#chuck wiser

[goinxtodomystuff]

If he happens to be humming and/or listening to Le Festin while cooking, chances are he is preparing something less than pleasant.

[ew-selfish-art]

Dpxdc AU: consultant groups can be used to outsource problems for companies so why not monarchies?

Danny is listening to the various eyeballs and ghosts chatter on about all the issues that he now has to oversee and advise and make so many freaking decisions on. It’s annoying that it all has to come down to his call because he was a dumb 14 year old who didn’t want his town to permanently live in the ghost zone.

Now 17, King of the Infinite, and a bit wiser to the world, Danny is doing his best to balance his teenage ambitions to not give a shit and his protective obsession to very much give a shit.

Sams parents are making her learn the family business and Tucker is trying to make this internship he’s got with a fancy tech company out of New Jersey into a career without college… so while they’re commiserating with Danny the idea comes up.

Earth has a shit ton of heroes. Like, ever since the Justice League *poofed* the GIW out of existence with the Meta human acts- more and more caped crusaders seemed to be coming out of the wood work. More villains too but still, more people who seemed wise to their abilities and morals. Danny has literally never taken an ethics class.

But rn, Eye-mothy and Eye-Bert are arguing over how Danny as King Phantom is supposed to tackle the problem of some fucking pool acting as a weird trade route with a cult and… ugh it’s just so boring but like also such a fucking problem. But… maybe it can be someone else’s issue.

Opening a portal, Danny escapes into space and gets to work finding the base of operations- Tucker had told him there was a new satellite after all and there’s no way it wasn’t connected to the hero orgs- and boom he flies into the Watchtower.

“Hey- are any of you guys willing to consult on some weird pools of ectoplasm in Pakistan? Green and glowing little lakes of bullshit and magic?” Danny asks into the meeting room of the JL regardless of their startled and alarmed exclamations.

“… I could consult on that.” A voice comes from the corner, and Danny recognizes him as one of the bat people. Or bird? The guy is in a lot of red and clearly wasn’t supposed to be in this meeting based on the way he’s propped in the corner. The room erupts in protest but Danny barely hears them through his excitement and focus on the dude.

“Great! I’ll have him back before the end of the day! Lets go Bird boy!” And with that, Danny grabbed the Bird, chucked them both through a portal back into his thrown room and begins to explain the way these eyeballs are totally trying to trap him into doing more work than he needs to do.

“What do I call you by the way? I’m Danny but you’ll probably hear them call me King Phantom.”

“I go by Red Robin, and honestly, I’ve been trying to get this shit taken care of for years.”

From there Tim becomes a regular consultant for King Phantom- the Bat Family is losing their minds with him constantly going to the land of the dead but also Constantine said not to piss off the king at all costs.

Danny is just thrilled that this dude has a shit ton of insight as well as business sense- like he could legit run the monarchy way better than him despite the fact that they’re the same age.

They end up working together for years, and even when there’s not an active issue at hand, Danny will meet up with the bird just to talk.

Sam and Tucker think they’re hilarious each time they ask if Danny’s proposed yet.

Tim has already planned their wedding but all of that information is in a folder more secured than the nuclear codes- Danny needs to ask him on a date first.

[sugurusyndrome]

cw: slight exhibitionism, pervy nature

— thinking about best friend!suguru who secretly has the hots for you

best friend!suguru is down bad but he’ll never be caught dead showing it. he values your friendship tremendously but it’s also hard for him to not sneak longing glances at your body whenever he thinks you’re not looking. he’s only human after all. a flawed human, at that.

a sore liar he would be if he denied jerking off to you, whether that be thinking about a particular thing you did that day…or hearing you through your paper-thin shared wall. not his best decisions, yes he knows, but fuck if the wet sounds of your purple jelly toy squelching in and out don’t have him cumming like a teenager.

jokes that tease about you two being together? he’ll be the first to act grossed out even though he would sell his soul to have 7 minutes in your pussy heaven.

best friend!suguru ended up buying a fleshtoy just to imagine that’s you he’s sloppily fucking with trembling hands. soap, lube and precum made it all the world harder for him to keep a steady grip on the toy and he had to suck his filthy oh so filthy fingers to trap his euphoric sounds.

because you two have known each other for ages, no topic was too weird. the topic that comes up in the most in jokes? sex. because of course. you revealed to him, laughing and blushing cutely—his self-restraint deserved a medal that moment—that you liked your men vocal in bed.

what did he boldly do next time? be loud.

“fuck fuck ohh yesss” and “shit, gonna cum…gonna cum baby” echoed frequently in his bathroom. he was torn between wanting you to hear him and the mortification of being heard.

going back to the paper-thin walls, he definitely strains his ears so that he can pick up on the tempo and pretend he’s the one eliciting those whimpers.

best friend!suguru is a perv. there’s genuinely no other way to describe him. he’s volunteered to take on the laundry so just he can get his hands on your panties. tangled around his leaking dick, the crotch of your lace rubs up on his fat tip so deliciously it should be considered a major sin. eyes rolling back, he chants your name under his breath before chucking the panties into the wash.

you’re forever none the wiser.

or at least he hopes so.

[lundenloves]

OMG OMG OMG HEAR ME OUT PLEASE! What if Simon/Ghost comes back home from deployment and is really stressed, annoyed and angry from a mission. He’s left alone with his oldest daughter in the house and has this horrible fight with his oldest daughter and I mean like screaming because the oldest daughter can’t find her shirt and he refuses to help until finally she blurts “I hate you” to him out of the heat of the fight…CAN THIS SOMEHOW END WITH MAJOR FLUFF BETWEEN THE TWO?! If it’s too much just ignore me❤️❤️ Thank you, I love your work🤭🤭

{✧} hello beautiful anon, you have seemingly given me life? banged this out in around an hour. if it seems like it only took an hour, please ignore that or i’ll drown myself in a loch. hope i’ve done your ask justice? thank you for asking for angst, that’s probably why it got done so fast 💀

taglist | masterlist | dad!simon masterlist | request info

↳ no warnings | 1.2k | dad!simon

It was quiet in the house. Just quiet enough for Simon to process what had just happened in the last 48 hours — yet not quiet enough for his ears to ring from constant gunfire. It was a happy medium, alone bar his oldest who jogged up and downstairs at record paces. Flipping the living room upside down, and the pile of clean washing on the bottom stair was tossed to the floor in a desperate attempt to find her shirt. 

He was sitting on the sofa, head leant back, eyes shut only to hear her scuffling around. “Where’s my shirt?” She penetrated his happy silence, stood in front of him with arms dropped to her sides in a teenage palava. “Where did you put it?” 

Simon gave her a noise between a sigh and a hum, craning his neck to look up at her. “What?” He unintentionally spat, his normal tone of voice as sharp as ever. “I ‘aven’t touched your shirt.” Eyes locked to the pile of recently ironed clothes tossed to the floor by the stairs. “They’ll be in that fucking pile you’ve chucked around and walked past ten times.” 

“Well, they’re obviously not.” She groaned. 

Simon shrugged, standing up to stack this morning’s breakfast dishes. “What do you want me to do?” He shook his head at her, taking the plates to the kitchen with her trailing behind him. “I can’t magic it, can I? It’ll be wherever you’ve left it.” 

“It’s not. That’s the point. You’ve moved it.” She had genetically taken his frown, sporting it straight back to him when he had turned around to take something from the table. 

“Oh, have I?” He mumbled nonchalantly, loading the dishes into the sink with loud clatters. “Get those mugs from your room.” 

“No, I'm looking for the shirt.” Her tone matched his, stubbornly kicking her foot against the chair leg to get his attention. “Can you check mum's stuff?” 

“You can.” He turned around, a dish towel balled between his hands with a nod toward the stairs. 

Simon's moods were hard to distinguish. The primary reason being: he always seemed to be in some sort of disparity. So even when he’d come back from a particularly challenging mission, one that had asked too much from him or went horrifically wrong, he would almost always be the same as he usually was. Blunt, sarcastic and seemingly uncaring. 

You had learned to tell the difference but your daughters knew none the wiser. Leading to unknowingly provoking yet valid questions like, “What is wrong with you.” 

“Nothing. Get the mugs.” 

“You never help with shit.” She scoffed, turning on her heel to stomp upstairs and Simon’s jaw ticked. Head tilted to the side, palms leaning either side of the sink with a step back to hang his head between his shoulders. 

Having a teenage girl was the route of many headaches for Simon. Not particularly because of her, but for the natural way where everything revolves around them for an extended amount of years. Everything is embarrassing, if not first regarded as useless. And as far as Simon was concerned he fell somewhere between the two in her radar. 

“Don’t start with that.” He’d said once she had slammed the mugs down on the table behind him, his back was still toward her. 

“Well it’s fucking—“

“I mean it.” 

“It’s true you’re never here!” She shrilled. “You never do anything, you’re always angry and never help.” A beat. “You don’t even talk to us, dad.” She paused, undoubtedly eyeing him for any sort of reaction. “It’s fucked, you’re fucked.”

He turned to take the mugs, eyes avoiding hers although his jaw was tense. “And you can’t even have a conversation.” She laughed though it held no comedy. “You’ll just snap like you always do.” 

“I snap because it’s hard to switch between work and home— here.” He turned around, his daughter shying from his broad frame and low voice. Refraining from asking about Simon’s work was the one thing you had instructed all three of your kids not to do. Although, naturally it became a target point for arguments with him. A real low blow, the best and most critical hit you could land on him was his absence from home due to work. 

Bonus points if you added all he had missed, the first steps, the first words. It was a lot. But it was not there to be thrown back in his face, not as often as it was anyway. “You don’t even want to be here.” 

He shifted in his position, placing hands behind his head at her confrontation. “All of this because of that shirt.” His words directly combated hers, hitting them backward and stopping them from landing anywhere near him. Effectively avoiding her statement. 

“When’s the last time you hugged me, dad?” She said calmly yet loudly, metaphorically shattering glass over his head. 

It had been weeks, months at worst. 

His silence was telling, hands dropped down to his sides in defeat. As usual, he couldn’t find the words so she had jumped for her turn and jab one more time.

“I hate you. I hate you for that, so bad.” It came as a whisper and by that point, the kitchen had fallen quiet too. Occasional sniffs and the rubbing of the odd tear turned her face red, Simon cleared his throat. 

It only highlighted her point in that he stood still. Though, it wasn’t fair to point a finger and say it was his own fault he was that way, emotional warmth and touch just weren’t in his niche range of abilities. His thumb drew imperfect circles on the kitchen counter, staring at her with any and all outward apology he could muster. 

“I didn’t mean that.” She mumbled first, embarrassingly shifting her weight to the other foot while looking up to the ceiling, eyes darting left to right as if to hold back any more upset. She was a lot like Simon that way, although not at all. 

“I know.” He replied softly, taking a closing step toward her and placing his hand on the back of her head to pull her to his chest. “I don’t mean to be like this, you know that.” The silence made him look down to gain a nod in response, her gaze zoning out to the kitchen window as he smoothed out her hair. 

Simon was never good with words, so he always took to actions that felt even more foreign but they at least allowed for the substitution of his appeasements. “Sorry for swearing at you.” She mumbled, melting into his broad chest. 

“Someone has to put me in my place.” The vibration of the words rippled in his chest and she pulled back only to look down at the floor. “You’re a lot like me, you know.” He poked at her ribs, provoking an unwilling laugh that then turned into a smile. “A lot.” 

She shrugged, pushing his hands away after they had wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Yeah, alright.” Her frown was feigned.

“I promise you.” He turned to continue the dishes, looking back to her over his shoulder. “And your shirt is on the line.” He nodded out the window, watching as she gasped and ran outside like he had found gold. 

simon ‘ghost’ riley taglist: @vamppxncess @crowbird @misshoneypaper @tallrock35 @fluffmonster @islanderr @blueoorchid @lea3773 @coldflapjack @rayhawk05 @han11dh @liishook @melovetitties @fallonx @rvjaa @fuckmelifesucks @bhayatsara @takeomisbitch @local-spidey @konigsblog @penutjuice @babychoi03 @sheluvzeren @sparklingtragedy @maviee @wiserebelpartypie @daddylorianisastateofmind @bhayatsara @mistydeyes @writingmysanity @johfaam0 @idkjoequinn @gressseyy @fwibblefwobble @shibble @maladaptivedaydreamingbum @airghostlyfox @hotgirlsshareaccounts @simpxinnie @dilfdotgov

as always comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated! i’ll sit in a hole if no one pays me on the head every now and then.

this is unedited.

[uravitypng]

bully tsukishima is just so awful to you, he pulls your hair and pinches your cheeks so hard that you think they might bruise. he feels no remorse for his actions, when he sees your lip wobble as you're trying not to cry he knows he's won. he loves when he pinches you so hard that you squeal in pain, he can never decide what's better feeling your pudgy flesh between his fingers or hearing you squeal, it makes him hungry for more of you, for more of the sounds you make and what sounds you'd make if he bit into your shoulder and sunk his fingers in your cunt. every time you would cry and try to run away but he would seek you out. it would only get worse when he had you completely cornered, when you both were completely alone together.

he saw you walking in the corridor and had to follow you into the bathroom, you were none the wiser. he wanted to see the fear in your eyes, needed it. it resulted in him shutting you both in together, chucking something against the door making it harder to enter, it was still possible though with enough force. that's exactly what you were thinking when you heard the door slam shut and whipping your head around you saw him standing there with a smirk. your only hope was that someone would notice, that someone would come in and see, someone would push hard enough against the door.

backing up against the wall, trying to gain as much distance from him as possible, you try to speak clearing and confident but even you can tell that you sound completely the opposite, your voice quivering, quiet and shaky, "what do you want tsukishima?" he doesn't answer you but laughs in your face, walking closer to you and making you feel trapped. he still doesn't answer you and you're too scared to speak, hoping that he'll leave you alone. he doesn't. he stands so close to you that you can feel his breathing and you know that he'll be able to hear your racing heartbeat.

he pushes his hands against the wall around you, encasing you so you're trapped under his scrutiny. the whole time he's moved closer to you you've kept your head down, hoping he'll leave you alone if he doesn't get a reaction out of you. that changes when he slams his hands down making you jolt at the noise and look up at him, and the look on your face is something tsukishima will never forget, with your arms trembling, eyes red and watery, tiny sniffles coming from you. god it's making him so hard.

before you even know whats happening he's kissing you. he bites your lip and in shock you let out a gasp giving him the time he planned to shove his tongue down your throat. still in shock, you're unable to move and get away from his grasp, you're not responding to his kiss but he knew you wouldn't. moving his arms from their current position he grabs hold of your love handles and kneeds them. he moves one of his hands and snakes it under your skirt and onto your thigh, making you shiver in the process, causing him to kiss you even harder, still not stopping and coming apart to breathe.

everything seems like it's happening all at once to you but also like it's in slow motion, it's very confusing. he reaches up under your skirt, feeling your plush thighs and mentally groans at how fucking good you feel. you finally have a reaction and try to push him away after he slaps your thigh, causing you to whimper and your thigh to sting. you try to wriggle out of his grasp making him snicker at you. he knows his own strength after years of volleyball he knows that if he actually hit you as hard as he could he could seriously hurt you and he doesn't want to cause you a lot pain, that doesn't stop him from spanking pretty hard though. he's wanted to do that for so long, to slap your soft skin. hearing the noise and seeing the ripples, it's even better than he imagined and he imagined it a lot.

finally he speaks, "be good for me, princess. if you're good, i'll be nice. if you cry again i'll be super nice. do you think you can handle that? i'll make you feel really good if you be good." he's so condescending, you hear that loud and clear but it's hard to focus on that as straight after he's said that he makes his way further up your thigh, reaching your pussy and grazing his fingers over your underwear, you're so wet that he can feel it and he's getting more annoyed at the fact he didn't do this sooner.

"fuck, maybe i shouldn't be nice to you, maybe i should be extra mean, i think that's what you really want? can you handle that too?" he smirks, holding onto you tighter and applying more pressure to his fingers, touching you with more purpose than before. you shake your head, you don't want him to be mean, you want to leave. you're trying to ignore how good he feels against your skin, how he's touching you in all the right places, how he'd be so pretty if he didn't talk as much, how his slender fingers are wrapped around your body and his glasses askew, they frame his face really well. you've always hated how hot he was and now how he kissed you like no one else ever had before, you liked it. "no?" he stops all movement, still caging you in but stilling his body, still smirking. he's waiting for your next move.

