#also - if you see this anon - I have a new fic (a double fic) coming up

[singsweetmelodies]

Oh my God, I love that kiss fic already and now it's even harder to wait for the new chapter(s). I loooove that you love what you're writing, that's so important!!!!! Sending love your wayyyyy (and obvs don't feel pressured, pls) <33333

awwwww! anon, this is so sweet <3333 and i couldn't agree more!! it really is SO important to love what you're writing, because nothing burns you out faster than when you're not getting joy from writing, you know? thankfully, nothing gives me quite as much joy as these two french & french-adjacent fucks doing the nasty 🤭 what that says about ME and about my sanity, i have no idea, but at least it's fabulous for the writing 🤣❤️

[noonaishere]

i just wanted to like tell you that your jaehyun smau was literally my fuel for a couple of days. i didn’t want to like every single chapter or comment a lot ‘cause i didn’t want to spam, so hopefully this makes up for it? shows my love? and how thankful i am?? like this made me happy, this gave me inspiration to get through my day JUST to read this, legitimately had “come on do this assignment THEN you can read” going through my head. it was just, really really nice to read, and i’m happy you posted it 💜 idk maybe this is making a mountain out of an ant hill in a good way, but it genuinely made me feel happier than i already am! i hope your pillow is always cold, you grades (if you’re in school) are always up, your food always the perfect temperature, your hands and feet never cold, your days always good, and the weather always nice, have an amazing day/night 💗

Hold on, hold on, hold on, lemme just 

Do people get mad when other people comment on every chapter of their fic? I have to say - in this instance at least - that I am not people.. uh... those people. (Wait, did I just out myself as not being human or something? What?) I could not imagine seeing multiple likes or comments on something I’ve written and getting mad, my attention-starved ass is like “Yes! Please tell me how much you love it! Shower me in compliments! Like everything! Reblog it so other people see it and do the same!” and then I bashfully teehee to myself like:

(Like when you’re little and your parents hang your art on the fridge or something and you’re all proud but also a little shy from the attention lol)

Honestly, I love when people leave comments as they’re reading, because seeing people react as the story unfolds is really funny. (Like when this was uploading and people were yelling because the slow burn was too slow... babies, I did not come here to fuck around. If I promise you a slow burn I will give you a slow burn lol.)

The only bad effect that results from any compliment at the moment is that I’m like, “Omg! I want to write more!” ...but I can’t until the semester ends 😭😭😭 So right now I’m like this:

So until I can finish my new fic, I’ll be in like... CRY-ostasis (like that? lol) in which I am frozen, but not in ice, in sadness because I can’t write.

But anyway, thank you for the compliments! I read it and was like “teeheehee” kicking my legs (in my mind) because of it lol. And like... you said it helped get you through the day, isn’t that what art is for? To make our lives better or at least more bearable? I’m glad you found so much solace in it. I started writing because I wanted to read stories that I couldn’t find (I know I made a post with my AO3 on here somewhere if you want to read my old fics. Be warned: there’s a lot of smut lol), and seeing people read them for the same reason I read things is cool. We’re all just people who want stories, you know? Anyway, I need to stop philosophizing, or we’ll be here all day. Here:

And here’s a meme I made just for you:

Thank you so much 😭😭😭🖤🖤🖤

[shima-draws]

OK, so thinking about a Sanlu au where Luffy is a Pirate King who gets so many marriage requests but does not want to get married. And so he instead insists that he gets to choose his partner through a contest where all the princes and princesses of like the countries around them or other pirates can like bring him a meal and if he likes it, you get married. The problem is that whenever people bring him food he'll just eat it and move on.

And so obviously the vinsmokes are like. Oh s***, we should get in on that. New Ally? And so they try with some of Sanji's others brothers, but none of them like work because they just made their cooks make their meals and everything.

Then eventually sanji, who wants to escape hears about this. And he knows that he can cook so he makes this amazing meat dish He is ready to present his meal towards the Prince in hopes of like maybe escaping his country and living there with Luffy. But like as he's on the way there, there's like this little girl who's starving, and so he gives her the meal instead. It was a one in a million shot anyway.

Anyway, either Luffy sees him doing this or if this was like the true test for kindness for all his partners, and sanji passes the test. Luffy's like get bring this man to me! So sanji goes before him, and luffy asks if he has a meal for him. All sanji has is like, this old sandwhich that he made for himself for the journey here, and sanji tells luffy that. Luffy tells him to bring it to him anyway, and after a lot of protests, he does. Luffy finally eats it and says that its delicious. He and sanji definitely get married.

Sorry for dumping this on you, but your artwork made me literally fall in love with sanlu so I wanted to share this middle of the night idea with you lol.

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP ANON THIS IS EVERYTHING.......I'm a SUCKER for AUs like this, ones that kinda give off that Cinderella vibe? The whole 'Well if I have to get married to a random stranger I'm gonna do it my way' trope is always so fun to explore

Luffy's one requirement for a spouse being that they have to cook well is SO on brand for him tbh. I feel like that's something that would be canon too. (Thinks about a situation like that in canon where Luffy's like well nobody can cook better than Sanji so I'll just marry Sanji! And Sanji double takes like wait what hold on a second--)

Even funnier would be if Luffy just met Sanji's brothers and was like. I don't like their vibes they seem mean. And all three of them being SO offended at that lmao

SANJI GIVING HIS DISH TO A STARVING GIRL THO AAAHGFHFHF THAT'S SO. CLENCHES MY TEETH he's so selfless and giving he would absolutely give up all of his dreams just to make sure someone doesn't go hungry I am GOING to cry. And Luffy immediately noticing that, pointing at Sanji and going "Him. I want that one" AGHHH 😭😭😭

ALSO YES THE CALLBACK TO WCI with Sanji's little lunch basket...the food is a total mess it's been rained on and dropped and looks awful but Luffy eats it anyway and says it's delicious...and Sanji's like oh oh oh I think I'm in love with him. Uh-oh.

DON'T APOLOGIZE THIS IS SOOO ADORABLE I'm so glad I got you hooked on Sanlu they are so underrated!!! Going slightly off topic here but I think it's really funny how predictable I am when it comes to getting into new media. Step 1 I watch a show and slowly discover who my Favorites are. Step 2 I end up shipping those favorites together. Step 3 I make that everybody else's problem. Also that ship almost always ends up being the less popular one for some reason?? Which is SO funny to me. Looks at Trustedpartner/Diode, Yujikiri and Tododeku as the most obvious examples of this along with Sanlu

ANYWAY anon I really want to write this can I write this. No guarantees to me actually finishing a full blown fic but oh my godddd this is such a cute idea and is so in character for both of them I'm weeping real tears

[eddiesghxst]

i’m the one that sent the original box and polaroid fic!!

i want to double down on the post about robyn and steve finding the polaroid box, ride that train so to speak.

after they leave, and eddie is thoroughly redder and brighter than your thighs when you leave his house some nights, you arrive to the trailer and he reluctantly has to tell you. it’s only fair, and he can’t deal with keeping secrets from you if they don’t land him in delicious trouble (not this)

again, i’m pointing out how perverted the two of you are together which nobody knows. so when you smile at him, he starts to wonder if there’s anything that won’t make you want to jump his bones. him tying his hair up to work on a car, him leaning over the counter and his boxers peek up a bit, him literally making coffee.

but you ask him what it would be like if someone watched. i don’t think eddie would rationally EVER do this in real life because of the reaction he had when steve and robyn found the box. he would slit somebody’s throat if they saw you in the vulnerable state you bless him with. but he listens and listens as you tell him what it would be like to ride his dick while someone was sitting there. unable to touch either you or eddie. just in pain as they see you and your man fall apart from pure bliss again and again over and over. (inspired by an ex’s fantasy lol)

he leaves your thighs red again, burning and glistening that night. robyn catches him the next day at the store with a six pack in one hand and a brand new empty box decorated in the other as he buys them. she turns redder than your thighs if that’s even possible

- 🫶 anon

YES. A MILLION TIMES YES. I REALLY RAN WITH THIS ONE

also this is definitely not proof read

18+ — MINORS DNI

word count: 1k

for context: part one | part two

————

For a moment, Eddie is surprised you’re not upset about Robin and Steve finding the box. He had worried that you would be too paranoid about more people finding your dirty little secret and make him throw out the stash entirely, but to his surprise (yet again), you weren’t upset at all. In fact, you were the exact opposite of upset. Eddie didn’t understand at first, but he quickly remembered how you and he ended up together in the first place, and that settled his confusion.

It’s been two months since you and Eddie hooked up, and since then, Eddie has fucked you enough times to notice when you’ve got that glint in your eyes, that means you have something brewing in that pretty little head of yours. He asked you just to come out and say it, but Eddie hadn’t expected you to tell him that you wouldn’t mind having Steve or Robin or both of them watch you and Eddie have sex.

“What do you mean?”

You shrug, feigning innocence as you fidget with the hem of your skirt. “I think it’d be hot, just letting them watch, you know?” 

Eddie blinks at you, a hint of disbelief flashing behind his eyes before he shakes his head. “No. Absolutely not; I’m not giving Harrington, of all people, front-row tickets to watch me screw your brains out.” 

Eddie was very solid in his decision then. He even emphasized his distaste for sharing you with a handful of hefty slaps to your ass and thighs topped off with hours of edging. Trying to explain to Robin why you hissed each time you took a seat was difficult. Still, she eventually understood when she remembered seeing a glimpse of a Polaroid in Eddie’s box—- the backs of your thighs red with visible hand marks across them, Eddie's hand splayed wide across your ass cheek, and a glistening white substance dripping over the red skin of your thighs. You’d never seen Robin’s face so red in your life.

Truthfully, Eddie doesn’t have a backbone when it comes to you, so it was only a matter of time before he gave in and granted you your filthy wish. He invited Robin and Steve over under the guise of a friendly hang out, blowing through a blunt before asking them if they wanted to watch him fuck you. You were initially shocked since Eddie hadn’t told you of his devious plan, but you certainly didn’t object. Robin, bless her sweet heart, had quickly made an excuse to run some errands and made a run for it, leaving behind a very willing and eager Steve to watch the show.

You’re not entirely sure what changed between then and now, but you don’t have it in you to ask, too overwhelmed with the sensation of Eddie fucking you within an inch of your life and the heated gaze of Steve from across the room.

“You’re putting on such a good show for Harrington, sweetheart,” Eddie hums from behind you, smirking when you mewl into his sheets, thighs shaking in pleasure. “My little movie star,” Eddie’s palm cracks down on your sore ass, a gasp ripping through your body as you spew out a line of Thank you’s.

“You wanna go ahead and tell Harrington how badly you wanted this, hm?” Eddie snickers when you shake your head no into his sheets, reaching forward to loop his fingers around your neck and pull you up against him. You moan as Eddie’s cock sinks deeper into your cunt, and Eddie groans at the feeling of you squeezing around him.

Steve can hardly believe any of this is real, shifting in the seat across the room as he palms his aching cock beneath his jeans, searching for any relief he can get.

Eddie’s lips brush against your ear as he speaks, “I want you to tell him. Tell him how badly you begged me to let him watch you turn into a slut for me.” Your hand falls onto Eddie’s that’s gripping your hip, pulling you up and down onto his cock. “I-I… please.” Words seem to fail you due to how deep Eddie is. Steve watches in awe as your eyes roll back and flutter shut. Eddie breathlessly chuckles, locking eyes with Steve over your shoulder as he continues to fuck you. 

“Make yourself useful, Harrington; grab the camera.” Eddie nods towards the Polaroid lying on his dresser and snickers when Steve practically scrambles to grab it.

Steve steps forward to stand in front of the bed, wide, intrigued eyes stuck on the movie unfolding before him. Eddie gives you a short thrust, and you let out a broken moan as he speaks, “Go on, start snapping shots.”

Steve quickly complies, heavily swallowing as he raises the camera to his face and snaps a shaky photo of you and Eddie.

Eddie pushes two fingers past your lips and sinks them into the warm cavern of your mouth, humming when you clench around him as your jaw drops. Steve quickly takes a close-up shot of Eddie's ringed fingers against your tongue.

“Get her pussy, Harrington.” Steve sinks to his knees, marveling at the sight of you taking every inch of Eddie. Wet sticky arousal dripped onto the bed and smeared across your and Eddie’s thighs. Eddie’s hand slips past your hip and spreads your sticky lips apart, putting your swollen clit on display for Steve.

Steve prepares to take the picture and groans, “Holy fuck,” Snap.

At the sound of the camera snapping, you topple over the edge of your climax, crying out Eddie’s name as you tremble within his grasp. Steve watches from the ground, lips parted in awe as he tries to submit every second to memory.

Snap.

Eddie doesn’t take long to follow you, pushing you forward to fall onto the bed in exhaustion, moaning as he slips out of you before flipping you over. He nudges your thighs open, smirking when you moan as he runs a shaky hand through his damp curls and wraps the other around his aching cock. Steve watches as Eddie jerks himself off to the end, aiming his release at your heaving chest.

Eddie is panting with hooded eyes as he glances toward Steve, still stuck in a trance at the foot of the bed. Eddie reaches out and gestures for Steve to pass him the Polaroid. Steve hands the camera to Eddie and watches him snap a photo of your cum covered tits, snatching the picture once it prints.

Eddie tosses the picture towards Steve and grins with a wink, “A gift for your services, Harrington. You know where the door is.”

When Steve settles into the driver’s seat of his car, he looks down at the newly developed photo in his hands and takes a deep breath.

What the fuck just happened?

[justabigassnerd]

You'll be safe here

Pairing - Tommy Shelby x teen!reader

Word count - 1,354

Warnings - mentions of abuse, injuries, angst

Summary - Tommy worries about the wellbeing of his youngest employee

A/N - whatddup y'all it's your girl coming at you with a new fic! This was an interesting idea sent in by an anon and I hope to god I did it justice because I never wanna let you guys down. I don't have much to say in this A/N other than please send in requests, feed back and enjoy!

