#all i want is for you to enjoy your spoiler-y conspiracies and for me to enjoy my bullshit on separate planes of existence

[runnning-outof-time]

Where Do We Go from Here? | Tommy Shelby x Reader

Request: yes by anonymous

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x reader

Summary: If Tommy Shelby thought he could win over (Y/N)'s heart after being the reason she got sent to prison just because he got her out early, he was dead wrong...or was he?

Warnings: language, smoking, allusions to past abuse, prison, violence (typical to series), season 3 spoilers

Word Count: 2589

A/N: this was such an interesting request! I really hope that you like the route that I took the story in! Also, I pulled some inspiration from an episode of The Sopranos for the ending interaction. Enjoy! :)

I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! - YOUR THOUGHTS & COMMENTS HELP ME WRITE!

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in stories similar to this one!

"When the police get in, do not resist. You go with them, you do not say anything!" Tommy's words boomed over the other chaos in the room. Everyone was screaming and scrambling as the sound of coppers' whistles could be heard outside.

(Y/N) sat frozen in her chair as she watched the pandemonium go on around her. She couldn't understand how it'd come to this. They were supposed to be celebrating. Celebrating outsmarting the Russians, celebrating the safe return of Charlie, celebrating the disgusting priest being dead. But the scene unfolding around her was the complete opposite.

"Miss (YL/N), you need to stand up," a copper's voice broke through her thoughts and finally made her look away from her lover, who was standing at the desk getting smacked by Arthur's wife, Linda. Good, she thought, he fucking deserves it. She looked up at the man in uniform and let out a sigh. There was no use in contesting it now. Without a word, she stood from the chair and allowed the man to pull her hands behind her back so that she could be walked out of the meeting room. She then was lined up facing the wall alongside the other members of the Shelby family that had met the same fate.

She stood there for what felt like hours before another copper grabbed hold of her hands and swung her around. He then began walking to the door of Arrow House. Before she was taken out, her eyes fell onto Tommy's. He was staring straight forward, and there seemed to be no life behind his crystal blue orbs. She didn't know if she wanted to scream at him, or beg him to make them not take her away, so she just stayed quiet. She held her gaze on him as she was dragged out of the house. Not once did he look in her direction. He just kept his eyes focused on the wall in front of him.

(Y/N) was loaded in the back of a truck along with John, Polly, Linda, Arthur, Michael, and Esme. No one said anything as the truck began driving away. Everything was black too, so no one had any idea of exactly where they were going. Of course, they knew that they were going to prison...Tommy had pretty much spelled that out to them. Now, all they could do was wait for the fate that had been essentially dealt out to them by the very person that they followed and trusted.

A little over an hour later, (Y/N) found herself behind the steel bars of a jail cell. The room was cold and dark, and although she hadn't been explicitly told how long she'd be in there, she already knew that it would be a while. Conspiracy to commit, and accessory to the murder of Father Hughes. Tommy's words had been replaying in her head since she was removed from the truck. She didn't know when she'd see the outside world again, or if she ever would.

"Get up, (Y/L/N), you're being released," the prison guard's voice broke through the silence that (Y/N) had become used to.

"I...I'm what?" she questioned with widened eyes as the man unlocked her cell and slid the door open.

"Your sentence is over. It's been exonerated. You're free to leave now," he spoke in short sentences as he waved the woman out, "let's go," it was obvious that he was impatient.

(Y/N) carefully stood from the metal slab that had been her bed for the past several months before she slowly walked over to the man waiting on the other side of the gate. "What about the others?" she asked as she followed him to wherever he was taking her.

"They're still serving their sentences," the man informed her, his eyes still focused ahead of him.

"But I'm..."

"You're being released on the request of Mr. Thomas Shelby, who has spoken to the judge of our high courts and created a deal with him," he cut her off, already knowing what she was going to ask, "now if you could please refrain from any further questioning and get changed so that we can release you," he instructed her, opening the door to a bright room that made (Y/N) squint as she walked into it.

Sitting on one of the benches was the same outfit that she was wearing the day she got brought into this terrible place, and for a moment, she wondered where they'd stored it after all of this time. She had to have been in there for at least five months, and now...just like that, she was able to go. All because of the doings of the very man who put her in there.

She returned to the guard waiting in the hallway after she changed from the bland uniform that all of the inmates had to wear. She glanced at him, and that was all he needed to start walking down the hall again. He then stopped in front of another door and unlocked it, opening it to some more brightness that made (Y/N) squint. Then she realized that it was a door to leave the prison. That the outside world was now opened up to her once more.

"Go on," the guard's impatient voice made her realize that she'd been standing there for a few moments without making a move. She nodded her head and walked through the door, flinching as it was closed rather loudly behind her. She was free. And now she didn't know what to do.

Then she saw him. He was standing a few feet away from the prison's door, leaning against his black car. He was dressed in black, his long coat foreboding and his peaked cap pulled down over his eyes. (Y/N) sighed as she walked closer to him. He surely was there for her. Why else would he be standing outside of the same prison she’d just been released from?

"Well if it isn't my knight in shining armor..." she trailed off, hoping that her words came out in the spiteful nature that she was intending them to, "the man who was both my imprisoner and my savior," she finished her snide remark as she stopped in front of him.

"Hi, (Y/N)," was all he said, but it was enough to make her blood boil.

"Oh fuck off, Tommy," she snapped at him.

"Can we not do this here?" he asked her, hoping that she'd calm herself down.

"Why not? You don't want everyone to hear about how much of a bastard you are?" she implored, her eyebrows raised.

Tommy sighed and shook his head, flicking his cigarette to the pavement before he walked to the driver's side of his car. "Get in the fucking car," he ordered her as he opened his door.

(Y/N) huffed and stood in her spot for a moment, contemplating if she wanted to fall back in line with his orders that quickly. Then she looked around. There was nothing else in sight except for the cement walls of the prison she'd just been released from. This meant that she had no other choice. Her eyes fell back onto Tommy, who was looking at her intently as he waited for her to do what he'd said. She held her stance for a few more moments before she begrudgingly walked to the passenger's side door and opened it. Tommy said nothing as she slammed it, and that was his cue to turn the car on and drive away from the prison.

"Stop the fucking car, Tommy," (Y/N) tried again. It had to have been the third time she'd said the sentence. But he wasn't listening. "Where're you taking me?" she asked him, looking in his direction with a glare on her face.

"To my house. I'm not letting you get out in the middle of fucking nowhere," he answered her, keeping his eyes fixed on the road.

(Y/N) let out an exasperated sigh when she heard what he said. "Of course...of course you're taking me to your house because you'll be in control there. And you always want to be in fucking control," she threw her hands up in an exasperated manner as she spoke, shaking her head and turning her gaze out the window as the drive continued in silence.

Soon enough, they were back at Arrow House. Tommy killed the engine and opened his door, glancing over at (Y/N) to see that she hadn't moved. Instead of forcing her, he simply shut his door and began walking to the front door of the mansion. (Y/N) watched him walk away before she sighed and finally opened her door. Tommy's stride was slow, so she caught up with him rather quickly.

"I'm not going inside your house," she told him, moving to stand in front of him so that he wouldn't be able to walk any further. "So whatever you have to say to me, you're going to say it out here," she put her foot down and spelled out how things would proceed to him.

Tommy sighed and looked down to the ground. "I don't know why you're mad at me," he said in a low voice, but (Y/N) heard his words well, and in hearing them, a switch flipped in her head.

She might have been angry before, but now she was furious. "You don't know why I'm mad at you?!" she asked incredulously as her eyes widened. "Tommy, what the actual fuck? Have you got nothing in your head any more?!" she continued on her rant that was fueled by disbelief. "Have you forgotten that you got me arrested? That you're the very reason why I was stuck in that prison for over five months?!"

"I just got you out though...got you off your sentence early," he pointed out, as if that was supposed to right all of the wrongs.

"You still put me in there, Tommy!" she exclaimed, "you put me in there after you knew exactly why I went along with Michael. You knew all about my brother and his history with the church. You knew about the terrible things that he went through. I didn't fire the gun...Michael did that, but I wanted to be there to see that that bastard of a man got what he deserved. And you let me do all of this. You said it was ok for me to go with him, that it was ok that I was around those things..." she trailed off, shaking her head as she dropped her gaze to the ground, hoping that he wouldn't see the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "I thought that you cared for me, Tommy. I thought that you cared for me like I cared for you. Who else was there for you after your wife died, huh? Who stayed up with you all those nights to try and ease the pain that you felt from suddenly ending up alone? Who fucking slept in your bed with you and promised you that things would get better?" she paused again, fire now back in her eyes as she spit her words out through her tears, "it was me. I did that. I was always there for you, and this is how you repaid me. I guess I'll just always be some fucking secretary to the company," she shook her head as she ended her lament, wondering just what he would say in response to it.

"What do you want me to say, (Y/N), huh? I fucking said that these people were crazy. I gave you a fucking way out; told you that you didn't need to be affiliated with us anymore," he started off with his rebuttal.

"Still only just a fucking secretary," she shook her head with a pitiful laugh, honestly not surprised that he didn't even comment on the relationship that they shared together. The relationship that had gone on for two months before it was abruptly stopped by the coppers coming into the meeting room that day five months ago.

"Well what the fuck do you want me to do?! Tell you that I love you?!" Tommy raised his voice and his eyebrows, his words coming out in an exasperated manner.

"That would have been fucking nice," (Y/N) huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she shook her head.

"I love you," he told her outright then, and if it weren't for the current circumstances, she probably would have swooned and jumped into his arms. But it was too late for that. There was no way that he could reverse the things that he'd done...undo the wrongs that he'd committed.

"It's pathetic, Tommy, really. It's pathetic that you think that all you have to do is say those three little words and I'll fall back at your feet once more. That I'll tell you that I love you too, and it'll make everything right again. That's not going to happen. I'm not going to give in to your sweet talking anymore. If I've learned anything in my time away from all of this, it's that..." she couldn't finish her sentence because Tommy had leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, hard. Their teeth clashed as he tried with all of his might in this last ditch effort to get her back on his side.

(Y/N)'s wide eyes met his as they pulled away. She didn't know what to say at first because she was completely stunned by his sudden actions. She searched his eyes as her mouth gaped slightly, her lips still able to feel the residual touch of his. "Don't do that," she spoke firmly then, her tone immediately telling him that he'd fucked up once again. "I...I gotta leave, Tommy. I can't be here anymore," she stated, her eyes dropping from his as she shook her head and stepped away from him.

"You're not walking anywhere," he called out to her as she kept walking down the gravel driveway.

"Then call me a fucking driver. I refuse to sit in a car with you, or be anywhere near you from here on out!" she yelled back to him, the tone of her voice telling him that her words were not up for discussion.

Tommy dropped his head in defeat. He knew that he couldn't contest her decision, and that her mind was already made up. She wanted nothing to do with him anymore. So he stepped inside and asked Frances to get a driver to the house so that (Y/N) could be taken home. Frances was slightly shocked by his request, most likely because the older woman was the only one who knew about the relationship that he and (Y/N) shared, but she went forward with filling it anyway.

(Y/N) waited down by the brick pillars that stood proudly at the entrance of the driveway for the car that would come to take her home. She couldn't stop the tears from falling down her cheeks as she left behind something that, at one point, she thought was so good. But she knew she had to. She knew that there was no going back to him after what he did to both her and his own family. Now she just needed to figure out where to go from here.

Tagged: @alreadybroken-ts @magicalxdaydream @cloudofdisney @the-anxious-youth @look-at-the-soul @golden-hoax @elenavampire21 @peaky-cillian @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy

MASTERLIST

[onepiece-sidepiece]

this is true of all fandoms, and it's nothing new, but i wanna bitch for a second

(I deserve it after working sick af for 14 hours straight)

going to any One Piece tag is so annoying bc of how broad the spectrum of the posts are

on one post you'll find some cool fan art, the next will be a takedown of a character, the next will be non-tagged spoilers, the next will be some joke, the next will be a detailed conspiracy theory explaining how Point A connects to Point 74...etc

and there's no real way to sift through the bullshit you want to avoid in order to find the nuggets of gold that you want

for example

regarding One Piece, all I wanna do is fuck around. i wanna make fun of characters and their stupidity. I want to point out absolute insane things

like how pencils don't really exist in that entire fucking world, just goddamn quill pens (there were some on Nami's drafting desk at Arlong's, but that's the literal only time I've seen anything pencil-related)

or like how we've never seen a fucking motorized Model T-esque automobile, despite submarines having the capabilities to serve as hospitals and operating rooms, and Franky putting together the Black Rhino FR-U 4 and the Brachio Tank 5. but vehicles? with wheels? that transport people and goods from one place to another using a combustible engine? the fuq is that shit???

However, then you have your conspiracy/spoiler-y posts

the last time I cared about massive conspiracies and long-term spoilers was back during the most recent Star Wars drama regarding ultimate Big Bads, Rey's parents, Reylo (and whether it was right/wrong), etc. and honestly? I got done with it so fuckin fast

maybe 5, 10 years ago I would have been right there with you, digging around every screen capture I could find, trying to find hidden clues about Zoro's parents or who the fuck Shanks actually is (besides some bumfuck pirate who spends most of his time making poor fashion choices while drunk on deserted islands)

maybe accidentally seeing the prevailing theory about the All Blue wouldn't have made me so upset back then. but holy fuckers, I'm like....livid about it now. that was one of the mysteries that I was enjoying toying around with in my head, allowing myself the pleasure of just enjoying a really goddamn great story with mystery and wonder for the literal first time in ~15 years (English Major, then freelance writer for the collegiate-level educational field, etc, so lots of analyzing and picking up clues and hints about how stories will end and why i could tell)

and after doing that for so long..............movies and books and stories don't get fun anymore. It's like you're constantly trying to outsmart the author and figure out plots and twists and endings without experiencing the story they've created for you

so like.........basically I don't wanna go to the One Piece tag at the end of the day and see someone's VERY LONG post about who Shanks really is behind the scenes, like they've watched the show three times in 8 days and finished the whole manga in 3 just for this assignment, and they've found all the evidence that supports their conclusion, and now, they're presenting it to me and not putting it under a cut or whatever

and I mean, if that type of analysis and writing is fun for them, more power to them. but just to them specifically

the problem is that i see it on the tag

even if I don't read the post, even if I quickly scroll past after realizing what it is, I still see the title and scan a few of the first lines. so now my ruminating ADHD mind won't ever let me forget that I know a potential major plot point, and the massive gaping hole which is leading me to that conclusion desperately wants to be filled with information

ugh. anyways.

HERE ARE THE CONSPIRACIES THAT I ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE ON THE TAG

whether or not Luffy has a hard time whacking himself off bc he keeps pulling at his dick harder and faster and more erraticly, which for a normal dick would be fine, but for a gummy dick would be like trying to whack off with those glittery stress water cucumbers

whether Sanji is a total virgin (he is...nobody needs to answer that for me) (and if you backtalk and say he's not a virgin, then you're wrong)

whether Zoro is a virgin (common sense tells me that there's NO WAY that motherfucker hasn't put that body and muscular jaw to good use, but on the other hand, he's also the type who 1) is either uninterested in sex bc it doesn't bring him closer to his goal, or 2) ignores sex because it may distract him from his goal)

what form does Chopper take when he has to use the bathroom? does he even use a bathroom? or does he wander into the wilderness like a reindeer and let it plop out like old times?

if you were suddenly Pleasantville'd into One Piece, who would you really actually fucking be? (not who you WANNA be, but who you'd legit turn into bc they're absolutely you) (i'd be Chimney and Gonbe...my soul would split in half and occupy their tiny little bodies while i created rabid chaos on a miniature scale)

Also when I'm scrolling through tags, I wanna see fan art (not of Zosan though...stop drawing pictures of my boyfriend cheating on me with that greasy ashtray). I wanna see jokes. I wanna see smut (good smut, please, for the love of everything). I wanna have a super fun, light-hearted time with One Piece and basically dick around with people on the tag. but it just sucks bc I don't feel like I can ever scroll through the tags because those random spoiler-y posts that come up unexpectedly absolutely ruin it for me

idk idk idk i'm tired and going to bed now

[extremelyblackandwhite]

lover | steve kemp.

pairing: steve kemp x dark!reader

summary: all is well that ends well ... for some. 

warnings: fresh spoilers, dark themes, murder, 18+ ONLY.

< masterlist

my heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue. all is well that ends well to end up with you, swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover ...

The warm summer sun was shining onto the calm suburbs. One could barely hear anything but the sounds of birds chirping, irrigation systems, and bicycle bells. It was like something out of The Stepford Wives, with similarly built homes, painted in similar colours. The normal, the suburbs, the safe place for everything. The best place to start and raise a family, the most expensive place in all of the city. People displayed wealth and showered themselves in nonsensical conspiracies and science lacking diets while dishing out gossip on everyone who they felt like it. 

Steve should hate it, his wife should hate it, but he’d seem to gain a cynical sort of love to where they’d move. Enjoying the little safe bubble, knowing they’d be safe from all outside threats and knowing they could always walk outside and be met with green patches of well polished gardens of gardenias and roses. 

He sighed, putting his cup of coffee down in the cherry wood table before making his way down the stairs, the hand pulling the heavy padlock which kept the sliding door well shut. 

     - Rise and shine, sunshine. - he closed the door behind him. - Did you have a good night?

     - C’mon, man. I ... I didn’t know she was married. - the man sat in front of him with his ankle bolted to the wall whimpered. 

     - So you followed my pregnant wife to work? - he cocked his head to the side, a sarcastic smile on his lips. - You know, you’ll be worth a lot of money. 

     - Please! I won’t do it again, I’m not even gonna b ...

     - Hey. - he shushed him, squatting down to his level with a twisted comfort smile. - I’m a doctor, I know what I’m doing. You’re in safe hands.

     - Please.

     - The more you complain, the more this thing will ... - his voice got cut by the sound of the front door closing. His worried look was replaced with an almost peaceful expression. 

He playfully slapped the man’s face, mumbling something to himself before exiting the basement, ensuring to lock it. The last thing he wanted was to have another runaway in the house; his wife hadn’t particularly enjoyed having to beat someone to death with her new cast iron pan. 

Steve climbed the stairs up at a jogging pace, making it to the kitchen to catch Y/N placing some grocery bags on the table, her flowey white dress almost dancing around in the wind as she cooed at the baby in her arms. 

    - Look who it is. - she pointed at Steve with a silly smile making the baby girl coo in delight. - Daddy’s here.

     - Hi Daisy. - he picked his daughter from his wife’s arms, kissing her cheeks in a playful manner. - You left early this morning. 

     - You came to bed late last night. - she smirked, moving to take some of the groceries out of the brown bags. - He sure is a whiner, isn’t he?

     - Don’t be so critical, baby. - he walked up to her, leaning to kiss her. - He’s gonna get you a new necklace. 

     - You do know I cannot wear jewellery in the lab.

     - Yes but you look so pretty when you wear just that. - he winked, putting a hand over his daughter’s ears. - I miss fucking you in just jewellery. 

     - You just miss fucking me. - she crossed her arms. - You know what the doctor said. It still hasn’t been six weeks.

Steve whined, turning his face to look at Daisy who was busy being distracted with the fabric of his jumper. He put her down on her high chair, kissing the top of her head before walking up to Y/N. His hand snaked over hers, pulling her flush against him to kiss her. Properly kiss her like he should, enough to make her wish she could lay down in that bed and have him bruise her hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, melting in his kiss before pushing away, her fingers playing with the hair in the nape of his hair. 

    - Will you allow me to make lunch now? Melinda kept yapping about this green salad she made for her husband so I decided I’m going to make a better one.

    - Which Melinda?

    - The one you said would make good barbecue. - she pulled the wooden bar from the hanged walls. - And then I didn’t have sex with you for two weeks. 

    - Baby, she would make good barbecue. That doesn’t mean I would actually sleep with her. 

    - Didn’t think you would ... - she rose her knife bluntly, grabbing a green pepper to slice the top off. - I told you, Steve. You do insane things on your birthday alone and that includes consuming people. 

     - I know. - he wrapped his arms around her waist. - But you never let me kiss you after. 

     - You’re so dramatic. 

     - You love when I’m dramatic. - he kissed the side of her head.