"no." you try to say loud without quivering like last time but you can't.

he smiles, almost sinister like and you can't help but wonder what's going on his head. he withdraws his fingers from his original position and stops leaning against the wall, giving you room to breathe. you're holding your breath, confused and on edge, waiting.

he goes to pick up his bag and turns around to leave, in the mirror he sees you still standing there, not having moved. "what you doing princess?" you stare blankly. he comes closer to you again, making you confused, this time all you can do is blink up at him, wondering what his game is. "you said no. come back to me when you know it's a yes. see you around, crybaby." he leans downs and softly kisses your cheek, he's never touched you so delicately before. he turns back around and leaves, leaving you there on your own, staring off into space, still feeling his touch all over you.

you just know that tomorrow tsukishima's going to get to class just after you so he can sit down behind you before anyone else gets the chance to, and then he'll spend the day tormenting you.

[technofantasia]

The thing about Josuke is that, since the age of four, he's had 24/7 access to a secret superpower that lets him instantly and completely fix anything that goes wrong in his life. Anything that breaks, anyone that gets hurt, anything that happens and has a negative result can be immediately rewound and brushed off as if it never happened with nobody ever the wiser; after all, it's not like anyone he's met can even SEE his stand, let alone realize he's using it to do anything. Even if he does it while someone else is present, would they really believe that Josuke has some sort of healing superpower over the idea that they were just wrong about the thing having been broken in the first place? Probably not.

What kind of effect would that power have on a developing kid?

Imagine that he's playing a video game and he's getting really frustrated because he keeps dying in the same place over and over. If that happened to you, what would you do? Maybe gear up to chuck the controller into the TV? But, wait, you can't do that! If you did, it might be satisfying for a second, but then you'd have to deal with the fallout of a broken TV and an angry parent. Not worth it. Josuke, on the other hand? If HE totally destroyed the TV, he could have that momentary satisfaction of letting the frustration out, then just quickly fix the TV and get back to the grind. No harm, no foul, no bits of glass to sweep out of the carpet or mother tearing her hair out in upset. Of COURSE he'd do it. Why wouldn't he?

Imagine that he forgets his locker combination, because oops head too full of teenage miscellany. Would he go through the effort of fumbling around to find whichever pocket he shoved the slip of paper with his combination in to open it while he's already late to class? Or would he just tear the door off its hinges, retrieve his stuff, and shove it back on in two seconds flat? Imagine that he's messing around with some friends trying to climb a huge tree, when one of them falls getting two broken bones and a concussion. Would he call the friend an ambulance and decide climbing tall trees is too dangerous? Or would he just climb down, heal the friend back up, say something to the effect of "oh wow, good thing you ended up okay!", and continue doing what he was doing safe in the knowledge that his stand could save him or cushion the fall if HE ever slipped? (He may not be able to HEAL himself, but he can certainly protect himself from the same kinds of damage other people get.)

Those are all just hypotheticals, but we do see examples of him doing those kinds of things in the series. He beats up anyone who pisses him off only to instantly heal them afterwards. He tears off Hazamada's locker door to look inside without a second thought. In the wake of his grandpa's murder, he destroys and fixes a ton of furniture in his house. He mentions fixing a friend's broken leg. He DEFINITELY doesn't shy away from anything dangerous, and not just out of general shounen recklessness. When Aqua Necklace hides inside his mother's body, he forgoes any convoluted plan to save her and just punches her through the stomach without hesitation because he knows with 100% certainty, the certainty of lived experience, that she'd be completely fine afterwards, that she wouldn't even notice. He waited to try healing his grandpa when he saw him sprawled across the floor because he didn't have a doubt in his mind that, even if he took his time getting there, as soon as he did he'd be up again like nothing happened. (He was only wrong once.)

The thing about Josuke is that, since the age of four, he's learned that being reckless almost never leads to consequences. He's learned that its okay to make mistakes because pretty much any mistake he makes can be quickly and easily fixed with no lasting damage. He's learned that, as long as he's the one who takes responsibility for something, everything turns out okay for everyone.

We can see all that easily in his personality and the way he acts. He's unbelievably chill, cool-headed and reasonable even in situations where NOBODY would be; stakes are very different for somebody who can effortlessly reverse anything short of death, so of course he doesn't panic at those sorts of things. By contrast, things like "no money" or "waded into leech pool" (or, for a more serious example that comes up in the series, "friend/family is missing") are not as easily fixed and thus are a much bigger deal.

Despite how much it takes to make him full on panic, though, he is far from careful on a regular day. Sure, he may be chill, but all that means is that he'll calmly and deliberately do something insane instead of doing it in a panicked frenzy. We see dozens of examples of Josuke casually thinking his way out of situations by coming up with a crazy reckless solution on the spot that would be a last-ditch measure by anyone else, just because he's so used to thinking with his stand's ability in mind. (While you could maybe argue this applies to most Jojo protagonists, I still think Josuke manages to be one of the most reckless on-the-spot planners in the series while also being one of the most generally well-collected AND having a solidly in-place sense of self preservation, which is still an interesting combination in contrast with the other protagonists.)

It's worth noting, of course, that Josuke DOES have a bit of a (literal) hair-trigger temper, but rages on Josuke are short, concentrated, and in a strange sense, controlled. While he's certainly much less reasonable and more destructive than usual when in rage mode, said destruction never extends past the source of the anger; he feels mad, so he lets it out, handles the situation, and almost instantly falls back to baseline. Like chucking a controller at a TV and fixing it back up. A controlled explosion.

All of this is to say that, even when Josuke does reckless or destructive things, it's not because Josuke himself is a reckless or destructive person; far from it. Josuke's top priority is keeping the peace. Why else would he choose to be so meek towards bullies on the first day of school, even knowing he could wipe the floor with them? Why else would his first reaction to being told he was the result of an affair be to humbly apologize for the trouble his existence caused, instead of any kind of personal confusion or upset? The only reason he acts how he does is because he knows from experience that inserting himself into a situation, striking fast and hard however is appropriate, then fixing up the aftermath, is the most efficient way to solve problems for himself and everyone around him. He's not a pushover. He'll stand up for himself and what's important to him when he needs to. But ultimately he just wants the best for everyone, and since he's been gifted the ability to fix things, to heal, doesn't it make sense to use it?

In that way, Josuke acts as a perfect foil to Kira. Neither of them deny themselves whatever they want, neither of them are used to experiencing consequences for their actions, and both of them just want a peaceful life; the difference is, Kira destroys problems. Josuke fixes them.

An interesting side effect of this mindset is that Josuke ends up taking on responsibility for all sorts of things that are in no way his burdens to bear. We see a number of times throughout the series that he never backs away from a situation he could potentially do something about, to the point of even inserting himself into situations he really doesn't need to. Any time he CAN heal someone, he does; in the Harvest episode, in particular, Josuke heals a number of tiny injuries Okuyasu picked up without comment as soon as he could. It's so ingrained that, during their dice game, Rohan mutilates himself in order to keep Josuke from running away, since he knew Josuke would never leave him like that even though they hate each other. Of course Josuke would consider it his responsibility to heal the hand Rohan messed up himself such that he'd stay in a terrible situation he could easily walk away from just for the opportunity to heal him. It's a no-brainer.

And because Josuke takes on so much extra responsibility, because Josuke is considered by both all his friends and himself to be the multi-purpose get out of jail free card, he takes it that much harder whenever anything seriously goes wrong. There's almost a level of existential disbelief to it. Sure, anybody would be upset when something bad happens, like, say, a family member or friend dying because of your own negligence, but with Josuke... When his grandpa dies, and then paralleled later when Okuyasu gets blown up by Killer Queen, he sounds confused. Like he just experienced something impossible. People can't die around him. It's not even a question. He has a healing superpower! People can't die around someone with a healing superpower, especially not when they're literally a few steps away!! So, then, if it really did happen, what does that say about him? When he gets the call from Koichi during the fight against Sheer Heart Attack, he panics and rushes into action immediately. It's easy to imagine what could have been flashing through his mind.

Because of his stand, the stand he got after a formative experience when he was just a small kid, he always has the unique ability to help. To help himself, to help others. All he has to do is put in the effort, show as much kindness as he can as soon as it's needed, and he can keep everyone happy and healthy. At the end of the day, if he can do something, he will. Every time.

The thing about Josuke is that, since the age of four, he decided that he wanted to be like the person who saved him when he and his mom were stranded in the snow. He saw the way that guy went out of his way to help a total stranger, showing kindness to people who needed it more than he could ever know, taking off his coat in the cold despite his own injuries just because it was the right thing to do, and he thought: "I want to be like that". Through that decision, he received the power to do just that. Over the years, he used that power again and again; for himself, for others, for everyone he could. And eventually, that's exactly the kind of person he grew into.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

[ wake ] for one muse to wake up to the other at the side of their hospital bed.

A/n: I am not so sure how I feel about this one.

It was a slit second reaction, one you weren’t even sure you would have been able to pull off but you had to try something.

You saw the glint of the knife which lead you to shove the man out of the way.

“Hey! What the-.”

“Always the observant type…weren’t you Y/n.”

That voice, you recognize it from anywhere. Just seeing the man made your skin crawl. “Krauser.” You has to bite your tongue to insult the man though a tight pain in your chest made blood bubble past your lips.

“Looks like our little lamb doesn’t have much time. These parasites, they’re a tricky little thing.”

You didn’t hear much of the conversation between Leon and Krauser. The pain was starting to become to much to handle, the blood slipping past your lips as Luis wrapped his arms around you as he carried you away from the fight. “It’s alright…you’re doing to be alright..I…I’m going to save you…I promise.”

Luis hated how weak he sounded, you didn’t deserve this. Wiping the blood away from his cheek he could barley hear what Leon was telling him but seeing you like this scared him. Pulling out they key in his pocket he glanced at Leon, Krauser long gone. “The lab…I need to get her to the lab.”

Cradling you against his chest, Luis just prayed that he could save you in time. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could wait for Leon though he was grateful that the man was standing in front of him. “I need too.”

“Go…I’ll catch up.” Leon gave him a nod, you looked so weak in his arms, your veins showing, your blood coating your shirt. “Do me a favor and keep the door unlocked.”

“por supuesto”

Luis tipped his head to the man then took off running as he prayed under his breath. “You’re going to be okay….I promise you’ll be okay.”

•+•

Getting to the lab was the easy part, but this part, this was the moment he was dreading. Laying you down on the bed Luis cupped your cheek, his thumb gliding over the skin. “You’re okay see….I’m going to fix this and you’re going to be okay but you need to do me a favor cariño…you need to hold on…this is going to hurt.”

Slowly opening your eyes, you weakly felt the man cup your hand, you felt metal beneath your finger tips.Your head was spinning, everything was felt like you were stuck in an echo chamber but Luis’s voice was the only thing that was coming in clear. “What do you mean-.”

“lo lamento.”

“Wh-.”

That’s when you felt it, the shocking pain was something like you’ve never felt before. You tried to endure the pain but it did not take long for you to pass out on the bed, Luis calling out your name.

+•+

Jolting awake, you let out a serious of coughs, a hand rubbing your back gently. “Easy…easy.”

Squinting you glanced up at the man, Luis giving you a smile. Lips trembling you wrapped your arms around him for a tight hug. “I have half a mind to slap you.”

Chucking Luis hugged you close as he placed a small kiss to your temple. “I would very much like for my face to remain intact…speaking of which we should really get out of here.”

“Why where are-.” A small yelp escaped your lips as Luis picked you up cradling you in his arms. “No time to talk princesa…”

“I.”

Now in Luis’s arms your buried your face into the man’s chest. You winced at the blaring alarm as the man held you closer though a laugh escaped his lips once he spotted the man. “Hola amigo!”

“Hey enough pleasantries! Get your ass on the jet ski, I rather not die.”

Snorting, Luis let you down. Your knees nearly bucking from under you. “Easy princesa, can’t have you on your knees yet.” Giving you a wink he helped you on the jet ski first then got on himself. “Hold on tight alright.”

Weaving your arms around his wiser you buried your face in the back of his neck. “Is this a bad time to say I get sea sick.”

“Please do not throw up on me.”

Scoffing you placed a kiss to his cheek though you let out a laugh as he speed off following Leon and Ashley.

+•+

You never thought you’d be grateful to step on dry land, sighing you gave Leon a smile then a nod as he walked off to brief Hunnigan on the events you all went through.

“So I think I owe you a big thank you in you know…saving my life.”

Luis scoffed as he grabbed your hand only to place a kiss to the back of it. “It’s the knight’s job to save the princesa.”

Shaking your head a smile graced your lips as you stood on your toes. “Well since that’s case then I think the knight deserves a kiss.”

“Maybe a dinner too?”

Rolling your eyes you let your arms wrap around his neck as you pulled him in for a kiss. “Defiantly a dinner.”

Wrapping his arms around your waist the man lifted you on the air spinning you around, a laugh escaping your lips. “Ah you are wonderful mi amor.”

Giggling you pressed your lips against his for another kiss, your fingers weaving through his hair.

Watching you both, Ashley cupped her hands inform of her. “I’m happy for them but…what about Luis…what’s going to happen to him.”

Rolling his neck, Leon shrugged his shoulders giving Ashley a slight smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Luis Serra died on the island…I’m looking at some guy we found.”

Beaming at Leon, Ashley placed a kiss to the agents cheek. “You’re the best Leon.”

[obsessivestar]

'What If It's All A RomCom?' - A Ted Nivison x Reader

{{-Welcome to Chapter 8! Thanks for everyone that voted in the poll BTW. I don't know when I'll incorporate it into the fic but I do have another question for y'all: how much smut are you ok with being in this LMAO cause uhh...ya girls got some ideas but I don't wanna overfill it, yknow? Pls let me know, thanks, love ya to death ♡-}}

//General Warnings: 18+ Fic, (Minors dni), Reader is implied to be afab and under 5'5

Chapter Warnings: Little bit of conflict, suggestive flirting maybe??? uhhh yeah\\

Word Count: 4.5k

☆▪︎▪︎▪︎Taglist!▪︎▪︎▪︎☆

@k-k0129 & @callsign-scully

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Chapter 8: How Do You Feel?

I try to move to the makeup team before Joe can catch up to me, but I feel him grab the back of my shirt to pull me back and turn me around, scowling at me. "When the fuck were you going to tell me?" Joe frowns at me, trying to keep his angry voice down so the others couldn't hear us. "Joe, I was--" I try to speak up, but Joe cuts me off.

"Look, I backed off after I saw the way he looked at you that night we played Jackbox, but you promised me you'd say if anything more happened."

"I know! I was--" I'm cut off again.

"Like, what was that? And what was with the kiss you guys filmed?"

"Okay that was different, that was for the--"

"Oh don't! Inviting him into your room was NOT for the play."

"I didn't invite--"

"Like how long has this been going on?"

"It literally--"

"Why didn't you tell me after the first time?"

"Holy fuck, Joseph! That WAS the first time!"

I have to strengthen the tone of my voice to finally overpower his frustrated ramblings, but I was a tad too loud. Some of the film crew had turned around and looked at us. The scene looked right out of a sitcom. I let out a heavy sigh and grab Joe's arm, leading him over to the stairs to talk to him privately, properly.

"You gotta let me get a fucking word in, Joseph.." I huff at him, speaking a little quieter as we move to the top of the stairs. "I was literally going to tell you before I went and got my makeup done. That's the only night we've spent together."

"So you guys literally just slept together, last night." Joe asks, phrasing it more like a statement.

"Yes. Tanner passed out in his room last night so he came into mine to work on stuff. Then...I don't fucking know, one thing led to another and we slept together."

"So why did he just kiss you like it's been a thing?"

"I don't know! He just--" I pause with an annoyed groan, shaking my head a little. "Probably to fuck with me."

"To fuck with you."

"Yeah, cause I told him I was gonna tell you. He was fucking with me."

"He knew you were gonna tell me?"

"Yeah! And he was fine with it. He just didn't know when or if he wanted the others to know."

"Really???"

"Yes!"

"So..." Joe's frustration quickly turns into amusement, his smile turning upside down like he was trying not to laugh. "So he just did that? Himself?"

"You mean kiss me in front of everybody? Yes. He's a prick.."

"And he didn't tell you he was going to do that?"

"No. It's taking all of me not to grab one of the water bottles and chuck it as his fucking head." I rub my forehead with my hand, trying to calm my frustration with him. It was a ridiculous way to reveal we were seeing each other, even though it was a little cute. "He could've talked to them about it later."

