#but shes really inconsiderate towards my parents

[globodamorte]

she's not even home. what the fuck girl

[atomicami]

vengeance.

roommate!abby anderson x fem!reader

- summary: you’re tired of dealing with your boyfriend’s awful habits. when he ends up crossing the line with you one day, you decide to get back at him, and your not-so-innocent roommate has the perfect way to do it.

- content: smut MDNI, no outbreak/modern au, reader and abby are roommates, reader has a shitty boyfriend, slight mentions of alcohol consumption and partying, infidelity/cheating, sex tape/amateur porn, kinda roughdom!abby, strap usage (r!receiving), abby referring to the strap as her cock, slight choking, daddy kink, abby hits it from the back, oral & fingering (r!receiving), pussy slapping, squirting, aftercare at the end ofc

- author’s note: hi everyone!! so i decided to do my very first collab with none other than the amazingly talented @whore4abby, i’m so grateful to have done this with you!!

also, consider this fic as our 1k special from us to you. thank you so much for all the love and support you’ve given to the both of us 🤍 we hope you enjoy it!!

you don’t really know how you got yourself to this point.

well, you do, actually…but you didn’t know how this could have possibly escalated so fast.

it was just a silly little conversation at first. you were simply venting to your roommate, abby about your boyfriend for what was probably the millionth time now.

“ugh, i just can’t believe him!” you exclaimed to her as you frantically paced around your room. “i told him to make the best impression to meet my parents last weekend and what does he do?! he shows up to the restaurant thirty minutes late smelling like alcohol. how can he be so…so inconsiderate?!”

you’ve been in an on-again, off-again relationship with your boyfriend for about a year now. everything went fine with the two of you at first, but now it somehow just progressed to where you both can’t even make it a week without breaking up.

abby is sat at the foot of your bed, nodding in acknowledgement as you continued to ramble to her about your asshole boyfriend. you truly couldn’t ask for a better friend like her to listen to all of your problems about this, because unlike abby, you knew that anyone else you might know couldn’t withstand having to hear about the same person every damn day of the week.

“i seriously think i’m gonna break up with him now, for good this time.” you tell her with confidence.

abby lets out a sigh and rolls her eyes at your statement. “isn’t that what you said the last fifteen times though?” she asked, further manspreading on your bed before pulling her phone out of her pocket to scroll through it.

“i know, i know,” you said, continuing to pace around your room. “he’s done so much stupid shit lately, but this is honestly the final straw for me. who knows how much worse he could get if i—“

“hey, um…you might wanna see this.” abby says, showing you her phone screen. “isn’t that him?”

“what? what are you—“ your words drift off for a moment. you take a step towards her to take a closer look at her phone. it was an instagram story that her friend manny had posted, containing a video of some frat party happening right now and you could visibly see a girl grinding and making out with your boyfriend, clear as day.

now that was really the last straw for you.

“that asshole…” you mutter quietly to yourself as you watched the story again.

to be honest, you weren’t even that upset about it. well, you were, but not to where you’d be in tears crying over him. but rather, you had an urge to try to get back at him somehow. you wanted to retaliate against him. you wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine.

you wanted to give him vengeance.

“i seriously can’t believe him right now,” you tell abby again as you hand the phone back to her. “you know, i’m not even upset that he cheated on me, i just…” you pause for a moment to take a deep breath. “i just wish i could get back at him, give him some sort of payback you know?”

“yeah, i get you.” abby replies before looking back down at her phone. “you know…i think i might have an idea to get back at him…show that asshole what he’s missing…” she said, flipping her phone around to eye at the camera for a moment before looking back up at you.

“really?” you asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity as you took another step towards her. “i’m down for whatever, what did you have in mind?”

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and that’s how you got to where you were now, as if it had happened in a matter of seconds.

“c’mon, baby… look at the camera for me.” abby murmured to you from behind.

you laid at the center of your bed, bare body sprawled out with your ass up and abby’s thick, black strap nestled deep inside your wet cunt.

you didn’t want to admit it, but the stretch that abby’s cock had in you was overbearing. you really thought you’d take it, you told her so yourself. but now that you were feeling every single inch inside you, from base to tip—you were very, very wrong. you’re trying as best as you can to follow abby’s commands, but the immense length and girth of her strap has you feeling dizzy.

one of her hands reaches down under your stomach and makes its way up to your neck. “you really want me to repeat myself right now, princess?” she says in a firm tone, keeping her grip on your neck. “i said, look at the camera for me.”

“oh, fuck—“ you whimper to yourself as chills start to go through your spine. your whole body is fucking trembling and abby still has yet to move her cock inside you.

you try to lift your head up, looking straight into the camera on abby’s phone that was currently propped up in front of the two of you, the most dumbfounded expression was stricken on your face at the moment. you were already so cockdrunk and it clearly shows.

“atta girl…would you look at that?” abby says, looking into the camera with you as well. “see how pretty your girlfriend looks on my cock? she’s already drunk and i haven’t even started moving yet…not so bad for a girl if i do say so myself.” she continues narrating into the camera. “i’ll show you how it’s really done, yeah?”

and with that she began to start moving, painfully slow to say the least. you felt her hand let go of its grip on your neck and move to your hip, gripping it tightly as she kept slowly thrusting her cock inside you.

“you like that, princess? like how my cock feels inside you?” she asks in between her thrusts.

you end up mumbling something into the sheets, and abby could’ve sworn that you were calling her a name. her hand quickly returns back to your neck, lifting you up and pulling you back towards her as she kept her cock inside you. “what did you just call me? tell me what you just said.” she says in a stern tone, slowly tightening her grip on your neck.

“f-feels so good, d-daddy…” you slur out to her, eyes rolling to the back of your head as the tip of the strap gently presses against your g spot.

the smirk on abby’s face grew wider as she heard you call her that name. it was like music to her ears, and she couldn’t help but play along with it. “yeah? does it feel good, princess? does daddy’s cock feel good inside that little pussy of yours?” she asks, receiving a whiny nod from you in response.

abby looks into the camera and lets out a quiet groan at the sight of the two of you on her phone screen. “oh fuck, you’re not wrong…let’s take a closer look there, shall we?” she says, keeping your body up against hers with one hand as she moves forward and grabs her phone with the other. you look down as she brings the front camera down to both of your lower bodies where the strap was connecting it. now keeping her bicep firm on your upper body, she snakes her hand down to your gushing pussy, spreading its puffy lips open with two fingers in front of the camera.

“would you look at that…” she murmurs, bringing the camera closer. “that pussy’s practically crying all over my cock. does he ever get you this wet, princess?”

“n-no…” you whine out, shaking your head. “he doesn’t…”

“oh, poor thing…” she murmurs from behind, reaching down to rub your throbbing clit. “seems like you need daddy to take care of you, yeah?”

“y-yes, daddy, please…n-need you to fuck me…”

abby gently lowers you back down onto your bed before setting her phone back to its original spot, screen still fixed on the both of you. she places a hand onto each of your hips, gripping them tightly as she begins to slowly thrust her cock into your pussy.

as abby began to fuck you, you were now buried into the sheets again, releasing muffled moans and whines with every thrust of abby’s hips. in that moment, your boyfriend, and all of the fights and encounters you’ve had with him were the last things on your mind. you didn’t care about him. you didn’t even care about the video, knowing that he’ll be watching it soon. all that was on your mind now was abby and the large piece of black silicone stretching you open.

“does that feel good, baby?” she asks, slowly speeding up her pace. “c’mon baby, why don’t you tell him how it feels?”

you muster up the energy to at least turn your head to the side to respond. “f-feels amazing, daddy…b-best cock i’ve ever had…” you slur back to her, eyes fluttering shut in pleasure as you fist the sheets tightly.

“you hear that?” she says into the camera. “it’s not even real, yet it’s the best cock she’s ever had…bet it’s bigger than whatever you have going on down there too…”

you continue to whine into the sheets, weakly pushing your hips back against abby’s cock as a sign for her to speed it up. “f-faster daddy…p-please…” you whine out to her.

abby looks back down to what was below her, that same smirk growing onto her freckled face once again. “would you look at that, she’s already so eager for more…” she murmurs to herself, tightening her grip onto your hips as she began to thrust into you faster than before.

“oh f-f-fuck—“ you moan out, turning your head back to see her and watching her smirk get bigger again as she admires your drunk, fucked out expression. “don’t look at me now…” she tells you before pointing at her phone. “look at the camera. look at him. tell him how good i’m fucking you.”

despite how heavy your eyelids were getting, you try to keep your vision straight, looking into the camera for as long as you could. “s-s-she’s fucking me s-so good…b-better than y-you…” you slur out into the camera before letting your head drop back down into the sheets.

“you hear that? i’m a better fuck to her than you’ll ever be.” she narrates to the camera, still continuing her fast thrusts inside you. “can’t believe you’re letting a girl beat you at your own game, man.”

it didn’t take long for that feeling to build up inside you. abby had only been fucking you for less than five minutes, and you were already about to cum now.

“a-abby, fuck—g-gonna cum n-now…” you whimper out to her, bringing a trembling hand to hold hers from behind. abby instantly swats your hand away and brings her hand down to your ass to slap it, the sting causing you to flinch a bit. “that’s not my name, princess. you wanna try that again?” she asks you, still not stopping her fast pace.

“fuck, daddy!” you exclaimed, tightening your grip on the sheets to stabilize yourself. “p-please daddy…n-need to cum so bad…”

“there we go, that sounds better now…” she replies, looking back to the camera before back down at you. “go ahead, babygirl…cum for daddy.”

your grip gets even tighter on the sheets, and your cunt begins to clench down hard on the strap before cumming with a loud muffled moan, completely coating abby’s black strap with your release.

“holy fuck…” abby groans out from behind, now slowing down her pace. without pulling out just yet, she leans over to grab her phone, stopping the video and flipping the camera to the back to record a new one. “would you look at that…” she murmurs, zooming in on your lower body, particularly on the white ring that was being formed on her strap.

she then points the camera to the very back of you where your pussy was before slowly pulling her strap out of your fucked out cunt. abby lets out another groan as she watches your pussy clench and spill out your thick release, quickly running two of her fingers over it to pick it up. you whimper and whine due to the sensitivity from her thick fingertips, but you still oblige and let her do it.

“look how fucking good this pussy looks…” abby murmurs to the camera. “you know, i heard her tell me that you refuse to eat her out…” she says, pausing for a moment to suck her fingers clean before continuing. “you’re definitely a fucking idiot, to say the least. who wouldn’t want to get a taste of this sweet girl?”

you hear abby stop the recording on her phone, letting out a breath of relief as you set the rest of your body back down onto the bed. you’re already fucked out as is, and you feel the slumber slowly starting to take over you.

however, you didn’t get to have much of it now that abby has shaken you awake again. “lie back on the bed, i’m not done with you just yet.”

