#and i love that this likely just confirms even further that he's doing some DD stuff

[pastafossa]

I think that’s why Charlie looks more like Matt in kin bc he might also be filming some scenes in echo which is why his hair was short in nwh cuz he’d just got done with kin s1 I think 😅

Yup, that's my new theory! Matt hair in Kin S2 cause he's filming some DD appearances. Tbh I'm just glad he has that hair back, I loved him with his fluffy Matt hair, and now Michael will have it too, be still my heart. 😩

[serial-serializednovelreader]

Nova’s Notes - DD - May 12

Well, dear readers, we’re back with Jonathan in his toils! And, as you may expect, it’s not going well.

He starts off by telling us he needs to separate “bare facts” from his experiences, further confirming that he doesn’t like to write down what he hasn’t confirmed to be true yet. And he’s a lawyer, so that makes sense.

He tells us a series of questions Dracula asked of him that he wants to record, in case it’s useful later. I can’t say enough that Jonathan is truly using all of his wits here!

We also get an insight into Dracula’s plan: he wants more lawyers in different parts of England to direct goods he would like to ship. What exactly these goods are and more precisely, why, is a mystery (I have my theories, but I’ll keep them to myself to remain spoiler-free — and I don’t remember all of the details tbh).

What we do know is that he obviously wants a decentralized network working for him. He doesn’t want one person knowing his business, but rather, wants a few people knowing little pieces of it. However, he gets rid of this idea once Jonathan describes the solicitors as a “system of agency”. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me like that’s saying that all of the solicitors work together *on some level* or, at least, know each other and it would simply be easier to just have one guy do it. To me, this says that they regularly chat with one another if Dracula were to do this, they would likely figure something is up.

Whatever it means, it does seem to intimidate Dracula, since the next question he asks is “can I just do it myself” to which Jonathan says “of course!” All of those law books Dracula has been studying seem to come in handy, for he knows the law almost as well as a solicitor. I’m sure it’s not to do anything wrong or illegal….

I also love that even though Jonathan is trying to escape from this man, he still wants to give him honest legal advice, like he makes him clarify his question to lead him in the best way possible. If only Dracula was worthy of that treatment!

However, he’s snapped back to the reality of being a prisoner when Dracula asks him if he has written letters to anyone and basically demands him to stay for a month!!

“What could I do but bow acceptance? It was Mr. Hawkin’s interest; not mine, and I had to think of him, not myself; and besides, while Count Dracula was speaking, there was that in his eyes and in his bearing which made me remember that I was a prisoner, and that if I wished it I could have no choice. The Count saw his victory in my bow, and his mastery in the trouble of my face, for he began at once to use them, but in his own smooth, resistless way”

It’s a sober reminder, but one that bears repeating. Unfortunately, Jonathan has to stay at Castle Dracula. Even with all of the scary things that have happened to him so far, it’s not enough to warrant saying no. Since he went in his boss’s place, it’s even more imperative that he tends to this Count’s every need. If he doesn’t, he’s basically using his boss’s name in a negative way, which is so much worse. Dracula could use this to write a smear campaign against Jonathan AND Mr. Hawkins, and it would work.

There is also the matter that he’s being actively held captive, but I would wager Dracula knows exactly what’s at stake for Jonathan here, and it has nothing to do with locked doors. How would Jonathan be able to work his way up the ladder if he refused to stay and help a wealthy man — his first real client — for a month? Jonathan could tell anyone he wanted about thrown mirrors and locked doors, but he would likely just get told he made it up or be labeled as “indiscreet” because hey, the rich clients are eccentric and can do what they want, right? So what if you were almost attacked? It’s harrowing how relatable this kind of situation still is hundreds of years later. Dracula may be a vampire, but that’s not the only type of horror we get in this story.

After Jonathan agrees, Dracula then asks commands him to write three more letters but only about business stuff, please? Jonathan immediately knows he needs to write formally for Dracula’s sake and then write more in secret, especially to Mina in their shorthand code (hooray for the nerds!). He only uses *two* of the letters — I bet he stashed the third to use for Mina — and then observes Dracula writing a few of his own.

Jonathan does not miss his chance to read Dracula’s letters when he leaves and

“felt no compunction in doing so, for under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could.”

I love that he doesn’t feel any qualms about doing this. He shouldn’t. He’s being held hostage and now told he has to stay for another month. Most protagonists of this era would likely balk at the very idea of snooping through mail and I’m sure Jonathan would too most of the time, but this isn’t any other time. Jonathan knows he has to do this for his own safety.

He’s only able to discover names and addresses before Drac comes back. Whether these are important or not, I won’t say, but they are likely a part of Dracula’s larger plan. Jonathan is meticulous in putting everything back as it was before, showing his attention to detail.

We then get an ominous warning from Dracula to Jonathan not to sleep outside of his room at night or else…thanks for that positivity! /s

Jonathan refers to keeping the crucifix at his headboard. He says he’s not worried about sleeping in a Dracula-free zone, but…I do think he’s worried Dracula or maybe someone else is going to attack him in his sleep, because why would he keep it so close otherwise? Also, he says he sleeps better with less dreams, so the queer paprika dreams are back y’all, but this time, no paprika. :(

We also learn he seems to take comfort in looking at nature, as that is what he does to calm his nerves. Bad news: this is already taking a toll on his fear levels and he’s less than a week in.

Worse news: Jonathan sees Dracula use Lizard ModeTM for the first time! He recognizes him by his hands (quite observant of him) and notices he’s barefoot (ew Dracula, put the grippers away!!!).

That causes Jonathan to call him a “creature” for the first time and worry there really is no escape for him. He ends his entry “encompassed with terrors that [he] dare not think of…”

Again, I feel for him here. How would you react to seeing your host crawl like a lizard around his castle? Personally speaking, I would not take it well. This is the most hopeless we’ve heard him so far, and I’m sad to say he doesn’t mention Mina to bring him out of it. I’m so sorry, good friend Jonathan. Looks like your business trip is not going too well, after all.

[twilight-deviant]

Do you have theories about what Maya did to Fisk in Echo’s finale? Also, do you plan to write more? I’d love a sequel of your AU where Fisk buys Matt from an abusive husband.

1. Thank you for interest in that AU. I won't say I'll never add to it, but I don't think I currently have enough ideas to continue. Maybe one day. Never say, "Never." But I am writing on another FiskMatt fic right now, if you're interested in it. I just hit a bit of writer's block, but I finally finished the next chapter. Should be up soon.

+

2. You mean in the final confrontation when Maya used her new healing powers (the MCU will do anything but give Maya her comic ability) on Fisk? I do, yes! I guess you could almost say it was like a therapy speedrun. Hahaha.

I have Thoughts on a lot of how they wrote Fisk in Echo (some good, some bad), and I may make a larger post just to get my thoughts out of my head. (Instead of texting my friend a lot.) But I was happy with the choice they made to have Maya challenge Fisk emotionally instead of physically. She didn't want to kill him (again), but instead heal him from past pain, like her mother's spirit did for her.

It makes me think of this bit from an X-Men comic. (Don't mistake me for someone who knows a lot about X-Men. lol. Just a few things.) Pietro's daughter, Luna, has the ability to alter people's emotions. She think she is helping pop-pop Magneto (I refuse retconning that he isn't Wanda/Pietro's father) by making him let go of the negative and traumatic emotions associated with his past. But Magneto does not want to be "saved" from that pain and anger. It belongs to him and is a driving force in everything he does.

That but with Maya and Fisk.

She still cares for the good parts of him she loved, and she wanted to be the bigger person and help him instead of hurt him further. I think it might even be empathetically motivated. It felt good when Taloa healed Maya from her emotional pain, and she thought it would help Fisk to do the same.

So when Fisk went on about how the trauma of an abusive childhood shaped him and motivated him, Maya thought if she could remove those negative emotions and get him to embrace her, let go of the hammer/violence/pain, it would help Fisk be less inclined towards evil in the now. In a sense, it might "cure" him.

But like with Magneto, it's not what Fisk wanted. He needs that anger and violence to be who he is. He doesn't want to be saved from it, not even for Maya. That's why he screamed, "I am not who you want me to be!" (Sad line, btw.) As if she wants to scrape away the "bad parts" of him and leave behind a better version. Fisk denies that he is or can be that person. (We love self-aware characters.)

It's not explicitly confirmed in the psychic vision of his childhood bedroom (*chef's kiss* for that choice of setting) if he does relinquish the hammer to her. The scene cuts away to reality. But you kind of get the sense that maybe he did, given his reaction.

I love how genuinely unsettled he appears for the rest of the episode. Like the ground collapsed beneath his feet, and he's trying to reconcile what his own emotions mean anymore.

Sitting in his plane, distractedly rubbing his fingertips together, as he is wont to do in times of unease. (Can't gif right now.)

So I'm not completely certain if Maya "turned off" the origin of all his anger, but it does sort of feel that way, right?

I don't doubt he'll once more be the unhinged anger man we love when we get to DD: Born Again, but I would love to see a small character arc where Fisk has to forcibly retake his rage or else lose all efficacy. (Something legitimately dangerous when you have as many enemies as he does.) I think it could be really, really good if they follow up with something like that.

[fruitcoops]

Sometimes I forget that Leo is 19 and can’t drink in the states. I think he would get away with stealing drinks from the boys or having someone on the team order for him in public for a while but once the season’s started and people are actively watching the games, the bartenders and wait staff start to figure out who he is and catch him being sneaky

I only write drunkenness on a case-to-case basis because it squicks me out sometimes, but something about this ask really stuck with me. To @lalalasocks, I hope your sinuses feel better! Have some outside perspective of Coops to soothe the soul <3 SW credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW for a drunken rookie (no explicit alcohol)

“Pots and I are going to take it up the left,” Sirius said, never taking his eyes off his whiteboard as he drew out the lines of the play. iPads were generally the more conventional tool, but he had a thing for tradition and Sirius Black’s flair for the dramatic never ceased to amaze. “Knutty?”

Leo nodded and leaned forward, swiping a drop of sweat off his temple with a glance toward the game as Talker flew past. “I’ll be in for the rest of the period as soon as Coach calls it.”

“Bien.” He tapped Remus’ shoulder pad with the end of his pen and marked a path up the other side. “Loops, the puck is coming to you fast, so you need to keep eyes on us. Once you get it, turn on the jets and get it in. Good?”

“Good,” Remus confirmed, bumping fists with James. Leo watched them with no small amount of surprise—even though Remus had only been a player for six months, their line was rock-solid. James was the powerhouse while Remus flashed down the ice; Sirius counterbalanced them both in the middle. He was grateful he wasn’t the one to see them coming at him on plays.

“1, 6, 7, 12!” Coach barked. Leo clenched his teeth around his mouthguard and got ready to hop the boards. A swish of skates, a bump of Kasey’s shoulder, and it was game time.

-----------

“I love you,” Leo hiccupped, plopping himself down in Logan’s lap and tangling a hand in his dark curls. He went to kiss his cheek, then frowned. “Oh.”

“Hi,” Sirius laughed with a gentle pat his side. “Good night so far, Knutty?”

Leo made a face. “Where’s my Canadian?”

“I have no idea.”

His lip slid out even further into a pout. “He told me I could sit on his lap,” he whined plaintively, resting his head in the crook of Sirius’ shoulder with a heavy sigh. The bar was warm—a little too warm, actually—but it felt nice to be sitting on something soft rather than feeling the sticky floor under his sneakers. And there was one more reason he needed to find Logan, one other highly important thing… “An’ I gotta give him a kiss.”

“Do you want to go look for him?”

Leo made a noncommittal noise and swung his leg under the table absently, letting the alcohol in his system lift all his post-game tiredness away. His head hurt a little from being awake so long. “How ‘bout I stay here and wait?”

“I think it’s about time to get you home.”

Leo sighed again, picking at a string on the knee of his ripped jeans. “Am I squishing you?”

“Non.”

“Mmkay.” A bright square of light half blinded him and he squinted. “Who’re you texting?”

“Finn.”

“Why?”

“So that he can pick you up and get you home before you fall asleep on me,” Sirius said, quite amused for some reason. “Comfy, rookie?”

He shifted even closer into the warmth and closed his eyes. Usually he got horny when he drank, but that feeling had already passed and a nap was sounding awful nice. “I like it when you call me that. Hate when other people do it, but it’s different with you.”

Sirius gave his upper arm a light squeeze. “Glad to hear it.”

“Used to drive me nuts,” he snorted. “Those first couple’a weeks on the team were rough.”

“…why?”

“Cause I had a huge crush on you.”

Cozy silence fell between them until Sirius moved to look at him. Leo blinked sleepily. “You what?”

“Well, Kasey was my first crush, right? I had his jersey an’ his poster an’ he’s fucking hot, but you’re the captain.” Sirius was so nice to him. Not everyone would have let a 6’4” hockey player sit on their lap and wait for their boyfriends. At the moment, though, Sirius looked a bit like Leo had thrown ice water in his face. “And obviouslyFinn and Logan are my boys and I love them so much and they were sopretty when I met them but, y’know, it’s the thrill of the captain vibe.”

“Am I interrupting something?” a new voice asked through poorly-suppressed laughter.

Leo turned his head to look up with a smile. “Hey, Loops, how’re you?”

“Pretty good.” Remus shared a look with Sirius, grinning, before taking the seat next to them. “You two look…content.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Sirius said immediately, though Leo felt his chest hitch with a laugh; he tapped Leo lightly on the elbow a moment later. “Finn’s heading over, d’accord?”

“But I just got here,” he mumbled.

“You’re in my spot,” Remus teased, sliding a glass over. “Drink up, bud.”

Leo narrowed his eyes. “What is it?”

“Water.”

He thought for a second—he wasn’t thirsty, but his mouth was getting dry—and yawned, sitting up enough to stretch before grabbing it. In two gulps, it was gone. “Aw.”

Remus bit his lip and passed a different glass over. “You can have mine too, it’s okay.”

“How are both of you so nice?” he asked, looking between them in something like distress. The music was getting too loud, but they were both watching him intently. “It’s not even fair, man. Can’t you just be an asshole for once so the rest of us don’t look bad?”

Sirius shook his head and pressed the water cup into his hand. “Been there, done that. Do not recommend. Besides, the designated drivers don’t get to be mean.”

Leo felt a little better once the water was gone; he blinked slowly, scanning the crowds for any signs of Finn’s hair or Logan’s ass. Both were identifying features he would never get tired of. “Loops?”

“Yeah?”

“Why is your hair soft?”

“I—” He tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Have you ever touched my hair?”

He leaned back against Sirius, stretching his legs out until his knees popped. “No, but it looks soft. Like Finn’s, if Finn was blonder and had curls. Fluffy.”

“It’s very fluffy,” Sirius confirmed, pulling him up a little more.

