#but I'm struck by how terrible a person he is from the start

[starry-sky-stuff]

I'm doing a rewatch of Boardwalk Empire and I'm really struck by the ambiguity of Gillian and Jimmy's conversation in 1x11 when he confronts her about Nucky's role in his conception (ie. the time when Nucky pimped out a thirteen-year-old to his boss to get ahead in his career). Gillian downplays what the Commodore did to her, downplays Nucky's role and makes excuses for him. The show doesn't offer any clear explanation for her motivation. Gillian's spent over two decades living on the goodwill of the men who hurt her most in the world. She had to be compliant, be obsequious, if she wanted Nucky to ensure she had a roof over her head, to keep her son feed, to pay for his schooling in the hopes he might have a better life. Gillian does not have the luxury of confronting Nucky or the Commodore, not yet anyway. But Gillian remembers what they did. She has neither forgiven nor forgotten. And proves it too, when she goads Jimmy into killing the Commodore.

So, if she's merely playing an act, why then does she keep it up in front of Jimmy. Is she so used to the character she's played that she can't tell what's real anymore? Or does she want to prevent Jimmy from getting revenge on Nucky or the Commodore? Gillian certainly knows that Jimmy would do it, but if they're dead she and Jimmy can't get anything more out of them. When Jimmy asks her if she knows what will happen when the Commodore die, I don't believe her when she claims she hasn't. Gillian knows the Commodore's got money, and she knows Jimmy's the only child he's acknowledged.

Because, when it comes down to it, Gillian's a survivor. She'll make nice with the Commodore if she thinks it'll benefit her and her son. She'll even play pretend with Nucky when she knows he killed her son.

But the most interesting part of Gillian's character is that her motivations are probably are mix of all of the above. She's manipulating Jimmy, but she's probably also fooling herself too, because it's easier to believe the lies she tells others than the harsh reality.

[vadlings]

Represention of Autistic Frustration in Laios Dungeon Meshi

Like many other autistic people, I related strongly to Laios Touden while reading Dungeon Meshi. This post isn't going to spend time disputing whether he displays autistic traits or not—while I could do that, I want to focus on why specifically his portrayal struck a chord with me in a way the writing of most other autistic-coded characters has not.

Disclaimer: as the above suggests, this post is strongly informed by my own experiences as an autistic person, as well as the experiences of my neurodivergent friends with whom I have spoken about this subject. I want to clarify that in no way am I asserting my personal experience to be some Universal Autistic Experience. This post is about why Laios' character feels distinct and significant to me in regard to autistic representation, and while I'm at it, I do feel that I have interesting things to say about autistic representation in media generally. This also got a bit long, so I'm sticking it under a read more. Spoilers for up to the end of chapter 88 below.

The thing that stands out most to me in regard to Laios' characterisation is the open anger he displays when someone points out his inability to read other people. This comes up prominently in his interactions with "Shuro" (Toshiro Nakamoto):

The frustration pictured above (Laios continuing to physically tussle with Toshiro, using crude language toward him) becomes even more notable when you remember that this is Laios, who, outside of these interactions, is not easily fazed and often exists as a lighthearted contrast to the rest of the cast. Then we get to Laios' nightmare.

In Falin's words: "Nightmares love emotional wounds. Wounds you hold in your heart. Things that give you stress, or things that were traumatic for you. They aggravate memories like that and cause the dreamer to have terrible dreams." (chapter 42, page 10.) (damn. i'm properly citing for this post and everything.)

Thus, Laios' nightmare establishes an important fact: even if he is unable to recognise social blunders while he's making them, he's at least subconsciously aware that other people operate on a different wavelength to him, and that he's an outsider in many of his social circles (both past and present). His dream-father's disparaging words stress the impact this has had upon his ability to live up to the expectations set out for him, and we also get a panel of kids who smirk at him (presumably former bullies to some degree). Toshiro's appearance only hammers home how much Laios is still both humiliated and angered by his misunderstanding of their relationship.

I've thought a lot about anger as concomitant to the autistic experience. When autistic representation portrays ostracization, it's generally from an angle of the autistic character being upset at how conforming to neurotypical norms doesn't come easily to them; as a result, they express a desire to 'get better' at meeting neurotypical standards, a desire to become more 'normal' (whether the writing implies this is a good thing or not). In contrast, not once does Laios go, "I need to perform better in my social interactions, and try to care less about monsters, because that's what other people find weird." His frustration is directed outward rather than inward, and as a result, it's the people around him who are framed as nonsensical.

The Winged Lion starts delineating Laios' anger, and Laios' reaction is to think to himself, "It can sense all my thoughts, huh?" (chapter 88, page 16.) This is the scene that really resonated with me. I'm not saying I have never felt the desire to conform to neurotypical norms that is borne from insecurity, but primarily, I know that I don't want to work toward becoming 'normal'—I don't want to change myself for people who follow rules I find nonsensical. It's the difference between, "Oh god, why can't I get it," and, "WHY CAN'T YOU GET IT?" (phrasing here courtesy of my friend Miles @dogwoodbite). And for me personally, Dungeon Meshi is the first time I've seen this frustration and the resultant voluntary isolation from other people portrayed in media so candidly. Laios' anger is not downplayed or written to be easily palatable, either.

The culmination of Laios' frustrations in this scene wherein we learn that Laios has fantasised about "a pack of monsters attacking a village" drives home just how alienated he really feels. I need not go into his wish to become a monster himself, redolent of how many autistic people identify/have identified with non-humans to some degree as a result of a percieved disconnect from society (when I was younger, I wanted to be a robot. I still kind of do.)

Obviously, wishing death upon other people is a weighty thing, but the unfiltered nature of this page is what deeply resonated with me. The Winged Lion is laying Laios' deepest and most transgressive desires bare, and they are desires that are a product of lifelong ostracization by others (whether intentional or unintentional). This is the brand of anger I'm familiar with, and that my neurodivergent friends express being familiar with, but that I haven't seen portrayed in writing so explicitly before—in fact, it surprised me because most well-meaning autistic representation I've experienced veers toward infantilisation in trying make the autistic character's struggles easy for neurotypicals to sympathise with.

Let's also not neglect the symbolism inherent to Laios' daydream. "A pack of monsters attacking a village". Functionally, monsters are Laios' special interest—he percieves everything first and foremost through his passion for monsters. His daydream of monsters attacking—killing—humans, is fundamentally a daydream of the world he understands (monsters) overthrowing the world that is so illogical to him, that has repeatedly shunned him (other people). I joked to my friends that it's an autistic power fantasy, and it actually sort of is. And in it, his identity is aligned with that of the monsters, while his anger manifests in a palpable dissociation from the rest of humanity. This is one manga page. It's brief. It's also very, very raw to me. I think about it often.

To conclude, I love Laios Dungeon Meshi. This portrayal of open frustration in an autistic character meant a lot to me, and I hope I've sufficiently outlined why. Also, feel free to recommend media with autistic representation in the notes if you've read this far—I would really like to see if there is more of this nature. Thank you for reading. I'm very tired and should probably sleep now.

[bl3upi3]

A Night to Remember | Monkey D. Luffy

Part 2

Summary: In the midst of a disaster at sea, your crew encounters the Straw Hat Pirates led by Monkey D. Luffy. After initial skepticism, you accept their help, and amidst the chaos, a deep connection forms between you and Luffy. The night brings passion, revealing mutual feelings.

Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI. Smut, p in v unprotected (I'm bad with warnings)

A/N: This is straight out of my imagination. I just watched the live action and am thinking of starting the anime so yes, this work is a messy mix of anything and everything. English is not my first language so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes. I tried not to change Luffy's personality as much as I could. (My requests are open if wanted)

As you and your crew sailed through the unpredictable waters of the Grand Line, the tranquility of the day shattered in an instant. A violent collision rocked the sturdy vessel as it struck an unyielding underwater rock, tearing through the boat's hull with a heart-wrenching screech of rending wood. The impact sent shockwaves of fear rippling through your crew, their faces etched with stark dread as they grasped the gravity of the situation.

Chaos ensued as you scrambled to assess the extent of the damage, your hands slick with seawater as you desperately tried to gauge the severity of the breach. Panic gnawed at your senses, every second feeling like an eternity, and uncertainty hung heavy in the salt-tinged air.

As if orchestrated by the very elements themselves, a thick and disorienting fog descended upon you with an eerie swiftness, obscuring your vision and muffling any sounds beyond the boat. It was as though the elements had conspired to further complicate your dire predicament, isolating your vessel in an unsettling cloak of obscurity.

Your heart pounded within your chest as the realization settled in—the lives of your crew hinged upon your quick thinking and resourcefulness. Yet, amidst the silence of the disaster, a creaking sound pierced the air. You yielded your place to a member of your crew to investigate the source of the noise.

As you strained your eyes to peer through the dense fog, a white boat with a sheep-shaped figurehead slowly materialized before you. Your gaze instinctively rose to the flag fluttering from its mast—a skull-headed emblem adorned with a distinctive straw hat—a flag of pirates.

"Hey there! It looks like you could use some help," a figure standing on the edge of the approaching vessel called out.

"Who are you?" you inquired, squinting in an attempt to discern the identity of the mysterious individual.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates! The fog swallowed us up, and we stumbled upon your beleaguered vessel, which doesn't seem to be in the best shape," he cheerfully replied.

You and your crew exchanged glances, unsure of how to react to this unexpected turn of events.

With a cautious tone, you responded, "I appreciate your offer, Monkey D. Luffy, but we can't be too careful out here. We've just suffered a terrible collision, and our ship is badly damaged. How can we trust that your intentions are genuine?"

Luffy grinned widely, his boundless energy seemingly undeterred by your skepticism. "I get it; you're being cautious. That's a good trait to have out here. But you've got my word. We're not here to harm you. We're pirates, yeah, but we're not the bad guys!"

As he spoke, Luffy's crew members began to emerge from the fog, appearing on the deck of their ship one by one. Each of them had a distinct look and demeanor, but there was something about them that suggested they were not the typical ruthless pirates one might encounter.

One of Luffy's crewmates, a man with green hair added, "We're just passing through these waters, and we've had our fair share of adventures. We know what it's like to be in a tight spot. We're offering our help because it's the right thing to do."

You considered their words and looked at your own crew. They were still on edge, but the desperation of your situation was evident. Your ship was taking on water faster than you could bail it out, and the fog showed no signs of dissipating. It was a perilous situation, and you needed all the help you could get.

After a moment of deliberation, you turned back to Luffy and said, "Alright, we'll accept your offer of help. But know this, if there's any treachery or harm intended for my crew, we won't hesitate to defend ourselves."

Luffy's face lit up with excitement "Deal! You won't regret it! We'll get your ship fixed up in no time!"

A wooden plank was placed between the two boats, allowing you and your crew to board the white vessel. Luffy spoke with enthusiasm, "Welcome to the Going Merry," offering his hand for you to shake.

You looked around at his small crew, taking note of each member. However, you didn't shake Luffy's hand just yet. Instead, your gaze settled on his comrades. Luffy followed your gaze and introduced them, "This is Roronoa Zoro," pointing to the green-haired guy who had spoken earlier, "This is Nami, Usopp, and Sanji," revealing the rest of his crew whom you hadn't seen yet.

"I hope you're hungry," the blond-haired Sanji said with a smile, "I've prepared a meal fit for thousands."

As your crew members cautiously stepped onto the Going Merry, they exchanged wary glances, still unsure about this unexpected alliance. But the warm smiles and genuine hospitality displayed by Luffy's crew began to put them at ease, albeit slowly.

You finally shook Luffy's hand, sealing the agreement. "Thank you for coming to our aid, Monkey D. Luffy. We appreciate your help, and we'll do our part to assist as well."

“You can call me Luffy” he smiled

"Thank you, Luffy," you replied with a nod. "I'm y/n, the captain of this crew. We're in your debt."

With introductions made and a mutual understanding established, the two crews set to work. Your crew members, alongside Luffy's crew, began assessing the extent of the damage to your ship, while Luffy himself seemed to be filled with boundless energy as he led the charge, making plans and offering assistance wherever needed.

As the day wore on and repairs were underway, you couldn't help but notice the camaraderie among the Straw Hat Pirates. They worked seamlessly together, each member contributing their unique skills to the task at hand. It was evident that they were a tight-knit crew, bound not just by their captain's leadership but by a genuine sense of friendship.

Nami, the crew's navigator, approached you as you oversaw the repairs. "You're lucky we happened upon you," she said with a sly grin. "The Grand Line can be unforgiving to those who sail it unprepared. But don't worry, with our help, you'll be back on your way in no time."

Usopp, the sharpshooter of the crew, chimed in, "And if you ever run into any trouble out here again, just give us a shout. We've got your back."

Sanji, the crew's cook, began preparing a feast for both crews to enjoy together. The aroma of his cooking filled the air, and your crew members couldn't help but be drawn to the delicious scent. It was a welcome respite from the earlier chaos and fear.

As evening fell, and the repairs to your ship neared completion, you gathered with Luffy and his crew around a makeshift table on the deck of the Going Merry. Plates of food were passed around, and laughter filled the air as stories were shared.

It felt so peaceful and normal—it wasn't often that you found yourself enjoying such casual conversation with strangers.

"So, where are you headed next?" Nami asked as she took a sip from her cup of sake.

You shrugged, briefly glancing at your crewmates before responding, "I haven't made up my mind just yet."

Luffy leaned back in his seat, his signature straw hat tilted low over his eyes. "You know, y/n, the Grand Line is full of adventures waiting to happen. We're always looking for new crewmates and allies. You and your crew seem like good people. Ever thought about joining us on the ultimate adventure?"

Your crew members exchanged surprised glances at Luffy's proposition. It was a tempting offer, to say the least. The idea of joining the Straw Hat Pirates and exploring the Grand Line with them was exhilarating, but you knew you couldn't make such a decision on a whim.

You chuckled, trying to defuse the sudden tension in the air. "Well, Luffy, that's a tempting offer, but we've got our own dreams and goals. Maybe our paths will cross again in the future."

Amid the ongoing dinner festivities, you couldn't help but become engrossed in the lively conversation with Nami. It was a refreshing change to find yourself in the company of another woman after what felt like an eternity. You shared an unspoken connection, a bond that went beyond words, stemming from the shared experience of being the sole females in your respective crews. It was as if you both understood the unique challenges and dynamics that came with that role.

Your discussions with Nami ranged from the practicalities of navigation and mapmaking to the more personal aspects of life at sea. You exchanged stories of your adventures, your dreams, and the occasional frustrations that came with your responsibilities. Nami's wisdom and wit resonated with you, and it was clear that you were kindred spirits in many ways.

However, despite your best efforts to focus solely on your conversation with Nami, you felt a steady gaze on the side of your face—Luffy's eyes never left you. He remained leaned back in his chair, contentedly eating and drinking, seemingly absorbed in your every word.

The dinner eventually came to an end, and the crew members of both vessels retreated to their respective quarters for some much-needed rest. You returned to your boat, grateful for the repairs and hospitality of the Straw Hat Pirates.

