#and b) insulting her is the only way to make her actually want to leave

[partywithponies]

Rupert Galvin is so. He talks about being too old for this and his monster fighting days being nearly over and how he won't be around forever. My guy you are like 45 not 80. I think Rupert has just already accepted that he's not going to die of old age and that he's only survived this far on sheer luck. His wife and his best friend/fighting partner both died in their 20s. Technically Mina died in her 20s too, she's just been undead for 125 years. From Rupert's perspective, he's already been living on borrowed time for the past two decades.

Rupert Galvin :( :( :(

[novemberheart]

{overview} John realizes his mistake, you and Simon grow closer

{warnings} cursing, some angst, fem reader, a/b/o dynamics, poly 141

Chapter 24 <- Chapter 25 -> Chapter 26

“Pick up your bloody phone,” he growled. He paced around his office, his mind automatically jumping to the worst. Well, could you blame him with your history? “Come on sweetheart,” He pleaded on the other line. He had shown up exactly three minutes ago ready to pick you up for a lunch date off base, yet you were nowhere to be seen.

He paced back over by his desk, wondering if he should start calling in the boys to look for you. It was then he saw it. The world went silent beside his heartbeat thrumming in his ears.

“No,” he nearly whined, his chest clenching painfully. He cursed moving as fast as he could down the hallway without attracting too much attention. He was going to shred that folder and its contents. He actually found it a bit funny when he found it. He was so against you joining and now you were one of the most important aspects of his life.

He should’ve destroyed it right then and there.

He could only imagine how you felt right now. The man who you had deemed your alpha rejecting you from first glance. The man who you had shared your mind and body with. He felt sick. He ran into Kyle in the elevator. His honey eyes widened at his appearance, his hand reaching out gripping onto his shirt. “What’s happened?” He urged.

“I fucked up,” he admitted instantly. “I don't know how to fix this, Kyle,” he gasped. His own hands grabbing onto the beta.

“It’ll be alright,” Kyle soothed, his own heart pounding in his chest.

“I still had those profiles Kate had sent, the ones with omegas she thought would work with us. I was a bastard and crossed them out. Including our girl. Well, I almost crossed all of them. I left one be,” he swallowed back his nerves, his hands beginning to tremble. He had never had such a bodily reaction before. The thought of losing you too much for his nervous system to process.

“What do you mean you left one be? Like there was one you wanted?” Kyle pressed. John nodded slowly, before shaking his head- contradicting himself.

“It wasn't that I preferred her. Given her history she just seemed like the best fit if we had to pick one,” John explained. At the time it had made sense. He didn't know any of you and it wasn't like he had put that much thought into it. He wasn't ready for an omega at that time. He hadn't even sent the papers back to Kate; he just let them rot in the bottom of his file cabinet. You were also the one Laswell was pushing for. If he rejected you, maybe she would leave him alone about it. At the time it made sense.

The elevator had gone up and down a few times before they had finally gotten off. Vernie greeted them at the door, but John beelined to your room.

Your sobs were deafening. He wasn't sure if he had ever heard someone cry so hard.

And it was his fault.

He tried the handle but you had locked the door. Your sobs continued so you either didn’t hear him or you didn't care.

“Sweetheart, it's me. Let me in so I can explain,” he knuckles rapped against the door desperately. He heard you sputter something. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know what you said. “Please, pretty girl. I know what it looks like, but please don't put any thought into it. I crossed you out just to get back at Laswell for pushing me to choose an omega. Please open the door,” he begged. Your sobs didn't decrease in the slightest, his alpha nearly throwing him into a frenzy.

“Can I come in, love?” Kyle spoke suddenly. You gave no response other than painful-sounding sobs. Kyle winced his hand rubbing over his chest like it would soothe the sharp pain.

“I love you,” John said. “I’ll be right here when you’re ready to talk about it,” his voice cracked. The alpha moved on shaky limbs to the couch, sitting with his head in his hands. He threw insults at himself quietly, before standing up again, making his way back to your door. “Please, honey, let me in. I need to see you,” he was back to desperation. His knuckles grazing against the door again.

“Give her time,” Kyle soothed, through his own gritted teeth. He couldn't understand how John had been so reckless. He had obviously left the folders in an accessible spot. You wouldn't just go snooping around. Kyle just hoped you didn't think he had anything to do with it.

It had been three hours. Your sobs had died down, making the house silent. That was almost worse. Kyle had talked him down multiple times from knocking your door down. The beta had to leave for training, leaving John by himself with his own thoughts. That had always been a deadly combination.

He had to relive it when Johnny came home, except the Scot wasn’t putting up with it. He grabbed a sharp tool out of his room, unlocking your door in five seconds flat. John stood up, but Johnny growled out a warning.

“Stay there,” he commanded. The alpha had no room to disagree with the burning beta. When they first met, John had assumed Johnny was an alpha based off of the way he carried himself.

“Peaches?” his voice was quiet and soft to not startle you.

“Go away,” you whined, making him wince.

“We had nothin’ to do with that, hen,” Johnny assured. He wasn't going to be in the doghouse because of the Captain’s mistake. Maybe on the field- but not when it comes to you. His hand reached out resting against your heated back. The emotional toll is already making you feel sick. You were burning up with a fever. “Come here, please,” it wasn't so much of a request as it was an order. You lifted your head up from the pillows, your raw eyes looking up at his. He whined low in his throat. His arms darting under your armpits, to pull you on top of him. You started sobbing again, the sounds hitting John on the other side of the door like a ton of bricks. You curled yourself against Johnny. You needed comfort, despite being mad at the world and everyone in it.

“He didn’t want me,” you mumbled sadly. “I called him alpha. I opened up to him. I trusted him. I slept with him. And the whole time he was wishing I was someone else,” you whined out. Johnny understood your hurt- he felt your hurt, yet he also knew that wasn't true in the slightest. John loved you madly.

“That's not true, Bon. He’s absolutely mad for you. He wouldn't trade you for anything or anyone. He had done it before he even met you, and he did it just to be obnoxious because Kate was pushing for you so hard and we weren't too keen on an omega- you know that,” Johnny reminded. You didn't want to be talked off the ledge. You wanted to jump. You wanted to be mad and be hurt without it being invalidated.

“But I wasn't enough to change his mind. Just one look at her on paper and she had him considering getting an omega,” you shot back. You tried pulling yourself away, wanting to find comfort in your sheets and not in the arms of Johnny. He didn't let you.

“Maybe for a split second, Bonnie. But if he had put any more thought into the situation he would've picked you. I know he would've,” Johnny reasoned. You weren't in the mood for reasoning.

“You can't prove that, Johnny. If he already had it in his mind that she would've been the better fit then I doubted I could've changed that,” your voice raised. John kept his ear against the door, his heart twisting painfully. “The only reason I was let into this pack was because Simon was hurt. He didn't care what omega Kate had picked for him as long as he could use them.” you had pulled yourself off of him, moving to a stand.

“Exactly! He didn't care which one he got. He didn't have his heart set on her bonnie. If he did he would've asked for her. You weren't written off because he didn't want you, you were written off because if he had approved you, you would've been flown out here the next day and none of us were ready for that yet. I know the reason you joined the pack feels like you were being used and you were. We’ll all admit that. But that's the world we come from, Bonnie. We are all puppets for our higher-ups to get what they want. They ship us off to the corners of the earth to fight in some war that no one, besides them, has reaped any benefits from. We are all being used in some way and you were too when you joined the pack. But I can promise you this, beautiful- and I can speak for everyone when I say we love you so fucking much. You're the best thing that has happened to us and we wouldn't trade you for anything,” he finished, his voice cracking at the last sentence.

You hated that his words made everything feel alright again. You still had lingering resentment at John and you probably would for a while- and every time you thought about it. But Johnny had made some good points- sincere points. Besides you had pulled a similar stunt with Simon not too long ago, and he managed to forgive you. You rested your head against Johnny’s shoulder, letting your body weight fall against him. You just needed some sleep.

You had woken up to a knock at your door. You were by yourself, but you could still feel the warmth of Johnny against the sheets.

“Come in,” you groaned. You needed water. It was John, carrying a takeout container of food. It was too dark for you to make out too much of him, yet you could feel the emotion dripping off of him.

“You need to eat,” He said softly. He flicked your desk light on. His beard was unkempt from him running his fingers through it. His eyes were so red and puffy, you were sure it was agonizing to blink. It hurt you to see him that way- yet you looked no better. His hand darted out, a natural instinct to guide you to your chair. You dodged away from him, sitting down yourself. He sighed, slowly sitting down on the edge of your bed. You remained silent. You didn't want to eat the food he had brought you- you didn't want to give him the satisfaction of taking care of you (like he always had), but you were starved, not having eaten since this morning. He remained quiet as you scarfed down your meal, his fingers picking at the calluses on his palms.

You closed it up, taking a few gulps of the water he had brought. You flicked the light back off beginning to get back into bed, until he grabbed you. You squirmed against him mumbling a few ‘let me go’s.’ He paid no mind holding you against his chest, his legs trapping you between them.

He buried his face in your neck, his grip on your constricting.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, making you halt. He sounded so small. He was no longer the booming alpha whose mere presence offered your protection and stability. Now he was afraid. Afraid that you didn't want him anymore. Afraid that you didn't want to be here. Afraid that you had regretted what had happened between the two of you. “I can't have you despise me, sweetheart. I just can't,” he whispered. Since you've joined he’s been discovering new things about himself every day. He was quicker to fall in love than he thought. He could be a good alpha to an omega. He was also weaker than he thought. If you had told him four months ago a little omega he was still getting to know could bring him to his knees so quickly he would’ve told you to fuck off.

His sad scent was seeping into you, softening the chilled edges of your heart. He was regretful, you could tell. You relaxed into him causing him a sigh of relief. “I love you,” he murmured. You didn't say it back and he didn't expect you to. “So much,” he continued.

“You didn't mean it, John,” you replied softly, your hand resting against his back. You may have forgiven, but you weren't going to forget so easily. He could tell by your tone. You could get in your head so easily. He supposed he could too. He pressed a kiss against your cheek, finally letting you go. You remained against him for a moment, before pulling away. He stayed solemn as he grabbed the containers off your desk, heading back towards the door. He paused by the door, resisting the urge to beg you to let him stay. To let him curl himself around you and make everything better. He settled for a quiet ‘goodnight’ the door shutting behind him.

He wasn't sure how you'd take the information. He couldn't imagine you’d be happy- he prayed you wouldn't be. That would be the ultimate jab.

“Sweetheart,” He greeted. You looked up from your phone, offering him a small smile. Things had been awkward between the two of you- not that you had had much contact since last night.

“We have a new assignment. Me and Kyle leave in two hours,” He explained. When your face fell he was relieved. What if you were just sad for Kyle? He chewed back the thought.

“How long will you be gone?” You questioned.

“Shouldn't be more than a week. It’s a fairly easy one,” he sighed. It was silent for a moment. You leaned forward, wrapping your arms around his broad shoulders.

“I’ll miss you,” you breathed. You started to pull away but he held you there. He just needed a moment longer.

When you saw Kyle you nearly tackled him over, your face smushing against his. He tried not to take it personally. You were still hurt. Feeling like you were second best and unwanted. He had to understand that. He was trying to understand that. Hopefully, his being gone will soften you.

“Come on pups, time for your walks,” Simon spoke, grabbing a pack of cigarettes off the counter and his mask. Vernie had learned that whenever Simon grabbed his cigarettes it was time for a walk. She wormed her way out of your lap, bounding over to the door. Simon attached her leash holding it out for you. It was dark out. The night sky making you think of your first kiss- then John.

You three walked along a walking path, Simon making sure to put himself between you and groups of jogging soldiers.

“Simon?” you asked. He grunted in response.

“How did you get over me not putting you down as my alpha? That must've felt like a rejection,” you questioned. While they weren't entirely in the same situation, you felt maybe Simon could offer you some advice.

“It did,” he replied bluntly. “But then I realized I hadn't been acting too alpha-ish to you. Then you heard me say all that bullshit that night so I didn't have any room to be upset at you anymore,” he explained, guiding you off to the side. He pulled out his cigarettes, rolling his mask up to his nose. You bit back a giggle. “I’m still surprised you weren't more upset about it,” he sighed. “At least not that you've shown.”

You would still think about his words- less and less over the past few weeks. You don't know why but they didn't burn you as much as John's actions had. Maybe it was because your feelings were stronger for John? Or maybe it was because you knew deep down Simon didn't mean it. But John's actions had confirmed a belief you had about not being good enough. You gasped softly. That was it.

“Confirmation bias,” you gasped. Simon narrowed his eyes at you. “John didn't think I was good enough to be in the pack- and I had already felt that way. That's why it still hurts so bad,” you explained your thought process.

“You need to get that out of your head,” Simon spoke. “It wasn't like we all sat around and discussed every omega and came to the conclusion someone was a better fit than another. The old man probably didn't even have his glasses on when he was skimming through the profiles,” Simon huffed. He knew his Captain. Every decision he made was well thought out and concise. If he had really wanted to pick an omega he would’ve interviewed each of you himself, made you fill out a ten-page survey, and discuss it with each member of the pack individually. Also, Laswell had sent the papers electronically, he had just printed off a copy to mess with. Probably after a rough mission and one too many whiskeys. The rest of your sentence finally hit him. “What do you mean not good enough?”

“Well, I mean you know,” you started, shrugging.

“No, I don't bloody know. That's why I'm asking,” he shot back.

“Kate has always said what an indispensable and vital pack you are. That's all anyone here talks about. Omegas come up to me all the time and ask what it's like to be a part of this pack, or how I got into this pack. Nobody believes I got in by just being myself,” you explained.

“They don't know you then,” he snapped. “Then they'd be askin’ why we were daft enough to go so long without you,” he pressed the rest of his cigarette out, grabbing another from the pack.

“Simon?”

“Yes, pup,” he sighed.

“Kiss me?”

He paused the cigarette still hanging between his lips, the flame just a few centimeters away. “What?” he asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“Please?” you breathed. Your hands reached out gripping the front of his jacket. His heart hammered in his chest, your eyes staring up at him wide and wanting. His hands covered yours, not making any move to push them off. He couldn't break himself away, his eyes holding yours as his head lowered. He stopped right in front of you, his lips brushing against yours. You stared back equally enthralled. You closed the distance, your eyes fluttering shut, as you pressed your mouth against his. He reciprocated instantly, pushing his head forward to deepen this kiss. Your hands moved up to hold his jaw and he quickly grabbed the leash from you not wanting it to get in the way of you touching him. Your hands cupped his face, pulling him impossibly closer, gasping when his teeth nipped your bottom lip. He smirked against you and you had half a mind to pull away as punishment until he backed you against a tree. You gasped his name, making him groan against you, his hands digging into the fabric around your hips.

He hoisted you up, his neck already growing sore. His kisses were exactly like your relationship with him. Starting off sweet, then a battle of teeth and tongue, then back to sweet before you could decide which one you liked best. You pulled away with a deep inhale, your lungs burning from forgetting to breathe. He ‘tsked’ softly, pressing kisses against your jaw.

“Don’t know how he didn't mark you, sweet girl. I'd be sinking my jaws into you the moment you’re under me,” he mumbled, his teeth nipping against your neck in emphasis. You moaned quietly, making him smile. He pressed one last kiss against your neck, setting you back down on wobbly feet. “Don’t look at me like that, pup. We’re in public,” he reprimanded playfully, handing you back Vernie’s leash. “Besides I’m not done playing hard to get,” he chuckled. Your phone buzzed in your pocket making you jolt. You pulled it out, seeing John’s number, pressing the red button before you really thought about it.

“The fuck was that?” he growled. “Call him back,” he urged. You quickly did as you were told, not quite sure why you had done that in the first place.

He answered immediately.

“I’m sorry,” you apologized quickly.

“S’alright. Just figured you weren't in the mood to talk, pretty,” he cleared his throat. You wondered how much he had hurt in those seconds you denied his call. “Just wanted to let you know me and Kyle are where we’re supposed to be.” he explained.

“Good. Good,” you replied softly. You were quiet for a moment. “John, I love you. You know that right?” you breathed. You heard him inhale sharply on the other line, before clearing his throat again. You could feel yours constrict as well.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” He breathed back. He needed that. He needed to know you weren't back home stewing at him. “I love you and I’ll talk to you soon, yeah?”

