#even to the point he can predict his actions perfectly

[pankiepoo]

mephone4 and that annoying bitch

[snapscube]

So you mentioned the Amazing Spider-man movies, what are your thoughts on them? For me; I was pleasantly surprised by 1 AND 2. Like 2 is bad, real bad, but the jokes were legit, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are just...an amazing on screen couple and until the transformation Harry is a really fun villain....just sucks that most of the movie is exposition about peoples relationships to one another or experiments done mostly off screen.

TASM1 is perfectly serviceable as a standalone project and was definitely not the worst jumping off point, but it struggles to really properly understand Spider-Man/Peter as a personality. Peter absolutely doesn't have to be a goody two-shoes loser, all of the best adaptations of Peter imo can have some serious attitude and grit to their persona, but TASM1 kinda over-corrects on the Tobey Maguire "shy nerd" angle by making Spidey a bit too much of a dick. I remember the movie getting a lot of praise for finally making Spider-Man funny and quippy, praise I similarly gave at the time, but it really... doesn't do that nearly as much as ppl gave it credit for??? There's like ONE scene where Spider-Man is kinda jokey with someone he suspects to be Ben's killer, but that scene kinda stinks because he's not quipping as much as he's like actively cruel lmao. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone had great chemistry though and you can tell Marc Webb knew his stuff when it came to directing that kind of romantic tension, seeing as how his previous project was 500 Days of Summer. All-in-all, it's a Fine movie but it's not a fantastic adaptation of the things I personally like about Spider-Man.

TASM2 is so much more intriguing to me to watch and to talk about. It's genuinely baffling how that movie ended up like it did, but in a way that almost anyone could have predicted. That movie STINKS. It's really really bad. But it also has kind of the opposite problem to TASM1 in that... TASM1 is a good movie that doesn't properly showcase the character of Spider-Man, whereas TASM2 is a garbage movie that features some of the best live action Spider-Man scenes/setpieces we had seen and would ever see to this day. It's sincerely tragic how many great INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS are in that movie, and how loosely connected they are by some monumentally stupid studio meddling. That movie has everything going in its favor with Andrew Garfield in the lead, the best live action Spider-Man suit to this day, the most thrilling and well rendered swinging sequences put to film, and the occasional glimpse of a true Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that is down on the ground connecting with and watching over not just the city itself but the people within it. There's a montage in the middle of the movie that features Spider-Man on his daily patrol and he comes across as just so PRESENT and on the same level as the people he protects, meanwhile in the audio track you hear newscasters and interviews fiercely debating whether or not what he does is actually worthwhile. And that shit HITS. But unfortunately that kind of stuff is still too rare and it far overshadowed by Sony desperately trying to make a Spidey Cinematic Universe without earning it. Ultimately they had all of the pieces to make a truly definitive adaptation of Spidey that I feel like almost anyone could get behind, but they just... couldn't. Even Spider-Man PS4, commonly lauded as one of the most definitive Spidey stories of all time, uses SO MUCH of the same DNA of the Amazing Spider-Man films, but the difference is that it had the space to be only exactly what it needed to be. Nothing more, nothing less. Anyway I could talk more about this for sure but I'm looking at the length of this write-up and wincing already LOL.

[delulujuls]

snackin' | gr63, lh44

i know halloween was a little ago but i came across this one imagine where george was a vampire and i couldnt stop myself from writing something with him in this role too. so sharpen ur teefs and bon appetit!

summary: the night of drunk confessions turned to be a little bit more surprising that expected

warnings: not too much of explaining this unusual condition, nothing too visual and gory tho

pairing: george russell x fem!mercdriver x lewis hamilton

"C'mon, play it again, please!"

Y/N wiped tears from her cheeks, feeling her stomach ache from laughter.

"You definitely rap better than you drive, mate" George said, taking a sip of wine and glancing at Lewis with feigned seriousness.

Lewis sighed, shaking his head and played again the song in which he managed to make an appearance.

As soon as the part with him appeared, Y/N and George took his phone, using the displayed lyrics and tried to rap along with the song, eliciting a smile from Lewis.

"You guys are too predictable."

"Come on, Lewis, live performance! For the most loyal fans!"

Y/N directed the wine bottle towards him as if it were a microphone. Hamilton couldn't stop the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He took the bottle from her and took a sip before leaning towards her phone, rapping once again, which of course was met with cheers and applause from his friends.

It was an early Saturday evening and the three friends were spending it together in a hotel room. The weather outside was cold and rainy, so instead of conquering the city, the Mercedes drivers decided to spend the pre-race evening in each other's company and with perfectly chilled wine.

When the song ended, Y/N handed the phone back to the man and sighed heavily, taking her glass.

"I have to admit, that was quite surprising."

"Believe me, I was shocked too when you said you couldn't tie your shoes until you were fourteen" Lewis replied, glancing at her.

"I agree, I thought you were at least a bit smarter than a goldfish" George added, earning a playful punch in the side.

"I'm curious with what you will shine, Georgie boy" she replied, raising an eyebrow. Silence fell for a moment as two pairs of eyes focused on the guy.

George pretended to ponder, but since the topic of confessions began, he knew exactly what he wanted to finally tell his friends. It was something slightly more serious than taking a part in a song or a belated ability to tie shoelaces.

He looked at his friends, at their slightly alcohol-distracted gazes and faint smiles playing on their faces. He knew these people for a long time; they were very close to him and he knew he could come to them with anything. So, he decided it was high time to be honest with them. Because that's what friends do, right?

"I'm a vampire" George threw this fact into the air as if they were discussing the weather.

Both Lewis and Y/N snorted, not taking his words seriously.

"Yeah, and Lewis is an eight-time world champion."

"Hey, cut it out" Lewis pointed a finger at her "But yeah man, that's a bullshit"

"In this matter, you're predictable too."

George sighed, taking another sip from his glass. He wasn't surprised by their reaction in any way though.

"No, no, go on, we're all ears. I'm just curioius why did you bring up such a topic in this state? I guess none of us is drunk after two bottles of wine, right?" Y/N said, pouring more wine into her glass.

"I'm saying this completely sober. I want to get it off my chest and know that I have no secrets from you" he admitted, looking at them. Both Lewis and Y/N became a bit more serious. Not that they believed in the nonsense he was currently saying, but the smiles disappeared from their faces.

"What do you mean by saying you're a vampire?" the girl asked, looking at him more focused.

George knew that no matter what he said, his words wouldn't replace any tangible actions.

"Can you take the bandage off your hand?" Russell asked, nodding towards her bandaged hand, which covered an unfortunate cut from a metal band she got on the track the previous day.

Y/N looked at him and remained motionless for a moment. After a few seconds, however, she began to unwind her bandage. When she finished, George reached out to her. She hesitantly handed him her hand. He gently grabbed the bandage and peeled it off, revealing a sizable, still fresh cut.

George closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling how his lungs filled with the sweet scent of the girl's blood. As his fangs shifted into feeding mode, he simply smiled. Upon seeing his teeth, Y/N quickly withdrew her hand and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh, fuck me."

Lewis was in shock no less than the girl, but neither of them moved an inch from the bed.

"Are you kidding us, right?"

Y/N struggled to shift her gaze from his teeth to his eyes and just as she doubted her friend's words for a moment, seeing his darkened irises made her realize that he probably wasn't joking.

"Talking about being a vampire is a pretty lame joke and frankly I think I could afford something better" George replied and finished his drink.

"Besides, I don't even know why I would bother fooling you with something like that."

The remaining two sat in shock, unsure of what to say. They weren't even sure if George was joking, but they could admit he had a point - why would he joke about this in the first place?

"Okay, let's assume you're actually a vampire," Y/N began, grabbing the bottle and not bothering to pour its contents into her glass. "Then why do you function normally in the sun? You eat and drink normal things too, right?"

"I admit, I thought it would be like that and at first I was scared shitless," George replied, reaching for the glass she filled. "But what you mentioned is total myths. Basically, everything I knew about vampires turned out to be total bullshit."

"What do you mean by that?"

Lewis furrowed his brow, listening attentively.

"I can function normally during the day; I just have to remember sunscreen because I can easily burn. I'm a bit more sensitive to sunlight, so most of the time I need to wear sungl-"

"No, that's bullshit, you wear them because you roar after every race, not because you're a vampire," Y/N shook her head, taking another sip of alcohol.

"I won't insist that it's different, but oversensitivity to light also plays a role in this," George explained. He was ready to dispel any doubts his friends had, just to make them feel comfortable and to ensure that their relationship didn't deteriorate.

"What about eating? You still eat everything normally, even right now we're drinking together" Lewis interjected, taking a sip from his glass.

"Yeah, that's another myth. I can eat and drink normal human food, but it doesn't satisfy my hunger. I can eat and eat and I'm still like a bottomless pit," he admitted "Once, Alex and I recorded a stream where we had a bet on who could eat more at McDonald's. I don't think I need to tell you who won."

"So, you eat only to-"

"To avoid raising any suspicions, yes" George nodded. He knew that the tougher part of the story was yet to come.

"So, how do you satisfy your hunger? I guess not with protein bars, right?" Y/N asked rhetorically.

"That's no longer a myth, I feed like all those pop-culture-created vampires" George explained.

"Do you kill people?" Lewis asked quietly. Not because he was afraid, but because he was worried about his friend. He knew that the only one in danger was George because he would never harm anyone. Not as a human, not as a vampire either.

George laughed and shook his head. "No, I don't kill people. Unless you count killing them with my looks, but that's a different story."

"So, what does this... process look like?" Y/N looked at him. Neither of them registered the moment when this conversation stopped being perceived as a joke and became one of the most serious conversations they've ever had.

"It looks like in the movies, but it's less dramatic. I don't know about other... ones of my kind, but I think I look fairly neat afterward."

"So, people are like walking Capri Suns for you?"

George laughed at his friend's original comparison and nodded.

"Yeah, that's more or less how it looks."

"And now? Are you hungry?"

Lewis asked. He was surprisingly calm and not worried, all he was just curious.

"Today is still fine, but I know I'll have to snack on something after the race tomorrow."

"Who do you feed on? How does it even happen? And most importantly, who knows about all this?" Y/N had too many questions and with each passing second more emerged, making the situation not any easier. "Holy shit, our friend is a vampire."

"You met Carmen, right?" George asked, to which both friends nodded. "She's my feeder, if I can call it that directly. The whole facade of a relationship is a pretty good and strong cover, as you can tell."

"Are you telling me that you're not a couple? Are you kidding?"

Y/N was even more shocked than hearing that his dear friend was a bloodsucker.

"Wow, you took this more seriously than the fact that a literal vampire is sitting next to you."

George pretended to be outraged, but continued anyway.

"Carmen is very close to me and is a wonderful person, but our relationship is more of an exchange transaction."

"Goddamn, it's just getting better and better."

Lewis laughed and reached for more wine, knowing that more alcohol would be useful for this conversation.

"So, Carmen is your walking Capri Sun, not bad."

Y/N sighed and handed Lewis her glass, grabbing the hotel phone and ordering a few more bottles of wine. It looked like it was going to be a long night.

The conversation among friends on this rather unusual topic flowed freely; it probably looked the same as if George had admitted that he sometimes talks in his sleep or that he kissed his cousin at the aunt's wedding. The friends accepted this news much better than George expected. He was genuinely happy that their reaction didn't foreshadow the end of their friendship.

"I'm convinced that Lewis tastes like chocolate milk."

Y/N declared, pointing with the glass she held towards Lewis. The trio was already quite drunk, but nothing indicated that they would part ways soon.

"I'm not sure how racially sensitive that was," Hamilton also took a sip from his glass.

"I think in both cases you'd be tasty. You guys have a good diet so nothing suggests it could be otherwise," George admitted, lying on his side and propping himself up with his hand.

"If you want, I can be your Capri Sun" the girl offered, looking at her friend.

"That's probably the most wholesome thing you've said to me lately."

George giggled, genuinely touched.

"I'm here for you too, George" Lewis said, looking at him. "And I do really hope that I taste like chocolate milk."

[kairiscorner]

I am here to suggest the ultimate shy highschool Miguel concept:

Miguel trying to ask you, his not-so-secret crush to prom, with Gabriel's help of course 🧡 ~🍄

OH MY GOD, YES !!!

will you... — high school!miguel o'hara x gn!reader

only less than a week until prom, and miguel still hasn't built up the courage to hand his dream date the letter he had been working on for a long while now. this is probably the fifth letter he's written, and you can say he might be a bit of a control freak, but, he just wants to tell you exactly how he feels; he doesn't wanna beat around the bush or tell you in a wordy way something that can be said in three words–he wants to say seven words, but can't even handle the thought of speaking either one of them in one sentence to you without losing his composure and feeling weak in the knees. he's clutching the letter in his hands and sighs, he adjusts his glasses on his face again and practices going up to you as if you were the mirror right then and there, and tries to 'play it cool'. "would... you... go with me t-to..." miguel stuttered, and as thoughts of you and your beautiful self debilitated him; he bit his tongue and quit talking, and eventually, he had fumbled for the umpteenth time all over again. miguel clutched the letter in his hand and sighed, running his other hand through his curly dark locks, looking frustrated as ever. "miggy, are you being a dork about it all over this again?" asked his younger brother, gabriel, as the boy entered the room and raised an eyebrow at him.

miguel, in his flustered daze at the sudden arrival of his little brother, threw the letter for you in his drawer and shut it closed. "wh-what letter?" he blurted out hurriedly, making gabriel very suspicious of his older brother's actions. "...i didn't mention any letter, but okay." he said as he looked at miguel up and down and sighed, shaking his head. "ay, mi hermano, you can't ask them out like this." gabriel said in a disappointed tone, pointing at miguel's disheveled appearance, making him look down at himself and raise an eyebrow at his younger brother's comment. "not like you get any dates, either..." miguel murmured, making gabriel faked heartache and dramtically grabbed at his chest and cried out in fake pain. "at least i'm confirmed to be cuter than you, hermano..." the younger boy quipped as miguel rolled his eyes and looked back into the mirror, running his hand through his dark curls. miguel sighed as he took off his glasses and ran a comb through his hair.