As you lay in your cabin, trying to find sleep amidst the creaking of the ship and the gentle rocking of the waves, you couldn't help but think about Luffy's offer. The allure of joining his crew and embarking on the ultimate adventure was tantalizing, but your responsibilities as a captain weighed heavily on your mind.

Unable to sleep, you decided to take a walk on the deck of your ship to clear your thoughts. The night was calm, the stars glittering above, and the moon casting a silvery glow over the water.

After your contemplative walk on the deck, you noticed a faint light coming from one of the rooms on Luffy's ship, the Going Merry.

Curiosity got the better of you, and you decided to investigate. The door to the room was slightly ajar, and you could see a warm glow emanating from within.

As you entered the room, you were met with an unexpected sight. Luffy was sitting there,his face illuminated by the soft glow of the lamp atop his desk. His head was resting against the table as he continued to write something down on his notepad.

You cleared your throat, breaking the silence that had engulfed the room

Luffy looked up, his wide grin returning as he noticed your presence. "Hey there, y/n," he greeted, his tone friendly and inviting. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

You nodded, stepping further into the room. "Yeah, I wanted to thank you for everything you did today”

Luffy gestured for you to take a seat opposite him, and you obliged, settling into a chair. The room was cozy, filled with maps, navigational tools, and scattered notes that attested to the adventures this crew had undertaken.

"No need to thank me," Luffy said with a shrug. "Helping out is what we do. Besides, it's been fun having your crew around." He then dropped his voice into a whisper having a more serious tone “I appreciated having you around,  y/n."

As you stared into his eyes, you noticed  something in his expression that caught you off guard. His eyes… they were different. In a way, they were filled with longing and desire. 

"Luffy…" you muttered softly, unable to tear your gaze away from the intensity of his eyes. "What's going on? Why are you looking at me that way?"

Luffy sighed deeply getting up of his chair, he walked over to the small window in the room, gazing out at the starry night. For a moment, he seemed lost in thought, as if contemplating how to put his feelings into words. Then, he turned back to face you, his usual carefree demeanor giving way to a more serious expression.

"Y/n," he began, "I don't know how to say this the right way, but I can't help how I feel. Ever since we met today, there's been something about you that's drawn me in. I've traveled to countless islands, faced dangerous foes, and encountered all sorts of people, but meeting you felt different. It's like... like I've found something I didn't even know I was searching for."

His confession left you breathless, your heart racing in your chest. This revelation took you by surprise, especially considering it came so soon after your initial meeting. 

You, too, stood up and approached him, "Luffy," you began, your voice soft but filled with warmth, "I can't deny that there's something special about you. But we both know we will never see each other again”

Luffy nodded, his gaze unwavering. "I know that, y/n. But I've always followed my heart, and my heart tells me that you're special. I don't want to let this opportunity slip away without trying." 

As he leaned closer, his eyes locked onto yours,  his hand reaching forward to cradle your cheek in his palm. Your breathing grew shallow, your pulse quickening, as he brought his lips closer to yours.

Before you knew it, his lips were gently pressing against yours, sending tingles throughout your entire body.  A feeling of euphoria overcame you, and your eyes widened as you realized that what you'd felt was real. The kiss lasted longer than you expected, and when you finally pulled back, your heart was pounding so hard inside your chest.

Luffy smiled brightly, "This was a first time for me, y'know?"  

A blush spread across your cheeks as you laughed lightly in response. "Well, then don't stop" you whispered.

He instently crashed his lips on yours again, this time angrier and hungrier. His hands wandered from your waist to your hips, pulling you impossibly close to him until you felt as if you were melting in his embrace. His kiss deepened,  his tongue dancing with yours as you wrapped your arms around his neck.

There's no need to hold back now, you told yourself. You felt his warm hands caressing your skin, making heat pool between your thighs.

Your hand instinctively reached to remove his hat, but he stopped you, his hand gently grasping your wrist. He paused to look into your eyes for a few heartbeats before releasing you and carefully placing his hat atop your head.

As Luffy's hat settled atop your head, you couldn't help but feel a rush of emotions. It was a symbol of trust, a connection that transcended words, and a promise of something more. You gazed into Luffy's eyes  again, still flushed red with passion and arousal.

"Can I be honest with you?" you asked, your hands still resting on his shoulders.

Luffy hesitated for a second before giving a quick nod in return. "Of course", he replied.

You leaned in, brushing your lips against his again " You're a good kisser" you whispered against his lips. 

His lips curled into a slight smirk as he responded "Thanks".You closed your eyes as his lips trailed down to your jawline, leaving soft kisses along the way. His lips traced down your neck, slowly kissing your collarbone.  Your breathing increased, your mind becoming clouded with lust and desire. As your fingers ran through his hair, you felt him smile against your skin. Luffy's warm breath brushed against your ear as he spoke. "Do you want to have sex?" he asked.

His question surprised you, your mind taking a couple seconds to process the request. After all, this wasn't something you usually discussed with anyone. "Umm, I'm sorry. What?" you stuttered.

Luffy chuckled "Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with saying no if you don't want to."

You shook your head in disbelief. “It’s just…” you began, a frown forming on your face as you tried to gather your thoughts. “Are you sure? Do you really want to?” you asked quietly.

Luffy's smile grew wider as he leaned in, bringing his face closer to yours once again. “Yes, I'm sure.”

Your eyes darted to his lips, which were inches away from your own, hesitating for a moment before you moved forward. With your lips barely touching his, you whispered "Then yes..." 

Luffy grinned as he kissed you, his hands slid from your waist to behind your thighs, lifting you off the ground as your legs encircled around his waist. His mouth moved hungrily against yours as he got to his knees, the wood  creaking beneath his weight causing you to moan when you felt his hardness press against you through his pants. 

Your breath hitched in your throat when he began to move his hips slowly, eliciting a gasp from you as you pressed your pelvis against his crotch, feeling his erection harden in response. You moaned louder as you felt him grind his hips forward.

"You'll have to be quiet, everyone's asleep downstairs" Luffy whispered into your ear, moving one of his hands to cup your breast. 

The sound of his voice sent shivers down your spine, your body heating up as his hand moved to the hem of your shirt, removing it and throwing it to the side. You hurried to undo the buttons on his vest, letting it fall to the floor with yours. 

You slide off of him, your heart skipped a beat when he reached down and started unbuttoning his trousers,  pulling them off and tossing them aside. Your gaze drifted lower, noticing his bulge pushing against his black boxers. When you heard him groan, you glanced up at him, seeing his eyes darken in anticipation.

You took off your shorts and underwear, allowing them to fall to the ground next to his clothes. As you crawled towards him and lowered yourself onto his lap once again, he held you tightly, bringing you so close to him that you could feel his beating heart pulsating against your breasts.

"Oh God!" Luffy gasped, his teeth grinding together as he gripped you tighter, grinding you against him. You reached between your bodies, slipping your fingers into his boxer briefs, rubbing them lightly against his length. He let out a low grunt, his hips bucking upwards as you continued teasing his shaft with your touch.

You set him free from the cloth that separates you, and positioning his member against your entrance,  you pushed yourself slowly down onto him, feeling him tense as he entered you completely.

He grunted loudly, his hands clutching tightly onto your thighs as he thrust himself into you, the sensation of being filled filling you with joy. 

Luffy leaned forward, capturing your lips once again in another passionate kiss, his tongue tangling into your mouth. His hand traveled downwards, stopping above your clit as he slowly stroked it. As he did so, you moaned softly into his mouth, your whole body shaking.

"Fuck! Y/n," he gritted out.

"I thought you told me we had to be quiet" you teased, your voice breathy.

Luffy smirked as he rolled his eyes, shifting you slightly on top of him to allow you to continue to ride him.  Your hips thrust upward and downward, faster and faster until you reached an orgasm. Luffy placed his hand on your mouth as you rode your high, his face scrunched up in pure pleasure.

The moment passed, and you sat yourself up, looking down at him, "Sorry" you giggled. "I guess I kind of lost track of myself."

He snorted, "You mean lost track of my dick" he joked.

You laughed softly while playfully hitting his arm, "Yeah well, maybe I got carried away... or perhaps a little bit too excited."

Luffy shrugged, "Maybe a bit, but we're not going to talk about those kinds of things right now. We're both naked and horny, remember?"

"Mhmmm" you hummed as you grabbed him and laid on your back, pulling him atop of you . He gently took the hat off you and set it down somewhere to the left of where your discarded clothes lay.  He then proceeded to take control once again, pushing his cock deeper into you. Your breathing grew rapid, your eyes closed as you relished in the feeling.

Luffy began thrusting rapidly within you, his eyes staring deeply into yours. In response, you grasped onto  his back as your nails lightly dug into his skin.  Sweat dripped from your brow, and your legs quickly wrapped around his waist, pulling him ever further into you until there wasn't an inch of room between you two.

Luffy looked down at you as his thrusts slowed, watching as your chest rose and fell rapidly as you panted lightly.

 He gave you one last loving peck on the lips before returning his attention to his own actions. He pulled out slightly only to slam back in just as hard. Your back arched, causing you to moan loudly as he drove deeper into you. He buried his face in your neck, his teeth grazing the delicate flesh as you cried out with ecstasy.

Luffy's movements became frenzied as his climax overtook him, he withdraws himself from you before his semen spilled onto your stomach. A gasped escaped your lips as you felt his seed drip onto you.

The two of you fell silent, your eyes locked on each other, your chests rising and falling as you caught your breaths.

"Fuck, I thought it was your first time" you said between heavy breathes as you took a nearby tissue to clean you off

Luffy smiled, laying  down beside you "It is" he said out of breath looking at you with lustful eyes.

You gave him a soft smile,  your fingers running through his messy locks as he closed his eyes and sighed in content. 

The night, filled with passion and tenderness, eventually yielded to the creeping light of dawn. Gently, you stirred from the warmth of Luffy's embrace, feeling a pang of bittersweet nostalgia as you reluctantly disentangled yourself.

With a sigh, you rose from the ground, limbs still tingling from the shared intimacy of the night before. The room held the faint fragrance of your encounter, a lingering reminder of the passion that had unfolded.

As you dressed and made yourself presentable, you couldn't help but steal glances at Luffy, who lay in peaceful slumber, his straw hat resting next to him.

The first rays of sunlight filtered through the small window, casting a gentle glow on the room.A sign that the time had come to part ways with the Straw Hat Pirates. Though the night had felt like a dream, reality beckoned, and your own ship awaited.

You bent down and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, your heart heavy with unspoken emotions.

As you made your way towards the door, you turned back one last time, taking in the sight of the man who had turned your world upside down in just one night. With a whispered goodbye, you stepped out of the room, leaving behind the memories of an unforgettable encounter.

A/N: Hope you liked it, idk if I should make it a short fic or not. Anyways, don’t hesitate to give other ideas, my requests are open :)

[phas3d]

helllooooo lovelyyy i really really love your works and i just want to request if it's okay with a reaction possible angst if you do it.

scenario alongside the war, where slytherin boys fighting alongside the death eaters and reader is on the order of the phoenix but another person that is reader's team is having a battle with the boys and reader's team where about to cast one of the unforgivable curse (worse could be the killing curse of course) to one of the boys and readers just jumped out and shielded of the boys which cause them taking the curse, and how would they react to that angst stuff, would they be furious, devastated, angry, pull out the curse as well to reader's team?? idk it's up to youu <3

i'm really a terrible person and i'm really enjoying being hurt as well.

Dying for Them || Slytherin Boys

type :: angst

tw/cw :: death, torture, dead bodies, abuse (mattheo + lorenzo), panic attack (mattheo + theodore), blood (mattheo + theodore), suicide (lorenzon + all technically?)

contains :: draco malfoy, tom riddle, mattheo riddle, theodore nott, lorenzo berkshire

summary :: you take a hit for the boys, dying in the process, despite not being on the same side for the war. i love this prompt OMGGG but I'm gonna add that you two are recently broken up due to the different sides for the war

DRACO MALFOY

He was very hesitant throughout the whole war to do something due to fear, he's not a born killer, he's just a boy

Once again, he was getting yelled at by one of the crazy death-eaters about how much of a pussy Draco is and how he's a shit wizard like his father

Draco wanted to defend himself, but the death-eater started ranting about how much better and stronger the Dark Lord would be without Draco

The death-eater shot the killed curse at Draco, but instead you jumped in, taking the hit

You dropped dead in-front of Draco, going completely limp as your soul left your body

Instantly, Draco is sobbing and upset, guarding your body with his own

He looks up at the death-eater and isn't afraid anymore, he shouts out "Crucio!!!"

Makes the man suffer for ages, kicking him, punching him, all whilst he's under the crucio curse

He's sobbing the entire time this happens, and before he knows it, he's been kicking a dead corpse for the past 10 minutes

The man died from the curse bring on for too long, making this one of Draco's first few kills

But Draco doesn't care, the man deserved it

It's better that he died then or else Draco would have tortured him for life

Instantly, Draco doesn't care about his father or mother anymore, running to go fight alongside the Order of the Phoenix in your honor

TOM RIDDLE

You always knew he would fulfill his father's place as the next Dark Lord, but you couldn't stop loving him

But when the war broke out, you two broke up to be able to focus on your side fully

Obviously, everyone was going to be attacking Tom since he was one of the strongest and most supportive of his father's ideas

But even though you two were broken up and even though he's been killing people on the Order of the Phoenix, you couldn't stand to see him die since you knew he was much more than just an "evil" person

You ran in front of Tom as the killing curse struck you instead of him, he watched your body turn limp

Without missing a beat, Tom instead killed the other person

Tom has never been a soft person, even while you two were dating

But he silently reaped over your body, holding your hand against his chest as he placed his fingers on your wrist, desperately trying to find your pulse

From then on, he swore to find the person who killed you's family, friends, even pets and make their lives hell

He also swears to bring you back to life, no matter what it costs

He always thought he would be the type to not care about his lovers and to just move on, but he realized very quickly that he would never ever love someone like how he loved you

MATTHEO RIDDLE

His father was obviously going to force him to fight in the war alongside him or else ungodly things would happen to Mattheo

He wanted to rebel, but Tom found out his plans and snitched to their dad

As punishment, Mattheo was tortured, beaten, and more. He was also forced to break up with you and lose contact with all of his friends who weren't death-eaters

When he saw you during the war, he did his best to avoid you at all costs so he wouldn't be forced to kill you

But when he heard you scream for help, his body was moving towards you before his brain could say no

When he saw you bleeding out, he saw one of his fellow death-eaters about to finish you off

He quickly shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!!!" as he watched their body fall limp

Instantly, he's hit with so many emotions at once

The feeling of killing someone for the first time, missing you and finally seeing you, the fear of his father finding out, the pressure of the entire war being on his back due to his batshit insane father, and so so so much more

He was so lost in thoughts, borderline about to have a panic attack, making him not see his own brother about to shoot the killing curse at him

As he looks up, he sees you quickly standing infront of him on your weak bloody legs

BOOM

You were shot and fall backwards, into Mattheo's body

He fucking loses it

Every emotion he's been feeling for the past months explodes like a dam with too much water

He doesn't even use his wand, him and his brother get into a fist fight

Obviously, Mattheo was winning until Tom shouted out, "Crucio!"

