#i just want a place where good wins so yes i like fiction like that

[maddyshome]

i will always love noble characters. those characters who try their best to overcome awful people and situation. who go through hell and still remain good. i know most people love villains but i think theres nothing more beautiful than a good soul.  

[pitchsidestories]

Darling, hold my hand II Ona Batlle x Lucy Bronze

masterlist I word count: 1504

a/n: hi, we hope you enjoy this little oneshot, as always this is just fiction, have fun reading. <3

As soon as the final whistle blew and the game against Bilbao ended, the celebratory mood in the Estadi Johan Cruyff set in. FC Barcelona won their ninth league title before the season even ended.

While the fans applauded and chanted their names, the players on the pitch celebrated wildly, hugging each other and jumping around under the night sky. The commanding victory only added to the exuberant atmosphere.

It was chaos on the field when the injured players joined the celebrations. From somewhere a drum had appeared on the grass and Ona and Alexia took turns beating it.

Lucy stood a little farther away, watching them attentively with a smile on her lips.

“Lucia.“, Alexia said, rolling her eyes at her teammate after calling her a second time.

Only then the English defender tore her eyes away from Ona: “Uhm.. What?“

Keira elbowed her in the side and grimaced: “Embarrassing, Lucy.“

“Like a lovesick puppy.“, Alexia agreed before Lucy could protest.

Keiras eye widened, excited by the comparison: “Right?“

Lucy shook her head, unimpressed: “Shut it, both of you!“

Ona held out the drumstick towards her: “Want to try too?“

Instead of Lucy, Cata Coll answered: “Oh, look, Ale. Olga is over there.“ She pointed towards the stands. Alexias head immediately whipped around in the direction.

Cata winked at Ona: “See, Oni? Works every time.“

“She’s so in love.“, the Spanish defender smiled back.

Alexia turned towards Lucy, letting go of the drum: “Here, Lucy. I’m sure you’ll take good care of the drum with Ona.“

Lucys eyes narrowed in suspicion: “Thanks?“

“You’re welcome.“

“Ona, you were right. Ale is so in love.“, Lucy grinned as they watched their captain walk towards her girlfriend and embrace her.

“I told you she’s.“, the smaller defender laughed.

“How does it feel? To be back at Barcelona and winning the league in your first season?“, Lucy asked, subtly placing a hand on the Spanish players waist.

Onas eyes lit up as she looked at the English defender, trying to summarize her emotions with one word: “Amazing.“

“You played amazing. And your goal tonight…“

“Yes?“, you asked, prompting her to continue.

In her typical nonchalant way, she just shrugged: “It was pretty nice too.“

Ona laughed at the half-compliment: “Thanks.“

“You’re welcome.“

For a second, the two football players were unusually silent, soaking in the lighthearted atmosphere.

Sandra Paños came over to take the drum from them.

Ona leaned over, whispering into Lucys ear: “When do you think we can go home?“

“This will take a while.”, the older woman replied truthfully, her voice filled with longing for the time when it only was the two of them.

“Ugh, I feared you’d say that.”, mirroring that want of being alone, the Spanish defender groaned.

Lucy gave her girlfriend an apologetic look: “Sorry. The ceremony hasn’t even started yet.”

“Do you think you can keep your hands to yourself during that?”, Ona teased the English player with an amused grin on her lips.

“You’re the one who came close for a hug.”, the older woman protested smirking.

“And you were coming closer when we had the team photos before the match started.”, the Spanish defender reminded her.

“Not true.”, Lucy countered laughing even though she knew fully well that the younger woman was right about her observation.

“Yes, you did.”, Keira said as she joined their conversation giggling.

“Lies.”, her England teammate responded.

Clearing her throat Jana tapped the older woman’s shoulder:” Excuse me, but I got to steal your girlfriend for now, Lucia.”

“Where are you going?”, Lucy asked curiously.

 “You’ll see.”, the younger defender promised wearing a secretive smile on her face.

“Rude.”, the English woman mumbled, shaking her head.

“Sorry.”, Ona mouthed into the direction of her girlfriend as Jana was pulling her away to some fellow Spanish players who wanted to take a group photo together which afforded her presence.

“Fine then.”, Lucy told her as she was making her way to the teammates who weren’t taking part in that specific photo shooting.

Meanwhile Ona realized what which task was laying ahead of her. “Another round of photos, Jana?”, she whined in front of her friend.

“Yes, come here.”, Jana nodded enthusiastically before they each took their positions to let the photographer do her work.

Afterwards it took Ona a bit of time to find her girlfriend in the crowd who kept celebrating, she let out a quiet gasp as a familiar voice came from behind her back. “Done with your little photo shooting, pretty girl?”

Hearing the English woman saying that gave her goosebumps, but the Spanish woman tried to play it down by saying:” Lucia, stop.”

“I'm doing nothing, no suspicious looks and no touching.”, Lucy objected, smiling innocently to underline her message.

“Just subtle flirting, huh?”, the younger defender raised an eyebrow at her. Her girlfriends face was an open book, not only to her, but for the public as well.

Lucy swiftly changed the topic of the conversation, motioning towards the rest of the team who slowly started to head towards the dressing room: “Uhm, seems like the party is heading elsewhere now. Let’s go.“

While she started walking, Ona followed a few steps behind. “Coming!“

She quickly caught up with Lucy and took a leap onto her back, her arms around Lucy shoulders and giggled.

“Oh, and jumping on my back is subtle, Ona?“, she commented while trying to steady herself to keep them from falling over.

Sandra passed them and remarked with a smirk: “You two are not very subtle, no matter what you do, Luce.“

Ona finally jumped off of Lucy and instead wrapped her arms around the older defenders waist while walking: “Doesn’t matter now anyway.“

“Wait until we’re home…“, Lucy grinned which caused Sandra to grimace in disgust.

She shot her teammate a reproachful look and nodded in the direction of Vicky Lopez and Salma Paralluelo: “Lucia, not in front of the children!“

Barcelonas young strikers both remained unimpressed.

“As if we didn’t know what they’re doing. They’ve been clingy all night.“, Salma said, lovingly poking fun at the older players.

Vicky agreed quickly: “Honestly, we might be young but not naive.“

Alexia appeared between the two of them, ruffling Vickys curls: “Stop sounding so grown up, that’s not okay.“

“We’re adults, get used to it.“, Salma replied, clearly amused by the situation.

Alexia shook her head: “Never.“

“Let’s go, Vicky.“, Salma rolled her eyes and turning away from their unusually sentimental captain.

The young striker followed her: “I’m coming.“

Relieved that the attention had shifted away from them, Ona started to impatiently tug on Lucys hand and quietly said: “Come on, Luce.“

Laughing, the English football player let Ona drag her along: “Alright.“

“Getting Paella on the way home?“, the younger woman asked, blinking innocently at her girlfriend.

Lucy raised an eyebrow: “Really? Food?“

Ona bit back a smile as she quickly admitted: “Actually, that can wait.“

“Good. Because I definitely can’t wait.“

“Me neither to be honest.“ Onas cheeks blushed bright pink.

The two defenders followed the other players into the dressing room and got changed. In a quiet moment, they left the continuing celebration as inconspicuously as possible.

The whole drive home, Ona could feel the impatience radiating off of Lucy. The Spanish defender smiled to herself. Teasingly, she put her hand on the inside of Lucys thigh while she drove, slightly faster than she should.

With a cheeky smile Ona loosened her braid, so her hair fell in long waves, knowing all too well how much the English player loved this look on her, who tried her hardest not to stare because she’s been the driver tonight.

The younger woman opened the window of the car on her passenger seat side, letting the still warm night in and enjoying the wind in her hair as she leaned outside to feel it.

The adrenaline of the win running through her veins, Ona let out a small victorious scream, only causing Lucy to drive faster as her patience has her limits.

When they stepped through the door of their shared appartement, the Spanish defender turned around to look at her girlfriend expectantly:” You can kiss me now?”

“Now.”, the English woman repeated, her voice leaving no doubt that she was done with waiting.

“Yes. No one is here watching even Narla and Coco are asleep.”, Ona replied, pointing to the little dogs who were each sleeping in their small beds.

“Come here.”, Lucy said, opening her arms before hugging the smaller defender.

“We’re campeonas.”, Ona mumbled against the English woman’s bare skin, making her shiver underneath her as she pressed a few kisses on it.

Clearing her throat Lucy lifted the younger player’s chin, so she could look into her green eyes darkened with desire:” We’re.”

With that said Ona gave her a passionate kiss before the English defender lifted her up to carry her into their bedroom to celebrate the league win in the way they wanted to do for the whole evening.

[hamliet]

Do you have any thoughts on how RWBY handled the white fang storyline?

Unpopular opinion: it's decent?

Now, now, before people come at me with pitchforks: yes, it's overly simplified. The entire story is a fairy tale, though, so that's not out of place. It also complements the rest of the story thematically, and manages to incorporate nuance and complexity in despite the simplification of issues.

I think it's a mistake to look at the White Fang as a 1=1 of the real life struggles of marginalized groups. That said, there obviously are parallels, and so people aren't mistaken to note those. I just think it's not meant to be an instructional manual and shouldn't necessarily be viewed as one, but rather a conversation starter in some ways. And yes, those conversations can and should include critiques.

So I'll go over the points that I think it did well and how those ties into real life, but also specifically how they work for RWBY's overall story. This does not negate criticisms, especially those by marginalized groups.

In contrast to some other fictional depictions, RWBY actually is better as well because it avoids the number one pitfall of such issues: the X-Men fallacy. I've talked about this in terms of Attack on Titan before, but essentially it's the idea that the problem with depicting discrimination against superpowered people is that, well, there is a logical reason for people to be concerned about superpowers; hence, it almost justifies that very discrimination it seeks to condemn. This isn't present in the faunus/human divide. They are both capable of superpowers.

It also doesn't fall into another common pitfall: the idea that people have to be perfect to be victims of discrimination. The White Fang... has senselessly and cruelly murdered people; doesn't mean faunus discrimination isn't also cruel and senseless and doesn't justify it. And this is something that we do see in real life too--people trying to either completely whitewash the actions of radical anti-oppression movements, which can do awful things, or trying to use these awful things as evidence that these people deserve discrimination when really it's a result of rage and desperation at a society that refuses to give them anything. That doesn't justify the pain of the victims of the awful things (see, Weiss) but nor does it negate the righteousness of that anger.

It does portray the faunus as a fairly diverse group too, when fiction often portrays marginalized groups as a monolith. That's not true. People from one group have very different ideas about what liberation looks like, and what they want to achieve. People in marginalized groups are people, and they can be motivated by a variety of selfless principles and egotistical validation, and neither negate the other. See, Sienna vs. Ghira vs. Adam.

Now, of course within RWBY Ghira's more nonviolent principles more or less win out. That's because RWBY is again a fairy tale where you have to fight to live, but that also doesn't endorse violence. If you expected otherwise, wrong genre. Of course the real world is far more complex, but it's not as if there is no real world basis for this either. Peacemakers exist, and nonviolence has accomplished a lot before. Whether or not that's the be-all-end-all of the faunus struggle in RWBY isn't even clear, so I don't think it's intended to be the be-all-end-all preached moral as it applies to the real world either.

Story-wise, the White Fang functions as a Jungian shadow of society. If you do not take charge of your own life, you are letting others decide for you. The faunus who disagree with the White Fang take it back, because they have to acknowledge it to move forward in society. They have to integrate with it, and accept their own humanity: capable of good and what they might rather deny.

This faction--the faunus who don't like the White Fang--are represented in Ghira, who becomes passive and steps back from aspects of the movement. However, when Blake arrives in Menagerie, this changes, because Blake's entire arc is about integration. Ghira then becomes active, working for the rights of the faunus and for the White Fang to be better rather than simply disavowing the White Fang in an attempt to be a good person, because doing nothing isn't exactly good.

On a more character level, the White Fang exists for Blake's arc. Her Jungian archetype is the Shadow. Like, it's literally her semblance's name. Hence, the idea of the shadow is gonna be important. If you want more on this, @aspoonofsugar has written a meta on it here and another here.

So, for Blake, on a personal level the White Fang (especially under Adam) represents the parts of herself she doesn't like. The part that ran from her family. The part that is violent. And yet, she cannot abandon it or simply disavow it. No, the answer is instead:

We’re not going to destroy the White Fang. We’re going to take it back.

She has to integrate with it, take the good--the righteous anger, the focus on justice and equality.

The White Fang also comments on the microcosm/macrocosm of alchemy.

For the unaware, RWBY is an alchemical story, and the principles of alchemy are represented in the symbol for the philosopher's stone, as seen above. Microcosm: the smaller circle enclosing two people in the center who come together (hence chemical weddings). The square is the four elements: water, earth, fire, air. The triangle is body, heart, and mind. The larger circle is the macrocosm.

The Shadows for Blake on a personal level--microcosm--is Adam. The Shadow on a worldwide, big picture scale--the macrocosm--is the White Fang. Integrating with the shadow isn't only an individualistic endeavor, but also one that benefits society as a whole and brings life to the entire world. The main point of alchemy's philosopher's stone, which Blake, along with the rest of RWBY, are symbolically being transformed into.