“w-what?” you say weakly, fully blinking your eyes open. “i-isn’t that one enough already?” you ask, pointing to her phone.

abby shakes her head in response. “nope, we still have one more video to make…and you’re holding the camera this time.”

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you take the phone into your shaky hands, almost dropping it in the process before steadying it, abby's eyes practically burning through the camera lens as you angle your phone to film her between your legs, she slaps her hand against your folds and you whine out her name, "keep it fuckin’ steady, you hear me?"

your grip tightens on the phone and you try to keep it as steady as possible as she connects her warm mouth onto your clit, flicking her tongue up and down it a couple times, before drawing back and looking into the camera. "you see what you're missing out on, huh?" she tsks and shakes her head slightly. you draw your bottom lip between your teeth as she sinks back between your legs.

she presses her tongue to your sensitive folds as she messily kisses and licks at your pussy, groaning as she tastes you. her fingertips find your clit, rubbing circles over it as she slurps up your juices. the phone starts to slip from your grasp and abby shakes her head mockingly, slapping her hand straight down onto your pussy, fingertips smacking at your clit cruelly. "i'm not telling you again, keep that camera on me or imma keep slapping this pussy." she drawls, voice low and demanding as her gaze shifts from the camera lens to look straight into your half-lidded eyes. her stern tone has you nodding your head immediately in fear of another sharp slap.

her fingers start to slide into your entrance, slick squelching around them as she thrusts them in and out. her lips move up to suck at your swollen clit, with more purpose this time around as she feels you clenching around her fingers. "lemme hear you baby. c'mon, let it out. let him hear how good i'm making you feel." she whispers, thrusting her fingers in and out faster. she lifts her head and smirks up at you, clearly waiting for you to cum for her.

your back arches up into her and her free hand slides between your legs, roughly rubbing your wet folds as her tongue flutters over your clit, bringing you over the edge. your thighs tremble as they clamp around her blonde head which gives her no other option than to keep her head buried between your legs, sucking on your clit as you ride out your high and start to cum on her face.

her fingers continue to plunge in and out of you at practically record speed, fingertips curling against every inch of your g-spot and without warning, a stream of juices spurts from your pussy to soak her fingers and her face. she slides her fingers from your entrance, holding them up for you to see that they're covered in your juices, glistening in the light.

"look at the mess you made." she chuckles as she looks up and notices the look of absolute shock on your face as you realise what just happened.

"never done that before, huh?" she raises an eyebrow. "nuh uh." you pant out, feeling the need to pinch yourself as there is absolutely no way in hell she just made you squirt. "he's never made me do that....like ever." you giggle.

your head is still reeling as she lays you comfortably up against the pillows before she quickly fetches a washcloth from the en-suite bathroom. she returns less than a minute later, warm washcloth in hand, and starts to clean you up between your legs doting to your every need and want so soothingly, kissing at your thighs and stomach sporadically whilst doing so.

she eventually lends you one of her t-shirts to wear, gently holding your arms above your head, the soft material grazing against your skin. she climbs into bed beside you, the two of you bundled up under the thick sheets, snuggled up into her arms as your scroll through the footage taken on your phone. abby rubs her hand up your spine softly before pulling you tightly against her as she smirks at you, "gimme his number, i wanna send the footage to him."

you giggle and hand her your phone as she quickly copies down his phone number from your contacts into her own with a couple taps of her screen before opening up a text conversation with the new contact. she attaches the videos and starts to type out a message which reads:

"took care of your girl for you tonight...looks like she likes me better, don't you think?"

you shake your head and give her a little amused smile as you see the sheer look of smugness filling her flushed face, "that'll fuckin’ teach him." before pressing send and placing her phone face down on the bed in front of you.

it’s safe to say that thanks to abby’s bright idea, you were successfully able to give your boyfriend the vengeance that he deserved after all. as abby pulls you in closer to her chest, you get the feeling that this won’t be the last time you’ll do this with her.

and by the looks of it, you’ve found a new habit of your own to enjoy too.

2024 © atomicami & whore4abby | all rights reserved. do not copy, modify, or translate any of our works.

[heartfullofleeches]

[+18]

V and fuckboy playboy/wingman male Darling-

Hear me out-

Darling is the son of some other loaded family that has close ties with V's. The two cross paths at a gathering and their parents urge them to make friends. Darling plays video games. V plays video games. They exchange numbers with some persuasion from their folks and set up a time to play something together although begrudgingly on V's end. V ends up having a better time than he expected, but right before he really starts to enjoy his time with Darling - he tells V he has to head out.

"Nice meeting you, dude. We gotta do this again. I got a girl coming over and I gotta bounce."

And just like that V's hopes are crushed. He's still learning about his attraction towards guys, but - Darling was sorta cute....

"oh....so you have a girlfriend."

Darling laughs.

"Nah, man. Haven't found the right girl...or guy to tie me down yet, plus I'm just enjoying the single life for now.... I can send pics after we're done if you want. She's totally chill and likes when I show her off."

Pictures?.... V agrees - thinking not much of it. He goes back to playing and eventually it slips from his mind. Hours later he receives photos of what looks to be a topless girl in a dimly lit room. She smiles big at the camera - eyes and upper face blocked from sight by the shaft of the bastard with her cheek pressed to his inner thigh. He still had on the same pair of sweats V had seen him in earlier that day. He only met this guy not even twenty-four hours ago and now he's seen his dick. Even worse - there's a pretty girl with her lipstick and spit all over it in the same picture. V's pissed - yet the image magically appears in one of his porn holders later on."

"what the hell...."

"My bad! I thought you might like it. You don't seem like a guy who gets a lot of action... If you ever want to meet someone, just give me a call. I know a lot of people who'd be interested in a rich brat like you."

This guy.... he acts like he's any different. V thinks Darling is a freak to put things lightly, but its not like he has other people to hang out with. As the two hang out V sees that Darling isn't as bad as he first seemed. He's still a horny, inconsiderate prick most days - but he's still the best thing V has to a friend and cares for V in his own way..... Still sends V dick pics he sweats were for someone els.

Darling is genuinely surprised that V has never been with someone. Sure, he doesn't seem like he gets that much attention, but he was sure V had at least kissed someone once. The topic comes up when Darling tries for the hundredth time to hook with up with one of his flings. He's always sending V evidence of the nights he spent with strangers. Oddly enough - V only ever complains about the videos and photos when they don't have darling in them as well.

"Damn.... I know you're a pain in the ass sometimes, but you're cute I thought somebody would've looked past that.....

V hates with Darling says shit like that. He's not used to people flirting with him and... and it gives him false hope. "Shut up....

"So, think she's cute? I can give her your number~"

"I don't want it."

This sucks.... By now, V's fully aware of his crush on Darling - and he fucking hates the bastard for what he's doing to him. If Darling is so concerned about him seeing people why doesn't he just take V out instead. He jerks off to everything Darling sends him wondering when he'll get his turn. V has some solace in the fact Darling rare sees any of his partners twice. V has been with him and always will be with him longer than any of them have. He just has to be patient.....and ruin any chances Darling has of being with anyone else.

V nearly jumps out of his skin reading one of Darling's numerous drunken texts.

"Hey, man. Totally speaking out my ass here, but would you ever be down to have a threesome sometime ;)"

[candlelover]

Just some fun...

General Marcus Acacius/(f!) Reader

Summary: When Marcus Acacius' (involuntary) fiancé just wants to have a little fun, he sees himself as the perfect fit to put an end to her fun

Warnings: my first time writing something like this, involuntary engagement, dubcon? fingering, kissing, Acacius is jealous, Acacius is slightly annoying?

When you find any more warnings please tell me :)

"Aren't you excited, love? "We haven't had such big games in a long time," your mother asks your father to break the silence on the way to the Colosseum.

"Excited?" your father scoffs, "how could I when this spectacle once again raises far too much from the state treasury?"

“It will cheer up the people. "The emperors have to make themselves popular somehow if their personality can't do it," you say, hoping that your father won't get upset again with his endless talk about the emperor and the Senate. You hardly hear anything other than the Senate at home , Senate this..... general Marcus Acacius this General Marcus Acacius this.

Ughhh... your future husband with whom you exchanged about five words in your life at dinner to celebrate your engagement.

'At least I'm lucky,' you think, 'he seems decent and isn't bad to look at.'

Many of your friends have had worse. Men who are almost on their deathbed or men who are completely inconsiderate and disgusting. Acacius probably won't even be in town much. Then you can continue living as you want. Do whatever you want.

"I hope when we see the general today that you approach him with a more bridled tongue," your father hisses, "of course also towards the emperors."

"I'll behave as well as always," you say while rolling your eyes.

You just hope you just don't have to talk to anyone. That would make things even more fun anyway. Maybe you can even convince your parents to let you look around the market in town after the games. You love to disappear into the hustle and bustle of people and have a pleasant chat with the sellers at the fruit and vegetable stands.

At the entrance to the Colosseum, your father holds you back by the arm and demands: "Just behave!"

As if you didn't always do that. Always perfect behaved, never contradictory, that's how it should always be.

Yes...maybe you'll find a handsome man at the market later with whom you can have some fun. Anything is better than going back to the villa straight away and having dinner with your boring parents and boring conversations.

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

"Senator, I am pleased to see you and your family here."

You had just sat down in your seats when General Acacius came by to greet you. your father also greets him with a handshake and a slight head bow that is returned by the man across from him.

"My Ladies," he takes your mother's hand and yours in his,one after another, bows slightly and gives them a kiss.

Acacius wears something like a white festive armor robe with a white cloak over it. Everything with golden details. Not to mention the gold metal bracelets around his wrists.

I was right...I really could have married an uglier man.

"My lady, I wanted to ask if you would sit with me. We're getting married in a few weeks and haven't shared much closeness yet," he asks you, smiling.

His deep brown eyes look down at you as gently as the smile on his lips.

"Of course she would like to. Isn't that right, my star?" your father asks you with a warning in his eyes not to say anything wrong.

"Yes, I'd love to General," you answer with the best fake smile you have.

,,Good. Then follow me. And please call me Marcus.We'll get married soon," he suggests, holding out his arm for you to take.

"Yes, if that's what you want, Marcus. Then please call me by my name too," you reply as you take his arm and you start to walk to your seats.

You chat for a bit at your seats until the games start. Relieved that you no longer have to come across as overly nice, you lean back in your seat and focus on the first gladiators who step into the middle of the arena.

