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jjsmaybank20 · 2 years

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Stargazing

Wanda Maximoff x fem!Odinson!Reader

Summary: the six times you embarrass yourself in front of Wanda Maximoff, and the one time you impress her.

Warnings: None! all fluff

Word Count: 8.6k

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Terra, Midgard, Earth. All are among the names of the small planet that apparently, you’ve been called too. You know of both your brothers’ fascination with the place and its inhabitants. Humans, you believe they’re called.

Personally you’ve never had any interaction with the terrene, but the stories brought back by Thor of his travels there and the amusing nature of humans happened to peak your interest.

Unfortunately you’ve never had the time or warrant to go, your brother’s might providing sufficient power to defend the tiny planet. Today though, luck just happens to be in your favor when you’re informed of his new quest: chasing knowledge of the infinity stones across the galaxy.

It’s a beautiful day on Asgard, as it always is, the sun shining happily upon your home and its people. A gentle breeze swishes the golden cape you adorn back and forth as you make your way towards the Bifrost where Heimdall is expecting you. The light glints pleasantly off of the light silver of your armor, the darker blues that accent it contrasting nicely.

There’s some mission waiting for you on some allied planet of Asgard. Negotiations, politics, diplomatic relations, etc. are all part of keeping the Nine Realms in order, and you’re Odin’s chosen one to handle it all. As the god of light, joy, and purity you radiate a natural beauty and charm that gives you the ability to, say, persuade any rivals of your father’s into benefiting the king.

In other words you’re his little errand girl tasked with mopping up any of the All-Father’s messes, of which there are plenty. He’s most definitely not well known for his graciousness or patience. It’s not ideal, show ponying around in order to maintain peace, but your job is necessary for the preservation of Asgard. Your work of amity and harmony has gained you a reputation as the golden girl of Asgard, a figurehead for beauty and allure, a juxtaposition to your brother Loki, and a parallel to Thor.

Might you occasionally take advantage of this draw? Perhaps, but where would be the fun of possessing this power of magnetism if you couldn’t use it to attract some attention? In this way you are also known as a bit of a player, as you would come to know it on Earth. This label doesn’t bother you much, in fact it only seems to increase your larger than life prestige, somehow making people even more enamored by you.

Case in point, as you stride into the domed Bifrost a guard comes crashing into you from around the corner, causing you both to fall to the ground. You’re quicker on your feet than the other lady, who, as you offer your hand to help her up, is quite beautiful. She has black hair that looks impossibly soft on top of her head and round brown eyes that stare up at you in surprise. You flash her a disarming grin as you help her up, one that works to fluster her as she looks down to brush imaginary dirt from her clothes.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” she apologizes quickly, her face reddening from a mix of embarrassment and bashfulness.

“It’s quite alright,” you assure, nodding your head and offering a flirtatious smirk upon noticing how easily the woman blushes. “Just be more careful next time, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to that pretty face of yours.” A wink this time for good measure, sending her off after her friend down the bridge. You make a mental note to find the name of that guard later, and to pay her a visit when you do.

“When you’re done trying to seduce another guardswoman will you get over here,” a deep voice calls out from the center of the room.

“I’m just having a moment of fun before I go off to talk politics for the next few days. It’s boring, Heimdall. And I need something to look forward to when I get back.” A shrug accompanies your words as you cross the space toward him, the pair of daggers along your belt jostling as you move.

“Actually, you’re going to Midgard. Thor has requested your assistance with keeping watch over the people there. He’s departing soon and wants you to take over for him.”

At that you cock an eyebrow, this could prove to be at least mildly interesting. While the planet is far behind the majority of the galaxy technologically speaking, and its inhabitants are rather tiny, there has to be a reason for your brother’s fondness of the place; a hidden charm that you want to seek. “What are we waiting for then? I’ve got a planet to defend.”

He shakes his head at you as he opens the Bifrost, “Oh, and did I mention I’m dropping you into the middle of a fight?”

“What!?” You turn to him with an incredulous look on your face, barely glimpsing the devious smirk on his before you’re hurtling through the portal.

One

Unprepared for the landing, you crash into the ground in a flash of burning light, which thankfully clears some of the space around you as you fall onto your face. “Not cool Heimdall,” you mutter, shaking your head and getting on your feet.

You look around to see exactly where you are and what you’re dealing with. You’re in a city, one that looks terribly worse for wear as people run about, tripping over debris from the ruined buildings around you. A child stops and stares at you, and you realize how out of place you must look, standing alone in the middle of the war torn street, your shiny armor glaring harshly amidst the dust and smoke. Ash covers the sky, pulling a gray blanket over the atmosphere and you instantly miss the clear day back on Asgard.

Your little staring contest with the girl is broken when you spot something moving behind her, aiming to shoot her where she stands. “Watch out!” You yell as you lift your arm and allow a beam of white light to blast from your palm, melting a neat hole through the robot’s head.

“Are you okay?” You ask as you run up to the kid, putting your hands up to show you’re not going to hurt her. When all you receive is a blank look in return, you realize that wherever you are they don’t speak English, giving you no way to verbally communicate with her. “Um, just. Here.” You hold your hand out for her to take and together you run through the town, with you shooting down robots as you go.

There seems to be an endless amount of the droids, and you constantly have to maneuver the child behind you and out of harm’s way as you race down the street. It’s quieter over here though compared to where you’re headed, following the sound of gunfire as you’re eager to find your brother and figure out what is going on. Surely once you do he can explain everything and you can deposit this small human into someone else’s custody.

Eventually you spot a red cape, similar to the one you wear through the chaos. “Brother!” You shout and wave your hand. He’s fighting off a horde of the androids, throwing his hammer around and leaving nothing but broken parts in his wake. Fighting next to him is a group of humans, all wearing colorful costumes and suits. You spot a man with a huge circular shield, one flying around in a metal suit, and even a giant green monster. At your call they all stop for a second and look at you as you rush toward them, child still in tow.

“Ah, I see Heimdall got my message and sent you here. Good to see you sister,” Thor greets, grasping your forearm in acknowledgment.

“Thor, who is this?” The blonde beside him asks, chest heaving from the fight.

“Well this is my sister, Y/N Odinson.”

At the mention of your relation to your brother the man stills, eyeing you with wariness. You’re confused until you remember Loki’s attack on Midgard a few years ago. This must be one of Earth’s champions who had fought him off.

“I’m here to help,” you insist, pointing to the frightened child you’ve collected on the way. “Look, I've brought you one of your younglings.” A beaming smile overtakes your face as you transfer the girl over to the soldier’s care.

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” A synthetic voice rings from the air above you, and you finally notice the giant robot hovering over the group. “I was kind of in the middle of my big villain speech,” he snarks, arms held out in annoyance.

Puzzling out that that’s what you’re here to stop, you turn to him, overconfidence flowing from your posture as you yell, “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Y/N!” As you so kindly introduce yourself you launch white hot light from your hand, searing the metal of his chest.

“You Odinsons are bothering me,” he spits, flying toward you. You unleash two beams as he nears, starting to melt his body. But he’s too fast and you’ve barely begun to make a dent before he seizes your shoulders and throws you across the street.

The Avengers all watch in shock as you go flying through the air, crashing into a building a hundred yards away.

Among them is a brunette witch with magic of a scarlet shade.

Thor’s words mark the resuming of the battle. “She’ll be fine.”

And that was your first impression on Wanda Maximoff.

Two

After a couple weeks of living and training with the Avengers you quickly realize that somehow you’ve managed to find the one person impervious to your magical charm. And unfortunately for you, it’s also the one person here that you have any interest in pursuing.

It’s not like she dislikes you persay, just more like she only speaks to you only enough to be polite. It’s a ‘hello’ in the hallway or a passing nod when you happen to be in the same room. She pays you no mind and it confuses you, hell you’d have more luck with her brother.

The two of you get along scarily well, your flirtatious and carefree nature lining up perfectly. And because of the time you spend together, and his twin intuition with his sister, it doesn’t take him long to figure out your little crush on the witch.

He notices how your eyes linger on her in ways they don’t on anyone else and how you’re constantly trying to strike up a conversation with her. And he finds it absolutely hilarious that she’s able to brush off each of your attempts at gaining her attention like it’s nothing. Equally amusing is your confusion each time she walks off oblivious to your advances.

You have good reason to be confused though. In all of your encounters with well, anyone, you’d never met someone who wasn’t swayed by your beauty. You’d normally walk into a room and effortlessly capture the attention of everyone there, your charisma and ability to radiate joy making you supernaturally desirable.

Her own magic must be working to block yours out. And you did not find that anywhere near as amusing as the speedster beside you.

You’re both in the gym, you serve as a moving punching bag for him as he rushes at you with inhuman speed and tries to land blow after blow on you. The goal is to get you to the ground. A task that you know to be near impossible for the boy circling you. Your own ‘super’ Asgardian strength and speed combined with your invulnerability to all of his jabs makes you a pillar of stone, and him, a fly.

It’s rather amusing for you and a good exercise for him though as he rushes at you in an attempt to tackle you, but you sidestep the blur, causing him to smack into the wall. “Too slow, Maximoff,” you tease, playfully shaking your head at him as you mock chastise him.

As he gears up for another run at you, someone walking into the room catches your attention. It’s Wanda, and she looks as stunning as ever with her hair pulled back and workout clothes on. She notices you watching her and turns her enchanting green eyes on you, offering a small smile as she does.

Completely caught up in the girl’s gaze you don’t notice your training partner barreling directly into you. His momentum gained from his running start from across the room is enough to send you both flying across the room, tumbling over each other as you slide to a halt.

“Ha ha! I told you I’d get you! The mighty Asgardian has fallen,” he dramatically yells as he prances around your bewildered figure on the floor. That is until he notices his sister by the entrance of the gym. A devious smirk finds its way onto his face now as he looks between you and her, connecting the dots. “Ohhh.” And you can practically see his mind coming up with a new plan to expose your crush on the girl.

You’ve never been quicker to get up and rush over to the speedster, clapping a hand over his mouth right as it opens again. His hair is blown to the side from the force of the wind generated from your speeding by him.

“Pietro, I swear. Think very carefully about your next words,” you warn, desperation in your eyes as you stare him down.

He nods, miming zipping his lips as best he can with your hand in the way and you slowly remove it, trusting him to stay quiet.

You move to leave the room, and just as you’re about to make your exit you hear him call from the other side of the room.

“Sestra! Y/N wants to ask you out!”

You whip around, mouth agape in astonishment. No he did not. She turns to you, a question in her eyes and your face heats up in embarrassment, a red color creeping up your neck all the way to your cheeks. You see the boy who was supposed to be your friend laughing out of the corner of your vision as you stand there completely caught off guard.

Having no idea what to do, you run out of the room, you’d deal with this later.

You’d left in such a hurry you hadn’t even noticed the girl watching you with an adoring look on her face. She’d never noticed how cute you were before.

Three

Another thing that greatly confuses you about Earth is its technology. It isn’t very advanced, but way overly complicated in your opinion. Especially when you just want to get something to eat. You find yourself in the cooking room, you can’t remember the name they have for it, and you’re rummaging through all of the drawers and cabinets, looking for something to fill your growling stomach.

You also have no idea what any of these foods are or how they’re meant to be prepared or what they taste like. Oh no. You finally open a cabinet and find a box labeled Pop-Tarts. Pietro had introduced you to these a few days ago and you found them delightfully sugary. The perfect snack.

You open them up and start to eat one, and it’s good, but it feels like something is missing. Oh that’s right, he had made them warm when he gave one to you before, but you can’t remember how he had done so. You glance around the room, eyes finding a number of strange machines that could possibly be the one he had used.

There’s two box-like ones inserted into the wall, one smaller than the other, and both with doors on them. You open both of them, completely unaware of the brunette watching you from across the room as you continue on your quest to heat your snack.

She stifles a laugh as you press all of the buttons on the microwave and the oven, accomplishing nothing with a half eaten Pop-Tart placed in between your teeth.

After Pietro’s little stunt, interactions between you and her had become both more awkward and more frequent. She wants to get to know you more now, but everytime she talks to you you freeze up and end up leaving the room.

You aren’t sure what’s wrong with you, and it frustrates you that your lifetime of flirting and charming half the galaxy seems to disappear whenever she’s near. Normally, you’d be able to enchant whoever you desire with ease, many people, men and women alike back on Asgard being able to testify to such. But whenever you’re confronted with talking to her, you find yourself stuck, all your usual tricks evaporating into the tense air around you. Then your opportunity passes and you curse your brain for stalling out on you again.

Wanda finds it endearing, your big dog attitude dissolving at the sight of her. She thinks it’s cute whenever your eyes go wide and you blush, clumsily leaving the room before she can properly speak to you. Those feelings only grow as she watches you fumble your way around the kitchen, inspecting each appliance before using it wrong, and then moving onto the next one. You remind her of a lost puppy, trying to navigate a new world.

She also can’t help but notice the tight shirt you’re wearing, and the way it hugs your back and shoulders nicely, showing off your lean, but muscled frame. You must be taking fashion advice from Steve.

It’s when you stick your fingers inside the toaster after plugging it in that she steps in. She knows it’s not likely you’d be able to get hurt, but she’d like to prevent you from getting electrocuted today. “Hey do you need some help?”

You startle, yanking your fingers out of the new metal box you’d found on the counter and turning to look at who had spoken. When you find an all too familiar face looking at you in amusement, her hair falling in long waves across her shoulders you grimace. Of course it had to be her giving witness to you stumbling around the cooking room like an idiot.

“No.” You try to play it cool, like you hadn’t just been wandering from device to device, playing with switches and pressing buttons at random. And you still haven’t figured out how to fix the box of pastries sitting on the counter.

She fixes you with a look that says “really” and you relent, sighing in defeat. “Your people’s food machines are being difficult.”

She laughs at your blaming the appliances and you can’t help but think that it’s the most wonderful sound you’ve ever heard; and you’re instantly addicted. You want to hear her laugh, to see her smile all the time, and you want to be the reason behind her joy.

“Here. Just take one and put it in the slot,” she explains, grabbing a Pop-Tart and slipping it into the toaster. “Set it to a low number,” she puts it on two, “and push this down.” You watch as the food drops down into the machine and the insides start to glow orange.

“Thank you,” you laugh nervously, slightly embarrassed that she had to help you with such a simple task.

“Anytime,” she replies, looking into your eyes and you think you’ve found what you’ve been searching for right there as you gaze into her soul.

