#as it was i thought this storyline was too dramatic to drag on as it was but life uhhhhhhh finds a way i guess!

[lemotmo]

Some of them clearly got the point of Tim's call-out.

Q. What did you make of Tim's interview? I realize the bulk was Lonestar but the fandom stuff was interestingly phrased. The fact that so many people involved with the show, and now the showrunner himself, are openly discussing how bad things are cannot be a good sign. I know we had some fans who were saying we could 'bully' Tim and the show into giving us more Tommy but I think that was a massive mistake in hindsight. I think certain people got carried away and went way too far. Weather their intentions were ever bad or not I just think some people took the bullying idea too far. I'm a little worried we may not see Tommy at all now.

A. The bullying idea was always going to be a massive mistake. Normally you can take Tim's interviews with a bit of 'lol, why is he so dramatic' because he's not immune to getting his feelings hurt, and using his interviews to tell people that. In this case though it was definitely a direct callout. I have been here from the beginning and the show has never experienced anything close to what they have experienced this off-season. It's one thing to root for a particular show ship it's another thing entirely to openly send, and openly encourage others, to send hate to the cast and creators of a show. Then those same fans dragged the lighting director, director of photography, show directors and professional media members who have covered the show for years into their bullying game as well. It was insane, pathetically immature behavior. At times it was also incredibly disturbing. And every single bit of it can be traced back to the cameo videos. The second the storyline they were paying to be told didn't match the storyline we were actually watching they revolted.

And unfortunately because I think Tim, and ABC, just didn't think they were anything worth paying attention to initially, he was allowed to do them way too long. The more he did the more obsessed with him that particular group of people became. This has nothing to do with 911. Those people aren't at all interested in 911. Their entire interest is Lou and Lou alone. It's a small group of people. A small sick group of people who created a bunch of separate accounts in order to appear to be more people than they actually are (and they were stupid enough to openly admit that is what they did). Then that small group of people got together and from every single one of their many accounts they attacked as a group. They started with Oliver. They pointed out that Oliver wasn't interacting with Lou or engaging with any of them, or B/T content, and decided, at least initially, that he was solely to blame for B/T not getting the attention they thought it deserved, again the Buck part they don't care about. They were upset that they weren't seeing more of Tommy and they blamed Oliver for that. Suddenly Oliver was being tagged in posts that were calling him unprofessional, immature, bratty, selfish, and because of course, homophobic (they're really not a bright group of people). However instead of taking their bait and engaging with them, Oliver, rightly, blocked them. Meaning they needed a new target. Briefly it became Tim because their moronic leader screenshot a message she sent him that he, stupidly, responded to. She took that and spun and ENTIRE relationship theory and spread it through her many accounts. Tim then admitted in another comment that he actually didn't know what she was talking about but didn't want to be rude by continuing to ignore her so he responded to her. He then said that was a mistake and he wouldn't be responding to anything else. And he hasn't (she should be very embarrassed by his interview today because he may as well have used her name). And the show also continued to not align with her/their theory and they got more upset. Then found a new target.

Throughout the season Oliver did what Oliver has always done. Oliver posted, liked and promoted Eddie/Buddie/Buckley Diaz family content. He has always done this. This was nothing new. But it infuriated Lou's fans and they turned their anger on Ryan. Suddenly Eddie was the worst character in the history of television. He was an abuser (to Buck especially), he was a user (of Buck especially). He was a terrible friend (to Buck especially). Depending on the day he was either a deadbeat dad or obsessed with his kid in an unhealthy way (they couldn't ever really decide which way to go on this one. That opinion was dependent on how the poster felt about Chris). When that attack didn't really get the attention they were begging for, they changed direction and made it personal. Post after post, that Ryan was always tagged in, calling him racist, a deadbeat dad, an asshole, unprofessional, manipulative and controlling of Oliver (wtf, god they really are a stupid group of people), a whore (I actually read that one myself, it was a trip), a terrible actor that only has a job because Tim thinks he's hot. And so on and so on. At first Tommy didn't kiss Eddie because Ryan is homophobic and refused to do the storyline, then Tim, very publicly, corrected that lie so Lou's fans had to pivot and said Lou actually refused to do the Eddie storyline because he knows Ryan isn't a good guy ( a special kind of crazy that makes me need to drink ). Then they sunk to their sickest, lowest, most pathetic, vile, disturbing, and inexcusable moment. Ryan did a podcast where he discussed his past mental health struggles and suicidal thoughts. They went into the comments on the podcast and told Ryan that they wish he had committed suicide. That if he had killed himself then Tommy could have his screen time and they wouldn't have to see Buck have scenes with Eddie. Not only did they leave those comments (the podcast has since deleted most of them, thankfully), they sent similar messages directly to Ryan on Instagram. Knowing he would see them. It was appalling and very, very disturbing. The cameo videos ended fairly shortly after. These people are sick. They get zero sympathy or understanding from me. It's a fucking television show. Tommy is not a real person. Ryan is a real person.

As for maybe not seeing Tommy at all, I would imagine conversations have certainly taken place. He was never sticking around permanently. The conversations most likely involved deciding if they needed him at all, and if they did, how many actual scenes did they need him for. I don't work on the show, but if they decided he wasn't necessary to the storyline, and they could get away with his stuff happening off screen I would imagine he's been dismissed. They probably decided they needed him at least for a few scenes though. Unless other things happened behind the scenes we're not aware of he will be around the first few episodes at least and then and probably no more. He can take his tiny army with him when he leaves. No one will miss them.

Okay, just ... yeah, all of this. It's crazy how these people did all of these horrible things in the name of... a ship? I mean, what?

I've been in fandom for a very long time and I have been shipping characters for a very long time, but I've never seen behaviour like this. Behaviour where people think they are justified to bully, harass and vilify the actors playing a character on a TV-show. To the point where they get blocked by the actors and crew.

I don't understand what would drive someone to do that? I genuinly don't.

These are the kind of people that need to put down their phones forever, go outside and touch all the grass they can touch. After that they should never watch 911 again. If you don't like something, just walk away. I have done that before. Shows don't always go where a fan wants it to go.

Look. I want Buddie. You all know that. I'm 99% certain that we're getting Buddie in season 8. But, if it turns out we won't, which is always a possibility since I don't know what Tim is cooking up, I will be disappointed, but I won't start spewing hatred all over the place. I will just take a step back and focus on other things in life. I'll keep shipping Buddie and read fanfiction. I'll be fine here in my Buddie corner of the Internet with my Buddie mutuals.

So yeah, this is insane behaviour to me. I truly don't get it.

Thanks Nonny for dropping this in my inbox!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting these anon OP updates instead of reblogging. Don't get mad at me. There is a reason for it and it's all done with consent from the OP. You can find out more about that here.

Remember, no hate in comments or reblogs. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of the anonymous OP’s posts, you can find all of their posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[ickie]

♡ … THE SECRET OF US \ CHAPTER 2  …

pairing ... lando norris x leclerc!reader summary ... summer of '22 and it seems that you & lando get along a little ... too well. warnings ... alcohol consumption, maybe slight allusions to cheating ... i do think that's it friends :) notes ... so sorry for the delay ! just because of that, next chapter is going to be posted on sunday & it'll continue with this summer '22 storyline so we get a little more background and your relationship with lando... feedback is always appreciated & fill out this form to be added to my taglist ! much love <3 ... masterlist ... last chapter ... next chapter ...

SUMMER BREAK, 2022.

your head knocked against the car window, the bumps on the road making any hope of a nap impossible before the car finally stopped at the dock. as you muttered a few curse words under your breath, your attention was drawn to elliotte, one of your childhood friends, who was in a heated conversation in french with another member of your group.

"is everything okay?" you asked, raising an eyebrow as the conversation abruptly ceased.

"yes! i was just trying to explain the importance of sunscreen, but apparently, i know nothing, so everyone ignore me!" elliotte declared dramatically, prompting a quiet giggle from you.

"you're probably the smartest one here, so please, continue…" you encouraged her with a smile.

….

soon enough, your small group arrived at the dock, everyone unloading their bags as the spanish sun began making sweat bead along your hairline. with your tote bag slung over your shoulder, elliotte stopped you before you could move any further.

"we’re going to have a few more people on the yacht with us," she said. "you remember luisa? well, she's bringing her boyfriend, who i think you know—" a groan escaped your lips, and your face scrunched in distaste at the thought of seeing one of your brother’s coworkers.

"so you do know him! and he’s bringing one of his friends too, i believe. just play nice!" elliotte squeezed your hand before dragging you along, her expression mirroring your displeasure.

introductions are always awkward, especially when everyone knows of each other. you were itching to get into the water and just relax.

"hi, little leclerc," lando said with a grin, leaning in for a side hug. "long time no see, eh? too good for the paddock this year?" his teasing tone made you roll your eyes and cross your arms over your chest.

"just got sick of watching men cry over their cars not going fast enough. plus, i don't think i can handle watching mclaren mess up daniel any more than you guys already have." you replied bluntly, hoping he wouldn’t push the conversation further.

lando opened his mouth, but elliotte cut him off. "no f1 talk, please!" she groaned, rolling her eyes before leaning on you. "this one," she pointed at you, "is on a strict pleasure holiday, and no one can take that away from her!"

some of your friends cheered, clearly happy to see you letting loose. you had to admit, it was refreshing to be on a holiday without any responsibilities—no family concerns, no brand posts to manage. it was truly a chance to unwind.

as the boat began to move away from the coastline, you walked to the edge, closing your eyes and taking a deep breath. the salty air filled your nostrils, and a content smile spread across your lips. you must have been there longer than you realized because a hand on your shoulder startled you out of your trance.

"i’m sorry!" the curly-haired brit said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "you had just been standing here for a while, so i wanted to make sure you were okay…" he smiled, one hand scratching the back of his neck.

"i’m fine," you replied, turning to face him and relaxing against the rails. "i just… i’ve always liked the ocean." it was a simple response, your gaze drifting back to the blue water.

"so much so that it, what, hypnotizes you?" his teasing remark made you shake your head and roll your eyes.

"it reminds me of maman. she would always take me to the beach during the summer when papa had the boys for karting." you smiled, reminiscing about those fond memories.

"we would get ice cream, i’d always get sunburned no matter how much sunscreen i used, and maman would fuss about how she’d have to fix my hair the next day because it would get tangled from the salt." you glanced at lando, who was listening with an amused grin.

"sounds like you two always had a great time together, yeah?" he asked.

you nodded, hands stuffed into the pockets of your shorts. a comfortable silence fell between you until max, one of lando’s friends, came over to steal him away for something about a bet. you took this chance to change into your swimsuit. the boat hadn’t reached its intended stopping point yet, but a nap in the sun sounded perfect.

with sunscreen applied and your airpods securely in place (with an audiobook playing— it’s not summer without you by jenny han, translated into french), you tried to let sleep pull you under. when it didn’t happen, you simply rested with your eyes closed, enjoying the gentle sway of the boat.

…

lunch/dinner passed uneventfully, everyone quietly enjoying the sandwiches that elliotte and luisa had prepared while you attempted to nap. finishing your drink, a vodka paloma—since tequila apparently made elliotte and luisa crazy—you stood up and disposed of your trash. “i’m going to go swim,” you announced. a few people said they’d join you shortly, and you felt a rush of excitement at the thought of diving into the water.

you shed your oversized t-shirt and eagerly jumped into the warm water, staying submerged for a few moments before surfacing at the sound of another splash. lando surfaced beside you, his curls flattened by the water. you laughed as he coughed.

“i don’t know how you made that look so easy,” he grumbled, gripping the ladder as you tread water.

“it is easy!” you laughed, playfully splashing him. a mischievous grin spread across his face.

“oh, it’s on.” lando's competitive side emerged as he splashed you back, just as you dipped underwater.

as you tried to swim away, he grabbed your ankle, pulling you closer. you gasped for air, splashing him again in hopes he’d let go, but he just pulled you closer, his hands moving to your waist. with a wide grin, he pushed you back underwater.

you resurfaced sputtering, eyes wide as you looked at him. “you better sleep with one eye open tonight,” you teased, swimming away slowly. “i’m going to get you back when you least expect it.”

he nodded, pretending not to believe you, his eyes tracking you as you dipped back underwater. when you resurfaced, elliotte was halfway down the ladder. “i know you just got in, but we were going to play a game up top. you two want to join?”

you eagerly swam back to the ladder, and lando agreed to join as well. the game was charades, and you were teamed up with elliotte and luisa, while lando, max f., and another friend formed the opposing team.

the game proved challenging. elliotte struggled to portray water, while lando’s team cheated by making sounds to convey their words and phrases. the game ended when elliotte and max started bickering, neither willing to concede.

“at least i’m not a cheater!” elliotte pointed at max while you pulled her inside, laughing so hard your cheeks hurt.

“i’m so glad you’re having fun, mon doudou,” she said, leaning her head on your shoulder as you pulled her into a side hug.

“thank you for this. for pulling me away from monaco and life in general. you’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for,” you hummed before elliotte stood up, her face scrunching.

“i hate when we get sentimental.”

“yeah, let’s never do that again. that was weird.”

you started making a simple rum and coke when lando entered the kitchenette, eyeing your drink. “if you even dare, i will actually kill you,” elliotte warned, taking a sip to safeguard her drink.

you stifled a laugh, watching her sway out of the kitchenette towards the deck. lando’s demeanor had shifted from his earlier rambunctiousness.

“i think it’s my turn to ask, are you okay?” you ventured. lando looked like a sad puppy, tugging at your slightly intoxicated self.

“oh, i’m good. luisa and i got into an argument, is all,” he said, giving a tight-lipped smile, clearly more affected than he let on.

you hummed in response, putting away the alcohol and opting for water. “i’m no expert in relationships, but if you need a shoulder to cry on, i’m here,” you offered, taking a long drink from your glass to stop yourself from saying more.

“thanks, it means a lot,” he said, smiling fully this time as he moved you aside to get some water. you both drank in comfortable silence.

“and, uh, if you need a break from the boat, i know a little cove not too far away. charlie showed it to me last summer,” you suggested.

“i would love that, actually. i know luisa is planning to go to bed soon, so let me check on her and then we can go?”

“sure! just come find me when you’re ready.” you agreed.

[siriuslystyle1989]

heyy can you make an modernazriel x female reader based off the song kiwi by harry styles and maybe throw in some cardigan and champagne problems type storyline ? i love your work sm <33 although if you dont mind im begging you to make longer fic, you can do it as series too (if thats okay with u) byeee

Hard Liquor Mixed With A Bit Of Intellect (part 1)

Series masterlist misc masterlist

modern!Azriel x fem!reader

Warnings: Kissing, drinking, smoking (cigarettes)

A/n Hii lovely!! tysm for the request! I have been wanting to make a series for the longest time so this is a perfect opportunity to do so!! Here is part one, hope it lives up to your expectations!

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

The music was blaring loud, and Azriel found himself losing count of how much drink he'd downed.

He'd been dragged to this club by Cassian who'd begged him to go out and stop being 'boring' like Rhys who had stopped partying with them ever since his Son Nyx was born last year.

And as per usual, Cassian had a tendency to rope Azriel into doing things against his will and better judgement.

Hence, Azriel found himself sitting at a bar shouting at the bartender over the incessant music to get him another drink.

Sighing, clutching his drink, he swung himself around to look for Cassian.

Unfortunately for Azriel, he was met with the sight of his best friend with a woman on each arm, his tongue down the right one's neck.

As if Cassian had been waiting for him to look, he sent Azriel a wink and yelled "Turn back around big boy." The women around him laughed and Azriel rolled his eyes but complied.

He slumped his head down on the bar silently telling himself to never agree to do anything with Cassian again, when a female voice interrupted his voice.

"Vodka diet coke please, thank you."

Azriel poked his head up to look at the woman. Her denim skirt and black leather jacket hugged her body in the perfect places.

"Are you alright?" She looked back at him as the bartender turned around and Azriel thought he was dreaming.

"Yeah, I- uh..." He replied still in a drunken daze.

The girl giggled slightly, dimples poking through her cheeks.

"Let me guess your friends roped you into coming here?" Her black eyeshadow perfect as she blinked up at the man

"Yeah, something like that." He smiled back at her "My friend, Cassian, he's that one over there."

He pointed to the booth in which Cassian and five other women now sat, one on his lap and two on either side.

The girl snorted and turned back to face Azriel.

"Looks like Cassian's having some fun." She spoke, sipping on her drink.

"Tell me about it." Azriel rolled his eyes dramatically at the girl.

