#cs recognition

[1o1percentmilk]

when u say u relate to patrick bateman u mean that ur a misogynistic asshole who doesnt care abt anyone and ur proud of it. when i say i relate to patrick bateman its because i have a superficial need to fit in yet also want to be called out and discovered, am very catty and self-centered, and often despise myself for it. we are not the same.

[hereforuconnwbb]

Unexpected Halt - CHAPTER SEVEN

paige x azzi (pazzi)

au fic!

~paige plays for uconn and azzi plays for stanford~

word count: 10.2k

warning: language, drugs, alcohol

hey yall sorry i kept you guys waiting but here chapter 7 !!! i honestly dk if i like this and if this chapter even makes sense but i js wanted to get something out cs like this is my downfall 🥲 sooooooo um hopefully its ok and hopefully u guys enjoy 😽

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A month had passed, and somehow, things between Paige and Azzi had only gotten stronger.

What started as late-night FaceTime calls and Fortnite sessions had turned into something even more effortless. They talked every day, whether through texts, calls, or the occasional voice memo when one of them was too busy to type. They had settled into a rhythm—one that felt natural, easy, and theirs.

Paige had always known she cared about Azzi, but now? It felt deeper. Stronger. More real. It wasn’t just playful teasing and stolen moments anymore—it was falling asleep on the phone together, waking up to good morning texts, and knowing that, no matter what, they were each other’s person.

Azzi felt it too. She had never been the type to open up easily, but with Paige, she didn’t have to try. Being with her felt like second nature, like something she had always been meant to do. And even though they were still apart more often than not, it never felt like distance. Because no matter where they were, they chose each other.

—------------

Paige’s phone buzzed next to her as she sat at her desk, trying to focus on some homework. She glanced at the screen, but the number was unfamiliar. The message that popped up was vague, but something about it made her stomach twist.

Unknown Number: Hey, it’s been a while.

Paige frowned, unsure who it could be. She quickly typed back,

Paige: Who is this?

The reply came almost instantly.

Unknown Number: You really don’t recognize me? You used to call me your best friend.

Paige hesitated, her mind racing as she tried to place the voice behind the message. It didn’t feel like a random number, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Paige: I’m not sure. Why are you texting me?

The person didn’t hesitate to respond, their tone increasingly familiar.

Unknown Number: You always said we’d talk again someday. I never wanted things to end like they did.

Paige’s heart skipped a beat, recognition slowly dawning on her. Her breath caught as a name bubbled to the surface of her mind.

Paige: Wait… Lexi?

There was a long pause before the response came, almost as if Lexi had been waiting for Paige to remember.

Lexi: You remember me. I’ve missed you so much. I tried to move on, but it’s been hard.

Paige’s pulse quickened, irritation bubbling up. She hadn’t heard from Lexi in months, not since their messy breakup. Lexi had never been good at letting go, and Paige had known that from the start.

Paige: Lexi, this is not okay. Why are you texting me after all this time? I’ve moved on. You need to stop.

Lexi: Move on? Who are you with now, Paige? You’re still not with that girl, right?

Paige froze. She didn’t want to give Lexi any details, but something about the way she asked made her feel uneasy. She typed back quickly.

Paige: That’s none of your business.

Lexi: Oh, I get it. You think I don’t know what’s going on in your life. You’ve always had a way of pushing people away when they get too close.

Paige’s grip on her phone tightened. The old frustration she felt with Lexi resurfaced, the constant need to control and manipulate every situation.

Paige: Stop trying to make me feel guilty. I’m in a relationship, and I’m happy. Can’t you just leave me alone?

There was a pause, the silence stretching between them. Paige could feel the weight of Lexi’s unspoken response, almost like a threat hanging in the air.

Lexi: You think you’re happy, but you’ll always come back to me, Paige. I know you better than anyone. You can’t just forget me like that.

Paige’s blood ran cold, and she couldn’t stop herself from sending a harsh reply.

Paige: You need to stop. I don’t want you in my life anymore, Lexi.

Before she could put her phone down, a new message popped up, this time more insistent and almost demanding.

Lexi: You’re mine, Paige. You always will be. Don’t pretend like you’re in control. I’m coming for you again.

Paige stared at the words, her heart pounding. Something about the way Lexi spoke sent a chill down her spine. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, but the feeling of being trapped by her past lingered.

She didn’t respond. The messages kept coming, each one more desperate, more possessive. But Paige knew she had to stop before it escalated further.

With a sigh, she tossed her phone onto her bed, standing up and pacing around her room for a few moments. The anger bubbling in her chest was still fresh, but something else gnawed at her too—a sense of dread. What if Lexi didn’t let this go? What if she started trying to come between her and Azzi?

The door to her room creaked open, and KK and Ice popped their heads inside, both of them giving her knowing smirks. “You good, P?” Ice asked, her voice teasing but with a hint of concern behind it.

Paige sighed again, running a hand through her hair. “No,” she muttered, walking over to her desk and sitting down. She could feel Ice and KK’s eyes on her, already reading the situation. Ice crossed her arms, while KK leaned against the doorframe, both of them waiting for Paige to speak.

“I got a message from Lexi,” Paige said quietly, her voice almost reluctant. She wasn’t used to talking about her past with them, but it was clear they weren’t going to leave until she opened up. “She… she’s been trying to reach me again.” She could feel the frustration rising in her chest as she spoke. “I don’t know how she even got my number. It’s like she’s been waiting for me to fall back into her trap.”

Ice raised an eyebrow. “Lexi? That’s the ex who almost fucked everything up, right?”

Paige nodded, her jaw tightening. “Yeah. She’s the one who—” She stopped herself, realizing she didn’t want to dredge up everything right now. The memories of the toxic relationship, the fights, the manipulation—it felt like opening a door she was trying to keep locked.

KK stepped into the room fully, a little more serious now. “Okay, but what’s going on with her? I thought she was out of your life for good. You’ve been pretty happy lately, with Azzi, right?” Her voice softened as she said Azzi’s name, her tone light but also understanding—especially now that she and Ice had figured out Paige and Azzi had been dating for a while now.

Paige took a deep breath, swallowing her frustration before it bubbled over. “She says she misses me. She wants to get back together, but it’s like… she doesn’t get it. I don’t feel that way anymore. I want to be with Azzi. But Lexi… she’s not just gonna let go. She’s already starting shit, making me feel like I owe her something.”

“You don’t owe her anything,” Ice interjected sharply, her eyes hardening. “I swear, Paige, if this bitch tries to pull you back in, we’ve got your back. You know that, right?”

Paige nodded, grateful for her friends’ support. “I know. But the thing is, Lexi doesn’t care about boundaries. She’s been texting me these creepy, possessive things. Telling me she knows I’m with someone else now, but she’s not letting me go. It’s like she thinks I’m hers.”

KK’s face softened with sympathy. “She’s unhinged,” she said bluntly. “And I know that’s scary, but you don’t have to deal with this alone. You’ve got us, and you’ve got Azzi. Lexi’s not gonna break you down.”

Paige chuckled bitterly, rubbing the back of her neck. “I know. But the way she’s acting… I’m worried she might try something. She’s the type to do something crazy.”

Ice’s eyes narrowed in understanding. “We’ll keep an eye on her for you,” she said. “But Paige, don’t forget—you are the one in control of this. Lexi might have messed with your head before, but you’re not the same person now. You’ve got your life with Azzi. You’ve got your own support system. You don’t have to let her worm her way back in.”

“Yeah,” Paige murmured, her chest tightening with a mix of relief and unease. “I just don’t want to cause problems for Azzi. She’s already been through enough with me, and the last thing I want is for her to get caught up in this mess.”

“I get that,” KK said, her voice softer now. “But Azzi’s not stupid. She’ll have your back. Just make sure you’re not pushing her away when you’re dealing with this. Communication is key.”

Paige nodded, the weight on her chest lessening slightly at her friends’ words. “I know. I just—she doesn’t deserve any of this. Lexi doesn’t get to just show up and ruin everything.”

A tense silence filled the room as Paige tried to steady herself, but Ice and KK didn’t push her further. They stood by her, their expressions supportive, not prying but offering comfort in the way they knew best.

“I’ll keep an eye on things,” Paige continued, her tone firm as she stood up, her mind made up. “If she crosses the line, I’ll shut it down. But I’m not letting her tear down what I have with Azzi. Not this time.”

Ice gave her a single, approving nod. “Good. You’ve got this, Paige. And if Lexi shows up anywhere near you again, you let us know. We’ll take care of it.”

Paige felt a wave of gratitude. No matter what Lexi tried, she wasn’t in this alone anymore. She had Azzi, Ice, and KK. And together, they would make sure that Lexi didn’t stand a chance.

Paige walked over to her phone, scrolling through the messages from Lexi one more time before deleting the entire thread. No more. It was time to shut that door for good.

But in the back of her mind, the unsettling feeling remained. The storm hadn’t passed yet, and Paige knew that things were about to get even more complicated.

—------------

The next day, after a restless night filled with too many thoughts, Paige finally found the time to call Azzi. Her fingers hovered over the phone screen, hesitating for just a second as she tried to decide how to bring it up. She didn’t want to drag Azzi into this mess, but she knew she couldn’t keep it from her. Not when things with Lexi were escalating.

Azzi picked up on the second ring, her voice soft but warm. “Hey, baby,” she greeted, a smile practically audible in her tone. “How’s it going?”

Paige took a deep breath, settling back into her bed as she tried to clear her head. “Hey, Azzi. I need to talk to you about something. Something’s been going on, and I don’t want to keep it from you.”

Azzi’s tone shifted immediately, the concern evident in her voice. “What’s wrong, Paige? You sound serious.”

Paige bit her lip, feeling the weight of the conversation already pressing down on her. “It’s about my ex… Lexi.”

There was a brief pause on the other end. “Your ex?” Azzi’s voice was cautious, unsure. “You don’t really talk about her much, so I’m guessing she’s not someone you want to talk about.”

Paige nodded, though Azzi couldn’t see it. “Yeah. I haven’t talked to her in a while, but recently, she started reaching out again.” She paused, trying to find the right words to explain it all without making it sound like she was trying to pull away from Azzi. “She’s… been trying to get back into my life. But it’s not just normal texting. It’s… well, it’s obsessive. She’s sending me messages, saying she misses me, saying she wants to get back together.”

Azzi’s voice softened, a note of sympathy slipping through. “That sounds… not great. But I’m guessing it’s more than just texts?”

Paige’s chest tightened as she replied, “Yeah, it is. She’s been sending weird stuff. Like, she knows I’m with someone else now, and she’s making it clear she doesn’t care. It’s like she’s trying to worm her way back in, even though I’ve made it clear I don’t want that.”

Azzi’s heart thudded in her chest. Her instinct was to protect Paige, to wrap her up in the safety of her own arms. She could hear the tension in Paige’s voice, and it made her ache for her. “I’m sorry, Paige. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have someone like that in your life, especially when you’re trying to move forward. But you’ve got me, okay? I’m here for you.”

Paige smiled faintly at the reassurance, but the nagging feeling at the back of her mind didn’t ease. “It’s just… she’s not letting go. And it’s like she doesn’t get the boundaries. I’ve blocked her number, but she somehow keeps getting through. And now she’s just… I don’t know. I’m worried she might do something stupid. She’s the type to make a scene if she doesn’t get what she wants.”

Azzi’s heart clenched at the thought of Paige being stalked or harassed. She wanted to be there for her, but this situation felt out of her control. “Have you told her to stop? Have you told her to stay away?”

“I have,” Paige said, her voice strained. “But it’s like she doesn’t care. She’s not listening. And now… now I’m worried she’s going to try something while I’m out or… or when I’m with you. I won’t let her ruin this, but I’m not sure what to do next.”

Azzi felt a rush of emotion—protectiveness, worry, even anger—and she knew in that moment that she couldn’t let Paige deal with this on her own. “You’re not alone in this, Paige. You’ve already been through enough with her. But I want you to promise me something.”

Paige raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued. “What’s that?”

“Promise me that if she tries anything again, we’ll try to figure it out together. I don’t care who she is or what she wants. I’m not going to let anyone threaten us or what we’ve got.”

Paige’s chest swelled with gratitude at Azzi’s words. “I promise. And I’ll keep you in the loop, always. I don’t want to keep things from you. But I just don’t want to bring this stress into what we have. You mean so much to me, Azzi. I just want us to stay happy.”

Azzi’s heart softened at that, her voice lowering to a tender whisper. “I know, babe. And we will be happy. No one’s going to mess that up. Not Lexi, not anyone.”

Paige could feel the warmth in Azzi’s words, and for the first time that day, she felt like maybe everything would be okay. They’d face whatever came next together, no matter how complicated it got. Paige didn’t want to burden Azzi with the weight of her past, but it felt good to know that Azzi was standing by her side.

“You’re right,” Paige said, her voice steadier now. “I don’t want to let this ruin what we have. Thank you, Azzi. For everything.”

“Always, P,” Azzi replied softly. “Always.”

The call continued with a few more quiet words, both of them reassured, though the unease still lingered. Paige knew the situation with Lexi wasn’t over yet. But with Azzi by her side, it didn’t feel quite as impossible to handle. She just had to make sure that nothing—and no one—would threaten what they had together.

And that meant keeping her ex at bay. No matter the cost.

—------------

Paige had just set her phone down after hanging up with Azzi, the warmth of their conversation still lingering in her chest, when the screen lit up with a new notification. A text. Lexi.

She hesitated for a moment, staring at the name on the screen. Her thumb hovered over the message for several seconds before she finally unlocked her phone and read the text.

Lexi: “I’m still waiting for you to talk to me, Paige. I know you’re mad, but you know this isn’t over. I’m not giving up on us.”

The words hit Paige like a punch in the gut, but her fingers didn’t shake. It was like a familiar ache now, the kind she’d grown numb to over the years.

Her heart pounded in her chest, a mix of irritation and concern flooding her system. It had only been a few hours since she last dealt with Lexi’s relentless messages, and now here she was again, pushing all her buttons.

Paige didn’t want to respond, didn’t want to get sucked back into whatever chaos Lexi was creating. But the text lingered in her mind, the old patterns creeping back in.

A second message popped up almost immediately after, this one more forceful, the text bold with desperation.

Lexi: “I know you’re ignoring me, but you can’t hide forever. You need to talk to me. I miss you, and you know it. Don’t push me away, Paige. Please.”

Paige’s jaw tightened as she read it, every word making her more frustrated. Lexi was pushing her again, testing the limits, as if Paige owed her something. She didn’t. Not anymore.

But as she stared at the messages, her fingers itched to respond. She wanted to tell Lexi exactly what she thought of her, but she knew better. Lexi thrived on that chaos, on the drama. Paige had to shut it down.

With a deep breath, Paige typed out a quick, sharp reply.

Paige: “This has to stop, Lexi. Like I said before, I’m with someone else now, and you need to respect that. We’re done.”

She hit send, staring at the screen as if the words would make everything go away. But the phone buzzed again, almost immediately.

Lexi: “You think I care about that? You’re mine, Paige. You always were. And you know that.”

Paige’s stomach churned. She could feel the anger building up, the frustration of dealing with Lexi’s obsession. She knew she shouldn’t engage, knew it only gave Lexi what she wanted, but it was hard not to. She couldn’t just let this go. Not now.

Paige: “I’m telling you for the last time. Leave me alone, Lexi.”