“Hey!” Leo protested. “Watch the hands, your boyfriend is right there!”

Sirius rolled his eyes with a huff. “I was making sure you didn’t slide off the bench.”

“Sure,” Leo said with a suspicious glare. “Just ‘cause I won MVP for this game—”

“Okay,” Sirius groaned, standing and detangling his limbs to transfer Leo’s weight onto Remus. “I’m going to go get your boyfriends from wherever they got distracted, and then you’re going to go home and sleep so you’re not dying at practice tomorrow. Oui?”

He disappeared into the mass of people without giving Leo time to respond, wiping his hands on the thighs of his jeans as he craned his neck to see over people’s heads. “Rude,” Leo sulked, cuddling up into Remus’ side instead.

“I know, right?” He took a sip of something lemony and Leo pulled a face. “What?”

“Aren’t you DD?”

“Last I checked, DD’s are allowed to drink lemonade,” he laughed, patting the top of his head. “That was an awesome save in the third, by the way. You could’ve got the hat from that one alone.”

“Which one?” Leo yawned again, licking his lips to rid them of the stickiness he could feel forming.

“The splits one.”

“Mmm, yeah, that was pretty badass.” More people darkened his periphery and he scooted over to make room. “Hey, mes amours.”

“I hear you were bothering our dear captain?” Finn asked, kissing his cheek with a grin. There was no alcohol on his breath, only the mint from the peppermint candies he always stole from the little container by the bar. “Come on, baby, time to go.”

“But Loops and I were talking,” he whined, though it only took a small tug on Finn’s part to get him to snuggle up into his soft shirt. “He was telling me how good I did in the game.”

A warm hand stroked his hair out of his eyes; warmer lips brushed his forehead, and he felt Logan’s hand on his knee. “Bedtime, love,” he said in a quiet voice, almost too soft for Leo to hear over the noisy bar. “Wanna be in the middle?”

Leo looked up in hope. “Really?”

“Ouais. C’mon, Knutty, up you go.”

He wobbled a little as he stood, but got his feet under him within a few moments with the help of Finn’s arm around his waist and waved off everyone else’s offered help. “Gonna be fine for practice,” he promised, patting Sirius’ hand with a nod. “Totally fine, don’t worry. Go—hic—go grind on your boyfriend, ‘kay? You both need it.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Sirius muttered. “I pity your head in the morning.”

“I’m fine,” Leo scoffed. He was already sleepy—there was no way he would have a headache, not after he had two whole glasses of water. “G’night.”

“Drive safe,” Sirius and Remus chorused as Logan fit himself under Leo’s other arm to kiss his neck twice, sending butterflies through his stomach. The outside world was nice and quiet; Leo barely got himself buckled into his seat before dozing off with his head against the cool passenger window.

[thosewickedlovelies]

Be the Girl You Wish to Meet in the Bar Bathroom

Pairing: Santiago Garcia x F!Reader

Summary: You make a new friend in the bar bathroom. She and her friends help you lure in the hottie she spots checking you out ;)

Rating: T for suggestive themes

Tags: Brief mention/implications of alcohol use.

Word Count: 3,359

A/N: This one goes out to all the drunk girls you've ever met and been uplifted by in bar bathrooms <3 Also for @nathan-bateman ❤

---

“Ugh, my feet are killing me,” your new friend groans as she lowers herself onto the toilet. “This always happens when my friends make me dance with them.” Still seated, she bends over to rub what she can reach of her heel.

Despite the thumping music and the din of bar conversation in the background, you can hear her perfectly fine, seeing as you’re sealed in the tiny bathroom together. You met her a moment ago in line, after you almost stumbled into her and she immediately proceeded to compliment your dress. Now you’re chatting like longtime pals.

A universal feminine experience, a distant part of your mind thinks, with a fuzzy sense of warmth.

“Yeah but you’re so lucky though,” you tell her earnestly, while washing your hands. “My boys hardly ever dance with me, they’re soo lame.” You make an exaggerated pouty face.

You only ever went out with your boys- Frankie, Will, Benny, and Santiago. You had other friends at work, but weren’t quite at the “let’s go out dancing together” stage with any of them yet. Benny and Santi actually did dance, but while you loved them to pieces, it wasn’t quite the same.

Tonight you had reunited at one of your usual spots- a basement bar that was a bit on the divey side, but just trendy enough to have designated space for a dance floor.

“Oh my gosh, you should totally come dance with me and my friends! Every girl needs a girl friend group to dance with.” She looks at looks at you with wide, serious eyes and all the sage certainty of a perfectly tipsy person.

“Oh my gosh, that’s so nice!” You’re genuinely touched at her invitation. “And so true,” you add a beat later, nodding with conviction. You shift away from the sink as she flushes the toilet.

“Yeah!” The brown-haired woman continues to rave about her friends while she washes her hands. “Ready?”

Arm in arm, you leave the bathroom together. You halt almost immediately, however, as the colored lights of the dance floor change abruptly, blinding you with white strobes. You both shriek and giggle as you throw your hands up in defense. You decide to remain where you are while you try to locate her friends.

She spies something else first. “Oooh, don’t look, but there is an absolute Adonis of a man checking you out right now at one of the tables.”

You don’t look, keeping your intrigue under wraps as you continue to scan the room. “Ooh, what does he look like?”

Santiago Garcia had been keeping an eye on the restrooms waiting for you to return, but his relief at your reappearance turns to curiosity as you exit with a woman he’s never seen before. His interest in her fades quickly, though, as the sweeping lights highlight your grinning face and that close-fitting dress. Everything else seems to fade to his peripheries.

He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s captivated by you tonight. Maybe it’s that you haven’t seen as much of each other lately, everyone busy with work and life. He thought he’d been elated at the prospect of a group get-together this evening, but when he kept finding himself frustrated at the guys stealing your attention from him, he wondered if it was just you he’d been excited to see.

Maybe it’s the fact that he can see every man in a ten-foot radius of you right now doing the same thing he is: checking you out. Sizing you up like nothing more than a trophy to add to their collection, as if any of them were good enough for you.

His fingers tighten around his beer as Santiago drags a dark gaze down you. Thinking of all the memories he has associated with you, all the things he’s seen your body do- a connection none of these other suckers can claim. In his brooding, he doesn’t notice the woman beside you noticing him.

“There they are!” Brown Hair squeals. She drags you around the edge of the dance floor to where several people are waving.

There’s a flurry of introduction, but you don’t catch any of their names over the music. A tall woman with noticeably muscled arms; another with deep brown skin and a halo of dense, tiny, blue-dyed curls; a third whose accented greeting you’re just able to catch as the music fades briefly.

Taking advantage of the quiet, Brown Hair speaks. “All right girls, now listen. There was an obscenely gorgeous man checking out our new friend a second ago, and I bet he still is. A few tables behind us, with the hair?”

With the hair? She and you are facing the dance floor, but her friends are facing the bar’s tables, one of which your future man is apparently sitting at. With outstanding coordination and nonchalance, they all manage to identify him over your shoulders, and whistle their approval.

The one who…?” You strain to hear Arm Muscle’s question, but it’s lost beneath a suddenly surging bassline.

Brown Hair darts a quick glance over shoulder and nods.

“That is some nice hair, and I would know,” the blue-afroed beauty smirks and winks at you, before grabbing your hand and tugging you slightly further onto the dance floor. Still close enough to the edge to be plenty visible to anyone seated at a table. “Don’t you worry, we’ll get you that man.”

“I haven’t even seen him!” You protest with a laugh, even as you follow her willingly.

“Girl, all you need to know is that he is insanely hot.” The one with the accent speaks from close behind you. “As your designated girl friend group for tonight, it’s our duty to help you lure him in.”

Conversation becomes impossible in the rhythm of the crowd. You follow their lead, let their hips and hands guide your movements, losing yourself in the uninhibited joy of moving your body to the thumping music. In the whirl of unself-conscious beings all around you, you momentarily forget what brought you out here in the first place.

Until, after some unknown amount of time, Brown Hair twirls to face you. “He’s on the move!” She waggles her eyebrows.

You remember then that you’re supposed to be dancing for some guy. You’re still facing away from the tables, but from in front of you Blue Hair has a clear view over your shoulder. “Mmm, look at his hunky blond friends,” she purrs. “Think he’ll bring them over too?”

Wait. Surely they couldn’t mean…? There had to be more than one table in here with two hunky blond men at it, right??

She spins you around, and you follow her pointing to where Benny and Santiago are standing at their table, the former clapping the latter on the back. Eyes widening, you’re nearly beside yourself wondering which of your boys the girls could possibly be referring to- until Santiago detaches himself from the group.

“Your man is coming!” Accent squeals.

“Wait, he was the one checking me out?” you hiss frantically.

“Undressing you with his eyes, babe,” Brown Hair nods knowingly. The others make sounds of confirmation.

Pope’s dark eyes pin you as makes his way across the room. He weaves through the tables like they aren’t even there, like you’re the only thing worth his attention. Your lips part in shock.

You’d always thought the vague chemistry between you and Santiago was merely a side effect of his natural sexual charisma. Like a power he could turn on and off at will, you’d seen it in action enough times to recognize it. Although...it had never occurred to you to wonder if the chemistry was not, in fact, a side effect, but rather an intended result. Had Santi been deliberately using his powers on you?

Watching him go, Benny chortles. His gaze slides past Santiago to the other women who are still blatantly eyeing their table. “Looks like you might be DD for just yourself tonight, Catfish.” He smirks devilishly and runs a hand through his hair. “Come on, brother.” Will doesn’t react to his sibling’s invitation as he saunters after Pope, only sipping his beer contemplatively.

Frankie snorts at the older brother’s obvious interest. “Get out of here man, they’re definitely checking you out, too. I’ll hang here for a little while longer.”

Will cracks a smile. Draining his glass, he unfurls himself from the table, bright blue eyes roving appreciatively over the women flanking you.

“You’re the man, Francisco.” The taller blond gives him a nod of thanks before following his brother.

Frankie only shakes his head, a faint smile on his lips as he observes the scene unfolding between you and Pope. Finally.

With the hair, indeed. That should have tipped you off straightaway. You’ve been encouraging Santi to grow out his gorgeous curls for probably as long as you’ve known him, but he rarely took leave for long enough to gain any measurable growth. Even short, however, his greying locks reflect the colors of the roaming spotlights as he approaches, making his beauty even more otherworldly.

Dumb with surprise, you don’t have time to plan any kind of reaction before Santiago is there, standing before you with one upturned hand outstretched. “Can I cut in?”

Cooing, your new friends part to allow him unhindered access to you. Although there’s a suave sort of expectancy on his face- he knows what the girls were doing- even in the dim, shifting light you can see the genuine question in his eyes.

You’re still unsure of what he’s playing at, but Santi has never let you down before. Your hand doesn’t waver as you place it in his.

His fingers curl around yours, warm and reassuring. He tears his gaze from you only to briefly address the girls: “My friends are single, by the way.”

As if on cue, you all become aware of Benny and Will sidling up in Santiago’s wake, like two blond, shameless, bad ideas.

Santi is wearing that big shit-eating grin when he turns back to you, and you can’t help but smile at his familiar antics. Laughing, you let him sweep you away, guiding you toward a more remote corner of the dance floor and into a sway that’s breathtakingly gentler than what you were expecting, given the moves with which you and the girls were taunting him.

(If his hold feels gentle, he makes sure it doesn’t look that way: flexing his arms where they rest around your waist and brushing his nose along your hairline, breathing you in and sending menacing glowers to anyone still looking at you.)

You’ve never been this lost for words around Santiago. You’ve danced with him before, technically; but it had never felt like this. You want to speak, but your tongue feels clumsy in your mouth, heavy with the energy between you. As your thoughts churn, his hold shifts, one arm wrapping all the way around your waist to draw you nearer, the other sliding up your spine, fingertips tracing the skin above the back of your dress.

It may have only been a song or two during which you held each other, but it felt like much longer. His light caress sets the blood fizzing in your veins, sparkling like drink mixers, sweet with the promise of bright memories to come.

Finally he speaks. “Is this okay?” Santi murmurs.

Hearing his warm voice in your ear, instead of making you more nervous, grounds you. That familiar, steady timbre, his quiet confidence and trust in you to answer him truthfully. Which you do, because you trust him, too.

“Very,” you profess into his neck. Your nose nearly tucks beneath the collar of his button-down. “Santi…” you hesitate, knowing you want to ask but unsure of what the question is.

He waits, his subtle swaying never faltering.

“Why tonight?” It’s a vague, possibly lame cop-out of a question, but it’s the only way you can think to phrase it. He’ll understand though. Santi can play the fool when he wants, but he knows you, and now isn’t the time.

For several heartbeats, the only response is the rasp of his stubble against your jaw. You swear you feel his lips brush your skin, but before you can properly register the sensation he’s withdrawing to answer.

“Mmm...Well, I don’t need to tell you what those dance moves of yours do to me.” He pinches your side in emphasis, but despite your squirm and flush, you scoff. Santi has seen you dance like that before- he’s been the one dancing with you like that before.

Santiago chuckles, the sound liquid dark. He knew you wouldn’t buy that. “Honestly, I don’t know. Seeing all these other assholes eyeing you up like they’d have a chance...I couldn’t stop myself. I’m just putting them out of their misery, really.”

You snort at his dismissive shrug, knowing his irreverence masks real emotion. You can read it in the lines of his face, each one as dear and familiar to you as the beauty marks on your own. Green and red lights stripe his skin as you study them.

He can’t quite meet your gaze, suddenly. “What are you staring at,” Santi grumbles, burying his face in your neck again.

You giggle at his gruffness, at his breath huffing on the sensitive skin.

“Just your pretty face, Santi,” you croon. You tighten your arms around his shoulders, deliberately wiggling closer so you’re pressed more firmly against him.

His sharp, surprised inhale juts into your chest. But any response he might have given is lost beneath the sudden blare of trumpets from the speakers.

The familiar melody makes you both pause. You lean back just far enough to meet Santiago’s eye; you know he’s anticipating the same thing you are and you both shout: “Shakira, Shakira!”

You squeal as Santi leaps back from you, grabbing your hands and twirling you in a familiar routine. ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ had become, thanks to Benny, Pope’s song, a claim he always pretended to roll his eyes at when the boys brought it up. But he secretly loved it, and rarely missed a chance to show off why.

Your muscles leap into action as he does just that, dancing you to the Latin beat. You’re breathless with laughter, sweat beading on your hairline.

I don’t, don’t really know what I’m doing, but you seem to have a plan...

The tripping guitar notes swirl around you, but Santiago doesn’t let you stumble. He guides you in time with the pounding percussion, his whole body undulating to the rhythm.

All the attraction, the tension...

His arms cross above your head as Santi spins you so your back is pressed to his chest. He holds you close, hands low on your hips, and you lean back into him, relishing the strength in the muscles shifting against your spine. Warmth radiates from him, all-encompassing. He hooks his chin over your shoulder and you turn your head to look at him.