I think the main issue with the White Fang, by the way, is its handling of Adam. Typically you don't kill the shadow, though I do think Blake kinda had no choice. Still, I don't think the show fully explored him.

Yet what does work with what we have is that Yang has to face Adam, Blake's shadow, to be with Blake. Yang losing her arm to Adam parallels her being upset about losing Blake to fear, because symbolically Blake can hurt her deeply in the way only a lover can. Blake has to stop running from her shadow and allow herself ot be known and seen by Yang to be with her.

[venus-maneater]

a loyal dog’s reward. | yan! criston cole

soft yandere / obsessed au

fem! targaryen princess reader

synopsis. the knight’s death wasn’t convenient, but at least now you knew the lengths Ser Criston was willing to go for you.

part ii.

note; this is an au where rhaenyra/criston never happened ! he is reader’s sworn shield. reader is written with targaryen features and is kind of a sick and twisted brat (we stan). ALL CONTENT ON MY BLOG IS FICTIONAL.

WARNING(s): possessive/obsessive tendencies, violence, minor character death, unhealthy relationship dynamics, manipulation, age gap (reader is 19, criston is around 27), references to size difference, reader knows abt his tendencies and takes advantage of them, nsfw content but not full smut, allusions/references to sex, subby criston cole, dom-ish reader, praise-kink??, breeding kink??, mocking, usage of “dog”

“I know how you think of me.”

Do you really? Do you know how much he thinks of you, how he craves you? How he wants nothing more than to steal you away so no one else can ever see you again except him? He wants you to be his, only his. That’s all he wants.

“You can’t get me out of your head, can you, Ser Criston?”

He knows you emphasized his title on purpose; he was a member of the Kingsguard lusting after the Princess, and yet he couldn’t feel any guilt from behind the overwhelming desire he has for you. It’s not just lust, it’s so much more than lust. He wants you; mind, body, and soul. He wants you to look at him the way he looks at you. He wants to grow old with you and fill you up with babies. Babies that will have his dark hair and your violet eyes, or maybe even the opposite.

“You would do anything for me?”

Yes, gods yes he would. Ask for anything and its yours. Please, please, please ask something of him.

You’d noticed his peculiar behavior months ago, but you suppose it hadn’t gone far enough for you to say anything about it until now. You noticed how his eyes never left your figure if you were in the room, how he stiffened when you stood even remotely near another man, how he followed you around like a lost puppy. It was endearing at first, but tonight he had killed someone for you. Not only that, but he did it violently and in public. In all fairness, the hedge Knight was creepy and invasive, you didn’t like him. But Criston was a member of the Kingsguard, he couldn’t go around killing people just because he wanted to.

There was a tourney to celebrate your older sister Rhaenyra’s first pregnancy. She was married to Laenor around 6 months ago, so most of the family found it pleasant that she was already pregnant. Though, you knew it wasn’t Ser Laenor who was the father (or at least you assumed it wasn’t). You were rather close with your sister and her husband; you knew well what they got up to and what they didn’t. All was well for you, you found Ser Harwin to be a lovely friend.

Although Criston Cole was your sworn shield, you insisted he enter the tourney for the entertainment. Many had entered from all over Westeros, and your shield had always succeeded in physical competitions in the past.

“I’d just like to see you win.” You told him, batting your eyes. He was quick to obey your request at that.

Ser Criston received your favor right before his first round, and won the tournament just as you knew he would. A hedge knight from the Reach came in second place to your shield. He seemed nice enough and was a rather good sport about losing, but frankly he was annoying. He wouldn’t stop following Criston around, which eventually lead to him introducing himself to you as Tion Gracefeld. His presence didn’t bother you at first, but you could clearly tell how much Criston hated it.

After the event ended, there was celebration all throughout King’s Landing, so there was a bit of chaos on the short journey back to the Red Keep. Tion took advantage of this, trying to get closer to you. Of course, Criston was there to push him back each time, telling him “please give the princess some space” through gritted teeth.

His jealousy was a bit cute to you, so you let Ser Tion continue with his behavior. It wasn’t such a bother, but as you approached the castle, his words became less playful and more… sexual. Foul, even.

You couldn’t remember exactly what happened for certain, the violence was too quick, but you knew that he grabbed your arm before Ser Criston murdered him for it. The Dornish Kingsguard grabbed Tion, pulling him from you and throwing him to the ground. You were sure the beating was bad, considering it was enough for him to die from his injuries, but you refused to look.

Criston was eventually pulled off the man after a couple minutes, and now here he was. Sitting on the edge of your bed in front of you, hands and armor splattered in blood.

“Look at me.” You told him. You had to give him some credit, he listens to you so well, “Why did you do it? What made you angry enough to kill him?”

You could hear his breath hitch in his throat as you stepped closer, only to stop directly in front of him.

He took in a quick breath before answering, looking up at you with frustrated eyes, “He was talking to you like- like you were some… whore. There was no respect. He was trying— to touch you. I’m your sworn protector, Princess, I was only doing my job.”

He didn’t want you to know about his sick obsession with you, trying to hide it using his position as an excuse for his behavior. Unfortunately for him, it was incredibly obvious. You could tell how angry he still was from the interaction; his hands shaking, chest heaving, and jaw clenched.

“You know,” You started, looking down into Criston’s eyes and leaning closer to his face, “I didn’t really like the guy, myself. But you’ve gotten me into quite the situation. You should be charged for your crimes, I’m afraid.”

Even seated, he was so close to your height that you didn’t have to lean down much to meet at eye-level.

“I’m sorry, my Princess” was all that left him, drunk on the lack of space between you.

“That’s all you have to say?” You whispered, your breath hitting his lips. His pupils were blown impossibly wide, making you smile. As disturbing as this whole thing was, he was almost too attractive for you to care. Almost.

“I don’t want to be taken from you.” He whispered. He didn’t care that he killed someone, he wasn’t sorry, he just didn’t want to be forced to leave you. Tion deserved his wrath; he got too close to you.

You smiled slightly, standing back up to your full height. Using your knee, you pushed the man’s legs apart so you could stand between them. Your hands moved from your sides to his chest, “You won’t. I’ll fix it for you, I truly don’t mind. My father will believe me when I tell him Ser Tion was harassing me, and that you just stepped in to defend my honor.”

Criston gulped, taking in a deep breath to surround himself in your scent. He didn’t say a word.

Your hands slowly creeped up to his shoulders, then into his hair, “Do you ever think about kissing me, Ser Criston?”

His eyelids dropped slightly, the euphoria of your hands running through his locks reaching him.

“As your Princess, you’re sworn to tell me the truth.”

“Yes.” He closed his eyes, “Please, Princess. I am soiled with blood, I don’t want it touching you.”

“No? Then perhaps you should’ve exercised more self-control.” You quipped. Deciding to make things more difficult, you climbed into his lap, your knees on either side of his thighs. There was a lot less blood on his legs than on his chest or arms, but you could still feel a bit of it seeping into the gentle fabric of your silk dress. Good thing you were wearing red.

His eyes squeezed shut even tighter. Self-control you had said. Was this a test? Did you want him to sit still? Then he would. His bloodied hands were balled up in fists beside him.

“You defend me fiercely,” You said. “kind of like a dog, don’t you think.”

It wasn’t a real question, he knew you were just mocking him for his behavior. You knew about him. You know how sick he is for you.

“My fierce dog,” You grinned, “protecting me from any man that speaks his filthy words to me.”

You were perfect, so perfect. His goddess.

“Do you want a reward for your behavior? For protecting me?” You asked. Criston was amusing to you. It was boring at court, having so many people try to flatter themselves into gaining your favor, men trying to marry you for power. But Criston Cole was different; he was genuinely dedicated to you. As a member of the Kingsguard, he had nothing to gain from being with you.

“Reward?” He rasped, his eyes fluttering open, curious. You had never look so pretty as you did in this moment; smiling at him whilst sat atop his lap.

“Yes, a reward. I can give you a kiss, if you’d accept?”

“A kiss?” He questioned, shocked at your proposal.

You giggle at him, moving close enough that your noses are touching, “Is that a ‘no’? Do you not want a kiss from your princess?”

He does. He really does. But how could he dare dishonor you by accepting? A Princess of the realm should not be kissing her guard. Your reputation would be ruined if anyone were to find out.

“Can’t.” He eventually sputtered, his forehead resting against yours.

“And why not? Do you not fantasize about it? What other fantasies do you have?”

His eyes were squeezed shut, but he could hear the smirk in your voice. “I— yes, but Princess….” He cut himself off before he finished, you must save your affections for your future husband.

He held back a snarl; he didn’t want you to have a future husband, at least not one that wasn’t him. But he was not allowed to be married and even if he were, he was not high-born like you. Your father would never approve.

“Answer me, Cole, tell me what you imagine occurring between us.” You were getting frustrated with him, this was supposed to be easy, “Look back up at me properly.”

He did as you said and more; finally letting his urges control him, he pushed his lips to yours. His hands, the blood now beginning to dry and stick, gripped at your waist tightly. You gasped into his mouth, quick to reciprocate with your hands pulling at his dark locks.

“‘Think about marrying you,” he muttered against your lips, “keeping you safe, an’ you thanking me all pretty. So pretty, you’re perfect.”

Placing your hand flat on his chest, you pull away by just an inch, “Thanking you, huh? Is that what you want?”

“‘Just want you to love me. Want you to be mine, just for me. I could— I can give you anything, just ask. We can leave here— and be together—!”

You giggled, “You’re getting too excited, Ser Criston. I’m a princess, you know.”

“There— there are places, my Love,” he let out a shocked huff as you pushed him onto his back, “in Essos, where titles do not matter.”

“Is that so?” You moved up his body before settling on his stomach, which was still covered in tainted armor. “And what would we do there? Build a farm? Have babies?”

“Yes.” A part of him could tell you were only teasing, but it was overshadowed by the part of him yearning for a life with you.

You slowly bent down, your body flush against his, and whispered into his ear, “You want to put a few babies in me?”

Not thinking, he reached up a hand and held the back of your head to keep you in place, “More than a few. They’ll inherit your beauty, my Love.”

“Mmm,” You grabbed his hand and sat back up, “your eyes and my hair?”

“Or the opposite.”

Laughing, you tilted your head back, still gripping his right hand between yours. Your laugh eventually subsided with a happy sigh, and you looked back at him. You had so much power over the big man laying happily beneath you, it was funny. He was staring at you obediently, waiting for you to say or do something. Slowly, you slid the black glove off his fingers and pulled his hand up to your lips. He watched as you placed soft kiss to each of his bruised knuckles. His hand was so large beside your features.

“I’m quite fond of you. What should I do if my father refuses to see reason and executes you for your crimes?” It wouldn’t happen, you both knew. But he was happy to entertain your questions, just so long as you were talking to him and touching him.

“I would only ask that I’d be buried where you can visit. I do not desire to be far from you, even in death.” His hand gripped yours tightly at that.

As morbid as the conversation was getting, Criston had never felt so good. You were truly seeing him in this moment, and you didn’t even mind his sickness. You weren’t afraid, you liked it, even. You liked that he would so easily kill for you and how he’d die for you without issue just as long as you would keep him in death.

You hummed in satisfaction, “You’re giving me very good answers, are you sure you aren’t trying to trick me?”

“I would never deceive you.” He sat up, suddenly serious. His quick movements shook you physically, but you didn’t seem surprised. In order to hold on and keep from falling as you slid back down to his lap, one of your arms wrapped its way around his neck.

You snickered at his reaction, placing a short kiss to his lips, “‘Was only a jest. I know you would never do such a thing. You would never upset me, would you?”

“No.” He whispered, kissing from your lips, down to your jaw softly, “I love you.”

“How much?” You breathed, your eyes fluttering shut.

“More than anything— anyone.” He kept going, sure to reach every bit of open space he could, “You are the very center of my existence, nothing else matters. You’re everything to me. I want you like this forever.”

“Forever? No matter what I do to you?”

His mouth was now below your ear, gently sucking a mark into your skin, “You can do no wrong, my Love, everything you bring me is a gift.”

There were droplets of red still on his face and neck from the blood splatter, but you didn’t mind. Neither of you seemed to care any longer about the gore; the way your red dress was now soaked in it from touching his armor.

You still hadn’t yet released his right hand, and he never dared to pull away. Humming from the pleasure, you slowly brought his hand to rest on your thigh. He immediately adjusted himself so that his fingertips were digging into the soft skin, afraid to move otherwise. Very slowly, you began to rock your hips against him. You could hear his already intense breathing pick up.

“And if my father decides to marry me off?” You whisper into his neck.

