#and sometimes my sisters and i watched those more than the originals :|

[thisbrilliantsky]

brought to you by madeline's song while she's in solitary confinement in the illegal lace factory being stuck in my head at 5am

[julia4today]

can you do like hobie x reader but miguel is readers father and he finds out that reader is dating hobie

yes. for this though we will have to kind of work around gabriella. we’ll just say she exists and is your older sister || i’m not really sure what ages i should use so i’ll leave that ambiguous.

——

mahogany fluff —- oneshot

(hobie x spanish speaking!reader) —— fem prns

avoidance. a skill you need to learn if you are going to sneak around and evade your parent. especially if that parent is 6’9 and 110% muscle.

————

your origin story with hobie is one that’s messy at best. especially considering the obvious blockade that was your father. him being overprotective and also hobie’s boss are two things that one never wants paired together. yet, love is one thing that can overcome. — i’m just kidding, there wasn’t a powerful we love each other moment, mostly just a lot of laughing.

it was mid july and your father was just as engrossed with work as always. you wanted to spend time together, have fun. he said he would love to but honestly you didnt think it would happen. you began to go to headquarters yourself and drag him from work. like, literally drag him.

this obviously garnered lots of attention, for one, who is this girl yelling at boss? a certain spider also happened to catch wind of the girl. he would join the crowd, laughing, cheering mildly aswell.

“dijiste que vendrías a cenar conmigo y con gabi . ¿y dónde te encuentro? ¡no en la cena! ¡hicimos empanadas, imbécil!”

“¡lo siento, mi princesa! i promise i didn’t mean to miss dinner.”

“yeah well you did, no empanadas for you. we’ll feed them to chester instead.” you say, turning around and walking away. leaving miguel to bask in the shame. you giggled at the thought of your dog getting more empanadas than your own father.

while miguel was busy being questioned about the strange girl who just walked up in here, hobie walks off to go talk to her.

“man you are an ace! that was barmy. who are you?” hobie leads with a compliment, genuinely impressed and a little refreshed at your presence, how not scared you were to yell at miguel. “a new spider recruit?”

you stop, rolling your eyes a little, still fuming at your dad. turning to greet the voice your mood immediately switches. his smooth accent and his sharp features should’ve made you a puddle right there. “n-no i’m not a spider recruit. i’m that pendejo’s daughter.”

“na shot,”

“don’t get your knickers in a twist,” you say mildly mocking his thick cockney.

“how d’you know?”

“i watch a lot television.” a laugh coming from both of you meld together.

“i’m just amazed at how you stood to the boss like tha’,”

“it’s a lot easier when the boss comes home and watches the soaps with you. what’s your name mysterious spider who’s following me home?”

“hobie, hobie brown. you’re a cheeky one, can’t believe you come from ‘im.”

“no, i’m y/n.” he laughs at your stupid joke, making your face heat up.

“i’d be chuffed to hang out with you sometime y/n. maybe visit my earth?”

“papá no me deja ir a diferentes tierras,” you shrug. “says it’s too dangerous.”

hobie nods, pretending he knows what’s you said. “atleast let me get to know you. ya like ackee?”

“mhm,” you say, a little suspicious but also mildly intrigued.

“‘ow bout tomorrow you come ‘ere n i’ll take you to some real jamaican food.”

“alright hobie, i’ll play.” you giggle and continue to your car.

he smiles waving. knowing what he’s getting himself into.

————

sorry no part 2! i’m really sorry to those who are disappointed by this :(

[luvtak]

sandcastles, lfx x reader

✧ genre/ tw f2l <3!! sugary sweet fluff, angsty confessions, a couple pet names, a very sweet kiss, and felix and mc being unbearably down bad for each other, unedited <3

✧ w/c 2586

✧ a/n okay so i am writing this at 2 am after basically throwing this up, I've had this idea in my head for a couple days and finally had time to execute it, I am a sucker for f2l!felix and I hope you enjoy this very sweet confession, as well as the fun summery vibes I hoped to embrace the story in, happy reading! mwah <3!!

The first time you saw him you thought he was a daydream, sun bright and shiny–a made up boy for a lazy sunday afternoon. He came with golden hour, everything orange and yellow and the floral july smell was creeping around you. At twelve, you’d never seen a boy so sure of himself or so kind. Usually, the boys at school were listlessly mean or energetically cruel–ever patient in their mission to bother you. But here was Felix, funny and sweet and asking to be your friend. 

The summer passed in oceanfront days and popsicle covered nights, pop songs on the radio as you talked from the backseat. Goofy and glamorous months spent together as you awaited Fall. You remember those days like the lines of your palm, linen sheets wrapped around your bodies as you told scary stories and held each other to ward off nightmares. Some days, going to bed with the sun still high in the sky–naps on the beach with his head on your tummy. 

Felix’s sister’s hands in yours while you played ring around the rosie, giggles loud when you let go. The little girl’s voices as they yelled they all fall down! And Felix's own little voice asking if you were all okay, always worried about skinned knees and chipped nail polish. Childhood flashed with bandaid kisses and sandy shoes, freckled skin and ocean covered giggles. 

You’d never forget when you realized he was beautiful–stepping out of the ocean like Aphrodite herself, a boy born from sunshine and seafoam. His wide eyes were crinkled with sun, surely adding more stars to his golden skin, and he was smiling. Smiling at you of all things, bright and incandescent Felix grinning at you like the happiest man on earth. 

You think of that boy now as he sits next to you, watching the movie with an almost exaggerated delight. Taking in the action and the humor like someone just shown technicolor after a life of black and white. He’s grown up so much, grown up and away from you as you’ve gotten older. Those summer nights are just an origin story for who he is now, a big bright star like you always knew him to be. 

As his very first fan, you always saw in him this man he could become, but sometimes under the cover of midnight you selfishly wished you could have kept him to yourself. He was always just yours; until he wasn’t… Always your north star, leading you on your journey since you were just a little thing, and now he’s that to thousands of people–none of them knowing he was yours first. 

If you told him this he’d giggle up a storm and tell you he was still yours, but he wasn’t, not really… not in the way you wanted him to be. How could you tell him you loved him when in an instant he became bigger than you or any childhood wish. 

“Silly, why aren’t you watching the movie? It’s the best part!” eyes gleaming and mouth pouty, Felix looks so pretty in the tv light, “I know we’ve seen this one like a billion times, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pay attention.” He huffs, undeniably pretending to be annoyed with you. He can’t really, couldn’t even if he wanted to. You’re just so dear to him, one half of his heart, and he could never attribute any negative feeling to you, even if you deserved it. 

When he came home and saw you, more grown up and more beautiful than his phone screen allowed, he couldn’t believe he ever left you. He was so excited to watch your movie together, and while Ponyo had lost the astonishment of childhood, it still held its charm. The film was the background of so many childhood memories–putting it on after midnight nightmares or days spent sick in bed; children versions of you wrapped up and watching every sleepover. 

It was silly, he had you there right next to him, but he still missed you until the movie was on, and here you were not watching it. 

“Sorry, Lix, I just can’t believe you’re actually here.” your voice trembles a little, hiding the true emotions and fear that he’ll find you out. He would never stop being your friend just because you had a little crush on him, could never abandon you for something so little as a flutter in your tummy. But this wasn’t just a crush or a flutter, this was a stampede. You’d been in love with him for so long now, kept it hidden away in teenage diaries and grown up journals. A secret between you and the moon. You could never be sure how he’d take it, that for years now you’d been cowardly and afraid of him, a boy so brave he conquered his dreams. 

“Well, believe it baby! And watch the movie… or else…” He said it in a funny voice, and even though you knew he meant well, the pet name pushed an ugly feeling in your gut. 

Quietly and painfully you looked back to the screen, avoiding the way you can feel his body breathe next to you. For so long you missed this, the knowledge that your best friend was next to you, but now you think he should go home. Back to Seoul where he doesn’t hurt you by being him, sunshiney and starlit him. “Hey, seriously, are you okay? Where’d you go?” Felix is genuinely worried now, a sinister feeling arising in his chest that you’re not okay, and that it’s because of him. 

Sure, he’s been gone a lot the last couple of years, but he never forgot the way your eyes got misty before you cried. He grew up alongside you, nursed bloody knuckles and broken hearts and he could feel when you were sad–knew like the back of his hand when you were devastated and hiding it, but was this just because you missed him? 

“I’m fine, star boy, I just always get a little sad when I watch Ponyo. You remember don’t you? The way I would cry and cry when Sasuke promises to love and take care of her?” you mutter, softly without any conviction, and while the boy knows this to be true, he can’t help but notice your fidgety hands and the way you won’t look at him. 

You’re so worried, crushed beyond belief that one night home and he’ll figure you out. You could never keep a secret from him, running to tell him as soon as someone told you a whisper of hidden truth. Since you were twelve you told him all your innerworkings and private feelings, all but this one. It was easy when he was gone, easy to train your voice to sound happy over the phone, but you couldn’t hide anything with his eyes so close to you. 

Shoulder to shoulder you sat on the sofa you grew up on, right in this position with this beautiful boy. Watching this movie at 12 and 15, holding hands to ward against scary movie monsters. You couldn’t keep this secret here. 

“You’re a shitty liar, Y/n, is it some boy? Do I have to defend your honor?” it was so silly to him, you were so silly. How could he think any other boy mattered to you but him? Him with his golden hair and bright eyes, star studded cheeks smiling at you in the sunshine. 

You would never forgive yourself for that day on the beach. The day he became more than Felix, your best friend. You used to gag when your parents teased you about him, winced when one of your girls would say you looked cute together, and then all it took was the sun hitting him just right. 

You would never forgive yourself for this night either, you had to tell him. Had to make sure he knew it didn’t matter if he couldn’t feel the same. Who were you other than his friend? He was an angel and you were just someone he knew before he ascended. 

“Yeah, I guess. Some boy who I just can’t get out of my head.” 

“Oh, my silly sweetheart, is he devastatingly handsome.” he was giggling, the way he always did when you brought up boys to him, like it was ridiculous you would think a boy was cute. 