His face is much closer than you were expecting; a thrill bursts in your chest. Curiosity kindles, however, as you take in his expression. You’re not sure if you recognize it. Happy, but searching- like he’s gauging your reaction, or seeing something he hasn’t before.

You don’t have time to dwell on it, though- the song is approaching Benny’s favorite line. You tip your head as if listening, raising your eyebrows at Santi expectantly.

His eyes widen, sparking with recognition at your signal. You jump away-

Let me see you move like you come from Columbia…

The saxophone trills its long, fluttering note and you whoop in admiration at the sight before you. Santiago loops his hips rapidly, letting them sling him in a circle, his elbows held square at chest level. His lips form an “o” of concentration in a spicy expression that would make anyone else look ridiculous. But Santi’s obvious skill and the self-assured confidence with which he always carries himself only makes the whole thing ridiculously sexy.

Santi’s movements cause his shirt to ride up, exposing a sliver of taut, tan skin. Shamelessly you appreciate the visible, flexing muscles in his arms and thighs. His butt in those jeans.

He is grinning and giddy when he faces you again, one corner of his smile crooking higher as he witnesses your glee. Laughing, Santi pulls you back into his arms.

“How many times have you seen me dance like that, cariño? And every time you have the same reaction.” His voice is breathless in your ear.

You bite your lip at the warmth of his broad hands, at what is definitely the kiss of his mouth on your skin.

“I like your dancing, Santi,” you say simply. His pulse thrums beneath your lips as you slowly skim them up his neck in return.

Into the line of his jaw you admit “...I like when you dance with me.”

Santiago brings one hand up to cradle your head, leaning back slightly to look at you. His brown eyes are full of affection. “I love dancing with you.” Creases fan out from his eyes as he smiles and he is so beautiful it makes your heart squeeze.

The moment hovers, both of you hardly daring to hope. Your gaze skips down to his lips despite your best efforts.

You know he sees it when his grasp tightens, his hold at the nape of your neck becoming more deliberate. His face is merely a breath away.

“Cariño?” he murmurs. You’re surprised to see the faintest trace of uncertainty, the question in his eyes. He’s asking if you’re sure.

One eyebrow quirks the tiniest bit. “Santi?” You are.

The uncertainty vanishes, and you kiss him.

He lets out a soft groan in the back of his throat. He hauls you as close as he possibly can, and you arch into him, trying to get closer.

You plunge your hands into his silvery curls with a sigh of satisfaction. You’ve touched his hair before, but never like this- never used it to hold his face to yours. The damp traces of sweat as you twist your fingers in it only add to the surreal euphoria of it all. The flashing lights leave colored impressions against your closed eyelids; the music is a muffled, fading pulse as your senses fill with him.

The sturdy press of Santiago’s body, the smell of him- lingering cologne and the musk of his earlier exertions. His mouth velvety hot, his tongue curling against your own in a way that makes heat expand low in your belly. Increasing desperation infects both of you as you realize you should have done this ages ago.

Dimly you become aware of raucous cheers coming from somewhere nearby. With a gasp you pull your mouth from Santi’s, chest heaving. His lust-blown eyes clear somewhat as you share a shy grin.

Then he looks up, toward where the Miller brothers and your girls are hooting at you. Benny cackles as Santiago gives them a one-fingered salute. You shrug helplessly at the girls, noticing with delight the way they’ve paired off: Benny with his arms around both Accent and Arm Muscles; next to them, Blue Hair’s beautiful brown skin contrasting with Will’s paler complexion.

Overcome with mischief, you duck your head into Santiago’s neck again. Placing your lips where it curves into his shoulder, you flutter your tongue delicately against the flesh before biting down with purpose, laving and nibbling to leave a mark.

Santi sucks in air and you feel a subtle shudder wrack his body. He is still facing your friends; scandalized oooohs sound from their direction, and you're impishly delighted to have made him react in some visible way.

His grip on your head shifts so that one thumb is pressed beneath your chin, guiding your head back up to look at him. He breathes your name, his expression dangerous- but questioning all the same.

Radiating innocence, you grin in answer. “Wanna get out of here, Santi?”

Relief quickly vanishes beneath the promising gleam in his eyes as he takes your hand.

[crownquill]

Disclaimer: Don't read this post if you are a terf/exclusionist/aphobe/biphobe/panphobe

dont even touch it or I will block you on sight you little pissbitch

also if you start discourse I will punch you.

dont add shit to this post unless you are adding on/being supportive

just saw some exclusionist say "OmNI iSNt a REaLL lABel I bET iT wAs MADe UP LaST wEEk tO hurT BiSEXUAls"

and like

first of all buckeroo. other lgbt+ people arent the enemy. get your head on straight. dont try to fit people into neat little boxes lol

and second of all this made me so fuckin angry I went on a deep dive of omni history. unlike pansexuals and bisexuals, omni [and also ply people] dont really get that much recognition

so here's some omni stuff!/history

The word omnisexuality appears as early at the 1959 beat poet Lawrence Lipton's The Holy Barbarians,[1] but the first time it was described in the context of the current definition was in a 1984 text titled simply Sexual Choices: An Introduction to Human Sexuality.[2] This text described omnisexuality as "a state of attraction to all sexes", stating that some researchers believe that every individual is born omnisexual before developing their sexual attraction into the labels of homosexual, heterosexual, or other orientations.

The term spread even further in the early 1990s as M. Jimmie Killingsworth undertook an analysis of the poet Walt Whitman.[3] In Killingsworth's study, he found that Whitman had a general omnisexual character throughout his work The Leaves of Grass. In the 2010s, The Atlantic noted that his poetry expresses sexuality towards all genders, sometimes even the sea or the Earth.

Omnisexual was a common message board term in the 2000s. The media made several non-monosexual terms known in the mainstream as that took place. Many popular articles discussed omnisexuality alongside these celebrities' pansexuality.

Some fictional characters, such as Jack Harkness from Doctor Who, and Kevin Crawford from Paradise P.D. have been canonically confirmed as omnisexual.

The omnisexual flag was designed by Pastelmemer on or before July 4, 2015.[4][5] It is unknow if the colors have any meaning, but a purposed meaning is as follows: The light pink and light blue represents the gender spectrum. Pink represents attraction to femininity and women. Blue color represents attraction to masculinityand men. The deep purple (sometimes depicted as black) represents attraction to people whose gender identity falls outside of the named categories.

There is no one way for identifying as omnisexual to look. “Identifying as such looks like feeling great about yourself and standing strong in your identity,” says D’Allaird. “No one can really tell you who you are, if you find this word and it really connects for you, then look in the mirror.” [sidenote: I hate fucking cosmopolitan but this quote slaps]

Dino nuggies, Scythe, scarves and bandanas, Bang by AJR and basically every song by AJR, Hydra, Grim reapers, anything of Ben ten because of his Omnitrix, ins-OMNI-a, and maybe eating peanut butter/Nutella straight out of jar (we are debating on that one) and .... jazz hands

[on what omni culture might be/is]

“We come to a corner where there are a few people protesting the festivities. I don't understand this at all. It's like protesting the fact that some people are red-haired. In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don't understand why it's so hard, when it's so obvious.” ― David Levithan, Every Day

a t-shirt!

just some art :DD

^^every letter is an art piece

Idk which omni person needs to hear this tonight/today but there are people who support you out there! You're awesome and valid and have just as much a place in the lgbt+ community as anyone else!

[kisshwa]

𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐮𝐩 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 - 𝐣.𝐰𝐲

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 — ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴏʟʟᴇɢᴇʙᴏʏ!ᴡᴏᴏʏᴏᴜɴɢ ꜰɪɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀꜱᴇʟꜰ ɪᴍᴍᴇʀꜱᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀʀᴛʏ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇ ɪɴ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴅɪꜱᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀꜱᴇʟᴠᴇꜱ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ’ꜱ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴɢꜱ

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄 — ꜱᴜɢɢᴇꜱᴛɪᴠᴇ, ᴍɪɴᴏʀ ᴀɴɢꜱᴛ, ꜱʟɪɢʜᴛ ꜰʟᴜꜰꜰ

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 — 1700+

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 — ᴀʟᴄᴏʜᴏʟ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅʀᴜɢ ᴜꜱᴇ, ꜱᴜɢɢᴇꜱᴛɪᴠᴇ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ (ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ, ᴡɪᴛʜ ɴᴏ ᴅᴇꜱᴄʀɪᴘᴛɪᴠᴇ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇꜱ)

waves of partiers continued to pile in, filling the place with even more drunken and stoned college students. it was a friday and no one had anything better to do than get wasted all night long. you found yourself hidden away in the kitchen with a few of your friends from class. the room was fairly quiet compared to the rest of the house; which whom you didn’t even know who it belonged to.

“y/n, pass me that tequila behind you, would ya?” jieun pointed in your direction, as you sat atop of the counter.

she was already super drunk but you did as she said, handing it over and watching her pour the liquid into a cup. you looked out into the living room where everyone was dancing, smiling at the fun everybody was having. you, however, only showed up for one person and had yet to see him walk through the door. it was pathetic really — sitting around, waiting for the moment he’d come strutting in and instantly have the girls pouncing on him.

you took another swig of the drink taeyang had mixed, getting ready to hop down and move to the dance floor when someone caught your eye. it was him, in all his god-like glory. the way the flashing led lights hit his skin, the way his face lit up when everyone began calling his name, the way his black hair was hanging in his eyes; everything about him was perfect. it was too bad he’d never be yours.

jieun nudged your knee, “you gonna talk to him tonight?”

“weren’t you just telling me last night that i need to stop talking to him? that he was only breaking my heart?” you arched an eyebrow at her.

she shrugged and took a sip, eyes still narrowing in on his face, “i mean, i have no room to talk. mingi and i are the same way, but if he makes you cry one more time, i’m breaking his face.”

you laughed, shoving her away jokingly. she patted your thigh and sent a wink before wandering off to another room. it took you a minute of thinking before you finally got down from the counter and headed out as well. just as you rounded the corner, you body collided harshly with another. you looked up to find the king himself with his arms up to avoid bumping you again. he stopped when he noticed it was you.

“y/n.” he smiled his stupid little smile.

“wooyoung.”

he continued walking into the kitchen, knowing you’d follow, “you didn’t tell me you’d be here tonight.”

he set his case of beer down in the fridge. ‘it’s not like it would matter anyway’ you wanted to tell him. he straightened back up and looked at you with raised eyebrows, waiting for your response. you looked him up and down with a deadpanned expression. as much as you wanted to hate him, for all he’s done, you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

“i didn’t even know i’d be here until a few hours ago.” you confirmed.

he nodded, stepping closer and wrapping an arm around you. you could smell that he had already been drinking, maybe even a hint of weed if you would’ve took the opportunity to lean in closer. he peered down at you, that little grin forming again.

“guess that makes you my beer pong partner by default, huh?”

you rolled your eyes and poked his side, “oh, please. i carry your ass in every game.”

the two of you walked out into the main area but you had pulled away from his grasp before anyone could see. the last thing you needed were boys teasing you and girls acting fake to get closer to wooyoung. almost everyone knew about your guys’s past but assumed all connections stopped once you cut things off.

it was nearing midnight and the party had yet to die down. some were passed out in the back and front yard, others were struggling to stand on their own two feet. you and wooyoung were on your final round of beer pong, earning a complete winning streak together.

“y/n! jieun’s throwing up in the bathroom!” taeyang yelled from the hallway.

you didn’t think twice and left the game instantly to go help your best friend. jieun was slumped over the toilet, luckily managing to make it on time and preventing a mess. taeyang stood behind her, hands on her hips as she looked down at her passed out friend. you rubbed jieun’s back and tried to pick her up, but with no luck.

“here,” a voice came from the door. “i’ll get her. where’s your car at?”

taeyang’s eyes flashed between you and wooyoung. she waited for you to signal that it was okay before answering. wooyoung hoisted her against his side, hands holding her tightly to assure she didn’t slip. you lead the one, clearing a pathway all the way out to taeyang’s car down the street, buckling her in.

she thanked him religiously before turning to you, “do you want to leave now or do you want me to come by later to pick you up?”

wooyoung’s held fell on your waist, “i have a dd picking me up around two. she can come with me, if that’s okay?”

taeyang double-checked with you to make sure you were comfortable with it. when you nodded, she sent you a flying kiss and climbed into the drivers seat. you watched as she drove away; with wooyoung still attached to your hip. he bent down and placed his chin on top of your head, eyes still following the vehicle.

“you have pretty great friends.” he announced. “i’m glad you found decent people here.”

you turned around to face him, arms absentmindedly snaking up and around his neck. maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was the emotions you kept balled up, but you wanted nothing more than to kiss him right now. his eyes were dead-set on yours, setting off butterflies in your stomach. why did he have to be so damn perfect? why did he have to mess with your head like that?

just as you began to make a move, a car came flying down the road and made a screeching stop in front of you. wooyoung pursed his lips, mentally cursing his best friend for giving a terrible impression of his driving. san, the best friend in question, just about fell out of his seat when you opened the back door. he hadn’t seen you for the last five months, after everything went down.

“long time, no see.” he beamed, discretely glancing at wooyoung for some sort of explanation.

by the time you arrived at their apartment, you were still pretty tipsy; after downing the remains of your drink before hopping in the car. wooyoung guided you to his bedroom, though you were well aware of where it was. you fell down on the mattress, not bothering to take of your shoes. woo cringed and snatched your feet in his hands, placing them in his lap as he unlaced your sneakers. you began to doze off when you felt a cold swipe across your face. your eyes fluttered open to see him delicately removing your makeup.

“you’re too nice to me.” you whispered, staring at him fondly.

he chuckled, “i’m just making sure your skincare routine doesn’t get too messed up. it’s not good to sleep in your makeup.”

it was unbelievable how in love you still were with him. everything he did made your heart skip beats just like when you were dating.

“wooyoung?” you opened your eyes again. “why do we keep doing this?”

he hummed, “what do you mean?”

this time, you sat up so he could sit beside you. his face was full of concern, afraid he might have done something wrong by bringing you home with him. he just wanted to make sure you were safe.

“we broke up months ago, but we still hookup and party together and do things that exes shouldn’t do. we still obviously care for each other, so why are we not together anymore?”

wooyoung licked his lips, fiddling his fingers out of unsureness, “i-i don’t know, y/n. we just weren’t the same as before. our lives got so busy and neither of us had time for each other. there were times i questioned if i was still in love with you.. and that shouldn’t even be a concern of mine. that’s when i knew i had to leave.”

you both agreed to go your separate ways after breaking up. yet you still found yourselves searching for each other in big crowds and keeping an eye out for anyone who was getting a little too close to the other. you tried anything and everything to forget about him: one-night stands with strangers, drinking til you blacked. nothing worked.