Mattheo fell to the cold floor, sobbing as he was forced to make eye contact with your dead corpse

(ik he's different from his deadly class character, but honestly he's still a teenager ya know, and i think that he's just a fuck boy who physically beats people up but never actually killing or cursing people because he doesn't want to be like his father or brother)

THEDORE NOTT

He knew he would be forced to fight alongside his father, but he never wanted to

Before the war started, his father forced him to get the Dark Mark which fucked him up mentally

When you two were forced to split up, he was broken and it reassured him that he wanted NOTHING to do with death-eaters

When the war broke out, he was fucking terrified of everything

All of the shots of magic, the screams, the crying, the sounds of bodies dropping to the floor, it was all too much to him

He never wanted to be part of this, if he could, he would make a time machine and force you and him to run away to the muggle world in Italy

As he stood there, shaking anxiously, he suddenly made eye contact with you

Instantly, he wanted to hug you, kiss you, cry and tell you about all of the awful thing he's witnessed within the past month

But he can't even speak, his throat is shut close from how scared he is

"Kill her." He heard a deep voice, without turning his head he knew it was his father

Theo shook his head and closed his eyes, "No, no dad p-please, don't m-make me." His voice was hoarse and weak, his entire jaw shivered

His dad scoffed as he started berate Theodore right in front of you, calling him awful things and threatening him

His dad aggressively grabbed Theo's shirt, pushing him against the wall

The impact of it was so strong that the back of Theo's head began to bleed, making his vision become hazy

All he could see was his father's blurry figure raise his dark wand to Theo's direction, about to shoot a deadly spell at him

Theo closed his eyes, giving up. He knew deep down that his father would never kill him, torture yes but murder? Never

"AVADA KEDAVRA!!!" His father shouted, leaving Theo shocked to his core...

He opened his eyes, only to see your body hit the cold floor right below his feet

LORENZO BERKSHIRE

Was forced to fight alongside Draco's family since they're the ones who gave him a home

To help prove his loyalty, they forced him to cut off all ties with you which ended up with you two breaking up and going no contact

The whole month was pure torture for Lorenzo

Everyday he watched people die as an example to other death-eaters of what would happen if you were unloyal to Lord Voldemort

He was the only one in the group to try and keep the energy light by making small jokes or telling stories when the slytherin boys were locked inside the manor

But deep down, he was exhausted of acting okay and he missed you dearly

Only you could replenish the energy he lost, and he knew fully well he would see you again

When the big fight broke out, he was terrified but knew how to act and play along with the group

As he pretended to fight, he was secretly searching for you

When he spotted you, he instantly got teary eyed as he ran straight towards you

But for some reason, you didn't reciprocate his smile back, instead only showing fear as you shouted something at him

Suddenly you tackled him, shoving him to the ground

"(Y/N)?" He asked, thinking that you were just hugging him "I missed you so much!"

He sobbed as he hugged you, only to realize your body felt heavier than before

But he didn't say anything, thinking you just gained some extra weight

He moves his hand to brush your hair out of your face, only to be met with cold eyes

It strikes him like a truck, you took a hit for him... You were screaming for him to duck but he was so blinded by you that he didn't listen in time...

As Lorenzo looks up, he sees Tom... Of course Tom knew his plan all along, his plan to see you and to join the Order of Phoenix

And of course, Tom had to ruin it all

Lorenzo is shocked, about to scream out in pain but he knows he has to avenge you first in some way

Tom and Lorenzo both raise their wands, about to shoot their strongest spells

This fight may be Lorenzo last, he knows that he's a weak wizard, but he couldn't care less

Besides, if he dies, he'll see you again

And as he realizes that, he drops his wand and allows Tom to shoot him with the deadly curse

[junipers-archive]

Worth It

Word Count: 630

Includes: fluff, (Husband/Dad!Spence x reader.) You find out about Spencers collection of photos of your daughter Lily! There are practically thousands. He doesn't see the problem.

"Spencer!" You say aghast at the number of pictures he had of your one year old daughter Lily. You had been taking selfies, as you regularly did so he could make you his wallpaper. But then you had stumbled upon the numerous amount of photos taken of her while sleeping, playing with her toys, walking and so on.

He came grinning into the room with said baby in his arms, he had just changed her into her yellow duckling onesie in the spirit of easter.

"Yea baby?" but he wasn't even looking at you too absorbed in playing peekaboo with Lily. He sat down on the play-rug nearby.

Wanting to see more you only giggled as said "You're too much.". Continuing to mindlessly scroll through the photos in a daze, smiling till your face hurt as you eventually got to the selfies he'd taken with your daughter.

Most of them blurred as you saw picture by picture she had tried to grab the phone from him.

When you were about to ask him why he kept the ones that were so blurred, Penelope texted. All it said was "8 photos sent" on the notification icon, and you looked over quickly,

"Hey Spence, Penelope just sent you a text, looks like a lot of photos."

Handing him the phone, to which he took excitedly, he opened it and began tapping rapidly at the screen, then turning it to lily who was facing him while she attempted to pull his sock of with her little hands.

"Look baby, thats you, yes it is, such a pretty girl! Your Auntie Penelope just sent me more!" to which she responded by giggling and tapping at his knees.

You couldn't help but laugh with her as you took a seat next to them.

"Spence you have an addiction to taking photos of our daughter." You informed him.

He looked at you as if he had been struck. "I do not."

You proceeded to grab his phone and go to the album you'd found filled with a myriad of nearly identical photos of her face. "There are thousands of these."

He pouted as he tried grabbing for the phone,"No there aren't"

"Some of them you can't even recognize her! And those selfies, do you really need an 80 photo play-by-play of her grabbing your phone?"

He was not taking it. "Yes, actually, she's the most adorable person ever! I need them...all of them."

You rolled your eyes playfully, crawling over to Lily who had wandered as far as her little limbs could take her.

Picking her up while you stood you carried her to the kitchen while cooing, "Your daddy's obsessed with you! Yes he is! He loves so much!I'm surprised he hasn't run out of storage!"

While you started meal prepping with Lily resting on your hip you could hear Spencer slowly almost anxiously on his way to you.

"Yea about that...I kinda sorta maybe...bought a new phone."

"Spencer!"You couldn't believe him, but at the same time you strangely understood as you looked down at the gorgeous girl that you were proud to call your daughter.

"Mommy's gonna strangle daddy, yes she is! She's also gonna get control of the remote for the rest of the month, uh huh!"

Spencer walked over to you, grumbling about how it was really an investment in Lily, lifting her from your arms and taking out a foreign phone from his pocket which you assumed was the newest on the market.

But whatever agitation you felt slipped away as your heart warmed, the view of the love of your life playing with your daughter while simultaneously taking terribly blurry photos and whispering to her, "So worth it." really did make it worth it.

[jakeyt]

Something

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x f!Reader

Summary: On a rainy day, Jake's Les Paul gives you an idea.

Word Count: 6.7k+

Warnings: fluff <3; cursing; sexually explicit content (18+, MINORS DNI); light dom/sub; oral sex (m + f receiving); unprotected penetrative sex

a/n: so, i was watching gvf's pinkpop performance of wod/highway tune yesterday (my personal fav) . . .and i got a filthy idea. i couldn't get it out of my head, so 6,700+ words later, here we are. this is the first smut i'm putting on here, so i'm admittedly very nervous. 🥲

if there is some possible way you haven't heard 'something' by the beatles, i would give it a listen while you read :)

thank you to @joshym for always proofreading/editing. ily <3

i hope this filth is received kindly lmao <3

🌧️🎶

Something

It was a lazy morning in the middle of spring. The flowers that you were watering right outside your home were in full bloom. The sight made you happy, and the strumming on the guitar that you heard through the open window made your heart flutter. A small smile was fitted to your face.

Life couldn’t get any better. 

The guys were on a slight break from their recent touring, giving you ample time with your boyfriend, Jake. 

You missed him terribly when he was gone on tour. Though, you had decided years ago when you’d started dating, that you didn’t want to live your life only to follow him along wherever he went. You wanted him to have his own time. Time to himself, with his brothers, to live out his passion. And had made the decision for yourself, too — you couldn’t abandon your own life plans like that.

You had dreamt forever of being a teacher, and you loved your students too much to leave them behind. And Jake loved that about you. He wanted you to be able to have the career you’d wanted for so long, just as he had his. His appreciation for your career only encouraged you more to stay behind and do what you loved. 

But these moments? You wished life was different. You wished you were living in a timeline where the two of you could always be together. 

The sounds he made while playing his guitar soothed you. He was playing some of your shared favorites on his guitar, making butterflies erupt. He knew how much music meant to you, just as it did him.

He loved that you two shared the understanding that there was intimacy like no other in music. These melodies you heard made it so clear that he was communicating to you through the melodies. Different tunes took you through untouchable moments in time. Moments the two of you had so sweetly shared. 

The thunder that rolled in the clouds above you shook you slightly from your love-struck thoughts. You peeked up to see the sky. In your daze, clouds had started to gather above. When you’d come out an hour or so ago, the sky was mostly blue, only a few clouds littering. 

The rain started coming quicker than you could cooperate with. You ran to the spout to turn off the hose water, and as you turned it off, you realized you left the hose itself draped across the lawn. 

Dammit. Now you’d have to go back around the house to gather it all up. You wished you had grabbed it when you came to the spout. As you smashed your feet though the grass that only seemed to continually grow wetter and wetter by the stomp, you turned the corner to come back to the front of your house. 

You had no choice but to halt your steps, colliding with a hard chest. You almost slipped in the wet grass. You looked up to the person in front of you, already knowing it was Jake. 

Your eyebrows scrunched. “Go back in! You’re going to get wet,” your voice elevated as the rain seemed to start coming down even harder. 

You were already completely drenched, your hair heavy on your head, just as the clothes on your body. You watched him bite his lip. Hooded eyes scanned over you, stopping at your tank top, where your nipples were completely hardened underneath.

He blinked away the lust in his eyes and got back to the topic at hand.

“Babe,” his voice was also loud. “I’m already soaked,” he laughed, looking down to his partially-open button down. The rain was creating perfect droplets on his tanned chest. One of his toned pecs flexed slightly at the feeling of it. Your thighs tightened at the sight of it, a jolt at your core. “Just go inside, let me finish this.” 

You then looked down to where his hand had moved slightly and noticed the hose was in his grip. Tears then grew in your eyes at the sentiment. 

“Jake,” your tone was one of complete adoration, for more reasons than one. 

He was already wrapping the hose around his arm. He had a small smile on his face when he repeated, “Go. Inside.”

Your cheeks flushed and your bare feet shuffled to move past him, slipping slightly in the grass. From behind you, you heard him shout, “Baby, please be careful!” 

🌧️🎶

You continued to heed his advice and moved with balanced steps on the hardwood floors of your home. The soles of your feet were daring to slip. 

You glimpsed the living room. You saw how he’d laid his acoustic guitar on the chair. It was odd to find it out of its case, or away from a stand. He’d obviously put it  down in a rush to help you as soon as the rain had started. 

Your heart springed in your chest, just thinking of the way he was. 

You were moving to put the guitar in its case or on the stand, when the sounds of your wet clothing made you think better of it. 

You were sloshing and dripping everywhere you went. You could hear your clothes and the slaps of the water falling to meet the floor. It wouldn’t be much of a repayment for you to soak one of his prized possessions, now would it? 

You decided to continue on to the master bathroom. Your skin was beginning to crawl at the feeling of your sticky clothing and heavy hair. 

You flipped on the shower and as it seemed to instantly fog the bathroom (yay, warm water), you hastily stripped your shorts and tank top.

🌧️🎶

A while later, you were drying your hair in the bedroom and he was taking his shower in the master bath. 

Once your hair was dry enough for your liking, you rolled the cord around the base of the dryer and put it away. 

You rolled the sleeves to the sweatshirt you’d chosen to wear. You were now at a loss for what to do on a rainy day. 

You sat on your shared bed. Your eyes traveled around the bedroom. Then, they landed on his worn red Les Paul, sitting so prettily on the stand. 

Suddenly, an idea entered your mind that you simply couldn’t shake. Your cheeks flushed at the thought.

A sly smirk graced your features, and you had to cross your legs at the thoughts you were having. 

You suddenly knew exactly how you wanted to spend your rainy day. 

🌧️🎶

You waited a while to bring the idea up to Jake. You thought it would entice him, but bringing up new ideas for the bedroom could be slightly daunting to you. 

You knew he loved everything you’d thought to do up until this point, but this one involved his first love. You were intimidated to bring his Les Paul into the bedroom, but you just had to try what was now settling in your mind. 

You hoped he’d be okay with it. 

A movie was rolling on in the background as the two of you sat, curled up on the couch. The rain still pitter-pattered against the roof and windows. You were so comfortable, legs strewn over him, one of his hands going back and forth between your thighs, massaging the tops of them.  

Your hand played in his long hair. Jake was scrolling through Pinterest, scheming what he wanted to make for dinner. His lips smooshed together and shifted back and forth as he pondered. 

The way he expertly rubbed your thighs, the fullness of his pink lips, and the mustache that sat on his upper lip was making your tummy do somersaults. 

These simple things, along with your guitar thoughts, had your core quivering for more.  

It was now or never. 

“So, babe,” you halted your movements in his hair. Your hands came to rest in your blanket-covered lap. 

You connected eyes with him, and his lips pouted, “Why’d you stop?” 

You sighed, moving your legs so that you were sitting criss-cross underneath the blanket. When you moved, his hand had fallen from your legs. His bottom lip jutted out even further. 

“Jake,” you started again, fiddling with a loose blanket thread. “How would you— I was thinking—,” you huffed. Just spit it out. “Would you be okay with—. Ugh.” 

“Sweetie,” he laid a hand on your thigh again, giving it a reassuring squeeze. His phone clicked off, and he scooted up from his spot, turning to look at you directly. “It’s just me.”

You looked in his eyes. “Earlier, I thought of something,” you turned your body to face him more. “A new idea for the bedroom.”

His eyes blinked at the subject. “Oh, yeah?” His lips quirked. “You know I’m always down for new ideas.” 

You grew some confidence at him reminding you of what you already knew about him. “You know how music is so important to us both,” he nodded, a sweet grin gracing his full lips at the fact. “Well, I was thinking . . .how would you feel about playing your guitar?” His eyes were questioning. You continued, “While I. . . While I blow you?” 

He started coughing on a breath he drew. You looked up to see his eyes watering as he struggled to breathe. You patted at his back. The smallest tear escaped his eye and he got up from the couch. 

You followed him to the kitchen where he opened the fridge door and grabbed a bottle of water. 

He took a long swig from the bottle. And when he released one more cough after that drink, he took another. 

He came towards you, meeting you at the island in the middle of the kitchen, eyes still watering. “I’m sorry, that was just—.” He shook his head, “It was just.”

You stepped back, nerves creeping all over again. “Oh,” You cast your eyes downward. “Okay. I totally get it. That’s why I didn’t want to bring it up. I know that involving the guitar probably wasn’t the best ide—.”

You felt his hands grip your shoulders, your head coming up. You blinked at him. “Baby,” he gave a huff of a laugh. “That is the complete opposite of how I feel about the idea. I think it’s a fucking brilliant idea.”