“I think so, he’s handsome and sweet, and I’ve never known anyone like him.” 

“This sounds intense, Y/nie, you must really like him…” 

“Yeah, you could say that.” 

You can’t help but notice his body language shifting, turning inward and hesitant. His voice got quieter too, shifting back into his normal voice. You wonder if you transferred some of your fear to him, then dismiss the thought–your Felix has always been brave. 

The movie still plays, little kid voices filling the otherwise silent room. The picture can be seen in his eyes, lighting the dark with bright oranges and blues. They're looking at you, and some tiny part of you can tell he seems sad. That piece of you that always knows how he’s feeling; attuned even when he’s in South Korea and you feel with all parts of you that you need to send a message to cheer him up. 

You feel that now, and reach out to take his hand, calloused and warm in yours. 

You stay like that for a while, finishing the film hand in hand like you did when you were both still small. Until finally, he asks so quietly you can barely hear him, 

“Do you like him more than me?” 

Shocked, you can’t help but let out a surprised laugh, which stuns Felix enough to pull his hand from yours–rubbing with his other hand where yours touched. He’s hurting, and you’re laughing at him, and this is enough to pull all of his bravery into you. Deep breathe in and out until you are sure every ounce of courage he’s ever had is running through your veins. You need to tell him, and even if he never speaks to you again, it's better than if he never knew he spins your whole world around. 

“Oh my god, Felix, it is you.” it comes out in a breath, faster than you’ve ever said anything and more relieving than any sentence you’ve rattled out before. The tears you’ve been fighting off all night come tumbling down, cascading over your cheeks with reckless abandon into your shaky hands. He’s silent for so long, barely even moving from his place next to you. The only indication he’s still hear the shaky breaths he’s releasing, and still you don’t look at him.

You’re waiting for him to leave, to walk out the door and go home, waiting for him to walk out of your life and back into his place in the sky, when finally you feel his hand on your wrist. His hold is so delicate, nervous as he moves your hands from your face and can finally see your eyes. Eyes sad and exhausted and so familiar to him, even through the tears their lovely–a reminder of home and unconditional love, and growing up. He can’t believe you would like him, Him with all his idiosyncrasies and softheartedness, you were so beautiful and so strong and you liked him. Thought he was handsome and sweet, you’d never known anyone like him… 

How long could this have been going on, how could he have been living never knowing you felt this way? Never knowing he felt it too, not just butterflies in his belly, but falcons, wings so strong and so big they started hurricanes. 

He looked at you like he always did, like you were the most important thing in the room. Eyes on yours and a smile of disbelief rising on his face. Slowly, without any reservations he brought his forehead to yours, looking down at you in all your snotty glory and lifting a hand to swipe at the falling tears. His voice is a whisper, deep and familiar, the same voice he used to tell stories and secrets, 

“It’s me? You promise?” 

“It’s always been you, Felix, how could it be anyone else?” 

He shudders, the hand sitting atop your cheek bone falling to your neck before he moves closer, settling his lips next to yours. Eyes lifting in a silent question, is this okay? With a nod and a close of your eyes he’s leaning in, moving to kiss you with all the desperation the moment requires. His tongue wiping up all the fallen tears as his lips moved with yours–when you were children he always kissed your wounds better, sweet pecks over bandaids and foreheads, and here he was now fixing up a broken heart–putting it back together. 

When he comes back up for air his eyes settle over your frame, flushed and hair messy from his hands, and he smiles. He’s loved you since he was a boy, since you asked to build that sand castle, 12 years old and braver than anyone he’s ever known. He’s loved you through teenage tantrums and silly crushes, it’s always been you. 

“We’ve been so silly, sweetheart.” he finally gets out, laughing at the impossibility of it all. The one secret you kept from each other being the same. Like always, exactly on the same page–telling the same story over and over again until you met in the middle. “When did you know? When did you know you loved me?” 

He’s so happy, you can feel it in the way he’s holding you, in the way his hands haven’t left your skin since they arrived. You can’t believe it, this beautiful boy is holding you. 

“That day you told me you were gonna audition… you came from the sea smiling and covered in sunshine, and I saw you for the first time–larger than life, my dream.” 

His eyes closed, and then he laughed. A great big wonderful laugh that took him away from you, falling onto his back with happy tears streaming. It was such a lovely sound you couldn’t help but join in, giggling with him even if you didn’t know why. 

When he finally speaks again his voice is still twinged with laughter, breathless and happy when he says, “You were so late” pausing to laugh, “I loved you since we were 12, you were covered in sand and I was in love.” 

You move to him quickly, settling your body on top of his as gently as you could manage, and you take in his happy face. This is what he looks like in love, not any different than he’s ever looked, but the shock of it–the fact that it’s you who he loves and is loved in return makes you want to cry again. 

This is where home is, here in his arms with your movie playing, smiling at each other in awe. There's so many moments you can share with him now, moments you shared with the moon and shooting stars, things you never thought you could tell him. Days and weeks holding a secret that he carried too. How silly you’ve both been, to deny what everyone has told you since you were children–two humans made for each other, sculpted out of the same sand. Lives entwined since that day on the beach when you asked him to build a sandcastle, how funny looking back, that you never did.

© LUVTAK 2024

[leaawrites]

Rumors

Luke Castellan × Ares!daughterCharacter

My first official character in a fanfiction! Her name is Anya. Face claim: Ava Aley Rementegui

Summary: A rumor might viewed as bad, but in this case it pays out for her.

Warnings: Original Character, fluff, rumors, none really

Wordcount: 1,4k

In cooperation with @curlymeme

Thank you so much for this idea!!

Masterlist

Rumors spread like wildfire. A common phrase that’s hiding the anxious feeling building up in your chest whenever you walk outside with a burden to carry. A lie so big that you can’t just deny it. Someone will always refer to it, bring it back from the death only to embarrass you.

People are lousy, nosy creatures. There should be little to no surprise at the fact that stuff like rumors exist. As a daughter of Ares and one of Clarisse’s close friends, Anya was used to people talking about her. Especially after Percy Jackson entered the camp. There was really no peace for her after that boy arrived. Clarisse felt the constant need to pick on him and Anya couldn’t blame her. he definitely was a hand full. Though, to her surprise, not everyone seemed to be fed up with him all the time.

“How can you possibly go on quests with him?” The red head asked Annabeth, leaning on the wall of the Athena cabin next to her.

“He can be nice, sometimes,” she answered, not knowing herself how she put up with him most of the time.

“I don’t believe you on that topic,” Anya told her, which surprised herself, since she mostly agreed with the wise girl.

In her head, it wasn’t an insult like Clarisse planned it to be. It was more of a compliment. Annabeth was wise. There was no doubt to that in anyone’s mind. She should know it as well.

Even when she tried to be on her sisters side completely, Annabeth was the exception. The sweet girl always got to calm her down. Anya didn’t know how she would survive camp without her.

“Anyway, I saw you watch Luke quite often these last days. What’s up with that?” Annabeth asked her, changing the topic but not to one in Anya’s favor.

The girl stopped breathing for a second. She knew that Annabeth would notice something sooner or later, but she hoped it would take her a bit longer to figure things out. Anya should’ve known that she was wrong. Annabeth was always one step ahead of her, she probably already knew about her feelings before Anya herself. She swore to herself that she wouldn’t fall for the stupid boy. She swore it after seeing all the other girls in camp practically drooling over him whenever he walked by. The sappy stories she heard from the Aphrodite cabin about love and it’s complicated sides was enough to scare her away from it. But something about him made it difficult to ignore him. How could she not watch his scar wrap itself in his skin, trailing her eyes along it like following a river? How could she not admire the way his body moved whenever he fought someone? He was better than her, better than anyone else in camp. How could she not admire him when he was almost perfect? She couldn’t stop the feelings from growing. Couldn’t stop the stupid butterflies that would swarm her stomach whenever he smiled in her direction.

It ruined her. Those stupid thoughts she had about Luke Castellan were only a method of life to get her to break. She would eventually fall under the knife of heartbreak and be admired by a former lover for the last time before sacrificing herself in order of not being hurt too much. ironic, isn’t it?

“There is nothing going on?” Anya tried to defend herself. If she couldn’t have him, why would she admit some stupid thoughts?

“You know, you should just tell him,” Annabeth told her. “There’s nothing to lose.”

“Yeah, nothing to lose, besides my reputation and potentially a friend,” Anya tried to make Annabeth drop the subject. She didn’t want to talk about it clearly, but Annabeth knew something she didn’t. She noticed his stares as well.

“You wouldn’t lose a friend. You’re not friends with Luke, are you?” Annabeth asked her.

“But we’re friendly,” Anya tried to explain herself. she maybe wasn’t yet friends with the golden Hermes boy, but she was sure she soon would be. Or at least she hoped so. Annabeth raised her eyebrows at her, knowing that it wasn’t the truth. The only thing they did was smile at each other. It was pathetic in her opinion. “What would I even say, if I would confess? Which I won’t. Just walk up to him and ask if we could be like girlfriend and boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Annabeth shrugged like it was nothing. Just normal Wednesday evening events. Like eating dinner.

“What? So, then Luke is my boyfriend?” She asked her friend with a funny look on her face. She wanted to show that something like that wouldn’t work. Not even if she was drunk and completely out of her mind. “It’s not that easy, Annabeth.”

“Whatever.” the younger girl rolled her eyes at the red head. “If you won’t say a word about it, at least stop complaining that he doesn’t notice you.”

“I never complained,” Anya defended herself, but was quickly defeated when Annabeth looked at her seriously. “Whatever.”

The hour was early, too early for her. Anya stood by the side of some kids, helping them finish up their chores. The looks she received from them ever since last night weren’t going past her anymore. Some looked at her with their hand over their mouth, hiding their giggles as she walked past. Others - especially the younger girls - were watching her with sour, threatening eyes. She tried to ignore them at first, assuming that Clarisse did something stupid again. But when she asked her sister, she just looked at Anya confused and disappointed. It’s sad to know that her sister assumed the worst from her.