“i’m tired of trying to find you in someone else.” you confessed quietly. “nobody compares to the way you care for and look at me. you were my first real love. how am i supposed to move on from that?”

his eyes shook, dancing from yours back to his lap. he had never been able to put into words how he felt, but you did it perfectly for him. no amount of drunken hookups with other girls could ever amount to the warmth you radiated when making love to him. he missed you; so much, it was embarrassing.

“y/n?”

you looked at him once more, hoping your words got through to him. he leaned in dangerously closer and pushed the stray hairs out of your face. his touch sent electricity through your bones. your mouth opened slightly, almost as an invite for him to kiss you.

just before he captivated your lips on his, he whispered ever-so-softly, “i love you.”

his hands found their home on your sides, nonchalantly pressing you down further on the mattress. you placed yours in his hair to pull him closer. while still at work, he managed to pull your top over your head. his kisses cascaded down your neck, across your chest, then trailed your stomach. you watched as he made sure to give every part of your body the love it deserved.

“if you love me so much, then stay with me this time.” you were breathless by his actions.

he peered up from his position between your thighs, the faintest smile on his face, “i’m never letting either of us walk away again.”

[jcisthebestfightme]

BJYX Song #4: DDU-DU DDU-DU

BJYX Song Series List

Disclaimer: This is all my own headcanon.

After 3 very heart-wrenching songs, I’ve decided to have some fun with this next one. From CQL bts, we can see ggdd singing and dancing to “Ddu-du Ddu-du” by Black Pink a couple days after the song was release in June 2018. But why do they like this song so much? I think I have a theory. 

First, we need to subscribe to the 2017 love at first sight theory. When dd met gg for the first time in March, 2017, gg introduced himself on ttxs with a finger-gun pointed to the camera.

We then see dd imitating this gesture. (I want to point out that all the other host of ttxs were also imitating this gesture because they were kinda making fun of gg. It’s not exclusive to dd.) But this means that this gesture has left an impression on dd.

More than dd, this gesture left an impression on another host of ttxs when later in the episode, he revisited the finger-gun sign as a way of flirting, and said he “learned it from dd.” What? I thought gg was the one to do it? Weird.

We now time travel to filming of CQL. Unfortunately, I am unable to pinpoint the exact date for many of these bts footage so I apologize for this. We just have to assume all these were happening around these couple months. 

In one interview, gg was taking solo photos and making finger hearts. Dd then yelled “比槍” or “do a finger-gun” and gg did one pointed directly at dd. Is it possible that dd said that because he remembered gg’s introduction in 2017? Yes, because if love at first sight is true, you will remember that moment very vividly. Dd probably equate the finger-gun symbol to flirting already.

In a fan-cam footage, we see gg saying to dd “Yibo, I will give you a fingergun” and then dd looked so happy.

In an interview during filming, the interviewer asked “What is making a heart?” And gg made a finger-gun. This tells us that gg also equates the finger-gun as showing love.

Dd also promoted LWJ first by making the traditional finger hearts but then turning them back into hearts.

This following one is my favorite heart finger gun because it was completely unprompted. In this scene, WWX had rain being poured on and gg had some dirt on his face. Dd wanted to wipe it off but gg gave him a “warning look” cuz there were cameras recording. But then gg gave dd a very loving look. You can see the full video here. Then dd teased gg by saying he’s handsome even without makeup, gg gave dd a thumbs up. The thumbs up then turned into a finger-gun very briefly. It was so fast yet so natural, confirming that this is like a secret gesture between the two of them.

Another one! Gg giving dd a “finger-gun” when WWX was hanging off the cliff. From the video, it seems like dd got emotional over WWX dying so gg maybe was trying to comfort him. This one was also pretty deliberate yet not prompted by camera or for effect. Credit to DY. 

So I started wondering if finger-gun is just a popular trend in China at that time to demonstrate love, similar to the Korean finger hearts. However, when I search “比槍“, I found out people on Chinese Q&A asking “Why does XZ/WYB do finger-guns”. Another proof that it’s only a thing between them is that during an interview in 2019, gg was asked “Why do are your finger hearts so much bigger than others?” This question tells us that it’s not a common trend and people were perplexed by this. Gg then have to explain that they were finger-guns and not hearts. He also said that “it’s because WE thought everyone did hearts so WE wanted to do hand-gun.” Who’s we? Are ggdd in their own world again?

Edit: Here, WZC (Jiang Cheng’s actor) was asked by a fan to do a “finger-gun” and he didn’t know what that was/meant. The interviewer had to explain it’s something gg talked about doing. This further supports the hypothesis that the “WE” is only ggdd. WZC is probably the cast member closest to gg other than dd because of the number of scenes they have together so it’s unlikely it’s a joke amongst other cast members if even he didn’t know.

So back to our song. 

We know that the “Ddu-du-ddu-du” means shooting finger-guns and that Black Pink is trying to shoot their love at you. Isn’t that just like the hand gesture that ggdd share. We can see him doing the dududu finger-gun on set to each other, even when they’re at a distance that’s hard to talk to each other. We know that it’s “their thing” because the actor of LXC asked dd what they were doing and he had to explain “Black Pink.” I also find it funny that everyone else (Shijie, JC, JGY, etc.) just ignores them LOL.

I won’t analyze the lyrics since I don’t speak Korean so I wont’ be making a faithful analysis. In addition, ggdd aren’t as focus on singing the song as they are on doing the dance and hand gesture. It’s just interesting to point out that the song is about Black Pink having a lot of personality and not caring about what others think of them, a vibe similar to dd’s “No Sense.”

Easter egg #1: In the 520 video (Chinense Valentine’s Day) in 2020, dd is still using the finger-gun as a gesture of love.

East egg #2: I was wondering if maybe finger-gun gesture if a thing in Korea since we see it in Blackpink and also APink’s “Mr. Chu” video that dd has danced to before. Since dd trained in Korea, maybe it’s something he picked up there. I asked my friend in Korea that’s a bit of a socialite and she said no, it’s not a thing. She was perplex by the question and had to try to reason it herself which proves it’s not common. 

Easter Egg #3: During an interview filmed on 7/29/18 (the same one where they gave each other a song), ggdd were asked to do charades. One of the clue was “dududu”. Dd keep getting it wrong so gg had to repeat the finger-gun three times. Some analysis video deduced that dd was getting it wrong on purpose because you can see his mouth smiling slightly. What’s more telling is that when he finally got it right, gg gave him a “bunny teeth warning,” telling us that gg knew dd was messing with him. It’s speculated that dd was getting it wrong so he can see gg do the gesture multiple times LOL But maybe he was just annoyed that dd wasn’t getting it ‘cuz it was so obvious? 😅

[jisvnq]

[ 12:22PM ]

title | Photograph

genre | fluff

warnings | none

word count | ~1.5k words

requested | nope~

description | where jisung gets dared to take a picture with you, otherwise he'll have to ask you out. either way induces a weird fluttery feeling in his stomach.

z.txt | okay, so i've changed how it looks (again) lol, so i'm reblogging it, and wow... i can't believe this was my first oneshot... i remember making this in celebration because i came back to tumblr for the first time :D i've gone through this and i think i've improved on my writing a bit :DD ok here you go~~

[ □ ]

"Oh, God, no," Jisung groans as his friends cheered, all looking to one specific girl who sat down under the tree. "No, no, no, no way!"

"A dare's a dare, Jisung," Chenle grinned, mocking him with his own words. "You better do it."

"There's no way I'm gonna take a picture with Y/n!" Jisung said in panic, braving a glance towards you, who sat peacefully on the grass. "No way!"

"C'mon, dude," Haechan smirked, putting an arm around Jisung's shoulders. "So what if you ask for a picture? It's just a picture."

"God, it's gonna be so obvious!" Jisung whined as they stood up, dragging the poor boy to the exit. Jisung tried turning around, but it seems like Jeno, who was now in Haechan's place, wasn't having any of it.

"What's gonna be so obvious?" Renjun teased.

Jisung blushed a bright pink. "You know what! Just– change the dare!"

"Alright," Jaemin smirked. "But you've gotta pick and do at least one by the end of lunch."

"Anything," Jisung pleaded as they stopped in the hallway. Wrong move.

"It's either you ask Y/n out on a date date," Jaemin wiggled his eyebrows. "Or you take a selfie with her."

"You could do both," Chenle grinned. "That works too."

"Oh, no, no, no," Jisung repeated like a mantra, trying ineffectively to resist his friends' force as they pushed him to the exit. "No, oh God, no!"

"Oh, come on, Jisung!" Haechan huffed, holding the struggling boy captive. "Just one picture, just one date. If she rejects you, well, that's impossible."

"How'd you know that?" Jisung asked, miserably trying and failing to escape from Jeno's grasp. "She'd reject me on the spot."

Haechan shrugged as they began to push him towards you again. "I have my sources."

Despite his struggling, deep inside, Jisung had wanted to do this dare, much more than he was letting out. If you did reject him, well, he had an excuse. And if you didn't, he might as well be the happiest boy on Earth.

Soon enough, you were right there in front of him, serene and at peace, softly bobbing your head along to the song playing in your earphones. Jisung simply gave up at this point, looking to his friends who all hid behind another closeby tree nervously. They all gave him a thumbs up. Taking a deep breath, he sat down beside you, making his friends squeal silently.

"Uh- excuse me?" Jisung said timidly, but seeing as you had music blasting through your ears, you didn't hear a thing.

Jisung raised a shaky hand and tapped your shoulder lightly. "E- excuse me, Y/n?"

You turned your head quickly out of surprise, but the gesture caught him off guard, his face suddenly in front of yours. Your cheeks both tinted pink when you had regained your composure.

"Oh– Jisung," you said, taking your earphones out and putting your book down. "What- what brings you here?"

"W- well, uh–" Jisung struggled to form a proper sentence, trying to get his thoughts in check. "I was wondering... you think you could– we could take a picture.... together...?"

His voice got tinier and tinier at the end and it had made you give him a warm smile that had butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

"A picture?" you asked. "What for?"

"That- that's not important now," Jisung said, clearly embarrassed as he took his phone out nervously. He looked to you, biting the inside of his cheeks. "So...?"

Who were you to say no to Park Jisung?

"Of course," you said, easing his nerves a bit, but their shot back up as soon as you scoot closer to him to fit in his camera's frame.

It was awkward at first, his hands shaking and sweating, your body angled awkwardly toward the camera, but soon enough, after a bit of teasing from you and some small talk, he loosened up a bit, and you did too. Your elbow now rested on his shoulder, and you two grinned, laughing as you made faces to capture.

"It's a nice book, really," you hummed, running a hand over the cover. You look up to him. "Say, do you want to borrow it?"

Jisung's cheeks flushed. "Oh, no– it's fine. You're still reading it. I can just borrow afterwards."

You chuckled, handing him the book. "It's fine. I don't remember how many times I've even read it. It's called rereading, if you didn't know."

"Hey," Jisung said as he took the book from your hands. "I do know what rereading is. Just, not that you've reread this book."

You chuckled. "I know."

The two of you just sat there on the grass, backs leant against the tree, stealing glances at each other that Jisung's friends hidden behind a neighboring tree didn't miss and didn't hesitate to point out to Jisung, who forgot they were even there.

"Ask her out!" Chenle half-whispered, half-shouted, making Jisung widen his eyes and gesture for him to hide while Jaemin urgently pulled the boy back.

"What was that?" you asked, looking around suspisciously, meeting Jisung's shaking eyes.

"Uh, nothing!" Jisung said a bit too quickly, suddenly unable to look you in the eyes. He knew he already succeeded in his dare, why did he want to ask you out now too?

You nodded, clearly not believing him, but letting it slide. You got up, which surprised Jisung, the boy standing up after you.

"Well," you said, dusting off your skirt. You smiled at him, somehow sad you had to leave. "I guess I have to go now. Class will start soon and my classroom's on the other side of the campus."

"Wait," Jisung said as soon as you turned around, trying to grab your wrist, like what he saw in the movies, but he missed, grabbing your hand instead. He blushed. "I- I, uh, want to ask you something."

You turned around, cheeks the same shade as his, feeling his hands begin to sweat. Your heart beat faster in your chest, thumping against your ribcage harshly. Was he gonna say what you think he'll say?

"What is it?" you asked, almost a whisper. "Jisung?"

"Do you–" Jisung inhaled deeply. "Do you think we could meet up some time? Like- like at the cafe across the street or the library or something? I- I mean, I need to give you the book back, don't I?"

You let a relieved laugh slip from your lips, and it scared Jisung a bit. Why were you laughing? Were you gonna reject him? Oh no–

"Jisung," you said again, a soft smile on your lips. "I'd love to hang out with you some time. Anytime. Just send me when and where, I'll be there."

Jisung's head was pretty much a mess right now. He just asked the prettiest girl in school out, and she said yes. He wanted to slap himself. Was he dreaming? The electricity he felt run up his arm when you squeezed his hand before letting go told him he wasn't.

"How- how will I contact you?" Jisung asked you.

You gave him a grin. "Check the back of the book. It's for when it gets lost."

Jisung turned to the back cover and saw a name and a phone number written on it. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, isn't this your brother's name?"

You laughed brightly. "It's just so no one tries anything if I leave a book lost somewhere. It's happened a few times before."

It was silent for a few moments, just the two of you looking at one another with shy smiles, standing awkwardly in front of each other.

"So," Jisung finally breaks the silence, looking down to his feet as he breaks eye contact. "You- you think tomorrow's okay?"

"To meet up?" you asked. Jisung nodded eagerly, making you chuckle. "Of course! Just send me the photos and I'll be there for sure!"

Jisung smiled, your heart doing a little flip when he did so. "I will."

The two of you bid your goodbyes, you gathering enough courage to wink at Jisung, making his cheeks heat up once again, and he made his way back to his friends with a stupidly wide smile on his face and unsteady feet.

"Woah, dude," Chenle grinned as they all pat their friend's back. "You look like you're drunk."

"Yeah," Jisung grinned back. "Drunk with Y/n~"

"Oh God, she broke him," Renjun snorted.

"So I take it as you got the date?" Jaemin hummed.

Jisung nodded excitedly. "Yep! And I got the pictures! Plus her number!"

Jeno whistled. "Jisung's got the girl alright."

"Ha!" Haechan pumped his fist into the air. "Told you it'd work out fine!"

"Shut up," Jisung mumbled, cheeks turning pink.

And when the topic strayed further and further away from you, Jisung found himself daydreaming about you. He always imagined how a date with you would go. Now, he'd have to work hard to put it into reality. Especially since that reality was with you.

Safe to say, he sent you the pictures (definitely not during history), confirming your attendance for tomorrow's date. Soon enough, one date lead to another, and another, and another, each one with their own corresponding photographs as memories with each other add up.