Your eyes grew bigger. You stepped closer to him, “Really?”

“Sweetie,” his eyes were soft again, consoling your fading worries. “The woman I love most sucking my dick while I play the guitar?” He draped his arms around your waist, bringing your front to his. You could feel a familiar hardness against your hip.

“There’s some rules, though,” you let the feeling pressed to your hip encourage you further, pushing into it. He groaned at the move. “You would have to play a song of my choosing,” you paused. “One you know, of course. But. . .,” You looped your arms around his neck. “If you mess up —if one chord is even slightly off . . . I'll stop.”

His cock pulsed against you. “Holy shit,” he breathed. 

He scooped his hands underneath your ass and sat you on top of the island. His voice was low and sultry when he said, “Am I totally naked while I’m playing?” 

You hadn’t even thought of how naked he’d be behind the instrument. You felt your shorts get wet at the thought, having spared your underwear after the shower.

“Oh yeah,” your tone dripped with lust. You laced your legs around his waist, bringing him as close as he could come to you. “And you have to play it laying on your back. In this plan, we’ll be on the bed.”

“Sounds like a good challenge,” he smirked. Then, he seriously asked. “Electric or acoustic?”

“Electric.”

His brown irises were the darkest you’d seen them in a long time. Your skin heated at his look. You didn’t have time to think as he dove in and crashed his lips to yours. Your pussy flexed at the action. 

The urgency behind his kiss caused you to fly straight back. Your shoulders would have hit the counter hard if he hadn’t strategically placed his arms to be a cushion for your back. 

He dipped his tongue between your lips, and massaged your own tongue with his. He licked at every part of your mouth, wanting to taste you. You could only hope you tasted as good as he did. He tasted like his minty fresh toothpaste. Any time Jake showered, even if it was mid-day or late at night, he brushed his teeth. It was almost like a ritual for him. You loved his attention to hygiene.

He took his mouth from yours and started kissing a wet trail down your neck. He licked a trail from your collarbone all the way to your jawline and you lustily whined for the duration of the action. 

“My love,” he said into your ear. He then went behind your ear and nipped at the sensitive skin. “I want to hear you as much as I can. Be loud.”

He then completely abandoned your upper half, your legs falling from his hips. He knelt in front of you to rip away your sweatshorts. 

You felt his warm breath against your thigh, in contrast to the open air hitting your naked center. He hotly said, “No underwear?”

“Nope. It didn’t align with my plan.”

“You would be correct, sweet girl,” his breath was soothing steam against your sticky heat. His hands grabbed the undersides of your thighs, kneading the flesh. 

And then you felt his tongue go completely flat at your slit. He licked a precise stripe up the center of your folds. From the very bottom of your pussy to right above your clit, he’d added a healthy amount of wetness. 

You groaned, earning you a few more expert slides of his tongue, back and forth over the same area he’d treated before. Though, the more he went, the sloppier they got. It always went this way: the wetter and louder you were, the less meticulous he became. 

He couldn’t ever seem to concentrate, with how your sounds and reactions affected him. He always said that the way you reacted to sex sent shockwaves to his mind. Nothing else could make him go so wild.

Hence the fun of your idea.

He gripped your thighs, bringing them down closer to him. And before you knew it, he was balancing your bare legs on his shoulders, standing up with his arms wrapped around your back. He was keeping you steady as he moved you both to the bedroom. 

His mouth didn’t leave your heat for even a second. 

The trek wasn’t long, or else you’d have been out of sorts worried about causing his shoulders and back irreparable damage.

And he didn’t give you much time to think as he placed your backside delicately on the bed, sitting up. He rose from how he’d had to kneel to sit you down, opting to strip you of your oversized sweatshirt. 

Your breasts immediately flared with goosebumps at the change in temperature. The cool air forced your nipples into even harder peaks. The way he was looking at them made your cheeks warm. 

“I just love your fucking body,” he knelt down in front of where you sat and held a breast in each hand. He massaged the flesh. The rough tips of his fingers that accompanied the gentle, knowing touch elicited a moan out of you. 

He grinned, then rubbed his thumbs over your sensitive nipples. “You like the way I touch them, huh, baby?” 

He flicked his eyes up to yours and winked. He knew how much you loved the stimulation of your breasts. You threw your head back when he licked his way around your right nipple and then sucked it into his mouth. You couldn’t help it. You had to look down to see him work his mouth over you. 

Watching his mouth work tirelessly at your nipple made you buck your hips up with want for more. 

And somehow the desperate action made you remember the objective at hand. As much as you wished for him to continue, you pushed Jake back by his shoulders. You weren’t supposed to be the vulnerable one. 

His eyes were equal with desire and disappointment at the loss of contact with your body. 

“No, Jake,” you firmly stated. You stood up on shaky legs, moving around him. “The objective is not me. It’s about you, your Les Paul, and your dick in my mouth.”

He eyed you from his place, still on the floor. But you could see the slight twitch in his flannel pajama pants. “But I wanted you to feel pleasure, too, baby.”

You bent on a shaky knee to meet him, “Sweetie, making you happy will bring me pleasure.” 

His eyebrows dipped. “But you won’t—.”

You came up from your knee. You gazed down at him, then held a finger up. “Stop. I’m in charge.”

He looked your entire figure up and down and then raised his eyebrow at you, “Yes ma’am.”

He stood up, coming close to you, though you held a hand up for him to not come too close. It might have looked like you were doing it out of dominance, but you were really doing it to keep him far enough away that roles wouldn’t reverse. He held so much sex in his pinky alone, and you wanted the upper hand.

“If you pass the test, we have sex. And for me, having you inside of me is what gets me off best,” you lifted his self-cropped gray t-shirt over his head. His silver pendant necklace connected with his tanned skin. You were stern with him and placed your hands on his chest, “That’s why it’s imperative you don’t falter.”

You traveled down to the waist of his pants and hooked your fingers into the waistband, slowly dragged them down.

His thick length sprang up as soon as the pants moved past it. The sight of the glistening pre-cum at his smooth, pink tip made your mouth water. 

You were glad to see he wasn’t wearing underwear. Around the house, he rarely wore underwear if he was in comfy clothes. 

You stayed where you were, appreciating just how neatly groomed he always was. You hadn’t forgotten how attentive he was to it, but seeing it again? It made your stomach flame up.

His cock pulsed as you looked at it. You felt your own arousal father at the sight.

“Oh, Jakey,” you cupped his sac, holding it softly in one hand. You were not going to touch his cock yet. He’d have to wait. He whimpered at the feeling of your hand, playing with his balls. “You like that, baby?”

You looked up from where you had kneeled in front of him, his eyes were clamped shut. His head was thrown back, per usual at your attention to his lower region. He hummed an agreeing response. 

“No, no,” you took your hand away. “This is practice time, baby. Rehearsal,” you skated your hands over his bare thighs as you lifted up to stand with him. “If you can’t even keep it together when I’m holding your balls. . .I’m worried about how you’re going to do when my mouth is doing the work.” 

He blinked his eyes at you a few times. His eyebrows turned in, he pleaded. “Babe, I’ll do better,” he leaned in and gave you a small kiss. He brushed your hair behind your ear. “Please?”

Your stomach fluttered at his devotion to the task. “Go get your guitar,” you gave the order, trying to keep your voice steady. 

He walked over to the guitar that stayed on the stand in your room when he was home. It was the older of the two of his nearly-twin guitars. His original. He picked it up, then balanced it on the bed. 

“If I don’t fix this, she’s going to be on top of my dick,” he nodded at his guitar. Then he looked at you and lifted one thick brow. “And that’s where you need to be.”

He then made quick work of adjusting the strap to where the body of the instrument would sit against his stomach rather than where it usually rested. 

He looped the strap over his head when he finished. The sight was unusual. You’d never seen the Les Paul rest so high on his body. 

He looked down, wrapped his hand around the neck and looked at you. His mouth lifted with a laugh, “This feels weird as fuck.”

You giggled with him, “Yeah, it’s definitely more ‘Lennon-esque’,” you swayed your hips as you walked towards him. “But you still make it look so sexy.” 

You gave him one chaste kiss on the lips, taking only a minute to deepen it. When you pulled back, his lips were plump and looked so ready to be kissed again. But you denied the urge. You were ready to test the idea. 

“Go plug in to the amp and lie down,” You wanted to be firm with him. Be in control. “I still have to tell you the song.”

He turned and picked up the small amp that stayed in the room. Once he had it situated at his side of the bed, he plugged his guitar into it. The sound of the feedback as it got plugged in made you push your thighs together. You saw him move his arm and strum a few chords from the back, his naked ass flexing slightly while he geared up the guitar. 

It was a sight. It looked almost like normal. Almost how he always looked when he checked the sound of the instrument . . .though this time, clothes were exempt. You were glad this scene was for your eyes only. You didn’t ever want to share this version of him tuning it up with anyone else.

Once he felt it was good to go, he laid (mostly) down. He situated a couple of pillows behind his head to give him some sort of leverage. 

When he’d gotten situated, you admired the sight. His guitar was laying across his body, while his erection was still fully present. The way it stood at attention in the air, the worn red body of the guitar right next to it . . . It was something so pornographic. You wanted the image sealed in your mind forever.

“I’m going to be honest,” you spoke, tearing your eyes away from him, wanting to keep some sort of composure. You walked to the Amazon Alexa you kept in the bedroom. “I couldn’t choose one song. So, I just went with a random one I’ve been wanting to hear you play again. It’s been a while.” 

He blanched at that. “It’s been awhile?!” He sounded worried. “I kind of want to stand a chance at passing this little test of yours, sweetie.” 

You raised a brow at him.

“Jacob Thomas, you can hear a song once and instantly know how to play it,” you checked to make sure the speaker was plugged in. “It’s not going to be a big deal for you. You know it. Don’t stress.”

“I don’t want to mess up and make you stop,” his eyes glazed over. “I love the way your mouth feels too much to lose it. I wanna be good for you, baby.”

Your clit fluttered at that. He wanted to be good for you. 

“Then be a good boy and tune your guitar again. You don’t want to know the consequences if it’s even slightly out of tune,” you turned on the lamp at his bedside, the dark room needed some sort of light. Daytime was fading, rain still ticking against the window. “Don’t worry about the song until it starts playing.”

He went about his tuning and mid-strum, he suddenly questioned, “Why are you making Alexa play the song if I’m going to be the one actually playing it?” 

“The speaker will help to keep me aware of any possible mistakes,” you tapped it and then pointed at your mouth. “I’m going to be a little preoccupied to only rely on memory. My brain goes a little fuzzy when I. . .”

He swallowed thickly, blinked a couple times and nodded. “Makes sense.”

 You watched him go along with his tuning and decided to have another little practice. You sauntered over to him, and sat down on the edge of the bed, next to his leg.

He didn’t look up from what he was doing until he heard you spit in your hand. 

You placed your wet hand around his thick shaft, you gave it a couple of pumps. You looked him in the eyes, testing him. He knew if he stopped doing what he’d been doing that you would stop. He knew exactly what this was. And he wasn’t going to mess it up like he had before. 

You let your slick thumb rub in the crease at the base of his pretty pink head. You then took the precum from before (and the extra that had gathered since), and rubbed it from the slit of the head all the way around the head. 

You glanced up to see his face and the sight was beautiful. There was already a slight sheen of sweat forming at his hairline. He was working so hard for you. And then—.

There was one slight twang of a string. You took your hand away. 

He moaned. “You can’t. . .it was just a little—.”

“Gotta do better next time, baby,” you got up from your spot. “Is the guitar about ready?”

He gave the smallest glare. Then he reached up, using the back of his hand to wipe at his forehead. He placed his fingers on the correct frets and played the beginning of ‘Highway Tune’ to test out the sound.

His face was concentrated, looking down to see his fingers go. You watched, too. And besides his fingers going crazy, the music was obviously flawless. Holy shit. You weren’t sure you were going to survive this. You were sweating, flushed, and your thighs felt wet from being clenched around your core.

What were you going to do if you got distracted by him and stopped going when he was doing perfectly fine? You would lose all of your high-standing in the situation and you’d simply look like a loser.

The competitive streak suddenly came to life inside your chest. Your heart started beating so fast.

Or, you noticed how fast your heart had been beating all along. 

“Okay, stop,” you said firmly. “You miss one little strum, even the smallest string of a note, I stop. Got it?”

His brown eyes were unaware of your inner conflict and were doe-like as he nodded to agree. He wanted to be good.

“Alexa, play—.”

“Wait,” his voice was frantic. “Is it the entire guitar part or just a solo I’m playing?”

Before you spoke, Alexa’s monotone voice did. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

You rolled your eyes at the device. “Alexa, stop,” you surveyed him. You hadn’t thought so specifically. So, you thought on the spot. “Anytime you hear a guitar playing, you play.”

“Rhythm or lead?”

Damn, good questions. These were things you really hadn’t thought of initially. You‘d just thought of the grand scheme. And, while you both loved music, he was the guitar player. It technically was his job to help remind you of these things. You would be lying if you said it wasn’t slightly embarrassing in this situation.

But, you kept your cool. You tried not to think of the little holes you’d left in the plan. 

“Lead.”

He nodded, then cast his gaze down to look upon his guitar. His fingers tapped against the body, waiting patiently. And, like a pro, his tanned cock continued to stand at attention. 

“Be ready,” you warned. He visibly gulped. You made your way to the bed, combing a hand through the front of your hair, tucking a piece behind your ear. “Alexa,” you situated yourself between his legs, ass in the air. You knew your body drove him crazy, so you’d use it. “Play ‘Something’ by The Beatles.”

You let the sexy act go, and peeked up at him. He was already gazing so lovingly towards you. You two lazed grins towards each other. As though you were sharing a secret.

Back when you’d started dating, this song seemed to play everywhere you two would go. And so, it had gotten deemed special for the two of you, by the two of you.

It was really silly, but you two had been kids then. Thinking up something for everything.

“Playing ‘Something’ by The Beatles.”

While she repeated what you said, he placed his fingers in position. And without even knowing what it was supposed to look like, you knew he was right. You already felt a little wetness gather at your center, simply for how gifted and intellectual Jake was — especially with his craft. 

Right before it had begun, you sunk your mouth down over his tip. The taste of him was what your mind latched onto. He always tasted so sweet. You felt his body shiver. His legs shook on either side of you.

“Baby. . .” He sighed.

And when the guitar started, you closed your eyes to bask in the beautiful melodies Jake was already matching. He moaned and whined a few times here and there as you continued to flex your mouth over the top of him, but other than that, he was focused. He was magic.

You moved your mouth off of the top of him and then let your tongue lavish around the base of his cock. You licked it in long horizontal and vertical stripes, making a pattern of it. You occasionally went back to the top to give it proper attention. 

And once you’d made his skin glisten with the work of your mouth, you placed your hand on his base. Letting your hand do some work while you watched him play. 

The way his face would change as he played was so like the way it would on stage while playing, but this time, there were little whimpers that accompanied the faces he made. You knew the faces were not only meant for the guitar in this moment, he was reacting to you more than anything now. 

His fingers moved in precise motion, the veins in his hand showing as it flexed around the neck of the guitar. 