She rolled her eyes, smiling to herself as she continued to slice a wide variety of green vegetables into a white porcelain dish. Steve moved to pick Daisy up, taking her from her high chair and laying her belly down onto the play matt he’d bought for the kitchen. Of course, it was one of thousands of play matts that were laying around the house. The amount one of them would step on a toy while trying to get ready for work was extremely high. Nevertheless, she didn’t mind. Steve may be insane but he was a good father and he was a good husband. He was home when he said he’d be home, he would call her during her breaks at work and even put little sticky notes in her mirror whenever he had to go home earlier. He may be insane, but he was her insane man. He belonged to her. 

She smiled softly as he gave their daughter another one of those silly smiles of his, inspecting one of the new light up toys that Daisy just seemed to get so hypnotised by. Well, as long as her daughter grew to be into shiny things rather than what her father was into, she was okay with it. 

     - I’m gonna take some of the salad to Dylan downstairs. - she grabbed a smaller bowl, spooning some into it. 

     - You’re so caring, baby, but I don’t think he deserves any food.

     - We can’t let him starve, honey. - she walked around the kitchen island. - It’s bad for the meat. 

Steve smirked, watching as she walked out of the kitchen and down the stairs. She unlocked the padlock as she usually did, allowing some light into the basement. Dylan gave her the side eye, getting up before putting on his most suave smile. 

    - How come a lady like you ends up married to a crazy man like that?

    - You seriously think you don’t deserve to be here? - she placed the bowl near him.

The routine was always this one, she’d eventually come here to bring him food and be the target of unnecessary flirtation. It was really pointless and while she would pretend not to be bothered, Steve would later come down and deal with it. After all, he did need an outlet for anger, and God be damned if he was gonna allow someone to mistreat his wife. However, this time it was different. 

As she got up from placing the bowl in front of him, she was surprised by Dylan throwing her against the wall, his wall wrapped around her neck. She gasped, her hand holding onto her neck.

    - You know, sweetheart, I’ve been nice. - he pulled and pushed her back against the wall. - So before I stop being so nice, you’re gonna go and get the key to this fucking shackle and unlock it. I know you have a baby upstairs, would be a pity if something happened. 

She gripped his hand, looking at him with anger in her eyes as he let her go. Her eyes lingered on the staircase, hoping Steve would somehow come down the stairs but she knew better to believe he wouldn’t be busy playing or trying to feed Daisy. She warily walked up to the drawer trolley where Steve used to keep his master keys, her back turned to him as she fished through the door.

     - Good girl. - he said as she walked back to him, one hand holding the keys and one behind her back.

She moved to unlock the shackle, standing behind him in the darkness. He mumbled some more flirtations as she unlocked the heavy metal chain. The silence was broken through by the sound of it hitting the concrete floor followed by him sighing in relief. He rubbed his face, leaning down to massage his ankle. She smiled, walking up to grab his hair, pulling his head back before grabbing the knife from her back, casually yet quickly slicing through his neck.

     - My husband is not crazy. - she spoke softly. - And no one fucking threatens my daughter. 

He feel to his knees, his hands holding onto his neck as she moved to stay in front of him. She softly smiled, watching him struggle before he collapsed to the floor. 

    - Baby! - she turned around to see Steve come down the stairs. - I wanted to do that myself. 

    - He was calm. - she threw the knife to the side. - I know you said stress is bad for the meat. 

    - Got any blood on you? - he inspected her dress, holding her hand as he led her outside the basement. - You’re getting oddly better at this, baby.

The two climbed upstairs, Y/N moving to hold her baby against her chest, placing a kiss on top her head. It was really iddilic, the three of them in the suburbs figuring out what worked best.

He moved the salad outside, grabbing a few of the plates and setting it around the picnic table in the back yard which itself was surrounded by a bunch of flowers she had picked out when they first moved out. She smiled at him, kissing his cheek before looking to the side, noticing the empty Morrison home was now filled with movers and cardboard boxes. Guess now was as good as time as ever to better soundproof the basement. 

Steve moved to hold his wife’s waist as the two moved towards the fence, watching as more and more people filled the house next to his. It was too good to be true when the Morrisons left. 

    - Hi there. - a brown haired man in a suit moved closer to the fence. - You two must be our new neighbours.

    - It appears so. - Y/N smiled leaning onto Steve’s shoulder.

    - I’m Andy. - he said before pointing to a woman who was managing most of the movers. - That’s my wife Laurie Barber. 

    - I’m Steve, this is my wife Y/N. - he looked at the engagement ring on her finger, before looking back at the man on the other side of the fence. - We’re the Kemps. 

[aoitrinity]

Why Do I Have to Feel Like a Fucking Conspiracy Theorist -- OR -- How I Find a Semblance of Peace on Sunday Night

I’m also going to start this out with a GIANT DISCLAIMER.

I am about to theorize about what may have happened to the SPN finale. I have absolutely no insider knowledge. I am merely speculating here based on the panels and a bunch of Twitter and Tumblr posts that I have been reading over the last few days. If you are not in a good place to read such things, TURN BACK PLEASE. Go take care of yourself and your mental health. You and your feelings are valid and deserve to be handled gently right now.

Additionally, if you are here to give me shit for being unhappy with the ending, please walk away as well. I am here to reach out and share my feelings with people who might be struggling to make sense of something that upset some of us in very deep-seated ways. I am not here to bother you or critique you or tell you that you’re lesser because you liked the ending. If you felt it was good, then go enjoy it.

Long-ass post beneath the cut, everyone.

Alrighty folks...I debated whether or not to do this because I have been spiraling down the hell that is the SPN finale since Thursday. The travesty of what happened to our show--to this beloved show that seemed to have been so perfectly and precisely written for at least four years that it had basically already paved its own tarmac on which to land its plane and we all thought we knew exactly what we were going to get. And then we didn’t. We had a nigh Cas-less and entirely Eileen-less ending. We had no goodbye between Cas and Jack. We had Dean dying young after finally finding his freedom, only to ascend to heaven with no one but Bobby. We had the weird, weird, weird incest-y death scene. We had the bridge crane shot thing because...sure. You do you, Robert Singer.

It was so terrible, so truly awful, and I couldn’t seem to square any of it with anything we had known going in. I tossed and turned and cried and didn’t eat or sleep all weekend. I spent hours just reloading tumblr and twitter, going to the Misha panel, reading and reading and listening and trying to figure out what the fucking hell is going on because I needed to know exactly where to direct my anger. And after a fuckton of talking with @winchester-reload, I think we have at least a very plausible theory about what happened here--I’m laying it out below as much for my own peace of mind as anything else, because otherwise all of these thoughts are going to continue to spin around in my head for weeks and I won’t be able to do jack shit.

Now to start off, unfortunately I do think Dean was slated to die from the beginning of this season. I don’t know WHY they thought that was the best way to go, and I wish they had listened to Jensen on this one. Part of me wonders if it was an order from on high based on the discussion between Becky and Chuck earlier this season--the writers knew it wasn’t a great choice, but they were trying to signal to us that we should feel free to write our own endings to the story because they’d be better (I can wax poetic on the signs of why many of the writers probably wanted Dean to live, but that’s another post). I’m not defending that choice by any means, just laying it out there that I think they didn’t necessarily all want to kill Dean like they did.

However, what I THINK I can explain now is what happened with Misha and why we got so jerked around with Cas’s story. Consider what we know (I can’t immediately source all of it, but I did my best):

At the end of episode 15x19, Lucifer has been returned to the Empty after being killed AGAIN. He talks with Cas. Maybe harasses him a bit about Dean, idk. But then...Jack shows up. New God Jack. And he picks up Cas and pulls him out of the Empty, leaving Lucifer behind, because seriously. Fuck that guy (also leaving behind his abusive father is character growth for Jack, so yay for that).

-Misha was contracted to film 15 episodes this season. He was only in 14.

-Misha told Michael Sheen he had to go back to film 1.5 episodes after the shutdown in March. (Starts at 6:13)

-Misha was in Vancouver during filming of the finale.

-Mark P said at Darklight Con that the last scene he filmed was with Alex and Misha (and Mark P was only in episode 19).

-Misha implied that he was present for various filming moments, including Dean’s death (start at 35:15), and said that it felt like a “mini-reunion.”

-Various sources have mentioned that Jimmy Novak was supposed to be in the finale.

-After episode 18, Stands tweeted a fan who was angered and hurt by Cas's death that they could talk about the “bury the gays” issue after the finale aired.

-In episode 19 we know there were takes of the parking lot scene where the only thing fans observing could hear was Dean yelling “CAS” at Chuck (fuck I can’t find this one right now, but it’s definitely out there)

-Also in episode 19, we had a very strange, awkward montage at the end of the episode.

-In episode 20, we know there were a FUCKTON of missing scenes

-We also had no opening montage, but three other separate montages.

-Carry on My Wayward Son was played TWICE, back-to-back at the end of the episode.

-Episode 20 was shorter than normal and had surprisingly little dialogue. The pacing was VERY strange.

-The cast and crew has been almost completely silent about the finale since it came out. When they have spoken, it has been with an awkward excuse of “Uh...COVID?”

-Samantha Ferris has specifically noted that, despite the Harvelle’s being back in play and a big heaven reunion having been planned pre-COVID, neither she nor Chad Lindberg received any such invitation to return.

-Cas and Dean POP Funko figures were pictured together in a replica of Harvelle’s in 15x04.

NOW with all of this in mind (and I’m probably missing some stuff too because there is so much--feel free to add on to that list), please bear with me because here is what I think we were SUPPOSED to get POST-COVID (after it was determined that the reunion couldn’t happen because of the virus):

In episode 20, we start with our NORMAL OPENING MONTAGE, like always. It traces everything that happened during the season. We are reminded of Cas. The confession. Rowena. Eileen. Jack. Billie, God, the Empty, all of it. 

Things then follow along in the episode where they did up until Dean dies and wakes up in heaven. After his conversation with Bobby, he drives off to find Cas (who, in the script, was listed as “Jimmy Novak” in order to protect against script leaks--who wouldn’t want to do their best to avoid spoilers about the finale with the wrapping of a fifteen-year show?). He does indeed find Cas. We get Dean’s end of the confession. Hell, maybe we even get a kiss. And then Dean sets up his new heaven home in the recreated Harvelle’s. Maybe Cas even fucking moves in. 

Years pass. We get Sam having his life on Earth (still can’t explain why they cut Eileen and couldn’t even have Sam signing vaguely to the blurry brunette in the background; if anyone wants to take that on, go for it). Eventually, Cas tells Dean that it’s almost Sam’s time. Dean takes Baby and goes to meet Sam at the bridge. The cover of Carry on My Wayward Son plays during this much shorter sequence. End of episode.

But that’s not what we got. Instead, much of what I just wrote about was excised from the episode. The remnants were stitched together after shooting had been wrapped. Filler was added in the form of montages and long, unnecessary extra shots to get the episode to something approaching a reasonable length. 

But why? Why would they spend all that time and money and quarantining on Misha, only to almost completely cut him out of the finale? I struggled with why the fuck the CW would want this mammoth show to go down as the greatest queerbait in TV history when they had the chance to do something truly beautiful and monumental with it? It couldn’t just be sheer homophobia, right? Well, I think that factored into it, my friends, but here is where my head is at right now.

It was about cold, hard cash.

Now I could be wrong, but this is what I’m thinking at the moment: Supernatural is going off of the air. Supernatural, the CW’s cash cow for fifteen years. Sure there is still money to be made on blu-rays and merchandise and cons...but they need people watching their shows. They need that sweet advertising revenue. And you know what show they have about to premiere? A show that could, potentially, bring with it a chunk of that SPN revenue?

Walker.

And if any of you know anything about the original Walker Texas Ranger, you know that the show was predominantly a show about a very heterosexual white man being very excessively heterosexual. And for SOME REASON over the years, many of the execs at the CW still seem to think that this show, Supernatural, is really attractive to a lot of middle-American white men...whom they desperately want to watch this new show with this guy from Supernatural that they already know.

Now here’s where COVID fucked us. I think Destiel was greenlit by TPTB, at least in SOME form, before COVID. But then the pandemic happened, and they panicked. They got the cut of the last two episodes and watched them in their original, probably queer form. And then, the execs at CW looked at the economy. They looked at their cash cow, about to make its journey to the great beyond. And they looked at this new little calf Walker that they were so desperately worried about. And they made a choice.

They decided that it would be too risky to take the step with Destiel. They were worried about frightening off their ever-so-valuable hetero male demographic with the possibility that a traditionally masculine man in his 40s could be in love with another man in an overt way. It was homophobia mixed with greed, spun up by fear for their revenues because of COVID.

So they called in Singer, possibly Dabb, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they went straight to Singer. They told them that Destiel had to go: executive orders. And the only way to make it go in a way that removed any trace of what had been there was to rewrite what happened to Cas and cut him out from the last two episodes entirely. It was too late to reshoot anything. They had to just cut and stitch and fill with bullshit montages. 

They removed the scene at the end of 19, probably because Cas and Lucifer discussed Dean. All that was left of Misha there was his voice on that fake phone call. They may have cut other things too, but I would bet my life that they cut a scene from the end of the episode and replaced it with that very strange montage. Then they moved onto 20. They cut out every scene with Cas. And left in only two platonic mentions of him, neither made by Dean. They tried to imply that Cas might show up in Dean’s heaven at some point, but that was as far as the editors could go in the time they had. They filled in with montages, awkwardly long shots, anything they could do to fill all of those missing scenes.

And they even had to take the opening montage, because literally everything in it pointed to Cas being there at the end of it all. They wouldn’t be able to leave out his scenes, they were too critical to the season. They couldn’t cut his confession without raising eyebrows. So they cut the whole thing and moved “Carry On My Wayward Son” to one of the newly-added driving montages at the end. Which is why we awkwardly had both songs play back-to-back--again, such a strange choice unless they were out of options and couldn’t exactly buy rights to a new track or compose anything else.

And so we were left with the shadow of the finale that we deserved, that Cas and Dean deserved. We were left without resolution or happiness or words. Bobo told us the most important thing about happiness is just “saying it” and our characters were silenced without anyone ever knowing the truth.

I think the writers might have known and been given the new party line that “Misha never filmed, he couldn’t, sorry, it was COVID, no one’s fault!” But I don’t think most of the cast even knew it had happened until they watched the finale on Thursday with us (though they might have been confused why the bit from 15x19 was sliced, they could reasonably have assumed it was a time thing and also BL episodes don’t make sense anyway). Why do I say that?

Well, first of all, Misha started sending out a bunch of excited texts to fans with some old BTS pictures about an hour before the show started airing on EST. He also wanted his children to see the episode, his YOUNG children. Why would he show them such a traumatic episode if their Dad wasn’t in it? What if it was because he wanted them to witness what was going to be a monumental moment in queer television history that their DAD got to be a part of? And then that was all dashed.

Which is why I think the cast and crew went almost completely radio silent the next day. I don’t think they knew. And based on how they have been acting on social media since then, I think many of them are absolutely furious, but they have been silenced because of NDAs, because they want to find work again in a cutthroat industry, because they don’t want to bring down the hellfire of Warner Brothers Entertainment upon themselves. So the most we have gotten is a little acknowledgement from the MERCHANDISING COMPANY trying to validate our pain (god bless Shirts, she is a LIFESAVER) and a response to my salty tweet about keeping good stuff in the closet from Adam Williams (the VFX coordinator) that seemed to acknowledge the validity of my complaint.

Then there was a scramble behind the scenes, I would bet my life. Talking points were fed to the boys who had panels today, to CE, to all the cast and crew:

Toe the party line. Misha never filmed. This was always about COVID. Do not mention Destiel. Do not mention Dean’s feelings for Cas. Do not promote the Castiel Project or anything that validates the idea that this was anything less than a superb ending.

And that is why we have heard so little from the cast on this front, and what we have heard has been muddled and contradictory. That is why the writers are saying nothing. That is why we have been left adrift.

Now before I close this out, I do want to say that I really, genuinely do not think this was on the writers at all. I feel like they tried to give us the best ending that they could, in a writers room that we know is notorious for splitting along party lines about the overall story (BL and Singer, who have always been about the brothers and their man-pain vs. Dabb and the rest who always seemed to want more for them and for Cas). I think they did everything in their power to at least end with Dean and Cas happy together. If they could give us nothing else, they wanted to give us that. And then the network took it from them. From us. From everyone.

For the sake of fucking money. 

And the WORST PART OF IT ALL, for me, is that in the wake of this disaster, the fans have been left to try and figure out what happened. We have had to wade through a mire of conflicting information in the midst of all of our collective anger and grief over this garbage ending of a show many of us have loved and even relied on for YEARS, all the while wondering if we’re just fucking crazy, if we have all fallen collectively into the hole of conspiracy theories. That hurts ESPECIALLY badly because we have taken so many hits over the years from other groups on social media saying we were crazy for seeing things that weren’t there (especially Destiel), for writing meta and analyzing tropes and believing the evidence of our eyes and ears. The network has made us relive that entire nightmare WHILE processing our grief for a show we wanted so badly to celebrate and which instead we now have to mourn.

So again guys, I cannot prove that this is exactly what happened at all; this is simply my idea of what may have happened. But right now, it’s the most sense I can make from this mess, and to be honest, the act of typing it out has helped me enormously in my processing of it all. I feel like I can see more clearly, like I know where to target my outrage and where to direct empathy. I feel like just fucking maybe, I might be able to do my job tomorrow without bursting into tears at random moments. 

I really hope that this post has helped some of you to, in some small way, process this too. We get through this the way that Misha told us at his panel this morning, the way the writers have told us to do all season long...we throw out the story God gave us and we make it better. We write our characters the happy endings they deserve. 

We save them.

One last thing--if you have not already, please consider channeling your rage into a donation to one of the five causes our fandom has put together to pay tribute to our beloved show and to mourn the ending it should have had:

-The Castiel Project

-Dean Winchester is Love

-Sam Winchester Project

-The National Association of the Deaf

-The Jack Kline Project

[azucanela]

THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN | TSUKISHIMA KEI

HAIKYUU!! MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: Tsukishima Kei would never admit that he happens to like receiving affection quite a bit, only from Y/N L/N of course, and only if no one ever finds out about it. 

WORD COUNT: 2.5k

WARNINGS: honestly i think this is cute, but theres some angst oops, pining, unedited, kissing, kinda sad if you can read between the lines, season three spoilers

A/N: tsukki lovers come get your juice. also if you can’t tell im in the mood for haikyuu!! and tsukki so... rip the wips and requests i said i’d get done but it’ll happen eventually 

“Can I hug you?”

How did he end up here? A fantastic question that he cannot find the answer for as he looks down at Y/N, who’d insisted he walk her to the girl’s dorm. He probably should’ve predicted that she’d ask about his sudden change of pace, but Tsukishima doubted he ever would’ve predicted she’d ask to hug him. Especially since he definitely hadn’t been the nicest to her.

“This didn’t happen.” 

That’s all Tsukishima says as he awkwardly winds his arms arounds Y/N’s form. She hums in response, and Y/N has a feeling if he could see the grin on her face he’d pull away almost immediately. Which is why she’d buried her face in his chest, arms around his body as they stand just outside dorms they’ve been residing in during their stay at the training camp alongside the other teams. 

Tsukishima doesn’t know why he agreed to this. He’s not sure he wants to as he feels Y/N’s breath against his chest, causing his cheeks to warm. During the walk she’d confronted him and he’d— for some reason — told her that he didn’t intend to get left behind Hinata and Kageyama; who’d improved quite a bit it appeared. Even if Volleyball meant absolutely nothing to him.

And then she asked to hug him. Y/N just had a feeling he could use one, though, if she was honest, Y/N had expected a hard no. She’d expected him to criticize her for asking such a childish question, she’d expected teasing and cruel remarks about how ridiculous the idea was. Tsukishima had never been affectionate, or at least openly affectionate. He was never involved in team hugs, hugs in general, not even a simple fist bump from Tanaka. 

And yet here he was, agreeing to a hug from Y/N L/N, one of the new managers of the Karasuno Volleyball Club. 

“This didn’t happen.” Came her response, her words of agreement were muffled against Tsukishima’s chest, but he’d heard her. They had an understanding. 