One Galdiator in particular catches your eye. Dark hair, muscular, tanned body and as it looks from above, a pretty face too. He fights fantastically and seems to be a real crowd favorite.

You can't help but turn to Marcus and ask, "Do you know the name of the gladiator who is so beloved by the crowds?"

"His name is Celio. He came from one of the smaller provinces we conquered," he explains.

You nod and a few moments later he leans towards you again and looks serious.

,,Why? Do you like him? You seem to enjoy watching him?"

You blush slightly at the sudden turnaround in your relationship. So far you've always been on an almost exhaustingly friendly basis and suddenly his relaxed charisma turns serious?

,Jealousy?'

'No, that can't be it. He barely knows me,' you think to yourself.

You decide to approach it carefully anyway and answer: "No, I'm just curious which man gets the audience so excited."

Marcus gives you a quick critical look and focuses back on the fighting down in the sand.

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

After the games ended, the general said goodbye to you with another kiss on your hand.

Back at your parents' , you left the Colosseum and made your way home. Somehow you managed to persuade your father to let you go to the market for a while.

So here you are now. Strolling around the market and being happy.

You're just looking around distractedly when you suddenly run into something, or rather, someone.

You're just starting to apologize when you look up and see the man you ran into.

It's Celio, the gladiator from the arena.

,,I'm sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” you finish your apology from before.

,,That's fine. I have to apologize too. My gaze wasn't directed in front of me," he admits with a small smile.

From this point you engage in a small conversation that ends in a wild kiss in a poorly lit alley.

'A little fun doesn't hurt, does it?' You think to yourself as you put your arm around his neck.

But of course you won't have the fun for long...

Suddenly Celio is pulled off you and taken away by a bunch of soldiers.

You stand in the alley in shock and look at the man who pulled the gladiator away from you and handed him over to the soldiers.

-Marcus Acacius

"What are you doing here?" you ask, surprised.

"What am I doing here? "I think I should ask you what the hell you're doing with a strange man here a few weeks before our wedding!" he replies angrily.

Oh, be damned...

"Let's be honest Marcus, you're certainly not an innocent lamb either!" you discuss with a special emphasis on his name.

He comes threateningly towards you and has now trapped you between a building wall and himself.

"I never said I was innocent. "Oh my little lamb, I'm not all that. But unlike you, I don't do it in public where everyone could see me."

"You have no right to decide what I do, where, when and how."

You don't know why, but his intense gaze on you stirs something inside you. And in this situation you're not doing well at all.

“If it concerns your reputation, I certainly have the right to do so. Because whether you want it or not, your reputation and mine are linked"

Unfortunately he's right, but you're unlikely to admit it. So why not tease a little for the fun?

"Is it really just your reputation that you're worried about or is it jealousy?"

He would do anything to wipe that confident grin off your face, so he brings his face even closer to yours and whispers, "Do you want it to be jealousy?"

Your breath catches and you feel caught.

'Hell no, this man definitely can't do anything for me,' you think, shocked.

But before you know it, you're both holding deep eye contact and the confident grin is now on his lips. With the sole thought of getting rid of this expression of superiority, your body acts against your will and kisses him harshly.

Well...at least you got rid of his grin.

He puts his hands on your waist and pulls you even closer to him. You sigh with pleasure and kiss him even harder while you comb your fingers through his hair and pull it lightly. He seems to like this gesture too as he moans slightly.

His fingers start to wander again and quickly find their way under your clothes.

"But that doesn't hurt our reputation if someone sees it?" you ask teasingly.

He just goes down to your neck with kisses and makes you moan with a light bite as an answer.

His fingers are now circling your clitoris.

"Even if you don't seem to like me, my fingers are pretty wet, my little lamb."

“Just do it Marcus. I can't wait any longer."

"So rude...where did my good future bride go from this morning?"

"We both know very well that this is just a facade."

"So I'm going to marry a little minx, huh?" he asks as he slowly inserts a finger.

'Ooh shit that feels good..."

You moan loudly and reply breathlessly: "I'm not getting married to a better person either, believe me."

As soon as he says it, his second finger is already in there and he starts to move it.

He laughs a little: "If you say please, I might let you come."

"I have no problem going home and doing it myself."

“Stop trying so hard. I know that's what you want."

You kiss again and you are close to finally finding relief.

Acacius notices and stops abruptly, moving a few inches away from you. Frustrated by the sudden emptiness, you whimper slightly and glare at him.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!"

"I'm just making sure my little lamb listens straight away next time."

With a smug grin he begins to move away from you for good.

You can't believe it. This terrible, sexy, horrible man!

Before he finally disappears, he calls to you over his shoulder:

"See you at our wedding, my little lamb. We will definitely have a very nice time that night."

Smug idiot!

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Draco Malfoy is not the only problem with Dramione

Look, am I the only one who hates Dramione not because of Draco but HERMIONE?

Dramione antis (often Draco antis I notice) usually paint Draco as the toxic person in this ship undeserving of Queen Hermione. How he's a cowardly, dumb ferret and Hermione deserves a real man.

You know what Hermione deserves? A consuming career and a house full of cats! Ron can have her! I feel like I am dissing myself when I diss Hermione since I see a lot of my academic self in her but who the hell sees Hermione as wife or mother material??

No one deserves to be in a relationship with someone who hates them. Hermione is no exception. Hermione does not deserve to be in a relationship with a guy who stands by while she is being tortured or hurls slurs in her face. Or thinks she is worth less than trash.

But based on canon, we know who is more likely to attack their partner and commit domestic abuse. It ain't Draco. Like...do you not see how this girl treats Ron?! The guy she's supposed to like?! While Draco has never laid a hand on her, even when this girl slapped/punched him for no justifiable reason. Him making fun of Hagrid is not justifiable. Slap him when he calls you a mudblood and then we can talk Hermione.

Draco does anything to upset her and this vindictive shrew would probably turn him into a bug and squash him. Or maybe poison him. Or turn him into a bouncing ferret for nostalgia (I read a Dramione fic where Hermione did this - that definitely killed my recent short-lived Dramione reading spree). Magic provides a myriad of possibilities :).

At least with Draco, we don't really see him mistreating his (female) friends. None of his actions towards Hermione is irredeemable. After thorough redemption and maturity, he would theoretically treat Hermione well. His parents may be hostile but he can always just give them the finger the way he did for dear Astoria. Hermione on the other hand is shown to be constantly abusive to Ron yet she's one of the heroes of the story, hardly ever called out for her appalling actions. People need to wake up from their Draco hate and recognize Hermione's flaws as well in this ship. It's more than just her not forgiving him. She would literally hurt him. Like she already hurt Ron! And her own parents!

My mother told me that if your loved one hits you once, you need to leave. Immediately. Ron should have dropped Hermione as a potential love interest the second she attacked him. Because she will do it again when she gets angry.

So yeah, Ron can keep her. Poor Ron. Hermione is hardly a catch. For anyone calling me a sexist, that kind of attitude is not cute in a dude either.

Draco can do better than her. But literally, almost anyone is better than Hermione (I'll be over here enjoying my Druna content).

Actually, the only guy who probably deserves Hermione is Harry Potter himself. She actually seems to be sweeter to him and respects him more than Ron lol. Those two can be vindictive, inconsiderate psychos together while Ron finds better friends who don't see him as a dumb loser. Oh, and Ginny can find a guy who won't dump her the second she cries (like that "crybaby" Cho) or excludes her. Harmione is practically a match made in hell.

[kybelles]

for the choose violence ask game: 10, 16, 18!

HELLO BABY!!! sorry in advance since this is all about DAMEN DAMEN and DAMEN cause duh... ik it's not a trendy expression anymore but he really does live rent free in my head 💔

10. worst part of fanon

OH DEAR..... yk i'm trying really hard to not sound deranged and delusional but i feel like there are so many skewed interpretations of damen even though the books are literally from his pov. here are some of them:

a. "damen is an unreliable narrator" i've literally gone to battle with people over this take cause NO HE'S FUCKING NOT?? you say 'damen didn't see laurent's good qualities and was overly judgemental of veretians' i say damen not fucking with his captors who's been nothing but awful to him doesn't mean he was unreliable!! it wasn't like laurent was a golden angel and damen willingly hated on him for nothing. book 1 laurent treated him horribly and damen had every reason and right to not trust him or find him honorable.

b. "damen was a fuckboy who discarded the people he slept with the second he was done with them before laurent" breaking news: if someone sleeps with a lot of people that means he has no respect for them and is bound to treat them like shit! the lack of canon evindence doesn't matter!

(if the take is about damen not being in love with his partners before laurent then i'm on board!! it's the implication that damen was an inconsiderate sex partner that boggles my mind cause... did we read the same books?)

c. "damen is actually bad at sex" is a take/joke(?) i've seen MULTIPLE times and it never fails to make me think what a fucking stupid thing it is to say ❤️

d. "damen learned empathy from laurent" ????? lmao. anyways...

e. "damen was lazy and kastor picked up his slack" is everything ok with your eyes? when's the last time you've seen an ophthalmologist?

f. "theomedes neglected damen" damen literally spends page after page reminiscing about his father's words, advices and their last days together. he also says theo was the only parent he knew all his life and since someone needed to raise him to be this fascinating gentle giant... 1+1=3???

g. any interpretation where damen is some sort of neanderthal who is a selfish spoiled and clueless oaf who needs to be educated by girlypopboss laurent OR where he lets laurent walk all over him and has no agenda of his own. just... no.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing

any setting where laurent is downright cold and rude towards damen FOR NO APPARENT REASON and yet damen is still obsessed with him, again for some mysterious reason??? not to sound like some know-it-all condescending bitch (tho i suspect to some degree i'm already infamous and some ppl dislike me bc of it 🥺 oh well...) but i think most people forget damen only started giving laurent the time of his day once laurent started showing him basic deceny during pg. i really don't think he'd be interested in someone who rebuked him at every chance and showed no interest at him.

(some ppl give jokaste as an example to excuse this but damen only says jokaste wasn't easily courted aka she didn't immediately jump into his bed (which is admirable omg... i wouldn't be as strong...) he never said she aloof towards him)

18.it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

THE FACT DAMEN IS A HUGE NERD!!! seriously, who listens to FOUR HOURS of poetry in one sitting... we all tend to focus on his martial insterests but ik my boy is also a sophisticated man 💅

[ramonag-if]

My main problem with Salyra is in fact her lack of empathy towards the MC and her presumption that MC should show sensitivity while interacting with her other child after being ambushed.

