#fourth option is “well actually”... (explain in tags)

[tarithenurse]

Inhuman

Fandom: MCU Pairing: Bucky x fem!reader, eventually Loki x fem!reader, Stucky, more (some canon, some not). Word count: 2652. Contents: Drinking, attack/violence, blood/gore, smut - nothing better to get going than a bit of adrenaline. A/N: Another double posting today! Rejoice! Any questions are welcome. Please comment and like and reblog. Let me know if you want a tag.

Chapter 15

... Reader’s PoV ...

A couple of beers have kept the food company so by the time you’re standing outside on the street, breath forming puffs of clouds in the cold air, none of you feel like going home.

“So, my dear guide, where to next?” You’re bending down to scoop up some fresh snow as he considers the options.

“Maybe our old bar’s still there...”

Indicating the direction, Bucky turns around just as you let the snowball fly, blinding him temporarily.

When he can see again, you’re skipping backwards down the street the way he’d pointed. His big hands grab all the snow on the lid of a trashcan, and he hurries after you while shaping it.

“I’m preeetty sure this’s not something I’ve forgotten how to do! I’ll get ya, just you wait!”

But the snowball sails neatly over your head and lands on a parked car, setting off the alarm and chasing you away, giggling like kids.

You almost miss the place in the hurry, but Bucky grabs you by the hand and brings you both to a skidding halt. Your cheeks are hurting from laughing, a pain you’d gladly endure at the sight of the gleaming eyes and bright teeth flashing at you.

“You’re a little devil, aren’t ya?” He doesn’t seem to mind though and he hasn’t let go of the hand even though his grab has loosened.

“Takes one to know one.” You nudge him gently with a shoulder.

So close to him...if I just– But before you can do anything, the chance’s gone as he walks through the doors to the bar forcing you to follow unless you want to be left alone outside in the cold.

At the diner and again now, you notice how he quickly scans the room to find exits and note the people. You’ve been learning the same from Natasha, though the approach might be slightly different when it comes to the people.

The place’s dark with wooden panels on the walls, booths where the benches are lined with dark green leather and old brass lamps, and the floor’s riddled with grooves from the feet of thousands of people walking on it over the years, making it look like the sand in the oceans, waving and following its own flow.

It’s not exactly a fancy place, but it’s cozy, and the woman in charge fits the place with her rough but cheerful demeanour accentuated by short black- and red-coloured hair, her stocky body and skin pale. Apparently, she’s the fourth generation owning the place, greeting the regulars by first names and joking around with everyone.

Soon Bucky and you’re seated at a table in the corner with a new set of beers, far enough from everyone else to carry a private conversation. Your back’s to the entrance and the rest of the room, letting the former Winter Soldier have the view instead. You used to always want to sit just like him, so you could see what was going on, but since terrigenesis that need’s not urgent anymore. Taking in the place and trying not to stare at how the shirt clings tight around his shoulders, chest, and upper arms, you allow the silence to settle between you while Bucky seems far away for a moment.

“Why don’t you mind?” His gaze’s strong as he studies you with furrowed brows. You’ve no clue what he’s talking about. “Missions, training, the risks you take because of what you’ve agreed to do.”

“It’s not like I’ll take any permanent damage. At least not physically. Besides how should I go back to my old life now?” He seems to recognize the way of thinking, nodding slowly, still there’s an urge to explain. “I’m…I was a nurse…because of that, I’ve seen tragedy caused by random accidents as well as pure cruelty. If there’s a chance that I can prevent some of that from actually happening? Or at least…lessen the damage done, how could I refuse? It sounds like a cliche, but really...that’s pretty much the reason...”

Your voice trails off letting the bubble of silence float down over the table again. The perfect grey eyes are troubled and unsure, shifting from the bottle he’s nursing to the candle and back again. Avoiding me.

“Why do you do it?” He doesn’t answer, but you know anyways. To atone for his sins. “Regardless of why, we’ve each chosen to do what we do…it allows us to start over…make ourselves better than we used to be. So…here’s to new beginnings and big ambitions.”

Raising the bottles to each other the smile slowly returns to grace his impossibly perfect features.

“Can I ask you something else?” You nod and watch him search for the right words. “Why’re ya single?”

Laughing to hide the awkward feeling, you shoot the question back at him but add that it might due to pickiness. His apology’s that it’s hard to find someone his own age and even though offering your grandmother up as dating material doesn’t seem to help at least it makes him laugh out loud. He’s gorgeous when he tosses his head back like that.

…

It’s when you stand outside that you realize your sleeping situation hasn’t been sorted yet…and by now it’ll be impossible to find a room anywhere.

“You...you can stay at ermm…my place. I’ll take the couch then.” Bucky looks hopeful even if he tries to play it cool.

You accept, sticking an arm under his and letting him lead the way. The excited butterflies are making your body tingle.

Once, in the subway, you make yourself believe for a second that someone’s following, but it must have been a coincident and you get all the way to the street Bucky lives on without any issues.

You sense the person before any of you can hear the running footsteps, and as you begin to turn, a man lifts up a new gun and shoots.

“Inhuman freak!” he yells.

For a moment, you just stand there, watching as Bucky lunges onto the guy with a silent ferocity. Then you realizes that you’re hurting and bleeding badly from the chest, making you look down to see it’s the right side before your attention snaps back to the two struggling men as you feel something breaking inside the assailant.

“Stop!” You need to cough up the blood that’s slowly filling the lung. “It’s enough…call the c-cops…they’ll find him.”

More coughing, spraying a red mist over the snow where you’ve sunk down. Bucky does stop, after tossing the guy into a dumpster, to come running back to you with the anger dissipating from his face, replaced by worry as he sees the blood.

“Get...me up...tools...” You’re stopping some of the bleeding already, but you can’t close the wound yet.

Picking you up like a feather, Bucky hurries up the stairs and barges into the bathroom where he sits you down against an old bathtub. Ordering him to find a clean towel and something to dig into the wound with you fall back into the mentality from medical training. I need to get the bullet out. You kick the shoes off and just as he comes back, you’re trying to get the coat and shirt off. Without question, he helps you free, though the shirt’s ripped in the process.

“Good. Have you done this before?” Your voice still gurgles, but at least there’s only a tiny bit of blood trickling from the corner of the mouth as you speak. Proof that most liquid has been purged from the lung.

He nods and grabs the small pair of tongs he’s found with one hand, the other one grabbing your shoulder and forcing your chest a bit forward to stretch the wound open. Then he waits for you to breathe and give the go.

Even while suppressing the pain it’s still really uncomfortable, making you happy that he’s working fast and without shaking. An instant later the slug’s out, allowing you to heal. Bucky stares as the entry hole disappears, leaving your skin without a trace to prove what had happened.

Tryingly, you move the arm, working the nerves and making sure you haven’t missed anything. Satisfied with the result, you let your gaze roam across his bloodied chest and arms, his hands still dripping a little bit...and you realize all of your clothes are stained too.

“I wonder if there are any good tricks for getting the blood outta clothes...”

He starts laughing, causing you to join in, first quietly, hesitantly, but soon the bathroom’s ringing. “You’re the coolest dame I’ve ever met.”

“Thank you.” Getting onto your knees, you turn on the water to make it pour from the shower head. “Pass me your shirt and the towel, might as well rinse it all...”

Carefully, you stand up, a bit dizzy from the blood loss though you can feel the cells work to fill the void, and you feel safe enough to wriggle out of the jeans, soggy from melted snow and blood.

… Bucky’s PoV …

When he reappears from pulling the shirt off (hand grabbing it behind the neck and then just pulling it) she’s getting her bloodstained jeans off, causing him to stop mid-motion and stare at the woman before him as if seeing her for the first time.

Slowly straightening up, she looks him directly in the eyes, making him come back to reality. She isn’t technically a pretty sight what with the trails of blood running into the bra and spreading from the chest to her minuscule underpants, but it’s not the blood and mess that Bucky notices.

In one step, he’s right in front of her, using the clean side of his shirt to wipe her shoulder and chest, slowing down as the fabric follows the contour of one of the shapely breasts down the cleavage only to be stopped by the underwire. Reaching back with one hand, she unhooks it and let it hang on by the straps only, and he feels his own blood rushing to his groin, cock straining against the zipper so hard it hurts.

Slowly, while holding his gaze, [Y/N] lets her fingertips touch his chest, allowing gravity to lead them to the edge of his pants and then tracing it until she reaches the button, fingernails sliding across the warm skin.

Holy fuck. Each touch makes his skin tingle as if an electric current was running between themand he can’t get himself to prevent her from doing what she wants, even though he himself is motionless, even holding his breath. Button first. Then the zipper. She’s just about to reach down and readjust his cock as he “wakes up”.

Letting the shirt drop into the tub, his hands each find a bra-strap which he carefully slides down the arms, forcing her to let go of the edge of his pants as the bra abandons all hope of clinging on and finally falls to the floor. His hands glide from below her shoulder blades along the ribs until they rest against her warm softness where the underwires were, a thumb just under her smooth breasts. Reaching up he lets the cold metal fingers trace the outer circle of her nipple, watching it shrink and harden under the cold touch before he twirls the tip between his fingers, careful not to hurt her.

Next moment, he’s lifting her up into the tub before pulling his pants and boxers down, leaving them on the floor as he steps over the edge unable to keep his own promises, ready to drown in her heavy-lidded eyes and wet core.

… Reader’s PoV …

Hot damn! The glitter version of him is nothing compared to the real deal, you realize.

Pushing you further in under the now warm water, he slides a hand down your ass, bringing the undies with it until they fall the rest of the way on their own. His face’s millimetres from yours, lips parted and breaths coming hard and shallow. You’re already preparing to kiss him when he disappears towards your neck, tracing the jaw softly with kisses and nibbles before stopping right under the ear.

Meanwhile, the hands are everywhere. Hips, thighs, back, breasts which he cups as he lets the thumbs flick across the sensitive nipples...everywhere they go they’re sending shivers through your body and it’s all you can do to hold on to him as you grow weaker in the knees…now with anticipation.

Possibly sensing that, he suddenly picks you up, pinning you against the wall with a determined yet tender force, one hand stretching your arms onto the tiles above, the other guiding you into position with your legs wrapped around his hips and the tip of his cock softly poking between the heated, glistening folds.

Even with the display of force and need, he doesn’t hurt you. There’s no doubt in your mind that he could, and the knowledge mixed with appreciation for his tenderness makes you warm and wet, shuddering with lust.

Pulling his head back, he looks at you with storm-dark eyes as if waiting for approval. He gets it. Of course he gets it. Nodding and trying to reach forward to find his lips with yours, using the legs to pull yourself down onto his engorged cock bit by bit.

He’s warm, hard, and shaking with each inch his member bores into you, making him screw up his face before he grabs your hips with both hands, holding you steady as he finds the right rhythm, working silently and using his burning lips and tongue to explore the nape of your neck and collarbone.

Your fingers are digging into his shoulders, or one of them at least, as the first wave of bliss spreads through your body, almost making you whimper and in turn spurring him on to push deeper. Faster, but still steady and almost pulling all the way out before reversing. Silent gasps are drowned by the sound of the water and exploring lips while a new almost aching wave sends you tumbling over the edge of sweet satisfaction, clamping onto Bucky any way you can. You can almost feel every ripple of excitement that keeps his cock hard and throbbing.

Few moments later, the thrusts stutter and he makes that funny face that used to be the best clue for you to know how far a male lover was. This time…this time you feel the tilt of the world that blackens your vision and sends you off to new heights, flustered at the realization that you must have shared in what he experienced.

You both gasp for air, his chest pressed against you, allowing you to feel and hear the sound he makes, almost like a deep purr. You stay in that position, arms wrapped around each other and breathing hard. Then he lifts you off, carefully, and you realize he’s looking a bit ashamed.

“Thank you.” You kiss him.

He’s about to protest when you cut him off, telling him to just shut up and enjoy it and making him smile again. As you bend down to pick up the clothes, he lets a hand rest on you lower back, allowing it to slide down over your ass. You don’t have to look at him to know that he’s smiling dreamily at the view.

...

You managed to get the clothes almost completely clean, though the shirt had to be trashed. You also managed to get dry before round two which was impossibly slow and tender as he claimed every inch of your body with long strokes and feathery kisses that made you shiver and moan in frustration.

Lying in the bed, sweating, panting, happy. Especially Bucky’s content as he explains with a drowsy voice that he’s waited since 1942 for this. As he falls asleep, he mumbles that it was worth the wait.

[imshymorph]

Slightly angsty soft!price, I promise it has a good ending.

I believe that as much as you’re both used to the rhythm of it all now, you know, the weight his deployment adds to both of your shoulders, the way your stomachs churn when you have to spend months apart. It wasn’t as easy to deal with at the beginning.