Paige’s fingers trembled as she hit send, the message final. She locked her phone and tossed it onto the bed, running a hand through her hair as her mind raced. She hated dealing with this. It was exhausting.

But then, just as she was about to turn away, the phone buzzed again, and she couldn’t help herself. She picked it up, the familiar dread creeping up her spine.

Lexi: “You’re not going to just walk away from me, Paige. I won’t let you. You’ll regret this.”

Paige stared at the screen, her heart hammering in her chest. The words weren’t a threat, but they felt like one. And for the first time, she felt that old sense of unease creeping back, like maybe Lexi wasn’t finished yet.

Taking a deep breath, Paige shut the phone off and shoved it into the drawer. She was done. For now. But she knew that wouldn’t be the end of it.

No matter what it took.

—------------

Paige sat in her room, still feeling the lingering tension from Lexi’s messages. She had tried to push it out of her mind, but it kept coming back, haunting her like a shadow. She stared at her phone, but the screen remained off, as if it could hold the chaos at bay. But even without checking her messages again, the weight on her chest didn’t lift.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.

“Ice? KK?” she called, half-expecting them.

The door creaked open, and Ice leaned in, her eyes scanning Paige’s face as if looking for something. “You good?” she asked, her voice soft but perceptive. “You’ve been kind of off today.”

KK stood behind Ice, her arms crossed, already knowing what was going on. She glanced between them, noticing Paige’s distant expression. “Lexi texted you again, huh?” she said, matter-of-factly.

Paige’s eyes shot to KK’s. She didn’t even need to ask how they knew—she had been avoiding them for the past few hours, and they were always on the lookout for when something was off.

“I’m fine,” Paige said, but even she knew it was a half-lie. She let out a heavy sigh. “It’s just… I don’t know, guys. She won’t leave me alone. It’s driving me crazy.”

Ice and KK exchanged a quick glance before Ice spoke again, her voice sympathetic. “I get it. She’s relentless. But you can’t let her get under your skin like this. She doesn’t deserve your energy.”

“I know,” Paige muttered, rubbing her temples. “I just… I don’t know how to make her stop.” She paused, meeting Ice’s gaze. “It’s like every time I think it’s over, she pulls me back in.”

KK leaned against the doorframe, her expression softening. “It’s not your fault. You’re doing your best to cut ties. You just need to let go.” She crossed her arms, her tone turning teasing as she tried to lighten the mood. “But hey, maybe we should get you out of here, clear your head. You in the mood for a little Ted’s night?”

Paige hesitated for a moment. She really didn’t want to go out, but she knew Ice and KK weren’t going to let her stew in her own thoughts. And honestly, she could use a distraction.

“I mean, I guess I could use a drink,” Paige said, trying to force a smile. “But only if I don’t have to talk about Lexi.”

“You’re not gonna have to talk about anything you don’t want to,” Ice promised, giving Paige a knowing look. “Come on, it’ll be good for you. The team’s going, and I’m sure the usual chaos will help take your mind off things.”

Paige nodded reluctantly. “Alright, fine. I’ll come.”

KK grinned. “That’s the spirit. You need a night to just be around your people and forget the drama for a bit.” She winked at Paige, her usual playful energy filling the space. “And trust me, we’ll make sure Lexi doesn’t cross your mind.”

With that, Paige stood up, following Ice and KK as they headed toward the door.

As they walked down the hall, Paige couldn’t help but feel a bit of relief. The weight of Lexi’s messages was still there, but for the first time in a while, it felt like she was taking a step away from it, even if just for the night. Maybe being at Ted’s with the team would help her forget, even if just for a few hours. She could use a break from everything.

“I’ll text Azzi when we get there,” Paige said, though she didn’t feel entirely comfortable keeping her girlfriend in the dark about what was going on. But she also didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily, especially when there wasn’t much to say yet.

KK looked at Paige with a raised eyebrow. “You sure? I mean, you can tell her if you need to.”

Paige sighed, adjusting her hoodie. “Yeah, I’ll just let her know I’m out with you guys. It’s better than overloading her right now. I’ll figure it out.”

Ice and KK exchanged another glance, but they didn’t press the issue. They could tell Paige just wanted to focus on getting her mind off things. As they made their way toward the door to leave, Ice gave Paige a gentle nudge. “Come on, Paige. Let’s just have fun tonight. No stress.”

“Yeah, no stress,” KK added, a smile on her face. “It’s Ted’s, after all.”

And with that, Paige found herself stepping out of the room, allowing herself to enjoy a brief, fleeting moment of normalcy. The night ahead wasn’t going to solve everything, but maybe, just maybe, it would help her breathe a little easier.

—------------

When Paige and the crew arrived at Ted’s, the usual buzz of noise filled the air—laughter, clinking glasses, and the soft hum of music in the background. It was the perfect place for a night of distraction, and Paige was grateful for it. She pushed the thoughts of Lexi aside for now, focusing on the familiar faces and the chaos that always came with a night at Ted’s. But as they walked in, Paige’s eyes immediately scanned the room.

There, sitting at the bar, was Lexi.

Paige’s stomach dropped, and she had to stop herself from turning around and walking right out the door. Lexi was a force—impossible to ignore, and clearly, she hadn’t gotten the memo that Paige needed space. Lexi’s striking features were just as familiar as they had been the first time Paige laid eyes on her, but now they made Paige’s heart race in a way she didn’t want it to. Her dark hair was styled into loose waves, falling perfectly over her shoulders, and she wore a tight-fitting black dress that hugged her body in all the right places. The bold red lipstick she always favored was perfectly applied, standing out against her brown skin. She looked effortlessly beautiful, but to Paige, it was a reminder of everything that had gone wrong.

Lexi’s gaze lifted from her phone as Paige’s eyes met hers. A slow, almost smirking smile spread across her lips, and Paige felt the weight of it. The realization that Lexi had been watching her, waiting for the right moment to strike, was suffocating. She couldn’t just ignore it.

“Shit,” Paige muttered under her breath, though Ice and KK were too busy talking to hear. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Paige made a beeline for the bar, pretending like she hadn’t just seen her ex. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she could feel the tightness in her throat. She hadn’t been prepared to see Lexi here, not after everything. It felt like a punch in the gut, like everything she’d worked to move on from was right in front of her again.

As she reached the bar, she tried to keep her voice steady. “Hey, can I get a drink?” she asked the bartender, trying to keep her focus on something, anything other than Lexi.

Lexi, of course, didn’t waste a second. “Paige,” she said smoothly, her voice a bit too sweet, too familiar. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Paige’s jaw tightened, but she kept her face neutral. She didn’t want to give Lexi the satisfaction of seeing how much she was rattled. “I’m fine,” she replied coolly, leaning against the bar, her eyes scanning the room to avoid any direct contact with Lexi. “I’m just here to hang with some friends.”

Lexi raised an eyebrow, her smirk never faltering. “I see that,” she said, glancing over Paige’s shoulder at Ice and KK, who were at the far end of the bar, joking around and ordering drinks. “Are they really who you need to be with right now, though? You know you could be doing so much better.”

Paige clenched her fists. The audacity of this woman never ceased to amaze her. “I’m good,” she said, her voice flat but firm. “And I’m happy with where I am.”

Lexi’s gaze flickered with something Paige couldn’t quite place—a mixture of irritation and amusement, like she knew she had Paige on edge. “We both know that’s not true,” Lexi purred. “You’re still hung up on me, I can see it in your eyes. You’re not fooling anyone.”

Paige was done with this conversation. “No,” she said sharply, her voice lower than before. “I’m not. I’m over you, Lexi. So whatever game you think you’re playing, I’m not interested. I’m with someone else now, and I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of my life.”

Lexi leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping to a more intimate tone. “Someone else? That’s cute. I don’t think they can handle you the way I did, Paige. You always come back to me. You know it’s true.”

Paige’s heart hammered in her chest, the familiar rush of old feelings trying to creep in, but she squashed them down with everything she had. She wasn’t going to let Lexi win. She wasn’t going to let her get to her this time.

“No,” Paige said firmly, standing up straighter. “I’m done with you, Lexi. You’ve had your chance. I’m happy now, and you’re not going to ruin that.”

For a moment, Lexi just stared at her, her expression unreadable. Then, she leaned back and smiled, her voice dripping with something dangerous. “You’ll be back. I know you will.”

Paige had heard those words too many times before. She wasn’t going to let Lexi’s words dictate her anymore. With a deep breath, Paige turned her back on Lexi and walked toward her friends, forcing her pulse to slow.

Ice and KK were already halfway through their drinks, completely unaware of the tension Paige had just experienced.

“You good?” Ice asked, catching the look on Paige’s face as she sat down.

Paige forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just have a good time tonight, alright?”

KK raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t push the issue. “If you say so.”

And for now, that’s all Paige could do. Keep pretending she was fine, even though Lexi’s presence hung in the air like a storm cloud, waiting for the right moment to break. Paige would have to be ready for whatever came next.

—------------

The tension in the air at Ted’s continued to simmer, but Paige tried to ignore it. She was already in a better mood than she had been when she first walked in—her friends were here, and the loud atmosphere of the bar made it easier to forget for a while. Still, as the night went on, Paige couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that had settled in her chest after the interaction with Lexi. She tried to focus on the conversation she was having with a random acquaintance at the bar, laughing at their jokes, trying to let the noise drown out the thoughts in her head.

However, as she shifted her attention to the person beside her, she didn’t notice Lexi slip closer, waiting for the perfect moment. In the midst of the banter, when Paige’s attention was fully on the stranger beside her, Lexi subtly leaned over and dropped a small white powder into Paige’s drink. Her eyes flickered toward Paige, watching carefully to see if she noticed. Lexi knew that if Paige had been paying attention, she would’ve caught her. But Paige was too distracted.

Once the drink was mixed and the powder dissolved, Lexi stepped back into the crowd, as though nothing had happened. Paige took a sip of her drink, completely unaware of the malicious act unfolding behind the scenes. She continued chatting, the noise of Ted’s creating the perfect cover.

As the minutes passed, Paige’s head started to feel heavier, like the weight of the world was pressing down on her. It started with a slight dizziness, then a deep, overwhelming sense of fatigue. She shook it off, thinking maybe it was just the alcohol or the long day. But soon, it became harder to keep her focus. The room seemed to sway, and she struggled to follow the conversation she was having.

Before she knew it, she felt her stomach churn. Her breath hitched as nausea crept in, and she quickly stood up, clutching her drink with shaky hands. “I need to go to the bathroom,” Paige muttered to Ice and KK, who were still lost in conversation, not noticing how off she had become. They gave her a quick nod, not thinking twice about it.

She stumbled toward the bathroom, hoping to just get a quick breather and let the sickness pass. But before she could even reach the door, she felt a soft hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, you okay?” Lexi’s voice was smooth, and it felt like it came from miles away. Paige’s vision blurred slightly, but she still recognized the familiar voice.

“Yeah… just need to throw up,” Paige mumbled, her voice sounding weaker than she intended. She felt hot, cold, and disoriented all at once. She wanted to push Lexi away, but her body felt like it wasn’t listening to her.

Lexi’s smile was as practiced as ever, and she leaned in closer, her voice low and almost soothing. “I’ll help you,” she said, her hand gently resting on Paige’s back, guiding her toward the bathroom. Paige felt too dizzy to protest and let herself be led.

Inside the bathroom, Paige felt her stomach lurch, and she quickly leaned over the toilet. Her head swam as she emptied her stomach, but all she could focus on was the fact that Lexi was still standing there, far too close. Paige’s mind struggled to keep up, trying to make sense of what was happening.

“You’re gonna be fine,” Lexi said, her voice laced with false sweetness as she rubbed Paige’s back. “Just breathe. You’ll feel better in a minute.”

Paige pushed against the sink, trying to steady herself, but the world around her felt like it was spinning out of control. “I don’t… I don’t feel right,” she muttered, her voice shaking.

Lexi took another step closer, pressing herself against Paige’s side. “I know, sweetie,” she cooed, her hand coming up to gently tuck a strand of Paige’s hair behind her ear. “You’re just a little overwhelmed, that’s all. Just relax. Let me help you.”

Paige wanted to shove her away, but the strength in her limbs felt like it had been drained. She couldn’t think straight. She didn’t know what was happening, only that something wasn’t right.

“Don’t… please,” Paige managed to say, her voice barely above a whisper. She was still trying to push Lexi off, but her movements were sluggish. “I… I don’t want to…”

“Shhh,” Lexi murmured, a wicked glint in her eyes that Paige couldn’t quite register. She was too out of it to fight, her body betraying her. Lexi smiled, as if savoring the moment. “Who’s the lucky one, Paige?” she asked, her tone sugary sweet as she stroked Paige’s cheek. “Who do you have now?”

Paige, still disoriented, blinked at Lexi, trying to clear her mind. “I—” she started to say, but her thoughts felt like they were slipping through her fingers.

And then it happened.

“Azzi,” she whispered, unable to stop herself. Her relationship with Azzi had been on her mind all night, and in her vulnerable state, the words slipped out.

Lexi’s smile turned into a smirk, her eyes lighting up with satisfaction. She’d gotten what she wanted. She quickly leaned forward, whispering in Paige’s ear, her words dripping with malice, “Azzi, huh? That’s cute. I think I can make this work.”

Paige barely registered the words, but she knew she was on the edge of passing out. Everything felt like it was slipping away, the world around her darkening.

“Give me your phone, Paige,” Lexi coaxed, her voice low. “I’ll message her for you. Let me help you. Just give me your passcode, and I’ll take care of it for you.”

Paige was so disoriented that she didn’t even question it. She fumbled for her phone, handing it over without thinking. “Just… don’t… don’t hurt her,” Paige muttered, her eyelids fluttering.

Lexi took the phone from Paige’s hand, entering the passcode quickly. “Don’t worry, darling,” she whispered. “I’ll take care of everything.”

As Paige’s vision blurred and her consciousness slipped away, she felt the last shred of awareness leaving her. Lexi’s voice faded into the background as the darkness swallowed her whole.

When Paige passed out, Lexi smiled to herself, the plan already forming in her mind. She was going to make sure this wasn’t the last time Paige would come crawling back to her.

Lexi looked down at the phone in her hands, her fingers brushing across the screen with practiced precision. Paige’s phone, now unlocked and in her possession, gave Lexi everything she needed. Her mind worked quickly, the satisfaction of control creeping up her spine as she navigated to the messages between Paige and Azzi.

She knew how much Azzi meant to Paige. She could use that. If she could plant seeds of doubt, if she could make Azzi question things, the crack in their relationship would widen. Lexi smirked as her fingers hovered over the keyboard, the words forming in her mind.

Paige had been too trusting, and now she would pay the price.

She started typing, knowing that Azzi would believe it was Paige on the other end of the conversation. The situation was too perfect—Paige had already been distant, distracted, and now with the drugged haze still clouding her mind, she wouldn’t notice the difference between the texts and the way she usually spoke.

Paige: “Azzi, I’ve been thinking… I don’t know if I can keep doing this. You’re great and everything, but lately, I just feel like I’m not as into this as I was before. You’ve been so busy, and I’m feeling kind of neglected.”

Lexi sat back, a cruel smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she hit send. She watched the message go through, knowing that Azzi would receive it and react just as she’d anticipated. She wasn’t done yet. She had a lot more to say.

She quickly typed again.

Paige: “I don’t know if this is going to work. I mean, maybe we should just take a break or something. I’ve been talking to Lexi a lot more since I saw her at the bar tonight, and she’s been a lot more… understanding. She gets me in ways that you don’t, and maybe I need that right now.”