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

If there was one employee Tommy Shelby knew he could rely on, it was you. You were only a teenager, but you always worked hard and got all your jobs done when they needed to be done. However, Tommy couldn’t help but feel like something was up with you. He knew you lived with your mother not too far away from Arrow House, earning money to support your mum. But he also knew that you stayed in Arrow House long after your shift ended, mingling in the kitchens, offering to do more work. You would do everything within your power to stay longer at work which confused everyone within the house as every other employee that went home for the evening would shoot out the door the second their shift ended without a second thought. Tommy and the rest of his staff also noticed how tired you looked every day, and they were all concerned, especially when someone would ask if you were alright, and you brushed them off with a ‘fine’ and a smile.

Tommy’s worry for you doubled, no, tripled when Mary came into his study one morning, informing him that you were late for work. You hadn’t called ahead to say you were running late or ill, you just hadn’t shown up early or on time like you usually did.

“Have you tried ringing her house?” Tommy asks, taking a drag from his cigarette to calm his rapid heart rate, Mary nodded her head.

“No one picked up Mr. Shelby.” She informs, wringing her hands nervously. Mary was just as worried about you as her employer was.

“Keep an eye out for her, will you? If she turns up, send her in here, okay?” Tommy asks, getting a nod of confirmation from Mary before she turns on her heels to return to her job. Tommy works hard to occupy his mind, but he couldn’t stop himself from worrying. You’d been working at Arrow House since Tommy purchased and moved into the property and Tommy had gained a protective feeling over you, especially when he learnt you never had a father figure.

“Mary said you wanted to see me, Mr. Shelby?” Your timid and cracking voice speaks from the doorway to his study, Tommy looks up and waves you in quickly before returning his gaze to his work.

“Take a seat y/n.” He says, flicking through papers as he talks, waiting for you to sit down.

“I’m sorry for being late Mr. Shelby. It won’t happen again I swear. I just lost track of time. I need this job, please don’t fire me.” You apologise, sitting on the small sofa and fiddling with your fingers nervously, stress tears building in your eyes at the thought of losing your job.

“I’m not going to fire you, y/n.” Tommy says, finally looking up. His eyes narrowed in concern when he noticed the bruise on your cheek. It was faint, clearly brand new, and beginning to form. Many people wouldn’t notice it, but Tommy did, with the life he lives he could notice any type of injury be it big or small. He got up and rounded his desk, stubbing out his cigarette as he goes before crossing to you. He stops when he ends up in front of you, making you look up at him worriedly.

“Who did that to you, y/n?” He asks, his voice quiet and soft, not a tone you were used to hearing come from your employer’s mouth.

“Who did what, Mr. Shelby?” You ask innocently, trying not to let your voice wobble as the tears build.

“I can see a bruise on your cheek. Who did that to you?” He presses, grabbing the chair in front of his desk and pulling it up in front of you, sitting down on it.

“No one, sir. I just had an accident.” You lie, eyes flicking around the room, looking everywhere but at Tommy.

“Uh-huh, and does that accident have a name?” Tommy continues, not believing your lie for a second.

“No. I just slipped.” You insist, clenching your hands into fists as they rest on your legs.

“You can’t bullshit me. You can tell me what’s wrong. I won’t get mad.” Tommy says softly. The way he spoke to you so softly and gently made the dam break and tears dribbled down your cheeks. Tommy was shocked at how you collapsed into sobs, burying your face in your hands, your shoulders trembling. Tommy quickly moved to sit beside you on the sofa, pulling you into his arms and shushing you gently. He didn’t care that you clung to him, or you were sobbing into his new suit, he was just concerned about you and what had hurt you.

Tommy sat holding you for minutes, rocking side to side and whispering calming words into your hair as your sobs slowly turned to whimpers and your tight grip on his shirt, pulling away and wiping your eyes embarrassedly.

“Sorry, I’ll get to work now.” You apologise, going to stand up before Tommy speaks up.

“No, stay here. You need to tell me who hurt you.” Tommy says, holding you gently on the shoulders to keep you still, looking you in the eyes. You were silent for a moment, debating about whether you should be telling your boss about what was going on at home.

“It was my mum…” You say, after the moment of silence, head dropping in shame at the admission.

“Your mum?” Tommy asks, disgust and shock in his tone as your words settle in his head. When you merely nod at his words, he feels a wave of hot anger growing within him as he tugs you back against his chest, holding you close as if that would protect you from the harsh world outside Arrow House.

“I’m scared to go back home. She was so angry.” You whisper fearfully, Tommy could feel you trembling in his arms at the thought of going back home to where your mum is.

“You’re not going back there. I won’t let you.” Tommy says firmly, squeezing you tighter before letting you wiggle out of his arms.

“I have nowhere else to live, Mr. Shelby.” You say, worry gripping at your chest at Tommy’s suggestion.

“You could live here. You’ll be safe here. Your mum won’t hurt you again. I won’t let her.” Tommy says gently, rubbing soothing circles on your shoulders as you sniff heavily.

“I wouldn’t want to be a disturbance, Mr. Shelby.” You whisper, eyes fixed on your lap.

“You wouldn’t be a disturbance y/n. I’d rather you be here safe all the time rather than you having to go home to that bitch every evening.” Tommy says, the worry evident in his voice as he speaks.

“Okay, okay I’ll stay.” Tommy lets out a small sigh of relief when he sees you nod and confirm that you’ll stay in Arrow House with him.

“Good. I will send some men over to your house to gather your belongings. You will stay here until you’re ready to move out.” Tommy confirms, getting up from his seat on the sofa and crossing to his desk, calling his brothers, and telling them to go to your house and gather up your belongings.

You were nervous at first to be living with Tommy, you were worried your mum was going to track you down somehow. You would flinch whenever Tommy moved too fast without warning and Tommy hated the terrified look in your eyes you tried to hide away whenever he did that.

Over time, you adjusted to your new home and life with Tommy. He’d told you to stop calling you Mr. Shelby and to just call him Tommy. You no longer had to work for him, anything you wanted, was provided for you. With Tommy’s help, you were able to slowly but surely recover from the trauma your mother had put you through in your years of living and the longer you spent living in Arrow House the more you felt safe knowing Tommy would keep you safe no matter the cost.

[blorb-el]

Don’t know if you made a post on this but what’s your opinion on DCAU Clark and how unapproachable(?) they made him in the later JL/JLU series without ever resolving it? Like I know the Cadmus arc hinges on him never considering himself a possible threat but it seems there was room for no much introspection outside a couple moments (that were later backtracked).

I've had like 6 half finished posts about this buried deep in the drafts for a year because I have capital B Brain Rot about this, but every time I tried to write it out I got six sentences in and wanted to rewatch the entire DCAU in order to get my facts straight. This time I'm resisting the urge, so forgive me if I forget specific episodes

Also, unfortunately for you, it’s nanowrimo, which means my brain is in Type All The Words Mode, and not Communicate Effectively and Succinctly Mode, and also I need a break from WSBF chapter 8, so. You’re getting a 3.5k essay sort of answering this question but not really. you will see

Thank you to my fellow lawyer for the defense of Rectangle Clark @januariat for helping to put this together

I do rewatch STAS and JL a fair amount, but much less JLU, so I actually don’t have much to say about the specific execution there. I’m planning on rewatching it soon. But for now…

To me it boils down to two answers. The Doylist answer, and what I think the writers really did have in mind, is that they came up with the Cadmus plot, knew it was an absolute banger of a storyline, and decided that it was worth compromising Superman's personality in order to write a good story. which is not something I can fault them for - as a fanfic writer, I make the same calculated tradeoffs every time I set out to write a fic. Characters are tools for narrative, even if these particular characters come with an additional weight of the tradition of collaborative storytelling that their most effective stories honor.

However, I do think it’s possible to, post-hoc, cobble together a Watsonian, narratively satisfying (if fucked up and sad) character arc for DCAU Clark if you also take STAS and JL into account. I think the key to understanding his character arc is his relationship with control. Throughout STAS, JL, and JLU, and then one more time in Batman Beyond for good measure, over and over again, he's manipulated and his powers and body are used as resources for other people. Obviously that’s not much of an excuse for becoming more authoritarian/overbearing/etc, Fascism Is Bad and I personally think a more IC superman would retreat more than double down (as in Kingdom Come), but looking at the totality of things that have happened to him before Cadmus, it's a little more understandable why he'd get close to snapping under the strain. Here's my personal reading of his arc, and the events that might have led to Clark behaving so irrationally in JLU.

cut for sheer length, but also mentions of manipulation, sexual assault, victim blaming, that sort of thing

One of the recurring themes in the DCAU is villains dehumanizing, depowering, and/or manipulating Clark. In STAS, Parasite, Lex via Bizarro, Talia and Ra’s al Ghul use him as a source for their own power. The Preserver and Maxima treat him like some exotic prize, disregarding his wishes. Jax-Ur and Mala use him and then betray him. But the most impactful, by far, is Darkseid.

In Apokolips Now, Darkseid defeats Clark, puts his bleeding body into public stocks, and drags him through the middle of Metropolis. Clark’s only rescued by the last minute intervention of the New Gods, and as a parting shot Darkseid murders Clark’s friend in front of everyone. Even though Clark prevents Earth from turning into Apokolips, it’s a huge emotional loss, and they don’t shy away from showing his rage and helplessness. But it’s when Darkseid returns in Legacy, the finale of STAS, that Clark’s life truly takes a turn for the worse.

Forgive me if this is all plot recap to you, anon, but I feel like a lot of people don’t know that STAS ends with Clark being mind controlled, heavily implied to be sexually assaulted, and forced to try to take over the Earth, killing god knows how many people in the process. When the military finally brings him down with a Kryptonite warhead and imprisons him, they nearly kill Supergirl in the process. Then Lex almost gives him a lethal injection, with a US general looking on, implying that the government approves of killing him. Lois breaks him out, he tries to get help for Kara from Dr. Hamilton, and then goes to Apokolips. Most fights in STAS have him shrug off blows. He ends this one bleeding from his mouth, looking almost dead. When he finally casts down Darkseid, tells the Hunger Dogs (the slaves on Apokolips) that they’re free… they turn away from Superman. They cluster around Darkseid to protect and heal him.

Those universal truths of a lot of Superman stories, that goodness and liberty and the American Way* always win? They don't in STAS. A representative of the US government (as far as he knows) has tried to kill him. He lost his temper and spoke in a harsh tone of voice once, because Kara was dying and he was hurt and desperate, and now his friend Dr. Hamilton, the man he trusted to repair the Kryptonian ship, study his body and his powers, one of the people who knew him best in STAS, is afraid of him - and, as we find out later, takes immediate, drastic, and violating action against Kara and against him. The series ends with the small town man standing on the roof of the Planet, hearing people hate and fear him, wondering how people will ever trust him again.

*I hate this phrase personally when used as a Superman Motto, but it's used here as a contrast to the fascistic imagery of Apokolips Now and Legacy (as well as Brave New World, which, hoo boy, we aren’t even getting into that one).

Six months (iirc) after the STAS finale, in Secret Origins, the US government has agreed to let a visibly older and wearier Superman help disarm the nuclear stockpile - only for this to backfire on him because it was a Plot by the White Martians. Clark’s let down the country again. He’s helped aliens invade again, and to make matters worse, he sped away in the middle of an attack to break into an official government facility to free J'onn. Clark founds the Justice League beginning from a place of personal failure, as a check on himself. Clark has power and wants to help people with it, but he’s been turned against people he cares about, and has twice now failed to protect the world. It’s worth noting that Legacy put him into the world stage; before, in STAS, I can’t think of any true worldwide threats besides maybe Jax-Ur and Mala.

Most of the rest of season 1 of JL isn’t particularly Clark-focused, although he does appear in a lot of episodes, but the themes of some of these episodes are potentially relevant to understanding his character later, so: brief bullet point summaries.

During In Blackest Night, Clark sees his respected colleague turn himself into an authority that turns out to be incompetent investigators looking for a scapegoat. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here. 

During The Enemy Below, on Clark’s advice, Aquaman tries to solve his problems peacefully with diplomacy and is immediately shot in a life threatening assassination attempt.  Peaceful diplomacy doesn't work so well for him.

During Injustice for All, Lex is dying of cancer. Clark tries to reach out and is rebuffed, with Lex going on to try to found a team to kill him and the rest of the League.

During Paradise Lost, Clark sees his respected colleague turn herself into the authorities and immediately get banished from her home for the crime of trying to save it with all the resources she had at her disposal. Interesting. Surrendering to governmental authority/oversight didn’t turn out too well here, again. 

During War World, Clark’s again captured for exploitation. This is essentially a retread of The Main Man from STAS, doubling down on how some people see him as a thing to be exploited.

During Fury, Clark’s completely ineffective at preventing an attempted genocide of half the world’s population.

Season 2 opens with Twilight, one of the most important episodes for understanding Clark’s mindset during the Cadmus arc. Imagine, if you will, the above happening to you. Darkseid shows up at your workplace. And the man you’ve worked with the longest, your friend, your ally, tells you to cry him a river, build him a bridge, and get over it. Tells you to get over being brainwashed, manipulated, and humiliated. Tells you to get over having your broken and bleeding body paraded around the streets of Metropolis, tells you to get over having your friend killed in front of you for trying to defend you, tells you to get over almost getting your cousin killed. Sure, Brainiac is a planetary-scale threat; Darkseid and Apokolips are in real trouble. Clark was wrong to write off Apokolips and its people, and the League should absolutely have intervened in the situation. But the way Bruce went about it was… one of the harshest things DCAU Bruce has ever done, and one of the only times the narrative seems to actually agree that he was an asshole about it. And even then, you really need the context of STAS to understand why Clark is so furious and hurt in this scene.

Clark relents and goes along with Bruce’s plan to trust Darkseid, only to end up betrayed again, the whole ruse just another ploy for Brainiac to gain control of Clark, torture him, and use Clark’s body to upgrade himself. Clark had spared Darkseid back on Apokolips at the end of Legacy, on Kara’s advice. But now Darkseid’s come after him, again. Used him again to put not only Earth but who knows how many other worlds at risk, now that Brainiac’s even more powerful. It’s the downfall of Krypton, over and over again. And when Clark goes to end it, I think he doesn’t care that the base is about to go, as long as Darkseid goes down with it. That isn’t a price Bruce is willing to pay, so he teleports Clark out. And he’s wrong, again. “No one could have survived that.” Well… no, Bruce. Darkseid does, and Clark knows it.

During Tabula Rasa, Lex manipulates Amazo the exact way he tried to use Bizarro. Clark once again fails to guard against a terrible, potentially world-ending threat, and in fact makes the situation worse by his very presence.