And then the moment ends, your snack popping up from the toaster and breaking the silence around you.

Four

You’d heard about the infamous Tony Stark despite not having seen him since the battle against the giant robot named Ultron. From what the team told you he was kind of like one of the leaders of the team, funding the entire compound you live in and designing everyone’s suits and weapons. Kind of a big deal.

So that’s why you’re eager to impress him when he comes to visit the Compound one day.

Everyone is excited to see their teammate, who had stepped away from the superhero life for a while to take a much needed break. They’re also pleasantly surprised when he’s joined by Pepper, maybe he’d behave a little better with her to keep him in line.

You’re all waiting in the lounge area when the couple walks in, the billionaire asking with his usual arrogance, “Did you miss me? Of course you did.”

The team starts up the usual conversation, Tony asking how things are going without him and the others wanting to know civilian life is. Well as civilian as things can be with Iron Man that is.

Feeling a little out of place within the group who’d worked together for years, you hang out in the corner, not wanting to step away in fear of being rude. The tall redhead notices your quiet form standing awkwardly away from the conversation and moves to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Pepper. I don’t believe we’ve met before,” she says with a smile, reaching out to shake your hand.

You take it, a grateful grin on your face as you tell her your name. Upon hearing your surname she lights up in recognition, “You’re Thor’s sister?”

“Yep, I’m an Odinson through and through,” you say, happy to talk about your family and your home. Although you hadn’t quite processed how much you miss your brother and how homesick you’ve become. You like Midgard, you do, but sometimes you want nothing more than to travel home for a few days. To be back among your own people.

The woman notices your distant look and asks, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, of course Lady Pepper,” you snap back to reality, hoping that you hadn’t offended her by spacing out. Worried that you had done something wrong you hurriedly add, “Let me just tell you that you are a babe.”

At your words the entire room goes silent, everyone turning to you in shock. The woman you had been talking to just stares at you, wide-eyed and confused, had you meant what you just said? Wanda looks at you too, a different expression painted onto her face. She knows you’re a flirt and have somewhat of an ego sometimes, but hitting on Pepper Potts? Surely you had to know how out of pocket that was. A third person stifles a snicker from his seat across the room. He may have taught you that word, but without the correct context, and you had just played right into his prank. As you take in the array of disbelief and incredulity on everyone’s faces you begin to think that maybe you had messed up.

“I’m sorry, what did you just call her?” Tony asks, clearly insulted by what you had just said. You back up into the wall as he advances on you, an accusing finger pointing at your face.

“Um,” you stutter, at a loss for words as you can feel the anger radiating from the man in front of you. “A babe?”

“Yea, no. That’s not going to fly mini Thor.”

“I’m sorry Son of Stark, but I was told that was what you call beautiful women here,” you explain. “I'm starting to get the feeling that that’s not correct,” you grimace, letting him know it was an accident, whatever you had just called her.

He shakes his head now in exasperation and turns toward the group watching the exchange, allowing you to relax against the wall. “Alright, who was teaching Luke Skywalker incorrect slang?” You’d earned the nickname after he noticed your powers affect things much like a lightsaber, and you just kind of gave off those vibes.

He studies the crowd of faces around the room, picking out the one that looks more amused by the interaction than anything else. “Wilson. It was you wasn’t it?”

At being found out he doesn’t bother to hide his grin anymore, admitting to teaching you that calling someone ‘babe’ was just an innocent way to compliment a woman’s appearance. “Yea, but you can’t tell me that that wasn’t funny. Come on!”

Tony does not seem entertained, although it’s exactly the kind of joke he’d pull on someone else without blinking twice. He’s just not happy that he’s the one being played this time.

You look down in embarrassment, Wanda’s sympathetic eyes on you the entire time.

Five

Apparently, the time has been long overdue for a famous Stark party and the man himself has invited all of you to what has now been reverted back to Stark tower for a ‘small get-together’.

As you walk in, the endless chatter from the huge crowd of people, the clink of dozens of glasses, and the music being boomed from speakers along the walls slaps you in the face.

Small get-together my ass.

It doesn’t matter much either way to you though, the parties back on Asgard could easily reach volumes double this, and you’d been navigating the social world for centuries.

Your original plans have to do with Wanda by your side as you converse with the many humans who had been eagerly waiting for the arrival of the famed Avengers, but those are dashed when you see her brother sidle up protectively against her, and steer her away from the bulk of the crowd. That alone wasn’t going to stop you from still joining them, but as you turn to follow after the pair, a different arm seizes yours and begins to drag you into the sea of people.

You pivot to see who was responsible for your abrupt change in direction, your eyes settling on the man of the hour. The faint scent of alcohol and overwhelming stench of expensive cologne hits your nose as he looks at you. “Did you really think I’d just let you slink off into the corner and hide the entire night? No, no. I promised a bunch of lovely people they would be able to meet our newest recruit tonight, and I do not intend to let them down. Maybe if you’re lucky you can leave here tonight with one, or two I don’t discriminate.” He sends you a wink with that last comment and based on his animated attitude and wild gesturing you take it he’s already had a fair amount to drink.

Your dress shoes clap along the floor as you’re pulled into the throng, immediately being swarmed by a mob of overeager mortals. You scowl at the host of the party as he slips away, mouthing ‘good luck’ as he disappears.

“Is it true that you’re Thor’s younger sister?”

“What kind of powers do you have?”

“Tell us about Asgard! Is everyone there ultra good looking, or does it just run in the family?”

You quickly tire of the incessant line of questions, it seemed a lot of these people are reporters, or just fans, or maybe both. All of them are talking at you more than talking to you though, and it bothers you greatly, so you run off, telling them you have to go to the restroom.

You head there anyhow, finding a moment of peace as you stand back away from the roar of the party. Your head settles in your hand as you close your eyes and methodically massage your temples. You’re supposed to be impervious to headaches, but your mind feels seconds away from exploding.

Footsteps alert you to someone nearing your makeshift sanctuary and you hurriedly spin around to face the sinks and roll up your sleeves, pumping your hand full of soap right as the door opens. You don’t bother to see who it is as you wash your hands, mentally preparing for going back out there and facing the crowd.

You make your way over to the bar where a certain redhead is mixing drinks, dodging everyone who tries to grab your attention on the way. You let out a huff as you sit down, and noticing your exasperated state she clears the counter of any other stragglers.

“Leave it to Stark to throw a party tumultuous enough to tire a mighty Asgardian.” She gestures out to the huge area packed with people and you shake your head, the mere thought of going back out there stressing you out.

“I wish I could get drunk, but I’m afraid your alcohol is nowhere near strong enough to affect me.” You throw a wistful glance toward the rows of bottles behind Natasha as a knowing smirk spreads across her face.

“Well Odinson, you just might be in luck.” You watch her, wondering why she has to be so damn mysterious all the time as she ducks under the counter, searching for something. She reappears, a flask in hand. It looks completely unassuming, its contents probably nothing you couldn’t find in one of the many bottles in Stark’s collection. She pushes it toward you now and you take it, unscrewing the cap and taking a cautious whiff. “You’re welcome by the way. I had to hide that so the guys wouldn’t kill themselves trying to drink it.”

You smile when you realize what it is. Asgardian ale. Your brother must have brought some over last time he was here, and now you’re going to be stealing the leftovers. “Thank you Natasha. You have just saved my night,” you tell her as you take a big swig from the bottle.

“No problem, kid.” She leans back, taking a sip from her colorful drink as well, apparently you aren’t the only one who needs a little help tolerating the evening.

“I’m older than you, you know,” you insist, a small frown warping your features as you raise your flask in her direction.

“You look and act like a college student,” she deadpans, which only serves to deepen your frown.

Instead of arguing back your eyes sweep the room, on the lookout for someone in particular. “Hey, have you seen Wanda?”

Cracking a slight smile at your antics, which only prove her previous point, she shrugs, nonchalantly moving over to the other side of the bar where Maria Hill waits.

“Hold on, hold on.” You get up from the barstool, staring after her, unnecessarily mysterious, you swear.

“Come on Natasha, don’t leave the poor girl hanging,” the well-dressed SHIELD agent remarks upon seeing your pleading face and the sly smirk on her girlfriend’s.

Finally relenting, she gestures to a door up on the second level of the space. “I think I saw your crush head out to the balcony a few minutes ago.”

“I’m not a kid,” you mutter as you start to leave the bar, snatching the flask from the counter on the way. You’re halfway to the staircase when the redhead’s words dawn on you. “And she’s not my crush!”

You catch the pair laughing to each other before jogging up the stairs, eager to see your friend.

You push the door open, relieved to see that she really is out here, and that the former spy hadn’t tricked you for her own amusement.

She looks gorgeous, the pale moonlight highlighting her face as she stares up at the sky, a beer bottle clutched in one hand.

“You’re late.”

“Yea I know, believe it or not I’ve been trying to get to you all night, but Stark, he is smooth.” The cool breeze hits your face, and until now you hadn’t realized how warm it had been inside the tower. The night air is a welcome relief after being surrounded by way too many people for the last two hours.

“Well I hope you don’t mean he’s been flirting with you.” She raises a skeptical eyebrow at your choice of an excuse.

“No! No. Of course not. He just kept pushing me to talk to person after person, and I couldn’t catch a break.”

“Well I wouldn’t blame him, you look very dashing tonight Stargirl, purple is definitely your color.” A blush rises along your cheeks so you take another gulp from your drink, hiding your face behind the container. You'd been receiving compliments all night long, yet somehow hers is the first one that feels real, that makes you want to give her a million in return.

“Thank you, Wanda. I love your dress. The color, it compliments your eyes quite well.” You’ve moved to mirror her position now, arms resting against the railing as you both peer down at the busy city below, a view neither of you are used to.

“You know when I was little, I used to dream of a life in America. And now I’m here, and it still doesn’t feel real.” She doesn’t know where the admittance comes from, just that it’s a feeling she needed to get off of her chest, and that you’re easy to talk to, she feels comfortable here with you.

You nod your head, eyes still scanning the view before you; the cars racing down the street, couples strolling past block after block, the twinkle of lights from a thousand windows. “Do you miss your home?”

She sighs, but it lacks any heaviness or malice, it’s simply an exaggerated exhale as she thinks about her answer. “Sokovia… it wasn’t a place without troubles. In fact, it probably had more trouble than most places, especially when I was growing up.”

You watch her face as she speaks, how it grows sadder as she thinks more about her old home. You want to hug her, as if that would shield her from the forlorn memories, but you feel as if that gesture would be inappropriate now, so you settle for just being here for her. To listen as she explores her complicated feelings.

“But I do miss it, my parents mostly. How we managed to make the best of our situation, and how much love they had for me and Pietro.” Tears shine against her eyes now, threatening to create a stream down her face. As soon as the first one falls, she quickly wipes it away, shaking her head as if to clear the grief from her mind and taking a sip from her beer. “Enough about my home. Do you miss yours?”

The question takes you aback, even when it shouldn’t. You’d been talking about her home, it only makes sense that she’d ask you about yours. You’d just been so focused on how Wanda felt that you’d neglected your own feelings.

“Yea I miss it. I do.” When confronted with the task of articulating those feelings however, your mind drew a blank. You heave a sigh, realizing there’s a lot you have to unpack about Asgard, your family, your path in life. “It’s complicated.” With another swig from your flask you notice the slight buzz from the alcohol starting to kick in.

“I get it. I’m here to listen whenever you figure it out though.” Of course she’d be understanding about this. Your mind tracks back to hugging her again as her green gaze settles on you. Scratch that, you want to kiss her.

The door banging open startles the two of you and you turn to see the Falcon grinning at you from the entryway. “Come on lovebirds, we need you for a round of pool.”

“We’ll be right in, Sam.” The girl answers for the both of you while you silently curse him for interrupting your moment. She saunters over to the door, looking back at you over her shoulder as she heads inside. “Come on, it'll be fun.”

You make your way over to where the Avengers are crowded around a green table with brightly colored balls laid out neatly in a triangle at one end. You’re pleased to note that the rest of Stark’s guests have cleared out by this hour, only leaving your small group.

“I heard we have been invited to play this game of pool,” you spread your arms out wide as you finish trotting up the stairs, tripping over the last one. You’d forgotten how strong that ale was, too long spent away from drinking with your brother. You recover before face planting though, striding up to the table with a bolstered confidence.

You’re handed a long stick and are told to use it to hit the white ball into the huddle of colorful ones. Easy, you think, going over to line up a shot. Wanda follows behind you, taking up a spot standing next to you as she watches you concentrate on aiming the ball.

Just as you’re about to strike the stick into the ball, she drapes an arm around your waist. The mindless act of affection startles you, the contact sending a giddy jolt through your body, causing you to overshoot your hit.

Overshoot might be a bit of an understatement, as you watch the white ball crash into the rest, sending all of them flying off the table in different directions. You have no idea how this game works, but you’re pretty sure that was not the goal.

The laughter flowing from the girl next to you confirms this, embarrassment flooding your senses as you realize the slip up had come from her closeness to you. The others seem to recognize this as well, joining in on making fun of your reaction to being held by the girl you obviously have feelings for.

The only one who seems oblivious as to what had caused your mistake is the person responsible for it.

“Oops.”

Six

A number of weeks go by as you and Wanda continue to skirt the line between friendship and something more. Locked gazes are held just a little too long, she falls asleep on your chest as you watch an unhealthy amount of old sitcoms, both of you glance at each other’s lips when you think the other isn’t not looking.

Eventually you’re fed up with dancing around the question, of avoiding taking the next step out of fear of rejection. You’re going to ask her out, formally, and you know just how to do it.

You take a motorcycle out to the city, plans of visiting Wanda’s favorite coffee shop and grabbing her a drink and a pastry at the front of your mind.

The weather is dull, heavy clouds crowding out the sun and threatening to open up and give way to a nasty storm. You refuse to let the weather interfere with your day though, and besides, what could be better than some comfort food on a day like this.

You smile up at the sky as it starts to sprinkle, imagining that it’s just your brother encouraging you on your mission to romance the girl you think you just might be in love with.

You pull up to the quaint store and cut the engine, swinging your leg up and over as you dismount your bike.

A bell rings as you enter, the strong scent of coffee hitting your nose. You inhale deeply, letting the aroma envelop your senses as you look around the calmly lit room.