Lexi read the words before sending them, savoring the delicious satisfaction of knowing how Azzi would react to them. It was a slow burn, and Azzi would feel every inch of the distance growing between her and Paige. She would question everything. All Lexi had to do was make her doubt Paige’s feelings.

She waited for a moment, watching the little dots appear on the screen as Azzi typed. Then her phone buzzed with a new message.

Azzi: “What the hell? Paige, what do you mean you’re not ‘into this’ anymore? You know this isn’t like you. We’ve been through so much, and now you’re just going to throw it all away?”

Lexi felt a rush of satisfaction. Azzi was already reacting the way she expected—hurt, confused, defensive. But she wasn’t done yet. She needed Azzi to feel even more unsteady.

Paige: “I just… I don’t know. Things have changed. I feel like you don’t really care anymore. Maybe you just got too busy with your own life to notice.”

Lexi paused before sending the next message, reading it over and ensuring it would hit hard.

Paige: “Honestly, I don’t want to keep pretending everything’s okay when I’m feeling like this. Maybe I just need someone who can actually be there for me, someone who actually gets it. Lexi does.”

She sent it. The reaction was immediate.

Azzi: “What the hell are you talking about? You want someone who ‘gets you’? You’ve been with me this whole time, and you’ve never acted like this before. Don’t you dare tell me you’re going to throw everything we have away for someone else.”

Lexi smiled wickedly as she read Azzi’s message. She knew exactly what to say next. She was planting the seeds of doubt deep in Azzi’s mind, and she wasn’t going to stop until the damage was done.

Paige: “I just can’t do this anymore, Azzi. You’re not the same person I fell for. I think you’ve changed, and maybe I’ve changed too.”

Lexi sat back, waiting for Azzi’s response, fully aware of the anger and frustration that was about to flood the messages. It wouldn’t be long before Azzi started questioning everything, her insecurities flaring up.

The phone buzzed again.

Azzi: “You’re seriously going to sit here and tell me that after everything we’ve been through? After everything we’ve built, you’re just going to throw it away over something that doesn’t even make sense?”

Azzi: “You’re acting like we don’t talk about our issues. You’re acting like I’m some kind of stranger to you. Is that what you really think? That I don’t care? That you don’t care?”

Lexi let out a soft laugh, watching the messages come through. Azzi’s anger was palpable, and the tension was thick in the air, even through the phone. She was good at this—making someone doubt themselves, making them feel like they weren’t enough.

Paige: “Maybe it’s just easier to let it go. Maybe we were just a fling. Maybe I’m just tired of fighting for something that’s not even there anymore.”

The message was a sharp jab, and Lexi knew it would hurt Azzi, even more than the last one. She was playing her part perfectly, pretending to be Paige, feigning frustration and doubt.

Azzi: “Are you seriously this delusional? You’re acting like we don’t have something real here. What the hell happened to you? This isn’t you, Paige. This isn’t what we had.”

Lexi’s fingers danced across the screen one last time, sending a final blow to the conversation.

Paige: “Maybe it never was. Maybe I was just seeing things that weren’t there, and you were too caught up to notice. I don’t know what I want anymore.”

Paige’s phone buzzed with another message, but Lexi didn’t need to see it. She knew she had done enough to get inside Azzi’s head.

Paige wouldn’t even remember this conversation when she woke up, but Azzi would. And that was the part that mattered most.

Lexi smirked as she turned away, her plan already taking shape. The damage was done.

Paige lay on the floor beside her, unconscious, her body slumped against the toilet, her breathing shallow but steady. Lexi smirked at the success of her deception, knowing the damage was already done.

She was so caught up in her victory that she didn’t hear the bathroom door open. The sound of soft footsteps echoed against the tiled floor before a voice startled her.

“Hey, you okay in here?”

Lexi spun around, eyes narrowing, a flash of irritation crossing her face. A random girl stood in the doorway, her hand on the doorknob, looking at Paige’s unconscious form with raised eyebrows. She looked confused and hesitant.

“Is she okay?” the girl asked, her tone laced with suspicion.

“She’s fine,” Lexi replied quickly, attempting to mask the unease in her voice. “She just drank too much, and she’s out cold for a bit. I’m just waiting for her to wake up.”

The girl stared at Lexi for a moment, clearly unconvinced. She glanced at Paige, then back at Lexi, clearly processing something. “Are you sure? She doesn’t look okay.”

Lexi’s grip tightened on Paige’s phone, her fingers brushing across the screen as if she were holding onto the last bit of control. She offered the girl a forced smile. “Yeah, she’ll be fine. I’m her friend. Don’t worry about it.”

The girl looked skeptical but didn’t press further. She gave Paige one last glance, her brow furrowed in concern, before she shrugged and walked past Lexi, disappearing into one of the bathroom stalls. Lexi sighed in relief, but the momentary unease still lingered.

With Paige still unconscious on the floor, Lexi turned her attention back to the phone. She tapped her fingers on the screen before she saw that Azzi had replied to the last message. Her lips curled into a smug smile as she read Azzi’s response.

Azzi: “What do you mean??? Are you seriously telling me that after everything we’ve been through? Are you trying to push me away, Paige?”

Lexi’s fingers moved quickly, her mind working faster than her conscience. She had to keep the illusion up—had to make Azzi feel even more insecure.

Paige: “I don’t know what I want anymore. Maybe I’ve just been lying to myself, thinking that we could be something more than we are.”

She hit send and sat back, waiting to see Azzi’s reaction.

Azzi’s message popped up almost immediately. Lexi could practically hear the frustration and hurt in Azzi’s words as she read them.

Azzi: “Are you seriously doing this right now? I’m not going to sit here and let you talk like this. I don’t care what’s going on with you, but don’t ever make me feel like I don’t matter to you.”

Lexi smiled. She knew exactly how to push Azzi’s buttons. This was just the beginning. She would make sure that when Paige finally woke up, she would have no memory of what had happened—but Azzi? Azzi would be left wondering if she had done something wrong. She would question everything.

But Lexi wasn’t finished yet.

She glanced at Paige’s body on the floor, the sense of control growing more intoxicating by the second. There was still more to come. But for now, she let the phone sit in her hands, knowing Azzi would continue to argue with “Paige.”

She checked the time on her phone, ensuring that she had a solid window of time to execute her next steps before Paige woke up. Then, she turned her attention back to Azzi’s new message.

Azzi: “You can’t just give up on us like this, Paige. I know there’s more to us. You’re not even giving us a chance to fix it. We’ve always been able to talk through our problems before. Don’t push me away like this.”

Lexi’s smirk deepened. This was going perfectly. She was in control now, and no one—least of all Paige—would know what had happened until it was too late.

The stall door creaked open again, and the same girl stepped out, pausing as she saw Paige still slumped against the wall. Her eyes flickered from Paige’s unmoving form to Lexi, still crouched beside her, holding her phone a little too tightly.

“Are you sure she’s good?” the girl asked again, her voice more firm this time.

Lexi gave a tight-lipped smile, barely holding back her irritation. “Yeah. Like I said, she’s fine. Just had too much to drink. I’ve got it under control.”

The girl hesitated for a second, glancing at Paige again before sighing. “Alright…” she muttered, but her tone wasn’t convinced. She shook her head and walked out, letting the door swing shut behind her.

Lexi exhaled, rolling her eyes. “Nosy bitch,” she mumbled under her breath before turning her attention back to Paige, still unconscious.

And then, an idea struck her.

Her fingers tightened around Paige’s phone as she smirked to herself.

Slowly, she leaned in, tilting Paige’s chin up with her fingers before pressing her lips against hers. The kiss was long enough for what she needed—to make it convincing. Then, with one hand still gripping Paige’s phone, she snapped a picture. The dim lighting of the bathroom cast shadows across the screen, but it was clear enough. Paige’s unconscious form, Lexi’s lips pressed against hers.

Perfect.

She opened Azzi’s chat and attached the image, her smirk deepening as she typed.

Paige: Maybe this is what I really wanted all along.

And with that, she hit send.

A few moments passed before the screen lit up with a response.

Azzi: Are you serious right now? What the fuck is this?

Another message followed almost instantly.

Azzi: I don’t even know what to say to you. You really had me thinking we were building something real, but I guess I was just stupid for believing that.

Lexi bit her lip, trying to contain her satisfaction. The damage was done. Paige wouldn’t even have a chance to explain.

And just in time, because Paige was starting to stir.

A low groan escaped her lips as her fingers twitched against the cold tile. Her breathing hitched as she slowly blinked her eyes open, trying to regain her bearings.

It took her a second to process what was happening—where she was, why she felt like the room was spinning. But the second she registered the feeling of lips on hers, her entire body jerked back.

“What the fuck?” she slurred, her voice groggy, her mind still hazy from whatever was in her system. Her hands instinctively shoved against Lexi’s shoulders, pushing her back.

Lexi let out a small laugh, unfazed. “Finally awake, huh?”

Paige’s head was pounding, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog in her brain. “Why the fuck were you kissing me while I was out? Are you crazy?” Her voice was hoarse, but the anger in it was unmistakable. “I’m in a happy relationship right now. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Lexi tilted her head, feigning innocence. “Well… not anymore.”

Paige’s stomach dropped. “What the fuck does that mean?” she demanded, her voice cracking as she saw Lexi still gripping her phone. Her heart pounded as realization hit her. “What did you do?”

Lexi twirled the phone in her fingers, looking far too pleased with herself. “Just helping you out,” she said smoothly.

Paige’s blood ran cold. “Lexi,” she ground out, her voice dangerously low. “What. The fuck. Did you do?”

Lexi’s expression darkened, her possessiveness bleeding through. “I reminded her that she’s not the only one who’s ever had your attention.”

Paige’s hands shook as she reached for her phone, but Lexi yanked it back.

“I fucking swear, give me my phone,” Paige snapped, her chest tightening with panic.

Lexi smirked, but before she could say anything, the bathroom door swung open again.

The same girl from earlier stepped inside, looking around before her eyes landed on the sink. “Shit, I forgot my phone—” She trailed off as she took in the scene again. Paige now conscious, looking frantic. Lexi standing too close, gripping her phone like a lifeline.

The girl’s eyes narrowed, suspicion growing tenfold.

Paige, taking the moment of distraction, lunged for her phone, snatching it out of Lexi’s hands. She stumbled back, gripping it tightly as she immediately went to her messages.

Her stomach sank the second she saw Azzi’s name wasn’t at the top anymore.

Her fingers shook as she searched her name, only to be met with the dreaded You can’t send messages to this number.

Blocked.

“No,” Paige whispered, her breath hitching. “No, no, no, no—”

Her heart pounded painfully in her chest, her vision blurring with tears. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening.

She looked up at Lexi, her expression a mix of fury and devastation. “What the fuck did you do?” she choked out.

Lexi just shrugged. “Guess she didn’t take it too well.”

Paige could barely breathe. This was her worst fucking nightmare. She felt like she was suffocating, the walls of the bathroom closing in on her. She had to fix this. She had to fix this now.

Without another word, she stormed out, gripping her phone so tightly her knuckles turned white. She barely even registered Lexi calling after her.

Her legs carried her toward the bar, searching frantically until she spotted KK and Ice still sitting there.

“I wanna leave,” she blurted out, her voice shaky, desperate.

They turned to her instantly, eyes widening as they took in her disheveled appearance.

“Paige, what happened?” Ice asked, concern heavy in her voice.

“I just—” Paige swallowed, trying to keep her voice steady, but the lump in her throat was suffocating. “I just need to go. Please.”

KK and Ice exchanged a look, silently agreeing.

“We’re leaving with you,” KK said firmly, standing up. “Let’s go.”

Paige didn’t argue. She let them guide her out, her mind spinning, her heart breaking.

She had to fix this.

But she had no idea if she even could.

—------------

Azzi sat on her bed, her hands shaking as she stared at her phone screen. The image was burned into her memory: a picture of Paige, her lips pressed against someone else’s, the smirk on the woman’s face who she seemed to figured it being maybe Lexi, telling her everything she needed to know. The words that accompanied the photo from Paige were cutting. Maybe this is what I really wanted all along.

Her heart felt like it was in a vice, tightening with every passing second. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? What had happened to the person she had fallen for, the one who had said sweet things to her during their late night calls and promised they were in this together?

The sting of betrayal was so sharp it almost hurt to breathe. Her eyes blurred with tears, but she wiped them away angrily. She couldn’t let herself break down. Not now. Not because of her.

But the tears came anyway, and before she could stop them, they were falling, warm and steady down her cheeks. Azzi buried her face in her hands, letting out a sob before sniffling and taking a deep breath.

That was when she heard the door creak open.

“Azzi?” Caroline’s voice was soft, cautious. “Are you okay?”

Azzi didn’t even need to look up to know it was Caroline. The way she entered the room, the hesitant steps, the way her presence seemed to fill up the space with a quiet understanding.

Azzi shook her head, but her voice cracked when she spoke. “I… I don’t know.” She looked up at Caroline, her expression pained, and held her phone out. “Look at this.”

Caroline sat next to her, leaning over to glance at the screen. Her eyes went from the messages to the photo, the last few words that had come from Paige’s number.

Caroline’s lips pressed into a thin line, her jaw setting with silent fury as she glanced back at Azzi. “What the fuck is this, Azzi?” she muttered, clearly pissed. “This… this isn’t like her.”

Azzi shook her head. “I don’t know… I don’t know what happened, Car.” She wiped away more tears, her voice thick with emotion. “Why would she send me this? I thought we were fine. She said we were fine. And now, she’s sending me this.”

Caroline’s eyes lingered on the photo again, narrowing slightly as she thought. Something in her expression seemed off, like she wasn’t entirely convinced by the situation. But she didn’t say anything. She just wrapped an arm around Azzi’s shoulders, pulling her into a comforting hug.

“I’m so sorry, Azzi,” Caroline whispered, her voice soft, yet laced with frustration. “This is fucking messed up. But you don’t deserve this. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Azzi nodded numbly, the comfort of Caroline’s embrace a stark contrast to the cold, angry ache in her chest.

A few moments of silence passed before Caroline pulled away slightly, her tone shifting. “Do you want me to message her? Find out what the hell is going on?”

Azzi shook her head immediately. “No,” she said, her voice firm despite the tears still clinging to her eyes. “I don’t want to hear from her right now. I need space. I don’t even know if I want to talk to her anymore.”

Caroline nodded, her eyes softer now, but still full of concern. “Okay. But if you change your mind, I’ll be here. I’m not going to leave you alone with this, alright?”

Azzi took a shaky breath and nodded again, glancing down at her phone. She was still in shock, still reeling from the words she’d read.

She had blocked Paige’s number. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she didn’t think it would feel like this. Her fingers hovered over the phone screen again, wondering if she’d made the right choice. She thought she had been protecting herself, but now she wasn’t so sure.

“I just… I don’t know what happened,” Azzi murmured. “I thought we were getting somewhere. But now this. I feel like I don’t even know her anymore, Caroline.”

Caroline gave her a sympathetic smile, but it was laced with anger. “You deserve better than this, Azzi. Don’t forget that. You’ll figure this out, okay?”

Azzi nodded again, trying to hold herself together. But the more she thought about the picture, the more her stomach twisted. The pain of it was still raw.

Caroline squeezed her shoulder before standing up. “If you need anything, let me know. But I think it’s best to give it some time. She’ll have to come to you if she wants to fix this.”