Criston lifts his head, dark obsessive eyes boring into your own, “Then I shall kill whatever Lord he chooses.”

x

- venus

[sunshinebarbie]

only love can hurt like this

pairing: Bang Chan x Female Reader x Changbin warnings: mild language, angst, sad bang chan (because yes that needs a warning), heartfelt moments, mentions of physical abuse (it isn't done but it's like implied?), oh and inaccurate wording possibly... words: 5,719 parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | FINAL taglist:@q1sng, @sp00ky-spr1te, @yumiblogs, @muddy-waters, @ilysunki, @qtieskz, @axel-skz-main, @skz-codeeee, @danielle-peaches, @morningstardada, @lizzetmv, @txa-r a/n: it's the final part! i didn't win no Pulitzer prize for this series so idk why i am so emotional! i posted this series' part 1 a while back trying to transition from fictional characters to real people. I honestly didn't know where it would go, would anyone like it? Would it even be good? so many questions clouded my mind but i posted it anyway. The amount of love, hearts, reblogs, comments and requests to be tagged made me feel...idk, i can't even find a word to describe it!! all i know is i felt like i had little purple hearts popping around my head with every notification i got for this series. I really hope this final is worth the build up for the past 5 parts. Thank you all for reading and for enjoying this crazy rollercoaster of a series. I hope to make more including all our favorite Stray Kids. ENJOY!

“are you still viewing?” the TV asked as you wrapped your lips around another spoonful of ice cream. You grabbed the remote and pressed the center button and snuggled deeper into the mound of blankets that covered your legs and tummy. The next episode of the random drama you decided to watch started where it left off in the previous episode. 

You could feel your phone buzzing somewhere under the maze of blankets, your hand dug around trying to find the smooth surface of your phone case or at least where the buzzing was coming from. 

After finding your device you saw it was Felix calling, you tapped the green button and pressed your phone to your ear. “hello?” you mumbled trying to pause your show. “hey, whatcha doing right now?” Felix asked nervously. 

“watching dramas.” you replied and pushed your spoon back into the carton. “what’s up?” you sighed and pressed the pause option. “well, we ordered some sushi for our game night tonight and wanted you to join us.” Felix replied calmly. “uhm-” you looked around at the table covered with candy wrappers and three ice cream cartons. “maybe another time Lix” you smiled against the phone. “I just-” you sighed. “please.” you could hear the facial expression he was likely making on the other side.  

“fine, but I better get at least three of the Tai Sushi” you grumbled and pulled the blankets off your legs. “i’ll be over in about 30 minutes” you promised and hung up. 

“so much for forgetting about them” you thought to yourself as you pulled out some clean sweatpants and a shirt. “maybe I'll just tell them tonight that I think it’s best we go our separate ways” you mumbled to yourself as you pulled your shoes on. “and give them back their phone.” you looked at your default phone screen.  

You called a cab and headed over to the dorms. It looked pretty quiet for a “game night”. You walked into the building and headed straight to the dorms. You knocked the door and waited for a minute. You knocked again and waited with still no answer. You grabbed your phone to check the text message Han sent you about where they were, “we’re at the dorms, just knock” the text instructed. You knocked again and with the sound of the seal to the lock breaking the door opened.  

Chan’s face appeared out of the darkness of the room. “oh-uhm” you stepped back and swallowed the dry lump in your throat. “I was looking for uhmm-the guys” you stammered. “i think I got the wrong place.” you lied and turned to leave.  

“y/n,” Chan called out to you stopping you in your tracks. You felt your heart swell, it was the first time in a long time since you heard him call your name. It still sounded so sweet coming from his lips. You turned to him and saw him more out of the door like he was ready to follow you if you didn’t stop.  

“I don’t know if you are but-” he looked down at the floor of the hallway, “-I'm ready to talk if you are.” he gulped down his nerves. “another time Chan” you frowned and turned away, you took a few steps but stopped again. 

Chan turned to go back inside when you turned back around, “actually” you called out. Chan stopped and looked back at you. “we can talk.” 

Chan opened the door wider for you and let you inside the dorm. You found a spot on the couch, and watched as Chan locked the door behind him. “you want a water or something?” he asked as he entered the living room. “no, I'm okay” you declined. 

Chan sat down across from you on the recliner couch, it was quiet at first, making you feel like this was a mistake. “i’m sorry, for the quiet” Chan spoke up breaking the awkward silence. “i really don’t know how to approach this.” he cleared his throat.  

“it’s okay” you replied. “how are the new songs coming along?” you shifted in your seat. “i don’t want to talk about that.” Chan replied honestly you bit your lip and nodded in understanding. “let me start off by saying-I'm sorry.” his voice cracked a little bit. “for my actions that caused the chain of events that happened since that night.” he sighed.  

“it’s not an excuse for being an asshole, but you know what happens when I get into the music.” Chan added. “yeah.” you nodded. “it wasn’t an issue the previous times, and I guess I'm trying to wrap my mind around why it was a big deal this time?” he sat up straight.  

“because the previous times I wasn’t around to see that angry side of you.” you replied honestly. “i know I seen you upset before and-” “so you jump straight into leaving?” Chan interrupted. You sat in silence thinking over both rational and irrational versions of ways you could have handled it.  

“you really hurt me y/n” Chan admitted. “we used to talk our problems out, no matter how small or how bad.” he reminded you. “i know but-” you sniffled “if you knew then why did you leave? Just walk out?” he interrupted with his eyes now full of tears daring to break free. You stood up and walked over to the window. 

“i’m sorry.” you wiped your eyes. “i was scared. Like I said that was a side of you I never experienced, so I panicked” you added. “then you threw your headphones with a full force and I just kept thinking-” you gulped. “do I have to worry about something being thrown at me?” the tears rolled down your face rapidly that they began to hit the floor. 

Chan’s eyes widened and then the tears began to roll down his cheeks. “i would never physically hurt you y/n you know that right?” his lower lip trembled.  

“i know, but-” you nodded, your face swelling up from the tears that were streaming down your face. You choked out another sob, immediately Chan ran to you and for the first time in weeks, he wrapped his arms around you in a safe and protective way. 

He rested his lips into the crook of your neck, you could feel his soft lips touching your skin as he pressed a gentle kiss, like he was trying to kiss the pain away to make it better, similar to someone kissing your paper cut to make it stop hurting. 

The both of you held each other closely, turning into a sobbing mess from the weeks of bitterness just melting away. Neither of you noticed that the dorm door was open and a figure stood against the frame watching the both of you. Changbin stood by the door silently, he looked down at his shoes and kicked at the specks of lint on the floor. He looked up again and felt he was about to cry too, instead he pushed his feelings down and walked away not trying to ruin whatever was going on here. 

Chan pulled away from the embrace first, his eyes were swollen with tears, as were yours. You both looked at each other before bursting into giggles while wiping your faces with the sleeves of your shirts. “i’m sorry Chan” you looked down at your feet. “for everything I caused.”  

Chan nodded and smiled “it’s going to take some time honestly. to get everything back to what it was.” he looked at the door that was opened suddenly. “but-I'm tired of fighting. I'm willing to move on, if you are.” he looked back at you. “move on?” you looked at him sorrowfully. “yeah.” Chan nodded. “move on.” he confirmed. You’d be lying if you said it didn’t hurt you a bit and that it squished any hope of rekindling but you nodded in agreement. “to moving on” you lifted your fist. Chan smiled and broke out into a soft chuckle as he shook his head. “to moving on” he bumped his fist into yours.  

You loosened your fist and Chan did too, instinctively you both laced your fingers together, you took a deep breath and flashed him a weak smile. Chan cleared his throat and pulled his hand away, immediately shoving it into his pocket.  

“well” you sighed and stepped back, “i think I'm all cried out” you joked. “same” Chan teased back. “since there is no sushi party here, I'm going to go and get my own sushi and continue packing” you laughed. 

“packing?” Chan furrowed his eyebrows. “we finally are on good terms and now you’re leaving?” he teased but with a worry in his tone. “don’t worry.” you laughed. “i am moving out of my friend’s apartment, I found a place of my own.” you replied. “it’s time to start piecing my life back together.”  

Chan nodded in agreement, “i think we all need to do that.” he replied. “maybe if you’re not busy tomorrow you can help me move to my new place? I have a lot of stuff and no vehicle” you added. “of course.” Chan replied “i’ll ask the boys to help out too, after our recording session though” he added. “of course, the music must always come first” you shrugged earning a weird look from Chan. “sorry that sounded bitchy” you squeezed your eyes tightly in embarrassment. “yeah, you did.” Chan joked. “but you’re right, the music will always come first.” he teased. “so tomorrow?” you turned to face Chan as you both approached the opened door. “tomorrow.” he confirmed. You quickly gave him your friend’s address and told him if he forgets Felix knew where to go. “okay, got it.” he assured you and leaned against the open door. “Chan?” you looked up at him through your eye lashes. “hmmm?” he hummed acknowledging you. “i’m glad to be back in your life.” you smiled weakly. “same” he replied. 

“well. see you tomorrow.” you mumbled softly and stepped out. This would have been the time when Chan would pull you into his body and press never ending kisses to your face, telling you how he doesn’t want you to go and that he isn’t going to breathe until you’re with him again. Instead, you were sent off with a smile and wave followed by the door closing.  

The next day, Chan was in the recording studio setting up for the group to start recording their tracks. Han and Lee Know were playing some kind of game that required slapping one another’s hands and the rest of the group hadn’t arrived yet. Changbin walked in and dropped his bag on the floor loudly earning the looks of Chan, and the two on the couch. 

Chan looked back at his laptop and continued what he was doing. Changbin walked over to the couch and asked the two if they could step out for a minute and not let anyone else inside. “maybe I should stay, for-reasons" Lee Know looked over at Chan not knowing what tension was built up between these two and if it would come to blows. 

“fine” Changbin agreed, “but only you” he looked at Han who sighed and got up to leave the studio. Changbin walked over to Chan and stood behind him, trying to figure out how to get his attention. Chan must have felt his stares and looked up and turned around making eye contact with him.  

“Hyung, can I talk to you?” Changbin cleared his throat, easing the tension by using a less threatening way to call Chan. “sure.” Chan put the headphones he was holding down on the table gently, giving Changbin his full attention. 

“uhm-so you and y/n?” he rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. Chan sighed in annoyance. “we are good-just friends but good.” he replied. “is that all?” he picked up the headphones again. “Chan-” Changbin touched his hand to stop him from putting on the headphones which would end this entire conversation. Lee Know immediately tensed up, ready to step in if needed.  

“what?” Chan asked again displaying his annoyance. “you want my permission to date her now?” Chan asked dropping the headphones again on the table. “no” Changbin replied innocently. “then bring the rest of the guys in so we can finish this.” Chan replied and turned away. “There is something I am trying to say can you just listen?” Changbin snapped back. Chan sighed and turned to face him fully. 

“then say it, I'm listening.” Chan gestured. Changbin broke the eye contact and looked at Lee Know before taking a deep breath. “you’re my brother Chan” Changbin looked at him with sympathetic eyes, “you know i would never do anything to hurt you intentionally or unintentionally.” he added. “yes, for a moment, I did have feelings for y/n, but I would gladly throw those feelings away if it means we can get back what we had. I-I miss my Hyung.”  

Chan could feel his face soften and his cold exterior melt away, no longer was he looking at Changbin as the guy who was trying to date his ex-girlfriend, but he was looking at Changbin the younger boy who he befriended immediately when he was putting together the group. He remembered the highs and lows that Changbin stuck through with him, the Changbin that was his little brother, who he picked for this group because he loved and cared about him so much and he knew he would contribute massively to their success. Changbin who helped produce songs to help Chan so he wouldn’t overwork himself. Chan looked away to keep from crying and looked at Changbin and nodded in response he shot Changbin a quick smile. “we never lost what we had.” he assured him. “like you said, we’re brothers. Of course, we are going to fight.” he chuckled to keep his voice from cracking. “even when we do, that doesn’t mean I am going to stop loving you.” he assured him. 

Changbin smiled “i missed my namdongsaeng” Chan opened his arms, Changbin stepped forward with his arms expanded, the two wrapped each other in an embrace and squeezed tightly. “i love you Changbin” Chan patted his back and pressed a firm kiss against the side of his head. “i am glad you are here with all of us, and for what it’s worth, choosing you to be in this group was the best decision of my life” “ah-I love you too” Changbin squeezed him tighter. “I wouldn’t want to be in any other group.” he laughed, he could feel the tears of happiness fall from his cheek and he wiped his face on Chan’s shirt. “let’s never do this again.” Chan pat his head and smiled. 

“now that we are all in love with each other again, can we record this new song?” Lee Know interrupted. The rest of the boys walked in just in time and laughed feeling all the tension in the room clear up, the room was now filled with nothing but pure love for one another. They all gathered closely while encasing Lee Know in one big group hug, pressing him into Changbin and Bang Chan’s embrace. 

After perfecting the recording Bang Chan exited, and headed straight to your friend’s apartment. He walked up the flight of stairs and knocked the door. You were reboxing everything in the next room that you almost missed his heavy knocks.  

“hi, love” Bang Chan smiled as you opened the door to your friend’s apartment. “hey,” you smiled and leaned in to hug him. “so, what did you all need taken?” he asked looking around the living room. “Everything in the second bedroom” you smiled mischievously. “it’s a lot of stuff isn’t it?” Bang Chan sighed. “you’re the one to pout? We moved this stuff already.” Lee Know walked in griping.  