I don’t even think you fully knew what his job was in the actual beginning. And the first few months to a year of really knowing was probably the hardest one in your relationship.

- - - - -

It was already hard, having to go weeks or months at a time without seeing him, with barely any contact. It was much harder when you knew that pretty much anything could happen to him and all you’d have as notice was someone delivering his dog tags to your door.

Resentment wasn’t the proper word for how you felt, you didn’t blame John, you never could. You had met him as the man who he was now, you wouldn’t expect him to change because of you. But there definitely was a weird feeling in your gut the more time you spent alone in your shared flat.

Your phone is always close to you, in case he got the chance to give a quick call or a simple text that confirmed his well-being. Your clothes pretty much abandoned to instead use his to at least have the smallest resemblance of what his presence was.

It wasn't resentment, but definitely loneliness, maybe even some hidden grief. The catastrophist side of you taking control, always ready to get a call from the hospital or a knock on your door.

You didn’t say anything in the beginning, he already had enough on his plate. but when a deployment made you both stay apart for over two months you spoke up. It was a civil, a conversation, not an argument. You explained how worried you were, despite his reassurances that you didn’t have to be, how lonely you felt. How big and silent the flat felt without him, how slow time seemed to pass by.

He understood, made the promise to limit the deployment times. He'd still go on missions, but shorter ones, the longest taking two weeks at a time. At least that was for the first few months. Old habits die hard and John has always been someone not only of habits but commitment and dedication. So, without realising, soon enough he was dipping back to old ways, his work as captain keeping him out of the country months at a time.

You tried a couple more times, insisting that you didn’t blame him. You knew what you were getting into before moving in with him, it wasn’t that. You just wanted some level of compromise, you didn’t ask him to avoid long deployments, just do his best to avoid having them back to back.

And the result was always the same. He'd understand and agree, and it would work well for a couple weeks, sometimes months. But then you’d go back to seeing him less and less until you were apart months at a time once more.

it all changed one specific day, though. It was probably the fourth or fifth time you had talked about it with him. Yet here you are again, alone at your shared flat, that had been inhabited only by you for the last six weeks. The feeling of loneliness had only grown stronger each day that passed and you had started to question if you were in fact starting to resent him. Wanting to avoid that train of thought you decided on the best option, you wouldn’t be alone at home if you spent a few days at someone else’s .

Texting one of your friends about your situation, they agreed on letting you stay with them for a few days. To help you get your mind out of John’s deployment and give you a break of the empty flat. You’d have company for a few days and manage to get rid of that pit in your gut that made bile rise every time you heard the doorbell.

You were packing things you’d need from the bathroom, busy with checking you didn’t forget anything important, you hadn’t heard the main door open.

John walked in, taking his muddy boots at the front door before he went looking for you, noticing the bedroom’s light on. He froze on the doorframe, stomach dropping and chest tightening when he saw your suitcase almost filled up on the bed.

You walked out of the bathroom, your whole body freezing when you saw him standing there. You hadn’t expected him to be home yet, not for another week at least. Your eyes ran over his whole body, making sure he was safe and sound. “John…?” you barely got to murmur, not even finishing your sentence before the things you were carrying were taken out of your hands and instead you were pulled into him.

“I'm sorry.” he murmured against the crown of your head. His nose pressed to your hair, with a hand cradling the back of your neck as the other pulled you close by the waist. “I'm sorry, love. Please, don’t leave.”

“I know I've messed up. Broke my word.” His tone was his usual gruff and low one, with that raspiness that comforted and turned you on alike, so familiar and finally there with you. But there was something to it, a light tilt that revealed how worried he really was about you possibly leaving. “I'll make it up to you, I'll really change.”

“John.” You say softly, lightly pulling away, only enough to look him in the eye, one of your hands reaching up, gently cupping his cheek. “I'm not leaving, love. I was just going to see a friend for a couple days.”

As soon as your warm hand makes contact with his skin, his face leans into your touch and his eyes soften. “Don’t, please.” he murmurs, and god does he resemble a sad dog in the rain. “Stay with me.” You give a soft nod and before you can do or say anything else, he pulls you back in his arms with a string of thank you’s and i’m sorry’s.

“I'll make it up to you, I promise.” he murmurs against the top of your head before kissing it. And the way his arms curl tighter around you and pull you closer. The way the mix of his cologne and musk fills your senses and the press of his lips to your head immediately makes that pit in your gut disappear.

“It's okay.” you reassure softly, your arms hooking around his neck in return, holding him close. “I'm not angry, darling. I just missed you.” the second one of you hand drifts up to lightly brush through his hair and against his scalp he feels like he’s melting.

“I missed you too, love. Every single day.” he answers, his face now burying in the crook of your neck instead of your hair. His body unconsciously starts to sway the both of you from side to side. “I'll make it up to you. Take you out on a proper date.”

Your eyes close, your head leaning against his shoulder as you sway along with him. “We can do that tomorrow.” you reassure him softly, “just want to say like this for now.”

“We can stay like this for as long as you want, love.” he murmurs, the hand on your waist moving under your his t-shirt to feel your warm skin. “Just please don’t leave me.”

“I won't.” comes out your soft answer, “I’m not going anywhere, darling.” you reassure softly as you press a light kiss to his shoulder.

The both of you stay like that for a few minutes, a comfortable silence sitting between the both of you as you softly sway in each other's arms. No words needed to notice the relief the other is going through. If he thought he had relaxed when you had started to play with his hair, the moments he heard you whisper a soft i love you he felt like he had ascended to paradise without realising.

He took a second, breathing your scent for a moment longer before he pulled back enough to look you in the eye. “I love you too. you’re my everything, love. I’ll prove it to you, promise.” he whispered back, before leaning in to seal his promise with a kiss.

[bopinion]

2025 / 08

Aperçu of the week

“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. We're asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get.”

(US President Donald Trump subsequently puts a price tag on the previous government's support for Ukraine)

Bad News of the Week

In contrast to the presidential election in the USA last November - where there was occasionally reason to hope that there would be no return of a political revenant - we Germans knew exactly what we were in for in the parliamentary elections, in which the executive is elected at the same time. The leading candidate Friedrich Merz of the conservatives (CDU/CSU) would win and would then be able to form a mathematical majority with the Social Democrats (SPD - likely) or the Greens (unlikely). The far right (AfD) would double its share of the vote and become the largest opposition party. Of the smaller Die Linke, the Liberals (FDP) and left-wing populists (BSW), only the first party would make it into the Bundestag, while the other two would be relegated to insignificance. The rest - from the pro-European Volt (a pity) to the right-wing populist Free Voters (well...) to clientele parties such as the Party of Bible-believing Christians - are gathered in the “Others” category. And that's how it turned out.

It is interesting, but also regrettable, to look at the generations. The older and elderly prefer to vote on the right, the young on the left. The so-called youth vote (14 to 17-year-olds) was led by the Left and the SPD last weekend, with the CDU/CSU and AfD in third and fourth place - and the Animal Welfare Party won more votes than the FDP and the BSW. In other words, this is exactly the kind of mood that the average over-60-year-old conservative voter rejects. Example: Almost four times as many CDU/CSU voters are over 70 than under 25. A colleague of mine at work just said on Friday that elections set the course for the future. So you actually vote for your children. He's right - only I would add the grandchildren.

Unfortunately, a line can be drawn just as clearly between the East and the West. The AfD has secured first place in all five eastern German states. The former GDR still feels left behind. And those with a low level of education and a low income in particular tend to see their ballot paper as a lesson to teach - and vote for fundamental opposition. To really show “them up there”. While the earlier shift to the left could still be explained by nostalgia, the current shift to the right is truly frightening. And stupid. After all, analyses show that it is precisely the typical AfD voters who would suffer most from their policies.

Sunday's result now opens up the following coalition options: the strongest coalition would be the conservative CDU/CSU with the far-right AfD - together, this “Austria option” would have a whopping 360 seats out of the 316 needed. In other words, a loose majority, which has so far been categorically ruled out by the chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz. Whereby evil tongues point out that a) neighboring Austria has already had a conservative-right-wing governing coalition several times, b) the joint vote against migration could have been a test balloon to see whether the approval ratings would suffer (they did not) and c) US Vice President JD Vance only met with two German politicians on the fringes of the Munich Security Conference - the top candidates of the CDU and AfD - and would therefore have the blessing of big (watching) brother for this constellation. My expectation: no.

There is no majority for a coalition without the conservatives. Unless again with the far right, which is definitely out of the question for the Left or the Greens, for example, and most likely for the Social Democrats. This leaves only the “black-red” CDU/CSU and SPD, which together have 328 seats. This is because 293 seats are simply not enough for the “black-green” alliance discussed in the run-up to the election. Theoretically, the due to their party colors so-called “Kenya coalition” of Conservatives, Social Democrats and Greens would remain, but there is simply too little overlap in terms of political content and goals - see our tiresome experience with the traffic light coalition.

In addition to the clear shift to the right - because the CDU under Friedrich Merz no longer has anything to do with the CDU under Angela Merkel - there is a second aspect that makes these elections bad news: the loss of direct mandates. Until now, the winner of each constituency (the so-called first vote) was guaranteed a seat in parliament. If this deviated from the overall result of the party (second vote), this was balanced out by so-called overhang and compensatory mandates. The result was that the Bundestag expanded unexpectedly. A reform per se therefore made perfect sense.

Now, each party only gets as many seats as it is mathematically entitled to based on its share of second votes. These are then allocated to the strongest winners in the constituencies, while the weakest go away empty-handed. The bottom line is that many constituencies will no longer be represented in parliament - currently it looks like 23 (out of 299) constituencies will be left out. The votes of the people there will therefore be worthless. I still don't understand why alternatives were not considered at all. After all, a new layout of larger constituencies would have produced the same result of fewer MPs, but would still represent all regions and voters in the Bundestag. It is no coincidence that MPs are called “representatives of the people” - so they should also represent the (whole!) people.

By the way, a positive side note: the last time there was a voter turnout of almost 84% was after German reunification. And that was 35 years ago. And regardless of the outcome: that's good. Even if all political certainties no longer count, at least the people have delivered.

Good News of the Week

Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of the day Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. And it could be the last anniversary. Unfortunately, not because the nation under attack was able to successfully defend itself against the aggressor with the help of its supporters. But probably because the most important supporter - the USA - is simply changing sides. Just because its erratic president has a strange penchant for dictatorships. And Europe is not in a position to compensate for this. Because it is not taken seriously by the key players.

“In a world where the right of the stronger applies, it is better to be among the strong,” writes editor-in-chief Dirk Kurbjuweit in an editorial last week in Der Spiegel, the leading German news magazine. And he continues: “Germany cannot be strong on its own, it is too small for that. It can only be strong together with other Europeans, it can only be strong in the EU. One of the most serious mistakes of German politics was that after Helmut Kohl no chancellor was wholeheartedly committed to Europe. (...) Now Europe lacks leadership and cohesion.”

The analysis is correct. On paper, Europe, with its population, its economic power and yes, even its military strength, could act on an equal footing on the world stage. I am deliberately referring to Europe and not the European Union, as the United Kingdom, for example, would not be part of it. And it is not only Germany that has deficits in its European commitment. Many EU members see Europe exclusively as a free trade zone, while others deliberately want to act in a more national and isolationist way. And even France only ever sees itself as primus inter pares. I exclude Belarus, by the way, as this dictatorship only commits to the rules of European values at the Eurovision Song Contest.

For centuries, and when the world felt much smaller, conflicts dominated our continent. From the end of the Second World War until the Russian attack on Ukraine, there was not a single hot war between two countries (because in Yugoslavia it was in fact a matter of internal civil and secessionist wars). 77 years is an eternity in our increasingly fast-moving times. After the end of the Cold War, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, cooperation and cohesion dominated - people looked for common ground and found it.

This can confidently be called a recipe for success. Which is now endangered by two factors. The first is the increasing threat from outside. From the military threat posed by Russia to the security policy risk posed by the withdrawal of the USA and the economic policy attack by China. The second is the increasing threat from within. The aforementioned drifting apart of individual special interests to the detriment of the greater good. This could now come to an end, as external pressure is simply becoming too dominant.

According to Wikipedia, external pressure is the “total pressure that acts on a system from the outside and thus increases its density”. I was always bad at physics. But I always understood that you can't have different opinions about it. After all, the laws of physics are natural laws. In this respect, I hope that the increasing pressure that Europe is experiencing from outside will lead to a consolidation of its community of values. The chances have not been this good for a long time. We can now find a new form of commonality that will make us all stronger. If we recognize our common interest as such and then act accordingly. As the United States of Europe. Come on, let me just dream a little...

Personal happy moment of the week

We celebrated my mother's 87th birthday. A proud age. We were able to celebrate together in an Italian restaurant as both parents were fit enough. They'll also go on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords in a few weeks. It's nice that they can actively enjoy their retirement.