"i don't even know why i bother, it's not like i'd be any choice of theirs; they just know me as... that one cranky kid that always gets the science tests perfectly, they don't even... know how i look at them." miguel muttered as gabriel walked over to miguel and got him some gel. "well, isn't you telling them how they'll be able to find out?" the younger boy asked as he styled his older brother's hair up with the gel. miguel shrugged. "...i mean, sure, but not like..." "not like what?" miguel sighed as gabriel opened up his brother's closet and whispered in spanish how 'crappy' miguel's fashion sense was, asking him if he had anything but graphic tees or plain white shirts. "it's not like they'll take it happily." "and why not, because you dress up like a shut-in? of course, nobody wants a nerd that wears three variants of the same shirt, i know i don't." "you know that's not what i mean, gabri." miguel said in a monotonous voice as he glared at his little brother, making the younger boy stick his tongue out at him.

gabriel chuckled and scraped together a decent-looking outfit for miguel to wear that didn't look tacky nor corny and was just the right color palette that suited him. "well, you don't know; you can solve literally every math problem out there and discover all kinds of scientific phenomena, but you'll never be able to predict love, hermano. si está destinado a suceder, así será. si no, entonces no lo será," gabriel explained as he smiled up at his brother and patted his shoulders comfortingly, extending his support to the hopelessly in love yet doubtful little idiot that miguel was at that moment. "they'll come around eventually, whatever they feel for you now is out of our control. but if you ask me... they'd definitely love you, i'm sure of it, even if you have no problem with mismatched socks with sandals, they'd like you still. but i probably wouldn't." gabri joked at the end of his comforting words, with miguel chuckling and jokingly punching his younger brother's arm, making the younger boy giggle and jokingly punch him back. "drama king. but anyway... thanks, gabri. i needed that." he thanked his younger brother with a head pat and shoulder pat, with gabri extending his arms to wrap his brother in a hug, whispering in his ear how they seriously have to turn to miguel's closet for the next charity drive because of how many variations of the same shirt he has.

with a lump in his throat that he couldn't swallow, miguel hastily shuffled over to you by your locker, clutching the letter he made for you for the sixth time in his hands that began to sweat. he was thinking of too many things all at once, which troubled him deeply, but his younger brother was at the corner—cheering him on and reassuring him that he's got this. miguel takes in a deep breath and taps you by the shoulder. you turn to face him, and miguel's stupefied for a moment at how beautiful you looked right then and there. "oh, hey mig, what's u—" "wouldyouliketogowithmetotheprom?"

...

"uh, hah, what was that? sorry, you spoke too fast..." you told him with a shy grin, feeling a bit flustered at the only words you picked up from his hurried breath of a question. miguel apologized and fidgeted with the letter's ends for a bit. he stammered and blanked out for a few moments, but finally, he was able to ask you clearly while handing the letter, "would you... like to go with me... to the prom?" he asked you all softly, staring at your hand that was going to take the letter from his own; your fingers brushing over his, which made him whimper a little. you smiled and chuckled, gently holding on to his hand over the letter for a lingering while. "i thought you'd never ask, of course i do, mig."

"...really?" he asked you in a hushed voice, his face too flustered to not smile. you chuckled again and pushed his glasses back up on his face and nodded with a smile. "really." "yes!" exclaimed a high-pitched voice from the corner, it was gabriel rejoicing as he paused the recording on his camera, exclaiming happily in spanish how the nerd brother he has finally has a date for the prom! miguel groaned as you laughed, still holding his hand, you took the letter with your other hand and pulled away from him. "so... i'll be seeing you next week?" you asked him awkwardly as miguel stammered and nodded. "ah, y-yeah, i'll... i'll see you." "better wear one of your graphic tees then, dork." you teased him as you kissed his cheek and sent him to overdrive, short-circuiting his brain and keeping him frozen in place in front of the lockers as you bid him goodbye and headed off to class.

"and here is the nerd of the century, getting kissed by his date on the cheek?! wait 'till i tell mamá that he's hitting first base—" gabriel exclaimed into the camera, but miguel was quick and dashed on his heels, running after his little brother to stop him from utter embarrassment. "gabri, quit filming, you little gremlin!" the older boy exclaimed as gabriel screamed and ran off with the camera in his hand, calling miguel names and teasing him about him and his date... how you two were just the perfect little nerds together.

tags !! @miguelswifey04 @hearts4gabri @hisachuu @wreakingmarveloushavok @fictarian @yuridopted0 @simsrandomstuff @luvstarrstruck @popeheywardssecretgf @meeom @arachnoia @melovetitties @fable-library @ophanimgold @smokeywhalee @capnshtfce

[tobias-hankel]

❤️2023 Quan-Tea-Co Fics Recs🖤

The wonderful members of our discord server, Quan-Tea-Co, have written a lot of fanfics this year - this is the rec list!

🖤 SFW No Ship Fics

the friendship we have is a rare find by cherubcurls, Gen, In and out. “I've got this.” she affirmed to herself breathily, looking down at her hands that held two cups of coffee rather than one, still steaming, still fresh. Her heart swelled with affection. She grinned, “We've got this.” OR; Penelope and Spencer agree to meet up to have a study session before finals. A couple of things change and they end up not studying at all.

and i saw my life in photographs of faded memories by whateverislovely, Gen, Morgan reminds him just a little too much of the football players who bullied him relentlessly all through high school and even college. He’s big and imposing, with bulging muscles and a look on his face that says, Are you kidding me? when Hotch informs him that Spencer is the newest member of the BAU team. Five times Spencer misinterprets Morgan's intentions, and one time he's finally able to straighten things out.

where do we begin to get clean again by whateverislovely, Teen, Spencer often participates in toasts with the group using water or tea or potato chips instead of alcohol. This fic explores the events that may have led him to stop drinking.

silence like a cancer grows by whateverislovely, Teen, Diana doesn’t forgive Spencer for having her institutionalized… at least, not right away.

❤️Mature No Ship Fics

Surrender by @starzzyeyed, Mature, He doesn't want this, not really. He never wanted it. But he's in too deep now, and getting out seems less and less possible as the days trickle on, like sand through an hourglass. Or: An in depth look at Reid's addiction, and what it might have been like for him.

what’s this, the consequences of my actions? by cherubcurls, Mature, Because Spencer wasn’t used to safe. He needed adrenaline to pump through his veins and soften the blow for him to have a good day. His family never really liked how violent he was. OR; Spencer comes back home from a particularly horrible fight and his Dad is less than amused.

Solved Game by Boots17, Mature, Solved game: a game whose outcome can be correctly predicted from any position, assuming that the game is played perfectly. A season 12 canon divergence in which Mr. Scratch dies a little too early, Reid accepts the plea deal, and Cat Adams plays a very long game. Years later, the two finally get their rematch.

Ships are under the cut

🖤SFW Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid

A Gentle Touch Hurts So Much by ProfessorWorm, Gen, Spencer has unaddressed childhood fears dredged up by Aaron’s attempt to help him recover from his knee injury.

Day 4 - FFC - Second Love by a1_kitkat, Teen, Spencer never much cared for anniversaries, neither does Aaron… this time there’s an exception.

There Are Secrets That We Still Have Left To Find by @starzzyeyed, Not Rated, Spencer Reid is seven years old the first time he comes out to anyone. Three times Spencer comes out, across three different points in his life, all with three very different outcomes.

❤️NSFW/Mature Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid

Subscribed by AestheticTek and @goobzoop, Explicit, After stressful cases, Hotch finds that camming in lingerie helps him to decompress, while Reid happens to stumble upon the most attractive man that greatly resembles his biggest crush, his boss.

The Absence of Sound by BluePenguinLightning, Mature, The sudden onslaught of sounds startled Spencer Reid awake, not that he ever slept well anyway. He hadn’t slept well in two hundred and seventy-four days. In all honesty, he wasn’t even sure how he managed to make it that far. In which Reid somehow manages to survive a sadistic psychopath but that's only the beginning.

kill your indulgences by cherubcurls, Explicit, Hotch was his; his to keep, his to possess, his to feed on. “No,” he tried to mumble. As best as he could with his canines still firmly lodged onto his throat. “Mine.” OR; Hotch lets Spencer feed on him.

The Boy by house_of_lantis, Explicit, Lord Aaron Hotchner is one of the most ruthless rulers of the City. But despite his fearsome reputation, Lord Hotchner is respected by his people and beloved by those closest to him. He strives to bring order and justice to the City and to protect it from anyone who dared threaten it. Spencer is the newest addition to Aaron’s private harem, stolen from his previous master. Affectionately nicknamed the Boy, he is the exclusive body slave to Lord Hotchner and he learns to navigate the politics of the harem.

Hide and Seek by Highway58, Explicit, An Unsub fixates on the BAU Team, determined to make them his passion project. Spencer Reid is his ultimate target but in order to get to him, he has to go through the people he holds most dear in his life.

Heathen by Highway58, Explicit, The dreams would not stop. Ever since the unexpected case in Las Vegas when he forced himself to confront his painful past, Spencer Reid had not been able to sleep. The visions haunted him relentlessly... he couldn't resist the need to forget it all. Something was happening to him. Something he'd been suppressing for most of his life, ever since that one moment in his childhood he couldn't--wouldn't--face. Soon, very soon... he wouldn't be able to resist his own biology. Even though he had no idea it was even part of him. He was just a Beta... right? Spencer Reid approaches a crossroads he never imagined he could face.

Ain't Always Gold by Highway58, Explicit, Omega Spencer gets knocked up by his Mate Aaron Hotchner in the wake of Emily's death and he doesn't know it until it's about to kill him.

Call Me Daddy by goobzoop, Explicit, Aaron teaches Spencer how to date, but it’s not women he’s making him better for. It’s himself.

Let Me Be Your Only Choice by TobiasHankel, Explicit, After Spencer is kidnapped by Hankel, the team expects to find the omega scared and possibly beaten. They didn’t expect to find Spencer next to a dead Alpha and dying from bond rejection. With limited options and a dying Spencer, Hotch is forced to make a decision that Spencer can’t even consent to in order to save his life.

Every Version of You by goobzoop, Explicit, Hotch's whole world comes crashing down the moment he witnesses his husband get injured right in front of him. Spencer makes it through, but the road to recovery is more difficult than he could have ever imagined. Or, amnesia fic!

A Fool There Was by reasonablerodents, Explicit, Hotch is using Spencer to take out his frustrations regarding his failing marriage. Spencer is so desperately in love with him that he’ll put up with anything- just as long as he can be close to Hotch.

Touch The Leather by reasonablerodents, Explicit, “Well, the problem with shoes is- um, they’re dirty, there’s a staggering amount of bacteria even on the cleanest ones, I don’t want…” He trails off again, swallowing hard. Or: Hotch wants Spencer to prove how much he loves him.

Room on the Third Floor by Matthew1972, Explicit, One minute Aaron Hotchner is walking free, contemplating a forever with Spencer… the next he gets snatched away. Locked up in a cage to the whims of an unsub unlike any other he's ever faced. A hunter and wildcat shifter trafficker. But then, his inner panther and human self alike refuse to be tamed and collared to live out his days as the wildcat alone. To be another victim sold. Will his defiance become his downfall? Or does Aaron get to return home to Spencer and see through on his proposal?

🖤SFW Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid

Maybe Someday Soon by @justjasper, Teen, "Derek talks about you." The Morgan women know that he's in love with Reid. They also know that he is absolutely clueless about it.

Washed Away by TobiasHankel, Teen, It had been over a year since Spencer Reid went missing after he was kidnapped by Tobias Hankel. He was presumed to be dead, but Morgan refused to believe it and move on. After a case takes the team back to the same state Spencer went missing in, Morgan might just get the answers he has been looking for.

❤️ NSFW/Mature Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid

Spun Hearts by JustJasper, Explicit, After a harrowing case Morgan needs control, and Reid needs a fix, and they wind up in bed. Reid sees this as a potential evolution of their relationship, but Morgan is adament that he's not gay. The path towards what they both want isn't a simple one, and a recurring case brings some painful things to bare as they both try to navigate what they are to each other.

When We're Together, Our Bodies They Start Fires by JustJasper, Explicit, 2x06, "The Boogey Man", Reid sits in a police station practicing trying to lockpick a pair of handcuffs with a paperclip. Some short time later, he misses a hangout with Morgan, who goes to check on him.

🖤 Other Ships

Home by KatrioneSpecterRossi, Explicit, Emily Prentiss/David Rossi, Usually when there's a disturbance in the middle of the night, it involves Emily waking up from a PTSD-induced nightmare with her gun pointing at her bed partner's head. This time when she wakes up, it's for a very different reason...that turns out being a great deal more fun.

Level Pegging by Starzzy, Explicit, Elle Greenaway/Spencer Reid, “I don’t need, or frankly have the time to have sex,” he manages at last, somehow forcing his feet to move and take him forwards to the coffee maker. He almost forgoes the sugar entirely, wanting the bitter taste to wake him up from this walking nightmare he seems to be living in right now. “All I’m saying is, you wouldn’t be my first,” Elle says as she comes up to stand next to him.

❤️ Crossovers

I Used to Dread the Thought of Falling Quickly by Chaotic_Librarian, Explicit, Supernatural, Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Spencer Reid/Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Spencer Reid/Dean Winchester, Spencer Reid/Sam Winchester, Spencer Reid knows how to stumble into odd situations. But being kidnapped and then promptly flirted with? Seduced? by two of the FBI's Most Wanted? That has to take the cake. That, however, won't stop him from falling in love.