“I’ll be waiting,” you responded, your eyes blurring at the tightness in his voice. “Bye.”

“Bye, pretty girl.”

You buried your face in Simon’s chest, wrapping your arms around him as you cried lowly. You wished John was back, so you could curl up in his arms again. You wished you hadn't given him the cold shoulder before he left. What if something happened while he was away and your last physical interaction was you worming your way out of a hug? His hug.

“Easy, pup,” Simon soothed. His hands smoothing over your back. He wanted to scold you for not answering the first time. He could only imagine how John was feeling after being shipped away while not on the best terms with you. It was hard enough when you were on good terms. “Need a cigarette?” Simon questioned making you chuckle after your crying had slowed. You shook your head softly. He kept an arm around you, beginning the trek back home. “Don’t worry about it, pup. You've got a lot on your mind. Sometimes people do things without meaning harmful intent,” he soothed. You caught the double meaning of his words, and you pressed yourself closer.

“Simon. What would happen if something were to happen to you out there and you couldn't be sent back to base?”

He sucked in air through his teeth.

“Well we would get to the safest spot we could and try to be fixed up enough to be sent back here,” he explained.

“What if you couldn't though? Be sent back here?” you pressed.

“What would you want to happen?” he questioned. He didn't want to put ideas out there you weren't comfortable with. The easiest way to get the answer you wanted was by making you say it yourself.

“I’d want to be sent to where you were. No matter where it is or how dangerous it is. I'd want to be with you,” you nearly demanded.

“That's why you were paired with us, pup,” Simon smirked. “You’re just as brave and stupid as the rest of us.”

Hi friends! See you in three days for chapter 26! 🧡

[echobx]

Drunk - jj maybank × fem!reader

summary: JJ is taking care of his drunk girlfriend at a party

warnings: pure fluff, JJ PoV

word count: 1.4k

author's note: this was deep in my drafts bc it was originally not a reader fic, but I was never gonna finish it any more than what it is now. I hope you like it.

I watched y/n get up, her short dress had shimmied itself upwards, and she didn't even try to tug it down. She stumbled forward, and I jumped up and caught her before she could fall, pulling the fabric down just enough to cover her up more.  “Please let go, I have to pee,” she announced but just as I did she started falling over her own feet and I had to catch her again.  “Let me help you,” I said with a smile, and she looked at me confused.  “Just this one time, and keep the hands where they belong,” she slurred. The whole walk to the bathroom she was tensed up in my arms and kept trying to shake me off.  “I can pee by myself,” she sneered as I wanted to follow her in, to make sure she wouldn't fall and hurt herself. “I really shouldn't leave you by yourself, you could get hurt,” I tried to convince her, but she gave me a firm “No” and closed the door. 

“Do you want to use the bathroom?” her voice was quiet and high-pitched.  “No, princess, let's just get you back to the others,” I chuckled and wanted to take her in my arms, but she wouldn't let me. “No touching,” she said and started walking, or more like wobbling over the hardwood floor in her five-inch heels, trying her best to navigate through the crowd.  “Why are you following me?” she asked and turned around to me, and I would've nearly run into her.  “I have to make sure you're okay, I always do that, darling,” I chuckled, but she seemed more confused about that.  “You look familiar,” she mumbled, and I took her hand and pulled her into me.  “Do I?” I whispered while staring at her lips before looking up into her gorgeous brown eyes.  “Very,” she mumbled, the smell of tequila and vodka prominent in her breath.  “Would be weird if I didn't,” I laughed and wanted to kiss her, but she turned her head quicker than I could react to it and I only hit her cheek.  “It's impolite to kiss someone without asking first,” she noted and started walking again. 

The only seat that was left when we got back to our friends, was a single lounge chair and I simply let myself fall into it.  “Where am I supposed to sit now?” y/n mumbled drunkenly.  “Here,” I said and lightly slapped my thigh.  “No, thank you,” she replied in a slightly disgusted tone.  “I can get up and sit on the floor, would that make you feel better,” I suggested while our friends watched the scene and seemed rather amused by it. “I can do that,” y/n said and nodded. I got up and let her sit, before placing myself right in front of her, leaning my head against her legs that she had pulled up onto the chair.  “You are a very persistent young man,” y/n chuckled, and I turned my head to look at her.  “You could say that, yes.” I grinned at her. It was clear to me that she didn't recognize me, too drunk to remember anything that happened to her, and it would be even worse the next day.  “She really had way too much,” John B laughed.  “Bird boy, why is this guy so interested in me? Doesn't he know that I have a boyfriend?” y/n spoke up, and I had to laugh, it wasn't like I would've been able to hold it back even if I had tried to.  “Yeah, I'm thinking the same, very weird of you, guy,” JB played into it and I flipped him off, just to get smacked in the head by y/n.  “That's my friend! Don't insult him!” She glared at me and the rest of the Crew just laughed.  “I will be on my very best behavior, princess,” I whispered and kissed her hand while looking into her eyes.  “I have a JJ,” she mumbled but couldn't stop herself from blushing. “I know, I don't think he's going to mind, actually. Was just a hand kiss.” I winked at her.  “That's not how that works. He's gonna find out and then break your pretty nose, very sad,” she sighed before looking back up at our friends. “He's really good at breaking noses.”  “I believe he's good at other things too,” I said, and she tugged on my hair, her fingers entangled in my strands.  “You have nice hair, mystery boy. Feels nice,” she mumbled. “He's actually very jealous, you should look out, so you don't cross any paths with him,” Pope indulged in her drunk fantasy. “I should take you home then, to make sure that he won't get any more jealous,” I said and got up, holding my hand out for y/n to take, but she refused.  “No, thank you, I have friends who can bring me home. Strange mystery guys don't need to know where I live,” she replied and turned her head away from me.  “Y/n, please, it's better if we go home now,” I tried to convince her, but she was still refusing me.  “I'm not going,” she insisted, crossing her arms in front of her chest.  “I'm gonna go get some food and water,” Kiara sighed and got up while I was still only focused on my girlfriend. 

“Tell me more about him. Your JJ,” I whispered to her, sitting back down in front of her, just this time, so I was facing her.  “Oh, he's the best. I love my JJ,” she sighed and slumped in her seat.  “Why do you love him?” I asked quietly, and she threw her hands in the air.  “I can't explain it.” “Pretty hard to explain, isn't it,” I mumbled, and she eyed me as if she was finally trying to understand who she was talking to, but it still didn't click.  “You can tell us what you love about him,” Sarah suggested and y/n started grinning widely.  “He's very talented, very talented I say. Yes, yes. My JJ can sing and draw and surf and fix things. Very good.” She nodded, and I had to chuckle over how cute she was being. “He's very good at sex too,” she admitted, and I stared at her with wide eyes. “Tell us more,” Kiara giggled and put the pizza and water bottle down by my side.  “Very good at that. Very. Sometimes he does this thing with his tongue-” I jumped up and put my hand over her mouth before she could spill any more of our secrets.  “I think you should try some food before you keep talking, my love,” I suggested, but she didn't seem to like it.  “You can't tell me anything, mystery boy,” she hissed at me. 

“I think we should play a game,” Kiara proposed and Sarah cheered, she was drunk too, not as drunk as y/n but drunk enough.  “I like games. Sit down, boy,” y/n said and pointed at the floor next to her. I shook my head and chuckled, as long as she wouldn't accidentally hurt herself I had to be okay with it all.  “What game are we playing?” I asked and held out the pizza for y/n to take a slice.  “Oh, I know,” John B exclaimed and laid the empty tequila bottle onto the table and spun it. The neck pointed at y/n, who was still refusing to take a slice.  “I dare you to eat a slice of this pizza, y/n/n,” JB said, and I gave him a thankful nod.  “That's a stupid game,” she complained but took the slice either way, then she got up and spun the bottle too. 

We played for some time before Sarah's spin landed on me, and she yelled “kiss y/n/n” with all the strength she had left in her.  I looked up at the girl I loved, but her eyes were filled with confusion, but also curiosity. “He wouldn't mind it, it's just a game, I promise,” I said to her while getting up and then pulling her into my arms.  “Just a game,” she repeated and gazed at me.  With one hand on her hip and the other on her cheek, I let my thumb grace over her lips. “Pretty lips,” I hummed and leaned in closer. I wanted to go slow, savor the moment even though she wouldn't be able to remember it the next day. My nose grazed hers and I could feel her drunk breath tingling on my lips.  Her lips encompassed mine with urgency and care while her hands found their way into my neck. It felt like kissing her for the first time all over again; soft and lovingly.  "You kiss nearly as good as my JJ," she whispered and I smirked. "I fucking hope so."

please don't copy and/or post my work onto other platforms! ~e©ho

taglist: @ijustwantttoread @spideysimpossiblegirl @redhead1180 @kys4-20 @drwstarkeyy @immyowndefender @julczimozart @princessmaybank

[fiapartridge]

self control | jack hughes

"take down some summer time / give up, just tonight..."

jack hughes x reader

summary: when your first night swim of the summer is interrupted by the one hughes you can't stand, you wonder if your self control is strong enough to not give in...

warning(s): smoking, swearing, sexual innuendos, grinding?? LMAO

i hate this, but it's also the only imagine i've managed to finish in the past week so here ya go 🤷‍♀️

Summers at the Hughes family’s lake house accounted for 99% of your most favorite memories. You would run around the house with Luke when you were younger, pretending to be pirates or deep-sea monsters, and when you got older, you would bake with Ellen, play cards with Quinn, or even judge the boys’ highlights with Jim. 

But you never hung out with Jack.

He was more reserved than anyone else, and even in the 12 years of knowing him, he never warmed up to you. You didn’t know what you did to deserve this treatment: him switching topics whenever you would enter the room, never sparing a glance at you, saying ‘her’ instead of your actual name– sometimes, he wouldn’t even have the decency to say ‘her’, but instead just nod his head in your direction. At some point in the 12 years, you made peace with the fact that he didn’t like you. If he didn’t want to be friends with you, you didn’t want to be friends with him.

Though Luke would always push you guys to talk — you were his best friend and Jack was his brother. He desperately wanted his favorite people in the world to get along — but it would always end up with Jack or you leaving the room upon seeing each other, or one (or both) of you muttering a snide remark at the other, consequently making both of you leave the room at the same time. 

Everyone just had to accept it: you and Jack are never going to be friends, like ever. 

As if he knew you were thinking about him, Jack emerged from the back door of the patio as you bobbed your head out of the water, only 10 minutes into your first night swim of the summer. You were confused, to say the least. Everyone knew you swam at night— Jack knew you swam at night, so why was he here, sitting down at the edge of the pool, his legs dangling in the clear blue water as he watched you swim laps around the pool.

You felt his eyes on you. You were wondering if they were judging you, or simply watching, observing. Maybe he was finding another thing to insult you with, or maybe he was trying to come up with ways to fix your form, to make him feel better than you, which was something you felt like he did often. 

Tired of his stares, you turned around, treading water as you met his gaze, silently acknowledging his presence. You thought he was going to say something, make fun of you maybe, but he said nothing. He simply reached beside him, pulled out a cigarette from a pack of 24, lit it, and blew smoke.

You scoffed, losing eye contact with him. “What are you doing?”

He took a drag before holding it in between his index and middle finger. Inspecting the dart, he said, “What do you think I’m doing?”

You shook your head. “Ruining my night.”

“You talked to me first, princess.”

Princess. God, that made your blood boil. He was so entitled, you wondered if he actually called girls that. Did they eat it up? Did they hold onto his hand, and follow him to his bed? Did they get butterflies from that belittling line? 

You held pity for them, you really did. They didn’t know him enough to know any better— not like you did. You knew Jack brought girls home every night, sometimes even two if it was after a really good win. The summer, though, he claimed he didn’t have time for girls; that he was too busy spending time with his friends and family to have a one-nighter with a girl whose name he won’t even remember by the time the sun comes up. But everyone knew what it was— what it really was.

Jack was in love with you, and you had no clue. It’s funny how you can call people oblivious to love when you can’t even see it yourself. 

But everyone else knew. Hell, they knew for the past 12 years. They could see it in the way you two talked to each other, or the lack thereof. When you two talked to each other, it was like the sparks before starting up a campfire, but it was when you two didn’t talk, when you would just look at each other across the room, that brought the entire world to flames. Because there could be a million people in front of you, but you’re only looking at one pair of green eyes. 

That was the magic of it all. You could hate each other all you wanted, but who’s eyes are you meeting at the end of the day?

Scoffing, you said, “You’re so fucking irritating, you know that?”

“Could say the same thing about you.” He sounded disinterested, and that made you want to scream. 

You shook your head. “Fucking unbelievable,” you muttered. “You know, I don’t even know why you hate me,” you said, raising your voice. “What did I ever do to you?”

He didn’t say anything. He just took another drag, ignoring you. 

Pissed off, you kicked off the wall and swam towards him by the edge of the pool.

You were close to him— so close.

You took the cigarette from his fingers, holding it centimeters away from his lips. The blue glow from the lights installed to the floor of the pool illuminated the scene and you wondered if it was just you feeling all weird and tingly, like you didn’t entirely hate this. 

You whispered faintly. “Smoking’s bad for you.”

Your eyes flickered between his eyes and his lips, your chest moved up and down, and he could see you bite down the corner of your bottom lip. Jack couldn’t help himself. 

He was weak for you.

Grabbing the dart from your hands and throwing it behind him, Jack slid into the pool, grabbed your hips, pulled you closer to him, and brushed his lips over yours. “Tell me to stop, and I will,” he murmured.

You shut your eyes, breathing in the situation. You were scared. Sure, it was a simple kiss, but all of those girls that he’s brought home before? Were you just gonna be another tally on his board? But then you remember: this is Jack. This is the same boy you watched pee his pants from laughter when he was 10, the same boy you saw holding his mom’s hand merely two days ago. This was Jack you were talking about. Sure, you weren’t great friends. You weren’t even friends. But you knew him. You knew he cared about you because Luke cared about you. Because his mom, and his dad, and his older brother cared about you. To him, you were everything.

To him, you were 12 years in the making.

“Don’t stop.” 

You pressed your lips against his and he immediately kissed back. Open-mouthed kisses, hand-holding-the back-of-your-head kisses, pulling-your- hips-closer-as-if-that-was-even-possible kisses. You were engulfed in Jack Hughes, and you weren’t so sure if that was a bad thing, or not. 

He migrated two steps to the left, sitting down on the steps leading down to the pool, grabbing your hips and sitting you down on his lap. This moment was something straight out of a movie scene, like you were waiting for someone to yell “cut!”, or to tap you on the shoulder and tell you that this wasn’t real. 

But when you felt his tongue break the barrier, the slight whispers of your name, and his hand moving up and down the small of your back, you knew this was real. You were kissing Jack Hughes, and you really liked it. 

But then you remembered: you were kissing Jack Hughes. You never made things easy for him, and you weren’t starting now.

“Is that all you got?” you murmured breathlessly. 

He smirked. “I’m not even sweating yet.” 

When Jack connected his lips with yours once again, he rolled your hips against his, creating friction between the two of you, and oh, it felt good. 

“Don’t think,” God, this felt amazing. “This means I like you,” you breathed against his lips.

It meant exactly that, actually.

He laughed before pulling away from your lips. He bent his head down and pressed his lips against your neck. Your head lulled back slightly because, fuck, he’s good at this. Between kisses he said, “I won’t stop until you admit it.”

“We’ll be here forever then.”

“I’m okay with that,” he smirked before diving back into your neck, sucking and nipping at the exposed skin, not even caring that this was definitely going to leave marks. 

It only took seconds later before you were admitting to Jack that you liked him. Jack stayed true to his words and stopped. Well, he stopped kissing your neck. But when his hands trailed down to the ties behind your back, pulling the strings to completely discard your bikini top, which was now floating over the water a few feet away from you, you both knew you weren’t stopping any time soon.

And you were more than okay with that.

[fandoms--fluff]

Road Trip

Flufftober, October 1st.

Vampire female Salvatore reader x Hope Mikaelson

Summary: Lizzie and Josie set you and Hope up on a road trip, knowing the wherewitch (unactivated vampire side) has had a massive crush on you since she was nine.