I couldn't care less...

...about the moaning from the housing sector and construction industry about the oh-so-poor framework conditions. Currently, residential building permits are at their lowest level for 14 years. And all this while the housing shortage is getting worse and rental prices - you can't buy anything in this country for a long time - are going through the roof. Housing should be seen as a basic right. I believe that everyone involved has an obligation to be constructive on this in the truest sense of the word.

It's fine with me...

...that Germany complied with all European air quality limits in 2024 - the first time ever. The Federal Environment Agency reports that, following the fine dust limits, all 600 measuring stations have now also complied with the limits for nitrogen dioxide. This positive development, which is primarily based on the use of catalytic converters, must be maintained at all costs. This is because the, according to WHO experts, outdated limit values will be tightened considerably as early as 2030.

As I write this...

...I am delighted that Canada has won the NHL's prestigious “4-Nations-Face-Off” ice hockey tournament. Against the USA, whose president called them the “51st state” in the first leg. “You can't take away our country - and you can't take away our game,” summarized outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, referred to by Trump as ‘Governor Trudeau’. In your face, Donald!

Post Scriptum

It is looking very good that Austria will not be another European country governed by right-wing extremists. First, the Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP / Österreichische Volkspartei) resisted the temptation to submit to the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ / Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs / Freedom Party of Austria) in coalition negotiations following its success in the National Council elections at the end of September. Then the Green Federal President Alexander van der Bellen refused to be pressured into considering a minority government or new elections. And now the conservative ÖVP, the social democratic SPÖ and the liberal NEOs are taking positive stock of their initial coalition talks. Van der Bellen even sees them “on the home straight”.

The current ÖVP party chairman Christian Stocker can certainly chalk this up as a success. Because back in January, his predecessor and former Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer failed at precisely such coalition talks. Now it looks like the first “Zuckerl coalition” (Jelly Bean coalition) which is named after the colorful party colors turquoise, pink and red. I much prefer this sweetness to the sour political program of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who would even have overtaken Hungary's Viktor Orbán on the right with his restrictive “Fortress Austria” stance. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that after turning onto the home straight, they will also make it to the finish line. After all, I would still like to visit our southern neighbor without any stomach ache.

[crossdressingdeath]

#this explains it well actually i think#like yeah. as soon as DA became a series they decided to stop bothering with actual paths and make their own story to follow. which would be#fine if they didnt keep making the games with the appearance of your choices affecting the world at large#and thus a lot of things that end up being huge issues seem to stem from bioware not actually considering or caring about what sort of#actions would affect the actual plot#idk this ramble doesnt make sense and its a long way to say i agree with op (tags via @faroresson)

I wouldn't say Bioware "stopped bothering" with "actual paths" when DA became a series. First because the use of "stopped" implies DAO had actual branching paths (some choices unlocking different options along the same critical path isn't the same as the game having proper branching story paths, and given the origins all lead into the same story from Ostagar onward they're more roots than branches; honestly DAI with the mages vs Templars choice and DAV with the Minrathous vs Treviso choice give your choices more impact on the story, and even then it's just "which villain occupies Villain Slot B" in DAI and mostly side content and deciding which faction helps you out during the dragon rematch in DAV), but second because it's not a matter of them not bothering. It's a matter of proper branching story paths that change the main plot in any meaningful way being functionally impossible in a multi-game story (and honestly just unnecessarily complicated even in a single game unless having multiple separate branches is a part of the genre like in dating sims). Either they all have to end the same way outside of minor, flavour text-level variations (which is what Bioware did) or there has to be a True Ending that the next game is based on, because if the first game can have ending A and B and both those endings create radically different worldstates then if you want to take both into account the problem just gets shunted to the next game, where you have to have beginning A and B and either make them both merge into the same story early on or keep the A and B worldstate split the whole way through, and if you've got multiple endings for that second game too and they don't end the same you've got A1, A2, B1 and B2 to deal with going into the next game. And this happens again for the third game, and the fourth, and so on and so forth. If Bioware had done that then assuming two endings per game by DAV alone we'd be dealing with at a minimum eight significantly different worldstates just at the start of the game, which I think we can all agree no one could reasonably expect the writers to juggle. And that's just endings! I'm not even going to try to figure out how many major worldstate variations there could be if the most important decisions in the games created any significant variation in the plot. So it's not about whether Bioware cared about worldstate variation or wanted to allow for choices that created massive differences in Thedas depending on what option you picked or could be bothered to juggle significantly different worldstates; they straight up couldn't do that if they wanted actually writing the story for the next game to be at all feasible. The main plot can never be reliant on a variable, and on the flip side of that no variable can ever be something that would have a large impact on the main plot, and honestly I've never gotten the impression Bioware was claiming otherwise. Basically I firmly believe it's unfair to get angry at Bioware for the fact that every choice leads into roughly the same story, because it's wildly unreasonable to expect them to make significant changes to the worldstate and/or plot for every significant choice across at this point four games.

And the thing is it's really only DAI where them not doing that becomes a problem. The only choice in DAO that might have had a significant impact on Thedas as a whole (since you can't fail to defeat the Archdemon and both the Warden themselves and whoever ends up ruling Ferelden are mostly relevant to Ferelden, which we're specifically told is a backwater so all we had to do was leave Ferelden for it to no longer be plot-relevant) is the Warden's boon, which was quietly retconned when DA became a series. If the Architect survives Awakening he's staying well underground, so it makes sense that he doesn't show up in later games. The whole point of DA2 is that none of Hawke's choices change what ultimately happens on the larger scale of Thedas; the lyrium idol is found, the viscount is killed when the Qunari attack, and the mage rebellion is kickstarted no matter what choices Hawke makes, which makes it both a compelling tragedy and really easy to work around in terms of future games. Even in DAV the game always ends with Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain dealt with and Solas sealed away in the Fade where no one can talk to him to maintain the Veil; the most significant worldstate alteration is which city got blighted, and given we're shown the blight being pushed back from Minrathous after Elgar'nan and Solas are dealt with Bioware could easily get around that causing any major worldstate changes by a) avoiding Minrathous and Treviso in the next game and/or b) skipping ahead a few years and saying that the changes to the blight made it possible to cleanse much more quickly than it could be in the past.

It's not that your choices don't matter, it's that the writing is tailored so that the way they matter is roughly the same in the long run regardless of which you pick. Or to put it another way the decision points matter more than the decisions themselves; things like who rules Ferelden, who Hawke sided with and which city got blighted matter in that someone rules Ferelden thanks to the Warden, Hawke helped someone more or less win the day at the start of the mage rebellion, and a city was blighted in the dragon attack while Rook protected the other one. The exact details will ultimately come down to flavour text in future instalments, but the fact that the decision was made? That can matter. The issue is just DAI, because in DAI they did set up a bunch of things that should've had a major impact on the plot of the next game, but because they were variables none of them could. It's the fact that they handled it so well in DA2 and DAV (and even DAO to a lesser extent) that makes that failure to consider the writing of the next game stand out so much. I suspect that in DAI they had a lot of big, interesting ideas and there wasn't anyone to tell them "hey, we need to keep the fact that every option has to lead to a roughly equivalent worldstate in mind" before the game was shipped; as an example Mythal getting Urthemiel's soul is a really cool concept that they could've done some interesting things with! But it can't be important because it doesn't happen in every worldstate, and it would be... difficult at best to fit something like that into just flavour text. Basically at the end of the day DAI's choices are a problem because they should have had an impact on the plot moving foward. Not because they didn't.

You know what? I think a lot of DAV's biggest plot weaknesses ultimately come back to DAI, because a lot of them can be summarized as "Why didn't they get into [thing that DAI set up]" and... the answer is that Bioware was never going to be able to meaningfully engage with those things, and they should've known that when they wrote them into DAI. The Divine, Kieran's existence, Urthemiel's soul, the Well of Sorrows, all that stuff DAI set up that people are mad DAV didn't focus on? All of those should have led to pretty big alterations in the worldstate, and the worldstate has to remain roughly the same for everyone. We were never going to get the massive impact those choices should've had, for the same reason the Warden's boon at the end of DAO was quietly forgotten about as soon as Dragon Age became a series instead of a standalone game: the writing just can't support choices that would create such massive divergences. Like... take Urthemiel. Whether or not Mythal got Urthemiel's soul (and by extension whether or not Solas potentially had the chance to take it) should have been a huge deal! It should've led to two pretty different paths! Except... it can't. Because Bioware can only write one story for each game they make, which means the critical path can't really change beyond flavour text and occasionally which character gets a cameo slot; Mythal didn't get Urthemiel's soul in every worldstate, so Urthemiel's soul can never be relevant to the main plot. And the thing is, they would've known that going in! DAI was the third game, they must have known that worldstate variation could never be more than flavour text and cameos! Hell, you can see Bioware scrambling to make all the Divine options more or less the same in terms of impact on Thedosian society in DAI, which was definitely done to make writing sequels feasible. So why did they write Mythal getting Urthemiel's soul into DAI? And it's the same for all those other big, story-changing choices. People have differing opinions on the merits of including variable flavour text just to say it's there but that's not what this is about; in terms of the actual plot the variables cannot be relevant (unless it's something like the Warden ally choice where every option is ultimately the same in terms of plot impact, and even that one's pushing it; it never is explained how Hawke ended up friendly with Loghain). I think when talking about choices from DAI that DAV didn't engage with it's important to take a second to ask yourself if Bioware could have written a version of events that worked equally well with every possible outcome of that choice and could be tweaked to engage with every variation without having any major impact on the main plot. If the answer is no I think it's better described as a DAI problem than a DAV problem, because it's not actually DAV's fault that DAI wrote checks it couldn't cash.

[smol-but-gay]

Please read the explanation under the poll for further clarification.

I need a thought of mine peer reviewed. It's about autistic representation on TV shows. I'm curious if other people feel this as well or the complete opposite. Up front: I don't mean to insult anyone or invalidate anyone's opinion. Mostly, I want to know IF this thought I have is offensive against other autistic people, so please, please tell me it it is and please tell me why, if yes.

I've been watching a few shows with autistic main characters or autistic-coded main character and onr thing I really hate is that they all are incredibly selfish and egocentric. Because yes, autistic people often have trouble understanding other people's feelings and come across as cold or very rational. But I very rarely get the feeling from real people with autism that they are actively rude and dismissive. I feel like most autistic people I know try really hard to be more empathetic, because they don't want to hurt other people, especially people they like. Meanwhile autistic people on shows often are "brutally honest" and completely dismissive to the feelings of other people and to me that makes them look way worse than they actually are.

My problem is that I don't know many autistic people, I am not diagnosed and I honestly don't know if I'd get a diagnosis, because I might just be neurotypical with very strong autistic tendencies.

So I'd like to get some options of actual/other autistic people on this.

[meowzfordayz]

MILESTONE 20.0

⚠️ CLOSED ⚠️

Wowie !!!!! 😳😭🥰 Disclaimer: I don’t have 20k followers 😂, but I stylized my first MILESTONE event—500—as “5.0″, aaand now I’m in too deep to edit everything tagged “MILESTONE #.0″. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤪

I prob don’t have to explain that for every milestone event, but oh well. 😆

Welcome to my fourth ever milestone event !! 🥳 A huge thanks to everyone who voted here to determine the event (NSFW Alphabets), as well as to everyone who voted here to determine the characters (top 5 + a lucky 6th, bc there was a tie for 5th 🤭).

UPDATE 11 MAR 2024: I've decided to publish Sanemi's NSFW Alphabet as currently is, and am done w/ this event. I apologize to everyone who voted for + looked forward to Kyojuro's NSFW Alphabet.

Event schedule & a surprise bonus below... 👀

Event Schedule

tied for 5th place — Tanjirou & Tengen

in 4th place — Gyomei

in 3rd place — Giyuu

in 2nd place — Sanemi (incomplete)

in 1st place — Kyojuro

Surprise Bonus

As this poll progressed, it became apparent that NSFW content was going to win. However, mood boards/texts fanfics are ~low effort (comparatively) for me to create, so I considered hosting a dual-themed event for ppl who voted for a mood board/texts fanfic option...

Another major reason I considered a dual-themed event is bc 2k felt like a huge milestone, so I figured — why not celebrately hugely ?! 🤭😍

The caveat? Only ppl who originally voted for a mood board/texts fanfic option would be able to request them. Why? Most ppl voted for NSFW content (NSFW Alphabets or Threesomes), so most ppl were guaranteed either what they wanted, or close to what they wanted. I asked for opinions—I didn’t want anyone to feel that this was unfair of me to spontaneously offer—but I received precisely 1 response 😅 (in support of hosting a dual-themed event).

Therefore... I’m going to go ahead and declare this a dual-themed event !! 