Entertained by Chaotic_Librarian, Explicit, Supernatural, Spencer Reid/Sam Winchester, Sam's sitting on his bar stool on the miniature stage again, his guitar in his lap.  Another stool serving as his table with a half-drunk glass of whiskey, he looks out across the mediocre crowd.  Typical Wednesday. That's his preferred crowd, anyway.  Joanne managing the bar, Pauline working the floor, and him on the stage as cheap entertainment.  Strumming his guitar and singing country songs he learned by heart years ago.  Sometimes he'll do requests.  But not often.  Not a lot of Kansans approach the stage when he's playing.  They just let him do his thing.

I Must Admit that I was Reeling by Chaotic_Librarian, Explicit, Supernatural, Spencer Reid/Sam Winchester, Aaron Hotchner/Dean Winchester, Spencer goes way too far to get closure on his fling with Sam Winchester. Because it was just a fling, right? It's not like they're meant to be, right?

To Love And To Be Loved In Return by reasonablerodents and Starzzy, Mature, Grease (1978), Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia/Derek Morgan, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss, Aaron Hotchner accepted a long time ago that he was never going to be able to be his true self. Not only was it illegal, it was highly unlikely that he’d ever find someone willing to be in hiding with him for the rest of their lives, unless America got a whole lot more open and accepting. That all changes when Spencer Reid transfers to Oakdale to finish his senior year.

Thank you everyone for making such great works this last year! The Quan-Tea-Co server is open to new members as long as you are over 18 years old. Invite Link.

[eldritch-spouse]

Pinnie - or, if you're truly fine with it, Mommy cause you radiate that energy tbf - does Zizz like getting spanked?? Cause one thing that sounds really fantastic is tying a big monster boy up, head down ass up and spanking him until he's begging me to fuck him stupid X)

[I thought it'd be a little obvious I enjoy that title. FUCK YES THOUGH, I love the sound of that for Zizz. Fem reader.]

TW: Spanking (reader has to use a flogger this man is huge).

Being the wife of an Icon of Hell isn't always as bleak as you thought it'd be.

Sure, you didn't come into this willingly, and the first months you spent with Zizz certainly can't be called a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination, but you count your lucky stars that it wasn't worse. That your initial expectations weren't met.

That he doesn't hurt you. That the demonlord actually made, and continues to make, efforts to turn this into an acceptable arrangement for you. You're not excusing any of his actions, but you've allowed yourself to feel glad for the way things have turned out, with a more or less loving dynamic established. You're not sure you'll ever match his frankly intimidating intensity, but... You're fond of Zizz.

And he's been happy with that so far, which means you've been steadily introduced to a lot of Zizz's duties as King of Sloth. It's actually quite surprising, the amount of work he gets done during the brief episodes wherein he's fully awake. Zizz is a bright demon, in spite of initial appearances. He's organized Sloth in a way where his trusted servants can pick up work perfectly when he inevitably falls onto a dead sleep at his desk. He's got alarms set up for very specific hours and manages to schedule things in a way where, almost magically, Sloth still functions. It's impressive.

He says having you around has been very helpful as well, since you apparently prove to be a very effective source of motivation for the demonlord to remain awake and complete tasks, so he can spend more time with you. You recall the way he purrs whenever you bring him a cup of coffee. Not that it does anything to him physically, you're sure it must be nothing more than a placebo effect paired with joy that you bother to do such for him in the first place.

Nonetheless, one of the facets of Zizz's professional life you've been involved in occasionally are the so-fabled "Icon meetings". It's... Well, they're shitshows more often than not, you kind of understand why Zizz dozes off early on. Usually, there's bickering going on, and it hardly ever involves the Sloth lord himself, so being awake is a waste of time as far as he's concerned. Clever thinking. Though it does make you feel slightly unsafe that he's willingly going unconscious while you're surrounded by other huge demons, who sometimes give you strange looks.

You're sure the gigantic snake woman is going to eat you one of these days, Livius is constantly glaring at you two, Cero has a disgusted look on his face whenever you meet his eyes and Rinx glances over everytime some gold trinket in your outfit jingles. You won't even get started on the Wrath lord's dreadful volume. Vesper is apparently one of the friendlier ones, it seems. He still gives you and Zizz lecherous glances, having blatantly propositioned the demonlord to let him sleep with you two at several points. While it scandalized you at first, you soon realized it was just in his nature to behave that way. Still, when he's not actively trying to get you horny, he's not bad company, and you've had quite a few pleasant conversations so far.

One such is what planted an idea in your mind.

If you recall correctly, it was at a meeting a couple of days ago, nothing too eventful was taking place, the Pride lord and the Greed lord were arguing heatedly about the state of cross-ring resource importation and some manner of "unreasonable inflation", it didn't matter. Vesper was sitting next to Zizz, who was predictably in a dead sleep in spite of the commotion. He had you trapped in his arms, which were crossed over his chest. You had been about ready to take a nap yourself when someone tapped your shoulder.

" Don't snooze just yet, darling, I'm terribly bored. " It was the Lust King, of course, flicking his lashes and pouting.

" Mmn, whaddya want? "

Vesper snickers. " Oh, humor me just this once? "

" 'M not going to have sex with you. " A muscle memory response by then.

" Yes, a shame. " He paused. " But, I actually want to know about your sex life with Zizz. "

You had popped an eye open there, not exactly amused.

" See, I spoke with Zizz when he was still single, and I know for a fact he's into a number of things... " Those sharpened teeth took on a perverted, pleased grin. " Have you two been exploring that? "

Had you? It was odd, aside from somnophilia and lazy sex, maybe a couple of slightly risky escapades, things hadn't really gotten spiced up. But then, you had only recently began getting sexually comfortable with Zizz, maybe he didn't want to jeopardize everything by introducing something hard into the bedroom. Vesper took that silence as an answer by itself, tutting softly.

" W- Why do you care?! " Why wouldn't he care? He's a huge whore, it's what he does.

" I just hate seeing potential go to waste, dear. " The Icon then murmured. " I can give you some hints, hm? "

The suggestion had given you pause. Indulging in Zizz's kinks... In your captor turned oddly-lovable demon's kinks. What had your life come to... But then, it'd be a lie to say you disliked the idea. The morality of it is frivolous, you're here now. There's no way out, you thought maybe you should lean into what amount of happiness you could reap from this situation. And maybe, just maybe, getting Zizz hot and bothered made you happy.

" U- Uhm. Okay... "

Vesper perked up, head tendril curling. " Perfect! I'll send you a little something something. You're a smart girl, you'll get the idea. " And he winked, letting the conversation die there.

A day later, one of the head imp servants approached you specifically with a delivery from Lust. A mysterious black box with a stupidly fancy bow on top. You opened it in your shared bedroom, coming face to face with a long silicone... Flogger? Paddle? One end featuring a pretty pastel pink heart shape while the other had feathers of the same hue. It clicked then. Spanking. Zizz was into spanking. How innocuous, you expected something a little more menacing. Included in the box was also a pair of handcuffs. The symbols on its sleek padded purple design made it obvious that it was enchanted with something. Though it was the size of the item that gave you pause. It was far too big for a human. For you. These cuffs were made for demons the size of Zizz.

Meaning you will not be the one getting spanked. The Icon of Sloth is.

That alone had taken you by surprise, though a knowing smirk quickly crawled up your cheeks while you pondered. It made sense. Zizz is a lazy demon, for sure. Sex with him usually has you doing most of the work, though he has proved to be an efficient pleaser when challenged before. Point being, Zizz's lack of energy makes him come off as submissive... It was no wonder that he'd enjoy taking the role of a spankee.

You liked that idea. A whole lot actually. A plan began formulating in your mind...

Which leads you to today!

Tonight actually.

You can't sleep. How could you?! You're going to spank your big goof of a boyfriend. King, actually. You're going to spank a King. Oh ho ho, if this isn't some power trip.

The room is dark, aptly dark for someone as light-sensitive as your partner, only some dim LED lights scattered around. You're once more trapped between a mountain of plushies and the demon's annoyingly tight grip as he lays on his side, chin plopped on top of your head. Zizz has recently taken to sleeping without his veil, perhaps because he trusts you not to peel the curtains open in the morning and blind him. Eitherway, that leaves the big lad in nothing but plain black underwear, overly hot body glued to yours. It's unpleasant to always wake up vaguely sweaty, but you've resigned yourself to it by now, it's part of this new life.

Alright. Step one is wiggling out of your prison.

Kicking and shoving stuffed animals aside sounds easy, and it really is, unless you're drowning in them, in which case you might as well be doing jack shit. Because everytime you push a shape out of the way, another fluffy thing will take its place, like quicksand. Eventually, with enough effort, you manage to create some vacant space in the bed. Good. Now comes the hard part.

Getting Zizz to let go of you.

You've been practicing. After all, he's done this since day one, and many were the times where you woke up in the middle of the night on emergency mode with a full bladder. Calling his name is fruitless, the demon will grunt or mumble at most, maybe whine. Taps and straight up slaps to his bare skin won't do anything either, he just shakes like jelly and snores. You've learned, through experience, that gentle attention is usually what gets Zizz to move.

Squirming to at least face the huge demon, you look up and frame his dark face. Soft, so weirdly soft. This part of him is as odd as it gets. He's like... A matchstick, featuring this charred-black head bleeding darkness into his neck. You'd figure such a part of him would be rough, but it's almost like a cloud. Grabbing those smooth cheeks, you place gentle kisses all over his face and exposed teeth, making sure to nuzzle your nose on him. Zizz faintly starts purring and readjusts his neck to be closer to you, but his arms remain firmly locked around your torso and waist, not even twitching. Tsk.

With a huff, you resort to more insistent tricks, tickling at his neck and trying to do the same to the parts of his tummy you can reach. That gets him to groan something nonsensical out, limbs jerking and tail swatting at the sheets. Yet still not enough. Fine then. Far from deterred, not only do you hasten the pace of your digits, you blow air onto his face periodically.

Finally, that appears to bother Zizz enough to slacken his hold, one arm raising to rub his features.

Knowing a golden opportunity when you see one, it's a matter wiggling insistently and tapping at his loose arm to finally, finally- Break free! Victory. Aha!

The demonlord very clearly notices the lack of heat and pressure on him, growing distressed ad grumbling amidst a deep slumber. It's almost cute, the way his tail thrashes in indignation.

That's step one. Step 2 is breaking out the nice stuff, conveniently hidden inside the closet you share with your King. It's not like he looks at it anyway, his servants basically do everything for him. And you. But it's okay to be a little pampered, right? The contents of the box are removed and tossed onto the bed after you clear it of excess pillows and plushies.

Step 3, the most difficult of them all. Rolling this fucker onto his stomach.

But how?

Hm...

Impact. You need to throw yourself. Though it could backfire and make him fall on you. Here goes nothing! With some momentum, you roll onto the bed and slam against a hard grayish body, mostly not achieving much beyond stunting yourself. But hey, you did wake him up slightly.

" Mmmr, whas' dat? "

Zizz rumbles out, a deep, slurred sleepy tone that always makes you shiver. " Hey... Roll onto your stomach? " Worth a try.

He sighs, and after a couple of seconds, basically flops onto his front like dead weight. Hah! You're not sure how awake the demonlord is right now, but it won't stop you.

" Zizz? " You try after getting back up, receiving no response from the static monster. Yep, he's out again. Truly remarkable.

No time to waste! Grabbing the cuffs, and securing the key somewhere of course, you drag his hands together, looping the toy around one of the top columns of this ridiculously large bed. The cuffs glow a slightly pink hue once locked. He didn't twitch a muscle through this... Sometimes you worry for Zizz's safety.

There! Now, onto the good part.

Having the large demon rolled over, you giggle to yourself in pure satisfaction and eye his plain boxers. It's funny, you have more than confirmed he doesn't use underwear with his typical garbs, but he puts it on to sleep. How odd. Climbing behind the large monster, you take a moment to appreciate his behind. Zizz is huge, and what's more, he's also on the curvier side, you're sure he's the softest demon out there. By virtue of the former, he also has a pretty fat ass, if you do say so yourself.

A cute, round, perfect ass.

Lips curled up, you drag bare palms up the Icon's legs, making sure to cup the fat of his heavy thighs before resting them on those fine globes. For someone who likes to call you "pillow" so much, you sure as Hell just found a perfect headrest right here. Your attention is caught by a periodically swaying tail, that pretty thin thing with a tip very similar to his horns. It looks like a half-moon. Your arm extends, grabbing the length of it much like a cat after a thread of yarn. It bats aimlessly in your grasp, until you peel it out of that special band in his boxers.

You're no angel, you're purposely giving yourself a titillating show when you grasp the hem of his underwear, dragging the fabric down slowly and biting your lip the moment it rests on his thighs. Perfect ass indeed. You could just bite him.

Instead, you pick up the long flogger Vesper generously gifted to you, choosing the feathered end to start your torture. Sitting cross-legged between the massive demon's legs, you start feathering at his limbs.

" Ziiizz... "

Nothing, predictably. The ministrations move higher, zigzagging playfully, resting over the crux between those thighs. " Zizzy. " No response.

Your notions become insistent, tickling at the expanse of skin between pucker and slit, occasionally rising to tease the root of his tail before dipping back down. Laughter rings out when the demonlord does move, shifting his ass and twitching his legs. The most you get out of him is another caveman grunt.

Tut tut.

Alright. No more playing around then.

Readjusting the toy, you quickly swat it against the meat of his left cheek.

Finally, the Sloth King jolts, making a much more sober sound. You can hear the rustling of those fancy cuffs against the bed post while Zizz gradually processes the situation.