You stride up to the counter, the noise of idle chatter backing you up as you recall the name of the coffee order Wanda is most fond of. Too lost in your search of the menu above you you don’t notice the barista that moves to greet you and take your order. Whenever you stop by while she’s working she makes it her mission to incessantly flirt with you, despite your obvious disinterest and outright discomfort in her doing so.

You finally find what sounds like the right name of the brew the witch likes and you look across the woman poised to not only make your coffee, but also to try her hand again at asking you out.

“Hey Y/N!” She chirps. yeah, she knows your name.

“Hi, can I get two grande mochas please? Oh and two chocolate chip cookies?” You try to keep your voice as professional as possible and leave her no room to start an uncomfortable conversation with you.

“Of course, anything for you.” You nod your head and only offer a tight smile in acknowledgment, turning to go wait a ways back when you hear her call you over. “Hey, can you come back over here? I just need you to sign the receipt.”

You trudge back over, taking a hand out of your pocket and setting it mindlessly on the counter, waiting for her to hand you a pen and the little slip of paper. Instead of giving you a receipt, she grabs your hand harshly, not at all like when Wanda takes it, you note, and the abruptness of her actions startles you. You stare at her, about to ask what’s going on when you notice she’s writing something on your palm. “Hey!” You yank your arm back, but not before she’s finished scribbling down a series of numbers in pen.

“My number,” she beams at you, a hint of crazy in her eyes as she clarifies. “Call me, pretty girl.”

All of a sudden a clap of thunder booms from outside, causing you to look out the window to see rain falling in heavy sheets now, just as you had predicted before. Maybe taking the motorcycle wasn’t such a great idea. Something else catches your eyes though when a flash of lightning streaks through the sky, a figure stomping angrily away.

It couldn’t be. No. It was most definitely the girl you had been planning to ask out tonight, and she had obviously just seen your entire incriminating interaction with the barista.

Shit. You have to explain to her that it wasn’t what it looked like from her position outside the shop.

You race outside, your clothes becoming soaked through in seconds as you shout. “Wanda, wait!”

She pauses for the slightest of seconds before continuing on towards the car she had taken, hurt and embarrassment flooding her heart. You catch up to her before she can get in, imploring her to look at you through the water dripping from her face, you’re not sure if it’s from the rain or her tears.

She glares at you, not giving you a chance to defend yourself before she jumps on you. “What’s going on? Tell me you weren’t just in there letting that girl give you her number, flirting with her!”

She looks so small and sad standing there, drenched to the bone, shivering from the cold, and you take a step toward her, instinctively wanting to wrap her in your arms and keep her warm. She steps back in retaliation as you do, so instead you open your mouth to speak, but she cuts you off, continuing her verbal assault. “I knew you were a princess back on Asgard. That you probably had people throwing themselves at you left and right.” She’s moved toward you now, close enough to give you a shove with her next words.

“I can’t believe I fell for your stupid little girl next door act, Y/N!” You stumble back in surprise as she pushes your chest, shoes slipping on the slick pavement beneath your feet. “Did you get bored playing with just one person? Was I not enough? I bet you missed all of the attention, so you snuck out here to reclaim that high.”

She finally finishes unleashing her piece, frustration lacing her bout of yelling, the rumble of the storm providing a dramatic undercurrent. Water droplets roll down the back of your exposed neck, sending shivers down your spine as you shake out your hair, sending an extra spray of water into the fray.

“Wanda, no,” you catch her hand as she turns away from you, stopping your speech until she looks back at you. “I tried to leave the Compound without you noticing because I wanted to surprise you. I know how much you like this place.” A flash of lightning illuminates both of your faces, revealing the desperation on yours and the distraught expression she wears.

“Then that girl in there… she messed it all up.” A defeated sigh escapes your lips as you shove your hands in your jacket pockets, and looking down, you discover your white t-shirt has totally soaked through, making it see through. Something that would certainly work to undermine your next point. “The truth is I haven’t missed who I was back on Asgard. I think I was hiding behind my powers, using the easy pleasure to distract myself from reality.” The confession works to stun the girl in front of you, and it even takes you aback.

“I could never tell when anyone was being honest with me, if they liked me because of me or because my powers were always subconsciously drawing them in. It was exhausting so I stopped trying to find something real.” You have tears in your eyes now too as you meet Wanda’s somber ones. You stop your anxious pacing for a second as you step closer to her, needing her to hear what you have to say next. “I didn’t think I’d ever find something real… until I met you. Wanda I want you, not that stupid barista, not anyone else in the entire universe. Because you’re beautiful and amazing and you terrify me but in the best way and-.”

She cuts off your nervous rambling and wild gesturing as she grabs the collar of your leather jacket and pulls you close, smashing your lips together. She tastes even sweeter than you had imagined, and you tangle your fingers in her hair as they come to rest on the sides of her face. You both savor in the tenderness of the kiss, even if it was rushed and filled with a million unsaid emotions.

Eventually you pull back for air, cheeks flushed and chest heaving as you stare at each other, breathless. The rain continues to patter down on your unguarded silhouettes as she gently takes your hand and rests her forehead against your own.

“I want you too.”

One

You race about the Compound, grabbing various items here and there, making sure that everything is set up to perfection.

Wanda is due back from her busy day in the city (thank you Pietro) any minute now, you’ve planned the perfect first date night.

You hear the door to the main entrance of the Compound open and you sprint downstairs, making it just in time to greet the returning siblings.

“Y/N!” The girl you’ve been waiting for almost trips over her own feet in her haste to get to you. “This fool has been running me around town all day. I am exhausted. And now you’re going to watch sitcoms with me.” She takes your hand and starts to drag you upstairs, and you let her. As you round the corner, you see Pietro send you a wink before you’re whisked away.

“Wanda this way.” You tug on her arm, pulling her past your room that she’s practically made hers as well with all the time she spends with you.

“Wait.” She slips her wrist from your grasp, standing stubbornly by the door. “We’re going to lay down and watch Dick Van Dyke and then you’re going to get me dinner.” Her arms are crossed and she looks at you defiantly, motioning toward the room.

You have other plans though, and a mischievous grin spreads across your face as you slowly walk backwards towards the end of the hall. “Trust me, I’ve got something much better planned.” You gesture with your arm in a signal for her to follow you and turn your back to her, silently telling her you’re leaving either way.

Intrigued by the eager look in your eyes and the energy that has you almost bouncing off the walls, she abandons her original plan in favor of following you. You open the door to the stairwell, sparing one sneaky glance back just to make sure she’s coming. When you note her figure making her way down the hall, you climb the steps, not stopping until you reach the roof.

Before you head outside you wait for her to catch up, accidentally getting way ahead of her in your haste to lead her up here.

“What are you doing?” Her voice echoes around the stairwell as curiosity shines through her expression.

Choosing to ignore her question, you send one back her way. “Are you ready for the most romantic night of your life, Wanda Maximoff?” A knowing smile and a pair of raised eyebrows crosses your face as you lean against the door, your hand on the handle in anticipation.

Without giving her the chance to answer, you fling it open, revealing your little setup. A picnic blanket lays flat on the ground, enough food to feed much more than two people lined meticulously around its edges. It’s almost completely dark out, the sun having conveniently set thirty minutes before, the only light coming from the soft glow of the lanterns that line the perimeter of the roof.

Beyond the Compound lies absolutely nothing except the surrounding nature. That’s one giant perk of being stationed in the middle of nowhere, any light or excess noise from the city fails to reach you, always leaving you with peace and quiet whenever you need a moment. The night sky is free to shine out here, the sea of stars stretching out farther than the eye can see uncontested by the touch of humanity. That’s why you picked this spot, the beauty of the landscape reminding you of the girl before you, and the secluded space would allow you to truly enjoy your night without interruption.

You step aside so she can take it in, watching her eyes go wide at your gesture. The silence is stifling, insecurity warping your mind as a hint of a smile appears on her lips. “Do you like it? I wasn’t sure how people here usually court others, but I saw this on TV once and I thought it was cute and then I remembered how you told me that one time about how you used to love studying the stars when you were younger and, well I thought this could be a nice way to spend the night.”

She waits patiently for you to finish your long-winded speech, unable to stifle the small laugh that bubbles up from her chest.

“What?” Dumbfounded, you cock your head, wondering what she found so funny.

“Nothing, you’re just cute when you’re nervous,” she casually remarks as she brushes past you and further onto the roof.

You stumble after her, smoothing out your shirt and fixing your hair as you do. “What? Me? I’m not nervous. No, not at all.”

You eye her carefully as she takes in your little setup. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time, Odinson.” She sends a coy smile your way and you reach out to take her hands in yours, a dopey grin lighting up your face.

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”

And with that she kisses you right there under the moonlit sky, the stars the only witnesses to the small display of affection. The kiss is gentle and filled with passion, the beginning of a new journey you’re about to embark on with the girl you’d give everything to.

The airiness of her perfume mixes perfectly with yours as you break apart, staring with a sickening amount of love and admiration into each other’s eyes.

Yeah, you could get used to life on Earth.

---

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ericleo108 · 1 year

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CosmicLuve.com July 2023 - The Main Thing

Necessary prerequisite posts:

108 The Story of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness (book)

Sentientism 2022

Cosmic Love Feb 2020 - Emma Watson

Cosmic Love April 2022: Cary Charlotte or Mary

Cosmic Luve July 2022 - Smoke Blunts Response Treatise

Cosmic Luve Aug 2022 - Coast

Cosmic Luve Sept 2022 - Hope

Cosmic Luve Oct 2022 - Folklore

Cosmic Luve April 2023 - Sun

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Into

This is a pivotal post and touches on all relevant cosmic luves (as in persons, as well as ties in many posts). This post builds off the story developed in “Sept 2022 Hope” and especially “April 2023 Sun.” You won’t understand the theory or meaning of this post unless you read the Sentientism post and other log entries to see that these coincidences are common occurrences and how I interpret them. The fundamental understanding of all this comes from my book “108 The Story of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness.”

The intent of this cosmic luve log is to explain what I see as Gaia/Earth communicating. The basic theory is that the Earth and stars are conscious due to their magnetism. They have abilities like “telepathic randonauting” and “points of realization” to try and communicate which can affect things like evolution subtly but consistently. I show how Gaia could be manipulating our behaviors by influencing our cognition throughout the cosmic luve blog.

Where we left off…

When we left off I talked about the semantics of the sun in lil’dicky’s show, how I’m searching for Marcus Lemonis, and couldn’t afford help from Ryini. Well, I said screw it and signed up for Ryini even though it takes my whole music budget for the month. It’s been a couple months and I have found the investment worth it.

We have a personalized meeting a couple of times a month with a group chat twice per week. This has helped me focus on marketing like making vertical music videos. With their help, we have been breaking them down into segments and running ads through Instagram to get followers and plays on Spotify. They have done things that are invaluable like turning me onto Spotify’s Discovery marketing feature that gets me thousands of plays per month now. I feel like it been worth it and they’re here to help and gonna keep working until I see a good amount of success or at least get my money back. I’m practicing a 7 track set to perform online and at local venues. Hopefully, I’ll have plenty to point to by next cosmic luve entry.

Marcus and Dave

I stopped looking for Marcus Lemonis because I don’t think he wants to be found. It’s obvious to me he has to know I exist and is just ignoring my request for a meeting. I forgot to mention in the last cosmic luve post that my song called “Process, People, Product” which is taken from his quotes about business from Marcus drops on November 16th 2023.

It’s worth explaining and furthering the semantics in Dave’s yellow dress. I should of mentioned this in the last post “Sun” but it didn’t come to me until right after I published it. The semantic trope goes as follows and furthers the story of the sun’s communication. Our sun is exemplified as a male. Dave in his yellow dress (exemplifying the sun) came out the same time as my song “Bong hits for Jesus.” Jesus is gods son and based off the myth of the sun (click here for more) as I show in my Atheist Raps blog post. “Bong Hits” is about smoking weed. In Dave’s song about smoking weed “Too High” he talks and makes jokes about the sun (having a dick). This also is a callback to the first Emma Watson post where she is pointing to a letter E in yellow.

Looking back

I have a confession to make. Gaia has taught me that when one door closes another one opens. In February I made a tweet along the line of “When they say when one door closes another one opens is bullshit, I quit my job months ago and haven’t found anything.” I quit my job in August 2022 and said that in February 2023. Come to find out that I got my first big royalty check in August 2022 and hadn’t been informed yet and didn’t find out until March 2023. When it was May I have now received my second $1500 royalty check in 6 months. The second royalty check came just after I decided not to go to Marcus’s event. Even with the royalty payment I didn’t really have enough to go because it was $500 plus hotel and airfare. I used the money to pay off my credit card which is full of music production and promotion expenses.

It seems that financial security is coming slowly, but coming, I just need to focus on building momentum and doing the work. It’s just frustrating cuz I can’t afford anything else and forgo a lot to make all this music happen and I haven’t had real relief for years. The truth is I’m still struggling and have not even come close to breaking even with what I’ve invested, but it’s a start. I am currently desperate for more royalties or financial help.

Looking forward I want 100 tracks by December 2024. If you want to know about coming projects while hearing what I have to say about Big oil, global warming, and blue watch the July 16th 2023 sunday update.

Coincidences

The first cosmic luve occurrence I’ve had since last time was small but was with Taylor Swift. “Karma” is a song that was on The Chalice Mixtape in 2017, I’ve also had it remade and it drops October 6th, 2023. There was a small but unmistakable coincidence in Taylor’s “Karma” video. In my song “cosmic love brownies” that I uploaded months ago and comes out December 13, the lyric is “I got a Saturn in watching over you, cause you’re a supernova girl.” Here is the tweet I made about it. But this lyric reminded me of Taylor standing with Ice Spice lassoing the moon and Saturn in her “Karma” music video.

Then I had a small occurrence with Hailee Steinfeld when my song “We Make The Party” dropped. I talk about it in my “We Make The Party” blog post but basically, I didn’t realize I would be releasing the song so close to the official start of summer. It has the lyrics “Nothing feels good as her in the summer, we make it hot like global warming.” On the 22nd Hailee posted her magazine feature in The Laterals as their “summer girl.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get a screenshot so you’ll have to look it up. This reminded me of Hailee’s newest song “Sunkissin” which feels like a ‘call-back’ from the sun where Hailee sings “Come and catch a wave, Fade away like it rains in the summertime (In the summertime).”

Although I just published a song called “Vulnerable” responding to a Selena Gomez song by the same name I haven’t seen any coincidences. It's worth mentioning I have thought to myself on many occasions that these women are like the sirens of Greek mythology. Selena reminds me of the ocean and therefore has the strongest association with this feeling and semantics.