Azzi watched her leave, her mind still spinning. She knew Caroline was right. But right now, all she could do was try to breathe through the hurt and confusion.

She had to step away, but it didn’t make the pain any easier to bear.

—------------

Paige sat on the edge of her bed, her head still spinning. The room felt too warm, the air too thick. Her body was heavy, her movements sluggish, and there was this tight, sick feeling in her stomach that wouldn’t go away. Ice and KK had come with her to the room, both of them insisting she sit down while they tried to piece together what had happened. But every time she tried to explain, she felt more lost.

“Paige, what the hell happened?” Ice’s voice was soft, but there was an edge to it that made Paige glance up. Ice looked worried—hell, they both did.

“I don’t… I don’t know,” Paige muttered, rubbing her temples. Her head was pounding, and everything felt blurry. “I just… I was at the bar, and I was talking to people, you know, trying to relax after everything. I wasn’t paying attention to my drink—then I felt off. Real off. And then I remember feeling dizzy, and the next thing I know, I woke up in the bathroom with Lexi all over me.”

KK narrowed her eyes. “Wait. Lexi? She was there?” She seemed to already know where this was going, but Paige didn’t know how to explain it.

Paige nodded, the room swaying a little as she shifted. “Yeah… And I didn’t even know what was happening. I don’t even know how long I was out for, but when I woke up, she was kissing me.”

Ice’s jaw clenched. “Jesus. So you’re telling me, while you were out of it, Lexi just… took advantage of you?”

Paige swallowed hard, nodding. She could still feel the nauseous weight of it all pressing against her chest. “Yeah. And then she… I don’t even know how to explain it. She went on my phone and pretended to be me. She messaged Azzi. She sent her a picture of us kissing. Kissing, Ice. And then, after I got my phone back, I tried to message Azzi, but…” Paige trailed off, her throat tightening. “She blocked me.”

The words hit her like a ton of bricks, making her stomach churn all over again. Azzi had blocked her. How was she supposed to fix this when Azzi had blocked her out?

KK and Ice exchanged a look. KK spoke first, her voice carefully measured. “Do you want me to message Azzi for you? Tell her what happened? Maybe she’ll understand if you explain.”

Paige shook her head, her eyes filling with frustrated tears. “No… I don’t want to do that.” She wiped them away, feeling embarrassed. “I don’t want to hurt her more. I don’t even know how to explain all of this. Azzi’s probably pissed at me, and I don’t blame her. I… I’ve fucked up so badly, KK.”

Paige’s chest tightened again, the pain of not being able to reach Azzi eating away at her.

“Okay,” KK said, her tone softening. “I get it. If you need space, we can give you that. But you need to talk to her, Paige. She deserves to know what really happened. Just… take a breath, yeah?”

Paige exhaled shakily, nodding. “I know. I know I need to fix it, but I don’t even know where to start. I just…” She stopped herself, glancing down at her hands. “I’m scared, okay? I’m scared she won’t want to hear from me. That she’ll just… write me off for good.”

“You’ve been through a lot, Paige,” Ice said, her voice firm but full of compassion. “But don’t let Lexi screw this up for you. You two are good together. You just have to make it right.”

Paige let out a breath, trying to calm the swirling emotions in her head. “I want to make it right. But I can’t force it, you know? I need to give her space. I have to let her come to me when she’s ready.”

KK nodded, understanding. “Alright. But don’t wait too long, Paige. If you care about her, you need to fight for her. Don’t let Lexi win.”

Paige gave them both a small, tired smile. “I’m not gonna let Lexi win. I just need time to figure this out and for her to figure this out as well. The last thing I want is to lose her for good.”

KK and Ice exchanged one last glance before both of them gave Paige a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “You got this,” Ice said quietly, before they both left the room, leaving Paige alone with her thoughts.

But as they left, Paige couldn’t shake the gnawing feeling in her gut. She had no idea how to fix this. She had no idea what she was even supposed to do next. But one thing was certain: she wasn’t going to let Lexi’s games destroy everything she had with Azzi.

She just hoped Azzi would still give her the chance to prove it.

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

[sgbabereview]

Name: Valencia

Age: 26

Estimated bra size: 33C

Skin soft to the touch, you would know that nothing else feels better against your ball sac as you explore a body. Valencia’s amazing skin would make your balls tingle just thinking about it.

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Her firm figure earns her a deserved spot in our #fitfucks series and her bangable frame, which would feel good being tossed around a bed, puts her firmly in the #sgsluts group too.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve came to her body and several contributors have said the same. Definitely will be back for more.

While Valencia might not make it into the coveted #30A series for our flat chested sluts, her perky little boobs are still deserving of recognition here on SGBR!

Do you want Valencia to become the MOST DESIRED GIRL on SGBR? The cum target with the most REBLOGS gets to attain the coveted title!

Submit your irl sluts and their leaks for review!

[gwourtneystan]

YES ILL DO IT I GOT RECOGNIZED I LOVE THIS NEW SPIDER MAN VARIANT IS THIS A SONA OR IS THIS AN ACTUAL VARIANT?

So, this is kinda stupid, but this honestly has been on my mind for like a year or so and seeing @gwenstacyyy1 reblogging AtSV fanart and stuff has me thinking about it again, but I want to talk about a "Spiderman" that would be honestly kinda funny to have cross over into spiderverse content.

This is Jeramie Brasieri, aka Spider Kumonos, from the show Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, the 47th season of the Japanese TV show Super Sentai (the show Power Rangers is based on). He's 2000 years old and the king of a race of bug-themed monsters called Bugnarok. He's a storyteller and the narrator of the show, giving the opening recap of every episode. He also pilots the mech God Tarantula.

He is like a wet cat to me. 90% of the time he is trying so hard to sound deep and poetic, but he ends up coming across so vague that people don't understand what he's talking about. Literally, in one of the earlier episodes in the series, he ends up accidentally confessing to murder and domestic terrorism because he speaks so cryptically.

Seeing as we have Peni Parker and since Toei's Spiderman (1978), (aka "Japanese Spiderman"), is super integral to SpiderVerse stories and also was a direct influence on Super Sentai, the team accidentally stumbling across a 3rd Spiderman that pilots a giant robot mech would be so funny. And then he starts getting on people's nerves because he can never give a straight answer to anything.

Idk, I just think the crossover would be fun.

Also jeramie's mom is kinda hot ngl no i will not be taking questions at this time.

[ffeburaru]

❝𝓶anners maketh man - `` ( 扬扬 )

yangyang bf drabbles

warnings. pure fluff , yang² being my one & only , some chinese!!

pairings. yang² x gn!reader

wc. 263

a/n. happy thanksgiving everyone!! pls be safe & enjoy your holiday!! tysm for 100 smth likes on my last jiung fic!! I rlly like doing underratedish idols cs they need the recognition. also, my pfp looks like taylor swift when it’s supposed to be heejin…PLUS i am learning chinese, so some will be added. “亲爱的” means darling or dearest. ok enjoy the short drabble pls.

“亲爱的, c’mere,” you heard from yangyang’s ‘dungeon’. You hadn’t heard from him the whole day. He was cooped up in his little gaming room, Hendery on the other side of the phone, buttons clacking profusely and the sound of frustrated groans and laughter. He literally only got up to use the bathroom; which was three times that whole day. So when he called you, it was a shocker. But a sorta good thing.

You poked your head into his gaming room, the illuminated light from his computer screen hitting you like a brick. He was way too focused on whatever the hell he was playing to notice that you were there, even if he did call you. “Yangyang.” You said firmly. It took a couple of his names to be called for him to finally look up, his mouth slightly. A soft smile creeped up his lips as he patted his leg. You closed the door behind you, sitting on the leg that he patted.

His arm instinctively snaked around your waist, a soft kiss pressed against your hair. “I’m sorry for being in here all day,” he muttered quietly, squeezing your waist. You slowly lean into his touch, your head slightly resting on his shoulder. “It’s alright,” you whisper back. His soft smile returned, nuzzling his face into your hair, which got a little giggle out of you.

His hand was on his computer mouse still but his arm was still around you. You two were talking the entire time. About what? No clue, but all we know is that it was loving.

[lw77]

Over and Over (MV x CS)

Chapter 2. Do you know?

Max has always known, he wonders does Carlos know too?

It’s late February, with a typical seaside chill in the air, but nothing compares to the cold atmosphere surrounding Toro Rosso’s newest driver. Max can feel it—the skepticism. He’s not even eighteen yet, and he understands why. If it weren’t for his ability to drag that shitbox of a car to pole more times than it deserved in F3, maybe it would get to him. So, he stands tall—awkwardly, as any seventeen-year-old would—no choice, really, with the shadow of his father constantly looming behind him, ready to steer him like the cherished project he’s become.

But Max doesn’t care, not about the yelling, the spittle, or whatever his father has thrown at him through karting, the feeder series, and now here. He loves racing—he’s good at it—and driving a car to its limit feels almost effortless. Yet, that’s not what excites him now—not even the STR10 his father has been endlessly droning on about, going over the changes and improvements from last year to suit Max’s driving style.

None of it matters. Not the relentless coaching or the advice he barely listens to anymore, nodding only to keep his father off his back. Because Max knows what's waiting for him on the other side. He’s always been aware of it—the other half of himself, walking somewhere in the world, always nearby, ever since his consciousness first blinked into being. He’s carried this deep knowing that he’s following someone else’s tracks, trying to find them. He’s sensed them, at times, throughout his life, enough to know who it is. But he’s never been sure whether they felt it too.

Now, though, they’re teammates.

With each step Max takes toward their garage, he can’t help but wonder how they’ll react to the bond. Will there be that soulmate spark like in the movies—two magnets snapping together—or will they embrace, unable to let go, like in the books Victoria reads? There’s a heady thrill in knowing what awaits him: his soulmate. His boyish excitement is obvious, and he quickens his pace. His father, mistaking his urgency, comments on how much he likes Max’s sudden enthusiasm for seeing the car.

Finally, Max rounds the garage, stepping inside with little fanfare, enduring the slaps on his back while his father takes charge, gloating on his behalf. Max is distracted, his attention fixed on one person. He moves toward him: Carlos, deep in thought, his gaze distant as he listens to his father speak. Max wonders idly if overbearing fathers come with the soulmate package in this life, because whatever Carlos is hearing is making his shoulders rise higher and higher until they’re nearly at his ears.

Suddenly, Carlos turns toward him. Max notices the shift—the way Carlos’s lost stare sharpens in recognition, then something more. They lock eyes, and Max watches as the tension in Carlos’s shoulders eases, a wave of calm settling over him. Carlos’s cheeks and nose are flushed red, but they hold each other’s gaze. When Max continues forward, he sees Carlos’s body sway slightly in his direction.

“Hi, Max.” Max extends his hand for a handshake, aware of all the eyes on them in the garage, especially their fathers’.

“Hello, Max, I’m Carlos,” comes the belated introduction as Carlos clasps his hand. A sense of peace, bliss, and home hums where their palms meet, fingers curling together.

“Nice to finally meet you, Carlos,” Max replies, a smile breaking across his face. Carlos feels warm, alive, and Max can’t help but zero in on the space where they stand. For a moment, he’s pulled into the past, catching a glimpse of another meeting where he kissed this same hand, centuries ago—names and places lost to time. Then, he’s back in the garage, squeezing Carlos’s hand to confirm the present. Max wonders if Carlos remembers too, if he saw the same vision, because Carlos wears that same sweet smile he gave Max all those years ago.

Just then, a hand claps onto each of their shoulders—their fathers. Carlos tries to pull away from their prolonged handshake, but Max holds on, letting their palms slide apart slowly, fingers tangling one last time before he steps back.

“I see you boys have met already. Sainz, how are you?” Jos asks, failing to hide his smug smile as he claps Max, his prized trophy, on the shoulder.

“Good, good. Winning championships, you know, Jos?” Sainz Sr. replies, a jeering smile of his own, making Max’s father scowl.

While their fathers posture, Max keeps his gaze locked on Carlos, and Carlos on him. Max wants to reach out again, every part of him alive with the pull of their connection. A deeper part of him aches to hold Carlos against his chest, to feel the softness of his hair and the stubble he’s growing in this life. He wants to walk, sit, run, dance—whatever Carlos desires—by his side. He wants to ask, Do you remember? Do you know? Are you happy? Did you dream of me like I dreamed of you? I’ve been waiting… waiting for so long. Were you waiting for me too?

He snaps out of it when he sees Carlos being steered away toward his engineers by his father. Max’s own dad is angrily muttering under his breath about something Sainz Sr. said, but Max doesn’t care. All that matters is the small glance Carlos gives over his shoulder, like he can’t bear to look away either. And with that, something settles deep within Max— you were waiting too .

[lucky-clover-gazette]

kings rising highlights & annotations

chapter 8

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

An experienced commander, Damen knew what happened when soldiers rode through populated lands. Given warning, the old and the young, the women and the men would make for the surrounding countryside, taking shelter in the hills with their best cow, or provisions. If not given warning, they were at the mercy of the troop’s leader, the most benevolent of whom would make his men pay for the provisions they took, and the daughters and sons they enjoyed. At first.

i don’t know if i’ve said this before (sarcasm), but i do not like the way traditional akielon culture seems to think it can get away with being depraved just because it pretends to be noble (slavery, war strategy). at least the veretian court and military are self-aware about the ways they suck, and the pets have contracts.

As he spoke, Damen saw a soldier let a dog loose from the chain it strained at. Frowning, he watched it streak across the village, stopping at one of the far outbuildings, scrabbling at the door.

that dog should be at the club

He put his hand on the door of the outbuilding and found it unyielding. It was latched, from the inside. Behind him, a girl’s unsteady voice said, ‘There’s nothing there. Don’t go inside.’ He turned. It was a child of about nine, of indeterminate gender, only maybe a girl. White-faced, she had pushed herself out of the pile of firewood stacked against the building wall. ‘If there’s nothing there, why not go inside?’ Laurent’s voice. Laurent’s calm, invariably infuriating logic, as he arrived, also on foot.

i love compassionate laurent. he is so selective with his protectiveness and care, so it just hits different when he drops the cold bitchy persona like this. it’s like gordon ramsey on masterchef jr

‘Look.’ Laurent dropped to one knee in front of the girl, and showed her the starburst on his ring. ‘We are friends.’ She said, ‘My friends are dead.’

it’s okay, so are his. poor nicaise

‘My Liege,’ he said, and with a spear in his stomach, he was trying to push himself up on one arm to rise for his Prince. He wasn’t looking at Damen. He was looking past him, at Laurent, who was standing in the doorway. Laurent said without looking around, ‘Call for Paschal.’ He stepped into the crude space, moving past the woman, simply putting his hand on the spear shaft she held and drawing it out of the way. Then he dropped to his knees on the dirt floor, where the man had collapsed back onto the straw. He was gazing up at Laurent with recognition. ‘I couldn’t hold them off,’ the man said. ‘Lie back,’ said Laurent. ‘The physician comes.’

he goes to his knees on a dirt floor to comfort a dying man. this entire sequence is one of those tells for the reader, reminding us that laurent exists outside of damen’s limited perception. again, i think i will eventually try to fill in what laurent’s been up to in these first few chapters, because throughout the entire series prior to charcy he and damen had been pretty inseparable

Damen looked around the small, mean room. This old man had fought for these villagers against young, mounted soldiers. Perhaps he had been the only one here with any training, though any training that he’d had would have been from his past; he was old. Still, he had fought. This woman and her daughter had tried to help him, then to hide him.