All of a sudden an arm wraps itself around her waist, pulling her close, further away from the kids. She wanted to push the person away, punching them in the face for being so close to her without her consent.

“Hello, girlfriend.” A voice stops her from moving for a second. This had to be a dream, right? This can’t be reality. At least not a reality she lives in.

“What are you doing, Luke?” she asks the boy behind her, still pushing him away from her a bit, which made him let her go. Her face was heating up, lending color to her pale skin.

“We don’t have to hide it anymore,” he tells her like it’s nothing. Unbothered by the looks the pair received, he continued talking. “I’m glad you finally admitted it to someone, even when I was sure Annabeth already knew.”

Anya looks at him with a confused face. Eyes scrunched together while she bit the inside of her cheek, trying to not start screaming in confusion. “What is going on?”

Luke laughs at her, grabbing her hand gently, leaving butterflies to swarm her stomach, leading Anya away from the group of kids she was supposed to watch. They disappear from the eyes, falling into a calm tempo, their hearts both racing.

“Rumor goes around that I’m your boyfriend, which means that you’re my girlfriend,” Luke explains the situation to her, still holding her hand while they stand side by side, looking at the other.

“Rumors? How? Why?” She wanted to ask more question, but Anya decided to stay silent for now when she saw in Luke’s eyes that he had an answer.

“An Aphrodite kid overheard you telling that to Annabeth,” he told her. Anya’s eyes widen, she did say that. But not in that sense. She had no idea that someone would overhear them. “Now my question is, why would you say something like that to Annabeth?”

Anya tried to come up with a reasoning, it shouldn’t be so hard to think of something. But something made it hard for her to decide. Something in her wanted to tell him.

“We were just joking around,” she finally said, looking down at her shoes in embarrassment, eyes lingering on their hands.

“Why not make this joke reality,” Luke says. He always sounded so sure when saying anything. Anya admired that about him.

She looks up at him, trying to find the mischief in his eyes that she was thinking would appear in a matter of seconds. But all she received was his thumb rubbing her hand. Their skin confirming the twisted lies between them. A lie that maybe wasn’t supposed to stay untrue.

[lace-coffin]

Hi, I hope you're doing well, but can I request a headcanon where Bubba had a bad day and was a little sad and S/O starts giving him kisses and hugs to make him feel better. I like your blog so much!

Thank you so much for your sweet words! I’m glad your enjoying my stuff < 3

Reader comforting Bubba on a bad day

Gn!Reader x Bubba Sawyer

Requests are open!

You can see it in the way her shoulders sag like the weight of the world is being held on them, more out of it than usual and despondent. Even people as upbeat as bubba have bad days.

Unsurprisingly being the main bread (or meat lmao) winner for the family can be a big job, mentally and physically. He knows he’s doing it for his family, they need to eat, it’s not optional with the limited resources they have but..sometimes it’s so hard to disconnect from the people they kill. despite only being meat to the sawyer’s, bubba knows that they’re a loved to someone else, a sister, a mother, a new dad maybe.

They understand the weight of loosing a loved one, the entire family essentially falling apart at the seams when nubbins passed. It makes her sick knowing she’s responsible for the same heartache she’s experienced first hand. But is it truly her fault? Without him providing food his family will starve and he can’t bare to loose anyone else.

On days like these it’s best to keep her distracted, play games with the family if you can convince Drayton to begrudgingly join in. (He’ll do it for bubba but won’t admit it) preparing meals for him is a good idea, she’s unable to even look at the meat knowing the origin of it when she’s feeling like this. Try to make dinner more vegetable based on these days, you can even harvest the vegetables from the garden as an activity to take her mind off it. Don’t let chop help though unless you want to watch him throw dirt at his little sibling. He’ll clear off if you threaten to put an earthworm in his plate lol.

Insist on helping them with the dishes in the evening, dancing stupidly to music on the old crackly radio as you scrub. Thank him for his help and place little kisses on his cheeks, basking in his warmth like you’re the only two people in the world. safe in the sanctuary of the kitchen.

This regularly leads to clumsily slow dancing to unfitting music on whatever station you found first. Neither of you actually know how to slow dance, more just leaning into eachother and waddling side to side but you don’t care enough to learn, just happy to be held.

Eventually it’s time for bed, both of you exhausted, you from doing the brunt of the housework and bubba carrying that post depression exhaustion. Undoing the mask comes next, it’s not an easy feat. Bubba isn’t sure whether she feels more or less herself in the mask, unable to express herself without but bound to one expression in.

Gently pry the mask off and sit in front of the mirror with them, walk them through your favourite parts. Trace the bump of his nose, slightly crooked from a tussle with a victim, never quite healing right. Cup his warm full cheeks and dust them with kisses and praise. Tease your thumb over her plump lips, tell her they remind you of a cherub, sent from heaven just for you.

If you can love bubba than there must be something worth loving about himself, he thinks.

Being the big spoon is a good idea in these moments, let them feel small and protected under you, tracing over their curves and freckles gently, making them whine and shiver. She’ll never completely forgive herself for the things she’s done but it helps that you see beauty in her, the love, the compassion, the emotion. She just wishes she could see those things in herself on hard days.

For now this is enough, the coziness of your body blending into his until it’s unidentifiable where you begin and bubba ends. In some ways it already feels like you’re becoming part of eachother the longer you bond and the deeper you fall. You fall asleep after whispering a hushed “I love you” into their hair and receiving bubba’s sleepy equivalent of the same. Today was tiresome but the sun will rise again over the homestead, bathing the two of you in warm light and readying you for another day in eachother arms.

[muffinsin]

Thank you so much for all these great posts. They've been really helping me while my dog is really sick.

I don't know if you've written something like this already, but maybe you could write one where the sisters fall in love with one of the maids from afar but they're afraid to talk to her because she might be scared of them?

Of course! I’m glad you’re enjoying them & I hope your dog will be better soon! :( (give us doggo updates?👀). I’ve mentioned them being worried in a couple of posts, though never fully elaborated I think

Let’s get into it! :)

Masterlists

Bela

She’s had her eye on you for a while already now

Never has she dared approach you

Much less talk to you!

Bela’s a nervous wreck when you do as much as look at her

Having discovered you originally after you cleaned her office, she immediately felt intrigued

Bela is, some might say, a difficult person

When maidens clean her room or office, it’s even more dangerous than with her sisters. This is her private area

And she has a very, very specific order and pattern of placing her things. Pencils must be right where she left them, papers even more so

Often the staff mistakes these things. Pencils she left out, shoes she left out, papers meant to be easily taken are moved back to the stash of papers on her desk

Has she hates it! She feels, she must reorganise her entire room after it’s been cleaned

You don’t make these mistakes, though

You clean, and only clean. You respect her enough to view what seems like clutter to others as precision

Pencils are right where they’re left. Clothing is re-folded, and put right where she left them

This is bound to catch her attention. You stand out

Yet, Bela starts to fall in love long after she’s made you her private maiden, the one appointed to only her and all her needs

For when you clean her bookshelf and put finished books- neatly piled so you won’t move those she wants untouched- back in the shelf. Perfectly organised, of course

It’s as if you understand her

And yet, she’s too scared to face you

Bela feels flustered when she once finds a note next to her pile of unfinished books

Recommendations…

She didn’t think any maid really took to reading. Even knew how to. And much less did she assume anybody would share her taste

But, upon following your recommendations, she finds they’re very good!

She leaves them out subtly, to show you she’s read through each and every one of them

To ask you, without having to face you, for more

And you keep making recommendations

Bela catches herself falling for you, and tests you

Sometimes she leaves slips of papers containing quotes

She falls back on her bed with a large grin when you pass her tests, writing the books they’re from, or promising you will read them

Your handwriting is neat too, she notices

Yet, Bela wonders and adores from afar

She watches you work, and eagerly takes in all you do. She gazes, stares maybe even, but never engages

What if you too, will see her as a monster?

Cassandra

Cassandra is intrigued by you the moment you’re sent to the castle for work

The blacksmith. You’re to make her weapons

She’s thrilled! She goes to visit you immediately, having a full list of what she’d like

But-

She’s almost shrieking at you when she comes inside and almost swarms face first into your muscular back

It’s rare she sees someone with muscles at the castle! Though she knows your work technically demand some

She’s by far more flustered than she’d like to admit, and when you begin turning around, she’s quick to swarm away, leaving only flies and the list falling to the floor

Behind a wall and out of sight, she face palms herself

So much for being menacing…

She admires as you work, even if she never allows you to see her

That’s right, the sadistic little middle child of Alcina Dimitrescu is smitten, laying on one of the wooden foundations of the wall, far above you as she watches you work the furnace

Large muscles glistening with sweat…

Cassandra basks in it all, and the warmth of the furnace

She watches wide eyed as you craft her a sickle and dagger, eyes wide when you add a little bit of something to it

No previous blacksmith has ever dared swat from her exact orders

But- it’s beautiful

A pattern at the grip, a beautiful one resembling her swarm

She nearly falls from her lounging position as she tries to get a closer look, and the thought of falling, halfway swarming and landing in your arms is enough to fluster her already

She scolds herself for being this way. Daniela would act like this, not her!

But, she just can’t help it around you. She feels by far too careless and by far sweeter than she is

Then, you start gifting her things

She finds random, little things of metal crafted to her- things she has not commissions

Things that make her stony heart melt

You craft her beautiful daggers with a gemstone as gold as her choker’s gemstone at the bottom

And, something particular that makes her breath hitch

A silver platter, with silver, bronze and copper hearts, beautifully crafted just for her

Not the cliché, sweet hearts. Realistic ones. With a dark metal serving as blood at the top

She swoons at the sight

And still, she can’t bring herself to talk to you for a second reason:

What if you’re scared of her?

While she feels like a flustered maiden merely watching you, this is a harsh contrast to her behaviour around everybody else

She knows her reputation

A monster

The sadistic one, it’s best to stay out of sight

The mistress of torture

She knows, these things are all right. And she’s proud of these titles, of the fear she strikes in all but her family

Yet, she can’t help but feel worried you also see her as such

What if the little gifts and addition you make her are nothing but a way, an attempt, to stay on her good side and alive?