We can say all we want about Alhf being an inadequate father, but at least he always tried to put himself in MC’s shoes and he understood how to the MC his behaviour would appear lacking to the point that he is confused and surprised when the MC show affection for him. Many MC may even feel that Ahlf never loved them and is using them to save Irus, but in one of Erlan’s letter we find out that Elran has promised to protect the MC if Alhf helped Irus claim the crown, so even in this situation he is prioritising the MC.

Even Sargon shows more consideration to the MC’s feelings than Salyra does, if they react negatively to his questioning about their heritage because he is aware of the treatment that half-ishari receive in Cyre. That make me think that Salyra too should be well aware of this and instead she comes across as someone that has deluded herself in believing that the MC and Ahlf have been living happily in Cyre.

I can understand that she has been prisoner for a couple of months and so is a little out of it, but MC has seen their whole life turn upside-down, their only family killed in front of them (and if Salyra is the reason for Erlan early death before the plan to ensure Irus’s coronation came to fruition, then she is responsible of all this pain the MC is feeling now 👀). Salyra didn’t even stop thinking about her estranged child wellbeing and need for space, she was just thinking about hers and her other daughter needs.

I will say that at this moment I don’t think Salyra has ever prioritise the MC, because if she had she would have given her child to her brother when he begged her to go with him in Vinia, while she stayed in Ishari where her fate was. Keeping MC with her regardless of the danger give me the impression that she was prioritising the goal for which she had the MC not their safety, especially because I don’t think Salyra thought that Erlan would risk war against Vinia just to kill her child.

And now the sentence in Ahlf’s letter to MC about Salyra making sure that the MC’s blood belonged to the Ishari people sounds rather ominous…👀

I have to admit that I am loving the parental angst, it is the best angst 👌😋

I'm really glad you mentioned her lack of understanding/empathy to the MC's situation. Salyra means well - or at least to her she does, so it goes over her head that she's being inconsiderate with the MC. When she first sees the MC, she automatically assumes that they're there with Ahlf and from what she knows, the MC has had a good life in Salt Bay so seeing them so distraught confuses her.

There is a goal attached to the MC's birth but it didn't come to fruition - or who knows? We're only in Part 2 of the game 😆 I can say that Salyra thought that she and Ahlf would work things out and she'd have found a way to let the MC get to know him while still living in Ishari so it's one of the main reasons for not giving the MC to Belahm - she had hoped to eventually fix her relationship with Ahlf.

There is something rather ominous about that line, isn't there? Funny how everyone has mentioned the MC's eyes despite it being the same colour as Ahlf's 👀 Whatever could have happened 😏

Parental angst is hands-down the best angst. I know some prefer angst in romance but I feel nothing cuts deeper than the pain of rejection/abandonment from a parent 😆

[luverofralts]

Arkhelios Adventures

"Young mortal! I have accepted your offering for my dominion. Be wary, for much danger lies in this realm. All-oh, Mr. Darktide! It's you again."

Adam nodded, pointing his glowing ring towards the deity of dreams, Luna, formerly of Crystal Cove.

"Theo dragged me here once, so I thought that I'd return the favour," he explained. "This crystal ties us together. With your permission, I'd like to summon him to this realm and speak with him."

"An interesting request," Luna replied, looking amused. "I'm not usually in the service of star-crossed teens who need a place to meet. My purpose is to govern the realm I've been given, not guide young love."

"Please," Adam begged, trying to look as sad as he possibly could. "I've tried everything to find him, but the only safe thing connecting us seems to be your realm. Even with all the wards and protections of wherever he is, everyone has to sleep. It's biology, not magic. I've risked so much to be here and I gave an offering like the book said. I need to see Theo Bellamy, and I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Such a Darktide," Luna mused. "Always barging in, demanding to be accommodated. I can see your ancestors in your eyes, like entitled phantoms raging in your blood. My father lost his heart to a Darktide, did you know that?"

Adam shook his head quickly. Luna was rambling on about people he'd never met, and he only had a limited amount of time in this realm. Life and Death seemed to know everyone's true names, so he was willing to bet that the deity of dreams did too and might respond better if he invoked them.

"No, I had no idea. I'm not my ancestors, though. I'm not my parents or my deranged uncle. My name is Adam Sebastian Casper Maricourt Darktide and I demand to see Theodosius Ulysses G Bellamy. Please."

"Alright," Luna teased. "Don't work yourself up about it. I was just sharing some of my vast experiences with you. It's lonely in a realm where everyone sleeps sometimes. Everything isn't always about you, you know."

Adam flushed with embarrassment. This was getting him nowhere and the last thing he wanted was to anger a deity. He didn't need that danger added to his already crazy life.

"Sorry, I didn't realize. It's just that...I haven't seen Theo in months now and this might be my only chance. Please, continue to tell me about your father and the Darktides. I will listen if you'll just let me see Theo."

Luna smiled softly.

"You have a good heart, Mr. Darktide," she said. "You're a bit inconsiderate, considering that you're asking me to help you, but your heart is good. I will open the gate to allow your crystal to call for your love, but be sure to tell him that he must also make an offering upon waking. The Old Ways must still be observed."

"The gate is now open," Luna announced. "I hope that your crystal is strong enough to summon him. Truly. The Ocean is often unfairly rough with your family. Until the next time you cross my path."

Adam's ring began to glow with a blinding light as the deity faded from his vision. It took enormous effort for it to search for the matching crystal in the vast realm of dreams, but Adam wasn't giving up. Not when he'd already come this far.

Pain radiated up his arm, which Adam found intriguing considering that he was asleep at the moment in another realm, likely perfectly fine. It was well within his control to deal with, though, after all he'd practiced.

Demonic magic swirled around Adam and he closed his eyes, trying to follow it back to its source. Following it back to Theo.

"What the hell is happening? Alys, if this is another one of your tough love lessons, I swear to god I'll-"

"Theo?"

The crystal on Theo's hand grew even brighter now that it was near its match. It was this reaction that convinced Adam that this was really Theo, that Luna hadn't tricked him.

"Adam, is that you?" Theo blinked and rubbed his eyes, sincerely hoping that this wasn't just an illusion his teachers were tricking him with.

"It's me," Adam confirmed, staring in awe at the culmination of his plans. Everyone had written off talking to Theo while he was gone, but Adam's plan had actually worked! "I've been trying to find you for months now."

"You have? I saw your spell with my ring. I haven't taken it off since."

"It was the only way to access wherever you are," Adam explained. "We're dreaming now. It was the only realm that wouldn't kill us to walk through."

His gaze dropped to the floor. It was overwhelming to see Theo again. So many emotions rushed to his mind, making it difficult to think straight.

His plan had worked. Theo was beside him. Doing magic still sometimes physically hurt. Theo was dangerous. He might always be dangerous in some way, but that smile still made Adam weak in the knees. It was all so much to process.

"Adam, I'm sorry," Theo began. "I never meant to hurt you. I had no idea how out of control I'd gotten. I'm doing better now, much better. I promise."

Even though seeing Theo again was everything Adam had been working towards for so long, part of him still held back, afraid to get hurt even more. He didn't want to feel like this. He should have processed all these feelings already and moved on and been fine.

"I know it was an accident," Adam replied quietly. "You would never mean to hurt me as badly as you did. And we should have listened to Evren about being careful about...well, you know."

"We don't have to do that again," Theo said quickly, equally embarrassed to be talking about how badly their experiments with sex had gone. "We can wait until we're older. Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean...oh, I've gotten ahead of myself."

He paused and gave Adam a tearful look.

"I'm assuming that you want to keep dating me, I'm sorry. 'Being mindful of other people's feelings' is something that I apparently need to work on, according to most of my teachers. I don't blame you if you never want to see me again. I can see the way you're looking at me. As usual, I've completely misread this and you only came here to break up with me. I'm so stupid."

"Theo, I've had a lot of time to think about what happened and my feelings on it. I don't regret what we did. I could never regret it. I just...it's been really difficult without you. I didn't know how I felt about us or if I wanted us to be together or if I'd changed too much for us to be together at all." He paused, trying to put his feelings into words. "Something bad happened to me, Theo. Something I don't know how to fix."

"You're pregnant!" Theo gasped, making Adam roll his eyes.

"God, Theo, your parents really have made you paranoid. No one's pregnant. I...I just...I'm different."

Theo nodded sympathetically, still unsure if Adam truly wanted him to respond to that statement with facts or to just keep apologizing.

"It's called Toyonaga's Trap," he replied, hoping that he was making the correct choice. "What happened between us. It was a textbook presentation of it. A blood connection that ends in the destruction of the person while the demon funnels their power into themselves. It was named for the Lost Queens of Strangetown, two teens who made a blood deal for power and ended up erased from the universe when the deal collected them. I was so worried that you died because of me and they wouldn't let me even talk to you. I did everything I could to shield you from danger, but I still saw you when the paramedics took you away. I couldn't live with myself if i had caused your death. It would destroy me."

"Theo, I-"

Before Theo could even register what was happening, Adam wrapped his arms around the hybrid tightly, leaning in to brush his face near Theo's. It wasn't the same feeling as holding Theo in a physical realm, but it was better than nothing. He hugged Theo as tight as he could to reassure his boyfriend.

"I didn't die; you protected me. You've always protected me no matter what. It took me a while, but I've made my peace with what happened. I'm not right anymore, but I'm alive."

"There are a handful of people who survived Toyonaga's Trap and they all have different symptoms," Theo stated, like he was remembering the writing in his textbook. "Migraines, joint pain, and some other side effects."

"Well, file this under other," Adam said. "I'd say that I fit there."

"I can see that," Theo murmured, stroking the scar on Adam's face gently. "You don't know how sorry I am that this happened. This is on your actual body or just your projection here?"

"The scarring is permanent. My mom and dad tried everything they could to heal it, but they couldn't."

"Oh. So every morning you wake up to see the grisly reminder of my lack of control in the mirror. Shit, Adam, I'm so sorry. You must hate me."

"I could never hate you, Theo," Adam assured his boyfriend. "There were some dark times where I questioned if we were really right for each other, but I could never hate you."

He caught Theo's hand when it was lowered from caressing his face and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I don't blame you," Theo replied earnestly. "I've been thoroughly yelled at by just about every teacher here for triggering a major demonic incident with a partner. Believe me, they've all shouted at me at some point." His face brightened, remembering something important. "But, they do have some comprehensive sex ed classes here that I was strongly recommended. If we ever wanted to be together like that again, once I graduate out of this hell, I should be able to channel our connection properly. But only if you want to. Which you don't have to. I'd understand."