He still hadn’t missed a chord. Damn. As if you needed to be reminded of just how incredible Jake was. 

You licked around the slit at his tip and then licked in the crease just below the head, where your thumb had been earlier. You loved this spot on him, almost hidden between the head and length of him. 

You took the top half of him into your mouth, bobbing your head slowly up and down while also letting your tongue swirl in and around your favorite spot. 

You let extra saliva leak from your mouth, right before you hollowed your cheeks out. You then brought a hand to his shaft and stroked it liberally, grateful for the lubricant you’d provided. It was so slick to the touch, your hand glided perfectly. 

He breathed a combined whimper and moan when you added one more hand to the mix, grasping his balls. You rolled his sac in your hand. So fucking smooth.

You decided to massage his balls, giving them attention. With all of these actions combined, one chord stayed slightly longer than it should have. But you pretended not to notice. You were too engaged with your own activity at hand.

You started humming the melody as you swallowed as much of him as you could. He whined at the new vibrations that only added to the present pleasure.

Meanwhile, you generously stroked at him, but added just the slightest squeeze. His hips bucked as both of your hands continued their work, while your mouth sucked at him. You tightened your jaw and your lips went taut as you gave him one especially tight suck. 

Your mouth sounded like a little ‘pop!’ as you came off of his tip.

His breath seethed through his teeth. But he was a natural born rockstar, and played seamlessly through the hurdles thrown his way during a performance. The current hurdles being your mouth and hands.

The guitar solo was close. You couldn’t lose focus before then and you had to do your part to keep him steady. You had to stay consistent in your movements to keep his stamina going.

You grasped at his shaft, but realized it was becoming dry. So, right before it was time for the solo to start, you brought your head up. 

You gathered as much saliva as you could, and made sudden eye contact with him as you spit (drooled) it all onto his throbbing length.

Your center was aching.

His mouth fell open and you kept your eyes on his as the solo began and you moved your mouth around him. Your hand moved in the places your mouth couldn’t quite reach. Your movements went along to the rhythm of the music. You knew it like the back of your hand, making it one big—.

And his finger slipped off the string, right at the end of the solo. 

You sat up, deciding that was a big enough error to hold to your word. 

But, his eyes held such disappointment and guilt and longing . . . You felt for him. He never stopped playing, even as you stopped your efforts. He kept going. 

He’d also made it through almost the entire song, holding up his end of the plan so damn well. 

And his cock was just so pretty, standing up straight, waiting for more. 

You realized you just couldn’t hold to your word like you’d wanted to. 

Though, you did give his thigh a hard smack, and bit down on the flesh right on the inside of his thigh. So close to his most sensitive area.

“Shit,” he hissed through his teeth. “Won’t do it again,” he continued to play relentlessly. “Just so hot, babe.”

The flawless music he continued to make rushed through your ears. You knew the song was almost over, so you looped one of your legs around one of his. You moved it between your thighs to be in the right spot for satisfying friction and grinded down on it hard. 

“Oh,” his mouth was held in an ‘o’ shape at the feeling of you, wetting his leg with your arousal. It was the same big ‘o’ his mouth tended to make during a normal guitar solo. 

Fitting.

“You like that, baby?” 

His eyebrows drew together, nodding. 

You hadn’t taken the time until that moment to realize how sweaty he’d become. His forehead glistened, as did his nose and chest. The sweat dripped down from the middle of his pecs to the top of his tummy. 

Your mouth watered. 

His eyes stayed glued to the guitar, focus driven. His fingers moved expertly along the strings, finishing the song as if he had helped George Harrison write the song himself. 

You finally stopped your movements, wanting to admire the man beneath you. 

But he didn’t give you much time.

As carefully as he could manage, Jake slipped through the strap of the guitar, depositing it against the bedside table. And as soon as he was free of the constrictions from the instrument and your game, he took his control back. 

And you gladly let him. Almost.

He grabbed your ass, still sitting atop his thigh. But you moved his hands to resituate yourself. You climbed off of him, only to slip your legs to be knelt on either side of his abdomen. 

But Jake wrapped his arm around your waist and switched positions before you could even breathe. He wanted you below him. His chest was heaving as his swollen cock rested on your upper thigh.

Before anything else transpired, he got down on his forearms. He nudged your nose with his affectionately and captured your lips in a full kiss. There was barely any tongue, but his plush lips latched securely with yours. Puzzle pieces. 

“I love you,” he whispered when he pulled away. 

“I love you,” you sighed back to him. 

He ran his throbbing cock through your folds. Your body vibrated at the feeling. Then, he took it away. 

Sparing no time, he pushed in, sinking into you. Another puzzle piece.

Having just gotten him back from tour, you were still readjusting to the feeling of his girth. But when he started moving, home was found and you moved your hips in time with his. 

You knew neither of you were going to last long, but making love seemed priority to you both.

“Not a complicated song,” he huffed between thrusts. “But dammit if it was the most diffi—,” he slammed hard, making you both grunt at the motion. “. . .Most difficult with you doing all of that.”

You blushed, looking up to him. He was looking down to where your bodies were connecting. “Mission accomplished.”

He snapped his eyes back to you, “Mission enjoyed.” He winked at you, a suggestive smirk marking his lips. 

There wasn’t any more talking as he rounded his hips a few more times. He never let himself fully leave your center, obviously wanting to drive you to the edge.

It wouldn’t be hard. 

One, being Jake Kiszka’s girlfriend, was a constant loop of being on edge for the man. And two, with everything that you’d taken part in together that day, you’d been ready to release for a while. But this was the moment you’d wanted most. 

You’d wanted it with him. This connection. It was arguably what you missed most while he was away. These intimate moments, wrapped in time, for only you both. 

His hair was so long, it draped around your head like a curtain. You felt every single inch of him as he bucked into you, hearing the sounds your bodies made together. 

You moaned outright, “Jake,” your voice was husky. Your pussy clenched. You felt it coming.     

“Fuck, baby. I know,” his hips crashed to meet yours, the tip of him connecting to your g-spot.  

You whined loud, letting out gasps of encouragement and his name. 

Finally, your eyes met his, deep brown, and you held contact like that. You felt the entire world in his eyes. You lifted one hand to wrap at the base of his neck, under his hair, and left one to rest on his shoulder blade. His skin was completely tacky with sweat. Your bodies were vigorously moving to meet each other now. 

He stuck his thumb in his mouth, completely wetting it. And then, he slipped a hand between you, rubbing gentle circles on, around, and underneath your throbbing bud. 

After a few uneven thrusts, his body started to falter more in its ministrations. 

“I’m—,” he started. 

“Me too,” you gasped. 

His thrusts still guided you, and his thumb nudged just right against you. Everything you felt and saw was him. You shuddered as you hit your peak, your body stiffening. You threw your head back against the pillows. Your core was throbbing at the sensations. 

Then, he pushed in one more time, his sticky stomach meeting yours. He whimpered, and you could feel him spill inside of you. All of him. 

He stayed where he was for a second, his dick still pulsating inside of your walls. 

Then, he slipped out of you, going quickly to get a towel to clean the mess he’d helped to create. Once you were cleaned up, he laid his head to your chest, totally spent. 

His breath was warm against your breast. You combed your hand through his now-knotted hair. This was right.

You gazed down at him, his long hair swept across your stomach. Your heart pressed to your chest. You missed him.

When summer came and school let out, you would have to rethink not joining him on tour. You couldn’t take being away from him for so long. These moments were everything. 

“What do you think about joining the guys and me this summer, hm?” His fingers were tracing shapes into your hip. 

You grinned, braiding a few pieces of his hair when you responded, “You know, I just might have to.”

[galaxythreads]

i literally don't understand the mcu script writes who've bragged about never having seen the previous movies, like bro??? how do you expect that script to be consistent with the rest of the canon?????????

normally I'd laugh and be like Yeah, anon, these guys are insane, but you have bypassed Mental Breakdown part of my brain and now I am deeply, deeply curious.

---

Why is it that mcu script writers are so proud to be arrogant?

---

Warning for minor language.

So anyway, the person I thought of specifically as being Generally Terrible to the Franchise Lately was Michael Waldron, who wrote Loki, Dr. Strange 2, AND is currently working on Avengers: Secret Wars. (Yay)

So I did a lot of research about where this guy CAME from and how he's impacted everything because I swear to God I'd never heard of him before Loki. And now I see him everywhere, but usually only in loathing.

---

Michael Waldron, according to Wikipedia, is currently 35 as of 2022 and graduated from some Film School i haven't heard of and can't be bothered to remember. He is unmarried(?) and has been active in the film industry since 2014. (8 years, for those of you counting.) He started work on Loki in 2020(? unconfirmed).

The thing that struck me the most was how incredibly short his project list is.

My man has six (6) completed projects. He had three before he started on Loki. And while this doesn't necessarily mean that he's bad, it does show a level of inexperience that baffles me personally.

For comparison, Kenneth Brangah, one of four screenwriters for Thor 1's list is this:

And again, it's not like Brangah's list is enormous, but I do see a lot more experience under their belt before they were approached by MCU rather than Waldron, who had done three projects. Brangah had 20 years in sceenwriting when he went to work for Thor. Waldron had six.

And the amazing thing to me is that even the shows Waldron's executive producer on, he wrote like, two episodes for it? Then he handed it off to other writers. So he doesn't, as far as I can tell and I found, seem to have a lot of experience actually working the writing process, just supervising it.

(I could be wrong)

But here is his latest series Heels, for reference.

the section says "Written by" above the names, I cropped it weirdly.

---

So we have a man who has, at this point, worked six years in the industry. He has worked on three shows. He was the assistant for one show, he did not write in the other one, and he has written for ONE show, total. Produced one show, was the executive producer for ONE show.

What I am seeing here, is, from what I can see, a lack of experience. And it shows. Badly.

So why did Marvel hire him?

----

According to an interview Waldron did, where I'm drawing a great deal of this information, he has always wanted to work for the Big Leagues. He wanted to work on Star Wars mostly, from what I could see, but he didn't think that Marvel would be bad either. When he approached his agent about how to get working for Marvel his agent told him he needed to have written a movie.

Now you're probably wondering. I DID look at that list of projects he's been involved in, and there wasn't a movie.

You are correct!

Waldron wrote a movie called The Worst Guy of All Time and the Girl Who Came to Kill Him. It's on The Black List and was never filmed, to my understanding. But he sure did write that script. And that script, I believe, is where a lot of issues in Loki start to come to light, but we'll get to that in a minute.

"At some point the script made its way to Marvel as they were meeting people for Loki and that got him in the door to pitch and that pitch got him the job."

When Kevin Feige was hiring directors, Waldron walked in and "I thought I was going to get it, but that's my attitude, I guess, hopefully as unarrogantly as that can sound, but I think you got to be confident" (Waldron). Feige was apparently impressed and hired him on.

Which again, a bold choice that COULD have been great, to give a small name the chance to work on a project like this?? Incredible. Just not in this context.

I feel immensely confused that MCU, which is a multi-billion dollar industry, did NOT actually hire someone with years and years of experience like they did for Thor 1. Instead, they went with someone who, personally to me, didn't have enough experience to seem like he knew what he was doing.

So now Waldron is working in MCU. Things are going great for him. He has TWENTY WEEKS to come up with the plot, the scripts, and the story for the entire Loki series.

TWENTY. I cannot emphasize this enough. That is no time at all. They went from blank slate NO IDEAS to a full script in TWENTY. WEEKS.

So HOW then, did Waldron get approached to do Dr. Strange 2?

Apparently, Waldron and Owen Wilson were talking one day and Waldron got asked to do Dr. Strange 2 because it was just as chaotic as Loki was.

WALDRON: Yeah. By that time, I had been able to build the trust. We'd written Loki. Loki was in good shape at that point. It was headed into production. I was getting ready to go to Atlanta. Fortunately, the scripts were in good shape. One of our writers, a close friend of mine, Eric Martin, took my place and went and was the writer on set, which you've got to have, and he did amazing work carrying the show across the finish line, from a writing standpoint. And yeah, it was just, "All right. You did Loki. That was crazy. Come do Dr. Strange. This is going to be crazy, too." That was really fun.

And guess what! This is the instructions he was given FOR Dr. Strange 2.

WALDRON: It is purely, 100%, "Make the most kick ass Dr. Strange movie you can possibly make." There was no, "You got to get here. It's got to fit here."

Which, by the way, Feige stated that he had no plans for the Loki series beyond time travel, and Waldron was instructed to do whatever he felt like. A 100% most kick-ass time travel series, you might say.

---

Okay. So now that we have some background, I'm going to get onto my soapbox and explain why this man was a horrible, horrible directing choice and shows 0 understanding of the characters. This is going to go over Loki and Dr. Strange 2, for reference.

---

LOKI:

The biggest disaster I see with Loki is that the FIRST -- and I emphasize this, the FIRST -- thing that Waldron says about Loki in the interview is this:

Waldron: And I'd written a time travel movie about a character who was kind of a villain, and kind of a sh*thead, like Loki.

I think that the problem that Waldron suffered from the most in Loki is that Waldron didn't want to make a TV series about Loki. He doesn't like the character very much from what I can tell. Obviously, he calls him a sh*thead, but he never has anything nice to say about Loki as a whole either. He doesn't want to talk about Loki as a person, or Loki's story, Waldron wants to talk about the TVA. I seriously cannot emphasize this enough. Not once in the interview did Loki as a person come up. Loki didn't even seem to be a character to him.

The TVA is where Waldron seems like most of his time was spent, because that was, after all, what MCU wanted to do. I honestly, genuinely do not believe this man would have taken the job for Loki if it wasn't about time travel. Because Waldron could focus on the TVA and not Loki. Loki was an irritant he had to occasionally do something with.

And now we get to his script that was pitched to MCU.

Waldron: I sat down and I wrote a script that was a time travel action rom-com, is how I would describe it...because they [Marvel] wanted to make a time travel show. And I'd written a time travel movie about a character who was kind of a villain, and kind of a shithead, like Loki.

And the thing is, to me, sounds a lot like the TV series. A romcom, with time travel, and a sh*thead kind-of villain. That's the series we got. I do wonder how much of this pitch made it into the final series, because this is what Waldron had as a reference. (The director wanted to make a romance from what I understand, that was her vision of the series was this long-winding romance, and it doesn't look like anyone sat down in the writer's room and explained to them that the last thing that would fuel Loki's story forward was romance.)

And the thing is, Waldron doesn't seem to understand Loki as a character at all, if Loki is "kind of a villain and a sh*thead" because yeah, sure, Loki can be considered that, but that's not WHO Loki is. That's what people SEE him as.

Waldron at no point references having read the scripts for the Avengers, Thor 1 or the Dark World inside this interview. This doesn't mean he hasn't seen the movies or read the screenplay, as I often hear said about him, but it is strange to me that he makes so little mention of Loki.

This man is so focused on the TVA. Despite how much of a disaster the TVA ended up being. Here's some notable quotes:

WALDRON: What did I learn? Don't write one about time travel, because it's a pain in the ass.

WALDRON: ...A foundation of what constitutes a broken time law and what doesn't, so that we could then just, which is about Loki breaking a time law, and then you have to move all that stuff as far to the background as humanly possible, because you don't want the audience focusing on the rules of time travel during your show.