One date after another, one memory after another, one photograph after another. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

[ ■ ]

[nco05]

It was such a chilling overarching storyline and the conclusion man

WARNING: This mentions natural disasters such as a tsunami, amputation, emergency & primitive amputation, dead bodies, missing people post-natural disasters & carbon-monoxide poisoning.

The start of the episode with the divorce of 2 people. It’s a terrible process considering both people still loving eachother but knowing there’s a reason why their marriage is in the past;

Hen, Chimney, John & Bobby narrowly getting out of the ticking timebomb that is the site of the has-been Ocean Plaza whatever the fuck the full name was;

Drone girl returning and being heroic? All hail drone girl!;

The Ocean Plaza rescue. It’s a goddamn mystery how only 2 people died in such a severe situation like carbon-monoxide poisoning (totally CTRL+C’d this bitch of a word btw, can’t spell it for shit.) Especially the severity of this one. But hey I’ll take what I get from this show;

Athena going from stopping people looting houses in search of missing pets to having to amputate 136 captain’s arm just minutes apart;

Eddie saying what Buck needs to hear (keep the B/dd// shipping away please, I do not ship it since it is not canon. I’m asking nicely but only once): “You saved my son. You kept looking. He wants to help you back. I trust you with Christopher more than anyone else. Buck it was a natural disaster, this isn’t your fault. Go to a zoo, somewhere in land :)”;

Which brings me to the next point: Buck slightly delirious, upset, injured, bleeding, dehydrated like hell, exhausted beyond belief did not give up looking for Christopher until he thought he was dead & gone. And then he got confirmation he was alive. The relief was so big he collapsed out of exhaustion cuz finally... FINALLY BUCK CAN TAKE SOME REST;

Maddie confirming yet again what I know: she is “Big Sister”;

Anyone else got chills when Maddie adressed Buck by Evan? Just me?;

Eddie basically saving the day at the camp by using skill. Also sidenote: Ryan’s acting has become amazing (I’ve seen him in like 4 to 5 projects now, he’s been improving steadily since his guest starring on Pretty Little Liars). He’s grown a lot in acting and the role of Eddie Diaz. He’s not the same actor he was in Step Up 4. Still not my favourite character but I would lying if I said I wasn’t excited for his storyline this season;

Christopher wanting to help Buck cuz Buck helped him in the tsunami. Best friends? BEST FRIENDS!;

I loved Buck/Oliver’s monologue at the end. It was poetic in describing tragedy and hope that life can bring us. Also his voice has such raw emotion to it that I got chills and some tears nearly spilling;

The show not shying away from showing the negatives of a nature disaster like that: the floating corpses, the severe injuries, the people still missing. But also showing the good news such as that boat marriage party continuing even though the groom and (step)son are in recovery, the 136 visiting their captain recovering from his probably further amputation. No hate on Athena’s skill but I think vodka and tools for repairing things being used by a police officer probably was less sufficient in an arm amputation under a car. She did what she had to do though, he would’ve died otherwise by either bleeding out slowly or being crushed by the car he was under.

[twolonesomestars]

I want to ask about YB and gg being at dd's house on 7/28/19. YB posted a picture of tv set at dd's house. Then gg posted a picture of YB with background blurred, that showed that gg and YB were together. Ppl speculated that they're at dd's house. On 8/3, dd confirmed this by purposefully posting a pic of his tv set with a skateboard. What I don't understand is that they're not alone? YB is also there so why are people so excited? Some ppl say YB left that early that night but how do ppl know?

Hey, I asked about the YB leaving early thing before. I already got my answer so you don't have to spend time digging for it. Sorry to add more load to your already full ask. Thanks!

I actually dismissed this one pretty quickly the first time I saw it because I didn’t look at the pictures close enough.

Warning: This is all fake. Don’t take what I say to heart. These are just my random thoughts.

But, I went back to it later on... and when I say I compared the pics and second guessed everything for a ridiculous amount of time...

After that, I can safely say that it’s the same place.

*anon refers to Yu Bin as ‘YB’ in their asks

-

Yu Bin’s post on 190728:

He posted this late on a Sunday night, so BXG speculated that they were watching DDU... this would have been the 11th anniversary episode (the one XZ guested in).

XZ’s reply to Yu Bin’s post:

The main question here is: why did he blur out the background, and a quite a bit messily too? Maybe it’s art. Or maybe he wanted to hide something.

Neither of their responses to each other reference anything about them hanging out together. But out of all pictures/ memes XZ could’ve responded with (or not even post a picture at all), he decided to go with one that he altered heavily, for seemingly no reason... other than to possibly hide something? Odd.

WYB’s post on 190803 that helped confirm that it’s the same place:

WYB’s post further back on 190314 that gives us even more insight into how his place looks:

-

Now to the actual comparisons.

Exhibit 1: Wallpaper (Yu Bin’s & WYB’s 190314)

Look closely. Both are blue cheetah print. WYB’s older pictures show us that the wallpaper is behind the TV, so we can safely assume it’s the same wall.

-

Exhibit 2: TV stand decorations (Yu Bin’s & WYB’s 190803)

The lighting makes this one a bit difficult to tell, but at the very least, we know that the actual shape of the decorations (what do you even call these??) is the same. The ones circled in yellow seem to have the exact same design. The ones circled in blue are more difficult to tell. I think they’re different, but I’ll leave that one up to you all to decide for yourselves. (It’s also not like WYB can’t change them, I would think?) As for the “SHARP” label, the decor is high enough to cover it when you’re sitting down/ taking a picture from Yu Bin’s point of view.

-

Exhibit 3: Flooring color (XZ’s & WYB’s 190314)

XZ’s blurred picture has the same color floor as the floor in WYB’s pictures. Granted, this is a pretty common wood floor color but the placement of the color in XZ’s photo (it’s where the floor would be) along with the other two exhibits add to its credibility.

-

I think people were excited because the post(s) + responses give us pretty solid proof of them hanging out outside of work, even if it’s with another mutual friend, and specifically hanging out at one of their own houses. We are never going to get any sort of proof when they’re together alone (which is a good thing), so this is the next best thing.

I have no idea where that rumor about Yu Bin leaving early came from. I’ve also heard the opposite that said the two of them stayed over that night. Both sound like random talk/ what people wish would happen. If either one is a real recount, it’s sounds like a stalker and we definitely don’t need that. (Unless Yu Bin confirmed something, but I haven’t seen anything like that.)

-

Once again, all in good fun. CPN.

-

Also, please don’t worry about flooding my inbox. I always love chatting with you guys about this stuff... it just takes me forever to respond because I usually do this with posts lol

[senpai-no-lie]

Dark Deity Chapters 1-5 Thoughts

Bought Dark Deity last night and played the first 5 chapters before I looked up and realized it was 2:30 AM lol. Available on Steam and on sale for like ~$20ish, so definitely worth checking out if you like tactical RPGs. I’ll put some general thoughts here and then some more specific ones under the keep reading to keep this post from getting to big. I think for the price it’s at, the game is well-polished and fun! Sometimes the sentence structure/flavor of the exposition text is a bit basic, but I just remind myself it’s not fair to compare it to a AAA game. 

I’m not sure if it’s because I was using an Xbox controller or what, but I noticed the game glitching out several times when I was trying to use the button to hop between units on the battle map. Unplugging my controller did not help, so I am tentatively assuming it’s a game problem. Another couple nitpicks I have is the text size being on the small size and the lack of variety with the loading screens. 

The text size is a complaint I have with most games in the genre; it’s just more noticeable with DD because I have to play it on the computer/HDMI it to my TV rather than on the Switch or DS I can hold inches from my face. The loading screens, I just wish they had more than the king on the throne, the world?, and the first four characters training to cut between for loading screens. The King one is especially weird because it was used in the opening exposition dump, so seeing it over and over when the King doesn’t show up again until post chapter 5 just didn’t jive with me. Obviously I’m not expecting visually impressive loading screens, but just the character sprites or game tips would’ve worked fine for extra variety (or a black loading screen with the logo. The load times aren’t that long).

More detailed thoughts below, since I might talk about things that could be “spoilery” for people who want to go in blind as possible. 

First of all, I’d just like to put my prediction out there that I think the King killed his own dad. I base this on nothing but vibes. 

Art and Character Designs: 

I love the character portraits and the pixel sprits they use during gameplay/combat. Very cute and reminds me of older FE games. The HP bars being little potion bottles is also very charming. I loathe how plasticky FE 3H looks, so it warms my heart to play a game in the same genre that doesn’t look like that. Also hot take, but I really do prefer the limited voice acting to every line being voiced. It’s a little disappointing that the combat animations for weapons don’t change when you select a different weapon, but every one of your units has a unique battle sprite and getting promoted changes their look. Enemy sprites, for the most part, are the same character (generic guy), but that’s fine. 

Characters and Supports: 

I don’t have too much to say about characters right now except that I like them. Too early to tell if there’s any shipping material, but I like each character as an individual and I find all their designs to be pleasing. I’ve started unlocking supports (I have most of my characters’ current support logs filled to C), and it seems like some of them might only unlock after a certain chapter, because I see an ! for Irving and Elias, but smashing the A button doesn’t let me see anything. Also wanted to say thank GOD for useful archer characters. Been burned by fucking FE:SD Gordin and FE:RD Edward just sucking monkey butt after their intro chapter, and I’m very pleased Garrick and Sophia are tactically useful. I haven’t had any deadweight characters yet, I’m happy to report, though it is only 5 chapters in. 

Difficulty: 

I appreciate that they have three different difficulty options, and looking over all the menus, there looks to be a lot of potential replayability because they allow you to randomize items, recruitment, and weapons iirc. I chose the middle difficulty, and thus far it’s been smooth sailing without being a cakewalk. Can confirm, because I am a hasty person in tactical RPGs, that when your units are defeated, they do not die; they merely lose a random stat point. I lost both my mages during chapter 4 lol. Another thing I noticed is that there really isn’t a tutorial and the game doesn’t necessarily “pause” to explain mechanics to you. This game is definitely for people who like FE or other tactical RPGs, but even so, I think for most if it you don’t really need a tutorial. I just wish it was more clear in the beginning how the different weapons work (there is no weapon durability, from what I can tell, bless) and the different types of classes/damage types. For example, I promoted Elias during chapter 5, and based on my choice (there are 4 promotion options), he went from being a spear user to using axes, but I don’t fully understand how much that really matters. 

Chapter 5: 

This gets a special section because it’s most fresh in my mind and I wanted to chitchat about it. The gemstones are obviously going to be important later, but a henchman of a presumable Future Big Bad pretending to look for it for his father and then three Mysterious Ladies also looking for it and that leading to a big battle is kind of funny. Worse reasons to have a battle, and also Brooke is hot, so welcome to the team. I had assumed that the three ladies you were asked to promote wouldn’t be permanent members of your party, so while I stand by my promotion choices, I still wish I had known you’d be keeping Brooke beforehand. The map design of chapter 5 is... interesting. It took me a bit to figure out what the fuck I was looking at, and that the colored circle things were portals I and the enemy could use to make it further on the map. The map design did make it very easy for Garrick and Sophia to do some impressive chip damage, though. 

So far, the map objectives have had a nice variety, as had the layout of the maps. I wish it was easier to tell which unit is the commander/boss you must beat, and it was easier to look at your units’ skills while at camp. I have no idea what button it could be, because I’ve tried them all. I do appreciate there is a zoom-in and zoom-out feature on the battle map, however.  I like how the weapon system works and it was fairly intuitive to figure out how to forge/strengthen weapons. I do like feeling like a genius/sense of discovery from figuring out a game’s mechanics, but they could’ve fleshed out the tips section a bit further all the same. 

[cal-puddies]

Can you do one that’s the opposite of the blurb you reposted? Where the reader gets really drunk and Cal takes her home and takes care of her?

“Hey little one.” Cal grins at you and your knees go weak. He’s suddenly the only thing you can see.

“CALUMMMM!” You say loudly, grinning extra wide.

“How ya feelin?” He chuckles.

“I’m so good.” You grin.

“You think you wanna go home?” He asks, grabbing your hand to steady you as you kneel on the table you’d been dancing on to be closer to him.

“Don’t stop her yet Cal! She’s having fun!” Luke comments, clamping Cal’s shoulder.

“Maybe too much.” Cal smirks. “You wanna come home with me, little one?”

“Yeah. Always.” You grin.

“Ok, come down here, we’ll get you some water and head home.” He explains, holding his hand out. He sees you hesitate and he grabs your hips and helps you jump down.

“I wan’go t’your home.” You mumble.

“Wherever you want little one. Can you get on my back? You’re making walking a little tough.” He asks, watching you trip over your feet again. “You hungry?” He asks, as he sets you by his car. He’d opted to be DD tonight.

“Yeah.” You nod, looking at him.

“You’re so cute.” He whispers, kissing your nose. “I’ll get us something in the way home.”

“Cannii stay?” You ask, looking at him, sadness taking over.

“Don’t look so sad bubs, where else would you go?” He grins over at you, gently patting your thigh.

“Cal.” You give him more sad eyes. “You don’like me like I lik’you.” You say quietly, pushing his hand away.

“What was that little one?” He asks, pulling in a drive thru.

“Noffin.” You rest your head against the window.

“Baby... need you to talk to me.” He says, after ordering food for the both of you. “You feelin ok?”

“Yeah.” You say, wiping at a stray tear.

Cal leaves you alone until he gets you back to his house. He hands you the food and gets you on his back to carry you in. He sets you on the counter and then takes Duke out. When he comes back in you’re full on crying.

“Hey.” He whispers, coming over to you, wiping your tears and pulling you into a hug. “What’s with the tears?”

“Why won’you love me.” You blubber.

“Why won’t I love you? Little one I do love you.” Cal insists.

“Can’you... will you, just... stay... stay’wif me?” You cry into his shoulder as he holds you tight.

“Yeah bubba. I’ll stay.” He says, deciding to just find a way to appease you and stop the tears.

You finish your food and cal gets you more water, pulls you back to his room. He helps you get changed. He knows you well so he’s not shy to unhook your bra, but you hold onto it and don’t let it fall like you normally would, and Cal confirms something is wrong as he watches you pull his T-shirt on.

You get in his bed and turn your back to him.

“You’re not gonna talk to me.” He asks, getting in behind you.

“M’tired.” You whisper.

“I wanna talk about what you said earlier.”

“I didn’say anythin.” you mumble into the pillow.

Cal spends half the night awake because of it. To say things had taken a turn since the party would be an understatement. He was so happy you were happy there, things had been tough lately and you deserved the break. On top of that, he wanted to talk to you about a date.

He wakes up after very minimal, very stressful sleep. He looks over at you, you’d turned toward him at some point while you were asleep. He gently caresses your cheek with his thumb as he admires you. You’re gonna be mad you didn’t take your make up off and he knows that.