What if you too are trying to save yourself from her clutches?

Daniela

Our sweet Daniela, delusional and naive, yet so fast to fall in love

Or what she calls love, at least

She’s been watching you, love evident in her eyes as she dreamily watches you from her window

You’re the gardener, watering the flowers she loves so much. Oh, she wishes she could go outside and pick some!

But the cold temperature suggests otherwise, and locks her inside the warmth of the castle

Oh, but she watches, head held up and resting against her palms, a dreamy expression on her face as she watches you tend to the plants and hedges growing in winter

White and purple flowers on the ground

You’re wrapped into many layers to keep warm, and she wishes she could merely copy you

Daniela watches every day, sighing dreamily and smiling lovingly as you tend to it all

Her cheeks warm when you look up, yet she knows she is too far up and in the distance for you to make her figure out at the window

What she doesn’t mind is, however, that you are very capable of seeing her when she does not glance at you from her room, high above the ground in the castle’s tower, but from the library

You feel the youngest Dimitrescu daughter stare at the back of your head when you work, and you can’t help but feel flustered

She’s very…adamant on watching you

She stares every day

Oh, and she admires every day

And sometimes, sweet Daniela gets so lost in her daydreams, she doesn’t even notice you look back at her and catch her staring

She blushes wild pink when she, one day, wakes up to flowers set outside her door

The white and light pink ones from the garden, with two purple ones in the bouquet!

She falls even more for you,

Each day she receives another flower, and each day she folds them into a beautiful flower crown

Daniela is sad when they die- she wishes she could just go outside

And her sadness is apparent when she plays with the dead flower petals between her petite hands, sitting once again at her seat at the window of the library

You understand the Lady’s sadness, and Daniela finds herself grinning again when instead of flowers, you bring her a slip of paper folded like a flower each day

You get her!

She yearns to feel your touch. A knight to her, the princess

Yet, she fears- what if she is not the princess, but the monster? And her knight?

What if you are not hers, but a knight sent to slay the beast that is her?

[allsadnshit]

healing my relationship with femininity has been so important this past couple years and I think sometimes the way it's talked about can make it so much harder and so shameful for a lot of people to admit they struggle with because there's so much rhetoric about like "are you a girls girl or not?" and like a very black and white cold "girls who don't have girl friends are RED FLAGS! TOXIC! EVIL! TRAITORS" when I think in reality it's such an obvious sign of wounding to not be able to connect with women, whether growing up or in adulthood.

for myself it stems so largely from being raised by a single father and older brother and having my literal connection to women (my mom) severed really traumatically early in life when she passed and to fit in and be included in family things always meant having to sacrifice things I might have liked at the time like tea parties and barbie and being forced to watch action movies and male sports just to get quality time and attention in my home because they never made time for my interests as a young girl and were passively dismissive of them too (never let me pick the music cause I'd play "girlie stuff", never wanting to watch the movies I wanted to see in theaters meaning I also just didn't get to see them, having any feminine interests and hobbies be less celebrated) and it really shaped me.

somewhat naturally there was a glaring disconnect between not just myself and men who I couldn't seem to become communal with even if I shared all the same hobbies which I tried very hard to do like getting into yu gi oh and kung fu, but when I'd be put into situations with all other girls I felt isolated and clumsy because I didn't watch the same movies, didn't know how to do things like cute hair styles or braiding, and was just generally behind and felt much more like an observer than like I had any place in it.

I've always had girl friends but they were often isolated relationships with girls who also struggled with their girl relationships and were otherwise bullied or cast out, and those relationships even though sacred to me also often would become poisoned with jealousy and comparison because society pits women against each other especially growing up it felt like a literal competition and it's so common to be ranked by boys and even other girls and adults in terms of who's prettier or most desired which is really strange to apply to an already vulnerable dynamic in a formative part of life.

Because of a mix of all these bad circumstances I've really rejected myself and a lot of my natural connections to girlhood and women and I think it felt like an easier and safer route to just disconnect entirely which is what I did for most of my life until around the time of the first lock down when I was very privately buying girl clothes for the first time in years and experimenting with the idea that I'd like to allow myself some movement and fluidity with my relationship to gender. It really makes me sad the way so much of society makes us feel we need to do things a certain way or see ourselves a certain way to be living "correctly" when I think it's a very personal journey and being scorned and shamed for what we do or don't do makes us self conscious and unable to act naturally. I've gotten a lot of nasty comments from women who feel it should be easy to connect with women because they have gotten the privilege of healthy relationships with mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and friends and so feel that anyone who hasn't is just toxic and doing it to themselves which I just find extremely unkind and self interested.

and that's part of why I reject terms like "girls girl" even as I lean into healing my relationship to femininity and relationships with women and the social pressures we face. I know that term came about originally with the intention of expressing a relationship to women that was non competitive and based on mutual respect and care, but it's been transformed and used now in a really hatefully isolating way and I do not claim it or the energy towards other women it gives off of not seeing their humanity and flaws as places to grow and be loved through but as a reason to further disengage from.

[cartoonbabbles]

Some Breakdown x Bumblebee headcanons since I’m watching Comodin Cam’s G1 marathon video and I’m seeing snippets of G1 breakdown

- I’m headcanoning BD and BB as both young adult (ish)? Like. Transformers maturity wise. Mid 20s is my guess, older than during the height of the war, still plenty of fight in them but they’ve lived enough to have a kind of routine between the two of them.

- BD puts on a cool and confident face for Bee’s sake. If he showed how scared he actually felt, Bee would have forced him to quit the race, and they’d both have gone into hiding. But he knows that both he and Bee like the thrill. It’s their thing

- Bee is slightly younger, BD is going through a crisis. (I mean why wouldn’t he be, he’s a fugitive and a war criminal, but no less than any of the other cybertronians, yet he’s somehow gotten the short end of the stick and doesn’t want to stay to find out what prison is like)

- Bee is super reassuring of how much he cares. Which is tough given how they ended up on opposite sides of the war.

- Bee can technically become a combiner limb. Does this make any sense? No. Fuck you, I want funny combiner shennanigans. Also Knockout can too (yes I’m throwing him in here). The poor other limb (likely Arcee) has to listen to her younger brother girlfail his way through coordinating movements while she’s the one doing the punching)

- Breakdown flusters easily, but likes to flirt and be seen as suave and as hot stuff. He’s a glass cannon and can dish it but can’t take a compliment without popping back into his alt-mode for a breather

- Bee (if they’re alone alone 100% for sure zero agents tailing them) is relentless in his flirting.

- Breakdown doesn’t actually have a driver’s seat. It’s all a hologram. He had a bad experience with a human who tried to drive him recklessly (scratched his new stripes too) so he figured out how to transform and not have any passenger seats on his own. It was painful, and Bee found him two days after a race he was scheduled to be at sulking in a cave, half transformed.

- this is more of a realization but I think the reason Bee started winning races was to take attention away from Breakdown. Notice how Schloeder never realized the same fucking muscle car barely tailing his black and yellow striped quarry

- I saw this funny post about spider man a few months back about how everyone knows who Spidey is or has some personal story with him, and rumors fly but you’ll never get anything if you pry. Same with Bee and Breakdown. Whispers of that time two drivers in sports cars flung their vehicles into a burning building and came out with seven people unharmed. A story about how a giant robot saved a kid from a rabid animal. Maybe a couple of voices deep in the woods comforting a crying teenager, telling them not to give up on asking the person they like out. Schloeder knows those stories are out there and it drives him nuts he can never get any first hand accounts

- Bee and Breakdown shared a garage in the Phillipines post war.

- Breakdown was sympathetic to the original Decepticon cause. He got involved more because the entertainment union took up arms with the original cries for revolution (he’s a Stunticon, and lord knows the Functionist senate didn’t give a damn about who got injured during a show)

- Breakdown painted the stripe himself. He wouldn’t stop bragging about it to Knockout and Bee. This lasted for a month. Knockout and Bee decided to get stripes to match (this is why Bee has stripes on his sports car mode)

- Bee has a human “sister” named Charlie in California he met during the war. She wasn’t a soldier or anything, they just hung out and vented to each other sometimes. One day, after Bee went into hiding, she was feeling bummed out and her car starts talking “yeah I miss him too.” The car was Breakdown. She gives him “the sibling talk” and is all like “if you dare hurt him or break his heart I swear-“ and all that and he’s genuinely scared of her bc he’s seen her disassemble and reassemble cars in her sleep (she did it to Knockout once on accident)

- Bee and BD have never kissed (AND THEY NEVER WILL UNLESS HES ALIVE HASBRO IM BEGGING YOU) but if they were to kiss it would have to rival Alex and Dot’s kiss to the mid season finale with that explosion of Purple Hearts behind them like. GIVE ME GAY MEN I DONT SEE ANY OF THEM BEING MAIN CHARACTERS IN CARTOONS ENOUGH.

- “Hi I’m Bumblebee and this is my boyfriend Breakdown and our husband Knockout and his boyfriend Starscream and his fiancé Soundwave and Soundwave’s friend with benefits who’s ace but still likes to get funky Shockwave and Shockwave’s ex Megatron who’s currently dating Elita and OP who are both married”

- Mo and Twitch ship Bee and Breakdown, though you never find out how they found out (it was Nightshade)

- Breakdown supports trans rights.

- most of the transformers do

- tangent but I feel it would be fucking hilarious if Shockwave were a queer ally but still fucking refuses to address the Terrans

- Breakdown once almost killed the governor of Florida (this one’s for me okay I need my catharsis)

- DW he didn’t but the dude resigned almost immediately after and kept seeing a muscle car coated in pride flag stickers at every stop sign for a month (Breakdown was bored)

- I’ll throw Tarn in here. Tarn has a good ass singing voice. That’s for funsies. Nobody invites him to karaoke though because people will literally do anything he says once he starts singing and that’s how Bee ended up with a tattoo on his (mic gets violently pulled away from me)

[bengiyo]

Hi Sarge, Not sure if you have answered something similar and I missed it but this is a bit inspired by the posts you made about Sailom and Nuea in Wedding Plan (I couldn’t understand why Sailom was behaving that way and really disliked him before I read your posts).