Reader goes to the school only to look out for the twins and to throw insults at Alaric, otherwise, you wouldn't be there. You don't actually do any work...or go to any classes either or teach any classes since you got turned at 21. You're also there to look out for Hope, as per request from Klaus before he died. Considering you and Stefan are the only ones in Mystic Falls he actually liked and secretly cared about.

Warnings: swearing,

a/n: Even though it's basically irrelevant to this fic, Stefan is alive and no one took any cure. And Damon never gave his car to the twins - this one kinda is, idk. And the other side was never destroyed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope stares at you as you're reading Peter Pan, across the library. "Subtle" Lizzie says from behind her.

"Did you know, she's reread that book three times already this year" Hope says, aware of how stalkerish she sounds. "So the girl likes Peter Pan, she probably met the author in the fifties when it came out." Lizzie shrugs, smirking at her frenemie

"It came out in 1911 actually, and there's nothing saying I can't read a book more than once" You look up from the book and over to them.

Hope immediately blushes, knowing you were listening to their conversation. She pulls Lizzie out of the library with her quickly. "You knew she could hear us, didn't you?" Hope whisper yelled to the siphoner.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It's so obvious you like her!" Lizzie explains, whisper yelling back. She walks up to her and Josie's room, leaving Hope standing there embarrassed.

Lizzie walks into her and Josie's room. "That's it, I can't take it anymore. We need to get Hope to admit her feelings to y/n before my head explodes!" Lizzie exclaims. "Finally, let's do this" Josie stands up from her desk. She walks over to Lizzie's bed, where they start planning.

"Lizzie, why did I have to pack a bag?" Hope asks her, duffle bag slung over her shoulder. "You'll see" Lizzie smiles as she leads Hope over to Damon's car, that which is here without his knowledge, thanks to you.

Josie walks towards them, also with a bag slung over her shoulder. "Are we going on a trip or something?" Hope asks, confused.

"Well, we aren't," Josie tells her and points to herself and her twin. She drops the bag on top of the trunk.

"Where exactly did you need us to go again?" You ask eyebrow raised. You have the keys to the Camaro in your hand.

"Oh, right, here" Lizzie hands you a map with a location circled in black marker.

Hope's eyes widen slightly, figuring out that she and you are going to be on a road trip. Together. Alone. She wants to kill Lizzie and Josie right now, she groans in her head. She already knows somehow she's going to make an utter fool of herself. Why did she get out of bed this morning, why? she thinks before zoning back into the conversation taking place.

"A campsite? In Atlanta?" You ask with an eyebrow raised. "Yep, mhm" Lizzie nods her head.

"You know, if I could tell when you were lying when you were a child, I still can, right?" You cross your arms.

Lizzie and Josie share a surprised look before quickly leaving. "Love you, auntie y/n" Josie says before slipping into the school with her sister. You roll your eyes playfully at her way of trying to be cute so you don't hunt them down and lecture them later.

"..We don't have to go if you don't feel like it" Hope hesitates before speaking. "No, it's fine. Besides, you and I both need some time away from this damn place. I can tell. Plus I don't know how much longer I can take having to see Ric's face every day." You unlock the car, and open the trunk, placing the bag Josie packed for you in it. Hope softly chuckles at the last part you said as she also places her bag in the car.

"Okay, Atlanta here we come," You say once you're both inside the car and you start the ignition.

The radio plays as Hope looks out the window, watching as everything seems to fly by as you're driving. It's been around three hours since you guys left. Hope's calmed down a bit, knowing all she has to do is make it through the next 2-3 days at most and then her secret is still all safe.

However, it doesn't help that you look absolutely beautiful as your eyes concentrate on the road and your fingers sometimes lightly tap along to the song playing. She's been trying her hardest to not just flat-out stare at you for the past two hours. You're wearing a black fitted v-neck top, dark wash jeans, and a leather jacket. And she can't stop thinking about how good the outfit looks on you.

By hour four, you pull over into a gas station. You're not stupid, you know exactly why the twins set you and Hope on a road trip. You've known for a while about how the youngest Mikaelson has a crush on you. Now you could always just confront her and all that, but you're not going to make it that easy. You're seeing how long it'll take until she finally spills it out to you.

You've been smirking on the inside most of the drive, noticing the not-so-hidden looks and eyeing Hope's been doing.

"Why don't you go pick out a couple snacks while I fill up the tank" You smile. You pull your wallet out of your pocket and hand her a twenty dollar bill. "Y-yeah, okay" she grasps onto the bill and walks into the small store.

Once you pay for the gas with your card, Hope is back in the car, a bag of snacks in her lap. She stopped in the bathroom there, making sure her face wasn't bright red from blushing. The good thing is her cheeks were only slightly flushed, so wasn't as bad as she thought she looked.

You guys munch on the snacks for the next leg. Hope soon realized that having something in her mouth to constantly chew on is settling her nerves a bit. Thank god she got a pack of gum at the counter before paying.

"You look glum...Wanna know a secret that your father and my brother would most definitely kill me for if they find out I told you about it?" You look over to her at a stop light. Why are there so many stoplights here? You guys are the only ones on the road for petes sake.

"Really? Yeah" Hope looks up at you, her eyes widened. Before you spoke, she was staring at her shoes with an expressionless face.

"Well, Chicago, 1920's, Nik and Stefan were close. Too close it seemed to me, so I did some investigating one night. Let's just say when I broke into Stef's apartment because he wouldn't give me a key, my precious eyes were traumatized. There I saw, my baby brother and my good friend, Nik, naked on his bed in the middle of a hook-up sesh" You tell her, you smile seeing the disgust on her face.

"You just told your friend- enemie's? daughter about him and your brother having sex! Why?!" She exclaims, a disgusted look on her face.

"Because you said yes you wanted to know something" You smirked, happy to see her no longer glum. "I thought you meant something like, I don't know, an embarrassing story where they were drunk and had a stupid conversation, not a- wait, were they like...together?" Hope broke off from her sentence.

"Ah, now I was hoping you'd ask that, this will tell you all you need. Probably in a more censored way," you reach into the backseat and pull out a worn-out leatherbound journal. "My baby bro's journal, doesn't know I have it, so keep it on the hush and don't tell anyone." You wink at her. "I nicked it from him when Klaus came to town to sacrifice Elena. Such a dork, even when he was humanity-less, he still freakin wrote in a diary" You playfully roll her eyes and her the old diary.

"Do I even want to know how much blackmail you have against basically everyone?" She asks you, opening the diary. "Oh, sweetie, you don't even want to know who and how much" you chuckle.

Hope immediately feels butterflies in her stomach when you call her 'sweetie'. It slowly falters off though, "Wait, do you have anything on me?" She asks, alarm on her face.

"Hmm, good question" You pretend to think for a second before pulling off a very damon-impersonating smirk.

"I'll make sure not to get on your bad side then" Hope says. "Good idea, your uncle didn't do a very good job with that. Oh what am I saying, he still doesn't. If you're ever pissed at him and something to hold over his head, I've got you."

"You know uncle Kol?"

"Yep, we crossed paths in 1872 and just stuck together since then, even when Nik decided to dagger him for a century," you tell her. "And when he died...twice" you both chuckle at the way you held off on the dying part.

"He's never mentioned he knows you," Hope tells you, not remembering her uncle ever bringing your name up.

"Has he ever mentioned a 'she-devil' or 'crazy scary woman'?" You raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, a bunch" she tilts her head. "Then he has, wow, so rude of him to never actually say my name and just those disgusting ones," You tell her in a joking tone.

"That makes so much sense," Hope says, earning her a flick to her thigh from you.

"Uh-huh, I bet it does" You smirk at her gasp. "We'll be there in forty-five minutes, so you might want to read that or I can give you a very detailed version instead," You tell her, turning without signaling because you guys are the only ones on the road. still.

"No thanks...I thought we had another two hours left?" She started reading until your info fully sunk into her mind.

"I mean we should, but I have no mind for speed limits, and we'll get there before dark. That means no bears or coyotes to sneak up on us in the dark." "What?!" she looks alarmed again.

"Just kidding, there's no bears or coyotes within 10 miles of the campsite unless it changed in the past year" you reassure her. "Oh, okay, thank god" she lets out a relieved breath, continuing on the page she was on.

Hope looks up from the page she's on as you park the car in a clearing beside a massive pine tree. "There are things in here that a daughter should never know about her father and ex-lover? best friend? friends with benefits? I don't know, but it's gross" She puts the diary on the backseat where you grabbed it from earlier.

"I'm surprised you made it that far, honestly" You chuckle, getting out of the car.

Hope follows you to the trunk and pulls out her bag. "So where exactly are we going in here?" She asks as you sling your bag over your shoulder.

"A site that was abandoned twenty years ago and no one has visited besides me. I never thought there were any bad reasons to tell my wonderful nieces, but they for some reason want us here, so I'll just go along with it" You answer her question.

Hope's stomach fills with butterflies again, knowing that she and you are going to be the only ones here. She watches where she's going, not wanting to trip and then you probably going to ask her if she's alright and then she'll most definitely say the stupidest answer, and then you'll probably figure out her huge crush on you. How is it that her mind can rant like this whenever she's around you, is her question.

Hope's eyes widen when she looks at the place you guys stop at. It's a beautiful clearing with no trees littering the circle and the clear sky shining down. There's a river a couple hundred meters forward and it just seems so peaceful.

"This looks amazing" She finally says. You chuckle at her ogled state, "Yeah it does, there's a barrier around us that'll only allow people I want in here. So there are no enemies and now only five others know about it, you, Josie, Lizzie, Kol, and Katherine" You explain, and motion for her to place her duffle bag down on the log, beside your bag.

"That's so cool," she says, looking around again. "How long are we staying here again?" she asks.

"Maybe like two or three days before heading back if that's alright with you," you say while pulling a tent to assemble out of your bag. "That sounds good" Hope smiles, walking back over to you.

"I hope you don't mind sleeping in the same tent, it's the only one I have that's not broken, thanks to my brothers, but it's fairly big" You lead her to around the middle of the site and start taking all the pieces out of it's bag.

"N-no, I don't mind" on the inside, she's screaming. This is literally too good to be true. She going to be sleeping in the same tent with you, for three nights at least. She's literally jumping up and down on the inside, she's so happy. No way her overthinking is going to stop her from feeling joy, not at this moment at least.

You smirk to yourself, knowing exactly what's going on in Hope's head, maybe she'll realize that it's okay to tell you about her crush during this time before Josie and Lizzie plan another surprise trip or plan for you two.

You build the tent, giving Hope instructions for some parts considering this is her first time building one. It's up and ready not even fifteen minutes later, all the pegs hammered into the ground and all the zippers working.

"And we're done before sunset, good job us" You give her a high five. You guys bring your things into the tent and set up the two sleeping bags that were in your bags because Josie packed them both in your bag. Probably so Hope wouldn't get too suspicious before leaving.

It's been two days, you guys are leaving tomorrow. And Hope can't even count the number of times she just wanted to go up to you and kiss you. But her self-consciousness stops her before she gets up to do it. every. single. time.

Not this time though. They can go fuck off while I go make a stupid decision, but it'll hopefully be worth it, Hope fights with herself. She stands up as best she can in the tent and walks over to where you're sketching.

You look up at her, but before you can utter a word, Hope goes on her knees and presses her lips to yours. She pulls away, eyes widened.

Hope cannot believe she just let herself do that. How stupid can she be?!

"I- uh, s-sorry. I have no idea what I was thinking" She goes to stand up, but you pull her back to you and bring her into a soft yet passionate kiss.

"You knew exaclty what you were doing. And I'm glad you did. It may have taken you a while, but you did and I'm proud of you, and I might just also have a huge crush on you too" You tell her everything going on in her scrambling mind.

"You do?" She asks, shocked. "One hundred percent" you smirk.

It takes her a second to realize, "Wait, you knew I had a crush on you this entire time and just let me almost make a fool of myself countless times over the years?"

"Pretty much, yeah" You nod with a faux thinking face.

"I guess it's worth it though" She mumbles, looking up at you this time. "Yeah, I strongly agree. Why don't you try being my girlfriend to find out for yourself though" You set your sketchpad and pencil down and place a hand on her thigh.

"Really? Yes!" she smiles, lighting up her face.

You bring her into another kiss, and it ends with you both doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day besides cuddling and you telling her embarrassing and some disgusting (she thinks at least) stories about her family and yours and some of the mystic falls gang.

There's no doubt that Klaus is watching from the other side and sighing as his daughter falls for you even more. At least he doesn't despise you, and you never tried to kill him. You better not corrupt his sweet daughter too fast, he thinks, knowing it's bound to happen, just hopefully not all at once.

[xxnomadsxx]

Nomads AU! that before timeline I’ve been procrastinating but now I have to finish…Sorry

Once all the bros (plus Poppy) get on Rhonda Branch immediately regrets coming along. His brothers immediately try to get to know him, which starts out wrong as they ask him a bunch of very personal questions but over the trip he starts to actually get along with his brothers (he could do without the babying) but he starts to relight that hope of getting his brothers back as he and them are getting along!(finally)..until he finds out how Floyd is trapped

He didn’t actually hear the plan on how to save Floyd, all he heard was “Floyd in danger” but now he has to sing?!?! He quickly denies singing and says he will get Floyd out of there and they can sing and save him. The bros are shocked why is Bitty B acting like this he loves to sing. Poppy makes the situation worse because she keeps questioning him on it and why he is grey (and lowkey kinda insulting him) She then says stuff like “your a pop troll you have to sing it’s who you are!!” or “why are you being so grey about this come on can’t you just try and be happy.” The bros don’t interfere in the two fighting as they are talking amongst themselves on what they would do since Branch isn’t going to sing…Eventually they decide “Hey if we practice as a family I bet bitty b will realize how good it is to sing as a family again” then John breaks out the Brozone stuff they get there band gear together…John immediately tries to have Branch wear a diaper and Branch threatens to hit him (yea not the best move Johnny) so the band tries to practice but Branch just sorta sits to the side. Then John stops the song and gets on everyone’s case then complains that branch needs to start singing which Branch denies (this looks bad but to be fair he hasn’t sung in years because of his grandma and him thinking his singing is the reason the band broke up he doesn’t want anyone to leave because of it) Then Clay would speak up call John bossy blah blah blah say branch is scarier and taller now blah blah licensed cpa blah blah then the argument ends with the brothers saying “after we rescue Floyd we go our separate ways” this absolutely smothered whatever hope he had at the brothers coming back in his life. I mean they had the audacity to beg him to perform with them then once he thinks they can be a family again they want to…. TO ABANDON HIM AGAIN!!???!!!?!!! He absolutely loses it on them (rightfully so) they left him and didn’t come back, they left him to die ,they left grandma to die by the very thing he hates, they left him to be outcasted to be forced to fight to SURVIVE every single day, to be scared of EVERYTHING to lead a village to make acts he’s ashamed of… them leaving CAUSED EVERYTHING..when he tells them what he went through that he’s “sorry” he wants his family back the only family he had left and that he honestly whishes they just never showed up on his doorstep, that they should just pretend he is dead like they’ve done for 20 years so he can leave there lives completely…

Branch leaves the bus to get promptly chased down by Poppy (who currently got slapped in the face of reality and how bad Branch’s life is, and currently is having her world shattered that he LIVED IN THE VILLAGE!! And no ever talked about him how he and his suffering was forgotten and ignored by EVERYONE!!) she chases him down asking him if he is ok and Ned’s to talk about it (she’s learning!!!!) Branch immediately tells her to leave just like everyone else has in the past.. and Poppy was surprised by his answer. She said she wouldn’t leave him that she needs to make this right for what her people did and that he needs help to get Floyd. Branch (reluctantly) agrees with her and they go to save Floyd

After they did a bunch of cool breakin stuff they would get to the dressing room lo and behold Floyd!! immediately Branch goes down to greet his brother …….who didn’t recognize him (to be fair Branch looks completely deranged and wildly different) at this point I wouldn’t blame the guy if he just started crying, I mean I would. Poppy trying to fix the situation would tell Floyd it was Branch (who currently look distraught and reeeelllyyy sad) Floyd was shocked to say the least and quickly tried to push down his many MANY burning questions as he tried to hug his brother through the wall separating them, Branch does hug back! but then Velvet and Veneer come in and quickly break up the moment as Branch quickly tackles Poppy off the table swinging them to the vent before they where spotted.