" Mmn did... Did you just hit me? " He slurs, bright white eyes staring back at you from the relative darkness.

" Me? " You start innocently. " With these little hands? " As if to emphasize the point, you splay said feelers against his rump, groping to your heart's content, drumming on his rump a bit. He shudders when you lean in to plant a kiss on the spot you just swatted. " You wouldn't even feel it, right? "

Before the demon can answer, you grasp the cute flogger again and swipe it across his right cheek. Zizz instantly shudders, muscles tensing. Hm, Vesper wasn't kidding, this does work. Good.

" M-Marshmallow? What is that? " His tone is breathy, that doesn't sound like a complaint to you.

" Don't worry about it too much. " And just because you like seeing his buffer jiggle, you lash it again, a little lower, a more tender spot if your research is correct.

Zizz chuffs something incomprehensible. The sleepiness apparently leaving him steadily at this turn of events. " Am... 'M I being punished? " He murmurs, legs spreading ever so slightly.

You take the time to think about it while you remove his underwear fully. Are you punishing your King? You could, by all means, you're still essentially a captive, even if you've decided to make the most out of it. Why not spin this in a different direction?

" I don't know Zizz, do you want to be punished? " The question hangs thick in the air while you play with the rubber tip of the toy, waiting.

His brain might not be fully back online, because the demonlord makes a confused sort of "Hhrn?" noise. The next swat has some heft behind it, actually making him arch!

" Words. "

" No... " He finally squeezes out.

You laugh. Yeah right, like he hasn't been pushing his ass up this entire time. You're willing to bet his slit is already wet. " Then what do you want? "

Zizz makes a drawn-out purr, trying to look back at you from his awkward position while his tail dances. " Mm, I want you to suck me off- "

CRACK

" Selfish! Mutt! " Each word punctuated with much harder swats. " Unbelievable... " Zizz pants now, actually pants. " Get on your knees. "

When he takes too long to obey, he's rewarded with yet another lash smack dab on the same side. " We don't have all day! "

" Owww f-fuck- " Doing as told, a clear string of viscous precum connects his slit to the silken sheets beneath him, making you just about steam alive. " You're so mean. "

Rolling your eyes yet smiling wide, you point the feathered side to his dripping entrance and tease it thoroughly, laughing when Zizz squirms in frustration, never getting decent stimulation no matter which way he leans. It only succeeds in making him wetter. " And you're hopeless, my lord. " Switching ends, you allow him direct contact with the pink silicone heart, something the horny monster greedily accepts, rocking against it like an animal, trying to hump the thing.

It's a lecherous show, a sight that just about has you salivating, your pussy seeming to jolt awake as you consider getting beneath the cuffed demon and letting him rut at you. No, not so fast, not this time. The more he huffs and rolls his hips, the less mental fortitude you retain, so you cut the scene short by harshly and suddenly slapping the tip against his slit. A bit cruel, admittedly.

Zizz jerks forward, a loud pained whimper followed by horny little gasps as he buries his whining face in pillows and instinctively bucks against nothing, tingles of pain and pleasure working their way through his body. In a matter of seconds, that gorgeous purple cock is slipping out to play, more than teased and ready. You lick your lips, considering doing just what he wanted for a sliver of a second.

Instead, you snicker and brush his length with the same fluffy feathers. Zizz actually tugs at the cuffs this time, head rising. " Please! "

" Already? " Your brows rise, but it's not much of a surprise at all. It's not hard to make the demonlord beg, he gives in easily, because it takes less effort. You suspect a part of him enjoys feeling powerless anyway. " Tsk, come on, at least try. "

Zizz groans. " Mmh please please please please- "

Figures. Slut.

Your response is to crack that flogger several times across both sides of his ass, hard enough that it does start leaving heart-shaped imprints. And... Aw, it's adorable! You just have to see more of those pretty deep blue hearts on his ass. So pretty...

In a lustful stupor, enamored by those lovely hearts, you keep lashing the thing on several spots, ignoring the way the demonlord howls and trembles, even going for his thighs. He's a big boy, and strong at that. He can deal with a bit of thigh flogging. By the time you've calmed down, breathing heavily, his lower half is peppered in cute little hearts, sore, some spots starting to bruise in even prettier colors. But most importantly, Zizz is sobbing.

You hadn't even heard him.

Whimpering and moaning softly like some sort of overwhelmed animal. You wonder if maybe you've gone too far until you see his cock throbbing repeatedly. Then again, if he really wanted to stop this, he could have by now, you don't believe the cuffs would be an issue given what you've seen Zizz do before.

" Do you think you can come just from this? I think you can. " You half-mock.

The King of Sloth makes a pathetic little noise betraying some great exasperation. " No! No no nn- Please- Please, I'll take anything jus' make me come please- " You wonder what it says about yourself that his sobbing voice makes you heat up like a furnace, shuddering.

The next thing that connects to Zizz's ass is neither the paddle nor the feathers, but your small human hands. He twitches regardless, more than sensitive enough to wince from something as simple as a gust of wind. " Alright, but only because you took it all like a champ. "

Gentle lips peck and smooch around the places you thoroughly abused, a spare hand snaking to his front so you can grab his weeping girth and treat him to generous strokes, not enough to let him orgasm yet. No, you want to take your sweet time, swiping your tongue from the bottom of his slit, all the way up and over his hole. The other moans out, audibly splintering something in the bed post so he can press harder against your flat tongue.

Your chuckle vibrates against his skin, and as fun as eating him out could be, your goal is that appendage thrashing and thumping around. A brilliantly devious idea has you catching the thing with your teeth, nipping at it at the same time your pumps increase in pressure.

Zizz somehow manages to melt more into the sheets, trembling like a leaf. " Hhrn- Don't stop don't stop donn- Ah! " And you don't. Offering the massive monster one last, thunderous clap to his ass the very moment he starts coming.

It's a spectacular show. He comes hard, whining out like a needy harlot, grinding deep into your hand, shooting thick ropes all across it and the bed. Enough in quantity to make you titer. Cooing and swooning, you make sure to milk everything out of Zizz, hearing him huff out in complete euphoria. You only stop when his trembling becomes pained hissing, quickly moving to remove those cuffs while he sags onto the mattress like an emptying balloon. Atop a small pool of his own seed, ew... It's funny, he didn't even pull that hard at the cuffs. Sure, the bed post is visibly damaged, but he behaved fairly well, all things considered!

This was a great test run.

It's not too long before you hop into bed, on top of Zizz's spent body and blowing raspberries on his back. The Icon chuckles tiredly.

" You should see your ass right now. " You smirk.

" You ruined it. " He laments, sighing.

Laughing, you give him a soft kiss and massage his sore wrists. " You did very well, my King. Maybe you should tell me more about your tastes in the future, hm? "

Zizz snorts after a couple of puzzled seconds. " It was Vesper, wasn't it? "

" We're gonna thank him tomorrow. "

Although Zizz makes a disgruntled noise, you catch the very same tail you bit on wagging.

[ghostofskywalker]

I saw you wanted a crosshair request, so what about bickering that turns into a kiss?

i went a little overboard with this one, thank you SO much for the prompt! i hope you love it as much as i do <3

words: 728

@clonexreaderbingo square: bounty hunter

In the Heat of Battle

clone troopers masterlist

“Crosshair, don’t you dare take my kill!” Your voice echoed sharply through the private comm channel, sounding angrier than you ever had before. It was more likely a product of the unexpected attack and the palpable vein of unresolved tension between the two of you than any actual resentment or anger, but it didn’t matter. You had made your desires known, and you expected him to listen. 

Tucked away from the heat of the battle, Crosshair watched through his scope as you and your vibroblade absolutely desiccated any droid stupid enough to step in your path, and he knew that you had one goal: severing the wiring of the tactical droid hiding behind the throng of blundering B-1s. 

It had been a learning curve for his squad, getting used to working with a bounty hunter like you, an outsider in all senses of the word. You were often proud to a fault, having worked by yourself for your entire life, and you were technically his commanding officer, since you were the lead on this particular assignment. He also had to grapple with feelings he had never experienced before, an attraction to you that he couldn’t quite explain.

But you should have known at this point that he never really followed the rules anyway, and by the time you stepped up to the center of the droid command, every single machine there had perfectly singed holes in their head. The battle was over, and the Bad Batch had emerged victorious. 

He didn’t see you again until much later, when the ship was hurtling through hyperspace. He was walking down the hallway towards where the rest of his brothers were gathered in the cockpit when he felt someone grip his arm. Suddenly his back was against the wall, and you had a venomous look on your face. 

“I told you that was my kill, didn’t I?” 

Anyone else on the ship probably would have apologized, or maybe none of his brothers would have been stupid enough to get themselves into this situation in the first place, but of course he just had to stoke the flames. “I did what was best for the mission, and I don’t accommodate for people’s egos.” 

“How about your ego then?” you asked. He knew that you were never going to back down, and that predictability was almost a comfort. “Even though all you do is hide away from the action.” 

Okay, that comment pushed a few buttons. “I’m the most valuable member of this team and you know it.” 

“Maybe to someone else, but I don’t take kindly to cowards, no matter their skillset.” 

“You really think I’m a coward?” Now he was getting a little heated, as your piercing stare continued unwaveringly. 

“Are you not one? Because if that was the case, I would need you to prove it.” 

His next move was lightning fast, pulling you close to him and maneuvering so that it was you who now had their back against the wall, not him. His calloused hands found your face and his lips sealed to yours in a searing kiss. 

Every ounce of emotion he felt towards you, both positive and negative, came out at this very moment, and you responded with just as much as passion. Your hands at his waist had the effect of a drug to him, and he deepened the kiss, not caring that the rest of the team was less than ten paces away and could walk into the hallway at any second. 

When he had to finally pull apart for air, your lips looked thoroughly kissed and the expression on your face was one of pure lust. “Do you still think me a coward?” he asked tauntingly, his lips only inches away from returning to the place they so desperately wanted to be, against yours, savoring every passionate noise you made. 

“Maybe,” you said, your breathless voice giving away your true feelings. “But I think I need a little more convincing.”

“That can certainly be arranged," he whispered as he took your hand and pulled you in the direction of his bunk. 

Hunter had probably heard the entire exchange, but at this moment Crosshair didn’t care one bit. This was something he had been thinking about from the first moment you stepped on board, and he was not going to let it pass by. 

- the end -

[leviathism]

gender neutral reader

Lucifer has no idea what that is. But he congratulates you anyways, proud only by how proud you look when you tell him. He then tells Diavolo who makes a deal with you for a sponsorship for his R.A.D. program. You make lots and lots and lots of money and also help unite realms.

Mammon thinks it’s cool and watches your streams/videos when he’s lonely and can’t hang out with you. The only thing he’d change is instead of that stupid avatar moving around that it’d be your real self, even if that is the point of a Vtuber.

Leviathan is by far the most stoked when he finds out you’re a Vtuber. He already knows who you are and to be honest, he had a sneaking suspicion who you were the whole time. The similar stories, the way you talked and gestured sign your hands, it all made sense now. He shakes your hand every time he sees you now, though.

Satan, predictably, asks if you can add cat ears to your avatar. He, predictably, asks if you can make him and add cat ears. Can you be just a cat on the screen? He is so charmed by the idea and can not stop thinking about a cartoon cat moving along to his movements.

Asmodeus screams. How could you have gone so long with not telling him?! He demands to see it in action, standing right out of sight and watching the screen as the avatar perfectly… well as perfect as it can be… tracks your movements. He asks if you can make a 3D model of him, if it’s not too much trouble.

Beelzebub now watches you when he eats. It’s kind of embarrassing since you usually eat with him. But it’s fun to watch him nod and smile at the screen while you two sit, eat, and watch. He consistently asks if you can make yourself different characters for different occasions. Who are you to say no?

Belphegor thinks it’s interesting and asks if he can try it out. So, as a funny prank, one day he replaces you and you say nothing about it to your audience. He just acts as if he’s always been the person all along. His voice has always sounded like this. He gaslights your entire fan base.