And then another conversation about orgasms while hungover pops into his mind. You swore it helped with hangovers and once he’d tried it for himself, he had to agree.

He dips under the covers and works your panties off your hips. He’s careful about it. He’d gone down on you once before, you’d both decided to stay in a drink and it resulted in you both getting oral. He knows he’s woken you up when he wraps his arms around your thighs.

“Cal.” You moan softly, before he really even touches you otherwise, your fingers thread into his hair. Your free hand pushes the blanket back so you can see him.

“This ok?” He checks.

“Yeah,” you nod. Kind of shocked he wants to.

He gently licks between your folds a few times before focusing on your clit. You’ve known each other forever and you knew a lot about each other’s bodies just by being around. “So sweet.” He moans against you.

“Cal.” You moan again. He makes quick work or getting you off, curling his fingers into your g spot while he sucks and licks your clit.

“That’s it, Little one.” Cal praises as you cum. He pulls his fingers out and laps up your juices around your hole, causing more little noises from you.

He pulls his face away but skims his nose and lips up your stomach, pushing your shirt up with it. He rests his weight on top of you but you don’t mind and he knows that. His head is on your chest. “Will you talk to me now?”

“What do you wanna talk about?” You ask, playing with his hair.

“Why were you so upset last night?”

“I dunno what your talking about.” You look away.

“I know you were drunk but I also know you weren’t black out, so. Tell me what’s up. You were crying and acting like I wasn’t gonna stay with you... in my bed.” He chuckles.

You sigh, and your eyes feel wet, you run your fingers over Cal’s hair again, “you don’t like me like I like you. And that makes this confusing.”

“Who says I don’t like you like you like me? You think I get tipsy with all my female friends and suggest we down on each other, or bring them home to take care of them like I do you? You think I wake more than just you up with oral?”

“How could you? There’s so much better out there.” You whisper, letting tears fall, like he hadn’t just said all the things he said.

“Little one. Listen to me.” He sits up, and pulls you to sit with him, he pulls you in his lap, and strokes the back of your head. “Are you listening?” He asks. You nod, “ok. I’ve been waiting for the right time with you. You’ve been through a lot lately, and we both know it’s been a weird year for me. But I always knew I had you. And I want to take that a step further with you. I want this to be more than whatever we’re doing... the occasional sexual encounter or whatever. What do you think?”

“Calum.” You sniffle.

“No, little one. Stop listening to the drunk voice in your head. Listen to me. I want to be with you.”

You pull your face away from his chest and look up at him. He wipes at the tears in your eyes and nods at you. “Really?” You ask, he nods again and then leans in to kiss you.

He holds you in a hug for a while, gently rocking your side to side, “besides, do you really want anyone else giving you morning head to help with hangovers?” He nibbles your ear.

[love-carries-on]

Love Carries On: Chapter I

TW: Mentions of Blood

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

Patton woke up to the smell of something good cooking, in his grogginess it took him a moment to connect the dots, but once he did; he pulled a face. His boyfriend, Roman, was cooking breakfast. It smelled like bacon, and even though the smell was pretty nice, he didn’t like the texture, so he wrinkled his nose, shifting into a sitting position. The

movement awoke Diego, one of Patton’s other boyfriends, who sat up and pouted at him. “Where going Pat?” “Just seeing what Ro is making for breakfast Dorry.” Based on the way he was talking, Diego had woken up as one of his alters, and probably one of the littles, since he didn’t call Patton padre, he assumed it was probably Dorry.

“I go with.” He wiggled out from under the blankets, grabbing his favorite blanket from the end of the bed.

Patton smiled at him, reaching out and taking Dorian’s hand with a smile. “C’mon ma cherie, let’s go see what RoRo is making and then we’ll get you dressed for the day.”

He laughed, a small sound coming from such a big man. “I wanna wear my duckie.”

Patton’s brow furrowed suddenly. “Cherie, I don’t know if it’s clean or not, I’ll ask Logie when I see him okay.”

As if on cue, Logan came stumbling in, the door being pushed open slowly as he tried to navigate the house with the basket in hand. His head swung back and forth, his light blue eyes slightly unfocused as he tried to situate himself so that he could see. Patton pulled Dorry out of the way so that he could set the basket down.

“Is Dorian’s onesie in there?”

Logan turned to him as he struggled to put the basket down. “Yes, washed, dried and folded.” He frowned slightly. “I advise you to be more careful next time you go out to play.” But there was no real disapproval in his tone.

Patton made sure the basket was secured. “Thanks Lo,” he leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. He pulled out the onesie. “Let’s go to breakfast now, okay cherie.”

Dorian linked pinkies with Patton, even as Patton placed a guiding hand on Logan’s wrist. He didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to help him, because Logan doesn’t like to be helped, but he hated to see Logan littered with bruises from tumbling into various furniture and walls.

They made their way towards the breakfast nook, and as they entered the kitchen, they found Virgil and Roman arguing in the kitchen. No words were exchanged, but hand gestures flew and body language changed. The little bit of sign Patton could understand led him to believe that they weren't really fighting, and the smiles on their faces furthered that theory.

Patton got Dorian settled into his seat, and made sure that Logan was seated too so he couldn’t get hurt before he turned to talk to his other two boyfriends.

“Breakfast almost done?” He eyed the stack of pancakes hopefully, that was one texture that he actually liked, that Roman was exceptionally good at making.

“Yes, except Virgil here thinks I should make french toast.” He spoke slowly and loudly, partially because he couldn’t hear himself but also so that Virgil, who was reading his lips, could understand what was being said.

Virgil signed something back, much too quick for Patton to be able to understand, but Roman seemed to catch it. “Don’t you take that tone with me.”

“What’s he saying?” Patton asked hesitantly.

“He told me I had to make french toast. He didn’t ask me, he told me to do it.”

Patton laughed as Virgil stuck his tongue out and Roman signed something very quickly. “I told him to make it himself.” He translated for Patton as soon as he was done.

Virgil signed back, mostly some playful swear words, but grabbed the platter of sausage and bacon to carry out to the table. Roman smiled softly as he watched him walk away, Patton was happy to see one of the few emotions he could understand in his eyes.

Roman shut off the stove and griddle, grabbing the plate of pancakes as he made his way out of the kitchen to the little nook over towards the back. “Breakfast is served.” He practically bellowed, but Logan was the only one who flinched. His sensitive hearing made it difficult for him to listen to Roman for too long.

Dorian furrowed his brow at the presentation of the pancakes, his eyes closing for a moment, he didn’t say anything for a long while, and Patton was just about to nudge him to see if he was okay, when he opened his eyes again and smiled at them all, it was clear it wasn’t Dorrian anymore. Diego looked around at them all with a frown. He let go of the blanket he was holding, a severe blush taking over his face.

“Would you like some pancakes love?” Logan asked, he couldn’t see the embarrassment, but the drop of the blanket and the sudden silence at the table told him that Diego had returned.

“Yes please.” He tried to push past the embarrassment. Logan swung his head towards where he had heard Roman set it down. His long fingers skittered across the plate and he found the spatula with little trouble. He held out his hand and Diego handed him his plate gently. He took the plate, and settled a pancake on it. He set the plate down long enough to reach up and readjust his glasses. His glasses didn’t really do much, but it was habit for him to put them on and they helped what little bit that he could see.

Diego took the plate as soon as Logan set it down, handing it off to Patton to settle some sausage on it. Patton put the bacon and sausage on Diego’s plate putting it on his own plate as well. He didn’t like sausage, the texture upset him a lot but Roman had cooked it and his mother had taught him to appreciate nice things that were done for him.

He ate his breakfast with a downturned face, he didn’t want to pull a face or cry or anything and caused everyone at the table to be concerned, and heaven forbid he upset Roman because Roman had worked so hard on breakfast and he shouldn’t feel like he did something wrong.

Maybe Roman was just good at reading people because he reached across the table and placed a gentle hand on his wrist. “You don’t have to eat it.” He was being as quiet as Roman could be.

Patton smiled a relieved smile, digging into his pancakes. It was just a few simple words, but hearing Roman confirm to him that he didn’t have to eat it was like a breath of fresh air. It’s only just this time though. His mind warned him, using the nasty little tone it did to make sure Patton knew exactly what he was or wasn’t allowed to do. He still felt bad, knowing that he’d only get to be out of it one day but at least he got out of it for now.

He finished eating, and was standing up to go put his plate away when disaster struck. Hearing someone stand up, Logan had attempted to get up as well and take his plate. Except he must’ve misjudged the location of the table because he didn't scoot out quite far enough. He ended up stumbling over the table leg, plate in hand and tumbling to the floor. There was a crunch as he landed on his plate, and Patton and Diego immediately rushed to his help.

Diego lifted him up and pulled him out of the way, but at the sight of blood, he stumbled back, his gaze going unfocused. Patton knew he was experiencing a switch so turning to Virgil, who was watching the scene confusedly, he quickly did the sign for help, hoping that Virgil would understand his poor signing abilities well enough to help.

Thankfully, Virgil quickly moved to his assistance, helping him to pull Logan out of the way, and then as soon as he had made sure there wasn’t anything serious going on, squatted next to Diego to make sure he was okay. Logan had a cut across his palm and a few on his arm from hitting the ground and the plate breaking, but nothing too serious. And Roman was quickly next to them with a small wrap of bandages and the broom in his other hand.

Patton took the broom from him, and Roman helped to wrap Logan’s bandages. “Are you okay?”

Logan once again flinched at his volume but responded as best he could. “A little shaken, but otherwise I am fine.” He frowned. “Is Diego okay?” He turned his head towards his other partners in hopes one of them could give him an answer. “It seems he’s trying to switch but I’m not sure who he’s trying to switch to.” Roman replied, reading Virgil’s signs.

“Roman, can you go get a washcloth?” He waited for a response, and when none came, repeated himself louder, realizing he must’ve spoken too softly for him to hear.

“Of course, let me get this cleaned up. Take Logan and D into the living room will you?” Patton nodded, helping Logan to his feet and offering Virgil the sign for Living room. He didn’t know enough to translate exactly what Roman had said but he was trying.

Virgil helped to half carry Logan into the living room, going back into the nook to help Diego. Diego was kneeling on the ground half swaying as he muttered to himself, an argument seeming to break out between two alters. Virgil wasn’t sure what he could do, all he could see was Diego’s face contorting and his lips moving slowly. He wasn’t sure what he could do, so he slung his arm around Diego’s waist and pulled him up, Diego rested all of his weight on Virgil, who basically carried him into the living room. By the time he had him situated in the living room, he had blinked open his eyes and looked around. Patton was preoccupied with Logan so Virgil did what he could.

Baby? He signed carefully, giving whoever was in charge right now time to read. Diego and Virgil were the first two that had started dating, and as such, they had developed a system for Virgil to understand who was who.

No. He signed back, blinking his honey colored eyes softly.

So it wasn’t Dorian then. Lovely? He tried.

No. He pouted at him, he didn’t understand what any of these signs meant, but he was looking for the familiar one.

Sweetheart? If it wasn’t lovely then it wasn’t Damien.

His face split into a smile, and he signed yes several times over.

DD? He fingerspelled as a question, wanting to make sure he had it right.

He signed yes again, imitating the motion of knocking. Virgil smiled at him, and got up, moving to flip on the TV for DD.

DD seemed overjoyed at the prospect of having the TV on and settled in front of it in excitement. Roman entered the room not long after, signed at Virgil to see what he’d missed. Roman could hear, and he could speak too but it was much more comforting to sign to someone because then he knew he wasn’t going to miss anything.

It’s DD who’s in charge right now, just so you know. Virgil signed as a warning, DD didn’t always like Roman, he was a little too loud for his taste.

Thank you he signed back, before going to settle himself on the couch next to Patton and Logan. “Everything okay?” He asked, wincing as he saw Logan jump.

“Yes. I’m okay anyway.” Logan squeezed Patton’s hand.

“I just need a moment.” He said squeezing Logan’s hand in response. “I was scared for you.”

“I know you were love, but I’m okay.” He frowned. “I should’ve been more careful and known where the table was, that was foolish of me.” Patton opened his mouth to argue, but Logan wouldn’t hear it. “No, no, no, love, I should’ve paid better attention, what if I had harmed one of you guys when I fell? It’s bad enough that I triggered D.” He seemed to be berating himself more than he was arguing with any of them.

Roman threw his arms around him, and tried to not be so loud as he said, “No Logie, its not your fault, we should really move stuff around- -”

“Absolutely not.” His tone was clipped. “I am not going to make you all struggle to move things around just because I’m not smart enough to remember where everything is.”

“It’s not about whether you’re smart enough.” Patton urged, worrying the material of Logan’s sweater vest between his fingers. All this back and forth was stressing him out. “It’s okay to need help.”

Logan got up suddenly, seeming distressed. “I do not need help.” He readjusted his glasses and started to walk away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, there are a few chores that need done, and Roman, don’t forget you have work today. You too Virgil.”

Patton sighed, he hated when Roman and Virgil went to work, because it got really quiet. He didn’t mind some quiet now and again, but several hours of silence as D watched his cartoons and Logan stumbled around the house in pain, it was torture. Instead of thinking about it, Patton decided to start planning what he was going to make for lunch today. The boys would be home on their lunch hour and he wanted them to have something to eat.

His mind ran through a few things his mother would make for lunch, but most of them had some type of meat in them, and even though the texture didn’t bother him much when it was cooked right, Virgil was a vegetarian. His mind ran through a few more dishes, before he fixated on one specific one. Ratatouille. It was the perfect season for it, and his garden should yield all of the vegetables they’d need.

His face broke into a smile, it would be great. And he’d probably even be able to get DD (though he didn’t get much sign, the alphabet was something that made sense to him) to eat it. He got up, trusting Virgil to be able to keep an eye on him while he checked the fridge.

They had olive oil, and a lot of herbs hanging up in the cupboard (Dorian and Virgil had started an herb garden together), all that was missing was the produce from Patton’s garden. He checked the pantry, to make sure they had flour and yeast so that he could make bread to go with it. He was so excited to be able to make something he loved for the people he loved, and started genuinely giggling in excitement.

He went back into the living room to grab his jacket and put on his boots. “I’m going out to the garden, bring DD out with you if you have to leave so that I can watch out for him.” He directed his words at Roman, who threw a pillow at Virgil to get his attention, before relaying the message in sign. Virgil responded with a thumbs up before returning to facing the TV that he and DD were watching.

Patton went out to his little garden by the house, opening the creaky gate with more excitement than anyone had probably ever opened a gate. He stayed to the paths that Roman had carefully helped him maintain. Squatting down next to his zucchini plants. He picked a few, shuffling on to his squash and pulling a few of them as well. There were plenty of tomatoes, so he grabbed a small basket from beside the gate and filled it with ripe tomatoes, placing the other two vegetables on top of it. He set the basket down right outside the onion patch he had.