You both rolled your eyes and shook your head, then exchanged smiles. “he doesn’t mean it.” Bang Chan shrugged. “i know” you replied with a smile. “i hope it’s okay, I asked them to follow me to help out.” “you know, I will never say no to them.” you replied “maybe you should one day.” Lee Know shrugged. “just go grab a box please” you playfully pushed him towards the second room. 

The boys worked diligently and quickly clearing out that second room in an instant. Felix carried out the last box, you held the door open and watched him head down the stairs. You turned and took one last look at your friend’s apartment, for a few weeks it was your sanctuary, you cried here, got blacked out drunk here, and spent your worst hangovers here. Now it was time you made a place of your own to do all these things. You texted your friend and thanked her, letting her know she could pick up her key when she returned then locked the door. Locking away a part of your life you didn’t care to revisit. 

You arrived to your new apartment with Bang Chan and Lee Know. The three of you walked up to the door, you looked for your keys and pressed them into the locks, breaking the seal to give you access.  

“wait before you go in” Chan smiled and covered your eyes. “oh you know how much I hate stuff like this” you groaned. “shut up and just follow along” Lee Know replied as he opened the door letting Chan guide you inside. “3-2-1.” Chan uncovered your eyes revealing your newly refurnished apartment. “surprise!” the boys shouted.  

“you’re kidding” you looked around in amazement. “well you can put your junk we brought over, where ever you want but this is from us all.” Lee Know replied. “we’re also not giving you the second key back” Han announced. 

“I have an idea.” you looked at the boys. “we should have game night here.” The boys all agreed enthusiastically and went over who was going to buy what and what time everyone should meet back up at the house. Also, who was going to get Changbin, who for obvious reasons wasn’t there. Hyunjin, Lee Know, and I.N went to get snacks, Seungmin went to get some pizza, Felix and Han went to get Changbin and you and Bang Chan prepared the games.  

“I think we should play monopoly first because Felix and Lee Know will get bored of it when they start losing and we can end it early” you suggested. “but if Lee Know starts winning we will be playing this all night” Chan replied.  

“or” you grabbed the game and slid it under the couch. “we can say we don’t have the game” you shrugged. Chan smiled and shook his head. “okay, and I never seen it.” he added making you laugh.  

“do you think they can convince him to come?” you looked at Chan. Chan shrugged in response. “did he not show up because of a me reason or an us reason?” you asked Chan. “it’s a-you reason” he replied honestly. “figured” you replied and put the rest of the games you were holding on the table. “what about you? Has he talked to you yet?” you asked and sat on the couch.  

“Binnie is my brother” Chan replied. “i’m always going to care for him, I love the guy” he replied and put the rest of his games on table before finding a seat. “so I'm guessing you two made up?” you asked. “like I said, he’s my brother-I can’t picture a life without him.” he added. 

You nodded and looked around at your apartment that was decorated with love by the boys. “can I ask you a question? And can you be 100% honest with me?” Chan sat up straight. You looked at him worried before agreeing. “were you in love with Changbin?” he asked with puppy dog eyes. You felt a light gasp escape your lips, this was the question you were unprepared for answering. “I mean, like before I first asked you out on a date, during the time we were dating, and during our break up...and now?” He shifted in his seat. 

“I-I don’t think it’s best for me to answer” you chuckled nervously and pulled at the ends of your shirt. “so you did?” Chan replied. “Chan.” you sighed. You looked at him seeing he was just as nervous for you to answer. “Fine.” you sighed. “Before you ever asked me out, No. During the time we were dating? Of course not, I only had eyes for you.” you added earning a smile from Chan. “during the break up? Yes, but I didn’t understand if it was because I was mad at you or because he was just there when I needed him most.” you looked down at your feet. “that’s pretty shitty right?” you looked at Chan. “calling it love when it sounds like I was just using him?” 

“as shitty as that is.” Chan replied. “we are our most vulnerable during times like that, but I said I wanted your 100% honesty.” He continued. “did you love Changbin? As more than a friend?” he bit the inside of his cheek. You could feel the heaviness in your heart as you shook your head back and forth with a no. The room was dead silent, just the hum from the fridge in the kitchen. “i loved him, because he was there, but I can’t say I was in love with him to where I could see him and I having what we did” you replied honestly. Chan nodded in understanding and let out a deep breath. “and now?” he looked at you. “no” you whispered and shook your head. “but I do miss my best friend.” you added with a weak smile. 

Just then Felix opened the door using the spare key, Han followed behind Changbin. The look he gave you made you feel like you could shrink into the couch and disappear. “the rest of the guys aren’t back yet?” Felix asked. “not yet.” Chan replied and embraced Changbin by the door. “you excited for game night?” he asked. “sure.” Changbin nervously replied before walking into the living room. Han grabbed the game Uno and talked to Felix about how he was getting better at the game.  

Changbin stood by the door, almost like he would bolt the second someone opened it back up. Seungmin opened the door and left it opened for the rest of the boys who all appeared with their snacks in hand. “i’ll get the kitchen set up, and everyone else pick a game.” Chan announced as he took some of the bags from the boys' hands. 

“Sit down” Hyunjin guided Changbin to the Livingroom to the empty seat next to you. So much was happening, from I.N and Seungmin arguing over which pizza topping was the better choice, and Han and Lee Know fighting over who gets to shuffle the Uno deck, you looked over to Changbin. He stood silently against the wall, ignoring your glances.  

“Binnie?” you spoke up earning looks from everyone except him. “wanna help me pass out some drinks?” you asked nervously. Changbin looked at you with disgust before shaking his head and walking out to the balcony.  

Chan walked back into the livingroom and saw you sitting on the couch in disbelief. “do you want me to talk to him?” Chan offered, looking at you seeing how visibly upset you were. “no.” you replied and stood up. “this was caused by me, I have to fix it myself.” you smiled and touched his cheek gently.  

You walked towards the sliding door and inhaled a deep breath before tapping the glass gently. Changbin was sitting outside on the patio chair looking over the city. “mind if I join?” you stepped out and closed the door behind you. Changbin looked at you, he gestured to the empty chair across from him. 

You sat down and sighed, feeling your breathing get shaky. “Binnie?” your voice innocently called for him. He sat silently still for a good few seconds, eventually he bit the inside of his cheek and finally answered you. “what?”. 

“are we ever going to talk again?” you asked. “we’re talking now.” he replied coldly. “i mean, in more than three worded responses.” you added. 

Changbin shrugged and looked back at the city as the night was consuming the sky. You looked over at the city’s horizon and back at Changbin. “do you remember that night of the TWICE album release party?” you looked up at him from the corner of your eye. 

Changbin shifted his seat, that’s how you knew he knew what you were talking about. “We were about to-uhm-” you cleared your throat. “what’s your point?” Changbin replied annoyed. “well, we ended up not-”you cleared your throat “and do you remember what you said to me when I was half naked crying in your bed?” You looked at him fully catching his focus. He just looked away instantly. “you said Chan was lucky, because he and I had aejeong.”  

Changbin didn’t speak, he just continued to look ahead. “Binnie.” you scooted closer to him. “well, I got curious one night as to what you meant, and I realized something after hours of research.” Changbin looked at you finally. “we always have Jeong.” you forced a weak and unsure smile. “we might not have it anymore but we always had wojeong.” you felt the tears roll down your cheek. “i ruined that because I was mistaking it for something more, when all you were trying to do was be kind to me.”  

“I’m sorry Binn- Changbin.” you started to twist your fingers nervously. “i was so wrong to use your kindness and lead you to believe that I wanted something more.” Changbin scoffed and shook his head. “I want you to know something.” you touched his arm softly, Changbin looked at you his face softening against your touch. “and I am telling you this because I have never been more certain than anything else in my life, and that is I love you Changbin. You're my best friend, and I shouldn’t have tried to be anything more with the intentions of not pulling through with it, that wasn’t fair to you.”  

Changbin stayed silent, you took that as a sign that the wojeong you had once shared was now replaced with miunjeong. “anyway, uhm-that’s all I wanted to say.” you stood up and hid your tears well. You walked back into the apartment building and rejoined the rest of the group. 

Changbin walked back in and joined everyone a few minutes later. Game night continued, everyone enjoyed being whole again, no drama, no heavy drinking and mostly no arguing, apart from Han accusing Felix of cheating in UNO. 

As the clock turned to almost 2am you stood by the door and waved off Hyunjin and Lee Know, you closed the door and sighed at the mess that was in the living room. You started to clean up by grabbing the glass bottles and taking them to the recycling bin. You started running the water for the dishes and turned to start gathering the dirty plates when you gasped in fright as Changbin stood by the entryway to the small kitchen. 

“i thought you left with Felix?” you sighed feeling relief that it was just Changbin. “Felix decided he was going to jump in with Han, Seungmin and I.N.” he replied and started to gather up the dirty plates for you. “he just left me his keys and told me not to crash it.” “you don’t have to help” you assured him as he handed you the stack of plates. 

“i want to.” he replied and started to reseal the snacks that were open. The silence was excruciating, but you didn’t want to push it. You walked over to the speaker and pressed play on your last playlist you were listening to, to fill the silence of the kitchen.  

The song ended since it was only one minute left, when the next one began to play. Hold On by Chord Overstreet slowly began to fill the quiet space. “let me just change the song” you put the plate you were scrubbing back into the pool of soapy water. You pressed the button and Sasha Alex Sloan’s Dancing With Your Ghost started to play next. “uhm-” you nervously picked up the phone again.  

“It’s okay.” Changbin chuckled. You nodded and turned back to the sink. You were rinsing the plate and turned to grab the next one when Changbin’s hand grabbed yours pulling you into his body. Your eyes widen, “wh-what are you doing?” you stammered.  

“finishing the dance we didn’t get to finish at the release party” he smiled softly and twirled you outward, you slowly rolled back into his body, your back to his chest. You let out a shaky breath as you turned back to him, your arms wrapped around his body as you leaned against his chest. “why are you doing this?” you asked with your eyes closed.  

“aren’t we just repeating history?” you looked at him. Changbin shook his head before leaning his cheek against your cheek. “this is my apology,” he mumbled into your ear and stepped away from you. “i don’t want to lose our friendship, our wojeong.” he stopped dancing enough for the song to finally end. “tonight, I realized that you have jeong with not just me, but with Felix, Han, Hyunjin, Seungmin, I.N and even Lee Know.” he chuckled making you smile for a second. “and I realized it wasn’t fair to hate you for having a stronger version of Jeong with Bang Chan even after everything we all went through.” he stopped dancing with you for a moment, the both of you stood still in one place. “I couldn’t hate you for having it for him when I was wanting that version of it from you.”  

“you’re my best friend, and I really miss my best friend.” he dug in his pocket and pulled out your end of the matching necklace you both had. “you left this in the bathroom that night.” he showed it to you. “When I seen it on the counter, that’s when I knew, my real biggest mistake was pushing you and Bang Chan away.” you looked at the necklace and smiled remembering the day you both seen them at the mall and bought them immediately. “i would really love it if all of my best friends were in my life” he unclasped it a silent gesture of his invisible white flag.  

You stepped towards him and turned around, you pulled your hair to the side and watched as the necklace lowered down in front of you, and turned back to face Changbin as soon as he clasped it shut again. “i missed you too,” you sniffled, you fell into his embrace, you let out a shaky breath as he squeezed you tighter. You opened your eyes and seen Bang Chan standing by the kitchen table looking at the both of you. 

Changbin looked towards him too and stepped away. Fade Into You by Mazzy Star filled the awkward silence of the three of you in the kitchen alone. You turned back to the dishes and started to scrub them again. You could hear Changbin whispering something to Bang Chan, but you just wanted to avoid any eye contact if it would get ugly again.  

Suddenly you felt a light tap on your shoulder. You turned to see Chan standing awkwardly behind you. “uhm-” he cleared his throat. You blushed at his nervousness, and immediately knew what he wanted to ask. You wiped your hands with the dry towel and pulled him to the middle of the kitchen. You draped your arms around his neck and let him put his hands on your waist.  

Changbin nodded in satisfaction and left quietly, leaving the two of you alone in the kitchen.  

You let out a shaky breath and leaned into Chan’s shoulder as he tighten his embrace around your body. You squeezed out a soft whimper trying to hold back any sob you felt building up behind your closed eyes. Chan didn’t dare say anything, instead he just held you closer, looking out at the skyline of the city to distract himself from crying along with you. “can I just stay here?” he chuckled while rubbing his hand up and down your back. 

You chuckled and sniffled pulling away to wipe away any fresh tears that slipped down your cheek. “you’re always welcome to stay here.” you assured him and tousled his hair. This time he leaned in and pressed his forehead into the fabric of your shirt, cradling his face into your neck. “i mean forever.” he smiled against the warmth of your skin making you shake your head and chuckle. Chan straighten his neck back and looked at you, this time the sparkles in his eyes were made not from lights, alcohol or tears but from pure love he had in his heart for the people in his life.  