Then we come to Only a Dream, another key episode in understanding this version of Superman. Clark’s deepest fear is that his powers will keep on growing beyond his ability to control them, eventually destroying everything around him. In his nightmare He kills Lois and Jimmy, destroys the Daily Planet, and grows into a brutish, hulking, clumsy figure, first crying out for someone to help him, and then losing hope. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He goes back to the Kent farm and curls up in the spaceship in the fetal position, convinced that he’s only going to hurt anyone who tries to help. Is it any wonder, since that’s literally what’s happened to him in Legacy? Is it any wonder that he’d want to give up, to retreat? If we’re to take the World of Cardboard speech literally, he’s already having to focus on this restraint every day, in every interaction. This is my personal explanation/hc as to why in every single fight he lets himself get knocked around a bit first; he’s calibrating how hard he can hit back without doing irrevocable damage. Anyway. Deeply fucked up 2 minutes of horror. Wish they’d explored this a little bit more in later seasons.

Then, directly after this, it’s A Better World. After we’ve just seen that his worst nightmare is hurting people by being unable to control his powers, we come face to face with a world where he’s hurt people by the precise and controlled application of his powers. Justice Lord Clark uses the same Superman Robots we saw Kara use in Legacy. He’s become quite adept at his lobotomization techniques. Later on in JLU, we see ‘our’ universe’s Clark attempt to lobotomize Doomsday the exact same way Justice Lord Superman did. Again, Clark fails to protect the world from himself, and to make matters worse, the guy to save the day is Lex Luthor. I’d be a little miffed if the maniac who wants to kill me so so bad turned out to be instrumental in saving the world and now I owe him some unspecified favor in the future. Clark’s met with failure and distrust trying to fix things his way, now he tries to do things in an uncharacteristically sneaky way and… gets met with more dislike and distrust.

Eclipsed continues this trend of hurting his friends; he’s temporarily mind controlled and hurts Wally.

In The Terror Beyond, he fucks up and puts the world in danger again, all because from his point of view, he tried to prevent Solomon Grundy being manipulated and used (like he himself has been used over and over again).

In Secret Society, his frustration comes to a peak, amplified by Grodd’s telepathic manipulation. He’s been trying to do his best, but he snaps that he’s had better luck fighting armies alone (dubious plural there, but he did pretty much evaporate an army in Legacy, so at least once, ok) and that he’s had to hold back his abilities in order to be on the League. Again if we take the World of Cardboard speech at face value, this is true, and we see it in the episode when he accidentally hurts Shayera with heat vision despite shouting a warning beforehand. It’s also telling how other members of the League have the ability to constantly voice doubts about its usefulness and cohesiveness as an organization (hi Bruce) but when he expresses the same doubts everyone gasps. When he expresses his doubt and frustration, when he steps away, the organization that’s collectively saved the world several times falls apart; they’re reliant on him, and he has to be aware of the entire existence of the League as an extra burden of responsibility.

Since both this episode and the Cadmus arc as a whole are meant to show his flaws as a leader, it’s worth examining the foundations of that leadership as established in the DCAU. Clark’s the leader of the League, but narratively, Bruce is its brains and its ethics and Wally is its heart. As a result, Clark is filling the role of leader of the League without the narrative scaffolding that gives him the respect comics incarnations of the character are generally accorded. (I’m admittedly only drawing here from the JLA runs I’ve personally read, Morrison/Porter 90’s JLA and the early Fox/Sekowsky 60’s JLA). Superman might not technically be the First Superhero according to these continuities, but he is respected as though he is (and as we comic book nerds know him to be). The League in these comics treat him as something of an ethical standard bearer, a primus inter pares, as well as being the muscle. In the DCAU, Batman, having founded the DCAU with BTAS, is the First Superhero, and the entire plotline of the Justice Lords centers Wally as the emotional anchor of the team. Clark doesn’t have that pre-established stature. What really qualifies him to be the leader, besides the fact that Bruce doesn’t want to do it? His position seems precarious, relying more on Superman’s pre-established reputation than his actual onscreen characterization. Centering Bruce and Wally are legitimate creative choices I don’t even necessarily disagree with, but it means Clark-as-leader functions quite differently than more traditional JL structures.

Hereafter is something of a healing point for him. It’s a little fucked up that Superman almost bashes Vandal Savage’s head in with a rock, but you take what you can get at this point. He comes out of it fine, but everyone else is forced to reckon with what he means to them. Hereafter coming directly after Secret Society is a very good reunification for the League. Shame about what’s gonna happen in three episodes.

In Wild Cards, he’s useful to address the immediate threat but ineffective to stop the real, countrywide (worldwide?) threat. (I should note that of course I don’t expect every episode’s threat to be solved by Clark; I’m just pointing out a trend that I think his character would perceive as failures on his part. If the writers ever let him reflect.)

JL ends as it began, with another massive alien invasion that Clark helped facilitate in Starcrossed, by working with the Thanagarians during the first part of their plan. As a fellow exile, a fellow alien, he’s hurt and angry with Shayera’s betrayal… even though, in the end, in probably one of his best moments, he votes to allow her to stay in the League.

(Sidenote: almost every interaction Clark has had with other aliens have been despotic societies or individuals: Jax-Ur and Mala, Apokolips, Maxima’s planet, War World, and now Thanagar. The Guardians built robotic police/foot soldiers to enforce their will. Even New Genesis is ruled by a benevolent dictator. Martian society is nearly extinct, overrun by… more alien despots, surviving only with J'onn. Argoan society is nearly extinct, surviving only with Kara. At least Lobo isn’t a fascist? Small consolation.)

JLU begins after a short time skip. I’m not as familiar with JLU episodes since it’s been a while since I’ve watched them, so I’m not going to attempt an episode-by-episode breakdown. Also this post is already way too long. But the point of this post is to look at Clark’s overall arc until this point, and see how it informs his decisions in JLU. For a more JLU-specific informed point of view check this post by januariat!

What we have is a man who naturally wants to take responsibility on his own shoulders, a doer and a fixer who wants to get into the ring and solve problems, who wants to use his abilities to help, being confronted over and over again with a string of personal failures, manipulation, and betrayal. When he tries to set a boundary about not being willing to help the man who took over his body and forced him against his home in Twilight, he’s told to get over it by his most trusted ally. When his deepest fears are revealed in Only a Dream, we see them having been already realized in Legacy. And when he’s presented with his dream of a peaceful life farming, a family that loves him, and no responsibility to save the world, it’s ripped away from him in For The Man Who Has Everything.

Ultimately, I don’t have a good answer for exactly how he doubles down in JLU S2, because I need to rewatch all of it with this understanding of the character. But I think you can see the shape of a traditional Superman character in there, trying and trying again and again to do the right thing, putting himself on the line - only instead of learning from his experiences and letting them inform his actions, he’s carrying the weight of years of suppressed trauma while trying to hold up the entire Justice League. This long, long run of failure, manipulation, betrayal, and distrust adds up. And there’s only so much weight one person can hold on their shoulders, even if they are a Superman.

(And then as the nice little capstone to his story, in Batman Beyond's The Call, he’s kept under alien mind control for years! With the way Starro clings to his chest, he probably hasn’t been touched in years! Trapped in his own mind, forced to watch as yet another alien species uses him as a tool to hurt his own teammates and invade the Earth! And that’s the last we see of DCAU Clark! What a fun little ending to his character arc that doesn’t make me go insane whenever I think about it. Very very very normal about this.)

[tackytigerfic]

im very excited for the Wartime!AU. Its a trope that is not very common in the Drarry fandom - I noticed many other HP fics have quite a few prominent Voldemort wins AU.

Hello Anon, thanks so much for this ask. I'm really happy that you're excited, it still feels like a lovely shock to think that someone might be interested in anything I write. I don't believe I've read any Voldemort Wins AUs before—they tend to run long as far as I can see, and my reading habits run to shorter fics. Also, like you say, I don't think there are very many in Drarry, and I don't really read outside of the ship. And anyway, i can't read any at the moment because when I'm writing I try to avoid reading fics that deal with the same tropes. So I'm looking forward to diving into all the time travel/multiverse/wartime AUs I missed over the last two years! Writing an AU has meant that I needed to do quite a bit of world-building, plus because it's a multiverse fic and we meet Harry and Draco from another world, I've had to keep track of their timeline too. I am already dreading the editing process and wondering how I can possibly ask beta readers to dive into what might very well be an absolute shitshow of inconsistencies. But I'll worry about that when it's done! In the meantime, here's a little snippet of the first time we see Voldemort in this fic. We hear a lot about him, but we hardly ever meet him due to the circumstances of the fic. I'm really looking forward to writing the ending where (hopefully) he'll really come into his own.

CW for widescale attack on Muggles and mass deaths

“Well, that’s that then,” Percy said, and when he tried to raise his coffee to his mouth, his hand shook so that liquid sloshed over the rim of the cup. On the big screen at the top of the room, the Muggle news channel was playing out an endless scroll of horror.

“Enough,” Kingsley said, and he took the cup away from Percy, wiping the spill up with one of his sleeves. “You need sleep and food, in that order.” He looked around murderously at the rest of the Order, at every strained face in the room, as if daring anyone to argue.

Percy sighed, then very carefully, as though his body hurt, pushed his chair back and walked stiffly towards the door, Kingsley stalking alongside him, hand at Percy’s waist, robes swirling.

Harry stared back at the television channel, feeling unable to look away for long. They were still searching the rubble of the tube station for survivors, the newsreader said in her uninflected tone, but the death count was already almost double the previous record for a Tube disaster. Unimaginable, the newsreader said, but the trouble was that Harry could imagine it all too well, had travelled the Victoria line so many times, had run down the steps in Finsbury Park towards the platform, bumped shoulders with the crowds streaming onto the tube, held onto the blue metal poles as the train rattled on underground.

Now the Muggle PM was giving a speech, pale but composed, praising the emergency responses, lamenting the loss of life. A tragic accident.

“If only he knew,” Remus scoffed, then threw down the latest copy of the Prophet, smuggled out of wizarding London, already days old. On the front cover was the Muggle PM, looking slightly bemused, almost entirely unmoving, clearly believing he was posing for an ordinary camera, a sea of dark-suited aides out of focus behind him. Next to him stood Voldemort, looking satisfied, a thin smile curling broader and then receding again as Harry looked, an endless smug loop. He looked very different to how Harry remembered him. He looked ordinary, finally—not the same as he had at school, with the cloud of dark hair, the luminous eyes, the cool appraising stare. But he didn't look like he had when he first returned, either. He was no longer bald, the skin of his face no longer stretched tight over his skull. His eyes were a deep speculative brown, the edges crinkling slightly as he smiled. He looked tired, and very, very human.

“He’s done it then,” Ron said flatly. “He’s secured an alliance.”

[jahayla-parker]

Anon req

I am going to watch shadow and bone when I get home and I feel in love with Wylan in the trailer and I'm a sucker for overprotective shit or protective vibes.

Demo : Wylan Van Eck x Reader

Description: 7.1k wc, 3 times Wylan overprotects Reader and one time Reader overprotects him. Fluff, overprotective. Gender neutral/ they pronouns as is my rule for all Wylan fics.

Warnings: SAB/SOC type warnings

Note: y/w/t = your weapon type (aka your choice of weapon). Thank you @ell0ra-br3kk3r for helping me double-check that Wylan is canon in this and not too confident but also not too soft!

“Hey Wy” y/n greeted. They yawned quietly and neared Wylan’s work station. He’d been in his lab for the last few hours and y/n was missing him. So they figured they’d come down and join him.

Wylan looked up from the test tube in his hand and smiled widely at y/n. He noticed the way they seemed tired, their eyes somewhat heavy. He tilted his head to the side as he scanned their body for any other signs of fatigue or distress.

“How are things going?” Y/n questioned, kissing his cheek before walking to one of his other tables to look around.

Wylan blushed, hanging his head and smiled to himself, “mmm, they’re good. I actually finished the new concoction that Kaz was say-“.

Wylan cut himself off as his eyes widened. In the few seconds he looked away from them, y/n had seemingly found his fusion bomb powder. It was designed to only require a small degree of heat to activate its melting properties. Yet it could burn at a very high temperature once it was activated.

“Don't mess with that!” Wylan shouted, rushing over to them and taking the sample from y/n’s hand. He sighed when y/n frowned and looked away, a shimmer of guilt in their eyes. “Hey,” he whispered timidly as he set the sample further back on the table. “It’s only because I worry you'll hurt yourself!” Wylan explained, grabbing a nearby towel to wipe both of their hands with.

“From the outside of the container?” Y/n pondered, their eyes trailing over to the see-through jar that was once in their hand.

Wylan could sense the apprehension and fear in y/n’s eyes as they stared at the sample. “Love” Wylan hummed softly, dabbing their hands free of any potential residue. “You’re safe, I wouldn’t let you down be here if there were any risk to you by your mere presence” he promised with flushed cheeks, squeezing their hand as he dried it.

“Let me?” Y/n teased, raising an eyebrow at their boyfriend.

This made him chuckle nervously, bouncing his leg anxiously as he cleaned his own hands. “In this type of instance yes, let”.

“This type of instance?” Y/n questioned.

“When it comes to your safety” Wylan explained, smiling bashfully, his head hung slightly as he tried to hide his flushed cheeks.

“I love you Wylan, but I have a feeling you’re overreacting” y/n giggled.

Wylan scoffed loudly, squinting his eyes at y/n despite his still red cheeks, “I assure you I am not. These aren’t toys”.

Y/n nodded, “I know, my beautiful demo man”.

This prompted Wylan to blush and look down at his now nervously shuffling feet.

“But, I think if it’s in a jar, on the table, it must be relatively stable Hmm?” Y/n argued.

“You’re correct, but I don’t want to risk any residue getting on you, especially from ones as dangerous as that one you grabbed” he defended, holding his head high despite his shy gaze.

Y/n looked at the table of various chemical mixtures their boyfriend had been working on. “It’s one of the more dangerous ones?” They asked, peering back at him.

“Yes, my dear. You, of course, managed to grab the only one from that table I feared you touching” Wylan smirked with a teasing shimmer in his eyes and his deep blush spreading.

“I can touch the others?” Y/n questioned, eyes hopeful.