Who are the most misunderstood characters in BL? - doesn’t have to be from just 2023 shows. Thanks!

I've really struggled with answering this question, and have been sitting on it for months, because I don't generally like to create a strawman and then beat up on it. I think what I'll do is express appreciation for characters in a way I don't think I've done publicly on my blog.

Kurosawa Musashi (Ossan's Love)

This man is incredible and I love him. When I originally avoided Ossan's Love in 2018, it was primarily because commenters complained that this man's attraction to Haruta was the butt of the joke. Having watched it this year, I understand why we would have read it that way in 2018. However, in 2024, I see the primary comedy in how out of step is approach to courtship is more than the fact that he has a crush on Haruta.

I have loved every iteration of this character from Ossan's Love, to the In the Sky AU, to the current season in Ossan's Love Returns. I love how much his affection for Haruta makes him show up to support him, and I love the unhinged fights he has with Maki about it every time.

The show treats his feelings seriously, even if they laugh about his methodology. Everyone who has worked with him adores him, and I am eagerly hoping that he gets a positive resolution for his complex feelings for Haruta this season.

I'm also never getting over DISPATCH 👍.

Pharm (Until We Meet Again)

Much has been written about this scene as an example of blushing maiden, but I don't think it is. I think there's a level of Intouch trauma coupled with this being Pharm's first kiss. However, we spent about twenty minutes of this show leading up tot his with Pharm publicly telling Alex to fuck off because he's with Dean, and Pharm presenting Dean with desserts about commitment and sweet love. He also moves his arms to deepen the kiss.

I think sometimes the read that Pharm is a blushing maiden undercuts how genuinely assured he is about himself and his place in the world. He wasn't afraid to tell his neighbors to quiet down when they were loud as hell on a Sunday, and he wasn't afraid to tell Dean that he overstepped in the kitchen around sex.

I've been rewatching the show lately and am noting how explicitly these two are into each other and say so the entire time.

Seo Lee Jun (Love Mate)

I'm gonna be real: This guys sucks! We begin the show with him getting people out onto dates, disappointing those dates with false expectations, and then blocking them. He was so salty about his breakup that he was going to inflict that nonsense onto a whole dating app. Folks struggled with Ha Ram determinedly pursuing this man, but I think he did the rest of us a favor by giving this man a much needed dicking to reset his engagement with romance.

Vee (You're My Sky)

I don't think this character was misunderstood. I just think it was really cool of a show to have one of the side couples not make it because they started an ill-advised romance. I like that what started as flirting and teasing got way too serious and stressed Vee out so much that he had a whole panic attack over it. In a genre about people getting together, I like the complicated, uncertain place they left these two. Vee understood the seriousness of messing around with his sister's boyfriend and the impossibility of that situation.

[proseka-headcanons]

You know how Kohane is a fan of WxS? And there's a popular HC (at least I think it's an HC, feels real to me tbh) that Akito is a MMJ fan? HC: At least one person in each group is a fan of another group.

Ichika loves listening to Nightcord's music, she'll often try to play their songs on her guitar. Saki, an Airi fan, obviously loves MMJ (this grows after that one Valentine's Day where she made chocolates with Airi and Emu). She'll never admit it, but Shiho loves WxS. They make her smile and feel good, and honestly it's nice to see someone who cared for her chasing his dreams. And Honami surprises everyone when she's able to memorize VBS's songs. Both covers and original (Honami busting out the rap for Shanti and the entirety of Machi to the surprise of literally everyone around her).

Minori finds herself visiting PXL more often just to see WxS perform (and okay, maybe she also wants to spend time with them and this is the best time to ask). Haruka listens to Leo/need's music whenever she's working out. Airi does her best to attend as many of VBS's live events as she can. And Shizuku actively listens and waits for Nightcord's music.

Kohane, while obviously a WxS fan, also enjoys listening to Nightcord, especially on days where she feels upset and needs something that will help her cry, rather than cheer her up (because that's what she needs at the moment, a good cry). An has a secret account she uses to watch MMJ stream (she's worried that karma will come after her for all the teasing she's done against Akito, she has no idea the other VBS members already know she has a secret account because they watched her log in). Toya, ever the supportive (adopted) brother, goes to Leo/need's concerts (sometimes even skipping practice to do so). And much like Shiho, Akito will never admit to being a WxS fan (imagine if Tsukasa or Rui found out? What if they pull him up on stage like they've done with Kohane? No thanks... okay, fine, Nene can know. JUST NENE!!... He isn't sure where he stands with Emu knowing.)

Tsukasa jumps from group to group depending on what he's working on, currently he's mainly listening to VBS. Emu will sometimes join a MMJ stream and be one of the most active chatters (sometimes being reported for spam). Rui tends to have Nightcord on in the background as he works. Nene listens to Leo/need and will sometimes ask Ichika if she has the lyrics so she can learn them.

Kanade enjoys MMJ and will listen to any song of theirs that Mizuki has shared (since she tends to get them first), she loves how it makes her feel and she'll often use those feelings towards her own compositions. Mafuyu listens to WxS music, both as a way to, maybe, better understand Emu, and as a way to, maybe, just maybe, better understand her own emotions. They do a good job displaying them, so... Ena refuses to admit she loves VBS. It has nothing to do with Akito or the fact she's the one responsible for her little brother chasing street music. Totally (it is but if she admits it, she'll cry). Mizuki has made several MVs for Leo/need. They sit in a flashdrive she carries around. She loves their music and sometimes hopes to run into one of them (Saki most likely seeing how she's Tsukasa's sister) so she can give them the MVs (hopefully they like them, she was so nervous making them).

In short: they're all friends and supportive of each other, your honor 🥺 trust me 🙏 I know it to be true

THESE ARE ALL SOOOOOO REAL OMFG YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW REAL YOU ARE FOR THISSSS - mod ena

OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH also wait rq does anyone remember Tsukasa SCREAMING "LEO/NEEEEED AAAAUIFUFU" because it lives in my head rent free. I love them all being friends and being supportive -🦈

THIS IS SO CUTE AAAAAARJFHDJFHFH I WILL LITERALLY CRY/pos mizuki making leo/need mvs.......... who meets them first who do they get to give the mvs to do they like them i need to knOW /nf - 🎀

as mod rui him liking nightcord should be canon. their songs are perfect background music and also just perfect in general. these are all so cute rhhrgrhrhrhgr biting you /pos — 🎈

[jadenoryuu]

Phandom Holiday Truce Time!

(For maximum experience, please turn the light mode on.)

Sorry for keeping you waiting, @raaorqtpbpdy here's your @phandomholidaytruce gift!

When I saw the prompts "Danny-Wes Role Swap", comboed with the No One Knows AU, Creepy Cryptid Danny and your mention about the Ghost King Danny trope only used in a significant way, the gif "I have a MIGHTY need!" started playing in a loop, so here's the bg for this mini-comic.

Before the Portal Accident, Wes and Danny were friends. Not as close as Danny and Tucker, but they sometimes hung out when the Fentons were too busy to entertain Wes' interest in the occult.

My boy Wes Weston has also a side hobby/obsession with basket and it all started since he watched for the first time Space Jam. (It doesn't help that I headcanon Amity Park in Illinois, which means Chicago Bulls.)

(So he plays basket because His Airness does so and because MJ was involved and interacted with the embodiment of a visual novel. Talk about supernatural!)

(Yes, I'm saying that crossovers between animated and physical world can count as a supernatural and ghost-related event.)

All of this premise was to introduce the personalized jumpsuit that the Fentons made for Wes with the colors and accessories of the Chicago Bulls.

(Jack made a mistake with the number and stitched only the "2", so once Wes became a halfa, he added the "3" with marker and later learned to shapeshift enough to change some of the inverted colors of the jumpsuit. Originally it was white with red inserts, the accident made it black with blue inserts, then the shapeshift finally made it black with red inserts.)

Since it's a No One Knows AU, Wes was alone when the accident happened, but being the smart bean he is, no one discovered that he's a halfa until Danny, much like Jazz in canon, discovers Wes' double nature after stalking investigating him.

Like sister, like brother, Danny doesn't say anything to Wes about knowing, but here and then he assists (in the shadows) Wes in ghost wrangling.

Due to living above the active portal and Maddie experimenting with ectoplasm while pregnant, Jazz and Danny are liminal, the latter more than the former. (Thus, Danny becomes the creepy cryptid of Amity Park.)

Even if Danny isn't a halfa, Vlad still tries his scheme of stealing the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage to obtain enough power to defeat Wes' hero persona (who Vlad believes is a full ghost).

Much akin the Reign Storm episode, Amity ends in the Ghost Zone, but Wes gets stuck fighting "alone" the army (the Fentons and a reluctant Plasmius do the same on another front after the Ecto-suit is deemed a failure).

While his parents are out fighting, Danny sneaks in the lab and fixes the Ecto-suit (my boy is as much as a genius as his family, after all), then goes to challenge Pariah.

Due to his liminality, after the victory, Danny IS eligible for the Throne, so he becomes the King. (He doesn't discover this immediately, but when the Observants start bothering him, he gets the explanation.)

So, after declaring Amity Park Wes' (and his) Haunt and a No Fight Zone, the ghost attacks practically stop, leaving Wes on edge, because he doesn't know about the Law.

Thus, we're back to this mini-comic! Danny decides to finally reveal both that he knows Wes is a halfa and that he's the Ghost King, but where would be the fun if he didn't mess with Wes a bit? So he amps his creepy factor and plays a Yandere act (he isn't, he's doing so just for the prank. As a matter of fact, 3-5 seconds after the last declaration, he bursts out cackling at Wes appropriate horrified face, then after moving to a more private place -a roof-, Danny explains everything.)

Does this became a UFS? I like to think so, but you're free to decide.