Other coincidences since last time include that Cornell West announced his run for President with the Green Party days after I dropped “Philosophy 101” which is based on his Masterclass. And Russ met Dr.Dre right before “Freaky naughty” dropped which is musically inspired by Dr. Dre. I feel like this is Gaia building off my July 2022 Smoke Blunts post.

Emma Watson

Finally, The reflections I got from Emma are so stark and can be interpreted so profoundly that it seems like Emma follows me and is doing it on purpose. But I maintain it’s just Gaia using her as a vessel to reflect my life and work because Gaia and the sun think Emma and I should be together for compatibility and acumen reasons. The truth is for Emma to be reflecting me on purpose she would have to know intimate details of my life which makes me believe it’s much more likely she is being manipulated by some unexplainable phenomenon that I am desperately trying to explain.

You can follow the tweet thread but basically, I’ve been responding to Emma’s Instagram stories through Twitter. I’m just gonna leave the tweets linked which have pictures of Emma’s IG posts. It started June 1st when Emma semantically reflected my poem in the Cosmic Luve Sun April 2023 post (click here for the tweet). It’s worth mentioning that I love otters, they’re probably my favorite marine animal, and I used to do horse videos on my Facebook page. It seems to have a cohesive message of “I’m loving you without possession” but Emma would have to know I love otters and did my horse videos.

I stopped doing the word of the day rhyme on July 3rd was the last day. Then on July 11th I retweeted about Global Warming emissions and how I no longer was going to create an album to berate the oil industry. On June 11th, the original June 29th post that I made due to the smoke blanketing Michigan from Canadian wildfires that are happening due to global warming, came full circle. This is because that’s when I found out the EPA could cut 90% of emissions.

The next day Emma posted a cosmic luve response of the “Elementals” movie. I wrote her a poem and said Emma was the “main thing” because she had a picture on her story that also said, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” Emma has been the whole purpose of my music as Eric Leo 108 since the beginning in 2017 (when I dropped the Chalice Mixtape) and before (Click here to see the tweet). It’s worth noting that my best-performing track in the week she posted this became “Hey Emma.” Keeping with the “Elementals” theme the hook to “Hey Emma” exclaims that Emma can “make it hot, being oh so cool.”

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I just want to mention that also during this time I put out a call out for a videographer saying I need help and I just wanna say I wish Emma was my videographer. In keeping with the notion Emma would have to know my personal life otherwise, it’s Gaia… about a week or two prior to the Elemental post, I went kayaking for the first time and got drunk on the river in Michigan with some friends. I loved it and have been asking them to do it again ever since. Maybe Gaia and the sun are telling Emma and I that we should go Kayaking for our first date if we ever get there.

#Emma Watson #hiphop #rap #Selena Gomez #taylor swift #Hailee Steinfeld #cosmic luve #love #cosmic

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foiazoli · 1 year

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First Silmarillion readthrough - foreword and preface

Okay so! First post actually reading the book, lets go. For clarity’s sake, I have the second edition of the Silm in front of me, the first Copyright date is 1977, and this printing is from 2001 (I got it from a local thrift store)

Foreword -

So, the bits about it being started in 1917 and there being so many contradictory drafts I already knew, but good to get that established early. Also interesting that Chris is establishing that the changing of the texts over time can be attributed to in-universe tales changing over time here, and that’s part of why they don’t quite fit. Definitely helps establish the mythic tone and offers up something for the discrepancies I’m sure I’ll find.

I did NOT realize however that the Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Akallabeth, and Rings of Power are technically separate texts that are just included with the silm. “The number of names that occur in the book is very large” yeah I sure do know that already bud, goddamn. If they had names that weren’t so SIMILAR to each other as well, that sure would have helped too. The number of times I had to look at a fcking family tree to learn the difference between “fingon” and “finrod”......

Preface -

Of course Tolkein would send letters with footnotes in them. He fucking would. But Chris, if you’re gonna reproduce the letter for us, why omit them once you’ve told us they exist? Commit.

On the contents of the letter itself, I feel like I hear about a number of authors who have been growing their worlds since childhood but it felt like a more modern phenomenon? Like, the idea that they could make a book out of their fantasy world and its story is something only possible because fantasy books are so popular and accessible, so it's interesting to see that one of the guys who made fantasy what it is today was also like that, even though in his time it wasn’t a done thing to have a whole universe of lore for your stories.

“Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit…” Oh Boy so, two things to unpack here.

First, ”must contain moral and religious truth or error” - moral I can agree with, religious, I do not. Fairy tales as we know them today are all about morals and life lessons. Jack and Jill, Hansel and Gretel, The tortoise and the hare, they’re all there to teach us something. Religion also can serve to teach its believers things, and many religious stories serve similar functions of moral storytelling. David and Goliath is similar to the tortoise and the hare in that they both teach you to not underestimate the underdog. (That’s what I got out of David and goliath anyway, if there was anything god-related in that story I have legitimately totally forgotten it) But is religious influence necessary for myth and fairy-story? I argue no, not at all. See Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McAffrey. First book published in 1969, 27 volumes in total, last one published in 2011. Zero religion in the books. Only mention of religion is by a character who is an outsider who is amazed that the entire planet has no religion. I argue that as it contains a multitude of dragons and stories of characters earlier in time become myths to those who come later (the books span like, 2000 years and the characters are all humans and dragons) it qualifies as myth and/or fairy story despite also being sci-fi.

Second thing, “but not explicit” - so the catholicism isn’t gonna be overt. It’s still gonna be there, everyone’s biases come out eventually, and when you write something for this long you’ve got plenty of time for it. Also, I’ve heard about the dwarves and the anti-semitism, Tolkein's biases definitely will show up at some points and it’s important to be aware of them! That’s why I listed mine in that first post I made; the more aware you are of your biases the easier it is to confront them when it influences your thinking, although it’s not perfect.

Okay, so back to the preface. Interesting that he wanted to create an English mythos at first. Not sure anything in LOTR or the Hobbit ended up particularly english-y other than in that general vaguely-european way that a lot of modern fantasy is, that I suppose can be partly attributed to Tolkein (ah the dangers of reading the classics AFTER a multitude of other works in the genre. This happened to me with 1984 too).

“It should be ‘high’, purged of the gross” - dearly hoping that means that he’s just not gonna talk about slogging through mud or digging latrines or how people piss themselves after they die, and not like, cutting “unsavory” groups of people out of history. Cause the second was my first thought, and it's yicky.

“The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands…” - FANFIC FANFIC FANFIC FANFIC

“All this stuff is mainly concerned with Fall, Mortality, and the Machine” - first thought, thanks for giving me the themes I’m supposed to be looking for before I start reading the book like a high school english teacher. Second thought, yeah that tracks with what I’ve seen through fandom so far. Very anti-industrialist vibes from this guy, and as someone enjoying many modern conveniences only available because of it, I somewhat disagree, but I’ll refute specific points as they come up. Fall as a theme, verrrrrry juicy. Love me a good tragedy. And then the following fix-it fanfic. But sometimes the fluffy sunny snuggles are incredibly boring if you didn’t have to wade through the dredges of despair to get there. It’s the contrast, ya know? And speaking of contrast, mortality. When you stick immortal elves next to mortal men….. Will be waiting to see what Tolkein actually has to say about the matter as I’m pretty sure everything I’ve seen has been filtered through 2-3 other perspectives first.

This next paragraph is fun, it seems to be that elven magic is not magic not only because it is intrinsic to them, but because they are good and use it only for good. An entire race? All fully good? I will have things to say about Eol later I think. But “magic” is evil when used as Power, to dominate and re-form creation. Sure fine, I can accept the premise of that one I guess.

The Valar have “delegated authority in their spheres (of rule and government, not creation, making, or re-making)” - iiiiiiiinteresting, I think fandom has either lost track of this a tad or decided to throw it out for being less fun. It also doesn’t make much sense. Valar being the embodiment of physics does explain a few things (how the water cycle works when the sun’s a fruit carried by a “person” on a chariot for instance, Ulmo just does it) but like, Nienna? How do you govern pity and decide how it works in the world? It feels like there's a sliding scale of “how much sense this statement makes” correlated positively to “is this Valar’s domain something we typically think of as a force of nature”. So you’ve got like; Manwe, Ulmo, Varda, Yavanna, Namo at one end, Orome, Irmo, Este, Aule somewhere middle-ish, and Nienna, Nessa, Vaire, Vana at the other end. Tulkas fucks it up though, “fighting evil” makes a ton of sense as something to govern but is not a typical force of nature. Melkor and “being evil” also fucks it up but that probably wasn’t his original purpose so idk where he fits either

Hngfdfnhgjfhgfh “This is, of course, meant to provide beings [Valar] of the same order of beauty, power, and majesty as the ‘gods’ of higher mythology, which can be accepted - well, shall we say baldly, by a mind that believes in the Blessed Trinity.” WHAT did you JUST SAY about not liking allegory and including christianity in the story ???? I mean, I understand he’s just trying to make it clear the level of divinity the inhabitants of middle earth view the Valar with, but come on bro.

“The knowledge of the Creation Drama was incomplete: incomplete in each individual ‘god’, and incomplete if all the knowledge of the pantheon were pooled” and he goes on to say they don’t know anything about men or elves other than that they’re gonna wake up at some point, and it’s this lack of knowledge and difference to them that makes the Valar love them and be interested in them. Also interesting in that fandom has lost this a bit somewhere, I feel like the Valar, Namo and Manwe particularly, are typically presented as knowing literally everything involving elves, when that’s the area in which they know the least about anything.

Elves are called “first-born” and Men are called “Followers”???? Favorite child anybody? Yikes.

“The doom of the Elves is to be immortal…..The Doom (or the Gift) of Men is mortality, freedom from the circles of the world” - interesting capitalization and word choices going on here

It looks like the rest of this is just gonna be a summary of the Silmarillion and I’ve written nearly 3 full pages about only 10 pages of text, so I’ll cap this post here and continue with the Ainulindale in the next one!

#Baby's first silm read #Tolkein commentary #Valar #fanon valar vs canon valar #I did actually read the rest of the letter and it was just a summary of whats gonna happen next btw #I didnt just like skip it entirely #silm #silmarillion

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tharizdun-03 · 2 years

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Sonny Boy Watchthrough

Episode 1: The Island at the Far End of Summer

Sonny Boy's first episode was great! Definitely get a Lord of the Flies feel, very much about personal authority and ego, order vs anarchy, etc. The second episode will probably dig even more into that. Who knows where it'll go next, but as a stand-alone mood piece, excellent!

Visually, it was great. I love how at first for this scene, for example, you're like, "woah, fish eye lens", but no, it turns out the actual space is distorted. That's awesome.

Also, can I just say? I love this hairstyle.

Themes have already been introduced, and we were quickly introduced to a bunch of characters and how their values differ. For what's really going on, my first guess would be they're all dead, but. So far, this show, good in my book. Hella excited for more.

Episode 2: Aliens

There were even more Lord of the Flies influences in the second episode, hammering home on the authoritarianism vs. anarchy themes. So far, the show has been most critical of the leaders of the group. Yet it seems to posit the thought that order is still necessary, with all these rules in these worlds (unless that's manufactured by some being). So, potential for lots of allegorical, social commentary here.

I'm suspecting the kid with the star on his face, might be different from the rest. Might be the guy who set this all up, as an experiment of sorts. Also, Rajdhani is smart as hell, they're very lucky to have him there.

I also noticed there's very little to no music in this show, it's just ambient noise, which is an interesting artistic choice.

Most of the drama in this episode was centered around Mizuho and her blue flames, but I'm not quite sure why she didn't just apologize.

I get that she's sulky, but on principle alone? There was a hint about something to do with some teacher (her having a crush on them was an immediate thought), so maybe more will be revealed.

So far, I'm invested in the sense of being very curious as to what's happening and why, but that's as far as it goes right now. But even with just that, that means it's plenty good in my eyes, and I'm reasonably hopeful Sonny Boy will fulfill its ambitions here.

Episode 3: The Cat Who Wore Sandals

Ah yes, Mizuho's power opens up this kind of social commentary, nice.

Booo

The voice in Hoshi's head having a completely different audio quality is a really cool effect.

I'm still feeling the Lord of the Flies influences here. It's not nearly as brutal (yet at least), but it touches on the same core thematic idea that people are fundamentally fucked up and society's rules are what keep them in check. Maybe Sonny Boy will diverge later on tho.

It hasn't chosen an explicit side yet or anything but it's critiquing institutions and abuse of power, it's critiquing the leaders of this group who force the reclused children back into the caged society even though they were happier alone. So, I'm getting those vibes.

The fact that Mizuho is the only one with this power that sustains their entire structure, that she was given it without any effort or warrant, and its comparisons to our real-life system. It's pretty obvious it's an evil systemic issue regardless of intentions.

But again, the show still values order, it still values pragmatism and rationality and everything, so I don't think it's just gonna go anarchy all the way, as cool as that would be. It's a tough thematic nut to crack, but, I'm here for it.

Episode 4: The Great Monkey Baseball

All I could think about was, "what the fuck are you on about with these monkeys?"

What I got from this was the story about that one monkey that supported the rules, and was torn to pieces for it, since the series is all about rules. And the whole talent talk maybe? Other than that, have a hard time figuring out what this contributes to the bigger picture.

Nagara not being able to choose which world to go to, he'll either have to team up with Nozomi to do so, or he's what got us into this mess in the first place, and he has some psychological issues to solve before he can use this power more precisely.

Episode 5: Leaping Classrooms

Nagara's power being revealed to actually create worlds (although it'd also have to be teleporting, cause otherwise, it's useless lol) makes me think it's not just a cause of his running away, but it has to tie into the social commentary somehow.

Don't ask me exactly how, cause that part, I'm still figuring out. So far, its thematic plate is very broad, but I wonder how in-depth it's actually going to go while juggling this many topics.

Visually, it's great as usual (hence screenshot). Lots of trippy stuff. Need them to go all out with that for the finale.

Episode 6: The Long Goodbye

EP 6 was practically like an ending, and I guess it'll very much prove to be one to the first half of the series. The set-up is probably mostly done now. For what's to come, God knows.

The world in this episode being a film world is a very cool idea (altho, I'll say, Raj being this technical genius who can create an app for anything is a bit of a narrative cheat).

