. ,,I don’t… I don’t understand…’’ your voice began to tremble and Zen felt nervous.

He was scared that this would drag you down again. He never wanted to see your sad face again.

,,We just talked about… about BTS this morning and… we talked about idols dating… this morning!’’ you hiccuped.

,,Mc… maybe she had a bad day?’’ he asked you.

You wet your lips with your tongue and shook your head.

,,No, she is ignoring me. She’s putting a wall between us…’’ you ironically laughed.

Ever since then, you never chatted with her again.

However, the next family gathering soon approached.

As soon as you saw her coming in with two of your other cousins who ignored you, a panic attack came over you.

,,Hyun,’’ you whispered, making Zen look at you. He could see that you were close to crying.

,,Don’t, Princess, you’re too beautiful,’’ he whispered, trying to help you to calm down.

Luckily, everyone was still greeting everyone so no one saw that you were currently having a panic attack. Well, no one except your mother and aunt who dragged you and Zen to the nearest toilet.

Zen observed you as your mother stroked your arm and your aunt made you open your mouth to give you some medicine to calm down.

,,What’s wrong?’’ they finally asked you. You were still trying to hold your tears.

,,Mc, do you want to walk a bit with me?’’ he asked you, knowing that you just wanted to go out of the room as soon as possible.

And indeed, you accepted his offer.

As soon as you were outside, Zen began to sing a song that you knew better than anyone else ,,We woke up to a bad dream A world full of uncertainty But mirror, mirror I see you, and all your hopes and fears I'm a stay by your side So baby let me dry your tears I know that it feels like The world is falling down And you can't make it through There's gon' be better days, better days, better days Better days, better days, better days….’’

,,Hyun… that’s my favorite song from SuperM,’’ you smiled emotionally.

,,I know better days…’’ he said, naming the title. ,,Let her be. She never deserved you. I know that it hurts, but why hold onto someone who behaves that way? Better days will come. I’m sure it hurts now, but it will be better. I will stay by your side, okay? So please don’t be sad and cut them out of your life if they’re toxic. You deserve so much better,’’ he whispered and stroked your hair.

You nodded. By now you didn’t have the feeling of tears coming up anymore.

Yoosung

,,It just feels… off,’’ you whispered.

Yoosung sat on the couch next to you and he watched you as you looked past him.

,,I… I don’t… I have no one,’’ you mumbled. Yoosung noticed that you were tearing up.

He moved closer to take your hand.

,,Do… you, do you know this feeling when you find something… for example on TikTok and you want to send it a friend, but you notice that… it’s off between you and this other person and so you end up realizing how lonely you are and that there is no one anymore…’’ you asked him.

Yoosung looked at you with a sad face.

Your tears were falling down and a sob left your mouth.

,,I’m… I’m scared. Is this my fault?’’ you asked him.

Yoosung wasn’t quick enough to tell you that you weren’t at fault because you were a wonderful person, but you were quicker than him.

,,Maybe I’m not the victim… maybe I’m the toxic person,’’ you gasped and looked at him.

Yoosung never saw so much fear in your eyes than in that instant.

,,Maybe… you will leave me too? You will leave me alone and then… then I will stay here, alone… how will I go on with my life?’’ you asked him and sobbed into your hands.

,,Mc…’’ Yoosung whined. He moved even closer and finally touched your arm, stoking your cold skin.

,,I will never leave you, okay? Trust me. I love you and… you aren’t the toxic one. I’ve been by your side this whole time. Your friends just cut you out and that wasn’t fair!’’ he defended you.

You looked up, your eyes red, your tears wetting your cheeks, and your lower lip trembling.

Yoosung stroked your cheek with his hand, feeling that you were warm.

,,Please don’t worry…’’ he begged you.

,,How can I, Yoosung…’’ you hiccuped.

Suddenly, you had the feeling that air was missing.

You began to shiver and felt so cold and hot at the same time.

,,How can I if everyone I love is turning their backs on me?! They’re all leaving me! As if… as if I never meant anything to them! I was the one who always supported them! Maybe it was too much, maybe I am really the one who annoys them, if not, Yoosung, why is there no friendship that goes longer than half a year?!’’ you asked him.

,,You have me. We’ve been married for seven years now,’’ he told you.

,,Mc, they don’t last long because they just aren’t the right people for you. They just used you, but real friends are coming,’’ he smiled sadly.

,,Well, no, actually you have the RFA and me, your hubby!’’ he smiled.

The truth was that Yoosung, even though he felt sad for you, also felt angry because your ,,friends’’ were hurting you.

,,Thank you, Yoosung,’’ you choked and hugged him, putting your face on his chest.

Yoosung kept stroking your back until you felt better and you knew that with him you were safe…

Jaehee

This morning, when you were about to meet a friend, you looked totally happy.

You were baking a cake and preparing your bag.

So how could that beautiful day for you change so much? 

Jaehee always wondered why some people were so mean to you when were a wonderful person…

She observed you as you angrily unpacked your stuff and put took the cake out of the box you wanted to take with you.

,,Are you okay, Mc?’’ she asked you, concerned.

You hardly slapped your palm on the table and turned around.

,,NO!’’ you hissed.

Jaehee flinched at your sudden yell.

,,I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE CAN BE LIKE THAT!’’ you screamed.

,,Mc…’’ Jaehee tried to calm you down.

,,First, I got asked to come, I was almost taking my bus, and I would have been on my way for three hours! Then suddenly, they just canceled a meeting we planned for two months?! And when I tell them that I’m hurt and ask them if they even want me to come, they just push me away?!

Am I some dirty toy?! Jaehee! Explain this to me please, cause I have a feeling that the world is joking with me!’’ you hissed louder.

,,Mc, please stop yelling,’’ she first said to try to calm you down.

You took a deep breath and looked at her. ,,You’re right. I’m sorry, Jaehee,’’ you apologized and suddenly the tears that were being held back by your anger finally came out.

You let your body fall into the chair behind you and burrowed your face into your palms, your elbow on the table supporting your body.

,,I… I really don’t get it… Why do things like this always happen to me?’’ you asked her.

Your girlfriend approached you and rubbed your back.

,,Mc, please don’t… don’t feel bad…’’ she begged you, actually tearing up too.

,,I… I thought that I found a new friend and suddenly they behave like this and now they don’t even respond anymore. Am I really that easy to play with?’’ you asked her and looked at her.

Jaehee felt a sharp pain in her heart when she saw you.

She quickly hugged you and rubbed your back.

,,I’m scared,’’ you cried.

,,What if I’ll never be able to be stable enough to hold a friendship for more than half a year? I’m even scared to bond with people… I should stay alone!’’ you whined louder.

,,Jaehee, back then, at school, I never had friends! I always stayed at home! I never talked to them and there I also felt bad and lonely, but right now I feel worse! I know the feeling of having friends now. I know how it feels like to go out in a group, to share a hobby, and suddenly, just when I get used to that feeling, they let go of me! What did I do wrong?!’’ you asked her, not able to calm down.

,,Mc… please, don't say that. You have me… I can be your girlfriend and your best friend. You don’t need to worry,’’ she whispered, by now her voice trembling with you.

,,I… I’m scared that you will leave me too… What if you leave me? What if you think of me as an annoying girlfriend? I… I don’t want to feel that way… I want to be happy. I’m tired of these panic attacks, I’m tired of these feelings of fear, of my heart beating like crazy, of my head feeling lightheaded, and I just want to smile! I want to be happy!’’ you sobbed.

,,You will! Soon, you will,’’ Jaehee said, crying with you by now.

,,You will find your true friends, and until that day comes, Mc, I will stay by your side, so don’t stress yourself out. I will stay here and I will never leave you. I love you and this love will never ever fade away!’’ she assured you, making you feel better.

Saeyoung

Your fiancé observed you as you checked your phone for the sixth time in a row.

Apparently you were waiting for a message.

,,Mc, can I help you?’’ he asked you, meaning to hack into that person’s phone.

You looked up from your phone and by now he noticed that you were crying.

He quickly got up and approached you.

,,It’s okay,’’ you assured him, also acquiring his brother’s attention.

,,I mean, I’m used to cutting contact, I’ve just never had people do it so suddenly… I’ll be fine again in no time!’’ you smiled.

However, this was one of your biggest lies.

Back then, Saeyoung didn’t want to stress you out, so after you stopped crying and calmed down, he went back to his place.

Days passed and Saeyoung noticed that nothing was working out for you.

You were sad, there were songs on your playlist you simply skipped because you suddenly hated them, even through you once loved them.

Saeyoung noticed that it was time to talk to you about it when he heard you sniffle while watching a video.

,,What happened? Do you wanna tell me?’’ he asked you and stroked your back.

Usually he would make fun of your red eyes or your voice, but he knew if he was to joke right now, you would break in front of his eyes.

,,I wish I could respond to this,’’ you said as you looked into his eyes.

,,My friends began to ignore me from one social media to another, blocking me from Discord, Instagram, and Facebook,’’ you said.

,,I don’t recall having done something to them. I didn’t say anything hurtful either… I just… maybe I was just annoying and they wanted to get rid of me?’’ you asked him.

Saeyoung couldn’t believe what you were telling him.

,,Mc, we both know that isn’t true…’’ he mumbled.

You sighed as more tears left your eyes.

It feels so weird. Usually we would have a phone call at this hour, but right now… I’m just lonely. I’m… it’s just me…’’ you responded.

Saeyoung hugged you tightly and stroked your head. In the same moment, he heard you crying even louder.

,,I’m just… so scared that in the future I will stay all alone… I don’t want to miss them if they can cut me out so well… Why is that? Why do I feel like this? Vulnerable, lonely, I hate these feelings!’’ you whined.

Saeyoung kept holding you and patting your head while he encouraged you. ,,Just be happy and show them that you can go on without them and that you don’t need them,’’ he told you.

You nodded. ,,I’ll need time,’’

,,Of course,’’ he agreed and pushed you away to look into your eyes.

,,You will feel like this for a long time. Tomorrow will be the same, but maybe next week you will realize how happy you are now without them and that they were just toxic,’’ he smiled.

,,You are strong, I’m here, Saeran and the RFA are here. Why do you need two more friends who don’t know about our mess?’’ he asked you and made you laugh.