And he’d never admit it, but it was nice. Hugging someone. Holding someone in his arms. Tsukishima hadn’t actually accepted affection in a while, maybe it was because one of the only people he’d been close with in his life— the one person he looked up to — ended up being a liar. Maybe its because a small part of him wanted to maintain his reputation as a coldhearted jerk, or maybe its because he just hadn’t found someone’s affection he enjoyed.

Until now, of course. There was something different about having Y/N in his arms, something comforting about her presence that made him feel compelled to answer the questions she asked as she pried about his sudden change in attitude. It’s not like they were close, though he tolerated her when she’d simply started coming to club meeting; apparently she’d known Tanaka from middle school, and decided to visit him at the club, until one day it became a daily thing. They ended up giving her the title of manager after she to work alongside Kiyoko. Y/N had even helped tutor those idiots, Kageyama and Hinata, something Tsukishima somehow got roped into. After that, he had a newfound respect for the girl.

It wasn’t that he liked her. He would never like Y/N. She just helped manage the club, and Volleyball was just a sport. Besides, they’d never be that close again, never hug again, never exchange any affection at all, ever again.

He broke that promise fairly quickly. 

Yamaguchi had insisted that he and Tsukishima start joining the rest of the team on their walk home, mentioning how they could stop by Ukai’s convenience store and pick up some food if they so pleased. And maybe that was what convinced him— though Yamaguchi had a feeling the mention of Y/N’s name had a little bit of influence on the decision as well — maybe not. 

It didn’t take long for Tsukishima to realize that as everyone slowly branched off into their respective neighborhoods, Y/N had yet to do the same. Apparently she lived the farthest from Karasuno of the bunch, which is why Tanaka had tried to offer to walk her home. 

She’d rejected the idea entirely, seeing as he’d have to walk back home in the dark by the time she’d gotten to her home. The idea didn’t sit right with Y/N, so Tanaka had left Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and Y/N on their own. 

Y/N didn’t miss the look Yamaguchi gave Tsukishima as he remained by her side, tilting her head in confusion and the blonde waved his friend off and continued walking alongside Y/N. She decided it was best not to question it, they were already a questionable pair of friends and Y/N wouldn’t be shocked if they had some sort of secret code they communicated through.

When she suggested this of course, Tsukishima called her an idiot.

“That’s not very nice, Tsukki.”

If Tsukishima was honest he should’ve kept walking alongside Yamaguchi a while ago, and yet here he was, alongside Y/N. He was pretty grateful she had yet to mention it, especially since he didn’t really favor lying, and he didn’t really have an explanation as to why he decided to walk her home.

It just felt right. 

“Well it’s a stupid idea.” Came his response, nose scrunching up at the nickname. Only Yamaguchi called him that, not that he had a problem with Y/N using the nickname as well. 

Y/N raised a brow, “I don’t think so, you’re smart enough to make a secret code or something.” A smile found its way onto her face as she looked over to him, playfully bumping into his side as she continued, “you probably use it to write about conspiracy theories or something.” 

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, Y/N.” He side eyes the girl, scoffing at her words as he pushes his glasses up on the bridge of his nose in an attempt to distract from the warmth that flooded his chest. 

Y/N hummed in reply, looking to him as she asked, “so you don’t believe that lizard people run society?” 

Tsukishima’s brows furrowed as he looked to her incredulously, “absolutely not.” 

“Sounds like something a lizard person would say.” Came her reply, a grin on her face as she came to a stop, likely in front of her home. 

“Did you just suggest that I’m a lizard person?”

“Maybe.”

There was no way he liked Y/N L/N. In that moment, he made another promise to himself, Tsukishima Kei swore he would never like Y/N L/N, someone who was apparently a lizard person fanatic and insisted that he was a conspiracy theorist. 

A silence encompasses the two as Y/N looks up at him curiously, eyes falling over his face as a small hum leaves her lips. Tsukishima doesn’t know why exactly he lets it happen, why he lets her gently grab his chin, bringing him close to press a kiss to his cheek, “thanks for walking me home, Tsukki.” When she releases his face, she turns on her heel, heading toward her door, but not before saying, “try not to get home too late, and text Yamaguchi— he’s probably worried about you.” 

Okay, so maybe he would break this promise faster than last time. 

“This didn’t happen.” He manages to call out to her, watching as she makes her way down the cobblestone path to her front door. 

Y/N looks over her shoulder, a smirk on her face as she offers him a wave, “this didn’t happen!” She called back in agreement, stepping inside her home and shutting the door behind him. 

A lot faster than last time. 

He has no idea why he didn’t stop her the first time, when she asked. And he doesn’t know why he didn’t stop her now, or the next time, or the time after that. Tsukishima probably should’ve known better, he should’ve stopped indulging himself with her presence.

And yet sitting on his bed, lying on his side watching her, he knows there was no stopping this. Y/N is smirking, clearly noticing his gaze on her as she continues to silently read from her textbook, writing things down into her notebook on occasion. He almost gets frustrated at the sight, brows furrowing before he returns his eyes to his own textbook

Tsukishima probably would’ve finished a while ago had it not been for her, it’s not that Y/N had done anything, but her presence only served as a distraction at this point, leaving Tsukishima wondering just why he invited her. He can’t remember the reasoning behind his actions, but he has a feeling it wasn’t worth the lack of productivity that came with her visit. 

“Have you done anything?” 

As much as Tsukishima admired how observant Y/N was, he currently despised this trait of hers as he slammed the textbook shut, “yes.” It was a lie, Tsukishima had never been so unproductive in his life, and he hated it. He hated everything about this stupid project, especially the fact that she was his partner. 

A laugh escaped her, earning a glare from Tsukishima, “you’re so scary.” She says, though its clear she’s teasing him as she comes to pat his cheek condescendingly, accompanied by a mocking tone and an annoying smirk.

“Whatever.” He grumbles, tossing the textbook off the bed before falling back against his bed. 

Y/N hums, eyes falling over his figure as she nods to herself. “I see.”

Tsukishima scoffs at her words, lifting his head up to meet her gaze with a glare, “see what?”

Her grin only widens at his words as she shuts her own textbook, placing it on the nightstand beside her alongside her notebook before allowing herself to collapse into Tsukishima’s pillows. “You’re grumpy—” She turns to her side, lifting her arm up, “because you want a hug.”

Tsukishima looks at her incredulously, rolling his eyes as he brings his hands to his face, causing Y/N to lower her arm as she pouts. “You’re stupid.” He mumbles, watching her push up onto her elbows.

“And you’re a touch-starved grump.” Comes her reply, prying his hands form his forehead to gently remove his glasses, reaching over him to place it on the other nightstand before returning to her side of the bed. She lifts her arm once more, looking to Tsukishima expectantly. 

He inhales deeply, looking away in an attempt to maintain some of his pride when he feels his cheeks redden. “We have work to do.”

“The project isn’t due for another two weeks, Kei.” 

Tsukishima finds himself trying to glare at her, though it fails when he realizes she’s said his first name and he can’t bring himself to be upset anymore, simply saying, “this didn’t happen.” Before his arms come around her waist, Y/N’s arm that was once hovering above her now wrapped around his neck as she pulled him closer. Her other hand coming to tangle her fingers in his hair.

“This didn’t happen.” She repeated.

That day, he promises that the next time they meet, they’re actually going to get work done. He breaks this promise too, quickly realizing that this is a theme whenever the promises are related to Y/N.

Tsukishima doesn’t really realize that he’s in too deep until the day his lips crash against hers and he finds himself whispering those damned words once more, “this didn’t happen.” His hands running down her sides as he tries to pull her closer because whenever he’s around her that cold that plagues him day and night seems to fade, replaced the warmth she seems radiate as though she’s the sun.

He hates that he compares her to the sun, he hates that she’s become something he needs, a presence he craves, because Y/N L/N was meant to be nobody and now she seems to be one of the most important people in his life. He hates that she understands him, that she can read his every move better than he can, that she knows what he needs before he even says it. 

He doesn’t realize he’s in too deep until he’s promising himself not to fall in love.

Because for the first time in a while, Tsukishima Kei wants nothing more than to touch, he wants to feel, even though he’s filled with fear of the unknown, fear of the feelings he so desperately wanted to avoid. For once in his life, he wants to let go, because he finally feels comfortable enough to do so. 

This time all she says is, “I know.” 

Because Y/N knows that falling for Tsukishima was a mistake, a big one. She’s well aware of the fact that the boy is emotionally unavailable and renowned for his rude attitude and crude remarks. She knows that even if they have these silent moments together, even if she’s held him in her arms at night, even if they’ve been closer than she’s even been with anyone else, this basically means nothing. Because its not like either of them would ever do anything about the fact that the few words they did share in moments like these, weren’t ones of denial that the moments didn’t happen, but something else entirely at this point. 

Confessions in their own right. 

But she knows that all she’ll ever be, is something that didn’t happen. Not a story of his first love, not the girl he talks about with his friends, not the one he thinks about, the one he saw in everyday life. She was nobody, because she didn’t happen.

She doesn’t know that she’s wrong. Very wrong. That Tsukishima spoke fondly of her— honestly, Yamaguchi loves Y/N, he really does, but he’d getting a bit tired of hearing about how the mundane things she does that Tsukishima happens to notice. That he thought of her frequently, that the smell of coffee reminded him of her now, that the sight of the sunset she fawned over every time they walked home together only served as a reminder of her.

It’s not until he’s crying out in victory because they beat Shiratorizawa, Karasuno won, he won. It’s not until he’s so overwhelmed with emotion that he finds his legs moving on their own, towards Y/N; who stands beside Ukai and Takeda, the pair had taken to screaming at each other in the midst of their excitement. It’s not until his hands are on her face, bringing her into a kiss, much to her surprise, that he realizes what exactly the warmth was.

“This didn’t happen?” She asks, trying her hardest to ignore the stares of the team—though many of them are still caught up in their own celebration— as she looks to him. 

Tsukishima simply grins, “I didn’t say that.” 

A/N: kei is my favorite person to write for and i cannot explain why and this has not been edited so oops

tags: @beifongsss @shawkneecaps @iwaizoom @therainroguefanfiction​

[mikalara-dracula]

Watching movies with their s/o

ft. Ruki and Yui

Ruki:

Ruki is very picky when it comes to watching movies because he only likes a few specific genres.

Is mostly into rewatching movies that he took a liking to.

“Ruki, we’ve seen that movie a million times. Can’t we watch something else?”

“This is a classic.” He’d reply.

Is secretly into 50 Shades of Grey xDD.

Once you both have decided on which movie to watch, he likes having you sit in his lap while you’re watching a movie with him.

If it’s a movie that you’ve never seen but he has, he’ll make it absolutely miserable for you to watch since he’s constantly giving you details about what’s going to happen next.

“Ruki, stop spoiling it.”

“I just want you to get the whole picture. The next scene is pretty important to what happens in the end.”

“La-la-la-la. I’m not listening.” You’d sing, plugging your ears to avoid any more spoilers.

If by chance, you both decide to watch a movie you both haven’t seen, he tries to guess what happens next and builds all of these conspiracy theories while watching it.

This knowledgeable boi xDD.

“Ruki, stop playing detective, it’s just a movie.”

“Predicting what happens next allows the plot to unfold better for me.”

Depending on the scene that comes on, he will occasionally whisper cute into your ear while the movie plays to make you smile.

However, if an intimate scene comes on, he’s bound to whisper something slightly perverted to make you blush.

Might even sneak his hand under to touch your ass, which throws you completely off guard as you’d snap your head toward him.

“Ruki!”

“By sitting in my lap, Y/N, you’re bound to pay the consequences.”

Due to seeing certain movies many times, you have ended up falling asleep pressed up against him in the past.

The biggest smirk on his face appears every time he acknowledges this.

When the movie is over and the credits come on, he likes to criticize the movie if you both have never seen it before.

“That movie had no plot. It’s not like the classics.”

“Oh really, so I suppose 50 Shades of Grey is a classic?”

“Yes, Y/N. Indeed, it is.”

“Ugh! You never change.” You’d groan, throwing your hands up in frustration knowing you’d never be able to change his mind about that movie.

Yui:

Yui watches Disney movies--wholesome movies in fact.

Always kid-friendly.

She isn’t into horror or really sad films because she doesn’t like the vibe they give.

Will always ask you if you can watch a cute movie instead with her big eyes and, you just have to give in to her cause she’s so sweet.

Get’s scared during a scene if you decide to watch a horror movie.

Is glued to your arm if the movie is a thriller.

She falls asleep peacefully on your shoulder if it was a fluffy movie.

Yui also likes comedies because they always make her laugh.

So you will always hear the small giggle and bubbly laugh.

But, she’s definitely not a fan of sexual comedies--those are a no-no in her book.

She likes to cuddle under a blanket with you while watching movies.

Depending on how comfortable she is with you, she’ll even place a few kisses on your cheek.

Likes it when you wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close, or hold her hand.

Will sometimes get into conversation with you about whatever’s going on in the movie to the point where you both start talking about something else.

“Um Yui, we should get back to the movie.”

“Huh?” She’d question, soon realizing what you meant. “Oh! Right.”

When a funny scene comes on, she loves hearing the sound of your laugh since she finds it to be cute.

Loves it when you place soft kisses into her forehead.

Likes it when you tell her interesting theories about the movie.

She really doesn’t hearing about them since it helps her connect the dots.

Doesn’t even mind spoilers really.

She’s really in it for the experience and getting to watch it with you—that’s what’s most important to her.

If you ask her about her honest thoughts towards the movie, she’ll be more than happy to tell you.

Even if she didn’t enjoy the movie, she always finds a way to make the most of it and put a smile on your face.

“Even if the movie wasn’t that interesting, I’m just glad I was able to spend the time with you.”

[tinyboxxtink]

"Doppelganger" *Part 18*

Alright I went back and forth with this one, I even had a whole other idea where to take this, but I ended up here. And you know to be honest I think it ended up working out because it really does explain a LOT. I just did it inadvertently.

Also I hate to ask this but if you enjoy my stuff can you PLEASE reblog it and not just like it? It really helps me out more because more people see it, liking it doesn't really do anything.

I love you all!!!

Part 17

Part 19

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

[OMG I LOVE HIS FACE SO MUCH. I don't wanna give any spoilers but watch it when you read the line that starts: "I don't know what else to do--" . Wait, can you tell it's a face he's making like, he's about to cry because he doesn't know what you expect him to do because that's the context of the gif. It's when Alex is like I didn't do shit blah blah blah and he's like "It's all gonna come out Alex, I don't know how else to help you if you're just gonna be this way! Kinda like Cest La Vie, ya know? Did I overexplain it?]

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

The next few days consisted of a lot of cuddling and binging, you two in your own little bubble. Rafael didn’t have any big cases at the moment, so he was able to do most of his paperwork and things from home. After a long discussion, you decided that you were going to take the rest of the semester off; at least until things cooled down, people forgot about the whole ‘Nevada’ debacle, and wouldn’t hound you anymore. You were enjoying your bubble when Rafael just had to pop it.

You were in the middle of binging some courtroom drama [DUN DUN] when he turned to you and said:

“...Baby, remember when you said you’d talk to someone…?”

There it was. The other shoe dropped. The music had come, you had to face it.

“I um, yeah…” You looked down and played with the string on Rafael’s HARVARD hoodie you were currently wearing.

“Well I found numbers of some pretty good psychiatrists that deal with PTSD and--”

“Psychiatrists?!” You suddenly sat upright. “Y-You want me to go to a shrink?”

“Well, I thought that’s what--”

“I thought you just wanted me to talk to one of your-- squad, people,” You were starting to panic. You didn’t want some stranger knowing your business; how would you even begin to explain the situation?!

“I mean, if that’s what you want--”

“That’s what I want,” You cut him off. “As long as it’s not Olivia,”

“Okay, whatever you need baby,” He kissed the top of your head.

-----

That next week you had agreed to sit down and talk with Sonny Carisi. Rafael was stunned when you asked to talk to a guy, but you said it made you feel more comfortable for whatever reason. He was seriously hesitant for some reason, but then agreed. The conversation went like this:

“What are you worried I'll latch on to him, fall in love with him like people do with their mentors?” You teased.

“Ha ha….” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He didn’t find it amusing at all.

“....Baby I was just kidding,” You put a hand to his chest. “That takes months-- or y’know, a glance at a photo in a temp office,” You giggled, thinking about how you met and fell in love.

“Yeah no I know,” He gave you a very weird smile. “Just um, y’know don’t get into too much detail about us, okay? Just stick to the Nevada thing,”

“...Um, okay…?” You looked at him curiously.

“I just don’t want my co-workers knowing our personal stuff, carino,” He assured you. Well that made sense.

----

So here you were, sitting in an interrogation room with Sonny Carisi. He looked about as uncomfortable as you felt. Though you couldn’t understand why he would be worried, you were the one ‘on trial’ here.

“So um, Miss Y/L/N,” He cleared his throat.

“Y/F/N is fine, Mr. Carisi,”

“Sonny, please,” He nodded. “So, Y/N-- I uh, so...did you wanna talk about anything?”

“....I mean, you’re the SVU detective here Sonny. Don’t you have a list of questions you have to ask me?”

“I mean, we already know most of it. You were kidnapped by a guy who looked like Barba, you had sex with him a lot--”

“Excuse me?” You cut him off. “Is that what your little paper says? ‘I had sex with him a lot’? I was assaulted, multiple times,”

“Right,” He nodded nervously. “Yeah no, of course I’m sorry that’s what I meant,”

“...Did Olivia write this?” You narrowed your eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“Did Olivia write this report?” You repeated.

“Why would you ask that?” He asked you nervously.

“Because it doesn’t exactly sound like I’m the victim in that report,” You crossed your arms. “It sounds like someone who has a personal bias towards my fiancé, who thinks that this was my fault. That I should’ve known the difference between him and some criminal. Maybe someone who thinks they would’ve known better if they were in the situation. Maybe someone who thinks he should be with someone who knows them like they do,”

“....That’s a lot of assumption on your part, Y/N,” Sonny turned the paper upwards while he dismissed your conspiracy theory.

“...Is it?” You narrowed your eyes. “Let me see it,”

“Y’know these things are private information for the NYPD Y/N, and--” Before he could finish, you swiped the paper from him. You noticed his face go white, he stopped talking. Jesus, did everyone want to protect precious Olivia? You scanned the paper, your eyes went wide when you saw who filled it out.

“....You filled this out,” You said softly, looking at him. He was looking at the floor. “Y-You, filled this out Mr. Carisi,”

“Sonny--” He said in a shaky voice.

“Oh ok, SONNY,” You tossed the paper at him. “You--You don’t even know me. Do you? Have we met before? Did I offend you in some past life?”

“No, no of course not--”

“.....Or have I offended you by dating your mentor--oh my god, your mentor,” You suddenly remembered the conversation you had with Rafael a few days before.

“I...I have to go,” You suddenly stood up and walked out of the room briskly, Sonny trailed behind you. Rafael had been waiting in the squad room to take you home after you were done, you stomped across the room to him.

“Hey, baby done so soon--? What’s wrong?” He looked at you with concern.

“....Were you screwing Carisi?” you growled.

“Excuse me?” He asked in a panicked tone.

“WERE YOU FUCKING YOUR MENTEE BEFORE ME,” You practically screamed, causing the whole precinct to stop and stare. Rafael looked around the room horrified, then glanced at Sonny who had an apologetic look on his face. “He--”

“Oh no no no, don’t blame this on him,” You stood in front of his eyeline to Sonny. “...Is that what you do, Rafael? Y-You seduce your interns and sleep with them? W-Was I just a tick on the wall?”

“NO,” He shook his head and took your hand. “Can we-- Can we do this outside, please?”

“Why? Because you don’t want everyone to know ‘our’ personal life, or ‘yours’?” You huffed as you skulked out of the building.

“Barba I’m sorry, she just--” Sonny tried to explain.

“We are not done with this, Carisi,” Rafael growled at him before he ran after you.

-----

He caught you outside the precinct, breathing heavily trying not to have a panic attack.

“What is wrong with you?” Rafael asked you, making you stop altogether.

“A-Are you serious?” You half laughed in disbelief. “You send me into the lion’s den without any warning, and then I just get to find out that I’m just one of the many--”

“Oh knock it off, Y/N,” He stopped you. “You know that’s not true,”

“It’s not? Then what the fuck was that?”