"So what are you doing here Mr sit-in-the-shadows"

"As you suggested, I'm here against my will."

"Ah of course." The girl turned back to face the bar

"Well, you've told me all about Cassian, but nothing about you." She turned back to face him, looking inquisitively.

"Oh sorry, I'm Azriel," he replied.

"And how exactly did Cassian get your sorry ass here?" She looked at him with a smirk on her face, prompting him to speak more.

Azriel found himself wanting to speak more, the girl instantly putting him at ease.

"Me and Cass" he started "We're like a trio with this other guy Rhys, who Cassian and I usually go out with, but he got married and has a one-year-old son, and Cassian keeps saying he got boring or whatever So Cass has been itching to go out for ages so I guess I felt bad?" he finished looking back at the girl.

"Sorry, I never even asked your name."

She laughed.

"Y/n. My name is Y/n" she smiled at Azriel.

Y/n finished her drink and spoke once more "Do you want to go for a walk, its kind of stuffy in here, if you want to stay with Cassian its fi-"

"No, no I'm sure he'll be fine." Azriel cut in, grabbing the girl's hand and moving outside the nightclub.

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

"Cigarette?" she offered, whipping a pack out of the pocket of her leather jacket.

"Yeah, sure thanks" Azriel replied looking down at her.

Y/n couldn't deny his beauty. But beautiful in a way in which Cassian was not. Where Cassian was Rugged, Azriel seemed softer. Almost Angelic, Y/n thought as she sucked on her cigarette.

"So what brought a pretty thing like you here Y/n?" Azriel prodded, taking a puff.

"I came with some friends from college, a guy and a girl, but they ended up making out and... going home." she spoke with a careless shrug.

"You're in college?" Azriel responded, to which the girl nodded.

"Astrophysics."

"Oh, so you're smart, smart." He stated smirking at her.

"Eh, I guess you could say that." She smiled back.

They walked for a few minutes more when Azriel voiced "I should probably get back and check on Cass"

"you're right, I need to get home too."

"You wanna walk back with me?" Azriel questioned silently hoping she would.

"Oh no, I literally live down this street, get back to your friend, Azriel." Y/n pointed, signalling to a row of apartment buildings.

She began walking away when she heard his voice once more " Wait, Y/n!"

"Yeah?" she turned around her hair swinging past her shoulders.

"Let me get your number"

She smiled handing him her phone to put it in.

"I really want to kiss you right now." he told her as she gave his phone back.

she giggled, the sound giving his heart wings.

Y/n leaned in as Azriel lifted his hand to her cheek attaching their lips, their tongues fighting for dominance.

As they moved away, a string of spit still connecting their puffy lips, Azriel smiled at her.

"Text me."

And that was the first of many rendezvous between the pair.

A/N: Thank you for this request! I'm not sure how many parts this will have but I'm going to incorporate the folklore love triangle and champagne problems as requested!!

[xiaq]

AO3 Pt. 1 Pt. 2

Pt. 3 I combined the prompts: Outsider POV, Steve Harrington is an Idiot (affectionate), Everyone is Queer Because I Said So, and @c0olness's hyper-specific Wayne's Boyfriend Owns a Gay Bar in Indianapolis and Introduces Steve to a Drag Queen. :)

Angel Reyes has loved Wayne Munson about as long as he’s loved himself. The timing is not coincidental.

Which is why he’s willing to wait for him, even when Angel’s patience is worn thin like the shirt he stole from Wayne three years ago and wears like a prayer to bed.

Some nights, when Wayne calls at the end of his shift and Angel is wiping down his own bar at closing, he’s tempted to say: we might not have much time left—shouldn’t we spend what we do have together?

But he doesn’t.

Because he already knows the answer.

Because the same reason he fell in love with Wayne is the reason Wayne won’t move to Indy. The man is loyal to a fault and when he gives himself to people he gives all of himself and there’s no force in the world that would convince Wayne to leave Hawkins if he thought Eddie still needed him there. Because Wayne loves Angel. But Wayne loved Eddie first. And Angel can hardly begrudge him of that.

So he repeats a well-worn mantra, only slightly comforting: not today, but someday. And he hangs up the phone and he checks the calendar and he looks forward to the time he is allowed. If there’s one thing he learned over the years, it’s that he can’t get greedy when he already has a good thing.

Wayne is worth the quiet agony of patience.

So when he’s locking up for the night and the phone rings, he expects the conversation to take a familiar path. 

“Evening, handsome,” he says, canting his hip against the counter. “You tell him yet?”

It’s been his standard greeting for close to a year. Why the man won’t just tell his gay nephew that he is, conveniently, also gay, is beyond Angel. But then, listening has always been Wayne’s strong suit. Talking, not so much.

“Well,” Wayne says. And that’s new.

“Well?”

“I did, actually. After I walked in on him and Steve kissin’ last night—“

“Finally!” Angel crows. The saga of Eddie and Steve and their will-they-won’t-they relationship had quickly surpassed even his favorite telenovela’s dramatic storylines. The pretty jock with hidden depths and the nerdy metalhead falling in love? Hospital vigils? Protracted pining while sharing a bed? Impeccable. 

“They’re together now,” Wayne finishes.

“Darling,” Angel says, not for the first time, “I’d like to remind you that you are not paying per word for this call.”

Wayne huffs at him, also not for the first time.

“Steve didn’t know liking both boys and girls meant he was bisexual. He thought there was some sort of…threshold he needed to pass to be queer enough to date a man. I suppose Robin set him straight––or, not so straight as the case may be––” he chuckles a little at his own joke, “And he came over to declare his love as soon as his shift ended.”

Angel takes a moment to digest that. “...Maybe they use Eddie as the sperm donor if they want kids,”  he suggests.

“Ease up, it’s not like they teach this shit in school. Bet I’d been a lot more confused too if I had the luxury of liking both.”

“Alright, I won’t pick on your future son-in-law, promise.”

“ Speaking of school,” Wayne says, sidestepping his implication. “Eddie got his diploma in the mail yesterday.”

“You going to do something to celebrate?”

“Actually, we thought we’d take a trip to Indy this weekend.”

Angel twists the phone’s cord around his finger. “…you’re supposed to come next weekend.”

“So you’d have to see me two weeks in a row, if you can bear it.”

“A trial, to be sure. When you say…” he pauses, trying to figure out how to clarify without breaking his own heart. “When you come this weekend. Would you want us—would you want me. To meet them?”

He closes his eyes and bangs a fist against his forehead because that is not the safe way to ask that question. 

“It'd be pretty weird if they didn’t meet the person hosting them.”

“Oh, I see. You’re just using me for my five star accommodations,” he says, because he’s apparently determined to dig his own grave.

“No. Wayne says, “those are nice. But mostly I just want to introduce them to my boyfriend.”

“Ah.”

“And saying shit like that makes me think you’re trying to compete with Steve in the stupid Olympics.”

Angel makes an outraged noise but Wayne talks over him which is unique enough an occurrence that Angel lets him get away with it.

“See,” Wayne says. “The boys have decided they don’t want to stay in Hawkins long-term. They figure they’ll stay another year. Save some money. Make sure the kids are settled. And then Eddie’s set on New York or California and I think Steve’s just set on Eddie, wherever he is. I thought we could at least make a case for Indy, though. ‘Cause if Eddie isn’t staying in Hawkins, I’ve got no reason to.”

“Ah,” Angel says again. “And you don’t have any interest in New York or California?”

“I sure don’t,” Wayne says levelly.

“Well,” he clears his throat. “I’ll mop the floors and clean the windows. Give them the best showing I can. Should we plan to take them to one of the…heavier… music venues? I can probably have Frank cover for me, I’d just need to ask him now.”

“Nah. I figure I’ll help you out Saturday night and let them explore on their own. Eddie’s already making a list of options. But Friday is drag night at your place, right?”

“It is.”

“We should start them with that, I think.”

Angel grins. “Their debut in queer society shall be heralded by Dolly Parton and glitter.”

“Mm.” 

Angel is familiar enough with Wayne’s thoughtful noises to know that he’s smiling.

“Enough about my boys,” Wayne says. “Tell me about your day.”

Angel does.

When Angel hangs up ten minutes later, for once, he’s grinning. He thinks, as usual, not today but someday. Only ‘someday’ suddenly feels tangible in a way it never has before.

***

Eddie Munson is exactly what Angel expected him to be when he comes tumbling out the driver’s side door of the van parked half on Angel’s driveway and half on his lawn. Angel has been hearing about him through the rosy lens of Wayne’s affection for close to five years and as a result, Angel loves him immediately upon first sight. 

Then again, he’d be difficult not to love. Eddie is a bright, frenetic, presence, all hair and chains and affected airs, who shares Wayne's smile, though he dispenses smiles much more freely than his uncle. He is unashamedly himself as he shakes Angel’s hand, tells his uncle he approves, and then asks for a tour of the house.

Steve Harrington is somehow simultaneously exactly and nothing like Angel expected.

Exactly, because he looks the part: a cropped Hawkins Varsity Basketball sweatshirt, tiny athletic shorts, and the well-built frame of someone who regularly works out. His hair is verging on ridiculous. His face is…well-suited to the body, he’ll say.

But the kid also has a hyper-awareness to him, a quick-eyed, assessing, vigilant posture, that Angel has only ever seen in war vets twice the kid’s age. He puts his back to a room’s farthest corner. He keeps doorways in sight. And he constantly, constantly, orbits Eddie like the world's most unsubtle protective detail. 

There are also the scars. Terrible, still-healing, scars. On one exposed thigh, the side of his neck, and his right forearm. On the slice of skin between his waistband and the frayed cut-off hem of his sweater. He wears them unapologetically, with the composure of someone who is neither proud nor embarrassed by them.  

Angel suspects, only a few minutes into their first meeting, that Eddie may have similar scars beneath his torn jeans and bleach-speckled band shirt. One of his arms has some sort of medical sleeve on it—the pale fabric covered in black bleed-fuzzy Sharpie drawings of bats. Angel considers the mangled half-moon-shaped lines decorating Steve’s thigh. Unless earthquakes have suddenly developed teeth, Wayne has clearly been editing his stories. 

But despite their significant aesthetic differences, the two boys are well-suited, if painfully young and unpracticed in the art of subtlety. They touch each other constantly; unthinkingly. Hands. Hips. Shoulders. Elbows. And the way they look at each other—well. They’ll need to work on that if they don’t want to accumulate more scars. Granted, they hardly have to hide their relationship in the sanctuary of his home, but he gets the feeling they don’t know how to be any other way with each other. 

It’s both sweet and more than a little heartbreaking.

“So,” he says, “ I need to get back to the bar before the opening act at 8. It’s drag night.”

“Robin is going to be furious she didn’t come,” Steve says.

“We’ll bring her next time,” Eddie says. 

They go.

***

Angel’s bar is called Innuendo. 

He can’t take credit for the name, but he can take credit for the atmosphere. It’d been a dark, sticky, hole-in-the-wall when he started working there at 21. When he’d bought it from the former owner a decade later, he’d cleaned it up, regulated the jukebox hours, and started live music, drag, and deejay nights. A few years after that, in 1984, when the mayor issued a proclamation declaring the new city policy to no longer discriminate against queers, he’d taken the boards down from all the windows. 

It’s still dark in the back where the stage and dance floor are tucked away, but the front windows with a clear view of the street are big and unashamed. He keeps the windows clean.

There’s a copy of the proclamation framed above them, along with pictures of Angel and noteworthy patrons of the establishment over the years: Wakefield Poole; Tom Higgins; Bayard Rustin; Freddie Mercury, and Jim Hutton. 

A lot has changed in the last two decades that he’s worked there, but some things, like the old oak-wood bar where all the pictures were taken, stay the same.

He brings Wayne and the boys in through the back to scattered shouts of hello from regulars. He and Wayne slide behind the bar to start helping Frank, and the boys sit on stools with wide eyes.

It’s nice, to see the place from their perspective. The magic of it is never lost on him, but sometimes he does forget exactly how magic it is: a bar that looks like most other bars but where men look and touch and kiss without concern, where there’s art and magazines and conversations that wouldn’t be permitted by common society a scant few feet outside the door.

After fifteen minutes, they get brave enough to explore—admiring the posters on the opposite wall: Bijou and Boys in the Sand; Passing Strangers, Forbidden Letters, and A Night at the Adonis.

They play a round of darts near the front windows, the boards covered in shitty black-and-white copies of Anita Bryant’s face.

They sit at a table near the stage when the show starts. They pull their chairs together. They hold hands on the tabletop. They laugh and shout and sing along and kiss when invited.

After, when they’re back at the bar, flushed with alcohol and the subtle worldview shift that Angel remembers well from his first visit to a gay bar, a few of the queens come over to introduce themselves. Leslie, currently in her Cher era, steps up to the bar, accepts her drink from Wayne with a wink, and gives Steve a clear once-over.

“Aren't you out a little late for a school night, baby?" she says in her customary baritone.

“Uh, no ma’am. I graduated last year. Sorry. Sir?”

"Sugar, do I look like a ‘sir’ to you?"

“Take it easy on him, Les,” Angel calls. “He’s new.”

“No kidding.” She purses her lips at him. “Ma’am is fine unless you meet me on the street. But here I’d prefer ‘honey. Or ‘darling.”

Steve swallows. “I promised I’d reserve pet names for my boyfriend. So. I’ll stick with Ma’am.”

“Well aren’t you a charmer. And where is this boyfriend?”

“Hi,” Eddie says.

She gives him an equally critical once-over.

“Do you know what that color bandana means in that pocket?”

Eddie glances down at his back left pocket; at the black bandana hanging against his thigh.

“Ah...that I’m into S&M but that I like to be the  submission one? Like the one getting tied up?”

“You what?” Steve says.

Angel notices that Wayne has made a hasty exit to the bathroom, which is probably for the best.

“Oh my sweet summer child,” Leslie says, “it means the opposite on that side, so maybe switch pockets.” She considers Steve’s pink face. “And also maybe talk to your boyfriend. The whole point of flagging is to find someone to meet your needs and you've got a pretty one right here who seems like he’s awfully willing.”

Steve pulls the bandana out of Eddie’s pocket and, using his teeth, tidily rips it into two. He tucks one half in Eddie’s right back pocket. He tucks the other in his left. He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow like he's expecting Eddie to argue. Eddie does not argue. Eddie doesn't do much of anything except stare at him with wide, hungry eyes.

“Well,” Leslie says, sounding pleased, “My work here is done. Honestly, kids these days.”

She gives Steve a little pat on the shoulder as she pushes back into the crowd. “I’d dance while you have the chance, boys. Life is short and sometimes so is love. Capitalize on that shit!”

“Do you want to dance?” Steve asks.

Eddie is still watching Leslie with a bemused smile. “I don’t know how to dance to this music.”

“Well I won’t know how to dance to yours tomorrow, but I’m planning to let you show me.”

“Fair enough, King Steve." Eddie affects a curtsy, offering Steve his hand. “I suppose I can allow you to take me for a turn about the dance floor, good sir.”

Steve bows low over Eddie’s hand, pressing his lips to his knuckles, looking up at him with a grin. “An honor,” he says solemnly, and then drags Eddie, laughing, into the throng of moving bodies.

***

The next morning, Angel wakes up early for no reason he can determine. He’s not good at sitting idle, and he doesn’t want his fidgeting to wake Wayne, so he elects to take his book to the garden. Only, as he slips into the hall, careful with the door behind him, he can hear the quiet, indistinct lull of voices in the kitchen.

Angel moves down the hall on sock feet, avoiding the creaky bit of flooring where the original foundation meets the master addition he added four years back. 

The boys have opened the double doors to the patio and Steve is leaning against the jam on one side, coffee cup in hand, looking out at the garden. He’s shirtless, wearing only the shorts from the day before. Warm, tree-diluted, sunrise rays cast him in sepia, making the scars that traverse his flank to his thigh look less gruesome and more artistic. Poetic. He knows more than one photographer who would kill for a shot like this. Something about the coexistence of beauty and pain. Something about a commentary on perceptions of strength; the allure of imperfection resulting from battles survived.

Eddie joins Steve, sliding under his open arm like a habit, dragging a hand down Steve’s side to cup the puckered line of recently-stitched skin at Steve’s hip. 

Eddie is also shirtless—wearing jeans and a riot of bed head that Steve presses his face into, murmuring something low and clearly funny by the stifled laughter it produces. 

Angel wasn't wrong with his initial assumption: Eddie’s back is littered with shallow scars as well, but he also has a fair amount of tattoos, which makes the other marks less incongruous. There’s something about Steve’s otherwise flawless skin and sculpted muscles that make his injuries feel more visceral.