I'm adding the non transparent versions under for those without the light mode:

[allergictocolor]

Character Profile - Pugsley Addams

“An energetic monster of a boy about nine years old - blondish red hair, popped blue eyes and a dedicated troublemaker - in other words, the kid next door. Genius in his own way, he makes toy guillotines, full size racks, threatens to poison his sister, can turn himself into a Mr. Hyde with an ordinary chemical set. He is, nevertheless, easily controlled by Morticia, though Lurch and Gomez keep their backs to the wall at all times when he is around. His voice is hoarse.” - Chas Addams

Charles Addams originally wanted to name him Pubert, but the TV producers balked at the idea, thinking the name too bawdy for television. He instead settled on Pugsley, the name of a creek in the Bronx.) The name Pubert would of course be used many years later for a third child in the film Addams Family Values.

Far more devious in the comics, Pugsley on TV was instead portrayed as curious but not necessarily bright. He’s 8 years old in the pilot, but they amend this to 10 years old in the second episode, a few years older than Wednesday. 

His favorite pastime is playing with explosives of various sizes, which was not in the comics, but follows the theme of possibly putting others in danger. At one point, the missiles he fires off from the house attract the attention of the government, who mistake them for UFOs, leading to a sitcom-typical hilarious misunderstanding. Later iterations of Pugsley continue to enjoy explosives, using them to help his family in the 2019 animated film, and to go fishing in the 2022 Netflix series.

Just as the comics established his omnipresent striped shirt, they also provided one of the first plotlines in the 60s TV show. In the second episode, Pugsley horrifies his family by joining the Boy Scouts. The inspiration came from a comic captioned “Well, he certainly doesn’t take after my side of the family.”

They also took inspiration from a comic where he had various signs in his bedroom, clearly stolen from work sites and dangerous, condemned areas. In the show, he has at least one replica of one of those signs, and several others based on the concept. Not content to merely blow up model trains like his father does, this boy definitely wants to cause some real world mayhem.

The 60s TV Pugsley has some strange inventions, like a disintegrator gun and an anti-gravity gun, which he apparently built himself. He also helps Gomez construct a computer called Whizzo, and a robot named Smiley (played by Robby the Robot, which made a stunning number of appearances on TV and in movies after its creation for Forbidden Planet). He clearly has the mind of an engineer, but he’s also sometimes portrayed as not very good at academic subjects, implying that he’s perhaps something of a savant.

I believe that Pugsley continues to be the older child in the 1970s animated series, but I have not watched it. It’s only really worth mentioning because the person who did the voice of Pugsley was, as I mentioned in another post, a 10-year-old Jodie Foster. 

In the 1990’s, Pugsley is suddenly younger than Wednesday, though I’m not sure whether they outright state the children’s ages at any point. They’re close enough in age to perform together in a school talent show, spraying the unhappy audience with fake blood in a Shakespearean performance they seem to have written themselves.

He still engineers contraptions, but he’s portrayed as gullible, believing pretty much whatever Wednesday tells him. When they torture each other, there’s no malice to it. It’s simply how they play. The only malice evident is when a third child, the aforementioned Pubert, enters the scene in the second film. Wednesday tells Pugsley that when their parents have a third child, they need to get rid of one of the existing children. They then set up a number of devices meant to get rid of their new baby brother. Once they’re sent away to camp, they’re a team. It’s Pugsley and Wednesday against the world.

The musical portrays Pugsley as much younger than Wednesday. As you may have noticed, it’s hard to talk about Pugsley without talking about his relationship with his sister. In the musical, he worries that Wednesday getting married and moving away will mean that she’ll stop torturing him. It’s not just how they play, but how they bond.

The 2019 animated film sees Pugsley struggling with a rite of passage called the “Sabre Mazurka”. It would be logical to assume that he’s 13, the typical age of a rite of passage, but he’s overtly shown to be several years younger than Wednesday, who’s less than 13 years old. The last time the whole Addams family was together was 13 years ago, at their parents’ wedding. So maybe a boy in the Addams family undergoes this rite of passage at the age of ten.

There was something that kind of bugged me about Pugsley, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until the 2022 Netflix series. How do a dark-haired Spaniard and a dark-haired femme fatale have a blond child? It’s genetically improbable, though not completely impossible, especially in a family that includes a walking hairdo and an animated hand. But I think casting Latin/Hispanic children for both Pugsley and Wednesday made sense, especially with Luis Guzmán as their father.

The Netflix version of Pugsley is far more timid than previous incarnations, solely to give Wednesday someone to save early on. I’m hoping that in season two we’ll see more of the flair and gusto that makes an Addams an Addams. He has potential. He’s definitely weird. He just needs a little more bite.

[dangermousie]

Pusher post for Ja Myung Go (2009) - best period kdrama you've never heard of

It got zero votes on my poll probably because nobody has watched it, and it must be remedied.

In 2009, during the ratings reign of legendary Queen Seon Deok, another woman-centric period drama made its debut - Ja Myung Go starring Jung Ryo Won, Jung Kyung Ho, and Park Min Young back before she was a leading lady. Unlike QSD which became a huge success and extended its run, JMG had abysmal ratings throughout and ended up being only 39 episodes (a large number in abstract but a cut from the originally planned 50). Ja Myung Go took a traditional narrative - the forbidden and doomed love of Prince Hodong and Princess La Hee, heirs to enemy kingdoms, and disassembled it supposing what the story would have been like if Hodong had been in love with La Hee's sister Ja Myung instead.

Even though JMG is one of my favorites, its single-digit ratings (back when single digit ratings were baaaaad!) were no surprise - it took most period drama conventions of the time and even now and upended them. Proper royalty-based sageuks at the time after all centered around the progress and triumph of its protagonist - he or she may pay a great personal price but will triumph over rival factions/own shortcomings/bad background and emerge politically victorious - a great ruler to be remembered by future generations. JMG's rival Queen Seon Deok expemplifies that kind of narrative - Deokman is an outcast who, at the end, has lost the man she loved, but is a great ruler to be remembered forever and full of achievements. Yi San, Kingdom of the Winds, Jumong, etc - all follow this formula more or less. This is still the case when they make them nowadays, sadly rarer than they used to - GK War comes to mind. (Fusion-style sageuks which usually deal with 'common' people sometimes choose hopelessness as a theme - see Damo - but they have a different narrative thrust and vibe and we are not even getting into fluffiness of youth sageuks. People of JMG are miles away from that.)

But this is not the story of JMG. From the first episode it is clear that there will be no triumphant narrative. This is a story of the defeated - defeated Kingdom of Nakrang, defeated people. And, except for Ja Myung herself (cast in a traditionally heroic mold even if with enough flaws to make her interesting), her mother (a very minor character) and a few other other characters, most of the characters are not heroic either. They are either fascinating monsters (Muhyul, Wang Jashi (Ja Myung's stepmother), Muhyul's Queen) or people damaged beyond repair by their surroundings (Hodong, La Hee).

(Man is known as God of Battles, and not for no reason)

And even though I like Ja Myung, I confess that for me the drama is made by the clever, fascinating, monstrous Wang Jashi and Muhyul. Wang Jashi is a Korean Lady Macbeth - she is someone who is capable of poisoning her brother in order to protect her husband and her own power, but she is also someone who genuinely grieves over him. She is a wicked woman, but she is strong and irresistable. Muhyul (or King Daemushin, if we go by his throne name) is a counterpart for her (he rules a different kingdom, but I confess throughout the drama, I kept wondering what it would be like if they were married - they would rule the world). He is a capable, fierce ruler who has traded his humanity for success and rule - you see any remaining feelings leach out of him slowly during the course of the drama.

And so much of the drama is shaped by those two irresistible monsters - all the younger characters except Ja Myung are trapped and shaped and deformed by them. Princess La Hee, Wang Jashi's daughter, is not capable of truly functionally expressing her feelings - even though she likes Hodong, throughout their early meetings, she lashes at him over and over because brought up the way she was, she has no idea how express herself. And Hodong, Muhyul's son, is even worse off - at least La Hee had her saintly stepmother to love her growing up. Hodong has had his poisonous stepmother who desires his death (yet another amazing character - she is a horrible person but you understand and even sympathize with her) and Muhyul as a father (there is a scene later on where Muhyul gives an order that if Nakrang does not fall, Hodong is to be executed. Father of the year he is not).

In a way, that is why if it wasn't for his seduction-to-victory plan, Hodong would have never gotten together with La Hee even if Ja Myung did not exist - they are both emotional cripples and Hodong, at least, is smart enough to recognize that. I think that is a huge part of his attraction to Ja Myung - she is a breath of sane air (significantly she has been brought up outside palace environment). When I think of Hodong, it's the same emotion I get when I think of Jang Jae Min from Bali - he is twisted and deeply flawed but the wonder and the tragedy of it is that for his family he is not flawed and twisted enough. One of the last things Ja Myung tells him is that in their next life she wishes she would be his mother. I remember people thinking WTF but it made perfect sense to me - the thing Hodong lacked most and needed most was a loving parent - it is something he never got. (And of course it's also a show of love towards her sister - this way La Hee can have Hodong as a lover).

And this brings me to gender dynamics. Except for Muhyul, all the true movers and shakers in the story, every catalyst is a woman. Nowhere it is as evident as with Ja Myung and Hodong. I remember reading that Jung Kyung Ho was cast as Hodong and being genuinely puzzled. He has since gone on to be one of my favorite leading men and certainly terrifying and violent and feral enough in Cruel City to play the scariest warlord of them all if necessary but that wasn't the case at the time. I thought of him as the spoiled little brother to the angsty vengeance seeker of Sorry I Love You, or as a smart little brother to the amnesiac mob assassin in Time Between Dog and Wolf. Or, more likely, in his big break-out role as the male lead of Smile You. The thing is, in all of these, even Smile You, he is the quintessential nice guy (or as the term is in certain circles, "beta male.") He was about the last person I'd normally envision as a male lead in a period drama about war. But once I saw the drama, it all made sense and not because he was bringing his later Cruel City persona.