“Okay,” He sighed. “Okay fine maybe I should have-- insist on you talking to someone else,”

“....You think THAT’S the problem here?”

“Look Y/N. Carisi and I...we... we got drunk a few times, and we-- y’know,” He shrugged uncomfortably.

“Oh God…” You wouldn’t throw up on the sidewalk, you told yourself.

“And he caught feelings from it! I can’t control how he feels!” He gestured towards the building.

“...So does that mean that you ‘y’know’ with Olivia a few times, and SHE ‘caught feelings’ from it? Because I distinctly remember you telling me that nothing ever happened between you two,”

“....Under your spell,” He mumbled.

“Excuse me?” You almost fell over.

“I--” He looked around nervously. “I said that, under your spell. You think that when I was ‘in love’ with you I was going to tell you that I fucked the woman you were threatened by?”

“...Did....did you just use quotes? Did you just air quote you being in love with me?”

“Well I wasn’t exactly under my own free will now was I?” He snapped.

“I can’t...I can’t believe you’re using that against me,” You looked to the side with a dry laugh, refusing to cry.

“Look I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--” He tried to go for your hand, but you weren’t having it. “Look my point was, you and I-- we’re not the same. Our relationship isn’t the same as them--”

“No, it’s not. Because you slept with them WILLINGLY, right? And I just tricked you into it? Like Nevada did with me? Because we’re the same?”

“Alright now you’re just--” He rolled his eyes.

“What? What am I JUST--?” You crossed your arms, upset he wasn’t taking this seriously.

“I thought we were doing all of this to get past this, Y/N,” He sighed in frustration.

“So did I!” You stomped your foot, tears choking your throat. “But--But, what if we can’t? This whole time, this WHOLE time. You--”

“Y/N baby stop--” He tried putting his hand on your shoulder but you backed away.

“You KNEW how bad I felt about doing that to you! You told me that, that I just ‘brought out your real feelings’, but….but that’s not true, is it?” You paced while talking and then paused when you asked the question.

“Yes it is! I mean, mostly….” He added the last part with a mumble.

“Mostly?” Your blood ran cold.

“I mean I thought you were attractive, but I didn’t know anything about you. And--And you didn’t know anything about me, Y/N. You weren’t in love with me either, you had a crush on me. But that day we spent together, it really did make me fall in love with you! After I remembered how I felt, I wanted to keep feeling that way all the time! I wanted to be with you, I knew we were meant to be together after that--”

“Oh my god--” You laughed again, putting your hands over your head. “This is insane. This is...this is insane,”

“Baby look when you think about it the whole thing is insane. But we’re here--”

“No, you’re right Rafael,” You put your hands in between you, preventing him from coming closer. “We are insane. But I thought it was the ‘only in the movies kind of love’ insane. But apparently, it’s just an insane mental institution insane,” You started to walk away but he ran in front of you.

“No. Uh Uh. You’re not walking away from this. Not again, not ever again,”

“What are you gonna hold me hostage now? Like I did with your feelings?” You rolled your eyes, but then it hit you. That was your entire problem. That’s what this all boiled down to. This is what it’s ALWAYS been about.

“...That’s it,” You whispered.

“...What is?” He looked at you curiously.

“...We started this on a lie, I started us on a lie,”

“Wha--- no, no you--” He shook his head.

“I did!” You finally let tears fall. “You just said it yourself, I made you feel those things. You--- you didn’t feel anything more for me than Olivia or Carisi! You just wanted to sleep with me! But I--I made you have romantic feelings for me. And-- And ever since that day, that magical perfect day when I accepted that it wasn’t real, I was right!”

“No, no--” He tried to protest.

“YES, Rafael! And-- and ever since then, ever since you, we-- I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that you’re STILL under that influence! That-- that one day you’re going to realize ‘oh hey you know what I actually don’t give a shit about you, my bad!’,” You began pacing, thinking out loud as it all came to the surface.

“And--And, I just still have it in my mind that I’m not good enough for you, I’ll NEVER be good enough for you! And-- these things just keep happening, that are telling me I’M RIGHT. I couldn’t tell you apart from Nevada, I did things with him knowing it hurt you, I did DRUGS even though on some level I knew it would hurt you, and what it all boils down to is I’ve kept you hostage in this relationship!”

“NO, you have not,” Rafael took you by the shoulders. “I get why you feel like this, Y/N baby I really do. And-- And I’m sorry I wasn’t upfront about Sonny and Olivia but I knew you are already so insecure about our relationship--”

“FOR GOOD REASON!!!”

“NO! NOT for good reason!” He tried not to yell as not to cause a scene but he needed you to hear him.

“Look maybe we-- we started out unconventionally. But that was MONTHS ago, baby. Have I-- have I not shown you time and time again, how much I really do love you? I--I made a fucking flash mob for you, do you know how long that took? How much self esteem did I have to suck it up to perform in front of people again? But I did it for you,” He started to cry.

“I risked my life for you so many times when Nevada had you. I could have just let him keep you. Especially after--” He stopped, quickly noting that bringing that up again was only going to take three steps back.

“I--I dropped everything to stay home and protect you! Do those things not make you feel loved? Do you think that all of that is...is fabricated?” He was the one crying and laughing in disbelief now.

“I don’t--- I don’t know what else to do to prove to you that I love you of my own free will. TELL ME what I can do to prove that to you, and I’ll do it! What is going to prove to you that I won’t leave you, that I won’t suddenly wake up one day and realize I was under some spell all along? Tell me!” He begged you, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“....Marry me,” You finally answered softly.

“....What?” He looked at you quizzically. “Baby I already proposed--”

“Yeah but that’s not definite, Rafael,” You held up your bare hand. “Look! It’s not even real right now!”

“A piece of jewelry doesn’t--”

“It does to me!” You took his hands. “Look, I’m--I’m sorry I am the way that I am, but I can’t change it. I--I need physical proof. I know that you’ve done all of this heroic and crazy stuff for me, but-- but my stupid brain won’t accept that! I need something, something physical. Actual proof that I can look at, to know I’m safe. To know you’re going to stay with me,”

“....Okay,” He nodded, looking down at your hand while rubbing your ring finger.

“Okay?” You asked warily. “You’re just going to accept that?”

“....I’ve put up with all of your other craziness up to this point, have I not?” He smirked.

“Hey that’s not--” You started to argue but he gave you a look. “Alright fine, yes you have,”

“Okay,” He looked up at you with a smile. “I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you right now, we can go into the chapel in the back and--” He started leading you back to the station.

“Wha, no no no,” You cried and laughed, wiping the tears from your face. “Okay I didn’t mean this second. Just...soon,”

“Soon?” He looked at you curiously.

“Really soon?” You bit your lip.

“Like, tomorrow soon?”

“Like….I don’t know, maybe a month? Two? I kind of want a reasonably cute wedding,”

“Not a huge expensive one….”

“Rafael how many people do I know that would come to my wedding? You and Chloe. That’s it. And Chloe will be standing next to me,”

“You have Maria,”

“Maria’s your...mom?”

“Second mom,” He chuckled. “But she could sit on your side. With her husband. And if you go inside and make nice with the rest of the squad, they can sit on your side,”

“...Make nice with the people I just had a meltdown in front of?” You raised an eyebrow.

“...They’ve seen worse, trust me,” He teased.

“...Okay but after that, can we--?” You raised your hand, and he read your mind.

“I’ll call Tiffany's and tell them we’ll be stopping by,” He shook his head with another laugh.

“...Really? Fancy,” You grinned.

“You’re easy to please,” He shook his head with a laugh as you walked back into the station hand in hand.

[avauntus]

niche (new?!) content

I’ve been wanting to post something fun and not too heavy for a minute, but I couldn’t think of anything tied to fandoms mutuals enjoy. Then it occurred to me-- this is my little junk pile on the internet, so if I want to be completely unhinged, I can.

In that vein, it’s a rainy weekend near the end of a stressful year, and who couldn’t use some ‘for the vibes’ fun! So I’d like to tell you about one of my dorkiest hobbies: Collecting post-2000 RPG adventure modules for plot reasons.

Yes, I know - they’re often a mishmash of clichés and railroading (forcing characters a direction because the story demands it), but I enjoy throwing fandom characters into the mix.

I’ve never written any of these, and I don’t plan to, but here are a few of my favorites if you’d like to come on this special journey with me. 😆

#4 - Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018)

The plot: Your band of novice adventurers start in a tavern. They end up mired a grand mystical conspiracy with the potential of staggering profits and accidentally acquire a haunted inn (wraith of a former proprietor; not clear on the former part, aggravated about the utter state of their dusty ale taps) along the way. Their haunted inn can have a demon-tiger private investigator as a next-door neighbor if you want.

What I love: It’s set in a city! There’s multiple plot elements that involve scheming / schmoozing / sleuthing / diplomacy/guile -- pretty much everything beyond hacking your way through monster guts. The villains -- co-written by Mathew Mercer, of critical role fame-- are complex and top-notch.

Fav Part? - Most commentary I’ve read on this adventure calls out the Cassalanter’s storyline (it’s good!) I love the (vague to avoid spoilers) Winter Mage and Jarlaxle with his carnival and magical submersible (what?)

Fanfic? - Anything that pairs well with the “they’re secretly hiding from a life of adventure / coffee shop / bureaucratic job!” meet-cute tropes. In my head, most recently: Supernatural (retired!Dean/post-Empty human!Cas retire to the coast’s most bucolic vacation city, only to realize their ‘charming historic bed&breakfast’ ...isn’t). Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung; Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty; and I think Persona V would be interesting (you’d have to AU the gang or smoosh Waterdeep into Tokyo?) I also think Loki (2021) [Loki & Mobius case fic!] or an alt-take on Final Fantasy VII’s SHINRA [the Turks! 😎] would fit. 

#3 - Key of Destiny adventure path (2004-2006)

The plot: uhhh. It’s...a lot. This was a set of three adventures written for the Dragonlance campaign setting that starts your adventurers out in a fairly tropy fantasy frontier city and goes everywhere from ruined civilizations to theatre in the round with a cursed dragon to dinner repartee to a romantic obsession at the end of the world. Also, the first book is 175 pages long and the last one is 365 pages and covers nearly a year of in-game time, Y-I-K-E-S. The adventurers start out trying to cure a town of its mysterious plague, only to slowly uncover that they’re taking part in a divinely-fated story that began a thousand years ago.

What I love: This adventure has a little bit of everything. Drama, humor, romance, time-travel...it’s all there. I love the haunted temple of Hurim, the redemption of the dragons, and the cursed dinner party.

What I’d change: ‘What if high fantasy, but too much?!’ At best, only some could be adapted, and I’d give the more stereotyping parts a miss. The shattered kender make me sad. 🙃

Fanfic? - Any fandom that can handle drama & ‘epic quests’-- The Untamed; Star Wars (Rogue One AU/’everyone lives’ or a Republic-era AU plot with Anikin and Obi-Wan); and I don’t really go there, but I think The Lost Tomb would be neat too.

#2 - Tomb of Annihilation (2017)

The plot: Look, if I try, we’re gonna be here all day. You start out racing dinosaurs. Then you get hired to fix a death-plague. Depending on how well your party chooses their wilderness guide, you either successfully find the ruins where the plague can be stopped, or you don’t, but you probably end up doing something that results in your commanding an army of zombies or becoming a zombie dragon, or both. If you head in the right direction, you can take part in a “hidden heir to the throne” situation too. I think there are aliens or intraplanar beings in there somewhere. And so on.

What I’d change: Again, too big to fit all of it in, and I heard it was nigh-impossible for most groups to finish the final tomb, so that’d get dialed back.

Fanfic? - The Lost Tomb (obviously, lol); The Mummy (1999); Inception (no, seriously-- think about it); Alice in Borderland; The Order of Moon Reflected in Pure Water (but I am not cool enough to write for this, 😆); Stargate(s); any fandom where having a pair (or group) of characters in a tough, deadly situation with some humor and high stakes would be interesting.

#1 - Red Hand of Doom (2006)

The plot: This is sooo cringy, oh man, I’m so sorry... 😅 Your group of adventurers stumbles upon a peaceful, idyllic valley for...reasons. Only things aren’t as quiet as they seem. Over the course of the next few days, as your group scrounges up work, you slowly come to realize the valley is on the brink of war, and they are not going to be winning. Maybe your party can turn the tide...or maybe the best you can do is save as many as you can along the way. It all depends on how fast you can act, how good your choices are, and how much the people you meet trust you and each other.

What I love: This adventure has a timeline, and stakes. If your party tries to linger over petty concerns (let’s stay an extra night to loot!), or make a big stand when you’re not ready, you will get overrun. I also like the feeling of ‘hard choices bound by relationships’ this story gives out-- your heroes can’t fix things by attacking head-on...so what are you going to do?

What I’d change: The base plot is great, but the background could be so much better if it let go of ‘Ye Olde Fantasy’ a bit more. Instead of vaguely Roman-esque ancient ruins and monstrous antagonists, I’d lean into the colonialist underpinning: the valley-dwellers are settlers from the dominant culture, and not the first to live in those lands. Maybe the invaders know something the colonizers don’t, but there’s old pain between the two groups. Maybe some of the valley-folk sympathize with those who were pushed back into the mountains and are pushing back. Maybe the threat isn’t what the dynasty leaders tell your heroes it is at the beginning, or maybe they hear two different versions and have to decide who to believe?

Fanfic? - Anything with an ‘enemies-to-lovers’ arc; tense situations; high competence-- I feel like with some setting and plot adjustment, this could make an amazing My Country: the New Age or Final Fantasy XIV Ishguard AU or plot-adjacent fic... 🤩      

[godofplumsandthunder]

My Favorite Sweater

Pairings: Ransom Drysdale x Reader

Warnings: Knives Out Spoilers

A/n: This was based on the prompt “Did you borrow my favorite sweater?” that was submitted by anon for the @the-ce-horniest-book-club​ This is my first time writing for Ransom, and I’m definitely going to write more. I hope you enjoy!

"4 months, he'd be back home in four months," you remind yourself as you drive to the prison. 4 more months and you'd have your fiance, Ransom, back. You thought it was ridiculous that he even had to spend 4 months. You couldn't, and still don't, believe that Ransom tried to kill Marta, and killed his grandpa. Not the man that would whisper soft, and caring sayings into your ear. Or the man that would make your favorite dish after a rough day at work. No, this was all a conspiracy by Ransom's family. They couldn't stand them. Yet, if they took the time to know the Ransom that you know, they'd be so happy with him. In your mind, Ransom didn't deserve any jail time, but, you were happy that his family's lawyers were able to get 4 months, considering he was facing life. It was even better that he was sentenced to a prison close by, where you could visit him weekly.

After many hours of driving, and a small potty break, you finally arrive at Suffolk County House of Correction. You smile at Greg, the corrections officer, as you hand him your ID. He gives you a small, understanding smile. "How was the drive, Y/N?" Greg asks as he hands you the clipboard with the visitor's rules and regulations. Not like you need them, you practically know them by heart.

"It was long but worth it to see him, you know?" You hand the clipboard back and smile softly. Greg nods and looks at you.

"I have my own opinion on Ransom, but he's lucky to have someone like you. He's at your usual booth" he buzzes you in.

You fiddle with the sleeves of your white sweater as you see Ransom waiting. He's grown his beard out a little, which you do not like, and he's dressed in that tacky orange jumpsuit. You can't wait till he's out, so he can dress in the designer clothes that you absolutely adore. You sit at the booth, and can't help but smile at Ransom. You stare in those deep, rich blue eyes of his, as he clears his throat.

"Did you borrow my favorite sweater, baby?" He smiles, as he looks you over. You duck your head in embarrassment.

"Yeah, it's so lonely without you. And... Well, the sweater helps me not feel as lonely." Ransom puts his hand on the glass of the booth, you match it.

"Then steal my sweaters whenever you want. Just make sure I have some when I get out of here. Cause I got to take my girl on a proper date. And God, I've been dying to have some real food." You chuckle at Ransom's attitude. A lot of times, he reminds you of a man-sized baby. But it doesn't matter because that man-sized baby was yours. And in four months, you are going to be his wife. And you would have the best life with him. You just know it.

[pastelbatfandoms]

ABCs of your OCs

A list of oc questions in alphabetical categories - i made each category based on the first word I could think of in alphabetical order, so enjoy!

Decided to try and answer these using Gifs and Images of My characters (aka who or what reminds me of My character)

.Doing this for My OC Michelle Riley in My Riverdale Fic. 

Michelle is “played by” Ksenia Solo (Teen) &  Kaya Scodelario (Young Adult)

A: Aptitude 1. what are your oc’s natural abilities, things they’ve been doing since young? Writing,solving Mysteries,has always had an interest in the occult and anything different and unusual.

2. what activities have they participated in? Michelle is a bit of a Loner but she has done Cheer and writes Poetry in her spare time as well as mysteries. She also was a camp counselor & Lifeguard with Betty and Cheryl over the summer. 

3. what abilities do they have?  She’s human but Michelle knows a bit of Karate and was taught how to fight by FP.

4. what things are they bad at? Being Honest,Indecisive,

5. what is their most impressive talent? Writing and Dancing

B: Basics 1. what is their hair color?  Dark brown. Dies Black or wears Blond wigs. 

2. what is their eye color? Brown but wears Light green or blue contacts

3. how tall are they? A little shorter than Jughead

4. how old are they? 15 (Story start) 19 (Story end) October 7 2000

5. how much do they weigh?

C: Comfort 1. how do they sit in a chair? Usually leaning forward.

2. in what position do they sleep?

3. what is their ideal comfort day? Reading or watching TV,eating,doing something creative,learning new things (especially about the occult or conspiracy theories),writing poetry,mainly being by herself on her down time.Although she’s an ambivert so she does like hanging out with her BF or Friends after her alone time. 

4. what is their major comfort food? um Anything lol She’s literally a female Jughead in more ways than one. Burgers and fries,Milkshakes,Pancakes,Chips and salsa...

5. who is the best at comforting them when down? Betty or Mom. Most of the time Jughead. (unless it’s about him)

D: Decoration 1. how would they decorate a house if they had one under their name? Minimalistic with plants,charming and attractive yet simple and comfortable. Small neighborhood.

2. how would they decorate their child’s room? Michelle doesn’t want kids

3. how do they decorate their own room? Shabby Chic,Girly mixed with rustic. With of course darker undertones. 

4. what type of clothes and accessories do they wear? Goth,Grunge,Edgy,had a preppy phase. (Casual Artsy in Middle school) 

5. do they like makeup/nail/beauty trends? Yes.

E: External Personality 1. does the way they do things portray their internal personality?  Sometimes. She’s not as tough as she portrays. 

2. do they do things that conform to the norm? Sometimes. If on her own.

3. do they follow trends or do their own thing? No

4. are they up-to-date on the internet fads? Only E-Girl and Mod Goth.

5. do they portray their personality intentionally or let people figure it out on their own? Is shy at first.

F: Fun 1. what do they do for fun? Shopping,Dancing,hanging out at Pop Tates Malt Shop,Drive in movies,Art,watching Horror movies,writing poetry,Solving Mysteries,going out to a club or the biker bar The White Wyrm. 

2. what is their ideal party? See Above. Dancing,Strobe lights,Band,Underage Drinking/Sex. Unless she’s 18 or 19 then. Decorating for parties and liked having Clue inspired Sleepovers in middle school.

3. who would they have the most fun with? Her girls. B,V & C.

4. can they have fun while conforming to rules? When alone yes.

5. do they go out a lot? Yes.

G: Gorgeous 1. what is their most attractive external feature? Her eyes and smile.

2. what is the most attractive part of their personality? 

3. what benefits come with being their friend?

4. what parts of them do they like and dislike?

5. what parts of others do they envy?  IDK if I’m going to finish this.

H: Heat 1. do they rather a hot or cold room?

2. do they prefer summer or winter? Spring and Fall

3. do they like the snow? Not really.

4. do they have a favorite summer activity? Thrift Shopping and Sleuthing

5. do they have a favorite winter activity? Reading inside or Sleuthing.