Or, at least, that’s what he thinks until Steve suddenly looks behind him, like he has a preternatural awareness that he’s being watched.

“Oh,” he says, “Good morning.”

Both boys turn to face him. 

And Angel realizes that Steve’s injuries pale in comparison to Eddie’s.

Because Eddie’s chest and belly is a brutal mess of scar tissue.

It looks like something tried to gut him.

It looks like whatever it was probably succeeded.

He knows he’s staring but he can’t seem to stop himself until Steve slides a proprietary hand over the worst of it, spread fingers against what has to still be an agony of healing skin.

He meets Angel's eyes and all but dares him to say anything.

“I think,” Angel says, turning abruptly to enter the kitchen, “the occasion calls for french toast. Thoughts?”

“The occasion?” Eddie asks.

His hand covers Steve’s and presses, not a dismissal but an invitation to linger. 

“Your diploma,” Angel says, “Steve’s first time making a fool of himself in front of a drag queen. Whatever excuse is sufficient for the making of said french toast.”

“See, we’re sort of trying out this new thing lately,” Eddie murmurs, looking at Steve, “where we don’t need excuses for things that make us happy.”

“No guilt in our pleasures,” Steve agrees, voice soft, expression reverent. He tucks an errant curl behind Eddie’s ear.

Angel resists the urge to sigh at them. Instead, he toasts them with a carton of eggs. “French toast for the pleasure of french toast, then. You two go sit on the bench in the garden. The sun should be hitting it right about now and that is surely a pleasurable experience. I’ll let you know when breakfast is ready.”

Steve meets his eyes again, this time less challenging, more thankful. 

His hand slides from Eddie’s belly to the small of his back, pushing him out onto the patio.

“That sounds nice,” he says.

And they go.

When Wayne shuffles out to join Angel at the stove ten minutes later, the bread is sizzling in the skillet. 

They take their time washing the egg bowl and whisk in the sink, elbow to elbow, two men sharing space for a one-man job.

They lean into each other, considering Eddie and Steve, similarly leaned into each other, on the bench under the oak tree outside.

“You think I should talk to them?” Wayne murmurs. “About the way they look at each other. And touch each other. And how they need to cut that shit out if they’re in public?”

“Probably,” Angel sighs. “But not today.”

“No,” Wayne agrees after a moment of silence. He presses a kiss to Angel’s temple. “Not today.”

Pt. 4 (Will's POV)

[lizard-on-a-window-pane]

So i was hoping to request for trope tuesday. I was thinking grumpy reader x sunshine sirius and like kinda 10 things I hate about you type storyline but obviously in your own way of course. :)

happy trope tuesday! omg i kind of adored this request, so i got a bit carried away; i hope it's not too long... it ended up being very 10 things i hate about you inspired but i just love that movie and it just kind of flowed that way... hope you enjoy!!

for my 250 Followers Writing Event!

Tropey Tuesday 🎭 trope: grumpy x sunshine, enemies to lovers-ish

pairing: Sirius Black x reader

word count: 5.9k

“C’mon, Pads, pleaaase,” James pleads for the millionth time that morning. “No. Can’t you just drop it yet? You’re starting to seriously get on my nerves,” Sirius replies, flicking ashes off his cigarette and taking another drag. 

“Fucking hell. What are friends for then, huh? If not to have your back in the darkest of times?” he accuses. 

“I’d hardly call taking Evans out the ‘darkest of times,’ you drama queen. I mean, you are a pretty dull date, Prongs, but don’t be so hard on yourself.” “Hilarious,” he deadpans. “But the point is there isn’t going to be a date unless her sister goes too. Their dad is mental. Thinks Lily shouldn’t be going out alone her first year at uni or something. And he’ll know if she goes; I think he can track her and Y/N’s phones or some psychotic shit like that.” “Yes, yes, you’ve mentioned it.” “Have I? Because you don’t seem to be getting it, dickhead. C’mon, I’d do it for you.” “Oh, would you? You’d go out with the most grim girl you’ve ever laid eyes on, having to worry all night she might stab you if you don’t open the door for her — or if you do actually, knowing her,” Sirius muses. “I would,” he replies certainly. “In fact, I’d do it even if I knew she would stab me. I’d take a knife for you, Black.” “Alright, easy, Prongs. I love you too, but no need to get so dramatic.”

“If you really loved me, you’d do this for me.” “You aren’t gonna let up are you?” “Not a chance.” “Fucking hell.” Sirius flicks away the butt of his cig and walks away, thinking he still had until he found you to change his mind. 

You’re sitting in a courtyard outside reading, and it crosses Sirius’s mind that in the odd moments in which you didn’t look so angry, you were actually kind of… beautiful? 

You’re engrossed in your book when you hear, “Hello, gorgeous.” Sirius smiles at you, taking a seat beside you, leaning close. 

“Can I help you?” you shoot. “Funny you should offer,” he jests. “Yes, yes you can in fact.” You look annoyed, not amused; he’s not used to this reaction but treads on, “It would be a marvelous help actually if you’d join me on Saturday. As I’m sure you know, there’s a party. Half the uni is going, but I reckon it will be rather dull unless you’re there.” He puts on his most seductive smirk. “No, thanks.” You close your book, get up, and leave. He’s sitting there, a bit awe-struck, when he sees you simply sit back down somewhere else, in plain view of his, and continue reading. 

“She’s mental,” he whispers to himself. 

“I tried, Prongs. Leave it, won’t you?” he sighs exasperatedly later that afternoon.

“No, I won’t. Since when are you one to give up so easily? So she didn’t say yes right away, big deal.” “She didn’t not say yes; she said ‘no.’ Very emphatically I might add.” 

“So be more charming! That usually works for you, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that earlier. Thanks, James. Thanks so much,” he says sardonically. “I tried. It’s not as if I went up to her and didn’t try to be charming.”

“If you manage to get her to the party, I will buy you that new guitar you want so much.”

Sirius freezes. Interesting. 

“You can’t afford it,” he shoots.   “I can.” “You’ll back out for some idiotic loophole reason.” “I won’t.” Sirius groans and goes off again. 

“I think you and I got off on the wrong foot.” You’re lying in the grass, headphones on, eyes closed. You look serene. You don’t respond. He shifts and steps closer, accidentally shielding your face from the sun. This gets your attention. 

“What?” you ask, freeing one ear from your headphone, sitting up. He clears his throat and squats down in front of you. 

“I said, I think you and I got off on the wrong foot.” “Oh. Didn’t hear you,” you say simply, pointing at the headphones. “Yes, I gathered.” 

There is an awkward pause. It lingers.

“So…,” you say softly. “Is there something else, or…” 

Bloody hell; was it just him, or did you hate everyone this much?

“What are you listening to?” he tries. “Why do you care?” you reply. You don’t sound angry, though. It comes out like a normal question; he’s just confused as to how you think it is one. 

“I love music,” he says, taking a seat. 

“Okay…” You look genuinely confused. “I love music too, but it doesn’t mean I give a shit what that bloke over there is listening to.” You gesture toward some guy with his headphones in too. 

“Right. Well. I’m interested in music, but I’m also interested in you.” “Why?” “Are you serious?” “Do I sound like I’m joking?” “No, you sound like you’ve never had a conversation with anyone in your life.” He sounds a bit exasperated. He realizes this after the fact and internally cringes for his lack of patience, thinking it will set him back (if he’s made any progress at all) but is surprised at your lack of reaction. 

“I just don’t see why you would be,” you say calmly. 

He’s heard girls say similar to him many times, some out of actual insecurity, some just fishing for his compliments. Your tone is unlike any of theirs, and he’s not sure what to make of it.  “You don’t see what? Why I would be interested in you?”

“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been vaguely aware of each other for a long time; had a class together and such. You never seemed interested then.” Feeling a bit more himself again, he replies smoothly, “Did you want me to be, love?”

You groan a little. 

“Oh, I was dying for it,” you say, deadpan. “You were all I thought about,” you add dramatically. “I couldn’t focus on anything all day, and at night,” you lean toward him, like you’re about to tell him the deepest secret, “I’d touch myself to the thought of you.” You make a fake-scandalized expression, gasping sarcastically, then turn away as if nothing strange had just happened, turning the volume up on your music and adjusting your headphones again. You laid back down and closed your eyes, ignoring his presence beside you. 

His mind had no idea which thread to chase. It was torn between dissecting how what he thought would offend you didn’t and what he thought would charm you offended you, marveling at how easily you had just joked about your wanking, or coming up with A) a way to convince James this was not happening or… (he seemed excited at the thought) B) a way to convince you to pay attention to him. While this all churned on the surface, in the back of his mind he registered the song you were listening to, which he heard in the fraction of time between your turning it up and putting your headphones back on. He loved that song. 

“How’d it go with Fender?” James asks, entering their flat and plopping down onto the sofa next to Sirius. 

“With what?” Sirius looks at him as though he’s gone mad. “Fender,” he repeats, as if that clarified anything. “Okay. See, the way I see it,” he pauses for dramatic effect, “is that you can think of her as your guitar. That way you’ll want her as badly as that bloody fender and you’ll get off your arse and figure it out.” “Don’t you see how that’s a little, I don’t know, objectifying?” 

“Perfect, she’s rubbing off on you already; I know how much of a feminist she is. This is great; one step closer to love.” “Love?” Sirius’s disbelief is palpable. “When did this go from a meaningless date to help you out to love?” He grimaces a bit… then he grimaces a lot — but this at his realization that it wasn’t the idea of love, or even being in love with you, that made him grimace, but the idea that that didn’t even seem like a possibility. 

“She’s mental, Prongs,” he says quickly, trying to distract himself. “I have no idea what to say to her, and everything I say falls flat, or worse.” “So now you know what it’s like to not look like a demigod and just have to flash a smile to get a girl’s attention. Have you ever thought about talking to her about something she likes? or something you like even. Just not vapid lines that would work regardless of who’s on the receiving end?” 

Sirius squints at him and says, “I tried that, you twat. Asked her about music.” “And she didn’t like that?” 

Sirius pauses, thinking back. “I don’t know,” he responds honestly.

“Well, did she seem annoyed?” “No. Not yet.” “When did she get annoyed?” Sirius winces. “When I asked her if she’d had a crush on me when we had a class together.” 

James slaps the back of his head.

 

A few days go by, the weekend and fated party soon approaching. Sirius is out at a retro record shop in the late afternoon, and a t-shirt with the band name and logo of the group you were listening to the other day, Greta Van Fleet, catches his attention. It’s a cool shirt. And he likes them too. He’s not just thinking of getting it as a potential conversation starter for you. Truly… 

He walks out of the shop, up two records and a t-shirt. 

He runs a couple errands, kills a bit of time, and heads over to the campus pub to meet James and Remus. When he walks in, he’s struck by the sight of you, sitting alone in a corner booth, a pint and a book in front of you. 

James comes to greet him, and he reciprocates, trying to act natural, but as soon as he gets the chance, hoping you haven’t spotted him (he’s pretty sure; he’s barely taken his eyes off of you, so he probably would’ve noticed), he dodges to the toilets, bag in hand. 

When he comes back out, James asks, “Did you just change, mate?” 

“Uh, yeah. Spilled something on my shirt earlier and had a spare.” James accepts this explanation as reasonable and doesn’t spend more time on it. 

They get some drinks and are met by Remus, but as James heads to an empty booth, Sirius grabs his arm and drags him in the other direction. “Let’s sit over there actually.” “Why?” “Just looks more spacious.” And grants a better view of you, he doesn’t add. James looks skeptical but follows, and the three of them settle in. 

Sirius is distracted, occasionally gracing the conversation with a nod of his head or a simple “oh, yeah?” 

James is so caught up in a story, he doesn’t seem to notice, but Remus, ever observant, teases, “You know, if you’d rather go sit with Evans, Sirius, we won’t be offended.” James looks over, catching sight of you for the first time, a little disappointed at which Evans it was.

“What?” Sirius replies lamely. 

“Oh, come on, Padfoot. You haven’t stopped staring at her since we got here.” 

“Brilliant! Another chance,” exudes James. 

“Another chance at what?” asks Remus. “Sirius is taking her to the party on Saturday.” “I’m not,” Sirius interjects harshly. After a beat he adds exasperatedly, looking toward Remus, “James wants me to be taking her to the party on Saturday. That way her sister will come along too and grace him with her presence.” 

“You know,” James muses, “Fender doesn’t look as scary from this far away. I reckon you should go talk to her, Pads.” “Fender?” asks Remus.

“Don’t ask,” deadpans Sirius. “Well? Go on, then,” James urges. “Relax, mate. I’ll go later; just give me a minute.” 

“Are you… nervous?” “Oh, and you wouldn’t be? After she’s rejected you twice in one week?” “Oh, I definitely would be, but you? It’s shocking. This might have a few upsides beyond my date with Lily. I like seeing you flustered.” “I’m not flustered,” Sirius shoots defensively. “I’m just trying to have a drink with my mates without all the nagging, alright? Is that too much to ask?”

“Yes,” James jokes but has mercy on him and continues his conversation with Remus after a threatening, “We’ll come back to this” and a grin. 

Sirius is watching you when the song in the pub changes. You smile a little bit, and he hates how it makes his heart flutter. When the lyrics start, your mouth moves along with them, singing under your breath, and you move a bit with the music. You look beautiful lost in your own world like that. Just then, you look up, and your eyes meet his. They widen, and you freeze, looking a bit embarrassed. He wants to look away but braves on, holding your gaze and attempting to smile in greeting. You give a strained smile in response and look down shyly. It’s a strange look on you, timid. Sirius is not surprised to find it suits you, but he is surprised to find that he misses snarky and strong on you. 

You look back again as if you couldn’t help it, and he catches your glance go down toward his shirt. Yes, he thinks. God, is this how most people normally feel? He feels pathetic, trying so hard to look interesting in front of you, wondering whether you could like him. Your attention is pulled away by the arrival of your sister, and when you stand up and hug her, he sees you smile brightly for the first time. It’s blinding.

“Heads up, Prongs,” he says, not looking away from you. James follows his gaze, and his hand instinctively goes to his hair. Remus scoffs amusedly. 

You both look over, and James awkwardly pulls his hand from his hair and waves at Lily. She gives a giddy laugh and waves back. She turns to you and whispers something, and you shake your head vehemently in response. You start to argue in loud whispers that are still too far away to make out, but eventually Lily just rolls her eyes, looks back over, and gestures for the boys to join you. You look furious.

James doesn’t skip a beat, grabbing his drink and heading over with a confident, “Come on then.”

He pushes Sirius into the booth on your side and slides in next to Lily, Remus sliding in after him, ending up on his other side. Lily, James, and Remus start up an easy chat, but you and Sirius stay quiet. He feels tense, his palms probably sweaty, and the feeling is quite foreign to him. He fiddles with his glass in front of him, not looking sideways at you. “Nice shirt,” you say softly. 

He looks down, as if he doesn’t know exactly what shirt he’s wearing, then looks up at you, responding “thanks” in his best attempt at a casual tone. “You like them?” he adds, knowing the answer. 

You nod. “A lot actually.” “Me too.” “Clearly,” you laugh a little, nodding toward his shirt, and he loves the sound of it. “Why else would you wear this shirt?’ Why else indeed. 

“Yeah,” he laughs, a bit strained still but starting to loosen up. 

“You seem different,” you say. Again with the directness. He needs to learn how to handle it better for future conversations. He catches himself in this thought and can’t help but register his high hopes for the existence of said future conversations. 

“Do I?” “Yeah. I don’t know. You seem…” You seem a bit lost for words then finish, “like the acoustic version to your regular electric.” 

His eyebrows go up, surprised at such phrasing, followed closely by the corners of his lips, intoxicated by it. He doesn’t know what to say, and for the first time, that seems like the beginning of potentially beautiful possibility instead of just an obstacle to overcome as soon as possible. He’s never been so at peace with not saying anything. He just smiles. 

You smile too, and into the quiet space he’s created, whisper, “I like it.” He can’t help his smug smirk at this; he’s still himself after all, but it’s more teasing than before, and this time when you roll your eyes, you lips don’t lose their smile. 

You shift a bit, listening to whatever your sister is saying then tense up suddenly. Sirius has been so distracted just watching you, he has no idea what was said that stressed you out so much. He finally pays attention to try to piece it together. “Right, Y/N?” Lily asks. “Umm,” you don’t answer. “That’s brilliant, right, Sirius?” James says now. “Sorry, what’s brilliant?” “Y/N. Going to the party Saturday,” he responds. Sirius looks inquisitively at you. 