At this point Velvet and Veneer had the brothers and were going to kill them at this rate with how much they were being used! Until- Branch came out of nowhere attacking Velvet (Branch can fight, we know he can fight why didn’t he fight during the actual fight in the movie it was basically a game of keep away!?!?) he would get the diamonds out of Velvet as Poppy and Viva get veneer (I forgot to mention viva showed up) Gristle and Bridget weren’t at the show since the whole Bergen thing hasn’t come up yet sooooo… Anyway Branch knows the only way to save his now dying brother from his diamond cage is to sing so he does for the first time in 20 years he sings so do the rest of the brothers (Branch actually feels happy for the first time in a while) He gets more vibrantly colorful as he sings feeling loved by his family(still grey just lighter) anyway harmony was harmoning and they saved Floyd..,,till he dropped to the ground and looking very translucent. The brothers go to Floyd. Branch confesses that he built the bunker just without the waterslide and Floyd woke up saying “but..how will we shower!” And day saved Booyah!!!

The timeline goes the same as whatever happens after the movie with the nomads au besides a few changes Poppy doesn’t leave Branch alone about singing (he goes immediately back on his vow of not singing) the brothers are very overprotective of Floyd (because he u know.. died!) and now Branch as well (he replaced them twice and has suffered for years because of them they feel pretty bad and try and make up for it anyway they can) Branch went back to the village and has less of a hard time leaving. Overall the rest stays the same.

[aroplanes]

My headcanon on named Volturi Guard's rank.

Alec- A Royal Guard easily. He's widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful Vampires in the Twilight saga, and he's capable of incapacitating multiple Vampires at once. So it'd be an insult to place him in a lower rank.

Afton- Transitional Guard. His gift is crappy, and I subscribe to the headcanon that the rest of the Volturi, bar Chelsea, also don't like him. There's no way in hell Aro is promoting him, and Aro fantasies about kicking him out of the Volturi. Alas Chelsea loves him.

Corin- Corin is one of the Guard's who I don't really think has a defined rank? She doesn't really fit in any of the boxes, she doesn't attend missions or clean up the Castle. Her role is to keep the Wives content, and thus I don't think she leaves the Tower often. At least not often enough to justify giving her an official rank. That being said I think she has the cloak and pendant of an Elite Guard due to her role with the Wives, though people acknowledge her more as a floater Guard. Very important but with no defined rank.

Chelsea- A Royal Guard. Listen she holds the entire Volturi together. There's no way she's anything but the highest rank of Guard, because a)She actually is that important, and b)Because Aro wants to keep her loyal and happy. While all the Royal Guards are technically equal, I'd put her as the unofficial leader of the group and thus all the other Guards.

Demetri- I was on the fence between Elite and Common Guard for him, but i ultimately went for Elite. His gift is tracking, yes, which is a very common gift in Vampires, but his tracking gift is incredibly powerful, so much so that he can find someone anywhere on the world, whilst other trackers are limited to singular areas or only being able to track those close to him. I think it is the fact that his gift is so powerful that bumps him up to the Elite rank in my mind.

Felix- Per the rules of my own headcanons about the Volturi rank structure, Felix should technically be in the Lower Guard due to his lack of gift. However I'm going to place him in Elite Guard (partially because I'm biased because I like Felix), but also because it's to have someone the non-gifted Guards can aspire to be. It's important that they feel like there's a chance of progressing further than the Lower Guard. Especially because I believe that once you reach the Lower Guard you aren't leaving the Volturi alive, they have a 100 years in Transitional to decide if the Volturi is what they want and if it isn't they can leave after a handshake from Aro, but once you reach Lower and higher you are in it for the rest of your immortal life. As I result I think Felix is sort of the head of Guard for all the non-gifted Guards and someone who can aspire to be and take his place if he ever got killed.

Heidi- Heidi in my eyes is another floater Guard. She, like Corin, doesn't fit into the requirments of any particular rank because her job is a very specialised one, one only she does, and arguably only she can do it with the large amounts of people she has to make go missing without a trace about twice a month. However, like Corin I'd give her the cloak and pendant of an Elite Guard just because her job is actually that important and useful to the Coven, and it would be a lot more difficult to send all of the Guard's out to hunt for themselves. Though I do think she only hunts for the Kings, Queens, the Royal and Elite, and Cadet Guards, and perhaps particular members of the Common Guard. Everyone else has to travel out of Volterra to hunt for themselves.

Jane- Like her brother a Royal Guard. She and Alec were instrumental to gaining the Volturi's power, and are instrumental in keeping it. Her rank will reflect this. Plus I just love the mental image of these two tiny 12 year olds being higher ranked than practically every other member of the Volturi, who the vast majority were turned as adults, though I do think a few were also turned under the age of 18.

Renata- I'd put her as a Royal Guard due to the fact that she's only the Guard who gets to be a personal bodyguard to any of the Kings, and because I think Aro would want his personal bodyguard to be the highest rank possible to reflect the importance of her. Plus I just think Renata's gift is actually very cool as in theory it makes her and whoever she protects virtually unable to be killed though in practise this may be not be the case, due to Vampires like Bella and the fact that somehow her gift tanks the gifts of practically every other Vampire. (Renata is one of the few Vampires in the Volturi I think are physically under the age of 18. I think Renata was turned at the age of 17, despite Meyer saying 20, as it makes Uncle Luca even creepier and Aro plucking her out of her old life and putting her in the Volturi that much more powerful, and makes her intense loyalty towards Aro more realistic even if we can just handwave it away as Chelsea's doing. Just let me have this headcanon. Plus mental image of her being Aro's bodyguard, again amusing, she's 5ft, about 17 and very unassuming but she's a Royal Guard and bodyguard to one of the leaders of the entire Vampire world.)

Santiago- There's not really much about Santiago anywhere? Other than the fact that he isn't gifted?? So per my own headcanon rules he has to be placed in the Lower Guard, though I do think he'd be the one to take Felix's place in the Elite Guard if anything ever happened to Felix.

[theerurishipper]

Season 4 and 5 made it just so difficult to truly believe that Marinette really loves her Kitty. The Fandom and show can scream about vague soft eyes and "she loves her kitty so muuuuuuch! <3" however they want, but it says alot about Marinette's character that this vague "I love my kitty" never really gets any more specific.

Saying "I like you / I want you around" doesn't mean anything whne the actions themselves paint the picture of her basically taking Cat Noir for granted and not thinking a single second about his actual well being or his perspective in any of this.

It's like in Glaciator 2 where a good part of the episode Marinette spends either screaming at Cat, manhandling him however she pleases and even invalidating any of his emotions by screaming in his face that HIS emotions don't matter in any of this, this is about HER and her only when she used him not knowing Marinette is Ladybug against him by secretly forcing him to practice with her her confession for Adrien.

She's literally screaming at him that his emotions are irrelevant to her. She just wants him to do whatever she wants and however she wants it bc apparently thats the only way she can stand being around him. And that she got in season 5, how Lovely.

And then later when Cat voices that he thinks Ladybug can't stand him anymore because she screams at him and gets seriously physical Marinette is like "No, no, that doesn't mean she hates you <3"

When, like, yes Marinette. Under anything resembling to normal morality you constantly reducing him to a rag doll, screaming, insulting, replacing him, leaving him behind on the battle field for your own and your friends' benefit and brushing him off would be a perfectly reasonable thing for another person to view as a bad thing. Only YOU would demand of someone to view that as unparalleled depictions of fondness, and that hasn't changed much by Elation.

Her ignoring his discomfort in the kissing scene (closing her eyes again) and then almost turning into Cat's enemy for daring to tell her "no" one time is one unnerving sight to behold. She basically immediately went back to season 4 mode the moment she didn't get what she wanted. I don't even want to imagine what she would have done to him by impulse if that moment had happened in Ladynoir (I hate how CONSISTENT this is...)

and even by the end of the episode she's still only asking him to validate her when he brings her back.

And well, then she leaves.

It's difficult to actually believe that Marinette really values Cat Noir alot. It feels much more like she values and likes how little genuine efforts she has to make in their dynamics to reach a normal standard, and that he's just the most convenient person for her regarding any kind of ugly dirty work or her worst tendencies not coming with regular circumstances. So of course she would like that.

If I had an anger problem, I would probably like the person too who had to learn from me that that's "perfectly reasonable behavior" they should view as GOOD in a dynamic bc i like using them as rag doll, punching bag and tool.

But just because I personally would find comfort in a person accepting that I can do that to them as my way of "showing affection" doesn't it mean that that's a good thing to make soft eyes about.

But the show is not GIVING us much more to work with. Marinette only on rare occasions voices anything she even likes about him. It goes mostly unsaid so you can claim whatever you want about her feelings for him.

She likes that he's funny, only that the show isn't showing that alot. If at all. Marinette telling Alya in Hack-San to laugh at his jokes because he likes taht is kinda out of left field because Marinette herself honestly doesn't do it alot. The normal reaction is her being annoyed, shutting him up and even insulting him, down to any kind of "slapstick".

And the most I can remember her having SAID about being in love with him in season 5 was being thirsty about how hot he is. I don't wanna be mean but no wonder Alya basically disregarded Marinette's crush. It's not like she ever named anything serious, and tahts....honestly awful.

With Adrien as Cat Noir there was NEVER a question if he values her for more than her being pretty. He loves her brilliant mind, her determination, her drive to help people. Him complimenting her for being pretty was just the cherry on top.

But only towards Joan of Arc did she mention that she likes his loyalty, but that got ruined by her straight up AGREEING with her whne she insulted Cat and the "loyal" part was only to save her own face. She literally agreed with someone insulting Cat right in front of him and only said "yeah, but he's LOYAL" which of course made him insecure. He couldn't see Joan of Arc, how many people are there and what the insult was Ladybug just agreed with. He can't defend himself and saw that Ladybug literally WON'T.

So which one is it, Marinette? Is he hot or a runt who's lucky he's loyal? Why was Joan's opinion of you the whole episode the only thing you actually cared about to the point where you were fine with throwing the person you love oh so much to the dogs again? And Cat looking bad and humiliated again was barely an afterthought to you, as long as it wasn't YOU?

If she actually loves and value him then why is she still treating him as if he merely spawns into existence for akumas or her entertainment and benefit as her care taker? Why isn't Marinette trying to make up for how she used her civilian side to make him do whatever she wants several times by now, as if she never even conciders how this will look like once they reveal (I would loose sleep if I did that to a person!)?

Why was she still perfectly fine with him being completely isolated and having no one in a case of emergency, meaning she always continued letting him run the risk of ending up the way he did in the season 5 finale? Cat being found as a civilian by Hawkmoth was from day 1 one of the most obvious things that could happen and even after 2 what if episodes this fate of his was never actually avoided, because Marinette always just prioritized getting HERSELF out of the equation more than him truly being safe.

That's a risk she was apparently from start til the end perfectly willing to take.

5 entire seasons and the only safety thing she cared about in their dynamic is that if he gets caught and is at the villain's mercy, he does so as quietly as possible so she isn't bothered by it and can close her eyes, cover her ears and go "Lalala".

If Marinette in any of these 5 seasons thought Cat deserved help too than she sure never acted like it, and in fact demanded the complete opposite for her own comfort.

How am I supposed to believe that Marinette loves and values Cat Noir as a person when non of that or his entire personhood goes beyond what little she wants for her own comfort? If you love a person you would actually want them save and not remain in harms way but accept that you shouldn't be asked to care about that? Or remain completely isolated in the dangerous lives you lead without being allowed to ask muvb of anything from you support wise?

Or constantly ditched on the battle field, being done who knows what to so YOU and your friends are fine while you execute the actual plan with the others.

You would ask questions if they're okay and if they need help too, and not just take any half an indicator your being given to write off any concern because you apparently don't actually wanna think about any of that.

You would actually think about them in any decision you make because this is not just about you and their well being should mean something to you. You would tell them things so you don't risk them getting hurt by having to find out themselves the worst way (and here leading to akumatizations).

You would let them made their own choices, have agency and not just when you're forced to. You wouldn't casually execute a plan to trick them into revealing their important secret identitiy to two people without their consent or knowledge, and ESPECIALLY not when the god damn angry authority figure, who already doesn't lie your partner, would fucking use it to get rid of them behind YOUR BACK TOO.

You wouldn't want physical harm being done to them instead of even being a main source of it, and never taking accountability for that while demanding to never get touched and spoken to in a single wrong way. You wouldn't want that they accept that you don't owe them anything as their LEADER but they owe you EVERYTHING because you said so and can't handle anything else in a "partnership".

(Only to feel sorry about it for 2 minutes when you loose everyone else but, well, not really I guess? Or else she would have tried making up for it in season 5 more than just surface level stuff that was once again mostly for HER benefit anyway. But more than that never happened)

You wouldn't want to think they're stupid for not thinking like you and draw the line at any "back talking" you're being given bc you apparently concider anything else but absolut obedience and blind faith as your little puppet as you being "disrespected". So they must walk around you like on eggshells and only talk in soft compliments and supportive words cause who knows how you would react otherwise?

Dude, no wonder Ladynoir is fucking dead. Good for Adrien, and I hate that we've come THIS far. Such a thing is one of the last things I ever wanted to say when I started watching the show. Now I can't be angry taht Ladynoir is fucking dead and Cat Noir didn't made it out of the partnership for the finale, because wtf else was this supposed to result in??

I just cannot fathom the type of "Love" and fondness Marinette supposedly has for Cat Noir. Whatever fondness she feels for him gets drowned out by other 20 red flags about her not actual treating him like a real person.

And man, I HATE that...

Yeah, literally. This is probably harsher than what I think, but it's more or less my thoughts on the matter.

Thank you for your ask!

[nightinjapan]

~Praise~

"AhHh..!~, hAaah..!~" he thrusts harder "y-you're such a good girl..~ n-nnhh~ can't- get enough of you..!~" Its been a long day but Izuku came home and felt you had a type of doubt so he wanted to let you know you're perfect even after a hard day and a half of kicking ass. If his wife was in need then like hell he was there for you. "NGH..!~" tears leave your eyes as you moan louder "'M- ALWAYS Y-OUR GOOD GIRL..!~ A-ALWAYS WANNA BE- AH..!!~ YOUR GOOD GIRL..!!~" you were barely in reality with how deep he was inside of you hitting your gspot in just the way that was sure to have your head hanging back, tongue lolling out. "G-gonna c-cum..!~ haahh..!~ I love you s-so much!~" his thrusts became more sloppy as he caressed your cheek tenderly "p-please look at me w-when you cum, p-puppyy..!~" that request having you flustered as hell. That being a lot for you, you let out a whine and pant "B-BUT- nnnhG..!~ I-I-ZU..!!~" your embarrassment takes over you but you lowkey build confidence to do it. "You're s-so beautiful.. p-please..!~ a-ahhh!~ e-everything about you 'S So perfect..!!~" he pants tilting her head up towards him " 'M Cumming!!~" he finally released his load inside her making sure she sees what she does to him. The desperate, lustful look in his once innocent eyes, the sweat from their active movements, the saliva from his mouth, everything. "L-look at me.. see what you do to me, love..?" He pants. You see him. You fell for his trick by telling you to look it was just a sneaky way of him asking you to look at him while you reached your high again but this time he flipped it. Win win. And he looks so hot to the point you lost it clinching around him as you went over the edge with him "MM-Z-K-HAAAAH..!!!~ your eyes almost closing but you grip onto him tight and looks back at him with all you have in you whining and moaning loudly. So cute and gorgeous for him you are. "Never.. insult yourself.. like that again.." he collapsed onto you chest completely exhausted but awake enough to give you comforting kisses. Your husbands heart beating a mile a minute. "Izuku..." you whisper out of breath and just as tired as him "was...was I good for you...?" you ask softly "O-of course you were.. you always are.. even just doing daily tasks.. you are enough" he says tiredly running his fingers through your hair You cuddle him "...I wish I-I had the same confidence as you..." He shifts so that you lay beside him not pulling out "I wasn't always as confident as I am.. sometimes I break down too.. often actually" he mumbles "Its only human of you I could understand..." you whine and wiggle around wanting him to hold you He wrapped his strong arms around your body pulling you in closer "you're funny.." he says playfully kissing your head softly you trace shapes along his battle scares "...so strong..." it makes him let out a tiny whine from not being a fan of those scares as he turns back into that "innocent" baby faced green haired boy. You giggles softly "What's that you told me before..?" He listens to you letting out a low hum in confusion "You're perfect..." he smiles softly chuckling at the way you uno reversed him. After you say your 'I love you's you both fall asleep in the sheets that your loves on. Who cares you guys'll get it in the morning.