"Ted isn't a talker." Joe admitted with a shrug. "He doen't really...talk or ask, he just does. He didn't even ask if he was invited to my wedding, he just showed me the blue suit he was going to wear and I sent him the invite after."

"Well he was certainly a talker last night.." I mumble to myself, an annoyed sigh leaving me. I definitely intend to talk to Ted about this afterward, especially if we do intend to keep seeing each other like this. I'd be fine with him kissing me like that in front of Dan, Tanner and Joe, but I'd prefer it if the film crew were none the wiser, especially since we have yet to label anything between us.

"...How was he last night?" Joe asked with a mischievous smile on his face, nudging me with his shoulder a little to get a rise out of me. I relax a little, a smile sneaking its way across my lips.

"...Okay, you want me to be for real?" I ask him

"Abso-fucking-lutely! I need the tea." Joe snickered, nudging me a little again. "Come on, I gotta know, and I know you definitely wanna talk about it.."

I playfully roll my eyes at that statement, but he's not wrong. "...Well.." I pause for a moment, a blush appearing along my cheeks as I think back to last night. I recall the moment I realized he was going down on me, hearing him groan against my skin...

"...He knows where it is."

"Where what is?....AHHHH!"

Joe screeches in excitement at my statement and grabs my shoulders to shake me a little, definitely remembering the conversation we were having with Dan and Tanner before. I start laughing, trying to calm Joseph down from his almost animated-like elation. "(Y/N)! Oh my god!" Joe continues to cackle, covering his mouth when I shush him loudly. "Fuckin' get it, girl!"

"Okay, settle down.." I try to calm Joe down, chuckling a little at his excitement.

"Was he good? Is he good?" Joe continues to ask me questions, poking at me as if to prod the answers out of me. His constant interest in how Ted was last night was pretty funny, I gotta admit, and man...he was right, I wanted to talk about it.

"Oh my god, he was good. God, was he good.." I admit with a breathy giggle, getting another little excited screech out of Joe. "He kissed me and it was like...nothing else but this moment mattered, y'know? I fell right into his hands. The way he touched me was so...personal, and the dude treated me like I was his last meal, and afterward? Oh my god, his stamina, his voice, his..." I pause for a moment with a bashful little smile, nudging Joe a little without finishing my sentence. He knew what I was talking about.

"Would you sleep with him again?" Joe asks after a moment with a big smile.

"You kidding me? I hope Tanner falls asleep in his room again.." I admit with a laugh, getting a good cackle out of Joe as well. "100% I'd sleep with him again. God, he's hot."

"You guys are hot together."

"No, but he's super hot. And tall. Oh God, he's tall.." I admit with a heavy blush. "I'm not even a height kind of girl, but he towers over me. I can't look at him anymore without just...thinking."

"Thinking about him?"

"Thinking about what he could do to me.."

Joe and I both laugh together again. It honestly felt so good to talk to someone about all of the crazy thoughts that go through my head. I was hoping Joe would relax fully and allow me to gossip with him more often about this, especially if I sleep with Ted again. I appreciate protective Joe, but I like drama Joe a little better, at least in this case.

"Cmon, I wanna watch the makeup team work on you."

"They're probably wondering where I am."

Joe and I chuckle as we get up from the top of the stairs to head back into the living room. They had built like a mini tent, decorated with lots of bright lights and some partitions around to help make the area its own room, in a way. It wasn't the prettiest makeup room, but it's what we had and it worked. I take a seat down in front of the makeup station, which is the most expensive looking part of the area. We had an entire desk with a big mirror with a bunch of lights around it to really light up my face and all the makeup on the desk was top-notch quality, too. I didn't know Tanner even knew about all these brands.

Joe hung out with me as the makeup team worked on me, sitting somewhat behind me in a chair so we could talk in the mirror. We made sure not to make the conversation about Ted since we were around other people, but Joe would occasionally make subtle references to last night just to mess with me, it almost ruined my makeup at one point. He had made me laugh and I looked down with an embarrassed smile while they were putting eyeliner on me, almost made them put a huge black streak across my face. It just made us laugh more.

They had tried on a bunch of different formal makeup styles on my face, going through the decades of history before moving onto more fantasy looks. At one point, I looked like an elf straight out of Dragon Age, vallaslin and all. Tanner had hired a great team, I was taking a ton of photos and genuinely enjoying myself. A final look wasn't decided on right away so I watched as the removed the last bit of test makeup after an hour or two. Since we'd be filming a bit more today, they gave me a more natural appearance with their makeup before sending me back out.

At this point, the kitchen had been cleared of any extra food and garbage, say for a few donuts still in a single box. Ted isn't anywhere to be seen, but I see Dan and Tanner setting up some cameras over by the kitchen, looking like they were adjusting them. I let out a sigh, wondering what Ted had said to them once Joe and I went to the stairs. I suppose I should probably get their input on this whole thing as well. I was fine talking to Tanner, but I hadn't known Dan for very long at this point. He was a cool guy and all, but it's just...strange.

I approach them, sheepishly holding one of my arms behind my back.

"Hey, is everything almost ready?" I decide to ask them watching as Dan moved in front of the camera while Tanner looked through it. "Yep. Almost. Just...adjusting the focus.." Tanner replied, a little grunt leaving him as he stood up straight to adjust the length of the camera's stand. He wasn't making a particular expression related to what happened earlier. Neither was Dan. Maybe they don't know if I wanted to talk about it. That's understandable.

"Where's, uh...where's Ted?" I ask another question, the air feeling a little awkward at Tanner and Dan's normal demeanor.

"He went back upstairs again." Tanner answered, keeping his eyes on the camera.

"Again? Why?"

"Because he's getting a sweater for the wet scene"

I furrow my brows at Tanner. "The what scene?"

"The wet scene. You don't remember the wet scene?"

I look and feel extremely confused. Tanner keeps repeating 'wet scene' to me like I should know what he's talking about, but I genuinely don't. Christ, it's not like I was drunk last night or anything, why am I so scatterbrained all of a sudden?

"We're taking the pool out and filming the wet scene." He speaks again, moving away from the camera to look at me fully. He doesn't seem phased by the fact that I'm visibly confused.

"OK, uh...Tanner?"

"Yeah?"

"Assume that I have...no fucking idea what you're talking about."

"Okay."

"What's 'the wet scene'?"

"OK, so, yknow how we have the pool out back?"

"No."

"Ok--" Tanner chuckles a little at my confusion. "So there's that big section of the house at the side I tell people to be careful around, because there's actually a pool underneath all that. It's fake grass and everything. We're taking the pool out, getting some stuff in there and bringing Ted out. The wet scene is him pushing you into the pool with your clothes on. Then he gives you the sweater to wear."

I blush a little after Tanner explains how the scene is going to go. It's funny, I actually did remember that this Airbnb came with a pool but when we went outside that one time and I didn't see it, I just assumed whoever had put the place up had lied. It happens. Now I'm learning Ted is going to have to push me into this pool, apparently soaking my current clothes. Wonderful.

"Do I get to push him back at all?" I asked with a smirk, crossing my arms.

"I mean, not for the scene, but we can probably use the pool when we're not filming."

"Is it a big pool?"

"Oh yeah, it's got an attached hot tub too."

"Ha." I grin with a little head nod. "Let's go."

Tanner chuckles a little at me, moving back over to the camera before giving Dan a little thumbs up, letting him move away from the frame.

"You should let her push him first." Dan suggested with a smile. "Even just off camera."

"Why?" Tanner looked up from the camera with a raised brow.

"Because he kissed her in front of us."

Another blush appears along my face, an annoyed sigh leaving me. "I'm sorry about that, by the way." I speak up, my smile turning into a little frown. "I didn't tell him to--"

"Oh, we know." Tanner admits, cutting me off a little.

"Yeah, he told us everything." Dan admitted with a smirk, pulling up one of the spare chairs laying around to sit down. "Well, not personal stuff but he apologized and let us know that you're a thing."

So he apologized to them before he apologized to me. Then again, I was in the makeup room. He probably didn't want to pull me away from their job. I better get an apology later though.

"So...how do you guys feel about it?" I ask with a nervous smile, holding both of my hands in front of me.

"I mean..." Tanner pauses, chuckling a little as if to fill silence. "How does Joe feel about it, is what I want to know."

"He's...happy about it, actually. A little too happy." My smile grows, giving a little shrug.

"Then as long as it doesn't effect production, I'm happy too." Tanner nods a little at me before giving a shrug of his own. "I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner."

"Aw, we should've made a bet the other night! Dan groaned playfully at Tanner with a little laugh.

"We should've! I would've won!" Tanner grinned, scoffing at the lost opportunity. That implies he knew Ted and I would've slept together last night.

"Jesus christ." I look up a at the ceiling and laugh, shaking my head. "Was everyone expecting this to happen except me?"

"Yes." "Yes." Tanner and Dan reply in unison, getting an eye roll from me in response.

Ted comes back downstairs with a full white sweater in his hands, a knowing smirk on his face when he sees me talking to Tanner and Dan. I turn back to look at him, giving him a stern squint. I don't care how handsome he looks, I don't care that his stubble is perfectly shaping his face, I don't care that his eyes are twinkling in my direction, I don't even care that all of my friends have seemingly been shipping us since the beginning, I'm still upset with him and his dramatics from earlier.

"Oooh, she still mad?" Ted asks with a little purr, placing the sweater down in the kitchen counter before approaching the 3 of us, putting his hands on his hips.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, please." I huff, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "What happened to 'I'll think about it'?" I ask him, referencing what he told me before we left my room.

"I did think about it." Ted replied simply. "When you smiled at me, I'd made up my mind."

"So you thought the best way to let everyone know we're seeing each other was to kiss me in front of them?"

"No, I just wanted to kiss you."

"You just wanted to kiss me?"

"Yeah. You looked cute. I wanted to kiss you."

I resist the urge to smile at him, trying to show that I was serious, regardless of how sweet he was being. "Yeah, well...it was a real prick move.." I mutter a little, looking down at my hands. "You could've at least let me tell Joe first."

"Why, was he upset?"

"Yes, he thought I was hiding it from him. He thought we had..." I pause, turning to look over at Dan and Tanner. They quickly move to try and look busy, but I knew they were listening. "...been seeing each other since we played Jackbox that one night."

"Honestly, kinda valid, I should've knocked on your door sooner."

"Ted..." I scowl at him.

"Okay, okay.." Ted chuckles and let's out a little sigh at my response, bringing one of his hands up to scratch the back of his head. "Alright I'm sorry. It was stupid of me.." Ted finally apologized. "You were just...I wanted to kiss you."

"Yeah, I get it, you wanted to kiss me."

"Do you blame me? You're very kissable, alright? I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?"

I don't respond right away, gazing up at him as I think to myself. I can't tell if he's buttering me up to calm me down, or if he's really just trying to be affectionate. Either of those options are both annoying and sweet to me. At least he's apologizing, I guess. It sounds genuine enough.

"...I should smack you." An affectionate smile creeps along my lips, uncrossing my arms to relax a little.

"Would that make you feel better?" Ted crosses his arms with a little grin, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I don't think you need to hit him." Tanner added with a smirk, moving over to the kitchen to grab a water bottle.

"She wants to humiliate me back, I already know." Ted explained, giving a mocking chuckle. "She's gonna spit on me or somethin'"

"Fucking spit on you? Jesus.." I scoff at Ted, furrowing my brows at him. "I feel like you'd like that."

"If it's you and you kissed me after, maybe.."

"You're disgusting."

"Oh yeah, I know. I see that you like it though..."

The confidence Ted constantly exudes was both irritating and attractive. He reads me like a book; I both hate it and love it. All I can do is roll my eyes, giving Ted a little push on his shoulder as a response. I sigh when he chuckles at me, a little smile making the corners of my mouth creep up.

"Alright guys, let's leave some of the flirting for the camera.." Dan smiles at us, gesturing to the backdoor to herd us outside for the next scene. Most of the crew had moved outside with some other cameras and had even gotten the pool all set up. There were some folding chairs laid out with some umbrellas attached to them, along with some towels and little empty glasses that were sat on the little tables next to the chairs. They had thrown some toys into the pool to really add to the atmosphere.

Apparently, Ted and I would be having a few scenes near this pool, one particularly at night that would involve a kiss. Now that I was more comfortable with him, I was looking forward to any more scenes where we'd have to kiss. Man, I'd love to kiss him more.

Once Tanner gets outside he explains how the shot is going to be filmed. It would be used as another establishing shot so dialog wouldn't be recorded, but we would be required to talk for a little before he'd be pushing me into the pool. Tanner had the idea to shout when he was ready for Ted to push me, but of course, Ted convinced him to just let him make the call, that way my reaction would be genuine. Prick.

Ted and I go and stand over by the pool once we're ready. I stand in front of him with my back facing the pool. I feel a little nervous about Ted just shoving me into it. I wasn't sure when or how he was gonna do it. Tanner was filming us by now, so we had to think of something to talk about for a good couple minutes before he'd push me.

"You wanna know a little thing about this morning?.." Ted spoke once we were alone, looking down at me with a small smile.

"Please don't tell me I snore.." I huff, crossing my arms in front of me almost defensively. Part of me wants to really watch his movement so I can duck and run when he moves to push me. I'd love to see him fall in the pool like an idiot.

"No, you don't snore." Ted chuckled a little, shaking his head. "You'll think it's cute, I promise."

"Alright, what happened this morning?"

"I, uhh..." Ted pauses, bringing one of his hands up to scratch his head a little. "I woke up, like, a lot earlier than any of our alarms. I think, like, 10 minutes before yours, actually. Anyways, I turned it off.." He admitted, gesturing in my direction a little bit.

"You turned my alarm off?" I raise my brows at him, a confused chuckle leaving me. "Why?"

"I wanted to lay with you a little longer.."

His tone definitely suggested he was genuine, causing me to go speechless for a moment. I blink at him like I'm waiting for the punchline, seeing his gaze become warmer.

"Tanner had told me that night that we could sleep in a little bit, so I set another alarm on my phone and, y'know...held you."

"I..." I let out a slight giggle, uncrossing my arms to place one of my hands on my stomach. I feel those familiar butterflies in my stomach again. "...How do you do that?"

"Do what? Change the alarm on my phone?"

"No, I mean, you..." I pause, biting my lower lip a little. "You have...so many layers to you, Ted. You show up out of no where, apparently you've been aware of me for a while now. You're sarcastic with me, you insult me, then you're sweet and genuine, then you're flirty and seductive, then you're just kind of a dick and now you're being sweet again.."

Ted let's out a laugh at my comment, giving me a curious tilt of the head. "'Kind of a dick'?" Ted repeats.

"Well, like, I...I can't read you, but it seems like you can read me. You flirt with me in your car, you--"

"Toyota Tacoma."

"Whatever, you flirt with me in your 'Toyota Tacoma', you hesitate to kiss me on camera but you slither yourself into my bed at 12 in the morning like you've been planning it, then you kiss me in front of my friends without telling me and now you're...telling me you turned off my alarm so you could cuddle with me longer? I just...I don't understand you."

Ted listens to my rambling with a content smile on his face, slipping his hands into his shorts pockets as I ramble. He was even a good listener. God, this is infuriating. No human being; no man can be this...right.

"I think that's just called 'having a personality', princess.." Ted let's out another chuckle, taking a slight step closer to me. "What's confusing, exactly? I like to mess with you. I like to make you laugh, I like to make you smile and I like to make you squirm. That's about it.."

"And you like me?.." I give him a flirty smile, tilting my head at him a little.

"I do like you, even though you're fucking annoying."

"Oh I'm annoying?"

"Yeah, it's ridiculous, actually. You're annoying, you're hot, I like hearing you moan my name, I like kissing you, you're....you're annoying, and then when you're really annoying I just wanna kiss you more."

"You sound just as confused as I am."

"I am. Trust me, babe, I'm just as confused about it as you, honestly, but I'm goin' with it."

"You're going with it?"

"Yeah."

"And why's that?"

"Because it's you. Duh."

I feel my chest and my cheeks warm up, giving him an affectionate smile and a chuckle.

"See? There you go being annoying again; that stupid fuckin' smile. Now I gotta kiss you.." Ted shakes his head at me, moving in closer to grab my waist in his big hands and pull me into a gentle kiss, a pleased hum leaving him when I don't hesitate to kiss him back, cupping his face in my smaller hands. Here's sweet Ted. God, this man makes me swoon. He probably forgot the camera was there again, but I didn't care. Tanner will appreciate the improv, I'm sure. Either that or he can edit it out. It's fine.