[neoniinu]

no one asked, but here is my big speech about shinra/izaya friendship

i wanna start with their school selves

i saw a lot of people saying that izaya was normal at school and shinra just made him "bad", but in my view it's not the thing. like, in shool izaya already wasn't "normal", he just tried his best to pretend to be an ordinary student. he didn't make any close relationship, isolating himself from strong connections with people (just like he's doing it now), but still had to be in the society because of his interest in humas

vol 9, ch 4

and this interest was already unhealthy, for example, he liked seeing people hurting each other

vol 9, ch 4

shinra wasn't really different from his current self. he was obsessed with celty and she was the reason he made friends with izaya and he didn't really care about others or anything that surrounds him in general. he stayed in his comfort zone (love to celty) and was alright

as i said, shinra invited izaya to his biology club because celty told him to socialize

then, izaya became interested. because shinra's lifestyle was different and opposite of izaya's, especially because their different opinion on humans: izaya loved them, shinra didn't care but he loved celty who is not human, so izaya was genuinely interested in his personality

vol 9, ch 4

then shinra was the only person who was a mystery to izaya, he couldn't predict shinra's actions and reactions and he was annoyed and facsinated about that at the same time

epitome of eighteen stories, ep 15 (translation by xcaneolupusx)

speaking about shinra, he could understand izaya's nature perfectly

vol 13, ch 11

so, izaya became interested in shinra and finally accepted his invitation to the biology club. everything starts here

izaya started feeling real attachment to shinra. now he was not just an interesting person, he was a friend. izaya felt free with him because they both were weird and shinra accepted izaya with all his strange hobbies and interests. their communication was full of mutual acceptance and they both were happy with it. but izaya's genuine attachment is really strong, as long as shinra preferred keeping distance with everyone except celty. not because he didn't like something about izaya nor he didn't care, it was just comfortable for him like that

the key thing: shinra being stabbed by nakura. i can talk about different aspects of this moment

for shinra it's just another proof of his crazy love for celty — he protected izaya mostly because he thought celty would praise him for such a heroic actions

vol 9, epilogue

for izaya it was a complex thing. at first, he was shocked by being protected for the first time. at second, he felt jealous and that's what i find a really important thing. he felt jealous because shinra wasn't alone even if he's so uninterested in others. he had someone who he loved, he had someone to love him, he had important connections, basically he had things izaya didn't

vol 9, epilogue

but despite everything, he still was a friend to izaya, so izaya wanted revenge. so, to my mind, this whole situation not made him who he is now, just gave him the reason to stop trying to conform and show his true self

eventually he promised to make nakura pay for this. shinra just agreed and gave izaya free reign. and izaya really kept his promise. 12 years passed and nakura is still suffering

izaya calls that nakura moment the turning point of his life and the thing that influenced his current self the most

vol 9, epilogue

i see this part as the starting point for everything happening in the plot, because this was the moment when izaya finally decided what to do

when shinra and izaya finish school, they see each other more rarely. because it's not necessary to meet every day and they both have things to do. shinra happily lives with celty, again, staying in his comfort zone and izaya, who doesn't have any life and friends, is alone with his love for humans and crazy ideas. and still he thinks about shinra as a friend

vol 9, ch 2

and shinra calls him a friend too

but shinra has priorities and celty is the most important of them, so when izaya calls him from the hospital, he just hangs up

shinra lives in his love and keeps distance with everyone else as always and izaya suffers with his attachment alone, because he can't and doesn't want to get rid of it. but he understands that he's the only one to blame in his state (because he chose such a life for himself) so he isn't angry at shinra. maybe just a bit

there is another important moment, when izaya thinks about shinra being mad at him, feels something like guilt and beats the telephone pole

vol 9, epilogue

friendship with shinra is the closest relationship izaya has, but again, i can't blame shinra for his uncaring attitude. he treasures izaya and still accepts him and izaya's problems are not something shinra can solve

their relationship can't be seen through the prism of normal friendship because they both are extraordinary people with their own standards

[azquine]

This may be for too niche of an audience, but fuck it, I'm reaching the fixated audience of me.

The captain from BBC Ghosts and Abed Nadir from community share quite a few similarities, at least from the way I read them.

They both hyperfixate, and their broad hyperfixation shapes the very way they view reality.

For the captain every interaction is a battle he has to strategize through in order to succeed. People are divided into allies and enemies, ranked into inferiors and superiors. Everything is war to him.

And to Abed the world is a show, every event a plotpoint with tropes he can either embrace or subvert. Their sequence he can break down into genre and predict. Every person is a character with a role, with consistent traits and desires he can navigate.

It is through these lenses that they try to control others sometimes, and are occasionally controlled in turn. Though honestly, when he tries Abed is more effective in this regard. Think about the American poultry episode, the captain could never. The captain attempts to pull rank and order more than he manipulates. That's more Julian's thing. Whereas Abed isn't trying to be the leader, he knows he isn't the main character, but he does want to lead the story where he thinks it would be best

They are both outwardly stoic seeming. If you look at them as a stranger all you will see is a straight face and blunt words. But if you pay any attention to how they actually act, you can see that they actually feel things very deeply. They care a lot. Their way of expressing themselves just isn't the exact same way as everyone else. But if you know what to look for it is not subtle in the least. Every little action is practically dripping with their thoughts and feelings. The way they position their head, the way they fiddle with things in their hands, their habits are visible and consistent. If anyone so wished they could make a list of each one and what they mean. So what if they don't laugh or smile the same way that other people do, if when they try to do it normally to fit in it is a little 'off'. If sometimes people call them emotionless. If sometimes they think that of themselves. They aren't.

This is most visible when they get to interact with their fixation, or when that fixation is taken away from them. Their joy, or upset, is practically palpable. You can see them visibly brighten up when the opportunity to share or interact with the thing they enjoy arises.

And then there is the abandonment that fundamentally changes them. Havers and Troy. Both gone to another place far away, leaving The Captain to stare at an open gate and Abed at an empty chair. The person most important to them, who bothered to understand them more than anyone else ever did, ends up leaving them behind. And it hurts them. A lot. It's one of the last things they speak about with the other characters and audience before their show ends.

For the comfort of hetronormative society they appear as a friend or a working partner to them. Though there is clear subtext that there was something more underneath. That they wanted something more. Even though it was not something they openly spoke of.

They are also both just kind of silly. This is completely unintentional on the captain's part, who would prefer to appear perfectly serious and professional. Abed however does not really give a shit how others see his activities and interests. They just get so into everything they do that it quickly veers into ridiculousness, focused on their task long after everyone else gives it up.

I don't know, I didn't really have any point to this post other than to talk about my current favourite two queer autistic characters. I would highly recommend that if you like Ghosts and the Captain, or Community and Abed, that you also watch the other show. Both will make you laugh and also kick you squarely in the sternum. And if any of you have any thoughts please let me know, I am dying to talk about these things.

[littlesparklight]

Some thoughts on seers and Troy...

First of all, regardless of when, exactly, one consider Kassandra to have been given her mantic ability and how (and this matters!), neither Kassandra nor Helenos are the only seers in Troy.

Polydamas himself seems to be one, even if that is "only" through reading bird omens - this still counts. He wouldn't be the only one, but much like Kassandra and Helenos he's got an especially "privileged" closeness to the royal family what with his friendship with/connection to Hektor.

If one goes with the "snakes cleaned their ears as babies" version for the twins, they would've had a pretty long run of perfectly normal mantic ability. And Helenos is, either way, never cursed. And, even in the Iliad, certainly not especially disbelieved; his one scene relating to something 'supernatural' in terms of seeing/hearing is relaying the conversation/intent of the conversation between Athena and Apollo to Hektor, assuring him the gods assures his survival if he challenges Ajax.

If one goes with Kassandra only getting her mantic ability when Apollo approaches her to sleep with her, presumably late teens or young adult, things look a little different for her. Because then she gets her gift "late", and it is immediately spoiled by the curse as she refuses Apollo. No one would ever have known Kassandra as a "proper" seer in this case; all they have is her "wrongful ravings".

In the Kypria, both Helenos and Kassandra, at two different points before Paris leaves, prophecy. I'd love to know what they said - that is, how detailed they got, how far into the future they were telling of events. And how clear they were.

Prophecies in myth are very often extremely clear about what's going to happen, after all - even in the case of Oidipous the Pythia is clear, it's just that Oidipous, compared to his father, doesn't have all the knowledge. With what he does have, he takes the course of action he thinks will avert the prophecy (instead it of course leads to fulfilment).

But even a lack of opaque prophetic statements can still be confusing (Tiresias' prophecy to Odysseus is both rather clear and very confusing, for example).

So, even after Paris comes home with Helen - if there are further prophecies, they might not have been about very far into the future. On top of that, if Kassandra is the only one prophesying doom at this point, even if it certainly has been prophesied earlier (the reading of Hecuba's pregnancy dream omen), and she is now cursed... of course no one's going to believe that, twice over!

And, as a little last point; Hektor's specific issue (flaw, if you will, because it certainly is one) with readings of omens and prophecies seems he refuses to believe the ones that predict negative outcomes. He clearly rejects Polydamas' reading of the eagle-and-snake on its own, but in addition because he has a positive omen from earlier to fall back on.

And technically he isn't wrong; he still has Zeus' support, even past the point of the eagle-and-snake omen. At the point Polydamas is advising immediate retreat, Hektor still has success in front of him. A retreat would certainly, if allowed to happen (Zeus, after all, needs it not to), have assured no disastrous rout when Patroklos and the Myrmidons rejoin the battle. But Hektor still isn't wrong that Zeus is explicitly at his side for a while yet.

[howl-fantasies]

Hello Author-san! If you have time... I'd like to request Gotham characters realizing they've been a total douche towards [name].

I re-read all your stories recently (still amazing, like I'm reading them for the first time amazing) and I noticed that a lot of Gotham people(😆) are (most of the time) always very mean towards [name] even when [name] always clean up after them 🤔

I just wanna see them realize [name] needs some love too- 😤

Take care Author-sannnn 💛

Awwww it's so cute, thank you for your request and compliments ♥️ They weren't the best frenemies I have to say and often are ungrateful little brats with her indeed.

Don't worry, Y/N doesn't mind at all. If anything, she finds their hostility amusing. Especially coming from Oswald and Edward who she sees as moody teens: claiming they hate you but desperately asking for your help when they aren't able to do the most simple thing. The irony is just *chef kiss* 😂

It was quite hard to write about Jim since he's so attached to the law, what's right and wrong. Being a little bit nice with Y/N is as hard for him as beeing genuinely nice with Oswald. But he realizes she can be good, sort of.

Warning: English mistakes, it's not my first language, I'm working on it. Violence, bad words.

--

Oswald Cobblepot

"That freaking harlot!"

He was fuming, as his phone was crashed against the hard wood of his desk, Oswald cursed again thinking about the end of his call with Y/N.

Behind him, Victor watched their boss screeches like an angry bird, slapping the poor device again and again. Penguin was easy to anger, he thought. So easy, his dear wife made it a sport to irks him as many times as she could per day.

He felt his own phone buzz in his heart pocket. She broke another record doing it, he knew, winning their bet in doing so in less then 30 seconds. He owed her a calzone.

"YOU'RE NOT LISTENING AREN'T YOU VICTOR?!"

The killer first blinked. Admiring a new shade of red growing on Cobblepot's furious face. Then, shrugged in carefree way.

"I KNEW IT! Stop thinking about this stupid excuse of a woman!" yelled the little man while finishing the massacre of his now dead phone.

"Boss." He called.

"Whut now, Zsasz?!"

"Why don't you just stop working with Y/N? You can't stand her and know I'm perfectly able to annihilate about anyone in town... " Victor stated flatly.

Oswald scoffed like the bald man had insulted his dear mother. "That's utterly stupid!" He said, now throwing him a hard glare, soon joined by another scoff. "Your idiotic wife is irking, acting like she owns any freaking place she's standing in, is demanding ridiculously high compensation for anything she's asked to do"

The killer nodded at each point made, making a few "Uh-uh" here and there.

"But she's useful. And I don't have to explain every steps of my plans to her, because she already knows, Victor. That damn woman is already en route to do the job before I even have to open my mouth!" Penguin yelled angrily. At him, her or about the fact that he recognized some qualities to the woman? Zsasz didn't know.

And didn't even have the time to ask, since Oswald was now pointing him with an accusating finger. "THAT makes her, and trust me it's killing me to say it: valuable. Very valuable. But also dangerous. And you're suggesting that I stop working with her?! For what? My rivals to contact her immediately and ask her to annihilate me? When she's rivaling freaking mediums when it comes to predict my next actions?! You're very capable with your guns, but against her?! This snake-woman would destroy YOU and ME. Or more likely will use YOU to destroy ME. No. Way. Not a chance! "

Zsasz raised a bored brow. "So much faith in me, boss. It stings you know."

Still in front of him, Cobblepot slammed his elegant cane on the hard floor. "It's faith in her that I have, faith to make you do whatever she wants, without even have to break a sweat", Oswald deadpaned.

"Order me to kill her then." Shrugged the henchman without any emotion on his face or in his tone.

Cobblepot jolted like the thunder hit him. "What?!" He whisper-yelled. "Are you MAD?!" Now he was definitely yelling. "Aren't you her husband?! How dare you even suggest it?!" Pacing around like a lion inside of its cage, Penguin now used his cane to point at him. "First you want to put her on the side, taking her job, and now you want to shoot her to death?! Yes, of course, the woman deserves a strike from Karma, but this! You're supposed to be ready to die for your lover VICTOR, not be ready to be the one killing them!" Zsasz was pretty sure the walls were shaking with how loud the new King of Gotham was.

All of sudden, Oswald froze, his cane still pointing at him and his eyes wide. "You don't deserve her." He whispered before his voice was back to normal. "I forbid you to do it, Victor. I absolutely forbid you to even point the barrel of your gun at any part of her body, do you hear me?"

Zsasz's face was still blank as he shrugged and nodded. "Fair mistake, thought you hated her you know. Just wanted to help here."

Oswald gritted his teeth angrily. "If anything, be grateful for all the work she does and the affection she's showing you, when all you deserve would be her incredible silver tongue to work against you and make you stab yourself in the knee."

--

----------- 1 New Message --------

Oswald Cringebblepot

Go find Ed. I need to talk to him.

.

Y/N

Already called him, he's on his way.

.

Oswald Cringebblepot

Thank you. And good work.

.

Y/N

Did you let Strange play with your brain again Oswald?

.

Oswald Crazbblepot

I'm just being polite, harlot. Doesn't hurt to be from time to time.

.

Y/N

Ok, Creepbblepot.

-------- End of Message -------

.

-------- 1 New Message --------

Victor Zsasz

I'm formally forbidden to shoot you.

.

Y/N

My, oh my. Look at how tables have turned. Thought he would want me dead after my last pun on the phone.

.

Victor Zsasz

Reverse psychology.

.

Y/N

You never cease to amazed me.

.

Victor Zsasz

What can I say?

I do good work.

.

Y/N

👌👏

---

EDWARD NYGMA / THE RIDDLER

Calling Y/N, the second most prolific assassin in town, names was at this point a constant for him.

She never held any grudge against him for that, still answering his messages whenever they came and teasing him to no end. So what's changed?

Seated on one of the sofa's of his hideout, Riddler was intensely watching his phone. More exactly the last message sent to the woman, that she saw, he could tell, but which she didn't answer. 3 hours without a single irritating "Riddlie, RiddLame or Riddl-ED". What happened?