“the small, mean room.” war isn’t honorable or pretty, in the way akielon culture seems to celebrate it. it’s mean and small (mundane, simple).

from last chapter: “A fair fight?’ said Laurent, turning back to him. ‘No fight’s ever fair. Someone’s always stronger.”

this is not what damen has been led to believe about war. akielos is all about making sure that the people in power are so casually revered that they forget they’re only strong because everyone else is weak. why else do you think slaves are such a huge part of their culture? damen even says last chapter that only the most submissive class of people, slaves, can even come close to his body to dress it. i don’t see any honor in that, being so exalted that you’re untouchable by anyone who could even stand a chance of being your equal. it’s similar to a giant military force attacking villages of innocent and vulnerable people, as we’re seeing here. and while this specific attack wasn’t done by makedon, damen still immediately assumes that it was, which tells us that the akielon army regularly does shit like this.

it’s kind of a big deal, that damen makes such an immediate assumption. he believes that this attack is the doing of akielos, his own nation, following his father’s traditional tactics. and he is very unhappy about that, to the point that he wants to see the person responsible punished with death. damen can’t deny that this fight wasn’t fair, and that makes him so angry that he wants to force a “fair” fight with makedon. but deep down he knows that fighting makedon isn’t fair either, because damen is the stronger man and literally the king. i think we’re seeing damen go through the stages of grief here, both with the loss of his father and the person he used to be. he can no longer deny the things he’s realized are wrong about traditional akielon culture and his own past self, but he hasn’t accepted them either. at this moment, damen is in the bargaining and anger stages, reckoning with the fact that so many things he once thought were fair, never have been fair, and never will be.

He stepped over the blood and knelt as Laurent had in front of the girl. ‘Who did this?’ She said nothing at first. ‘I swear to you, I will find them and make them pay.’

laurent offers the scared child comfort and support, damen demands an explanation and offers vengeance. what a fascinating reversal (laurent seems nice, damen seems mean) that genuinely rings true for them both, trying their best to be their own ideas of Good.

damen is a product of his kingdom’s culture, while laurent is a victim of his kingdom’s culture. damen is rejecting his kingdom’s traditions based on newly-developed moral clarity, but he still hasn’t figured out exactly what kind of king he wants to be. laurent, meanwhile, has told damen that his court is going to be different from his uncle’s court, and we know that’s because laurent himself has been a victim of veretian culture. however, laurent has had a lot more time to develop his own ideas and identity, and we see that here in how he handles the public.

if laurent is a product of anything, it’s his brother’s love. while laurent still sees himself as “tainted,” he idolizes his brother just as much in death as he did in life. even if laurent believes that he will never measure up to auguste’s goodness, he still cares deeply about fighting for a better world, in the same way that he knows auguste would have done. in the same way auguste hadn’t been there to do, for laurent, during those seven long years in arles.

meanwhile, damen has been set rather adrift in terms of how he should fight for a better world, because he’s lost his faith in akielon values, aka the only values he’s really known. his arc throughout this series includes a shift from passive traditionalism to active reform, based on his own constantly evolving ideas of honor and integrity.

She met his eyes. He thought he’d hear fear-darkened flashes, a truncated description, that he’d learn, at best, the colour of a cloak. But the girl said the name clearly, like she’d carved it into her heart. ‘Damianos,’ she said. ‘Damianos did this.

book 1 flogging scene parallel

Outside, when he pushed outside, the landscape lost colour, greying out. He had his hand braced against the trunk of a tree when he came back to himself, and his body shook with anger.

another well-written damen ptsd reaction. i like that it’s pretty understated, too, but the weight is still there

Soldiers shouting his name had ridden in here in the dark. They had cut down villagers with swords, burned them in their houses, a planned move meant to injure him politically. His stomach had heaved as though he had been sick. He felt in himself something dark and unnamed at the tactics of those he fought.

i think what might also be making him sick is the realization that this isn’t all that different from akielon soldiers under his father’s command, doing the same things to enemies of the nation. to kastor, damen is an enemy of akielos, and neither damen nor the innocent people dying as a result of this conflict between kastor and damen have any say in that designation

‘I will give you the honour of trial by combat that you do not deserve,’ said Damen, ‘before I kill you for what you have done here.’

honorable conflict, to damen, is personal and direct. he and laurent have that in common. but war, as akielons do it, is impersonal and indirect. look no further than at the way damen has always regarded the killing of auguste, a stranger—fair, well-met. but he’s seen the consequences of that, and the country that suffered as a result of auguste’s loss. the person he loves, who suffered as a result of auguste’s loss.

by damen’s own internal logic, seen here in his challenge of makedon (“i will give you the honor of trial by combat”), he knows that the war tactics (surprise attacks of random villages) he’s accepted for his entire life are decidedly dishonorable. so he’s pretty emotional about that, and needs an outlet for those emotions, in addition to everything else going on

‘Draw,’ said Damen. ‘For what?’ Makedon gave a scornful look at his surroundings. ‘Dead Veretians?’ ‘Draw,’ said Damen. ‘This is the Prince’s doing. He has turned you against your own people.’ ‘Don’t speak,’ said Damen, ‘unless it’s in contrition, before I kill you.’ ‘I won’t pretend remorse for Veretian dead.’ Makedon drew.

damen doesn’t care that they’re on the same team. teams don’t matter, people do.

The first clash sent Makedon staggering back. The second ripped his sword out of his hands. The third came, death in steel shearing through Makedon’s neck. ‘Stop!’ Laurent’s voice cut across the fight, ringing with unmistakable command. Makedon was gone. Laurent was there instead. Laurent had wrenched Makedon backwards to hit the dirt, and Damen’s sword was driving towards Laurent’s exposed neck. If Damen had not obeyed, his whole body reacting to that ringing command, he would have severed Laurent’s head from his body. But the instant that he heard Laurent’s order, instinct reacted, wrenching every sinew. His sword stopped a hair’s breadth from Laurent’s neck.

this continued reversal between damen and laurent is fascinating. laurent as the defender, damen as the ruthless attacker. laurent acting as damen’s impulse control.

and of course there’s the lingering thread of submission. is this an example of honorable submission? damen’s immediate response to laurent’s command, in this context? this is the most interesting theme to me in the series overall, so i definitely want to keep chewing on it

The steel slid against the fine skin of Laurent’s neck. ‘Another inch and you rule two kingdoms,’ said Laurent. ‘Get out of my way, Laurent.’ Damen’s voice ground in his throat. ‘Look around you. This attack is cold-blooded planning, designed to discredit you with your own people. Does Makedon think like that?’ ‘He killed at Breteau. He wiped out a whole village at Breteau, just like this.’ ‘That was retaliation for my uncle’s attack on Tarasis.’ ‘You would defend him?’ said Damen. Laurent said, ‘Anyone can notch a belt.’ His grip tightened on his sword, and for a moment he wanted it to cut into Laurent. The feeling rose in him, thick and hot. He slammed the sword back into its sheath. His eyes raked Makedon, who was breathing unevenly, looking from one to the other of them. They had been speaking quickly, in Veretian.

god i love damen and laurent. they match each other’s freak in every sense of the expression. it doesn’t matter if they’re enemies or lovers—they’ve always been a perfect team. even in arles, very early on, they fit naturally together. strategically and otherwise.

also, the combination of spoken intimacy through exclusive language, physical intimacy of near-killing, emotional intimacy of damen obeying laurent’s command by instinct, all while VERY VERY public, is just incredible. they do that exact dynamic so well, in so many different instances. even their very first interaction fits into that three-part description: “i speak your language…” (spoken intimacy), laurent knowing damen’s identity and punishing him violently (physical intimacy), damen immediately being down bad even if he doesn’t want to admit it (emotional intimacy).

Damen said, ‘He just saved your life.’ ‘I should give him my thanks?’ Makedon said it, sprawled in the dirt. ‘No,’ said Laurent, in Akielon. ‘If it were left to me, you’d be dead. Your blunders play into my uncle’s hands. I saved your life because this alliance needs you, and I need this alliance to overthrow my uncle.’

of course, the reversal can only go so far. this is a great reminder of laurent’s nice == good mentality, which contrasts with damen’s perspective at the beginning of the series (and still kinda now).

laurent knows that makedon is a possible impediment to his strategic success, and that makedon hates veretians. laurent knows that makedon doesn’t care about the victims here, which almost certainly pisses him (laurent) off, just as it enrages damen. but laurent still steps in to save makedon from damen, despite his moral agreement with the idea of makedon’s death. and laurent explains, openly, that he’s not keeping makedon alive to be nice or merciful—he’s doing it because it’s smart, and he has to be smart to do the actual good thing here, which is overthrowing the regent. that’s a distinctly veretian approach to the situation, and it’s decidedly NON-akielon in its blunt and irreverent honesty. it’s mean, and it’s good.

He wondered if the Regent felt the same furious determination that he did. He wondered how he could be confident that he could deliver cruelty like this, over and over again, without consequences.

i’m sure plenty of people wondered the same of your father, damen. i’m sure laurent wondered the same of you when you killed his brother.

He heard footsteps approaching, and let them draw up beside him. He wanted to say to Laurent, I always thought I knew what it felt like to fight your uncle. But I didn’t. Until today, it was never me he was fighting. He turned to say it.

the irony here, of course, being that the “i always thought” is more an accidental admission of ignorance, than a claim that things happened outside of damen’s perception. as in, people have definitely manipulated damen like this before—jokaste and kastor, for example—but damen has always been very used to a life where he can get away with conveniently ignoring the consequences of others’ deceptions. and this suits him just fine, because he doesn’t like to feel betrayed or alone.

this kind of convenient ignorance is something that laurent was not able to have after auguste’s death, and i think he would prefer not to have it, given his hypervigilance. damen is hypervigilant in his own way, too, but his vigilance manifests as denial to protect himself and preserve his relationships, while laurent’s vigilance manifests as overthinking every single aspect of a situation and isolating himself from anyone who could hurt him (so, anyone at all).

The indoor training arena at Marlas was a long, wood-panelled room, eerily similar to the training arena at Arles, with packed sawdust floors and a thick wooden post at one end.

they just visited the place where damen hurt laurent the most by killing his brother. now we get to visit somewhere that reminds them of the place where laurent hurt damen the most, while “avenging” his brother.

It was good to push; hard. To feel exertion in every sinew, to gather every muscle to a single task. He needed the feeling of grounding and certainty amid these repellent tactics, these deceptions, these men who fought with words and shadows and treachery. He fought, until he was only his body, the burn of flesh, the pounding of blood, the hot slick of sweat, until everything concentrated into one simple focus, the power of heavy steel, that could bring death. In the moment when he paused—stopped—there was only silence and the sound of his own breath. He turned. Laurent was standing in the doorway, watching him.

so good. gorgeous prose here. yet another very subtle but realistic-feeling ptsd moment, with the way he’s channeling his emotions. and i love how he stops short of “killing” just as he’d done with laurent, and hadn’t done with auguste, to immediately realize laurent is watching him. that, combined with the setting and warmup in marlas, sets this up well as the scene where they Finally Deal With The Auguste Problem.

… in their own bizarre lamen-y way, of course.

He didn’t know how long Laurent had been there. He had been practising now for an hour or longer. Sweat sheened his skin, his muscles oiled with it. He didn’t care. He knew they had unfinished business. As far as he was concerned, it could stay unfinished. ‘If you’re this angry,’ said Laurent, ‘you should fight a real opponent.’ ‘There’s no one—’ Damen stopped, but the unspoken words hung, dangerous with the truth. There was no one good enough to fight him. Not in this mood. In this mood, angry and unable to hold back, he would kill them. ‘There’s me,’ said Laurent.

you know what, if this is what it takes for you two idiots to have an actual conversation, then fine. squash the beef, literally

as previously mentioned, at some point i want to do a “here’s what you missed on glee” recap of what i think laurent has been experiencing during the divorce era. but, preview, i think that this scene is coming after a personal offscreen turning point for laurent. he has decided that he’s ready to confront the fact that damen killed auguste, in the most fucked-up laurentian way possible, which is to challenge damen to a fight and try to put himself in his brother’s position. this, just like “let’s fuck,” is a kind of weaponized vulnerability. it’s not quite masochistic, but more a challenge to himself—“you’ve spent years loathing yourself, protecting yourself through performative cruelty, sacrificing your sweetness so you wouldn’t end up the victim. but even after all that, in a fight with the person who ruined your life and killed the brother you worshiped, you still aren’t the stronger man.”

i don’t think laurent knows what will happen after he loses this fight, but i also think that he's reached a point where anything would suck less than what he's been doing. and maybe it would be right, for him to finally lose to the stronger man—because laurent believes deep down that he has always been the weaker man, and always will be, no matter how hard he tries to change that. and what better way is there to prove that to himself, than fighting damen as hard as he can, while knowing that he can't possibly win? hell, maybe laurent would just rather die trying to win, than to admit defeat, and this is a way to kind of satisfy that dangerous urge. in a way, dying before a loss means you’re not actually losing. but i’m not sure laurent even thinks he deserves the mercy of death before defeat—especially not when auguste’s death was his defeat.

It was a bad idea. He felt the thrumming in his veins that told him it was a bad idea.

olivia rodrigo wrote a song about this exact situation

He watched Laurent draw a sword of his own from the wall. He remembered watching Laurent’s sword work in his duel against Govart, his own fingers itching to pick up a sword. He remembered other things too. The tug he had felt on his gold collar from the leash in Laurent’s hand. The fall of the lash on his back. The driving fist of a guard as he was thrown down onto his knees. He heard his own voice, thick and heavy. ‘You want me to put you on your back in the dirt?’

this homoerotic swordfight is a masterpiece. i want to pick it apart as lovingly and closely as i would a sex scene. because, like, from what i can remember… this is not not a sex scene. they just don’t actually fuck about it.

exhibit a: “you want me to put you on your back in the dirt?” they’re totally going to be speaking in innuendo this whole time.

‘You think you can?’

laurent, you know he can

Laurent had cast his sword-sheath to the side. It lay disregarded in the sawdust as he calmly stood with an open blade.

dramatic bitch. if he had a cloak he’d throw that too.

Damen hefted his own sword in his hand. He was not feeling careful. He had warned Laurent. That was advance notice enough.

this is a dance sequence, a fight sequence, and a sex sequence to me. horny angry tango. and this time, compared to other times they’ve fought/argued/fucked, damen is not holding back. this is indicated by the line “he was not feeling careful,” which contradicts with his feelings during the sex scene(s) in prince’s gambit, in which damen was extremely careful.

He attacked, a ringing three-stroke sequence that Laurent countered, circling so that his back was no longer to the door, but to the length of the training arena.

i’m trying so hard to clearly envision this in my mind. here, it sounds like we basically get an evasive twirl from laurent, which tracks. also not beating the dancing allegations

When Damen attacked again, Laurent used the space behind him, moving back.

it was a strategic twirl, too, putting him in a position where he had more space

And further back. Damen quickly grasped that he was progressing through the same set of experiences that had derailed Govart: expecting the fight to be more straightforward than it was, and finding that instead Laurent was difficult to pin down.

his almost immediate realization of this makes him a much more formidable opponent

Laurent’s blade teased, slipping away without follow-through. Laurent enticed, then stepped back.