“I don’t see why you would want to but, theoretically, yes. They are inactive until combined” Wylan admitted hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck.

Yn hummed, “and the one I grabbed..?”

“It’s already mixed and ready for usage. It reacts to body heat. It’s not ready yet as I need it to be more reactive. But, as it is one’s hands are far too warm to hold it” Wylan explained.

He grinned timidly, his eyes shifting throughout the room as he grabbed y/n’s hands. “No one should hold it without gloves on house. Especially not you and your impossibly warm hands” Wylan smiled lopsidedly.

Y/n bit their lip, “I have warm hands?”

“Very and I love it, but it means you are absolutely not to be touching that” Wylan stated, shifting to block them from the container even further as a signal of how sincere he was. Despite trying to come off confident and self-assured, he timidly fiddled with his fingers as his hands hung by his waist. But he meant what he said nonetheless.

Y/n limped through the door, the excruciating pain in their abdomen slowing them down. They’d been returning from running an errand for Kaz prior to a heist and was caught unarmed. It was supposed to be a simple task, and to be fair it was.

It wasn’t the task itself that presented a problem. Instead, when y/n had completed the errand for Kaz, they ran into some of the dime lions crew. Y/n knew how to fight, but was majorly outnumbered. Not to mention they didn’t have any weapons on them, being unable to hide one of theirs.

That combined with the fact one couldn’t be seen with one on them during the meeting with the merchants’ council meant they hadn’t brought one with them.

“I am in pain." Y/n greeted, somewhat playfully in hopes of lighting up the tense situation they knew was about to happen.

“Do vou mean emotional pain or - Oh Saints!” Wylan panicked, his eyes huge as he ran over.

Whatever he’d been working on was now abandoned. His arms immediately braced their shoulders as Wylan looked over the patch of blood. There was a large spread of blood seeping from y/n’s left abdomen.

“That is a lot of blood!" Wylan pointed out, his breath hitched.

Y/n nodded slightly, bracing themselves against the metal railing on the short set of stairs between the doorway and his office.

“Oh Saints, what happened to you?!" Wylan questioned his partner, dragging y/n towards one of his laboratory tables. His eyes quickly scanned the contents of the table to ensure there weren’t any unsafe substances on it. Once he deemed it safe, Wylan abruptly swiped his arm over the table. All the glass test tubes, measuring tools, etc. were brushed away; many shattering on the floor.

Y/N’s eyes widened, “Wy, it looks worse than it is”. They weren’t sure if that was entirely true. They hadn’t looked at the wound fully yet, and it didn’t feel great. But Wylan didn’t need to hear that.

“You're covered in blood! Is it yours?" He questioned anxiously, moving y/n over slowly and helping them onto the now-empty table space.

Y/n smiled faintly and bit their lip. Wylan sighed and restlessly ran his hand through his curls. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d tried to warn them against leaving the slat or crows club without some weapon on them. He’d also requested Kaz not send them on errands in which they’d be unable to carry a weapon.

Despite his frustration, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on y/n’s cheek. “Sit still, I'm gonna fix you right up, okay?" Wylan requested, his eyes glancing down at their wound before back to y/n’s face. Once Wylan earned a nod, he ungracefully sprinted to another section of his lab.

Wylan rushed back, arms full of first aid supplies. He set them next to y/n and impatiently scrambled through them until he grabbed the cleaning solution. “This will sting, love” he warned softly, squeezing y/n’s hand. Y/n nodded and held onto his hand tightly as Wylan poured some of the alcohol based solution over their wound.

Y/n audibly hissed, their grip on Wylan’s hand tightening as the liquid stung y/n’s skin.

“Do you want to share what happened?” Wylan asked, his voice calm despite his erratic breathing and frantic eyes.

“I was stabbed” y/n groaned, biting their lip as Wylan dabbed carefully at the edges of the wound.

He had to clear the blood from the edges so he could see where to stitch. The cleaning solution had helped remove some of the excess blood, but there was still a decent amount blocking his view. “Just a few more wipes” He promised, squeezing y/n’s hand again as he tenderly pressed the wet cloth to the last patch of smeared blood.

Once he could see enough to stretch and vantage the wound, he started up at y/n with a frustrated look. “Let me try again. Do you want to share how you got stabbed?” Wylan questioned, picking up a needle from his kit.

He paused and let his eyes flicker back to yn’s. “And don’t say with a blade” he warned, a timid smirk on his lips over knowing what y/n’s sarcastic tension breaking response would be.

Y/n sighed with dramatized defeat, “I was out numbered.”

Y/n saw Wylan’s lips had tugged downwards as he listened, his eyes still focused on moving the needle through y/n’s separated skin. Y/n knew what he was wondering. Why was y/n alone? Did y/n have their weapon with them? If so, why wasn’t it enough? And what could have been done differently?

It was always the same sweet set of questions he’d have whenever Y/n was even slightly scratched during an errand for Kaz. Wylan was, to say the least, overprotective when it came to y/n. But he meant well.

“I didn’t have my y/w/t. It wouldn’t be concealed and I had to meet with the merchants council, they don’t exactly allow y/w/t into those meetings “ y/n confessed with a shrug.

Wylan’s eyes snapped to y/n’s face upon their completion of the horrible action. He knew before it even crossed y/n’s face that the movement had to have caused a tremendous amount of pain. He frowned and squeezed their hand in a nervous attempt at comforting them as they breathed through the pain.

One Y/n nodded for Wylan to continue his stitching, they resumed their story . “It was supposed to be a simple meeting. Nothing even actually illegal this time” y/n laughed at the sentiment. When y/n saw Wylan fight to resist a smirk, they smiled. “It should’ve been fine. There was no reason for it not to be. But, some Dime Lions thought it would be a good day to start a fight” y/n summarized.

Wylan grimaced and shook his head, fingers rigidly still as he worked on the last stitch. “Bastards” he mumbled, followed by a loud sigh.

“Wylan!” Yn lovingly scolded with a chuckle.

Wylan’s eyes shifted aimlessly around the room as his rosy cheeks darkened and he bit his lip before giving y/n a bashful look. When he saw y/n wasn’t truly appalled or upset with him for swearing, he visibly calmed.

Taking a deep breath, he shrugged, “they are”.

Wylan tied off the final knot and set his needle down. Letting out a sigh, he clumsily reached over for some bandages to place over the now-stitched wound. “Did they-” He began wondering.

“Learn their lesson?” Y/n interrupted, “yes, yes they did”.

Wylan smirked and looked up at his partner, “oh?”

Y/n grinned and nodded, “I might not have had my y/w/t, but I still had my hands and feet. I gotta confess, they’re gonna need patched up too”.

Wylan huffed “well I’m not doing it, they’re lucky they are able to be patched up still.”

Y/n nodded, “if it were only one man, it would’ve been fine. But, while I was fighting the one guy, another came to his defense, and, well”. They paused as they signaled to their bandaged wound.

Wylan flared his nostrils as he sighed, “I still wish Kaz wouldn’t have sent you alone.”

“I can handle myself Wylan, current case not included” they argued, their tone showing their embarrassment.

Wylan frowned, hating how his remark made them think he doubted them. “I’m not saying you can’t” he promised, his eyes wide and pleading with them to understand. Wylan stroked their cheek tenderly.. “Y/n/n, I know you’re strong and I love that about you. But, you’re also far more caring than most in the Barrel and people know that” he explained.

It was silent for a moment while Wylan walked away from them and over to one of his stations. When he returned, he had a small capped-off tube in his hand. It wasn’t clear what the tube contained, but Wylan examined it again before handing it to y/n.

“Use this next time you’re out numbered or out gunned. I don't want to have to bandage you up again" he requested as he passed them the tube, his hands shaking slightly as he blushed. He had wanted to give y/n the tube before, so he wasn’t certain why he was so nervous about doing so now. Other than that he was requesting them to rely on something he’d created to keep them safe.

Y/n accepted it and lightly rolled it between their fingers in examination. The ingredient in the tube seemed to be a powdery substance. Yet, there was no residue on the outside of the container. It was evident by the dried water stains that Wylan had thoroughly cleaned the outside of it.

If he were honest with himself, Wylan was proud of the creation y/n now held in their hands. It was specifically designed to be easy to use against one’s enemies. But, he didn’t want to risk it falling into the wrong hands or otherwise somehow being used against y/n or his friends.

The substance was designed to bond with one’s sweat. In theory -and later as it turned out, in application as well-, the chemical would be released into the air and be drawn to the typical metabolites and minerals found in human sweat.

Once the substance was bonded with the chemical properties of said sweat, it would result in an acidic burning sensation anywhere sweat was present on the body. It was already impressive for their time, but Wylan needed to know it wouldn’t be able to be sued against them, and namely that y/n and the other crows would be safe from it.

In order to do so, Wylan had spent months developing the base of the powdery substance. He needed to ensure that the powder would only bond to the sweat of others and not those he cared deeply for. It wasn’t impossible given that the pheromones and minute chemical physiological properties in sweat vary from person to person. So while the overlying components were the same, there were some differences that would allow Wylan to tailor the material to be more precise in its target.

While Ketterdam wasn’t exactly warm and frequently the producer of perspiration in its inhabitants, an active fight would produce enough sweat to ignite the material. One didn’t need to sweat profusely for the material to bond. A simple bead of perspiration was enough. Yet, if one waited to dispense it until their target was putting up a decent fight and therefore sweating more, the effect would be better and more widespread.

It took some time to gather materials and data to build chemical profiles for each crows’ perspiration. Wylan was just very pleased that no one seemed to notice that he’d offered to do the laundry for everyone slightly more often than normal. Or at least didn’t notice enough to call him out. To be fair, Wylan suspected Kaz noticed and just opted to let him do it.

Wylan had first tested the results on himself and much to his pleasure, found it to work as intended. From there he told Kaz of his creation and Kaz allowed Wylan to try a small amount on his skin. When both were successful in not producing a burn, Wylan was given permission to use the substance during heists if needed. He knew it was still risky as he hadn’t tried it on each crow yet. Nor did he really want to. But he also didn’t want to be mistaken in thinking they were immune. Therefore, when he used it the first time on a heist, he’d brought another substance with him; one that would counteract the burning should something go wrong.

It didn’t. When he utilized it in the next several heists following its creation, only the intended target was affected. It took multiple rounds of dispensing it successfully when the others were around before Wylan was comfortable saying it was safe for his friends.

He was proud of the work that went into it. But mostly he was proud of how he’d made it safe for those he cared about to use in self defense. Namely, he was excited for y/n to have it on them at all times. It didn’t require a ton of material to work, meaning Y/n could keep it on their person easily and still conceal it.

Y/n smiled as they examined the tube. “How does it work?” They asked, looking up at Wylan.

They didn’t mind using it as he requested, but they needed to know the best way to do so.

Wylan smiled back, his cheeks pink from the way y/n smiled at him. He knew y/n understood a lot about his work by now. They always had an interest in and a pre-university level knowledge in chemistry. Between that and the time they spent keeping Wylan company in his office/lab, Wylan knew he didn’t need to simplify his work for them to understand.

As such, he took his time explaining what the substance did and how to use it. He also made sure to detail how he knew it was safe for them to use and when to disperse it to get the greatest effect.

When he finished, Wylan took a deep breath and added, “You can conceal it easily at all times, and you have my word it’s safe for you to-“

“Wylan” y/n hummed, hopping down from the table despite his protests. “I trust you. Even if I hadn’t understood everything you just said, I’d trust you. I did by the way, understand what you said” they giggled and grabbed his hand. “But my point is, I know you and if there were even the slightest chance it could harm me, saints if it even might be able to make me sneeze, or something small, you wouldn’t let me have it”.

Wylans cheeks flushed profusely and he cautiously wrapped his arms around y/n, “Promise to always carry it?”

Y/n grinned and placed a tender kiss on his chapped lips, “I promise, my handsome demo man”.

Wylan bit his lip as his cheeks somehow reddened even further. He soon was burying his face in y/n’s shoulder bashfully to hide the glow.

“Truly Wy, I’m very impressed. Not surprised, because it’s you. But proud nonetheless, this is impressive” y/n complimented.

Wylan was very pleased his face was smushed in the crook of y/n’s neck as he thought his cheeks might truly match the vial of bromine on his table.

Wylan heard footsteps enter but his eyes remained focused on the concoction before him. “Stay over there,” he ordered. He winced at his order and guiltily added a soft, “please”.

“You don’t have your goggles on” y/n remarked, staring scrutinizingly at their boyfriend. He had them hanging around his neck, but not protecting his eyes. If he needed y/n to stay back as he worked on the project before him, the least he could do is put on his goggles.

Wylan paused and let his eyes flicker up to his partner, a smile gracing his lips. “Right, of course” he chuckled, looking around for his extra gloves. He didn’t want to touch his goggles with his current set of gloves as they might’ve had some residue on them.

Y/n seemed to notice and began to walk to him.

Despite Wylan’s eyes snapping back towards them and him sending a knowing look their way, y/n continued on. When they reached Wylan’s workstation, they smiled innocently and lifted the goggles until they covered his eyes protectively. “Much better” y/n hummed, blowing a kiss.

Wylan chuckled bashfully, his face red all the up to his ears as his shoulders raised as if to cover said red ears, “Thank you, love”.

As he timidly shoo’d y/n back to the other side of the room, he resumed mixing in the next item. Once the concoction showed to be stable, he removed his gloves and then lowered his goggles. “What brings you here this early?” Wylan teased lightly seeing as how it was unusual for y/n to be up before 8 bells on a day off.

“I had an important question” y/n stated, grabbing a paper bag from beside their feet on the floor.

Wylan squinted his eyes and he signaled for them to come closer. “What seems to be the problem?” He asked softly, extending his hand towards the paper sack.

“Do you know how to get bloodstains out?” Y/n asked, glaring harshly at the stain on their favorite pair of jeans.

Wylan’s eyes shot open wide, his right hand gripping the table and his left snatching the bag from y/n. “W-what?! Why? How? Who? Where? When?" Wylan freaked, pulling a pair of jeans out of the bag. It took him all but two seconds to recognize then as y/n’s favorite pair.

“Dime Lions are still mad at Kaz for stealing their job, or whatever” y/n groaned playfully. They yawned carelessly as they added “seems I’m an easier target than Brekker himself”. Y/n tried to brush it off, but it was clear Wylan wasn’t having it.