The onions were always a little tricky for him, but using his hands, and trying to twist carefully he eventually got a few of them out. He set them in the basket, running through the mental checklist of everything he needed to make the meal. Peppers, I need bell peppers. He had to walk to the other end of his garden, but there were plenty of yellow peppers for him to choose from. He grabbed a few, before hefting the basket up into his arms and carrying it into the house.

When he opened the door, he found Virgil and Roman shrugging on their jackets to head to work. Virgil was a psychologist for deaf and hard of hearing people and Roman worked in retail. Coats on, and prepared to go, they stopped to kiss Patton on the cheek before heading out. Patton smiled and waved them goodbye, before heading into the kitchen.

He set the vegetables down, before heading back into the living room. He settled into his place on the couch, letting DD settle into his usual place on the floor. As soon as he sat down, Patton had a brilliant idea to go get DD’s favorite blanket so that he could watch his favorite cartoons in comfort.

He snuck off, slipping into the bedroom. He looked around on the bed and in the closet and when he couldn't find the blanket he was looking for, he moved on to the other bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, and as he pushed it the rest of the way open; he found Logan sitting on the bed, with his face in his hands. He looked immediately at the sound of the door, wiping what looked suspiciously like tears off of his face.

"Can I help you Patton?"

He didn't want to push Logan, so he just left it where it was. "Do you know where DD's blanket is?"

"I believe it's in the dryer." He frowned for a moment, like he was trying to think. "Though I am not sure."

"I'll go check." Then, tentatively; he said, "Are you okay Logie?"

He smiled "Of course, I'm fine love. Thank you for your concern."

Patton nodded, offering him a soft smile, so soft, that for a moment, he was almost tempted to tell him. But of course he couldn't, couldn't hurt him like that.

Patton left him to his, okayness and went in search of DD's dog blanket.

Logan was right, the blanket was in the dryer. And by the time he found it; DD had already got up in search of him. He found him standing in the hallway with tears in his eyes.

"You left me." He sniffled out, his lips quivering.

"I went to get your blanket danard." He ruffled his hair, handing it to him, and immediately drying his tears.

"Oh." He held the blanket tightly. "What does that mean?"

"What mean?" He tried to think of what he might have said that would confuse DD.

"The D word you called me." He furrowed his brow, like he was trying to think or something.

"Denard? It means duck, lovely." Patton had been raised to speak both English and French but he only used french nowadays to give people pet names.

"Oh, I like that."

"I'm glad you do." Patton reached out to take his hand. "Let's go watch cartoons okay denard?"

They settled down on the couch to watch TV, flipping channels at DD’s request. After running through half the channels they had and deciding that it there wasn’t anything good on, Patton flipped to Roman’s Netflix and put on Paw Patrol for him instead.

The german shepherd (DD informed him his name was Chase) was just wrapping up another adventure when Patton’s phone buzzed. It was a text from Virgil reminding him that if he wanted to make lunch that it was almost noon. Patton was thankful for this message because he wasn’t very good at remembering things and time could be a little tricky for him. He sat up, pausing the TV.

“Want to come with and help me cook DD?”

“Okie.” He smiled and stood up, following him into the kitchen.

Patton set the basket on the counter, and turned on the water. “Can you wash the vegetables for me love?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” he giggled, grabbing the zucchini and squash.

“I don’t need you to wash all of the tomatoes canard; just a few of them.” He turned on the oven, coating a few pans with olive oil as he plugged in the blender.

As soon as DD had finished cutting vegetables, he let him go sit at the table and play with the trucks he’d just retrieved from his toy chest. Patton cut up the zucchini and squash and put them on the pans to go in the oven, before cutting up the rest of the vegetables and throwing them in the blender. Now came his least favorite part, he didn’t like the sound the blender made; so furrowing his brow, and shaking slightly in the hands, he pressed the button to start the blender.

The noise was just as bad as usual, and trying not to panic was causing him to shake and his vision to seem fuzzy; but soon the vegetables were pureed enough and he could turn it off and pour the sauce into a bowl. Then, he turned back to the oven and opened the door. The vegetables were nice and caramelized so he pulled them out of the oven and dumped them into the bowl with the sauce. Somehow managing to avoid incident despite his shaking body.

He finished mixing it up just as Roman and Virgil came in the door, they stopped to put their coats on the tree and then followed the sound of people and the smell of cooking to see Patton and DD in the kitchen.

“Do you want to go get Logie, or have V get him?” He called over his shoulder to Roman as he set down the bowl and started to grab bowls out of the cupboard. “I’ll get DD settled down.”

He grabbed a sponge from beside the sink, and went into the dining room. “DD go put your toys away okay Denard, I need to wipe down the table and then it’s lunch time.”

He clapped his hands at the mention of food, before going into the living room to put away his toys, coming back a few moments later to settle himself at his favorite place at the table. Virgil came back, leading Logan. Roman was carrying the stack of dishes Patton had gotten out of the cupboard. He set them down and everyone settled into their places so that Patton could serve up lunch. After lunch, They all sat and watched some TV together, something that they could all agree on with the captions on. Then Roman and Virgil had to return to work, thankfully though, Logan didn’t go back to the bedroom and instead stayed out there with DD and Patton to watch TV.

Halfway through their watching, DD switched back to Diego and joined them on the couch with a sigh, sitting on the opposite end of the couch (which upset Patton a little but he wouldn’t say anything). Eventually Roman came home from work, and went into the kitchen, recruiting Logan to help him decide on ingredients and meal plans. Virgil came home not long after and joined Diego and Patton on the couch, getting them to draw in close and relax with him.

They had meatless lasagna for dinner, and after eating they watched a little bit more TV, before eventually splitting up to head to their own rooms and get some sleep.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 4: The Death of Mysterio

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Last time we began our look at the life of Mysterio. In this post we’ll continue our retrospective, starting with the 1990s.

The 1990s: Helping Harry

We come now to an event that chronologically would’ve happened in the 1990s but was retroactively established in 2009.

During Brand New Day (ASM #581 specifically) we learned via retcon that Mysterio was responsible for faking the death of Mary Jane’s close friend, Harry Osborn. He did this on behalf of his Harry’s, father Norman.

I won’t recount the entire Harry Osborn Saga for you, but suffice it to say that Harry’s descent into madness was incredibly stressful for Mary Jane and Peter.

In spite of what Harry had become the couple were grief-stricken by his death.

MJ in particular was so affected by his death she requested Peter take a temporary break from hero work.

That same day Carnage began a killing spree alongside several other highly violent super villains. MJ’s grief over Harry coupled with the anxiety that Peter might meet a similar fate contributed to straining her and her marriage further, albeit briefly.

At the time Peter and MJ were living in an apartment owned by the Osborns. Following the Carnage crisis, Harry’s widow Liz Allan evicted the Parkers as a direct result of Harry’s death. Obviously this added to the Parkers’ distress.

In general Harry’s death left short and long-term wounds for MJ and people she loved and Mysterio was directly implicated in that. As he had done with Aunt May he had caused entirely unnecessary pain and grief out of pure selfishness, even if he was merely a ‘hired gun’ to that effect.

We never see MJ learn this information but given how one of her friends seemingly came back from the dead  it’s something she’d obviously want to know about and since she is so close to Peter and Harry it’s extremely unlikely they wouldn’t have told her.

I will admit that this example is a contentious one as it doesn’t really make sense for a loooooooot of reasons and the story doesn’t 100% confirm that Harry (and by extension Peter and anyone either of them might tell) knows  Mysterio was responsible.

So it could be argued that as far as Harry knows an unknown ‘someone’ covered his tracks (presumably his father) but he’s in the dark regarding Beck’s involvement.

However it is food for thought, yet another thing that would realistically cause MJ to hold Mysterio in lowly regard.

Duel with the Devil

Lets move away from Beck’s encounters with Spidey and towards those he had with Man Without Fear, Daredevil.

The first of these occurred in Daredevil #358, set shortly after the Onslaught crossover. In the wake of Onslaught’s attack and the presumed deaths of the Avengers and F4 Beck set up a fraudulent insurance scheme to con people out of their money.  That isn’t too relevant beyond it once again proving what an exploitative dickbag Mysterio is. More importantly though, it sets up his next encounter with DD.

I am of course referring to the ‘Guardian Devil’ story arc that ran through Daredevil volume 2 #1-8.

This arc is the absolute nadir of Mysterio’s ‘bad behaviour’.

Developing terminal illnesses and with just a year to live, Beck sought to go out with a bang. Initially he intended to make Spider-Man the centre of his plan but due to confusion (arising from Ben Reilly’s tenure as Spidey) he targeted Daredevil instead. Learning personal details about Daredevil’s life (including his secret identity) Beck built a plan designed to attack Matt Murdock’s sanity (evoking his scheme in ASM #24). In particular his plan hinged upon Murdock’s Catholic beliefs.

A key component of his plan was the abduction, drugging, artificial insemination and gas lighting of a Catholic teenager named Gwyneth.

Although her faith led Gwyneth to believe her pregnancy was divine in origin, she was understandably emotionally distraught after discovering herself pregnant and her pregnancy caused major strife with her parents. To ensure Gwyneth’s parents wouldn’t get the chance to investigate the matter, Beck hired some thugs to murder them. Witnessing her mother being beheaded  over the body  of her father Gwyneth fled with her baby, terrified as the thugs pursued her.

Out of desperation she was temporarily forced to sleep on the streets with her baby. It was at this point that Beck used his illusionary skills to trick her into seeing a ‘divine vision’ that led her to Matt Murdock. Passing her baby onto Matt she fled again hoping to lay low. However Mysterio’s men found and promptly murdered her. Her body was buried somewhere it wouldn’t be found.

Just to bottom line things so far, Mysterio knowingly:

Abducted

Drugged

Sexually assaulted

Orphaned

Traumatised

Hunted

Distressed

Manipulated

And murdered

A TEENAGED GIRL!

Just saying…

Anyway, there was more to Beck’s scheme than just Gwyneth.

He also murdered an innocent old man and for his fortune and impersonated him to enact the next part of his plan. This entailed slipping Murdock drugs that made him susceptible to Beck’s cover story. According to this story Gwyneth’s baby was in fact the literal anti-Christ and misfortune would befall Matt the longer he was around the child.

To help make his story more convincing Beck began targeting Matt’s loved ones.

He hired a drug-addicted actress named Lydia Mckenzie to seduce Matt’s best friend Foggy Nelson, who was already in a relationship. On Beck’s orders she also slipped Foggy a drug that caused him to perceive her as a demon and believe that he had pushed her out a window. In reality Beck ensured she died of an overdose, shoved her out the window himself and over all framed Foggy for murder.*

He also posed as a doctor and (I am dead serious right now) tricked Matt’s girlfriend Karen Page into believing she had AIDs. Remember this story was from the late 1990s so this was a BIG deal.

As a result of these machinations and the drug Beck slipped him, Daredevil genuinely tried to murder Gwyneth’s baby.

Mysterio later hired DD’s long-time nemesis (and known psychopathic assassin) Bullseye to abduct Lydia’s baby. He cared little about the inevitable collateral damage Bullseye caused in pursuit of his target. And by ‘collateral damage’ I mean the serious injuries to several people (including Matt’s mother, the nun Sister Margaret) and the murder of 11 people. Karen was among the casualties, traumatically dying in Matt’s arms.

Matt was so distraught over Karen’s death that he briefly contemplated suicide.

Angry and determined, Daredevil zeroed in on Beck’s hideout where Beck had a gauntlet prepared for him. One of the obstacles Murdock faced was an illusion of Karen stuck in Hell. Undoubtedly this was the single most spiteful and hurtful of the things Matt endured in Beck’s gauntlet.

When Daredevil and Mysterio finally come face to face, Beck revealed Gwyneth’s baby trapped in a soundproof chamber where the air was rapidly running out.

So…Mysterio is a-okay with seriously endangering and potentially murdering a baby.

…Again…Just saying…

Mysterio finally revealed his master plan to Daredevil, intending to push a broken Murdock into murdering him.

When DD refused Mysterio opted to emulate Kraven the Hunter and blow his own brains out; a fact that became public knowledge.**

Now sure, we the audience might be aware of all these awful things Beck did in ‘Guardian Devil’; but how much does MJ  know about them?

The potential answer is all of it.

The definite answer is more than enough of it.

Towards the start of Daredevil v2 #8 Peter is shown watching a news report about Mysterio’s death. The report acknowledges Mysterio committed suicide and that the bodies of his criminal crew had been found. It also refers to ‘a related story’, that of Foggy Nelson being freed from prison after being framed for Lydia’s death. This implies the news were aware Mysterio was implicated in Lydia’s death.

During this scene MJ is not only within earshot of most of the report, but she even consoles Peter that Mysterio was (in her own words) ‘a lunatic’. She acknowledges he was responsible for the deaths of ‘all those people’. She continues by saying Beck doesn’t deserve Peter’s ‘pity’ and that he should ‘not mourn for Mysterio’. She concludes by telling him to mourn someone ‘who deserves it’ instead.

Then they go to Karen Page’s funeral, which they were clearly preparing for during the news report.

Their attendance of the funeral and the scene leading into it heavily implies that Peter and MJ were aware that Mysterio’s was implicated in Karen’s murder.***

Later in the issue Spider-Man talks to Daredevil in order to fill in the blanks.

We do not know for sure if Spider-Man relayed any of this information to Mary Jane, but it’d be highly likely.

He typically confides in her and uses his conversations with her to process things. MJ herself often asks him to share if she sees something I bothering him.

In this case Peter would especially want to inform MJ of what happened and MJ would especially want to know.

This is because the incident entails one of Peter’s foes essentially manipulating and killing the lover of a fellow street level hero. In fact the only reason Daredevil was targeted at all was because Beck didn’t realise Peter was still around as the original Spider-Man. In other words Peter and MJ could very well have been in Matt and Karen’s shoes.

For the sake of future reference and general safety it’s totally unbelievable that Peter would not have told MJ about this at some point. After all, forewarned is forearmed and MJ has found herself targeted by people with powers of deception like Mysterio in the past, e.g. Venom and the Chameleon.****

I admit there is no hard proof that MJ knows all the details about Mysterio’s actions, but it’s rather unlikely that she wouldn’t if Peter did; it’s just common sense. Therefore we don’t need to see such a scene any more than we need to see the characters going to the bathroom or paying their taxes. It’s just such basic common sense we can presume it happened.

Even if you don’t think so, at the bear minimum Mary Jane definitely knows Mysterio is guilty of murder, accessory to murder (of someone in a similar relationship to herself), gas lighting and mental abuse. The result was that she personally regarded him as mentally unhinged and unworthy f sympathy.