[gremlinaristocrat]

Things I got from playing Patho Classic HD that I didn't get from the sequel or from watching videos about it

As the Bachelor:

Thinking I'm being clever buying/trading-for alpha-tablets over the course of Day 1 only to find out at the end that they're effectively useless.

Hearing my boots go squish-squish-squish as I walk through a pile of [???] in a plague district, and continue to make that noise for several steps afterwards.

Wandering around late at night after a long day in Daniil's head, noticing changes to houses' windows: "Are these absolute barbarians setting their houses on fire while they're still inside!? Oh wait, that's just the glow from their hearths keeping them warm at night, and what I thought were embers were leaves falling . . . that's kinda cute actually."

Realizing the logic puzzle with the three Watchers is solvable even if everyone plays their roles perfectly, solving the harder version, and then seeing the Earth Watcher blatantly contradict himself & make all my cleverness redundant.

The weirdness of the empty plagueless Day 12 streets.

Georgiy appearing to straight-up admit in his last conversation that there's no magic soul-preserving trick and he's just LARPing as Simon.

As the Haruspex:

The sheer surreality of Big Vlad being helpful and straightforward with you after seeing how he acts in the Bachelor's route.

You can insult the weirdly-dressed dudes in the Stone Yard in exactly the same way as the Bachelor (as if we needed more evidence that they're soulmates . . .)

Daniil is a lot more reasonable early in this route than tumblr and hbomberguy led me to believe, he really is trying his best.

[Completes Day 4's main quest before noon] [Knows what's in rough terms what's coming next] [Wakes up in a cell after being beaten to death and getting all my weapons stolen] . . . oh hey it's only late afternoon, that's not so bad . . . WAIT IT'S LATE AFTERNOON OF THE NEXT DAY!?

Slowly realizing what the Worms want the organs for after noticing that A) they also trade for fresh food and B) they value the non-organ-ic food a lot more highly.

The weird anticlimax associated with making the panacea (especially contrasted with how it goes in P2).

The feeling of utter horror when I realized what the potions Oyun gave me did.

The insane corkscrew trail I needed to follow to get Grace's opinion so I could relay it to that one Worm.

The fact that EVERYONE seemed to know that Oyun killed Isidor the ENTIRE time and NO-ONE tells Artemy (Vlad alludes to it on day 1! My Haruspex found out from ****ing Dankovsky of all people!)

"Hah! I got to save everyone and meet the Makers in the Theater without killing a single child!"

As the Changeling:

"Welp, guess I'm killing a child now."

Her mad leaps of logic during Day 1 which only make sense when you realize she's laundering OOC knowledge.

The arc of my understanding of P1 Artemy over the three playthroughs: "Seems like a scary weirdo"->"Okay now I'm playing as him his actions make a lot of sense"->"Okay now I'm getting to meet him a lot from another perspective I realize he actually is a scary weirdo without my mediating influence".

Nina's grave having slightly different stuff on it, for no obvious reason.

"I killed those muggers and they dropped . . . jewellery? I know what muggers drop, that's not it." "What are you talking about, Player? You did kill those muggers, this isn't Clara coming up with an excuse for you, she definitely didn't break into people's houses and take their valuables."

Realizing Clara doesn't have to buy maps, and what that implies.

[peach-and-bugs]

🪶Alma LeFay Peregrine SFW Alphabet🪶

Fanfiction master list

disclaimer: don't repost my work. I only post on Tumblr and on Ao3. anything else is stolen and should be removed immediately

Warnings: very mind angst but nothing serious

Word Count: 3,185

A/N: well, it's been a minute. I'll be honest, I haven't been writing much, but I want to. so I thought I'd fill out some safe-for-work alphabets as well as some NSFW alphabets and honestly, it's pretty fun! it's helped me to characterize some of the characters I work with to my liking and even inspires some longer fic ideas.

but here we have Alma, who's actually been my number-one comfort character for a while now. I'm surprised I haven't written for her yet. but now I've got some ideas based on this, so we'll see what comes of it! As always, feel free to leave questions or comments in my comments or ask box, and happy reading!🪶

Alma LeFay Peregrine Tag List:

General Tag List: @summergeezburr

-🪶-

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Alma isn't the most visibly affectionate, but that doesn't mean that she isn’t affectionate. She’s just more subtle about it. She doesn’t do anything very visible in front of the children, not because she’s ashamed of you or your relationship, but rather because she doesn’t want to deal with all of the giggling, gossip, and dramatics that’s sure to follow whenever the little ones see any form of PDA. And the children are well aware of your relationship status and view you as a second parental figure. Alma prefers to take your hand on walks and lean against your shoulder, kiss your knuckles or your cheek when the children and spend quality time together cooking dinner.

But when you get your alone time, she’s all over you. Quality time and physical touch are her preferred ways of feeling loved by you. If she’s reading with you in bed, she’d going to be leaning against you and she’d be quite clingy in her sleep.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

You’d initially be colleges, but you were also former students at the academy together. You probably weren't friends in your younger years, but you definitely knew each other well enough and got along amicably. When you were sent to assist in Alma’s loop, she would have had some trouble adjusting as the implication she needed help would be mildly insulting, but eventually, you grew on her and she’d come to enjoy your company, even seeking it out when she got a moment to herself while the children where occupied.

Your friendship again would be quiet, starting as simply enjoying being in the same space as one another, but it would slowly turn into a conversation, which blooms into a warm friendship.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Alma is quite touchy when you're alone. She loved curling up in bed with you after a long day of caring for the kids, and she’s quite fond of skin-to-skin contact. I imagine she also gets cold easily and loves curling up under thick blankets with her partner to keep warm. But don’t let the children see- they wouldn’t be able to stop talking about seeing their headmistress so soft for weeks!

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Alma is quite fond of domesticity, given that her job is being a caregiver and raising the “young” of her species. She loves cooking and often makes quite extravagant meals, but isn’t the fondest of cleaning. But that’s alright! She can always ask you or one of the children to do that if she feels inclined. She loves her duties, but still values the time to herself to read the mail or catch up on a new book when she can.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Alma would already be so particular about her partner, it’s hard to imagine she’d start a relationship with someone who she could see herself breaking up with. I think the only instance would be to protect you and/or her children. If she knows something is on its way to harm you, and sending you away is the only thing that will keep you safe, she knows breaking things off will be the only way you’ll leave the island.

She’d be gentle, but firm, and oh how it would hurt. It would hurt her the entire time, but she wouldn’t show it. Not till she knows you’re gone and she’s out of sight of prying eyes.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quickly would they want to get married?)

I don't think a formal ceremony or any kind of paperwork would be necessary as long as you promise that she’s yours and you're hers. I think she’d like a ring, but again, it wouldn’t be a priority. It would take some time though before she got to that point.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day she just started calling you her wife/husband/spouse without any kind of forewarning, as though that’s how she’d always referred to you. When asked why she’d shrug and just say that it felt right and she liked it

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Despite her rather quick, birdlike mannerisms, Alma is incredibly gentle, mostly because she works with children, but also because she cares. Gentleness is quite surprising, but the tenderness that comes with it is perfect. She holds you like your glass that will shatter at her touch, and you often have to remind her that you won’t break.

Emotionally, Alma puts up a good front, and for the most part, she’s quite tolerant. It takes a lot to hurt Alma, but when she is hurt, the recovery takes time. In that instant, she shuts down and throws herself into her work, ignoring any and all things that have wounded her.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

She loves hugs from her children, especially when the little ones wrap their arms wound her knees and squeeze as hard as they can. But her hugs with her kids and with you are two very different things. Hugs with the kids are soft and fun, often lifts them off the ground to make them laugh as much as she can.

But with you, hugs can be rarer and when you get one, they’re consuming and holding like she’s trying to make sure you’re all there. Often you have to squeeze her tighter, making sure she knows she’s got you and you aren't going to disappear from between her hands. You've found that resting your head on her shoulder and kissing her neck help relax her once more when she gets this way.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Much like when she starts calling you her wife/husband/spouse, it's offhand and without warning, like she hasn’t thought about it. She doesn’t vocalize this kind of affection often, preferring to show rather than tell. But it’s so nice when she does say it.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Alma doesn't think she’s the jealous type, because what does she have to be jealous about? She’s confident in her relationship and your loyalty to one another, after all. (right?) the Ymbryne would never admit it, not even to herself, but she is definitely the jealous type. Not because she thinks you’ll leave her for someone else, but because she worries she doesn’t give you as much as you deserve, and maybe she’d keeping you from someone who can do better than she can.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Besides your lips, because we know she loves those, Alma loves kissing your forehead/hairline, your palm, and knuckles as well as your jaw, but that’s only when she knows no one’s looking.

On her, she loves when you give her quick kisses on the cheek before running off with the children, though she won't let you know that. But she also adores it when you kiss her fingertips and her collarbones during more intimate settings. She also loves when you kiss the bridge of her nose.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Obviously, she’s good with kids. That’s her whole job after all. She’s rather strict, but she’s got that warm and soft part of her that’s actually quite closer to the surface than you might imagine. She keeps every little drawing or gift that the children give her, tucked away in your bedroom for safekeeping.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Alma’s definitely the early bird, which you love to tease her about. But when she has the time she loves staying in bed, wrapped up in warm sheets with you. She loves the sleepy look on your face when you wake up to her staring, again. And she loves it when you absently stretch out as you wake up, but cling to her skin. Lazy mornings, though thin and far between, are some of the most treasured memories that she has with you

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Alma loves ending her evenings with a nice warm bath (sometimes together), a cup of tea, and reading a good book. Sometimes, she reads out loud to you, mostly when either of you can't sleep. She often falls asleep after you. She likes watching your slow breathing for a moment before also nodding off.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Like most other interactions, Alma reveals facts about herself seemingly out of nowhere, though it's still at relevant times. To you, it's a surprise, but to her, she’s been thinking about telling you and now just feels like the right time. At some point, you get used to her intermittent fun facts popping up in conversation, but it's quite a shock at first.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

She’s built up a really good tolerance for most things since she’s a mother, so she doesn't get mad very often. But she can get annoyed, which might as well be just as bad. You used to annoy her quite often when you first were getting to know each other (in reality she was growing to like you and she panicked, which caused her to purposely avoid you, which is something she also does when she’s annoyed, but she won't tell you that).

Over time she’s gotten much better at communication and telling her how you feel if she happens to get irritated with something. She’s quite surprised when you work to accommodate these feelings, which you tell her she shouldn't be, since that’s your job as partners, and you do the same with her if you're the one annoyed.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing or do they kind of forget everything?)

Alma remembers absolutely everything you tell her. She even goes as far as to write it all down in her diary. With every day being the same, any new bit of information is worth holding onto.

She left her diary open to a page dedicated to little tidbits all about you out on her stationary once when you were tidying her room (before you were officially anything) and when she walked in the room and caught you reading you were both quite embarrassed for different reasons. You thought she would be upset with you invading her privacy and reading the book, which you profusely apologized for, but she was worried you'd find it strange she had been writing down nearly everything she’d learned about you in the first place. She relaxed significantly when you sheepishly admitted you found it quite flattering.

Sometimes before bed, Alma reads through her diary. Not to remember or memorize, necessarily, but more to mull over the past and think of how much everyone in her little family has grown.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

Alma’s favorite memory of you diffidently hadn’t been her favorite at the moment, but she’d grown exceedingly fond of it nowadays.

It was shortly after you'd moved in, maybe three or four months give or take, and before the loop had been initially set. It was also before you'd really started getting to know one another, so you were still practically strangers. But by then the children already loved you and were all over you practically every hour of the day. Alma always worried you'd have enough of it and snap at one of the younger kids for their clingy behavior, but that never seemed to be the case.

She’d been walking through the house, making sure she had tabs on every child in case of any accident when she passed by the study. She first noticed that the thick velvet curtains had been opened up, letting in a warm afternoon light that basked over the couch. Further inspection found you basking on said couch with a book in hand and three children curled up in your lap. The twins had cuddled up together on the farther and by your feet, while Claire lie across your chest, snoring ever so softly with her head nuzzled right under your chin. As you flipped through your book, your free hand gently stroked through her curly blonde hair. Alma knew the girl loved this kind of tender affection, but she was always afraid that her second mouth would accidentally bite anyone who dare touch her hair, so she ignored the desire. Despite not giving the action your full attention, you were so mindful to keep away from the mouth, which was actively drooling as Claire slept.

It was the tenderness of the scene that made Alma realize her fondness for having you around. And while the admission had been only hers, she panicked, rushing to leave the view behind and busy herself with a new activity to push down whatever the fuzzy feeling in her chest might be.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Your wife is extremely protective of you and your children, just like any Peregrin would be with her nest. She demonstrates this when she leaves with Barron, no questions asked, or when her brothers “come into town”. You constantly scold her for her recklessness, almost calling her eager for danger. She scoffs at the notion, but deep down knows that you are right about it. A part of her craves danger, the thrill of adrenalin, but she tells herself that it's because she’d rather it be her you or the children.

Alma insists that she doesn't need you protecting her, but she does. Not physically, that is, but emotionally. You are her rock, whether she likes it or not, and it's you who will take on the “chore” of caring for her, as she would put it. But you don't mind. You tell her that you'd never mind if it's for her. She does her best to believe you, and over time she does.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, and everyday tasks?)

Special occasions like date night and anniversaries can be tricky since proper alone time can be challenging, and given the situation of the time loop, there's always the chance of forgetting what day it actually is. But that’s alright with both of you. You've come to enjoy stolen time together rather than grand gestures.

However, if you do have a date night or evening alone, it’s generally thanks to your older kids taking the littles out for an “adventure”. Alma insists that it’s embarrassing, but you've both grown quite fond of your evenings alone. It's definitely helped your relationship in the long run and the kids seem to enjoy going off on their own for a few hours. You like to think it makes them feel grown up for a while.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

She tried her best not to have many “bad habits” and if she did have any she wouldn’t admit it, but you know her worst habit is not verbalizing what she wants. She’ll go for a day not asking for a simple thing, then get frustrated when it doesn't happen. You try your best to get her talking, but she insists that she's fine. It could be as simple as wanting a chore done, or bigger, like asking for your presence or attention.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Despite only seeing the same people every day, Alma is very pristine when it comes to her appearance. You joke that it’s the bird part of her, always keen to preen both her hair and feathers. She scoffed at this idea but nevertheless, you insist on your theory. Alma says that she just likes things to be on schedule and the same.

However, she’s willing to let her hair down (literally and metaphorically) with you. She loves it when you help wash her hair or take the pins out for her. The feeling of your nails scratching at her scalp is exacerbating and does something to her every time.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Absolutely. While she has her children, you fill an extra space that she didn’t realize was empty till you filled it. Now, the thought of losing you would eat her alive and she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Similar to when you own a pet, you find feathers stuck almost everywhere. Mostly they’re little fuzzy ones that stick to your clothes or sheets, but sometimes you find them in your hair or sticking out of your pillows. It's not because Alma turns into a bird or anything in her sleep, but sometimes she has leftover baby feathers from when she does transform that she forgets to preen, as she likes to say.

This also sometimes happens when she dreams. She’ll go to sleep featherless, but wake up from a dream with baby feathers sprouting from her hairline and along her shoulder blades. She detests it and generally has a “grumpy morning” as the children like to whisper, but you find it charming and always offer to help her pluck and preen the spots she can't reach.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

She can't stand it when the children try asking one parent a question only to ask the other the same thing when they don't get the answer they want. She knows if she tells a child no, they’ll go right to you with no hesitation in hopes of a yes. And it isn’t your fault, but you don't notice this game they play and will give them the answer they want with the right kind of begging. It makes her quite cross to learn that her kids would stoop that low. You all know that you can’t say no to their sweet faces.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Rather than just lying under a blanket, Alma loves to be completely wrapped up in your sheets, almost like a cocoon. The night doesn't start out that way, but when you wake up together you are almost always tangled and covered up, unable to see your room til you find your way out of the nest of blankets youve been stuffed into.