Mood Boards/Texts Fanfics

If you voted for options 1-4 in this poll, then feel free to participate! From now until I finish all the NSFW Alphabets, send me a screenshot of your vote + additional info listed below.

Match Ups: personalized mood board » milestone 20.0, match ups, mood board, platonic or romantic + tell me about yourself — the more you tell me (obvi only stuff you’re comfortable sharing), the better I’ll be able to match you up 

Match Ups: personalized texts fanfic » milestone 20.0, match ups, texts fanfic, platonic or romantic + tell me about yourself — the more you tell me (obvi only stuff you’re comfortable sharing), the better I’ll be able to match you up

Pick a Character: personalized mood board » milestone 20.0, your-character-of-choice (from Demon Slayer), mood board, platonic or romantic

Pick a Character: personalized texts fanfic » milestone 20.0, your-character-of-choice (from Demon Slayer), texts fanfic, platonic or romantic

For example, if I voted for option 3, then I’d send an Ask like: “Hi! *insert screenshot of my vote here* For your MILESTONE 20.0 event, could I have a romantic mood board of me & Sanemi?”

If you don’t include a screenshot of your vote w/ your Ask, then I’ll delete it. To be fair to NSFW voters, mood boards/texts fanfics will be sfw.

To conclude...

I’m actually at a loss for words? 😭 I’m well aware follower count isn’t ~a thing on Tumblr 🤠 (which I’m grateful for lmao), but I also appreciate milestones, bc they provide an opportunity for me to tackle larger creative endeavors (aka events), and specifically give back to everyone supporting me & my writing. Thank you for sharing your laughs and pains w/ me, heartaches and warmth, frustrations and successes. I’m rooting for all of you, and am so excited for what’s to come. 💞

All my love,

T

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Mimi, shall we!  

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 127 (approx. 111 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 89 votes, the secondary poll got 38 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 4% (approx. 4 votes) and 2% (approx. 1 vote) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: As you may have guessed, I had already started to prepare the graphic designs a few days before the polls had ended - and I actually did expect Koushiro to win this one, considering how many times he had tied with Jou and actually surpassed him in the votes for the majority of the run-time. However, Jou (22%) picked up speed in the last few days and won with a lead of three votes in the end. Within the tumblr fandom - and especially throughout the last year -, the ship has gained visibly more attention than it has in other internet spheres, especially Japanese centric. Considering how their bond is displayed in the anime, framing their arcs to intertwine at several points in the timeline around the theme of “selfish choices vs own choices”, it is not surprising that they are viewed as viable romantic options for each other as well. They do discover their roles as supporting characters while also supporting each other just splendidly, with tiny hints of (mutual) affection sprinkled in, making it quite an appealing ship.

2nd place: Koushiro (19%) came in as second choice, despite the fact that he had led the poll by a marginal lead several times. And that is not surprising at all - as mentioned in his own analyis already, Koumi is considered to be one of the most popular Koushiro centric ships world-wide. This is due to their set-up in the series as being odd-balls of the same age while simultaneously bouncing off of each other very well as one of the go-to “opposites attract” dynamics. Additionally, Tri canonically made Koushiro crush on Mimi, solidifying a consistent fanon-headcanon (which usually goes the other way round, with her having a crush on him instead). While the portrayal of the crush was not appreciated everywhere equally, they have always been going strong for valid reasons. 

3rd place: For the first time, we actually have an undeniable tie, as both Sora and Taichi received the exact same number of votes (14 = 13%). While Sora had comfortably remained as sole heir of the third spot for a long time, Taichi had slowly but steadily caught up to her - leaving several choices behind that will be thoroughly mentioned in the Honorary mentions section. Sora’s lead is easy to explain, as both girls have been supporting each other and growing together throughout the series, displaying a gentle and loving bond despite their obious differences in character and design. Taichi on the other hand may appear to be more of a subtle choice in canon, but enjoys a lot of popularity as potential partner for Mimi in fandom, due to their rare, yet endearing interactions with one another.

Honorary mentions: Here we have quite a number of interesting characters, such as Miyako (who had tied with Taichi for fourth place for quite some time, but ended at 9%), Meiko (7%), Yamato (6%) and Michael (5%). While Miyako, Meiko and Michael are usually shipped with Mimi due to their foundations in the anime - with Miyako and Meiko being clearly enchanted by her and Michael and her bonding during her time in America -, Yamato is among the male fanon favourites. As Honorary mention among the honorary mentions, Takeru (2%) can also be mentioned.

“The 1 vote squad”: This spot is reserved for for Ken (1%) and Wallace (1%).

“0 votes go to...”: Hikari, Daisuke and Iori received 0 votes each.

Annotations: N/A.

What did the other polls say?

Mimi won Jou’s (38%) and Meiko’s (42%) polls, came in second in Koushiro’s (21%) and (technically) Sora’s (18%) and also finished third in Miyako’s (17%), thus making her one of the most represented choices in the “higher tiers”.

While Taichi and Yamato scored higher in Mimi’s own poll, she did not receive as many votes in their respective polls (5% and 4%), but still counts there as Honorable mention.

She was more of a niche choice in the polls for - surprisingly - Iori (2%), Takeru (1%) and Daisuke (1%). 

In the polls for Ken and Hikari, she received 0 votes - just like Hikari did in her own, thus ruling Mikari out as viable ship completely.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

While her polls did not receive the most amount of votes, it is quite clear that Mimi inherits the reputation as currently being one of the most popular Adventure characters overall. With 127 votes, Mimi came in fifth after Taichi, Ken, Takeru and Daisuke, and even though the overall numbers are still just a comparably small sample size, it still makes her the female character with the most votes - and the most diversity in the results so far. While Jou and Koushiro were never threatened to be surpassed as first and second place, the competition between them - as well as between Sora and Taichi as third place - had been tough. Plus, several characters (Miyako, Meiko, Yamato and Michael) surpassed the “niche” option of 1-2 votes, indicating that there is quite some variation in the way how and with whom people like to ship Mimi. There is also the (in my opinion very important) notion that she’s a highly popular choice not only in the polls for the male characters (Jou and Koushiro in particular) but also in the polls for the female characters (Meiko, Sora and Miyako in particular). Which is absolutely backed up by her canon portrayal, as she is having some of her most emotional character development moments during interactions with other female characters - while also displaying quite a tendency to be affectionate and physical with them. With some male characters, she may not share as many interactions in comparison, but due to her personality structure, openness, kindness and sincerity, it is absolutely understandable that the fandom enjoys the potential her relationships offer. Still, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now.

The comments in the tags have only referred to the already mentioned choices (”MIYAKO” and “SORA”) in all caps in particular). So the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all or when they’re considered asexual (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

[rex101111]

Aaaaand that's it! Time is up and let's tally the score...*BZZZT* Oh! So sorry folks. To be fair the answer isn't too far, but let's go one by one on these, providing videos where I can find them, and tell you about the weird ass world of Ratchet and Clank (contains context free spoilers for a few games, the answer to the poll will be bolded if you just wanna skip to that): 1. One of the main themes of the series, first two games especially, was making fun of consumerism and the overreach of capitalism. One of the best jokes in the second game is when faced with a computer that contains plot critical info, it refuses to operate without first being paid ten thousand bolts (the games currency). Ratchet is not best pleased: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzcPER6hwwI

2. In the game Full Frontal Assault (also known as Q Force), the main villain turns out to be a former side character from the second game; Zurgo, a fanboy of Captain Quark (who is both a superhero and celebrity). When learning of his true identity, Quark mentions he got a lot of letters from Zurgo...some of which contained "very disturbing fanfiction". 3. Okay a few tags about this one tickled me because they went "this sounds too normal this has to be it" but nope, here he is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNZftXmf1U Not only that, but he's actually a secret bonus boss, that you need to come back with late game equipment to find and fight. Fun fact about this guy, you can only fight and beat him once per save file. In New Game Plus if you've beaten him before his arena stays closed.

4. Ah yes, the timeless tale of Lance and Janice. Dr. Nefarious, one of the most prominent and popular villains, is an evil robot with a curious little glitch. If he gets too angry, he short circuits and he starts broadcasting an absolutely bonkers soap opera about the seemingly endless troubles of two lovers. Its pretty much every soap opera cliche and joke on overdrive. Its great.

5. In Ratchet Deadlocked, the main villain is a network producer named...Gleeman Vox. And his network is, of course, the Vox Network. He's sleezy, he's rude, he's pompous and arrogant, and he runs a death game where he kidnaps heroes from across the galaxy to make them fight to the death. The game isn't that political, so the most Fox News-y thing he really does is use his Vox News show to slander Ratchet with obviously faked pictures and biased testimony...from former villains.

6. Okay God was a bit of intentional overstatement on my part...but only a little. Appearing in the first game as a quick gag (Plumber's Crack), he shows up again in he second game in a semi-secret area, making a quip about "seeing you in a year or so". About a year later the next game came out. And it just of spiraled from there. In the first PS3 game he makes a joke about "not recognizing you in High Def" and every time he shows up again it seems like he's not only aware of the fourth wall, but future events.

7. The winning option! And to be fair if I didn't know this series I would probably pick this one too. One of the bosses of Deadlocked is The Eviscerator, a huge bug guy with arm blades. An unlockable in New Game Plus reveals he's really good at cooking and spends most of his off time making gourmet meals.

8. Again, a bit of an exaggeration, but the Groovitron is no joke. Introduced in the first PS3 game, this baby can make every enemy and NPC in any game it appears in dance to the beat. All of them, even the final bosses! Of course its effect is rather short lived on bosses, but the fact remains that nothing is immune to this thing, and that's just funny to me.

9. Slim Cognito, yes that's his name, was introduced in the second game as a seller of After-Market ship upgrades, as well as a black market weapon mod dealer. He reappears in the third game, which is set in a different galaxy from the second, and explains his presence as having to escape from police after "a Suck Cannon upgrade was mistakenly sold to a minor." He even gives the old "I swear he looked 18!" excuse. Golden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ADZ9Ze-pGU

10. One of two options to get no votes! I'm actually kind of impressed, but I guess the entire plot of the second game is a bit harder to hide. But yeah, one of the main plot threads of Going Commando revolves around a manufactured pet that is a lot more dangerous than advertised.

11. Here it is, the actual right answer. Now this might have thrown people off because I kinda went with a technicality here. One of the most reoccurring weapon types in R&C is the "animal ray gun", which is always an unlimited ammo laser that turns enemies into, usually, harmless animals. First game had chickens, then sheep, ducks, one of the mobile games had cows, but no pigs! Technically. In Deadlocked, there's a weapon mod that you can optionally equip that turns enemies at low health into random animals, one of which being pigs. But a weapon that specifically turns people into pigs? Nope.

12. And the second one to get no votes! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised though, because if anything was going to escape this series to be known by people who never even played any of them...it was gonna be Death To Squishies. Yes, that pop star is named Courtney Gears. The game came out in 2004, give up a break.

Okay, inspired by my Ratchet and Clank thoughts, non-R&C, players, which of these DIDN'T happen in the franchise:

[neko-rogers]

hey!! I’m not sure if your inbox is still open but I thought I’d send this just in case! what would you think abt a dark!peter who’s obsessed w s/o and offers to have her stay with him during like the stay-at-home pet of covid so she’s not alone then when it’s lifted he’s like lol you’re not leaving. sorry that’s kinda long and super specific. i absolutely love your writing though!!💗

Jamie All Over

words: 2,040 (no, i should be sorry bc this was chaotic)

tags: didn’t expect it to be this LONG, manipulative!peter parker, grooming, overprotectiveness, slight mentions of sex, don’t expect too much lmao its a headcanon

a/n: hi babe! i wasn’t entirely sure if you wanted this as a one shot (but if u do let me know!)

so you’re pretty unaware of every move peter is trying to do with you, you know? you were not really sure if it was a kind gesture, as the gentleman he seemed to be, or was it just a special treatment

ever since second year and until now as both of you were on your fourth year, he was consistent with his efforts

these moves were moments like when he would carry your books to your next class or confidently invite you to a study ‘date’ at the library after – often times he tells that his friends were invited, but would never show up later on

sometimes he would bring you lunch. you tried to turn it down kindly, but he insists that it was purposely packed as an extra for when he stays late around the university.

it was a lie though. anyone could tell by the way it was prepared looking very appetizing and tasted just as amazing at it was presented. 

and as peter had mentioned that he lived alone, you also assumed he was the one to make his meals. you were so sure he doesn’t pack for an extra and intentionally wants to impress you with his skills.