"I'm not sure I want to...be...intimate," Adam confessed, still squeezing Theo's hand reassuringly. "I...I almost died, Theo. I can't just pick up from where we used to be. You've been gone for months and I've tried to put everything behind me. I need to know that you won't let this happen again, and I'm sorry, but I can't trust that you can right now. I need time, probably a lot of time."

Theo tried his best not to look crushed, but he probably failed.

"So, you want to go back to being friends?" Theo asked quietly, avoiding looking at Adam directly. "You keep avoiding the topic. Are you still interested in being my boyfriend? Do you just not hate me, or do you love me?"

Adam smiled coyly.

"I like like you, Theo. According to your Aunt, that's all I should admit to a guy if his parents are broke."

"And even then," Theo agreed, a huge weight lifting from his chest at these words. "I like like you too. A lot."

"We'll figure this out," Adam promised. "Together. I just need to work through my feelings first." His voice began to waver despite the incredible efforts he was making to hide his discomfort. "It's-it's been really hard without you here. Without getting to talk this through with you. I almost died, Theo, and for what? Because my sister keeps flaunting her sex life, and it made us curious? I don't want to die for something as stupid as that."

"Hey. Come here."

Theo pulled his boyfriend to the ground and wrapped his arms around him, just as they did back home. Adam couldn't deny how much he'd missed laying in Theo's arms, watching the clouds move above them and hearing the beating of Theo's heart. This moment was perfect and exactly why he'd fought so hard to see Theo again. There were no expectations between them in this realm. Theo couldn't accidentally hurt him here, and that knowledge made Adam bolder than he would be in the waking realm. He held Theo tightly, trying to commit every detail to memory. It could be several more months of waiting for Theo to come home and even when he did, Adam still couldn't see himself being fully able to relax at Theo's touch.

"What are you learning?" Adam asked curiously. "Tell me about your school. What's life like in demon military school?"

What's your life like without me?

"Boring. I mostly talk to teachers and tutors, there's not really a huge class size here. I get bi-weekly passes out to this weird country that has a strong culty vibe. I met a guy at the movies and we talked a bit before my parole officers dragged me back to school."

Adam bristled at the mention of another guy with Theo at a movie theater, a timeless place for teen hookups. Theo seemed to just be rambling about the boringness of his life, which calmed Adam slightly. Theo was usually pretty easy to read when he wanted something or had a crush and Adam could see none of the telltale signs on Theo's face.

Adam beamed at his boyfriend as Theo continued rambling about the quality of the food at school. Adam felt jealous of this random boy. After feeling nothing for the last few months, he finally had a Theo related emotion, even if it was jealousy. He wanted Theo to himself, he could feel that feeling spread across his body, waking it up from its long depression. After months of being unsure of his feelings for Theo, the threat of another person being interested in him ignited Adam's heart.

"You've told people that you have a boyfriend, right?"

Theo shrugged.

"I'm supposed to say you're a girl," he scoffed. "This place is weird and homophobic and I can't even mention my dads. There's something wrong with this place. Everything here is so weird."

"Oh, should I be thinking up a girl version of Adam?" the warlock teased. "Adama? Admina?"

"I just said that I was dating Remy Darktide. It's close enough and they can check and see that I'm not making her up."

Adam scowled at the thought of people thinking Theo was dating Remy. If she ever found out, she would never let that go.

"Don't tell Remy that," he pleaded.

"I've met Remy before, Adam, I know how she is. I think I can keep a secret from her."

Adam squeezed Theo tightly, hoping that this moment would last forever. It wouldn't. There were limitations on how long mortals could travel in other realms and Adam could already feel the pull back to the waking world begin.

"I don't think I'm allowed to repeat this visit to see you," Adam sighed. "It was hard enough getting here this time."

"I miss you. I don't want to leave," Theo insisted. "I don't know when I'll see you again." The demon hybrid pouted, wrapping himself around Adam tighter. "Stay with me."

"I can't. I physically can't. It's not how the world works. People would start entering people's dreams whenever they wanted to, and the balance of the realms would warp. Have you figured out where you're living? Maybe I could send you a postcard."

"No, but it's somewhere strange. I don't know if it is part of the universe or just tacked on or whatever in the grand scheme of things. Only women are able to get pregnant here and they treat demons like they did back in the Demon Wars. No wonder it's so hard for people to get into this school. It's a nightmare." He paused for a moment. "Well, the stuff I'm working on is even more advanced than our class work at the academy. When I do get to go back there, I'll pass every magical exam they throw at me."

"Do they ever say how you're doing?" Adam asked hopefully. "You're leaving soon, right?"

Theo shook his head sadly.

"They keep talking about what to do with the curse I was born with. I can't cast much magic as long as it's there, festering inside me, but it's still a part of me. There's some ritual I have to prepare for and a ceremony before I can leave here. They've forced me to have several incidents back to back, and I'm getting better at controlling them. I just need the curse to either disappear entirely or re-absorb into a more controllable part of my magical essence. But they think that eliminating the curse entirely will have 'dangerous repercussions' for me, so I'm hoping that the re-absorb option is the one that works."

"Will there be any impact on me? We're connected loosely, so it's possible that I could have something impact my magic too." Adam paused. "The scar isn't the only new thing to happen to me, Theo. I can sense the Void now and open portals to it. Maybe even a little more; I've been afraid to experiment with it."

"What?!"

Theo listened with concern as Adam detailed his new abilities. A non-demonic warlock able to display mild demonic abilities? His teachers would have a fit when he asked whether Adam's new abilities impacted his studies. But still...this development gave Theo an idea.

"So neither of us can be in the Void for long periods of time, right? There's no harm that can happen just by opening a rift. You and I can both open rifts and portals now, so we can pass messages through it if we want. Think about it! We could write a message and leave it in a portal in one of the top layers of the Void where there's not much danger. The Void is connected to both of our locations, even wherever the hell I am. My teachers can open a portal to home, so it's possible."

"We could use a crystal to help pierce through the Void, so our portals have more strength," Adam agreed, thinking about what he knew of magical theory. "If you and I use the crystal in our rings at the same time to access the same area in the Void, we might have enough combined strength to pull it off. It wouldn't be powerful enough to let a person through, but a note? I could see that working."

"We could be penpals! Just...don't write anything dirty just in case another demon comes across it."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Clearly after months of isolation, Theo's mind had remained in the gutter. Adam was a teenage boy with raging hormones, sure, but every time he thought of those stolen moments wrapped up in Theo's bedsheets, fear washed over him, drowning his desires completely. Theo wasn't safe outside of a dream. Adam had nearly died. He could die any time at any moment if Theo slipped and lost control. The mere memory of the pain of demonic magic tearing him slowly apart still made him bolt awake at night. His brush with death had been devastating, and Theo's magic cult school had a clean, clinical name for what had happened. It was even textbook apparently.

It was nice to be held by Theo and it was nice to pretend that nothing between them had changed. It was nice, but it wasn't true.

"Okay, here's what we'll need. Probably at least one locked box, preferably silver if we can get our hands on it. Definitely write in pen, just in case pencil is too weak to read. Oh! Do you think we'd need notebooks or would a single piece of paper be more effective? No, definitely go with the notebooks. You'll have to get all of this though, sorry. I can't exactly run to the store here."

Adam held Theo as he rambled on about how they'd pull off the Great Penpal Trick, trying to nod when appropriate.

"Theo? I think we're out of time," he announced, watching his hand and arm begin to fade on Theo's chest. "I'm waking up."

"Don't forget about the holy water. That will keep demons out of our letters."

"Theo, you're a demon and I'm a mess of demonic magic, we would probably only hurt ourselves with that. Besides, what demon wants to read about your boring school or my insane family? They have better things to do."

Theo pouted at this dose of reality. He'd spent so long thinking of what he'd say to Adam and longing to hold Adam and staring at the occasionally glowing ring he'd gotten from Adam, that he'd forgotten that he and Adam had spent so much time apart, and they were no longer in sync with each other.

"I'll wait for you to put the box in the agreed upon spot then. It won’t be too much longer that I'm here...I hope so anyway. Keep away from Simon down the hall. He has a massive crush on you and might try to hit on you while I'm gone."

Adam rolled his eyes at the very idea of running off with the guy Remy chose for him after he'd spent all of this time trying to reach his boyfriend.

"Yeah, well, you make sure that movie theater boy keeps his hands off you," he countered.

"Brion? I'm sure his weird ass homophobic country would be okay with that. Absolutely."

Adam's entire right arm vanished as the dream realm began ejecting him from it.

"Theo, I-"

"Oh thank god! I was starting to worry about you. Did it work? Did you see Theo?"

Adam groaned, holding his throbbing head while he regained control of his senses. He was back just where he'd started this endeavor: at school, looking over the vast landscape of Lower Pleasantview.

"Yeah, it worked," he confirmed. "He was right there. I could even touch him. We weren't just apparitions without form."

"Oh, so it was that kind of dream? With touching?" Travis teased, earning a scowl from his friend.

"No, somehow we contained ourselves. We had other things to discuss."

"And? Are you still dating? Remy might back off her scheming if she knew that you were happily in a relationship with your boyfriend. The school gossip mill might die down too."

"Like Remy isn't involved with the gossip mill too? She's my twin sister, she needs to calm down. Tell her whatever you think will keep her from trying to spring more blind dates on me, but yeah, Theo and I are still dating."

He looked over his shoulder to see his two lookouts too consumed by hormones to see that Adam had woken up. A quick stab of jealousy shot through him as he saw how easily they moved together. They trusted each other. Neither boy knew enough about magic to be a threat to the other. It must be nice.

"We did it!" Travis exclaimed, high fiving Adam happily. "Plus, you're alive and in one piece! Tell me all about it! I'm dying to know everything that happened. Was he in his pajamas or was he projecting his own self-image? What did the deity look like? Did they threaten you?"

Adam picked up the borrowed staff he'd used earlier, inspecting it for damage.

"I'll tell you all about it, but we'd better get this back to the storage room before my dad finds us and wants to know why we needed it."

[rayrayvan]

Mirrorball

Shuri x fem!reader

warning: abusive parents, abuse like being struck, anxiety attack, mentions of anxiety, angst, curse words

When Shuri first met you, it was way back in college. She viewed you as someone selfish and competitive because, during one of the lectures, you always would answer even though you aren’t called or you answer someone else’s question.

She is viewed as a selfish and self-centered person. Who only takes pleasure in seeing others fail and so she became your academic rival. Challenging you during recitals or experiments.

It’s known throughout campus about the rivalry between the princess of Wakanda and the “self-centered” bitch. You were hated by your peers, even in the early stages of life. “I’d rather be called a bitch than be a people pleaser” You pointed out when Shuri would pick a fight with you.