He breaks the kiss after a moment, smiling against my lips as he slowly snakes his hands up my body to rest them on my shoulders. I open my eyes to look at him, an infatuated smile stuck to my face. Ted's honeyed gaze looks over my blushing face, letting out a pleased sigh.

"....I'm gonna push you into the pool now."

"...OH YOU MOTHERFU--"

With one good push from Ted, I fall back with a sudden yelp. The swift shove makes me let go of Ted's face so I don't drag him with me, as much as I wished I did. I make sure to take in a quick breath before crashing into the pool on my back, hearing the muffled laughter and applause from under the water. I groan to myself and swim up to the surface, taking in a breath once I know I'm clear to.

"Oh my god! I'm gonna fucking kill you!" I curse at him, watching as he laughs hysterically at me. I try to splash Ted with a frustrated huff, but I can't help but smile and laugh as well. I mean, he got me good. I'm sure he was still being genuine, but he was able to get my guard down and get the perfect reaction for the film. I was content with that and honestly impressed.

I watch as Ted slips off his glasses and the white long-sleeved shirt he had been wearing so he can jump right into the pool with me, doing a huge cannonball just to splash me some more. "Ted!!" I yell at him again with a cackle, flicking my head back to get any hair out of my face. When he rises up from the water, we're both just laughing and splashing at each other.

"You screamed like a little girl!" Ted mocks me, throwing one of the pool toys at me.

"Yeah!? Well I'm about to fucking drown you like a man! Come here, you fucker!" I yell back at him, deflecting the pool toy so I could start swimming straight for him. As I'm swimming around, I could see that even Dan and Joe had come out to watch this, laughing alongside Tanner and the rest of the film crew. Man, every day I just become more and more grateful to be apart of this. This has been the best experience I've had all summer.

I hope it stays like this for the whole project.

__________________________________

|| Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 (smut) || Chapter 7 || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 (smut) || Chapter 11 ||

[madaboutmunson]

Sunsets and Shadows

Prompt | "The sunset looks lovely, don't you think?"

WC | 700

Rating | T

CW | references mcd, grief, angst

Tags | Steddie, Past Steddie, Future Fic

——————————————————

"The sunset looks lovely, don't you think?" It seemed as stupid a thing to say as it seemed the right.

It was, after all, the first thing he said to him all those years ago.

It was the first thing he'd say to him most days that summer of '85.

Eddie's response would usually be to jump out of his skin, drop the cigarette he was smoking, and call Steve all the curses he knew.

Then Steve would laugh, and Eddie would melt just like the colours would in the sky.

And wild as the wind, Eddie would push Steve into the dimming alleyway and plant a fast kiss on him hotter than the surface of the sun.

Eddie would offer Steve a ride most times, saving the planet, Eddie would say, but Steve knew why. He couldn't turn off and chicken out if he was in Eddie's van. Which he never did, but Eddie still thought he might.

And sometimes, even though he never told him, Steve could swear that he completely understood why he needed to always have his car with him. That somehow Eddie could read the million bad things that could happen racing through Steve's brain, and he'd just nod, smile, and chuck him a mixtape and a cigarette and be none the wiser about great hulking monsters or spores in tunnels under the ground.

It was a change for him, not having everyone and their mother knowing who he was dating. And it was a change for Eddie to be dating anyone at all.

But whether they ended up at Eddie's, Steve's, Rick's, or some secluded part of Hawkins, the prize was the same.

A few hours of exploring one another physically and mentally. 

Sometimes, he'd remind Eddie that the kids he knew would hit high school next year, and he felt terrible not being there to protect them because they were nerds. Eddie would reassure him there was plenty of room in his flock for a few more, kiss and pet over his hair and tell him not to worry as he lay on his chest in the moonlight. 

Sometimes, he'd even help Eddie study because they had a deal.

When Eddie graduated, they'd tell their friends, and the secret would be over. They would be free. Maybe they would move in together or find someplace more accepting.

But Eddie didn't make it to graduation. Neither did Chrissy, Jason, Fred, or Patrick.

"The sunset looks lovely, don't you think?" he repeated, his heart aching for Eddie to react or respond, but he was met with cold, harsh silence.

"Please, Eddie, don't shut me out. I'd take it back if I could. I'd do right by you. Keep you safe." Steve's voice trembled as he twisted the surprise bunch of wildflowers behind his back.

The sound of the van pulling up made him scramble to put the flowers in the holder next to Eddie's tombstone and grab his walking stick.

"I told you he'd be here," an annoyed voice said. "We could have saved ourselves half an hour if you'd just listened."

The second orderly scoffs at the first, "It's protocol. No one in their right mind would have expected him to hobble this far."

"Except for me."

"I said in their right mind." She shook her head before switching to her professional, cheery demeanour. 

"Mr Harrington, what are you doing all the way out here? We were all awfully worried. Come along now. Let's get you back safe and sound."

"Or we could just leave the lunatic here. I felt sorry for him at first, being so young and messed up but not crazy enough for Pennhust, though I would dispute that. Who the hell leaves flowers for a serial killer? Just because Harrington hasn't done anything yet doesn't mean he won't."

"He's not that young, and he needs our help. You know he forgets, or worse, remembers and gets stuck in the eighties."

Steve made his way over to the van and refused the assistance to get inside. 

As they drove back, he watched the sky. 

Like his heart, the sun sunk, but like their love, he knew it continued to shine somewhere.

[anisespice]

“ bust your windows ” || cheater!headcannons

                       “ you should feel lucky that that's all I did. ”

synopsis: this fool underestimated just how little you tolerated cheaters.

pairing: various x gn!reader

warnings: mature language, MDI. light violence, cheating, diff ways reader deals with it, mentions of blowjobs, mentions of a foursome, and i think that’s it. feel free to lemme know if i missed anything! ッ

notes: @bagels-yummm this one’s for YOU. after reading their post about reader never showing that R A G E when it came to being cheated on, i couldn’t agree more. even tho my recent story involving that very premise didn’t have that sweet revenge plot, i am here to contribute! hope you enjoy ♡

BUST HIM UP: PHYSICALLY 

For those who want to really let him have it, you’d confront his cheating ass the moment you found out. Right as he was having a cute little lunch with his side piece, you came barreling through the door with a sardonic grin spread across your face; the instant horror on his brought you great satisfaction. 

“‘At the gym’, huh? Didn’t know the gym sold fucking croissants!”

He abruptly stood, spluttering, already trying to do damage control. But you were a raging hurricane, and he was a shitty apartment that didn’t have the correct insurance. Before he even got the chance to spew some bullshit excuse, he’s met with scorching hot reality hitting him square in the face. Not only did you throw his drink on him, but his little date’s as well, and both were still fresh. He screamed bloody murder, hands trembling as he held his boiling skin. It wasn’t hot enough to actually melt it off, unfortunately, but his sounds of agony sufficed. 

Everyone in the cafe merely watched with mixed reaction, some enthralled whilst others felt the authorities should be called. You couldn’t care less, too busy chucking the napkin holders and decorative potted-plants at him now that he was immobilized. 

“Yeah, yeah, you piece of shit! You like that? How that karma feel, huh? Wanna fuck other bitches, hm?”

By now, he was curled up on the ground. His side piece had long vanished, not wanting to stick around knowing your wrath would be directed at them next. After publicly humiliating him, you caught your breath and gazed down at his cowering figure with pure distain. He groggily begged for forgiveness, claiming it you had it all wrong, but you weren’t born yesterday. You scoffed incredulously—Did he think you were stupid? As if you didn’t have receipts.

The photos, the messages, the fact he was dumb enough to let them use the Netflix account YOU paid for. And now, he wanted to insult your intelligence? Please.

Without hesitation, you spat on him. 

Was it necessary? Probably not. But neither was cheating on someone you claimed to love more than anything, and clearly didn’t mean it. You were gonna have to carry that hurt for the rest of your life; he should be grateful you didn’t do more.

“Don’t bother coming back for your stuff. I already burned it all.” 

SHINICHIRO, takemichi, chifuyu, kazutora, OIKAWA, kyotani, tanaka, kageyama, kenma, HAWKS, mirio, denki, SHINSOU, deku, twice, [insert anyone else who would fit].

BUST HIM UP: MENTALLY 

For those who want to play the long game, you’d act none the wiser to his infidelity. It stung like nothing you’ve ever experienced before when you caught him in bed with some whore, and it took every ounce of your willpower not to set it on fire with them still in it. Because, deep down, you knew men like him only learned the hard way.

And you planned on making him suffer. 

You started by acting real sweet with him. Months of you cooking him full course meals, giving him unprompted blowjobs, massaging his aching muscles after a long day, the whole nine yards. He thought he died and went to heaven, so much so that he saw his little plaything less often now that his lovely s/o started pampering him. Man’s was so confident that he was getting away with it, he got sloppy; let his guard down.

“Honey, can I use your phone real quick? I need to look up a recipe, but I think I left mine in the car.” You asked, fluttering your lashes with cute pout on your face. He didn’t think twice, especially not when you looked at him so sweetly. But once he turned his back, your burning gaze was filled with anything but.

The doorbell rang later that evening, and you were nearly done with dinner. He raised a brow, gaze lingering on the door—Neither of you were expecting anybody, to his knowledge. As you were chopping up the last of the vegetables, you venomously called out to your boyfriend, “Answer it.”

His lips pursed at your tone, but chose to ignore it. Doing as instructed, he lazily made his way to the door. At first, he figured it was just a neighbor, but when he checked the peephole...his blood ran cold. Practically ripping the door off its hinges he hurriedly came outside and shut it right behind him, back pressed against it as he stared bewilderedly at his side piece standing before him. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He lowly hissed, harshly grabbing their upper arm in mild panic. “I told you to never come around here again, are you out of your goddamn mind?” 

The person blinked, startled but also confused. “What are you talking about? You were the one who begged me to come over. Said you dumped that nagging bitch and finally kicked them to the curb.” 

“What? I never—” he paused. Then, realization hit him like a bus. But, before the dread could even build in his stomach, the door opened behind him. A cold chill ran up his spine. 

“Oh, great! You made it just in time for dinner. My name’s [_______], the nagging bitch. So nice to finally meet you.”

RAN, RINDOU, baji, hanma, wakasa, mikey, kokonoi, izana, smiley, IWAIZUMI, mattsun, atsumu, suna, bakugou, sero, dabi, [insert anyone else who would fit].

BUST HIM UP: EMOTIONALLY

For those who want to twist the knife, you did the one thing you knew would fuck him up HEAVY. And that was to trample on his already fragile ego. 

He was very possessive, never took kindly to those with wandering eyes whenever it came to you. Always worried someone better would take you away from him, and it got worse when it came to his friends. You reassured him numerous times that it would never happen, promising that he was more than enough for you. 

Sadly, the sentiment wasn’t mutual. 

He tried to hide it from you, but eventually the guilt became unbearable. And so he came clean. This man sobbed. Cried full on ugly tears and blubbered nonsense as you fought to keep your own composure. You felt sick. After everything you did for him—Boosted his confidence, made him feel special, and where did that leave you? Broken-hearted, with grown man tears staining your good sweater.

Nothing he said was going to ease this kind of pain, and he knew that. So when you walked away, he figured that would be the last he saw of you. But, that was far from the truth.

When you showed up to his apartment unannounced a few days later, he was shocked. He already looked like complete shit, and judging based on your expression, you thought so, too. He wanted to question why you were here, but before he could get a word out, your lips roughly claimed his own as you held him by the nape. He wasn’t prepared for the clash of teeth and tongue, soft whines leaving him as you pushed him inside and toward the bedroom, distracting him from the impending shadows that trailed in behind you. 

The next thing he knew, he was tied to his bed, looking about ready to succumb to the best hate-sex of his life. However, what he didn’t expect to see were a few of his closest friends entering the room. There’s an unspoken tension that develops, alarms sounding off in his head as the last one shuts the door and locks it. What were they doing here? Why were they looking at you like that? Those same alarms only grew louder as they each wordlessly stripped off their clothes, with you soon following suit. Starting to struggle against his restraints, his heart began to pound against his chest; he didn’t consent to a foursome. 

He immediately made that known, but you merely chuckled. The sound made his stomach turn in the worst way. When he went to demand explanation, you shoved your underwear in his mouth. Despite his better judgement, homie couldn’t help how hard he got from the situation, letting out a weak moan as your hand gripped his jaw and squeezed.

You leaned over his vulnerable form, grin sharp as you glowered down at him while he struggled against the tight knots. He saw a glint in your eye that held anything but good intent—And with your next few words, he couldn’t have been more correct. 

“They’re going to fuck me. And you’re going to watch.” 

ANGRY, draken, mitsuya, sanzu, KAKUCHO, tendo, kuroo, BOKUTO, akaashi, osamu, hinata, NISHINOYA, sugawara, todoroki, kirishima, TAMAKI, shigaraki, [insert anyone else who would fit]. 

© 2022-2023 anisespice ッ all rights reserved. likes, comments & reblogs much appreciated!

[munsonsduchess]

Rock N' Roll Dreams Come True

summary: you've been joining corroded coffin on tour and at a big show eddie can't keep his hands off you w/c: 2.767 warnings: 18+ only minors dni, swearing, oral (f receiving), use of afab language to describe the reader (pussy, cunt), p in v sex a/n: i love rockstar eddie with my whole soul and my whole 🐱so this one getting the most votes on the poll seemed like a no brainer, again i did take a lot of this from something I'd written before for a different fandom but i've edited it and changed some stuff

if you like this please consider reblogging it and leaving a comment, it always helps me out

(moodboard by me)

It had been a dream come true when the Band got picked up originally. They’d played small shows here and there at first, bigger bars than the hideout, a couple local music festivals nothing mind blowing. That came later when Corroded Coffin had been asked to be the warm up act for the warm up act for a very famous band. 

Now here you all were, it had been ten years of climbing the ladder but Corroded Coffin could sell out an area almost as quickly as Metallica or Iron Maiden or any other band you’d care to mention. 

Everyone at home who had cheered them on, who’d believed in the band, they were the original fans. They might not be screaming their songs back to them in a sweaty crowd of metal heads or getting riled up in a mosh pit but there was no way Gareth, Jeff or Eddie could forget those friends who’s faith had never wavered. 

Dave the new guy maybe didn’t understand at first when a guy in glasses and pink Ralph Lauren polo showed up backstage with a girl who wouldn’t stop running her mouth in the most beat up pair of red chucks. Or why a certain hard nose reporter was only too happy to do fluff pieces on the band's meteoric rise to fame. He understood the California Stoners a little more but it still kind of baffled him when everyone begged one guy to take their pictures. 

This was Eddie’s family. Your family. The band and the Hawkins group. You were all older now, maybe not wiser but you would always share something deep, spring break 86 had truly bonded  you all for life. Most of Eddie’s early song writing for the band after Spring Break is what got the band picked up in the first place. 

So there you were. Sitting on a busted amp backstage watching the boys argue before going on stage. Eddie had apparently broken some sort of rule about being 'cool' and 'metal' to the point where the other three guys just couldn't let it go. Gareth had even decided  to document the 'crime' with his polaroid and now everyone was playing keep away while the photo developed and threatening to give it to the next reporter they spoke to, 

“You’re ruining my image!” Eddie protested, "come on dude don't be a dick" 

“You’re ruining your own image! You’re drinking out of a juice box! What are you six?” Gareth shot back, holding the picture above his head and signaling for Jeff to take it

“I need the vitamin c!” Eddie shot back, "it's not my fault  you all want to get scurvy" 

You couldn't help but laugh as Jeff took the picture and handed it off to a random crew member telling them to guard it with their life while Dave and Gareth wrestled with Eddie. This was the Corroded Coffin people didn't get to see, just four guys who loved each other and loved music, not the on stage personas, not what the media loved to make them out to be and  you were so fortunate you got to experience it all.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

The sound of the crowd cheering and chanting the band name sent chills up your spine and looking up at the others you could tell the band felt it too,

“Knock them dead babe” you smiled reaching up to grab Eddie by the lapels of his worn leather jacket to bring him down for a searing kiss, 

“Always do” he laughed before shrugging out of the jacket and draping it over your shoulders. A little pre-show ritual he swore brought the band luck and with how the tour had been going so far, no one could fault him.