,,Come on, let’s eat ice cream with Saeran. He’s worried too,’’ he smiled and helped you get up.

Saeran

Your boyfriend observed you as you sat on the opposite chair at the table.

You were totally dull. The favorite food he cooked for you to make you feel better didn’t help either as you poked into your noodles.  

,,Mc,’’ he spoke up, making you look up.

Once again, your lips were trembling. You were sad and he could see it in your teary eyes.

Even though you were going through a hard time, you managed to stay strong and not cry in front of him.

,,I know that it’s painful, but I’m here for you,’’ he told you with a smile.

You just nodded. ,,Who knows for how long…’’ you laughed and kept poking your food.

,,What do you mean?’’ he asked you and observed you. You finally let go of the tears.

,,Who knows how long you will stay here with me! I mean, if they can manage to leave me, why should you stay? You… you will ignore me soon too!’’ you snapped, letting go of your fork.

You grabbed your shirt with your right hand as you pressed the material between your fingers.

By now you were sobbing and breathing hastily.

Saeran understood immediately that you were having a panic attack and he didn’t want you to go through this pain for anything in the world.

,,Breathe. Try to breathe, Mc. I’m here, I promise. Nothing will happen to you if I’m here,’’ he whispered and approached you, pressing on your hand as you tried to stay calm.

Your tears made your vision blurry. You had the feeling that you were dying, that the world around you was crashing down, and no one loved you. You felt that everyone would leave you at some point without telling you why.

Later, when you managed to calm down. You and Saeran sat together on the soft couch with a blanket over your legs as he stroked your arm.

The music box you bought last week was playing. ,,She is in the rain’’ by The Rose, a Kpop band that was helping you manage all the negative feelings lately. 

,,I’m scared that if I find new friends, they will leave me too, so I thought it would be better to not bond,’’ you said.

Saeran nodded. ,,That sounds plausible. I would react like that too, but it won’t work,’’ he told you as he looked at you.

We all need people, friends who love and support us. For now, you think you don’t need anyone, but imagine you see something funny and take a screenshot to send it to someone. You can just delete it, but those are the times you realize how lonely you are and I don’t want you to feel like that…’’

Your teary face observed him.

,,I know,’’ you hiccuped again.

,,But I… How can I find new friends? I’m scared that the more people leave me, the more I will be in pain…’’ you explained.

,,I understand,’’ he nodded, ,,but real friends won’t leave. You didn’t leave me either back then and the RFA won’t leave. They weren’t healthy even though you loved them deeply,’’

You chuckled. ,,How do you know all this?’’ you asked him, wondering if he experienced something similar. You couldn’t imagine him being hurt like that while staying in Mint Eye.

,,You made me realize that there are real friends,’’ he smiled and kissed you.

Jihyun

,,I don’t understand how they could do that to me,’’ you hissed and put your phone with it’s display on the table.

It was 11pm now, Lucy was already asleep while Jihyun sat in bed with you.

,,And you’re sure that there weren’t any misunderstandings?’’ he asked you and rubbed your arm.

You looked up with your eyes and tried to think about everything.

,,No. We talked about children, I told them how cute Lucy was and that they should come and visit us…’’ you mumbled and took his hand.

He could feel that you were trembling.

He could see that you were scared and that you were angry and restless.

,,Maybe they will answer your messages tomorrow. Why don’t you sleep a bit?’’ he asked you and put the blanket over your body.

You nodded and laid down while hugging your husband.

He stroked your back as you turned your body towards him, your head nuzzled in his chest.

The next day, however, nothing turned out to be how you hoped it to be.

You were crying on the floor in front of your bed while Jihyun tried his best to calm you down.

,,They deleted me everywhere. They’re just ghosting me! This isn’t fair! Why do they have to leave me with these thoughts?’’ you asked him.

You tried to calm down and breathe calmly, but nothing worked.

Jihyun kept rubbing your legs to make you calm down and show you that he was by your side, but nothing seemed to help you.

You took your phone and with all your hate, you crushed the gadget on the floor, making the screen crack.

You pulled your legs towards your body as you kept crying.

,,Mc, Mc, look at me!’’ he called you, lightly shaking you and making you look deep into his eyes.

,,Stop right now. You need to stay calm. This won’t help you! Besides, it’s not worth it, okay? Now, breath with me,’’ he whispered and showed you how to calm down.

He was holding your hand firmly as he watched you breath.

,,They weren’t real friends so let them go. It’s not the first time and we both know that, but you loved them too much to realize. Now you can finally let go, okay? I know, it’s hard, you will miss them, you will have things that remind you of them, but it won’t help,’’ he whispered.

As soon as he said these words, he hugged you, making you cry into his shoulder.

,,I… went to visit them. I went there and spent so much money because they said they felt lonely. I was always there, I always responded to their calls, I always wished them a good morning, asked how they were feeling and if everything was okay…’’ you sobbed.

,,Did they ever ask you?’’ Jihyun asked you, making you hiccup.

,,I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to understand that you gave your all while they didn’t, and finally they gave you the chance to search for better friends, okay?’’ Jihyun knew that this would make you feel bad for a long time, but he also knew that you were strong.

,,I know you can do it. Now let’s get up and I will make you feel happy today, okay?’’ he asked you with a smile.

And he didn’t lie when he said that.

The both of you laid in bed the whole day and when Lucy finally came home from the school, you all ordered some food and stayed in the whole day. ,,We need some time out. Today and tomorrow we can start over again,’’ Jihyun smiled. You weren’t crying anymore and Lucy was happier than ever to spend the day with her beloved parents.

Vanderwood

Vanderwood hugged and patted your back as you cried in his embrace.

He tried to calm you down, but nothing helped as your feelings got hurt.

Your best friend just began to ignore you, blocking you everywhere without any signs.

The worst was that the both of you met in the shopping center half an hour ago. The expression on your friends face towards you was filled with so much hate that even he was surprised.

But the worst was that he couldn’t understand how you could stay their friend for such a long time.

Of course, he also knew that this situation still could hurt your feelings.

,,I… maybe I’m just a bad friend,’’ you said and looked up, looking straight into his eyes.

You were sitting on his lap as he kept trying to make you feel better.

,,You‘re not and do you know why I believe that you are the best friend ever? Because you’re the one that’s in pain. You’re here thinking about the situation. You care so you aren’t a bad friend,’’ he whispered and kissed your cold wet cheek.

,,Okay, but why did they… I don’t understand… and even though I’m so angry I’m so disappointed and… I miss them so much…’’ you sobbed.

He nodded.

,,It’s normal. You can’t forget them from one hour to another,’’ he smiled.

He hated to see you so sad and hurt.

,,I’m… just worried. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, and they’re in pain too…’’ you mumbled.

,,Then they should approach you. You tried your best, Mc, let go… they’re toxic and you will break,’’ he whispered.

You sobbed even stronger and hugged him.

,,Will you leave me too?’’ you asked him, feeling scared.

You were afraid that you were the real reason and you were scared that people would leave you, never to approach you anymore. Even worse, what if people would begin to use you?

,,I won’t ever do that,’’ he smirked, taking your chin between his fingers and pulling you to him, kissing your cold wet lips.

You were so thankful that he was here supporting you, however, the fear of losing him never left you that day.

It took a long time until you could understand that sometimes you couldn't help other people and that sometimes you just had to change your friends and let go of them.

You also had to learn that Vanderwood was the one you could really trust, because even though you were scared that he wouldn’t last more than a year with you, he showed you that he would stay with you forever.

MASTERLIST 1

MASTERLIST 2

MASTERLIST 3

30.04.2021// 22:30 MEST

[btswishes]

Love me for who I am now

Bucky x Reader ( Chapter 1 )

Part1 / Next 

Summary: You apply for the Stark internship and end up getting it, so now you have 5 months to make a good impression to continue working with the Avengers.

A/N: This is my first Marvel fic and I am taking it as a challenge. It is opposite of what my account was made, but here I go. Sorry for any mistakes made, hope you enjoy it even a tiny bit.

Word count:  3,281

Warmings: fights, harsh language, not part of the original MCU 

Y/N- Your name Y/L/N:  Your Last Name

                                   --------------------------------------

  Through sleepless nights and dark circles, books and pens, through months of work you reached your goal. The moment you received the acceptance letter from Stark University you almost flew out the window without a fear in your mind. This was it!

  Time had passed since that moment, but it is still engraved in your mind- a memory keeping you strong during the hard midterms and piles of work, even the small glimmers of regret. Trying your best wasn’t an option, you could do only that and no less. It was no easy task, lost social life as much as you tried to keep it. You were really lucky you had good friends that understood and supported you. University wasn’t easy for anyone making this one even tougher. People of all ages, backgrounds and cultures were piled up with you in this building. The best of the best as the slogan said, the ones that proved themselves and emerged victorious.

  When you were young ,you used to spend a lot of time with your uncle at his places outside the country. He would introduce you to his work colleagues and things you had never seen before. There was a time where you would spend months on end with him. Not many memories were left from those moments in your head. At one point you spend a few years with him, your mother thought it would be good experience for you and it turned out to be nothing but the truth-at least you hoped so. You learned a lot from him and his friends, it felt like each spend day would offer you more knowledge in areas you never knew of. Computer work, ways of thinking and so much more that had become second nature to you.

  The sky was tinted in a wash of oranges, reds and yellows bleeding one into the other, swirling around the sun emitting them. The day was ending, but you found yourself filling up an application in the library, covered by the silence and smell of exam worry.

  Sponsored and founded by the one and only Tony Stark, this establishment offered an internship. Being part of the Avengers, Tony didn’t let just anyone from the students attending in, even if they were the best labeled by the school. It had been a year and a half since you started pushing yourself harder to be able to apply and there was nothing that could stop you. Pressing your finger over the enter button was very nerve wrecking yet simple. Even if it didn’t work out this year, you planned to do it again and again ,till he had no other choice but give you a chance.

  Usually F.R.I.D.A.Y. went over everything and left only the applications worth going over by Tony himself or Pepper. The next 5 weeks for you were very stressful, but there was nothing more you could do but wait and focus on your own work. The first person you wanted to tell about this was your uncle. He went to work in some distant place where they had no internet so you switched to mail. Not as much paper under his name passed through your hands, as he had stopped answering you. You missed him, but the muddy childhood memories kind of compensated for that.