I: In-the-closet 

1. what is their sexuality? Pan Sexual 

2. have they ever questioned their sexuality? yes

3. have they ever questioned their gender? No

4. would/was their family be okay with them being LGBT? Yes they are very open minded.

5. how long would/did it take for them to come out? High School

J: Joy 1. what makes them happy? Art,writing,shopping,mysteries,love,music.

2. who makes them happy? Her Family (Blood and none)

3. are there any songs that bring them joy? Wow I have a whole playlist...

4. are they happy often? More or less

5. what brings them the most joy in the world?

K: Kill 1. have they ever thought about suicide? I don’t write that. They may have dark thoughts but never act on them,this is not 13 reasons why.

2. have they ever thought about homicide? No

3. if they could kill anyone without punishment, would they? who? No

4. who would miss them if they died? Um all her Friends and Family

5. who would be happy they died, anyone? Penny Peabody lbr

L: Lemons 1. what is their favorite fruit? 2. what is their least favorite fruit?

3. are there any foods they hate?

4. do they have any food intolerances?

5. what is their favorite food? Already said. She also really likes Chicken with chips and salsa.

M: Maternal 

1. would they want a daughter or a son? 

2. how many children do they want? 

3. would they be a good parent? 

4. what would they name a son? 

what would they name a daughter? 

5. would they adopt? Possibly

N: Never Have I Ever

1. what would they never do? Kill Innocents.

2. what have they never done that they want to do? 

3. is there anything they absolutely can’t believe people do? People do alot of shitty things. Killing Kids and animals would be one of them.

4. what is the most embarrassing thing they’ve done? 

5. have they done anything they thought they’d never do? Um get drunk and sleep with her boyfriends Dad??...Or cheat on Jug with Veronica. SPOILERS! But I probably won’t finish this story lbh.

O: Optimism 1. are they optimistic or pessimistic? Both

2. are they openly optimistic?

3. are they good at giving advice? Yes

4. is there anyone in their life that throws optimism on them? Throws lol I suppose her Mom or Betty. 

5. were they always optimistic? 

>>>P: Personality 1. what is their best personality trait?

2. what is their worst personality trait?

3. what of their personality do others love?

4. what of their personality do others envy?

5. do they hate anything about their personality/about other’s personalities?

<<<Will do this later

Q: Questions 1. do they ask for help? Sometimes

2. do they ask questions in class? She did yes,when she was trying to be a straight A student.

3. do they answer questions that make them a little uncomfortable? Yes

4. do they ask weird questions? Yes

5. are they curious? Yes

R: Rules 1. do they follow rules? Sometimes.

2. would they be a strict or laid-back parent? A good balance.

3. have they ever been consequences for breaking a rule? 

4. have they broken any rules they now regret breaking?

5. do they find any rules they/others follow absolutely ridiculous? Nope

S: Streets 1. are they street-smart? Yes

2. would they give money to someone on the streets? Probably

3. have they ever gotten in a fight on the streets? Yes

4. has anything happened to them on the streets? Other then Fights,no.

5. are they cautious when out? Now yes,but she can take care of herself.

T: Truth 1. are they honest? More so now yes.

2. can they tell if someone is lying? Yes

3. is it obvious when they’re lying? Yes

4. have they lied about anything they regret lying about? Sleeping with FP

5. have they ever been talked about behind their back? I’m sure.

U: Underdog 1. have they been bullied? A couple times but they stopped once she stood her ground,same with standing up for others (like Jughead)

2. have they bullied anyone? No

3. have they been physically attacked? Yes

4. have they ever been doubted? Yes.

5. have they surprised people with being good at something? Yes,alot of Guys (and girls) underestimate her.

V: Vomit 1. do they vomit often? 2. do they get lots of stomach aches? 3. are they good at comforting someone ill? 4. what do they like as far as comfort goes? 5. do they burp, cough, or hiccup most when nauseous? when vomiting?

W: Water 1. do they drink enough water? 2. have they learned to swim? 3. do they like to swim? 4. can they dive? 5. can they swim without holding their nose?

X: Xylophone 1. what is their favorite genre of music? Oldies,Indie & Goth Rock

2. do they have a favorite song? Prince-Die 4 U

3. do they have a favorite band/artist/singer? The Cure,Prince & The Neighborhood.

4. can they sing well? Sure

5. can they rap? No

Y: You 1. how old were you when you created them? It was in 2017. 

2. what inspired you to create them? Watching Riverdale for the first time

3. were they different when they were first created? No

4. do you enjoy writing them more than other characters? No

5. what’s your favorite thing about them? Her style and sarcasm. 

Z: Zebra 1. what’s their favorite animal? Cats and Dogs

2. do they like animals? Yes

3. cats or dogs? Both

4. what’s their dream pet? Panther or Dragon

5. do they have any pets at the moment? Shares a Sheepdog/Mutt with The Serpents,named Hot Dog.

[liviethewriter]

Nightmares || Ezio x Reader

Fandom: Assassin’s Creed Type: Oneshot Requester: None Warnings: Fluff, Italian Swearing, Minor Violence, SPOILERS for Assassin’s Creed 2 Note: You gotta admit, the expressions in a lot of Assassin’s Creed games are just simply great. For example, Ezio’s expression in AC2 when his mother said, “Still recovering from last night?” And almost instantly, he feints surprise, like, “Uh, no idea what you’re talking about…” I’m laughing just thinking about it! Also, I wish to apologize for any incorrect translations. My first language is English, and I can speak some basic Japanese. Google Translate was bullied here.  Anywho, the Assassin’s Creed franchise is not mine, and rights to it go to Ubisoft. You are your own person. The only thing that is mine is the fan fiction itself. Enjoy! -Livie

All was quiet in the halls of the Villa Auditore. Moonlight spilled through the windows of the villa, illuminating the rooms it could get into. The inhabitants were sound asleep, save for one soul. A woman by the name of Y/N. 

Y/N was a traveling bookbinder, a book doctor of sorts. Most men did this job, but she was one of the few women who mended old books and bound new manuscripts together. Women were especially good at this, mainly because of their ability to skillfully use a needle with thread. Y/N loved books and her services were fairly priced. On top of that, she was pretty friendly to many clientele. 

Y/N was a close friend to Giovanni Auditore, a banker of Firenze. He had many documents and files, and she traveled through Firenze frequently. Whenever she was in town, he’d have her weave some of the books together and always paid her full price for her services. He even let her stay with his family for a few days if she were weary of travel. 

Thus, Y/N became a close friend to the Auditore family. Maria, the mother, was approving of her choice of profession, as most women around this time period flocked to a brothel or began displaying their cleavage in hopes of hooking a husband on the streets. Fredrico seemed to like her, as a friend of course. He was already promised to another woman, and she was not too keen on making enemies. Petruccio avoided Y/N, though she never understood whether it was because he was shy or if he was disliking of her. Y/N and Claudia got along fairly well, and the bookbinder often gave her advice about Duccio. She was especially upset when she found out that he was being unfaithful. 

It was the middle son, Ezio, that vexed Y/N the most. She never got too close to him, knowing he was with another woman by the name of Cristina Vespucci. But Ezio was always quick to throw Y/N that adorable, cocky grin of his. She could never tell if he was trying to flirt with her, or if he was trying to make her lighten up. He loved spending time with her. Whenever Ezio wasn’t running errands for his family or doing chores (or other unmentionable things), he was spending time with Y/N, grinning and joking around with her. 

But then the Auditore family ran into trouble. Y/N didn’t even know about it until she was passing through Firenze on a supply run, and she heard a passerby say, “I can’t believe it. Who’d have thought the Auditore family…? Mio Dio (My God).” 

Y/N felt her stomach hollow, and she grabbed the man by the shoulder and said, “Wait, what happened?” 

“You didn’t hear?” The man looked surprised. “Giovanni, Fredrico, and Petruccio Auditore da Firenze were hung yesterday for treason and conspiracy to murder.” 

Y/N let him go as he shrugged and walked away. Stumbling to an alleyway, she threw up, shaking. Giovanni and two of his sons were dead? Mio Dio, indeed. Feeling unsteady on her legs, she wiped at her mouth. Then what did that mean for Maria, Claudia, and Ezio? Were they all alright? Were they running? Did they escape? So little time, so many questions. 

And so began her search for the remanents of the Auditore family. 

Y/N didn’t find them until several months later at Villa Auditore, in Monteriggioni. She had stopped there for a few supplies. She was looking around some of the stalls for flasks and food when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and dragged into a nearby alleyway. 

Y/N struggled, about to bite the hand over her mouth. But she was suddenly turned around and met with a pair of familiar brown eyes, glittering happily in the dimness of the alleyway. The fire in her eyes quickly dissipated, recognizing the face in front of her. He had aged a bit since she had last met him, dark brown stubble lining his jaw and amplifying his handsome appearance. Y/N was definitely attracted to Ezio. 

The Auditore Assassin grinned at her. “Y/N! Mio Dio, look at you!” 

She grinned right back at him, hugging him around the neck. “Ezio!” 

Ezio laughed a little and hugged her right back, his strong embrace nearly crushing her. A surprised squeak from Y/N was all it took for him to let her go and hold her at arm’s length. “Where have you been?” Y/N asked excitedly. 

“Here. There. Everywhere,” Ezio shrugged, chuckling softly as he cocked a brow at her. 

Y/N shook her head, smiling a little. “That’s so like you, to be vague,” she commented, to which Ezio proceeded to pretend to be surprised. 

“Bellissima (Gorgeous), what ever do you mean?” Ezio asked, a hand lying across his heart. 

Y/N laughed and he grinned, chuckling along with you. Putting an arm around her, he said, “Venire (Come), Mother and Claudia will want to see you.” 

Excited at the prospect to see the Auditore family she had been searching for so long, Y/N happily went with him. As the two of them exited the alleyway, Y/N noticed the white armored outfit he was wearing. It wasn’t exactly what she’d expect Ezio to wear. No one seemed to be bothered by its peculiar style. In fact, they seemed to welcome Ezio, greeting him happily. 

A group of girls giggled and flaunted themselves invitingly as the two passed by and a dark feeling curdled in the pit of her stomach. With a stab of shock, Y/N realized the feeling was jealousy. Why was she jealous of a few brothel-born women who wore clothing that left little to the imagination? 

It definitely had something to do with the fact that she had Ezio by her side. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that he interested her. In more ways than one. 

Curious, Y/N then decided to ask it. “So… how’re you and Cristina?” 

Ezio knew she had to have some reason for asking about his former girlfriend. With his free hand, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, we’re no longer a couple, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

Y/N widened her eyes, flabbergasted. “Wha-! What happened?”

Ezio looked at her, seeming a little upset. “Well, after my father and brothers… you know, I took my mother and sister here. We were about to leave for a ship to Spain, but my Uncle Mario convinced me to stay here. Since Cristina did not know if I would return or not, her father betrothed her to another man. I did nothing as I knew her father did not like me. And I did not want Cristina to be called an unfaithful puttana (whore). So…” 

Y/N frowned sympathetically. “Oh… I’m sorry, Ezio.” 

“No, non scusarti. (No, don’t apologize.) After all, I think Cristina will be happier with him.” Ezio looked forward, sighing a little as the tips of his hair brushed his cheekbones. 

Y/N always thought he had handsome features, but with the dark brown facial hair coming in, she thought he looked absolutely gorgeous. 

“Mio dolce (My sweet), you’re staring,” Ezio teased, a playful little smirking gracing his features as he looked at her from the corner of his eye. 

A light pink dusted YN’s face as she sharply looked forward, tense. Ezio laughed heartily, his brown eyes glittering in amusement. Y/N shook her head, huffing. 

Only then did she notice that they were going to the large villa ahead. Y/N went bug-eyed. “No way,” she mumbled in amazement. 

Ezio chuckled as the two reached the top of the stairs leading to the front yard. He guided her inside, grinning. “Y/N, welcome to Villa Auditore!” 

Y/N was stunned by the beauty of the recently restored Villa. It was exquisite outside. But inside was absolutely beautiful. “Stunning, sì (yes)?” Ezio asked, standing by the door as she looked around in wonder.

Y/N looked at Ezio, smiling. She was at a loss for words, so she merely nodded. 

“I can think of a few other things that are twice as stunning. One of which is smiling right at me,” Ezio chuckled at his obvious flirt. 