“hey, y/n!,” he calls, “look this eggroll has a cute design!”

he honestly was an epitome of a walking sunshine. his smile seemed so pure and you never felt any ill-intent for every gesture he had done for you

his friends seemed very welcoming the moment he introduced you to his group

you got along with ned who seemed to be just as joyful and funny as peter. meanwhile mj was a bit more of a tough cookie, nevertheless you both eventually got a long better than you expected

however, it came to one point wherein your own group of friends started being disheartened with your lack of communication

“you’ve been spending more time with that parker boy, huh?” “yeah, kinda?” “are you two like... dating?” “oh no! no... no... nooo!”

the moment they frowned at you was then that you realized and felt a little more guilty. you always remembered that friends were supposed to be friends despite the lack of time and effort, right?

somehow you tried to compensate for the lack of time with your friends. but every minute you spend felt more awkward than before

they weren’t sharing the same vibe with you and you were starting to question if it had been always like it – were you only adjusting to them?

you reached out for peter, considering that he became one of the closest and trusted people around the university. plus, he seemed to have genuinely great friends

“do you feel happy when you’re spending time with them?”

“well i used to but recently–”

“then you should stop being friends with them.”

you were upset for a second. the way he instantly told you that cutting ties with them would be the (only) option

he sounded serious on the other end of the line and you were just speechless for a moment. the dead air between lines was evident, but you didn’t know what to say

“sorry,” peter makes up, “i didn’t mean to sound too serious. i just don’t like people who are rude, especially to you.”

“oh, it’s fine. i totally get it.” you felt a batch of butterflies around your stomach. someone actually cared for you!!!

the moment you didn’t hesitate on losing your friendship with your past friends and moved on with joining peter’s group, things felt lighter.

somehow you felt more expressive than you realized. they were open to your ideas and thoughts, just as you were with them. you felt super comfortable and realized that you weren’t holding back on anything anymore

that’s why you had expected your winter break to be better than your past ones

everyone agreed to skate around the ice rink in rockefeller for christmas. along with it, also spending new year’s eve at the time square

news flash: you finally had the cliche new year’s eve kiss, with none other than peter parker!!! hooray!!!

for anyone who had common sense, your feelings for peter had accentuated. you weren’t denying it either, and the boy wasn’t oblivious to it too

he was just so irresistible and kind to you, like, all the time – to surreal, honestly

you felt and KNEW you were spoiled with peter (and his friends, who liked to spend time with you outside too, just not as much as him)

just as you were planning your spring break activities, it had to be postponed for another time

a lockdown had to be implemented around the country as it was under the state of a pandemic

mj and ned told the group that they’ll be with their families since lectures had to be concluded for the mean time

you planned to do the same, but you expected that this situation wouldn’t last long. so you chose to stay in your dorm rather than return to your hometown

completely sucks since you not only don’t get to hang out with your friends, but you weren’t able to see anyone in person...

until you got a text from peter

he was literally inviting you over his apartment since he explained that he wasn’t returning home either

you practically rushed to pack a small amount of clothes for a sleepover whilst not forgetting to wear a mask (bc it’s fucking important ok)

you arrived at his address and a big warm hug ensues 

his unit was so tidy and you were convinced he did it to impress you

peter was so happy to see you, acknowledging that you’re also spending a few nights with him

the nights mostly consisted of eating snacks and binge watching movies

however during one of those nights, both of you got a bonus – making out on his couch and further, completely forgetting the television

making out with peter wasn’t awkward at all. most of the time he was the one in control, which you didn’t mind

his hands treated you so gently but the way he teased you made you crave for more than what he was offering

a lot of whining, swearing, and begging – you weren’t aware but he was enjoying it a lot

on his side, he did praise you from time to time, but most of it consisted of raw tension and actions. the room was full of grunts and short breaths 

just want to include how sexy peter would be while he moans all over you. like his whole sunshine personality just drained away the moment he places his hands on either sides of your waist

the next day you felt like a princess even though you know it shouldn’t be???

apparently peter prepared breakfast for you and you felt embarrassed walking around his place only in the shirt you wore yesterday and underwear

just when you thought the extra lunch he packs for you was already amazing, the breakfast he prepared whilst being fresh and hot was just incredible

“you really like it?”

“of course! you really have to teach me to cook sometimes”

peter laughs and jokes, “yeah, don’t worry. i feel like we’ve got a lot of time ahead.”

ok fast forward to a few more days when you were beginning to feel like a freeloader. he lets you borrow a few of his clothes as yours were in the laundry

by the time you wanted to stop by your place, peter started to be more... clingy

at first he didn’t want you to go but after a few more debates, he felt defeated and instead insisted on going with you

eventually you caved and let him. it wasn’t that bad either, he talked to you about a lot of things on the way leaving you entertained the whole walk without realizing how far it had been

he helped you ‘pack’ more stuff so you wouldn’t be going back and forth from his place and yours. you felt like you were going out of town for a month with the amount of clothes and products

both of you returned to his place around late afternoon. you felt pretty tired and didn’t hesitate to pass out on the living room couch

when you woke up you sensed that you were in peter’s bedroom, meaning he carried and tucked you during the night

plus! an arm was wrapped around your midriff and you could feel peter’s breathing against your side

you closed your eyes and appreciated the moment. it was cute and made butterflies flutter around your stomach, and you tried not to move much to not wake him up

anyways apparently the pandemic lasted longer, and more serious, than expected (fuck the government and their incompetency) 

you spent more time with peter and was thankful that you didn’t spend this quarantine alone

within a blink of an eye, a month and a half already had passed. you couldn’t deny that most, or all, days have been unproductive

eat, cook, watch tv, cuddle, fuck, repeatedly get spoiled??? yeah sounds like the dream

weird though because you haven’t completely brought up to peter if you’re actually in a relationship with him. oh no were you just friends with (a lot) of benefits??

but you also felt like it wasn’t the time to bring it up. neither of you were saying anything so it was best to let it be for the fear that things might go downhill from there

anyways this continued for more weeks, especially since the ‘stay-at-home’ policy was deemed necessary

you started to help him do errands around the apartment just to feel like you weren’t an actual freeloader – but it wasn’t a surprise when he kept insisting that you should relax

more cute moments

more sexy times

and more cuddles during night (peter’s grip became tighter every night, but you shrugged it off assuming that it was just you getting homesick and overthinking)

ok but when you brought up being homesick and mentioned that you planned peter wasn’t entirely happy about it

the way he acted wasn’t just clingy. he insisted that he’d be the one to go and that you were staying

“ok but i’m not a dog, peter?” “i know, honey, but it’s too dangerous outside. i wouldn’t want you to be at risk.” “i wear a mask?? i follow health protocols?? i’ll be fine??” “you don’t understand–”

oh god he was becoming controlling

you tried not to argue anymore, rather ignoring and pushing past him to proceed to the door

and peter instinctively wrapped an arm around your waist and prevented you from walking further

there was a lot of struggling, but you didn’t know he was this strong. literally what the hell.

you tried to scream too but he pretty much threatened you to your core

“let’s talk this out,” he grunts as he secures his grip around you

“the hell? let me go!”

things got more complicated. he did convince you to talk with him (by means of tying your arms and legs to incapacitate you from running and righting)

it was a nightmare. he was really soft and sweet with you, even getting teary eyed after stating, “i only want what’s best for you... for us”

however you could sense the manipulativeness through it despite being making everything else look convincing

“trust me, sweetie, i wouldn’t want to hurt you. it would crush me” “please don’t cry. i’m only protecting you” “people are disgusting, they don’t deserve an angel like you” “don’t worry, i can protect you”

it terrified you to your nerves, sending shivers across your spine

at first you didn’t realize it, but eventually after days of being trapped, you figured he had been grooming you the whole time

he tried to make you dependent of him and somehow he did a fine job. just not enough to completely exploit you

though, it made you question what would have been better in your situation: being conscious of his sly nature with the hope of escaping or being unaware and completely wrapped around his finger whereas letting him continue how greatly he had been caring for you?

[ofviolentdeath]

30 Days of Drabbles::Day Fifteen

Character(s)::Britt, Ciarn, and Ros Word Count::788

                                                                       ~*~

It was a long shot, she knew that, but Ros had heard through the grapevine that she had a niece that could potentially give her back what she had lost. Or, more important, who she had lost. It was worth a visit at the very least, even if she was trying not to get her hopes up.

Ciarn had his reservations, he had, after all, been dead for decades at this point. He was fairly certain he had been dead longer than Ros's niece had even been alive, but that was beside the point. He had never actually met a necromancer, so he wasn't sure what to expect.

Neither of them expected a veterinarian or that the consultation would be taking place at her clinic between seeing clients.

Britt had heard of her aunt Ros in passing, knew that she avoided most of the family given her circumstance and honestly, she didn't blame her for it. Most of the keres, her mother included, would have tried to talk Ros into crossing Ciarn over, even if that might not be the best possible option.

"The biggest thing here is going to be getting to where his body was laid to rest," she explained, seeing no markings on his spirit to indicate there might be an issue. Some spirits had a certain glow to them, a way to mark them for specific things. He could have been tagged once, but if he had been, it had long since faded. "Usually calling the spirit back is the difficult part, but that doesn't look like it's going to be an issue here."

Her smile was warm when she looked over at him and Ciarn couldn't help but feel some sort of relief. Not only could she see and hear him, but she might be able to actually help.

"What are the risks?" Ros asked, always the more practical of the two, her fingers twined with his as if he was the only solid thing left in the world.

The irony was not lost on Ciarn.

"I'm more concerned with is it going to hurt and am I going to still have memories," the spirit chimed in, not caring too much about the risks. As far as he was concerned, the payoff was worth any risk to himself.

"There are some risks, mostly when it comes to the binding. His life force has to be bound to someone else's, I am just going to assume that you would like to keep that between the two of you, that's fine. My eldest son is bound to me like that. However. He can still be killed again. It will be harder, he'll heal faster, but it's still possible and there's a chance it could kill you as well," she explained before turning her attention to the spirit once more. "The part that hurts is having your spirit put back in your body. The rest doesn't hurt as much as that initial shock of being brought back. You'll be sore for a while after, but it might not be as bad for you with being a shifter."

The risks seemed pretty minimal to her and she trusted that the girl knew what she was talking about given her experience with having someone's life bound to her own.

"I also know what it feels like to be bound to someone else. I sort of got the shit end of having a mortal parent, but my husband is immortal. I'm bound to him. So I do understand both sides of the risks on that one and I can tell you, that if this is something you both truly want, the risks are worth it."

Ros looked at Ciarn, taking comfort in his smile before she looked back at her niece and nodded. "I don't care the cost. Do it."

"Oh auntie, I don't charge for that. It's not a service I actually offer, this is a rare exception." Truthfully, this would only be the fourth person she had brought back like this and all of those had been special circumstances."

There was still a chance she would be getting a visit from one of her aunts about this, but she also figured that they would understand the situation. She hoped.

Ros visibly relaxed at that, a smile finally gracing her lips. "How soon can we do this?"

"We can go as soon as I'm done here for the day. I'll call my husband to make sure there's nothing going on at home today, but I don't foresee there being an issue there."

"Thank you. That doesn't feel like enough but thank you," Ciarn murmured, excited and anxious to get a second chance at the life he had lost.

[revna-writes]

this is gonna be kinda long.. sorry xoxo

how do i export this stuff???

It's actually really easy! Obsidian stores everything as simple .md (markdown) files, which almost everything (notepad included) can open and work from. To see your files, right click on the folder, and click on show in system explorer.

this opens up the folder for you, and you can just drag it into google drive. yes, it's seriously that easy. Then, if you ever need to restore from backup, you can just download the folder and drag it into obsidian. easily peasily!

access articles of interest with ease

three options & a secret fourth:

folder system (sidebar file hierarchy)

links ([[link/to/other/document]])

tags (#word)

Canvas mode (secret fourth option. enable in settings.)

folder system!!!

This is how I organize and reference my things. I always have my sidebar open, even while writing. I collapse (minimize) folders I am not using. I name them things that are obvious (to me), so I can always find what I'm needing. Obsidian lets you open up multiple tabs as well, which can be helpful if you need multiple files open at once.

You can also have multiple tabs open side-by-side. To do this, right click one of your tabs and click "split right" (or "split down"). That will look like this.

links!!!!

I don't use these as much, but they're still helpful. To make a link between files in obsidian, just type "[[" and then you'll get a popup menu asking which file you want to link. Also, holding "ctrl" over a finished link will bring up a preview of the linked note (if you have the setting enabled). Middle clicking on a link will open it in a new tab.

Here, I am ctrl-hovering over "characters", which is a link to the character document. I don't usually use links.

However, links really make the graph view come alive. Here's a graph representation of every piece of fiction I've worked on this year! (they're all linked to my progress tracker)

tags

Truthfully, I never use these. I don't see much value in them. However, here's how you use them. Any time you want to make a tag, just go #tag.like.this. Tags are great for tracking:

Number of times something has occurred

Number of notes thing has occurred in

What notes that thing appears in

The tag view is in the right sidebar, under this little tag icon. You may need to enable this in settings- if you have trouble finding it, it may be under "core plugins".