Hoshi is very adamant about saving people with his ark, but I like that when it's shown they can edit themselves back into their world, he does support the project.

I am still just intellectually invested rather than emotionally, and at this point, I think that's gonna last throughout. But, that's okay, some series are like that. This second half could be very EoE-like, so I'm interested in how it'll switch things up.

Episode 7: Road Book

Even though the last episode kinda indicated that it would switch things up with this second half, I'm not so sure anymore that it'll be a very drastic difference lol. This series seems intent to kind of just keep going as it always has.

Nagara seems to have decided that he doesn't want their drifting to be a mistake, so he's more determined to actually get them out of here, I guess. And the umbrella/bat guy is satisfied with that answer and lets him go.

I think I'm following along pretty nicely, and if I've interpreted how this episode contributes to the bigger picture, it's that the whole Tower of Babel thing being a false hope made Nagara realize he doesn't want that.

Yeah... I've mentioned it before, but, while I'm still curious about the answers, I have little to no emotional investment in the story, and honestly, wouldn't surprise me if most people felt like that.

I can't imagine that many people were really rooting for these kids to make it back home, cause they're that emotionally invested, but they're just curious about what will happen story-wise.

Which is fine! Not every story needs to be emotionally investful, but it does mean that there will be a ceiling for me. But, this very much seems like a story Natsume's mostly making just for himself anyway.

Episode 8: Laughing Dog

EP 8 was yet another interesting subplot (best-directed episode so far, holy shit), but also proves to be yet another cryptic puzzle piece in how it could fit into this bigger picture. Not much to do about it either, but keep watching.

Episode 9: This Salmon Chazuke, Forgot the Salmon

My only thoughts on Sonny Boy's 9th episode is that I like that the cats are getting a more active role.

Well, a few more thoughts actually. I'm not sure what the whole twins fighting over one strand of hair subplot was about, that struck me as more metaphorical (somehow)

And then there's also when Nagara said to Nozomi that he had changed because of her, and it was just kind of like, really? In what ways specifically has he changed so much because of her? The character development he's referencing there isn't too coherent to me.

Episode 10: Summer and Shura

EP 10 just continues to trudge along as it usually does. I'll probably finish the series today, so we get somewhere lol. Hope this wasn't it for Nozomi.

Episode 11: Boy and the Sea

I do feel that Natsume let the audience a bit closer with EP 11 (about damn time), big tonal shift, but very much appreciated. I still feel like the narrative is a bit of a mess, but you know, I'll take what I can get. Mizuho leaving her cats behind is the saddest shit.

I do feel like, when it comes to Nozomi, that a lot of her character was to contribute to Nagara's and Asakaze's arcs rather than focusing a bit more on her as her own person. Since she does seem to be really gone, I'd want more of that.

Episode 12: A Two-Year Recess

Yeah, I wasn't really satisfied with that.

Yes, one of the issues is the lack of clarity. Were these twelve episodes intellectually stimulating? Sure. But we don't really get any explanations, many plot lines aren't addressed, and several character arcs get no real resolutions.

It just came off as vague meditations on random topics Natsume found interesting strung together in random order. I'm not sure I even want to tackle my interpretations on the finale.

One of the things I thought we'd dig into here, was precisely why Nagara and Mizuho decided to go home, she actually asked him this even, and well, the answer wasn't exactly satisfying.

Nagara's character resolution with Nozomi, kinda getting over his apathy and accepting that hurdles are part of the journey, I guess that was fine. Nice callback to the bird.

Yeah, just overall, I found it to be a messy work. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to get it. Maybe it comes down to personal preference, I dunno, but it wasn't satisfying to me and I personally didn't get enough out of the series compared to the investment it asked of me.

But again, I'm thankful it does exist and that we can still get unique art like this at a time where the medium is riddled with light novel adaptations and the likes. I want more like this, even if I personally didn't buy into the hype for this one, in particular.

Overall Thoughts:

I'm happy we still get creative art like this, but, I do not buy into the hype for this one. Un-addressed plotlines, no proper resolutions, just a messy meditation on random topics. Some interesting ideas there, but didn't really come together for me. Music and visuals tho are excellent.

#sonny boy #anime #watchthrough

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prettyboykatsuki · 3 years

Text

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winner takes all | k. bakugou

➳ tags ;; fluff, fem!reader

➳ wc ;; 1k

➳ a/n ;; ari stop posting fics at 2am challenge failed.

➳plot ;; you and katsuki make a bet. it doesn’t go how you hope.

»» — { ♡ } —— { ♡ } —— { ♡ } — ««

“This is a stupid,”

You frown at him, arms crossed over your chest. Bakugou looks down at you with an unimpressed expression - not budging. His scowl deepens at your stubbornness, watching with disdain as you clasp your hands and bow your head.

“It’s not, you’re just no fun” you insist.

He glares at you even harder and you flinch a little under his gaze.

“I won’t hit a woman unless they’re heroes or villains,” he replies, smirk evident. You smack his chest.

“Hey! I’m a hero, what the hell?”

He sighs. You’re an idiot he thinks to himself read between the fuckin’ lines.

He doesn’t say any of that though, simply ignores you as he brushes past and continues walking. You’re supposed to be on patrol right now - you know, being heroes like you’ve mentioned. But you’ve spent the last 30 minutes pestering Bakugou about making a bet.

It’s simple really - if you can top him on the rankings this week (where he’s been sitting pretty at 12 for the last 3 weeks) you get to flick him as hard as you want on the forehead. It’s a childish bet, yes - but the pure joy at the thought of flicking thee Dynamight on the forehead is a good motivator. You’ve been wanting to get your ranks up anyway.

“And anyway, you’re not really hitting me perse - it’s just a little flick on the forehead,” you remind him. You pause, giving a dramatic gasp before you cup a hand over your mouth “Surely, you’re not scared you’ll lose right?”

Bakugou stops dead in his tracks, glowering at you. You and that shit-eating grin plastered all over your face because you know how fucking easy he is to irritate. You look around innocently, hands tucked behind your back as you walk away.

“No no, I’m sure that’s not it, right? Our dear Dynamight would never be afraid of lil ol’ me -”

He snatches you back to his side with the collar of hero outfit, clicking his teeth at you. You stumble back, still shocked by how strong he is.

“Damn brat,” he huffs “Fine. You wanna be like that, I’ll do your stupid fuckin’ bet. Don’t come cryin’ to me later, yeah?”

You jump excitedly next to him as he walks away from you, itching to catch up. Bakugou forces himself to bite down a smile opting to roll his eyes instead.

“You’re so annoying,”

“You love me”

Obviously, you damn dumbass

God, or whatever other thing resides and controls the universe, has not been on your side lately.

You and Bakugou made a deal that you had two weeks to climb the charts, plenty of time since they update almost daily. It should’ve been a piece of cake really - just pick up the slack on your work a little bit and hustle to get those points in. You know Bakugous schedule like the back of your hand and while it wouldn’t have been the easiest thing ever, it was super doable with some patience.

It would’ve been, anyway. It would’ve been except for the fact Bakugou got himself into the sticky situation this week.

There was a shootout on the lower east-side of town - a villain raid of a small group that the police had been apparently tailing for months but failed to catch. Not only did Bakugou take out the full, armed group - but he also broke a record for least civilians injured in a raid of that size.

No property damage either, he quite literally set a new record and shot from 12 to number 4. It’s the highest he’s ever made it thus far. It’s literally in every single newspaper and on every story - he’s gotten about a hundred interview requests.

You are the only other person aware of your own crushing defeat. You’re happy for him, obviously - but you can’t help but hope he’d forgotten about your silly little deal.

Who are you kidding. Of course he didn’t.

You chuckle nervously as you watch him take off his gauntlets and pull his mask up so it looks like a headband on him. He stretches his arms out in front of you, very dramatically practicing his flicks.

You frown.

“...Is all that really necessary?”

He scoffs, flicking off some sparks from his fingertips with a cocky grin. You flinch, backing away from his.

“Tch, ‘course it is princess. A deals a deal and I never do anything half-ass,”

Your frown deepens as you cross your arms over your chest as Bakugou dramatically reanacts the flick. He pauses, stretching his arms over his head once more for good measure, before signaling you towards him.

You stiffen - awkwardly shuffling towards him until you stand facing him but still too far from his reach. He narrows his eyes at you until you stand closer and closer and closer. You stop once his fingers are within flicking distance.

He bites back a laugh.

“You ready?”

You brace yourself for impact, screwing your eyes tight as you nod rapidly. You can feel the presence and warmth of his hand radiating - heart racing rapidly as you become more and more nervous. Seconds start to feel like minutes as you tap your foot impatiently.

“Cmon, cmon, cmon - d-do you’re worst damn it,”

“You asked for it, brat”

You suck in a sharp breath and hold it, preparing yourself for whatever comes next when you feel the softest little tap on your forehead.

What the fuck?

Your whole faces falls, brows furrowed in confusion as your eyes snap open. Bakugou is already putting his suit back on, gauntlets and all. You wave your hand infront of his face but he doesn’t seem to react at all.

“Hey, what the hell? What was that?”

Bakugou sighs at your little tantrum, pausing before staring at you with his arms crossed over your chest.

“Hurting potential romantic partners is domestic abuse, ya fuckin’ dweeb. Move before I make you move,”

You blink owlishly, watching with wide eyes as he moves past you back into the hallways. You inhale a sharp breath, a warm flush painting on your skin as you take in what he just said, rushing to the door.

“Potential romantic - oh my fucking god, wait! You can’t just drop that on me what the hell!”

Faintly, you hear Bakugou’s snickering down the hallway.

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#bakugou x reader #bnha x reader #bakugo x reader #bakugou x you #bakugou x y/n #bnha x you #bnha x y/n #bakugou imagines #bakugou imagine #bnha imagines #bnha imagine #writing tags

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diavolosthots · 3 years

Note

Hey dear! I hope that you have a good time! I want to make a request, but please delete it if you don't feel like doing it.

I saved that request in the notes and been waiting for you to open them 😊

For request

First fight with brother (any of your choice) and one of them (I mean MC or that brother) thinks that it's end of relationship (because never had anything serious), but they reconciled in the end. I want some heavy angst with happy ending. MC can be GN if that is OK.

If you don't mind you can do for Mammon, but feel free to choose another one if you don't feel like write for him. Or if that would be better to write as headcanons for all the brothers. That's up to you!

I haven't been doing requests for ages. Please don't hate me if there is something wrong! I've read the rules, and I hope I haven't missed anything.

Anyway, sorry for long ask. And thank you for your writings!

(I forgot to look if you did anything similar, and remembered it at the end of writing that ask. Sorry if you already did something like that!)

Hey babes ❤ I did end up doing HCs for all of them because I thought it would be cooler (or more like I know someone is gonna request separate fics for all of them if I dont and I'm saving myself that trouble lol) I still hope you like it ! ❤ also this got SUPER LONG so its under a cut

Warning: angst -> happy ending-ish

THE BROTHERS in a fight with MC and thinking that they’re over (yikes)

Lucifer:

Everyone always says Lucifer is quick to lose his cool but he’s honestly been nothing but patient with you. He may have hinted at several things he doesn’t condone and he definitely has that ‘look’, you know the disappointed dad look, but he has held back a lot so as to not ruin the beautiful relationship you have with him. Everyone snaps, though, and when he finally did, it was ugly. He did NOT call you names, but oh he didn’t. He went straight for your feelings and pointed out every mistake you ever made for as long as he’s known you. Ouch. In his defense, you weren’t nice either. The argument ended nasty and ‘I hate you’s!’ were definitely thrown around, but none of them were meant, right? Goodness, he doesn’t know. After you left, he threw himself on his bed, literally, and just stared at the ceiling. His anger slowly fled away and he began to feel… guilty. Not necessarily because of the argument itself, but because he delivered some low blows and he knows that. Are you over? Done with him? You haven’t texted or called or talked… you’ve been actively avoiding him and he doesn’t like that, but his pride is such an issue, goodness. He can’t straight up apologize, that dickhead, but he’s sending you flowers and standing in front of your door with a sad face that says it all.

“Forgive me? I made reservations at your favorite’s? We can talk over a nice dinner?”

Mammon:

Mammon is known to get mildly agitated over the silliest things, let’s be real. He’s also quick to revert to the “are you dumb?!” argument, which is never effective. But he loves you and he would do anything for you so even if you do do something that he deems ‘dumb’, he usually bites his tongue. Doesn’t mean that doesn’t get on his nerves, though, and he definitely has a short temper, although people tend to overlook that. You just managed to push his buttons today and he used the “are ya stupid?!” argument, to which you obviously defended yourself, and rightfully so. This ended in a massive screaming match and him saying “Then leave! Ain’t nobody keepin’ ya with me!” He regretted it the minute those words left his mouth and you could see his eyes grow wide in shock at his own words, but that didn’t mean you stayed. “MC!” he tried running after you immediately but you were faster and honestly, who can blame you? He fucked up, and he knows it, and he feels terrible about it. Honestly, he’s crying just at the mere thought of you taking his words seriously and he can’t… he can’t bear to lose you, you know? What’s he gonna do? You’re the light of his life, as pathetic as that may sound to some…. So he won’t let you run away. Homie will hunt you down and beg for forgiveness.

“Please, MC! Forgive me! I’m dumb, not you!!! Don’t leave me…” Don’t leave him. He will continue crying.

Leviathan:

His constant need to put himself down is frankly, quite annoying. To you anyway. But you put up with it and just reassure him that, at least to you, he’s the most amazing demon that ever existed. It’s just facts. But a person only has so much patience, right? You can’t always spend your days trying to lift him up when all he does is dig himself a bigger hole. Who has the emotional time for that? You sure don’t. “Oh my God, Levi! Shut up! I can’t take it anymore!” Followed by “See! You’re just like everyone else! Leaving me!” and then you slamming the door to his room shut. It’s frustrating and understandably so. It makes you feel awful that you can’t even make your own boyfriend feel good about himself and get at least a little bit of self confidence and it’s so, so, so very draining to have to constantly listen to that. At this point, it’s affecting your own mental health and you just… you just can’t…. But Levi can’t lose you because he knows you’re right. He has to work on himself if he wants to keep someone as amazing as you with him and that’s why he’s crawling back to you now.

“Look I… I know you’re right… I’m sorry. I promise I’ll … I’ll try. For you.”