You looked away because it was enough to tear you up again and you didn’t want him to worry. 

You could feel his thumb and finger pinch your chin gently as he tilted your face up, slowly he leaned in and pressed a soft and gentle kiss to your lips. Your eyes were closed, the music was drowned out by a light hum. You could feel him pull away, he wet his lips again with his tongue and pressed his forehead to yours. The song changed one last time, Lord Huron’s The Night We Met softly blurted out the speakers. The both of you closed your eyes and slowly moved to the song, Chan’s arms on your waist pulling you closer and yours still wrapped around his neck. It wasn’t a confirmation but yet it wasn’t a rejection either, maybe it was a sign of hope.  

All you knew was being there in his arms again, nothing else mattered because no matter which side the coin landed on, you knew that as long as you were in his arms, there would be a way the two of you would end up together...one day. 

[flwersgarden]

ׅ ݊ ֶָ֪֪ 𖤘 — enchanted. ་ 𓄼 ׂ ˬ ּ

pairings : yandere!austin!elvis presley x female reader.

summary : elvis saw you at one of his shows and, let's just say, he was enchanted to meet you.

includes : yandere themes (obsessive behavior, delusional thoughts).

author's note : i know, two fics in a day?? but y'all know i had to write a yandere fic for him 👯 enchanted by taylor swift was the song inspo (obviously) and it just played in my head while writing half of this and i loved writing it!

part two. part three. part four. part five.

remember!! i don’t condone this type of behavior in real life, this is purely fictional. pls let me know if warnings need to be updated or added.

“ aw come on! just tonight! ”

your friend has been pestering you since the first day of the week to go with her to this show they were having at a place a bit far from home.

“ eh, i don't know... why do you want me to go so badly? ”

“ 'cause daddy said i can only go if you go cause you're a good gal and know better so please! ” you laughed at the half of her rambling, shaking your head as you walked beside her on the way to your house.

“ and what do i win? ” you asked, raising your eyebrows, holding your sweater in your hands as the sun started to rise and the day got hotter.

“ i'll buy you lunch for a month straight! ”

well, this must be the best show of the world if she is offering that.

“ deal. i'll see you at the street next to your house, okay? ”

“ yes, yes, sure! you won't regret it, i promise, i love you, thank you, thank you! ” her screams fainted as you entered your house still laughing at how adorable she could be when she wanted to, hanging your sweater in the hanger next to your house door.

walking straight to the kitchen, where your mother was cooking dinner, you asked.

“ mama, can i ask you something? ”

️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️₊ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ * ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ * ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ₊

with permission of your parents, you walked side by side with your friend; who's wearing her favorite soft blue dress, her hair well brushed and her makeup done flawlessly.

“ so, what's this show about? ” you asked as you fidgeted with your heart necklace, a picture of you and your sibling next to it well hidden, kind of nervous as the both of you arrived; noticing how many people where in there and half of the police force, you figured, as everytime you looked somewhere a cop would be there.

“ oh, honey, you'll see. ” she teasingly answered, holding your hand in hers. “ come on, i want to have the best seats of the house! ” she screamed as the chattering of girls around you drowned all the noises from outside.

your friend dragged you to the center, a bit closer to the stage than you would've liked, and while she looked beyond excited you felt like you were going to throw up. you had a bad feeling about this.

before you could say anything, the girls that were dancing suddenly climbed down and a presenter introduced someone.

and then, as if something drastic happened, the atmosphere changed.

girls were starting to scream even louder, some of them even stood up and clapped, cops were holding the most of them back, your friend was grabbing your arm as if her life depended on it and some people even tried to climb the stage. you grabbed your friends hand, not wanting to lose her in the craziness that was going on.

and then you saw him.

a boy with a black suit, a red tie, hair all done and black smokey makeup.

before you could even say something, your friend walked away from you, running to the front of the stage.

“ no! hey-. ” as you tried to walk with her, some girls pushed you away feeling the first nudges starting to hit hard, making you grab your stomach in pain.

you closed you eyes as they still kind of pushed you, the sound was being blocked out, the anxiety you started to feel rushing through your veins.

“ 'm gonna show them what the real Elvis is like! ”

you suddenly opened your eyes, feeling the air enter your lungs in one breath. the sound of drums suddenly playing waked you up making you look around, now realizing you were just at the front.

“ if you lookin' for trouble, ”

it was as if you were hypnotized, the short anxiety attack you felt sure played part, your eyes glued to him, the boy who grabbed the microphone as if he wanted to kill someone, the boy who sang like he was leading a new identity of himself to the world.

“ you came to the right place. ”

you grabbed the cop shoulder with both of your hands, watching how he moved, how he sang, how he looked around.

“ if you're lookin' for trouble, ”

your eyes shined, the lights that iluminated the place were a helpful thing for it.

“ just look right in my face. ”

you felt your hands starting to get sweaty, in anticipation.

“ i was born standing up, ”

your lips started to separate from each other, a scream wanting to erupt as if it was an opportunity to.

“ and talking back. ”

you felt like your body belonged to someone else.

“ my daddy was a green eyed, mountain jack because i'm ”

like a kind of spell.

“ evil ! ”

you started to scream, shaking the cop arm in an attempt to move closer to him, your hair falling into your face from the crazy movement your body was doing. when suddenly his gaze landed on yours.

time stopped, for the both of you.

you saw how he walked to you, crouching down to your level as he grabbed your face with his hand while the other one was holding the microphone on place so he could still sing.

how his eyes looked wild, his dark gaze clouding your vision, how he grabbed you as if you were... his.

he saw how a beautiful girl looked at him with that kind of look but this one felt different. like if a special spark accompanied that look.

walking closer he felt the heat in his body as if he was standing next to the sun but when he started crouching down, he felt like he was standing on the sun.

grabbing your face made him feel what he thought he would never feel for anyone, the feeling of falling in love at first sight.

and in that moment, where you gave him those beautiful doe eyes with pinkish pouty lips, he decided you were his.

the moment was cut short as some cops started to get inside the crowd, hitting anyone that stood in their way and as if your body was automatically powered up, you woke up from the trance elvis presley put you on, separating your face from his hand, starting to scream your friends name.

“ where are you?! ” you screamed again and again until a cop grabbed your arm, trying to take you out. “ no, wait, please! my friend-! ” you yelled in an attempt to gain mercy, looking around with a sad face decorating your arm.

“ please, let me go! i need to find her! ” you broke the grip his hand had on your arm, running to the back of the stage where you could hear her (faintly at that) when suddenly someone started to grab both of your arms; a different cop, this one grabbing you with so much force it started to hurt, even more than the girls' pushing you around, making you cry out loud as you were lead to a police car. “ ow- stop- please, you're hurting m- ow! ”

“ HEY! LET HER GO! ” a booming voice made an appearance, making you look to the owner of it still grimacing by the aggressiveness of the cop. just when you were about to complain once more, the cop was pushed away from you, a figure holding the cop uniform; shaking him as he was scolding him in some way, the only stuff you could hear beside the noise around you was:

“ don't touch her, you hear me? ”

“ pathetic son of a bitch, i'm going to cut your hand off if you touch her again. ”

you looked behind you, your eyes widening as the sight of two cops tearing elvis presley apart from the (terrified) cop that was on the ground. elvis stood up, a frown still in his face, making you shiver at how angry, how mad, he seemed to be and as if he could feel your gaze on him, he looked at you. his frown replaced by a soft worried gaze.

“ sweetheart, get in the car! ” he still screamed, but to be heard, pointing his head at the car next to you. “ get in the car- and don't let anyone touch you! ”

that was the only thing you heard from him before you hurried yourself into the car, shutting the door behind it; closing your eyes as you shook with fear and disappointment, in yourself. you couldn't find your friend.

️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️ ️️️️️️️️️️️₊ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ * ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ * ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ ₊ . ˖ ৎ୭ ॱ₊

being in a police station felt so... weird. as if you were some kind of criminal for attending a show.

you were wrapped in a blanket, sitting in a crappy chair with some coffee in your hands a female cop gave you as she saw some kind of distress as you told her, in the second you entered the station with some cops behind you holding other teenagers, that your friend was there and you couldn't find her.

your parents arrived a few minutes later, having to stay more to fill some papers about you, they didn't tell you what was about.

your mother was standing next to you as your father was talking to some cops about what happened.

“ just so y'know you're grounded. hope you enjoy the inside of your room cause you gonna stay a long time there! ” she angrily said but after a few seconds her face changed, a few tears falling in her cheeks. “ aw, my baby. ” she whispered as she crouched down, side-hugging you in a way to not spill your coffee (which has still half full). “ i was worried to death, god above, that elvis boy will know me if i ever see him. ”

you nodded absent-minded, your hand traveling to your neck just to find something missing. your necklace.

while the colonel explained to his parents what options they had, elvis was sitting in the couch behind them, the chimney making up for the lack of light in the room, playing with your heart shaped necklace with his right hand, admiring how beautiful it looked with the chimney fire behind it.

“ it is either the army or jail. ”

he didn't look up. he didn't knew what to do.

he made the biggest show ever and then found the girl he is going to marry — he should be celebrating, taking you out or making you meet his mama.

but no. they want to ship him to germany for two years. he spent half of his life without you, how could he go on for two years the same now that he found you? he'll go insane.

“ and my way of thinking, the army could be a brand new start for all of us. ”

now that made him look up, the colonel was pacing around the living room, his mama and daddy were in front of the chimney.

yes. a brand new start. he looks to your necklace again.

a brand new start where he could be with you after the cops get out of his business.

he turns the necklace, looking the back of it and smiles widely at the address that was printed in it.

“ imma need to do something first. ” he spoke up after a moment of silence, grabbing the attention of everyone present. he looked at the colonel with that knowing grin. “ if that doesn't bother you, sir. ”

“ what do you want to do, my boy? ” colonel parker asked in that accent of his.

elvis just looked at the address again.

“ i want to start my new life. ”

[qqueenofhades]

hiii ❣ it's a bit random but do you have any advice for a beginner writer?

i want to write web series and while i'm going to write for my pleasure, i still would love my work to be good enough to have readers.

but while i read stuff and write fics, i don't think it's enough to help me write an original several episode work. + i want to write in english but i'm not a native english speaker.

do you have a textbook or any resource in mind that you'd reccomend to a beginner writer?

Unfortunately, I don't have one single one-size-fits-all resource or silver-bullet magical writing improvement tool that I can recommend, as everyone learns/practices in different ways and some people swear by things that don't work for other people. I can't speak to the value of Grammarly or any other online tool that promises to make you a better writer, as they can often be used to feed your work into AI, make bizarre and/or flatly incorrect suggestions, or otherwise be confusing and unhelpful for a newbie writer, especially someone whose first language isn't English. If you work better within an interactive framework or just want to see if it does seem useful, then by all means do check it out, but don't feel like you HAVE to use it (or anything else) if it doesn't offer much to your process.

As ever, and unhelpfully, my advice for becoming a better writer is to write a lot and read a lot, in all kinds of genres. There's really no get-good-at-writing-quick hack to suddenly get you where you want to be overnight, but you CAN get there by dint of steady and sustained progress. You say that you already read things and write fics -- which is great! You clearly already have some practice with the overall concept, and you are not starting from total scratch. While a lot of writers have a goal of something they really want to do (i.e. in your case, write a web series) and feel like the first one they write has to be The Real and Good One that they only launch into after appropriate years of practice, that's not the case. You can start writing the series now, if you want to. You'll have to also share it with people who you trust to give you helpful and honest feedback (the mortifying ordeal of being known, etc) while also respecting the skill level that you're currently at and not tearing it down for being up to professional standards or something else that doesn't accurately reflect where you are and what you need feedback on. But yes, you will have to write steadily, share your writing with others, and challenge yourself to read and write in different kinds of texts -- i.e. not just fic or amateur fan content, but literature, nonfiction, genre fiction, academia, special interest subjects, and so forth. Writing by professionally published authors is not necessarily always better, but it does give you a sense as to what is deemed marketable, what the general skill level and standard is, and what you might like to emulate or try to do with your own projects.

Also, as a side note, I think that plenty of amateur or fan-written content on the internet is not necessarily outstandingly good, technically speaking. This doesn't mean it's bad -- plenty of people read and enjoy it anyway, and aren't coming in expecting it to be an award-winning piece of fine literature. Standards for what is good, enjoyable, or well-written vary dramatically by genre, medium, what your audience is expecting and/or paying for, and so forth. Some people also have high and/or picky standards for what they will read or what they find enjoyable to read, while others will just go along with the story and don't care as much about the format or technical prowess or so forth. So it is very much a subjective measurement, and if you get to a place where you enjoy reading your own stuff and find it engaging -- regardless of what arbitrary skill level you feel yourself to be on -- chances are that other people will too.

[period-dramallama]

Becoming Elizabeth: the autopsy

I just realised I never did a review of episode 8. Lol. Lmao even. This isn't an episode review but rather a discussion of the show upon rewatch.

Basically this is a show where the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts.