“Did you send it in?” the phone muffled a bit the sweet voice coming from the speaker 

“Yeah, a few days ago actually.” You answered with a gentle sigh

“And no answer yet?” the girl’s pitch rose at the end of the sentence, amazed at that what she just heard

“I know, I know. Think about it though Nea. Who knows how many applications get submitted. Someone has to brush through them after all.” defending the situation was a form of coping for you, made you feel hopeful.

“So you are trying to tell me Tony Stark’s interface or whatever it’s called, can’t sort them out in a couple of hours? Come on Y/N! You and I both know you are trying to make yourself feel better.” The small pause made you anxious over what Nea said “Listen.” A breathy start of the sentence “ I don’t mean to brag, but I think I am one of the people who know exactly how much you deserve this. You were never the studious type, plus that you were gone for years on end with that mysterious uncle of yours. I never expected you to suddenly go for Stark University. Your dream changed you, from this quiet kid to crazy ol’ you right now on the call with me.I ain’t letting you bust yourself up over this just because it didn’t happen the first time around-”

                Ding ding

  Nea’s deep speech was cut off before she could unleash herself completely, by the slight ring of your phone’s notification.

“Who tf has the audacity to text while the great me is giving this legendary –“

                Ding!

  The second time the sound sung out made her choke up with anger, you could almost see the fumes coming out of the phone.

“WHO IS IT!” a loud hiss pierced your ear

“Maybe if you gave me a minute I could answer your question.” Pulling the call down, your finger ran over the screen to the email, making your notification lamp blink like a car. Almost instantly it opened before your eyes and you gasped. The action made you swallow suddenly and cough out a bit ,giving poor Nea an idea about the level of shock you were in.

“What?What? You can’t just almost die and not tell me what is going on.” She proceeded with a not so tasteful interrogation.

“I-…they accepted my application…” at the end a small smile flowed over your lips contorting the sound coming out

“Stop!?” she choked up as well “You gotta be fucking with me!? No fucking way this is real!”

“I am honest. It says here that they liked my skill set, my grades and the way of thinking I presented in my essay. I got the spot Nea! I fucking did it!” you threw the phone on the bed letting it bounce as you started dancing.

“Of course you did! I told you! You will be working with THE AVENGERSSSS!” at some point it sounded like your best friend was more excited than you “When do you start?”

“Well…” taking a second to calm down and re-establish contact with your phone, you looked up the schedule that came attached with the email “…ok…so it says here that I will be starting on Monday so~ in 2 days? “

“So soon! Any requirements for the job miss Avenger’s sidekick?” and the teasing begins

“A list, surprisingly.” Rolling onto your back, you held the screen away and above your face, scrolling past “ I guess my first job will be with Dr. Banner in the lab. Apparently I will be given some sort of assignments throughout the 5 months work span. I will be monitored by Dr. Bruce Banner and the grading, I guess if you can call It that ,will be done by Tony Stark himself.”

“Basically Hulk will be your babysitter.” once this girl starts teasing she never stops even in amazing situations such as this one, good thing you loved her “That sounds so cool though! You will be able to meet Captain America and Black Widow~! I am so jelly of you I swear! When you leave work make sure to wait for someone from the group to walk by, omgggg I am fangirling so much right now.What if you go to dinners with them!?AAAAA!”

“Fun thing about that.” Your eyes landed on the last paragraph of the email “It says here that I am supposed to move into the compound and stay there till further notice. The whole idea is that if I do things well I will get a permanent job. Weird…” you hummed

“Weird !? How? That is so cool! Who knows you might even become an Avenger! You will be living with them anyways.” at this point Nea was either not breathing or hyperventilating so fast you couldn’t hear it

“Don’t be ridiculous.” your attention landed once more on the thought process you had a moment ago “I don’t get one thing. They say here that my PE grades combined with my IT and overall studies make me a great candidate, but I don’t remember sports being a requirement at all, or even providing them in the first place. Does it mean that if my grades were low in that department I wouldn’t have gotten the spot?”

“I guess people of science aren’t that flexible. Who cares anyways! You got in, no ifs and buts. I am telling you, at this point you could be an Avenger.” poor girl began thinking of names and suit designs for you “ Hurry up and pack those bags before I drop by with take away, so we can gossip over Steve Rogers’s abs.”

“Um…don’t get me wrong he is super hot, I just see the Cap more like an older brother figure than anything.” It was true, you looked up to him since the first time you studied about the Civil War. Fearless, gave his life in a way for his people, astonishing man over all.

“Hey! Let me drool over him! You were always more of a Winter Soldier fan anyways.” Nea pouted audibly . Her words made some lone memory pop up in your head, but it was as murky as the rest. “I don’t know why I am interested in him. Somehow his look is very nostalgic and rugged. Anyways. ”you shook your head out of the mental image of the soldier “I will go pack up, tell my parents and fix up all my documents. Probably find some stuff from former Stark employees online. I want to have a bit of an idea of what he expects and what I am getting myself into.”

“Fine fine, you could have just said you like troubled guys. You were the one who was happy Loki got a second chance after all. I will be over in like 3 hours.” She informed you

“Hey! He deserved to redeem himself, he was used!” a firm Loki supporter as always “Ok then, see ya.”

   Hanging up the call you placed your phone to charge and rolled off your bed. The email gave vague information about what you needed, but clothing wise you would still be able to come home and get stuff if you had to. What was on top of your priorities were papers, documents, all your research materials and tech. Those things had to be organized no matter what ,since they got you this far in the first place.

  Nae came over as planned and you two had a nice sleepover talking about you know who. The night came and left, letting the morning find you in your bed at 11am. Your forearm rested on top of your forehead in a relaxed manner, letting enough space for an exhale to linger in the air in front of you. Your mind was going over everything that was about to happen to you. It was one of your dreams, you worked for it nonstop day in day out, so why were you so worried about meeting the rest of the Avengers? Maybe it was just anxiety or fear of the unknown, yeah made sense.

  All you did during the day was make lists for every piece of tech you were binging with yourself. Things seemed to be in order, but worry kept nibbling on your bones. The moment of truth finally rolled up and so did your suitcase in front of your house. Nea came to send you off as she promised.

“Sweetie, make sure to call us every day. Eat well, don’t overwork yourself and-“ your mom went off with caution about anything and everything that came to mind

“Mom, you know I am going 3 blocks down from here right? Plus I can come home at any time I want to. I am not moving to Mars or getting arrested.” You smirked the panic away from her, giving them a big hug.

“Call me or text me when you get there.” Nea pulled you in, whispering in your ear as quietly as possible “And don’t forget to sneak me a booty pick of good ol’Cap. You know what they say-”

“That is America’s ass.” Your voice came out in a mocking tone

“That i-…let me at least finish it by myself! Geez!” she pushed you towards the door “Ok ok, go now before you spoil me something else” her arms crossed in front of her chest

  The walk wasn’t that long, you were too invested in your own thoughts to notice when the time and distance had passed. The glistening windows of the compound building shined into your eyes. Your lungs filled up with a breath that they kept in for a moment, before releasing it back in the outside world. Pulling out the documents you stepped in. The fresh smelling air hit you making you close one eye for a second.

People were walking around you fast and concentrated. Some looked in a hurry, others were on break with a cup of coffee and a strain-leaving expression.

 Your feet, as slightly shaky as they were, took you right up to the front desk were a lady with a dark rich red colored uniform looked at you. She flashed a professional smile, her eyes asking for your purpose.

“Um, hello. My name is Y/N -Y/L/N.” she saw the logo on your papers and gasped

“You must be the new intern Mr. Stark told us about.” She signed something and reached out “Can you give me your hand for a second.” Your fingers didn’t go past the surface of the desk when she pocked your skin. Pulling in your extremity, your palm wrapped around the spot that began to sting a bit “Don’t worry about it. This is your identification pass. Fancy, no?” she smiled winking. Her body stood up as she pointed at the elevator far in the back of the foyer.

  Instructions were given with each step of the way, calming your nerves a bit. The moment you found yourself inside the elevator she pulled your hand to the sensor on the wall next to the buttons.

Recognized: Code 2514. Welcome Miss Y/N  

 Your head shot up when F.R.I.D.Y.’s voice echoed in the small space. The women smiled giving you a small nod and stepped out of the vicinity. Once her body was outside ,the doors slid closed. Over them glowed a protective blue light layering over the material like a soft veil.

 It felt like you weren’t moving an inch. Your body flinched when the sun stung at your eyes from the window. Your gaze landed over the view of the city, as you went higher and higher, ascending into the clouds  The blues and yellows were covering the inside of the elevator, such vibrant and lovely colors warming your body. For a moment your heart felt heavy- lost memory tugged onto it again. An often occurrence lately, yet you kept brushing off as deja vu. 

Floor 134. Welcome to the Avenger’s compound Miss Y/N

“134!?” the numbers cracked out with your voice. The interface made you turn towards the opposite opening doors revealing a room as big as a hall, if not almost a stadium. The ceiling was high being the lid to this round area. Your heart beat increased pumping blood to your body, dilating your pupils at least twice their original size. It look amazing, almost like you had just entered heaven. The walls were white, the furniture was perfectly placed and cream colored. Stepping outside you jumped at the sound of the elevator doors closing behind you. 

“Wow” escaped your lips, your hand pulling the suitcase closer. So this was the common room or the shared space. The windows were so big they were practically a wall of their own. The bright rays were making themselves at home giving the white paint a new color with each passing minute. The ceilings were probably the equivalent of 3 floors in height. There was this weird feeling of home inside, a bit of isolation maybe mixed in. 

“Miss Y/N?” your head swung to the side when you recognized that shy but bright smile. Throwing the papers on top of your suitcase, you extended your arm at the man.

“Ah.” Good thing your mind automatically responds politely to people without you giving it much thought “Dr. Banner. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.” you shook his hand gently a couple of times and let go ,finding the papers and showing them to him “My name is Y/N-Y/L/N.” gentle bow and a smile followed the words skillfully chosen

“Welcome Welcome. Tony is out right now so I might be the only one actively walking around the compound. Well…”he scratched the back of his neck, lightly hunching over with a sheepish smile “I am one of the people you will be working under anyways, so I guess it is good that I came to get you. I would love to show you the lab, but I am sure you would like to set up your things first.” You nodded and he showed you to your room. The corridor had 3 tall doors scattered on the walls, all looking modern and elegant.