Satan:

For being the Avatar of Wrath, you always admired Satan for his ability to keep cool. He prefers the relaxed and easy going life much more than the type of life people expect him to live, and you respect that. That doesn’t mean his constant need to one up Lucifer, through whatever means necessary, didn’t bother the hell out of you, though. You tried talking to him about it once or twice in a calm manner, but you always got the same answer “Pfft.. it’s Lucifer. Who cares?” And it never sat right with you. Just today he decided to pull a prank on the eldest and you had enough, standing in front of Lucifer and letting the bucket of cursed green slime land on you instead, to everyone’s shock. “What are you doing?!” Now that you’re thoroughly green from head to toe, you were also beyond pissed. “What am I doing?! What are YOU doing?!” But Satan matched your anger tenfold, accusing you of favoring Lucifer over him and oh! “You probably got an affair with him, too!” Which was a stupid thing on his part, but it looked like it the way you defended him. Anger doesn’t even begin to describe the emotion you felt running through you and had it not been for Lucifer, you probably would’ve physically fought Satan for such a dumb accusation. Lucifer took you to get cleaned up and lifted the course, giving you your natural skin and hair color back within a few days and plenty of scrubbing, and Satan felt like shit. You’ve always been there for him and, rationally speaking, he didn’t have a reason to doubt your loyalty to him, but he just can’t help but feel insecure beside Lucifer…. He decides to come apologize anyway, a deep blush on his face and guilt in his eyes

“I’m… sorry for accusing you. It wasn’t my right to speak out of anger and jealousy…”

Asmodeus:

How can anyone fight with the Avatar of Lust? Seriously, the guy is super easy going and he loves pretty much everyone. Not as much as himself, but almost. You on the other hand… you didn’t. Well you didn’t NOT love him or yourself, but you were just… you. You didn’t spend 4+ hours in the bathroom trying to get ready when you knew you were only going to the kitchen down the stairs. Like?? Although you never brought it up to Asmodeus, he constantly bothered you about skincare and what foods to eat and what not to eat, etc… It’s quite annoying, honestly, and at some point you just gave him a passive aggressive “Okay, whatever. Can we move on now?” To which he didn’t take lightly. He was still nice and sweet, trying to convince you that at least one of these things will make your skin glow brighter than a unicorn’s ass but you just had enough. “Can you stop?! You’re indirectly saying I’m ugly without that shit ton of product in my face and a diet that would make me starve before it helped me! If you want a skinny VS angel that barely holds onto their skeleton, get one!” It was more hurt and frustration speaking than anything, but your outburst still shocked him and he was taken aback for a moment. And then you ignored him for a week straight and as someone who thrives off of attention, especially the kind he gets from you, he can’t handle that! So he showed up in your room in sweats and a tshirt and messy hair and no product on his skin.

“You’re right… we’re all naturally beautiful…. Wow that… that really hurts to say MC but can you forgive me?”

Beelzebub:

Oh the sweet, sweet angel. He’s far from innocent and you know that. We all know that. But for this story, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. His reliance on Belphegor is just really… annoying. Belphegor this, Belphegor that. “Belphie used to…” or “Belphie said….” or “one day when Belphie and I….” Like why does everything have to include his twin? It’s so annoying and so rude when your significant other is right here !!! and planning their own future with you, Beel, thanks. It makes you feel less than and like Belphegor will always come before you. It makes you feel like shit, quite frankly, and who is to blame you? “Hey MC did I tell you what Belphie---!” “No! Shut up! I don’t care! It’s always about Belphie! The day you come to me and don’t let that name drip from your tongue is the day Jesus comes back to save me and we both know that will be never! I’m tired of always being stuck with Belphegor! We are not equals!” Granted, you shouldn’t have yelled and Beel was more than confused at your outburst, but you wouldn’t talk to him anymore after that so he left you alone. He thought you may need an hour or two, maybe a day tops, but that day turned into a full week and he even lost his appetite just because he knows you’re angry with him. It’s been a week, does that mean you’re over? His heart aches just at the thought…

“I’m sorry for bringing Belphie up… I don’t want you to feel less than, MC. You mean a lot to me and so does Belphie, but you’re not Belphie and I need to learn that…”

Belphegor:

Honestly it’s a miracle he hasn’t lost his temper at you yet. Well, he partially blames it on his own laziness because if being angry or getting upset didn’t take so much energy out of him, maybe he would’ve snapped by now lol, but he tries really hard not to because he thinks your relationship with him after everything is pretty good, considering yall kiss and snuggle and fuck on a regular basis. But anyway, that’s exactly the issue. Considering everything, you’re still holding *that* against him. It’s never direct either, which makes it worse. It’s always said in a joking manner and something like “haha look it’s just like that one time you killed me” or “Beel’s grabbing that ham like you grabbed my throat” or “I remember seeing jesus for a moment there” and it agitates him. It makes him so angry, and he finally snapped. “I know I fucked up MC! Stop holding it against me! What do you want? A medal of honor? A survivor's certificate? Maybe a pat on the back for developing some sort of Stockholm syndrome that made you come back to your abuser?!” And then he left. And you may have cried both from confusion and your own anger, he isn’t quite sure. It’s just so…. Aggravating. He can’t deal with it. He knows it was a mistake spurted by his own insecurities and survivor’s guilt which ultimately led to his hatred but please, stop holding it against him.. He can’t keep putting up with it from the person he’s grown to love. He’s the one ignoring you and he won’t budge either because he’s a stubborn ass, but maybe if you come up first…

“I’m sorry for yelling at you… I’m just so tired for it being held against me… I love you, and you should know that, and I do feel guilty about what happened.”

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me scenarios #cheys headcanons #asmodeus obey me #belphegor obey me #mammon obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me beelzebub #tw angst

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blueprint-han · 4 years

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[Image ID: A black picture with the title “HOW TO SUPPORT FANFICTION AUTHORS” written in bold caps lock, colored with a winter forest picture. End ID.]

Well, this post has been made countless times, but I’m making one too because I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re new to tumblr and don’t know the whole “reblogging is better than liking” rule and other stuff. So without any further ado, here are ways YOU can support the fanfiction authors. Now keep in mind this applies to almost every author out there, not just the stayblr fandom, so if you’re a silent reader (or even if you aren’t), I advise you go through this post. Warning, this is a fairly long post going into detail, so yeah. I still expect you, the readers to read this, and if you’re a writer, feel free to lmk if i’ve written smth wrong or if you want me to add something! ^^

In this post I’ll go into thorough analysis of the pros and cons of each of the methods listed here and how YOU as a reader can show the authors whose fics you read more love and motivate them to produce content.

WARNING; LONG POST! GOES INTO A DECENT AMOUNT OF DETAIL. NOT EDITED, EXCUSE ANY TYPOS.

#1 : LIKING !

I think this is basic common knowledge, and a lot of people tend to do this. When you like the post, the author sees it, you see it, and if the author has their liked posts accessible (which majority of the time they don’t), and if someone deliberately goes to check it, then they see it. See why so many authors say just liking does nothing? Only liking says “Hey, I’m gonna tell you your story is not that good by simply liking it and not sharing it with other people. :D”

♯ PROS:

You’re telling the author that you've read their fic, and either you’ve enjoyed it to a certain extent, or you’re just saving it to read for later.

Likes are seen by you, the author and anyone who has access to your likes (which, most people don’t).

♯ CONS:

If you ONLY like, you’re not really helping the author’s work reach a wide audience because this site isn’t Instagram. Reblogging is the only way people can SEE our works. I’ll cover more on that in the next section.

In a nutshell, liking is good! But you should most likely use it in a combination with the other stuff I’ve listed below, because just the like itself doesn’t really do much in giving the author any feedback or interaction on their fics.

To clear shit up; I’m not talking about those people who don’t read the story or appreciate it in the first place. I’m talking about those who appreciate the fic, like it, but don’t leave any sort of feedback to show that.

#2 : REBLOGGING !

This is SO, SO important. I cannot stress on this enough. Let me explain WHY so many writers stress on reblogging content:

Tumblr’s tag system is inherently fucked up, and has grown more so over the year. I’m not kidding, at first, the fic either used to show up in the tags or it didn’t, but now, sometimes your fic can be REMOVED from the tags because of,,, idk tumblr tag shit. Anyways, as you can see, it’s very demotivating for authors at that point, because the major way for people to find their content and expand their blogs has been blocked.

Due to this reason, tumblr authors need to RELY on you, their followers to help spread their works to a wider audience. Now again, before you get me wrong, I’m not saying you ae forced to rb our works regardless of whether you like them or not. BUT, that being said, if you DO infact like the story, there’s no harm in reblogging, right? By doing this you’re indirectly telling the author — “hey! :D I liked your fic! Which is why I am gonna share it to my followers so they can read it too :D” Trust me, you’re doing nothing but helping the people who produce content for you to read. Seems like a worthy cause to hit the reblog button, right? It’s only a one, or maximum two step procedure.

Leave tags in your reblogs! Trust me, as an author myself and as much as I know from all my author friends, we oft check the tags of your reblogs to see if you found any part amazing or even if you have anything to say about the writing we put so much hard work into. Even a key smash or a “This was so [insert adjective] 🥺” is enough to leave a smile on your authors face.

♯ PROS :

You’re !! Sharing !! Your authors !! Works !! This leads to them getting more recognition, so for the content they’re so graciously providing for free, you’re promoting their blog and helping them expand it.

If the tags are being a shit, which majority of the time they are, then you’re literally making an author’s day by reblogging! You’re showing them that you, a follower and appreciator of their works are willingly sharing their content because it deserves to be seen by more people. Again before any dumb people decide to attack me, i am talking about people who like the fic but don't bother reblogging and are silent/ghost readers. I am not forcing anyone to read anybody’s work.

YOU’RE MAKING YOUR AUTHOR SO HAPPY WHAT MORE REASONS COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT !! 🥺

♯ CONS :

Literally none, because as far as I remember no author is against reblogging of their works. It’s quite literally the way this platform functions. Reblogging is IMPORTANT.

#3 : COMMENTING/SENDING FEEDBACK !

This kind of overlaps with the previous section, but THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT STEP !! When you leave feedback, you are directly giving the author something so much more valuable to them than high follower/note counts or money. Your feedback is literally our serotonin. I kid you not the number of times I’ve received a positive comment and smiled and it has made my day. There’s a reason youtubers (though not the best example, bear with me here because it was the only one I could think of) ask people to subscribe, like and COMMENT. The subscription is like a follow, the like is ofc like a heart, and the comment is equivalent to an rb with comments in the tags.

You might argue and tell me that a comment is basically like an ask so the reblogging step isn’t necessary, but I’m sure 99% of you use YouTube and you know that more comments leads to people’s videos boosted in the stream/trending charts. This is what reblogging does. Reblogging shares the piece with other people like minded, which leads to a boost in reads. You are literally helping your author grow.

It’s quite literally the same thing as youtubers. Youtubers NEED validation to keep their content creation going, so do writers, so do other ccs on this site. This post is however, focused on WRITERS, so keep that in mind.

♯ PROS :

By doing this, you’re giving author valuable feedback! It’s similar to what you do in rbing with tags. Interactivity with their fics boosts their note counts and helps expand their audience, so srsly, now think of it: your one comment is playing such a massive role to help ccs create more content.

Imagine how much of a difference the note counts will be in when every person who simply likes after reading the fic, reblogs, leaves a comment and sends an ask. the note counts would be high on each and every fic, which is validation in itself, but your comments would inspire the writer so much more! Please, don’t skip the commenting part. Even a simple one like: “this is so cute!” is wonderful.

♯ CONS :

Remember, if you’re gonna give constructive criticism (which I’m sure you all are smart enough to know if different from hate), make sure the author is okay with it. Authors need to be in a specific mindset and must be ready to accept criticism, so if you’re gonna give constructive criticism to them when they’re at a low point, it may demotivate them.

Just commenting, instead of reblogging and commenting in the tags/ reblogging and then leaving an ask in their inbox, while it gives validation in plenty, will not lead to the author’s work being spread. Therefore I suggest either reblogging and commenting in the tags or reblog and then leave an ask, or comment under the fic!

!! reminder; I am not saying that if you don’t rb and just leave feedback, your feedback has no value. We authors truly appreciate every bit of feedback, but this post is aimed to help you learn how to interact with and support authors, and make them feel more motivated, because the current scenario of liking and scrolling is taking a toll on their creative abilities. Take it from a person who’s been writing for a year.

#4 : COMMSIONING VIA THEIR KO-FI/OTHER APPS !

Before any of you attack me, let me tell you that this is not a step that is 100% necessary to do. ONLY donate if you can and if you genuinely want to, and if anyone is forcing you to pay for something against your will, you need to get yourself out of there.

Regardless, if an author has a kofi and you’re able to and you want to donate, you definitely should! It’s also a valid form of support.

#5 : ADDING THEM ON REC LISTS/ RECOMMENDING THEM TO REC BLOGS

This is such an underrated option, to be honest. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen my fic was recommended onto some rec list and it’s made me smile so hard. If you like some fics, create a rec list! They’re oft very popular amongst the fans too. Making rec posts is such a great way to share your favorite stories with others.

Rec blogs! I’ve seen a couple going around, and needless to say they are a great way to get someone else to read your favorite author’s work whilst also giving them your own feedback. These blogs oft accept recs via a form or ask box, and they leave your feedback along with their own, or else they’ll oft tag the author in the feedback post, so look! You’re basically helping your author share their fic to many more people, because you’ve given them feedback and a reblog.

♯ PROS :

Validation! Feedback! Reblogs! More exposure! Helping a blog grow! Spreading love! basically a run down of the stuff I’ve said before!

♯ CONS :

Literally no con of this. Unless, a one in a million case, this author says they don’t like receiving feedback/being tagged, and I’m sure NO person has said this before, at least none that I’ve heard of.

#6 : FINAL COMMENTS; MISC !

When an author points out about how the interactivity is drastically reducing, don’t just give them blind apologies. Yes, you feel sorry for not interacting as much, we understand, but rather show that you’ll become a better content consumer through your actions. We need to see that we’re not just throwing words into a void and that people are actually trying to be better content consumers.