“I never said I was going,” you say, your demeanour back to its regular grumpy one. “In fact, I wasn’t planning to,” you finish with some finality. Lily leans into your shoulder, making puppy dog eyes at you. “But you’ve reconsidered just for me, right? Pleeeaasee, Y/N, pleeaasee.” 

You roll your eyes and bump her off of you but don’t say anything. You opt to take a swig of your drink instead despite the four pairs of eyes still intently watching you. Sirius has the odd sensation that that somehow actually doesn’t affect you, being seen, and it fascinates him. You don’t even look like you’re considering anymore when Lily bumps your shoulder with hers and fake-whispers, “pleeeaaaseee.” 

You roll your eyes again, but give in with a simple, “fine.”

“Ah!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Lily chants, wrapping her arms around you and kissing your cheek between her praises. You’re grimacing; James is beaming. 

Saturday rolls around, and James and Sirius are finishing getting ready to go. Sirius is searching the messy living room for his leather jacket as he says, “No, mate, I’ll just meet you there.” “What are you talking about? Of course you should walk her there.” “She never said she was going with me. She just said she’d go. I don’t know why she’d expect — or want — me to show up at her flat.” “Just ask her.” “Don’t have her number.” 

James takes his out of his pocket, types something, waits a moment. A ding sounds; he sends another message, and now Sirius’s phone sounds. He opens it to a text from James with your phone number. “Just asked Lily,” James says smugly. Sirius rolls his eyes and plops onto the sofa, debating, spinning his phone in his hand. 

“What do I say?” “Figure it out, playboy,” James says as he goes back into his room, probably to check his hair again.

Sirius starts typing a message. 

hey, Y/N, it’s sirius… how are you? What am I, fifty? he thinks to himself, shaking his head. He erases the how are you?, replacing it with lily gave james your number then james gave it to me. Fucking hell. He erases that too. 

He writes, hey Y/N, it’s sirius… do you want me to come with james to get you and lily? and hits send before he can overthink it. 

He tosses his phone to the side, but he can’t stop looking over at it, and his leg is bouncing up and down rapidly. He’s wringing his hands together, fiddling with his rings when his phone vibrates. He snatches it up immediately, opening it to find one word from you: sure. Good enough, he thinks, and there’s an energy to his step he didn’t have before as he grabs his jacket, saunters to James’s room, and drags him out of the flat.

As you follow Lily out the door, Sirius swallows hard. You look stunning. Lily is all made up, her face looking much more perfect than most days, her heels looking like they’ll hurt after one block. Your look is more low-key. Your eyeliner makes your eyes even more striking than usual, but you still look like yourself. You’re wearing a classic pair of converse that look cool with your long leather coat. 

“Hey,” he greets when you’re standing in front of him.

“Hey,” you say back. You sway from the heels of your feet to your toes a bit then you both turn to walk behind James and Lily, who have their arms wrapped around each other and are already talking animatedly.

The first few minutes of the walk are completely silent between the two of you. Though it’s strangely not awkward, Sirius wants to talk to you, just doesn’t know where to start. He decides to just dive into the deep end. “What’s it like not caring what people think about you? Just saying what you want to say, or,” he chuckles at the current situation, “not saying anything?” You look at him seriously for a moment, considering him.

“I care what some people think about me. Just not everyone. And especially not random guys just because they’re attractive, and I’m supposed to put in some big effort to make myself attractive to them. I have better things to use, even better things to waste, my time and energy on.” You shrug. 

“What’s your favourite waste of time?” he asks, grinning, his eyebrow raised in curiosity. You’re looking down in front of you, but he can see you smile. 

“Um, funky question. Because I guess it’d be music. Getting high and just lying there listening to it, feeling it,” you laugh. “But that hardly seems like a waste.” You’re cheerful, and it’s addicting. Sirius laughs and says, “Hardly sounds like a waste at all. Sounds brilliant.” 

“Yeah,” you sigh, still smiling. “How about yours?” 

“Hm. I don’t know. Can’t just copy your answer, can I?” “Nope,” you pop. 

“Damn. Well, in that case, I’ll go with just hanging out with James and Remus, not really doing much in particular.” 

You nod. “Hardly sounds like a waste at all.” You smile at each other and chuckle. 

When you get to the party, music is blasting, and it’s already full of people, many of whom seem to be drunk already. Sirius catches you looking around with a huge grimace on your face, and he finds it adorable. “Your favourite way to spend a Saturday night?” he asks cheekily, having to lean close due to the noise. You look at him and roll your eyes, but there’s a trace of a smile on your lips. 

Several people greet Sirius, and he laughs and jokes with them. He’s clearly great at being the life of the party. You’ve already lost track of James and Lily. Hoping she’s having fun, you just hang back near Sirius, not engaging with his friends. No matter how glad he seems to see someone, though, he always comes back to you.

“You don’t have to linger, you know. I’ll be fine by myself.” “It’s everyone else I’m worried about. Given the murderous look on your face,” he laughs, though he can’t ignore the sting of the word “linger.” 

You scoff but seem amused. “Besides,” he adds more quietly, “I want to be with you.” 

“Okay,” you smile. “Okay,” he confirms happily. 

As the night goes on, you actually chat more and more easily. Commentary on the DJ’s (usually subpar) performance helps. You’re laughing together, and his hopes are high that you’re having a good time. “I actually like this one,” you say, wincing in amused embarrassment when a dancey pop song comes on. 

“Wanna dance?” he asks excitedly. 

“Um, I’m not much of a dancer,” you admit. “That’s alright. Me neither. Fancy it anyway?”

You bite your lower lip, considering, before nodding. 

He takes your hand and guides you between crowds of people to the area functioning as a dance floor. You stand close to each other, face to face, and it takes some time to get into the rhythm. Sirius finds you adorable as you cover your face with your hand, laughing at yourself. He grabs your hand, uncovering your face, and spins you. You laugh and put your other hand on his shoulder when you’re facing him again. He puts his hand on your hip, and you two move with the music, letting go. You dance a few more songs before you lean into his ear to say something. The contact shoots a thrill down his spine. “Wanna get some air? I’m getting really warm in here,” you semi-yell. He nods and grabs your hand again, walking with you out onto the quieter, emptier patio. You take a deep breath and sigh in contentment at the fresh air, leaning on your forearms on the porch ledge. You look lovely all flushed. 

“What?” you ask, laughing lightly. “What?” he repeats, smiling but uncertain. “You’re looking at me funny.” He’s debating telling you the truth, telling you it’s because he thinks you’re beautiful, when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He just shakes his head casually as he goes to check it. He sees an unimportant message and just puts his phone down on the ledge in front of you both. You just stand there quietly with each other, shoulder to shoulder, and he fucking loves it. He feels at peace and excited simultaneously.

“Mind if I smoke?” he asks you, reaching into his pocket. 

“Not as much as your lungs,” you retort. He gives you a “very funny” look. “I don’t mind,” you say more softly. He pulls out his cigs but keeps digging in his pockets. “Shit, forgot my lighter. Gonna go steal one from anyone I know real quick. Be right back,” he says, bumping your shoulder with his. You nod happily. 

You’re standing there alone when his phone lights up in front of you. 

A text from James reads, saw you sneak off with fender 👀 looks like you oughtta be grateful instead of annoyed in the end 

Followed quickly by one from Remus, okay can one of you please explain the nickname now? it’s weird

James again, i promised sirius i’d buy him that fender he keeps going on about if he suffered a date with Y/N for me

Your stomach drops, and you feel like you’re going to be sick, your ears ringing with more than the after-effects of the loud music. 

Sirius comes back, putting his hand on your lower back with a sweet “hey.”

You grab his phone, shove it in his chest, and seethingly say, “Fuck you, Black. Hope you didn’t have to suffer too much.” Your shoulder shoves him aggressively as you storm off. 

He looks at his phone, and pure horror courses through him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he keeps repeating as he speeds after you through the crowds. He doesn’t catch up until you’re a good way down the street away from the party. 

“Y/N! Wait! Please wait a second,” he calls, out of breath, as he reaches you, grabbing your forearm to try to turn you toward him. His heart shatters at the sight that meets him. You’re crying. 

You yank your arm away from him and spit out, “Leave me alone.” 

“Please. Please just let me explain. I wanted to be with you tonight. Please,” he pleads, walking fast to keep up with you. 

“Oh, fuck off. You don’t have to keep it up anymore; your friend got what he wanted.” “It’s not like that, okay? You can ask him if you want! He’ll tell you I wanted you to come with me; he’ll tell you I like you.” “I’m sure he’ll tell me whatever you want him to, Black, but I’m really not interested. Please just leave me the fuck alone.” You start walking faster, and he stops dead in his tracks. He doesn’t know what he could possibly say, and he just stands there in the middle of the road, the worst feeling he’s ever felt weighing him down to the spot.

You’re back in your flat, still crying, when your phone buzzes. 

Y/N

please 

can we please talk? 

it’s not what you think

i really want to talk to you

please

You put it on silent and toss it away.

You wake up with puffy eyes and four missed calls from Sirius from last night and another three from this morning. You delete the notifications and go take a shower, blasting your music. 

You get dressed carelessly, grab your bag, and shove your headphones on. You meet Lily in the living room on the way out, and she looks concerned. She tries to stop you, but you just say “I’m fine” and hurry out the door. 

You walk to a nearby park, a favourite spot of yours, and roam around for a while, hoping unsuccessfully to drown out your feelings in the music and movement. You sit down at a bench and take out your book. After reading the same sentence about ten times, you slam it shut and shove it back in your bag. You just sit there, and you’re struggling to keep the tears away as you let yourself replay your emotions from last night. You lie down on the grass, listening to your music again and shutting your eyes tight. After a while, it suddenly gets darker behind your eyelids, and you open your eyes to see what’s blocking the sun. Fuck. You’ve got to tell Lily to stop giving your phone number and probable locations to arseholes. 

Sirius is standing above you, a desperate look on his face. He squats down and grabs your hands as you move to grab your things, clearly planning to leave.

“Wait, Y/N. Please wait. I’m begging you.” 

“What do you want?” you ask harshly, taking your headphones off. 

“Just to talk to you. Please. Please let me apologize.” “You’ve apologized. Now leave me alone.” You turn away from him again and get up. 

“No, that’s not it. I want to make things right. You have to understand.” “Understand what exactly?” “I like you. I really like you. I think about you all the time; I want to spend more time with you.” “Another instrument in it for you?” you say scathingly. “No, no, of course not. That guitar thing was stupid. Really. It was really fucking stupid, and it was before we’d ever even talked! Well, you’d said a total of six words to me, but still, I had no idea how much I’d want to keep trying to get you to give me a chance without any other incentive.” You don’t say anything, but you also don’t go to leave, and Sirius sees this as serious progress. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. I was a complete and total idiot to ever even entertain the idea, but it was just a silly thing before anything else happened.” “And what exactly is it that you think happened?” Your arms are crossed, and you still look like you want to murder him. 

“I saw how fucking incredible you are. And I got it in my head that the thing I want most in the world is a chance to keep seeing how incredible you are. Let’s see. What else happened? I bought a t-shirt just to get your attention; I made a fool of myself in front of my friends from how nervous I was to talk to you; I lost sleep thinking about everything you’d ever said to me, and how you’re like no one I’ve ever met; I wrote and rewrote the simplest message last night like a lovestruck idiot because I was dying for you to say you wanted to see me. Then what else? Oh, right, and correct me if I’m wrong here because this is where you come in: then I had a fucking brilliant time with you last night. I dreamt of wasting time with you, of getting to dance with you again, of making you laugh even though you’re gorgeous even when you look cross — like right now by the way — I even dreamt of sitting in silence with you for fuck’s sake.” He was out of breath by the time he finished his speech.

“How’d you know I liked Greta Van Fleet?” “What?” “I assume that’s the shirt you bought to get my attention. How’d you know I liked them?” “That’s what you’re asking me right now?” “Yes.” “Fucking hell, Y/N.” A beat. “I could hear it from your headphones that second day you blew me off.” You just nod, still looking solemn.

“You’re not,” you say after a moment.

“Not what?”

“Wrong. About last night. You know, its being brilliant. Before… well, before —”

“Before I cocked it all up with silly games I never should’ve played in the first place,” he interrupts. “Before my stomach fucking flipped at reading those messages and my heart broke at seeing you…,” he swallows the knot in his throat, “at making you cry.” He ventures a step toward you, and you don’t move away, just tighten your grip on yourself and look down. “I’m so so sorry I did, Y/N. And I’ll make it up to you if you’ll let me.” He puts a hand on your cheek, caressing you softly. His other hand comes to your arms, uncrossing them and intertwining your fingers with his. He steps a bit closer and speaks more softly as he asks, “What do you say, love?”

You stay silent for a few seconds then say, “Okay.” He scoffs in relief and disbelief, chuckling. 

“I just poured my heart out to you, and all you say is ‘okay’?”

“Yes,” you say, but after a second, a subtle smile lightens your features. He barks a laugh.

“I’ll take it,” he says, kissing your forehead. He lingers there a moment, still caressing your cheek, his lips hovering at your hairline, and when he leans back, he stays very close to your face, looking down at your lips. You push your chin up, bringing your faces even closer together. He smiles at this and closes the shrinking gap. 

Your kiss tastes like possibility, and as Sirius shifts, deepening it, he’s not surprised to find your tongues fall into rhythm with each other as easily as your bodies did on the dance floor last night. 

You clutch his jacket, pulling him closer as he envelops your mouth with his, the warmth of it coursing from where you’re connected down through your entire body. 

He leans his forehead against yours when you break apart. He gives your nose a peck then, your fingers still intertwined, says, “So. What do you want to do now?” “I don’t know.” Not letting go of his hand, you grab your stuff and start walking with him. “Maybe we can waste time. Or sit in silence.” He squints at you.

“Are you taking the piss?”

“Yeah, a little bit, yeah,” you grin guilty. 

He’s laughing, shaking his head, as he sarcastically says, “We’ll see when I make the effort of giving you another romantic speech.”

“I can’t wait to hear it,” you say, squeezing his hand and kissing his cheek.

[heehoonieluvs]

Please look at me

Sunghoon x reader

Fluff, angst

The way that the members are depicted in this story has nothing to do with how they really are or how I feel they are. It is all solely for the storyline so please bear that in mind 🫶

Summary: After realising how wrong he had been about your intentions, Sunghoon had been trying so hard to get you alone to have a talk and make it up to you. But the difficulty in expressing his feelings into words made things a bit more difficult

F/N = female name

Warnings: cursing, arguing, name calling, alcohol consumption (please let me know if I need to add more

Series masterlist

Masterlist

*Flashback*

The boys had just finished their team meet up during lunch but Sunghoon took his time in the shower whilst the rest of the boys rushed to the library to find a nice booth. As he exited the changing rooms, he was instantly met with an irritating voice

“Hoonie! There you are!” F/N’s squeal rang through the whole corridor, causing Sunghoon to roll his eyes as he turned towards her.

“What do you want F/N? I’ve told you to stop calling me that stupid name” his face was so cold towards her that it shocked the other students when F/N carried on with her antics

“Don’t he silly Hoonie it’s so cute. I was just wondering if you’re free anytime soon to go clothes shopping with me for my birthday party?”

“Look F/N, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. I’m not interested. Leave me alone and go bother someone else” he snapped

“What’s wrong with you Hoonie? Is it that skank Y/N? She’s fucked with your mind so she can have you all to yourself hasn’t she?” Her eyes narrowed as the harsh words spilled out of her mouth

Sunghoon didn’t know why but the way F/N spoke about you really pissed him off. The thought of anyone calling you such disgusting names caused him to clench his fists

“Don’t you even dare call Y/N that. She’s nothing like you so don’t try and drag her down to your level” he didn’t know what came over him as he came to your defence. He usually would give a shit, never mind speak up when anyone talked about someone who wasn’t his family or group of friends

F/N’s eyes widened and the students around them gasped at his outburst. This was the first time they had seen Sunghoon show any sort of reaction to anything

“Oh my god. You like her don’t you?” F/N scoffed

Sunghoon couldn’t think of anything to say to her. Did he like you? Your smile was enough to brighten his dull day. The way you took the time to cook for him and his friends and even spend more money to make sure that they were fed properly gave him butterflies. And after seeing you look so adorable whilst watching him at rugby practice made his heart race more than it already was from running.