He looked fairly amused as the heat rushed to Y/N’s face and she looked away. 

~~~

And now here she was. It must’ve been close to midnight. Y/N was shaking, terrified. She had just woken from a gruesome nightmare that’d both horrified her and made her cry softly. 

It’d been Ezio on the gallows, not his father and brothers. She’d woken up as his screams for her to run were cut short as the trapdoor let out and the rope was drawn taut. 

Comfort. Y/N wanted comfort. She knew where Ezio’s room was thanks to Claudia giving her a tour of the entire Villa earlier that evening. Claudia had been excited to see her, but Maria was a little… out of it. Y/N had expected her to be in shock like she was. 

Shaking a little, Y/N wrapped her blanket around herself, nibbling on her lower lip as she got out of bed. She was quiet as she quietly walked down the corridors to Ezio’s room. Y/N raised her hand to knock on the door, but she hesitated, unsure if he’d even be in a good mood. 

But Y/N still wanted to be near someone. To have human contact. And she only felt close enough to Ezio to allow herself close like that. Mustering up her courage, she knocked on the door softly, before wiping her red eyes and suppressing a sniffle. 

The thought of the rope creaking as Ezio’s limp body swung from it nearly shook Y/N to tears again, but Ezio opened the door before she could break down crying again. He was only dressed in his dark trousers and a thin, white nightshirt. He instantly took note of her tear-stained face and reddened irritated eyes, and he realized what had happened without her needing to say anything. 

“Oh, amore (love), come here,” he said softly, drawing her into his embrace and cradling her head to his chest. 

Ezio pulled Y/N into the room and closed the door, having a feeling that she didn’t want to be seen in such a state. She was trembling as she held onto Ezio as if he were life itself. The Assassin held her close, kissing the top of her head and whispering sweet nothings to her soothingly.

When he heard a sniffle, he looked down to see Y/N silently crying. She was scared. And knowing this broke the Italian man’s heart a little. He had liked Y/N for quite a long time. But she was always rejecting any flirts from him, knowing he was with Cristina. But with his former girlfriend going to another man, he had no hesitation with being there for Y/N. 

Gathering her up in his arms, Ezio carried her over to the bed and let the frightened woman sit in his lap as he held her close and comforted her. Ezio knew that talking about your nightmares often helped, but he wasn’t sure that talking about a nightmare that scared Y/N this badly would help anyone but the demons haunting her. 

Ezio gently rocked her, still softly whispering in Italian. He would’ve told anyone else to just grow up. But Y/N wasn’t just anyone to him. 

It wasn��t that much longer until Ezio noticed that Y/N’s soft crying had faded to hiccups. He looked down at her, very gently moving some of her hair out of her face. Her eyes were red and irritated even more than before, and her cheeks were wet with salty tears. Her face was flushed red and her lips were moistened. 

Sitting her up a little more, Ezio cupped her cheeks in his hands and drew his thumbs across the still-damp skin. “Guardami, bella… (Look at me, beautiful…)” Ezio said softly, noticing that her eyes were looking down as she attempted to collect her thoughts.

Y/N’s chest lurched a little as she hiccupped again, but she complied and brought her eyes up to meet Ezio’s dark chocolate irises. Ezio’s gaze softened before he closed his eyes and pressed a gentle, chaste kiss to her salty lips, still wet with tears. 

Y/N froze, her eyes widening at the feeling of Ezio’s plush, slightly chapped lips. It was a feeling foreign to her. But it still made her momentarily forget about her fears. Ezio opened his eyes as the kiss ended, and said, “Are you alright now, Y/N?” 

The bookbinder nodded, her eyes a little wide at this point. Ezio nodded as well. “Bene, bene… (Good, good…)” Ezio murmured as he held her close again. 

Y/N didn’t protest as he laid down on the bed, pulling her with him. She snuggled up to him, feeling the warmth seeping through the thin white shirt he was wearing. Ezio smiled fondly at her, affection in his eyes as he pulled his red covers over himself and Y/N. “Ti amo (I love you), Y/N,” Ezio whispered softly. 

He was responded to by Y/N, who said quietly, “Ti amo anch'io (I love you too), Ezio.”

As they returned to the depths of the dream world, Ezio hoped Y/N’s nightmares would not return. He buried his face in her orange scented hair, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. 

[runnning-outof-time]

When It’s Still | Tommy Shelby x Reader

Request: yes by anonymous

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader

Summary: For the first time in what seems like forever, Tommy Shelby is out of cigarettes. It's in their absence that (Y/N) finds out one of the reasons why he always has one.

Warnings: language, smoking, season 3 spoilers

Word Count: 3704

A/N: I really, really liked this request! It was such a fascinating idea. I hope I did it justice! Enjoy! :)

A/N 2: the italicized words are from the final scene in season 3...they are not mine.

I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! - YOUR THOUGHTS & COMMENTS HELP ME WRITE!

The room was quiet. No one was speaking. The only noise being the sounds of some trying to sniffle back their tears. Arthur had just said goodbye to Tommy. His plan was to sail to America and live on a mission with Linda. To get away from Small Heath and Birmingham and hopefully clear his head.

"You can go, but you won't get far, Arthur."

Tommy's voice broke the silence, his stoic eyes trained on his desk as he smoked his cigarette.

Arthur stopped in his tracks as he heard his brother speak. "Uh..." he trailed off, a sort of a chuckle leaving his lips before he continued, "alright, Tom."

"I spoke to Moss last night," Tommy informed him then, eyes still focused on the desk, "he told me that the Chief Constable of Birmingham has issued a warrant for your arrest. Murder, sedition, conspiracy to cause explosion," he explained, pausing for a second before he glance up at his younger brother who was standing in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Arthur, who now was coming back towards him with a look of shock on his face. "John, they're coming for you as well. Murder, conspiracy to cause explosion. Michael..."

"What the fuck?" Arthur cut Tommy off before he could continue, the eldest Shelby brother's eyes were wide now as Tommy's words soaked in.

Tommy chose not to acknowledge his brother's comment. "...murder of Hughes. Polly..."

"Wait a minute. What the fuck are you talking..."

"The murder of Chief Inspector Chester Campbell," he finished his monologue despite it being interrupted several times. His family members' eyes were all wide now as the sound of trucks pulling up outside were heard. They were now shouting at him, voicing their confused thoughts. He didn't speak on any of them. His eyes were still trained on the desk. (Y/N) was sitting in the corner in absolute shock. She had no idea that this was going to happen. This was supposed to be a moment of celebration - they had outsmarted their opponents. "The people that we betrayed last night, they want to bring us down..." Tommy kept talking despite the commotion happening in the room, looking out at his distraught family members now, "now they control the police, they control the judges, they control the juries, they control the jails. But they do not control the elected government." There were sounds of police whistles echoing through the house.

"Why didn't you tell us before?!" John exclaimed, panic in his eyes as he gripped at his hair.

"Listen to me!" Tommy yelled back, trying to continue on with what he was saying. It would most likely fall on deaf ears.

"You are my brother!" Arthur exclaimed, now standing right in front of Tommy.

"Listen to me!" Tommy asked again, taking a deep breath as he tried to keep himself collected, "so I have made a deal..."

"They'll hang us!" Arthur didn't care to hear about the details.

"...in return for giving evidence against them," Tommy continued.

"We'll fucking hang!" was Arthur's response.

"It's all taken care of," Tommy assured him before looking to Lizzie, telling her to collect the money and store it away. "When the police get in, do not resist. You go with them, you do not say anything!" he announced to his family, who were currently all scrambling around the room as the sounds of the coppers entering the house became louder.

(Y/N) stayed sitting in her seat as she watched the chaos happen. She didn't quite know what to do. Linda moved over to her, glaring at her with wide, angry eyes. "You knew about this...didn't you?" she seethed, making (Y/N)'s mouth drop open slightly. "You knew that he was gonna sell out his family and now you're sitting here watching it happen. Because you're safe. Because you're Tommy's girlfriend. You’ll get out of this. You get to watch the chaos while knowing that you'll sleep soundly tonight. Let me tell you something (Y/N), you're not part of this family. You're not a real Shelby," she gave the sitting woman a piece of her mind. (Y/N) bit her tongue. She knew that Linda had been overcome by emotion at the moment. Still it was a bit rich that the 'you're not a real Shelby' line was coming from her, a woman who was a Shelby by marriage, not by blood.

Meanwhile, Arthur was still in Tommy's face. Tommy was looking at the desk again. "Arthur, I've made a deal with people even more powerful than our enemies. Trust me brother, eh?" he glanced up at his older brother in time to see him shake his head. "Trust me," he breathed as Arthur walked away.

Linda, finished with saying her piece to (Y/N), was now storming over to Tommy to give him her thoughts. "You did this deliberately!" she exclaimed as she pushed him, "you made this happen to keep us!" she screamed in his face, trying to smack him but Tommy had grabbed ahold of her arm. "You and your girlfriend, who's sitting all pretty, in the corner cuz she's safe!" she continued screaming through her tears until Arthur grabbed hold of her shoulders in attempts to take her with him. He then let her lead him out of the empty room — all of his other family members were out with the police already, as he said that they had to run.

Arthur glanced over his shoulder at (Y/N), who was still too stunned to move at all, before he looked back to Tommy. "Fuck you!” he exclaimed as he smacked the door to the room before he left it.

(Y/N)'s glanced out into the hall, seeing the coppers pushing the members of the family up against the wall as they detained them. Then she looked at Tommy, who had extinguished his cigarette and was now sitting behind the desk with his hands on its either edge, his head hung. He looked up at (Y/N) then, their eyes meeting for a brief moment before he stood and slowly walked out of the room to face the pandemonium of his family being taken out of the house by the coppers. (Y/N) stood from the chair as the house became quiet, leaving the room to see Tommy standing in the entryway, watching the trucks leave the driveway. She decided to let him be, moving into the sitting room just off of the hall then.

She didn't know what to think. What to say. What to do. Linda had said it. She was only Tommy's girlfriend. They'd only been together for three months now after having met at the library (Y/N) worked at. The library that Tommy decided to show up at and offer funding to in the name of his late wife. And when Tommy took an interest in her, (Y/N) was hesitant in accepting his offers to dinner. But he didn't let up, so after the fourth time he'd asked her, she agreed. He was still grieving the loss of his wife, and (Y/N) helped him through it the best she could. She enjoyed spending time with him and his son, Charlie, and at times would try to get him to stop and rest. Those attempts all failed.

She spent a lot of time with the little boy while his father was away on business, which meant that she had felt like she lost her own child when Charlie was kidnapped by a priest just a day ago. Thankfully, they had gotten him back safely, and he wasn't hurt, but now Tommy's family was deeply fractured.

She'd been with Tommy through a lot over these past several months. She watched over him after his brain surgery, comforted him when he'd been receiving threats against his family, and kept him grounded when his son had been taken. But she didn't know what to say now. She didn't know how to comfort him through this one because it seemed as if he was the one who brought this whole situation on.

So she sat on the couch in the front room, quietly waiting, and hoping, that Tommy would come in eventually. But he didn't. After waiting for over an hour, she stood up and decided to go check on Charlie. He'd been put down for a nap just before the family meeting occurred, and she hadn't checked on him since. She ascended the steps and walked down the hall to the toddler's room, pushing away the door softly to see the little boy sitting on the ground, clacking two blocks together as the nanny that Tommy promptly hired to be with him at all times now sat across from him. The younger woman was smiling as Charlie then attempted to stack the blocks.

The door creaked as it opened further, making the nanny gasp and her head snap to the door. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on her chest to steady her breathing. "I'm sorry for my reaction, Miss (Y/L/N). I didn't know who was coming into the room," she apologized, a slight smile gracing her face.

"That's ok, Emma. I just wanted to check on Charlie," (Y/N) brushed off her apology, sending the younger woman a smile to show that everything was alright.

"He woke up about twenty minutes ago. I figured I'd go ahead and play with him," Emma stated, smiling as (Y/N) joined them on the floor and happily accepted the block that Charlie had held out to her. "Oh, Miss (Y/L/N)...is everything alright?" Emma asked after she'd been watching (Y/N) and Charlie play for a few moments.

(Y/N) looked up with furrowed eyebrows. "Yes. Why wouldn't it be?" she asked out of curiosity.

Emma looked slightly embarrassed that she'd asked such a question, "well, because I heard quite a bit of yelling from downstairs earlier, as well as the sound of whistles," she explained the reason behind her question.

(Y/N)'s stomach dropped. Of course the staff would have heard the commotion that happened not too long ago. It wasn't like it was a quiet affair. "It was a family matter," she decided to stay mum on the topic, only giving the minimum amount of information on it. Emma nodded her head before she focused herself back on Charlie.

(Y/N) stayed with the child and his nanny for a little while longer before she decided to try and locate the boy's father. So she stood from the floor and pressed a kiss to the child's hair before she exited the room. She didn't need to go on a long hunt, because she found him in the first room she entered. Tommy was sitting on one of the couches in the front room, staring at the fire ahead of him. The sound of (Y/N)'s footsteps on the hardwood made his gaze move over to the doorway.

"Where were you?" he asked her as she stepped further into the room.

"I was up checking on Charlie. He was awake from his nap," she responded, sitting down on the couch opposite from the one he was on.

"Is he ok?" he asked her, his eyebrows raised slightly in concern.

"He's fine. Emma's up there playing with him," (Y/N) nodded her head, a slight smile on her lips.

"Good," Tommy nodded his head before he stood from the couch to move over to where the decanters of alcohol sat on the mantle of the fireplace. (Y/N) watched him quietly as he lifted the bottle that held the whisky, setting it back down when he found that it was empty. He then moved over to the table that held his wooden cigarette holder. That was then slammed shut when he found that it, too, was empty. Finally, he made his way back to the couches and coffee table, where his silver cigarette canister and lighter had been discarded. He popped open the canister and shut it quickly. "Fuck," he breathed as he threw it back down onto the table before he sat once more. This time, however, he'd sat down on the couch that (Y/N) was occupying.

For the first time in what seemed to be forever, Tommy Shelby was out of cigarettes and whisky.

Silence fell over them. (Y/N) knew not to talk. Hell, she wouldn't know what to say even if she wanted to. The couple sat on the couch, Tommy with his eyes fixated on the ground and (Y/N) staring straight ahead at the bookshelf on the wall in front of her. Tommy held his head in his hands, his palms pressing hard against his eyes as he tried to stop the intrusive thoughts and anxieties from rolling in.

Inhaling and exhaling a deep breath, he sat up and stared at the wall ahead of him. The thoughts were overcrowding his mind, like there were a thousand people trying to talk to him at the same time. Each person was screaming to get their thoughts heard. His breathing was picking up, getting more and more shallow as he felt like the room was closing in on him. So he tried the well-known coping mechanisms.

First, he started bouncing his leg, hoping that that sort of movement would help. But the thoughts kept rolling in, crashing together in his mind like waves on the open sea. Then, he started fidgeting with his fingers. It helped slightly, but the fact that he knew the next movement before it happened stalled him. It was different with his vices. The whisky sometimes had a different taste than what he was expecting, and the smoke that exuded from the cigarettes he used would trail off in different patterns that would serve as a way to distract him. Hell, even the different pens he fidgeted with at times had different textures to them. He didn't even have one of those to play with now. And him picking at his fingers wasn't doing the job. The thoughts were still swarming in, the room still closing in on him.

So he grabbed the first thing he could. Which happened to be (Y/N)'s hand. He took it into his clutch and kept his eyes fixated on it. With his other hand, he started to trace his way over each of her fingers, feeling the smoothness of her soft skin under his calloused touch. Making his way to her palm after he'd flipped her hand over, he traced each of the lines on it, the divets in her skin serving as something he was able to use to get himself out of his mind. To slowly start to alleviate the stillness he was currently stuck in.

(Y/N) watched him quietly as he played with her hand. Except he wasn't only playing with it. Instead, he was using it as a way to ground himself. Then a thought crossed her mind: she'd hardly ever saw Tommy Shelby without a cigarette in his hand. Sure, he'd gone without them when they were sleeping, or when he was involved in something where it wasn't possible for him to be smoking, but other than that, Tommy almost always had a cigarette with him. She often wondered why that was the case. "You ok, Tom?" she finally spoke after he'd been tracing her hand for a few minutes now. He had relaxed noticeably. His shoulders were now slumped and no longer taught, and his breathing had gone back to normal.

"I ran out of cigarettes," he stated, his eyes not moving from their hands.

"I noticed."

"Didn't have anything to occupy myself with. I was getting caught up in the stillness. I can't...I can't handle when it's still," he paused for a moment, shaking his head before he took a deep breath and continued, "it's like I'm back in the tunnels. And I can feel the dirt falling in around me, covering me until I can't move. Until I can't move my fingers and I can't use my hands to dig myself out. And it's all black and I can't see anything. Can't breathe much. My mind fills to the point where I can't see straight when it's still, and it feels like I'm back underground," he told her, his eyes still focused on his hands and the movements that hadn't stopped yet.

(Y/N) felt her heart clench in her chest. She couldn't believe that he was struggling with something so intense, and that that was the very reason why he always needed to keep his hands occupied. And she couldn't fathom the feeling of being completely covered; completely buried. She knew what he meant though. Even though he wasn't in the tunnels anymore, he was still getting covered. His thoughts were now the dirt that was burying him.

"I...I can go get you some more cigarettes," she offered, going to stand up, but his hand clenching hers stopped her.

"No. Stay," he told her, just now looking over at her. There was this sort of desperation in his eyes, and it made her heart clench again. "It's alright. I'll be alright if you just...stay."

"Ok, Tommy. I'll stay," she said to him, placing her other hand on his thigh to rub it soothingly. Letting him keep her hand in his, she moved over to rest her head on his shoulder.

Some time later, (Y/N) was being shaken slightly. She opened her eyes to see that the room had turned dark, the natural light from the windows no longer shining in. It must be night now. Looking around the empty room, she still felt her hand being held. "You fell asleep, love," Tommy's voice came from beside her, making her turn to face him.

"I did. I'm sorry...I probably drooled on your jacket," she abashed, wiping off his shoulder as he let out a chuckle.

"It's fine, (Y/N)," he brushed her apology off, smiling over at her. "How 'bout we go to bed?" he suggested then, nodding his head to the door.

"You? Going to bed?" (Y/N)'s ears perked up at his suggestion, "I most certainly can't turn that down, can I?" she smiled widely.

He chuckled at her enthusiasm before he finally let go of her hand so that they could stand from the couch and go up to the master bedroom. Soon enough, they were both lying on the bed, facing each other. (Y/N) was now the one playing with Tommy's hand, her fingers tracing along his as she stared down at it.

"Thought you were tired," Tommy commented after some moments had passed.

"Guess I woke up," she mused, glancing up at him to see that he too was focused on her hand playing with his. "Don't know how to act with you in bed beside me."

Tommy chuckled at her statement, shaking his head as he looked away from her to grab the cigarette that was burning in the ashtray. There was a smile on his lips as he took a drag from it, blowing the smoke out into the air of the room before he looked at her again. "Sorry I've been neglecting you," he said then, his eyes focused on hers.

"'S not your fault," she whispered back to him as she moved over to be closer to his body. She moved the hand of his that she was playing with from the bed to his bare stomach, her fingers not leaving his. "You're busy," she continued, her eyes now focused on her fingers as she released his hand to glide her feather-soft touch up his opposite arm.

Tommy watched her intently as her touch moved past his elbow and lingered on his bicep for a few moments, her palm pressing flat against his skin before it continued its trek upwards. It trailed over his collarbone before reaching its place against the side of his neck, where she ran her fingernails along the back of his scalp. "What're you doing, love?" he asked after finding his voice, her gentle touch igniting a new kind of fire inside of him.

"I just wanted to feel you, Tommy," she responded, smiling up at him innocently, "it's been awhile since I've seen you like this." There was no suggestive nature to her words. She longed to be intimate with him, just to lay in bed and be with him.

Tommy only smiled down at her before he extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray at his bedside. "Come here," he whispered after his hand ran across the length of her outstretched arm thrice. (Y/N) listened, moving in the bed so that she was resting against his chest, the tip of her nose bumping his as she got close to him. "I can handle the stillness when I'm with you," he whispered against her lips, his eyelashes brushing against her skin as his gaze flickered to her lips.

"I'm happy that I can help you," she breathed, the hand of hers that was still resting on his neck coming up so that she could cup his jaw and bring his eyes back up to meet hers.

"Oh, you do more than help me, love," he told her, a smile pulling one corner of his mouth upwards. He reached up to brush the strands of her hair away from the side of her face before he kept his hand fastened to her cheek. "You save me," he stated, leaning in to press his lips to hers in a kiss that conveyed to her all of the feelings he had that he wasn't able to put into words.

They spent their night in bed, their limbs entangled as they explored each other in this new way. There was something so rawly intimate about it, and it was the first time Tommy had done something like this without having sexual notions attached to it. He knew that he had her to ground him in the stillness. That was all that mattered.

Tagged: @alreadybroken-ts @magicalxdaydream @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @golden-hoax @elenavampire21

MASTERLIST

[itsanerdlife]

Smoke 5/16

Pairing: Ronin!Clint Batron x Black Cat!Reader

Warning: Violence. Torture mentioned. Death mentioned. Nightmares. Lies. Seducing. Sexual humor. Broken and damaged pasts. Killing. Possessive Male. Struggling to open up. Secrets. Dark past.

A/N: ENDGAME SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT, DON’T READ THIS!!!

After the snap, the avengers split apart. Finding their own ways to cope. Clint found his under a new identity, Ronin. Getting revenge for those they lost. For the family taken from them. The evil left when heroes were wiped out, it became his mission to take out the evil. All while keeping a list of those who could help, if needed one day. Clint stumbles upon a woman, Cat. She’s a mystery in the dark. One happen stance meet, one night, gone like smoke.

After the second snap, setting the world right again. Fury is looking at those kept tabs on. When Cat appears on the screen, nobody know a lot about the mysterious woman who haunted Clint’s dreams and stole his favorite T-shirt. There’s a chance she’s in trouble, can Clint find her, convince her there is more, that he can save her? But is he the cause of what’s after her? Just what mystery is she keeping all to herself? Or is he the one she’s trying to save?

Clint

“Ice.” Sam hands her a gel pack. “That eyes starting to swell.” He nods before sitting down.

“Thanks.” She sighs, pressing the pack to her eye.

“What happened?” He rakes a hand through his hair, sitting next to her on the couch.

“Guess, the guy who hired me, was keeping tabs on me.” She shifts leaning farther into the couch. “Saw you leaving my place the other day.” There’s hesitation in her voice. “He was sure I was double crossing him.” She tips her head to one side, resting it in her hand, elbow on the arm of the couch.

“So he beat you up?” Steve’s brow pulls down.

“You’re funny.” She smirks at Steve. “Not so much.” She pulls the pack from her eye.

“The guy who hired you for the animal testing?” Clint’s head tips looking over at her.

“Not in the way you think.” She admits. “More like in the way I was created.” She nods slowly.

“How were you created?” Peter asks.

“Well Petey.” She smirks looking over at Peter. “When two people, sometimes, sort of, kind of like each other.” She grins. Nat shrugs, nodding.

“Steve has a pop up book that explains it.” Sam jerks his thumb towards Steve, who sighs. “Steve let him borrow your book.” Sam grins.

“Peter will have plenty of time to read it, since Sam’s still learning to read.” Buck smirks, Nat snorts, Tony has the most amused look on his face. Sam’s grin drops instantly, glaring at Buck, Peter laughs.

“I like them.” Cat leans in close to Clint, whispering.

“Of course you do.” He rolls his eyes.

“Sam, I’m sure Morgan can help teach you.” Steve chuckles. Cat smirks, clearly enjoying the banter.

“When you say animal testing, what do you mean?” Wanda asks, watching Cat.

“I mean,” she pauses “enhancing humans with animal traits and vice versa.” She explains.

“That’s how you became Cat?” Tony lifts a brow.

“My name is Y/N.” She glances around. “My father was a mad scientist for Oscorp.” She glances over at him.

“Like Norman Osborn, Oscorp?” Tony leans forward, resting his arms on his thighs.

“You didn’t think Peter was the first thing they created, did you?” She smirks.

“You were.” Peter blinks at her. “Patient Zero.” He stares, shock on his face.

“Me and Odin.” She nods slowly.

“You and Odin, can what?” Nat asks, curiosity on her face.

“You know how witches have familiars?” She asks, the room some what nods along. “Sort of like me and Odin. He ages in human time, not cat years. But has nine lives. I can hear him, in some telepathic type of thing. He can find and protects me.” She nods.

“So you’re connected?” Buck asks.

“Pretty much. I got things from him as well.” She adds.

“Like what?” Steve looks confused.

“Balance, senses, hearing, nine lives, reflexes.” She ticks them off, one by one.

“Wait you have nine lives?” Peter looks rather excited about this.

“More like seven.” She admits, looking down at the ice pack in her hand.

“What happened?” Clint sighs, taking her hand, putting the ice pack to her face once more.

“Stray cats are low on the testing subjects.” She starts. “His personal body guard, something like rhino.” She mutters. “Was like getting knocked around by, well him.” She points a lazy finger towards the far side of the room where Bruce stood, leaning against the wall, watching. Bruce nods, flushing a little.

“Been there.” Tony nods.

“Woke up feeling, well like I got hit by a bus.” She sighs. “My suit barely kept him from snapping me in half.” She winces. Tony and Peter exchange a look.

“Hand it over.” Peter puts his hand out.

“What?” She looks over at Peter.

“Your suit, let us see.” Peter nods.

“Um. bag.” She glances over at him. Clint grabs the bag next to him, unzipping it. Finding a badly damaged suit balled up on top. He tosses it to Tony, who stands unfolding it, he and Peter move closer, Bruce ambles over, looking as well. They speak in hushed tones.

“Are they always so weird?” She looks over at him.

“Yes.” He smirks at her, he reaches up, brushing her hair back.

“Call Strange. I’m going to need a portal.” Tony announces.

“I’ll call Okoye. Warn them.” Nat nods, pulling out her phone, while Peter speaks to Strange on his own phone.

“Portal? What?” Y/N looks over at him.

“To Wakanda we go.” Tony grins over his shoulder.

“One more time. What?” She blinks at him. He chuckles.

“Do you want to change?” He asks, glancing down at her.

“Where are we going?” She asks.

“Africa.” Buck grins at her.

“I need to change.” She winces attempting to stand.

“Here, lean on me.” He stands, pulling her up.

“Strange is on his way.” Peter calls.

“Okoye, is gathering T’Challa and Shuri to meet us.” Nat adds.

“I think I might have brain damage.” Y/N sighs, shaking her head.

“Nope. Just Avengers life.” Clint laughs.

“Thought you were going to give me a pitch?” She smirks as he leads her down the hall, towards a bathroom for her to change, her bag in his other hand.

“This is it. We don’t do small babe.” He smirks, pushing open the bathroom door.

“I’d make a comment, but I’m pretty sure a lot of people in this house have really good hearing.” She smirks.

He laughs, pulling the door closed for her. Heading down the hall to wait, the team is still in the living room, watching him.

“Is that necessary?” He shakes his head.

“Wow… just wow.” Sam shakes his head.

“He has a point.” Nat nods.

“She’s like one of those, unbelievably pretty cats you see on the internet.” Wanda nods slowly.

“How, just how?” Buck smirks.

“I want to say I missed you people, but you know what, not so much.” Clint shakes his head, smirking.

“Anyone else get the feeling like she’ll seduce you, but also might rip your throat out?” Peter asks, looking around. Clint laughs, rubbing his hand down his face.

“I think I love her.” Nat sighs, smiling.

“I want to brush her hair and feed her snacks.” Wanda nods.

“Definitely not the thought I had.” Buck chuckles.

“Clint had the same problem.” Y/N smirks standing in the hallway, watching them. A few of them shift, clearing their throats. Nat smiles at her.

“Says the woman who stalked me.” Clint points out.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” She winks at him.

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