“Don't you understand that this isn't okay!?” Wylan remarked loudly, not shying away from his own voice this time.

“Wy, I’m okay, I just don’t want these jeans to be ruined” y/n shrugged, pointing to the stained area.

Wylan took in the sincerity of their facial expressions and laughed softly, “you’re worried about jeans when you were shot in the leg?”

Y/n nodded affirmatively, “ Yes, so?”

Wylan sighed and began to pace, his eyes flickering between Y/n and the bloody jeans in his hand. “You said you would stay safe! Getting shot isn't staying safe!" He declared as he noticed the size and shape of the entry and exit holes on the jeans.

“Sorry, next time I’ll ask them not to shoot me” y/n responded sarcastically.

“Y/n” Wylan sighed, “you know what I mean”.

Y/n stayed silent and watched Wylan closely. They knew Wylan was overprotective of them, but there was only so much they could do to prevent these things. Especially when the Dime Lions were targeting y/n due to a false belief they had.

“What’s going on? Is Kaz sending you on-” Wylan began questioning. He stopped when y/n sighed loudly and looked away from his face.

“Y/n…” he whispered, gently asking for them to explain.

Y/n took a deep breath and let their eyes wander back to Wylan’s face. “Well…” they began quietly. Y/n wasn’t sure how to tell him what had been happening without Wylan being pissed at Kaz. And that was not a fight y/n wanted to see.

Wylan squeezed y/n’s hand softly upon seeing their hesitation and nodded quietly.

“When Kaz sent me to the merchant council meeting the other day for the form he needed, we didn’t know that the Dime Lions were also offered the same job” y/n started slowly.

Wylan hummed, “so that’s why they attacked that night. They knew they were in competition with the Crows, or Kaz”.

Y/n nodded in conformation before reluctantly continuing the explanation. “Kaz evidently found out that night after investigating their attack. He didn’t tell me until yesterday though. But, I guess the merchants’ council was only authorized to approve one person to complete the transaction. When I obtained the approval form, that became me. In order for it to change hands, I either have to sign it over to someone, such as a gang member from the Dime Lions, which obviously isn’t going to happen” they elaborated with a roll of their eyes.

“Or?” Wylan questioned.

Y/n gave him a knowing glance and winced slightly as realization hit his face and shifted into fear and anger.

“Or the authorized person has to die for it to change hands?” He asked, hoping he was mistaken. However, unfortunately for him, y/n nodded and let out a soft mumbled “yes”.

Wylan let go of their hand and began pacing again; the angry energy burning inside him needing an escape.

“You weren’t aware of any of this?” Wylan wondered. He wasn’t judging or doubting them, but he wanted to make sure he knew where his anger should be directed. Especially if he was to storm into Dirtyhands’ office demanding a fix. Wylan took a deep breath as he watched y/n shake their head.

“Kaz knew you were being targeted and why?” He asked, his fists tight at his side as he worked to control his emotions.

Y/n bit their lip and whispered a quiet yes.

“I’m going to…” Wylan groaned, “he’s gonna answer for that”.

Y/n sighed as Wylan began angrily stalking towards the door. It was clear their boyfriend was going to at least verbally attack Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrel. Normally they knew Wylan could hold his own, but Dirtyhands earned his nickname and y/n didn’t want to even guess what the outcome of their fight would look like. Y/n knew Kaz could maintain his anger over Wylan charging into his office to yell at him. But they didn’t want to risk it.

“Wylan,-“ y/n pleaded, following him as he started to exit.

“No, this is not acceptable” Wylan argued firmly, not glancing back at y/n as he stomped up the stairs.

—Same Event but Time Skip—

The Crow’s Club was eerily still as Wylan’s voice echoed faintly down the hall and into the main gambling hall. Wylan was usually know to be soft spoken. When it came to anything other than y/n’s life, safety, or happiness that is. So it shocked many of the Dregs to hear the person they believed to be the softer of the Crows shouting at their leader.

It was somewhat difficult to hear exactly what was being said by y/n’s boyfriend. The multiple floors and rooms/walls between Kaz’s office and the gambling den had muffled Wylan’s voice. So while everyone could tell it was tense and who was speaking, the exact words were unknown to most.

But y/n knew why Wylan had gone to Kaz’s office. So they had some semblance of an idea as to what was being discussed. All they could hope was that Kaz was in control of his emotions and ego right now. Based on the fact that you couldn’t hear a second muffled voice responding to Wylan’s, it seemed like that was the case.

Y/n knew her fellow Crows were watching them as they stared at the staircase throughout the shouting. But they didn’t bother acknowledging the group. It wasn’t anything against them. Rather, y/n knew the Crows would already be aware of the general purpose behind Wylan’s behavior.

After all, it was impossible to keep injuries from each other. Especially when y/n had been the unfortunate recipient of multiple injuries in a fairly short time. Not to mention the fact that they came from the hands of the gang of the Crows’ leader’s greatest rival.

Y/n also didn’t feel like answering any questions their friends might ask about the situation. They undoubtedly knew all they truly needed to know. And right now, y/n felt it was much more important to have their focus set on envisioning what was happening up the creaky stairs and behind the dark walls between where Kaz and Wylan were in contrast to the rest of the crows. Y/n was seated on the edge of the barstool closest to the stairwell, ready to throw themselves off of it and up the stairs at the soonest sound of possible danger.

Fortunately, it didn’t come. Instead, Wylan eventually made his way back down the stairs to collect y/n. He then helped wash the blood out of their jeans before they gave it to Inej to stitch a patch over the holes. Compared to the start of the evening, the end of the night was very calm. Whatever had happened in Kaz’s office seemed to appease Wylan’s concerns.

“Y/n, how could you keep this from me?" Wylan asked. He was mad. Well, mad would be an understatement. He couldn’t figure out why his partner didn’t tell him that the Dime Lions were still after them.

It had been days without trouble from their rival crew. Wylan suspected that meant Kaz handled matters as he ordered him to. However, Wylan found y/n hiding out in the storage room of the club when he went to grab an extra jar for some new materials he’d purchased from a street vendor that morning.

When he asked y/n why they were hiding back there, y/n confessed that the matter wasn’t over. Yet, they didn’t explain the reason why they hadn’t told Wylan. And that was driving him crazy. All he wanted to do was protect y/n. But he couldn’t do that if they didn’t tell him when they were in danger.

Unbeknownst to Wylan, Kaz wouldn’t let y/n take part in any of the next steps of the assignment. Kaz needed the form he had y/n get from the council to process the exchange of goods. He stated the item they’d legally be exchanging was going to be used as leverage/blackmail for their upcoming heist. The person being leveraged would only truly be persuaded by a legally obtained item, hence the unusual legally-completed portion of their heist.

Wylan was aware that the Dime Lions had been offered the job of leveraging the mark and was therefore wanting the form to be in their name so they could move forward. However, he wasn’t aware that y/n was still a target. He’d told Kaz to do whatever it took to remove the threat having over y/n’s head. Which Kaz did, hence why Kaz had required y/n to sign over the approval form to Kaz instead.

But, no one had accounted for the Dime Lions’ newest recruit reading into the sudden change in approved crew members as a potential weakness. The Dime Lions clearly knew y/n was going to be either on-guard and/or guarded by at least one other Crow from now on until the exchange was completed. However, when Kaz completely swapped y/n’s name for his, it served as a signal for the Dime Lions. Everyone knew that if Kaz wanted his name on the form, it would’ve been done that way from the start. So that made the gang question what the cause behind the change was.

The gangs newest recruit, Mapviler, suspected that y/n’s name had not truly been removed. While the whole crew knew there had to have been some intent behind putting y/n’s name on the form to start with, only Mapviler understood that Kaz wasn’t idiotic enough to violate the order and risk losing the leverage of having a legally obtained incentive. He believed that Kaz falsified the documents showing the name change in order to keep the Dime Lions from attacking them still.

Mapviler wasn’t entirely wrong. Kaz didnt want to risk losing their leverage. He was also right about Kaz’s motivation of keeping y/n safe. However, the name change truly did take place. It was done to keep y/n safe, but instead brought more risk when Mapviler misinterpreted the meaning behind it.

As such, Wylan’s orders to Kaz, and Kaz’s subsequent actions, only increased the threat. For now, Mapviler, who was not only the newest member of the Dime Lions, but also the most street smart member of the gang, was even more determined to find y/n. Meanwhile, the Crows suspected the threat was over and had begun to let their guard down. When Kaz caught wind of the misinterpretation and increased threat he alerted y/n.

However, y/n hadn’t told Wylan as they resorted to just hiding out instead. They figured if they hid out until Kaz finished the last steps of the exchange it would keep Wylan from being in danger through association.

Y/n attempted to summarize all of those details for Wylan. They weren’t sure how well they did, as Wylan stood there staring silently at them for what felt like an eternity. In reality it was only a few moments, but it was an intense stare. When Wylan composed himself, he closed his eyes tightly as he stood before y/n.

“It’s my fault,” Wylan stated, his voice saturated with guilt.

Y/n rapidly shook their head, “No, you were just trying to-“.

Wylan’s eyes opened and he sighed, “Doesn’t matter, it’s my fault.”

“But listen,” he begged, squeezing y/n’s hand, “don’t ever keep matters relating to your safety from me, please”.

“Okay, if you promise the same” y/n bartered.

Wylan hummed and nodded, “deal”.

“The deal is the deal” y/n smirked, shaking the hand Wylan had holding theirs.

Wylan let out a small chuckle and shook his head, “we’ll figure this out. They'll have to go through me before they get to you."

“No” y/n stated firmly, pulling their hand back.

“No?” Wylan repeated, confusion taking over his face.

“I don’t want them going through you,” y/n rejected.

“I kinda like you” they added with a sly smirk.

He chuckled more freely this time and blushed.

“Therefore, if we’re going to handle this together, I need you to stay close to me. Please” y/n requested.

Wylan agreed and suggested that he lead them to his lab to hide out in. At least until they formed a better plan.

Y/n silently agreed and followed him down the hallway.

They’d barely settled into Wylan’s laboratory when there was a loud crashing sound from just around the corner. This prompted Wylan to stand up stiffly, on guard now as he stood between y/n and the sound. Only for y/n to gently push him to the side so he wasn’t in increased danger compared to them.

Not that it mattered as within a few seconds, the whole room erupted into chaos. The room was filled with smoke and y/n couldn’t see through it enough to know what to do. All they could see was Wylan before them, sliding his goggles back up to his eyes.

“Stay here” Wylan whispered as he coughed through the smoke. And then he was gone.

Y/n wanted to scream at him for disappearing from their sight. Instead, they forced themselves to blink through the smoke as it settled. Once everyone could see, the Dime Lions brawlers charged towards y/n.

Yet another fight broke out, y/n once again out numbered. As they took surveillance of the scene, they saw Wylan fighting two men while the other two were headed their way.

“There they are!” One of the men shouted, pointing at y/n.

Wylan’s eyes showed his internal panic as he wrestled with the men while trying to simultaneously watch over y/n.

Meanwhile y/n had managed to grab their y/w/t from its holder and used it to take down two of the men. Y/n was feeling pretty good about their progress until one of them men fighting Wylan suddenly had him kneeling on the floor, a gun pressed to his temple.

“Get your hands off him!” Y/n called out, rising their y/w/t in an offensively driven position pointed it at the man holding Wylan.

Wylan gave y/n a silent look and mouthed “run”. Even from just the look he gave, it was clear he was trying to ask y/n to flee while they could. They both knew the other man had moved from Wylan to come for y/n. But y/n didn’t care, they weren’t leaving. Especially not with Wylan held at gunpoint. Not even though it were more likely for them to try and harm y/n than Wylan.

In fact, Wylan’s attempt to get them to leave only pissed y/n off more. They were furious that he was still trying too hard to protect them when he was the one in danger. So they ignored his mouthed request and turned their sharp gaze to the man approaching them.

Y/n attempted to use their y/w/t against the brawler but the man managed to grab it from them and tossed it across the room. As a result, y/n resorted to using their hand-to-hand combat skills to fight him off. It took numerous strikes to the man’s jaw, nose, and cheeks to get him to back up from them long enough for y/n to arrange a better attack.

As the man came back towards them, y/n leapt up into the air a few inches until they could reach the collar of the man’s shirt. Using the firm grip on the back of his collar, y/n pulled the man into a crouched position. At the same time, y/n brought their right knee backwards as far as possible. As the man began to fight the twisted angle y/‘ had him at, y/n swung their knee forward. Their knee crashed into the man’s pelvis, sending the man towards the floor.

Y/n tightened one hand around the man’s neck to restrict his breathing. As they went limit, y/n’s other hand pulled harder on the collar and flung the man over their shoulder, breathing heavily from the exertion.

They spared the man one look, taking note of the fact he was now unconscious in a pile of broken wood from the splintered table nearby. When y/n turned their gaze back to Wylan, they noticed the man who had been forcing Wylan to kneel was now charging at them. Confused, they glanced and saw the man had seemingly punched Wylan in the gut before shoving him aside to get to y/n.

Y/n clenched their jaw, glaring at the man headed their way. From the corner of their eyes, they could see Wylan struggling to stand up; having had the wind knocked out of him. This only fueled y/n’s anger and over protective mode.

Y/n lost it as Wylan coughed as he pushed himself up. Y/n attacked the man, their fists and knees striking any and every point of the brawler they could reach. They’d taken a few hits as well, but weren’t fazed. Y/w/t was still inaccessible, but there was far more than enough anger fueling y/n to keep them fighting this fourth man. After one of y/n’s kicks knocked the man’s knees out from under him, they saw the way the man looked back at Wylan.

Wylan had managed to get back his feet and was now trying to head to y/n’s defense. The Dime Lion noticed this as well and suddenly turned on Wylan to keep him away.

Seeing the clear threat to Wylan, y/n dashed between them men. The harsh look y/n shot the man should’ve been warning enough. Yet, y/n loudly declared “Touch him, and you're dead." The man only seemed more driven to remove Wylan from the situation now. Fortunately, Y/n knew the labrtory like the back of her hand.

They kept their eyes focused on the target but knew without looking which area of the lab had Wylan’s most dangerous chemicals. Therefore, without looking away or making any signal as to what their next move would be, y/n sprinted past the man towards the table that would have containers marked with three or more exclamation points.