“This is the side where usually we have our female members. Natasha and Wanda will be your nextdoor neighbors. Hope it won’t be any trouble.” Bruce looked at you ,when an aggressive shake took over your neck

“No, no. Not at all sir. I am very grateful to have such amazing heroes next to me. As a matter of fact won’t they be troubled with me here?” and here came the normal anxiety that you had for everything

“I am sure they will like you. Don’t worry about it.” Bruce stepped next to the door and waved you over “You don’t have a key or a door handle as a matter of fact. Tony’s idea, don’t ask. If you got up here on your own I assume he made the girls downstairs give you an identification implant. That is basically your entrance for everything here. Kind of an Avengers thing.” You nodded and him wiggling his fingers like a spell. Placing your hand on the door like he told you activated F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Recognized: Y/N. Access and ownership granted.

  The metal frame slid open and you found yourself standing before a big room. It was nicely furnished. The desk was big enough for you to work on it and have everything around. Bookshelves empty and ready to be used on your left and a large bed on your right flush against the wall. The window was once more its own wall right in front of you standing behind the desk. The bathroom door was opening a space before the shelf the same color as the paint in the common room.

“I will let you set up. If you need anything F.R.I.D.A.Y. is always here. The room is interactive, you can ask exactly what works under the interface’s control. The door is one.Take your time.”he was on his way out “Would you like some coffee or tea?”

“I would like some tea, thank you very much.” Bruce flashed you a smile “F.R.I.D.A.Y. the door please.”

Door closed 

  Done as said and requested, clicking behind you. 

Would you like an extensive list of my functions as an assistant?

“Please do.”

[mira--mira]

Hogwarts AU

(AKA another shiny distraction my brain latched onto, but I’m not writing this one bc 1. it’s already too long and 2. Valentine’s AU is already my wip bad idea one-shot of the month(s) lol.) 

Half ficlet/half random plot points. 

4K words

First and foremost: Madara is a Hufflepuff. Seriously. The heir of the Uchiha, a well-known pure-blood Slytherin family*, has the hat on his head for half a second before it’s yelling Hufflepuff. Madara’s family is the single most important thing to him and he will protect them no matter the cost. That loyalty triumphs even a desire for power.

His house mates are terrified of him. In the first-year Madara’s mostly quiet and homesick so he’s a loner. He hasn’t done anything to deserve his reputation but he’s an Uchiha in Hufflepuff. It’s the talk of the town for weeks. That all changes in his second year when Kaito gets put in Gryffindor. Despite Kou being a former Gryffindor, he gets bullied and told he doesn’t belong in his house. Madara gets in five separate duels in the span of two weeks, manages to win despite the bullies being fourth and fifth years and one time doesn’t even wait for wands to be drawn before he starts swinging at one of them. His reputation is well-deserved now and he absolutely does not care as long as the Gryffindors are terrified he’s going to appear behind them if they so much look at his brother wrong. Kaito is resigned, expecting nothing less, but does manage to make friends with two muggleborns. 

*The main Uchiha branch, before Madara’s generation, were one of the most pure-bred families and could trace a completely Slytherin legacy back to the beginning (though there were always rumors that a Veela or two intermarried.) And then Tajima fell head over heels for an extremely powerful muggleborn Gryffindor. The extended family was not pleased. To put it mildly. The heir is a half-blood and a Hufflepuff and the second eldest a Gryffindor. But at least Tajima didn’t marry a Senju, the family consoled themselves...

And speaking of, in his second year Madara also meets Hashirama. Hashirama, who is a Slytherin. He loves his family more than anything too but sees power and charm as the best way to protect them in the long run. Similar to Madara, he’s from a well-known family but the Senju before him had, at times, married half-bloods and muggleborns, but always were Gryffindors. Hashirama’s “defection” to Slytherin was not well-looked upon by his family, his house, or the house he was “supposed” to be in. He’s friendly and charming which is slowly winning people over, and incredibly powerful for his age. His and Madara’s first meeting is in the Forbidden Forest. Hashirama was out after hours looking for special plants, while Madara was out trying to spot a hippogriff. They run into each other and are very wary, but since they’re both second-years and they’re both breaking the rules...it’s not like one of them is in a “better” position than the other. Though with how many detentions Madara’s had for fighting his punishment would probably be more severe. 

Somehow they manage to run into each other three separate times, before the incident happens. The incident being stumbling upon a dead hippogriff and her one newly cracked egg with an injured newborn. Madara sees the baby, the dead mother, grabs it and tries to run back to the school. Punishment be damned, it won’t survive and he doesn’t know healing spells. Only to run smack-dab into Hashirama who’s been gathering herbs and happens to know healing spells. Madara sucks up his pride, and wants to avoid detention, and asks for his help. Together, Hashirama heals the hippogriff while Madara goes to find it something to eat. They spend hours with the baby together, but they don’t know what to do with after. So Madara, in his 12 year old wisdom, decides to take it into the castle. Due to the sheer terror of his presence, he and Hashirama manage to keep it hidden between them for three days. When it eventually gets discovered, both boys get punished with a week-long detention and that’s the start of their friendship. They’re pretty inseparable after that and it’s comical, from a distance, to see a scowling Hufflepuff and a sunny Slytherin walking side by side. Not a lot of their interests overlap, but they’re both waaaay too into dueling, join the dueling club, and quickly rise to the top of their year until the other kids really don’t want to go up against either one.  

They’re each others first real friend. Madara is stubborn and, let’s be real socially obliviousness enough, that he sticks with Hashirama no matter how many barbed comments come from the Slytherins, Gryffindors, or anyone else. Madara’s terrifying reputation has no effect on Hashirama, his first serious interaction with Madara was seeing him near tears holding an injured baby hippogriff after all, so his prickly demeanor and scowls don’t faze Hashirama.

Third year starts and Tobirama and Izuna are placed. Tobirama in Ravenclaw, and Izuna joins Madara in Hufflepuff. Tobirama tried to argue with the hat to place him in Gryffindor to please Butsuma, but that’s not happening. Izuna, similarly dedicated to family, isn’t a surprise to Madara but freaks the school out that there’s a second Uchiha in Hufflepuff and expect him to be like Madara. Izuna’s not. He’s sweet and innocent, and a terrible little prankster who no one suspects or can hold a grudge against. He’s also a little jealous of Hashirama for taking up his brother’s time and starts to wage a cold war against him. Hashirama thinks Izuna is adorable and it’s cute that he loves Madara so much, but like hell Hashirama is giving up his BFF. Tobirama thinks his brother is being childish and questions why he’s even friends with Madara in the first place, given Madara’s reputation and the fact that he still gets into fights though not as often. Kaito pretends he doesn’t know them, and only hangs out with Madara at school when Izuna and Hashirama aren’t around. 

Fourth year starts, Yuuto, Reo, and Kawarama start their first year. Yuuto and Reo live up to the Uchiha name and are placed in Slytherin. They’re also Izuna on steroids when it comes to pranks, set up a prank business based on favors, and insert themselves as agents of chaos in the ongoing cold war between Hashirama and Izuna. They tell Hashirama it’s all about ‘house solidarity’ with matching sinister grins and Hashirama knows he’s walking into some ongoing sibling thing in the Uchiha family. Still, he accepts their help and in response Izuna ropes an unwilling Tobirama into his schemes. Madara is still oblivious. Kawarama also lives up to the Senju name and gets placed in Gryffindor. Ironically, he looks up to Kaito as one of the ‘best’ example of a Gryffindor, and starts to follow him around like a duckling. Kaito’s first pearl of wisdom is to avoid their brothers, unless they’re alone, or all together. 

Fifth year starts and Itama is the last Senju to enroll. He gets placed into Hufflepuff and is absolutely terrified of the two older Uchiha in his house. Hashirama tries for a week to rope him into his and Izuna’s war and Itama blanches at the idea of acting like a spy, despite Hashirama’s protests that it’s not spying per se, it’s just keeping a very close eye on Izuna so Hashirama can get a leg up. Itama joins Kaito and Kawarama in the camp of “this is not my problem to deal with” and feels better about it even though it still means dealing with (another) Uchiha. Tobirama desperately wishes he was part of that camp. It all comes to a head before the Yule Ball. (I know it’s a Tri-Wizard tournament thing, but I want to use it.) Tobirama, fed up of Hashirama needling him, tells him if he wants a guaranteed night of uninterrupted peace where Madara’s attention is fully on him, just ask him to the Ball, third-years can’t attend. Tobirama was being sarcastic, but Hashirama takes the idea and runs with it. Runs all the way to Madara to immediately ask him on the spot. Madara who’s with Izuna. Who says yes with only a little bluster and two high spots of color on his cheeks.     

Hashirama is ecstatic. He is over the moon and Tobirama is regretting every single life choice that brought him to this moment. Over the next month he bothers all of his brothers, ‘should I cut my hair?’ ‘which haircut looks better?’ ‘do I need to get new dress robes?’ ‘which style do you think Madara would like best?’ ‘how does this cologne smell?’ ‘which kind of breathmint smells better?’ He asks Tobirama the last one and gets met with a scathing look and a silencing hex that seals his mouth shut for the next two hours. Itama is still paralyzed at the thought of Madara so Kawarama ends up being the one Hashirama hounds the most. Kaito also gets dragged in as a ‘Madara expert’ bc he’s with Kawarama a lot. 

The night of the Yule Ball comes and Hashirama, with uncut hair, new robes and cologne, and the fanciest kind of ten varieties of breathmint, sets out for his totally-not-a-date. Only to met with Yuuto on the stairs who wishes him luck. Hashirama thanks him and Reo, standing behind him immediately knocks him out with a stunning spell. They strip him of his fancy robes, tie him up, and leave him in a closet. Outside Slytherin’s dungeon entrance, Izuna’s waiting impatiently. The twins appear with a flourish, Hashirama’s robes in Reo’s hand and a polyjuice in potion in Yuuto’s. Family special. When Hashirama asked his brother out on a date right in front of him, it was time for Izuna to get serious. Even if meant sucking up his pride and asking his younger brothers for help. Yuuto and Reo like Hashirama but the chance to rub this in Izuna’s face forever? Him being eternally in their debt? So worth it. 