I love how "Loki breaking a time law" is supposed to be the center of it all and comes off as an afterthought.

And.

"don't want the audience focusing on the rules of time travel in your show" YEAH. CAUSE IT'S GARBAGE. Maybe if he and the others had had more than a weekend (exaggeration, untrue statement) to work on how time travel works, we'd have something that didn't make me want to scream into a pillow for ten years.

WALDRON:  All over our writer's room, our white boards were just covered in timelines. And it's just, "No, time travel works this way," "No, time travel works that way." That was the great challenge of our show, it was because the Time Variance Authority is an organization that literally manages and polices all of time, we had to define what time is to them and what time is in the MCU. 

I think we can blame this disaster on the Russo brothers. ^

WALDRON: Those are all questions we had to ask and define for ourselves. I think that what's fun about the TVA is it takes something remarkable, like time travel, and really packages it in a very soulless, sort of bureaucratic way. That's what was exciting to me, as a writer, was to take something so magical and just make it utterly soulless. -- So what we have is a writer's room so focused on the TVA that Loki becomes a secondary concern and the lens from which we VIEW the TVA, and then it stops becoming Loki's series and starts to become the TVA's.

But no one seemed to realize this.

And also "That's what was exciting to me...was to take something so magical and make it utterly soulless" is a GREAT way to go about time travel. I also think he applies this to everything and it shows.

So again. Writer focused on the TVA. Appears to me to not care about Loki. Spends a majority of the interview discussing ANYTHING but the main lead of his show. Does not want to talk about growth or character or WHERE LOKI CAME FROM? WHY ARE YOU NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR LEAD?

But that's okay. Because we all know that the TVA was the main character of Loki, don't we?

---

Another interesting point, I thought, was how Waldron writes relationships. I watched a review of his TV series Heels, where the reviewer came to this conclusion about the main characters:

"...And that's just what made this show so fascinating, is that…all these characters, that in some way, treat each other horribly, but in other sense do care about each other, and they're all so entwined with trying to make this thing work."

and that sounded extremely familiar. Because this is the cast of Loki. Waldron seems to have discovered his Character Formula.

Thanks. I hate it.

I just...this man can't have been a bad writer in just Loki right, and this has to be a consistent theme across all his work? And honestly, he's worked on so little that I don't know. I can't have an honest opinion of him. From what he has worked on, terrible character chemistry seems to be the general vibe. Waldron does not seem to know how to write characters that you understand why they like each other.

Hence, Loki being abused by every figure of authority in Loki, and Slyive treating him horribly, but somehow they all like each other in the end.

Because that's Loki. The TVA series, Loki on the side, getting beat up. Because he's bad.

---

DR. STRANGE 2:

Dr. Strange 2 has a similar set of problems. It was written in a rushed time frame, there was no overarching idea for a plot and where the story needed to go, Waldron was just told to do what he wanted, and Waldron didn't seem to be too focused on character arcs.

Wanda, obviously, takes a devastating hit as far as arcs go, but I wouldn't say that Dr. Strange was spared, either. The two of them go through rapid flipflopping in terms of the growth they've incurred throughout the entire MCU, and it shows. Badly.

One thing that Waldron did say that absolutely baffled me was this:

WALDRON: I became good friends with Jac Schaeffer, head writer of WandaVision, while I was writing Loki. Her and I became good pals, because we were kind of in it together and everything...So, I had the benefit of just being able to call Jac and talk to her about Wanda's character and everything, because it was really important to me that I do right by her with what she did with Wanda as a character. And also, with Lizzie, who's a friend of mine. I really worked with her and made sure, "Okay, you guys just did this incredibly intimate show about this character that grew her so much. Let's make sure that we're doing that justice and telling a fulfilling next chapter of that story."

I am so confused. Waldron honestly appears to want to do right by Wanda, but Wanda's growth from WandaVision was destroyed in Dr Strange 2 (and I want to emphasize here that Waldron made no such comment about talking to Tom Hid. or previous directors of Thor movies) so then how did Wanda end up going through such a downward spiral? Waldron wanted to do right by her, and yet???

I think the biggest problem is that Waldron doesn't have to think long term. He's almost not supposed to. He said this:

WALDRON: Well, I think one of the joys of being a writer in the Marvel world is getting to make terrible messes and leave them for your predecessors

WALDRON: For instance, you write the Loki show and then you end up writing Dr. Strange 2, having to clean up your own mess and that can be a lot of fun.

WALDRON: And it will naturally connect to the MCU and it will naturally get the MCU to where it's supposed to go, in some ways that we expect and ways that sometimes you don't expect, and I think that's part of the fun.

Waldron was given the explicit instruction to write a good Dr. Strange movie, but not a good MCU movie. Part of the reason that Phase 4 feels like a bunch of puzzle pieces from different puzzles is that it was designed to be that way. Feige is just going with the flow to see what will happen rather than having any sort of idea of where to take the series.

"It will naturally get MCU to where it's supposed to go" is one of the most hilarious statements I've ever heard, by the way. As someone who has done original writing, and planned out a series, my 200+ page document of planning, background, and worldbuilding laughs at you. (And I still don't have it all finished, because I've had MONTHS to work on this). Maybe. Maybe they want to try and not publish the first draft of phase 4?

Waldron wasn't told to make a movie about Wanda, or how to progress Wanda's character in a way that made sense post her growth. And any problems that were there they blamed on the Darkhold, because it's someone else's problem to clean up. Very neat. Very good planning.

---

So overall, I don't think that MCU writers are proud of their ignorance, I just don't think that they see a problem with it. Writers are told to do what they want to, without there being any plans for character growth or plot advancement, so they do. They put whatever they want out on the sandbox and wait for someone else to clean it up.

Feige seems fully onboard with this plan. So the real problem, I think, is the fact that MCU is expecting writers to come up with complex, interconnected plots in twenty weeks, and the writer's don't have the time to write consistent character arcs, they just tell a flashy story because at least you get something out there.

I honestly don't imagine Secret Wars will be any different. Waldron has shown that he really really enjoys writing stories, but not characters. This is not to say that we should blame all of this on Waldron, because I don't think it's really his fault. I think it's more the fact that he's the byproduct of a system set to fail.

The writer's ignorance is someone else's problem in MCU, apparently. But don't worry. This will naturally get MCU where it's supposed to go. Just tilt your head and squint a little. Then close one eye. And then the other. Now you can see what brilliance Phase 4 is clearly.

[slasher-smasher]

Teleporting Keys (Homelander x OC)

This is for my very first submission to @cozycornerevents, prompt: "Where are my keys?" Masterlist

No warning besides not beta read, just HL having terrible hiding spots for things, OC is Cassidy Bishop.

Cassidy wasn't the most meticulous person but she did like to have her everyday items to have a specific place for easy locating. With her hectic schedule, she needed to be able to be out of the door when she got paged from the hospital. 

Her phone –depending on its battery charge– gets set down on the counter in the kitchen so she will be able to hear its ringing when she has her nose shoved into a book on the couch or if she was in a baking mood and was mixing batter while listening to her gramophone.

Her wallet on her dresser, next to the phone charger she uses when she goes to bed.

The sketchbook and pencils had their home on the bookshelf in the living room. Normally she kept them under her bed so she would be able to reach under when inspiration struck but her nosey boyfriend liked to snoop and pull it out to flick through her sketches making her face flush when he gives her a cheeky grin as he sees a new picture of him. His favorites are the ones where he looked heroic mid-flight. 

Her keys hanging from their hook by the door. The little Lego versions of Ryan and Homelander that former made her for her birthday swung by their keychain.

Usually, Homelander comes by to pick her up to spend the night at the tower –which she insisted that she could drive herself there but he just sneers at the idea of her getting in the death box on wheels more than she has to– and takes her home so she can drive to work.

After a serious sit down, she made it clear to Homeander how important her job is to her and that she was a professional so being late is unacceptable. Though that did little to deter the clingy superhero from dragging her back to the warm bed for early morning cuddles. He still made sure she had time to get ready at home. This week was odd though.

One day, after coming home from a long night of celebration of his newly appointed Homelander Day –much to Cassidy’s exasperation about his need to be the center of attention– Cassidy was just about to reach for her keys before stopping short when she saw an empty space.

“Uh. That's strange,” she mumbled as she turned back to the kitchen to see if she left them on the counter. Homelander practically snatched her up and flew out of the window right as she walked through the front door so she couldn't remember where she set them.

After checking other places when she couldn't locate them in the kitchen, she glanced at her watch and started to worry as her time to start her shift crept closer. Biting her lip she pulled out her phone and dialed her lover.

The deep teasing voice that greeted her ears as he answered almost made her immediately hang up and surrender to public transportation and take the lateness, “Changed your mind already? I was just thinking that sunlight would look amazing on you when you're pressed against the glass overlooking the city as I fuck you.”

Over a hundred years old and she still felt flustered at his vulgarity.

“Hush you pervert. I need a favor. I cannot find my keys and I am going to be late. Do you think you can fly here and take me to work?” she knew he would be more insufferable since he has been whining about how dangerous vehicles are and she had a safer way of transportation. His godly self. He would think this as going out of his way to her rescue.

She heard Homelander let out a dramatic sigh, clearly relishing the opportunity to be her knight in shining armor. “I suppose I can make an exception this time, kitten. But you owe me a special treat for this favor,” he purred into the phone, his tone full of smug satisfaction.

Bastard acting like it would inconvenience him. That brat.

She rolled her eyes at his predictable request, Cassidy simply replied, “Fine, fine. Just hurry up before I'm late for work. And no flying too fast this time, you know how much it messes up my hair. I look like fucking Doc Brown before I can fix it.”

With a chuckle, Homelander assured her he would be there shortly and hung up the call. Cassidy couldn't help but smile despite her annoyance at his arrogance. As she waited by the door for him to arrive, she wondered where the keys could be.

She ended up finding them in her bag that she keeps all her art supplies in on the floor by the bookshelf. She forgot that she put them in there when she parked.

That’s when things got weird. Every other day her keys would go missing. She was incredibly confused because she swore that she would put them on their hook when she gets home but it’s not totally strange how often Homelander would sweep in and steal her attention. Plus he was more than eager to take her to work. What made her suspicious was the odd locations she found her keys later in the week.

Once, she found them in the refrigerator, chilling next to a carton of milk. Another time, they were nestled on the cushion of her favorite armchair, as if they were taking a nap. The most perplexing discovery was when Cassidy stumbled upon her keys hanging from a tree branch in her backyard, glinting in the sunlight.

She wasn’t oblivious. She could correlate the teleporting keys and Homelanders earnest want to have her fly with him. Cassidy couldn't help but feel a mix of exasperation and amusement at Homelander's need to have her to himself just a little longer and knew his distrust of cars was legitimate so his fear for her safety was very sweet. Even if she could heal if anything happened.

She decided to confront him about it one evening as they lounged on the couch, his arm wrapped around her shoulders possessively. "John, where are my keys?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Homelander feigned innocence, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "Keys? What keys, babe? I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied smoothly, though a flicker of a smirk danced on his lips.

“Uh huh,” Cassidy wasn’t buying it as she craned her neck back to glance at the once again empty key hook.

He chuckled softly and pulled her closer. “Hey now, you’re the one that keeps having old lady moments and puts them in weird places. Not my fault.”

The jab about her real age and him turning this around on her made her eye twitch but she just sighed and snuggled more into his side. “You know, if you wanna go flying, you can just ask. No need to be sneaky. Nice attempt though.”

Homelander's smirk widened as he leaned down to press a kiss to Cassidy's temple. "Who said I was being sneaky? Just trying to keep you on your toes," he replied playfully, running a hand through her hair.

Cassidy couldn't help but laugh at his antics as she shook her head in fond exasperation. "Well, consider me on my toes then. But seriously, what were you thinking with the fridge and the tree in the backyard?" she teased, poking him in the side.

Homelander let out a dramatic scoff, pretending to be offended. "The tree was genius, you just got lucky missy. For the fridge, I actually didn’t mean to leave the keys in there. I might have gotten distracted," he said with an impish grin, knowing his slip-up had been caught. Cassidy couldn't help but chuckle at his admission, shaking her head in amusement.

"Well, I’ll need to remember milk is a good Homelander diversion," she teased, giving him a playful nudge. Homelander chuckled and pulled her into a tight embrace, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

After a moment Homelander asked in that unsure quiet voice, “So you do want to go flying with me?”

Cassidy looked up at Homelander with a soft smile, her eyes filled with affection. "Of course I do, John. I always enjoy flying with you," she replied, running a hand through his hair “Besides that one time.” They both remembered how their reunion went about. Homelander's face lit up with a bright smile as he lifted her effortlessly into his arms, preparing to take off into the night sky.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

idk if this is still the case but when i was really In It in animorphs feelings a couple years ago because i was unemployed for the first time in my adult life / temporarily living alone in the last house my family lived in / freaking out about climate change / generally Going Through It, and like poking around the animorphs scene on tumblr, there was this notion commonly expressed that rachel and tobias were "toxic," the major piece of evidence for which was the scene in 33 where she "tries to trap him in human morph." which like first of all i'm SOOOOOO SORRRY that the fucking fifteen-year-olds secretly fighting a guerrilla war in which their greatest threat is the mind-controlling slugs they're trying to save humanity from but their second greatest threat is the diminishing hourglass of their collective sanity as they all have to work steadily harder and more desperately to not just completely lose their shit entirely from all the violence and literal 24/7 constant threat and murder that is happening, like i'm sorry two literal children who have managed in this ongoing horror show to forge a bond of loyalty and affection and care and attraction and understanding that can act as a kind of solace neither of them have any other way to access, sorry those actual murder babies sometimes have some communication problems. lmao. but also it's insane to me that people read that scene (in which they're dancing to, i'm not making this up, iris by the goo goo dolls - i mean they don't tell us the song but it's a slow goo goo dolls number that even tobias knows, so - they're dancing to iris by the goo goo dolls at a school dance that is not going well because they are both awkward about the newfound public Officialness of their relationship and rachel who is the only one of them who has ever been capable of socializing like a normal person is in a particularly bad mood because of the emotional hangover of her starfish adventure [great concept executed terribly in the previous book], and then like after two entire minutes of letting himself feel some nice emotions tobias spots the clock and starts leaving to go demorph and then rachel runs after to him to awkwardly attempt to share that she is very fucked up about how insane she has become and she wants to hold on to things like school dances and also this is all happening in a hallway by a student poster on red tailed hawks that states their lifespan of a handful of years in the wild, it's so good) as rachel trying to trap tobias in morph, when like, first of all, "good thing happening -> time to punish myself for feeling nice for 5 whole seconds " is like THEE tobias thought pattern because he's the number one kidlit trauma baby of all time, like truly the first time i dove back into the series i was struck by how well his narrative voice captures Child Of Insane Family Dysfunctionality, he is NOT a reliable narrator on this, but also second, and more saliently, like, believing this scene is rachel attempting to trap tobias in morph requires that you believe rachel, all by herself, made a plan in advance and then attempted to execute it, which is a skill we literally never see her demonstrate even one fucking time outside of the comfortingly familiar hunting ground of the mall

[ingravinoveritas]

Is it just me or does it seem like Anna doesn’t have anything about Michael on her IG? I think the last thing I saw was when she and Michael went to see David’s play last year. Georgia hasn’t had anything about Michael either lately, but it just seems different. Or I’m reading too much into it. At least Georgia does have David on hers.