Y/n slid their sleeves down quickly, using the fabric to cover their hands. From there, they spun around and tossed them at their target. While y/n knew these were Wylan’s more dangerous substances, they didn’t know what would happen when the powdered and liquids mixed. They also knew there was a significant chance y/n themselves would be injured in the process. But as far as Y/n was concerned, it was worth it to keep the man away from Wylan.

Y/n smirked wickedly as the man dropped to the floor before reaching Wylan. He writhed in pain, a bubbling pattern spreading on his skin as he moaned loudly. Y/n ignored his cries and looked around for Wylan. He wasn’t in the spot y/n had last seen him.

Just as y/n spun around to look behind them, they came face to face with their boyfriend.

Wylan had a very stern and panicked look on his face as he grabbed y/n by the back of the neck, pulling them closer. “Don’t ever do that again” he said breathily, his eyes darting all over y/n’s face. Once he was sure y/n’s face wasn’t harmed by his harsh chemicals, he stepped back slightly to scan the rest of their body.

“You protect what you love” Yn argued, pulling Wylan in for a tight hug.

He instantly hugged them back, burying his neck in their shoulder as he steadied his breathing.

“I was so worried about you Wy” y/n confessed, tugging the soft material of his shirt to bring him even closer. They breathed in his familiar scent and closed their eyes as his curls tickled their neck. They couldn’t believe they almost lost this.

“I’m okay” Wylan promised despite the fact he likely would be bruised in the morning. That is if he didn’t also suffer a fractured rib. But it was nothing Nina couldn’t help heal.

“You weren’t supposed to get hurt” y/n scoffed. Their right hand moved up to brush against the small scratch Wylan had gotten above his left brow. They presumed it was during the scuffle with the four men who’d broke in prior to him being held at gunpoint. Regardless of what point during the fight it had occurred, y/n knew it wasn’t there earlier today.

“It’s a scratch” wylan argued in an attempt to soothe y/n’s nerves. He could see the look of guilt in their eyes and he wished he could do something to erase it. But, he knew the feeling all too well himself and knew nothing he said would change it. So, he opted for tenderly playing with their hair instead.

“It could’ve been worse,” y/n argued defiantly. “Saints, I thought it was!” They added, holding Wylan as tightly to their chest as they could. They felt bad as they worried he might not be able to breathe, or that it might reactivate the pain from the gut punch he received earlier. However, when he responded by sinking into their embrace even further, they pushed those fears aside.

As y/n let out a long sigh, Wylan frowned against their collarbone. “Y/n”, he whispered delicately, his hands still tangled in their hair.

“Don't ever leave my sight again." Y/n scolded firmly, leaning back to see his face as they said it.

Wylan gave then a sympathetic smile and nodded.

Y/n sighed again, this time contentedly. They crooked their head until they were in the same position as Wylan. Their nose brushed his neck as they snuggled him. With a tight hug, y/n added a clarifying condition to their earlier order, “ever”.

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[omgcheez]

Autistic Bruno headcanons/fic ideas go!

-gvr 💚

I dunno how fresh these are, but here I go:

Rubbing fabrics is one of his most common stims, but there are some others not seen in the movie. I don't remember who it was, but months ago someone said that they wanted to HC him flapping but felt bad because the way the fandom was... it's in the ol book of HC's now. you deserve flappy Bruno homie.

Sand is very texture™.

When he was a kid, Bruno spent long periods of time looking at the sand in hourglasses fall.

Being the gifted kid of the family allowed a lot of his quirks to get overlooked for a while. By the time he hit burnout, he was seen as a burden. this could probably be a general HC, but it was very much a double edged sword for him.

He advocated for Dolores at loud parties, and postcanon, the two will go to her room to enjoy a quiet activity.

His "Special rat" he mentions in OBB is his support rat that acts as not only a companion, but a comfort. He pets it and also trained it to lick his face and calm him down.

I've mentioned the HC of involuntary visions sometimes vetting tied to meltdowns. The swirlimg sand has unintentionally hurt people before, and out of context, a random villager probably would see it as scary.

This one is common I think, but Mirabel making Bruno textured a scarf,plush, etc? yes, she does that.

She is also one of the first people that really sat and listened to him to that extent. Second most would be Julieta, who was in general the nurturing big sister, though she took care of everyone. That line about holding him in the book until it relaxed and being ok with him not talkong until he felt comfortable is canon in my heart. She knew a lot what to do because of how gentle she is with Antonio and when it comes to emotional care, post canon especially she goes out of her way to make sure everyone, including him is okay.

Luisa gives some awesome pressure hugs, though she has to watch her strength, of course. Bruno can just give her a look and she knows.

If you let him talk about his rats or shows, he will be your best friend. It's not something that everyone necessarily understood, but post canon everyone, especially his family enjoy his shows and his enthusiasm. Something he loves just as much though is the actual process of making things. He can get into a full on trance making his art and sets.

Bruno being afraid of fireworks for the angst. :( It's another reason for him to get Dolores in her soundproof room though.

Julieta knows how his body reacts when he is happy, and is the most thrilled to see that as he is getting better emotionally.

The first time that they all ate together as a family again was chaotic and it was a learning experience. It took some tweaking and sometimes he will eat alone, but generally family meals are good now. :)

The silver lining to his gift is being able to have predictability in his life. He still isn't fond of when the future sneaks up on him or things don't go to plan like in the game where he freaks out and mirabel has to calm him down

He hides in tight corners and small spaces, and his new room has a little hiding spot. The family knows about it and the other spaces he has in the house but respect that

He hits himself and hair pulls when he's in a bad space mentally.

As he got older, a lot of his quirks were misumderstood by the villager and even his mother as him being moody or Noncompliant. Post-canon, she starts to listen to him more and gets to have a caring motherly role more often. She tries to check up on him and make sure that his limits aren't being puahed and that she isn't subconvipusly trying to make him someone else.

He asked Julieta to "fix" him at least once when he was older and frustrated with how sour everything had gone. He's a lot happier with himself, though.

These probably aren't the freshest ideas, but I might add more to the future. Anon, I would love to hear any of your ideas if you have them, as well as other people. Feel free to add in reblogs, comments, asks, or whatever you can think of

[simplysnowbarry]

MARK YOUR CALENDARS ❄️⚡

Big thanks to everyone who voted in our poll recently. We can now announce that Snowbarry Week 2023 - our final full-length Snowbarry Week - will run from Monday December 4th to Sunday December 10th this year!

We’ve chosen the prompts from those submitted to us so as to speed the process along and give everyone plenty of time to create. And we’ve also got extras for artists, as well as a few song prompts.

prompts:

day 1, Mon Dec 4th - First + Last Time

day 2, Tues Dec 5th - Innovation

day 3, Weds Dec 6th - Reconnecting

day 4, Thurs Dec 7th - FREE DAY + any past prompts

day 5, Fri Dec 8th - Fantasy / Fairytale

day 6, Sat Dec 9th - "Just a normal day"

day 7, Sun Dec 10th - Post-canon / Future AUs

extras for artists:

silver and gold

hues of red and/or blue

song prompts:

The Script - No Good In Goodbye

Picture This - Take My Hand

The Heydaze - New Religion

Posting guidelines will be posted closer to the date. We hope to see you all in December, and in the mean time, HAPPY CREATING!

(!) F.A.Q

Who can participate in Snowbarry Week?

ANYONE! Writers, giffers, manip-ers (?), fan artists smol and toll. We welcome fan fiction, gifsets, manips, fanart, fanmixes, …

Can days be combined?

YES! Reconnecting with future AU? Or innovation and fairytale? All joking aside, you can combine whichever prompts you’d like.

Can I create work for both the artists prompts and the writer prompts?

ABSOLUTELY YES!

Can I use the artists prompts for a fic, or the writer prompts for art work?

GO CRAZY!

If I want to contribute something do I have to do something for every day?

Not at all. You’re free to commit to a single day, and we will be so flipping excited to see it. The point is just to have fun with the prompts, even if it’s just the one.

Can I post a WIP that I started working on before that fits a Snowbarry Week theme?

Yes, of course! We’re not a Big Bang, or even a Mini Bang, we don’t require art or fic to have been created from scratch for exactly this week.

I’m going to be busy/out of town during Snowbarry Week. Can I post early/late?

We’d really like to avoid early posting. If you’re out of town or too busy the week itself you can always schedule posts for the correct dates.

Posting late shouldn’t be a problem. Posting Day 1 on Day 3 is also perfectly fine, just make sure we can tell which day you’re posting for, so our heads don’t start spinning.

What does free day mean?

Basically, free day is where you decide what prompt you want to do something with. As long as it’s Snowbarry (or one of its variations like Savifrost, Flashfrost, etc), you’re okay to do whatever you want. A free day in the middle of the week might also provide some much needed breathing space for all the contributors.

Also, the same as last year, our free day now doubles as an opportunity to create for any of our past prompts! If there was a prompt you didn’t manage to finish something for, or just always liked the sound of doing but missed the opportunity, we’d love to see that for this day to have a fun revival of some of the great prompts from past events.

What does [insert theme] mean?

Oh man, this is a hard one to answer. Reconnecting could be about Barry and Caitlin getting to know each other after falling out, or after drifting apart, but it could also be about reconnecting with other things in their life or even as literal as reconnecting cables on some tech as part of an action plot! We can’t tell you which roles to cast your characters in, because everyone has different interpretations. If you can justify the connection, we’re pretty sure you’re good.

Does my idea fit the theme?

Like we said above, if you can justify it, we’re pretty sure you’re good. If you’re really not sure, hit us up!

If there are more questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us an ask. Any questions you don’t want published, feel free to come off anon and ask us as well - we promise we won’t publish what you’re not comfortable with, just let us know if you want it answered privately.

[pinkrelish]

Prev anon here! You’ve done a great job in keeping reader non specific. I think part of the reason it resonates is because you’ve done a great job at keeping her relatable to so many people, which is not an easy feat. And I know this is a tricky topic(but an important one) but I do see the effort you put it and it’s def appreciated.

And you SHOULD rb all the amazing fan art that’s been made!! Every single one has been so so lovely!! And it’s lovely that people are inspired to make such art. It’s certainly not in your control how others want to depict anyone.

On that note, Idk where the line is in “we’re all just individuals making things!” And “wow somehow so much of the fanart within the fandom is white-centric” there is no easy answer, and it’s not one persons issue to shoulder or even address, but there’s certainly an awareness that can be had around it.

thank you for coming back! i realized after reading over my last response that i talked a lot about myself, and my fic, because i wasn't sure how to react to TYP specifically spawning this larger conversation, and didn't mean to put the sole focus on myself.

i've only contributed to one fandom before this and it was OC heavy, so the idea of people drawing reader inserts—who should be written as vague—is new to me. i've seen three other pieces of fanart for other writer's RI stories, and in two of them the skin tone was left blank and the head was cut off so no hair style could be depicted, and in the third it was chosen to be a white RI.

and even though i haven't been in a fandom as large as this, media in general leans, favors, and worships skinny white women as the ideal, and it's sadly not surprising when i scroll past header after header on fics that exemplify this. do i think writers do this maliciously? no. that's why i reach out in private with the intent to educate. do i also think poc have made RI art, written RI stories, and don't get as much engagement, and have received racist anons saying their art is not inclusive, and made to feel unwelcomed? absolutely. not even a question.

not too long ago when a big blog was pointed out for having an extremely white-coded fic, their response was to double down, call the poc trying to educate them "aggressive", and ultimately ignore them, and acted obtuse about the issue when all they asked for, at minimum, was for the fic to having a warning at the top.

and how many stories on here *don't* have warnings, but have multiple word choices indicating how pale the reader is? ....many. again, i'd wager most white writers aren't even conscious of these decisions until pointed out, but, yeah, poc have spoken up in the eddie munson x reader tag many times about getting part way through a story only to read something white-coded, and get thrown out of the immersion.

i'm not sure how to address the fanart with TYP specifically, and artists choosing to insert themselves, or representing themselves by choosing a skin tone close to their own to give miss mouse, other than to say i hope i'm making this blog a comfortable space for anyone to contribute art if they feel inspired and have the time, and know that i will defend anyone's interpretation because, in essence, she exists as a vehicle to tell a story about eddie finding love. i would love to see more representation for her so everyone can picture themselves in the story.

i'm clearly not an eloquent speaker, but i wanted to answer this with the audience i have, and as you said in the ask, bring awareness to an issue that exists in all fandoms, and is much larger than my story or fanart for my story, and is more about poc not feeling comfortable contributing, or even existing, in fandom spaces.

[yawnzzznnn]

helloo it's the minjae anon again!

I looked ur prompt list and I wanted to ask a imagine with the 4th prompt w buzz love-&tem plss

hope ur doing great and thx in advance

♡︎The Buzzing Sound - Minjae♡︎

A/n: hello anon! Thank you for requesting <3 I also hope your doing great and your oh so very welcome please do enjoy if you have any more requests you can always come and ask my inbox is always open

Member: Minjae x Reader

Date: 7-28-23

Words: 1002

Genre: Fluff, Childhood Friends To Lovers, song Fic

TW: cursing : secrecy : teasing : mentions of Food : Mentions of Soda :

Prompts: "Your So Stupid" & "Buzz Love - &Team"

Summery: You and Minjae have been friends since birth you've stuck with him threw thick and thin every heartbreak, new relationships, puberty and he's stuck with you unbeknownst to both of your feelings towards one another

Every Friday you and Minjae have a dedicated Movie Night each month a different genre of movies an idea Minjae came up with but tonight however Minjae was acting a little off towards you hiding his phone even went as far as to change his pincode so you can't get in. He'd even take off into the bathroom for 30 minutes or longer talking on the phone with someone but whispering quiet enough so you can't hear him

("Yesterday and today are also normal days"

昨日と今日も普通の days

Just you and me, just you and me

"But I'm more worried than yesterday"

でも昨日よりずっと気になってる)

Minjae left the bathroom coming out looking a lot less stress and set his phone back into the phone cage "do you have a girlfriend or something?" You asked giggling as you took the popcorn out the microwave your question caught Minjae off guard as his head whipped towards you catching his reaction out the corner of your eye

Made you double over in laughter "holy fuck you do!" You spoke threw your laughter at this point Minjae was so panicked "nononono its nothing like that trust me I'd let you know the moment I'm talking in that way with her!!" He said waving his hands in the air "oh my gosh calm down Minjae it's ok it's not a big deal" you said finally calming down from your laughing fit

Minjae twisted his head to the right side in confusion "what" you said "Minjae? You never call me Minjae....did I do something?" He asked more panic setting in "not really, why guilty conscience?" You said teasing him farther "wh-what-" he stuttered causing you to giggle

"calm yourself Jae whatever is going on with you, you don't have to tell me. I don't have to know every little thing going on in your life" you said making your way over to the couch with your bowl of popcorn

("Even if it's like a popcorn"

It's like a popcorn 蓋しても

"It's overflowing, so what should I do now?"