Because despite his undoubted ability to fight in battle, Ja Myung and Hodong are all about gender reversal - at one point she even becomes his bodyguard! If you think about it, they take gender roles usually reserved for the opposite gender - she is the proactive one, who sets the story in motion, the rebel leader. He is the one who conquered Nakrang through seduction of La Hee, something seen as a typically female method. His seducing La Hee into destroying the protective drum is a far cry from Jumong fighting through hordes single-handed or Dam Duk in The Legend taking on an army with a small unit armed with nothing but grit or even the Prince in Haechi or King in GK War outwitting his court enemies with balls and brains. And, as a typically female method, his way of victory gets him nothing but scorn - in the first episode, his stepmother calls him a whore to his face. It's the same with the relationship - Ja Myung can let go of him, but he cannot let go of her.

The women are uniformly fascinating and complex in this - even someone like La Hee does not just give in to Hodong's false sweet words - she genuinely believes surrender would save her country. The drama's respect for its female characters is summed up in a single scene - one of the characters is a widow of Wang Jashi's brother (the one she poisoned). Her 10-year-old brother-in-law marries her to save her from execution. 10 years later, they are still married and when she is doing the proper thing and helping him bathe, you see her experience and suppress her desire - because her husband is now a gorgeous gorgeous man. It could be a ludicrous situation - she changed the guy's diapers and she is not what you'd consider traditionally good-looking. But instead drama treats her feeling with respect and understanding. I loved it for that.

Oh, and I am just gonna leave this little father-son convo here:

Hodong: Your Majesty, what did you tell me before? You said if only you gain Nakrang without any blood being spilt, you would bestow leniency on them. Take pity on them. The other way there will be no end to rebellion and we will all die. Daemushin: Your own grandfather, King Yuri, killed his own two sons. I was young and I could not understand that. How could he? How can a father kill his own child. Unless he was crazy, how could he kill his sons? I finally understand him today. For a King, a son with other intentions is nothing but a political enemy. A political enemy that must be killed and gotten rid of. Hodong: Do you wish to kill me? Daemushin: [throws down a puppet of a woman] You must know who this wench is. Who is she? Hodong: It is Emperor Choi Ri's unknown daughter, Princess Ja Myung. Daemushin: Find her and kill her. Hodong: Father, I cannot do that! I...I...that woman... Daemushin: When you chop off the head of that woman Jae Myung, I will make you the Crown Prince. If your father is King Daemushin, who has expanded his kingdom, then you must survive and show all other nations how to rule that kingdom. Hodong: Your subject Hodong accepts Your Highness' command.

Parent of the Year indeed!

PS If you've watched enough sageuks, you will recognize that wily old monster Daemushin is actually the protag of The Kingdom of the Winds where he looked like this:

(I did a pusher post for TKotW before so won't repeat.) The funny thing is much as I adored the ML of TKotW, I can totally see him progress into that monster here. It would be logical.

Anyway, digression over, go watch JMG!

[happilychaengs]

Nayeon - Tapes

a/n: had a spark of inspiration. this entire thing is from nayeon's pov. this took a lot of courage to even try and i don't know if this was worth posting or not but i tried doing something new, plot wise and writing wise. didn't proofread so it may have some errors.

word count: 1,219

angst

nayeon x gender neutral reader

When the doorbell rang, I almost couldn't bring myself to stand up and answer it. Not until I heard your name.

"Package for Y/N!" I... couldn't believe it. My chest was tight. My head hurt.

When I saw a box with your name signed on it at my doorstep, everything I've held back finally burst through the floodgates. I cried and cried, each tear staining the cardboard box even more than the last.

I almost didn't have the courage to bring it in but something in me needed to know what it was. There were so many tapes inside, each labeled with different dates. Now I know why you got me a VHS player all those months ago.

Tape 1 - 9/25/21

There you were with a happy smile. As happy as you could have been when you were in a hospital gown, all those syringes pinned inside your arm. You sat down in front of a white wall and yet your eyes were still so bright, almost somehow filling the entire screen with color. You looked so hopeful.

"Hi Nayeon!" You waved directly to the camera with a bright smile and almost for a second, I feel like I'm with you again. Like I'm standing in front of you just having a conversation like any ordinary day with you.

You say all the right things to make me smile despite it all. "I miss you tons already, Nayeon. All these doctors have just been feeding me so much medicine and it's all so disgusting!" You stick your tongue out playfully in disgust, a habit you've picked up from your older sister.

"And all the nurses have been side eyeing me lately for some reason. Maybe it was because I ate another sandwich when they told me not to... oops!" You laugh again and it rings in my ears so clearly. I loved your hearty laugh. The way it always made me laugh too and you'd tease me for it saying I shouldn't be laughing at you.

"I didn't want to sit in my bed all day and watch old people television so I asked for some favors and here I am now before you! Your great protector Y/N!" A nickname you gave yourself when you once killed a cockroach that crawled into my shoes.

"I also know I've been out of tune with the trends lately but I learned this from Jeongyeon when she visited earlier!" Then you dabbed like it wasn't a dead trend for years already, you giggling to yourself as you did it. God, you and Jeongyeon were such dorks together. I wish you knew she misses you a lot too.

Then a person, maybe a doctor or a nurse, was heard outside your room. Something about you going to get your treatment. You just nodded at them as you looked back to the camera, your smile still on your face.

"That's all for now, Nay! But don't worry! I'll be back!" You said in that annoying terminator impression of yours that I secretly loved. I wish I told you.

Tape 2 - 10/01/21

"Happy Anniversary, darling!" You shouted as you pulled on a small confetti popper. "I'm really sorry that we can't celebrate our anniversary together because of me but I wanted to record this to tell you how much I love you!"

You pulled out a small piece of paper which I could definitely recognize as a poem. You always did that on our anniversaries. Something new and original every year albeit sometimes they didn't make sense because you wanted to rhyme but that didn't matter. I loved them all.

Clearing your throat, you read it aloud with a stupid accent you say is 'just like Shakespeare!'

"Like a sunshine to the horizon, you were bound to light up my world.

Like water to the ocean, I feel like we're inseparable.

Whatever I say is true, I give you my word.

You're my one true love, irreplaceable.

Even when I sit here surrounded by death,

The thought of you gives me life.

I wish to love you till my very last breath,

So someday I may call you my wife."

You folded up the paper and set it down, staring directly at the camera with your ever bright smile. "Well! I hope you liked it! I really tried hard for that one since you know... can't take you out anywhere right now." And if only you knew how much that poem meant to me right now.

Tape 3 - 10/11/21

"Hey Nay!" You still haven't lost the glow in your eyes yet as you coddled the small teddy bear I gave you that day. "I know you just visited me but I couldn't help but want to sit down and record another tape for you in secret! I really miss you a lot but I'm glad I can have Mr. Cuddles by my side." I felt a small smile at my lips as I finally figured out what you named that bear that came along with the tapes.

"I also made a new friend here that I didn't tell you last time! I became friends with one of the nurses and now they sometimes give me extra food but don't tell anyone! It's our little secret..." You whispered.

I missed those parts of you. The social butterfly that could become friends with anyone even when you were bed ridden and that sort of free spirit you possessed. Not bound by anything. I wished those parts of you I could try to imitate at least but you really are irreplaceable.

You spoke up again as you tried peering out of your rooms windows and into the hallway. "I think I got to go but I'll definitely come back, Nayeon. Promise." I wish you kept it. Why'd you have to be so bad with promises?

Tape 4 - 12/15/21

"Nayeon. You heard the doctors." Your eyes were filled with such despair, the colors missing now. An apparent void in you. "I've... decided that these tapes will only make it to you if I..." you choked out, "if I die. If you ever see these then... I'm sorry for not being strong enough. For not fighting harder for you."

I wish you didn't say that. I should have been there for you. I should have fought harder with you. Water pooled in my eyes as my hands faltered on the remote, wanting to pause it and forget about it all but how could I ever forget? I love you.

"Nayeon. If I'm really gone, I... want you to move on if you haven't already by the time you're watching this. I know how stubborn you are. If we were really meant for each other then... I'll find you in our next life but for now please move on. For me." Maybe the only thing you could've asked me that I can't do.

"For the rest of my time, I'll record some more tapes for you just to cheer you up if I really am gone but I'm sorry if I sound a little... sad. It comes with the diagnosis." You let out a low chuckle as you reached over to the camera and shut it off, leaving me alone again.

[queenimmadolla]

𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬

(jonathan byers x fem!reader)

Summary: Your boyfriend seeks you out in his time of need. You hold onto him for as long as you can.

Warnings: Angst, a little bit of fluff and comfort, implied Jancy.

a/n: My dumbass lost the ask about this request. I had an original character x steve harrington plot, once upon a time, my first ever OC for a fandom and it started off a lot like this, so writing this was very nostalgic. Hurt like hell, though. Anyways, hope the jonathan lovers (other than me) and anyone else who gives this a read likes it. I know he's not one of the more popular ST romantic interests, but he should be.

You hummed along to the song crooning low from your battered radio—the poor thing having taken one too many tumbles from its resting place on your dresser.

  Sometimes you got a little too into it, and lacked special awareness, dance moves too much for your secondhand furniture. 

  The main ceiling light was off, your safe space only lit by a few candles and the lamp on your desk, providing you enough light to complete the essay you were working on. 

  It was peaceful, almost. Ideally, you’d rather be in bed reading a book or watching some movie, maybe catching up on Dynasty but you needed to clear your head—or rather, distract yourself.

  You’d been plagued with a sense of foreboding for the last couple of weeks, and anxiety. It had only intensified in the last couple of days, still, you were determined to push through it. You were being stupid, silly.

  You let out a sigh, dropping your pencil in favor of running a hand over your face. You’d gone right back to thinking about the cause of your silent anguish. Danggit.

  You let yourself stew in silence for a few moments before you forced yourself to pick up your pencil again, ready to move onto your next paragraph when you heard the unmistakable sound of knuckles rapping against the glass of your window.

  Glancing up and over, you found your boyfriend’s face peering down at you. He smiled, sheepish, as he waved.