When I talk about the problems with the writing, I generally mean the narrative choices. The literal writing itself is good. Particularly for Tommy S, because those funny and witty/endearing lines explain his charm and why he is able to win over people and make them think he's a nice guy he's a funny guy he's a lovable rogue he's an adventurer. Tommy S does need to have some charm/charisma in order to be an effective villain. He can't go around being obviously evil.

There are still too many F words, but i was pleasantly surprised that there weren't as many as I remembered. And some F words I couldn't bear to part with: "The fuck is that?" And "what the fuck is wrong with you?!" In episode 5 for example.

I've seen some people say that the quality of the writing dropped in the episodes that aren't Anya Reiss but.... I think the quality of the writing was consistent. The iconic "I wish to take my c***ing bath" was not in an Anya episode, and neither was one of my favourite scenes in the whole show (yes it's the Dudley swordfighting training scene but it's an objectively good scene and not just because it's cute boys in fencing gear).

I initially thought episode 7 was my least favourite episode, but looking back there isn't really a good episode or a bad episode. Every episode has something I like and a bunch of stuff I'd change. If I had to pick 2 favourite episodes I'd pick 1 and 6. But because the problems are with narrative choices they're spread across the series. Even in episode 1, we have Elizabeth "I said at 9 i didn't want to marry so a lot would need to happen to change my mind" Tudor suddenly deciding she wants to marry a man she barely knows because hormones and they had a nice conversation one time. The rot set in quickly.

After the first four episodes I started skipping Mary and Tommy S scenes. I won't say any more on Katherine Parr because I've already said all I have to say on her characterisation. I did do some soul searching because I wondered if my dislike of her was subconscious internalised misogyny, given my affection for morally ambiguous male characters. But no, she really does lack both charm and depth.

So why is Becoming Elizabeth so narratively unsatisfying? Aside from Elizabeth being OOC, I think it's that the story feels like it's going around in circles.

Jane and Elizabeth clash. They make up. Then in episode 7 they fall out again. Mary and Edward fight, make up, fight, make up, fight again. Elizabeth realises Tommy S is dangerous, then she forgets, then she realises again. Mary scolds this character and they don't listen and then this character and they don't listen.

Yes character development isn't linear but it isn't circular either. It GOES somewhere. Setup and payoff are mutually reinforcing. It's fun to watch the setup because you know what's coming as a result of it. Payoff is fun because you saw how we got here. But it isn't satisfying to watch something that you know won't result in anything permanent. I don't feel anything watching Jane be tactless to Elizabeth in episode 1 because I know she'll be even MORE tactless in episode 7. And I don't feel anything seeing Elizabeth reach out the hand of friendship to Jane after the recital fiasco because I know in episode 7 they'll just fall out again. Whereas with Mary and Elizabeth they at least end the series with their relationship in a different place (hell).

And I have every sympathy with the writers because I'm up to my eyeballs at editing and I know what it's like to take historical events and try and make a plot and character arcs out of them. But the letter subplot and the Danish marriage subplot were largely fictional anyway. And they kinda went nowhere.

I understand that the showrunners wanted a complex villain in Tommy S. I get it. My favourite characters in this show are people capable of great love and also great harm. But to humanise him you only really needed that conversation with Elizabeth in episode 1 establishing his uncertainty and confusion, and the excellent "goshawk hatching out of a goose egg" scene with Jane. That establishes that he has the ability to be good he just chooses to be awful. So yes, the show really did give him too much screen time. He's not the main character, Elizabeth is! He should not have screen time comparable with her and her siblings! This wasn't supposed to be the Tommy S show! Nobody asked for that!

Gardiner is another problem IMHO. Setting aside the fact he's way too young to be the real Gardiner. He really shouldn't be here. He spent Edward's reign in the Tower. I know he shows up as a result of the fictional plots... so why write those fictional plots to the point you have to bring him in?? Cranmer IS important. You could have had Cranmer pushing Edward to be radical, Ed pushing him to be more lenient, and Daddy Dudley balancing the two. Voila, a dynamic!

And I get that Elizabeth wasn't doing much politically 1550-3 but you could still show her reacting and learning from events around her rather than warping Edward's reign completely out of shape AND making her a side character in her own story.

[atopvisenyashill]

Going through your asks, what happens if Littlefinger wins the duel, Brandon slips in the mud or a bird randomly craps in his eyes?

Catelyn is not going to marry him but I am wondering what the fallout would be?

H U H.

Okay so kind of returning to The Themes Here, I'm thinking specifically of this comment from George about feudal structures:

And then there are some things that are just don’t square with history. In some sense I’m trying to respond to that. [For example] the arranged marriage, which you see constantly in the historical fiction and television show, almost always when there’s an arranged marriage, the girl doesn’t want it and rejects it and she runs off with the stable boy instead. This never fucking happened. It just didn’t. There were thousands, tens of thousand, perhaps hundreds of thousands of arranged marriages in the nobility through the thousand years of Middle Ages and people went through with them. That’s how you did it. It wasn’t questioned. Yeah, occasionally you would want someone else, but you wouldn’t run off with the stable boy. And that’s another of my pet peeves about fantasies. The bad authors adopt the class structures of the Middle Ages; where you had the royalty and then you had the nobility and you had the merchant class and then you have the peasants and so forth. But they don’t seem to realize what it actually meant. They have scenes where the spunky peasant girl tells off the pretty prince. The pretty prince would have raped the spunky peasant girl. He would have put her in the stocks and then had garbage thrown at her. You know. I mean, the class structures in places like this had teeth. They had consequences. And people were brought up from their childhood to know their place and to know that duties of their class and the privileges of their class. It was always a source of friction when someone got outside of that thing. And I tried to reflect that.

I think Catelyn is an excellent example of a woman who knows her place BUT is able to navigate within her role incredibly well so she retains access to power and privilege in a way that most women can't in Westeros (and also just, OODLES of good luck, from being acting Lady of Riverrun to hitting the Westerosi jackpot of husbands and good hips) while Petyr is very much someone who doesn't know his place at that point in his life. Oh yes, Petyr is very aware of his place after this fight but that's largely because Brandon shows him what his place is through extreme violence. At this point in time, when he's just an idealistic teenager who sees himself as an equal to the Tullys and Starks despite being like, glorified merchant class? He has no idea the violence that awaits him for pulling this stunt but by the gods is he about to learn.

SO THE PETYR OF IT ALL - I don't think Hoster would straight up murder a teenage boy the way, say, the Lannisters push for Micah, Lady, Nymeria, and even Arya to be harmed but I do think that if he's not in terrible shape after the fight, Hoster has him lashed and put on a boat back to the Fingers post haste. Petyr goes home incredibly injured, sick from the sea and being unable to rest from his physical ordeals, maybe even some formal/informal exiling from the Riverlands or Westeros at large. Hoster is likely aware that having a teenager whipped and put on a boat is dangerous but the thing is the Northerners are on the way and Petyr just humiliated Brandon and the entirety of the North with this little romantic stunt of his; again, not saying Rickard or Brandon would demand Petyr's head, but I think Hoster's fondness for Lord Baelish would make him want this dealt with before the Northern faction shows up for the almost wedding to be like "hey what in the FUCK did your ward just do you shit ass??" Given that Petyr's general life philosophy is "piss me off once, get ready to die during my insane xanatos gambit 10-17 years down the line" I don't think this has a major effect on his personality besides pissing him off a bit more. He'll have to be smarter about building his wealth but no way he earns himself a permanent exile for something this stupid, and once the chaos of the war starts up, I'm sure the Iron Throne is willing to overlook some youthful follies.

THE BRANDON STARK OF IT ALL - This one is a bit more complicated.

Southron Ambitions is hashtag real and Brandon getting his ass handed to him looks so fucking bad for Rickard and also puts a huge dent in the idea of "everyone outside the crownlands intermarries so if Aerys overreaches we have each other's backs" because now Brandon looks like a wuss and Hoster looks like he can't control his vassals.

They can't just throw Catelyn at Ned yet because Hoster seems to be picky as fuck about the marriages of his kids and Ned is second born and functionally useless. Not good enough for Hoster's favorite child (yet).

Brandon himself probably feels humiliated by this whole thing and maybe even wants to put the blame for the loss on Cat or Hoster. I mean we are talking he loses because he like, trips in the mud and Petyr gets the drop on him. Humiliating, unlucky, bitch made behavior lmaooo that just doesn't look good for a man like Brandon.

The Northern faction is, I say again, literally on the way to Riverrun.

I think what happens here is that Brandon runs back to the approaching Northern faction licking his wounds and pride with a note from Hoster that essentially just says "maybe we should renegotiate a little bit" but before they can get to Riverrun, Lyanna disappears. Brandon is already a hothead so with his pride wounded, absolutely he marches straight up to the Red Keep and tells Rhaegar to come out and die and all of that goes more or less the same - maybe if Aerys had heard about Brandon losing the fight, there's some humiliation going on there in addition to the torture of the deaths.

AND FOR THE NEDCAT MARRIAGE OF IT ALL - I think Ned feels a lot more pressure to prove himself here. Which doesn't mean he makes any mistakes - Ned shows himself to have a good head for battle tactics even under pressure - but I do think it puts him politically in a weirder position but perhaps emotionally in a better one. For one thing, Ned escapes the Vale by sneaking through the Fingers where Petyr is from - that might be a problem here. From there, it ripples out when he joins for the Battle of the Bells; perhaps he's a bit more ferocious, takes a few bigger risks in battle in an attempt to make up for Brandon's failure and impress Hoster.

I think it's likely that the war still forces a Cat-Ned marriage but I think the way these two approach the marriage is going to be different than how it goes in canon. For one thing, I think Cat's reputation takes a hit - she'd come across perhaps as a bit ~unruly because her lil boyfriend defeated her fiance (who cares that she asked Petyr not to do it, who cares that she gave Brandon her favor, Petyr humiliated Brandon so now it's Cat's fault) and I also think Catelyn would feel. Idk, not duty bound to be loyal to Petyr after defeating Brandon, but certainly would be feeling something very complicated that Petyr pushed through her no's and then won. Then there's the conflict of not wanting to piss off her new husband. Meanwhile, Ned is probably thinking about how another man won her hand fair and square and how he's essentially stepping on someone else's toes. I think in this situation, Ned's feelings of not being "enough" get split between Brandon - who proves that he wasn't "enough" either - and Petyr, the feudal middle class upstart who proved he IS enough. I think it would be likely that Catelyn and Ned have a more tense relationship for much longer. Possibly Ned doesn't even name Bran after Brandon because he's worried it might seem a lil tacky.

BUT. I DO KIND OF THINK. THERE IS ANOTHER PATH HERE.

I think it's just as likely that to get around this whole awkward issue, Hoster decides that Ned should marry Lysa and that Jon Arryn should marry Cat. That changes everything radically. I don't think Ned would like Lysa's clinginess nor would Lysa appreciate the stern ways of the North. I do not think those two would ever have a happy marriage and I think Lysa still attempts to start something with Petyr. The problem there is that the affair would be conducted compeltely through letters because Ned is not sticking around KL the way Jon Arryn does nor imo would Ned just completely miss the fact that his wife is having an emotional affair with the man who beat his older brother's ass. If Ned finds out, I think it's going to swing him into a PTSD driven, flashback addled depression spiral and remind him way too much of Lyanna/Rhaegar. I'm not totally sure how he'd react to this; Lysa isn't physically having an affair but Ned knows damn well that emotions can turn into actions real quick.

Then we've got Catelyn-Jon Arryn. Now...the subject of children is kinda weird here. I think Lysa's issues with children are partially caused by the forced abortion + Jon's age. It's possible that Cat has an easier time conceiving BUT all this means is she has three or four children with disabilities instead of just one. I think we would see a Cat that has also sunk deeper into her own depression, blaming herself for the Brandon-Petyr debacle, thinking about how she could have married a man born in the same decade as her instead of one older than her father, etc. Maybe it's Catelyn that winds up having an affair with Petyr - though again, it would be harder to carry it out because if Jon is at the capital, I can't see Petyr being able to land Master of Coin or be put in charge of the gold cloaks. I think it becomes difficult for Petyr to gain any foothold at all in fact which means he has to be smarter once again - but we know Petyr is perfectly capable of that.

Keeping in mind all the dozens of ways this ripples through the plot, the biggest change here is that Petyr has to handle the Jon Arryn situation way differently with Cat married to him instead. I think there's a not unlikely chance that Petyr manuevers himself to off Jon Arryn sooner so Cat isn't wasting her fertile years on Jon but keeping them with Petyr because Cat no longer has a healthy, beautiful daughter for Petyr to get fixated on, if she manages to have a daughter at all. I think if he can throw suspicion onto someone else, no one will find it odd that he and Cat remarry, even if they do it in a really tacky way - it's just Been Known that he's holding a torch for her, Jon Arryn is old and ugly, Cat is sexy as fuck, and she's already had a true born heir by Jon Arryn, so really, who cares if she remarries someone beneath her. What that affects is a) when Ned comes South b) How Petyr handles Ned and c) whether Jon and Stannis find out about the incest or not.