溢れ出すからあぁもうどうしよう

"Only these feelings are blooming my heart is in the air"

この感情だけ咲いてる my heart is in the air)

Soon enough Minjae caught up with two bottles of Soda in his hands once he sat down you pressed play on the movie and set the bowl between you two after awhile of you and Minjae laughing at the bad acting he suddenly got quiet again but this time he paused the movie and moved the popcorn off the couch and turned to face you seeing Minjae has turned towards you, you turned towards him

("Only these feelings are blooming my heart is in the air"

この感情だけ咲いてる my heart is in the air

"Before you know it, your eyes will follow you everywhere"

気づけば目で追う everywhere

I'm thinking about you)

"Y/n" he said as he looked in your eyes you started to feel nervous, Seeing how nervous you are Minjae took your hands in his and held them between you two "I wanna tell you something but I'm afraid it will ruin our friendship" he said quietly "I assure you it won't, it's ok you can tell me" you said the nervousness still there as you rubbed the back of his hands with your thumbs

"I-" Minjae started and suddenly got quiet he sighed and looked at the ground before looking back up at you instead of speaking Minjae showed you what he ment by kissing you your eyes grew wide before closing as you melted into the kiss after what felt like an eternity you two pulled away with a small "smooch" sound that echoed like a pen drop in silence

("in my eyes you"

僕の目には you

"only you shine"

君だけ映える

La-la-la-la, la-la-la, buzz love

La-la-la-la, la-la-la, buzz love)

While you were catching your breath you suddenly felt Minjaes lips on yours again this time more desperate losing your breath even more Wich you didn't know was possible you pulled back and pushed Minjae back a little "y/n....I like you" he said a shy smile on his face "I think I already got that Minjae" you faked a disappointed face and touched his shoulder

He rolled his eyes before shrugging your hand off and looked at you waiting for a real answer "I like you too Minjae" you said before kissing his nose his smile grew wide as he jumped on you hugging you by your waist "will you be my s/o?" Minjae asked as he looked at you "your so stupid..." You told him his eyes widened with sadness and heartbreak "wha-" you cut him off by kissing him after pulling away

You nodded your head with a smile on your face your answer only made Minjae happier as he hugged you tighter and hid his face into your neck the rest of the night you and Minjae spent cuddling into one another watching shitty movies and making fun of the acting

(won't stop ringing

鳴り止まない

Buzz love for you

La-la-la-la, la-la-la, buzz love

La-la-la-la, la-la-la, buzz love

La-la-la-la, la-la-la

won't stop ringing

鳴り止まない

Buzz love for you)

[light-lanterne]

okie, so bad news: about a week ago a beloved anon informed me of the fact that someone was posting screenshots of my dark / cannibalism byler stories on twitter (the ones i've been harassed over for months, mind you -_- ) and claiming them as their own. they weren't getting many notes, thankfully, but one of their reposts (for my story on survival cannibalism, which is a proper little fic) was getting quite a bit of traction —still under 100 notes, but certainly more than what i got— and the others weren't doing much differently than when i post them here.

so,,, i messaged them and requested for the deletion of my stories from their profile, and immediately got blocked. then i used an old account i have for another fandom and tried again (with the same result). then i considered using yet another old account to just link to my original work in their replies so at least people would see it,,,

,,,and then the survival cannibalism thing breached containment and reached a group of nasties who immediately attacked and harassed the reposter, and within a few hours their account was gone altogether.

so i guess problem solved ? albeit in a rather foul and unfortunate way that i wish hadn't had to happen; from what i saw the stuff the reposter was sent was akin to the more horrid things i've been sent on anon (including photos of actual gore and dead people) so ultimately i just hope they're fine and those messages didn't fuck with their heads too much :(

alas, it is what it is and i hope the reposter doesn't come back and that random twitter users don't give mental credit to that user for my work. of course, i also hope nasties would just stop playing cop and attacking anyone who writes dark stuff >.<

(and that they don't come for me next, if they realise i'm the actual source. i don't need double the hate i already get x.x)

anyway. i guess i just wanted to share this because i've been dealing with that nonsense all week, which has resulted in a lot of inactivity on my side. i'll try to correct that and actually get back to interacting with people and making up dark little concepts and whatnot, promise ~!! also, please take this as my reminder to not steal other people's stories and work and repost it to sites you believe we don't frequent >.< it's incredibly sucky and demoralising and it'll always lead to stress on all sides so please don't >:(

to the beloved anon who informed me of all this and to whom i can't reply in lieu of exposing the reposter's identity: thank you immensely ;-; i'm giving you a warm hug and cookies and all of my love <3

[spacecadet-ticklesinspace]

Hello! I don’t know whether your open to writing about irondad content so if not just ignore this but I had a small prompt.

I can imagine Peter and Tony working on a new suit for ages and after finishing it, Peter decides to try it on. Tony goes around prodding the suit and making sure it’s okay, not realising Peter squirming. Once he does notice, he just has that signature grin and decides to exploit his new knowledge.

I don’t know if this is something you would be comfortable writing, just ignore this if not!

Upgrades

Summary: See prompt above :)

(Oh my goodness! I love Irondad! 😭 All of the fics I've read with them and all the clips of their interactions together is really sweet ❤️ Don't know how well my Tony Stark will be, but I'll give it my best ❤️ Enjoy Anon! :))

Tony switched a couple wires before securing them in place. "Alright, that should do it."

Peter looked up from his web shooters. "Is it ready?"

"Almost." Tony sealed off the final section. "Ready to test it Underoos?"

"Yes!" The young teen hurried over to his mentor.

"Alright, go put her on and let's check it out."

Peter quickly slipped into the new suit. It fit like a glove without being super heavy. The last few models had been restricting and hard to maneuver in, but this one was perfect!

He came back out to show Tony. "Mr. Stark?"

The older man turned. "It's Tony kid. Atleast the suit looks good. How does it feel?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "It fits like a glove, thank you."

"Might have made the technology, but I wasn't the only one to work on it. Now come on, let's test everything out." Tony prepped his pad. "First up, communication."

Peter pulled on his mask and immediately connected with Tony's ear piece. "Check one, two."

"Loud and clear underoos." The older man typed something into the pad. "Now the fun part."

"Defense shield?"

"Fire it up kid. Let's see if this works."

Peter cheered as he readied his suit. The idea of the defense shield had come from watching Star Wars. When Peter and Tony had had a movie marathon, the young teen noted the use of diverting power to a concentrated area that was under attack for extra protection. He had asked Tony about applying the same idea to his suit when in battle.

At first, his mentor had shied away from the idea. The ship was bigger than the teen which meant the margin for noting a problem and adjusting for it was smaller. Also, that power transfer might fry several circuts within the suit. However, the idea the kid could defend an injured area easily with just a few tweaks of his suit's power did give him some comfort.

He agreed to the idea as long as he had a connection to the suit so that he could also help monitor power supply and divert the power if Peter was unable to. The younger teen had protested the suggestion because he thought Tony would use it as a nanny cam to keep track of him, but when he had explained why it would be important to have those things in place, he had reluctantly agreed to the compromise.

After much time together and many many tweaks, they both had gotten more and more excited. Now came the moment of truth.

"Alright kid, now pull a small amount of power to your chest," Tony directed.

Peter nodded. "Karen, direct 20% more of all the suit's power to the upper body."

"Directing power now."

Peter turned to Tony when he heard a beeping coming from his screen.

"Transfer complete."

The older man grinned at his mentee. "It worked!"

Peter pumped a fist into the air. "Yes!"

"Now do the same thing down to your feet."

"Okay! Karen, direct 30% of all the suit's power to the boots."

"Directing power now."

Tony's screen beeped again.

"Transfer complete."

The transaction went back and forth with Peter directing more and more power to different areas of the suit. Once they were done, Tony had the kid sit on the table so he could double check the systems and wiring.

"Alright, the adjustments I made should hold up to the increase in power."

Peter took off his mask. "Wouldn't it be easier to check it without me in it Mr. Stark?"

"For the millionth time kid, it's Tony. But with you in it we can quickly test any adjustments I make."

The young teen shrugged as he settled on the table and Tony began to examine the suit.

Peter absentmindedly hummed as he tried to stay still so Tony could focus.

However, it was hard to do so when a pen proded him in the side.

Peter flinched to the side. "Eep!"

Tony started. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, no, no! It's just tender!"

Tony's eyes widened as he immediately squeezed the same area. "Did those circuts burn you?"

Peter wouldn't respond.

"Peter I . . ."

Whatever question he was going to ask died the moment he caught sight the teen's face. The bright grin immediately gave away what was going on.

A grin overtook Tony's own face. "No way."

Peter's own eyes widened. He recognized that look. "Mr. Stark---."

Tony wrapped his arms around the teen. "I told you kid, it's Tony."

The next sound to fill the room was a squeal as Tony dug his fingers into Peter's sides. "Noho wahait!"

"No way. This is adorable!" Tony spidered his fingers across Peter's stomach. "How did I not find out about this sooner?"

The young teen's blush grew darker. "Ihits nohot adorahable!"

Tony pinched his mentee's cheek. "Hard to argue with a face like that kid."

The young teen scowled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "We've gohot soho many thihings toho do Mr. Stark! No gohoofing ohoff!"

"When did you get so boring kid?" Tony scurried his fingers into Peter's neck. "You should let loose more often."

Peter squeaked and turtled into his shoulders. "Nohoho!"

"I don't know where you get this stubbornness from, but it's probably from me."

"Mihister Stahark!"

Tony quickly squeezed Peter's side. "Try again."

"Ah! Tonyhy!"

"There we go." Tony pulled the young teen into a hug as he dissolved into a puddle of giggles. "So you can learn."

Peter playfully groaned. "Noohoho."

Tony ruffled the kid's hair. "Come on blushy, let's finish up the suit."

As the older man turned to grab his pad again, he felt a small hand curiously squeeze his side.

The older man squeaked and whirled back to see Peter trying to appear as innocent as possible.

Tony smirked at the young teen. "If you wanted more, all you had to do wahas ask."

Peter blushed as his nervous giggles picked up.

The older man set the pad back down. "The adjustments can wait a little longer."

Peter squealed and fell back on to the table as Tony immediately jumped on him.

Needless to say, they didn't finish testing the suit that day.

[deeg9]

Chenford + 5.13 fix it fic.

They all find out!

Hey anon -

Thanks for this request. I was also hoping for a more robust ensemble moment from 5x13. You can read my take on it below or on AO3 here.

5x13: The Reveal

“Hey,” Lucy said, whisking through Nolan's front door. 

“Lucy. Sure, why not? Come on in,” Nolan replied with a flip of his hand. 

“Oh, you look surprised.” Lucy set her duffle bag down in front of an empty chair in the living room. “Wait, weren't you on the group text?”

“No, no. I turn off my phone when –” Nolan paused when Bailey shot him a look. “Nevermind. Can I get you a drink?” 

“Tequila. Double,” Lucy said with a sigh.

Everyone stared at her. 

“I need it,” Lucy said with an uncomfortable laugh. “We have a big problem.”

“What’s going on?” Wesley asked. 

“Tim is miserable in his new role and he won’t admit it,” Lucy explained. “We need to figure out what chess moves to make in order to get him into a better job.” 

“Wait. Tim isn’t a sergeant anymore?” James asked. “When did that happen?”

“No, he’s still a sergeant,” Nyla interjected and then smirked. “He took a new job for reasons neither he nor Lucy will say out loud.”

“Yeah.” Angela nudged Lucy with her elbow and handed her the drink Nolan had poured. “Why, exactly, is Timothy Bradford the Court Liaison Sergeant again?” 

“Grey said it was because of the officer no-show rates getting too high. He needed Tim to get that under control,” Nolan interjected, completely oblivious. He dried his hand with a towel and tossed it on the counter.  “Wes, let me show you where the charging cable is.”

“Thanks,” Wesley said and followed Nolan down the hall, but not before throwing a sly look at his wife. 

“I’m going to lay Leah down,” James said, motioning at his baby girl who was struggling to keep her eyes open. 

“Thank you,” Nyla smiled. James kissed her on the cheek and took Leah out of her arms. 

“You can use the first room on the right,” Bailey told him, pointing in that direction. 

“Is Nolan right, Lucy?” Angela egged on. 

“Mm-hmm,” Lucy hummed. She took a big gulp from her drink before the burn reminded her it was tequila on ice. She couched into her elbow. 

“Come on, ladies,” Bailey said with a laugh. She walked over and swung her arm around Lucy’s shoulders and guided her toward the living room. “They’ll tell us when they’re ready.” 

“Right,” Angela agreed before playfully narrowing her gaze on Lucy. “Even if it hurts our feelings more every day they don’t.” 

“Angela–” Lucy started. 

“No, no.” Angela held up her hands. “Just know that I’m not telling you my secret until you tell me yours.” 

Lucy ignored the comment and unzipped the bag at her feet. She unpacked sticky notes and markers onto the coffee table and then wrote the names of different departments on separate notes: Motors, SWAT, Robbery, Metro, Vice, IA, Air Support, and Homicide. Nyla took a stack of stickies and began to write the names of sergeants and other high-level officers on each sheet. 

“Is it really even a secret at this point?” Lucy finally asked, looking between the women.  

“What do you mean, ‘at this point’?” Nyla asked with a laugh and Angela joined in. “You two literally went from being attached at the hip, to not being able to be in the same room together, to being attached at the hip.”

“That doesn’t mean…” Lucy shook her head. 

She wrote ‘Retired’ on one more sticky note and then arranged them all on Nolan’s living room window. Nyla and Angela joined her and sorted the cops under each of their respective departments. 