[daenystheedreamer]

pls more abt viserys Omaegorverse I'm so fascinated it's insane and i honestly think grrm would b proud

im so happy u love it and this means so much but i do NOT think he would be proud 😭 he would read my posts (gun to his head ofc he wouldnt just. do that.) and sit in silence for a few minutes and then he would say. Maegor isnt gay what are you talking about. and i go well thats not really the point and anyway sexuality is kinda fluid and its more about opportunity and power than about sexual attraction although i will concede- and then he sends elio and linda with spears to hunt me down.

he's canonically a nothing character with personality of 'Beloved Of The Commons' n nothing else so i can kinda do whatever tf i want with him which is fun. he's also mostly there to be a sad wet cat that gets kicked by everyone and everyone he loves dies or is weird about him in some way. he's my special little sad uke twink i brutalise for my personal entertainment <3 im so maegorcoded so tyannacoded... anyway more about my babyboy viserys below<3 warning its SOOO long like fifteen fucking paragraphs Jesus christ

trigger warnings for like everything. incest death depression mental instability murder psychosis uhhh. torture and suicide. just all of it do NOT read unless youre like super certain you wanna read about my deviantart OCs because guys it is NOT worth it

childhood pre-Torture Labyrinth. he's born in 29 AC and was 8-ish when he was at the deathbed of Aegon1. aegon the uncrowned is three years older than him, and rhaena is six years older. jaehaerys is 5 years younger, alysanne is 7 years younger vaella who i kept alive is 10 years younger. just to give an idea of ages and general canon info :>

his only personality trait is Promising and Beloved of the commons. i think him and aegon were friends :) younger brother so he followed after him a lot. slightly scared of rhaena the big cool older sister who has a pet dragon. think his granddad is soooo cool doesnt really think about The Implications of conquest or anything. normal boy normal childhood (as normal as possible when ur siblings are married...) also he is gay because it adds to the horrors later on 🥰

something i think is Inchresting is the rhaena, aegon and viserys are named for rhaenys, aegon and visenya :3 i think viserys is like hercules right where he was named in an attempt to appease The Wife. aenys was like hiiiii auntie/stepmum visenya look i named a kid after you you dont wanna kill me right?right? and she looks at this kid who didnt claim a dragon isnt a girl isnt maegor and goes oh so youre insulting me huh.

i think rhaena aegon viserys had a slightly weird dynamic. rhaena the lesbian getting forcibly betrothed to her younger brother by her father is gonna make things weird, also aegon was 15 and rhaena 18 which adds just the best most awesome sauce to the mix. i think viserys had very complicated feelings on that especially if he is gay cos like... rhaena obviously does not love her brother romantically right. so u are a boy and ur sister is a lesbian but you dont have that word. and you are gay and your brother is cool and the crown prince and everyone is screwing their siblings and that makes your brain chemistry weird. and now your brother is marrying your gay sister. What about you. the dragon has three heads??? idk he's like 12 at this point he just goes back to playing hide and seek with jae+aly.

Uh oh daddy's dead. daddy's dead and uncle maegor is king now with his three wives. Uh oh. oh awesome he's kidnapped you and you're his squire now that's so cool. well its mostly a power play and hes not actually making u do anything as long as you stay locked in the red keep all day he leaves you alone. also maegor's insane girlfriend stares at you like you're a baby lamb that would make a delicious lamb tostada. but hey your big brother aegon has a dragon now and him and rhaena are gonna save you soon. Uh oh aegon's dead. aegon's dead and maegor is king for real for real.

everyone steers clear of you in the keep. you used to play with your siblings and the commoners and you used to play on dragonstone and kings landing and now no one wants to touch you. no one is calling you maegor's squire now, the pretence is gone. you are maegor's hostage. you fantasise about a different outcome, where maegor took you to the battle as his squire, and that you being there might have changed what happened. maybe you could have warned aegon. but you know nothing would have changed. youre not a dragonrider. you're worthless you're powerless. youre 14 years old :)

alys harroway is dead. maegor killed his wife. you knew alys, you saw her around the keep. she seemed very nice. she was very quiet and stayed in her rooms. she was always pregnant. you wonder why she married maegor, why she and tyanna are so strange with each other. you hear rumours. you wish you had talked to her. but she's dead now. maegor killed her. maegor tortured her. she's a whore now. you look out the window and see her rotting leg on a stake outside, her torso on another. you wish you had talked to her.

visenya targaryen the looming shadow over your life, the woman you're named after who looked at you with nothing but scorn, is dead. your mother is gone and she took jae and aly. what about you? what about you? is she not your mother too? are you not her little boy anymore? you are 15 years old. maegor killed alys' family when he was angry with her. is he going to kill you now?

ok second person pov over the gimmick is getting lame. anyway this is where the AU deviates: instead of viserys dying of torture, maegor is like hey maybe my nephew will be more fertile than my BITCH wives. and visenya the blood witch before her death compiled a bunch of old valyrian a/b/o fanfiction and said son if you ever find yourself with infertile wives. Consult These Texts. then tyanna and maegor made viserys mpreggable i dont care about how or like. what his body looks like. im not into the fetish of omegaverse LMAO i dont want to think about the fertilisation or birthing process or what organs he has thats unnecessary. only thing thats important is viserys can incubate babies and they are birthed via c-section :3

quick lore dump: vis is forced to maegor -> rhaena crashes the wedding but vis is so broken at this point he just doesnt want anyone else to die and has resigned himself to maegor so rhaena reluctantly surrenders -> alyssa jae and aly DO go to the red keep after they find out about the wedding and jae dies fighting maegor which makes viserys fully break -> alyssa now has husband dead 2 kids dead her son is queen and she also loses her fight :( lives on dragonstone with alive vaella -> alysanne is given to the faith -> rhaena agrees to a truce and she is hand of the king now and viserys' main protector -> vis gets pregnant and the kid is basically a reincarnation of jaehaerys -> tyanna loses her shit and tries to murder/sterilise/whatever viserys so maegor kills her cos he's finally got his babymaker -> vis has a daughter who's the reincarnation of tyanna -> faith uprising, shut down -> vis has his second daughter final child daenys who's birth is heralded by the martyrdom of poxy jeyne poor in the quashed faith uprising

vis is in the torture labyrinth for a couple decades. life sucks husband sucks everyone is weird about him. very death in venice people are weird about the boy type deal. has to wade through gender and sexuality politics of westeros which means several men going utterly insane about him including a couple kingsguard knights (celibate hypermasculine freaks bound to be insane sexually). one point early-ish on he DOES start believing this one kingsguard knight will save him from The Hells The Horrors but maegor finds out and kills that guy adn sexually humiliates viserys in front of the kingsguard and makes their son watch. So that fucks up vis' psyche for a while :3

rhaena and alysanne try to convince him to rebel and run away that they will use their dragons and fight. but maegor has made vis so paranoid and crazy he thinks maegor knows everything knows all his thoughts so he's terrified of plotting escape cos he thinks maegor will kill everyone. plus maegor made sure to force kids onto him early so that vis wouldnt be able to leave :3 world's most evil babytrap of all time.

vis doesnt interact with anyone except rhaena aly maegor his kids and the kingsguard so yeah its bad for him. ceryse hangs around for a while but shes like yeah i dont want any part of this shit dude being queen is NAWT worth it and she goes back to the hightower to plot marrying her niece off to maegor's son.

also there's a curse on the kingsguard all of them die really horribly and early. its a fun little thing for me personally because in f&b maegor's kinsguard is cartoonishly bad and jae's is cartoonishly perfect so i though Hey what if we did a little curse on the kingsguard ey. that would be fun. the only guy who stays long is a bracken because brackenfail cancels out knightfail. he's all godly and pissy about the gay marriage thing but he's also a monarchist so even though he think maegor is satan he's like well. he is my king i must serve him i obey my vows. he thinks viserys is a freak of nature but slowly grows to respect him and helps kill maegor + takes the fall for it. they have a weird father figure/white knight/weird tension thing that never gets consummated yay ^_^ the maegor torture labyrinth will have you 21 years old and best friends with a 50 year old celibate knight like dang where tf ser bracken at today 🥹

viserys snaps in 66AC with no like big catalyst or anything. he just has a good day where he's mostly lucid and he's angry and he's tired of everything and he's sick of maegor and he wants freedom he wants to be free. he wants to breath the air without panicking that maegor is going to hurt him. and maegor says some disgusting comment to him while theyre alone in the throne room and vis just snaps and start fighting him. daenys shows up cos she had her own Visions and Voices and they just start whaling on him. bracken knight helps too he takes most of maegor's counter attacks his organs are all over the floor but maegor dies impaled on the throne YAY

vis is like. A bit better for a while. his son is now king and vis is seeing that oh it doesnt get better does it people will still die. also his son jae has this weird oedipus complex about him thanks to maegor's insane parenting and viserys is fully aware of that so its not fun times for him. jae and daenys try to make him better try to invent therapy but its the middle ages they dont have that yet. they finally send him off to harrenhal (BAD IDEA) because they think viserra (the elder daughter btw, the tyanna one) might be able to cure him with her weird witchcraft. they think she's insane too but its the last option... viserra thinks vis is lame and weak but she does love him in ehr own way or maybe just pities him. anyway she does her best and it works for a while but viserys sorta gives up cos the depression is too much. and viserra believes in euthanasia as a mercy and thinks this is best for him this will let him be at peace. daenys has a premonition about it and tries to stop him. she has a big blowout fight with jae about it too and curses his bloodline and prophesises the long night. burned the red keep a little bit, you know how it is.

blah blah blah anyway daenys and vis end up dying in the gods eye together in a murder/suicide suicide/suicide murder/murder whatever. viserra has the lake dragged and they're found holding each other like a mother and her fetus :3

Fucks sake this post is long. holy shit holy fuck. my fucking bad guys my bad im so sorry. Holy shit. anyway thats my deviant art oc tee hee ^_^

[liberacesghost]

Day 6 -- Person A Knows Person B's Coffee Order

let's try that again! just wanna shout out @doctorsteths-fluffyfeb again, because i'm having a good time writing, but also having a good time reading. so if you're all not on that shit, get into it!!

warnings: cussing cause i literally cannot; mentions of them on a case but nothing graphic

pairing: hotch x reader sorta (use of y/n) they're not actually together and they don't actually get together, but you'll see

word count: 769

a/n: i know how super late i am pls forgive me <33

Coffee was the lifeblood of the BAU. The driving force that kept them going the long hours they had to work. The sweet nectar that fueled their bodies and minds.

And this coffee at the tiny mid-western precinct they were currently at fucking sucked. And that was putting it mildly. 

“I can’t do this. It’s been days and I need decent coffee in my system”, you say standing up. “I need a break anyway.”

The case was going…slow. Well, more accurately the team’s progress was going slow. The unsub was decidedly not slow. He was leaving a trail of bodies quicker than you could process the evidence. And yet, you were no closer to actually catching him. 

Frustrated by not only the lack of breaks in the case, but the added insult of shitty coffee was almost unbearable. 

“I’ll make a quick run - let me know what you all want”, you say to the room at large as you put on your coat, which includes Rossi, Derek, Spencer, and Emily. 

After getting their drinks all written down, you head to ask Hotch and JJ. You find them in an office that’s being repurposed for the BAU’s benefit. 

“Hey guys”, you say hanging onto the doorframe. “I’m going on a coffee run. Do you want anything?”

“Oh, tea would be amazing, thanks”, JJ says with a smile. 

Hotch nods and opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, you cut him off pointing a finger at him, “A large black coffee, no cream, 1 sugar. I know.” Then you’re out of the door before Hotch can do much more than nod again, quite uselessly. 

He’s staring into the space you just were, mouth slightly open. He didn’t think anybody paid attention to his usual order. He didn’t think you paid attention. He’d be an absolute liar if he said his heart didn’t clench almost painfully in his chest. The thought of someone listening and picking up on what he likes – well, not just somebody, but you. It’s enough to keep him from doing anything useful for a lot longer than he’d like to admit. Hoping beyond hope that his cheeks were not pinkening. 

It’s not until JJ pointedly coughs that Aaron is snapped out of it, head jerking towards the blonde. She gives him a knowing smirk, before going back to the notepad in front of her. Purposefully (and very professionally) not mentioning the coloring occurring on his face and his ears. 

Some time later, JJ has moved back to the conference room leaving Hotch alone in “his” office to scribble away at the endless reports. 

Lost in the writing and rewriting he’s felt he’s been constantly doing since he got here, he doesn’t hear footsteps approaching. It’s not until he hears the soft thud of the cardboard coffee cup on his desk, that he stops. He looks up to see you looking at him with a soft, almost shy smile. 

He looks at you like he’s seeing you for the first time.

Your timid smile. The way your eyes meet his before quickly flitting away. Teeth worrying your bottom lip. 

How he never saw it before is absolutely beyond him.

“Here you go, boss”, you say softly. 

You both just stare at each other, restrained smiles on your faces. 

The seconds turn into minutes, before you shake your head as if you’re clearing your thoughts away like an etch-a-sketch. “I also got some snacks if you’d like”, thumb pointing over your shoulder. “They’re in the conference room.”

Aaron is too stunned to say or do anything. This sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, you could feel the same way as him is overwhelming. 

When he doesn’t respond, you give him a jerky nod of your head before turning around and making your way out the room. 

Hotch says your name so softly, you turn around quickly, almost in alarm. 

Remembering that they’re on an active case and he’s still the goddamn unit chief, he catches himself before he says something incredibly telling. 

“Thank you”, he says instead. 

You look at him, brows furrowing for a brief second, eyes roaming his face and posture for something. Something he left unsaid, something he was going to say, something you wanted him to say – you weren’t sure. So you simply look him in the eyes, a small almost smirk on your face, and give him a nod before making your way back to the conference room. Leaving Hotch in his makeshift office alone with the coffee you got him, the swirling thoughts inside his head, and the ache in his chest.

[starttraction]

@adoranoia sent : sun didn't leave the daycare often, which meant he'd only really seen most of the glamrocks from afar, but. today was different, because... sun walks up to the room where monty was doing a meet and greet with some kids for a birthday party, with a little one on his hip. he knocks on the doorframe gently, smiling brightly as he's spotted.🌞 " knock, knock! oh, i really hope i'm not intruding or anything, mister gator, b-uuu-t, it seems like you lost something? " a light laugh as he gently bounces the child once for emphasis, who also waves at monty. 🌞 " they wandered all the way to the daycare, if you can believe it, and i didn't even realize until i did my headcount...! " a beat, " oh! and, where are my manners? i'm sun! i'm the daycare attendant, i don't believe we've ever met properly, so. " 🌞 a bright smile, a tip of the head, " it's so nice to meet you! " he says, as he crouches down, letting the child down onto their feet carefully. 🌞‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

// sun and monty my beloveds. <3 asdfghjkl

on one hand, there's no denying monty loves kids. they all do, really — it's part of the job description, after all. but on the other hand, he rarely cared enough to actually keep track of the little ones running about. it wasn't anything personal, really, just a lingering discomfort with his spot as the new bassist of the band making it hard to focus on each individual child. well, that and a struggle to keep count of them all. ( seriously, why are there so many children all the time? )

the gator was just about to listen to the birthday girl herself try to tell him something, or ask him maybe, before the knock catches his and her attention alike. the little girl seems to beam at the sight of her friend ( presumably the one she was ready to ask about ), while monty himself soured at the sight.

it's an animatronic he's seen in passing, never spent longer than a few seconds glaring at from a distance when their gaze didn't meet. an animatronic he, frankly, had no business disliking as much as he did. all because of one stupid reason.

he's taller than monty. what an insult.

" heh, wow, you found 'em, huh? " he strains himself to keep cool, crouched down to meet the kid that ran off. he ruffles their hair as they get closer. " you're a real rascal, kid. got the li'l lady worried boutcha. "

the gator wants to blow up, destroy the room he's in... but monty's no idiot. well, perhaps that's debatable, actually — but if there's something he knew, it was not to let his emotions show when kids are involved. so he keeps it locked up, shutting up to let the other introduce himself.