Izuna takes the potion and clothes and meets up with Madara as “Hashirama”. He has one plan. Make Madara see how insufferable Hashirama is, so he stops spending every free moment with him and instead spends more time with his family. First he’s late and shrugs it off whenever Madara asks. They go to the Ball and “Hashirama” ignores Madara. Barely responds whenever he speaks or constantly interrupts him and talks over him. Dances with other people and the one time Madara mutters that he wouldn’t mind dancing, says he’s too tired and retreats to the snack table. Internally, Izuna feels equal parts thrilled and guilty. His plan is working perfectly, but he feels a bit bad he’s putting his brother through this, even though it’ll be better in the long run. He doesn’t even have to try and ignore him in the later half of the night, Madara sits by himself in a corner and won’t even look at or speak to “Hashirama.” They leave the Ball early and barely round two hallways, only the barest cover of ‘privacy’ before Madara whirls on him and starts yelling about how embarrassing and humiliating the entire experience was and why did he even ask him out if this was how he was going to act? Izuna sees the final nail in the coffin and and says he was confused and thought he liked Madara like that but decided he didn’t. He didn’t want to go to the Ball together, but he couldn’t think of a good way to tell Madara before. Izuna expects anger. Expects to see Madara’s infamous short temper and has prepared to flee with three distinct escape routes in mind in case his brother pulls out his wand. 

He doesn’t expect Madara’s face to collapse in devastation. Or worse for his eyes to turn shiny with tears before he spins and starts stalking away. Izuna realizes how bad he’s messed up and tries to stop Madara. But the infamous temper sparks now, and he’s barely touched his shoulder before Madara’s turning and slamming his fist into “Hashirama’s” face. Izuna drops, unused to the pain and with a choked snarl not to follow him, Madara flees. 

After a minute or two, Izuna picks himself up and dusts himself off. Only to immediately get shoved up against the stone walls as the real Hashirama comes flying around the corner, dressed in his undershirt and pants. He’s furious and for the first time in his life Izuna is actually scared of him. Hashirama demands to know where Madara is and what Izuna did. Izuna explains, in half-formed sentences, feeling like he’s about to cry. The more he says, the paler Hashirama gets until now he’s the one tearing up but his face is still twisted in rage. He yells at Izuna, how he would never do or say any of that, how important Madara is to him and how much he was looking forward to tonight. Izuna’s crying now, mumbling out apologies, and other partygoers are starting to happen upon them and see the very confusing sight of Senju Hashirama shoving Senju Hashirama up against a wall. 

Hashirama drops him and tells him to go back to his dorm while he takes off after Madara. There is a chance Madara went back to his dorm but it’s unlikely. He doesn’t like to be around people when he’s upset. Hashirama checks the owlery, he peers into the magical creatures’ enclosure, he’s considering going into the Forbidden Forest or trying to get on a broom to check the skies, when he spots the greenhouse’s door cracked open. He creeps closer and hears someone sniffling inside. Peering around the corner, he can barely make out Madara’s dark form. It’s only because he’s sitting under the moon lilies in Hashirama’s portioned off area of the greenhouse he can see him at all. 

Hashirama stumbles in as Madara looks up and yells at him to leave. Hashirama sees the tear tracks on Madara’s face and immediately starts sobbing himself. He moves closer despite Madara’s protests and eventually gets the full story out. Madara doesn’t yell at him to leave again and together they sit in silence under Hashirama’s moon lilies until he can’t take it and moves even closer, grabbing Madara’s hand. He doesn’t have his mints and his breath is still hitching from crying so hard, but he learns forward and kisses him. For one moment, Madara doesn’t respond and Hashirama thinks the night is going to get even worse before he finally reacts and kisses back. 

They’re curled together under the moon lilies until the sun rises and the flowers wilt. Both of them are exhausted, but neither wanted to leave and burst their little bubble of peace. It lasts until a harried professor walks into the greenhouse and spots them. When neither returned to the castle, Izuna panicked and thought they were hurt so he told a teacher and the entire staff has been searching for them for a better part of the night. 

Parents are called and there’s a conference. Tajima, Kou, and Butsuma can barely be in the same room together without wands or fists coming out. Soroko is sitting in the middle of it, trying to actually figure out why they were called in. Everything eventually comes out and Yuuto, Reo, and Izuna are punished for attacking another student, creating a polyjuice potion, and impersonating a student. Butsuma is torn between fury that three Uchiha attacked his son, and irritation that their ultimate goal, to separate Madara and Hashirama, failed.

And fail it did. If they were joined at the hip before, it’s nothing compared to now. The rest of their fifth year was a bit rocky with family dynamics. Izuna does apologize to both, but Madara’s disappointed and Hashirama’s not quick to forgive in this situation. Neither are happy with the twins either, but they were opportunistic rather than the masterminds. By the end of the year the worst has been smoothed over but Hashirama and Izuna still have an uneasy relationship. In groups, they’re fine, but it gets awkward fast if it’s just the two of them. 

Sixth year starts and Hashirama and Madara are officially dating. The extended Uchiha family mourn, it’s Tajima all over again, and the Senju have to reckon with an unlikely friendship becoming an unlikely romance. And hopefully it’s just a teenage fling, but with the way Hashirama talks about their future after school, each career choice changing depending on the month but always the two of them together worries the Senju. There’s an attempt to arrange an engagement between Hashirama and Uzumaki Mito, a Ravenclaw who transferred in their third year, but it falls apart quickly. 

Seventh year starts and those far off plans becomes reality as they pass their NEWTS and graduate. They spend a few years in a professional dueling league before eventually inheriting their fathers’ spots in the government. It’s a...bit awkward for the extended family bc they still hate each other but the heads of their houses are married and live together. In their spare time, Madara fosters and rehabilitates injured magical birds and Hashirama has a garden that is less of a garden and more of a forest with a lot of (illegal) magical plants. Tobirama is an arthimancer but dabbles in potions and he threatens to report his brother every week, but comes to collect rare ingredients because the shops never have the same quality. Izuna gets a respectable job in the Department of Mysteries, but moonlights as a diviner that reads people’s fortunes and scams them out of their money. Kaito has no interest in politics and is the only person in the history of hogwarts who wants to willingly teach history of magic. Kawarama becomes a defense lawyer in the wizengamont and is notorious for bringing up loopholes and obscure magical laws that haven’t been used since 1632. Yuuto and Reo open their prank shop...and low-key revive the wizard mafia. They always know someone, somewhere that somehow owes one of them a favor. They never get into politics and everyone, including the extended Uchiha family, are glad.

Misc. Facts about this AU

Kou’s abnormal power in this AU is that she cannot use a wand. She was taken wand shopping but all of them eventually...exploded. Kou’s magic reacted negatively with other magical focuses and she relies completely on wandless magic. Madara inherited that natural ability from her, but his magic doesn’t react negatively with his wand. It allows him to, at the height of his power, “double-cast” once with his wand and once wandless with only a slight split second delay between them. Meanwhile Hashirama has insane stamina and a weird ability where spells just...aren’t that effective against him. They work, but never seem to be at full strength. This is great for offensive spells, not great for defensive/healing ones. Hashirama’s own magic, however, reacts normally to his body.

Tajima and Butsuma are both politicians in the Ministry of Magic and their seats are the farthest apart in the room. They were rivals in school and it continues now. They even occasionally agree on policy decisions, they just hate each other. 

Madara loves flying but he was banned from the school quidditch team. Kou is a professional player and he tried some of her prohibited moves. Namely, jumping off his broom, to drop down and grab a bludger and hurl it at the enemy before recalling his broom. 

Hashirama has a fear of flying. He fell off a broom as a child and gets extremely nervous when his feet don’t touch the ground. He will fly with Madara, but his eyes are close the entire time and he’s clinging to Madara’s back.

Kaito and Kawarama are best friends. Not “best friends” like Hashirama and Madara’s love-struck romance or “best friends” like Izuna and Tobirama’s frenemy status, but actual good platonic friends. Kaito made the joke that Itama could make friends with the twins and then it’d all even out. Itama takes one look at those crazy two and bursts into tears. 

Itama eventually gets used to Madara. They both love magical creatures and Itama is forced to see him a lot after hours. Madara still terrifies him, but at least he treats the animals nicely. The other three Uchiha still terrify him. 

Mito transferred to Hogwarts in her third year. She’s a Ravenclaw and is friendly with the Senju, especially Hashirama and Tobirama. Hashirama is an endless source of amusement for her and Tobirama balances it out with interesting ideas. 

Madara has a falcon for his pet instead of an owl. He was told it wasn’t allowed and responded by saying the falcon’s name was Owl. Why can’t his Owl be allowed in school? The administration is not amused.

Soroko is the most normal and level-headed out of the Senju/Uchiha parents. She reaches out to Kou once it becomes obvious Hashirama is determined to keep Madara as his friend, despite Butsuma’s disapproval. Once they start dating Kou and Soroko start meeting regularly for tea and lunches. She also has a bit of a mischievous side and likes Yuuto and Reo best (polyjuice incident aside)

The Uchiha’s maternal muggle grandparents are still alive. They usually visit for at least two weeks every summer and there are hijinks. Tajima still can’t stand muggle newspapers and their non-moving pictures. He despises muggle cars and traffic jams and still doesn’t understand what a TV is, but can turn the channel and raise/lower the volume. However, he loves fountain pens and scandalized the entire Ministry by exclusively using them after his father-in-law got him a fancy engraved set. Kou’s parents take the invasion of magic into their space remarkably well. Madara dragged in god only knows how many freakish alien looking birds from a supposedly normal non-magical wood. Kaito, as a child, refused to go anywhere for more than a day or two without the talking portrait of great-great-great-great-great grandma Uchiha. Izuna was sweet as sugar, but insisted on trying to cast every charm he knew on their furniture and clothes to show them, despite Tajima and Kou’s repeated warnings about underage magic and not turning grandma and grandpa’s couch into a miniature version of itself. And Yuuto and Reo were causing trouble before they could walk. Countless times Kou’s parents had to tip-toe around booby-traps in their own house that would dump frogs on them, or politely put smuggled howlers at the bottom of the mail pile to deal with later. They are very patient people. Very.