You watched as the band took the stage and the crowd went wild. Your chest swelled with excitement as Eddie started playing, a wink thrown to you waiting there for him before his attention turned to the rest of the band and all that nervous energy transformed into an unbelievable stage presence.

You’d read every article that came out about the boys and  saved every article you’d found, clipped from magazines and pasted into a scrapbook you were keeping so that in years to come when you were all old and looking back on the glory days of your youth, the boys could look back at their beginnings. Along with Gareth's collection of Polaroids, embarrassing or not. 

The articles that made you laugh were usually the ones written about Eddie and his stage presence. The way he acted when he was playing had these journalists convinced he was some sort of tantric sex god, they drew their conclusions from the energy he put out while on stage and how touchy he was with you after. The band thought it was hilarious honestly and put it down to lead guitarist syndrome, everyone assumed because Eddie played lead he was just this amazing lover who could never be sated and while it was partially true it wasn’t everything the assorted press made your relationship out to be.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Eddie’s hair shone under the stage lights, his body covered in a sheen of sweat as he played his heart out to a stadium packed full of screaming fans. They were here to hear him play, just to hear their band. No one else. It had been a long time coming, from playing the hideout every Tuesday to a band of drunks who yelled and threw empty beer bottles at the chicken wire surrounding the 'stage' and demanded old country songs to being hare, now and playing a sold out stadium of die hard Corroded Coffin fans. 

His eyes flicked back to where you were standing, your arms inside his oversized jacket as you sang along to every song and danced along to the music. You knew every word to every song they played, you’d been there when most of it was written and Eddie swore up and down you were the band’s good luck charm. If you hadn’t been there at the club there’s no way the band would have ended up where they are now. 

Turning his attention back to the crowd, Eddie poured his heart and soul into their last few songs knowing that everyone else would do just the same pouring every ounce of their being into the music. That's what it was all about in the end, the lights, the crowds, the fame, it was all secondary to the music itself.

As the band finally finished their set before the encore they came back off stage to change quickly and rehydrate. Eddie had other ideas apparently and rushed at you, sweeping you into his arms ignoring your cries of protest about how sweaty he was and demands that he at least wipe down first,

“Need you now baby” he groaned in your ear, pressing himself against you so you could feel just how hard he was. The energy from the crowd had been unlike anything else they’d experienced all tour and Eddie needed you.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

You were giggling as Eddie stole kisses as he dragged you towards the band's dressing room, the rest of the boys staying behind with warnings that Eddie better not miss the encore and threats of serious bodily harm if he did. His kisses were heated the closer you both got to the dressing room, your protests about his sweat slicked body dying in your throat before you had a chance to voice them. Instead they surfaced as little moans as Eddie’s hands roamed all over your body, he pushed you through the dressing room door and kicked it shut behind him.

Eyes dark as they took in your form, your home made corroded coffin shirt you wore to every show since the first one you'd ever been to,  but above all you were still wearing his jacket and Eddie would freely admit what seeing you in his clothes did to him,

“Baby do you have any idea how hot it is knowing my girl is on tour with me?” he grinned, his hands reaching out to pull you in close by your hips, “knowing everyone is looking at you but they can’t touch”

His teeth nipped at your neck as he sucked a bruise at the base of your throat, his hands trailing down your body to push your skirt up around your hips. You moaned openly as his hands kneaded your backside, Eddie knew exactly where to touch you to make you melt into him. 

You pulled at the hem of the tank top Eddie was wearing and managed to pull it off with his help. As soon as the tank top was off Eddie’s hands were pushing you back towards the couch, 

“Gonna fuck you so good baby, gonna make you scream my name so everyone knows who you belong to” he growled into your ear. 

You let out a yelp of surprise when the back of your knees hit the arm of the couch, reaching out for something to grab onto so you wouldn’t fall but only grabbing air as you toppled backwards. Eddie smirked and licked his lips at the sight of your legs propped up by the arm of the couch while the rest of your body lay flat on the couch. 

Crouching down so he was at eye level with your throbbing pussy, Eddie pushed your legs apart and settled himself between your opened thighs. You could feel the heat of his breath against your panties, the sensation only made you wetter as you waited for whatever Eddie had in store for you.

It wasn’t much of a wait as Eddie’s large hands trailed up your thighs, over your panties, his fingers ghosting over the waistband. Placing soft kisses to the inside of your thighs Eddie moved his fingers along the seam of your panties chuckling to himself when he started rubbing his thumb against clit and hearing the moan you let out in response,

“That’s my good girl, be as loud as you want baby. Want everyone to hear you” he crooned fingers rubbing your soaked panties against your needy cunt,

“Please Eddie, need you, please” you begged, you wanted more than this teasing sensation. Needed him to stretch you out with those thick fingers, needed him. 

Eddie laughed at how needy you were for him. Who was he to deny his girl anything she wanted? His good girl..

“Since you asked so nicely” the sound of fabric ripping filled your ears before Eddie’s mouth was attached to your dripping pussy, licking up the slick from your folds and moaning at the taste of you. Always so sweet for him, he could stay here for hours and had done so on more than one occasion.

You keened loudly at the feel of him, his tongue working wickedly between your legs as he sucked on your clit like it was his favourite milkshake, “taste so good honey” he purred as he slipped a long finger into you.

“Please Eddie, need more” you gasped, “please, please” 

“Greedy little girl, you want more than this? Tell me what you want” 

“Need you to fuck me, need your cock inside me” 

Eddie almost gave in then and there. His cock was straining against the denim of his jeans, it was painfully hard but he was a man on a mission and he would not be deterred. Instead he added another finger using them to stretch you open as his mouth went back to work on your clit. 

The room smelt of sex and sweat, the sounds of your moans and Eddie’s fingers in your wet pussy filling the air to the point that you were sure the crowd could hear it from the main stage. It was music to Eddie’s ears and he wasn’t going to stop until you made the sweetest sound of all for him.

Adding another finger he worked them in tandem with his mouth as he found the spot inside that had you seeing stars and gripping his hair tightly in your hands begging him not to stop. You could feel the coil tightening in your tummy, you were so close and Eddie could feel it too with how your walls were fluttering around him, 

“That’s it baby, cum for me” he encouraged, his fingers moving quicker and quicker until you felt the pressure inside you boil over and you came with a loud moan of his name soaking both Eddie’s fingers and his chin. 

He didn’t stop until he was sure you had come back down from your high and you were panting on the couch trying to catch the breath he’d stolen from your lungs. 

Standing up Eddie quickly unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down around his ankles. He looked down at you, your face flushed and chest heaving. God you looked so pretty like this, all wrecked after an orgasm. Almost as pretty as when he fucked you into your shared hotel room bed every night. 

That was for later, for now Eddie needed you and he wasn’t going to wait. He lined himself up with your entrance and pushed in, gripping your hips tightly as he did so. God you were so tight, so warm, he had to be careful not to blow his load there and then. 

A string of curses left his lips until he bottomed out. The stretch was almost unbearable every time Eddie filled you but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t love the feel of his thick cock dragging through your pussy walls. 

The way Eddie fucked you like each time was the first and the last and he’d never get to feel this again, dragging his cock out of you until just the tip was left inside before slamming his hips back against yours. Again and again, angling his hips so that the tip of his cock hit that sweet spot inside of you. 

You were clawing at the couch, his arms, anything you could reach. Moaning loudly at each deep stroke inside, you were sure you could feel Eddie in your stomach and it felt incredible. 

You could feel yourself getting close again as your pussy clenched down around Eddie’s cock. Knowing you both weren’t going to last much longer he reached between your sweaty bodies and rubbed quick energetic circles on your clit encouraging you to come apart around him. 

It didn’t take long for your high to wash over you again and you were screaming Eddie’s name for everyone to hear as your vision whited out, Eddie continued to fuck you through your high his own not far behind as he released into you with a grunt.

You stayed like that for a moment as you caught your breath. Splayed out on the couch with Eddie’s weight on top of you, his head resting on your stomach. Finally he looked up at you with a boyish grin on his face,

“Fuck honey you were amazing” he praised, a small kiss placed against your belly button as he pulled out and you groaned at the empty feeling left behind. 

Eddie disappeared from your line of sight for a moment before coming back with a warm wet towel to clean you off with. He placed another chaste kiss against the inside of your thighs before helping you stand and fix your clothes and hair. Not that the other members of the band or really anyone backstage wouldn’t know what the two of you had just been up to. 

Reaching up you captured his lips with your own and smiled into the kiss. Maybe the magazines were on to something after all. The moment was broken when Jeff began knocking hard on the door of the dressing room,

"You have two seconds to get out here or I swear to god I'll kill you myself!" 

Eddie pulled the door open wide and grinned at Jeff's irate expression as if he hadn't just been fucking your brains out on the couch,

"Relax, I told you I wouldn't miss the encore!" Eddie gave you a quick parting kiss before following after Jeff to finish the set for good.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Days later Eddie came back to the hotel you were currently crashing in with a ‘surprise’ for you. Peeling off his jacket he was able to show off a brand new tattoo, a heart with both of your names written inside. Eddie showed it proudly on stage that night proclaiming to all the world his love for one girl. 

His sweetheart.

Taglist: @pillow-titties @eddiemunsonwillbethedeathofme @munsonology @thegirlblogstuff @boomhauer @prettyboyeddiemunson @hellfireeddie6 @that-lame-ghoul9000 @flashyourgreeneyesatme @anxiousstark @ruinedbythehobbit @winnifredburkleismyhero @manda-panda-monium @insertcoolnameherethanks @aftermidnightwriting

Let me know if you want to be added!

His sweetheart.

[erimeows]

Against His Better Judgment

Obito Uchiha has been ‘dead’ for years now- at least according to his last surviving teammate and the poorly done carving of his name on the memorial stone that sits in the middle of the village. Tonight, however, he’s very much alive, stalking aforementioned teammate to bide the time. Why he’s been doing it, he isn’t quite sure.

Most days, Obito’s feelings for Kakashi alternate between hatred and indifference. On nights like this, however, he wavers. He remembers the way Kakashi protected him when they were young. He remembers soft silvery hair grasped between his fingertips when they’d get into particularly nasty fights; and hard gazes from beautiful charcoal eyes when Obito would show up late every day. 

Worst of all, he remembers those things fondly… And he misses them enough to forget that it was Kakashi’s arrogance that landed him in the clutches of Madara Uchiha. He forgets that it was Kakashi’s chidori that Rin impaled herself on. He forgets that, at many points during their years together, he hated Kakashi with a passion that made fire burn in his throat when the man so much as looked at him.

Back then, though, they were mere children. Now, they’re adults. Kakashi is in Anbu, consumed by the darkness of Obito’s death and everything that has followed. 

Obito lets out a small sigh and adjusts the orange mask on his face. Right now, they’re a mere mile or two from where Minato and Kushina died. A few miles away from where they used to train together. 

To reach his goal of unleashing the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Obito has to let go of his bonds. But until his plan comes closer to fruition, he supposes he can hold onto them, if only for a little longer. The only one he has left is Kakashi, anyway.

Minato and Kushina are dead because he killed them. Rin is dead because Kakashi killed her. And, his grandma and the many elderly in the village that he bonded with during his youth have been stolen away by time.

So, he lingers on the outskirts of Konoha often, clinging onto the one bond he has left. Every once in a blue moon, he hears whispers of the Uchiha trying to stage a coup; whispers of rebellion that he knows Danzo will hush before they can turn into full on screams. How Danzo will do it, Obito isn’t sure yet, but he lies in wait for the details. He doesn’t care if any of them die. They were never kind to him after his own parents died, anyway. 

In the meantime, he watches Kakashi. The man trains near the border of the village every single night, close to where he used to train every day with Team Minato when they were still alive. Now, he and Obito are the only ones left. To Kakashi, he’s the only one left.

Obito crosses his arms over his chest and peers at Kakashi with interest as he leans back against the trunk of the tree he’s sitting in. The branch he stays on is high up, and the tree is lush with leaves, so he has good coverage. It seems as if Kakashi hasn’t noticed him- at least not yet. He’s been doing this on and off for a week now and Kakashi is none the wiser. Or, Obito thinks that’s the case. Then again, Kakashi is always full of surprises.

Kakashi, the poor fool, keeps lifting the heaviest rocks and small boulders he can find and throwing them as hard as he can across the forest. He crushes patches of healthy grass and wildflowers in his wake.

“Come on out,” Kakashi says after chucking a boulder almost as big as the one that crushed Obito all those years ago, apparently aware of Obito’s presence. Obito knows he should leave, but he doesn’t. He waits to see if he can convince Kakashi that he’s simply imagining someone watching him by lowering his chakra and remaining quiet. Kakashi, however, doesn’t drop it. In fact, he’s looking right towards where Obito is hiding as he raises his forehead protector off of his Sharingan- off of Obito’s Sharingan. “Why have you been following me?”

“So you noticed me, hm?” Obito asks, hopping out of the tree and smoothly landing on the ground.

Thankfully, he looks much different. He’s masked, his hair is longer, he’s taller, and he’s learned to impersonate Madara’s voice perfectly. If he plays his cards right, even someone as astute as Kakashi shouldn’t be able to identify him, especially while under the impression that he’s dead. 

“Answer me,” Kakashi demands. He weaves some hand signs and forms a ball of lightning in his right hand. “It’s been weeks now.”

“You’re more observant than I thought, Kakashi Hatake,” Obito smiles beneath his mask and activates his own Sharingan. Behind his mask, in the darkness of the cloudy summer night, Kakashi doesn’t seem to see it. “Trust me. I’m simply here from Konoha’s security division to work on the barrier system. I’m not following you.”

Kakashi softens, but not fully. The chidori remains in his hand, chirping with energy, waiting to be unleashed on some poor soul. 

“Then what’s your name?”

“I can’t tell you that. This mission is classified.”

“Hm… You seem to know who I am, but if you won’t reveal your name, I’m not sure I can trust you,” Kakashi says, though he diffuses his chidori and pushes his hands into his pockets. It’s a gesture that he never would’ve done when he was younger, citing bad posture as ‘improper’ and stiffly keeping his hands at his sides. Oh, how he’s changed since they were little. “How can I confirm that you’re someone from this village who can be trusted?”

“I know how to unlock the village barriers. No outsiders are provided with that kind of information.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Kakashi snaps. Obito sees him grip something within his pocket- probably a kunai or a shuriken. “A spy could’ve leaked those to you easily.”

“Wow. Your faith in your comrades must be poor if you think there’s a spy among the lot of you,” Obito laughs, but Kakashi isn’t necessarily wrong. All of the ninja villages are ridden with spies right now. He decides to use his knowledge about Kakashi to his advantage. “Fine, then. You were in Anbu with me. I worked with you before moving to the security division. What do you want to hear about yourself?”

“...What’s my go-to food order after a mission?”

“You don’t have one go-to order. If it’s a difficult mission, you get eggplant-mixed miso soup since it’s light. If it’s easier and you return to the village hungry, you get saury with rice instead.”

“It’s odd that I worked with you at some point and don’t recognize your voice, but very well. No one else could possibly know that information about me aside from another comrade. I’ll leave you be.”

With that, Kakashi turns to leave. Obito lets out a sigh of relief, though he can’t help but wonder if his encounter with Kakashi is some sort of sign… Whether it’s a sign to leave Kakashi alone or a sign to play with fire, he isn’t sure.

~

Against his better judgment, Obito returns to the outskirts of the village the next night to watch Kakashi train in the field of wildflowers. This time, Kakashi arrives before him, so he doesn’t have much time to hide. He addresses the man with his arms crossed.

“Kakashi Hatake. I thought you’d steer clear from here after last night.”

“No. If you’re doing this type of work alone, I figured extra protection wouldn’t hurt… In case someone tries to stop you. Even if you’re not in any danger, having a teammate doesn’t hurt.”

“How odd of you… To say something like that, Kakashi,” Obito laughs. He thinks back to when his old teammate would complain about being on a team and insisting that he’d be better off alone on dangerous missions. “Don’t they call you the friend-killer these days?”

“Sometimes, but those who call me ‘friend-killer’ weren’t there that day,” Kakashi shrugs. It’s as if he’s so used to it that the insult doesn’t bother him anymore. Kakashi glances towards Obito, who stands across from him. His eyes are dark but curious. “Do you think I’m a friend-killer?”

“Do you truly care what I think?”

“I don’t know who you are, so I suppose I shouldn’t, but if you really are my comrade… I do,” Kakashi answers before sitting down on a nearby log and pulling the backpack off of his shoulders. He reaches into it for a lunch box, and then another. He looks back up at Obito and smiles underneath his mask. “Have you eaten?”