“I mean does it hurt your pride to be a little considerate towards your group mates?” She asked “I mean really, it doesn’t even kill you to be kind to them? Are you that of a bitch? Was your childhood that awful to you that you had to take it out on other people?” She was agitated because she learned that you dropped all your group mates and she didn’t know the true reason

“You crossed a line there” Tear stains were visible on your face “You want a real answer to that, I didn’t drop them for no fucking reason. They didn’t even bother to help and went out partying all night. So yeah I’m that bitch who wouldn’t have to put up with lazy people who don’t bother to raise their grades. I care for my grades cause that is all I have to prove I’m not a fucking disappointment to my oh-so-perfect family!” You shouted back but Shuri was far too angry to let your words sink in. To her, you still are an inconsiderate bitch.

The rivalry continued. There was this debate that your professors arranged for. If you win the debate, you’d have the highest grade but if you don’t win… who are you kidding? You always win

Your parents were one of the board members and your mother was one of the judges that were invited to observe and grade the debate.

The debate was perfect and just how you planned it. That all shifted when you came face-to-face with Shuri during the rebuttal round.

Arguments and counterarguments were thrown left to right, time was ticking. You were confident enough that you’d win this but when you were halfway done with your counter-argument, the judge shouted “Time’s up” in return you begged them to let you continue the claim, which was also the reason you can outdo Shuri. You were disappointed and mad about it and when the scores were tallied, the professor told you who the winner was.

“It is the Affirmative side” Affirmative side? Shuri’s team? No there has to be a mistake

You were beyond shocked to hear the winner and you saw your mother eyeing you with disappointment lacing through her eyes “No there has to be a mistake!” You shouted “No dear, there isn’t,” The professor told you apologetically

“Accept it loser,” One of Shuri’s teammate told you but you could care less when your mother told you to come with her.

Shuri was out in a hallway when suddenly she heard a slap. It must be pretty hard how much noise it caused. When she looked around the corner, she saw you holding out your cheek.

Shuri couldn’t believe her eyes to see you struck by your mother. “You truly are a disappointment,” Your mother told you calmly like it was natural, and felt like she said that to you multiple times “You could’ve won it easily but you’ve gotten too weak. Your grades have been declining as well. I expect you to keep them in check next semester, you have just brought shame in our family name by not winning. Do it better next time” Your mother calmly added and was about to walk off but stopped and looked at you with no emotion “We’re going out for the holidays you’re staying at your grandparents' house” And with that, she walks off.

You stood there not even crying like it was something you had to keep up with every day. So with a reddened cheek, you walked off as if nothing happened.

Shuri watched the scene unfold and she felt bad for saying all those things to you. She felt bad cause she feels that you experience this every single day of your life. Your competitiveness had a reason, everything you did had a reason, she just didn’t realize that now.

Now as she returns to your dorm room, she spotted you pressing and holding a cold compress to your cheek and reading the future lessons. She approached you and asked, “ Do you experience that every day?” The question made you puzzled “What are you talking about?” You asked “I saw what your mother did to you” The revelation made sense now and it made you want to avoid the subject “I will not discuss anything with you about it” You calmly said and were about to stand up when Shuri held your wrist stopping you from your tracks. “I know it’s a sensitive subject and I respect that but I need to know, do you experience that every day?” She asked, trying to give you comfort but with how she treated you several months ago, you pulled your hand away from her grasp “You don’t get to ask me that, considering how you treat me several months ago. And since you want to know, yeah I get treated like that.” Tears were evident in your eyes and blurred your vision but you didn’t bother to wipe them off.

“Let’s talk about it-“Talk about it?” You interrupted her “Talk about what? Who are you to demand I talk to you about how my family treats me? For what? You didn’t bother to be my friend, I’ve made the perfect essays, and the perfect grades, woke myself up early in the morning for ballet classes then after school, drag myself out to participate in violin lessons. I got into this university to follow my plan but you came and wrecked it. I wanted to have the position you have right now but you’re here and I can’t seem to get that anymore.” You broke down for the first time, your chest felt heavy and your head was thumping, you were having an anxiety attack. Breathing seemed heavy, your mind was clouded, and you were frantically looking everywhere. Shuri was by your side and she kept whispering about following her breathing but you couldn’t hear anything so she place your hand on top of her chest and told you to follow her heart rhythm.

Later when you calmed down a bit, you were a bit embarrassed by how Shuri helped you. Shuri was just fetching some water and when she went back, she saw how avoidant you were with her. So she gave you the glass of water and sat down beside you, a little too close for your liking but you were blushing lightly. She looked at how you were drinking the water and clasped the empty glass and set it aside. Silence surrounded the atmosphere when you were about to apologize to her she held your hand tightly. “Hey, you don’t have to apologize for being like that, don’t also be embarrassed by it. I should be the one to apologize to you since I misjudged you and for that, I’m so sorry. I’m also sorry that you had to experience something like that” Shuri told you apologetically. When you gazed up to meet her eyes, she saw you smile and that melted her heart. You were finally smiling and that made her heart skip a beat.

You hugged her and she hugged you back. You whispered a thank you and she rubbed your back in a comforting manner. Let’s just say the hate that Shuri supposedly felt was turning into something different.

note: don't hesitate to correct me and please if there are errors and typos mention me so I'll be able to edit it thank you so much

[reareaotaku]

A Scary Death

I don't know if I made this obvious, but this version, Hansel and Gretel are older teens. Also, hope my writing has improved since 2021 like wow. Pt 1, Pt 2

You all were munching happily on the candy, until a clunking sounded and you looked towards the front door.

"Teenagers!"

That caught the attention of you all. The woman starts laughing as she walks down her candy path. You all quickly hide the candy behind your backs.

"Oh, I just love...." She starts spinning in a circle, before walking over to you three and yelling, "Teens!" She swishes a knife pretty close to where you three were and Hansel pulled you behind him so as to not get attacked by the crazy woman. She laughs as you all scream bloody murder, but all she did was cut off a candy cane.

"This chick is psycho," You whisper to Hansel, who nods his head in agreement.

"Try the fence, you majestic creatures."

You were confused and looked at the candy in her hand, declining the offer, but the siblings were quick to indulge in the food. You watched, seemingly the only one who was confused by the lady's actions.

Gretel thanks her, before apologizing about us screaming and Hansel quickly retorted-

"We thought you were going to chop us up." 

Which caused you elbow hit, quickly shutting him up.

"Chop you up? Why?" She chuckles. "I love teens. They're so.... Oh what's the word.... Exquisite. "

"Come in, young ones. Come, come, come." She kicks open the door, "Stay for dinner. Stay as long as you like."

You could practically see them [Hansel and Gretel] glowing with happiness. They probably thought they found a new home, but you knew better. 

"Stay forever." The woman laughs to herself, "Sit. Let me bring you a little snack. You must be hungry." She walks off to a pantry and you watch her closely.

Hansel can see your worried faced, but before he can ask if you're okay, she continues.

"What brings you to my little cottage, my sweethearts?"

"Our parents chopped our heads off," Gretel remarks, causing the baker lady to pop out of the door surprised.

"Really? How inconsiderate. Ha!"

"We're looking for the perfect family," Gretel continues, "Or at least one that won't kill us."

"Are you all siblings?"

"No!" Hansel quickly protest, shocking you, Gretel, and the Baker, "I just mean that Y/n," He gestures towards you, "Is our closet friend. No blood."

"Well, I have some cake for you now," The lady singsongs, "And just about everything you could ever desire."

Hansel looks over at you, almost love struck, but quickly looks away when you spot him. He was strange, but you could never quite figure out what relationship you had with the male.

"How's that for a happily ever after?"

You slept with your legs apart, and Hansel slept between your legs, with Gretel being the only one in a bed. All of you were filled since you ate so much of the candy in the house. You could feel Hansel move, which caused you to wake up.

You looked around the empty room, before spotting a closet and opening it to have a whole bunch of shoes collapse on you.

"How come there's a closet full of shoes?" Hansel asked, quickly waking up. "That one has a foot in it," Hansel points to a very specific, boned shoe, but Gretel was in denial.

"Everything's fine," she repeated, but you knew that was far from true.

You looked back towards Hansel, but he was already back asleep, willing to take his sister's word.

The sun rose and a bunch of food was placed infront of you. You weren't all that hungry, so when Mrs. Baker left, you gave your food to Hansel, who was chowing the food down like a vacuum. You don't think you've ever seen someone eat so quickly. He acted like he hadn't been fed in years, when he just ate last night.

Mrs. Baker comes in, while Hansel is out of it and asks for help in the kitchen, making you suspicious. It doesn't take long before Hansel is heading back up the stairs, alert and hyper, grabbing both you and Gretel.

"We have to go! She tried to cook me!"

Gretel was still out of it, asking him what was going on, but he seemed to be more worried about getting out of there. Though, a burnt-looking Mrs. Baker comes up the stairs, looking annoyed, while Hansel stood infront of you both, almost protectively.

"Oven... doors... don't... lock!" She pulls out a knife and swishes at you as you all begin to run. She opens the door to the room and walks slowly. "Do you really want to know when your parents stopped loving you? The answer is quite simple." She walks over to the window. "Obvious really. They never loved you. Never. Never. Never." 

You knew she was trying to get under Hansel's skin, but you were hoping he wouldn't take the bait.

"You know it's true."

To bad for you he did and she caught him, lifting him high up into the air before smacking her teeth and shaking the male. You feel the boned shoe under your hand, smirking while getting a quick idea.

"Eat this, you old hag!" You throw it at her, startling her. She drops Hansel, who lands on his back hard. She starts tumbling backwards, tripping on food and you and Gretel gasp, already seeing where it was going. She ends up falling out of the window, causing you and Gretel to go look out and see what happened.

She landed on the candy cane she had chopped earlier. Gretel's eyes widened at the blood and organs leaking from her stomach. Though, she tried to rationalize it by saying she's okay, but she was not okay. She ran ahead of you, while you stayed to grab Hansel's, who complained about his back. You can hear Gretel scream and you quickly rush down.

"Oh, she is not okay."

You all screamed at the gory display and Hansel seems to magically recover as he runs away first, with both you and Gretel quickly following behind.