... and it's only now monty realizes.

this guy's a total wimp, isn't he?

it's like a balloon was popped, this image of the new daycare attendant falling flat on his face. sure, he was taller and had an extra set of arms, but... god, when really given a good once-over? this guy's built like a fucking piñata stick. and "built" was putting it nicely. yeah. this guy can't do anything to him.

the gator stands up, his usual hunched posture to seem less big to the kids gone as he stretches himself fully, and he steps closer. clawed hand extends towards sun, and he gives a toothy grin.

" yeah, real nice to meetcha, sun. you can call me monty. thanks fer keepin' the li'l squirt safe, i dunno why they decided t' run off like that! " and he laughs a hearty har har har! yeah, this is good. really make sun feel safe. make him believe he can be trusted and that he was never seen as a potential threat! god, he's such a genius.

[moonpiemoonshine]

Dirt and Grime pt.2

(A Barney Ross fanfic)

The next night the men had found themselves in a busy bar. Barney had noticed how honey had not shown up to the bar just yet. Him and his crew had started their drinking and celebratory partying. After about an hour Honey had arrived at the bar, dressed in short jean shorts and a tight fit tank top. She headed towards the bar and took two quick shots of tequila to get herself loose and more active. After her drinks she grabbed a man’s beer out of his hands and headed towards the crew. The men let out hollers and whistles at the woman, Barney is unimpressed with his crew but was heavily impressed with Honeys look.

“Hey boys” she said sitting alongside them in a sing song tone, “you just sit here or do you actually party?” She asked in anticipation.

“We have about another hour before people leave then we fully party” Lee said and this excited Honey.

“That gives me an hour to do what I do best” she smirked and downed her drink, she saw Gunnar’s full drink besides her and she quickly downed his. She left with a cocky giggle and went to the dance floor.

Barney kept his eyes glued on the girl, grimacing when he sees men get too close. He enjoyed watching her have fun and dancing. Barney did notice the heavy amount of drinking she had been doing but her actions haven’t been distorted in anyway so he didn’t worry. He was tempted to go in and dance with the woman but he knew it wasn’t a good idea, he death glared Caesar and Gunnar for dancing with her making them back off.

After the big crowd of people left it was just the crew, Tool had also shown up once the crowd had disappeared. The men were laughing loud and playing a drunken game of poker. Insults and jokes being thrown around and good alcohol being shared in the crew. Knife throwing competitions happen and drinking contests follow. After a while the boys had finally noticed the mechanical bull in the corner of the building. One by one the men had tired it out but they were so disoriented they only lasted little less than a minute. Barney tried to impress Honey on the bull, trying to last the best out of the group. After he had fallen Honey broke into laugher and knew it was her turn to get on the bull. She sauntered her way up to the bull, taking Tools hat while getting to it. The men whooped while she got on the bull and they all laughed and cheered seeing her last longer than them. But a last she fallen off and Barney was quick to help her up.

“Woah there cowgirl, can’t have you sleeping on the floor” he chuckled while getting her up.

“Yea, there are much better places to be sleeping right now” she replied in a flirty tone.

The party continued but only for a little while. One by one all the men started to go home. Honey leaned on the outside of the bar waiting in the cold. Every once in a while looking down at her phone. Barney grew worried for the girl, wanting so desperately to help her but not wanting to creep her out. After a bit a car had finally pulled up in front of the bar. Honey had took a few steps to the car but looked back at him and quickly jogged over to the man.

“It was great to work and party with you B” she lightly slurred with a wide grin. She planted a quick kiss on his lips before she jogged back to the car and quickly getting in.

Barney was stunned but happy. He hoped his small signals had worked on her, but again he knew she must have been a bit drunk so she most definitely won’t remember. Honey had Barney on her mind, and with thinking about him she was thinking about the hanger. She had given her driver directions to the hanger and she had stumbled into the hanger and walked around the barren building. She had went up to the giant plane and leaned against it. She had climbed up the wing and laid down on the nose of the plane. She looked up at the stars and tipped the cowboy hat down over her eyes. She let her heavy eyelids shut, letting herself fall asleep.

Late the next afternoon Barney headed to the hanger. He was delightfully shocked when he saw Honey, sprawled out on the nose fully asleep. He let out a light chuckle and he knocked on the side of the plane. This action waking up the sleeping girl and she quickly sat up and looked around to assist where she was at.

“Morning cowgirl, this the sleeping place you were talking about” Gunnar joked and Honey laughed to herself.

“Not exactly” she stated and slid down the side of the plane. She landed in Gunnar’s arms and she let out a soft squeal.

“What all do you remember? No way you deliberately wanted to sleep here” Barney asked letting the girl down but still holding her steady.

“I remember the throwing contest, shot contest, the bull, waiting outside, and…” she trailed on faking forgetfulness but held a sly smirk on her face and went in and gave the man a kiss. He was stunned but kissed back and once they pulled away form each other she continued, “that seems to be about it” she finished and Barney smiled.

“Glad you remember the best parts” Barney replied and the two smiled. “You need a ride home?” He asked causally and Honey had not even thought of that.

“If you don’t mind, I have a dog I need to make sure didn’t pee on the carpet” she answered and Barney smiled.

Barney led her to his motorcycle and Honey couldn’t help but snicker at the customization he had done to it. She was quick to hop on and get going. Barney was happy to see how eager she was to get on the bike. She had pointed and showed Barney the way to her house. Barney had not really assumed that she would’ve lived out in the countryside of the city. He found the landscape beautiful and calming.

When he had seen her small little wooden house, in a empty country field he felt soft. This was a serene place he’d love to live. The quietness and beauty matched the woman holding onto him. He pulled up next her small white truck and she was slightly quick to get off the bike.

“Thanks for the ride Barney” she said to the man, he was listening but was busy looking at the scenery.

“It’s no problem” he replied sounding distracted.

“Keep me updated about the next job” she said while walking to her door.

When she opened the door her red heeler had practically jumped out the door. She let out a small squeal in excitement and picked up her dog and walked into her home. Barney longed for the feeling. The feeling of coming home to a beautiful place and someone that loves you.

Barney wanted to see Honey every moment he found himself alone. He hated having to only see her during work. He knew that forming this connection wouldn’t be a good idea in his line of work. He didn’t know if she even wanted it. He was older and she had so much time and so much potential. Barney’s head was full of the young woman, wanting what’s best for her, but also he knows she could bring out the best of him.

After a couple weeks another job had been assigned. Barney had called in a few get together before hand but Honey had never showed up to any of them. He took this as a sign that she wasn’t interested in them or him besides from work. He doesn’t blame her, she lives in a dream and she would wanna stay in it as much as possible. He kept her in the loop through quick calls and the rare text. Once the day of leaving for the job came up he was on edge waiting for Honey. He wanted to see her, and he had to keep a cool and content composure while waiting for her at the hanger. All the men on the team all traveled by motorcycle, but Honey usually went around in a small white truck.

His nerves were put to rest when he saw the white truck in the distance. He had let out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding. Once she was out of the truck she was decked out in all black attire like the rest of the team usually wore. Barney was admiring her from the ground up but when he finally got her face he was confused. A bruise had adorned her left temple and the corner of her mouth. She kept a normal expression on her face when she walked up to Barney.

“Hey,” is all Barney could say. He didn’t wanna pry and he knew she didn’t need to tell him anything.

Honey gave him a small smile in acknowledgment while passing him and went to a work bench. She had taken two small hand guns that were on the bench and grabbed ammunition for them. She packed them into her bag and had quickly loaded into the plane. Barney wanted to think she was on edge but he remembered that when he had saw her last it was just him and Honey alone. He also knew she was usually quiet and wanted things done in her own pace. She was drunk the last time he had seen her in a social setting so he needed to not fret about her. Now all on the plane they were off to some European country to stop a group of terrorist making a human hostage situation. While on the plane Gunnar had finally noticed Honeys face and decided to use it a way to fill the silence in the metal bird.

“Hey nice shiner, you gave it to you” Gunnar asked in a crude tone.

“Bar hoping, I broke out two fights and I couldn’t help but join” she said focusing on sharpening her blades.

“You? Bar hop? On your own time?” Gunnar retorted in a disbelieving manner.

“Well yea, between this and my training I do at home I got all the free time in the world.” She stated unenthused, “unlike you sitting around doing nothing, and failing to touchin’ it aren’t really my ideal past times” she finished causing some men to snicker at Gunnar’s now flustered face.

Once the arrived it was dark so they had to quickly get on the scene and try to shut it down. They all crouched onto a ledge and looked down into a small canyon full of people. Most in uniform but the rest were all in civilian clothes. Barney passed around a pair of binoculars and once they reached Honey she grumbled at the sight.

“Ugh not these guys” she groaned under her breath while giving the binoculars back to Barney.

Barney had heard her comment and decided to ask her about it later. He gave the command for the crew to fall in and start taking them out. Honey was quick to go to a separate cliff edge and clung to the bottom of it and used a free hand to grab a gun strapped to herself and she waited for just the right moment. She allowed the crew to get a little close and she let out three shots down into the camp and the three shots had landed on three of the men in uniform and once they had noticed the men were hit, the rest of the crew had fallen into the camp and started taking down the men. Honey let go of the cliff and started to slide down the edge of it, while sliding she pulled up the back mask cloth she had hanging around her neck and pulled it over her nose.

She got into the camp and using her knife she had taken out the two men guarding the hostages. Using a small clean baby knife she cut a man free and gave him the knife telling him to free the rest. She left quickly to take out nearby uniformed men. Honey had been spotted and a man holding a machete had tackled her to the ground, he had grazed her sides with the sharp machete but Honey maneuvered her gun to his side and shot him. She had left him there on the ground knowing he would die from the gun wound, and was quickly onto another uniformed man to get rid of. During this fight her opponent was much bigger and she had suffered a much bigger wound from him. She had gotten him onto the rocks and he used a rock to make the gash from her previous cut bigger with a rock. During their altercation her mask had fallen down and the man was set into a whole different gear. He had brought out a specialty gun with pellets full a weird substance.

Honey finally used her gun and used the rocks besides her to ricochet the bullet into the man’s head. It was too late for Honey to put her mask back up cause another man had seen her. She had to take precautions to not get hit by their bullets, so she mostly used her two guns strapped to her. Her fast movements and precise marksmanship was knocking lots of men down one by one, but she was caught and held down by another bigger man and he was trying to stab a syringe type thing into her. Her resistance was good, and finally she had gotten her hand into a good position to snap the needle, and when she did she stabbed it into her eyes and she was quick to put a bullet in him when she got up. She took out more men, having to struggle a bit form the pain of her side but once she noticed the fighting was gone when she had taken down the last guy she felt like she could barley walk. She stumbled to the rest of the team and let them know she had let the hostages go and they were safe. The team decided that they’d set up camp next to the plane for the night and leave in the morning. When they reached the base of the cliff and knew they needed to hike up it Honey knew she wasn’t gonna be able to make it up.

“Caesar, my guts might fall out my side right now. I need you to help me up there” she asked and had pressed her palm to the gash showing Caesar the severity of her injury.

Barney heard her statement and looked back and watched Caesar as he held the girl on her back and hiked up with her. Barney knew Caesar could hold Honey with ease, but he constantly looked back making sure she was alright. When they reached the top of the cliff Honey wanted to walk but Caesar wouldn’t allow her and he carried her all the way back to the plane. The men set up a small makeshift fire and set out small tents and started to prep their meals for the night.

Barney sat close to Honey while she rummaged through her bag for her medical supplies. Honey propped up her knife and planned to use it as a makeshift mirror. She took off her black compression shirt and rubbed her numbing paste on the giant wound. Barney could see her slightly struggling to see where she was stitching up her wound since she couldn’t see all that well from her small knife. Barney turned to see Gunnar wiping off his giant machete and a idea hit Barney.

“Gunnar, lemme borrow that for a sec” Barney asked taking the machete not giving Gunnar a choice in the matter.

Barney moved Honey’s knife and replaced it with the machete. Honey thanked the man, now having better confidence in her movements. She finished stitching the wound quickly and put some more ointment in the injury. She slid the machete back to Gunnar and quickly put her shirt back on and re prepped the equipment.

“Anyone need me to overlook anything” she asked and most of the men nodded their heads.

Honey went through putting her ointment on the men and cleaning up the occasional busted face or cut on the arm. She was gentle, her pacing being a swift but calming one. She had finally reached Barney and all he had was a small cut on his brow so she just dampened her fingers with a simple but much stronger disinfectant for him. He kept his gaze on the woman, not caring since the men were laughing and busy eating to care what he was doing.

“You knew those guys” Barney asked once she finished.

“Yea. You know in comics how there’s always some super drug to make the perfect soldier” she said putting her things away, “these men think my mother had made that, and they think that she’s still alive to give it to them” she finished and finally relaxed and looked at the man. “They are the ones who gave me this busted up face. They think they’ll find her through me” she stated blandly and this pricked a sense of worry in Barney.

“Do they bother you a lot?” He asked hoping to ease this worry.

“No, just every once in a while. When they get desperate” she said and laid down.

Barney had no idea how to respond. So he just laid down next to her. He wanted to turn and hold her close but he knew he couldn’t. Honey was at ease and super relaxed. She didn’t know why Barney gave her this effect but she didn’t mind. She would love to be around him more just for this feeling but she knew she couldn’t. Barney was a busy man and she didn’t wanna interfere with his work. The next morning came quick and the group was quick to leave for home. They had all been wanting to go back so they could party and celebrate their quick victory. Unknowing to Honey, Barney was finally vocalizing his feelings but not to her, but to his co pilot Lee Christmas.

“What’s on your mind. It’s not here with me obviously. What’s more important than me?” Lee asked in a joking but also sincere ish tone.

“It’s a woman-“ Barney started with a sigh.

“You’re not lying to me are you? You having woman issues isn’t a real thing” Lee said being quick to cut him off.

“I wish I was lying. It’s..” Barney was conflicted, he really didn’t know if he should tell him but he trusted him. “..Honey, she’s been on my mind since the last job” he sighed.

“Woah, I would’ve never guess that spitfire got your brain into more mush than it already was” Lee commented but let Barney continue.

“We shared two kisses, one where she was drunk but another one the day after and just don’t know what to do” he said feeling a little weird talking about this. He didn’t like being open but he knew he needed to.

“Didn’t know you were a charmer” he joked and Barney looked at him with a unenthused look, “well I know it’ll be weird but you gotta talk to her about it. You don’t know how it’ll go if you two get together but still doing work here” he continued making a genuine effort to help.

“Yea, I just gotta find the right time to” Barney said in a worn out tone.

“Don’t do it too late or nothing will come out good” he started peaking Barney’s interests, “gotta find the sweet spot” he finished in a joke and Barney rolled his eyes.

When they landed they all were quick to leave. Honey was notably the last one to go alongside Barney. She wanted to make sure her side wasn’t gonna bother her while she driving so she stayed in the hanger trying to wrap her body. Barney had noticed her and wanted to help and didn’t need to worry about prying eyes. He came up behind the girl and took the wrap out of her hands and started to take over for her. Once the wrap had ended Honey had made sure to secure it to her body. She looked up at the man holding the eye contact with a loving gaze, not realizing their hands were grazing each other.

“Thank you again, Barney.” She said getting snapped out of their gaze and started to walk off putting her shirt back on. Barney had followed her back out to the woman’s truck and helped her into it. She had rolled down the window and Barney leaned into the truck through the now empty window. “We partying tomorrow?” She asked.

“Yep, we’re gonna be at Tools place around nine or so. Nothing to crazy” he said letting out a small crooked smile.

“Dang it, that plane was a comfy bed” she joked letting a small snicker leave her lips. “I’ll see ya tomorrow Barney” she ended rolling up the windows and leaving the hanger. Barney waved her bye while she drove off, he watched longingly as her truck slowly left his line of sight. Seeming to drive herself into the horizon.

The next night started off surprisingly hard. The men had been heavily drinking doing many drinking competitions. Honey was heavily involved in these competitions. She kept flirting with Barney but he didn’t start doing it back till he got more drinks into his system. Once the night got late the two didn’t really know what they were doing. The rest of the crew had left and it again was just Honey and Barney. Barney had called a ride for Honey to get home but while waiting in the cold, Honey was cold and held herself close to Barney. The hold then turned into the two drunkenly making out. Once the ride had shown up, Barney didn’t wanna leave her so he went into the car with her. They had been driven to her house and the two were quick to go into Honey’s bedroom. Usually Barney would try to look and really take in his surroundings and appreciate what would be in her house.