F/N took his silence as confirmation and couldn’t stand it

“Well just so you know, Y/N is a two-faced bitch. I overheard her talking to someone in her class saying that she wanted to gain your attention by being all nice and sweet to you and your friends so that she could sleep with you. And the other day when I went to ask Sunoo where you were, she was so horrible to me and even raised her hand to slap me. She was so crazy that even Sunoo had to step in to stop her but she said that I was just trying to steal you away from her.” She took a breath dramatically before carrying on

“I know I should’ve told you before but I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. However you deserve to know the truth. The other day, she was asking Sunoo so many questions about what you liked and your ideal type. But then she threatened Sunoo to not tell you about what happened when he refused to say anything. He’s too scared to burn his bridges with her since her parents have connections to the school and could easily make his life hell. So he does all of this for her so that she won’t ruin his future. I care about you. And your friends. I’m here for you Hoonie”

She reach up to cup his face but he flinched back

“I need time to think” he mumbled before turning to make his way to the library

*Present*

The next day at lunch felt extremely intense. Sunghoon had confessed to the boys about him snapping at you and explained how F/N’s words had fucked with his mind to the point where he just spewed a load of a load of bullshit to take it out on you. The boys couldn’t come up with the words to say as he was explaining everything. His eyes were downcast as he could feel the burning glare from Sunoo piercing through his skull

“You shouldn’t be explaining this to us. Tell it to Y/N and apologise for not only talking to her that way, but for breaking her heart. She never mentioned anything about liking you but I could tell that she did. And I know you like her too. So how could you be so stupid for believing that bitch F/N when you know her history of trying to suck up to you? Did you really think that Y/N was capable to be so heartless and threaten me? I’ve told you from the start about how much we care about each other and in all honesty, I’m hurt that you also believed F/N’s words over mine” Sunoo couldn’t hold back his tears before getting up and leaving the table to find you

“Sunoo I’m s-” Sunghoon’s words were cut off as Heeseung’s hand patted his shoulder

“Hey just let him cool off ok. I’m sure that once you’ve all gathered your thoughts, you can have a talk with him and Y/N and things can get better” Heeseung’s comforting words caused him to break down and bring his hands to his face

“What do I do hyung? I fucked up so badly and I don’t know how to make it up to Y/N” he sobbed

The boys felt so bad for their crying friend as they knew how hard it was for him to express his emotions. So seeing him break down like this in the cafeteria showed them just how guilty he was.

“Don’t worry Sunghoon hyung. We’re here for you all and we promise we’ll help you through it all”

Sunghoon sniffled and brushed his tears away “I really appreciate it Jungwonnie”

He was going to make it up to you. He needed to.

The next day

It was so hard for you to avoid the boys yesterday but you were scared that Sunghoon had told them all of the lies that he had accused you of and no longer wanted to be around you. Your heart ached seeing them in the cafeteria together so you quickly left and ate your lunch outside on your own. You were scared to think that Sunoo may have believed that you were using him but that thought was quickly diminished when he ran up to you with tears streaming down his face. You told him about F/N confronting you and he asked why you didn’t come to him for back up and that he would’ve been there when you needed him.

It was safe to say that the two of you were bawling your eyes out and as a result, you both came into class today with puffy eyes. You guys did have a bit of a laugh after seeing each other’s swollen faces so that was at least something that brightened your day a bit

“Um Y/Nie, I know things are a bit weird at the moment but do you think you’ll sit with us at lunch today? We all missed you and the whole vibe was miserable” he pouted, puffing his cheeks out slightly

You couldn’t resist yourself and poked his cheeks before sighing “I don’t know Sunoo. I think I still need some time away. This isn’t me trying to end my friendship with the boys because I’d never do that, but it would be wrong for me to stay around and make it feel like you guys had to choose a side. I’ll just go to my usual spot so if you ever want to join me, then feel free to do so”

He gave you a pitiful smile at your words. Seeing you so upset and feeling like you’re at fault shattered his heart. But he knew not to push anything and that you needed time

“I understand Y/Nie. But I’ll still come to eat with you though. You don’t chew with your mouth open so I’ll be able to eat in peace and quiet”

You laughed at his words, feeling thankful that he still stuck by you and put a smile on your face

A week later

The breeze felt so refreshing as it brushed through your hair. Being outside in the sun made you feel so relaxed and you really needed it.

Your exams were coming up soon and because you had been pulling all nighters to fit in more studying, you had been forgetting to bring lunch. There was barely enough time for you to run out of the house with breakfast so making lunch at this point was a luxury

You had finally gotten back to talking to the boys (except for one obvious person) and it was like nothing changed. Well, except for the fact that you didn’t eat lunch with them anymore. It was nice to have your breaks outside so it wasn’t like you were complaining. You just missed having fun with them during lunch

Fortunately, the boys acted like nothing changed and didn’t make things awkward. It made you feel better that you hadn’t caused a rift between the boys, especially between Sunoo and Sunghoon. Sunoo was definitely still upset but he hardly brought it up so that you wouldn’t get upset.

Since you didn’t have any lunch or money on you, you resorted to having a little sketch in your notebook. You were completely immersed in your sketching that you didn’t hear the footsteps approaching you.

The person coughed slightly to gain your attention and when you looked up, you were met with a shy looking Sunghoon. His eyes kept on flickering between the floor and your eyes before he reached out to you, holding your favourite sandwich.

“Um. I noticed that you didn’t turn up to lunch and Sunoo told me where you were. I saw you didn’t have any food so I got you this” he mumbled while avoiding eye contact with you

Shocked was one way to describe how you were feeling. His change of demeanour was giving you whiplash and you didn’t know how to react. Did he think that this was a way to get you to move on from what happened the last time you spoke?

You looked at the sandwich in his hands before scoffing “What is this about Sunghoon? Are you really going to act like the last time we spoke, you didn’t accuse me of using your friends and called me a slut? Do I look like I have the word ‘idiot’ written on my forehead?”

“No! No I swear that’s not my intention! Look, I am an absolute idiot for what I did and there’s nothing that can take back what I said. If I could, I really would. I do not deserve your forgiveness at all, especially after the way I treated you but I cannot express how sorry I am and I had no right to talk to you the way I did. If you don’t want to forgive me, I completely understand but could you please at least eat this to get some energy? I’m really worried about you Y/N and want you to be safe” his hands were practically shaking and he was stumbling over his words.

He had planned how he was going to apologise, but after seeing your beautiful face again after what he felt like ages, it all flew out of the window.

“Sunghoon I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve here. We weren’t friends and we’re not now so I don’t know why you’re so concerned about me. I appreciate you apologising but I just can’t accept this. You really broke me Sunghoon. Please just leave me alone” and with that you stood up and walked away, leaving Sunghoon with the sandwich forgotten in his hands

Over the next few days, you had arrived to your seat in your lectures to be met with cute but messy bento boxes. They’d be filled with your favourite foods and snacks in the shape of cute animals (you think) and a banana milk. You asked Sunoo if he knew anything about it but he just shrugged with a smirk and that was enough to tell you who they had come from. Each box was accompanied by a little note either saying words of encouragement, telling you how sorry he was, how beautiful you were, you name it. But your favourite ones were the notes that had a song recommendation for the day

The songs ranged from sweet apology songs to cute upbeat songs. Today, the song that he chose was ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ by Savage Garden. You smiled and put in your earphones to listen to the song.

The beautiful melody filled your ears with warmth and you closed your eyes. You took the time to really listen to the lyrics and froze. Is this song meant to be him hinting something to you? Was this him trying to confess that he had feelings for you? He never said anything to suggest that he did except for when he’d recommended a song. You didn’t want to overthink it though as you didn’t want it to result in disappointment.

You picked off the note stuck on the bento box to put it in your pocket, which had become a habit now, but you saw that there was another note on the other side reading:

Please meet me in the school gym at lunch when you’ve finished eating pretty girl x

P.S I hope you like the penguins 💕

(Reference pic)

You were contemplating about whether to go or not but he had been taking care of you for the past few days, so you owe him some time.

Skip to lunch

You told Sunoo that he didn’t need to wait for you and you were transparent about what Sunghoon had wrote. He didn’t seem that shocked so you suspected that he knew what was going on. One thing you must say, Sunghoon’s food always tasted good. They may have looked a bit sloppy at the beginning but each day, they got cuter. You let out a sigh after filling up with the delicious and packed your things up to head to the gym.

When you arrived, you poked your head through the door and saw Sunghoon sitting on a bench, bouncing his legs. At the sound of the gym door opening, his head swung in your direction and he quickly stood up and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

“Hey” he said with a nervous smile. It was so cute seeing him like this since you’ve been so used to him being emotionless.

“Hi, so what did you you call me here for?” You didn’t want to sound too harsh despite the things he said to you in the past.

“Well… um… I- I was wondering if you liked the packed lunches I made for you? I know they don’t look that great but I thought they would make you happy” he stuttered as his eyes flicked between you and the ground.

“Yeah I love them, thank you Sunghoon. You really didn’t have to do any of this for me you know?”

“B- but I do though. You took care of me and the guys so I need to return the favour. And you haven’t been looking after yourself so I want you to eat well”

“Well I really appreciate it Sunghoon” you looked at him with a soft smile and Sunghoon felt like his stomach was doing somersaults. It had been a while since he had seen your beautiful smile directed to him. He missed it after only receiving cold stares from you

“I also wanted to let you know that I’m so sorry for everything. You didn’t deserve the way I treated you from the start. Especially that horrible day outside of the library. I need to be completely honest with you Y/N. I have feelings for you and I know it sounds crazy because it’s so soon. But you consume my mind 24/7 and I just feel the need to be around you all of the time. Yes I was stupid for being a complete asshole but after I expressed everything to the guys, it’s made me realise that I like you. More than just a friend. Being away from you was the most pain I’ve ever felt and I just couldn’t comprehend the feelings I had. The way I handled the situation was completely immature of me but I’ve figured out my true feelings. You don’t have to say anything but I just really need you to know that I’ve caught feelings for you and I’m so sorry about disrespecting you out of immaturity” he felt like he couldn’t breathe after he spilt the words out. But the weight of his hidden feelings was finally lifted off his shoulders.

As for you? You were frozen in shock. So it was true that the song he recommended today was to confess to you.

“You like me? Since when? I’m sorry I’m just, my mind’s just frazzled right now” you were still trying to comprehend everything that he said

“Yes I really do like you Y/N. In all honesty, I don’t know when it started. But the more you were around, the more I felt like I could warm up to you. You’re so beautiful and I can’t stop thinking about you. Please believe me when I say that I never would’ve thought about talking to you in such a shit way if F/N never approached me in the first place. I know that sounds like such a pathetic excuse and that’s not me trying to excuse my behaviour. But I didn’t think of you in that way, nor do I do now. The first time meeting you I was hesitant, I do admit, but F/N just brought back horrible memories of people using my friends and hurting them in the past”

“Wait. What does F/N have anything to do with this?” You asked with confusion

From that, Sunghoon explained everything about what F/N had told him. He felt embarrassed that he fell for her lies so easily and he could tell that you were feeling overwhelmed

“I get that I’m stupid for even believing F/N in the first place. You are the first girl who has made me feel genuinely wanted just for being me. Not just because of my looks or popularity. The feeling was so foreign that I had no idea how to process it. There have been girls in the past who lured me into being interested in them, just to use me. So hearing that you were trying to do the same just made me go on the defence immediately to protect myself and my friends again”

You felt pity on the boy as his eyes fell to the ground again. It must’ve been hard for him having to experience people not truly caring about him and not knowing who to actually trust. And he didn’t exactly know you as well as someone like Sunoo would so you didn’t blame him for being conscious about you.

“I’m so sorry that you’ve had to experience than Sunghoon. I really don’t hold anything against you for being hesitant when I started to hang out with you guys. And yes what you did was a proper dickhead move. But in a way, if I was already overwhelmed about my feelings about someone and another person told me that I was being used, I’d probably feel the same. I’m just hurt because F/N came up to me at the start of lunch that day to tell me that you just pitied me and used me for entertainment. So when you then later called me pathetic and a slut, it made me believe that F/N had been telling me the truth. As for me trying to slap her, it was actually the opposite way round. She came up to Sunoo, trying to find you but I ended up getting involved and she tried to slap me. Speaking of, I really do need to apologise to you for slapping you that day. It was really low of me and I shouldn’t of resorted to violence” at this point, you were in tears as you explained your side to him. Saying it all out loud just built up the confusing emotions till they pushed the need for you to cry it out

Seeing how hurt you were, Sunghoon instantly pulled you into a massive bear hug. You were already hurt from what F/N had said to you and he just had to add fuel to the fire. Seeing you so upset crushed his soul so he tilted your face up and wiped your tears away. He cupped your cheeks and used his thumbs to brush away the stray tears, causing your face to unintentionally pout.

Sunghoon’s heart started to race at the adorable sight of you. Your round watery eyes, puffy cheeks and irresistible pout made you look like a kicked puppy and he felt the urge to keep you for himself only

“Oh sweetheart. Don’t ever apologise to me. I don’t deserve it. And the things that F/N said to you are completely untrue. From what it seems, she spoke to you before coming to me to stir things between us. She caught on that I like you and started talking shit” he leaned his forehead onto yours and took a deep inhale through his nostrils

“I have a feeling that you’re right. She knew that I liked you too so she probably saw it as some kind of threat”

Sunghoon’s ears perked up at your comment and slightly pulled away to look at you properly “Liked? Do you not like me anymore? I really ruined it didn’t I?” He mumbled as his bottom lip popped out. It was slightly trembling at the thought that he had officially lost his chance with you

“No! Wait I mean yes? Wait, I- I’m just confused with how I’m feeling right now. I still like you Sunghoon despite what had happened. It’s kind of hard to lose feelings after you make me food and look so cute” you teased

He was definitely shocked but quickly tried to hide it to seem collected. So he smugly responded “Huh? So you think I’m cute? What can I say, I’m absolutely irresistible”

You scoffed with a subtle smile and pushed him away but he whined and pulled you back in

“No don’t push me away! I’m sorry pretty girl” he pushed your head into the crook of his head so he could rest his cheek on the crown on your head and rocked you side to side. He wanted to make the most out of this moment now that you were completely in his arms. He took a deep breath before deciding that he needed to do something before he loses his opportunity

“I know this might be too soon, but I really want to give us a try. I genuinely like you and want to be able to get to know you. You don’t need to agree and I would not blame you at all” he couldn’t bring himself to look at you as he confessed so he carried on rocking you. But he was mostly doing it to calm his nerves

You were completely silent and it made him tense up. He thought that this would be when you push him away and leave him heartbroken but you quietly said

“Ok let’s try. But just so you know, you’re not completely off the hook though. I still need to process everything but if we can take this slow, I’d love to give us a chance”

You looked up at him and he instantly got deja vu from the time you looked at him during practice.

“Of course! We can take it as slow as you want pretty girl. Thank you for giving me the chance” he was smiling so wide that you just stared at his gorgeous face in awe. He looked at your love-struck face and tucked your hair behind your ears

“You can’t get enough of this handsome face can you”

“Actually I take everything back”

“Wait no!”

Time skip

Sunghoon all but stormed through the corridors the next day after first second period. He zipped past the terrified students till he found the person he was looking for

“What is your deal F/N? I didn’t think you’d be even more ridiculous after what you’ve done in the past but you’ve proved me wrong” he spat

The burning gaze made F/N gulp in fear. She was currently on her own so she had no back up from her little followers

“Hoonie where is this coming from? I promise I’ve done nothing wrong”

“Oh give me a break F/N I know that you’ve been lying to Y/N and me. How bored must you be to try and pit people against each other just because you’re so miserable. Did you really think that pulling this shit would make me like you?”

F/N teared up now that she had been caught in the act. She didn’t want to admit that there was no way that Sunghoon would like her back. She desperately grabbed onto his arms as she looked at him with crazy eyes

“No it’s not true! Hoonie I didn’t do anything! Y/N is lying to you! She’s a crazy bitch that need to be taken away. I love you Hoonie and wouldn’t never lie to you”

He shoved her hands away in disgust “Cut the bullshit. I see through your stupid act. What goes through your head to think that what you’re doing is ok? Why are you making up these ridiculous lies for?”

F/N just looked at him in defeat. She knew now that there was no point in hiding it anymore “Hoonie, I have loved you for so long. I just wanted you to look at me, to give me attention. And you never once spared me the time of day. All I want is for you to like me the way I like you but you never did. Now all of a sudden, Y/N saunters in acting all innocent and she steals you away from me. She didn’t do shit and didn’t even like you. But once she started to catch feelings, suddenly you like her too. Do you blame me for being jealous when I’ve had to watch you fawn over some new girl you basically just met?”