[annabtg]

Hey, I’m the anon that messaged you about being upset Lily would cheat on James. I apologize if it came across rude or inconsiderate. I didn’t mean for it to be. I should have looked at the tag but I get so excited when I see a new Jily fic from writers I admire that I sometimes forget to do my homework. Please don’t dismiss my hatred for cheating due to my age. Yes, I’m young but I’ve seen my share of what cheating does. My dad cheated on my mom with her best friend and I didn’t know the reason they split up until I found her body in the bathtub with a note. The worst part was I was fuming on my way home because she missed my graduation and knocked down her bathroom door and found my mom was gone. I thought they split up because they had me when they were young teenagers and their love fizzled out but I found out what kind of person my dad was to her in her note. That day I lost two parents. I assure you I do know the types of cheating and how it can affect people. Cheating just triggers me and brings up bad memories, I blame myself for not picking up on the signs that are so clear now how much it bugged her when my dad was around . I read Jily fics because she loved Harry Potter and she got me into the marauders fandom, and I’ve just been missing her a lot with it being summer break. I get it things are changing and fandom is changing. I’m sorry for not checking the tags and I think I’m going to take a break from fandom for a while. I didn’t mean to dismiss your hard work and I’m sorry if it came across that way.

Hi there, anon. ❤

I assure you you didn't come off as rude or inconsiderate! And in turn, I must apologize if I came across as dismissive towards your age. Your feelings are valid no matter what!

I'm really sorry to hear about your mother! That must have been hell to go through for all of you. Cheating has destroyed countless families, some of them - like yours - in devastating ways, and you will never hear me say I condone it. Sadly, but understandably, it's much more difficult to deal with it irl than it is in fiction.

If you need the break from fandom, absolutely take it - fandom is supposed to be fun and an escape, not to trigger and upset you!! But I will tell you that this whole tagging system that's in place on AO3 is specifically designed for people like you, so you can avoid your triggers and instead filter for what you do feel like reading. (Obligatory "in my time we only had a one-line summary to go with" comment.) "Fluff" is definitely a popular tag in the Jily fandom and I'm sure you can find lots of fics there that suit you better!

Wishing you well, whatever you decide! ❤

[utilitycaster]

I think you and a lot of people are forgetting or disregarding that Imogen canonly has mental illness and an anxiety disorder and has had or hinted at suicidal ideations, she’s not a bad person. Flawed sure, but not bad. She apologized to orym immediately after. She’s just trying to understand her mother. So people need to stop hating on her for being “too sad or whiny or always crying.” So if anyone hates Imogen they are not allowed to stan Percy, Caleb or fjord or Vax. If one of the men was going thorough what Imogen was y’all wouldn’t have shit to say. Y’all are just hating to be hating.

In an impressive showing, almost every part of this question is incorrect, and I am going to discuss how.

Imogen does not "canonly" have an anxiety disorder (also, an anxiety disorder is a mental illness so the phrasing here is poor), and honestly, I would not even say her depiction hints towards her having one. I do think it's fair to say that she's been implied to have experienced suicidal ideation in canon. However, you equate that with her not being a bad person, and that's simply not how this works; an absolutely terrible person can also have suicidal ideation. Mental illness is neither a sign someone is bad nor is it a get-out-of-jail free card; it simply is. And someone's actions can hurt other people even if that person is also hurting.

I agree Imogen is flawed! I am pretty sure I haven't outright said she's a bad person, for what it's worth. I have definitely said that I don't think she's a good person, which is not the same as saying she's a bad person, if you have any capacity for nuance. I'm pretty confident that I have never said she's too sad or whiny or always crying, so I'm really not sure why you're sending this to me at all, frankly. Though, with that said, if someone does find that Imogen's frequent crying is annoying, that is their prerogative. Anyone is permitted to find any fictional character annoying for any reason, and it's bizarre and sad that you would make even this incredibly weak attempt to police that.

My criticism of Imogen in recent episodes has squarely centered on the fact that she is often unkind and inconsiderate towards other people and thinks the worst of them. You have only provided one example, of Imogen briefly apologizing to Orym - which doesn't stop her from still openly wondering if Liliana's side might be right afterwards. I mean, an apology is great, but there is a massive difference between "trying to understand why Liliana might have made the choices she did" and "openly and repeatedly wondering around people who have been killed and attacked by the Ruby Vanguard and who have lost family and friends to them if perhaps they might be right."

My criticism of Imogen is grounded in the fact that she seems to have little capacity to understand perspectives other than her own. Even saying this once to Orym, who has been searching for his husband's murder the entire time Imogen has known him, is crossing a line that a more considerate character would not. I think it's consistent with Imogen's characterization, and fascinating, because I don't think she'd see it that way! I think she genuinely believes covering your thoughts out of concern for someone's feelings is worse than openly expressing something harmful, because of her own abilities...but most people don't have those abilities. She really does not consider how people who are not psychic might feel, because she's so wrapped up in her own difficulties.

Which brings me to the part about past male characters. I think getting into this in any depth will be a tiresome contest of mudslinging so I'll keep it very brief: None of these four characters have openly entertained siding with the enemy in a potentially cataclysmic way, which is the source of the criticism of Imogen I have personally been levying. The closest we've gotten is Fjord, and he specifically decided that he would if necessary defy his parental figure's connections to an evil entity, and then personally went to stop said evil, twice, putting himself specifically in the line of fire. I think all four of these characters are also flawed people - that's what makes them compelling characters - but all of them are quite resolute when it comes to world-ending threats.

I also think that it's fascinating that when I compared Laudna to Fjord - in defense of Imogen, no less - it was considered reductive. In general, I found the fandom was, in fact, very hesitant to explore that Fjord was deeply traumatized and often criticized him without taking that into consideration. I bring up the gnarlrock fight so often because at that time, it was very, very common, actually, for people to place all the blame squarely on Imogen for simply being upset because Laudna broke something that helped her with the mental illness symptoms. Sympathy for Imogen from certain quarters - granted, not guaranteed to be yours, but highly suspected to be - seems entirely contingent on whether she's being openly upset with Laudna or not, rather than any other context. Anyway my point here is that I'd love if you could get off anon and show me all your posts in which you explore those four characters' traumas and their responses, because while I'm unimpressed by your question here, I'd love to see if this is a rare lapse and that you have spent time writing eloquent defenses of them. If you haven't, well, then I think we can both agree that you're just mad that other people have different favorite characters than you do.

So in conclusion, I don't think anyone could reasonably say I am hating on Imogen. I am very critical of her choices, but I've also repeatedly said that I find them quite interesting. I think that Imogen siding with the Ruby Vanguard would definitely make her a bad person, but also, I would understand why she thinks this way (I understand why Liliana does too!), I don't think it necessarily makes her irredeemable, and I would find it to be a great story. That's what this is: a story, with characters. I'd like it to be an interesting one.

[dragynkeep]

Oooh I love your Blake takes, I’ve always felt like she was just really mean to people for no reason and oftentimes just rude. As well as the way she treated Yang after abandoning her (to go home to her Rich parents whilst her friends tried to pick up the pieces) and then when Weiss was like “what’s that supposed to mean?” When Yang said she didn’t want Blake there like??? She was in the fucking right to not want Blake there she ducking lost an arm for her.

And I Hate hate hate when a fandom practically bans disliking a character because they hate themselves because that is never an excuse for shitty actions! Some people in real life act like because they hate themselves for the shitty things they’ve done (hijacker’s horseman complex) it makes them better by being self aware and it’s just so shit seeing a whole fandom just agree to ignore everything she does because she’s so insecure and blushy around Yang who’s super muscly ooohhh

Yang was in the right in V5 for being angry at Blake and it'll always chap my ass that the writing tries to paint her as irrational and inconsiderate to Blake's feelings, even though the stupid cat was the one to run away without even leaving a note.

Blake was actually my favourite in the Beacon Arc, mostly because of her passionate attitude towards justice and equality for her people, even if her methods read more as niavity to me. The whole thing of her becoming a Huntress to help prove that the Faunus aren't what humanity thinks it is was always stupid, did she think there just weren't any Faunus Huntsmen before her?

After V3? Absolutely can't stand her. The self victimising attitude, her inability to understand other people's suffering over her own, the whole blaming her own people for her stupid McMansion burning down, and don't even get me started about her attitude towards Sun. Now she's easily the worst of Team RWBY, and I can't stand her greasy mop on my screen.

[co-mixed]

All Hell Breaks Loose (again)

Ed Brubaker’s take on Daredevil made me want to talk about so many things at once. 

Let's start at the beginning or rather at the source of all the problems - Matt Murdock. Before I start trashing him, and that is inevitable, I want to make it clear  - his never-ending list of personal flaws is what makes his books frustratingly enjoyable. And when everyone says that Miller created the foundation his future books stand on, it's that gray area in which his morals reside, that I look back on. He is a hero and he is not a good person.

That's arguably the most interesting type of character: one who believes they're doing the right thing and believes they're willing to sacrifice their personal happiness to achieve that. But in reality, Matt is extremely selfish and inconsiderate. He often gives in to his passions and anger, believing he has been pushed towards the edge. He blames himself almost as much as he does everyone around him. I would probably put him in the same bin as Angel or Batman. Except Bats can step away from his selfishness for his mission and Angel is kind of all over the place. Either way, this is as much of a compliment as it is a judgment.

Who the Hell is Milla?

Matt’s personal life makes up a good half of Brubaker's run. He gives him happiness and he takes it away in an old-fashioned damsel-in-distress way. Milla is a 100% cardboard lady who was created to advance the plot. We know this won't last and frankly, it still lasted longer than I expected. But she is an entirely helpless person thrown into Matt's bizarre world. Anyone who's not a superhero (or villain, hi, Typhoid), would be. She is an antipode of Echo and she is a pre-Nocenti Karen type.

She is also a rebound gone too far, whether or not Matt is willing to admit that. He is stubborn in his search for simple happiness and he keeps refusing the fact that it's either one or the other for him. I think he doesn't realize he's not Spider-Man and for a person, who's supposed to be clever, he makes truly unintelligent decisions. 

In a way too Batman arc, Milla ends up in a mental health facility, catatonic, as a result of being poisoned by Mr. Fear. What I do appreciate is that the effect, at least for the entirety of Brubaker's run, is permanent. To make matters worse, they are still married when Matt sleeps with Dakota North (who was conveniently reintroduced as a former model). And then Milla’s parents reasonably sue for custody. 

Now here is when my lack of respect for Matt Murdock hits a new low: he intends to fight them. He actually has the audacity to face her parents who very well know what he is and who he does, and claim that he should be the one responsible for her. As if he hadn't done enough damage, which is what they say. Yes, he eventually gives up but not for the right reasons. He just can't cut losses and accept yet another destruction as his fault. He fights it for himself and his conscience, which somehow still functions. 