From here, you can see the number of times a tag has been used, and if you click on one,

It will automatically open up the left sidebar and show you all the notes it appears inside of. neat!!!

secret fourth option- canvas mode!!!!

This one is my favorite. Canvas is enabled under settings -> core plugins -> canvas. From there, you can right click any folder, and add new canvas.

Inside a canvas, you can drag in, or add with the button, any existing note- AND THE NOTE CONTENT WILL BE THERE IN REAL TIME, AND YOU CAN EDIT IT FROM THIS VIEW IT'S SO COOL I DSFJGLSDFJLGHSDFJLSDFJG

You can also add cards, which are not notes, but help explain things on the canvas. You can then drag everything around wherever you want and connect them with lines (just hover over the side of a card or note and you can click-drag a line to connect them).

Cards (leftmost icon on bottom)

Notes (middle icon on bottom)

My plot line (zoomed out)

tracking writing progress in obsidian

I keep a central progress note with a big table. In the first column, I make a link to the document I've worked on. The second and third column are a bit complicated, so I'm not going to get into that here- I would recommend just putting "word count" and copying that manually from the note. If you have the setting enabled, the word count for any note will always be in the bottom right.

There are plugins to do these calculations automatically, but there's something very satisfying about doing it myself. I like adding my own progress up.

summary

obsidian is huge and massive and customizable in more ways than your wildest dreams. if you want to do something, there is more than likely a way to do it, and if there isn't, there is more than likely a community plugin for it. Always explore, always make your note system work for you (and not the other way around!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! very important!!!!!!!)

and if you have any questions, this obsidian nerd is happy to answer them~

Tell me how (you) use Obsidian to tie together important content

What tagging system do you use?

Should I use tags like this?

itemname (item.hierloomlocket)

placename (place.thewretchingnetch)

personname (person.emperorpalpetine)

to identify articles of interest with ease? Is it chaos on purpose? Is there a way?

Should I just tag them with (item) (person) (place) as needed?

What do I do?

Also, how do I export without using copy and paste? Can I export specific files or do I have to export all or one?

Show me the way

I’m new at this 🫶🏻

#OBSIDIAN NERDS SHOW ME THE WAY

[yayteaberry]

*TW IN THE TAGS*  All For You. (Bakugou)

Ever since he met you, he knew he had to watch after you. As children it wasn’t as easy for him to determine why he was so protective of you but as he matured it came into clear view that you needed someone to look out for you.

You were too open, too kind, you let anybody close to you and they repeatedly hurt you. They’d lie to you, they’d steal from you, they’d take from you. He became determined to stop that from happening.

At first he resorted to verbal threats, starting mild scuffles which upset you heavily.

You showed extreme distaste towards violence, especially when it involved him getting hurt, constantly reminding him that defusing a fight is more important than finishing one.

Fine, he could work around this, he'd do it for you.

You'd appreciate it if you understood the reality of the world.

As he gained more power over his quirk he used it to his benefit, cornering problems after school to show them how to behave. It always worked, they’d leave you alone. Of course he’d be there to console you when a potential love interest or ‘friend’ cut you off cold, he’d always be there for you.

But as you both got older, he had to get more serious in his deterrent strategies. People learned to never cross you since you had a guard dog just waiting for the opportunity to sink his teeth into them.

It became widely known that anyone who gave you any trouble would be dealt with no matter how hard they tried to avoid it.

However, this didn’t stop boys from attempting to court you, as if that's even an option. You’re not up for grabs, not by any one of those fucking losers. Middle school is ground zero for budding romances and hormones to fluctuate wildly, boys getting more intensive about their own desires.

It made him sick.

The way they’d look at you, the way they’d talk about you among themselves, it was fucking awful. Someone as cute and precious as you would always be sought out by undeserving perverts.

He couldn’t help himself, he really couldn’t. He had to do something when some bastard managed to sneak past him. One day a boy gave you his number, and you actually put it in your phone.

Every message was like a knife into his gut, he almost didn't want to read through your chat logs. But he knew that he had to pour through all of it to fully understand how far this disgusting monster would be willing to go.

How could you let yourself be manipulated like this? How could you be so misguided when the only person who’s actually looking out for you is so much better than this idiot?

He was going to handle it like he always had, but this guy was something else.

You weren’t supposed to see any of it. You really weren’t. His original plan was to beat you to a meeting up point you’d established with that creep, somewhere secluded towards a wooded area, perfect for what he intended to do.

He’d just persuade him to get fuckin lost with some sparks along with a few choice phrases, and then when you arrive only for nobody to be there you'd learn that boys like that would always abandon you. Just like always he would be there to pick up the pieces of your heart, pushing you towards the obvious conclusion that he was who mattered.

The plan was to show you that this loser was leading you on for shits and giggles, that other boys weren’t worth your time.

But this bastard wouldn’t budge.

He said he wasn’t scared of meager threats, and that you would soon be giving all your attention to him, that he was better for you and actually cared about you. Then he said that he was going to ask you out, and you'd give your virginity to him.

The first punch didn't even register in Bakugou's brain until it connected.

Then he threw a second. And a third. And a fourth.

His palms didn't spark even once, instincts and adrenaline flooded his system, following his target to the ground and landing blow after blow as hard as he could.

He wasn't focused on the damage he was actually dealing, so infuriated and enraged that all he was thinking about was about how much this bastard deserved so much more than this, about how well he was doing to protect you from this absolute degenerate.

When a breeze rolled through, he could feel and really smell the metallic fluid slinging itself all over him.

He only stopped when his fists began connecting with nothing solid, the soreness in his arms and the lack of movement beneath him prompting him to take a break.

That was when he looked up, sensing another presence nearby, locking eyes with you from across the field.

It doesn’t matter when you started watching, what matters is the pool of gore beneath him, the blood splattered over his jaw and dripping off his school uniform, even staining his hair in places.

Both you and him know he can close the distance before you successfully run away.

He’s sure that if he can keep you from screaming he can explain how this was all for your sake.

After all, he loves you.

This is all for you, this should be proof that he loves you far deeper than anyone in the world.

Sometimes dirty work is necessary. You'd understand that. He just has to explain it to you.

[damn-stark]

To new friends

Chapter 6 of Different Light

A/N- So I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am going to have some events from the books in this series, just to add more angst and more fun. So if you read parts that don’t show up in the movie, it’s becaue it’s either what I wrote, or something that happened in the books 👍🏽 hope you guys like the chapter and don’t be afraid to leave your thoughts!

Warning- Angst, SLOWBURN.

Pairing- Harry Potter x Malfoy!reader, Fred Weasley x Malfoy!reader

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

As the blissful daze of the Yule ball night passed, the last few free days passed swiftly, taking the memory of Fred’s kiss on your lips with it. Leaving nothing behind but the mental memory of such a delightful moment.

Albeit it was also a moment that wasn’t talked about any day after, classes started again and days would get busier for both Fred and you. Of course you didn’t want to force him into talking about it, you wanted the topic to come out, just effortlessly. Fred treated you kinder; that’s something you noticed, he was way more touchy than before. Usually before when you would sit next to each other, there was no contact whatsoever—sure your arms, or thighs brushed against each other’s, but that was it.

Now when Fred sat next to you in the great hall, or really anywhere else, he would place his hand on top of yours, or hook his pinky fingers with yours; sometimes he would place his arm on top the seat you were sitting on, but that was about it. Fred didn’t try and repeat what happened that night, or try and gloat about it. He simply just didn’t talk about it.

Which led you to think; what did he intend with that kiss?

You want to ask him, but then again you fear the answer he could give.

It’s not like you could ask George. One, because he was Fred’s twin brother and two, you didn’t want to put George in that position. It’d be better if he wasn’t in the middle, things would just flow much easier that way.

You still wanted help, but from who? Narcissa? You could specifically leave Fred’s name out and just ask for advice, but as you further thought about it, asking your mother wasn’t the best option; yet.

That left you with the lingering question of, who then?

“Y/N.”

At the sound of the small, sweet voice calling to you, you’re thrown from your train of thought and left to look over your shoulder and notice, Hermione Granger, striding towards you. At first you don’t know what to do, you’re actually utterly confused on what to do and why she has called you. But realization hits you as she finally falls by your side and offers you a small sweet smile—you had helped her that night of the Yule ball. She said words you’d never forget.

Regardless you didn’t really think you helping her that night was enough for her to reach out to you now. Maybe just simple “hellos” when you passed by the halls, but you didn’t think she’d actually call your name and hurry to reach you. That gesture was still so unfamiliar and new to you.

You smile and greet her however, regardless of how your thoughts churn. “Hello.”

“I saw you pass just now and thought it’d be nice to walk with you to Arithmancy.” Hermione explained kindly. “Is that alright with you?”

Of course!

You smile shyly and nod. “Yeah that's alright.” You feel your cheeks burn and a need to just walk in silence, but you also were desperate to make friends who weren’t just Fred and George—“I never got the chance to ask, did you enjoy the Yule ball? Before everything went down I mean.”

Hermione smiles wider and nods. “Yes it was absolutely great. I had a lot of fun. What about you? Fred mentioned he was going with you, how was that?”

“Oh well,” you smile shyly at the memory of that night. “It was amazing, Fred was a good partner.”

A new thought then invades your mind—you could ask her for help. Even ask her if she heard anything Fred mentioned of that night. After all they were part of the same house. She’s got to know a thing or two, right?

“Do—”

“Fred said you were a great partner too,” Hermione mentions as if she has read your mind. “He said he enjoyed that night with you.”

At the sound of her comment, you feel your cheeks burn increasingly hotter. You’re left stunned for a moment, left giddy and speechless, left trying to collect your thoughts and like you could explode from the inside—you had heard him say he enjoyed that night, but hearing that he had said that to other people just made it seem even more special. The knowledge of what he said made you smile wider. It made you want to know more.“Did he say anything else?” You turn your head to look at her and you see her shake her head.

“No, I’m sorry. He and his friends moved away before I could hear more.”

You hum softly and assure her. “It’s okay, thank you for telling me what he said though.”

Hermione just smiles as response before she changes the subject, not giving you the chance to ask for her help in your still troubled dilema. “What are you reading?”

You look down to the Daily Prophet in your hand and shrug. With all your running thoughts, you didn’t have time to read what you had in your hand. “I don’t know, I haven’t had time to read what,” you lift the newspaper and scoff, “Rita Skeeter wrote it, probably just rubbish anyway.”

Just as you’re about to shove it in between your books, Hermione stops you before snatching the paper from your hand. “Wait, what does this evil witch have to say now.”

Out of new grown curiosity, you look over her shoulder as she begins to read the paper outloud; “DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE

Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.

Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since, a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.

An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening."

'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything—”

Your eyes widen at the sound of your brother's name and anything else read after that just tunes out. The news of Hagrid being a half giant doesn’t even bug you, or register in your mind as someone dangerous (because he wasn’t). All you focused on was what lies your, weasel of a little brother had to say. It makes your furious, feel steam come out of your ears and feel your fists shake. The news on the paper even makes Hermione upset; albeit her reasons differed from yours.

Clearly—“how-how did she find out!” Before you could give your opinion, Hermione quietly seemed to ramble to herself, only raising her voice at specific points. “Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxine at the ball—but no, they would have seen her, she’s not even...” her voice goes quiet again and you’re left looking at her bewildered and still taken back yourself. As well as intrigued by what she had to say. Surprised by her suddenly asking you a probing question. “Did you see Rita Skeeter that day of the ball?”

You blink out of surprise, but manage to shake your head. “No, I didn’t. But maybe she was hiding in some bushes, like an odd-ball.”

Hermione bites her lip and shrugs before giving an opinion herself. “Maybe she has some type of invisibility cloak?”

You shrug, “maybe. I mean to get such a scoop on people, she’s got to have something up her sleeve.”

Hermione's eyes narrow and she seems to go into deep thinking before she comes up with a suggestion that surprised you even more. “We should try and figure it out. You’re smart, I’m sure if we got together, we’d figure it out.”

You scoff lightheartedly and stop before entering your intended class. “Why the need to get the scoop on her?”

“Because,” Hermione blurted passionately, “it’s not the first time she’s done something like this. Mysteriously getting news on people. She’s wicked and needs to be stopped.”

You smirk at her fiery spirit and can’t help but give in without much need of further convincing. “Alright, I’ll help. It sounds like fun.”

——

The day of the second game came and you couldn’t be dreading this one more. It was too cold and what was the point of having an audience? The players were going to be underwater and if they somehow have a way for you and the rest of the students to look in the depths of the lake without having to go in along with the players, then what was the point?

You were just going to unnecessarily freeze to basically watch players dive.

“ANY BETS! ANY BETS!”