Understand the fact that authors don’t get paid for this, and 99% of the time, these authors don’t take commissions either. They’re giving you novel worthy writings for free. Take Percy Jackson: You think the author would have felt motivated to write the subsequent parts, let alone two whole series based off of it if literally no one showed that they were interested? Rick Riordan has sales, he is being paid, there are millions of people and big agencies who provide him feedback. Now take that huge amount and simmer it down to an audience of maybe 10000 people This is what fanfic authors want. They don’t want your money, nor are they telling you to risk your lives for them. All they want is, a reblog, some tags, some feedback, some INTERACTIVITY. A sign that they aren’t throwing fics into the void and that people actually like them, some motivation to continue. Seems fairly easy to throw an rb with some tags, right?

Don’t bother to tell me that we do this for ourselves and we shouldn’t ask for likes and reblogs and feedback, because 1) you are consuming the content that we “write for ourselves” and 2) writers post their content here for interactivity and feedback. We could just not post and write and save our fics in our dungeon drafts for years. But we choose to post to entertain the readers, the consumers. And we aren’t even asking that much in return.

Don’t give me the whole “I’m scared that authors feel that comments are annoying” excuse either because seriously this has been DEBUNKED SO MANY TIMES. Istg, in the nicest way possible, if you still think writers are annoyed by interaction and feedback, after so many posts, long rants have been posted as to how we’re not, then you must truly be living under a rock. There, I said it. Please stop thinking this way, I’ll say it again, AUTHORS ARE NOT ANNOYED OF FEEDBACK, COMMENTS, TAGS, REBLOGS. WE LOVE IT. Saying this is like saying that the audience in a theatre play shouldn’t clap when the play ends because the actors would find it noisy. 🤡

I’ve seen some people saying they have anxiety issues and such, so pls note that I’m not invalidating your condition. If you’re trying to be more interactive, I really appreciate it! If you can’t, that’s fine too. You’re trying.

But for the people who have no reason other than feeling lazy to rb and comment, your lack of interactiveness is not excused. Please. Tumblr is a reblogging site. If you’re gonna consume content like authors are some sort of machines, I encourage you to go get some more perspective.

This site is not Instagram or the satan bird app. Your likes are appreciated but frankly speaking, they do nothing to the author except tell them “Hey i read ur fic but i'm not gonna support u :D” and honestly, that is detrimental to their creative capabilities and mental health.

DON’T FOLLOW AN ACC JUST TO MINDLESS RB THEIR SIGNAL BOOST POSTS AND THEIR REBLOGS OF GIFS AND NOT INTERACT WITH THEIR WRITING AT ALL ! Trust me, authors prefer a lower amount of interactive followers than a high count that doesn’t even give them any feedback. Again your follows are appreciated, but when you’re following, you know the type of content the author creates, so the author expects that the more followers, the more interactivity. These days, this is just becoming the opposite. So don’t do it! If you’re gonna follow to read, interact with their works. I promise, this will make both you and the author happy. A win-win situation.

In conclusion: SUPPORT YOUR FUCKING AUTHORS! THEY ARE NOT MACHINES THAT HAVE NO FEELINGS TO PRODUCE CONTENT FOR YOU! FICS TAKE DAYS AND DAYS OF PLANNING, PLOTTING, OUTLINING, WRITING, EDITING, MAKING TEASERS. SO JUST SHOW THEM YOU APPRECIATE THEM WITH AN RB. IT’S THE L E A S T YOU CAN DO.

I will be liking this post here written by the lovely @chaninfused and @scriptura-delirus . Please take time to read it because if you weren’t convinced by my arguments, you will see how much frustration we as writers face on a daily basis. Please, just show support. Here is the post by @stayndays about how to get more people to read your work, because it also has a note on reblogging. Please educate yourself, and put an end to this mindless consuming culutre and bring up some interactivity.

If you’ve read this far, I want you to go to two of your favorite authors and leave some feedback in their inbox, and tag me in it (either tag me yourself or ask the author to do so, they won’t mind). Show your writers that our words are taking effect and you are becoming better consumers. I mean it. I’m serious. I want every single one who reads this post to do this. besides valid reasons, if you’re lazy to do this, you’re a part of the problem. PLEASE get more perspective.

Also, feel free to add to this post! I’d love to read your thoughts too, remember to be kind though. And, if I think your rb is somehow contradicting my points and is bringing down the reason I made this post, I will politely ask you to delete your comment, because this post is about being truthful about the harsh reality of tumblr consumers and how we can change it. I’m sure none of you will let it get to that point, though. <3 love you guys. 💓

And, just a reminder, don’t just blindly like this too. Do what I said before, and while I am not forcing you, I’d appreciate your reblog, because seriously, it took me 3 whole days to write this, plus, I’m sure this will help more of your followers understand the fault in consumer culture. haha, that’s it! This post was way too long uff.

also, this is ur cue to not be stupid in my inbox. You have something to say? Think I worded smth wrongly? I’m sure it wasn’t my intention to do so, point it out with manners.

697 notes · View notes

jjmaybud · 3 years

Text

bring her home to dad | rafe cameron

summary: BJ’s every parent’s nightmare and rafe brings her home to ward.

pairing(s): rafe cameron x fem!oc, platonic!sarah cameron x fem!oc, platonic!wheezie cameron x fem!oc.

word count: 5.17k

warnings: swearing, mentions of alcohol, fluff, angst, ward cameron.

author’s note: i’ve had this idea for a while and it was originally going to be a reader, but i have a lot of ideas for this oc and rafe that may or may not be a coherent story. i don’t know, we’ll see where it goes. this is an au where there isn’t any treasure hunt but like rafe still does coke and dropped out of college and sarah and john b end up dating. no season 2 spoilers! Also, the house they use in the show for Tanneyhill (it’s real name is Lowndes Grove) is actually so beautiful omg you can rent it for weddings!

BJ Bentley was in the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s truck on her way to his house for the first time. Though she’d been in a relationship with Rafe Cameron for the past few months, she understood the reservation he had to take her to meet his father. The dark tattoos all along her sun kissed skin and the style of her clothes definitely scared every one of her partner’s parents. It was especially worse when their parents were hard on them, and they tried everything to live up to their expectations. There were times when someone she was interested in brought her home just to scare their parents when they weren’t interested in her as well. It wasn’t like that with Rafe. For one, he was completely freaking out in the driver’s seat next to her as he drove to his house. And two, he told her from the beginning that he had to be in love with her to bring her home to Ward Cameron.

Well, he was in love with her. And she loved him, too. That’s why she was completely calm in the passenger seat as she waited patiently to pull up to the historic house. Rafe’s fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he was hyper aware of the world around him. Quick hits on the brake and too sharp of turns were a clear indication of his nervousness. BJ reached across the center console to take hold of his right hand. He gave it up to her with little hesitation, and she intertwined their fingers while bringing the back of his hand to her lips. The soft kiss released a bit of tension in his shoulders.

“We don’t have to do this today,” she said against his hand. He immediately shook his head at the idea.

He said, “No, I already told him you were coming today. He’s got Rose making her special meatloaf for the occasion.”

BJ placed their hands down on the console and smiled.

“I love meatloaf.”

He nodded, his mind still somewhere else, and stated, “I know. I told her.”

Rafe stopped the truck at a stop sign. With no one behind them, BJ reached her free hand up to his cheek and turned his head towards her, forcing him to meet her eyes. She smiled softly when he leaned into the palm of her hand.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise. I’ve dealt with plenty of parental disappointment. He might be a little harder on you, but he’ll let it go eventually.”

He smiled and kissed the palm of her hand before turning back to the road. As he pulled forward from the stop sign, she placed her outreached hand on his forearm to run her fingers up and down the prominent vein.

He said, “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

BJ’s hand stilled at his words, and she stared at the side of his face as she tried to think of any other reason he’d be so nervous.

“I don’t want him to scare you off,” he added as he avoided meeting her eye.

Her lip jutted out as she cooed, “Aw, Honey Bunch,” his eyes rolled and lip turned up at the pet name, “you don’t have to worry about him scaring me off. You’ve had plenty of chances to do that.”

Rafe laughed mockingly and reached over to squeeze her thigh. She laughed loudly as she tried to pull his hand off of her. When she managed to wrench his hand away from her, she reached over and poked his side which only resulted in his hand gripping her thigh again.

“Rafe Cameron,” she said in a firm tone, making him laugh. “If you don’t stop, I will knock you the fuck out.”

He didn’t stop. It took him almost side swiping someone’s car for him to let go of her and return his hand to the steering wheel.

“That’s what I thought,” BJ quipped but screeched and lifted her leg away from him as he pretended to reach for her thigh again.

The rest of the ride was silent aside from the music playing from the radio. Eventually, the sound of the turn signal interrupted the melodies of the song as they waited for the car in the other lane to pass to turn left into Tanneyhill. Trees blocked the view of the house from the gate, but she could see peaks of a white house with many windows. As they drove up the driveway and passed the trees, she could see the beautiful house in it’s full glory. The house itself was beautiful on it’s own, but the surrounding view made it stunning. She could see the expanse of the water over to the left while an expansive yard of trees veered to the right.

“Home sweet home,” Rafe muttered as he pulled into a parking spot next to someone’s car. He turned the engine off and unbuckled his seat belt but didn’t make a move to get out. BJ unbuckled her own seat belt and waited. She watched as he took a couple of deep breaths before turning to meet her eye. Her lips turned up in an encouraging smile. She leaned forward over the console enticing him to do the same. Their lips met in a soft peck and met a few times more before pulling away for good.

The couple got out of the truck at the same time and met at the back. BJ let Rafe stair up at the house before reaching her hand out for him to hold. He huffed a heavy sigh before taking her hand in his. On their way to the front door, BJ stopped walking. If he didn’t have her hand in his, he probably would have kept going. He stopped, their hands extended, and watched her eyes widen.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Her eyes moved from the house to him, and she said, “I’m going to meet Wheezie!”

Rafe released a relieved sigh as he let his head fall back with his eyes closed. The hat on his head nearly fell off as it’s bill hit the back of his neck. BJ laughed as she stepped closer to her.

“Don’t do that to me,” Rafe mumbled as he let her pull him along. When they got closer to his front door, he took the lead. He led her past the front room and into the main part of the house. They took a few turns before reaching a decent sized kitchen. As an old house meant to be preserved, it lacked the open floor plan most modern day houses choose to do. While some rooms were spacious, it felt very choppy as they moved through the house. Even the kitchen was cut off from the dining area. The only person in the kitchen was a blonde woman who was definitely not Sarah Cameron or Wheezie.

“Oh, hello!” The woman greeted as she worked on cleaning off the counters. She stopped at the sight of them and tossed the washcloth into the sink. Her eyes widened once she got a better look at the girl standing next to Rafe, but BJ took it in stride as she let go of Rafe’s hand to go shake hers.

Rafe spoke up from behind BJ, “Rose, this is BJ. BJ, this is my stepmom, Rose.”

“It’s really nice to meet you, Rose. I heard you’re making meatloaf! It already smells amazing,” BJ stated as she shook the woman’s hand. She watched Rose take in the tattoos on the back of her hand and the chain hanging on one side of her skirt, but she pretended not to notice as Rose fixed a genuine smile on her face.

“It’s nice to meet you, too! Rafe mentioned meatloaf was your favorite, so Ward asked me to make my special recipe.”

“Is there anything Rafe and I can do to help?” BJ offered. Rafe started to speak from behind her, but Rose beat him to it.

“Actually, the table still needs to be set, if you don’t mind?”

BJ shook her head and said, “Not at all.” She turned around to Rafe. “You know how to set the table, right?”

Rafe huffed and nodded his head. He turned to the left and led her into the dining room where a long, rectangular table that seats eight people took up one side of the room and a smaller, circular table that seats four people took up the other. He stepped over to the china cabinet and opened both of the doors.

“I can start with the glasses while you get the plates?” Rafe suggested as he looked at her. She nodded and walked over to him. He pointed at a specific set of plates before grabbing the glasses on the higher shelf. A place mat was already placed in front of each seat that was to be used. BJ started on one side as Rafe started on the other. They met at the head of the table, and BJ stared up at Rafe as he refused to move out of the way.

She wasn’t much shorter than him normally, but she was almost nose to nose to him with her boots on. The amused smile on his lips and the quirk of his eyebrow tempted her to do something about him being in her way. With a playful tint in the corner of her eye, she stood on the tips of her toes to press a kiss to his lips. His hand found her hip as their kiss lasted longer than necessary. When she pulled away and fell back flat on her feet, Rafe hummed and nodded his head. He patted her hip and stepped out of her way.

“You may pass,” he said, making BJ laugh. The rest of her task went without fail before the two of them placed the silverware out: BJ was in charge of the spoons while Rafe put out the forks and knives. The sound of a man’s voice interrupted the peaceful silence that laid over the air.

“Alright, I got the ice and another bottle just in case. I saw Rafe’s truck outside. Have you already met her?” The man stated as the couple saw him approach the island that Rose was standing next to.

Rose nodded, walked towards her husband, and said, “Yes, I did. They’re setting the table now.”

Ward tried to turn to look at where they were standing, but Rose grabbed the front of his blazer and pretended to fix it while she whispered to him. BJ puffed out a silent laugh as she looked at Rafe.

She whispered, “Very subtle.”

Rafe only had the energy to chuckle once as he watched the two in the kitchen. BJ studied the couple and watched Ward’s facial expressions to gauge his reaction. She noticed the exact moment Rose told him about her...appearance. His head tilted towards his wife in a quick motion to look in her eyes. Rose scolded him swiftly, and Ward fixed his face into a stoic expression. BJ could feel her boyfriend tense from beside her as she watched Ward look to the ground and nod at whatever his wife said.

BJ took the lead, grabbed Rafe’s hand, and pulled him into the kitchen. Rafe tugged on her hand to keep her from intruding on his dad and stepmom’s conversation, but BJ went through this too many times to know it was easier to rip the bandage off right away.

“Hi, you must be Ward! I’m BJ Bentley,” she introduced herself, extending her hand once again. Though he was warned, Rafe’s father appeared to still be surprised at the sight of her. He took it in stride regardless. His eyebrows shot up in delight and a charming smile crossed his face as he reached his own hand out.

Ward greeted, “Ah, nice to meet you, BJ. I have to say I was surprised to hear Rafe had a girlfriend, let alone that he was bringing her home to meet us.”

“Dad,” Rafe said as Rose called her husband’s name in warning.

“Honestly, I was surprised, too,” BJ confessed. “Didn’t think Rafe was the girlfriend type.”

The timer on the oven went off to interrupt the tense conversation. Rose hurried around the island to pull the door open. She used a cooking thermometer to check the temperature inside the meatloaf.