  You abandoned your homework (it wasn’t due until Friday anyways), hurrying over to the wall to unlock it for him. Your bedroom was in the basement, the house was only a two bedroom, so you’d shared a room with your younger sister until just a few months ago, when your father had finally cleaned it out and done it up for you just before his sudden passing. 

  Jonathan had no problem climbing down through the small, rectangular window, he’d done it a couple of times already—though your mother had no problem allowing him in, not when he made you so happy after the loss.

  “You could just use the front door, you know.” You reminded him, lips pulling into a smile as his nose scrunched up in distaste.

  “Didn’t want to ring the doorbell, I know your mom’s probably exhausted from all the flying.” He shrugged off his jacket, resting it over the washer (hey—it might have been a spacious room but it was still the basement).

  Your heart warmed, pleased with the fact he’d remembered your brief mentioning of her return home that morning while he’d walked you to your algebra class. She was a flight attendant, taking on more flights to support you and your sister now that your dad was gone. You rarely saw her anymore.

  “She’s got her earplugs in.” 

  “Did she have to pay twenty dollars for those or does she get them for free?”

  You laughed, shoving at his shoulder. Jonathan chuckled, giving you a playful push before he dragged you back to him, holding you against him as he swayed you and pressed his lips to your crown.

  Your eyes fluttered shut, soaking up his affection like a peace lily deprived of the sun.

  Then he let himself fall back onto your bed, taking him with you as you squealed. 

  “Jonathan!”

  He shushed you, hand on the back of your head to press your face into his chest, “Your mom is asleep, Moody!”

  You groaned at the use of the nickname you’d never be able to escape. You’d swallowed a mood ring on a dare in elementary school and threw it up, along with your breakfast, during recess when you’d grown anxious, believing a doctor would have to cut your stomach open to fish it out. 

  The mean kids had used the name to taunt you, but when a shy little boy with shaggy hair used it to call you over and ask if you wanted to take turns pushing each other on the swing, you’d decided it wasn’t all that bad. Not even a little. He also never took a turn on the swings, pushing you the entire time.

  That hadn’t been the beginning of your love story, while you’d play with Jonathan—always running to him whenever he called and even when he didn’t—your crush on him prevented you from developing a real friendship with him, too shy whenever he’d acknowledge your existence. It was a Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown kind of thing until high school.

  You’d always been pretty, always been likable and nice—to those who deserved it—and your popularity in high school was a result of those traits. You’d been pursued by boys since middle school, but you were too focused on your pursuit of one boy in particular to pay them any mind.

  Your love story finally started just after freshman year had ended. Jonathan was going around, taking photos of the messy hallways filled with celebration. You’d clocked the moment his camera was on you and gave the lens, and the boy behind it, a brilliant grin.

  The picture was clipped to the visor in his car with a copy resting, framed, on his bedside table

  You let out a small puff of breath, eyes closing once more as the anxiety faded from you. Jonathan was your flame, always driving away the cold.

  The two of you laid there on your bed in comfortable silence, his hand stroking over your hair. You’d almost been lulled to sleep until you registered the change in the silence. It was anxious again, but it wasn’t you.

  You moved your head to stare up at him, chin resting on his chest.

  He wasn’t looking at you, gaze focused on your ceiling with an emotionless expression. You knew what he was thinking about.

  “We should hang up more flyers,” You commented, mind filling with thoughts and memories of the little boy who often accompanied you on dates with your boyfriend and for whom you often babysat before you were even able to call Jonathan yours. Despite his young age, you considered Will a friend (felt a little wrong to call him your little brother seeing as how you were sleeping with his older brother). You loved him and you missed him, having been plagued with worry since his disappearance. 

  You’d searched the woods with Joyce, Jonathan and your sister day after day until your group finally had to admit Will wasn’t in the woods. You’d also helped plaster his missing posters all over town, putting them back up when some asshole tore them down (you hadn’t told Jonathan about that).

  Jonathan hummed, unblinking and you wiggled further up his body, nuzzling your face into the crook of his neck as you pressed a few gentle kisses there. You could feel the tension leaving him.

  “Do you think he’s still alive?” He finally asked, voice a whisper even for your soft spoken boyfriend and laced with fear.

  You moved onto your forearm, shifting your weight to your side as you used your free hand to grasp his chin, turning his head to look at you. 

  There was a wet shine to his pretty brown eyes, one you knew he rarely allowed himself to show.

  You thought of your sister upstairs, older than Will but still  younger than you. If anything happened to her, you wouldn’t know how to go on with that missing space in your life. You could barely do it with the space your dad had previously occupied being empty.

  You knew Will, though. Maybe not as well as his brother, but you had a special bond with him, your friendship pure and full of trust. He’d comforted you on the nights you were babysitting him and your feelings for Jonathan became too much for you, always reassuring you that his brother was the greatest but severely stupid if he couldn’t see how much you cared about him and ask you out. You’d laugh, make him popcorn and let him watch a scary movie to apologize for being a teenage girl around him.

  He told you his secrets, too.

  Yeah, your bond with Will Byers was strong, unbreakable even. And you knew he was alive. You didn’t know how, you just knew.

  “Without a doubt. Will is gonna come home. He is, and we’ll all cry and hug and never let him out of our sights again, but he’s coming home.”

  You watched his face give in, crumbling as the tears finally trailed down the sides of his face, disappearing into his sideburns.

  It was your turn to hold him. You pulled him to you and he went willingly, burying his face in your chest as he quietly sobbed, shoulders shaking. 

  You carded your fingers through his hair and kissed his forehead, willing away your own hurt so you could help him through his.

  “He might not be here right now, but Will isn’t gone. You haven’t lost him, Shutterbug.” You promised, squeezing him so he didn’t feel like he was falling apart.

  All your previous worries were gone, fear of Jonathan’s seemingly growing friendship and secret rendezvous—he hasn’t told you about but you know of—with Nancy Wheeler forgotten, trivial compared to the matter at hand. He’s in your bed, came to you for comfort and you got to hold him. She’s got a boyfriend, one who isn’t yours. The foreboding can take a seat in the back of your mind because you wouldn’t pay it anymore attention.

  You were right, Will did come home. You didn’t know the whole story, not buying the one fed to you but you didn’t push it, happy and relieved your little friend was back home safe.

  And you were right about the other thing, the foreboding. By the next fall, you weren’t able to hold Jonathan anymore. 

  And he stopped being yours.

[chaoscradle]

Winter Is Not Eternal

(um. this is really short, and i wrote this in one night at like 11pm so if it makes no sense/is too fast paced/ooc etc please excuse that i am very sleep deprived + i never write this kind of stuff so out of my element)

---

It’s snowing hard.

That’s not going to be stopping Mike from seeing Will.

It’s been too long, in Mike’s opinion – two months since they’ve been able to see each other on their own and talk without someone else with an open ear around.

Two months since the Mindflayer was sealed in the Upside Down.

Things have been a little hectic since then. Erratic and overprotective siblings and adults, paranoid friends, everyone still trying to come to terms with everything that’s happened.

It’s not that Mike isn’t upset – he really is, like really really is – but seeing Will has always just made everything so much calmer. Made his mind less clouded, more discernible and manageable. Nancy’s been following him around since the incident though, and that doesn’t exactly make his quest of spending time alone with Will any easier.

“I know what you’re going through, Mike, I’m trying to help! Why don’t you understand that?!”

She was the one who didn’t understand. Nobody does, nobody except Will. Even El doesn’t understand, she hadn’t been there – she hadn’t seen Will in the hospital, screaming and crying and struggling. She hadn’t seen Will in the shed, tear tracks staining his cheeks as he desperately tried to fight against the Mindflayer’s control. She hadn’t watched Will slowly forget who he was, and who he loved, and be completely helpless to stop it. None of them got it. Even Joyce, who had been there for every single one of those moments, didn’t get it.

But Will understands everything. He understands him on a level nobody else ever has and nobody else ever will. It’s scary sometimes, but at times like now, it’s everything he needs.

And if it takes Mike having to sneak out into the cold night snow to be able to see him without his sister breathing down his neck, so be it.

There’s more snow coming down than Mike had originally thought, and he’s come close to losing control of his bike and crashing several times as the patches of ice become less and less visible under the fresh snow.

He pedals faster.

His mind is going at a manic speed, his thoughts indiscernible besides the clear sound of all too familiar guttural screaming and the ever-present and increasingly panicked mantra of Will, Will, Will, Will playing on loop.

He’s almost there. Almost to Will.

It doesn’t take too long for him to finally reach his destination, dropping his bike under a tree by the side of the road, hidden enough for it to be left alone by any drunk teens. Taking a deep breath, he makes his way across the snow, trekking his way down a path that had unfortunately made itself all too familiar in the past few months. A path he had walked down time and time again with Lucas and Dustin, Joyce and Jonathan, sometimes Nancy – but never once he had walked down alone.

Every headstone in the cemetery has a fresh snow covering their tops, making them indistinguishable to an outsider, but not so much to Mike. He’s always been able to find Will, no matter where he is. It’s no different now, even if the circumstances aren’t the same.

He brushes the snow from the top of Will’s headstone, more for the sake of doing it than actually getting the snow off.

“Hey, Will,” Mike says, his voice breaking mid-sentence, “I… keep seeing you in everything. It’s like you’re still here, sometimes. We promised to go crazy together, but… you’re not here anymore.”

Time still passes. The world still spins. People still live their lives.

None of them care for the death of Will Byers.

But the night sky weeps alongside Mike. Its tears fall in soft, white specks, flooding the world with its sorrow for what could have been.

It snows, and it snows, and it snows, and Mike cries, and cries, and cries.

And when Mike finally heaves himself up, forcing himself back onto his bike to return home, the snow stops.

It will snow many more times – it’s only December – but for now it’s calmed down, and eventually, snow will not fall as often. 

Winter is not eternal.

Neither is spring or summer, for that matter. Eventually it becomes winter again, but after that, spring follows once more.

It will take time, but eventually, Mike will learn the same thing.