“No,” Obito responds, baffled. The Kakashi he knew back then would never bring food for anyone else- not even Rin, Minato, or Kushina- who all made him lunches regularly. “Don’t tell me you’ve brought food for me.”

“I have. Would you like to come eat with me?”

“Did you forget the fact that I’m working?” Obito hisses, though it isn’t really true.

“No, but a break never hurts.”

“Very well,” Obito sits next to Kakashi on the log. It’s far closer than he’s comfortable with, but he can sense that Kakashi is relaxed and that neither of them are in danger. Kakashi hands one of the lunch boxes to him. Much to his surprise, he opens the lunchbox to see three sticks of dango. “I was under the impression that you hated sweets.”

“I do- or, I did- but these were the favorite of a close friend. He would eat these nonstop no matter how much I’d lecture him about it,” Kakashi says, staring down at the sticks within his own lunchbox. “He’s gone now, so I eat them when I find myself wishing he were still here… To remind me of what it was like to have him around. Sometimes, when I eat dango, I’m able to close my eyes and imagine that he’s sitting next to me enjoying them as well.”

“I see,” Obito frowns. While he would never admit it, regret flutters in his stomach, if only for a moment. He briefly considers ripping the mask off of his face and telling Kakashi the truth. Breaking down in his lap and crying his eyes out about everything he’s gone through since Kannabi Bridge. It’s just too late, though. He’s killed so many people, done so many terrible things, all in the name of this plan of his. Obito takes a deep breath and reminds himself why he’s doing all of this; to give people like himself and Kakashi a better world where none of those terrible things can happen. He glances over at Kakashi, watching for changes in the other man’s facial expression as he asks- “Do you miss him?”

“Do I miss him?” Kakashi asks in an incredulous tone- as if the answer is obvious. After years of Kakashi scolding him, beating him down, and tearing apart every single thing he ever believed in, it’s hard for him to comprehend the idea of Kakashi… Missing him. “Of course I do. I can’t even begin to describe how much I miss him. I was in love with him for the longest time, but I never had the guts to tell him… He was in love with this girl on our squad, so I didn’t think he’d return my feelings. I was mean to him because I had my own issues… I was afraid that if he knew I had fallen for him, he’d make fun of me and hold it over my head. Now, he’s dead, and it’s my fault. I guess I am a friend-killer after all… If I had just been better to him back then, everything would’ve worked out. Maybe I would’ve even been able to tell him the truth.”

Obito’s eye widens beneath his mask. 

Kakashi…

Was in love with him?

“Maybe… It’s better that you didn’t get to tell him in the end,” Obito frowns. They fall into a brief silence, both turning to face away from each other and pulling their masks down to eat the dango. Desperate to leave so he can reflect on the bombshell Kakashi has just dropped on him, Obito pushes the lunch box back into the man’s bag and stands up. “I should report back… To the security division.”

When he turns to leave, Kakashi reaches out and grabs Obito’s gloved hand. 

Obito looks over his shoulder to see Kakashi looking up at him. 

“Will you be here again tomorrow night?” Kakashi questions.

Obito pauses.

“Will you be here?”

“If you are. I don’t know why, but I feel… Connected to you. Maybe I do remember working with you, at some point. Even if you can’t reveal your identity to me because of your mission, I’d like to keep meeting you here until you’ve finished it.”

Obito shakes his head, yanks his hand away from Kakashi’s, and leaves.

~

The next night, Obito inevitably returns. This time, Kakashi isn’t training. Instead, he lies on the field of wildflowers with his mask hanging loosely around his neck and a cigarette between his lips. The wind gently blows by, 

Kakashi pulls his cigarette out from between his lips and speaks, his eyes shut and lashes fluttering against his cheeks.  

“You’re back.”

Obito sits next to Kakashi on the grass. 

“Are you shocked?”

Kakashi shrugs and, with his eyes still closed, holds his cigarette out. Obito takes it and stares down at Kakashi, baffled. The man is still holding his eyes closed and turning his head the other way to show that he won’t look… So, Obito pulls his mask to the side just enough to take a drag off of the cigarette. The smoke in his lungs reeks of tobacco and bittersweet regret.

“You didn’t answer me last night when I asked if you’d be here.”

Obito blows rings of smoke into the air, pulls his mask back over his face, places the cigarette back between Kakashi’s lips, and answers.

“I didn’t have to.”

The leaves of the trees in the forest rustle with the rhythm of the breeze as Obito stares at Kakashi… And stares, and stares, and stares. Kakashi opens his eyes and stares back. Obito meets his gaze, even behind the mask, sure to keep his Sharingan deactivated so his eye remains pitch black. It feels as if Kakashi is staring straight through him. Obito wishes that he could stare straight through Kakashi, too, because after last night, his perception of the other man has been flipped upside down.

“You must be part of Root. I’ve been mulling over everyone I’ve ever worked with and I’m certain I haven’t actually worked with you directly, so you must be a Root member,” Kakashi explains, though it sounds like he’s trying to convince himself more than he’s trying to inform Obito that he knows. Kakashi has always been unsure of himself- Obito can tell that much. “Are you telling Danzo about me? …About this- I mean, about what we’ve been doing the last couple nights?”

“Don’t worry,” Obito says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m aware of the fact that Danzo has it out for you, but you’re not my mission, Kakashi.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Don’t make it out as if I’m doing you any sort of favor.”

“But you are.”

“I’m not.”

“You’ve been trying to act cold these last few days, but I can tell you’re not like that,” Kakashi murmurs, his tone low as he burns his cigarette out on the front of his Anbu armor. “Your presence feels very warm, like an old friend.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“There’s no double meaning. The words are as clear as day,” Kakashi shrugs and crosses one leg over the other. “I feel connected to you. Being around you gives me a sense of warmth and familiarity that I really don’t get to feel anymore.”

“Then your perception of me is wrong.”

“Or maybe the way you perceive yourself is wrong,” Kakashi corrects, then rolls onto his side to face Obito. “I want to see your face.”

“Why?”

“I just…” Kakashi trails off, then reaches out to try to touch Obito’s mask. Obito jerks back. “Imagined you’d be pretty.”

“I’m far from pretty,” Obito argues.

Unlike Kakashi, who’s sitting here unmasked with his beautiful sharp eyes, perfectly chiseled jawline, soft-looking lips, and gorgeous silver hair, Obito is not, in fact, pretty. His long, dark hair is a mess, over half of his body is scarred from the battle on Kannabi bridge, and even if he weren’t half-mangled, he never thought he was attractive to begin with. There was a reason Rin always preferred Kakashi back then.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Do you think you’re pretty, Kakashi?” Obito demands to get the attention of of himself, knowing that Kakashi has never had the best self-esteem.

“I’m not hideous,” Kakashi hums. “I’d say I’m a very average looking man.”

Obito rolls his eyes.

“Then why do you wear a mask to cover your face so often?”

“Well, I’m not self-conscious. The mask is only there for a practical reason. I inherited the strong sense of smell from the Inuzuka clan thanks to my mother, but not the ability to tolerate it without getting overwhelmed, so my father put me in a mask when I was little to keep me from having public meltdowns. I’d get seriously overstimulated. I don’t mind showing people my face if they just ask.”

“...You undersold your looks. You really have gotten handsome in the last few years, Kakashi.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, definitely,” Obito answers. He saw Kakashi’s face a handful of times when they were children- once by accident, a couple times when Rin had to heal a facial injury, and another time when Kakashi was sick. “I hope you don’t think that I’m going to remove my mask now that you’ve shown me your face...”

“Of course not. You said your identity has to be confidential for your mission, right? I knew seeing your face would be a long shot, but I feel like we’ve made some progress tonight,” Obito becomes uncomfortable at those words. If he isn’t careful, Kakashi’s going to make him… No, he doesn’t even want to think about it. Heart fluttering against his chest, Obito stands up and dusts the grass off of his outfit. “Are you leaving now?”

Obito doesn’t answer directly. Instead, he asks-

“See you tomorrow night?”

Kakashi grins.

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

~

The next night, Obito shows up earlier than he’d like to admit… Before the sun sets, in fact. The amount of risks he’s taking for this undeniable urge to see Kakashi is ridiculous if the two dead Anbu near the village barriers are anything to go by.

He waits hours in the same field on the outskirts of the village, sitting in the grass and dwelling on everything that’s happened over the last few days. It takes so long that he starts to think Kakashi might not show up. Right at midnight, however, Kakashi comes running to the field with sweat dripping down his face and a lunch box in his hands. 

“Sorry I’m late- I had a mission that kept me,” Kakashi apologizes and sits down next to Obito on the grass- far too close for comfort, honestly. Their shoulders brush against one another as Kakashi moves to open the lunchbox and pulls out a stick of dango. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Dango again?” Obito quirks an eyebrow, though he knows Kakashi can’t see it behind his mask. 

“You seemed like you liked it with how fast you scarfed it down last time, so I brought it again, but I can eat it by myself if you’d like.”

“No, no, I don’t mind… I’ll have some.”

Obito reaches into the box and pulls out a stick for himself. Kakashi does the same. They turn away from each other and pull their masks down to eat before fixing their masks and turning back to face each other. 

“Did you like it? I learned how to make it pretty recently.”

Obito nods. 

“Yes, it’s better than the kind you can get from the dango shop next to Ichiraku.”

“Good. I’m glad you don’t hate it,” Kakashi reaches over and pats Obito’s back. Obito flinches at the touch, but doesn’t do anything to make Kakashi stop. “You have to eat well if you’re going to be out on a security mission like this all night every night.”

“That’s true. Thank you for feeding me, but why do you keep doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Coming here… Meeting with me, talking to me, treating me with such kindness, even though I can tell you’re unsure if you can fully trust me or not.”

Kakashi pauses, looking wistful as he closes his lunchbox and puts it in his bag. 

“Doesn’t everyone deserve kindness?”

“No,” Obito answers, baffled by the person Kakashi has become. “I would argue that most people don’t- not in this cruel, vile shinobi world.”

“It’s sad that you think that way. Even a lot of the worst people have goodness in them,” Kakashi argues. “And, you know, forgiveness is important. If you don’t forgive, putting things behind you so you can move on is still important. You never know what someone is going through now, or what someone has been through previously. Bad experiences don’t excuse bad behavior, but if you can treat someone who’s lashing out because they’re struggling with some grace, you’re bound to make the world that much better.”

Obito rolls his eyes at Kakashi. 

“You’re far too forgiving.”

Kakashi, as always, seems unbothered.

“You’re allowed to feel that way.”

“Do you think I’m wrong?” Obito questions.

“No, not at all. We’re both right to feel the way we feel. Us shinobi don’t have the rights to much these days- the least we can have are the rights to our feelings. It’s imperative for us to have a variety of people with differing perspectives or the big problems with the shinobi world will never get solved.”

“And you think that people such as myself can solve those problems?”

“Sure you can… Especially if you’re working together with others to do it, like me.”

Kakashi reaches for Obito’s face. Obito catches his wrist in one hand and shoots a glare in his direction- not that Kakashi can see it behind Obito’s mask, anyway, but Kakashi seems to feel the heat of it just fine.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Kakashi jerks his hand away as if he’s scorched it on hot metal and averts his gaze, embarrassed. “I’m sorry for touching you without asking first.”

“Stop apologizing,” Obito grabs Kakashi’s chin with one gloved hand. “Did you… Want to touch me?”

“I’d like to. I feel like we both need it.”

“Do you trust me?”

“I don’t know yet,” Kakashi honestly answers after a moment’s hesitation. “Can you prove to me that I can?”

“Do something for me and I think I’ll be able to.”

Kakashi tightly swallows.

“Anything you want.”

“Pull your mask down, then pull your forehead protector over both eyes to cover them.”

“I see,” Kakashi sighs, seeming disappointed, but he does as Obito says. He drags his tilted forehead protector over both of his eyes and ties it in place so he can’t see, then pulls his mask down to expose the lower half of his face. “You’re going to take your mask off, but you don’t want to reveal your face to me.”

Obito confirms Kakashi’s suspicions with a low hum and places a gentle hand on Kakashi’s face. Kakashi leans into the touch, his cheeks burning bright red underneath the moonlight. Obito uses his other hand to push his mask to the side. Against his better judgment, he leans in and presses a kiss to Kakashi’s lips. They’re sweet like sugar but bitter like coffee as Kakashi tilts his head and leans in to kiss him back. Obito isn’t sure why he’s doing this. Does he love Kakashi back? The way his heart is slamming against his chest right now, the way his lips are moving against Kakashi’s, the way he sighs when Kakashi’s fingers land in his hair and pull at the long black locks- they all say yes, he does.

But then, why do this at all? When the Infinite Tsukuyomi comes to fruition, he can do this whenever he wants without the risk of his identity being revealed. Better yet, he can do it as himself.

‘Because this is real,’ he thinks before quickly shoving the thought to the back of his mind and pulling back. He yanks his mask over his face and stares at Kakashi with intense… Something. Longing? Regret? Relief? He can’t tell. 

 “I should go before this gets too intense,” Obito chokes out the words, still tasting Kakashi on his lips as he talks. 

Kakashi fumbles to pull his forehead protector back over his forehead and his mask over his face. Still, Obito can tell that the poor guy is red from the tips of his ears down. 

“Will you be back tomorrow night?” Kakashi asks, twiddling his thumbs like a teenager.

“I’m not sure yet,” Obito admits. He shouldn’t come back… Not again, lest they take this too far, but he wants to continue this so desperately. “Don’t wait up on me.”

“Okay,” Kakashi smiles, waving. “See you later.”

“Yeah,” Obito waves in return. “See you later, Kakashi.”

[ultrahelo]

Blair and Dan are my everything in Gossip Girl, I loved Chuck and Blair together, when I was younger because they ended up together at the end, but now that I am older and a bit wiser, I know that Chuck’s behaviour is horrible and toxic, in real life people would hate him.

I truly believe, that Chuck should have been alone, he needs to get rid of his demons. The person who helped him change was Eva. They were cute together. Blair and him weren’t cute, they brought each other worst side.

Blair needs someone like Dan, he made her feel seen, loved, and he respected her. She needs an intellectual equal. A person who understands the world differently than her.

Dan needs someone like Blair because she is from a world he admires a lot. But contrary to Serena, Blair isn’t ashamed by her world, she embraced it. She so proud of it. She has interest in books, arts, movies. It is something that only them together could share.

[shallowseeker]

At first, Cas is sympathetic to Rowena.

He thinks WOW no wonder she's like THIS:

///

Then!

He actually seems to change his mind. He seems in near disbelief that Rowena doesn't love Crowley.

///

Cas has sympathy for Crowley's plight now:

Cas's brain begins to say: Maybe I had it backwards. Maybe Rowena is why HE is like THIS

///

And later with Rowena...

In the script, Cas invokes the LOVE OF A CHILD. SPECIFICALLY.

He gives her a sympathetic smile, because in this moment, he feels wiser than she. He's BEEN the ambitious company man, the military-minded man, COMPLETELY sundered from his own emotions.

He sees her nihilism with a level of understanding that Rowena probably couldn't even comprehend.

He tries to tell AU Michael something similar in, funnily enough, an episode titled Nihilism:

///

And yet!

In the next moment, Cas helps facilitate the sacrifice of "Rowena's child."

AUGH!

From Cas's POV, he's allowing the sacrifice of this man to prevent the losses of boys like the Styne kid, and to prevent Dean from murdering the world, and... it's a delicious bit of hypocrisy. This is Cas's old pattern of the greater good, the angelic soldier doing what he thinks is best in this moment. (Even if internally, like he told Sam, everything in him is screaming, "This is a mistake, Sam!")

And Rowena? Rowena wants her own freedom (from Sam's boot).

And Crowley? Crowley is enticed by revenge. As soon as Cas reveals that Rowena has to kill something she loves (and it's been shown by this point that Crowley already knows about Oskar), he says "I'm in."

And so. Crowley becomes his worst self again, killing innocents and going after Seth the way Lucifer went after humans:

Cas didn't know about "Seth," exactly... even if he knew of Oskar.

Crowley has been sitting on Oskar, waiting for just the right time to inflict on Rowena maximum pain and revenge. And he's so excited to watch her crumble.

He's a little bit like Lucifer at the end of season 13, so lacking in love that he delights in making people who love each other KILL each other.