"Cat got your tongue? Would be the first time. Not so surprising to finally see your microscopic wit running dry." He sent.

Again. A simple "seen" under his text, but no answer. Not a single word. He tsked, clearly irritated.

"Not so surprising to get no answer when all you do is insulting her intelligence." Muttered a well-known voice from the mirror standing in the corner of the room.

"Shut it. Her so-called intelligence is nothing compare to our genius. Pointing it out isn't even an insult, it's just a fact" Snapped the man in green.

"Genius. Yes, that's what we are. But she's no simpleton. Far from it actually. And even you know that. You should be nicer with her... " Answered his reflexion in a shy voice.

"I. Said. Shut it. ED. Don't start to try to put some sickly sweet sentiments into the link I share with Y/N." Said Riddler angrily while facing the damn mirror, his eyes glaring at those much more softer he saw in front of him.

"Our link." Ed slowly answered.

Stunned by his words, Riddler felt more than he saw his head moving slightly back from the shock. "What?" He now whispered.

"Our link. Y/N is my friend too. She was even before she knew you", Ed said, straightening his shirt awkwardly.

This time, his whole body jolted. His mouth opened wide incredulously. The surprise was short though, soon replaced by hot anger.

"Friends? She didn't even talk to you, stupid! Just answered the riddles you wrote on a ridiculous card for Kringle and forgot in the interrogation room, like the idiot you are. Y/N happened to be here waiting for Jimbo to question her. You call that being friend?!" Riddler mocked.

Ed lowered his eyes but still shrugged. "She knew someone was behind the tainted mirror and ask them to tell the author of the riddles it was quite good. It was nice. And friendly." He argued.

"You're being delusional." Deadpaned Riddler. The man glanced at his phone again, in case this crazy conversation made him miss a notification from her.

"Who is delusional thinking about calling a friend someone he always mocks and insults?" Ed's voice taunted. Who would have thought the poor and nice little Ed had that in him?

"Don't. Just don't try to make me feel guilty Ed. Y/N isn't your fragile Kringle or your damn librarian! Calling each other names but still answering when being contacted IS how our friendship works. Always have been and will always be." Riddler spat, gritting his teeth angrily.

"So we can so brilliantly see." Ed chastised, his eyes opening comically as he lifted the hand holding his phone tightly.

"Y/N is a practical and logical woman, Ed. She 100% KNOWS it and don't need any praise to feel secure or any kind of exterior validation to acknowledge the brilliant mind she already knows she has! Her confidence as well as her sharp mind are why I like her so much! And it's also why she's MY friend. "

He saw the hurt he caused on Ed's face. The ex-forensic was left with no answer, his mouth wide open in shock.

"You know, I'm Ed's friend too, RiddLack-of-gentleness. But thanks for your lovely words, got me all flustered, RidDEar" Came Y/N's flat voice from his right hand. When did he call her? One look at his reflexion answered him. Ed was smiling like a kid seeing his prank working even better than he first imagined.

Now it was Riddler's turn to turn pale, opening stupidly his mouth but with no sound coming from it.

"Cat got your tongue?" The woman mocked.

Was it a screech which finally came from him? A high pitched scream? He wasn't too sure. But a very shameful sound, it was certain.

"Oh." She sounded confused for a second. "Bad time maybe? Never thought about Narcisse doing anything else than drowning himself..." Her innuendo made him livid, but still too shocked to answer intelligibility.

"Didn't want to interrupt your little self-care time dear. My texts weren't working so I called. I'll call back later" She was now purring, ending the call before he collected himself enough to yell at her.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Finally boomed his voice in direction of the mirror.

"Let her know how precious she is to us" Sang Ed's voice just before he disappeared, letting Riddler see his disheveled and sweating state. Joke was on him. Definitely.

JIM GORDON

"... I don't understand. I fucking don't understand."

Rambling like a mad man was becoming his habit. A bad one if you ask any sane person. But here in Gotham? He was simply getting acclimated to the city.

"How the hell can you take it so fucking well?!" He asked Harvey, watching the old cop who was calmly sipping his coffee and enjoying a maybe too greasy donut.

Said cop stopped his chewing for a second, his eyes looking something on his right like he was contemplating what to say.

Earlier this day, Jim woke up with one of Y/N's creepy texts. A simple "RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT". Last time she sent something similar, the GCPD's HQ was attacked by some crazy wannabe gangster with machine guns. So it wasn't that surprising that he carried the goosebumps with him all day, right?

Why would she inform him about an imminent attack? He didn't know. Didn't understand last time and still doesn't now. Not like he formed any kind of friendship with her. On the contrary. A simple look at his texts to her was enough to tell.

He swore he would be the one finally putting her behind Black Gates' bars. Not Arkham. She wasn't insane, or so he thought. He wasn't so sure anymore...

"Why?" He muttered again, taking his head between his hands and deciding to sit in front of Bullock. "Why am I the only one shocked by the fact that this psychopath not only sent me her creepy text but also sent it to the boss, Alvarez and you?!" He snapped.

Harvey shrugged while gulping the last drops of his beverage. "You'll get used to it." The older man finally said.

Gordon made a face. "She's a fucking criminal! Not a fellow cop, not a snitch, a freaking killing machine walking around without a care in the world. What's wrong with you guys?!"

Bullock let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his scruffy jaw in a tired way. "Neutral Evil." He finally said.

"Uh?" Asked Jim, his brow rising slowly as he leaned in his co-worker's direction.

"Neutral Evil." Harvey repeated slowly. "When the kid started to save our arses sporadically, we asked our psychiatrists to work on her case again. They decided she was Neutral Evil." He developed.

"... Sounds like a D&D thing." Gordon muttered incredulously, making Harvey laugh loudly. "Well it is, two of them are freaking nerds, always babbling about this thing. What amaze me is that you know about it. Should go play with them next Sunday if we're still breathing." He mocked, earning the middle finger from the younger cop.

"Heard kids talking about it in town. Debating which side they were going to play", Gordon detailed, making Bullock hummed and nod absently.

"Our own grown up childchiatrists took ages to decide if we had to call her Neutral or lawful Evil, since the woman has some sort of honor code." He rambled. "But, and I'm quoting them here: "Since she's a selfish little piece of shit and doesn't give a fuck about using / killing anyone for her own purpose which doesn't seem to be some sort of anti-hero or noble villain goal", they decided she was Neutral.""

Gordon nodded, waiting for more and making Harvey sigh even more. "They also stated that she was helping us because we were useful to her, in a way or another. As soon as we'll stand between her goal and her, she'll most likely put a bullet between our eyes." The older explain with a detached face.

"And you all go with it like it's something perfectly normal? How is that supposed to help me feel better?!" shouted Jim incredulously.

"Well it's not. If anything, it's supposed to make you understand that you're safe. For now. Which, in this good ol' city, is a fucking luxury let me tell you", answered the other cop in a harsh tone, his wrinkles even more accentuated by the displeased frown he was wearing.

Now that he was looking at it more intensely, Gordon noticed a little frown on the corner of Harvey's mouth. "There's more." The young cop said.

"Uh?" Asked Harvey, who leaned back in his seat. His porture seemed tensed. "What now, what are you talking about?". He growled.

"There is something more with Y/N. Something you're not telling me." Said the young cop suspiciously. And the reaction he got from Bullock just confirmed it.

"You all but quoted psychiatrists, only carefully talking about what their opinion is. But never put yours. It's not like you, we both know you're far more judgemental than this and usually don't hesitate to tell everyone what you think about someone or something. So, what are you hiding, Harvey?" He asked lowly, paying attention to not be heard by their co-workers.

Bullock's eyes grew wide for only a second. A little second which definitely convinced Gordon to dig further. "What. Harvey?" He pressed.

The other cop tsked angrily then cursed a few times. "Ok. Ok. Just fucking stop frowning like I was confessing a murder or you'll get the whole damn room's attention." Harvey spat in a hushed tone. He took a long minute to inspire deeply. "Remeber when you were abducted by those crazy salary men, who decided to organize hunger games for a fucking job?" Jim nodded slowly.

"Who do you think helped us finding you? Uh? A little angel in charge of your freaking safety? Sorry to tell you this, but your angel likes black leather and rocket launchers a little too much." Jim opened his mouth to protest, or, at least try to argue that she may have needed him in one of her twisted evil plans.

But Harvey made a 'no' with his head. "You were tracking her like a hunting dog for the blowing of an entire building. If anything your death would have been better, for her." Said the older.

"Maybe not on long term", countered Gordon. "We now know she's quite good at scheming and being two or three steps ahead anyone. One skill she has in common with Cobblepot". He added.

Harvey nodded but still seemed pretty sceptical. "The betrayal too, then. Since she was the one who send a text to Montoya and Allen when her dearest husband came here to fetch you, mate."

Now that news totally stunned him. Jim was looking like a fish out of water. "Why would she-..." Harvey shrugged. "Maybe she knew Zsasz was quite in the mood to cut any members you wouldn't need to talk to Falcone that day. Maybe out of fucking generosity. Who knows. But the fact is she still saved your life, yes she did. And not only once." The older man grunted.

"She's a manipulative and a selfish bitch most of the time, yes she is. But I assure you, she's more Lawful-bullshit than our clowns of psychiatrists give her credit for. She's not good. Absolutely not. But I'm sure she has plans for Gotham, so much more than making it her little killing playground. What exactly? I do not know. But you seem to have earned a place in her grand scheme. As well as the Wayne kid, who she helped too by the way. Sometimes even for free." He said.

Jim closed his mouth but was getting paler. "She worked with the kid?!" He breathed, feeling panic starting to take his body.

"I also owe her my life, Jim. God knows I'm no good cop, but she still decided to keep me alive, sending me infuriating bullshit since she was 15. How do you think I was able to survive so long in this hell hole, aside from my natural charm, charisma and shady connexions? She's not good. But sometimes she isn't all bad."

The buzz of Gordon's phone brought back their attention to the room. He got it out of his back pocket, only to see a text from her: "10"

10 what? Guys, feets away from their HQ?

Another buzz. "9".

It was freaking seconds. She was sadistic enough to instigate this kind of nerves breaking game.

"8". He raised his head in total panic, quickly showing the texts to Harvey.

"7". "FUCKING HELL ! EVERYBODY TAKE COVER! NOW!"

"6"

Chaos. At Bullock's scream, all cops in the GCPD ducked under or behind something, pulling out their guns.

"5".

"Someone is going to shoot us!" Jim heard himself yell.

"4". "Get ready to open fire!"

"3"

"2"

"1"

A deafening explosion boomed outside, just in front of the GCPD's main gates. Nobody dared to move, or even breath. Ready to shoot at any moment.

But after a long minute and nothing happening, glances started to land on him and Bullock. So much, they felt the urge to bolt out of their hidding spot to rush near the doors, guns held firmly in their hands.

They exchanged a quick glance before slowly opening a door with one hand, the other ready to pull the trigger.

There, in front of the police station, was standing a white van. Well, more the white burning carcass of a van to be honest. The vehicle seemed to have been stopped brutally by a rocket. Disfigured corpses were laying all around it, staining the hard cold ground and the dirty snow in red.

"Fucking hell" Breathed Harvey on his left, getting is full attention on something planted directly on the snow.

"Is that... -" Jim started incredulously.

"A rocket launcher with a bow attached to it and a decapitated head where the rocket should be? Your answer is a fucking yes, Gordon", grunted Bullock also stunned.

Jim didn't even have the time to say something else. A little music suddenly resonated near where the rocket launcher was oddly standing. Exactly like the irritating music you would hear coming from a happy birthday card.

Gordon's phone buzzed again in his pocket and he quickly grabbed it.

------ 1 New Message -----

Y/N

Happy upcoming birthday Jimbo. Hope you liked my present.

-------- End of message ------

"What the hell" He muttered, looking at Harvey in hope of some kind of explanation.

The older cop blinked stupidly while looking at the text then put his attention back on the creepy present. Though his observations were cut short by Jim's shocked voice.

"There is something inside of the mouth" He said.

Both of them slowly approached the beheaded head. As soon as they reached it, the Happy birthday music stopped, replaced by a heavy silence. Jim raised his right hand and, with caution, put the mouth apart, grabbing something solid and sticky from all the blood.

"What is it?" Pressed Harvey while nervously glancing around.

Jim opened his hand with a grimacing face, only to see a rectangular shaped plastic thing. "USB key", he whispered.

Again, the happy birthday music came to life. Only a few meters from them, making them jump in surprise. Here, standing on the other side of the road was Y/N, her arms nonchalantly crossed under her breasts. Her face flashed a quick sadistic grin, just before she raised her right hand in the air, her index finger pointing at something behind them.

Harvey and him followed her cue to look and turned around, only to see a huge advertising panel, which had on it Galavan's face and a "Vote Galavan" just under it. The two turned in her direction again, just in time to see her making a ridiculous "hello" motion with her hand then turning on her heels to disappear in a shady alley.

"Do you think the gang she shot and Galavan have something to do with each other?" Tried Harvey. The old man looked at his still very pale face, seeing his eyes glance at the USB key.

"Probably." He whispered.

"Well, seems like we'll live to see another day", said Bullock casually, trying to make him come out of his muteness.

What was it all about? Thought Gordon. Suddenly, he remembered the brief exchange he had with the woman about Galavan and his suspicions concerning his true motives for the city. Was she trying to help?

------- 1 New Message ------

Jim Gordon

Why did you helped us?

.

Y/N

Pretty sure the happy birthday musical card was enough of a cue for you to figure it out, Gordeaf.

.

Jim Gordon

Just because my birthday is in two days, you decided to save the whole GCPD with taking those thugs lives? Excuse me to be suspicious.

.