“I’m sorry F/N but you can’t just force me to like you. I’ve fallen for Y/N because of how genuine and selfless she is. And in all honesty, I cannot say that about you. Don’t forget that you tried to use Jay and Jake to get to me as well so you can’t try to accuse Y/N of doing the same with Sunoo. I was a complete fool for believing what you had said” he shook his head and chuckled at how ridiculous his past self was

“If it is true that you actually like me, then I’m sorry that I didn’t and will not return your feelings. But I’m asking you now to please leave me, Y/N and my friends alone. They don’t deserve to be dragged into this and now I’m taking on the responsibility to protect them from getting hurt. You will find someone one day F/N and that person is most certainly not me”

F/N sighed in acceptance. She was in tears but this was the wake up call she needed to confirm his true feelings about her

“You’re right Hoonie. And I’m sorry. But before I do all of this, can you please to do something for me? I promise that if you do, I will leave you all alone.”

Sunghoon sighed. He was slightly hesitant but if it meant that she’d leave you alone, he’ll do anything

“I guess so. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, my birthday party is coming up soon and I want you stay by me. Just for that night”

“You know what? Fine. But only if I get to bring Y/N and the guys”

F/N looked defeated but was still satisfied that he’d at least come for her birthday

After exams finished

It took a lot of begging and pouting from Sunghoon’s end to get you to go to F/N’s birthday party with him and the boys. To tell the truth, you were already convinced to go but what’s the harm in milking it so you could see him act cute for a bit longer?

You were deciding what to wear since you barely owned any sort of clothing that was suitable for partying. Luckily for you, one of your friends was generous to let you try on a few of hers. You ultimately decided to go for a black mini dress as it hugged your figure perfectly. It was nothing like what you’d usually dress but you felt a wave of confidence just thinking about how Sunghoon could react to seeing you.

After you finished up your hair and makeup, you sprayed on your favourite perfume just as the doorbell rang. You opened it up and was met with Sunghoon in all of his glory. The two of you stood in silence as you took the sight of each other in.

“Oh wow. You look absolutely gorgeous. I mean, not like you’re not gorgeous all of the time” he gulped audibly as he looked you up and down

You giggled at his cute behaviour “Thank you! And you look as handsome as ever”

Your new found confidence stirred something in Sunghoon’s stomach and he was so tempted to just flake on the party and have you to himself. But unfortunately for him, he had a deal that he had to take on

As you walked passed him to get to his car, he caught a whiff of your sweet scent and that’s when he knew that it would be a long night for him

At F/N’s house

The two of you walked into the party with Sunghoon’s hand holding you on your lower back. You received a few drunken stares as you sauntered in but their attention didn’t linger for too long.

He whispered into your ear to reassure you and ask if you were ok. So you turned to him with a smile and told him that you were fine. It didn’t take long for you two to find the rest of the boys. At the moment, Niki and Jungwon were the only sober ones, whilst the rest were sipping on the alcoholic punch. You were all excited that this was the first time you had all partied together so they brought you over to take some shots.

It seemed like you were all good at handling alcohol. Well, except Jake and Heeseung. Niki was filming you all and was in absolute stitches. If he was going to be the only sober one, he was at least gonna have some fun with it. You could tell Sunghoon was feeling a lot looser than he usually was and it was refreshing to see. With that, he was extremely cuddly with you and would whine every time your attention was diverted from him

Jake suggested that you all got up to dance and none of you were going to turn down the offer. You were having the time of your life dancing with your friend’s and lip syncing to your favourite songs. Sunghoon’s arms were wrapped around your waist protectively and you leaned back against his chest. Even though you looked like a goddess, he didn’t appreciate the lingering stares of guys around you. So to make a point that you were his, he leaned down to nuzzle his nose into your neck, where you had sprayed your perfume. The sensation tickled you so you giggled and reached up to run your fingers through his hair.

It definitely looked like the two of you were officially together but you didn’t care about what everyone else was feeling. You all dance together in a mini circle for a few minutes. It was all going well until the fun was rudely disrupted

“Hey Hoonie, you made it!” F/N voice came from behind you

You couldn’t lie, she looked breathtaking. There was no wonder she could get with almost every guy she wanted.

The rest of the boys could also feel the tension from F/N’s presence. Sunghoon told you all about the deal he had made with F/N so they weren’t completely surprised when she approached.

“Oh hey. Thanks for inviting us” Sunghoon felt the need to fill the awkwardness but it was obvious that he wanted F/N to leave him alone

“Don’t be silly Hoonie. You promised you’d be my date for tonight remember?”

“That was not exactly the deal but whatever” he rolled his eyes

She tugged on his sleeves which ended up unwrapping his arms from where they comfortably sat on your waist.

“I’m gonna steal Hoonie away so I can cut my cake bye”

No one could get a word in before she dragged him through the crowd. You all stood there in disbelief but Heeseung approached you and put his arm around your shoulder

“Don’t worry your pretty head Y/Nie. It’ll just be a few hours till we can leave and then we can grab some burgers on the way back to ours” he ruffled your hair softly before you all carried on dancing to distract yourself

For the entire night, F/N was clinging onto Sunghoon’s arm. But you knew that once he fulfilled his side of the deal, she would as well and leave you all alone once and for all. That isn’t to say that it didn’t hurt to see them together as she cut her cake. You didn’t want to admit it but they did look good together. The boys must’ve sensed your discomfort so they stayed with you which calmed you a bit.

From your guesses, F/N had been prancing around and showing off the gorgeous man on her arm the entire night but you were low-key glad they weren’t around you since you didn’t have to watch him with someone else. If it wasn’t for your friends being around you, making you laugh to the point of tears, you were sure that you would be spiralling right now.

“Hey are you alright sweetheart? If you’re worried about Sunghoon it’s ok. He doesn’t want to do this either and I’m 100% sure he wants nothing more than to be with you right now. Just think that after tonight, you won’t have to deal with her again” Jay comforted you despite being drunk himself

You felt slightly nauseous so you excused yourself to go to the toilet. And since Niki was the only sober one, he offered to take you like the gentleman he was.

Despite him being the baby of the group, Niki was extremely attentive when it came to you and it was so endearing. He really treated you like his older sister and he was literally the protective baby brother you didn’t realise you needed. As you both made your way up the stairs, the music started to slightly fade which gave you guys the opportunity to talk.

“You know noona, I’m really happy that you hang out with us. And it’s so nice to see Sunghoon hyung so happy when you’re around. He may seem quite calm but I know that you definitely make him extremely giddy when you do anything. It’s the only time I’ve seem him so whipped for someone and I’m glad that it’s you. We all can acknowledge that what he said to you was fucked, but I can reassure you that he meant none of it and he’s completely serious about making you guys work”

His words made you tear up from how sweet he was. In a way, it felt like he was your baby who was growing up in front of your eyes.

“Oh Niki you’re such a sweetheart. What would I do without you hey?”

“I don’t know but I guess you’d have no one to make you laugh”

The two of you looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter as you carried on to the bathroom (F/N has a big house ok 😭)

As you carried on bantering about the boys, the last thing the two of you were expecting was to open the bathroom door and find F/N and Sunghoon making out against the counter

You let out a gasp which made them split apart and Sunghoon was sure that his life had just shattered into a billion pieces. You couldn’t find the words to express the pain you were feeling so you turned to run out of the house with Niki quickly following (of course not before he sent Sunghoon a glare that could’ve sent him to his grave)

Sunghoon couldn’t process anything as he pushed F/N away and ran to chase you with tears running down his face

“Y/N wait! Please!”

Authour’s note: 😁😁😁 well… that happened (please don’t hate me 😭)

Thank you so much for taking this time to read my work and I hope you look forward to more in the future 🩵

Taglist: @tobiosbbyghorl @heerinnie @jiaant11 @leeminhyungletsgetit @woniewonn @lvrcvr @jazlynsthings @nikikids

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie, ready with the gin to endure whatever nonsense Eddie's plot is devolving into this week. God I hope the focus on Henren or Bathena so I can walk away with some sense of satisfaction. I'm not even going to attempt to say something good might come out if it, since history isn't on our side this season wrt Eddie. Tim needs to lay off his Hitchcock obsession, he did Psycho on LS last season, is doing Vertigo now, and both plots were utter nonsense. At least I got a good laugh today looking at the stills from the Oliver and Lou interview. Somebody should have told Oliver to blink 3 times if he's there against his will, though the fact that he looks like he's actively leaning towards the nearest exit probably says it just as well.

Yeah, the sooner bucktommy ends the happier I'll be. The relationship itself is fine, on par with every other BS relationship Buck was in really, but the fandom around it is exhausting and the active attempts to erase any semblance of Eddie in Buck's life is just so, so dumb (and pointless, like Buck wouldn't be the same without Eddie in his life just as Eddie isn't the same without Buck). Anyway cheers friend, we're on the precipice of something that looks both exciting and annoying, let's hope the scales tip in our favor 🍷🍸🥃.

Well, as I'm sure you guessed by my late answer, I saw this and waved at you from post limit jail, due to the d20 finale last night. I wish Tumblr would have a pop up like, "hey, you have 5 posts left before you hit post limit today!" or something so I could prepare!

So, good news, the Bobby and Henren stuff was *chefs kiss* angsty and dramatic and pulled at my heartstrings! The Bobby montage as he's giving his Captain Dad advice and having Buck cook, and calling Hen "Mother Hen" (while looking at Buck and Eddie 👀👀👀), giving the prayer book to Eddie, giving tips to Ravi, calling out orders on scene, it was all so much! And GOD, them taking that poor little girl away, and Denny stepping between that man and his sister, I was in TEARS! The Bobby and Athena talk got me too, and then him seeing his dead dad?! Bobby is going THROUGH IT and I ate it up!

As for Eddie I- legitimately do not know what to say. The whole thing was a mess, Kim giving herself bangs?? to roleplay with a stranger?? was just SO WEIRD and off-putting. Sorry I guess I'm just a hater but I think Eddie getting stuck with actresses like GW and EG means that him having scenes with anyone else feels good? but I'm not falling all over myself about any magical chemistry 🤷🏻‍♀️I hate this storyline and I'm tired of the narrative that this was some great love Eddie is missing out on when season 2-3 gave us actual canon evidence that it isn't true, and it feels more like Tim wanted Devin back and thought he could get away with it now that the audience had some space and KR spent all last season pretending Shannon was some saint (when he killed Shannon off so quickly originally because he said the audience wasn't going to forgive her and he didn't want to waste screentime on that when grief tied in with anger and abandonment was a more interesting storyline for Eddie and Chris). I'm also VERY curious about where the "Eddie realizing he's been looking at the relationship with rose colored glasses and living in delusion about it" is because GIRL that wasn't it. Eddie crying about her being the great love of his life and how they could have had it all is NOT him taking off the rose colored glasses, no matter how pretty Ryan looks when he's crying.

ANYWAY. I was already not on board with this but the writers dragging Chris into it too just gives me the ick. And it might resolve fine, but GOD!! THE JOURNEY MATTERS!! It matters how the characters get places! And this is just...not just a mess but a completely unnecessary one. They could address Eddie's grief and delusions about his relationship with Shannon (and her relationship with Chris because don't think I didn't clock him bringing up her (shit ass guilt trip) letter but not that she abandoned her son and cut off all contact for years) without resorting to trashy soapy doppelganger nonsense and cheating drama. And it's WILD because Bobby's arc this season and his relationship with Athena, and Henren's storyline have been SO GOOD, and even though there were some pacing and tone issues, even the Madney stuff has been good (and Kenny always slays the dramatic arcs!). Buck has taken a mostly supportive backseat this season which, while I ADORE him, was needed after the mess KR made of his character and her apparent lack of interest in the majority of the other main characters and his personal storyline (the bi realization, being Eddie's partner for all the big emotional talks) is also fine, it just got hijacked by some absolutely bizarre shipping strangeness over a couple minutes of screentime. But GOD Eddie's shit has been such a weird mess! It wasn't enough to be stuck with the transphobe all season, we also had to add in this nonsense?! Thanks, I hate it. At least we might finally be allowed to let Shannon go?? I am literally begging at this point.

As for th b/t of it all, I have literally blocked it from my mind and out of my existence (the ONE perk of my tumblr app still not working and having to do most of my stuff in my phone browser means I haven't really seen my dash lately and I've been smart about staying out of the tag for once) because it's just not worth the headache the bad takes give me. I'm just...so tired. I was willing to watch it play out (felt very much like Ali as the first step post-Abby, something background setting up for more later *cries in s4 Buddie canon*) but go at this point I just need it to be over for EVERYONE'S sanity. Especially Oliver's because like, girl. Why do you look like you're trapped in that loft with MW again?! Why so haunted? Girl, are you okay?? Oliver?? And how he continues to just post Buddie/Ryan stuff?? Loud.

I'm just...tired. So tired. And I need a drink. Imma go find some absolutely filthy/funny/fun Buddie fic and drown myself in that because I have the unfortunate feeling it's gonna be a LONG fucking hiatus.

Cheers friend. I know I always say if we can survive RNM (with it's own doppelganger storyline) then we can survive anything but GOD it would be nice to not have it be so hard.

[mizuki-nikki]

i went to the cinema to watch haikyu!! the dumpster battle today, and here's what i thought.. 🏐✨

soooo excited to be able to see this in cinema 🥹 haikyu has always been one of my top anime in my bucket list so i know i definitely couldn't miss this. here's my honest review about everything that i liked and what i don't like about the movie:

(spoiler alert! read at your own risk)

1. I LOVEEEE the animation, the soundtrack, the camera angle and everything!

the animation has gotten soooo much better than season 4 not gonna lie. it's not entirely similar to season 1-3, but it's still good! camera angle and how they capture each volleyball movements was so different compared to previous seasons. i can see that they put so much effort in making sure that they're not using reusable volleyball scenes..

2. child kenma and kuro relationship!!

one thing that i liked the most about this was the relationship of kenma and kuroo that got shown often. how they started liking volleyball.. not only that it's cute i also think that it made the whole nekoma x karasuno battle more complete

3. soundtrack.. definitely masterpiece

this sounds outdated but we all know haikyu has one of the best osts all the time!! i still loveeee the new osts that they put here in the movie. definitely adding the tensions

4. how the ball slipped from kenma's hand.. i think the animation could be better

this one scene.. was one memorable moment in the manga panel. so i was expecting it to be depicted in a more dramatic way.. but huft.. they made it just.. a bit too simple.. but oh well still good. i am not gonna complain

5. bit dragging in some parts (only my preference) but i guess it was necessary to the storyline

only in some parts.. like the first few opening scenes but nevermind me.. i was just being over dramatic here hahaha

this movie is definitely here for all the kenma kuro lovers. they showed up a lot and i think kenma narates the story and talks more than kageyama 🤣

nevertheless, it was a very good movie, however i did expect more because of all the hype. my favorite arc so far is the olympics arc.. so looking forward to see that arc being animated. i definitely love this haikyu movie and would rate it 8.5 out of 10 🌟

[cyb-by-lang]

I kinda already commented and it felt weird to do it again? So I thought I’d ask here instead:

I just saw a post on tumblr that Batman did try to kill Joker and Superman stopped him??? And it was because Joker was somehow linked with Iran, and couldn’t be killed cuz it would start a war. And other Batkids also tried to kill Joker???

I’ve honestly always thought Batman didn’t kill Joker cuz he’s too popular a villain so it was just sort of waved off because of ‘Batman rules’ and publication reasons.

Is Batman almost killing Joker included in your fic? I have very little knowledge of the comics and hearing about newer versions overwriting previous stories makes me even more confused.

Congrats to you for having unlocked a secret level of rambling through deciding to send an ask rather than a comment. This would totally have ended up on AO3 below your comment. :p

And it is going below the cut because it's long as hell.

The scenario you've heard about was from the original run of A Death in the Family, which is the story arc where Jason was killed back in the 80s. In the aftermath of Bruce finding Jason dead (and Jason's birth mother dying shortly thereafter), he hunts for the Joker after realizing that the warehouse explosion didn't, in fact, kill the clown. Somehow (racism!) the Joker ends up being appointed as the Iranian ambassador to the UN. This was later retconned to the fictional country of Qurac, because even DC realized that was a step too far. In the scene after that fun little reveal, Superman is on hand to try and keep shenanigans to a minimum, the Joker predictably tries to gas the entire UN assembly chamber anyway, and then flees via helicopter. Batman, who has been trailing along this entire time in a rage, pursues.