What makes matters worse, he still insists on “making things right” with Dakota because what would he really be if he didn't drag one more woman into his mess? Meanwhile, Dakota is potentially a badass, and if anything, that relationship could've worked much better than the others. Especially considering how she repeatedly refused to be signed off as a helpless love interest. I guess that's not Matt's type.

I have a beautiful theory and maybe 30% of a long read on how superheroes should only date each other. This guy provides 70% of my reasoning. 

Speaking of Law...

Matt's disastrous love life plays very well alongside the action and detective arcs. I can't say it's focusing on the lawyer side of things: Foggy and Becky do most of the lifting in that department and half of the time their job is actually defending Matt. The other - Matt provides a stellar clientele in the form of his former rogues gallery or his wife (yes, nice and sweet Milla had accidentally killed a man.) Matt is running around town creating new problems. 

The run starts with Matt in Riker's. He ends up there after Kingpin makes a successful deal with the FBI. Considering he has already proven he wasn't Daredevil and a person can't be tried for the same crime twice, I’m not sure how this makes sense. Honestly, I’m not a lawyer so I won't try and get into that. Either way, Matt escapes prison parading as Punisher's hostage. Let me say, that was a brilliant plan and a masterful cameo. Frank sees the headlines and immediately gets himself arrested, knowing he will have to help Daredevil escape. This is a long shot too, as you see the events play out and pretty much forget Frank is there. Definitely one of the comic book whoa moments, that I think would play extremely well if it ever makes its way to our screens.

World Tour

After his escape, Matt charges off to Europe to track down the person seemingly responsible for all his misfortunes. That's such a classic move from him, you half expect it to be a setup. Well, you also know it is. And then the events get chaotic but lead to none other than Vanessa Fisk. 

We last saw Vanessa when she offed her own son, Fisk Jr, after he participated in an attempt at Kingpin’s life, poetically modeled after that of Julius Caesar. So here Vanessa is poisoned by what she's done and is dying. For that, she very fairly blames Matt and Wilson. And she delivered the truest thing I have heard in the run so far: how selfish and clueless about that Matt is. This is what helps her set him up, and this is why she knows he would do what she tells him. Vanessa gives a beautiful insight into the never-ending fight between Daredevil and Kingpin. And yeah, you know it's true even if they manage to achieve a weak semblance of peace. Vanessa warns you it's not forever and you don't doubt her words for a second. 

So Matt weasels his way out of Riker's. And at this point, you can see vividly the cracks in his image of a noble believer in law and justice. He hasn't believed in law for a long while now, and he breaks it every chance he gets. But now he lives in lies upon lies. 

Not So Secret Identity

There's another element that Brubaker utilized well: everyone in New York knows who he is. Matt Murdock is Daredevil, which may be unspoken, and some people may claim he isn't, but everyone knows he is. So what happens next? Despite believing the world would fall apart around a hero whose identity is well-known, not much changes. People on the streets don't really care that much. Villains weigh their options when going against him. Those closest to him weren't safe to begin with. There's also a panel in one of the special issues, that shows Spider-Man’s monologue on the matter. And he says he always knew that would happen but expected he’d get there first.

And you know what? Spider fears aside, I think this is the most realistic interpretation of what having your secret identity leaked would be like. If you work it out with the feds and smooth out all the legal issues, people will quickly move on to the next thing. Everyone will be calling you by your name and there would be no need to look aside every time Bruce Wayne adopts a new kid and Batman miraculously obtains a new sidekick. But hey, at least Bats manages to train everyone around them, so he doesn't need to feel that bad when they die. 

Where to Next?

Brubaker leaves Matt's story on a high note, and his parting gift for Daredevil is another one of my favorite tropes. He gets the offer to lead the Hand. And when the offer is on the table, you know he has to take it. He doesn't even have extenuating circumstances like Angel did when he took over Wolfram & Hart, he is just that vain, tired, and selfish. He believes he’s doing it so it doesn't go to Wilson Fisk and he very well knows he's being manipulated by Izo. But something in him believes he will be able not to get corrupted. Of course, he believes that, and of course, I’m eagerly awaiting to see him proven wrong. 

Not All There Is

I am focusing on the writing here but an integral part of this run is art (mostly) by Michael Lark. His work follows Maleev’s style from Bendis’s run: similar panel structure and similar color scheme (I suppose that was more of a colorist+editorial achievement). But just like one run very smoothly morphs into the next, art continues to support the narrative. Daredevil comics work best with rainy, grainy, broody visuals and this duo certainly understood the assignment. I rarely talk about this, but we know that building a visual narrative is just as important as constructing a good word structure. And every close-up has to be in the right place and lead you to a massive splash page. Daredevil doesn't give you a lot of those, I believe, helps build and limit the scale of events. DD is an unfriendly neighborhood character and he doesn't need epic appearances. He stalks, which is best shown in this run’s art. 

To sum it all up, I enjoyed this run so much. It gave enough soap-level drama while keeping the interpersonal conflicts very human and very unheroic. It never steps into the realm of unrealistic, despite all the superpowers. It’s perfectly structured and split into interconnected case-like arcs that bleed into one another effortlessly. Most importantly, the creative team knows how to build up intrigue, where to pause and resume the story, how to leave you wanting more and give you a breather. So far it's been my favorite Daredevil run that dragged the devil through figurative hell and never quite brought him back.

[immaterial-pearl]

WHY you SHOULD read (or watch) Chainsaw Man. A quick guide.

Section 1: What is Chainsaw Man.

Well it's a manga (and an anime) about a guy who can grow a chainsaw from his head. It's an insanely stupid premise. After becoming the Chainsaw Man, Denji, the main character, joins a devil hunting organisation.

Section 2: Chainsaw Man's perspective on love.

Beyond it's basic premise, it's about Denji, a homeless teenager with dead parents, forming close bonds with others for the first time in his life (not counting his dog/demon). His initial goal is to pursue erotic and romantic love (which he sees as essentially, the same thing and the most important face of love). In the beggining he mostly interacts with three other characters:

Makima, his new boss, an adult woman Denji finds attractive. She believes Denji to be crucially useful to her, and so uses Denji's attraction to manipulate him;

Aki, another devil hunter, a guy in his early 20's that Denji moves in with. He finds Denji to be annoying, but tries to keep him alive and becomes a sort of older brother to him;

Power, a devil in the body of a human, who's loud and inconsiderate. She and Denji get partnered at work and have to do patrols together. Eventually she moves in with Aki as well.

Section 3: simple character premises.

Denji- on the surface, a horny teenager, on a deeper level, an incredibly lonely person, on an even deeper level, also a horny teenager.

Makima- girl war criminal, mastermind with... really unexpected and interestingly written motivations (not telling u more lol those are spoilers for end of part 1 of the manga).

Aki- born to be a brooding, cool character, forced to be a single father of two.

Power- i never watched south park but the author literally said shes based on cartman. From what I know that does track. Shes gross and horrible I love her.

Section 4: female characters.

Ever got angry the female characters always have to be more toned down and less gross than the male ones? Well here every single female characters is just as evil, over the top, insane and gross as the male characters. The author is also really down bad for a girl who threw him off of his bike when he was in uni, take this as you will.

Section 5: anime or manga.

The anime only has one season so far, it's weirdly paced and the animation is (in my opinion) pretty boring compared to the manga's art style. It is however very accurate and barerly makes any changes.

The manga is on it's part 2 now (the first part is about Denji, Power, Aki and Makima and goes on for 11 volumes, the second part is about Denji and a new character, Asa). It's art style is great, it's very well written and in my opinion better than the anime.

Section 6: trigger warnings.

I'm not going to go into detail but some major trigger warnings are:

blood, gore, violence;

manipulation;

hostile work enviroment;

sexual abuse (specifically sexual abuse towards an underage character);

death;

chainsaws.

[themarshyverse]

Thinking more abt Dally’s mom Betty (huge LONG rambling thought dump below)

The backstory I have for her is that she became a teen mom, got disowned by her family, and moved to the city to find work - although the more I think about this, the more I feel like it’s unrealistic that they would’ve made it through. There’s no way Betty and Dally would’ve survived without outside help, right? So maybe she was taken in by a relative who offered to help and had to suddenly inherit their bakery when they died prematurely.

It must’ve been hard for her, becoming a teen mom, cut off from most of her family - then suddenly the one family member that did support her died when Dally was less than a year old. I don’t even think she’d get a lot of support from other moms from Dally’s daycare/preschool either, at least the ones that aren’t in similar situations to her. Standing side by side, Dally and Betty look more like siblings rather than mother and son. Could you imagine the vicious gossip about her that might’ve been spread around?

But I don’t think she’d ever resent Dally for it because he keeps her engaged and busy. She figures that she’s rather be disowned with Dally by her side, rather than be disowned by herself or with her ex. But oh, could you imagine the really rough days though? Dally becoming more troublemaking and inconsiderate in his 2-3 year old era, and Betty jokingly thinks “oh man, they weren’t kidding when they said terrible 2’s! my life sucks!” but the more she dwells on it, the more upset she gets, and she just starts to cry. And her little boy gets worried, asks her why she’s crying, comes up to her and hugs her 😭😭 and that’s when Dally’s rebel era towards his mom completely ends. Even during his gang days, he could never disrespect, or tolerate disrespect, towards his mama. On a similar note about Betty’s parenting, Betty has never had issues with being weirdly possessive of Dally but when he gets older, a part of her fears that eventually after he leaves, he’ll just forget about her and not call… just like his dad… who happens to look so much like him… :(

I’ve debated there being a considerable gap btwn Dally’s mother and father (to add to how fucked up it already is) but I decided on this: they’re both young and grew up in a more conservative environment and their relationship progressed extremely fast. Once Dally was born, his dad moved away and has since then never contacted/visited Betty or his son ever again. If you were to ask Betty if she still loves him, she’d answer “no.” They were young and all the life experience she’s gained since then would really put into perspective how little time they spent together. So don’t really think she’d even have enough fondness to resent him - she’d just be indifferent/ignore him.

To be honest, I never once thought about giving a set face to Dally’s deadbeat dad. Logically he has to look a lot like his son, but for someone that isn’t so present in this story, all I can conjure up is a vague, blank face. Maybe that’s all Dally can imagine too.

Hmm, I wonder what Jake and Angel would think of her? Sometimes Dally casually drops tidbits about his life at home that makes them worry, but I don’t think they could ever put that against her. They’re still parents, they know how hard it is to raise a kid, and they know that she’s had it rough for a long time. Maybe they’d even help her out from time to time with her own issues too.

And an idea I’ve been working with is that she eventually helps out a friend of hers - another single mom - by letting her and her daughter move in. They have a close, healthy sisterhood! And Dally has a new baby sister :)