Kiddo Breakdown

Madara 

Hufflepuff  Interests - Dueling, Care of Magical Creatures (loves anything with feathers) Patronus - peregrine falcon Wand - red oak, phoenix feather, 12.5 inches, inflexible 

Hashirama

Slytherin Interests - Dueling, Herbology, Healing Spells Patronus - brown bear Wand - english oak, dragon heartstring, 12.5 inches, springy 

Kaito

Gryffindor  Interests - DADA, History of Magic Patronus - canary Wand - pear, unicorn hair, 9 inches, pliable

Izuna

Hufflepuff Interests - Charms, Divination Patronus - ferret Wand - rowan, unicorn hair, 10 inches, inflexible 

Tobirama

Ravenclaw Interests - Potions, Arithmancy Patronus - polar bear Wand - walnut, dragon heartstring, 9.5 inches, stiff

Yuuto

Slytherin  Interests - Potions, pranks, entrepreneurship  Patronus - coyote  Wand - sycamore, unicorn hair, 10 inches, springy 

Reo

Slytherin  Interests - Charms, pranks, entrepreneurship Patronus - jackal  Wand - sycamore, dragon heartstring, 10 inches, pliable 

Kawarama 

Gryffindor Interests - Transfiguration, History of Magic Patronus - lynx  Wand - larch, phoenix feather, 9.5 inches, reasonably springy 

Itama

Hufflepuff Interests - Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy Patronus - rabbit Wand - willow, unicorn hair, 11 inches, unpliable  

[knit-wear-it]

Bloom

A/N: Happy Pride! Here’s some Crossbow Canary to celebrate 🏳️‍🌈❤️🏳️‍🌈❤️

They met at a Halloween party. Helena was half-listening to a group of fellow freshmen discussing the politics of TokTok when she noticed her— a petite, athletically-built blonde wearing a yellow hard hat and a slick of red lipstick. It was a shade too dark for her, standing out stark against her pale skin; the mark of a makeup novice. She was laughing with a small group of friends, her smile radiant. She was radiant.

Then, as if she could feel Helena staring, the blonde looked straight at her.

There was a faint flush in the apples of her cheeks as she offered a tremulous but encouraging smile, and Helena practically bolted across the room toward her.

***

Her name was Dinah.

They met again a week later, by accident, at a small martial arts studio off campus. Helena arrived just as Dinah was leaving, her face shiny and blotchy with exertion, her ashy blonde hair plaited back in a sweaty French braid. She wore black Lycra gym-gear beneath her pea coat to stave off the approaching New Jersey winter. Her coat was a vibrant cornflower blue, reminding Helena of the rich pigments Italian Renaissance painters used for Mary Magdalen's robes. Without the dark smear of lipstick, she could see the graceful curve of her prominent Cupid’s bow, giving her face a sweetness that belied the clear-eyed maturity few their age possessed.

“Oh,” Dinah stopped short on the sidewalk, her face lighting up. “Hello,” she grinned.

“Hi,” Helena grinned back at her, suddenly giddy as if she’d eaten a gallon of corn syrup. She could feel excitement fizzing in her veins, propelling her closer like a moth to the flame.

“Do you train here?” Dinah asked, re-shouldering her gym bag.

“They have a Krav Maga class I like,” Helena explained. “You?”

“Jiu Jitsu,” Dinah shrugged, smiling. “My old trainer swore by Krav Maga, but it doesn’t have the same…” she pursed her lips as she took her time to search for the word. “Grace,” she settled on.

“Grace?” Helena smirked. “Are we talking about ballet or fighting?”

Dinah laughed easily. “My first sensei would say they were the same thing.”

“Wow, how many senseis and trainers have you had?” Helena teased. She immediately regretted it when Dinah visibly tensed, her expression abruptly becoming guarded.

“I was fostered at a dojo for a little while when I was a kid,” she explained haltingly, her brown eyes darting off to the side. “And uh, then I was in a group home until I was eighteen and they… let me keep taking karate to give me some, uh, stability I guess.”

Helena’s eyes widened at this revelation, delivered so candidly in passing on the sidewalk—that she’d grown up in foster care; that she was an orphan. She could feel Dinah’s uneasiness, and it inspired a desperate need to comfort or reassure her, a wholly unfamiliar impulse.

“My dad sent me to a Swiss boarding school when I was twelve,” Helena blurted out. “After my mom died. It was kind of like a group home just with, you know, rich kids and archery. And a castle.”

As the words came tumbling out of her mouth, she knew she was being horribly rude by being so flippant about her privilege, but it seemed to lighten Dinah’s mood, her kind smile blooming again.

“Well, just because there was archery doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard to be away from everything you knew,” she said, meeting Helena’s eye meaningfully.

She understood loneliness, Helena realized. She understood the pain and anger of abandonment. Yet she didn’t carry bitterness around in the same way Helena did; bitterness that didn’t taste as bad when Dinah was standing here proving there was a way beyond it. It gave Helena hope—something she wasn’t well acquainted with after repeated tragedies.

A squat city bus puttered past behind them, catching Dinah’s eye. She glanced at Helena apologetically, a sliver of vulnerability slipping into her otherwise confident counternence.

“Maybe I’ll try Krav Maga sometime,” she offered, almost shyly.

“Maybe we could get coffee afterward,” Helena suggested, beaming.

They exchanged numbers before Dinah ran to catch the bus.

***

A week later, they kicked the shit out of each other at the studio and went for coffee. Helena had expected Dinah to pick up the Krav Maga moves quickly since she was well-versed in Karate and Jiu Jitsu. She even indulged in a stupid fantasy about helping her find the right techniques and positions, a blatant ploy to be physically closer to her.

But when they began sparing, Helena quickly realized she was wildly outmatched. Dinah did not need her help—she already knew Krav Maga even if she hadn’t quite mastered it. Then the minute Helena got the upper hand, Dinah gave up on the prescribed moves the instructor gave them, and took Helena down with a few quick karate strikes she couldn’t counter effectively.

Helena’s back hit the mat hard, knocking the wind out of her. Her eyes widening as Dinah pinned her down with a steady hand flat over her heart, the heel of her small hand grazing the top of Helena’s breast through her sports bra.

Dinah released her and sat back, looking smug.

“You cheated!” Helena laughed, accepting a hand to pull herself up to sitting.

“What’s the point of fighting if you aren’t going to win?” Dinah shot her a knowing smirk.

“What happened to grace?” Helena demanded, her eyebrows raising when Dinah faltered but quickly recovered.

“You’re right,” she agreed, her face softening like she’d come to some internal revelation. “It’s not about winning. It’s about the practice, and finding balance.”

“Alright, sensei,” Helena rolled her eyes but she couldn’t stop smiling—another unfamiliar impulse. “You can buy me a coffee to make up for cheating.”

“It’s called mixed martial arts for a reason,” Dinah insisted as they headed for the changing rooms. “I was just mixing in more martial arts”

“Yeah, yeah.”

***

For the rest of the semester they trained and went for coffee at least once a week. They would tell each other which parties they were going to, what events their friends were discussing attending. It went unsaid that they were leaving breadcrumbs for each other, a trail that would lead them back together.

Their social lives began to blend. Helena became friendly with Dinah’s carefully cultivated group of scholastic overachievers and misfits. Meanwhile, the gang of loud, kittenish gay men Helena surrounded herself with fawned over Dinah. They showed her how to do her make-up properly and cheered when she paraded around the dorm in high heels for them like a clumsy newborn colt.

“She is gorgeous,” one of Helena’s friends hissed to her.

But it never went any further than a lingering touch or look as Helena restrained herself from making the first move, but not because she feared rejection. She’d taken a gap year after boarding school, a boozy thirteen months during which she’d travelled across Southeast Asia—Vietnam, Cambodia,Thailand, Bali, Singapore—and then on to Australia. The youthful hedonism that characterized backpacking made it easy not to be shy or ashamed of her attraction to both boys and girls. But she resisted making the first move with Dinah— she wanted Dinah to come to her.

***

Helena stayed at Princeton over the holidays, just like she’d done throughout boarding school. The only place she could feasibly go was Gotham to be with her younger brother, Pino. He was seventeen, and Helena had just enough contact to suspect he was already involved in the ‘family business,’ which she tried not to think about. They mostly kept in touch via Snapchat and Instagram, a selfie and meme-based relationship that removed the painful edges of reality.

Dinah returned to Gotham for Christmas to visit another member of the orphanage she’d grown up in. She wanted to see how they were getting on without her, she said, though she wasn’t looking forward to being back in the city.

But something obviously went wrong while she was away, because once they were back at school she began determinedly avoiding Helena. She made excuses about being busy with classes and other friends needing her attention. Weeks went by and Helena started to feel crazy, like she was missing something obvious, which meant she was either blind or too stupid to be able to see what was happening.

Then out of the blue Dinah showed up at Helena’s dorm, her hair freshly cut in a cute, girlish bob that brushed the collar of her cornflower blue coat, her tawny eyes glowing determinedly.

“Helena,” she breathed, searching Helena’s face. “Will you go out with me?”

***

They went out for dinner, something Helena had never done with a girl before. She’d slept with women, but she struggled with the idea of going on a date with a woman. She was disappointed in herself, that she hadn't evolved beyond worrying about the perception of others when she knew what she wanted.

But those worries were relegated to background noise when Dinah showed up on her doorstep, wearing a candy-apple-red shade of lipstick that suited her perfectly.

“Hey,” she greeted Helena, her smile radiant. Excited.

***

After dinner, Helena walked Dinah back to her dorm. When the moment she’d been waiting months for finally arrived, Dinah tucked a loose piece of Helena’s hair behind her ear, then tentatively laid her palm across the curve of her jaw. Her eyes fell shut as she drew Helena's mouth down to hers.

Her lips were eager and curious, but clumsy. Helena paused to draw back, the thick fringe of her eyelashes brushing Dinah’s nose as she opened her eyes. Dinah’s hand was still resting on her cheek, while Helena’s hands had found Dinah’s waist. Her eyes were heavy and her lips parted, the red lipstick faded.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Helena said slowly. “But... have you ever kissed someone before?”