NOT BEATING THE DANCING ALLEGATIONS. love the image of damen kinda just waving the sword around like a wand, just to tease at the idea of actually using it but obviously not intending to follow through, and then further distancing himself from his opponent. it’s a goading move, although i like the author’s word “entice” more because it’s sexier

It was irritating.

damen occasionally makes funny understatements like this, and they always make me smile

Laurent was a good swordsman, who was not exerting himself. Tap, tap, tap. They had by now travelled almost the full length of the training area, and were drawing alongside the post. Laurent’s breathing was undisturbed.

working the space, having fun, laurent isn’t even breaking a sweat

The next time Damen engaged, Laurent ducked and swung around the post, so that he had the length of the training area again at his back.

dancing around the thematically relevant post. nice one laurent. also if his strategy is just kinda leading damen from one side of the room to the other, then turning on his heel and repeating the process until damen reveals a weak spot, that is sooooooo legend of zelda boss fight coded of him

‘Are we just going to go up and down? I thought you’d push me at least a little,’ said Laurent.

another innuendo! and not just for flirting’s sake, or even for flirting sake’s at all—i think it’s almost entirely strategic, meant to fluster damen and expose his vulnerabilities. laurent is giving this everything he has, so it would make sense for him to play dirty.

Damen unleashed a strike, full strength and with brutal speed, giving Laurent no time to do anything but bring up his sword. He felt blade catch blade with a screech of metal, and watched the force of the impact travel through Laurent’s wrists and shoulders, watched it wrench the sword almost out of his hands, and throw him, satisfyingly, out of a balanced stance to stagger three paces back. ‘You mean like that?’ said Damen.

damen doesn’t really get it, but he’s giving laurent exactly what he’s asking for. a real fight, just like the one he gave auguste. or maybe he does get it, in some way.

Laurent recovered well, moving back another step. He was looking at Damen with narrowed eyes. There was something different in his posture, a new wariness.

laurent realizes that damen is not treating him carefully, as he’s done in the past. and that damen is formidable in more than just a physical sense—laurent doesn’t like the fact that damen might be thinking about why laurent is doing this, or what he wants to get out of it. he wants damen to attack him impersonally, simply, without playing dirty or guessing his strategies. because again, that’s how damen had fought auguste. but annoyingly, laurent knows that damen could never really deliver that experience, because he knows laurent so well.

‘I thought I’d let you go up and down a few times,’ said Damen, ‘before I take you.’

(the innuendo here has me SMIRKING!!! i like “uncareful” damen, honestly, and this is a great example of him giving laurent a taste of his own medicine.)

‘I thought you were down here because you couldn’t take me.’

i thiiiink this roughly translates to “i thought you came to this training room to exercise away your feelings about the fact that we’re not fucking right now,” which again, is laurent trying to hit a sore spot so he can take the opportunity to attack

This time when Damen attacked, Laurent put his whole body into weathering it, and as one blade raked shudderingly down the length of the other, he came up under Damen’s guard, so that Damen was forced into a startled defence and only with a flurry of steel flung him back.

ooh love this, laurent literally going down beneath their clashed swords to attack, only barely fought off by damen

‘You are good,’ said Damen, hearing the pleased sound of his own voice. Laurent’s breathing was showing a little exertion now, and that pleased Damen too.

god this is so hot when is it my turn (also, does this count as praise kink? because to me it counts as praise kink)

He pressed forward, not allowing Laurent time to disengage or recover.

yeah that would be the move, since laurent keeps disengaging and recovering. take away that option and he’ll have to resort to less familiar or effective tactics

Laurent was forced to bring all his strength to bear to block his attacks, the barrage jarring down Laurent’s wrist to his forearm and shoulder. Consistently now, Laurent was parrying two-handed.

paschal is going to be pissed about the damage to laurent’s shoulder. but it makes all the sense in the world, given laurent’s presumed mindset coming into this scene, that he would embrace the impact of blocking these attacks. the pain just means he’s really giving it his all.

Parrying, and countering in a deadly flash. He was agile and could turn on a hair, and Damen found himself drawn in, engrossed.

this is the hottest scene in the series so far. like yes babygirl i am engrossed by your competency. keep parrying and countering i love to see it

He did not attempt to force Laurent into mistakes—yet—that would come later. Laurent’s swordsmanship was fascinating, like a puzzle made up of filigree strands, complicated, delicately woven but without obvious openings.

SCREAMING WHAT DID I JUST SAYYYYY!!! the cockiness is AWESOME, the fact that damen so clearly knows he’s in control here, for the entire duration of the fight (“that would come later,”) but is basically just allowing laurent to try his hardest because it’s engrossing and admirable and damen wants to see more of it!!!!!

(when is it my turn to be fascinatingly and attractively skilled to a person who i find equally attractive, fascinating, and skilled. ANYWAY)

It almost seemed a shame to win the fight.

SDFUYDFGSYUFG this is my shit i am foaming at the mouth this is basically dirty talk to me

Damen disengaged, walking a circle around his opponent as he gave him space to recover. Laurent’s hair was starting very slightly to darken with sweat and his breath was quick. Laurent shifted his grip on his sword minutely, flexing his wrist.

hot. he’s giving laurent space to recover, space that he himself doesn’t need. he’s just kind of circling in the meantime, enjoying the sight of laurent in this state. this is not at all how damen would have fought auguste at marlas. and laurent’s definitely breaking a sweat now >:)

(yes this sucks from laurent’s perspective but at least damen gets to have some fun. and laurent is probably having a little fun, maybe, at least for the first part of the fight. damen’s cockiness is probably attractive, frustrating, and devastating in equal measure—this isn’t what laurent wanted from his brother’s killer damianos, but it’s also not not what laurent wants from his divorce husband damen.)

‘How’s your shoulder?’ Damen said. ‘My shoulder and I,’ said Laurent, ‘are waiting to be shown a real fight.’

god they’re perfect for each other. they really do match each other’s freak so well. i’m obsessed with them.

Laurent swept his blade up, ready for the attack. It satisfied Damen to force some real sword work from him.

implying that the stuff earlier wasn’t real 😭

Damen drove into those exquisite counters, forcing them into patterns that he half remembered.

i love how even as damen is cocky and realistic about the odds, he isn’t insulting or demeaning towards laurent. he is DELIGHTED and FASCINATED by the way laurent is engaging in this fight. it’s not about who’s stronger or weaker to damen—he just can’t stop being amazing by laurent being laurent.

(which is, of course, the opposite of where laurent’s mind currently is. he’s assuming that damen is judging him for not being good enough, he’s focused entirely on who’s stronger and who’s weaker, and every second he spends not winning is a reason to hate himself just a little more. wish i could say that wasn’t deeply relatable, but—)

Laurent was not Auguste. He was cast from a different mould physically, with a more dangerous calibre of mind. Yet there was a resemblance: the echo of a similar technique, a similar style; perhaps learned from the same master, perhaps the result of the younger brother emulating the older in the training yard.

damen knows that this is about auguste in some way to laurent. or maybe he’s just making that comparison as a matter of observation to help himself determine the right tactics. tbh i think it’s the second thing, i don’t think damen’s mind is in the “i wonder how laurent thinks and feels about this” state right now, as supported by the “he wasn’t careful” line

He could feel it between them as he could feel everything between them. The deceptive sword work that was too much like the traps that Laurent laid for everyone, the lies, the prevarications, the avoidance of a straightforward fight in favour of tactics that used those around him to achieve his ends; like a consignment of slaves; like a village of innocents.

well, yes and no! the consignment of slaves is an akielos and kastor thing. so is destroying the village of innocents, like laurent is patently against that and showed great empathy and straightforward care towards the victims. but like i said earlier, damen is still somewhere between denial and acceptance when it comes to his own hypocrisy re: akielos and his family. so this thought makes sense for him to have.

(it is also kind of ironic that laurent in this scene has been entirely straightforward, not deceptive at all. he wanted a real fight, simple as that. and because it’s a real fight, he’s using every possible trick and trap to win.)

He swept Laurent’s blade out of the way, slammed the hilt of his sword into Laurent’s stomach, then threw Laurent down, his body landing hard enough on the sawdust to knock the wind out of his lungs. ‘You can’t beat me in a real fight,’ said Damen.

i am so in sync with this scene right now i love it.

also, this scene being set in a room like the one where laurent had damen flogged is PERFECT. especially since in that instance, laurent had made someone else do his dirty work, hadn’t even physically overpowered or hurt damen himself. this is a real fight, one that laurent knew back then that he would lose. he could only “defeat” damen if he tied him up and had another person hit him. laurent knows that now, too, and asked for this fight anyway. because he’s an emotionally volatile 20 year old who was raised in a culture of violence and lives in a fantasy world where therapists don’t exist.

i’d call laurent a masochist for this kind of behavior, but i honestly think it would be more accurate to call him a sadist towards himself.

His sword pointed to the line of Laurent’s Adam’s apple. Laurent was sprawled on his back with spread legs and one knee raised. His fingers slid into the sawdust beneath him. His chest was rising and falling under the thin shirt. The tip of Damen’s sword travelled from his throat down to his delicate belly. ‘Yield,’ he said.

HOT.

(although i did immediately clock the sawdust thing in the first readthrough. very catra-coded strategy)

A burst of darkness and grit exploded in his vision; Damen squeezed his eyes shut reflexively and shifted his sword point back a critical half-inch as Laurent whirled his arm and flung a handful of sawdust into his face. When Damen’s eyes opened, Laurent had rolled, and come up holding his sword.

LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

It was a juvenile boy’s trick that had no place in a man’s fight.

“man’s fight” isn’t a thing. either you’re trying to win or you’re not trying to win. no fight’s ever fair, someone’s always stronger.

Wiping the sawdust away with his forearm, Damen looked across at Laurent, who was breathing hard and wearing a new expression. ‘You fight with the tactics of a coward,’ said Damen. ‘I fight to win,’ said Laurent.

maybe if auguste had fought less honorably, laurent thinks, my brother would still be alive, and damianos would be dead.

‘Not well enough for that,’ said Damen.

… but maybe not.

(laurent wouldn’t think that part. that’s just me, pointing out that even if auguste had fought like laurent, he still would have lost. which is, i’m pretty sure, the main point of this scene.)

The look in Laurent’s eyes was the only warning before Laurent swung at him with killing force..

laurent is not happy to realize that auguste would have died no matter what tactics he used, because it makes auguste the weaker man. and even though laurent knows there’s no way he could come out of this stronger than damen, he’d rather go down fighting than accept defeat. which, if you really think about it, is what he’s been doing with his uncle for the past few years in arles—just in a less straightforward way.

Damen swerved sideways and abruptly back, brought his sword up and still found himself giving ground. There was a moment of pure concentration, edged silver all around him that he must focus on completely.

no more cockiness or amusement. he’s taking this a lot more seriously now, because i think he’s figuring out that this means something pretty serious to laurent, despite his innuendos and attitude earlier in the fight

Laurent was attacking with everything he had. There were no more elegant engagements, no more insouciant parries. Being thrown onto his back had broken some barrier in Laurent, and he was fighting with open emotion in his eyes.

this, too, is a sex parallel. and an intimacy/vulnerability parallel, in general.

also, the image of laurent here is just kinda heartbreaking. but it’s also very, very cathartic, and i think it’s good for laurent’s development that he experiences this fight in such an intense and visceral way.

And with exhilaration, Damen met the onslaught, took on Laurent’s best sword work, and began, step by step, to drive him back.

now it’s almost methodical, dutiful. like defusing a bomb

And this—it was nothing like Auguste, who had called to his men to stand back.

i’ve already said what i would say again here (re: laurent fighting dirty as a test of auguste’s chances if he’d done the same), so i’ll just say “FUCK YEAH LAURENT” instead. he is hell-bent on winning this impossible fight and that shit is real

Laurent’s sword cut through a holding rope and Damen had to push away before the shelf of mounted armoury it supported came crashing down on his head. Laurent shoved at a bench with his leg and sent it careening into Damen’s path. The armour that had spilled from the wall onto the sawdust became an obstacle course to force uneven footwork.

YESSSSS use the environment to your advantage!

(i should probably mention that fight scenes are some of my very favorite things to write. especially when they include parallel emotional arcs, banter, and improvised weapons/obstacles. and gay people. so.)

Laurent was throwing everything at him, drawing every part of their surroundings desperately into the fight. And he was still unable to hold ground.

doesn’t matter, he’s still fighting. sorry this isn’t really analysis anymore it’s just me relating to/projecting onto laurent. i’m cheering that bitch on to the very end

At the post, Laurent ducked instead of parrying, and Damen’s sword swung hard through thin air and then thunked into the wooden beam, lodging there so deeply that he had to let go the hilt and duck a swing of his own before he could pull it out.

the post again! kind of embarrassing for laurent, that yet again it’s the post that keeps him safe from damen’s retaliation, instead of anything he himself is able to do

In those seconds, Laurent bent, snatched up a knife that had scattered from one of the overturned benches and threw it, with deadly accuracy, at Damen’s throat. Damen knocked it out of the air with his sword and kept advancing.

god this scene is so fucking good. the pacing is perfect. i can see it so clearly. the rising desperation is conveyed so well, especially from damen’s pov where he’s just describing laurent’s actions and reactions

He attacked and steel met steel, sliding all the way up to the tang. Laurent’s shoulder shuddered, and Damen pressed harder, forcing Laurent’s sword from his hand.

and it’s the shoulder injury that finally does laurent in. the direct result of his own weakness against another stronger man.

He slammed Laurent into the panelled wall. Laurent made a sound of raw, guttural frustration as his teeth clicked together and the breath was knocked out of him. Damen pressed in, jammed his forearm to Laurent’s neck and cast his own sword aside as Laurent’s outflung hand dragged a knife from its hanging display on the wall and brought it driving towards Damen’s unprotected side.

i think laurent is fighting to kill at this point, like not really in his right mind. side note, why is this more intimate and cathartic to me than the sex scene. you don’t have to answer that.

‘No you don’t,’ said Damen, and with his free hand caught Laurent’s wrist and knocked it hard against the wall, once, twice, until Laurent’s fingers opened and he dropped the knife.

SUCH a good choice of dialogue. chastising, but not punishing. unthreatened, but not condescending. a perfect summation of how damen approaches these kinds of clashes with laurent, in a way that laurent cannot fully see or understand. damen doesn’t need to be the stronger man here, and he isn’t judging or demeaning laurent for his weakness. he is as earnest in combat as he is in bed—and with laurent, he wants them both to feel like winners. submission to damen, in his case, is honorable—laurent can lose and yield, and damen will not think any less of him. but to laurent, yielding to this defeat is basically the most mortifying thing he could possibly do, because he doesn’t believe that someone like damen could be real.

… or maybe, laurent is just unwilling to allow someone like damen—someone truly honorable and supportive, whose strength inspires laurent rather than threatens him—to matter to him in a way that’s real. because the last person like that in laurent’s life got killed in a “fair” fight, by the same person who laurent is fighting now. who, by laurent’s admission, shares those qualities with auguste. and as a result of auguste’s death, the loss of a person who mattered deeply to laurent, who laurent trusted to protect him… well, it makes sense that current-day laurent would be so afraid of letting someone ever matter to him, or protect him again. laurent only wants to need himself to survive, but that means putting a lot of pressure on himself to always be the stronger man. which he just isn't, sometimes. most of the time, really, unless he gets pretty creative about his approach.

no wonder it's the game laurent likes. games are among the few things he's confident he can win.

Laurent’s whole body thrashed against him then, trying to wrench from his hold, a moment of violent animal struggle that pushed their hot, sweat-dampened bodies together.