Anyways point being if Petyr wins I think this is kind of a hell scenario for the Tully girls. Lysa will either still be miserable with Jon or be miserable with Ned. Catelyn has to carry around the fact that Petyr humiliated her betrothed and caused this huge scandal. Petyr is probably forced to get real creative much sooner if he wants to marry Catelyn.

Although now I'm thinking about Cat still rejecting Petyr for humiliating her, Jon Arryn still getting offed by Petyr, but then Ned comes South and now he's dealing with newly widowed and free Catelyn Tully Arryn and her sickly little kids. It's like a fucked up romance novel omg, give me a second chance romance where Ned and Cat fall in love while he's investigating what killed her husband!!!!!!!!!

[brainrotallthewaydown1312]

I just got a poll about bi himbos on my feed and the first option, who is winning in a landslide, is Jake Peralta. and like I get it. believe me I get it. but y'all seem to forget he is a cop. that is literally like his whole thing.

I almost kept scrolling, but I also recently saw fanart of the 99 at a pride parade and a babygirl edit of Terry. so I think it's time for a reminder.

ACAB includes fictional tools of copaganda.

even when

they are fun

they are likeable

they are narratively interesting

they are nuanced

they are looking to fix the system

they are kind people

they are relatable

they are flawed

the writers know they are a bastard

this is because they are still cogs in a bastardized system. all cops are bastards because they are traitors to their class, to their communities, and when they are any kind of minority they are traitors to their identities. by working as a cop they perpetuate systematic cycles of violence and oppression. even if they have reasons like "I want to fix the system from inside" or "I was helped by a cop once and want to do that" or "I genuinely want to help people who are struggling" there are other, better ways to accomplish all of those that do not involve being a cop. even that middle one. there are many forms of community resource positions you can take.

I want to reiterate. I get the thing with Jake Peralta. putting the copaganda aside for a moment, he is a goofball. he is very effectively coded both as bi and as having adhd. he definitely does fit into the chaos bi himbo archetype that is popular for good reason. he is a nuanced character who is always looking for ways to do the right thing. his mistakes are shown and he (usually) is able to recognise them and apologise. he is relatable to many people and charismatic to even more.

but he is still a cop. everyone on that show is either a cop or actively supporting cops, unless they are an antagonist. including Doug Judy, a career criminal who is self described best friends with jake.

and I cannot shame anyone for their enjoyment of Brooklyn 99. the comedy is well written, the characters all have interesting arcs, and it is unique in its genre for a few reasons. I myself watched most of the early seasons when I was in high school and enjoyed the well structured queer coding and the way it discussed the diversity in the precinct instead of shying away from it (put a pin in that for a second) For full disclosure, I have also watched and found enjoyment in the full run of Criminal Minds. and Bones. one of my alltime favorite shows is Eureka which is not only full of copaganda (as its premise) but it has a multi season arc for an autistic character that is important to the plot where his mother (a main character) is desperately trying to cure him a la Autism Speaks. there is not shame in having consumed or enjoyed media with harmful things. but you have to do so with nuance. and you cannot let yourself forget.

returning to the diversity and representation in b99. it is genuinely insidious to normalize members of the communities most historically effected by police brutality and targeted by discriminatory policy as "good cops." yes the writing around these characters is good. and I would argue that in other aspects there is good representation in that show. while the black and POC representation and discussion is also an important related issue, and arguably the more disturbing aspect of this, it is not my place to comment on so I will stick to the queer rep.

Rosa is written in a way that is respectful and is relatable to many bi people. Holt has a nuanced backstory that is not shied away from and his relationship and identity are always respected. Jake is very effectively coded as bi but hasn't realized or accepted yet. and as an autistic person with ADHD, Jake, Holt, Amy, Charles, and Rosa are all well coded and respectfully written neurodiverse characters. and it is difficult to find queer or neurodiverse representation like that. I fully understand that.

but they are cops. queer people (and neurodiverse people) have historically been major targets for cops. we are more likely to die at the hands of a cop than our cishet peers. we are more likely to be hospitalized by them. we are more likely to be arrested on no charge. we are more likely to be set up for things we didn't do. we are more likely to have the book thrown at us when we are innocent and minding our own business. normalizing that cops we deal with can be members of our community our community is legitimately dangerous. LGBT cops are not part of the queer community. they are traitors to their community.

drawing the b99 or any cop real or fictional at pride is horrifying. cops have no place at pride. even off duty. pride is not a party. it is a protest. against cops. it isn't a march for general rights. it is a protest against physical and legal brutality against queer people. it is a memorial to the Stonewall Riot, a response to an act of police brutality against trans women in a queer space. that is why it happens in June. so we do not forget.

b99 is written to make us sympathetic to the emotional nuance and physical danger of being a cop. and for some of y'all that is working. even if you don't think it is. because you are willing to babygirl Terry. you coddle Jakes constant corruption. you will go on at length about the trials holt has faced forgetting that they are because he chose to become part of the system that oppresses him.

there is psychological nuance as to why members of oppressed minorities become cops. of course there is. but there should not be social nuance. all cops are bastards. even fictional cops. even your uncle. because they are participating in and perpetuating a violent bastardized system.

yes, this includes Jake and the rest of the b99. it includes Spencer Reid from criminal minds. it includes Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan from bones. it includes Sheriff Jack Carter from eureka. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durand from gravity falls. Olivia Benson from Law and Order. James Gordon from the DC universe. Ranger Walker from Walker Texas Ranger. RoboCop. Rick Grimes from the Walking Dead. chief wiggam from the Simpsons. Joe Swanson from family guy. Inspector Lastraude from every iteration of Sherlock Holmes. arguably Sherlock himself for how often he cooperates with the police. Inspector Gadget. David tennant's broadchurch roll. and every other fictional cop you can think of.

all of them. even the kind ones. even the black ones. and the queer ones. and the disabled ones. even the ones where the media knows they are a bastard. even when they are there to be the butt of the joke. they are all bastards.

and you can watch them. you can read about them. you can even write about them. you can enjoy their media. but you cannot let yourself forget that they are a cop. and that all cops are bastards. because of you forget about one cop being a bastard, that leaves room to sympathize with other cops. and as we all know, even a cop with personal empathy for you is still a cop who will act with violence and corruption without a second thought. and if you forget that in the wrong moment in real life, you or someone else can and will get hurt. physically hurt. mentally hurt. legally hurt. all of the above. sympathy for cops gets minorities killed.

never let yourself forget that.

all cops are bastards.

[odetothestars]

Once again a very incoherent, not spell checked, all over the place ramble that might not make any sense (lmk if I need to clarify something)

But I think this one is kinda important? At least, it is to me. Before you decide how you feel about this, do me a favour and at least try to actually read/digest it first!

Something I think desperately needs to happen within multiple fandoms is working through your internalized misogyny…because people on this app are a little too comfortable stereotyping, belittling, sexualizing, devaluing, and just generally disrespecting women or fem presenting people. It’s usually pretty subtle, but the micro aggressions are definitely there.

I see fics where the only time female characters are mentioned is if they pipe in to say something snarky or when male characters are talking about their appearance/desire to sleep with them.

The example of misogyny that I see the most often is in mlm ship writing where one of the characters tagged as fem!x and that character is very often portrayed/described as:

- “Emotional, dramatic, whiny, clingy, soft, delicate, fragile”

- They’re dependent, usually being provided for by someone else

- They’re the subordinate/“beta” in a relationship

- They’re “helpless” and need protecting

- They’re interested shallow things (appearance, money, class, etc.)

- They have an “attitude”

- Their hobbies consist of baking, shopping, decorating

- They’re looked at like a trophy, something pretty to win and own

- There’s a strong emphasis of their appearance (slender, rosy cheeks, sharp features) and sexuality especially

I’m sure many of you have read at least one fic tagged as fem!*insert male chatacter name here* and this is the character description you were shown, no?

Before you yell at me, there is nothing inherently wrong about that characterization! It’s completely fine to live your life that way, it’s okay to be into superficial things, it’s okay to want to be protected, it’s okay to have someone provide for you, etc. Slay however you want!

My problem is that this characterization is NOT A TRUE REFLECTION OF WHAT FEMININITY IS. The issue isn’t in these traits themselves, I have some of those traits myself, the problem is using these traits to prove that a character is more feminine. It’s so stereotypical, surface level, and old-fashioned, and reduces the beauty of being feminine to a caricature. Whether you like it or not, whether you mean it or not, this is misogyny. Feminine people/characters can be strong, brave, intelligent, hardworking, independent. Being feminine is something that I’m very proud of, and I hate seeing it be reduced to something it isn’t. This is deeper than just not personally liking the way a character is written. This is misogyny.

Not to mention the super masc x super fem characterization is super heteronormative and also a stereotype in itself but I digress.

I’m not telling anyone they need to drop these kinds of characterizations, I’m just saying you should probably take a good minute to reflect on your motives and how you really feel think about femininity deep down. Is it something you truly views as inferior? Why? Do you want to change that? What are some ways can you?

Don’t even get me started on the literal abuse of fem characters in fics and novels. Yes, there are pieces of fiction where masc characters are victims, which is horrifying, I just see it the most often against fem characters. It’s absolutely disgusting that people are romanticizing and glorifying abuse of anyone, but that’s a topic for another time.

I typically subscribe to “don’t like don’t read” unless we’re talking about stuff the is genuinely offensive or harmful to an entire group of people. If I see an au, ship, plot, or general writing style I don’t particularly like, I will simply swipe passed and move on with my day (you should to). But when fics are written with any kind of internal bias (misogyny, homophobia *including heteronormativity*, transphobia, racism, etc.) behind them or have elements of glorified abuse, there is a genuine issue and I’m not just gonna scroll and pretend that it isn’t super fucked up, because it is. It’s fucked up! Touch grass and breath fresh air PLEASE.

Sure, I can’t stop anyone from writing or reading what they want, they’re free to do so, but that means they are also free to deal with criticisms of it.

If this upset anyone, I genuinely am very sorry, it wasn’t be intention to offend you. Unpacking things like internalized bias can be really difficult, but I think it’s important to have conversations like this so we can learn and grow from each other. Feel free to share you thoughts, try to be respectful if you can:)

*Tags are not a direct call out to any ship or fandom. I have seen this in multiple different fandoms with multiple different ships. This is just a primarily HP blog, hence why tags are HP*

[moonshynecybin]

do you have any books recommendations? 🙏

okay usually i like to know a general vibe for recommendations bc this is INTIMATE!!! and im actually in a weird place in my reading journey where im trying to branch out and try a bunch of different books in a bunch of different genres bc i got lowkey sick of what i was reading all the time so this is all over the place. whatever fuck it. here are some recent ones in no particular order that ive enjoyed OR at the very least found interesting. most of these are pretty famous i'll be real im not breaking the wheel here. under the cut bc she is long

our wives under the sea by julia armfield. was this book good hmm i dont know. was it kind of fucked up and interesting. YES. some of the prose is legitimately sooo gorgeous and the portrait it paints of the central relationship is intimate and oftentimes heartrending i still think about it which is kind of what you want from a story tbh... a really slow plot (kind of nonexistent) thats frankly more about grief than anything. theres some spooky body horror here so beware

slaughterhouse five by kurt vonnegut. shes a classic for a REASON. do you ever pick up a book that is very beloved and famous. and then get genuinely and pleasantly surprised that it actually rules. happened to me. legit kind of life changing and also made me laugh out loud. if you havent read it get on it

the kingdoms by natasha pulley. read this over the summer and i vividly remember sitting in the basement at my job hiding so i could read one more page i was RIVETED!!! its historical fantasy its time travel its amnesia it is. on a boat. basically like what if fucked up gay love and also magic made france win the napoleonic wars would that be crazy or what!!! and it was!! also read some of her other stuff which is VERY similar and it was like. fine to good. but i LOVED this one

carrie by stephen king. read it around halloween and i enjoyed it more than i thought i would ! some category 5 stephen king sexism but its an interesting 200 page scifi novel with epistolary elements and some great characters i can see how it launched his career into the stratosphere... really good one to start off with reading stephen king if you wanna dip a toe in but are wary of the 1000 page doorstop novels. i say give it a try !

demon copperhead by barbara kingsolver. recent pulitzer prize winner. its a retelling of david copperfield with a distinctly southern appalachian lens which im always interested in because i am from southern appalachia and frankly the way we get treated in fiction is wild. like hillbilly cannibals who are illiterate coalminers wild. if i ever catch the guy that wrote hillbilly elegy we are throwing hands. but i liked this ! the region does have a long history of poverty and it was interesting to think about that in conversation to the social commentary with a victorian vibe from david copperfield. i mean this is decidedly unvictorian but that was floating in the back of my head at all times reading it so it made me THINK.

giovanni's room by james baldwin. another one where i was like do you see this shit?? this shit is crazy. and the shit in question is one of the most acclaimed and beloved novels of all time. anyways another life changer get on it.