Dinah’s face split into a rueful grin, without a trace of shame. “I have now,” she pointed out playfully.

Helena mirrored her grin and gave Dinah’s waist a gentle tug, pulling her closer as their lips met again.

***

They went on more dates, and eventually they found their way into each other’s beds. They got to know each other’s bodies, bringing them closer in a way Helena hadn’t realized was possible. She’d only experienced sex as a blurry, rushed encounter, but with Dinah she was overwhelmed, drunk on how badly she wanted her.

Their friend groups continued to cross pollinate with the queer communities on campus, and they slowly began to build a chosen family together since neither of them had one of their own. Helena was thrilled to see Dinah slowly shed the armour she’d built to protect herself, becoming more open and accepting of her own feelings and desires. But Helena found it harder, in part because she was lying to Dinah by not telling her the full truth of her past.

Her family and their ‘business’ was a dark, shameful secret she had never told another person, and she couldn’t decide how Dinah, with her strong moral compass, would react. It was like an invisible blockade between them, one Helena knew could destroy the delicate fabric of their blossoming relationship if she didn’t resolve it.

About four months after their first official date, it became impossible to keep it inside any longer, especially because the words “I love you” were constantly threatening to spill past her lips. It was only when she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer that she found the courage.

“You can tell me anything, Helena,” Dinah insisted, holding Helena’s hands between hers. They were sitting on a blanket on the quad, the sun shining bright overhead as the first vestiges of spring bloomed around them.

Helena felt physically sick. She’d imagined every way this conversation could go, and she usually settled on Dinah being horrified once she learned the terrible, violent truth.

“It’s about…” she swallowed thickly. “My family. I haven’t been… completely honest with you. My dad. He wasn’t really a businessman. Not in the traditional sense.”

Dinah’s eyebrows raised, but she gave Helena’s hands a reassuring squeeze.

After a few false starts, Helena explained that her family wasn’t like other families. That her father and his brothers and generations of Bertinelli men before them hadn’t had… normal jobs. They were criminals. Successful, powerful criminals whose influence manipulated the very fabric of Gotham society.

Dinah listened, her expression becoming more and more guarded as Helena ploughed ahead. She could see what she was thinking. That Helena’s family was partially responsible for the corruption and crime that plagued Gotham. That the city was a shithole because of men like her father. It was all true, or at least it used to be, before the masked freaks took over and made everything worse.

She explained that a man named Mandragora tried to usurp her father when she was twelve, killing her mother, aunts and uncles, cousins and family friends in a blood feud. She was shipped off to Europe for safe keeping while her brother Pino, just 9 years old at the time, was sent to live with extended family in Central City. Ultimately her father’s associates and friends ran Mandragora out of town, but not before the damage was done. Helena remained in Switzerland, and Pino returned to Gotham, where he was raised by what extended members of the Bertinelli clan.

There was one more piece of information Helena couldn’t bring herself to share, because just thinking about what happened to her father made her blood boil—anger frequently outstripped grief when she thought about what Harley Quinn did to her Papa.

She hunted him. Tortured him. Murdered him.

But she couldn’t say the words. Mobsters were bad enough. Harley Quinn was an entirely different kind of villain, one Helena didn’t want her family — who she loved deeply despite their flaws —associated with if she could help it.

By the time she’d finished, Dinah had taken to playing with an errant daisy springing up from the grass, her attention wholly focused on the little white flower as she worked through her thoughts. When she finally looked up at Helena, she was cautious, still uncertain, but eventually her lips curved into a smile—kind, open, generous, and reassuring.

“I have to tell you something too,” she shrugged helplessly. “I love you, Helena... and you aren’t responsible for the choices your family made. You still loved them and lost them and I know how much that hurt you.”

Helena’s eyes widened, shocked that Dinah was speaking these words to Helena. For Helena.

“I—“ she faltered, searching Dinah’s face. “I love you too.” She sprung up to her knees and pitched forward, grabbing Dinah’s face with both hands and making her shriek with laughter as they fell back on the grass together. “God, I really really love you, Di.”

Dinah laughed again, her eyes closing as Helena urgently kissed her. She felt as if she’d never be able to properly express how much she felt. This was the polar opposite of the grief and anger that plagued her. This was the beginning of something beautiful and powerful and safe.

Dinah would save her from the darkness, she decided.

She was the only one who could.

***

A/N: I know you’re all here for Jarley, but in the same way I wanted you to love Ed, I’m hoping you’ll simp for this ship. I loved writing Dinah through the eyes of someone who sees the best in her since she’s been pretty limited to her own self-punishing point of view and Harley’s warped vision of the world. And it’s a relief to see Dinah begin to grow up now that she’s around people her own age she relates to… Even wearing lipstick is like an indulgent act for her that she’s finally allowing herself to take part in. Yes, Dinah! You deserve love and lipstick and self care! ❤️🎉

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Looks Like Someone Picked a Whole Bushel of Oopsie Daisies

Chapter Ten: Shades of Blue

As always, thanks to @edward-or-ford and @pacific-ship!

How can you leave me on my own? Desperate and destitute, these seconds feel like lifetimes without you.- New Years Day, My Dear

Mabel marked off February 1st in her calendar with an X in her pink gel pen with sparkles (was it really even a gel pen if there were no sparkles? Mabel’s opinion was firmly on the side of ‘no, absolutely not’).

Just two hundred and twelve days to go. She was counting the days, the hours, the seconds (okay, maybe just the days, she wasn’t that good at math) till her parents could no longer keep her from her soulmate.

Because on August 31st, 2017, Mabel and her super awesome brother-boyfriend-soulmate combo would be turning eighteen, and there was nothing their parents could do to keep them apart once they turned eighteen.

Their parents had insisted they were monitoring their texts, and that they weren’t allowed to speak under any circumstances.

Of course, Dipper had called Mabel from Grunkle Stan’s phone (turns out their parents had been total liars about that, too, and neither Grunkle Stan nor Grunkle Ford was in any way opposed to the whole soulmate situation) as soon as she got home, and they had both downloaded an untraceable messaging app where they could text, make phone calls, and send pictures.

As one might imagine, they sent a great deal of pictures.

And also videos.

They had a lot of phone sex and sexy texting time, okay? They’d only gotten to have actual in-person sex twice (twice!), so they had to compensate somehow.

In any case, there was nothing they could do about it before they turned eighteen, so they had to come up with workarounds.

Not that it could prevent the withdrawals that were likely to hit if another month or two went by without them seeing each other, of course, but it sure made the days go by easier.

Mabel wasn’t sure what her parents were planning to do once they hit the three month mark and the first of the withdrawal symptoms started. It wouldn’t be so bad at first, according to what Dipper had told her regarding the massive amount of research he’d done. Probably just more of the usual depression she’d been having since she watched him disappear behind their car, and then sleepiness, then headaches and body aches, and then things would get progressively worse until eventually, they wouldn’t be able to function at all anymore.

She didn’t know what their plans were for anything, really. She hadn’t spoken to them since they’d left Gravity Falls. She hadn’t said a word to them on the drive home; just put her headphones in and tuned out. She hadn’t said anything to them since, either. Her parents would try to get her to talk sometimes. Her mom did it more often. She had headphones on most of the time. She wasn’t even home very much.

She didn’t tell her parents when she was going to a friend’s house the way she had before. The first few times, her parents had called the parents of various friends until they found her. After awhile, though, they stopped.

She didn’t care if they were worried. They clearly weren’t worried enough about her and Dipper to let them be together, so Mabel didn’t see any reason to notify them or her comings and goings, despite their protests. Just because they wanted to cherry pick their concerns for her well being didn’t mean she had to let them.

Besides, she came home every few days, anyway. It was usually only for a night, of course. Then she’d go back out again. And yeah, that meant she was out on school nights, but her grades were good, and she always made it to class on time.

She wanted Dipper. She wanted to be in his arms again. She slept in the shirt she’d taken from him every night, and she hadn’t even washed it. It smelled more like her by that point than it did him, and not in a good way, either, but it made her feel a little better.

Plus, whenever she sent him pictures of herself wearing it (sometimes leaving enough of the buttons undone to where her cleavage was visible, other times leaving all the buttons undone), he got all possessive and sexy, and the night usually ended with them panting each other’s names into the phone as quietly as they could.

Mabel stared at the cheery pink gel pen in her hand. She wasn’t feeling particularly pink. She hadn’t felt pink in just over a month, as it happened. Which was strange, because Mabel always felt some shade of pink or purple.

But she could hardly remember what Dipper smelled like. She could hardly remember what he tasted like. What he felt like. If she couldn’t remember those things, she couldn’t make herself feel anything that wasn’t some shade of blue or other.

She hung the gel pen back up on her calendar, grabbed her overnight bag, and opened her bedroom door.

She had her headphones in and was looking at her phone, pulling up a playlist, so she didn’t notice her mother there until she spoke.

“Honey, why don’t you spend the night here? I’ll make your favorite, if you want, and we can watch a movie, and…” tears welled up in her mother’s eyes. “Please, sweetheart, I can barely remember what your voice sounds like.”

Well, Mabel thought, maybe you shouldn’t have decided to separate me from my soulmate, then.

With that in mind, Mabel shot her mother a glare severe enough to make her flinch, and pushed past her, her overnight bag bumping against the hallway wall as she did.

Her friends were waiting for her in their car outside.

Mabel loaded her bag into the trunk and ignored her mother watching her behind the curtains in the living room.

Squeezing into the only empty seat in the car, she grinned at her friends.

Kristin, Eva, and Julie had been total lifesavers. They knew about Mabel’s soulbro situation, and they were, like, super supportive.

“Your ‘rents still giving you shit?” Julie asked over her shoulder as she pulled out of the driveway.

Mabel sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping. “It’s not shit, exactly, just…” she sighed again. “They just, y’know. They won’t let me see him.”

“Yeah, that still doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” Kristin said, adjusting her black lipstick in a compact mirror. “I get that having an incesty-soulmate isn’t, like, ‘socially acceptable’ or whatever,” she did air quotes with her fingers, the motion seeming a bit off due to the tube of eyeliner she had in between her pointer and index fingers that she was using in lieu of lipstick. “But if my parents can handle me being bi, yours should be able to handle your soulmate being your brother.”