… but this isn’t a game—it’s a real fight, just as promised. and laurent lost.

Damen rode it out—shoved them both in against the wall—tightly enough to prohibit movement, but Laurent punched him in the throat with his free arm, hard enough that he choked and shifted, and then, with all the hard violence in him, Laurent drove his knee in.

okay, he hasn’t lost yet. carry on. i like how one of laurent’s last-ditch efforts here is kneeing his attacker in the groin, given his history with people making him feel weak and defeated through sexual assault/harassment.

Blackness exploded across his vision, but fighter’s instinct pushed through it. He dragged Laurent away from the wall and flung him to the ground, where Laurent hit, body impacting hard on the sawdust. It knocked the wind out of Laurent for a moment, but he was already pushing himself dazedly up, his eyes venomous on Damen’s. Laurent was going for the knife again, his fingers closing around it, too late.

it’s great that we got the laurent pov interrogation scene before this. in that scene he didn’t break, he was pretty much in emotional control of himself the entire time. but in this scene, he is sloppy and desperate and unable to hide that from damen, who doesn’t even want to hurt him. this is way harder for laurent to approach with detachment and pragmatism, and at this point he’s pretty much just broken and doing whatever he can to not lose

‘That’s enough,’ said Damen, driving his knee hard into Laurent’s stomach, then throwing him onto his back and following him down. He had Laurent’s wrist in his grip, and he slammed it back against the sawdust, so that Laurent released the knife. His body was an arc over Laurent’s, pinning Laurent with his weight, with his hands on Laurent’s wrists, Laurent taut beneath him. He could feel the hot rise and fall of Laurent’s chest. He tightened his grip.

it’s very precise here, how damen intentionally overpowers and restrains laurent, but does it in a way that tries to minimize the pain laurent experiences. again, it’s like he’s defusing a bomb, not defeating an opponent. he still, ultimately, cares the most about physically treating laurent well. it’s become pretty obvious that laurent isn’t just trying to harm damen here, and damen doesn’t want to see laurent harm himself either. it’s not a fun game anymore. damen doesn’t want to enable it. “that’s enough.”

the fact that these two need a safe word just to spar… tbh they’d probably benefit from a safe word for just like. existing near each other

Finding himself with no way out from under Damen’s body, Laurent made a last, desperate sound, and only then finally went still, panting, his eyes furious with bitterness and frustration. They were both panting. Damen could feel the resistance in Laurent’s body. ‘Say it,’ said Damen. ‘I yield.’ It was gritted out. Laurent’s head turned away to one side.

it’s almost like laurent is offering damen his jugular. like “you win, you might as well finish the job, because i don’t want to be alive to deal with the implications of this”

‘I want you to know,’ he said, the words thick and heavy as they pushed out of him, ‘that I could have done this any time when I was a slave.’

this line is hot and idk, self righteous, but damen you could not have chosen a WORSE time or place for a comment like this. you just made laurent confront that he’s weak, and now you’re telling him that he’s always been weak, and he’s only been spared because you’ve chosen not to use your power over him. you’re saying this to the dude whose brother you killed. damen.

Laurent said, ‘Get off me.’ He thrust himself away. Laurent was the first to lever himself off the floor. He stood with his hand on the post for support. Flecks of sawdust were clinging to his back. ‘You want me to say it? That I could never have beaten you?’ Laurent’s voice twisted up. ‘I could never have beaten you.’

laurent is projecting, making this about what damen wants, when it was very clearly laurent who wanted this fight to happen

‘No, you couldn’t have. You’re not good enough. You would have come for revenge, and I would have killed you. That’s how it would have been between us. Is that what you would have wanted?’

peak damen “are you done bitching” moment. but also honest and raw, and what laurent ultimately needs to hear. it’s almost a challenge: “would you prefer that relationship between us—strong killer and weak victim—to the one we have now? because if not, maybe it’s time to get your shit together and actually talk to me. because this could be good, if we just put down our weapons.”

‘Yes,’ said Laurent. ‘He was everything I had.’ The words hung between them. ‘I know,’ said Laurent, ‘that I was never good enough.’ Damen said, ‘Neither was your brother.’ ‘You’re wrong. He was—’ ‘What?’ ‘Better than I am. He would have—’ Laurent cut himself off. He pressed his eyes closed, with a breath of something like laughter. ‘Stopped you.’ He said it as though he could hear the ludicrousness of it.

a breakthrough. laurent forced to confront the fallacy of his own self-loathing. this is really well-written cooldown and culmination of things i have previously analyzed.

Damen picked up the discarded knife, and when Laurent’s eyes opened, he put it in Laurent’s hand. Braced it. Drew it to his own abdomen, so that they stood in a familiar posture. Laurent’s back was to the post. ‘Stop me,’ said Damen. He could see it in Laurent’s expression, as he fought an internal battle with his desire to use the knife.

love this echo of previous moments. this really is a question of “are we putting down our weapons or not”

He said, ‘I know what that feels like.’ ‘You’re unarmed,’ said Laurent. So are you.

LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

pacat chooses very few moments to be this on the nose about something, and as a result they really really hit He didn’t say it. It didn’t make any sense. He felt the moment changing. His grip on Laurent’s wrist was changing. The knife thudded to the sawdust. He forced himself to step back before it happened. He was staring at Laurent from two paces away, his breathing roughened, and not from exertion. Around them, the training arena was strewn with the disorder of their fight: benches overturned, armour pieces scattered across the floor, a banner half torn from the wall. Damen said, ‘I wish—’ But he couldn’t speak the past away, and Laurent wouldn’t thank him if he did. He took up his sword and left the hall.

this was a hard scene for damen too. they really are just in this mushy, messy place, which is better than complete contempt and avoidance, but still difficult to navigate. but it does feel like a step, for their individual development as their development as a partnership.

[nexstage]

Sugarggedon

What could’ve…

“Aaaghhhh!” He screamed. In seconds, his head hit a hard, cold surface making him curse, gritted teeth. Opening his eyes again, the dread and terror he felt moments ago was replaced by the deepest level of confusion for he found himself in his room. His old childhood room. “What the—?” His hands went to his face. His skin felt smooth, a bit oily, a few pimples from acne in the chin.

What happened to all the back pain, the arthritis, the scars, the wrinkles, the cataracts, the—? Wait a second, since when his future looked so old? And why was that by the way?

He flexed his fingers and hands. They were young. He was young.

“Stan, are you ok?” Broken out of his stunned thoughts, he glanced at his brother.

Lively and healthy. Uh, why was he thinking about a future with wrinkles and health issues again?

“Stan, what happened? Was it a nightmare?” Ford gently placed a hand on his forehead. “You have no fever. What about your stomach? Did you eat something before going to sleep?”

“Uh… No no. Just… Just a dream. I mean, I had a dream, but I thought it was real.”

“By the look of your face, it seems that this dream went to the extreme in making you feel that was the reality.”

“Eh… You could say so.” He murmured an ouch as he rubbed the bruised part of his forehead. He hoped that didn’t leave a mark. “You can’t believe how crazy it was, you know, in my head.”

“Tell me then, we have some time before the clock goes off.”

“You won’t believe it! It was insane!”

Stan went into a long ramble describing a town called Gravity Falls in Oregon, invaded by all kinds of aliens and monsters, a colossal pyramid floating above the forest surrounding the town, the sky painted in all the colors ever known by man, fire and destruction everywhere, and they were there in the middle of it running from something. When he described their appearances, Ford’s eyes gleamed at his own description as some kind of adventurous researcher fighting alongside Stan who was wearing a businessman/mafia boss suit and even glasses.

“You weren’t kidding. That’s unbelievable!”

“Yeah and—“ Stan’s breath hitched as he saw part of the room where Ford’s trophies usually were. Correction, where Ford’s AND HIS trophies usually were.

He stood up and scanned all of them. His twin’s prizes were outstanding for obvious reasons. He was a genius beyond anyone’s league. Stanley, on the other hand, was just there. Pure brawn and troublemaking, struggling in academics.

Except that he was good at sports. Basketball, football, boxing, the medals and trophies said it all.

There were even photos where he had invited Ford to be part of it, both smiled so big their cheeks hurt.

“Amazing, right? In the end, your bet with Pa worked out.”

A bet? A bet with Pa of all people? What was Six—? Oh. Oh yeah! He remembered now.

Pa with his typical lack of faith in him and stoicism simply said that it would be a miracle if he managed to graduate without dragging Ford down in the journey until graduation.

Stan had always wanted to impress his father, to get that gesture of approval and recognition he only gave Ford. Being average and the extra Stan were the bane of his existence, however, for his twin excelled in every class while he got Cs, or in the best of scenarios, a B. And Pa hardly went to his boxing matches, expecting Ford to report him about his progress and barely saying “Mhm” before focusing on the newspaper.

Then when he said he would win all the matches in boxing and get all medals his father scoffed, “I bet my fedora that you couldn’t even be this disciplined with boxing or any other sport.” Stanley took that personally and organized himself. He became part of many sports clubs, attended all the classes, and impressed the coachers.

Suddenly, the few medals he obtained for boxing multiplied in tenfold just like the others from football, basketball, wrestling, etc.

As his mind processed the information, the clock rang incessantly taking him by surprise.

“Welp, time to go to school.”

A wave of anxiety washed over him due to Ford’s words but why? It was just school. It’s not that something life-changing would happen, right?

**************

“Mr. Pines, Mrs. Pines, let me be frank with you if I may.”

Stan couldn’t stop drumming his fingers into his knees despite his best efforts. This better not be a problem he accidentally or willingly dragged Ford into but as far as he remembered, they hadn’t gotten into more conflicts with Crampelter and his goons, and the rest of their classmates minded their own businesses.

What else could it be then?

He wished he had his notebook with him. For some reason, his wacky dream had clung to the darkest corners of his mind, pushing him to draw every detail. Doodling instead of keeping up with the lesson of the day was something he was known for like any other student but his gut seemed to be desperate to keep sketching those apocalyptic scenarios, and the pyramid, what was with that pyramid that—?

“Being frank is the only way I speak.” Filbrick’s voice cut through the haze of his restlessness. Stanley slightly gulped, wanting the whole deal to be over.

“You have two sons here,” the principal pointed at him and Stanford. “One excels in sports and the other in academics.”

“What are you trying to say?” Caryn asked. Stanley mentally did the same. What was he getting at?

“I’m saying that your sons are soon-to-be stars, Mrs. Pines!” Uh… What? “Stanley here has gotten the attention of the best football coachers of the country. Many teams are fighting over him to get him on their side. The scholarships are raining! Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, Southern California, North Dakota, Montana, even Harvard!” Harvard?! “And let’s not forget Stanford. He’s an unparalleled genius! All his teachers are going bananas over his science project! Have you ever heard of West Coast Tech? Best college in the country? All his students have turned science fiction into science facts! This guy could change the whole world! Your sons might be famous millionaires, Mr. Pines!”

“I’m impressed,” Stanley was this close to fainting. Pa said he was impressed. He even smiled! Pa never smiles. He has never been impressed of him! And now he was!

*************

The night at the swings was tranquil. The soft waves barely moved the Stan O’ War and his nose inhaled as much sea air as he could. If someone had told him that one day he would make his father proud and have a future beyond scrapping the barnacles off of a taffy store -wait, where did that thought come from?- anyway, if he had been given those news, he would’ve laughed and ignored it.

Stanford was the guy with the brilliant future. He had the brains, he would go places, he could beat the odds with whatever plan he concocted. Stan was another story.

Of course, the world decided he could do better. He even made the impossible happen! He would be a famous football player, Pa was impressed of him, his parents were proud, he would leave Glass Shard Beach and meet famous sportsmen, maybe win the hearts of cute babes, who knew.

And yep, his hands were still twitching and fidgeting. Why though? No idea.

“Can you believe it, Stanley? We’re going to college!”

He chuckled. “More like you are. I have to choose from a pool of pamphlets.”

“This is the amazing thing, though! You have lots of options. It means all your hard work paid off.”

“What about, uh, West Coast Tech? Happy with only one option?”

“Having more than one college to go sounds excellent, but I’ve read the pamphlet, Stan. This college has everything. The best teachers, the most advanced equipment, the best environment. Maybe… Maybe there I could show everyone that I’m more than the freak they see. That someone like me can change the world.”

“I know you will. I bet that in a few years we’ll be living in huge mansions while Crampelter and his friends will be working as taxi drivers.”

“Now that’s a depiction of a perfect world!”

Both laughed uproariously.

The echo of their laughter travelled throughout their neighborhood but not one soul opened a window to shout a complain. As they calmed the pain in their stomachs for laughing so hard, the salted, humid air reminded Stanley of the bittersweetness ahead of him. He had a great future but in exchange he would leave behind stuff he loved like their childhood dream and the Stan O’ War.

It felt weird to be excited to go to another path that wasn’t connected or fused to Ford’s. When they were children, the “Us against the world” motto was all they knew and mattered. Did it still matter? They weren’t as close as before and their talents had pushed them to different goals but they still enjoyed each other’s company.

Things were changing but others were still the same.

“What are you drawing?” Drawing? Stan peeked at what his hands were doing. A bricky-like triangle over a bunch of houses and trees. Wait. “This looks like my dream.”

“Is it causing you trouble again?” Ford asked concernedly.

“More like it’s a song on a loop. Bit annoying.” But still his hands kept doodling different shapes reminiscent of what he’d dreamed. As if they were telling him something which was nonsense! I mean, these were his hands. Hands don’t talk, they don’t think.

“You know, this gives me a great idea!”

“What kind of idea?”

“It’s more for you than for me. What if you make a comic out of your dream? I know the details will vanish with time but if your dream is this persistent, then maybe you can make the best out of it. You may not see it, but you have talent drawing, Stanley. This could be a pet project during your breaks in college and football training. And who knows, perhaps in the future, you will also be known by your art.”

Being known by his art… “Heh, you’re putting a lot of faith in a simple project, Pointdexter.”

“Because it could be a great opportunity.” Ford watched the stars mesmerized. “The future does look promising after all.”