Everything Peaches 2/6/19: @xmtd5 @mo320 @all1e23 @courtmr @avxgers @eliza-kat @izzy--lee @irepeldirt @dumblani @nishanki1 @crist1216 @alyssaj23 @allyp1023 @joannie95 @kolakube9 @rileyloves5 @sarahp879 @sea040561 @sexyvixen7 @pcterpvrker @pigwidgexn @doctoranon @abschaffer2 @justrae9903 @bookluver01 @teller258316 @callie-bear15 @nickimarie94 @wandressfox @amandab-ftw @carostar2020 @henrietteoaks @nea90sweetie @circusofchaos @itsagalaxystar @bettercallsabs @miraclesoflove @lucifersnipnips @queenkrissy11 @sadyoungadult @destiel-artemis @paintballkid711 @isabelcrichards @iwillbeinmynest @sweet-honey15 @chanelmadrid13 @mellxander1993 @killerbumblebee @spookygrantaire @geeksareunique @supernatural508 @sammysgirl1997 @itzmegaaaaaaan @booksbeforebois @childishhoebinoo @elizabethaellison @aspiringtranslator @mariekoukie6661 @pure-princess-97 @capsheadquaters @samanthasmileys @nerdypinupcrystal @atlas-of-the-world @youclickedthislink @futuremrsb-r-main @lovemarvelousfics @notyourtypicalrose @petersunderoos96 @loving-life-my-way @buckystolemyheart @booktvmoviefangirl @supernatural-girl97 @abbypalmer14-blog @fanfictionjunkie1112 @meganlikesfandoms @awkwardfangirl2014 @supernaturaldean67 @xqueenofthecraziesx   @queenoftheunderdark @writingaworldofmyown @supernaturallover2002 @daughterofthenight117 @mustbeaweasleyginger @mcuwillbethedeathofme @sprinklesandsugarcubes @whothehellisbucky-1930 @verymuchclosetedfangirl @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @ocaptain-mycaptainmorgan @wonderlandfandomkingdom @crazy-little-thing-called-buck @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @stupendoussciencenaturepanda @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @supernatural-strangerthings-1980

Marvel Tag List 2/6/19: @lumelgy   @dottirose   @jcc04220 @rockagurl @a--1--1--3 @mizzzpink   @jade-taillia @coley0823 @widowsfics @bookluver01 @thelostallycat @shield-agent78 @dtftheavengers   @ilovetvshowsblog @capsheadquaters   @iamwarrenspeace @thefridgeismybestie @whenallsaidanddone @deanwinchestersrifle @fandomsstolemylife00   @daughterofthenight117 @lilmissperfectlyimperfect  

Clint ‘Destory Me, I’ll Thank You’ Barton: @ml7010 @coley0823 @yavanna80 @lakamaa12 @boltsgirl919 @feelmyroarrrr @mrsseizetheday @honey-bee-holly @marvelfansworld @mybarnesmyhero   @the-real-mary-jane @dumbbitchenergytm @agentsinstorybrooke @x-whyareyoureadingthis-x @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory

Smoke: @2s0uls @rimaries   @xxloki81xx @csigeoblue @demonlover87 @capandbuckylvr @marvelfansworld @natromanoffsboys @barton-you-dummy @thefandomimagines @thosesexytexasboys 

[connan-l]

Ciconia Phase 1 Ramblings

Well, it sure was a wild ride, but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

The whole thing was very Heavy and Intense and Long and a lot of stuff happened. I’m not sure I really digested everything yet, but I have Thoughts.

GOD I spent so much time writing all of this... At first I just wanted to make a short Twitter thread about it, but it ended up a lot longer than initially... 😔

Those are just some messy ramblings and I don't think I said any more new or interesting stuff than what other people have already said, but I still felt the need to write it down, so...

Ciconia spoilers for Phase 1 and the tips:

So I thought overall it was pretty good and interesting! As someone who didn’t play the demos, I went in completely blind, and it was a nice read. (As such the flood of Okonogi memes some time ago were kinda confusing to me at first lol.)

It was radically different from Higurashi and Umineko, but that was something I expected (Umineko was radically different from Higurashi, after all.)

I’m not sure if it’s going to hit me as personally as Higurashi and Umineko did yet, or even if I’m going to like it as much — I enjoyed Phase 1, and the story is really intriguing, but it’s not quite on the level of its predecessors for now. Then again, it is only the first part of the story so it’s a bit unfair to compare them now, and I remember I was far from being into Higu and Umi by just their first installments too. So I guess I’ll just have to wait for the other phases and see!

On a technical level, this is definitely ones of Ryukishi’s most sophisticated visual novels — with the big animations and sound effects during the battle scenes, of course, but also with the numbers of different backgrounds and the visuals for the Kizuna thing. The sprites are also my favorites from all of Ryu’s games, they have the uniqueness of his artstyle all while being more polished and with really pretty coloring. And the character designs are SUPER GOOD — the best of 07th Expansion works to me (well, I was still a bit disappointed in Vier’s design, though. I mean. She’s just Takano with a lab coat. You could’ve at least changed her clothes or something, Ryu.) The music was the only thing that was... pretty average. It wasn’t bad, there was a lot of neat OST in it... but there wasn’t really anything memorable either (Alright, except for Apocalypsis Ciconia II. This one was dope as hell and it gave me chills.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how good and compelling the worldbuilding was too, as personally I find this peculiar part of Ryukishi’s writing has always been one of his weakest points. I don’t know much about sci-fi stuff admittedly, so I’m not sure how that would be perceived by fans of the genre, but Ciconia’s world is still quite fascinating — the different factions, the technology and selcom stuff, the way childbirth is managed or the history of World War III, all of that was good. Although to be honest, some stuff felt kinda contrived too (like, sure, let’s say the entire history of WWIII is entirely erased, like that we don’t have to deal with the political issues of our current real world lmao), and I don’t know all of the histories of the countries mentioned, so I can’t really tell if some things were insensitive (for example, how Africa was “unified” by a single king felt a bit off to me, but, er... I don’t know...)

The more absurd elements like the conspiracy theories, the chivalric orders or the freaking ILLUMINATI KINGS were pretty hilarious, honestly. I’m... not sure what to make of them. Obviously none of Ryu’s stories were ever going to be realistic (and well, the entire premise of Ciconia is about children soldiers who have the strength of an entire army in one gauntlet, which is ridiculous enough), but knowing him I wonder how much of this is going to be played straight and how much of this is meta stuff. Especially with all the religious/spiritual references (the blue bodies of Evil Miyao and of the gauntlet girls alluding to the Hindu god Shiva, Seshat being a Egyptian goddess, etc.)

I have more mixed feelings about the plot, and especially the pacing. Most of it was okay, but some scenes were really dragging and redundant. Which, isn’t really something new with Ryukishi’s writing, but here especially with the political stuff and the long blocks of exposition it was... kinda boring and hard to focus on it, and after a while it even felt quite egregious. Some of those parts weren’t needed, or at least didn’t need to be that long. Especially given that after the first hours, there were not a lot of more peaceful moments that would give the player time to breath. 

Which is another one of my complaints: a lot of intense things happened, but the narrative rarely give you the time to actually digest those things, especially in the second part of the story. It often pretty much felt like “X event happen > Discussion of X event between the characters > Y event happen > Discussion of Y event between the characters,” and this without any breaks (with the exception of some exposition here and there in between, of course). The events, discussions and characters were interesting enough to more or less keep my attention, but it still felt like too much at times. Part of this may be volunteer, as it put a stressful and opressive feeling on the reader (God, the clock and quotes between each chapters stressed me out a lot lol), and after a while I really felt like I was kinda suffocating with all of this like the characters — but even so I think it would’ve been better to give us some pauses here and there. Which is something we could have had with, say, the tips. I thought it was a shame all of the sixteen tips could only be read once the main story was over, because the narrative could have really benefited from having them fit into the plot or in-between chapters, like in Higurashi.

Also, I know Ciconia wasn’t exactly marketed as an horror story unlike the other WTCs, but hoo boy, I think some of the sequences in it are honestly among the most gory and disturbing things Ryukishi wrote? I haven’t read Iwaihime or TRianThology, so I can’t really say for sure, but damn, those human factories really are big nightmare fuels...

Now, I think the most tricky parts and the ones who are gonna get the most criticisms are, likely, the whole political and military stuff. Ciconia is probably Ryukishi’s most political and provocative work so far, maybe on par with Rose Guns Days — not to say Higurashi and Umineko are not political, they definitely are, but here it truly is in-your-face. Which is not a bad thing, per se, but... let’s say it all depends on how Ryukishi handle and criticize all those stuff down the line in the other installments, when so far it’s been... meh?

Like, the whole military stuff, specifically, was... shaky, at best. The thing with fiction that portray militaries with soldiers as their main characters is that they walk a thin line between just portraying this thing and actively glamorizing it. The narrative was definitely critical of some of it (lol the whole massacre at the end was very obviously there for a reason), and I appreciate Ryukishi often makes a point in his stories to frame a problem with different persepectives... but the whole “healthy military balance” and “Walls of Peace” thing was still iffy, and I’m... unsure about how much of it is going to be criticized within the narrative in the end. Now, again, it is just the beginning of the story, and Ryukishi has always been good at presenting a thing at the start for later on tearing it down to pieces, so... I don’t know.

It’s way too early to decide what kind of themes and messages Ciconia is going to have, so here too I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m just a bit wary given some things that were in RGD were... definitely questionable. Now I actually think Ciconia got to a better start than RGD, but... well. I’m also not really someone who know much about these stuff, so I’m not the best placed to talk about it, but it’s definitely something worth to be under scrutiny.

On the more positive side, there were times where some things felt really, really real, as well as pretty in tone with some of today’s social issues. Like all those news about the terrible things going on in the world and that a war can happen anytime, the military propaganda to recruit young people who “want to fly” in the army but who just end up killing each other, or the feeling that these kids have about how in the end they’re just powerless pawns  who can’t do anything used by selfish old men... I saw someone said Ciconia was basically Fuck Boomers: The Game, and... yeah. Yeah, that’s basicaly it lmao. All of the adults being assholes is not new in WTC or even in Ryukishi’s works in general, but here it was definitely a big theme. God even the whole thing at the end about how the planet is dying and that everyone knows it but people just don’t care about it... lmao, if that wasn’t directly referring what we’re living right now with climate change, I don’t know what is.

I just really loved too the way the game was sort of sold as this “cool sci-fi battle royal,” but in the actual story all of those kids are desperately trying to not kill each other, until the very end where everything just goes to hell.

I said it before, but there really was a huge feeling of suffocating and being powerless the more and more you reach towards the end, and the way everything culminated in this huge massacre truly sent shivers in my back. I know at some points I could really feel for the kids who were like “Well, fuck it, let’s just let all those awful people kill each other and the world get destroyed.” The final scene with the Christmas party was really powerful and also so uncomfortable to read, it was really well done.

Otherwise, if there was one work I wasn’t expecting to scream “LGBT+ rights,” it was Ciconia, but here we are I guess lmao. Honestly, that entire conversation was super neat, not just in a “Oh it’s great they acknowledge gay and trans people exist in a positive way,” but also because it really adds a lot to the worldbuilding. I remember some people talking about it when a similar thing happened in the comics of The Legend of Korra, and honestly more stories should do that, not just in term of representation but because, well, it’s just good writing to put this much thought in your fictional world. The conversation in itself was a bit clumsy (GAYS DON’T FUCK), but it also felt very sincere and a pretty believable discussion a bunch of teenagers with very different backgrounds could have on the subject (and I really loved the narrative acknowledge how different cultures and religions feel about those topics, without it being judgemental.) I’m also thankful it was here at all because of the, uh, gay jokes made about Miyao and Jayden early on that were a bit tasteless to me.

(Now it would be even more great if we could have actual canon gay and trans characters too. Ryukishi... please...... I beg you........)

And of course, the characters were also really good! 

It was so nice to have such a big diverse cast all constituted of likeable characters, and I was honestly impressed Ryukishi managed to handle it. That was something I was wary of when the game was first released, but in the end I think he did a good job so far. Of course, that’s only from my point of view, so I can’t say if other people found there were some things he did badly or that was offensive...

But personally, I honestly love all of the Gauntlets kids so much. They’re all so good and charming! And I kinda want to adopt them all lol.

I think my favorites for now are Miyao, Gunhild, Naima, Rethabile, Chloe, Koshka, Rukhshana, and Lingji... But like I said, they are all really good it’s hard to choose!

However... when it comes to their writing I felt Ciconia went in the continuity of Rose Guns Days and concentrated more on the plot than the characters, and that’s something that... honestly bother me a bit. I liked RGD, but Ryukishi’s writing is still at its strongest when it comes to very human, character-driven narratives, like Umineko and Higurashi. Like I said, I love all of these kids a lot, and some of them have pretty solid characterization and screentime... but in the end a part of me still feel like we didn’t really... get to know them much, if that makes sense? Even with the main ones, like Miyao, Jayden or Gunhild — most of their scenes were principally focused on the Plot Stuff, and not much about them as people.

I know there are a lot of folks who criticize the slice-of-life parts of Higurashi and Umineko, where there are lots of scenes of just the characters spending time with each other or goofing around and that don’t do much to advance the plot — and in a way I understand that, because yeah, some of these scenes can be pretty long to get through and drag the pacing. But personally, I always thought those sequences are very important. Even if some of them are admittedly unnecessary or are a bit too long, they’re really needed to humanize the characters and make you invest in them  — which was something that was a bit lacking in Ciconia. Basically I guess I’m saying the VN needed more slice-of-life stuff, and that rejoin with what I said earlier — that including some of the tips in the plot here and there instead of putting all of them at the end would have really helped with that.

Now, that said, again I’m aware this is just the first part of the story. I understand Ryukishi needed to have all of those exposition blocks and truly pose the basics of his story first and foremost. So I’m really hoping that after that he’ll be able to focus more on its characters  — especially on those who got almost no screentime, like the Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad girls. Having characters and human grounded moments is especially important in a story where war is a big focus like Ciconia.

Now, on the characters themselves... 

Miyao was a really charming protagonist, and I love him a lot! He was so endearing to me during the whole story. He was instantly more likeable as a male protagonist than Keiichi and Battler, where it took me some time for them to grow on me — principally because, well, Miyao don’t have the shtick of sexually harrassing the female characters around him, which was profoundly annoying in the other WTCs. I loved his serious but caring and friendly personality, his friendship with Jayden and Gunhild and with all the other kids, and his anger against the adults trying to use him and the others. His relationship with his father too was interesting. His interactions with Evil Miyao were also pretty intriguing, even if I’m not sure yet what to think of him being a “murder program” or about what even is Evil Miyao. 

Now, the only thing I am on the fence about him is... his whole DID thing and Meow. Like, on one hand, I think it is neat to have a likeable protagonist with a named mental illness, and the narrative felt sincere on not wanting to present this as a bad thing and just a part of who Miyao is... but on the other hand, there were all the jokes made as a result of this, which made the whole thing pretty awkward to me. Furthermore, there’s the problem that this “CPP” thing is not really DID, as if I recall it doesn’t actually seem to come from any trauma-related reason, and is almost a made-up condition? It kinda gave me Kara no Kyoukai flashbacks, in which Shiki, the protagonist, also has an alter, but it is not as a result of trauma or anything — it has a fantasy explanation. And, I mean... An author taking an actual, real condition that a lot of people have to bend it at their will to fit a story isn’t super cool, especially if you’re going to make some jokes at its expense... The other kids calling out Jayden on how he didn’t act properly with Miyao about this was nice though. (Also, now that I think about it, did Miyao just... randomly told all of the other gauntlet knights about it? Wasn’t it said that “CPPs” were something most people didn’t like to talk about? It’s a bit odd.) Plus there’s also the fact Miyao is possibly a “program” and it adds another layer of not-so-great stuff... So I’m just really wary of how Ryukishi is gonna handle this going forward...

Those problems aside, Meow herself was... fine. She’s cute, but she doesn’t really have much going on for her. She and Jayden are dorks together and their scenes definitely made me smile, but their relationship still felt kinda shallow so I don’t have much feelings about them as a couple (like, it’s just that to me Miyao and Jayden have a lot more chemistry and have been friends for quite some time, so it’s just odd that he instantly decides to date Miyao’s sister whom he just met. And, also, he was definitely flirting with Miyao before meeting Meow, too.). It was also pretty jarring the way she just... almost disappears once the war stuff began, so in the end I had this disagreeable impression that she really was just here to be Jayden’s girlfriend, and not as a character on her own or to develop Miyao more...

Jayden was pretty neat too! He’s a character that could be “yikes” pretty easily, but in the end he really did come across as a awkward but kind teenage boy who may be clumsy at times but is still trying his best. In fact, I really wish Ryukishi had wrote Keiichi and Battler more like Jayden. It was nice in general that none of the guys in Ciconia acted inappropriately towards the girls (with the exception of Toujirou, I guess. The way he acted towards Valentina especially made me go “ehh dude please no.” Like I know the LATO girls are said to be older than the other kids so they’re probably 18 or something, but still, it was a bit ugh... But even then it wasn’t something that was too overt, so it didn’t bother me too much), because some of Keiichi and Battler’s antics towards the female characters was something that annoyed me greatly. Don’t get me wrong, I did end up liking Keiichi and Battler despite this, they’re both good kids at heart — but it’s possible to write horny teenage boys without them ~comically~ sexually harassing the girls around them, if you feel me? Aside from that, I like that the story made a point to show that Jayden is actually a pretty lonely and kinda socially awkward kid just like Miyao, and that’s why their friendship work so well. On the other hand, though, his character mostly only turned around Miyao and Meow, and so we didn’t get much of him as a person? Which is a bit disappointing as he is meant to be one of the main kids, so I’ll hope he’ll get more interesting later on.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE GUNHILD, she really intrigue me! I wasn’t expecting to love her so much — for the most part I thought she was okay but nothing more... though now that I finished the story, she’s probably my favorite character for now? Her scene in the restaurant with her sibling, and especially the tips focused on her, really got to me. I loved her cool personality and her backstory was really interesting, as well as her relationship with Miyao and Jayden. She seems to honestly like and care for both of them, but at the same time resent them, and the way she obviously have a lot of pent-up anger towards the world and some self-hatred make her a truly compelling character. I’m pretty intrigued by Maya and her relationship with her too. She’s honestly one of the characters towards who I look forward the most, and I really hope Ryukishi will deliver on her. 

Chloe has definitely a lot of Rena Vibes, so of course I was going to love her lol. Although honestly for now I find her mostly... confusing. She’s obviously really fucked up (CHLOEVIL), and she made me pretty nervous during the entire story because there was this “Okay so when is she going to snap?” kind of tension with her. And her last scene with Lilja gave me chills... At the same time, her kindness and caring nature as well as her friendship with Koshka, Lilja and the  others felt genuine, so it was an interesting contrast. Other than that I wasn’t a fan of the running gag of Okonogi hitting her whenever she mess up (or do not mess up, for that matter)... Like obviously Okonogi is meant to be a Bastard, but the thing being presented as comical made me go :/ I really wish it’s going to stop.

Koshka was cute and also Extremely Relatable in a lot of ways (I, too, would rather spend my time playing silly games on my phone rather than socialize lmao). I love her a lot, and like Gunhild she really fascinate me. I like the fact that she’s meant to be an asocial, cold person but that at the same time it’s pretty easy to see glimpses of the affection she has for Lilja, Chloe or Miyao, and how she’s actually a deeply traumatized and angry teen. I’m pretty intrigued by what kind of “crime” she must have committed and how she ended up being an “equipment”... Not sure what to think about her super brain or the thing about her being some sort of “chosen one” lol. It sounds really shady.

For Lilja, I have to say I wasn’t exactly fond of her at first, but then the small moments we got with her where she obviously care a lot about Koshka and Chloe still got to me. That scene in the tips where she fiercely defends Chloe made me go “awww.” She really give me the impression of being the sort of person to hide her vulnerability behind a tough façade and her odd tics, and in that way she’s pretty similar to Koshka, which is how their friendship feel really special. The revealation at the end that she’s probably faking a lot of her personality and of her friendship with Koshka because it’s an assigment made her and her relationship with Koshka a lot more interesting to me, and I hope it’s going to result in a lot of compelling character stuffs.

Lingji was great! She’s pretty cool. I liked her optimism  and her will to do the right thing, and how that actually cover the fact she’s a pretty fragile and sheltered person. Her scene where she break down after her grandfather’s death is really illustrative of this especially, and where I really felt for her too. I think she’s the most interesting character in term of possible development. I quite enjoyed her friendship with Miyao too, but here again I wish these two had gotten more moments together. Like, how much more impactful the scene where Miyao kill her would have been if we had actually seen these two have some intimate moments before? But, oh well...

Aysha was really cool too, and I especially loved the way her sharp and down-to-earth personality contrast to Lingji’s idealism. The moment where she calls out both of her teammates was super good. Momotake was okay, and I love his intense admiration for Lingji (I’m a sucker for male characters really looking up to cool female characters lol)... but otherwise I felt he was honestly the most stereotypical character of the bunch — especially compared to Lingji and Aysha.

NAIMA IS THE BEST, SHE’S MY BABY I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She was my favorite before I even start the game because of her design alone (SHE’S THE CUTEST CHARACTER RYU EVER DESIGNED OKAY), and I wasn’t disappointed from seeing her actual personality. She’s not especially complex or anything for now, but she has a lot of potential. I loved her relationship with Naomi and Stan too — it kinda felt like two older siblings looking after their annoying youngest one reluctantly, but who still have a lot of affection for them. Also she’s such a little badass, I literally cheered out loud during that rescue scene or during the last battle scene where she screams she wants to protect all of her people. I want more of her in Phase 2 pleaaaase!

Naomi was really overshadowed by Naima and Stan, so as a result I don’t have much to say about her. I think she’s cool, and her backstory about how she apparently lost a lot of her memories and emotions is interesting, but again I can’t say much given we barely see her at all. Stanisław was a good boy, but despite the fact we see him a lot during the story, I... don’t really have a lot of thoughts on him? I liked his implied friendship with Gunhild as them being death metal buddies, but we didn’t actually saw them interacting at all, which was a shame.

Rethabile was the coolest character of the cast, I love her dearly! I like how she can be so adorable and such a dork but at the same time she’s probably the one who has her shit together the most out of all the kids. I feel she really has a good grip on politics and how the adults just want to use them compared to the others — which, well, isn’t all that surprising given she’s literally a princess. The scene with her brother’s death was pretty harsh, and I’m sad they didn’t really... put much attention to her reaction to such a traumatic event. I know the plot hadn’t time for that, really, but I feel even Lingji got more focus when her grandfather died, so I wish we had more of that with Rethabile too.

Ishak and Abdou... well, they didn’t really get much time for them either. They seem like nice dudes, and I really love their relationship with Rethabile, how they tease her quite a bit but there’s still obviously a lot of complicity and respect among them. So I hope we’ll get to know them more, especially on an individual level — as for now they were only present as a duo.

The LATO girls were... interesting too. I especially love Valentina, because she really give me Bad Bitch vibes and I love bitchy female characters lol. It’s pretty clear she has some Secrets and I’m really curious about her goals. As for Maricarmen, I thought she was mostly going to be comic relief like the Yeladot Shavit, but towards the end she actually showed some interesting depth so she did grew on me quite a bit.

And then there was just the teams no-screentime lol. Alright, I guess Suparṇa did get some time, and Rukhi is ones of my faves, but they still were really sidelined. I liked Sujatha, she’s such an uptight idiot, and her scene towards the end where she says she was aware that Miyao’s plan was doomed but still played along for Lingji made me kinda emotional. Rukhshana is the cutest and the greatest — I really liked her personality, how she can be extremely shy but then also completely goof around when she actually trust the people around her. And that moment at the end where she just say to her superiors to fuck off was glorious and one of my favorite scenes. Her relationship with Sujatha and Andry is adorable too. Andry himself was also... not present at all, but I really love the small glimpses of him we have seen, he’s pretty cool. I like how he sincerely seems to care a lot about his teammates despite his aloof character (him protecting Rukhi when their superiors try to hit her at the end was sweet.)

Still, Suparṇa wasn’t sidelined as much as Yeladot Shavit and Cairo Squad, though. I mean, I do like those girls — I adore Gannet because she’s cute as hell, Noor seems cool and Mariana intrigue me, but I can’t actually say much about them. Leah, Fatma and Stephania were also mostly comic relief except for one or two scenes towards the end. So I really hope Phase 2 will remedy to this, ‘cause I want more of these six, definitely!

I’m not sure I have a lot of thoughts about the adults characters quite yet — GERMAN TAKANO cracked me up, but she’s just as great as her Higurashi counterpart for now, and I always trust Ryukishi to write good Terrible Women. Especially Terrible Mothers, which is one of my personal weaknesses. Though I guess it’s not actually been confirmed she’s Miyao’s mom? It’s heavily implied, but we all know Ryukishi love to troll his audience so I wouldn’t put it past him that it is in fact just a red herring, but well, we’ll see I guess. 

Toujirou is obviously a bastard, but he’s an interesting one, and I have no fucking idea what is going on in his head. Like it’s interesting that on the one hand he seems to genuinely care about his son, but on the other hand he has no problem manipulating and screwing him over (and the implication of Miyao being maybe just a program is... ooof.) Okonogi was... a bit less worse than in the other WTCs, I guess? He obviously care about the kids in his own way, and him defending them at the end was nice... but I still can’t really feel anything but contempt towards him. He’s still a pretty bad instructor, and like I say, I’m really not a big fan of the way he treats Chloe at all, even if it’s meant to be “comical.”

The Three Kings mostly made me laugh to be honest, and they’re more plot devices than actual characters for now so I really don’t care about them (a part of me even wonder if they “exist” at all, because, you know, meta stuff). I absolutely LOVED Jestress on the other hand! I have no idea what’s the deal with her, whether she’s Lambda or whatever, but she’s really intriguing and her design is top notch and I want more of her. Seshat was so fucking cool and I don’t have much thoughts about her yet other than I wanna marry her.

And that’s pretty much it!

I’m not really good at predictions or at throwing theories around (sorry, Ryukishi), so I’m not sure what to expect for the rest of the story. I guess my only thoughts are that the moles are probably Gunhild and/or Chloe, but then they seem like obvious candidates, so I don’t know. I kinda suspect Valentina too, because, er, I do not trust her at all and she just have that traitor vibe. 

I really hope too that we’ll have time loops here again instead of a linear story because... well... I don’t wanna these kids to die okay... I also know that Ryukishi said Ciconia is only going to have four parts, and that’d make sense given how long Phase 1 was... but a part of me still kinda hope we’ll have a bit more... I guess it’s just that only four phases seems really little compared to the density of the story, and I’m really hoping he’ll have the time to develop well all of his narrative points and characters...

In any case, I think my thoughts on Ciconia for now pretty much get down to: it’s interesting and it has the potential to be a really great story, even if it’s far from being flawless and that I’m still very wary about how Ryukishi is going to handle some elements in the future.

But I’d definitely recommand it to people who love 07th Expansion stuff and sci-fi stories, and am very much looking forward to Phase 2!

[angstytieflingbard]

Platonic Taako x Deity!Reader

Request:  “I saw that requests were open and that you wrote for the adventure zone, And honestly? Amazing. I was wondering if you could like write a platonic thing of Taako and the reader being friends, and like the entire time the reader hid that they were like a god or something, and maybe Taakos reaction to it? Thank you for your time, and have a great day!” -Anon

Summary: (Y/N), also known as Sashelas, deity of the sea, gets caught up in the Bureau of Balance as they attempt to uncover what exactly is going on in Faerun. This is a series of moments along that journey, and how they became friends with a certain chaotic elven wizard along the way. 

WARNING: Non-graphic descriptions of canon-typical violence, light angst, spoilers regarding Taako’s backstory.

A/N: This was really fun to do! It ended up being a lot longer than I was expecting, it’s a full six pages, but I’m actually pretty proud of it! I took a bit of creative liberty with the prompt, I hope you don’t mind anon. It was nice to explore a bit of Forgotten Realms lore, particularly with aquatic elves, which are my favorite playable race in DnD. Anyways, enjoy the story, and if anyone reading this likes it or wants me to write something else, feel free to shoot me an ask! 