The next morning Honey was lightly starting to wake up but was violently woken up when Barney’s arm had slung over her side, and unknowingly hurting her injured side. She shot up and groaned from the pain and hit his arm off of her. At first Honey had thought it was some random guy she had in her bed but was shocked to see Barney. She couldn’t remember a thing from the night before, and she didn’t know what to do.

“Barney?”

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 382: Don’t Let Him Go

Two big lengthy segments today (guess what about) and some shorter observations. I'll just go ahead and put the jump here, shall I?

On Toga:

It’s hard to talk rationally about the drama with Toga this week, both because 

(A) The early leaks led to a lot of discussion centered on Toga and love and why—as the leaks expressed quite baldly—she doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi, and the bad takes are like unto a lingering poison I have to shake.

and

(B)  It feels so overwhelmingly like a copout.

There’s so much that can be theorized about Toga's dilemma and to what extent Tsuyu's assumptions about her love are correct, but I find it difficult to engage in good faith because it just feels so cheap. This is an almost Platonic example of arbitrary complications that are only a problem because the author says they are, not because they flow naturally from previously established facts.  If the Shigaraki that couldn’t make his quirk go off were a Toga-disguised-as-Shigaraki, that would be one thing, and you could move into discussion of her feelings freely.  But so far as we’re presented with, it’s not—it’s just a clone Shigaraki, exactly like any other Jin could have made himself.

Jin never had any problems with creating incomplete doubles.  If he didn’t understand something well enough, it wouldn’t look perfect on the surface despite missing core aspects internally; it would just immediately turn into sludge, like his attempt at replicating Overhaul’s quirk-erasing bullet.  Likewise, the various members of the League Jin doubled never manifested Jin’s own psychological need to cover his face to keep from splitting; that always remained unique to him and his self-doubles.

So why do doubles Toga makes have her emotional restriction?  Well, because the author said so.  Because Horikoshi couldn’t have this whole field of heroes be annihilated by a single double—even though, from all we knew about how Double worked before, that should be exactly what happened—so he had to come up with some arbitrary explanation why dozens of people haven’t been dusted where they stand.

As far as (A) goes, I think the real translation is more nuanced than the blunt statements in the leaks, and certainly the chapter as a whole is much more nuanced than the wild leaps people started making when all they had to go on was Tsuyu’s hypothesis—that people immediately took as fact—that Toga doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi.  For myself, I’m not inclined to second-guess Toga on her own experience of her feelings of love, what qualifies and what doesn’t.  She says she loves Touya and Tomura; I have to read that as at least as credible a claim as her love for Ochaco and Deku.

So where does that leave me?  Well, I think there are two major possible explanations for Toga’s problems that aren’t just the incredibly reductive and insulting, “She doesn’t love them.”  Both have some sub-issues of their own, but, well, that’s what comes of this whole development being dictionary-definition Arbitrary.

Theory 1:  Toga’s love always been tied up in her sense of wanting to become more and more like the objects of her affection.  She doesn’t just love Ochaco; she wants to become Ochaco.  So maybe the issue is that, while she loves Shigaraki and Dabi, she doesn’t particularly want to become them, and it’s the desire to emulate, rather than the love, that actually defines her ability to use quirks.

That would be consistent with the way her quirk evolution was portrayed in Chapter 226—much more consistent, even, than the idea that her “love” is the key factor.  Back then, the thought that’s on her mind as Curious comes in for the kill is, “I wanna be just like you.”  When she uses Ochaco’s quirk to kill, her spoken line is, “I wanna be even more like the people I love.”  Love is a factor, certainly, but it’s filtered through that additional qualifier.  This would mean everyone involved[1] has misread Toga’s condition in a small but crucially important way.

I can see two immediate problems with this theory, but both are fairly minor.

First, Toga never showed any particular desire to emulate Jin, but she’s obviously using his quirk—not without issues, but using it all the same.  This one’s fairly easy to get around, in that it would be very easy to say that she didn’t want to become Jin before he was killed, and her desire to do so now is inseparable from the fact that he was murdered.  Does she want to become him so he won’t be gone from her life?  So she can carry out revenge for him?  That’s fairly immaterial; as long as she does want to become him, his quirk becomes accessible.

Second, Toga has shown signs of emulating Shigaraki and, to a more debatable extent, Dabi.  While it’s not as full-throated as for Ochaco, obviously, Chapter 226 ends with Toga thinking that whatever she hates must be destroyed—right, Tomura?  Likewise, people have pointed out that Toga’s pose on the 339 color spread could be her copying his Frankenstein’s monster hands pose from 191.  So there’s at least some basis for Toga mimicking or adopting aspects of Shigaraki and Dabi, which would undercut the idea that she doesn’t want to become them ergo she can’t use their quirks. A single line of dialogue and a highly interpretable pose in a non-canon color spread make a pretty thin objection, though, so I don’t regard them as hard evidence against the theory.

Theory 2:  Toga’s transformation into Twice is flawed, so his quirk isn’t working to its fullest.  A flawed transformation would line up with that extremely unsubtle page of Toga agonizing about why she can’t become Jin overlaid against a background of thoughts about hero mass extinction that are highly un-Jin-like.  It would also point to the Sad Man’s Death Parade not being made up of Togas-transformed-into-Jin, which I had thought was the explanation for why they were so deathly silent compared to the riotous clamor the Sad Man’s Parade raised in Deika.  Rather, they are clones of Jin, but they’re flawed clones, strained through Toga’s grief and overpowering hatred, choking out Jin’s actual character: chatty, protective, desperately loyal.  If those distorted copies have Toga’s emotions, it makes a certain amount of sense that they’d also have her restrictions.

This one runs into serious trouble with my (B) objection, above, particularly the idea that Twice’s own quirk was always very all or nothing—it either works or it gloops, no in between.  If Toga’s attempt to use Jin’s quirk is reflecting a flawed understanding of Jin, she shouldn’t really get usable copies at all, just sludge.  As for explaining away this problem, well, we might say that quirks are pretty weird, so Transform and Double having some unpredictable interactions isn’t entirely out of bounds.  It’s just, again, deeply arbitrary.

I can't help but think, whatever the explanation, that there are ways around a hero massacre that wouldn't have required kneecapping Toga with nonsensical quirk restrictions. It's not as if we lack precedent for clones being way less dangerous than the real things!  The Shigaraki/Dabi/AFO clones were probably made by the bazillionth Himijin clone, so are about as strong as wet paper.  They'd also take longer to make, because it always took Jin longer to make clones of other people than clones of himself.  Just get Hawks off of AFO-sitting-duty and back down to the field to put feathers through any League/AFO-clones that are reaching out their hands in dangerous ways.

Heck, you could even further the teamwork themes by having Hawks—who's probably a bit low on feathers to do that whole thing himself—be the eye in the sky to coordinate everyone else!  (This might then leave him open to Actual Toga, who still deserves to knife him and has inexplicably not gotten to do so yet.)

Anyway.  I guess we’ll see how it develops.  I’m not against Toga having some good crunchy anguish, heaven knows, but it would be nice if it didn’t feel so mandated by the need to stop her from murdering a dozen acres’ worth of on-the-ground heroes.

One other thing, though, before I leave Toga and move on to the other big headache this chapter.  Tsuyu says, “It seems like Himiko-chan’s own restriction applies to the doubles she makes after transforming into Twice.  (...)  In an extreme situation like this, a single emotion could override that restriction at any second.”  That’s extra dangerous because of—and I don’t know if Tsuyu knows this or not—one of the factors in how Double works, or at least could be read as working.

Recall that back during MVA, we were told that the doubles Twice makes of other people are limited to what their real selves knew at the last time real!Twice saw them, but that this limitation doesn’t apply to Twice himself.  I never could 100% parse that, but one of the logical explanations is a sort of instant knowledge transmission—that anything the original knew, any double of him made would also know, even if it was itself made by a double that wasn't present for whatever new thing just happened.

Would this have applied only to new clones, each created as an up-to-the-minute copy of Original Jin and then lagging behind as they slide into their own experience?  Or is every clone updated moment to moment such that they stay accurate reflections of Jin?  That’s unclear thanks to the vague phrasing, but if the knowledge transmission works the same way for Toga, and she resolves her crisis and suddenly becomes able to create quirk-capable clones, then whether every Himijin on the field can abruptly do the same or only newly created Himijins, it’s an instant ticket to The Worst Situation either way.

(I’m rooting for you, Himiko!  Resolve that crisis!  Go go go!)

On Shinsou and Gigantomachia: 

On the one hand, this is the exact opposite of arbitrary authorial handwaves.  I can look back over Shinsou’s arc all the way back to the Sports Festival and see the groundwork being laid for this.  Indeed, I’d say all of his major appearances, combined with what we know about Machia, contributed to the setup for this.

At the Sports Festival, we learned that he could take control of people by tricking them into responding to them.  By the Joint Training arc, he’d picked up a support item that allowed him to mimic others’ voices.  In MVA, Machia was shown to be fanatically loyal to AFO, a trait that could be particularly guided by the sound of his master’s voice.

After the traitor reveal, Shinsou mind-controlled the Aoyamas through their phone call with AFO.  Since he can’t force people to do anything that requires much mental engagement (here meaning he couldn’t just order the Aoyamas to respond to AFO the way AFO expected them to), we must assume he needed to be able to hear AFO’s side of that phone in order to respond to it properly.  Thus, that phone call enabled him to learn what AFO’s voice sounded like such that he could later mimic it.

It all fits!  It fits extremely elegantly, more so than the vast majority of the late-stage twists have done thus far.

And yet...  And yet.

And yet it’s morally dubious and frankly, the Machia we were introduced to in MVA deserves better than this.

I know most people don’t care about Gigantomachia—indeed, the post-MVA series has not gone out of its way to encourage us to do so—but imagine for a moment that this wasn’t Machia attacking AFO.  Imagine it were Mister Compress.  He’s much too chatty to not trip into responding to Shinsou, and then he could be dropped in front of, say, Toga in hopes that seeing him would cause her to drop her guard long enough for Mr. Compress to be ordered into marbling her.

Wouldn’t that feel incredibly shitty, manipulative, and even outright villainous?  Especially for the kid whose entire character arc is about proving that he can use his quirk in non-villainous ways?  Like, Shinsou immobilizing Machia would be one thing, making him walk back into his cell, something like that would entirely fine. Actually forcing him to attack his own allies, however, is many, many steps past fine.

And it’s not like AFO doesn’t deserve to have a mountain thrown at him, but does Machia deserve to be forced to throw it?  Well, I could talk about that,[2] but as I see it, it’s a moot point.

Forcing enemies to fight their own allies, just so we’re all clear here, would be considered a war crime if this were a duly declared war situation.[3]  It isn’t a war, not least because the heroes are a nominally civilian force fighting against their own nation’s criminals, but, hot take, anything that would constitute a literal war crime in an international conflict is not something that should get readers cheering for the wholesome good guy heroes just because the crime’s being perpetrated against their own people.

Even if you set aside the ethics of the situation, though (which you by no means should), I have to ask about the tactical wisdom of bringing Machia to the field as well.  So Shinsou's controlling him now, awesome; we’ve weaponized one of the villains against their own side.

What happens when that control wears off?  Or Shinsou gets wounded (or worse) and loses focus?  Or AFO warps Machia out of there, likely out of Shinsou’s range of control?  Or Machia breaks himself out of the control because that’s just how much it agonizes him to be forced to fight his beloved master?  Or AFO breaks him out of the control because Machia is conditioned to respond to his voice, and he’s got the right smell to go with it?  Or literally anything because this is not a permanent solution but now Machia's out of prison and on the field with AFO, great job, team!!!

Another issue a chat friend brought up: Machia’s basically just retracing the path he took before—from the Villa to Jakku then back again.  Given how incredibly destructive that was before, how destructive was it this time?  Did they swerve around every settled area on the way?  Just run over it again because, heck, it’s not like anyone’s had time to repair it anyway?  ‘Cause like, back in Chapter 282, when the radio was running through the list of places that needed to be evacuated, the announcer listed twenty names before Uraraka picked up her line of dialogue, interrupting any further roll call of affected areas.

Furthermore, all the places listed were called cities—shi in the Japanese, the largest of Japan’s three municipal categories.  There are also towns (machi) and villages (mura), neither of which were mentioned in the broadcast, but which must surely also be scattered along Machia’s route.  That’s a lot of municipality to swerve around; would it even be feasible to do so and still reach the battle in a relatively timely fashion?  How much time has elapsed since we saw the Jakku battlefield in 353, at which point Machia was still down and dreaming?  How much time is that compared to how long it took Machia to clear the villa and arrive at Jakku in the previous war?

Machia’s travel times have always been a frankly impossible abstraction,[4] but seriously, it ought to take considerably more time to navigate around every clutch of houses in his path than to just plow through them.[5]  Unless, again, the kids just said fuck it and ran back over the path he took before, trusting that it was still an evacuated wasteland.  Which, while it doesn’t account for those who declined to evacuate to begin with, might be a fair bet—I can’t imagine the government’s shelling out much for repair and construction with things still so unsettled—but would still be a pretty bad look for Team Hero.

Stray Thoughts:

O  The layout of the narration boxes on the first page is very fun.

O  AFO is obvious, but I wonder why Dabi and not Shigaraki for Tsuyu’s pick on people they’d be doomed if Toga had chosen to transform into.  Shigaraki’s ranged Decay is by some measure deadlier, and that’s not even getting into everything else Shigaraki’s packing now.  Meanwhile, Dabi has still yet to kill a single named character.

O  Tsuyu calls Toga Himiko-chan, which is certainly A Choice she’s consciously making, given that last time they met, Tsuyu was still rebuking Toga not to address her by her given name.  Suffice to say, it’s a pretty strong suggestion that Tsuyu and Ochaco have had at least one serious conversation about Ochaco’s intentions towards Toga.  I wish we could have seen it, but I suppose there’s always a chance of flashbacks.

O  The panel of “Twice” with Toga’s eyes is a very nice touch.  I assume it’s not meant to be literal—the “Camie” the reader first meets at the License Exam also has Toga’s eyes, which are wildly different from Real Camie’s eyes, a discrepancy you’d think her classmates would have noticed if it were meant to be a true depiction of her appearance.[6]  Anyway, Ochaco doesn’t recognize her by the eyes; she recognizes her by the tears.

…Which is ironic, really, given that Jin was by far the most openly weepy of the League.

O  Teen AFO is great, but what I find most striking is the shadows beneath his eyes.  Specifically, the way they so strongly resemble the hollows beneath Shigaraki’s in e.g. Chapter 373.

I don’t know if this means anything, but it’s an interesting visual parallel.  I wonder if Yoichi was not the only brother prone to frailty as a youth?

-------------------- FOOTNOTES --------------------

1:  Tsuyu, who makes deductions based on it this week, Toga herself, who states it in Chapter 289; Ochaco, who heard it from Toga’s own mouth in the same chapter; and Dabi, back in 241, who probably also heard it from Toga at some point post-Deika.

2:  Mostly I’d say that since we know neither what AFO did to earn Machia’s loyalty nor how much say Machia had in the walking disaster he’s become, we don’t actually have enough context to say what he “deserves” and what he doesn’t, and that it’s not the heroes’ job to unilaterally dispense that justice regardless.

3:  Article 130 of the Geneva Conventions, which includes ��compelling a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of the hostile Power” as one of several “grave breaches” of the Conventions that constitute a war crime.

4:  As has been the case for all the travel times this arc has flippantly handwaved.

5: Because if plowing through them would take him longer than running around them, he would have run around them the first time, the sooner to make it to Master’s side.

6:  Oddly enough, “Camie” only has Toga’s eyes for the first phase of the exam.  Once Toga switches transformations to Ochaco to target Deku and then shifts back into Camie after, her eyes look the Real Camie’s.  I haven’t done a thorough hunt, but she manifests Ochaco’s and Deku’s eyes normally at Deika and the Shie Hassaikai raid.