“PLACE YOUR BETS!” George and Fred shouted in a booming voice to the passing students.

Yet with all you’re complaining, here you were, still teamed up with the twins trying to take bets from students.

“THREE LADS!”

“ONE LADY!”

“FOUR ARE GOING DOWN!”

You would’ve joined into their tactics, but you didn’t feel like screaming, so instead you held onto the box for them, watching them as you moved up and the students moved down towards the boats. Stopping only when their sister shoved past them and stopped to remark their rude persuading screams. “Don’t be so mean.”

The twins and you looked back to Ginny and you couldn’t help but agree, but the twins on the other hand turned back around and continued screaming to try and convince others to place bets. Stopping only minutes before the last boat could leave the dock.

“Finally,” you groan as you close the box and shove it in George’s hands. “I thought we’d never finish.”

Fred scoffs, “come on, you’ve got to admit that doing this makes the games more fun.”

“Hardly.” You retort as you shove your hands in your jackets pockets, “freezing to watch water is something I would hardly call fun.”

“You’re in luck then.” George assures you, “the game should be an hour long.”

You groan one last time before you reach the boats, looking to Fred as he pointed for you to get on first. “Ladies first.” He smirks before he follows after you, waiting lastly for George to go on before the person driving the boat began its short trip to the already packed and rowdy stands.

Luckily not having to wait too long for the game to start and beginning to watch with much more anticipation and stress than you intended after you watched Harry clumsily fall into the lake. While Draco, who was two people away from you laughed and pointed at Harry’s clumsy fall, causing you to shoot him a side glare. One he didn’t catch, but you meant with a burning dedication. He only shut up when Harry shot up after his worrying fall into the water, causing an uproar from the students rooting for his win. Albeit seconds after he splashed in, everyone, including yourself were filled with stomach twisting anticipation for anyone’s resurface from the water with their special lost thing.

You were also left with waiting, and endless waiting, growing colder as time ticked.

“Cold?” Fred asked you.

You looked to him and shivered slightly at the feeling of the bitter wind hitting your face. “what do you think?”

A half, smug smile tugged on his lips and he shrugs. “No, I don’t think you are.”

“Then there's your answer.” You cross your arms over your chest and look out to the lake, feeling your shoulders jump slightly moments later when Fred wrapped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to him.

“Better?”

You feel your cheeks burn and your heart skip a beat. It’s hard to think of what to say at the flustered feeling you got at the interaction, but you somehow manage to respond. Albeit stammering and sounding like you were terrified. “Y-yes, much better.”

You didn’t see but Fred grinned at your response. Choosing to stay quiet for the remainder of the game until the first contestant surfaced from the water; Cedric Diggory and Cho—you clapped, but didn’t feel much excitement like others did. Instead you felt as if your stomach twisted tighter knowing that the game was close to over and Harry hadn’t surfaced yet.

Krum and...Hermione surfaced and you clapped excitedly for her, but you were still left with the increasing worrying, glancing repeatedly at the time and waiting as others did. Hearing whispers and the excitement for the game dwindled the more time passed and Harry showed no sign.

The worry now surrounding the crowd was replaced by short relief when Ron and a little girl surfaced, but that was short lived since Harry’s presence was lacking. It made you part from Fred’s side and grip onto the railing to look down into the water to watch and wait—and yes he was just a boy you hardly knew, hardly talked to and just thought of as cute and nice, a bit clumsy and dorky, but...you couldn’t help but worry and—

Before you could get deeper into your thoughts, Harry Potter shot up from the water and finally relieved the worry and stress that had grown increasingly higher those past few minutes. Making you push yourself off the railing to finally clap and cheer, turning to celebrate the win with the twins for a brief moment before you’re interrupted by Dumbledore's booming voice. “Attention! The winner is Mr. Diggory!”

The crowd for Cedric erupted with claps and cheering for him and his win. All them were forced to quiet down though as Dumbledore continued. “Who showed the need to command of the bubble head charm. However seeing as Mr.Potter would have finished first, should it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley, but the others as well, we’ve agreed to award him second place! For outstanding moral fiber!”

Again the crowd erupted into a roaring cheering, causing the twins to five each other and you in a form to celebrate. Ignoring as Draco, bitterly stormed off after the announcement of his rival's achievement. While the three didn’t waste a second for the twins and you to push through the crowd to walk down to where Harry, and the other contestants and the people they saved were.

The twins rushed first, greeting Harry with loud congratulating cheers and a tight hug that they backed from after feeling Harry all wet; letting them turn to their brother and in their own foolish way, worry over his well-being. Letting you be face to face with Harry and instantly feel a hotter heat crawl onto your face before and while you found the words to talk to him.

“That was amazing Harry! You did great!” You grinned, stepping into wrap your arms around him, but stopping as you took in his soaked figure.

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, “I wouldn’t, I’m soaked.” A timid and wobbly smile tugged on his lips and he continued. “Thank you though, y/n.”

You offer him another warm smile and last lingering stare before you rip your eyes away and turn your attention to Herimone next to him.

——

“Right on, all that moral fiber, eh?” George teased Harry as he walked onto the deck.

“That’s great.” Fred chuckled.

You smirk and tag along with the teasing. “All that moral fiber.”

“Blimey, even if you go wrong it turns out right.” Ron voiced with a slight smile.

“Well done, moral fiber.” Fred teased before lightly pushing Harry and then walking off with his brothers, Hermione and you, leaving Harry behind.

You wanted to look back, but before you could Fred’s hand on your arm interrupted your attempts before you could accomplish them. “So, y/n, I was thinking,” he began to say in a soft voice that was rare for him to speak in and off putting for you to hear. “How about we go to Hogsmeade together?”

You blink and begin to fall behind from the group, parting your lips to speak, but coming out with nothing but a breath of air. Proceeding to instead gently rub your arm nervously and letting your eyes flicker from the ground to Fred before managing to speak just as nervously. “Like George, you and I?”

Fred chuckles and shakes his head. “No you goof, just you and I.”

Your cheeks burn again and you giggle and whisper, “oh,” before smiling warmly and nodding. “Sure I like the sound of that, when?”

Fred shrugged, trying to hide his cocky smile. “I’ll let you know, alright?”

You nod, “okay.” Before you both catch up to the group you had been with, picking up your pace smoothly, so you could catch up with a grinning Hermione that already knew by the smile on Fred and your faces what had gone on.

In that moment letting a thought begin to unroll in the back of your mind. Not one having to do with Fred, nor George or Harry. But about Hermione. Odd thing especially after getting asked out by Fred, but it was a thought that just grew; even if Hermione and you had just started talking and a friendship was beginning to develop. It still felt refreshing, assuring and exciting that you had someone else as a friend. Someone who could relate to you in other ways Fred, or George couldn’t. You felt happy that you were beginning to be her friend, that she viewed you like hers and not like the other girls would in Durmstrang. She viewed you like a friend now. She viewed you differently.

——

“HARRY POTTER IN A BURNING LOVE TRIANGLE

A boy like no other, perhaps - yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would suffer through a trouble bigger than any he has faced, choosing who to love and who to leave behind broken hearted.

In the recent events of the Triwizard tournament, Harry has been spotted in the arms of new transfer student to Hogwarts, Y/N Malfoy. At first it had seemed that it was nothing but platonic, but their affectionate embrace and caring and lovable words told us otherwise. Yet as loving as they are, Harry is still caught in the middle between Herimone Granger, who is not innocent as she portrays to be.

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl."

However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest.

"She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."

Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potters well-wishers must hope that he opens his eyes and sets his heart upon his Slytherin lover.

No. No. No. This can’t be happening. No. Your father...your mother….your father. He’s going to kill you before disowning you. No. This isn’t what you wanted. Even if it was false information when it came to your part of the paper, it was still going to get to your parents before you had the chance to explain. You’ve done good to hide the truth of your friendships from them when Draco snitches, but this...this can ruin everything and take you back to Durmstrang.

“If that’s the best Rita can do, she’s losing her touch,” Herimone says, beginning to giggle and causing you to snap your head from the paper to look at her with a perplexed, widened gaze. “What a pile of old rubbish.” She proceeds to take the paper from your hands and throws the paper into an empty chair. The action leaving you shocked and speechless—wasn’t she worried to?

On how Rita Skeeter found out about the obvious private conversation that went on between her and Krum? Why wasn’t she worried like you?

“Why-why are you so calm?” You manage to ask with your perplexed and widened gaze.

Hermione looks over to a group of Slytherins to see if they’d be upset by the article. Hermione gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave, and turned back to pretend to focus on the parchment in front of the both of you to finally talk without giving your question an answer. “There’s something funny though, how could Rita Skeeter have known?” Her face went red and she pressed her quil to her chin. “How did she know Viktor asked me to visit him in the summer?”

You shrug and push your worry aside for now, “maybe someone’s her spy?”

Herimone shakes her head, “no, couldn’t be, he pulled me away from the judges after we got our blankets and we were in a spot surrounded by his friends. They’d never do anything to Viktor.” Her face grew increasingly more red and her eyebrows furrowed deeper as she mindlessly pressed her quil on the parchment now. “But how could Rita have heard. She wasn’t there...or was she? Maybe she’s got an invisibility cloak?”

“Perhaps,” you muse along with her, “but there were too many people on that platform, someone would have bumped into her and found her out.” You tap your fingers on the tabletop as you begin to brainstorm a possibility, muttering to Hermione as you did so. “What exactly happened after Krum and you got out of the water?”

Herimone began to explain every exact detail of the events after Krum got her out of the water. Every single detail from climbing onto the platform, to mentioning that Krum flicked a beetle off her wet hair and lastly the moment you had finally come along.

“Hmm,” you rest your elbow on the table and rest your head on your hand as you continue to think and throw out ideas that came to your mind. “Well there wasn’t much room for her to hide at all. She couldn’t be under the water, and it’s doubtful she used polyjuice.”

“You’re right.” Hermione agrees.

At a incoming thought you begin to snicker, “maybe she temporarily transformed into your towel.”

Suddenly Hermione shoots up and her eyes gleam with what seems to be excitement. She steps towards you and manages to pull you off your chair to hold your hands in hers and basically shout out. “I’ve got it!”

“Hermione Granger and Miss Malfoy, please be quiet unless you both want detention!” The professor scolds you, making Herimone quietly apologize before she pulls you back to your seat and continues quietly. Disregarding the warning you both had just gotten.

“She couldn’t have turned into a towel, or risked using polyjuice, but she could have transformed into something else. Something smaller and easy to blend in and be disregarded by any person.”

You blink in astonishment by her quick thinking and fast investigating skills. You don’t say anything, just listen completely mesmerized.

“Rita Skeeter was the beetle in my hair,” Herimone whispers in a loud excited whisper, “of course I thought nothing of it before because it was just a bug, but now it all makes sense; how she can catch all the scoop and hide without without being seen. She’s an animagus.”

You smirk and squeeze in your own thoughts. “Probably an unregistered one too, or else Dumblrdore would have taken extra precautions to keep her off the castle grounds.”

“Yes!” Hermione exclaims with a joyful and yet mischievous grin, “she kept her secret well until now. I’m going to make sure that she doesn’t have another chance to spread any more cruel, dishonest stories.”

“What do you mean?” You gasp with a deeply puzzled and slightly fearful face.

“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t write any more stories from here until the tournament ends. I’m going to catch Rita.” She explains in a loud whisper once again with a dangerous mischievous look still painted in her eyes. “Do you want to catch her with me?”

“I,” you pause to think before you have the chance to abruptly answer. Beginning to go over the fact in your head, that Rita didn’t also make a lie about Hermione, but one about you. One that could cost you heavily. And the days before Herimone asked about helping her, you were down to pair up with Hermione because you didn’t want to lose a friend. Now you were doing it because, well you didn’t want to lose a friend and two, you had motivation of your own.

A smirk creeps onto your face and you meet Herimone’s gaze to share that same dangerous mischievous gaze. “I’m going to catch Rita with you.”

Even if you knew you were still going to get hell from your parents….especially your father.

.

.

.

.

Tagged- @peter-laufeyson , @swiftlymoniquesblog , @spideyyypeter , @gsvshsjsbs, @accio-prozac , @cherriesanwine , @kokomaesadie , @april-14-blog , @prettypinkpeachh , @pest-ill-ence , @ilovespideyyy

[ceescedasticity]

fanfic writer ask game

Got tagged by @fallintosanity...

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm, hard to say. Not sure I have one? But I can say I am almost never interested in a ship that couldn't also be a Homestuck moirallegiance, and if you take the sex out it doesn't make me less interested.

How many works do you have on AO3?

79

What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,260,432

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Valor and Discretion, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Collateral from my P5 series, followed by 0k and Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind in Homestuck.

Do you reply to comments, why or why not?

These days yes, though possibly only with a "thank you for commenting!"