“Yeah… It does…”

[rinnzsturns]

neighbour!matt x partygirl!reader au introduction.

pt1 | pt2

matts pov

matt sat wedged in the backseat, crammed between nick and chris, who left him no room to breathe.

with ‘ luther ‘ by kendrick lamar humming softly through his airpods, he texted his friends, letting the music drown out his brothers’ constant bickering and the cheesy song his mom had just queued up in the front.

the car finally rolled to a stop in front of his new house, just a five-minute walk from the beach. his surroundings unfamiliar. across the street, a pair of family cars sat in the driveway, and the open garage revealed a broad-shouldered man focused on a woodworking project, sawdust collecting at his feet.

matt stepped out of the car, stretching his legs and squinting against the late afternoon sun. the salty breeze from the ocean carried faint echoes of waves crashing in the distance, mingling with the rhythmic buzz of cicadas. he glanced up at the house—two stories, pale blue siding, and a wraparound porch that looked like it hadn’t been used in years.

his mom was already halfway up the front steps, jangling the new house keys in her hand like it was some kind of grand reveal. nick and chris bolted past him, racing to claim bedrooms before he even touched the porch.

matt lingered a moment longer, taking it all in. new house. new neighborhood. new school. be didn’t know whether to feel excited or like the ground had shifted under him.

the man across the street looked up briefly, gave a small nod, then went back to sanding a plank of wood. matt nodded back, uncertain if that counted as neighborly.

roughly forty minutes later, matt sat on the kitchen island, the only decent place to perch since the furniture wouldn’t arrive until late tomorrow. fantastic.

he scrolled through his phone, texting his friends back home about the new place. a smirk tugged at his lips as the group chat lit up with jokes and wild assumptions—mostly about how he was destined to get a ‘ shit ton of pussy ‘ that he was in california.

the doorbell rang—probably the first of many neighbors coming by to welcome the family to the small town. matt groaned, barely lifting his head before looking back down at his phone. he heard his mom’s cheerful voice as she opened the door, already slipping into polite mode for the strangers on the other side.

he heard a deep voice—probably the dad—mentioning that they lived just across the street. Interesting.

matt glanced up, curiosity tugging at him, and spotted the same broad-shouldered man from earlier in the garage. now, under the dim light of the porch, the man looked more imposing, his posture relaxed but confident. beside him stood a tall woman, almost matching his height, a natural elegance in the way she held herself. probably his wife, matt figured, before his gaze moved to the third figure—just behind the couple.

she was younger, easily a little younger than him, with long hair that cascaded effortlessly down her back. for a moment, she seemed oblivious to him, absorbed in her phone. ut then, as if something shifted in the air, her head lifted. their eyes met across the room—his gaze almost involuntary, hers sharp yet curious. there was a moment of hesitation, a silent recognition, before she looked away just as quickly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

matt couldn’t shake the feeling that something had just passed between them—like a brief connection, unnoticed by everyone else, but felt all the same.

© rinnzsturns

🏷️— @sturniolohohoho @sturn-l0ver @mattybearnard (taglist)

a/n ; i chose luther cs that like lwk describes their relationship.. JDHDJDJDJ im so excited fot this guys

[ozzgin]

Dear Ozzgin,

Is your new addition to the repertoire, the yandere android, a Mixture of Experts like GPT-4.5, or something else entirely? Would his performance / 'humanness' degrade if he were talking to another machine (an inhuman one, not designed to be Spacer-ly human) for a long time?

Any random lorebits on Spacers you did not include but would have had you felt less constrained?

Hah, okay, I see you've gotten into the technical aspects. I'm about to go on a ramble so I'll do a cut here for everyone else to not clog your feeds. Feel free to read if you're into this kind of stuff. :D

First, I just wanted to point this out because I've read your hashtags and comment: the CCD sensors were a bit of an asspull because it's one thing I'm more knowledgeable about, but I don't feel like it'd be a realistic choice, if I am to be nitpicky. They're expensive to produce and are mostly used for really high performance work (telescopes), but a humanoid robot wouldn't need such advanced digital imaging for daily life use. So, you know, it's arguable whether or not there are better alternatives when it comes to a mass-produced agent processing the immediate environment.

Now to your actual question: I've used the machine learning approach because this is currently our most advanced way of developing AI, but it would not be enough to explain the Android's perfect understanding of human speech. ChatGPT analyzes sentences and their meaning purely based on grammar and associations, but there's many examples of it struggling against anything more intricate than literal context. So yeah, that kind of sarcastic dialogue and implied meaning is wishful thinking of times far away sadly. I'm only wildly guessing he wouldn't struggle with today's impediments. There's a black box somewhere in there that fills the gaps and variables we don't have.

If at some point you find yourself with time to spare, I'd recommend reading the book directly. It's very interesting to see how people viewed the "future" back then, and you will detect a lot of optimism regarding computers - such as Daneel (the original Android) being a flawless human. Funnily enough, the book was published shortly before the Dartmouth Conference, so Asimov was this close to discover that language recognition is, in fact, a terribly tangled business and not as simple as they had originally expected.

I think I covered the basics when it comes to Spacers, but then again I cannot tell how easy it is to follow for someone that isn't familiar with the original work. I also didn't want to reproduce every fact, mot a mot, from Caves of Steel, especially since this is less about politics and more about romance. I'd suspect the people reading the story are not too bothered by the only briefly mentioned murder. Cause is less important when the effect is a tall robot boy with a crush on you 👀 if you feel me.

Anyways, I'm very glad you like the story, every now and then I'll insert little facts and technical details - as it usually is when you study Physics and CS but have no friends in the field - so it's definitely nice to have someone recognize the stuff! :)

[sir-fluffbutts]

I love love your recent comic about JJ and pepper, will JJ ever realize his feelings for pepper?? Oh and JJ and pepper really remind me of jonathan and dio, i even thought they were their fursonas at first 🤧

I DON'T THINK, I CAN ANSWER THAT

pepper and JJ's "romance problems" arn't really importent current lorewise, and whatever related to it will happen AFTER the "fish market" lore so i will keep quiet for now 🤫

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

also (the main reason why im answering this question), OH BOY DO I HAVE A STORY ABOUT THAT

OK SO, jj looks like jonathan from JJBA cause...design wise, he have went through the jonathan kinsona phase

i had JJ (originaly named "piper") since 2019, and between the time he have went through a LOT of design changes

i should mention that at time time, he has been a part of a [specific CS] * i will not adress them in name as i've left the species with a bad taste in my mouth and do not want to be involved with them again

around 2020 when i was INSANLY into JJBA, i found out there was a "jjba (CS)kinsona gang" chat within the species group, and while talking with some people there, i was like "haha won't it funny if i redesign my guy into a jojo character that'll be insane" and i did just that

sadly the small group kinda crumbled cause CS is all about trading and most of the "kinsona characters" got traded and redesigned 😔 i still kept JJ intending to redesign em again.

then, in 2021 when i had beef with the said [CS] and decided to leave, i sold out most of my said CS characters, but kept JJ due to sm fond memorys on him

but i didn't want him to keep being just a "jonathan kinsona". so after a species change, giving new lore and doing bunch of redesigns, the JJ we all currently know was born into the world

---

while being redesigned to his current looks, i put a lot of his previous design+ his cousin(shark)'s design elements and i feel like he turned out pretty well

definatly still have a sort of a resemblence, but different just enough 🤌

it actually seperates the characters more in his outgrows neck/back fluff ver, but (for now) he likes to keep it clean

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

pepper is also a pretty similar story

his OG design was based on speedwagon and when in my JJBA CS phase i was like "wait, wasn't there a SW inspired design??" and managed to grab em

however i don't think he gets the same recognition as JJ cause

i actually don't think his OG design resembles the character that much

i officially got him (ended my trade) when the said "JJBA CS gang" started to crumble, so i almost immidetly did a 180 on his design and used him for different lore purposes

people tend to skip part 1 so they have no idea who speedwagon is (😭)

and considering how i NEVER get comments on his connection with him but constently hear about how he look like

• dio (part 1)

• DIO (part 3)

• striker (helluvaboss)

i think i've done a pretty good job on his redesign 😂💅

[thecynthh]

okay scratch that 4 lacysturniolo series + misc fics coming

and our roster is !

LOGICAL - MS

DARK PARADISE - MS

MY STRANGE ADDICTION - MS

WISHFUL THINKING - CS

LAST RIDE - CS

COOL SPIDER - CS

TOKYO DRIFTERS - CS

BAD BOY PTS 1 & 2 - MS

DIRTY LITTLE MONSTER - MS & CS

MAKE YOU SCREAM - MS

HOTEL ROOM - MS

SECURE - CS

authors that are mentioned are - gamermattsgf , lacysturniolo, love4kuzome, and hearts4chris

i don’t take any recognition for the writing of any of theses fics and i am js reposting them !

don’t shoot the messenger!

i’ll be posting all of these periodically in maybe little groups at a time so watch out for future uploads!

[aijunbi]

hi guys . I deadass js realized that long thread we had goinf on w reblogs nd stuff my reblog didnt go thru ?? like it js deleted my entire text hence y my last reblog for that thread was like blank . 😭😭😭💔 stupid tumbkr omds

ANYWAY ! i frwakinf hate the sciences so bad like im good at every other subject but science i fear id rather be hwld at gunpoint than ever touch science after i graduate🙁 PLSS i wanted to take ap osych but im lwk mad lazy for that and my skl put a 3 ap per year maximum 😅😅 like damn okay . yall js hatw to see me succeed 😒😒😒 GAWAHHH i loge dpr so much like i deadass had mood on repeat for so long bcs of this one yeonjun edit that transformed my life i fear ! MERRY GO IS SOOO freakinf Good i love it so mich

i donr have my own room guys. ive been sharing w my sister for the past few years😢😢 its okat tho idrc bc anyw im barely in my room like most of the time im js in my living room doing my work nd stuff bc ion wannna bother my stupid sister like that💔💔 also cs shes mad stinky when she gets off her shift nd is home . LMFAO omg ur evil pushing smn off their bed 😭😭😭

girl i got like 1 valentines day fic in line and i fwar i prob will not finish it b4 valentines day . god pls give me rhe will to start picking up writing again. i have this ONE fic idea that lwk is fire like acc fire like so amazeballs and awesome sauce nd shit 😊😊 pls pray i finish it !!! AND GOSH U R A GENIUSSS like ur mind works wonders… cool w u… YESS GAWDDD i love cool w u SOO MUCH its one of my favs of nwjns plus get up and hypeboy and hurt‼️‼️ ive been tucked in bed at 9:30 since like. 3rd grade. ion play when it comes to having a healthy sleep schedule i fear. i CANNOT have eyebags ever idc 💔 i would nawt look good w eyebags oms. why tf is olaf taller tahn the average girl what the hell😭😭😭

LMAO I FIGURED like why is there just a reblog there shld be smth 😭😭😭 i love science so much oml that is my BAE right there ❤️❤️ lololol i got a year before i graduate i hear the gunshots already ME NEXT !!! my ap pysch is sooo funny for some reason like i love my group frfr 🙏 you js gotta dab on the haters ning (a member of the dance club told me that) dpr is my lifeline i don't fear. no blueberries has been charting on vinh's top 3 bcuz it's js so addicting 🤓☝️

i feel bad for you twin, i can't imagine sharing a sleeping space with someone because what if they're a snorer... then what? 😞 what if they sleep talk/walk and kill me... then what? 😞😞 OHEMGEE I HATEE being in my living room...😬😬 it's peaceful but when the adults come home from work it's like all hell js broke loose. i cannot and i mean cannot handle another loud laugh coming from my anyone's mouth when i'm trying to watch tv 💔💔💔 LMFAO stinky. i call my eldest brother stinkabutt because he reaks of wtv it is. what can i say? im a pusher 😜

dear ning pls bless us with another fic before i kay em ess. PLEASEEEEE 🙏🙏 heh my friends say im special 😼 but probably not the kind of positive special... scratches head. may cwy receive more recognition because the budget for mv must've been high 😭🙏🙏 im gonna be so fr rn... 9:30 is when i eat dinner LOL. sometimes not even, like it rlly depends. i can be eating my first meal at 5pm and eat my last at 10 💀💀 i play when it comes to a sleep schedule, i remember pulling 3 all nighters in a row. pretty sure i was hallucinating on the 3rd night. eyebags kind of fit me lololol but it makes me look emo and it beats my nonchalant aura. #NOTsigmaofme

not to mention i taught a bunch of working adults who can drink, drive, and smoke brainrot. like i was explaining the difference between skibidi toilet and evil skibidi toilet, and how they're not the same but they're twins yk. and also slangs like "clock it" or "sigma/alpha" and no sigma and alpha are not the same, alpha is below sigma, you geekers.

[livelaughlovesubs]

Sorry for late replying but I've rlly been at my lowest and I've been trying, I really have, I've been trying my best to get up. Something just broke inside me because yesterday I was having a friendly little class debate, nothing personal with my classmate. Then all of a sudden they brought up the fact that I have no right to judge and down them (I wasn't) just because I'm an honor student. They also said that I'm not even all that talented and that I'm only an honor student because being one is easy, basically they said that I'm talentless, worthless and just overall fake. Ik it doesn't seem like it cut that deep but it really affected me a lot.

No no, it does cut deep, and I know because I was always ‘a smart kid’

Being an honour student is hard, it’s literally never easy. Even as a smart kid, there will come a day where being ‘smart’ alone isn’t enough anymore. It hit me in grade 8, I still remember when my exams all came out worse than I expected. For others it was still a good grade, cuz I got Bs and Cs everywhere, mostly Bs, but I wasn’t content with it, because I was used to getting As.

Talent is a misleading word, it sounds so great and amazing, as if you could achieve something without trying, but if you don’t try someone who works hard will surpass you.

It’s totally normal to feel sad and disappointed if people don’t recognise you for your work. We are all humans after all, and humans are social creatures, we seek recognition. Maybe not from everyone, though at least someone. And if so many people just dismiss you like that, of course it hurts. Honestly? They have to right to say being an honour student is ‘easy’ if they aren’t one themselves, and even then everyone is different. Some people understand the topics better than others, and something that’s easy for some is difficult for others.

No one has the right to talk someone down when everyone lives and experiences their lives differently.

Besides, being academically good is not the only kind of achievement one can achieve. Saying someone is talentless just based off their grades is dumb. School grading is stupid on its own, they don’t cater to the interests and strengths of their students enough, only trying to force knowledge on all of them in the same way.

Anyway, I’m ranting too much already. Long story short, those people don’t even know the heck they are talking about. They probably said it in the heat of the moment, and don’t even know what they did was wrong and could cut so deep. It’s hard to ignore it, since it sticks to the back of your mind, but it’s times like these where you have to try to think of people who praise you for your work.

You are doing great, I’m happy and proud for you for getting so far. And you are amazing for doing so well in school. Don’t overwork yourself, eat and drink enough. I’m sure you can achieve your goals if you want to, and in the meantime, ignore these annoying voices who only want to pull you down.

[toyhousedramas]

I feel like any time anybody brings up the topic of seemingly low effort sketch or chibi designs that sell for a higher price point, conversation tends to get lost WAY out in the weeds. People argue about how artists should be respected and have their work and time valued (yes, of course) and that artists can absolutely place whatever price point they deem fit on their labor (I agree), but I don't think it's unreasonable at all to agree with these points and ALSO think that it's a bit baffling or even frustrating when one artist can sell a chibi doodle for several hundred dollars, while another can post a full-body design of quality and have it warm the shelves because $20 is considered too much to ask for. I think the conversation NOT being had here is about how a sizeable portion of the community is obviously preoccupied primarily with future trade value based on brand recognition (whether it's a popular CS or a popular designer), and how that is reacted to with confusion and frustration by members of the community who DON'T engage with the adoptable hobby in this way. It's just interesting to me that 'the adoptables community' is more like at least a few dozen separate communities, all with very different goals and standards, all mashed together.

.

[imseungminsgf]

nah bro fr cs tell me why one of my fav sapphic blogger n writer here started writing male centric characteristics readers like......

no hate but yea lowkey the thought that m*n r the one who's enjoying those masterpiece.... i bet they don't even read the whole story just skipping to the smut part ughaghshd im so sick i hate gp readers sm 💔

anwys, check out @duvetchico i love love love love love please continue to be more gay and silly <<333 they deserve more supporters n recognition fr

NAH BECAUSE WTF IS A GP IDOL/READER ‼️‼️‼️

i honestly would totally understand if it was meant to trans people. we would.

but these? we can clearly see that there is a specific audience that these writers want to reach and is NOT to represent the trans community 😭 only for the male audience... why tf is so hard to write sapphic sex without mentioning penis bru 😭

honestly sickens me alot but thank u soso much for indicating them to me! i'll definitely look forward to read their work <3