He's planning to kill the clown. Superman, for reasons related to "we don't whack ambassadors and start wars," has been holding him back for the arc thus far. Helicopter pursuit turns into a helicopter fight, during which the Joker's henchman fires a spray of bullets that kills the pilot while everyone is on board and having a bad time. Batman exits the aircraft alive, intact, and furious, and doesn't give a single shit if the Joker died when the chopper hit the sea.

And then a month later the fucking clown comes back again like nothing happened. Only the entire setting has undergone a serious tone shift since Jason's death, which means you're gonna see a lot heavier, dramatic stories that have more significant body counts. Batman cannot get over the death of his son, because no, and eventually Tim Drake pops up in the middle of that death spiral with a hypothesis: "Batman needs a Robin."

He's not wrong.

He also doesn't go about it super gracefully, including an attempt to convince Dick to come back to the Robin mantle that goes nowhere, but eventually he convinces the Dark Knight to take on a third Robin. Unlike Dick and Jason, Tim is locked the fuck down for training and not allowed out in the field willy-nilly. And when he does go out, he is ferociously competent.

Incidentally, this is because the writers/editors realized that after the child murder storyline they'd just done, Batman had to have one hell of a reason to ever take on another kid sidekick. And they needed to try and drag the Robin role's popularity back up, since killing a kid sidekick was also a symptom of DC's tanking sales at the time; the whole thing was ultimately a publicity stunt. It was a bad idea and now we just live with it.

So Tim is, broadly, never portrayed as incompetent in any aspect aside from maybe high school socializing. I don't think he gets kidnapped even a tenth of the number of times Dick did during his decades-long career as Robin. Certainly never falls for a honey trap plot or anything like that.

But yeah, the meta reason why the Joker never dies is because he's an iconic villain who drives plots. But unless you step out of the main continuity, he's also never just been a "no-frills funny" villain since.

ANYWAY.

As far as the rest of the Batfam taking a swing at the Joker, there's one incident that I can recall off the top of my head.

Dick Grayson, currently Nightwing, wasn't especially close to Jason while he was alive. During Jason's original run, they had a cordial (if brief) relationship, but they basically didn't get any storylines together, so it's hard to really tell how strongly they bonded. After Jason died, Dick began experiencing...I wanna call them chronic night terrors. The idea is that a boy in a Robin costume is falling, and falling, and Dick can never save the kid.

I'm sure it has nothing whatsoever to do with his dead brother, no sir.

So, some time later, the Joker gets told he has terminal cancer by a psychiatrist who assumes that if the clown was convinced he was going to die, he might try reforming or something. A terminal turnaround. Lots of people do that, right?

He assumed wrong.

The Joker goes on an utter tear, doing all sorts of escalating villainy that starts with gassing everyone he can get his hands on, including other Arkham inmates. Somewhere amid this rampage, Robin III goes missing and the Joker cheerfully tells Nightwing that yeah, he killed the kid. And he has the gall to bring up Jason in the middle of all the gloating. By name. (The Joker knows Jason's name due to some nonsense involving Crane and Fear Toxin hallucinations and Batman in a prior story arc.)

And Dick

fucking

SNAPS.

Pummels the Joker right there on the floor. Barehanded. No sticks, no pausing, just beats him to death.

Two seconds later, a very alive (if hurt) Tim manages to get there and go "oh god what happened." Because Dick is not doing well! He has a crisis about killing a dude, no matter how terrible. He never thought he'd go that far.

Batman swoops in and resuscitates the clown. In the time between Jason's death and The Joker's Last Laugh, he has apparently decided that it's more important to keep Dick from suffering a breakdown than it is to kill the clown. DC editorial was gonna keep him alive either way, but whatever.

And now for the third part of my ramble.

As for Under the Red Hood, Jason's death is seriously streamlined for the film. In this version of events, none of the UN chicanery happens. Ra's al Ghul hires the clown for a distraction job while trying to crash the world economy (again) and whoops, the clown killed Batman's son. Crowbar, bomb, whatever. Before Jason's body can be buried, the League of Assassins steals it, hucks Jason into the Lazarus Pit, and now he's alive again!

Except, given how he died and how long he spent dead and how that interacts with the magic, he wakes up as a berserk ball of rage and pain, kills two of Ra's al Ghul's guards with his bare hands, escapes, falls into a river, and disappears.

...So much for making that whole thing up to Batman. The League of Assassins just quietly lets Bruce bury a latex dummy and doesn't ever bring it up.

Cut to Gotham, years later, when Red Hood is tearing up the place and Batman goes "Ra's al Ghul, what the fuck" and the whole story comes spilling out.

In A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, Jason's dropped hints in his narration that he was actually with the League of Assassins for a while, even before going 'round the world training with assassins and stuff. The Lazarus Pit just got him back to full functionality. So, you can assume it leans more on the comics' "spontaneous resurrection" scenario.

If Bruce ever tried to kill the Joker while Jason was dead, Jason doesn't know about it. And because we haven't been in Bruce's head, there's no indication either way.

(Bruce makes mention of how easy it would be kill the Joker in the film, but that he could never come back from doing so. It is not specified if he made the attempt or just thought about it a lot.)

I've been holding back on Jason's and Bruce's accounts of events because they're both owed a moment of dramatic catharsis (and shouting). You can generally rest assured that it'll be more likely to be a mix of events than a pure account of any one take on what happened in the warehouse that day.

Thanks for setting off an exposition bomb~

[lovecaitlined]

For the love of logic…

(Aka, my thoughts before I stay away from the show for a while until KaySun gets resolved).

I don’t understand how they are bringing in third parties to the plot again, when it won’t help the ratings.

And if they need to add such third parties, why do the characters like KaySun, for example, flip flop between all these possibilities? How do you go from having ambitions as the lady of the house to that? How can you go from loyalty and someone’s cousin, plus someone against his own cousin’s transgressions, to that? Characters are deliberately written ambiguously so they can go any way they want.

I can only hope that these third parties will bring KaySun closer to each other. That all those leaked videos are not what they seem, and are something beneficial to the plot.

This goes for all the characters for the show—there is no logic to anyone, and people get new arcs before the old ones are closed. No proper conflict resolution or anything. The lack of creativity is astounding when we only have around 10 episodes left…

Before you say KaySun don’t help the ratings, they’re massively popular and they definitely impact AB. I don’t understand why the showrunners would shoot themselves in the foot like that.

I do believe it is possible to write a dramatic and angst-filled plot in a logical manner. They can play up the mind games and manipulation instead of focusing on illogical third parties, because by doing that, they are making their characters regress. The lack of good character development is painful.

The lack of screentime too—it’s no wonder a veteran like Binnur Kaya left. She could’ve had a great storyline, and I wouldn’t have minded her being a source of conflict for KaySun.

I mean, KaySun endgame, but I really hope they have a good story. Again, it’s highly possible to create their conflicts without introducing nonsensical things. They’re just dragging the story at this point.

I just hope that everything will be okay soon…I’m going to stay positive that this angst is ending and KaySun will get a kiss and halvet soon, haha. And it better be soon. Can we get it for 66 or 67? 🧿🙏🏻

[magnoliacharmed]

Hard Candy

(not my gif!)

18+, Shawn Michaels x Fem!Reader one shot 

[Also available on Archive of Our Own!]

Word count: ~1.5k

Tags: teasing, semi-public foreplay, foodplay (just candy), hair pulling, enemies to... hooking up? definitely not lovers lol

Summary: 

You and Shawn hash out the tension between the two of you the best way you know how.

"What are you eating?"

The small hard candy swirled around your mouth idly. It was almost too sweet. Your teeth would thank you later by aching.

"Jolly Rancher."

His eyes fell to your full lips as you continued to suck on the sweet. These things lasted forever, you both thought.

"What flavor?" Shawn was beginning to grow impatient at your cool attitude. Why weren't you falling head over heels for him like the other girls?

You finally decide to look away from the TV screen in front of you, dragging your eyes dramatically to his. He's not that much taller than you. Your jaw moves slightly with every rotation of the candy. Shawn's strong arms reached behind him to readjust the hair band holding his ponytail. It took a superhuman amount of willpower to not watch him.

"Cherry."

"Gross. That's the worst flavor."

"It's a good thing you're not the one eating it then, huh?" Your head cocked to the side, lips moving into a snarl, hip poked out. This playground bullying act from the Heartbreak Kid was wearing very thin. Ever since you joined the Monday Night Raw roster, Shawn started chasing you around just the same way he did with all the new women. You refused to fall for the antics and chose to ignore him best you could. Tales through the grapevine told you that he kept running to Vince for the two of you to have a romance storyline; as far as you were concerned, that was your worst nightmare. No one would take you seriously after it and you'd really start falling for the jerk.

"I can smell it from here." His deep voice was faux disgusted. Yes, he could smell the strong artificial cherry scent just by standing next to you. It was actually driving him insane thinking about the way the candy moved in your mouth. Inappropriate thoughts of your mouth on his... your mouth on him, his on you, lips together-- distracted him from his goal. He wanted to make you crack. He didn't care if you got pissed and started cursing him out, he just needed to see you have some response. Anything was better than nothing.

You couldn't help but to scoff. "Oh please, you cannot. Stop being a baby."

Deep down, you did like knowing that you had this man come undone when he was around you. You pretended like you didn't like the chase and attention, but you loved it. Shawn was very persistent. It could be annoying sometimes when you were trying to make a real name for yourself. Then he'd manage to crack a joke and you'd have to stifle a giggle or hide a smile.

"I can. I wouldn't have thought a girl like you would be such a sugar junkie."

Now your interest was piqued, even though your gaze returned to the screen. "And why is that?"

"You're so… cold. A damn stick in the mud. Candy seems too colorful and fun for you." Shawn had you right where he wanted you. That accent of his definitely got you going, to your annoyance. In another world maybe he'd be a drill sergeant yelling at his cadets everyday.

Your eyes rolled around your head so hard you thought they'd fall out like marbles. Why was this childish taunting making you so upset? You twisted around to face him again, eyes darting from his lips to his eyes. The corners of his mouth seemed to want to curl into a smile, but instead remained straight. Almost got you… he thought.

"You're only saying I'm boring because I haven't fucked you yet." The words came out sufficiently venomous, you thought.

"Yet?"

Got her!

For a second, just one second, your brain short circuited at the words that left your mouth.

Yet.

Yet yet yet yet yet yet--

An unexpected growl rose from deep within you. You wanted it to come out threatening so you looked like a force to be reckoned with. Instead, halfway through it ended up a squeak. You went from sounding like an angry tiger to a bratty teenager who wasn't allowed to go to the mall. Shawn wondered which noises you made more in bed, the high pitched squeaky ones or the deep growly ones. The prospect of hearing either of them or even both began to make him hard.

"Ugh! Fuck you, Shawn."

"Any time." There was that pretty boy smile of his that all the ladies fell for.

The rubberband of mixed up feelings finally snapped inside of you. All of the lust, anger, and tension came to their peak. Your brows furrowed at the thoughts rushing through your mind. Fuck it, what was there to lose?

Acting on autopilot, you braced your hands against Shawn's chest and backed him into the nearest wall. He was pretty sure you were going to knock him out. Staring into each other's eyes for what seemed like a moment too long was just enough time to catch him off guard with a press of your lips to his.

One hand clenched into the fabric of his thin t-shirt, while the other reached down to massage his hardness through his pants. The cherry Jolly Rancher managed to move from your mouth to his and the satisfied part of your brain noted that you weren't hearing any complaints about how gross it was. In fact, he was enjoying it a lot. Shawn's hips bucked into you involuntarily, your hand squeezing around him. His arm wrapped around your waist to press you closer to him. His frustration built at your choice of location for this escapade. It wasn't the right time or place to really give you what he'd wanted to for so long.

The candy got smaller and smaller as the two of you continued to kiss. Your tongues each rolled around the candy and met with each other's, making the kiss sickly sweet. His hands tangled into your hair, then moved down to caress your back before beginning to palm your ass. The fabric of your pants were so thin he could feel the seams of your thong through them.

Shawn pushed off the wall and leaned into you, your head falling back as his lips moved down your neck. Your hand was still rubbing against him, mind telling you to undo the button and zipper to pull it out. The DX strip poker segment gave you an idea of how big he was but you wanted to see just for yourself what was driving the other women crazy. Now wasn't the time, though. Your logical side was unfortunately very much on. The candy was now in his mouth.

His eyes met yours again while your hands played around in his hair to remove the ponytail holder. His lips kissed against your cleavage. It was another thing that drove him crazy about you, the way you wore low cut shirts around him. You always had to readjust your bra or pull down the shirt a little more when he happened to be around. Your teasing was subconscious while his was very much forward. You felt the beginning of a hickey coming on and it drew a moan out of you. Oops.

"Oh my god, okay." You both had to stop. Tangling your fingers in his hair, you gripped and moved his head away from your chest. His dick twitched at the sensation of you grabbing at the root. Could he make you do that while he was inside--?

Your fingers snapped in his face as you let go of him. There was a pout present on his face that made your panties get wetter. Did he really want to fuck you that badly? Heat flushed your cheeks.

"Don't. Tell. Anyone. About this! No one!"

The usually cocky playboy demeanor was back in a flash. Shawn cleared his throat and finished off the rest of the Jolly Rancher. "Hey, do I look like the kiss-and-tell type?" He winked at you.

"I'm serious. Just… if you stay quiet maybe we can do it again." You waved your hand away and rushed out the last few words.

Shawn held his hand up to his ear and raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Huh? What was that? You wanna do it again? Of course you do." His laugh was triumphant.

You took the hair band off your wrist and gathered Shawn's hair behind him tightly. His dick twitched again while you twisted the band around his hair.

"You're lucky you're cute 'cause you can be a real asshole sometimes."

You heard your name being called over a nearby walkie-talkie. A production assistant poked their head in the room to tell you you were needed in makeup. With a turn on the heel of your boot, you followed them out. You turned one more time to face Shawn, who left you with a kissy face and him grabbing his dick.

"Ugh." It was your turn now to be fake disgusted, smiling to yourself as you walked away.

Shawn's hands ran over his hair to smooth it down. The ghost of the cherry candy was still in his mouth and on his lips. It was his new favorite now.

[swallowtailed]

palisade 47! finalisade part 2!

truly three incredible scenes. also this is not going to be a short finalisade lmfao. probably minimum five more episodes (for a total of seven) but the sky's the limit. if they keep going at this rate of scenes, and presuming interludes/epilogue are each one scene long, that'd already be a nine episode finalisade. very exciting

brnine's scene: so glad we finally got to come back around to their attempt to recruit lattice/refrain. it's a good opener for the finale, too, for brnine to be able to make a more successful argument in favor of fighting with mbreak now that they're in the mirage. also obviously it's excellent to have a nobel ghost literally fully just haunting the blue channel now

refrain flickering between faces was really fun. friends at the table has some excellent genderfluidities. speaking of, my first thought re tm comparisons was polyphony--another town created by a shapeshifter (although changing personality rather than face) who wanted folks to come in and stay. was really interesting to me that refrain accepted the compromise of taking only the willing, which is sort of coming at polyphony's strategy from the opposite direction. refrain as archive was also really compelling to me. i like when an archive is covetous and hungry and persuasive, and constructs morality around/within itself, and is animated by preservation and interment. (chanting: WORST! PARTS! OF! MUSEUMS!)

lastly, the question of "what happens when the war's over" has been a quieter throughline in palisade (highly entangled with the whole blue channel self-sacrifice situation, cf phrygian) and it was interesting that brnine raised it to refrain. i'm curious whether that's going to come to the forefront in p3--really depends on what's going on at the end of the perfect millennium, i think.

august's scene: ahhh what a mess. delicious. really good visuals here as well--steeple catterick, clem on her big dramatic dragon, cori's new mech in action (skeleton covered in blooming flowers!), giant ink ferrets devouring the bilat front line and then vanishing and leaving only bloodstains and echoes behind... love to see it

always fun when fatt discovers an animal on air. i do think we should give the giant prehistoric otters serious consideration and also as many other giant prehistoric creatures as can fit (yes i'm still thinking abt the flash nautilus). it's thematically relevant

what did catch my attention about the ultimate result of the scene, re the iconoclasts turning indiscriminately on anyone military (thus neatly equating the bilats and the cause), is that it immediately shoves august's storyline farther in the direction of "compromised and implicated simply through the use of violence". i do wonder where august's gonna end up by the end of palisade--he's on a similar path, i think, to a couple other characters who have struggled to see beyond the war, but he's in much more of a position to be found guilty for it. does seem like he's set up to fail

cori's scene: YAAAAAAAAAY GO CORI :D what a win, what a legend. finally kissed a girl. good for her. the crumbling ballroom filled with the map of the galaxy was reminiscent of brnine and dahlia in a very fun way. "i didn't want to scare you off with my power" / "you know it's an invitation" / [blushing, stammering] "....for what"

my favorite thing about the scene was cori using perennial magic to show elle a potential future for the two of them, because it's such a perfect mirror to future's visions. like, cori can create that herself, using perennial's magic, when elle asks ("build me another dream, then" was such a tasty line), rather than the aura of future dragging it out of her. and can share it (and shape it, and rewrite it) rather than just envisioning it privately. a really interesting contrast between the two divines and their respective views on possibility

can see a one-way ticket out of the mirage being a really pivotal thing to have on the table in a few episodes. cannot wait :):):)

[wenellyb]

Unorganized thoughts about the Kate/Edwina/Anthony storyline in Bridgerton

I'm going to say something weird but I think that what happened with Edwina in the 2nd Season of Bridgerton is what happened to Jacob in Twilight. The writers loved the "side character" so much that they decided to give them more space in the story but chose to do so by making a love triangle with the main characters and then dragging it for too long.