If you only bear in mind ONE of the stories we’ve looked at so far, remember this one. In particular because the story is explicitly referenced in Amazing Mary Jane #1.

The 2000s: Rebirth of Berkhart

As far as those in charge of Marvel were concerned, Beck was genuinely dead and that was the status quo throughout the 2000s.

Nevertheless there are two very noteworthy events from MJ’s point of view that should be taken into account.

The first occurred in ASM v2 #7-8. In this story ‘Mysterio’ abducts the Parker family along with some of their friends and plugs them into a virtual reality machine because the Matrix was really popular back then. His intention was to deduce Spider-Man’s true identity by monitoring their interactions in the virtual world.

This virtual world happened to be shaped by the subconscious of Flash Thompson, meaning everyone was contorted to fit into his wish fulfilment fantasy. This included MJ’s friend Jill Stacy becoming a seemingly resurrected Gwen Stacy, MJ herself being gaga over Flash and wanting to marry him (the climax actually occurs at their wedding) and MJ’s husband being wheelchair bound.

Realistically the fantasy world (along with the realization they’d been abducted) would’ve obviously been upsetting for Mary Jane. Indeed it would’ve been upsetting for everyone else too (including fragile old Aunt May) even if it didn’t leave long-term scars. With no equivocation, this upset was directly ‘Mysterio’s’ fault.

I say Mysterio, but in actuality (and due to retcons) it was Beck’s ‘apprentice’ Danny Berkhart. However, Mary Jane couldn’t have known that (even the writers didn’t!), so from her point of view it would’ve seemed likely that Beck was responsible and merely faked his death once more during the ‘Guardian Devil’ arc.

Later during the ‘Mysterio Manifesto’ mini-series Spidey and Daredevil discovered the truth behind Berkhart’s scheme. This is tangentially important to bear in mind because of what we are going to look at next, namely Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12.

The specifics of this story aren’t all that relevant. All you need to know is that following Spidey publically unmasking Midtown High (where he worked as a science teacher) was besieged by three Mysterios. One was a new villain named Francis Klum, who had a vendetta against Spider-Man. Another was Berkhart who took issue with Klum’s claim to the Mysterio mantle. And the third was Beck himself, literally sent back from Hell.

After deducing an illusion of MJ as a fake Peter calls the genuine article to confirm her safety. During their conversation it’s revealed that MJ believes Mysterio to be dead.

First of all, this scene establishes that MJ was definitely aware Mysterio had targeted her husband (again!) and potentially endangered school children  in the process.

Second of all, from her point of view it’d seem likely that Beck would be behind this. I grant you that's a point that can be debated. However in her conversation with Peter he seems to imply to her that it is the original Mysterio.

Finally (and most importantly) MJ’s dialogue reveals that previously believed Beck was dead. Between ‘Guardian Devil’ and ‘Beck’s’ presence in ASM v2 #7-8 Mary Jane would have no reason to believe Beck hadn’t simply faked his death again. That is unless Peter told her otherwise.

Remember, Peter learned the truth in the ‘Mysterio Manifesto’ when MJ was believed dead, which occurred after  ASM v2 #8. This means that Peter must have informed her of this discovery after she was revealed as alive.

This is a point less about how bad of a person Beck is and more about proving that Peter keeps MJ abreast of noteworthy events in regards to his villains. Thus it is absolutely illogical to presume MJ wouldn’t similarly be in the know about most events Peter experiences pertaining to his villains; or at least the really noteworthy ones.

Let’s leave it there for now. Next time we will finish our coverage as we enter the 2010s.

*‘Fun’ fact. In addition to her close friend/ex-boyfriend Harry Osborn struggling with a drug addiction (which indirectly led to Gwen’s death) another of MJ’s friends was well acquainted with drugs.

Her name was Lorraine and she helped MJ learn the ropes when she was first getting into modelling. Unfortunately after overdosing in the Parker residence, MJ learned Lorraine had a major cocaine problem. MJ was so upset by this she asked Peter to sort out Lorraine’s dealer, only to be distraught when Lorraine simply went to someone worse and very nearly died as a result.

Lorraine survived and MJ was determined to help her through her problem.

Oh and MJ herself struggled for a little while to kick cigarettes.

All of which is to say Mary Jane is definitely going to take major issue with someone exploiting someone else’s drug addiction for their own ends. Which is exactly what Beck did with Lydia McKenzie.

Not to mention Lydia was someone in the exact same profession as Mary Jane, which might incline further ire from MJ.

**Remember this is not the first time Mysterio has been publically declared dead. It first occurred in ASM #141, which I discussed in the last instalment.

***Not to mention how it’d be common sense to ask how someone so young died if you are going to their funeral.

****And as food for thought she has literally armed herself with guns in the past. As such the idea she wouldn’t make a point of getting practical information for the sake of safety is highly unbelievable, even if she didn’t live in a city where super villains are commonplace.

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

[carnistcervine]

(Also, this makes me wonder how Sokka and Jet's respective loved ones and enemies react to their infections. May I get some headcanons? :O)

Okay, first, thank you so much for these lovely asks.

-When Sokka gets burned, he doesn't notice it at first. The adrenaline of the moment temporarily numbs him from the pain of the initial injury. However, as he comes down from the high of battle, he notices an increasingly painful burning in his arm.

-This is when Sokka realizes that he's been burned.

-He tries to hide the burn from Aang and Katara, and keeps them in the dark about his growing inner turmoil.

-Katara notices the change in her brother, but doesn't know about his burn. She notices how depressed and withdrawn he's becoming and tries to help or cheer him up in some way. She feels helpless when nothing she tries works.

-She feels horrible and does her best to hold it together and gently tries to get him to open up to no avail. But for the sake of her brother, she refuses to give up on him.

-Aang hasn't known Sokka long enough to know that something is very wrong with him, but as the Avatar he does sense a gradually shifting change in his energies. He has his own concerns, but leaves them unspoken for now.

-As Sokka's fire curse symptoms begin to become more pronounced, Katara takes notice. Sokka is able to still hide most of them, but can't hide his steadily increasing temperature.

-Katara suspects that Sokka is ill and tries to maybe slow or settle down until he feels better.

-But Sokka insists that he's fine and pushes them to keep going. They aren't safe staying in one place for too long.

-Not too long after this, the curse gets the better of Sokka and he passes out as he is officially converted into a firebender.

-Now Aang's fears have been confirmed, and Katara finally sees the true source of turmoil for her brother.

-When Sokka comes to, he's mortified to know that his friends have realized he's been infected.

-However, Katara and Aang refuse to leave his side. Despite Katara's grievances with the Fire Nation, she could never abandon her brother. As someone who lived before the war, Aang understands that being a firebender does not make you evil or bad in any way.

-Now knowing that he brother is a firebender, Katara refuses to let Sokka suppress his bending. She won't let her brother drive himself into madness.

-It's a hard battle, Sokka knows, and has personally seen his own mother succumb to the madness. Only able to helplessly watch as she clawed her own burning throat out and collapse dead in the melting snow.

-Of course, Katara also remembers this, and is her main motivation for trying to save Sokka. She desperately doesn't want to lose anyone else to such a terrible fate.

-She and Aang manage to get Sokka to use his bending a little, just enough to stave off the madness.

-Well, almost. Sokka does show some symptoms due to his refusal to get enough sun and his suppression of his bending.

-Sometimes he'll space out a little or say something that doesn't make any logical sense.

-And then Aang and Katara would make him stand in the sun and heat some water for tea.

-The group keep Sokka's firebending under wraps as best they can. Partly because of the fear that the Fire Nation will take Sokka away, and partly due to the paranoia surrounding firebenders.

-Eventually they do run into Jet and his group.

-The other Freedom Fighters don't realize this, but Jet knows right away that Sokka is a firebender. He confronts Katara in private about it. He agrees to help her and keep her brother safe as a way to further entangle her into his manipulation.

-But deep down, he already loathes Sokka, not for anything he's said or done. But simply for the fact that he's a firebender.

-While Aang and Katara are completely oblivious and naively falling right into Jet's hands, Sokka instincts are setting off alarm bells about Jet.

-Jet plots on how to get rid of Sokka, but can't seem to get him alone.

-Jet goes on his patrol mission without Sokka. However, Sokka has a nagging voice somewhere in the back of his head. It tells them to follow them, but in secret.

-Jet attacks an innocent old firebender who is minding his own business, going for a walk. He's about to strike the old man when Sokka finally lets out some proper fire in the form of a fireball. Jet leaps back and Sokka jumps down and takes a defensive stance in front of the old man, proclaiming that he's not going to let him kill an innocent person. Jet tells Sokka that no firebenders are innocent, pointing his blade at Sokka's throat.

-The two are about to go at it when Katara calls Jet from not too far away. He sneers at Sokka and he and his cronies leave him with the old man to distract Katara.

-Later that night, Sokka tries to get the group to leave, but Katara wants to hear Jet's side of the story. Jet of course claims that nothing happened, his patrol was completely uneventful and he hadn't even run into Sokka. Katara worries that Sokka's madness is worsening. Jet latches onto that, but Sokka tries his best to argue that he was completely lucid when it happened and Jet's a thug. In trying to argue his case, Sokka ends up letting it slip that he's been hearing a voice. Katara is deeply worried, but Sokka just storms off, unable to get through to her.

-Jet consoles Katara as she opens up about what fire madness did to her mother.

-Of course, now that his suspicions are confirmed, Sokka spies on Jet once again and finds out that he's going to flood a village. Sokka wants to warn Aang and Katara, but he already knows they won't believe a thing he says. So he tries to stop Jet himself.

-Being weakened from his deliberate avoidance of the sun and his suppression of his own bending, he fails and Jet has his cronies march Sokka off to be discretely taken care of.

-Of course, they can't match Sokka's Water Tribe superior knot knowledge, so he gives them the slip and runs straight for the village.

-The firebender soldiers are pretty shocked to see a beaten and out of breath fellow firebender approach them. He's shouting a rambling something about some thug trying to flood the place? It's clear to them that this poor firebender hasn't been properly cared for and is suffering from some terrible bout of madness. Judging by his clothes, he's likely been beaten and abandoned by his family, poor thing. So they try to get him to calm down and come along with them so they can help him.

-But the old man that Sokka rescued earlier, says that he ran afoul of the same thug Sokka speaks of. While, he admits that the youth seems to be suffering from a mild case of fire rabies, it may be in their best interest to evacuate. After all, if he's wrong, then all they did was waste a few hours or so.

-Thankfully, this gets the whole place evacuated just in time. The soldiers are absolutely mortified to see that the boy's predictions were true. They leave Sokka in the care of a healer. They intend to help him recover from his madness and then they'd have him sent off to the Fire Nation to be properly trained. But first, there was some retaliation due for this "Jet" character.

-Obviously Sokka isn't just going to stand by and be taken in by the Fire Nation, so he breaks out and finds his friends. Unknowingly helping the firebending soldiers find the Freedom Fighters.

-Katara is just coming to her horrifying realization, when suddenly, the forest starts going up in flames. Sokka bursts out from the trees and embraces Katara, gently teasing that he told her so.

-Jet is hit by a stray fire blast and is burned. He begs Katara for help, but Katara refuses. Maybe a little taste of the infection will teach Jet some empathy.

-At the moment, the Gaang manage to get away, as the soldiers are more concerned with dealing with the guerrilla terrorists that tried to wipe them out. However, it does not escape them that the young, maddened firebender is traveling with the Avatar and a waterbender. Word quickly spreads of another freshly infected firebender that needs to be trained into a proper firebender.

-For the Fire Nation, Sokka isn't just another nobody to be knocked out of the way. He's a potential asset. A mind to be molded to the ways of fire. A sign that they are edging ever closer to their goal of world domination.

-During their next encounter with Zuko, the Fire Prince only has to take one look at Sokka to know that he's been infected. Zuko promptly makes it his mission to not only capture the Avatar, but to see to it that Sokka is trained. Of course, Zuko and Iroh can actually agree on that second goal. Neither are interested in brainwashing Sokka into aligning with the Fire Nation though, they just both understand the importance being able to control elemental powers. And also, Zuko sees Sokka as being one of his own and refuses to let another firebender suffer.

-Zhao attempts to capture Sokka as well, seeing as corralling stray firebenders gets him points with his (increasingly fewer) superiors, and more promotions.

-When Azula comes into the mix, she also tries to capture Sokka. She sees him as a potential pawn. And also, a good future Fire Lord should know how control her subjects.

-The less said about what the Dai Lee want to do to Sokka, the better.

-The Northerners don't trust the firebender in their midst, and the only thing keeping them from dousing Sokka is the fact that he's the Avatar's companion. They do their best to keep a wedge between him and Yue.

-It doesn't work because Yue finds that she really likes this goofy firebender. Sokka has a heart to heart with her about his bending and she suggests to him that he ask the spirits to free him from his curse.

-When Zhao goes after the moon spirit, Sokka tackles him and scuffles with him while the Gaang and Iroh fight off his forces. Sokka is badly hurt by Zhao's superior firebending, but in an equally desperate and ingenious move he knocks both of the into the pool.

-The oasis pool is much, much deeper than it looks from the outside(seriously how is this physically possible?). Ominous shadows lurk in the dark and Zhao is dragged into the abyss. Sokka tries to swim to the surface, but he's weakened from his injuries and his inner fire has already used up all of his breath. However something does pull him back up.

-When Sokka awakens after being pulled from the water, he finds that the spirits have healed his wounds, but the curse remains.

-Sokka is initially very nervous to meet up again with his father. He's terrified that he won't accept a firebender son. However, firebender or not, Hakoda loves his son. He'd never abandon or forsake him.

-Suki is nice to Sokka's face but has her own reservations after seeing what the infection does to people. However, she does slowly grow to trust that Sokka has not been taken by the fire.

-In concerns with Jet, the Freedom Fighters disband after Jet is burned. Only Smellerbee and Long Shot stay by Jet's side, his two ride or dies.

-As much as they want to help Jet, and not have him become a firebender, the only water healers left are in the North Pole or Ba Sing Se. Both are too far to walk to before the infection would set in. Smellerbee convinces Jet to give up on this lifestyle and just live a quiet life as a refugee in Ba Sing Se.

-Reluctantly, he agrees.

-Smellerbee and Long Shot carefully watch Jet for signs of madness, as they know he's suppressing his bending.

-However Jet is an old hand at hiding the dark truths about himself.

-He starts to slip when he sees Iroh heat his tea.

-Jet is inevitably arrested by the Dai Lee.

-There are rumors that Ba Sing Se kills any and all infected with the fire curse. This is not true. Long Feng and his Dai Lee actually have much use for them.

-That being said, the less said about what the Dai Lee did to Jet, the better.

Lmao I think I went a little overboard. :'D

My inbox is always open to anyone that wants to talk or inquire about my AUs or ideas and such~