Hi there! I know you sent this several days ago and I've been a bit swamped, so apologies for taking so long to answer.

You are not at all reading too much into things, as a lot of what you mentioned is what many of us have noticed over the last few years, too. Anna puts Michael on her Insta when it's convenient/when there is something to sell (their relationship, typically). The most recent thing (before today, at least) was a picture from Mabli's first birthday party in May. Though she also posted this photo in a story on the same day that GO 2 was released (again, something to promote/sell):

This was obviously an old picture (likely taken midway through filming season 2, during the holiday break--so December 2021/January 2022), but it's telling that this is what she chose to post, instead of something new. And this again continues AL's pattern of posting terrible pictures of Michael, where he looks miserable and she looks smug. It seems like he was caught off-guard, too, as if she wanted a picture before he could put on his "game" face. There were so many choices happening here, and I'm genuinely confused by all of them.

Which then brings us today, and the bunch of photos/videos AL just posted for her birthday weekend, to again brag/show her "celebrating" with Michael. She posted multiple things, but I'm going to highlight these two in particular, as they stood out to me:

For those who can't tell, on the left is video of Michael at a parking meter machine, going to pay for parking. AL is making fun of him (again, which she has done multiple times previously), likely in an attempt to mimic the way Georgia pokes fun at David, yet lacking any of the underlying respect or affection that Georgia seems to have for David.

This (and AL's other stories from today) also continue her pattern of filming Michael surreptitiously/from a distance in order to generate content. In the story on the right, Michael is shooting basketballs and AL is standing behind him filming, rather than actually being in the moment, which gives the feeling of her wanting attention for herself more than wanting to enjoy her birthday with Michael. What also struck me about this and the other stories she posted is how cold and distant they seem. Pictures of empty drink glasses, a table, her sitting on the floor alone. The vibes are just completely "off" somehow, in my opinion, and it's noticeable.

What really stands out to me as well is that it doesn't look like either one of them were having that much fun. One thing we can say for certain about Michael and David--whether you ship them or not, whether you think something is going on between them or not--they always have fun together. We see it in the interviews they do, the interactions they have, how both of them are constantly smiling/laughing and there is never the feeling of one person monopolizing the spotlight--it's them, together, genuinely enjoying each other's company. Making each other laugh. And I just don't feel like that is the case with Michael and AL, because what I get from those stories today is a sense of obligation, rather than fun.

(I also think it's very telling and worth noting that in all of the stories AL posted, the only face that is full-on visible is her own...)

So yes, those are my thoughts on Michael being on AL's Insta and these new developments. As I've always said, I could be completely wrong about everything, but the fact that I've been getting more asks and comments about this makes me think others are starting to notice the questionable optics as well...

[mysticfoxdesigns]

Who is your favorite human character from Rescue Bots?

(yet another example of a seemingly short post turning long)

My favorite human character in Rescue Bots has been tied between Kade and Dani. Dani is just a really fun character and I feel myself relating to her and her daredevilness. She in all is a pretty popular character as well.

Now I know that people don't generally like Kade

But I have my reasons.

I love asshole characters, especially ones that could be considered loveable assholes. I considered Kade to be one of the characters, even if the show didn't handle the trope well. Kade is honestly a character that needs to grow on you. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it takes all four seasons. For me, it was the second episode.

That episode was honestly the peak of being an older sibling. How I know? I'm an older sibling.

In that episode we see our general Kade characteristics. He is egotistical, a jerk to Heatwave, and a jerk to members of his family. I honestly believe these are valid reasons to not like him, especially if your favorites are Heatwave or Cody. (Yes I am calling y'all out) However, he still cares about all of them, especially for the bots after that episode.

Kade literally older sibling freaked out when it was revealed Cody was in danger. He (mostly) kept his calm cause he is a first responder, that is in the job description to keep a level head, but he was still scared about Cody's safety. His first priority was getting there first to stop the lava, and when Heatwave revealed he was also scared for the younger Burns child, that is what started Kade's respect for him.

Now I will admit, how he got with Hayley was not a good example for a kids show. No one owes you a date just cause you save their life. However, if Hayley truly was not interested later on after that, she wouldn't continue going on dates with him. Their relationship from what we see in the show isn't the healthiest, but it's nothing bad to be purely honest. Hayley has boundaries she clearly sets, as seen in the episode where Kade gets cloned 5 times over. She speaks her mind to him, and pushes him to not be a complete jerk. And Kade respects her wishes! The show, if it did focus more on their relationship, could have pushed for Kade to have more character growth as their relationship grew. However, the show was not built to work with that kind of story plot.

As for how Kade acts with his family, you can see he instantly backtracks when he realizes his words have hurt his family. I truly believe he doesn't think before he speaks. A character flaw, yes, but it does not represent his true morals and ethics. He wouldn't be on a rescue team if he was a truly terrible person. In the episode where the bots are struck with a sickness from the meteor, he tries to rationalize the situation in his own way of coping. But as soon as he realizes that the way of coping he was using wasn't helping Cody, he changes his tune to support Cody's way of coping. In the Squilsh episode, we see him try to argue that he should be the last to leave the area, he didn't want to leave Graham behind and alone. It was Chief having to push him to Blade's ladder to make him leave and get to safety.

And it isn't like we don't see him being anything but an egotistical asshole, we see him genuinely scared. The gremlins episode is a perfect example of this. Kade had a big phobia of them, he barely got any sleep cause of nightmares dealing with them, and he didn't want to enter the power plant cause of it being overrun by them. However, it isn't like he didn't do anything to overcome it. He went to Doc Greene to find a solution, and when it did backfire, Kade didn't back down. Heatwave also showed some great character development in this episode, he didn't make fun of Kade too much for his fear, and even encouraged him to get into the powerplant. Kade was then able to overcome the fear, showing growth in his character.

And on the topic of Heatwave and Kade's relationship. They remind me so much of my own relationship with one of my best friends. We make fun of each other, we are assholes to each other, he makes fun of my autism, I make fun of him being a twink. But we are still best friends. We know the limits and boundaries of our jokes, and it isn't just us being assholes to each other 24/7. We have genuine hearts to hearts, we give each other advice, and we help each other out through difficulties in our life. This is exactly what Heatwave and Kade's relationship is, though not a direct parallel to my relationship.

Heatwave isn't innocent in the beginning with how he treats Kade, just as Kade is not innocent. They are both unfiltered, unreasonable assholes to each other. Heatwave is mad that Optimus Prime won't let him join the Prime Team, and he takes that out on being a pessimistic jerk to the situation they are in. He does not want to be on Griffin Rock, and that is evident. Kade, doesn't reasonably want to work and be inside of an alien. ANY REASONABLE PERSON WOULD BE LIKE THAT. However, it does not excuse his treatment of Heatwave, who is another sentient being. Heatwave is a genuine jerk throughout the first season. It is evident he only cares about his team and Cody. The flobster's episode is a good example of this, he won't care until it is his job. Now, he does grow out of this, which is good cause character development, we love that here.

As the season goes on we see their relationship develop into this friendly "I hate your guts but I will kill for you" situation. (Obviously they do not actually hate each other's guts, but they still act like it) This kind of character development is my favorite! The show does a good job at showing this as well. If you compare the first few episodes of season 1, with the episodes of season 3 and 4, you can see how their relationship has changed. Neither of them are scared to speak their mind, and there is obviously respect in the relationship. Kade and Heatwave have grown to understand and respect each other, while still being jerks to each other. Heatwave is not afraid to make fun of Kade and vice versa, which honestly I believe is a clear sign of a good and healthy relationship. You can point out flaws in each other, and no one is going to instantly get butthurt. Boundaries just have to be established and maintained.

I wish the show could have further explored more of these character developments, not just in Kade but in everyone. However, it is a kids show meant for preschoolers, they just want to watch cool transforming robots save the day.

Another thing with Kade is that it is so fun in the fandom sphere to add headcanons and backstory. I love a character who you can do that with.

[megamuscle885-blog]

So, warhammer fantasy? Plus Worm. Lets brainstorm a bit. A non-exhaustive list of who would become champions of chaos, or be chosen by the chaos gods to become their heralds, in no particular chronological order.

Khorne: The Butcher XIV aka Quarrel.

I can see The Butcher turning rabid one awful night. Howling about an infinite ocean of blood. Slaughtering the unpowered members of the Teeth. Killing those who try to reason with her. Infecting others with her madness somehow. Most of the Teeth capes flee north to Boston and Spree's clique when they're told to run by those Teeth that were there for the slaughter. Of those that were present, maybe half maybe more, flee to the New York Protectorate, begging refuge, begging Legend to kill The Butcher before she breaks free, something like that. Incoherent babbling about how she's slathered herself in blood and is killing indiscriminately - Villains, Heroes and civilians alike - piling the skulls of those she beheads in one spot and sits upon it like a gory throne. The Teeth are reforged in The Butcher's charnel house, quenched in blood. The World Eaters. She aspires to wash the entire east coast in blood, a massive sacrifice that will bring daemons through in their millions, and she'll begin in the largest city in north america.

Nurgle: Nilbog aka The Goblin King aka James Rinke.

A particularly terrible winter's night, cold and frigid in Ellisburg, NY, James is holding one of his favourite creations, Polka III, as she dies from disease. He's trying to tell a bedtime story to the rest of the creatures, all sharing their body warmth as best they can, but the cold is making his puppet shiver and he's constantly interupted by a cough that rattles his ribs and won't go away no matter how much he clears his throat. He's in tears over the sorry state of his garden. A like-minded figure sympathizes with his plight. He begs the empty air for something to save them. Something comes. The acrid, infertile land around Ellisburg, stripped of nutrients to create his fantasy creatures suddenly begins to spring to life all around him. Strange and fantastic new fruits and berries curl out of the ground. Caramel-sweet rivers start to form. Everything is verdant and green and hot wherever he walks. His cough doesn't seem to go away, but it doesn't bother him much anymore. Polka III is alive and well. And he's suddenly struck by so many new and wonderful ideas. He goes to the carcass pits and begins to create and create and create. And his Grandfather looks on with paternal joy.

Slaanesh: Jack Slash aka Jacob Black, the Slaughterhouse 9.

This might not click for some people. Personally, I think a man for whom every new terrible torment needs to be more thrilling, more horrible, more impactful than the last fits perfectly here. I'm not entirely sure how to write his first moments though. Broadcast nudges him one way, Slaanesh nudges him another. He starts to indulge more and more. A little less careful. Broadcast's balancing act starts to slip as Slaanesh's prodding throws the relationships of the Slaughterhouse 9 into new dynamics. I might have to come back to this one, but it was one of the first I thought of.

Tzeentch: Taylor Hebert

Now who else would like to see Skitter but with birds? Fucked up mutated birds. Introducing the Raven God and his new magical apprentice. I feel myself running dry here, but I think as our nominated protagonist, Tzeentch is able to lend quite a bit of weight to Taylor's character, and her eagerness to grab onto an escape from her wretched life with both hands and take it to its extremes. Though one thing I will mention is that one of Tzeentch's aspects is as a God of Hope, and that'd be fun to play with I think. Though that's an aspect of his Fantasy version, and I tend to think of the Fantasy versions of the Chaos Gods as more interesting tbh.

[autistichalsin]

I feel comfortable with Halsin because he doesn't lash out or say any dialogue that makes me feel terribly guilty for saying no or sending him back to camp. I know there are other companions who aren't as harsh, but I like him best because he's chill and understanding. I feel comfortable and safe interacting with Halsin.

I wasn't r-word-ed in real life; I was just mildly harassed, per my old boss, when I reported a coworker who was groping me and saying very inappropriate things (the same coworker threatened me later on that he would do something worse if I continued reporting him). I didn't experience the same level of hardship Halsin endured with the drows, yet I relate to the way he casually downplayed what happened to him.

Halsin didn't consider himself much of a victim because he blamed himself for his 'foolishness in his youth'. I didn't consider myself a victim because, per my old boss, I'm not a real victim because I was not assaulted; I was just 'mildly harassed'.

My old boss said it was all my fault for not saying 'no' enough (how does one say no in a firmer way? I declined my coworker's advances, and I said 'no' a lot of times and called him out for what he was doing, but the man ignored my 'no'.) My old boss said it's probably because of the clothes I wore too (I was wearing a simple shirt and jeans when it happened). My old boss said I was actually lucky; that's the only thing that happened to me.

Isn't the true 'lucky' moment never having to experience any unwanted advances/touches/attention, or threats from another person? When is a person considered to be a true victim? Is it when skin breaks, bruises form, and blood sheds? What level of harassment has ever been acceptable to be considered one?

Perhaps I'm delirious, but sometimes I comfort myself that Halsin would understand me unlike other people I've met later on in life, and that he wouldn't invalidate or judge what happened to me, no matter how 'shallow/minor/unimportant/insignificant' it seemed for others.. or compared to what happened to him.

I agree. The others constantly guilting me for it gets really weird, even if I know it's not meant as such. Like, it's not a "big deal", not like me going OMG YOU GUYS THE OTHER COMPANIONS ARE MANIPULATING YOU, but it definitely makes me, like, sigh after talking.

You didn't deserve to be harassed, and you don't have to disclaim it. It's not for me to say how you define your trauma, but I would like to VERY gently point out that if there was physical contact, it has left the realm of harassment, and become assault. You were assaulted in your place of work. Your boss was completely wrong about what happened to you, and downgrading your trauma was utterly unacceptable by your boss- likely as a PR move of sorts.

It makes absolute sense that you would find comfort in Halsin, who always has a kind word for others, but when it came to his trauma, received so little- from himself or from others, and who blamed himself in ways he would never do to others. I'll tell you the same thing Halsin the character would say- you never deserved it. You shouldn't have had to say no at all, because the absence of "no" isn't a yes; only a yes is a yes. But in your case, your no was never even respected to begin with, so of course your boss starts blaming any other things. If clothes had anything to do with making assault happen, people wouldn't get assaulted when wearing frumpy pajamas. Your boss is a piece of shit, put bluntly.

I feel you about luck. It's the classic question- who's luckier, someone who survives being struck by lightning, or someone who never gets struck at all? It is hard to define what makes someone a "true" victim, there is no one true criteria- but I also feel that if you have to ask, it is almost always going to be true that you were one. Kind of like how saying "I don't know" or "sort of" to an "are you okay?" is the same as "I'm not okay." Defining what makes a victim against other victims is dangerous, I think (not directed at you, but rather at large): we could downplay damn near every terrible experience in the world that way if we wanted to. You lost someone? At least their death wasn't a gruesome murder. It WAS a grisly murder? At least it wasn't a slow, protracted death from brain cancer. There is no objectively worst in the world- it's turtles all the way down. So using "at least it wasn't worse" is a really dangerous hole to fall in. If it was so bad that your main argument against it being bad is that others have had it worse, I am here to tell you that it was bad enough.