Y/N

It wasn't my gift, Jim. This was a mere bonus.

.

Jim Gordon

Why the USB key then?

.

Y/N

Since you were lacking elementary common sense during our last little chit chat session, I decided to offer you one. Make a good use of it.

.

Jim Gordon

What Alvarez, my boss and Harvey had to do with it?

.

Y/N

Nothing. They're too handsome, talented or stupidly fun to be wasted on a petty little shooting. Have a nice day on the Good side James.

--------- End of messages ------

"My ego wants to identify as the handsome or talented one, but I'm pretty sure I'm the stupidly fun one" grunted Harvey who was reading the whole conversation from above his shoulder. "Meh, still alive and grateful for it", he added just before padding his shoulder friendly.

"Yeah. Still alive and grateful for it. I supposed", Jim hesitantly replied.

--

A/N I hope you liked it! 🥰

[asukamood]

Flirts x 2 = Mess

***

Previous part — Next part

This post is part of the Bad things happen series

***

Ships: Past Hue (Hacker x Blue), Hinch (Hacker x Finch, mentioned), Drueswap (Dream x Blue, mentioned)

Warnings: Nothing I think?

Synopsis: Though as careful and cunning as Blue was, in the end, he too craved affection like anyone else. So before he aimed for the head of the infamous Justice Reigns, he had a couple of boyfriends.

One of them in particular, was quite the character and while their personalities matched, the relationship had gone to mush as both had issues of their own that made them simply unable to have a stable and healthy relationship with one another.

That ex in particular just so happened to be standing right in front of him.

***

It was almost common sense that Blue turned heads his way. Ever since he managed to get out of the endless white of the antivoid to a real place, he had noticed that people usually eyed him in a certain interested way.

Perhaps some would say that it was uncomfortable. To have people watching you in the corner of their eyes while you walked ahead, to have them asking you for your number before greeting you or sometimes even just full on gawking at you as if you were the most beautiful piece of art they have ever seen.

But for an attention-starved man like Blue, it was Heaven. He felt like he was noticed and there, not just a piece of the landscape. Maybe the logic behind that reasoning wasn't easy to get but when was Blue ever easy to understand?

To have anyone know how you behave was weakness, to have anyone being able to predict your next actions was weakness. Blue was perfectly content not to have to worry about any of these things.

Though as careful and cunning as Blue was, in the end, he too craved affection like anyone else. So before he aimed for the head of the infamous Justice Reigns, he had a couple of boyfriends.

One of them in particular, was quite the character and while their personalities matched, the relationship had gone to mush as both had issues of their own that made them simply unable to have a stable and healthy relationship with one another.

That ex in particular just so happened to be standing right in front of him.

“...” Blue stared at him, his eyes wide in surprise.

“...” He stared back, not expecting to run into him too it seems.

“... Aren’t you supposed to be in jail?” Blue questioned at one point, a teasing smile twitching at the side of his lips. The man in front of him returned the smirk.

“I am yes, but Finch somehow managed to convince the big boss to let me out.” Hacker said, making sure not to let the content of the bags in his hand being reviewed by Blue. “Though, I suppose you already knew about that, didn’t you?”

The other, being himself, of course noticed that suspicious behavior and decided that only a fool would challenge him in that way. He was definitely going to know what Hacker is hiding by the end of their conversation. “Of course I did.” He answered as innocently as possible. “Wasn’t really hard to figure out.”

Hacker chuckled a bit. “Yeah, as expected from Mr.Know-it-all. I’m saying that affectionately of course, don’t misunderstand me here.” Oh he definitely knew Blue was onto him.

“No need to worry about that.” Blue said, waving off his concerns with the back of his hand. “So apart from escaping from jail and everything, how are you going?”

Hacker hummed in thought, playing with the bag in his hands. “I think I’m doing pretty good, But well, how can you not feel great after eating Randy’s pancakes?”

“Touché.” Blue and Randy had met a solid three times when he and Hacker got together but each time, the freakishly tall man had been nothing but a sweetheart. So much, in fact, that one would wonder why he was wanted in the first place. Because really, it would be more likely that he was wanted as a father figure than a criminal.

Blue knew why of course but he wouldn’t tell anyone that, it wasn’t his place to do so after all.

“Thinking of it, you haven’t seen him in a while have you?” Hacker suddenly asked. Before Blue could answer, he followed it up with another question. “Wanna go hang out at my place? We’ve got lots to catch up after all.”

He blinked in surprise at that, vaguely thinking that it has indeed been a while since the two of them had the chance to really relax and chat at their heart’s content. Though, there was still a slight problem. “Would that really be okay though?” As Hacker raised his eyebrows, he quickly sighed before explaining briefly or rather, giving a hint on what the problem was. “I mean, isn’t Randy upset with me?”

Their relationship was anything but healthy and as caring as Randy was, he didn’t doubt that the latter would hardly accept someone who had hurt one of his unofficial sons showing up at his house.

And frankly speaking, Blue had no intention of squaring up with anybody and especially not a 6 '6 foot tall person who would probably be able to swing a claymore just fine.

However, the other shook those worries away with a wave of his hand and a shake of his head. A small conflicted smile came up to cover his face. “Don’t worry about having Randy mad at you, all of his hatred has been focused on [Jasper] for a while now.”

“Is that so?” Well, that was a relief, somewhat. Though, he couldn’t blame Randy for being mad at him specifically. Compared to Hacker’s relationship with that guy, theirs were the definition of happy and healthy. “It would be a pleasure then.”

“The pleasure’s mine.” He replied, playfully winking. Blue rolled his eyes with a smile, hitting his shoulder as he did so. Maybe being boyfriends didn’t work out, but that didn’t mean that the two of them couldn’t be good friends!

***

They were both standing on the house’s varanda when screams coming from inside the house suddenly rang out, startling both of them.

“FUCK THAT WIFI!” A certain feral teenager yelled, the loud thud of an object colliding with the wall closely following that shout. Hurried footsteps were then heard before the sound of a door opening reached their ears.

“Language son! Now, what is the issue exactly?” An older man’s voice spoke, soothing the other one. As witnesses, the duo of flirts could only chuckle in vague amusement before Hacker was finally able to turn the keys in the hole and swing the door open.

“I’m home!” He shouted amidst the chaos, not bothering to turn the volume up more than necessary. A distant ‘Welcome home!’ was heard within the halls but no one paid much attention to it, if we don’t count Hacker’s small smile on his face.

“The house didn’t change much from last time I came here, huh?” Blue remarked, plopping on one of the couches of the living room. The same furniture, the same unidentified mound of clothes on the dining chairs, messy but that somehow added to the already very homey atmosphere of the building.

“Yeah, we usually don’t have any visitors so tidying everything up is like, the least of our concerns.” Hacker sat down next to Blue, instinctively reaching for the remote control that was (for once) free from anyone else’s grip. “Fancying watching any movie?”

Blue stared at the empty screen for a little bit, humming, before he shook his head. “No, I think I would rather talk. Plus, turning on the TV is just a wish for Bobby to come out of nowhere and steal the remote.”

Hacker chuckled, throwing it where it belonged. “You’ve got a point there. I don’t really want to deal with him as of right now anyway.” He kicked his feet to the coffee table, slumping a little more as he did so. From the two of them, it was clear by posture alone who was more comfortable in this house. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, we have so much to tell each other that I doubt we can really choose that easily.” It has been a solid year since they’ve really got to talk face to face after his detention after all. “But I’ve heard that you found yourself attached to someone new?” He asked with a hint of a smirk on his lips.

Hacker scoffed, amused. “Yeah, though I’ve also heard you weren’t bad in that department either. Like really? Dream Von Licht himself? You’re really the only one who would ever think of attempting something like that and actually succeeding.”

“What can I say? I just have that much charisma.” Hacker nudged him with his elbow for that, earning a half-hearted ‘ow’ from the other. “And don’t think I didn’t notice you reaching for high ends too. Trying to get the captain of the Justice Division, a direct subordinate of Dream, while you’re a literal criminal.”

“A criminal, yes, but a hot one!” He replied quickly, performing an exaggerated wink that almost had Blue bursting out laughing. “Besides, we gotta keep that enemies to lovers trope going you know? I’ve been scrolling for a good while online but these are starting to get rare.”

“Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night my friend.” Blue started to relax, slightly leaning a little more on the couch behind him. “I’m quite relieved actually, I would feel bad if I were the only one to find myself someone before our 40’s.”

Confusion passed on the other’s features before realization dawned on him. “Oh right! I almost forgot about our deal. It’s true that we haven’t thought about that possibility. What would happen if only one of us were to find a partner? Because like, we can’t really share, that would be slightly unsettling.”

Blue raised a questioning eyebrow. “Only slightly?”

“... Yeah, you’re right it would be weird as fuck.” Hacker’s face scrunched.

“Have you ever imagined yourself snogging Dream?” At the sentence, the other’s eyes widened as he choked on his spit, doubling over from the shock as Blue started laughing uncontrollably.

“Oh my fucking- sTOP!”

Truly, what good friends they were.

[inksandpensblog]

I caved, I watched the teaser, here are my thoughts on it

Disclaimer: I will not be making predictions about the plot synopsis or character arcs of the upcoming episode in this post.

I want to keep a fresh mind for the episode, so that upon first viewing I can make my own observations without anyone else's influencing mine. If I get the notion to look for specific things that other people have noticed already, I might miss other things that maybe nobody has noticed yet.

I'll be perfectly happy and eager to compare notes with all of you after I've seen the full episode, but I'm doing my best to go into that first viewing with zero expectations about what direction the story might take. To that end, I'm not going to be making guesses about character motivations or plot points or anything along those lines.

With that said, I would like to point out some things about the teaser that I think are neat, the first being:

That is Victim. That is definitely Victim, without a doubt.

For comparison, have the opening seconds of AvA1 and AvA2, respectively:

Hmm, that figure on the left looks familiar.

The first half of this teaser intercuts AvA5 footage with, not the creation of The Chosen One, as one might expect given his presence in the rest of this teaser, but the creation of Victim, the very first character in the series (not counting the animator himself), whom we haven't seen since his debut episode.

...okay, I relent, I'll make one prediction: do I think this means we can expect Victim to come back, in this upcoming episode?

...no. Well, at least not in the way you might be thinking.

I don't believe Victim's character will return, and I have a few reasons for this:

As mentioned above, the Victim footage is all contained in the first half of this teaser, and it's intercut with previously-seen AvA5 footage. Once the new footage for the upcoming episode starts playing in the latter half of the teaser, there's no more Victim footage.

This also means that all the Victim footage in this teaser is old Victim footage. Victim's appearances in this teaser aren't new, in any capacity.

Moreover, it's all footage from the beginning of AvA1, before the animator had even named Victim. Before Victim moved on his own for the first time.

The editing of these clips makes no effort to connect Victim to what will be happening in the future, only to what has already happened. For this reason, I do not believe that Victim will have any agency in this upcoming short.

That doesn't mean he won't be there in some capacity, though. That doesn't mean his prior existence won't play a role in this short.

Notice I said "his existence," not him.

I don't think Victim will be making a reappearance in this narrative as a character with the agency to influence it. But. The fact that Alan is reminding his audience that Victim existed at one point has gotta mean something.

...okay, prediction over, back to neat observations!

Since I'm not making any speculations about the plot, the only comment I have on the footage of Chosen in a cityscape is that it is really starkly rendered, wow. They crammed a lot of detail into those buildings and that street. Look at the BRICKS.

It's a feast for the eyes, certainly, but...visually, it's an unusually busy setting for an action scene; there's so much visual information for the eye to take in that I worry I'll be distracted from the actual fight taking place.

We see Orange draw...a line XD and I'm not sure what we're supposed to get from that other than "this episode will feature Orange drawing again." Though I will note that he does this in close proximity to the cursor, which makes no move to stop him, so it seems that Orange and Alan are still getting along fine and still working together on projects.

We see Chosen being Chosen, making himself as unapproachable as possible by surrounding himself in a blazing arc of fire-breath and hovering over the water where no one can reach him unless they fly or take a boat. Yes the commentary in this paragraph is rather pointed, compared to the rest of the post.

I will say, though, that I cannot wait to hear whatever sound effects they've used for that scene. Chosen's fire-breath didn't actually sound like breath until The Chosen One's Return, and he hasn't used it since, so I'm really looking (listening?) forward to how it will sound in this upcoming scene ^_^

No comment on Orange apparently being in the outernet/interspace again...

...though I will say that Spyglasses' zoom feature looks a lot like the zoom feature in many computer programs XD

Speaking of, we've got new characters! Let's start with this guy, whom I've taken to calling Spyglasses, because frankly he's the least puzzling of the two:

Hello sir, please leave our orange boi alone.

Now, when I saw this guy, my first thought was to pull up The Flashback and take a closer look at the stillframe of Chosen and Dark terrorizing Stickpage. I'm sure many of you had this thought as well. Sure enough, our memories were not deceiving us, and it appears that some Spyglasses lookalikes did, at one point, dwell on Stickpage.

Awsome, mystery solved, right? Well, not quite.

There are, indeed, a grand total of four sticks in the Stickpage portion of Flashback who bear resemblance to our new friend Spyglasses, here. But if you take a closer look, you'll see that the resemblance isn't exact. Compare him, for instance, to these two Henry-Stickmin-looking guys near the bottom:

I think you'll agree that it's not the closest match. Spyglasses doesn't have visible eyes, and his hands look like the usual nubs instead of having distinct fingers. Plus, Spyglasses seems to have been drawn with a heavier lineweight than these two.

Well, I said he had four lookalikes on Stickpage, so what about the other two?

Aha, you might be thinking, here we have matches. Well, I say look again. Notice anything different?