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Eva cut in, turning around to address Kristin and Mabel. “I feel like, if it were me, and they were my kids, at first I’d be all freaked out, y’know? Cause like, they’re your kids, and then it turns out they’re soulmates and have to bang a whole bunch or they’ll get all eeeeuuughh, right? That’d mess anybody up, I think,” she paused for a moment before continuing. “But the thing is, though, I feel like after that initial freak out, I’d be kinda relieved, honestly.”

“Relieved? Really?” Julie was so surprised she forgot to use her turn signal when changing lanes. “Oops, my b,” she said, half to herself and half to the driver who had honked at her. Not that he could hear her, of course.

“Why relieved?” Mabel wondered.

“Well, if you’ve got a kid, right, and your kid finds their soulmate and it’s some stranger you don’t know, how do you know your kid’s soulmate isn’t gonna hurt them, or be a terrible person or something?” Eva reasoned.

“That’s a good point,” Kristin agreed, shutting her compact mirror with a snap. “Soulmates aren’t exactly exempt from domestic abuse and shit.”

Eva nodded. “Exactly, so like, if it were me, I feel like I’d be cool with it once I got used to the idea, because I’d know my kids, right, so I’d know they’d never hurt each other.”

“That makes sense,” Julie said thoughtfully.

“Mmm,” Mabel hummed. “I guess. I dunno. They’re weird about it.”

“Wait a sec,” Kristin interjected. “Didn’t you say your parents mentioned something about their parents being, like, religious fundies or something?”

Mabel nodded. “I think my grandmother on my mom’s side might be. Which would make sense, honestly, since my mom has been so militant about keeping the Dipster and me apart.”

“Okay, first of all,” Eva had a haughty air to her voice, and Mabel raised an eyebrow at her. “First of all,” she said again. “It’s ‘the Dipster and I’.”

The other three girls groaned, and Julie took a hand off the wheel to swat at her half heartedly.

“Ommigod, shut up!” Mabel giggled.

“Whatever, you love me and you know it,” Eva said with a grin.

The others grumbled but did not object.

“FYI, Mabes,” Kristin put a hand on her arm. “You should send him a selfie real quick.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm,” her friend nodded sagely. “You look hot, and it’s a damn crime he doesn’t get to see it in person, so you gotta help a brotha out!”

Mabel smiled and snapped a few dozen pictures of herself.

“Okay, which one’s best?” she asked, handing her phone to Kristin, who scrolled through and inspected each one.

“No, no, no… meh, maybe… no, no… oooo, yes, love it, this one, totes send this one! Look at how much boobage you got in there, just fuckin’ go for it, man!”

Mabel grinned and sent the picture to Dipper, along with a short little miss you <3 text.

He responded with a miss you too and then, two seconds after, fuck you’re beautiful.

She giggled and showed Kristin his response. “Mhm, mhm, told ya.”

“Okay, so, confession time,” Julie said, pulling into her parents’ driveway.

“Spill it,” Eva immediately demanded.

“So you guys know Chad, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Kristin said with a grimace. The guy in question was a bit of a fuckboi.

“No, don’t say that!” Julie whined, getting out of the car. “He’s really sweet!”

”Of course he is,” Eva deadpanned.

“He is!” Julie insisted. “Anyway, so he asked me out.”

Mabel groaned. “Jules, tell me you didn’t.”

“I might have, yeah.”

“Ugh, ew,” Kristin said.

“It’s not ew!”

“No, it’s totally ew,” Eva pointed out, and Mabel nodded her agreement.

“If it helps,” Julie was saying sheepishly as she unlocked her front door, “he’s really, really good.”

“Of course he’s really good, numbnuts,” Kristin said with an eye roll. “He’s slept with half the school.”

“So have you!” Julie said defensively.

“Oooo, gotta point there,” Mabel snickered, pointing a glittery blue nail at her friend.

“Yeah, but I’m, like, discreet about it,” Kristin pointed out. “And I’ve actually dated people seriously, too!”

“Anyway,” Julie cut in. “So the consensus is ew, then, huh?”

“Definitely ew,” Mabel agreed.

“Why are Chads always such Chads?” Kristin wondered aloud, opening the door to Julie’s bedroom.

“They really are,” Eva laughed, plopping down on the bed.

“Soooo…” Mabel trailed off. “Cards Against Humanity, anybody?”

———————————————————————Her friends always helped push the separation anxiety to the back of her mind, but with the other three girls asleep, there was nothing for Mabel to do but wallow.

Her phone lit up the dark room, illuminating the air mattress Mabel lay on.

Dipper had sent her a message.

I want you.

Mabel unplugged her phone and scrambled up as quietly as she could, crossing the hall into the guest bedroom and locking the door behind her and turning on the light, typing out a quick okay in response.

She knew from experience that as long as she was quiet, nobody would hear her.

Now? he asked.

Now.

And then he was calling her, and she was hastily stuffing her headphones in her ears and hitting the little phone icon on her screen.

“Hey,” he greeted, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Hey,” she said back. It was always such a relief to hear him. “I miss you.”

“We’ve been texting all day,” he laughed.

“I know, but…”

“It’s not the same,” he agreed with the words she hadn’t said.

“Yeah,” her voice was soft, and she heard him sigh on the other end of their call.

“Can I see you?” he asked after a moment.

“Y- yeah, one sec.” They’d done this more times than she could count, but somehow, she was always nervous.

She stripped out of her shorts and unbuttoned his shirt to let it reveal her breasts, pulled her panties down a bit with her thumb and smiled into the camera.

She only had to take six or seven pictures before she had one she was satisfied with. Sending it over and promptly deleting them from her phone, she waited for it to arrive.

She knew when he got it, because he said, “Fucking hell, Mabel,” with a groan, and she could almost picture him stroking himself.

She’d only seen him do that a handful of times, when they’d gotten the chance to do this on the rare occasion she was at their parents’ for the night. She could have watched it for hours.

“You’re so perfect,” he sighed in her ear, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine he was there with her. He’d kiss her neck, maybe, and then squeeze her breasts and pinch her nipples. Mimicking the things he was doing to her in her mind’s eye, she trailed a hand down her body and stroked herself lightly through her panties, listening to the way his breath was quickening.

“I wanna see you, too, Dip,” she sighed into the phone.

A few seconds later, a picture came through of him holding himself, and when she saw him naked… well. She had seen him naked more times than she could count by that point, but it was always breathtaking each time.

“Are you wet for me, Mabes?” he murmured in her ear.

She nodded, pulling her drenched panties off and kicking them to the side, before remembering he couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“Show me.”

She took another picture, this time of a part of herself she didn’t really understand why he wanted to see, but he liked it so she sent it to him anyway.

“I wish I had gotten to taste you,” he gasped. “I think about that a lot.”

“O- oh?” How embarrassing. She knew she was blushing. She could feel it.

“Are you blushing right now?” Dipper asked. “I bet you are. You’re so cute when you blush.” She giggled a little, and he went on. “Will you touch yourself for me?”

“Mhm.” She brushed her fingers over her slit, dipping one inside slightly, just for a second, and gasping as she did so.

“Pinch your nipples, too, okay? I know you like that.” He did know, didn’t he? He knew all the things she liked. He seemed to know them intuitively. To be fair, though, he’d said she knew all the things he liked, too.

Pinching her nipple and brushing a finger lightly over her clit, Mabel whimpered.

“Does that feel good?”

“Y- yes,” she gasped out.

“I wish… mmmf,” he cut himself off with a groan. “I wish this was your hand instead of mine.”

Mabel squeezed her breast roughly, rubbing a finger back and forth over her clit.

“Me too,” she whined. “God, Dip, I want… I want you inside me so bad, I-“

“I know, Mabes. I know. I’d give anything to be inside you right now.”

She rubbed herself a little faster, and her legs were going to give out, she could tell they were, so she allowed herself to collapse onto the cold of the hardwood floor.

“You okay?” Dipper asked when he heard her fall to the ground, concern evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I just had to… ah!” she gasped. “I had to sit down.”

“Oh, okay,” he murmured, and it sounded like he went back to stroking himself.

“I need you.” She’d resorted to begging. She always did that when she was getting close.

“I know,” he groaned. “I need you, too.”

“Dipper, I- please, I need…” she rubbed herself faster, and her hips lifted off the floor an inch or so.

“I know,” he said again.

“I need you.” She couldn’t stop. It felt too good. “I need it, I want you so bad, please,” she begged. “Please give it to me, please Dip, god, I can’t-“

“Are you gonna cum for me, Mabes?”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, I’m gonna- fuck, I want your cum in me, yes-“ her wrist hurt, but she kept going. She was so close, so fucking close-

“Cum for me, I wanna hear you cum for me.”

“Dipper, ah, oh fuck, Dipper, I’m gonna-“ her body spasmed, and she fell limp.

A few seconds later, he followed her with a grunt.

It had felt so good, and Mabel felt so content for a split second, because she’d forgotten that Dipper wasn’t there with her.

The tears started to fall, and she began to sniffle. It usually ended that way. She couldn’t help it.

“Mabel,” he said with a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she hiccuped.

“No, no,” he assured her. “I just… I wish I could be there with you.”

“I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together,” she cried softly.

“I know,” he sighed again. “But we’ll be together soon, okay? I’ve got an idea.”

“An idea?” What kind of idea, she wondered.

“Yeah, but it’s a surprise, so until I’ve got everything worked out, just be patient for me, okay?”

“Okay,” she sniffed.

“I love you,” he told her softly.

“I love you, too.”

After a few seconds, he said, “and on that note, I need to clean this jizz off my stomach before it drips all over my bed.”

She giggled. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’ll text me tomorrow, right?”

“Uh, doi, when don’t I?” She sniffed again. It was hard to force the silliness that usually felt natural when she felt so blargh.

“Good point,” he chuckled. “Night, then. Love you,” he said again.

“Love you, too.”

After they hung up, it took several minutes for Mabel’s body to stop tingling from her orgasm, and then several more minutes before she could stop the tears and go back to bed.

Being without him was tougher than she’d imagined.