~~~~~~~

You stood back to back with Taako, fending off strange crystal and robot monsters in the depths of Leon’s laboratory. This was your first mission in the Bureau of Balance, having just become an agent after tracking the organization down with the help of a boy named Angus. 

It had been an ordeal, taking a mortal form and leaving your ocean domain, but it had been necessary. One of the few friends you had amongst the other gods, Pan, had grown increasingly concerned over the events in the material plane, and after a short chat with Istus, who had agreed that the mortals could use a helping hand, you had offered to go down for him. You had always been more involved than your peers in the guiding of your people, though land-dwellers were relatively new to you. 

As it turned out, the conspiracy you had come to investigate spanned the entire continent of Faerun, and it centered around this strange organization. So, of course, you joined up, and after a short incident where you stopped someone from stealing the Gaia Sash as the “Tres Horny Boys” returned to base with it, you were made a reclaimer. 

That led you to now, running a crystal-robot monster through with your trident and the eccentric elven wizard behind you cursing as he shot off a string of offensive spells. 

“Shit!” Taako cried out as he got clipped with a sword. You spun and pulled him behind you, nearly decapitating the thing that attacked him. 

“You good?” You asked, sparing a moment to glance him over for obvious injuries before returning your focus to the legion of enemies around you. 

“I’m alive, though I don’t know how long that’s gonna last!” He replied with a whine. 

“You can die after we’re done!” He cackled at that, and despite your words, you went out of your way to bump shoulders with him, transferring some of your magical energy to him. If there was one thing you were glad to retain in this mortal form, it was that, if only for its usefulness in keeping your spellcasting party members on this side of the veil. 

As you both threw yourselves back into the fight, you resolved to talk to him more after this. If you both survived that is. 

~~~

“There is something I can give all of you.” Istus told your group. You’d been uncomfortable ever since you walked in, not enjoying the feeling of being in another deities place of worship. She had essentially ignored you, much to your relief. 

“There will come a decision, some time in your future. It will be a difficult one. And when it comes, I will give you time to decide.” All of you shared a few glances. 

“I mean, that sounds pretty chill.” Taako answered for all of you, and she nodded. 

“Then, I will fulfill that promise now.” Behind her, a small portal opened, and she stepped into it, returning after only a short moment, wiping a tear from her eyes as she faced all of you. 

“You’re going to be amazing.” She said, and with a single nod to you, she disappeared, time speeding back up as the temple fell around you all. 

~~~ 

A knock on your bedroom door startled you from your nightly routine. You quickly moved to open it, peeking out into the living room of the dorm you shared with the other reclaimers. 

Taako stood in front of your door, looking pitifully at you. He was wearing plain pajamas, with a star-patterned blanket around his shoulders and his long blonde hair falling messily over his shoulders and down his back. 

“Sorry if I woke you up, um…” He paused, hesitant. 

“Come in. I was just getting ready for bed.” You opened the door wider and he slipped past you into your room. He paused for only a moment to take in your decorations before he moved to sit on your bed. 

“You like the ocean, I see. I should have guessed, from the trident and all.” He said uncharacteristically softly, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face. You hummed in agreement, sitting next to him. 

“Are you okay, Taako?” He took a deep, shuddering breath, avoiding your eyes as he mustered up a response. 

“I wanted to talk about what happened in Refuge. With the chalice.” You nodded in understanding. The chalice had shown all of you your biggest regrets, offered to erase them, at the price of being the new holder of the relic. It had been tempting, you had to admit. Deities have many regrets over the course of their eternities, and you were no exception. But you had remembered the Bureau, the people you had befriended, and knowing you would risk the chance of having ever met them at all, you had refused the offer. 

“What did he show you?” You asked softly, taking his hands in your own in an attempt at comfort. There was a pause, then he choked out a small sob, shoulders shaking. 

He told you what he’d been shown, his greatest failure. Told you of Sazed, and his betrayal, the death of the people of Glamor Springs. By the end, he was curled up against you, shuddering as he held back tears. 

“She was right when she said that was my worst regret. But now… I think my greatest regret was letting ever letting Sazed travel with me. Or even worse, having loved him.” You sighed softly. 

“You couldn’t have known what he’d do. It wasn’t your fault, Taako. It never was and it never will be.” 

You fell asleep curled up next to him, hands intertwined, the bond between you stronger than ever.

~~~

You waited for the pod to arrive to pick all of you up, more tired than you’d ever been in the time you’d been mortal as you laid in the grass outside Barry Bluejeans’ cave hide-out. 

“That was absolute bullshit.” Taako said, sitting down next to you. He had helped Magnus arrange his belongings so they’d be relatively easy to hold even in his new mannequin form, and had talked Barry into his pocket spa. Merle and Magnus were still a few feet away now, talking quietly about something you couldn’t hear. 

“It was. I get the feeling going back to the Bureau is gonna be equally as shitty.” You said, sitting up. 

“You know what, (Y/N)? I’m getting real tired of you being right about things.” You laughed. 

“Well, guess you’re gonna be tired forever then.” 

The pod arrived and you all hopped on, bracing yourselves for what was to come. 

~~~

You shuddered, recovering from the feeling of drinking the ichor of a voidfish for the second time. The director, Lucretia, was talking Taako, Magnus, Merle, and Davenport through the sudden regaining of apparently a century of memories. Carey, Killian, Noel and you all listened in rapt attention, you with dawning horror and anger as Lucretia explained what she had done to them. 

“Do you even realize what you’ve done?” You said as soon as she finished explaining. Several pairs of eyes landed on you. 

“You couldn’t understan-” She started, but you cut her off. 

“The hell I couldn’t! You made the entire universe incapable of processing even the concept of the Hunger, and then you went ahead and brought it here. And now, the entire world is under attack by these things and they can’t even see them! They can’t even defend themselves!” Lucretia’s grip on her staff tightened as horror dawned on her face. 

“I just… I can fix this, I just need a bit more time to cast the shield. Please.” 

“Lucretia, you can’t do this! You’ll destroy every bond in the world, you know this.” Lucretia shook her head, pointedly ignoring Barry’s words. 

Taako sighed deeply, turning away from her. 

“Fine, whatever.” 

“Taako, please you have to understand-” 

“Lucretia, you realize Taako just found out he lost his sister?” Magnus interrupted her, turning to Taako. 

“Taako, I know it wasn’t the way you wanted, but… You found her.” 

“Let me make something clear.” Taako said finally, his gazing slowly crossing over everyone in the room. 

“I appreciate what you’re doing, and I’m on board for whatever the plan is. But understand this: I have nothing, and I don’t give a shit. The world is ending, and I. Don’t. Care.” You frown at his words, settling a hand on his shoulder for just a moment. He shakes his head at you silently and you sigh, moving away from him. 

At that moment, the glass ceiling shatters, and the room floods with black opal monstrosities. 

~~~

“Kraavitz!” Taako cries, pulling his reaper boyfriend from the portal in the black glass circle under your feet. You smile, glancing at the two for a moment before throwing yourself at another enemy attempting to get past you. 

By the time there’s a big enough gap between waves to take a breather with the rest of the group, Taako, Kraavitz and Lup have all caught up. You smile, noticing the wizards’ disguise spell is gone, and bump shoulders with him as you stand next to him. He grins at you. 

“(Y/N)! This is my boyfriend, Kraavitz. You saw him in Leon’s lab I think?” 

“Yeah, I remember him. You’d already caught him with the tentacles by the time I got involved in that fight though, I think.” Taako laughed. Kraavitz glanced you over curiously, suddenly going still as he realized something. 

“Kraavitz? You good?” Taako asked. Kraavitz took a short step back, bowing respectfully. 

“Sashelas! I had no idea you would be here, I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself sooner…” You winced as Lup, Barry and Taako turned turned their attention to Kraavitz’ exclamation. 

“You really don’t need to do that… Especially since I didn’t tell anyone who I was…” You grumbled, and Kraavitz flustered. 

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, uh, blow your cover or anything.” He grimaced. 

“You couldn’t have known.” There was a moment of silence, before Taako cut in. 

“Hey, what the fuck was that? Why’d he call you Sashelas?” You groaned. 

“Well, you already know my name’s (Y/N), but to the aquatic elves, and the other gods, I’m known as Sashelas, or Deep Sashelas if you wanna be fancy.” 

“The other gods?” Taako asked incredulously. You glanced around, eyes catching on another skirmish in the distance. 

“Wow, look, more things to fight! I’m gonna… go do that.” You exclaimed, charging off into battle.

~~~

It had been hours since the battle ended. The sky had cleared of the black opal of the Hunger, but the Starblaster hadn’t returned yet. 

“They’ll come back. They wouldn’t leave us now, not after everything that’s happened.” Kraavitz said, sitting down next to you. 

“I know. Doesn’t mean I’m not gonna worry about them while they’re gone.” With that, you settled into a comfortable silence as you waited. 

It was only about twenty minutes later that a bright light appeared in the sky, shining brilliantly for just a moment before going out, as though to announce the return of the Starblaster. 

The moment the ship settled on the ground, Taako vaulted over the railing of the deck and made his way over to you and Kraavitz. 

“Hey! Sorry we took so long.” Taako apologized as he approached. He hugged Kraavitz and gave him a quick, sweet kiss before he turned to you. 

“I think we need to talk, if you don’t mind.” You nodded. Kraavitz smiled sympathetically at you, moving to give the two of you a moment to yourselves. 

“So…” You started. Taako laughed. 

“So, you’ve been an ocean god this whole time and didn’t tell me?” He asked, an eyebrow raised. You winced. 

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I came up to investigate some of the things that the Bureau had been responsible for, and then I made friends with Angus and just got caught up…” 

“Well, it’s a little reassuring I guess. You’re a literal god and you still hang out with me, so I can’t be that bad.” You shook your head. 

“Not bad at all. Pretty fucking great, actually.” You paused. “I meant it when I said what happened wasn’t your fault. He made the choices he did, and you couldn’t help that. Glamor Springs couldn’t have either.” Taako nodded slowly at your words. He took your hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. 

“I assume you’ll have to go back to wherever you were hanging out before?” 

“Yes. I’ve been away from Iumiathiashae for too long. The aquatic elves can be surprisingly needy, when they want to be.” You joked. 

“You’re welcome to visit whenever you like, though. I’m sure they’d love to host one of the saviors of Faerun.” Taako laughed at that. 

“I might take you up on that!” He paused for a second. “It’s still a little wild, though. I mean, my best friend is a god!” You smiled, squeezing his hand once before letting go. You stood, stretching. 

“It’s about time I go. It’ll be a relief once I get to the ocean, I’ll be able to drop this mortal form of mine.” Taako stood up with you. 

“Promise you’ll keep in touch?” 

“Always.”

[tisorridalamor]

Some real quick, non spoiler thoughts on Lady Layton since I just beat the game:

Overall it retained the same charm as the original Layton games. Beautiful art, great characters, fun puzzles, and that general light hearted mystery feel was present throughout the game

I believe the game’s writing suffered by making 12 individual cases instead of 1 overall case. It feels very slice-of-life-y, and while that alone is not a bad thing, there was little overall connection between all of the cases, leading to me taking a year and a half to properly finish it because I kept losing interest ;_;

Cases were overall not as interesting, having either lackluster concepts or conclusions. When they were actually interesting, they were over too quickly because of each case only having 6 “clues” for you to connect

While I enjoy the game’s conclusion, I feel like it could have been hinted at more to help tie the separate cases together. A certain character’s feelings toward other characters could have been made more obvious and other bits of foreshadowing would have kept me hooked. The “Millionare’s Conspiracy” isn’t event introduced until the final case, which is such a waste

The new gimmicks in the game like decorating your room and Kay being able to change clothes were implemented really well. Both were fun things to mess around with and great rewards for puzzle solving and exploring respectively

It lacked the overal shear madness that I expected as a game with Layton in the name. While there were some quirky solutions, nothing came close to the level of insanity the Professor Layton games did

OK THIS IS MILDLY SPOILERY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED: What gets me the most about this game is that the two most interesting mysteries, ones established at the very beginning of the game, are never resolved. I’m not sure if this is for the anime (haven’t yet watched it but will probably start soon) or gearing up for a sequel but I was very disappointed that Sherl’s identity and where the Professor is was just... ignored.

Overall I would play a Lady Layton sequel, but I doubt I’ll play this one again. It really made me want to go back and play the original Professor Layton trilogy! If nothing else, this game’s art, characters, music, and puzzles were all wonderful. I mostly think the writing could have been better.