Rejected by Rowena, Crowley goads her to kill the son she loves. Just like Lucifer, rejected by Jack, goads Jack to kill the father he loves:

///

Like Cas's war on Heaven/Raphael in season 6, and like Amara's destructive rampage against Chuck in season 11, most of Crowley's actions in season 10 have more to do with his family than Dean.

It's not as simple as, "I did it, all of it for you," or "all that I've done for you the past six months."

It digs even deeper. Cas becomes God-like to inflict punishment and a firm hand on Heaven, and Crowley becomes Luciferian to exact his revenge on Rowena.

///

Anyway, the point is! Cas starts to understand that maybe Crowley is what he is because of his tragic circumstances, and maybe he doesn't blame Crowley anymore.

You know, like how Rose was like SHE was because of her parental wound:

The thing is, that Rose and Crystal are like Dean and Crowley. Dean's unstable home life drove him to desperation, and Crowley led him straight to his own doom, straight to Cain.

And yeah, I've seen Dean compared to Rose before. But also... Crowley is also like Rose... and Crystal.

What Rowena did to Crowley led him into a workhouse. He died drunk in an alleyway, preyed upon by a demon.

///

And Sam feels like maybe he owes Dean, that it's his responsibility to help Dean because he benefited so much from Dean's sacrifices. Sam feels like he pushed Dean to the brink, just like this brother feels like he pushed his sister to the brink:

"So you didn't bother to tell the cops that, even when your sister turned up dead?"

"I was sort of the one who brought them out there in the first place."

///

There's so much complicated family stuff there!

(Not super coherent, but I had a lot of thoughts, okay?)

I think it definitely has implications for Chuck, too. This theme unites Crowley, Lucifer, and Chuck in a delicious, delicious way:

When Dean doesn't do what Chuck wants him to do, his manner of speaking mirrors how Crowley speaks to the rebellious Demon Dean, saying to Sam: invoking barbs like "crazy" and "stupid:"

While characters like Dean, Mary, and Cas occasionally go berserker and hurt the very things they were trying to protect, it is rarely out of spite.

Godstiel hurt Sam but started the season trying to protect Sam (rescuing him from the cage)!

Demon Dean turns on Sam, when Sam is the thing he's tried all his life to protect.

Mary didn't want to become the Natural Born Killer version herself, NBK!Mary... When she went to the Men of Letters, she wanted to put a stop to evil once and for all, protecting her children and giving them a free future.

Jack isn't like this either. When he learns he "isn't family," that he "isn't loved," he doesn't behave like Lucifer. He's more like Dean, throwing himself into the cause.

ANYWAY. I just think it's interesting.

[swsequelsalt]

"Why The Last Jedi Isn't Just Bad - It's Toxic" by M. Krasava

DISCLAIMER: This editorial was originally published on Scavenger's Holocron, a sadly-now-defunct Star Wars news site. I feel like it's a tragedy to have it deleted from the Internet and only accessible to dedicated parties who know about it via the Wayback Machine, so I'm reposting it here as a form of greater preservation/availability.

Currently being regarded as the most controversial Star Wars film to date, fans of the popular franchise seem to have settled into two groups: this is either the best Star Wars film ever made, or the worst. Cinematically speaking, the movie has stunning visuals and a great cast of actors, but that’s not the problem.

The problem is that while The Last Jedi is being branded as the most feminist Star Wars film to date, its “feminism” seems like a cheap marketing ploy to appeal to a wiser audience and downplays some of the key problems within the film itself: it’s built on a foundation of sexism, misogyny, and racism. In other words, if you’re anything other than a white male, this film isn’t made for you.

And director Rian Johnson hasn’t exactly been shy about his opinion regarding the film’s white male villain, Kylo Ren. Rian told Empire Magazine that, “We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man.”

The only problem is that we can’t. Despite Rian’s insistence that this film is about the “transition from adolescence into adulthood,” Kylo Ren is already a well-established adult with a history of bad choices. We know from the canon Star Wars novel Bloodline, written by Claudia Gray, that Kylo Ren was at least 23 years old when he destroyed Luke’s Academy. At this point, he’s already an adult capable of making his own choices.

The film reveals that the final push towards the “dark side” was when Ben Solo awoke to see Luke standing over him with his lightsaber while he was sleeping. Without considering the possibility of a miscommunication, Ben Solo brought the roof down on the last Jedi, and then systemically went about converting or eliminating the rest of the students in Luke’s school before burning it to the ground. From there it can be presumed that he officially took on the role of Snoke’s apprentice, dubbing himself Kylo Ren as he joined the ranks of the First Order.

The problem is that it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing relateable about being a white adult male who decides to sign up with a Nazi organization and the very premise that we should try to have sympathy for such a character is chilling, especially when you consider that he murdered Han Solo not more than a week prior in film time.

(PUTTING THE REST UNDER A CUT)

But there’s another element to Kylo Ren that makes him harder to relate to. He comes from a place of privilege in society. Ben Solo was born to two war heroes, and while those might be big shoes to fill, there’s nothing that would indicate that Han and Leia were terrible parents to their son. In The Force Awakens, Leia admits that she sent Ben to train with Luke because she feared Snoke’s growing influence on her son (turns out, she had a right to be concerned). In Chuck Wendig’s canon novel, Empire’s End, from the Star Wars: Aftermath series, we see Han excited, if not a little daunted, about the possibility of becoming a father.

In other words, there’s nothing relateable when you think about a wealthy white male growing up sure of his place in the world and deciding to leave it all behind to join a fascist organization.

Compounding on this, there is someone who is relateable: Finn. Finn was not born from a place of privilege. If anything, we still know very little about Finn’s origins aside from the fact that he was abducted from his parents and raised to be a Stormtrooper. Despite years of conditioning and being ranked as the top cadet in his class, Finn was able to maintain his sense of self and when it came down to his first battle, he decided not to shoot and kill an unarmed villager.

This is the character that most people should be able to relate to. Finn is a character that isn’t sure of his place in the world. He grew up with the First Order and left everything that he knew behind him in order to try to do what he thought was right. Although he initially planned to seek a quick exit from the conflict at Maz’s castle, he didn’t hesitate to rejoin the struggle when he discovered that Rey was in danger. Finn spent most of his time in The Force Awakens running away from something – the First Order, from Jakku, from delivering BB-8 to the Resistance, but we see his progression throughout the movie to the point where he risks his life for Rey and helps the Resistance destroy the Starkiller base. At this point, Finn has rightfully earned his status as a hero.

Until The Last Jedi where Finn is again painted as selfish and cowardly, and the film does not shy away from this fact. Initially branded as a traitor by Rose when he tries to get the beacon as far away as possible to prevent Rey from falling into a trap, he is consistently belittled by Rose throughout the film. She consistently calls him cowardly and self-centered, and Finn’s characterization seems to shift in order to fit this description. When Finn is explaining his plan on hyperspace tracking to Poe, he is excited and confident: he can do this. When he gets to Canto Bight, he suddenly regresses, becoming immature and distracted by the glitz and glamour all around him. Finn knows what’s on the line. Rey is on the line. Poe is on the line. The Resistance has less than 24 hours, and yet he suddenly becomes bumbling and distracted.

This becomes Finn’s character throughout the rest of the film. Brash, impulsive, and worse, being frequently portrayed as the butt of everyone’s jokes. When we first see Finn, he is wandering about the halls of the Resistance in nothing but a bacta suit, as if Finn has suddenly forgotten how to care for himself. The film plays into the stereotypes that many people have about black male individuals. Instead of being treated as the hero of the Resistance, Finn is relegated to a comedic side role based on slapstick humor and unfunny comedy that ultimately doesn’t contribute anything to the plot.

In other words, Finn’s side plot reflects the film’s stance of diversity: we’ll wave it in your face for a few minutes before we wave it aside to make way for the two white protagonists. It’s a bold statement, but not untrue. Rian Johnson first joked that it would be “funny” to leave Finn in a coma for the entire film: “We did at some point joke that it would be great to just have him be in a coma for the whole movie and keep cutting back to him.” He explains that each of these cuts back to Finn would have him uttering some nonsense in his unconscious state, and at no point in the entire run time of the movie would the former Stormtrooper wake up. 

When John Boyega first accepted the role of Finn, JJ Abrams told him that he was going to be the new star of Star Wars. Rian Johnson blatantly admitted that it would be “funny” to simply delegate the black lead to the sidelines, where he doesn’t have more than a few scenes of incoherent babbling to serve as comic relief.

Not to mention, it’s Rose who ultimately has to teach Finn about the seedy belly of Canto Bight and how it operates: through slave labor. Another character shouldn’t have to explain to Finn, of all characters, the tortures and ills of slavery. After all, that’s the only life Finn’s known, taken as his family and raised in a life of servitude as a Stormtrooper to the First Order.

The underlying racism in The Last Jedi does not, unfortunately, stop with Finn’s character. We know a lot more about Poe Dameron’s character from the popular Poe Dameron comic series that highlights Poe’s adventures with Black Squadron before they find Lor San Tekka.

In fact, Poe’s arc is highlighted by its racism, as Poe’s character is reduced to a mere stereotype of his ethnicity. From the Before the Awakening, piloting flight logs, and comic series, we have a complete picture of who Poe is as a character. He tells L’ulo, “I’m the best. But you’re the best too” which highlights who he is as a person. He is a gentle soul that sees the best in people, trusting Finn not only to help him escape, but to lower the shields on the Starkiller Base when he said he could. Poe is a genuine nice guy who would give the shirt, er, jacket off their back to help a stranger.

And we see absolutely none of this in The Last Jedi. 

Poe is described as rash, dangerous, and aggressive by Vice Admiral Holdo, played by veteran actress Laura Dern. She’s dismissive of him, and while a part of it does play into more harmful stereotypes that I’ll get into later, in this instance, it’s hard not to. In the opening first scene, Poe is prepared to let everyone, everyone die just to take out a First Order Dreadnought. Even though successful, Poe seems more focused on the success of his mission than the countless deaths of his fellow Resistance fighters.

And that is not who Poe Dameron is. To say so makes a complete mockery of a fantastic character whose character has already been set and esteemed by fans. Changing his character to comply with stereotypes in order to try to advance the plot isn’t “moral ambiguity” or “challenging the character” – it’s just bad writing.

In short, Poe becomes aggressive, dangerous and hotheaded, all to fulfill the stereotypical role that the narrative wants him to play. His character attitudes are changed in order to fulfill a plot device, and that’s the conflict set up between himself and Vice Admiral Holdo.

This conflict is disappointing. It focuses on a female leader putting an aggressive, chauvinistic male in his place. It’s supposed to be empowering, but it’s not, especially when you have to have one character act so differently in order to get to that point. The problem is that the kind of feminism this movie is preaching is white feminism, which is dangerous in and of itself.

But what does white feminism mean in this case? Vice Admiral Holdo, and even Rose, both undermine and belittle Finn and Poe, treating them like children. This concept of infantalization upholds racist stereotypes of black and Latino men being both incompetent and irrational. In Poe’s case, it works to also uplift the alleged moral superiority of white women over people of color. And it’s not feminism.

It’s just disgusting.

Holdo is held up as someone that people in the Resistance are supposed to respect as a leader, and yet she refuses to tell the very people she’s leading what their plan is, citing Poe’s earlier reckless actions as an excuse. Even according to the Navy’s Leadership Principles, keeping your people informed is the second principle on the list. In other words? It’s pretty important. Vice Admiral Holdo’s refusal to do so is driven by petty motives, and while Poe is painted as ridiculous and childish the entire movie, he’s actually proven right when the First Order does the very thing he was afraid they would do.

One of the “lessons” from Poe’s story line is you should always blindly trust authority figures even when they provide no valid reason for doing so, and this is an extremely dangerous and topic example to set, especially in today’s society when people of color are so often made targets of police brutality, which again feeds back into the movie’s underlying theme of systematic racism.

Holdo herself seeks redemption from her mistakes by turning around and ramming her ship through theirs – an admittedly cool move, although it would be cooler had we not seen Admiral Raddus suggest the idea of plowing through a ship no more than a year earlier – and dies so that Leia can explain to Poe that Holdo was a good leader (without really stating how) because she was more concerned with fulfilling the mission without getting credit for it.

The problem with this? It means that Holdo had to die in order for Poe to “understand” what it meant to be a leader. This doesn’t work for two reasons. For one, Poe is a decorated Commander who had already served as a leader in the Republic Navy before joining the Resistance. Painting him as a cocky flyboy with a chip on his shoulder just doesn’t work when it goes against everything we’ve been told about his character. The “lesson” Poe was supposed to learn was one he already knew.

The second problem is that it meant that Holdo had to die in order for Poe to learn this lesson. In other words, we’re back to that age-old trope: a woman had to die in order to advance the plot/characterization of a male character.

And that’s where we get to our final topic: sexism. For a movie that preaches itself as so overtly feminist, it is rich with sexist undertones that are immediately apparent on the surface. Most of these are notably in the interactions between Rey and Kylo Ren, but there’s another character that I wanted to touch upon first. Rose Tico.

Despite Kelly Marie Tran’s boundless enthusiasm for her role, Rose Tico is ultimately underwhelming as a character. Despite mourning the death of her sister, her ultimate presence in the film seemed to be reduced to a girl with a bad crush on Finn.

I’ve already touched upon how poorly Rose treats Finn, but Rose herself seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of the plot. Her character exists only to serve Rian’s image that your heroes aren’t what they seem, tazing Finn when she sees him trying to escape. From then on, Rose’s status seems to be downgraded to “Finn’s crush” as seen in the description of this deleted scene:

Originally, the film spent some more time clarifying the dynamic between Rey and Finn, and further setting up Rose’s crush on the Resistance “hero.” Rose chastises Finn for “pining for Rey,” which Finn quickly denies, claiming that he was “raised to fight” and that he finally found something to fight for in his friend, Rey. “Whatever,” responds Rose with a hint of jealousy.

Rose’s constant nagging of Finn and being catty about Rey enforces a negative female stereotype that has no business in a Hollywood blockbuster that claims to be catered to young girls, especially when it seems that Rose’s role has been reduced to working the love triangle dynamic between Finn and Rey. This seems like it could only lead to a destructive end for the character, especially considering how she attempts to save Finn’s life by almost sacrificing her own at the end of the film. Rose presents us once again with the trope that a female character must sacrifice herself in order to advance the plot of the male character, in this case, to prove her love for him. It’s a frustrating trope, made all the more exhausting when you consider what her role might be in the next film.

If you focus on the look Rey gives Finn putting a blanket over the unconscious Rose, it sets up tension for the next film: assuming Rey and Rose engage in competition for Finn’s attention, putting the two girls at odds with one another.

Because if the sexism in this movie wasn’t blatant enough, that’s just what Star Wars needs: two girls fighting over a guy. While frustrating to watch, it’s also extremely degrading to both characters and reduces both of their arcs into nothing more than instruments to direct the story of a male character.

Hopefully JJ will take the next episode in a different direction, but the damage that has already occurred in this film cannot be understated. There is, unfortunately, a lot of ground to cover regarding Rey’s story, so I’m going to start with the most visually striking one: Rey’s costume.

In The Last Jedi, Rey adopts what has been dubbed her “Jedi Training” outfit, trading out her three signature buns for a simpler hairstyle and trading out her light Jedi garb for a bit of a darker color. It’s a way for Rey to separate herself from the girl we saw crying desperately over her parent’s retreating ship on Jakku, keeping the same appearance a decade later in the hopes that they would come back to recognize her.

Many who speculated that Rey would undergo this physical transition after she discovered the true origin of her parents and worked to free herself of that disappointment found themselves disappointed. Rey didn’t change her clothes and her hair after she learned about her parentage from Kylo Ren, she learned about it after.

Despite being wet from the rain, another reason for this change is that she was shipping herself off in a box to see Kylo Ren, prompting those who want them to be romantically involved to start citing the Snow White parallels. It’s not hard to believe that the reason for this change was to make Rey appear more feminine. With her hair down, she looks more like a girl and less like the hardened warrior who had to fend for herself back on Jakku.

But wait, wouldn’t that mean that Rey’s entire role in the movie basically focused on developing Kylo Ren as a character? It does, and you wouldn’t be wrong to think that way. Even during Rey’s training sessions with Luke, the conversation is always geared back to Kylo Ren in some way, whether it’s Luke talking about his past or Rey assuring Luke that she won’t end up like Kylo. Either way, we hear Kylo’s name spoken more times between them than we actually hear anything about the Jedi or the things that Luke learned about the Force on his travels (say, Pillio, perhaps?)