“You didn’t even see Tim lie to my face about not having feelings for her,” Angela said to Nyla. “His voice cracked and went up an entire octave. And that was before The Great Resistance.” 

Nyla and Bailey snickered. 

“The Great Resistance?” Lucy grumbled, her cheeks flaming red. 

“Yeah,” Nyla nodded, picking up a grape from a bowl of fruit Bailey had set on the table. “You know? The time between the UC op and when Grey made you two ride together again.” 

“Oh my god,” Lucy pressed her palm to her forehead. “So everybody knows?”

“Well, not everybody,” Bailey interjected, motioning her wine glass toward the hall. “I’m pretty sure Nolan hasn’t figured it out. He’s had his hands full with Celina.” 

“Well, that’s ironic,” Lucy mumbled. “Okay, let’s focus. We really need to figure out a solution for Hicks and then everything else should fall into place.” 

“What about motors?” Angela asked. 

“He has triplets,” Lucy and Nyla said simultaneously. 

“Oof,” Bailey cringed. “Definitely not the safest job for someone who isn’t going to get a good night’s sleep for the foreseeable future.” 

“What did I miss?” Nolan asked as he jogged up. 

James and Wesley were right behind him and Nyla explained the musical chairs they were trying to accomplish. Wesley took a sleeping Jackson from Angela’s arms and went to lay him down in Nolan’s guest room. 

“I got it,” Nolan said. He picked up a sticky. “Hicks leaves Metro, goes to IA. Remington moves to Motors. That means Watson gets into SWAT. Halsey comes over to Metro. There's still a spot for Tim.”

“Remington's wife won't let her on a motorcycle, so that's a non-starter,” Nyla said, shaking her head.

“Okay, um, Fuji retires?” Lucy moved Fujii to ‘Retired’.  “Halsey goes to Metro and Madison goes to Robbery. Hmm?”

“Primm will go to Vice?” Angela suggested. 

“No, they hate each other,” Nolan shot down. 

“Okay.” Lucy tapped her chin.  “Um, Jones goes to SWAT.”

They stared at the window and a slow smile grew on their faces.

“And Bob's your uncle,” Angela said. 

A knock sounded on the front door and Nolan went to answer it. 

“Yes,” Lucy clapped and then her smile fell.  “Oh, no.”

“What?” Nyla asked. 

“Well, the only way this works is if Fuji retires,” Lucy pointed out, “and the only person who can convince her to do that is…”

“Smitty,” Nyla supplied.

“Yeah.” Lucy grimaced. 

“Hey, Tim,” Nolan said loud enough for his voice to carry. “This is unexpected. What's your -- What's the -- What are you -- What's up?”

“Shhhit!” Lucy whispered. They all frantically pulled the sticky notes off of the glass.

“Uh, I heard you had power,” Tim said. “I was hoping you had the game on.”

Bailey plopped on the sectional and stuffed a handful of stickies behind her back while James shoved some down between the side arm and cushion. Lucy stuck a stack under her thigh as she sat. 

“Yes,” Nolan stalled. “I mean, yes, we have power. The game is -- We can...”

“Is that Lucy's car?” Tim pointed over his shoulder.

”Uh, yes. Come on in,” Nolan said and waved him in. “Hey, guys, look who it is.”

Nolan headed for the kitchen while Tim approached the group. 

“It's a party,” Tim said suspiciously. “What's going on?”

“Nothing,” Angela shrugged. “Just enjoying the A/C.”

Lucy nodded in agreement a little too eagerly. 

“You okay?” Tim asked her. 

“Yeah,” Lucy said with a smile. “Couldn't be better.”

“So you’ve all just been sitting here in silence?” Tim asked, raising his eyebrows. 

“Well, we just got here.” Lucy provided. 

Nolan cleared his throat and handed Tim a beer. 

“The game?” Nolan asked. He picked the remote up from the coffee table and navigated to the local sports channel. 

“Oh, sure,” Tim said. “If that’s cool with everyone?” 

“Of course,” Bailey said and scooted down the sofa closer to Angela to make room for Nolan and Tim. She carefully slid the stickies behind her back to Angela. 

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as everyone pretended to be focused on the screen. James tapped his fingers along the armrest and Nolan’s leg bounced nervously to the same beat. 

Wesley returned and sat on the floor in front of his wife. He glanced around the room, an odd expression on his face.

“Did I miss something?” Wesley asked. 

“Nope,” James said, but it was clear he was holding back a smile. 

“Then why isn’t anyone talking?” Wesley looked between Tim and Lucy sitting on opposite sides of the room. 

“We’re enjoying the game,” Lucy said, clearing her throat. 

Tim huffed and rolled his eyes. 

“What?” Lucy asked, pursing her lips with a dare in her eyes.   

“I’ve known Nolan for years and he’s never sat in silence this long,” Tim said. “ Something is definitely -– Oh.” 

Tim’s brows shot up and he looked around the room. His eyes widened and Lucy subtly shook her head, silently trying to communicate. 

“You told them?” He asked and she let out an exasperated breath. 

Angela, Nyla, and Bailey burst out laughing from a mixture of relief at the awkward silence ending and amusement that Tim had picked up on the wrong secret. 

“No, Tim,” Lucy rolled her eyes but she was smiling. “You told them.”

“Okay, now I’m missing something,” Nolan said to Bailey. 

“Oh, honey,” Bailey slapped Nolan on the knee and shook her head.

Angela wiped tears out of her eyes and Nyla leaned back against James. The air seemed to clear with the news finally out in the open so Tim put his hands on his knees to push up from the sectional and walked over to Lucy.  

He held out his hand and Lucy took it, rising to her feet. She swiped the sticky note stuck to her thigh off and it fell to the ground. 

“Are you going to tell me what’s up with the sticky notes everyone thought I didn’t see being passed around?” Tim asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lucy said, standing on her tippy toes to peck him on the lips. “Trust me.” 

“I do.” Tim smiled down at her. 

“Oh,” Nolan let out a surprised noise and then chuckled. “Wow. Am I the only one who didn’t know about this?” 

“Yes,” everyone on the sectional said simultaneously, leading to another round of laughter. 

Tim used the momentary distraction to steal a kiss from Lucy, perfectly happy that he no longer had to hide his affection for her. 

“Ew!” Angela threw a pillow at them, hitting him in the back. “Get a room!” 

“But please, not here,” Nolan teased. 

Lucy turned in Tim’s arms until she was leaning back against him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close as they listened to their friends all join in to heckle them.

Suddenly, their relationship felt real. Lucy thought that would scare her when they finally reached this moment, but instead, the warmth of their friends' happiness and acceptance put her perfectly at ease. These people were her family and she’d never felt more grateful that she'd taken a risk on a whim a few years ago to join the LAPD. She smiled up at Tim and knew without a doubt, he felt the same way. 

[Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments on AO3 -- linked here --are always appreciated.]

[russilton]

Genuine question! people on here get so pissy at anyone asking what their thoughts on the drivers sexualities are but you’ve blatantly put the pride flag on a George post so would that not be the same thing?? Like I’m genuinely not trying to be a douche but I just don’t understand the double standards (I’m also not singling you out as I’ve seen other users get pissy at ppl asking but your post just happens to come up aha)

That’s fair anon and it’s good of you to ask this as a genuine question to find out rather than just get frustrated and assume it’s all hypocrisy. You wouldn’t be the first, so thanks for asking instead.

Here comes a read more because I’ve done my best to explain it, and if you wanted a shorter version you shouldn’t have asked me

Tl;dr: Because one is a joke based on a known fiction presented to an audience in on the joke, and the other either isn’t a joke and thus an invasion of privacy, or steps too close to the line for people to feel comfortable engaging in

It all comes down to engaging in the joke vs genuine, harmful speculation. Putting a rainbow flag on a post of a guy hanging out with his girlfriend, who I genuinely do like, is what I HOPE is a clear joke.

What makes it a joke is that I do not believe with any conviction that George and Lewis are actually fucking. I would LOVE it, but they aren’t.

The core tenant of acceptable rpf is being able to separate fiction from the real life that feeds it. We are playing make believe with characters who happen to be based on real people. That’s why most of us will tell you to keep this stuff entirely on tumblr/ao3, so there is a barrier of separation between drivers and fic, and why I do my best to clearly differentiate between when I’m talking about serious topics, and when I’m engaging in very dumb ship talk.

I will also point at the name of my blog, my tag line and my blog title all make it clear I’m not a serious place, I’m here talk about an rpf ship, and occasionally give my fan opinion of motorsport. People shouldn’t be coming to me for unbiased news. I have never been unbiased in my life.

In my posts here I’m leaning into the bit of the entirely fictional ship I enjoy. Of course George isn’t indicating he’s gay by driving a purple Mercedes in LA. That’s a joke I’d hope all of my followers are in on. It’s also a play on how celebrity couples are debated and how real queer people are treated by the world at large.

For example when I came out, both times, the reaction I got most from friends and family was “we already guessed you were”— now while they may think that’s a good way to respond… no they didn’t. They made assumptions based on stereotypes about queer people and applied it to me at an age where I didn’t even know what I was or liked. We’ve all seen the tweets from genuine idiots going “I don’t trust men ordering dessert, that’s for women” or “I think men who wear scarves are a bit gay”, but those are just an extremely concentrated form of stereotypes we’ve seen for decades. If a man enjoys crochet or a woman loves woodworking, you bet your ass Instagram comments will be saying they’re clearly gay.

We also see it all the time around celebrities— people harmfully assuming based on a hair style, a pet, or an attitude that a driver is gay and that they’ve “figured it out”, or even just because you saw two people hanging out a few times they MUST be together. Look at the Lewis and Shakira incident— they never once confirmed a relationship but some people will treat that as absolute fact. We have all seen both Lewis and George separately receiving hate under the assumption they are gay men by homophobic fans- Lewis for his piercings and fashion, and George for having long eye lashes and a slightly effeminate build. Shit, Nelson Piquet, ex f1 champion, has made on broadcast homophobic comments about Lewis that the Brazilian government fined him over. That is how common this idea is to most people.

The only way to know someone is lgbtq+ is if they tell you they are, and the only way to know what relationships they’re in, is if they tell you. It doesn’t matter how much you want to know or what evidence you’ve found, that’s a privacy everyone should be allowed, even celebrities. You do not know until they confirm it. I don’t care if someone came up to me and said they’ve seen George blow a guy, unless he says he’s queer, I don’t know shit.

But it’s still incredibly common, and most queer people experience this, and have opted to reclaim the joke. I will point at George sitting funny and cuffing his jeans and go “see! He’s just like us, the bisexuals”, because that’s a way queer people will joke you identify bi people. And when you read that back, it’s very clearly a joke. You can’t discover someone’s sexuality based on their sitting style. I do the same thing as an autistic person, because we are ALSO heavily scrutinised based on other ideas of what autism is. You don’t know how many fuckin people decide it’s appropriate to tell me “but you don’t seem autistic to me” because I don’t fit their standards. If someone tells me my eye contact means I’m not autistic, I can say George lining up his trains as a kid is a point for autism.

It’s also a joke derived from a genuine lack of representation. Humans like to see themselves represented. There’s no publically gay people on the grid, or autistic folk, so it’s pretty fair for us to decide that fuck it, until there is, I’m grabbing the guy who acts like I do and pretending he’s my rep. That’s how gay slash as a concept really began, honestly. If you don’t give people ample access to something, they’ll make their own, and sometimes even if they have it, they’ll do it anyway because it’s creatively enjoyable.

People get “pissy” (be careful using that word, it’s a lot more patronising than I think you intended it to be) about GENUINE speculation, because its not the acceptable joke we’ve all agreed to. Now you can argue about where the line for the joke should be, or if there should be one at all, but most of us have settled in a similar spot and talk with people who agree with that line. If that makes you uncomfortable, it is okay to leave or block someone. I have been blocked by more than a few het George fans. That is their right.

I think personally that pinning a sexuality to drivers is always going to be seen as genuine speculation unless it’s within the context of a fic where you set the boundaries, or a joke. Personally, if I wrote an entire list out and genuinely put thought into the sexuality of drivers on the grid, that is speculation, and there’s no way around that because I’d be making those assumptions based on stereotypes. Any of the drivers could be queer, none of them could be. We do not and likely will never know because we don’t live in a society where there are 0 ramifications for sharing your sexuality.

All the drivers could be bi but are in straight passing relationships and are happy that way for all we know. We literally have no way to tell unless they chose to share, which is unlikely given that 10/24 of this years races occur in countries where gay marriage is not recognised, and it is explicitly illegal to practice homosexuality in several of those. Even in the remaining countries, Florida, Texas and England have all introduced increasingly hostile anti LGBT legislation — F1 as a sport may try to say otherwise, but you cannot say that it is a queer friendly sport while also travelling to places where if a government decided to act on their laws, many fans could be put in serious danger.

Would you want to come out in that? Especially turning over something so personal and often painful to a public mob who will debate it?

While we all engage in our games here, it can be taken out of this space very quickly, and if someone made a post speculating on driver sexuality, it could spread, get ripped and posted on twitter, and grow into something far uglier very fast. Would you want to see a joke driver sexuality post spread like that? We all saw how the Fernando and Taylor swift joke went so far, so fast, until the fuckin aston admin had Fernando on a tiktok with Taylor swift audio. I’m not gonna make a post I already think is based on a flawed idea, about drivers I don’t care about, with that at risk.

You could argue again that our jokes could spread like that, but in the same way every post can be considered in bad faith when twisted the wrong way, it’s the gamble we make posting here. Trust me— I’m the guy who had his art posted in an Instagram hate collage by max fans— nothing is safe from the wrong eyes here.

I have also seen first hand the awful examples of people actually making those lists to coddle their faves. I have seen the posts where people genuinely think max is bisexual and autistic. They are infuriating.

Because I hate that, I frequently remind myself sometimes to be clearer when I’m being a rpf fan boy making a joke, and when I’m critiquing my drivers genuinely.

I can’t stop other people blurring or forgetting the line between joke and reality, but I can refuse to do it myself. I am only responsible for myself, and for making sure my jokes are clear enough most people will get them.

So that’s why yeah, I’ll make limp wrist joke about George, becuase I’ve been the target of them, but I’m not going to speculate on sexuality. I hope that helps.