You aren't delusional. Comforting yourself with a fictional character who said the things you needed in real life is perfectly understandable, and part of what fiction is there for. I'm sorry everyone in real life has failed you so badly, that you have to rely on him to validate your feelings and traumas instead of someone who can listen and hug you like you deserve. But his character is there for you, and so am I, and so are all the other people on my blog who have had the same experience. You aren't the first to find healing from Halsin like this, and you won't be the last, either. If anything, I think a LOT- not all, maybe not most, but MANY- of us are drawn to Halsin in particular because the experience of always being there to help others with their pain, but letting our own sit inside us, begging to be acknowledged but rarely being so, is so viscerally, painfully relatable.

Your trauma wasn't unimportant. It is just as important, and has just as much of a right to be seen, as anyone else's.

[atomic--peach]

Her Grace's Handmaiden Pt.17

(Sandor Clegane x Fem Reader x Cersei Lannister. TW: PREGNANCY AND MURDER)

AO3 VERSION: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48276340

No historians could ever look back on the reign of King Joffrey Baratheon and say it didn't start with a bang. 

You and Sansa had been holed up for hours before Sandor arrived to free you. Sansa's face was tear-stained but you had no idea how to soothe her. 

It was a frightening situation, you knew it. 

Every once in a while, the door would rattle on its hinges when a body struck it, and the northern lady cried out into her hand to muffle the sobs. 

You could do nothing but hold her and stay brave for you both. 

Sandor's voice was like that of an angel when it was all over. The sun had set and darkness had filled the world outside the window by the time the fighting was finished. 

You unjammed the door and let him in, crying out at the side of blood on his flesh.

 

"Relax, it's not mine" 

You sighed with relief. "would you believe you're the second person to say that to me today?" 

"Aye" you husband nodded, "I would actually." 

"What's happened, where's my father?" Sansa demanded. 

Sandor side-eyed her and you saw a flicker of pity flash behind his eyes, "I'm to bring you to the Queen, it will be easier if you come quietly." 

"She will." You cut in before Sansa could say anything, calmly taking the girl's hand in your own, "You have no reason to be afraid, my dear." 

Before they left, you grabbed Sandor's arm and looked at him hard. 

What happened out there? Your eyes asked him. 

I'll explain later. His replied 

Left alone, you wondered about your next steps. 

Surely the queen would be too busy to have you around. Sandor as well. 

You thought a moment before deciding your best option for the moment was to simply sit on the sidelines and watch as you had in your past life. 

There was a reason Varys had stationed you as a servant in the first place, and that was to watch and listen. 

Redressing into a simple frock, no pattern, dull blue, You knew you would draw no attention. 

The halls were shockingly empty. The sound of your footsteps seemed to echo off the marble. 

Torches were lit to fill the night's darkness, and you watched as the shadows of guards passed over the walls.

 You moved in shadows, eyes peering about curiously as you took in the sites. 

The city watch filled the outer chambers of the keep while the palace guards concentrated their numbers around Maegor's Holdfast.

It must be terribly late, you realized. 

From here you could make out the outer balcony of the tower. Slowly you crept closer until you could look over the railing and take in a sky view of the keep below. 

You could see groups of torches bouncing down corridors in unison. 

You could smell the smoke from the bonfires lit in every open space available, emanating a flickering orange glow. 

You could hear the sounds of screams that were quickly cut short by castle-forged steel. 

"Stark's household...or what's left of it." a cool voice came from behind you. "you're out late, My Lady "

"Spent all day locked up, Lord Baelish" You smirked, turning to face him. "I thought a walk might do me good" 

"A beautiful night for it." he agreed. "May I keep you company?"

You shrugged, taking the lead as you made your way down the canopied corridor. 

"Sandor still hasn't told me what happened." You began. "Care to fill me in?"

"Ned Stark turned traitor" Baelish explained. "He tried to remove the queen's children from the line of succession, claiming they were bastard born"

"How terrible" Your tone didn't change. "and treasonous" 

"Very, with the king's body barely cold" 

You thought a wink

"Surely he did not work alone though"

"That's what we're trying to determine" the Master of Coin nodded. "we have most of his household in the dungeons, but the King has declared no quarter is to be given to suspected traitors"

You shuttered at that, knowing the ones killed instantly were the lucky ones. 

"A rather ominous end to a day that started well for you, I fear."

"I can only pray it all settles right in the end." you brushed it off.

"Yes," Baelish let a small grin slip. "You've proven yourself very adept at landing on your feet. Recently it seems you've been landing even higher than you were when you fell, now that is a clever trick you must teach me someday."

"I've had remarkably good fortune." You agreed, "And I am very grateful to those who have helped me."

Baelish grabbed your elbow gently, stopping your stroll. 

"We're not all that different, you and I." he asserted. "It might behoove us to enter this new reign with new friends"

You looked him up and down coolly and smiled, prying his grip off your arm. 

"I have seen what becomes of your friends, Lord Baelish" you sniffed. "and while I admit I know this castle better than most, I have no desire to acquaint myself with the black cells."

"Baelish." 

The voice down the hall echoed off the arched ceiling like thunder. 

"That hand on my wife had better not belong to you."

Baelish's grin became sharp and bitter, his hand falling from you quickly. 

"I wouldn't dream of it, Clegane" he assured the guard as he approached you, each step harrolled by the clammer of armor. 

"Must have been the light then."

You smiled in the firelight. "Husband"

"You shouldn't be wandering"

"You shouldn't have left me alone" you shot back playfully before glancing at the lord next to you. "Good night to you, Lord Baelish"

"Good night" he nodded, "I expect we will see each other again soon."

.........................................

The first official day of King Joffrey's reign welcomed fair weather.

Because of this you almost resented being stuck inside. 

It was strange to be wearing all black for a man you had hated. But, Joffrey had declared 1 month of full mourning for his late father for the whole court. 

"You'd think he actually loved his father," you muttered and your husband shrugged.

"I don't know if love is the word I'd use."

Full mourning meant that the newly widowed Cersei could not receive guests until the month was done, at least not without raising questions. 

Sandor was glad of this, though he'd never say it out loud. 

Lady Sansa was kept sequestered in the tower of the hand until it could be decided what to do with her. 

To your dismay, Arya Stark had not been found. The thought of the 11-year-old alone in King's Landing made your stomach turn. 

"We need to find her!" you insisted one day, wrought with frustration and fear. "She's just a little girl! She must be so frightened and-" 

"The City Watch is doing the best they can." Sandor tried to soothe you . "They'll find her."

"You don't understand, you don't-!" you were on the edge of sobs. Sandor was at a loss as his wife half collapsed into him, gripping at his shirt half hysterical.

"You don't understand. I've seen it, I've seen what they do to little girls like her who don't have anyone to look out for them. They need to find her before something awful happens."

By the end of the mourning period, it was finally time. 

Ned Stark was to face justice for his crimes, sentenced to death by beheading. 

But Sandor assured you it was the King's intention to show mercy and allow Lord Stark to take the black.

You were so glad to be out of black. 

Cersei, after having cloistered herself, practically melted into her lover's arms as soon as you arrived in the royal quarters. 

"You have no idea how miserable it's been trying to keep a handle on all of" she gestured proudly around her, "well this. But it's finally coming together and I'm glad of it."

Cersei's face fell, pulling away from the embrace and feeling on your waist before giving your breast a squeeze. 

"Ow? Why?" you gasped, cradling your chest indignantly. 

"Mother's Mercy, how far along are you?"

"What?" you scoffed, "I'm not. At least, I don't think I am. I think I would know."

"Don't be ridiculous, look at you." Cersei insisted. "how long has it been since you've bled?"

"I bled last month." you tried to remember. "It was light, but I did bleed" 

"How light?" Cersei pressed, "Does Sandor know?"

"There's nothing to know!"

"Darling, please." Cersei scoffed "I had 3 children, I know what it looks like."

"I'll visit Pycelle after," You said reluctantly. 

"Good" Cersei nodded, satisfied. "Now, I want you nearest me at the sept today. I love my son dearly but I could throttle him for keeping us apart"

"a trait he got from his father," you half-joked, and Cersei felt a chord snap with a jolting twang in her stomach.

If you knew the truth, she thought, you were doing an excellent job hiding it. 

____________________

You looked yourself over in the mirror critically. Maybe your face was fuller. And maybe your dresses had been fitting a little tighter. 

But you would have noticed, right?

"Sandor?"

"Hm."

"Do I look....bigger?"

There was a long silence.

"This feels like a trap."

"No, I mean..." you sighed, there was no getting around it.  "I'm visiting Pycelle after the thing."

Sandor paused, sitting up a little straighter. 

"Really?"

"Don't say it like that," you begged.

"Why not?"

"Because I might not be." you sighed, "Or I am, and something might happen"

You didn't dare hope for the best. It would all be too much if they were mistaken. 

So many things could go awry, and it felt like hope was an egg balancing on the edge of a blade. 

One wrong move, one misstep, and it was over.

"Hey," a hard hand grabbed yours, squeezing it. "Breathe"

You obeyed, letting out a breath you didn't realize you were holding. 

"We'll discuss it more when we know for sure." Sandor decided. "Let's just get through this morning first." 

[artisanscoffee]

Lucy Gray Baird was a cunning, amusing character. However, there was in fact one thing that I realize about her.

During the end of the book/movie, Lucy Gray abandons Corio in the woods during a rainstorm, which struck me as odd.

Coriolanus Snow would die for Lucy Gray, and he'd nearly done so several times over.

I realize Coriolanus Snow is toxic, controlling, and evil, but I really do think he was a good man before the whole Games thing, and he isn't this way because he was naturally evil.

I can't justify him anymore now that he enforces the bloody games on innocent District children (perhaps not the Careers, at least most of them) and forces pr*sti*tution, and his way of controlling the districts are absolutely revolting, but I really think that he isn't this way because of him, it's because of his world.

I'm not saying Lucy Gray was at fault, but Corio did deserve betterㅡ after all, he was a person to begin with, until society made him as cold as his nameㅡ Snow.

I think, really, the mastermind behind Snow's rising to evil, was not actually entirely Doctor Gaul, who was named "main antagonist" of the plot, but Lucy Gray and Sejanus.

Now, I understand this may spark controversy, but hear me out.

Corio did love Lucy Gray. And I understand he betrayed Sejanus, but after watching the movie, I'm starting to think that he didn't really know what he was doingㅡ really, swept up in the moment.

And if you read or watch closely, you can see Corio trying to talk Sejanus out of it because he knows there will be severe consequences if Sejanus does try to run.

It was a horrific thing to do, though, turning your friend in.

But you do watch the movie and see the pain and revolt on Corio's face as Sejanus is hung on the Hanging Tree... you can tell he wasn't expecting it, that he didn't mean it, that he was having second thoughts.

Lucy Gray might have left Corio (this was according to Google) because she thought if Corio could betray Sejanus, his best friend, so easily, she thought it'd be easy for him to betray her, too.

Which I think is really terrible (though somewhat reasonable) of her because he really did love her to the end.

He was a real sucker for her, the way he risked everything, his career, his future, even his family, just for her.

Even when he was given the chance to go back to the Capitol, he was hesitant because of Lucy Gray.

He gave her the poison powder so she could survive, did his best to be the underdog around Dr. Gaul and even put his handkerchief in that cage of snakes so she could survive.

It was he who demanded that she be let out of the arena from the snakes, and he was the one who made it happen.

What's more, even faced with the consequences, he asked what happened to Lucy Gray first.

Then, he even bribed the secretary with the very little money he owned so he could be sent to 12 so he could be with Lucy Gray.

And when Sejanus told him about escaping 12, and he met him by the underground cellar with Spruce and the others, he had no idea what was going on.

He wasn't involved.

But when Lucy Gray followed him in and they were swept up in this mess, Corio wasn't thinking straight and killed the mayor's daughter so Lucy Gray and Sejanus wouldn't be in danger.

I just think that's true love, but I sympathize with Lucy Gray.

I can't imagine how painful it might have been for Snow over the years, even though it led him to corruption beyond control.

I imagine it had to have been painful, excruciating, even, for him to watch Katniss Everdeen slowly become more and more like Lucy Gray.

This justifies nothing, of course, but I just think it wasn't entirely Snow.

[roadtophantom]

Let your S(e)oul take you where you long to be (iv) - Jeon Dong-seok

I didn't mean to write a whole section about CSW but now I'm gonna feel terrible if I say less about the other Phantom 'coz he was also phenomenal.

Jeon Dong-seok's show was the first one I got, I managed to modify my seat for three times to get a better view. It was so much easier to book for him that I got wary (did no one want him? why does he still have tickets available every night?) WHICH is an unfair assessment in the face of Phantoms with massive fanbases like Cho Seung-woo. It's still amazing that the tickets eventually sell out (or just leave very few left).

But I learned of JDS from his popularity here on Tumblr and I can definitely see how accomplished he is despite his apparent youth (I think he's the youngest of the 4 Phantoms?) That said, I haven't really listened to him, I wanted to be surprised.

So needless to say his voice blew me away. It took me 4 seconds in the Mirror scene to realize, this, exactly This is what Tumblr fandom was talking about. Because what the heck was that voice?? Like wow.

And he had Such a domineering presence too! His tall and slender physicality (186 cm tall) gave him the presence of a spook that was advantageous for a "larger than life" presence in the theatre.

He had Such an incredible vocal control and mastery too, this is a man who knows how to use his voice as an instrument, knows which part to stretch, which words to relish, which words to accentuate and expound with his vocal power. Practically effortless with the big notes. I can really believe he has the voice of a dark angel. He has been a real treat seeing in person AND watching (when he smoothed his hair *__*).

The impression I got of his Phantom is one who is definitely a young, musical genius, whose tragedy unfortunately is one that's long coming. JDS struck me as a very Byronic Phantom? I guess most Phantoms are Byronic, but I felt it more strongly for this tall, dark gent. He embodied the gloomy and broody persona but with such a passionate inner life. By inner life I mean his music and Christine who are his sole reasons for survival.

(One thing I can say for both Korean Phantoms that I love is how they created their character around Christine worship, like she is this unreachable goddess in their eyes. They are such fools for her).

What's sad about watching JDS's Phantom is how he doesn't seem to have a high regard of himself and even by the time the start of PONR was playing, he knew he was already bound to lose the girl. Jeon Dong-seok is great at playing an anguished Phantom. In the Final Lair, you make out his panic very plainly because he knows it was HIM who went past the point of no return and Christine will never forgive him and he doesn't know what to do with that information. He is so good in playing the character as a melancholic man who was bound to give everything up for Christine's freedom.

He gave me such massive emo tortured soul boys-who-cry feels. Not surprised that his roles tend to gravitate to this type 'coz he mastered it. (He has the most mournful 'Christine, 사랑해~') I feel like he could still figure out more nuances if he could play the character more. But he made such an excellent Phantom and I'm just so happy to have seen him before his Seoul exit.

Also it's so cute how he seems to be this awkward dork backstage who doesn't know what to do with his height or those poses kids do nowadays. I feel like that energy is also present in his onstage performances (I say this as someone who guiltily thinks it gives him crush-worthy material).