It becomes clear early on that despite Rian Johnson saying that the film isn’t about what the fans want, that certain scenes were added in to appeal to a certain demographic. For example, Adam Driver’s uncomfortable shirtless scene?

Rian himself says that the scene had a “specific purpose” of creating an increasing feeling of “uncomfortable intimacy.” In other words, Kylo Ren’s shirtless scene is basically synonymous with a dick pic: no one asked for it, but there it is, one of the most subtle forms of sexual harassment. Think about this another way: if Rey’s character was really a boy, would the shirtless scene still be present? Or necessary?

Hint: it’s not.

The fact that Rey’s character only seems to exist to play a role in Kylo’s story is concerning, considering that she is touted as the protagonist of the sequel trilogy. Even though she witnessed him murder Han Solo no more than a few days prior, she becomes emotionally intimate with him pretty quickly, opening up to him about the strange experiences she had in the “dark place” beneath the island.

And therein lies the problem. When they touched hands, Snoke gave her a vision of Kylo Ren turning back to the light side to compel her to rush off to the Supremacy in the hopes that she could turn Kylo Ren back to the light and turn the tide of the war.

There’s only one problem with that.

It’s not her problem.

Rey was a civilian. As Kylo Ren himself told her, “You have no place in this story.” She has no part in the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, and yet she was swept up in it all the same. It shouldn’t be necessary for her to rush off and turn the tide of the war, and while it fits with the Star Wars theme of how one person can make a difference, the trope that a woman must rush off and sacrifice herself in order to progress a man’s character and offer him redemption has been a long-running frustrating trope. If Rey wants to help the Resistance, that’s her choice, but it shouldn’t be necessary to rush off and try to save the person who kidnapped and abused her.

It’s one of the things that makes any sort of Kylo Ren and Rey team-up so off-putting. In The Force Awakens, he kidnaps her and invades her mind in order to try to find the location of the map. After she escapes, he confronts her in the forest, throwing her into a tree several feet up in the air in a move that could have potentially killed her. Then she wakes up just in time to watch him slice through Finn in a move that could have killed him.

Oh, and did I forget to mention how she watched him murder a defenseless Han Solo right before her eyes only moments before? The man who, as Kylo himself taunted, presented a father figure that she never had?

In other words, Rey has absolutely no reason to trust Kylo Ren. She has no reason to even want him to get redemption. For all of Rian’s talk about how he wanted to keep this film “morally grey,” trying to make a genocidal murderer relateable, or even redeemable, was not a step in the right direction. Wouldn’t it have been more compelling to watch Rey wrestle with the ramifications of eliminating Kylo Ren once and for all? Instead of trying to find redemption for the dark side, wouldn’t it have been far more interesting to explore a situation in which Rey realizes that good people must sometimes do bad things for an overall good to result? 

Perhaps, but that’s not the film we got. Instead we got a team-up between Kylo Ren and Rey where, moments after they work together, their alliance is quickly severed. Rey asks Kylo to call off the attack that is sure to eliminate the Resistance, including Finn. Kylo, however, refuses and tells her to move on and join him in ruling. He tells her, “You come from nothing. You’re nothing. But not to me.”

Fortunately Rey grabs the lightsaber and rejects his offer, and the final scene of her closing the Millennium Falcon doors on him seems to confirm that she has severed her connection for good. The problem? The damage has already been done.

Rian Johnson has already set up the Kylo Ren and Rey dynamic to be potentially romantic, between the shirtless scene, the hand touching scene, to be filled with an uncomfortable kind of sexual tension between the girl that declared to Maz, “I don’t want a part of any of this” and the man that murdered his father.

As troubling as that notion is, it does get worse. Kylo Ren tells Rey, “You come from nothing. You are nothing. But not to me.”

The problem is that Kylo Ren’s frequent gaslighting and emotional manipulation throughout the two films reaches its climax: he has discarded Snoke and wants to use the powerful, yet naive Rey, to further his own power. Still, the sexual if not romantic implications are there, pushed along by a group of shippers that call themselves “Reylos,” who desperately seek for Rey to redeem Kylo through, well, you get the idea.

There are several problems with this. One of the first ones is the fact that Kylo Ren is 32 years old, whereas Rey is only 19. While many are quick to claim that age is just a number, Rey is emotionally immature, having been isolated on Jakku for most of her life. There is absolutely no good reason to try to push her into any sort of relationship with someone who is so destructive, especially when the sole reason for doing so is to help Kylo Ren find redemption.

The line, “You’re nothing…but not to me” is a quote that unfortunately most women have heard far too often. It’s an emotional manipulation tactic in order to try to isolate a woman from her friends and family until she only relies on her abuser for support, and this is exactly what Kylo Ren is trying to do here. With Luke unwilling to teach her, Kylo wants Rey to rely on him, and solely him, so that he can use her power and manipulate her to further his own goals (which is to lead the First Order to…conquer the galaxy? It’s not quite clear.)

It’s a frightening message, especially when you think about who this movie is supposedly marketed to. Think about how many children dressed up as Rey for Halloween. How do we explain to girls that the man who killed Han Solo, the man who emotionally manipulated her and tried to use her just to validate himself, is the person that she should ultimately fall in love with? It paints a dangerous picture that girls internalize before they have enough experience to make their own decisions regarding their own relationships.

Remember Edward Cullen’s creepy manipulation in Twilight? Apparently that’s crept into Star Wars as well.

And this gets to the heart of the overall problem. The Last Jedi is ultimately soaked in sexism, misogyny and racism, and yet Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Iger widely praised the film before its release. How can Kathleen Kennedy, who said that she was proud to have a feminist icon in Rey, be willing to reduce Rey’s entire story to “the love interest?” If the executives and storygroup approved such blatant racism and actively worked to rewrite characters in order to fit their stereotypical narrative, what hope do we have that the next trilogy will be better, especially when they gave Rian Johnson full control over its content?

Rian himself believes that Darth Vader was worse than Kylo Ren, and while that is probably a conversation as controversial as the movie itself, Rian still wholeheartedly believes that despite what happened in The Last Jedi, that Kylo Ren can be redeemed. It shows that the storyline that JJ Abrams set up has been reduced to simply furthering the narrative of the white villain, and the rest of the characters are simply players in his story, which is why they exist as nothing more than stereotypes in Rian Johnson’s version of Star Wars.

And that’s the disappointment. While The Force Awakens received criticism for being too similar to its predecessor, A New Hope, JJ did set up some interesting and mysterious characters. While Captain Phasma’s role was ultimately underwhelming, fans were assured that she would have a much bigger role to play in Rian Johnson’s world.

Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out. 

Phasma’s quick dismissal wasn’t the only disappointment. Snoke was killed off without any satisfying explanation to who he was or even what he wanted the First Order to do. The Knights of Ren, which were mentioned in The Force Awakens and played a role in Rey’s vision, disappeared from the narrative entirely, instead being replaced by Rian’s Praetorian Guards.

For many, Luke Skywalker’s return was the biggest disappointment. Mark has made no secret in recent weeks citing how he didn’t agree with Rian Johnson’s vision of Luke and how he wished George Lucas had directed the sequel trilogy instead, a mere three days before The Last Jedi hit theatres. It fits into Rian Johnson’s grim version of reality: our heroes can be defeated, and idolizing legends is ultimately unsettling and disappointing when faced with reality.

But by disappearing into the Force, did Luke not himself become a legend, the very thing that Rian seems to chide against? The film’s “message” seems to give audiences such mixed signals, it’s not surprising that audiences claim that the film seemed better after a second viewing: basic elements of the plot just doesn’t make sense, like how the First Order has suddenly developed hyperspace tracking despite the film only taking place a few days after the events of The Force Awakens. 

There are other plot holes that point out the flaws in logic in the story: where did Rey learn to swim on Jakku? How can bombers drop bombs in space when there’s no gravity for the bombs to fall? Since space exists in three dimensions, why didn’t the First Order just have a ship drop out into hyperspace in front of the Resistance Star Cruiser and blow it to bits? And why was General Hux, a serious, straight-faced villain in The Force Awakens, who ordered the destruction of the Hosnian System, delegated to a comedic side role who’s only function was to serve as a cheap laugh and be the butt of an awkward your mom joke? Instead of using the antagonism between Kylo Ren and General Hux to show the crumbling of the First Order and how the small band of Resistance heroes we’re left with at the end of the movie might stand a chance against them, it seems that the First Order’s army, which was flowing with Nazi imagery in The Force Awakens has just been reduced to campy slapstick humor.

Despite these obvious problems, the most glaring ones still remain in the fact that Star Wars is a film that claims to market itself to the people it exploits and ultimately rejects. It’s no wonder that merchandise and ticket sales have dropped when the movie is back to focusing on a white male lead, like so many other before it. Kylo Ren tells Rey that you have no part in this story, that she doesn’t belong – something that minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community have been hearing their whole lives.

But if this movie isn’t made for these people, then why does Disney keep trying to insist that it is? Most people who have been critical of the film have been met with the chorus of, “You’re just upset that you didn’t get what you wanted” as if it’s somehow wrong to expect more from what you receive. The story was set up so that we would get answers. How someone as powerful as Snoke managed to manipulate Kylo Ren from the womb and grow the First Order from the seeds of the Empire, Phasma’s increased involvement, and especially the question of Rey’s parentage, has been dangled in front of us like a carrot on a stick for the past two years, and it’s ultimately unsatisfying to see all those threads being clipped off and brushed aside with a, “Oh! It didn’t even matter!”

If it didn’t matter, then why feel the need to keep up the secrecy and suspense for two years, when the final product is ultimately disappointing? (Point not withstanding, Kylo Ren tells Rey that Snoke showed him that her parents were buried in a pauper’s grave on Jakku. Why her parents would actually return to Jakku, or whether Snoke was actually telling the truth, is a matter that JJ has yet to resolve.)

It’s not wrong to be a critical consumer of the media that we consume. It’s not wrong to say that we deserve something better. Minorities and women can and should demand to be treated with more respect than they were shown in this film, and the overwhelming amount of racism and misogyny in this film is something that most avid fans of the film have not provided an answer for.

People who claim that The Last Jedi is a good movie, while at the same time acknowledging how deeply misogynistic and racist it is, are contributing to the larger problem we have as a society. It’s saying, “I know it’s racist and misogynistic, but it entertained me, so I’m okay with it.”

It might just be fiction. It might just be a story. But all media we consume influences us, subconsciously or not, in ways that we may not even be aware of. Star Wars may not be real. These characters may not be real.

But it still affects how you feel, and that seems pretty real to me.

[alicelufenia]

Another week, another update on the Chosen of Eilistraee playthrough

We sneak through Grymforge picking off the wandering guards and the scrying eye (which is stupidly resistant to damage in tactiction, but vulnerable to thunder so Gale blows it up with a chromatic orb)

After all the stragglers are dealt with, we try to take some of the duergar in the main room with Nere, but aggroing them, even by drawing them away, aggros the rest of them. We manage to take out one, and then run away, with plans to long rest to reset their aggro and be fresh for the big battle (no negotiating with slavers this run)

Also backed off on my rule of using no gameplay mods and added UA6 Invoke Duplicity, 5E Mirror Image, and UA8 Healing Buffs, to make Shadowheart slightly more viable as a Trickery cleric. I gotta tell you, UA6 Invoke Duplicity ROCKS! It's basically a misty step that leaves a duplicate that you can opt to cast spells from, including melee ones if they're next to enemies. Moving it is a bit clunky, as it uses Tabletop rules for moving it on your turn with a bonus action, but the fact that Shadowheart can just rush into the midst of it, Fear everyone, then bonus action fuck off to a hidden corner, where she can cast spells with impunity from the duplicate (and enemies will occasionally try to attack it, but favors easier targets usually). The fact it now only grants advantage to the caster if she's next to it and the enemy isn't that big a deal, it's now so much more fun to use! Zero regrets with this one.

Dream Visitor is back, explaining how the True Souls are controlled. Finally the seed is planted that they may yet be saved, though visitor wants her to try to work with them by using the tadpole powers, which Tav doesn't wanna do.

Tavierra now has dual wield. The start of her main playstyle is coming together (just two more pieces needed to bring it online) For now she wields a rapier in the off hand, Phalar Aluve in the main. Which gives her pseudo extra attack at Character Level 5, not bad for an early multiclass.

Time to prepare everyone for the fight.

Karlach you're not yourself before you've had your medicine.

MUCH better! (we also throw in our 2nd to last soul coin, it's gonna be a long day)

Sadly I have no screenshots of the battle but, let's just say do you know what's better than a Hunger of Hadar cast on all the enemies grouped up by a Minor Illusion, from hiding, making everyone trapped in the HoH surprised for a round? Not much. We easily dispatched the duergar from a high point, Karlach happily chucking spears, javelins, chairs, at everyone while Wyll knocked them back into HoH with Eldritch Blasts. Did you know Warlock is a really good class?

The gnomes are understandably happy with this result (I very nearly got Laridda here caught in the Hunger of Hadar, but luckily she was just out of it, and all the duergar were too busy focusing on us and getting out of the pain zone to care about the gnomes.

Time to break Nere out with the Runepowder Vial. Now, here I tried two paths, and while one is arguably more interesting, I went with the one with the best in-game reward. However:

With the Duergar defeated, we have a way to negotiate with Nere, even influencing him to let the slaves free, and he's none the wiser.

He tells us about his mission to find an alternate route to Moonrise, but the cavein lead to failure. We tell him he can inform the General himself, but he's stuck here too with his moonlantern broken. So he gives us a spider lyre which we can use via the mountainpass route. So this is an alternative to working with Minthara that still lets you take the super shortcut to Moonrise at the start of Act 2.

More importantly, now that we've had him talking for some time, he's noticed something:

Damn wish it worked this fast with Minthara. We explain how the Absolute is a front for mind flayers, and that we're protected. Just spill the beans right away.

So here's where we diverge in how we can deal with Nere. We can either goad him to fight, or convince him that he should leave the Absolute. That latter option is the interesting part. This is basically doing what we do with Minthara but way earlier and easier. Which is probably due to Nere being not as motivated to stay with a religion—unlike Minthara who has an EXTREMELY devout personality.

Convincing him to leave nets us his gratitude, and a reward of... a +1 Dagger. An insult, really. This makes you miss out on his rapier which is decent at this level, and the BEST GENERAL BOOTS IN THE GAME. And this is before we've even MET the Myconids, so we've no motivation to take his head right now. It wouldn't be so bad if he did show up later like Minthara did, but nope, this is the last we see of "Twat Soul" Nere. Had he showed up later and gave his boots as a reward, this would probably be the best outcome.

All that being said, he DID kinda murder one of the gnomes in cold blood after being rescued. So I think, after getting threatened by him for our blasphemy, it's fair to say Tav is through trying to save this guy, and is ready to kill him instead, if only to give the one gnome whose sister is killed some closure and justice. She's been Chaotic Neutral for the most part, but she's trending more towards Chaotic Good as this crisis she's in starts to feel more like a pilgrimage on behalf of her goddess.

Tavierra equips the shoes she'll likely use for the rest of the game.

Also, Astarion is interested in the tadpole powers even if Tav isn't. I make sure he gets Luck of the Far Realms and make a mental note to find enough tadpoles to ensure Minthara can get the same later. Guaranteed crits on both of them are godsends.

After dealing with Nere and talking to the gnomes, I head back to the Emerald Grove cause I completely forgot to talk to Zevlor after killing Kagha! He gives me his gloves, which are going on Shadowheart at least until she starts getting the pieces for her future radiating orb build put together.

I also decide to just Item Spawn the ring of protection into my game. My justification is: it's my game and you have no power over me, also I did successfully steal the idol, I just didn't know that NOT accepting the quest from Mol locks you out of the reward, and giving her the idol later doesn't do anything. So lesson learned, but I still want it cause Tactician Mode.

Also got Wyll this absolutely stylish mid-tier armor! The dye is modded, but I think red and gold suits him well.

Next step: deal with the Goblins once and for all. Tav is fresh off failing to get anywhere with Nere, and is considering what other options she has with these True Souls now. She knows that they're not necessarily willingly serving, by virtue of being tadpoled, but that doesn't change the fact they're zealots right now. She'd ask for more guidance, but aside from a few days ago when she first met Minthara, and she was guided to a singing blade, there's been nothing else from Eilistraee, no obvious signs at least. What to do?? (also she really should go find Halsin, he's still locked up lol)