That's right. The heads of these two were drawn freehand. You can see the slight imperfections in the circles; they're slightly wider than they are long, and there's a bit near the top of each where it's obvious the circle was closed.

By contrast, Spyglasses' head is a perfect circle. His head shape is too mathematically precise to have been handdrawn.

Gonna dip back into speculation territory just so I can talk about what I think this means: I don't think that Spyglasses is any of these four sticks that are shown on Stickpage in The Flashback. However, since Stickpage is the only other place in the entire series so far where we've seen black sticks with white-filled heads, I'm willing to bet that Spyglasses does come from Stickpage. Whether he still lives there now is another question that I won't be getting into, but I think it's fair to say that he lived there before The Flashback, at least.

And, if he comes from Stickpage, that almost certainly means he's a user-created stickfigure.

(My impulse is to say "score 1 for my theory about the rocket org. being founded by Stickpage sticks," but this teaser doesn't actually give us any confirmation that Spyglasses is connected to the rocket org. at all.)

And finally, we come to this guy:

Flowerbarrel has already pointed out that in terms of stylization, this guy bears more in common with the AIM icon than he does with any other stickfigures we've seen.

Not even anybody in the Stickpage Flashback screencap looks like him. No one else whom we've seen has that different-color outline, those proportions, those squared-off hands (and presumably feet), that…flat look…he looks like if you rotated him 90 degrees he'd just be a line XD like no dimension unless he's viewed directly from the front or back. He looks…almost artificial in a weird way. Granted, this is a digital space, so technically everything in it is "artificial," but still.

Honestly I consider this guy to be the biggest mystery in this teaser, from a worldbuilding standpoint. He looks like a desktop icon, but he's obviously not on a desktop in the short clip we get of him in action. He's in the outernet or interspace or whatever you want to call it; the place where stick-cities are, the place where Showdown happened.

Is he from a user-dominated, animation-populated website like Stickpage?

Is he from a stick-city that's populated by a different type of stick than what we've seen so far with Mango and Purple? So far, every glimpse we've gotten into a stick-city not including Orange's fundraiser dreams, from AvM30 to the Cherry Blossoms short two weeks ago, has shown them to be populated by sticks resembling Mango and Purple and their families: a single color, with small, filled heads, and toeless feet. We don't know yet if Orchid was buried in the same city that Mango lives near, or if they're in completely different cities, but either way we've only been shown one variety of stickfigure living in cities like this.

Maybe he's like RYGB, in the sense that, while he himself is animated, he didn't come from an animation? (Like… Slush Invaders and Henry Stickmin are both games where the player controls animated stickfigures, but…the animation in Henry Stickmin is mostly just the cutscenes, while in Slush Invaders animation gets used in the actual gameplay too. Or, like…animations on loading screens for programs, or something.)

I have no ideas about this guy, really.

And that about wraps up my thoughts on this teaser! Anyone who wants to offer their own input is free to do so, but if you want me to read it I must respectfully ask that you please refrain from offering theories on why the characters in the teaser are shown doing what they're doing, or what their motivations are, or anything like that.

Thanks folks ^_^

[scorpionyx9621]

I've seen a few people compare Isaac Clarke and Nicole Brennan from Dead Space to Ethan and Mia Winters from Resident Evil and while I think the comparison is pretty apt, I do have some interesting things to point out. I'd say Isaac Clarke and Mia Winters have more in common with each other the same way I think Nicole Brennan and Ethan Winters have more in common.

While yes both Ethan and Isaac are badass action/survival horror men with sharp tongues and are shockingly witty and quippy, Ethan is driven out of love not only for his missing wife in RE 7 but for his wife and daughter in RE 8. Ethan is much more good-natured and genuinely wants to do everything he can to help the people around him even if his loved ones are his first priority. Ethan goes into the Baker Mansion because he's trying to find his missing wife. Ethan genuinely did not know what happened to Mia after her last call with him. So he goes through hell in Resident Evil flavor and has himself get killed by an infected redneck. Only to be re-animated by a super fungus that also co-ops his personality perfectly and Ethan has to go through hell twice to save his family. (I don't want to go into the moral/ethical argument of whether or not Ethan Winters is actually Ethan Winters or he's just a fragment of the Megamycede empowered by Ethan's drive to save his loved ones. It's too existential.) But every action Ethan took throughout the stories of Resident Evil 7 & 8 were for the betterment of his family and for his family's safety.

While I wouldn't say Isaac is a bad person anywhere near to the degree that Mia Winters is, Isaac is definitely the antagonist in terms of the relationship between him and Nicole. In the remake we see that Isaac's last conversation with Nicole he lashed out on her and accused her of indirectly causing the deaths of his parents. When Nicole tries to express her shock and explain herself Isaac shuts her down and barely lets her get a word in. The whole reason why we have the game of Dead Space to begin with is that Isaac is trying to get aboard the Ishimura for some reason even though he knows full-well that Nicole is dead. Isaac is trying to process an incredible amount of grief in that his mother killed his father and then herself, the last time Isaac spoke to Nicole he accused her of letting his mom kill his father and herself, and in Nicole's final transmission Isaac watched Nicole kill herself. The Marker on Aegis 7 that caused the Necromorph outbreak aboard the Ishimura and caused Isaac to see Elizabeth Cross as Nicole was because the Marker just capitalized on Isaac's immense trauma and guilt and used that to manipulate Isaac into doing what it wanted. Also it must be said that Isaac also has killed hundreds of people of his own volition. He killed at least 200 EarthGov soldiers on The Sprawl when they shot at him. Isaac hid and unleashed a whole swarm of Necromorphs on the soldiers and while I'm not certain Isaac was fully in his right mind when he did that. Isaac still did kill around 200 people.

When we compare this to Nicole Brennan, while the games depict her in a variety of ways (loving and supporting but deeply wrong in Dead Space 1 and the most demonic ex-girlfriend ever in Dead Space 2) Nicole is not in the wrong when it comes to hers and Isaac's relationship. Yes Nicole gave Octavia Clarke the go-ahead to be released from her inpatient facility, but there's literally no way that Nicole could have predicted that Octavia would have had another mental break and would have killed Poul and herself. Nicole is a medical professional who made the best choice given the information she had at the time. Isaac blaming Nicole for the death of his parents very much a heat of the moment thing, as Isaac admits that it was easy for him to say the wrong thing. Isaac was deeply in shock and in grief and lashing out at Nicole was his response when he felt he had little control. It fully was the Church of Unitology's fault but Isaac had no real way to take his emotions out on them so he took them out on Nicole. When Nicole realized that the Unitologists had taken over the Ishimura she actively did everything she could to stand against them and when the Necromorph outbreak started she did everything she could to try to help as many people with the best of her knowledge and abilities. Yet she was doomed, and in her final moments she apologized to Isaac. Even though she told Isaac to go to hell as her last words to him. Nicole deeply regretted her words and the fact that Octavia Clarke did what she did because of Nicole's judgement. Her final moments were filled with fear, grief and regret for all things that were completely out of her control.

And finally we get to Mia Winters. Not a single one of these three characters come even remotely close to the level of just being an awful person like Mia Winters. From the moment Mia met Ethan she lied about her identity and career, she worked as a researcher for a bioterrorist organization, committed actual atrocities against children in her experiments, showed little to no remorse for her actions while working in The Connections, continued to hide information about the severity of her husband's mold infection to her husband and actively caused the events of RE 8 to occur by standing around and just letting Mother Miranda find her when Mia KNEW Miranda was in Romania with them and knew full well just what kind of crazed monster Miranda was and did NOTHING. Yes Mia herself also committed atrocities and murdered people while being under the influence of the mold much in the same way Isaac did similar while under the effects of the marker, but Isaac was driven and manipulated by his own intense sense of grief and guilt. Isaac knew Nicole was dead when he volunteered to go fix the Ishimura but his psyche had become so damaged from losing both his parents and his girlfriend in such a short timeframe that Isaac literally was doing the Marker's bidding for it. I theorized that Mia didn't act on her knowledge of Mother Miranda because she didn't know what would happen if Ethan found out that he was still infected, whether he would have left her or if he would have mutated. Yet that doesn't dismiss that she actively lied and manipulated Ethan for three years after she was saved and it's because of this it directly led to Ethan's death as well as the deaths of hundreds in Romania.

These four characters all relate to each other but not in the way that you would think. Ethan Winters has much more to relate to Nicole Brennan in that they were both ultimately in the wrong place at the wrong time and both died because of it. Both of them tried to save people they either directly loved or directly served given the best information they had at the time and both of them ended up taking the brunt from their partners. Whereas Isaac and Mia relate closer to each other. Both have committed atrocities while under the influence of a power greater than their own and have lashed out against their partners (to varying degrees of severity) and have committed atrocities against people (TO VARYING DEGREES OF SEVERITY GOOD GOD) Both are the antagonistic factors of their relationships and again, while Isaac was lashing out because of an extreme trauma he was facing. Mia was actively committing crimes against humanity willingly while being an abusive girlfriend/wife after the fact. I feel so bad comparing Isaac to Mia because overall Isaac is nowhere even remotely close to being as evil of a character as Mia but he does have more in common with her than he does with Ethan unfortunately. (Please don't crucify me I love Isaac I really really do.)

[neoyi]

Okay, let's wrap up this damn comic live blog/media-analysis-I've-put-WAY-more-time-than-I-ever-intended-or-wanted-to-and-yet-I'm-Boo-Boo-the-freakin'-fool.

So.

Acceptance has been a reoccurring desire with Danny's character. Naturally, it started off insignificant and shallow as is wont of a fourteen-year-old who went about and did stupid, desperate things to be noticed by the popular crowd, further heightened by his "loser" status (for a variety of reasons the show doesn't say, but could be narrowed down to: weird ghost-obsessed parents, hanging around two other social outcast, etc.)

Being half-ghost added another pile of teenage angst to the list, and more so when Walker intentionally made him Amity Park's most hated ghost out of petty spite for ruining his law and order (he's a goddamn cop, what'd ya expect?) Frustrated as he was, Danny decided to resume his heroic duties in spite of people's perception of him. The city still needed someone to keep an eye on the ghostly nuisances plaguing Amity Park and persecuted or not, Danny Phantom was the only (consistently competent) one for the job.

And this mindset did carry throughout the show, all the way up to Season Three's "Forever Phantom" which marked a very lovely turning point when Danny refused to bask in the spotlight that has since been afforded to him. Constantly saving Amity Park eventually earned him the love and respect from most of the citizens; he was their hero, a mascot, a tourist attraction, and beloved public figure. And Danny never took an egotistical power trip over it. By "Forever Phantom", he has, frankly, gotten sick of everyone wanting a piece of that half-ghost pie, and opt to chill out in secrecy in his downtime. After all, his human half has become invaluable as the only time he can truly relax and not worry about some stranger taking photos of him or asking for his autograph.

Look, it's not that Danny can't have moments of dejection, but no matter how much paint coating "Phantom Planet" did - with Danny taking away his powers in order to protect his loved ones, as the plot claims - a lot of the framing also seem to imply he did it because oh nooo the Masters Blasters (a name that an out-of-touch-with-the-youth Vlad would coin to his little group) took away the spotlight and now no one appreciates and luvs him anymore.

It's such a 180 from what's built up and laid out before us. Suddenly Danny can't go without any form of appreciation even though he's long since accepted that he won't always get it and was perfectly fine with it. Saving and protecting his home was what mattered.

I was off in my original guess at the start of the comic for whatever internal conflict Danny had yet to hash out. I thought he was feeling the pressure of being a hero in a world where everyone knew who he was. How was he going to adjust to it? Obviously, the problem was that he lacked purpose and that's totally fine. What ended up happening was, again, the best solution the comic gave to a HUGE problem I had with "Phantom Planet" (surprise surprise): his secret identity goes kaput.

It made sense to expose his ghostly half to his parents by the end. All the way back in "Bitter Reunions", Danny claimed Jack and Maddie would love him no matter what he was, a prediction that proved to be true in "Reality Trip." And loved they did. And in "Phantom Planet" and beyond, they still do. This is their son, after all, and no amount of ectoplasmic coating will ever stop them from accepting him, ghost and all.

It didn't make sense to reveal his identity to the whole damn world because it counters severely with what Danny had accepted prior to all this. He didn't want attention or fame or any of that shit, they're just byproducts to his true actions as a genuinely heroic guy. He'd save the world even if everyone hated him permanently, and he has! And according to this comic, he will continue to do so.

Clockwork fixed the time stream and gave Danny a choice and the one he picks leaves his secret identity safe once again, altering it so he never revealed himself to the world. And with that redo button, the comic drove the final nail in the coffin on any prominent thing "PP" did. And I'm so damn grateful. I don't even care that it was an easy fix ala time shenanigans, it wouldn't be the first time Clockwork did it.

While it sucks Amity Park has declared Danny Phantom (and all ghosts) as public enemy #1 again as consequences to the fucked up timeline Clockwork did his best to fix (as oppose to him being a beloved figure, which I think he's more than earned), it ultimately authenticates Danny's development: he doesn't care if the greater population hates him, what he cares is protecting his home and healing those in need of it.

My only grievance with this mild retcon is that Jack and Maddie is no longer privy to Danny's secret identity and that one leaves me exhausted. I was hoping the comic would throw us a bone after "Reality Trip" burnt that bridge when Danny erased his parents memories for no goddamn reason, but now it's back to square one with these stubborn, but lovable chuckleheads. There weren't a lot of interactions between Danny and his parents post-identity revealed, and the chance to explore it seems, for the time, temporarily paused... again.

Should this comic ever get a sequel series (this thing apparently sold out on Amazon, Nickelodeon would be a fool not to greenlight another), perhaps we'll get to see some of this and more, and A Glitch in Time certainly left a couple of plot points dangling for a tantalizing continuation...