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm... I usually don't go for angsty endings? The No-Tailed Fox is I think supposed to have a downer ending, but I still wrote an optional less downer one.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Let me see, unalloyed happiness... yeah I'm not sure. Most of them are happy-ish anyway?

Do you write crossovers?

Only if you count all the SBURB fusions. --I am a voracious (if picky) reader of crossovers, but... mostly don't write them. --In the past I have written several embarrassing megacrossovers, only one of which I liked enough to let out in public even a little bit. It's still pretty bad, though.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have received unsolicited critique from someone who took it badly when I didn't agree with them. --And one comment that might have been hate or might have been a fair assessment of what was going on in the chapter.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've had people ask for permission, which I've given, but I'm not sure whether any of them have posted.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have still not given up on continuing New Order. Maybe One Man's Trash? Succession is not likely to officially finish, but I'm at peace with it. SCase I think I would need to re-do, is the problem -- it's not actually the best roster.

\What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue, and mimicking stylistic twists

What are your writing weaknesses?

Sensory descriptions and action scenes

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Usually not a good idea -- if the viewpoint character understands what's being said, the reader should, too. Isolated words which don't translate very well or are important for mood are okay (but don't go all 'keikaku means plan'). But if you really for sure know the language, and the viewpoint character doesn't, you can include it as a bonus for others who speak the language. Just... do explain it, at some point.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I posted fic for was Farscape. Technically speaking, the first stuff I wrote down was for Redwall, but it was not immediately identifiable as such because it was the backstory for the community I had made up to supply OCs for all the varying Redwall eras. If you go by things I talked about or thought about without speaking... Possibly Chronicles of Prydain? But possibly earlier than that, I don't remember.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

...Definitely not "Null and Void".

tagging, um, @asukaskerian, @tanoraqui, @catflowerqueen, @edenfalling, anyone else who feels like it!

[spencers-renaissance]

100

Summary: Spencer's an academic researcher who spends every morning at his local library. Derek just happens to drop by one Tuesday and ask the pretty boy in the classics section if he can help him find a book. Sparks fly.

Tags: library au, shy spencer, tooth-rotting fluff, flirting, coming out, spencer does not work at the bau

Pairing: Morgan x Reid

Word Count: 2.1k

Read on AO3

Spencer’s working in his favourite corner of the library by 7.35am, stuck straight into his latest research paper while Katherine bustles quietly around the bookshelves, tidying and re-ordering as much as possible before the rush of people pour through the door. She’s probably his favourite opener. She’s calm and efficient and smiles warmly at him but doesn’t engage him in pointless conversation that distracts him from his work, although that’s not to say they haven’t had a few chats here and there. It’s a quiet moment of companionable solitude; the perfect environment for a productive early morning. 

He’s vaguely aware of a gradual increase in patrons, the ambient noise level rising ever so slightly as he pours over copies of an obscure ancient philosophical text he’d obtained from the local museum, annotating furiously as he scrunches his brow in concentration. It’s sucked him in enough that he nearly jumps out of his skin when he’s tapped on the shoulder, whirling around to face probably the most attractive man he’s ever met. Immediately, he flushes red, half from the embarrassment of over-reacting, half from the intensity of the urge to jump this man’s bones. 

“Hi, I’m sorry I made you jump,” the man chuckles, taking a step back to give him a bit of space. “I can’t find any librarians around and I noticed the philosophy textbook you have on your desk and thought you might be able to help me…” He trails off looking a bit awkward and uncomfortable, clearly out of his element. 

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Spencer says, a little intimidated but still very eager to spend any amount of time with the Greek god he’s just so happened to encounter on a random Tuesday morning. 

“You will?” the man asks, smiling. “Great. Basically my best friend went to an intro to philosophy class at the local community college, one of her many whimsical new projects, and is now obsessed. I was told in no uncertain terms to pick up as many books on the subject as I could before work this morning.” 

“Wow,” Spencer breathes a laugh, raising his eyebrows slightly. “Well, I don’t blame her, philosophy is a great subject. I’m working on my fourth PhD in it now, actually.” 

“What, you have four PhDs in philosophy?” he asks incredulously. 

“No, no,” Spencer smiles, looking down shyly. “My other three are in chemistry, maths, and engineering. This is my first in philosophy. Sorry that was misleading.”

“Looks like I asked the right person, then,” he grins. “I’m Derek.”

“Spencer,” he replies, blushing at the warm look Derek is sending his way. “We’re actually in the classics section, this is just my favourite corner. The philosophy texts are over here.”

He leads the way through the maze of bookshelves, arriving at the little alcove that houses the philosophy and psychology books. With a vague idea of what Derek is looking for, he dives straight into the shelves, combing through the spines until he finds a few options for his friend. “She should probably start with this one: Big Ideas Simply Explained and then move on to Think, which is one of my favourites. This one, How Philosophy Works, will be best if she’s a visual learner instead, and if you want something a bit more complicated, try Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult.” He piles on a few extra as he looks around for any he missed before turning around and gesturing that he’s done. 

“This is… amazing, thank you,” Derek says gratefully. “I don’t even know why she chose philosophy, it’s a bit random for a computer nerd, isn’t it?”

“Actually about 0.58% of all US college students graduate with a philosophy degree, so it’s not as uncommon as people may think. It’s the 89th most popular major according to last year’s data, but I don’t know the statistics for people with computer science degrees or careers learning about philosophy in an official or unofficial capacity, I’m afraid,” Spencer explains, hands moving expressively as he reels off his statistics. 

The mildly impressed expression that’s been pretty permanently painted on Derek’s face the whole time he’s been speaking with Spencer intensifies as he listens intently to his statistics. “Damn, pretty boy, you really know your stuff,” he marvels, eyes wide. “You some sort of genius or something?”

Spencer blushes furiously at that, ducking his head slightly. “Well, I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified, but I do have an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, and can read 20,000 words per minute.”

Derek just stares at him.

“So, yeah, I guess I’m a genius?” he says bashfully.

“No, that 100% qualifies for genius status,” Derek asserts confidently. “Not that I have any sort of qualification to rule on the matter, but in my eyes you are definitely a genius.”

“Thank you,” Spencer murmurs, blush somehow deepening at the unexpected praise from the man who will now occupy his dreams. “You seem pretty smart, too, though. What do you do?”

“I’m an FBI agent.”

Damn it. As if he couldn’t get any sexier. “Wow, that’s… impressive,” Spencer remarks. “Does your friend work there, too?”

“Yeah, she’s our technical analyst,” Derek explains, smiling fondly. “She’s amazing, you’d love her.”

“Well we’ve already got one shared interest,” Spencer points out, gesturing to the books piled high in Derek’s arms. Spencer would’ve collapsed by now, but he’s barely flinching under the weight of seven bulky philosophy texts. 

“That’s true,” Derek grins. “Speaking of work, though, pretty boy, I have to run, I’m already late. Thank you so much for your help, though.”

“No problem,” Spencer says softly, definitely not mournfully, as he watches Derek walk away to the check-out desk where Katherine smiles at him as he scans the books through, sending a discreet wink over at Spencer. He glares back jokingly before walking back over to his desk.

He continues working but he can’t help but feel emptiness sinking heavy in his stomach, the kind of a missed opportunity, of almost, of could have been. Immanuel Kant still gets his attention, but he’d be lying if he said that a decent portion of it wasn’t focused on hoping, praying that his path crosses with Derek again, that he’s not replaying every moment over and over in his mind.

⭐️

Derek is very late. He rushes into the briefing room where Penelope is already explaining the case to the team. Rolling his eyes at her pointed look, he dumps the books down on the table in front of her. “Don’t blame me, baby girl, doing your chores is what made me late,” he protests, taking a seat next to Emily. 

“Well, maybe you should have been quicker,” Penelope quips, before promptly moving on with the case at Hotch’s pointed glare. 

He barely has a moment to think about anything but double homicide until they’re mid-flight and the debriefing is finally over. Moving to the back of the plane, he looks out the window as he plays over the morning’s trip to the library. Spencer might just be the prettiest boy he’s ever met, and making him blush is probably the most fun he’s had all week. Bonus points for intelligence, of course, even after spending just a few minutes with him, he could confidently say he was a walking encyclopedia. 

On the drive from the library to Quantico, he’d thought about finding some ruse to go back the next day. Spencer seemed as though he knew the library well, like he spent a lot of time there. Maybe he could go back and actually ask for his number this time; he was gonna take that boy out on a date if it’s the last thing he does. Now, though, that’s going to have to wait.

“Alright,” Emily sighs, flopping into the seat opposite him and dragging him out of his head, “what’s going on with you?” 

“What do you mean?” Derek asks reflexively, feeling a little defensive. 

“Well you were late this morning, not unusual, but you’re not listening to music and instead choosing to stare pensively out the window. Plus, you barely had anything to contribute during debriefing,” she explains, raising an eyebrow. 

“Drop it,” he says, sending her a look, but it’s teasing and light-hearted.

“Oh my God, there’s a girl,” she gasps. “And not just any girl, you like her!”

“There absolutely is not,” he says truthfully, raising an eyebrow. He’s not exactly out to the team, not out of fear of how they’ll react but more because he finds coming out awkward and he’s never found the right time, really. 

“Suit yourself,” Emily teases, pulling out her phone to play online scrabble.

Derek just scoffs and looks out the window again, definitely not letting his thoughts wander back to Spencer. Definitely not. 

⭐️

Spencer walks into the library the following Monday with low expectations. He’d thought that Derek might come back in last week, if not to see him then maybe to return his friend’s books or find more for her, but his wish had been unsuccessful. Accepting that it was a chance encounter that would ultimately go nowhere, and reminding himself that Spencer Reid’s life was decidedly not like the movies, he unpacks his papers from his messenger bag in his favourite corner again and gets back to work. He’s over the moon with the headway he’s making on his paper, and he settles in for another productive morning of work. 

Just like last time, Derek creeps up on him while he’s completely in the zone, slipping into the seat opposite him, but at least Spencer doesn’t jump this time. No, he just feels his face immediately brighten, looking far too excited to see a near-stranger again. 

“Good morning, pretty boy,” he grins, laughing fondly at Spencer’s reaction. 

“Derek, you came back,” he says happily, putting down his pen. 

“Yeah, I had a case immediately after I came to the library last Tuesday and it was a tough one. We only wrapped it up yesterday so I have today off, a rare luxury,” he explains, and Spencer tries not to read into it too much, tries not to think that Derek is saying he would’ve come back sooner if he could, tries to take him at face value. 

“The exciting life of an FBI agent.”

“Not as glamorous as the movies,” Derek agrees.

“I’m, uh- glad you came back,” Spencer admits shyly, afraid of coming on too strong.

“Well, would you like to get dinner sometime?” Derek asks.

“Really?” Spencer asks, looking up at Derek with shock written across his face.

“Of course,” Derek chuckles. “I mean, I love Penelope, but if she wants more philosophy books she can get them herself. I came back to see you.” 

“You did?” Spencer’s still a little floored by Derek’s words, but slowly a warmth starts to bloom inside him as he realises what’s happening. 

“I did,” Derek smiles gently. “Now, about that date. How does tonight sound?” 

⭐️

Derek decides on his favourite Italian place to treat Spencer at and his cheeks hurt by the end of the night; he’s pretty sure not one moment went by when he wasn’t smiling fondly at his statistics or stories or blushing. He slips his hand into Spencer’s as they walk out of the restaurant, swinging their arms a bit, directing them down the street towards the 24/7 ice cream parlour.

“I love ice cream,” Spencer grins as they head inside, his cheeks red from the cold winter air and the copious red wine they’d had with dinner. 

“Who doesn’t?” Derek asks, leading him up to the counter. 

Spencer insists on sampling far too many flavours before deciding on cookies and cream with mint chocolate chip in a cone. He licks at it happily while Derek sits opposite with two scoops of raspberry ripple in a cup and forces himself to think very pure thoughts. 

“Thank you for this, Derek,” he beams over his cone.

“Oh, pretty boy,” Derek says fondly. “Thank you.”

Emily spots it the minute he walks into the bullpen the next day. “I’m guessing things are going well with her,” she smirks as she skids over on her chair, grinning wildly. 

He sighs as he sits down, looking up at her as he sets his stuff down. “With him, yes,” he confirms, smiling a little. 

She raises her eyebrows and pauses for a moment. “Wow, okay, okay,” she says. “Well, I hope I can meet him soon.” 

“Might be a bit early for that yet, Em,” he laughs, “but if things go as well as I think they will, that’s definitely on the cards.” 

(Five months later, when Spencer finally does meet Emily, she’s as annoying as Derek expects her to be but seeing his boyfriend’s face light up as he gets welcomed in the found family of the BAU is worth every drop of teasing, and he wouldn’t change it for the world.)