“It’s done. Rafe, can you go upstairs to get your sisters?” Rose asked.

Rafe made sure BJ was okay before reluctantly heading out of the kitchen to the stairs she’d seen on the way inside. She watched him until he disappeared out of the room and turned back to his parents. The brunette tucked her hair behind her ear as she caught Ward staring at the tattoos on her thighs sticking out under her skirt with a disapproving purse of his lips. She turned to Rose, the safer of the two, and offered her help.

“I can take the potatoes to the table if you’d like,” BJ offered as Rose sliced into the meatloaf and placed it onto a large plate. The potatoes were on a similar plate cut into chunks and seasoned so well that BJ’s stomach grumbled at the smell.

Rose smiled and said, “That would be great. Thank you.”

BJ returned the smile and grabbed the plate. Once she reached the table, she placed the potatoes in the center with enough room for the meatloaf. Ward followed her into the room and motioned to the side of the table with only two seats set.

“Rafe sits on this side next to me. Feel free to sit next to him,” Ward said. BJ nodded and stepped around Ward; she noticed then they were about the same height. Since Ward hadn’t pulled his chair out, BJ thought it best to wait to be seated. Her mouth didn’t agree to the plan.

“Your home is very beautiful. It has a lot of history behind it, right?” She inquired as Rose brought in the meatloaf before returning to the kitchen, probably for the drinks.

Ward’s head tilted in interest as he answered, “That’s right. People don’t usually know that.”

“I did a paper on Denmark Tanney in college. As you must know, he was the only person to survive the wreck of the Royal Merchant.”

A light lit up behind Ward’s eyes at the mention of the Royal Merchant. She mentioned offhandedly one day while hanging out with Rafe that she did a paper on the man who built his house after he told her he lived in Tanneyhill. He told her how much his dad loved the house and its history, so she knew she could use that to get on Ward’s good side. She wasn’t worried about whether the Cameron’s liked her, especially not Ward, but she wanted there to be mutual respect between them. From what Rafe has said about his father, she knew she would never like him. But as Rafe’s father, she had a level of respect for him that she wanted to be returned. No matter how the man treated him, Rafe loved Ward and looked up to him. She had to respect that.

“Of course,” Ward replied, his words more genuine than the other times he’s spoken. “It’s what drew me to the house in the first place. Tell me did your research take you to the information about the gold he was able to get off of the Royal Merchant?”

Rose brought in a pitcher of iced tea as well as a cup of scotch on the rocks for Ward. She started to pour a glass of tea for herself as she listened to their conversation.

“Yes, and no one has ever been able to find it. He had letters to his son that a lot of people have picked apart trying to find out where he hid it, but no one’s figured it out.”

“Ugh, dad, please tell me you haven’t bored BJ with your stories about the Royal Merchant,” Sarah Cameron stated as she came into the kitchen. She sent BJ a smile and a wink as she walked to her seat, leaving the middle one between her and Rose empty. Rafe followed in shortly after.

Ward laughed as he shook his head. “Of course not, Sarah. BJ brought it up.”

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise and put her hands up in surrender. Rafe came to stand next to his girlfriend. Ward and Rose looked at him expectantly.

“Wheezie’s on her way down,” he stated before reaching over to pull out BJ’s seat. She smiled at the gesture as she stepped out of the way.

“Wow, Rafe has manners?” Sarah asked, sarcasm dripping from her words as she sat down. Rafe glared at his sister as BJ stepped in front of the seat. He pushed in her seat as she sat down. She mumbled her gratitude as he sat down next to her. Rose and Ward sat down after the kids, and Rafe took it upon himself to pour himself a glass of iced tea. He offered the pitcher to BJ, and she took it graciously.

The sound of loud steps interrupted the short silence, and a young, teenage girl wearing a bright pink tutu and a sequined, long sleeve shirt. BJ’s eyes widened in surprise, and she turned to Rafe as she pressed her lips together to contain her laugh. Rafe placed his elbow on the table and covered his mouth to hide his smile. From what Rafe told her about his youngest sister, the tutu was out of character for her.

Sarah gasped and said, “Love the tutu, Wheeze.”

“Wheezie, what are you wearing?” Rose asked as the girl sat down next to her. BJ turned back to watch the scene unfold in front of her. Wheezie smiled at her before turning to her stepmom.

Wheezie said with a shrug, “Wanted to try something new.”

“Wheezie, we have a guest. Go upstairs and change,” Ward demanded as he tilted his head back to stare at her down his nose.

“I think Wheezie has a right to dress however she wants,” Rafe said, finally lowering his hand away from his face.

Sarah added, “Yeah, dad, we should let her express herself.”

BJ could see what her boyfriend and his sisters were doing. Wheezie was dressed in an out-of-character outfit to make her brother’s girlfriend feel comfortable wearing the clothes that the older generation deemed unacceptable. Rafe and Sarah were helping coax their parents into understanding why she wore the clothes she did. It warmed her heart to see it. Wheezie didn’t know who she was, they’d never met before, but she was doing this because she loved her brother. Sarah and BJ had known of each other before she started dating Rafe because they went to the same parties.

“Also,” BJ spoke up, “I really don’t mind. I think you rock the tutu, Wheezie, and those sequins really bring out your eyes.”

“Thank you, BJ,” Wheezie said before she turned to her father expectantly. Everyone turned to him to see his reaction. Ward Cameron sighed as he stared at his younger daughter.

“Fine.”

***

“So, BJ, what are you studying in college?” Ward asked as he sipped on his second glass of scotch. The men finished their plates as well as Sarah while the rest of them were still working on finishing their potatoes and little bit of meatloaf. BJ complimented Rose on her recipe after the first bite once she tasted the burst of flavor on her tongue. She talked to Wheezie about a new movie that was coming out. Apparently it was a part of a series that the young girl really liked, so she told BJ the synopsis of the first movie and invited her to come over to watch the first two movies together. Most of dinner was Rose and Ward alternating asking BJ questions about herself or Sarah telling everyone what she’d been up to for the day and what she was planning to do in the next couple.

BJ took her time swallowing the potato she’d been chewing and answered, “Actually, I finished college last year.”

Ward and Rose’s attention perked at the sound of that.

Rose asked, “I thought you said you were the same age as Rafe?”

“She is,” Rafe answered. “She finished her Bachelor’s degree in business, right?”

He looked to her for confirmation. She nodded.

“I started taking a lot of my general education credits my junior year of high school and took more business centered classes in the summer,” BJ said, turning to Ward and Rose. “By the time I graduated high school, I was a junior in college.”

Ward appeared to be impressed with what he was hearing and asked, “So, are you working now or have you decided to do something else?”

“I am. I work with my mother in her real estate investment business. I’ve always been around the office, even interned there the summer after high school graduation, and that’s how I knew I wanted to have a career in business.”

“I have to admit that’s pretty impressive,” Ward said and stared at his son. “I wish Rafe had as much drive as you do.”

BJ looked to Rafe to see him stare into the bottom of his glass that only had chunks of ice at the bottom. She could tell by the pout of his lips and his slouched shoulders that the comment hit a little too hard. Without allowing the others to notice, she reached under the table to place her hand over his on his lap.

“Rafe has plenty of drive,” BJ defended. “He’s just got to figure out where he wants to put that energy. Calculated energy is better than wasted energy.”

Ward only hummed in response. She finished her plate without any interruption. Rafe and Sarah grabbed everyone’s empty dishes. BJ helped Rafe stack all of the plates before Ward asked Wheezie to show their guest around the house.

“Yeah, BJ, I’ll show you Rafe’s room first since you’ll probably spend a lot of time there,” Wheezie said as she pushed her chair out to stand up.

Rafe stepped back into the room and scolded her, “Wheeze. Shut. Up.”

BJ laughed and stood up to follow after Wheezie. She patted Rafe’s shoulder as she passed him. Wheezie talked the entire time as she showed the older girl every room in the house. Most of the stories included embarrassing stories about Rafe.

“The rug right here?” Wheezie pointed out as they stood in the hall leading to the stair and outside of Rafe’s room. “Rafe tripped over it running out of his room and almost busted his chin going down the stairs. Luckily he stopped at the turn or he would’ve broken his arm.”

BJ shook her head and asked, “When was this?”

“Last week.”

The two giggled at the news, and Wheezie took her up another set of stairs. BJ followed her into a room that was clearly hers. It was a typical young teenager room with a few posters and brighter, mismatched colors.

“The tour is now over, please don’t forget to tip your guide and remember to visit again,” Wheezie said in a highly comical, animated voice. She worked on taking off the tutu as BJ looked around the room. It wasn’t a big room, but it was large enough to hold everything her heart desired.

“Is she your favorite artist?” BJ asked, pointing to a small poster of Taylor Swift next to some, what BJ could assume were, lyrics.

“Of course, she’s a lyrical genius,” Wheezie said, and BJ could tell how much the girl looked up to the artist by her voice. “Who’s your favorite artist?”

A sheepish smile was brought to her lips and turned to Wheezie. The youngest Cameron was sitting on her bed against her pillows, and BJ went to sit on the edge near her.

BJ said, “So, this may come as a shock, but I love Whitney Houston.”

Wheezie’s head tilted forward in surprise as her eyes widened. BJ laughed. The former girl looked down at BJ’s clothes and tattoos before looking back up to her with narrowed eyes.

“There’s no way. You definitely listen to classic rock like Nirvana,” Wheezie said.

“Okay, Nirvana is definitely not classic rock. Whoever told you that lied to you. And yes, despite my looks, Whitney Houston just hits the spot.”

Wheezie laughed and said, “I can’t wait to tell Rafe.”

“Hah,” BJ mocked and hit the girl lightly on the leg, “he already knows.” She hopped off the bed and headed for the door. “I’m going to go find him. I just take the stairs all the way down right?”

The only response she received was a nod before leaving the room. BJ could hear slightly raised voices drifting up the stairs as she started down them. She could hear Rafe’s voice but couldn’t make out any of his words.

Then, clear as day, she heard Ward’s voice, “I don’t care, Rafe! Think about what people will say when they see you with her. What they will say about our family.”

“You didn’t say this to Sarah when she brought John B home,” Rafe countered.

“John B doesn’t dress like she does and doesn’t have tattoos up and down his arms! I don’t care if you love her, you-”

Suddenly, it was quiet as BJ stepped on a particularly creaky stair. Not that she was quiet on her way down, but they didn’t hear her over their yelling. As she came down, she saw Rafe, Ward, and Rose through the doorway into the kitchen standing in awkward silence as they waited for her.

“Please, don’t stop on my account,” BJ said as she walked towards the three of them.

Rafe started to talk, “BJ, I’m sorry-”

BJ held up a hand to stop him.

“You don’t have to apologise, Rafe. It’s not the first time I’ve walked in on an awkward conversation with my boyfriend’s parents. I just hoped your father had enough respect to talk to me about it.”

She smiled a sickeningly sweet smile as she met Ward’s eyes. Rafe said her name and offered for them to leave.

“And I wish my son had enough respect not to bring you home,” Ward said as he took a long drink of his scotch.

BJ’s smile didn’t falter at his words as Rose sharply said his name.

“You know, Ward, a person can always change their clothes,” BJ informed the older man and motioned to her own clothes. “Hell, on a normal day, I don’t typically wear this. I only wore it now so you could see the ‘worst’ of it and learn to get over it. I understand your reservations on tattoos. It’s not everyone’s preference. I, for one,” BJ stepped over to Rafe and motioned to his bare arm, “love the blank canvas that is your son.” Rafe muttered an “oh, my god” at her words. “But you should never judge someone’s character for what they decide to do with their bodies. It’s their actions you have to pay attention to.

“Your actions, specifically, have told me that you are a very insecure man who tries to keep the image of his perfect family intact to hide the fact that he feels like an imposter in the life he’s created for himself.” Ward stood up straighter and set his glass down forcefully. Rose put her hand on his chest to stop him from taking a step towards BJ. “The only reason I’m saying this to you is because, although I do not like you one bit, I have respect for you. I know who you are, Ward Cameron. Started on the other side of Outer Banks and, through hard work and sacrifice, you made it to Figure Eight. You raised a beautiful family despite hardly being there for them emotionally. Anyone can respect someone who has managed to do that for themselves.”

Ward scoffed and interrupted BJ’s tangent, “I let you into my home, and you decide to speak to me like this in the name of respect? My actions have told you all of this about my character? Through one dinner?”

BJ shrugged and simply said, “I minored in psychology. And I’m sorry if you find what I’ve said to be disrespectful. I found you talking about me without me present to be disrespectful. I love your son whether you like me or not and as long as he still feels the same way, we’ll have to treat each other with mutual respect.”

Rafe’s hand slipped into hers. Through their interlaced fingers BJ felt his grip tighten as he stood up to his father. With her other hand, she reached out for a handshake. Ward stared down at her hand for a moment before looking at Rafe. Another squeeze on her hand. Ward and BJ locked eyes. He sighed and reached out his hand. A firm handshake, and the two were on their way with Rafe saying over his shoulder he might be back later.

Her boyfriend practically dragged her out of the house and to his truck. The sun was already set, so the lights around the house were the only thing to light their way to Rafe’s truck. The overhead lights inside turned on and off as they got in. The dash light lit up Rafe’s features as he turned the ignition over to start the engine. BJ watched as he sighed heavily and fell back against his seat, and she reached over to grab his hand again.

“I almost shit myself when you called him insecure,” Rafe confessed, making her laugh out loud. “I thought he was going to kill us both.”

BJ leaned over the console and said, “But he didn’t.”

He opened his eyes and turned his head without lifting it to look at her. Pieces of his hair fell onto his forehead, and she smiled at him as she studied his face. A sweat had broken out on his face and neck, but it was slowly drying in the cool air of the truck’s air conditioning.

“No, he didn’t.” BJ watched his soft lips as he spoke.

“Now, the worst is over.”

He nodded. “It is.”

BJ’s free hand reached up to the back of Rafe’s head and pulled his face towards hers. Rafe didn’t put up any fight as he leaned into the kiss. She pulled away with a sigh, and the boy moved so he could comfortably lean against the console as she played with the hairs at the back of his head.

“Wheezie’s cool,” BJ admitted. “She told me a lot of embarrassing stories about you.” Rafe rolled his eyes. “Something about you and a rug followed by a small tumble down the stairs.”

Rafe shook his head and said, “I have just as many embarrassing stories of her.”

BJ smiled.

“I can’t wait to hear them.”

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