The way Kate and Anthony's "love story" started was surprising because it focused a lot on Anthony courting Edwina and at the moment when the love triangle storyline should have stopped and made it clear that "Kate was the one", the show went with a proposal from Anthony to Edwina.

If it weren't for the book, a lot of people wouldn't even have realized that Kate and Anthony were supposed to be endgame after that proposal scene. I know I had my doubts about who the endgame couple would be because I couldn't believe that they would go through with the wedding with another woman, in a romance. Especially if that woman is the MC's sister.

Marriage of convienience and slow burns are very common in romances . Anthony's lack of feelings for Edwina doesn't mean that Edwina and Anthony's story wasn't possible, so it wasn't inimaginable to think of them as the main couple. Queen Charlotte and King George storyline also started out like that.

All the codes used in Bridgerton Season, made out Edwina to be the main character, Kate only became the main character in the last 2 episodes.

Edwina got the Big dramatic proposal, with Anthony shocking everyone by declaring his love in front of everyone. It reminded me of another scene from a Shonda Rhimes show. I even made a post about it:

Edwina got her Big wedding ceremony, sponsored by the Queen.

Anthony wasn't even the one who stopped the wedding, Edwina was. Anthony wanted to keep the wedding going. Edwina got to do her Big speech and she was the one who was brave enough to face the Queen and stop the wedding.

We only saw Anthony being horny for Kate, nothing about him screamed main character in those scenes.

And to have Anthony and Kate hook up on the day of Edwina wedding to Anthony...So tacky. Not very romance novel like.

I think the show would have been better if they had sticked to the storyline from the book, from what I've heard, there was no love triangle and Edwina was rooting for Kate and Anthony.

The truth is: Edwina & Anthony's relationship followed the classic romance steps, courting proposal, wedding but Kate & Anthony's didn't.

As much as I love Kate, if they really wanted to sell Kanthony as Endgame from the start, they should have ditched the emotional cheating and the love triangle with her own sister, and made her the main character.

We didn't even get a Kate and Anthony wedding scene....

[what-even-is-sleep]

REACTIONS to the latest PJO TV episode (5. A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers)!!

First half is positive/hype reactions, second half is negative/critiques.

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨spoilers!! 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

POSITIVE/HYPE:

I liked that they showed the irl reactions of media/first responders to the arch.

Love love loved the aunties/Fates. Perfect characterization

THE PERCABETH HUG. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.

hype continued under readmore

OHMYGODOHMYGOD OHMYGODDDDSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Percy jumping over the railing felt like hardcore parallels to how I imagined the dock scenes in HOO

THE FKCN PERCABETH HUG. IT WENT ON SO LONG. LOVED IT

Loved the physical comedy of the trio being behind that concrete highway block lmao.

ARES WITH THE DRAMATIC-ASS LEATHER CAPE I FKCN LOVE IT

The physical comedy with the trio popping up behind the concrete highway divider!!!!

Ares starting flame wars/fights on twitter lmfaoooo. Such a good addition to his character

Gabe was so pathetic. I don’t love the comedic turn of his characterization, but the pathetic wormy-ness was good to see

YES GROVER MY BOY!! PLAYING ARES LIKE A MF FIDDLE

The amusement park was interesting! Not how I imagined it, but v cool effects.

THE TRAP WAS SO COOL!!

LOVED ANNABETH GEEKING OUT ABT THE TRAP

Ok falling more in love with the amusement park designs

Percy’s reaction to Ares/Aphrodite affair lmfao yes boy drag those fools

The way the “What is Love” section ended was great lol. Very Harry Potter rollercoastery vibes

JUST. ALL THE PERCABETH MOMENTS. PERCY KNEELING BEFORE THE CHAIR. AHHHHHHHH!!!!

The fact that Ares just blatantly says that he hates kids and his own kids OUGH! Makes Clarisse’s storyline hit so much harder.

YES GROVER GET HIM. MANIPULATE THAT $&*%£+

SEAWEEDBRAIN

SEAWEED BRAJN

GRAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! IM GOING INSANE 🫨🤯🤩🥳🥹

Their whole convo fr 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

OIYAGHHHHHHHHHHHH ANNABETH KNOWING THAT PERCY NEEDS HIS MOM AND LOVES HER SM AND- AND- AND- 😭😭❤️😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AND HIM BEING LIKE ALSO UHH CAN U GET ME OUT OF THIS SOME DAY TOO LMAO

I can’t even analyze all the stuff in this convo, in this scene, in that exchange yet bc I’m IMPLODING!!!!!! 🥹❤️❤️❤️❤️

LEAH AND WALKER’s ACTING WAS SO GOOD DURING THIS SCENE OMFG

AND THE SPECIAL EFFECTS GRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Stunning, magnificent, no notes

“Percy stand up I mean it!” “I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m-”

IM NOT CRYING YOU ARE

AOUGH. I cannot keep reacting in all caps this is unsustainable. But like. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Annabeth immediately going to reverse the chair mechanisms <333333333

The way the ladder goes up is so cool fr :0

HEPHAESTUS!!! One of my fav gods ngl <3. Bro is more dramatic than I thought with the whole “baby don’t hurt me, no more” 💀 😅

ANNABETH DEFENDING PERCY WITH HER WHOLE HEART. AND HER GROWTH AHHHHHHHHHH

Maybe it’s just bc I’m a music nerd but OUGH I just adore how music is mechanical and a key for Hephaestus n everything. Idk just, very cool.

OUGH the way Percy comes out of the chair. So dramatic <3

Annabeth holding the shield and the way she drops it in front of Ares is badass asf and I fucking love it.

OUP THE BACKPACK!!!

YES GROVER U DROPPED UR CROWN KING 👑

Lin Manuel Miranda jumpscare at the end there again lmao. Looking forward to the next episode 👀

The negatives/media-critical:

🚨🚨🚨🚨warning: I’m v critical. 🚨🚨🚨🚨

“Short version, we need to go to Santa Monica.” Okok im pretty sure that’s almost exactly what he says in the books, but it felt poorly set up in the show. Part of the pacing issues perhaps, but grahh it pulled me out of the story.

Where’s Percy’s backpack? Doesn’t he have one before Ares gives him one? Honest question bc I don’t remember for sure lol. Not assuming it’d stay with him thru the arch-falling shenanigans but like,,, what abt everyone else’s stuff? They aren’t walking around with NO water n stuff, right?????

Where is Annabeth’s necklace half the time? They keep forgetting it T-T. Sometimes it seems plausible that it’s under her shirt, but most of the time it’s very clearly not. + when they showed her dads ring on it last ep, that thing was Chunky-the outline of the ring would be showing under any shirt collar!!

The conversation behind the concrete highway thing felt kinda stilted. 1) when annabeth mentioned only one of the Fate’s names and 2) partially bc there was no background music the whole time…. Whenever the background instrumentals come in the quality of the show jumps so much!!!

Some of the Ares expressions/first convo/delivery felt hellla cheesy at points. In general when the gods characters say stuff like “young one” at the end of their sentences it feels kinda like a throwaway. Like the actors are embarrassed abt the line or smth… idk. Just doesn’t feel in-character enough the way those lines are delivered.

Ares says he’ll help them, then says they’re going to fail, then says he’d kill them so he can eat in peace when he offered them food in the first place…. makes them help him, then helps them anyways… idk the motivation portrayal in the show felt way more wishy washy and weak than in the books

The trap was really cool but it didnt read well until Annabeth went thru.

Different food on the table with Ares when they cut back to him and Grover at night. Super understandable that they could go thru multiple meals, but there’s no visuals of either character eating or calling the waitress over to get more food or like ANY storytelling cue to have the changing food make sense/have a reason to change. It just becomes another thing that kinda takes me out of the story.

Why is the Tunnel of Love where the shield “must” be?? There’s no indication that Percy and Annabeth have a demigod intuition towards the place, or that they’ve looked elsewhere. It’s stated like a fact that the audience is just supposed to accept and go along with. Where’s the reasoning???

Didn’t love the sound design when “What is Love” came in. Is it supposed to be playing in a tunnel loudly or not? The song kept getting louder and softer at diff points in a way that really took me out of the ‘realism’ of the moment.

What in the H2O water powers hard-to-read special effects was that 😭😂

The scene cuts between the Percy/Annabeth to Grover/Ares feels so choppy… :(

THE SWITCH TO THE FISHBOWL/OVERHEAD CAMERA POV… laughing so hard mfg. just Why.

Hwhat is the reasoning behind automatically assuming that the chair and shield are connected. 😭😭😭. Ik the books have way more context and internal dialogue. Pls show, just have them try and reach the shield or pull it down or say SOME sort of reasoning for why they’re connected instead of just spouting another fact that we’re supposed to go along with.

Ok I love Hephaestus’s character in the books and in mythology. For some reason this actor didn’t conjure him for me. My Hephaestus is hunched, buff, more noticeably physically disabled, more dramatic and eccentric and kind and gruff. Idk this actor just fell flat for me.

Just small things with the scene cuts. Like how the camera stays on someone’s face for a second or two too long… all the fckn time. Small, consistently annoying thing for me. ¯\_(:/)_/¯

“Thank you for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburgers.” … what? Isn’t the whole point that Grover was buttering him up? What is the point of the emotional abuse comment to Ares’s face if Grover was playing him up the whole time. It feels like something that was written for kitschy woke-ism points instead of a genuine callout/dialogue that fits more smoothly with what’s happening before, during and after that moment. Cause then Grover asks for paper towels immediately after… 😅 bruh what.

[calliettes-posts]

okay so contrary to what many fans feel like (even me for the longest time), i'm actually starting to feel quite okay with the door thing being dragged out. solely bc we are watching teenagers in real time. It was anaïs' first ever crime and she was stuck between two of the people she loves most. i wouldn't have known what to do either at that age. I honestly feel like it's really realistic that she walked around with it for that long. okay granted, im still pissed at some of the writing choices, bc they made Bobbie loose all of her well roundedness as a character and im still pissed af they added that SA storyline. and the fact that it's again the black girl that has to take everyone into consideration. like pls how much shit did they throw on her this season? (maybe bv we called ada's season a snoozefest?? idk?) but i'm really feeling okay with everyting. between a&b too. They've reconciled and honestly there's still a lot they have to figure out, but i'm fine with that being something we'll see snippets of in the next season. i'm trying to channel my inner 16 yo. If i would have gone through the same shit they've encountered i wouldn't be where they are. they are actually willing to listen and grow!! we've seen this in bobbie and their friends! i'm actually so done with the narrative that everyone is shitty to anaïs. they're only just starting to navigate their way into adulthood. they've been noticing shit! shit man i was a depressed fuck going out with fake ID's and at one point i fell in love with a girl while still dating another. but still hella insecure and i was pretty bad at making friends irl so i spent most of my time on here. my life was freaking messy too. as a viewer it's easy to want shit resolved or see progression sooner bc it's more entertaining to watch. but i feel like they've done a great job taking in consideration we are watching them in real time. (if we forget how shitty the wtfock team is with their social media, i'm begging again, hire one of us pls). idk i'm just really happy to see this kind of representation in an original season. let's not forget we all loved sobbe, zoenne and like in other countries the other remakes bc it was tried and tested!! Imo wtfock had really redeemed itself after ada's season and they've taken notes from druck and skam france. good notes. end of rant.

That's actually a very interesting take, I haven't thought about it this way tbh. I think my biggest problem was that they added dramatic plots and dragged them out, just to resolve them in 1 minute clips, like why was there so much build up just for it not to matter in the end? And with the door plot, my biggest issue was that we saw the same conversation over and over again, but tbf, like you said, it kind of makes sense for Anais to act this way, i just wish theyd put more emphasis on her dilemma, if that makes sense, and if we had more social media, maybe I would've felt differently Also I felt like they put too much importance on Hanne and Bobbie instead of Anais, the actual main, because we had lots of plot lunes for her established in the first season, just to abandon in the 2nd half, and quickly resolve them last minute, and let's not even talk about the sa plot, that was so unnecessary

Tbh, I also think Anais season is way better than Adas, especially the first half of the season, it was more entertaining to watch, and the plotlines were all connected with eachother

[aurorawest]

Reading update

Brick Walls by LA Witt - 3.25/5 stars

Honestly not a great book, from a writing mechanics perspective. This definitely could have benefited from a few more editing passes. It dragged in parts because the characters kept having the same internal monologue over and over, and there were too many scenes of the two mains sniping at each other with the exact same argument. THAT SAID, the MCs themselves were charming and likable, and the second chance romance was compelling. I also thought the cocaine addiction storyline was pretty well done, especially considering this is a hockey romance.

Deny Me, the Nightshade Boy by Mary Vanalstine - 5/5 stars

This is the debut novel of a pal! Very fun book set primarily in Minnesota. It's gay, plus there's a cat named Arwen Undómeow, which is obviously an A+ pun. Also points for a dig at Chaska.

Young Men in Love, edited by Joe Glass and Matt Miner - 4/5 stars

Nice little queer comics romance anthology.

Fire and Sand by Andrew Grey - 3.75/5 stars

The Professor's Green Card Marriage by Heidi Cullinan - 4.25/5 stars

This book was delightful and taught me that I had selective mutism as a child, despite the fact that apparently the therapist I saw insisted I didn't. I was even able to forgive Cullinan's fudging of USCIS's requirements for dramatic purposes because the story was lovely.

Up in Smoke by Annabeth Albert - 4/5 stars

Once a Rogue by Allie Therin - 4/5 stars

The Doctor's Secret by Heidi Cullinan - 4/5 stars

His Reluctant Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Charmed & Dangerous: Ten Tales of Gay Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy, edited by Jordan Castillo Price - 5/5 stars

One of the best short story anthologies I've ever read. There are some real legends in here, like Ginn Hale, KJ Charles, and Jordan L Hawk. Ginn Hale's story belongs to one of my favorite genres, "Harry Potter was a defining piece of fiction for me but what if I ran with its sketchy elements?" (see also: Rainbow Rowell's Simon Snow trilogy). I think a lot of the stories in this collection are spinoffs of the authors' already existing fiction (KJ Charles's definitely is—I had actually already read the sequel to the story in this anthology), but that didn't detract from my enjoyment.

Precious Metals by LA Witt - 4/5 stars

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood - 2/5 stars

Oof. Look, I know it's YA. But I've read some great YA—and this is not it. First off, it's a myth retelling, which I categorically despise. Second, the blurb makes it clear there's a love triangle involved. Blech. The only reason I read this one is because I got it in an Illumicrate. And to be perfectly fair, I was enjoying it a fair bit until about the last quarter. That was the point at which we got Melantho's rape scene and, very shortly afterwards, Leto and Mathias having sex, which I found extremely squicky because it was structurally and narratively very similar to the rape, even though it's consensual. It made my skin crawl. Also I really Did Not Like the fact that Leto was in love with both Melantho and Mathias (yeah yeah polyships whatever, I hate polyships though). Didn't like the theme of 'choosing' one or the other when the choice was made for Leto but she still got to take credit for it. The idea that all the death could have been avoided if People Had Just Talked To Each Other made me wonder why the book had to be 490 pages long. The ending has none of the gravitas of an actual Greek tragedy, even though that's what it's supposed to be. And like, I got it. I got what Underwood was going for like 100 pages in. It wasn't subtle. Ultimately I think a better/more mature author could have pulled this stuff off, but Underwood was twenty-one when she wrote this, and it shows.