even as we breathe by annette saunooke clapsaddle. another southern appalachia moment ! this one rings VERY true for me actually, despite being a historical novel... written with a lot of love for the area and made me cry a bit cause i was homesick at the time... great mystery and cool local history. also! one of the better representations of the cherokee people ive seen in fiction. which usually im hesitant to like. pin that as a THE major reason you should read it bc the story is ALSO very good but its a central theme of the novel so i thought i should mention it. plus the author is cherokee so she's coming at it with knowledge and care

in memoriam by alice winn. recommendation from a tumblr mutual so i thought id continue the tradition! read it in literally a day so im fuzzy on the details but its about rich eton style english schoolboys getting their spirits basically destroyed in the trenches of ww1... also a gay love story... lots of poetry very tragic but not overly so and certainly very readable... a competent historical gay romance if thats ur thing youll probably enjoy it

the poppy war by r f kuang. interesting bc it initially feels like a historical fantasy novel with a young protagonist going to a magic school and overcoming the odds slash beating the evil enemy story thats been done one billion times. but it is DEEPLY not that. takes the conventions of the genre and kind of refuses to make them reducible or easy to package. deals with war (read the warnings etc). deals with genocide. deals with race. wrestles with the ethics of all of its characters and comes down with some nuance. kind of a slay

and then here's some all time faves that are just GOOD and im reasonably sure anyone would have a good time with:

jane eyre. i have quoted this enough on this blog cmon. also if youre following me youre probably a fan of fucked up relationships so you should go. be with the OG. fly. like its foundational to the GENRE babyyyy

dracula. yayyyyy epistolary novelssss... another "fun" classic along with dorian gray... read em both they slap

the book thief. took me a year to read. made me cry lots.

daisy jones and the six. look at me look AWAYYY from the amazon series look at ME. this is a fun book. and if you are in a reading slump i frankly HIGHLY recommend it bc it is done in the style of like. a documentary autopsy on a fleetwood mac esque band implosion so its told in 100% dialogue as if they are being interviewed. you can read it in a DAY and its FUN and sometimes they CONTRADICT each other which i LOVE

the queens thief by meghan whalen turner. GOD!!!!! all time. all time. straight relationships in fiction that make you crazyyyyyyy and also genuinely delightful twists at the end of each book i LOVED them. i read them all in the pandemic they slayyyy

howl's moving castle. delightful. if you like a silly time in a fantasy world that makes you laugh a lot i would recommend. also the sequel its fun

any terry pratchet novel thank you goodnight

[docholligay]

Doc’s Quarterly Patreon Book Thing: Mystery/Crime

Okay, so, I’ve been trying to think about how I want to do this, which is basically letting my patreons force me to read a book. I have picked three genres I would say I do not read a lot of, but I know y'all do, and then the fourth quarter will be either open season, nonfiction, or as a children’s book for children, I haven’t decided.

SO. Nominations will be opened on the Patreon Apr 4th. RULES AND THINGS TO KNOW/HOW THIS WILL WORK:

It will be pitchless. You don’t need to pitch me! Just Title, Author.

One nomination per person. Your first nom will be considered your nomination, all others will be ignored.

Must be available in print

For this quarter, the genre must be MYSTERY OR CRIME (Nonfiction permitted). Below, I point out some fantasy novels I have enjoyed and negative-enjoyed, which’ll give you both an idea of what i like and what I might consider mystery/crime (A tough line). Just good faith effort.

Must think I would like it. You don’t have to think it’ll slay me and change my life, but this isn’t ‘let’s clown on Doc’. I am doing this in good faith and I assume you will nominate in good faith.

I will RANDOMLY DRAW FIVE of the novels. These five will then be PUT TO A VOTE on patreon. I will not read the comments so if you want to pitch, the comments on that poll will be a good place to do it.

Whatever wins the vote, I’ll read.

Okay, then, MYSTERY/CRIME BOOKS I REMEMBER TRULY ENJOYING OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, AS AN ADULT. (as the sections go on, this is getting harder for me, so be patient. I'm not going to be too crazy about what is or isn't a mystery/crime novel, as long as we're all trying)

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I'll Be Gone In the Dark by Michelle McNamara (nf)

Provenance by Aly Sujo and Laney Salisbury (nf)

Catch Me if You Can by Frank Abagnale (technically nf but uh....fiction)

The Maltese Falcon by Hammett

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

MURDER/CRIME BOOKS I REMEMBER DISTINCTLY NOT-ENJOYING OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD

Anything else by James Patterson besides Kiss the Girls (which I would say is in that middle band)

Pretty much any true crime about serial killers

Anything by Janet Evonavich

The Butterfly garden by Dot Hutchinson

Anything by Sue Grafton

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (full disclosure, I bought this under the presumption it was a paranormal book and my disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined)

(Yes I have read Holmes. It was fine.)

See?? Despite being an insufferable hater, I do like things! This list of course doesn’t include anything where I was like, “That was perfectly fine!” It’s made to show the highs and lows.

Does this make sense? I’ll put the nomination post on Patreon tomorrow!

Today is the day where you can ask any questions of me pre-nomination

[mrtwizz]

would you mind doing a fiction where yn is a swifty she is dating wednesday and there talking about taylor and wednesday says she hates her cause of what Enid plays (me it's nice to have a friend ect) and yn turns her into a swifty by showing her the good songs(would've should've could've timt atw dear john) also could yn be shorted the wednesday

So I ventured slightly off of the request, but I hope you enjoy it anyways :) I also wrote this after taking a bunch of Nyquil so i'm fully aware that it's not my best work

Word Count: 700 Warnings: some Taylor slander, probably OOC Wednesday?

Let’s get one thing straight, Wednesday Addams hated all the music that Enid Sinclair would blare in their shared dorm room. So when Y/n and Enid were jumping and dancing to an upbeat pop song, Wednesday wanted to rip her own eardrums from their place within her skull. 

“I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings,” Y/n and Enid sang out simultaneously, holding hands and jumping around. 

“You two are absolutely senseless.” Wednesday groaned, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get any of her novel done while the two were dancing and giggling.

“Oh come on Wednesday, don’t be a sourpuss.” Enid groaned, still jumping around with the shorter girl. 

The corus came back around and Y/n pointed to the sitting girl as though they were in a concert, mouthing the words, “I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings. Uh huh, that’s right. Darling you’re the one I want.” 

Wednesday rolled her eyes at the short girl's antics as she went back to dancing with Enid. She would never admit how adorable she found her girlfriends antics. 

“Come on Wednesday, I bet she’s made at least one song that will resonate in that cold black heart of yours.” Y/n says a few days later, still on this kick of wanting Wednesday to enjoy the pop singers music. 

“I’ve already told you that my ears will begin to pour blood if you make me listen to that godforsaken bubbly music again.” Wednesday found herself in the same position days before as her girlfriend jumped around to ‘Lover’. Only this time it was only the two of them, Enid out with Ajax. 

“Please, for me?” Y/n pleaded, dramatically draping herself across Wednesday's lap and pressed her face into the other girl’s shoulder, making it hard for her to try and write her novel. 

Wednesday sighed, “If I say yes, will you get off of me and let me work in peace?” 

Y/n perked up and looked into Wednesday's dark eyes, “Really?” 

“Yes,” Wednesday obliged, knowing that she wouldn't be allowed to get back to Viper and her ‘adventures’ as Y/n liked to call them, “you can play the music, but you have to let me write.” 

“Okay!” Y/n was just happy that Wednesday agreed. 

She got up and flopped down on Wednesday’s bed, connecting her phone to Enid’s speaker and clicking the playlist she had made.; Wednesday Addams (Taylor’s Version). She made the playlist in hopes that her girlfriend would someday crack and listen to her favorite artist. 

Y/n laid in silence, watching her girlfriend type away. Carefully gauging her reactions to the songs, Y/n thinks she even saw the girl tapping her feet to the beat of the music more than once. 

A little more than an hour passed and Y/n waited for Wednesday to be done with Viper for the night. Wednesday carefully placed her papers together in one stack and placed them in her drawer, signifying that she was done. 

“So, would you rate these hand selected songs a ten out of ten?” Y/n asked as though she were interviewing strangers on the street. 

Wednesday rolled her eyes at the girl's foolish antics, “I’m not sure what I would rate them, but they didn’t make my eyes bleed.”  

“A win is a win.” Y/n smiles. 

Two weeks later Wednesday and Y/n danced together on the balcony in the moonlight, rain drizzling on their swaying figures. ‘Willow’ softly playing from Y/n’s phone. 

“Admit it, Taylor Swift has grown on you.” Y/n teased, grinning up at Wednesday. 

Wednesday wouldn’t admit it, but she had caught the lyrics of some of the songs getting stuck in her head. She had even begun to look forward to listening to the playlist that Y/n had made when the two studied. 

“Tell anyone and I will have your organs calcified.” Wednesday’s words are an empty threat, she would never do anything to harm the girl wrapped in her arms. 

“Your secrets are safe with me.” Y/n tucked her head into Wednesday's shoulder as the rain continued to pour and the music faded along with the rest of the world.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

in reference to your "if you like tom taylor's writing you're white" post, could you possibly elaborate? i don't want this to sound rude so i'm a little nervous about sending but!! i like his writing, i am also white, and i would like to know any issues in his writing that i can look out for so i can enjoy it critically. i realize i'm not entitled to an answer, but if you feel like it then i would appreciate it greatly!

Of course darling.

Now, I was just going to talk about some dumb plotlines if this ever came up (like the telenovela shit and the fact that he uses cameos from beloved stories to make up for the fact that very little of his plotlines are original) but I didn't expect such a genuine answer and I have some free time... so I guess I'm doing doing a breakdown of all of the bullshit in his writing.

For the record: I'm not going to speak on how he handles disabled people. It's neither on topic nor my place. Several people have done this well here, here, and here if this interests you.

There are two main reasons why (tw for a bunch of stuff, don't read if you're sensitive):

How he treats race

I bring to the stand: "the romani smile incident".

Listen, I feel like this one was good-intentioned. Maybe. Probably. However, it's just so fucking weird from every angle I try and look at it from.

Telling someone they have a "(insert race here) smile" is already just... a very strange way to do representation. If you want to call back to/confirm his Romani heritage, which I would be all for, do it in a way that makes sense. Please. Literally anyone that thought about it for longer than half a second stopped and went "sorry, what the fuck".

I saw some people theorizing that he probably thought that, since there's such thing as a "white person smile", there had to be something like that for other races. And I hope that's the case.

It's funny... and also way better than the alternative.

Because there is a phrase like that for Romani people: "they had a (g-slur) smile". It generally means all of the things that are stereotyped about that culture. Mischievous, free-spirited, mysterious, etc. Changing it so the slur isn't used doesn't change the connotation and continues the perpetuation of stereotypes.

And then there's the entirety of this picture:

I don't even know where to start with this one, honestly.

Damian has been whitewashed to hell and back.

Duke isn't even there. He is considered part of the core batfam nowadays, so it's very strange that he hasn't been included. Especially since he's the only black character. Tom defended himself by saying that Duke hasn't appeared in a Nightwing comic in quite some time, but he has control over who is in the comics. He is the writer. And, since Cass is in the background of one of the pictures, the whole "there wasn't enough room!" doesn't really work.

And, speaking of that, Cass is in the background? The people of color are just not winning today. She's even in the background of Steph's picture, which makes it worse. Steph isn't even a part of the batfam, she can't be for the sake of Timsteph fans, she's just a family friend. Why did the family friend get to be in the front of the frame? Why is Cass, an Asian woman, considered a literal background character?

... anyways.

Then there's the zionism

This was 2013, so I genuinely would give the benefit of the doubt here... but Tom Taylor recently defended his past self by saying that "it's fiction, that doesn't mean I agree that he should have forced them to sign a peace treaty!", which means he still doesn't understand what is wrong with implying that the war in the middle east isn't a group of people trying to fight back against their oppressors.

2. Performative activism

The reason I have this second, despite feeling like it's the stronger argument, is because performative activism isn't strictly a White Person Thing... but, also, yes it is. So, let's get into his politics.

The treatment of homeless people: It's strange to see Dick Grayson suddenly "discover" homeless people in the most recent Nightwing comics, especially since he was homeless for a while in a previous run. I brushed past this, originally, though, because I figured he just wanted to address the recent talking point about how Bruce Wayne (and, by extension, his kids) should be using his money to help people in need rather than beat up the poor and I wanted to see what he did with it. I no longer let it go, because Tom Taylor has nothing to say. Homelessness bad. Yeah? You gonna address it at all, buddy? Some solutions? Some explanations for why homelessness exists? No? "Donate to the homeless" is all you're gonna say? Alright. Thank you for all your wisdom and new ideas, I guess.

The whole 'school gun violence' plotline with Jon was whack. It honestly deserves its own post, but I refuse to spend even more time thinking about it. Instead I'm just gonna sum up the villain's motivation and leave it there: the villain... wants school shootings to stop and therefore tries to draw attention to them... by shooting up a school.

Jon Kent... honestly, his whole thing at the moment is very white-savior-y, which is already annoying in itself, but that's not the real point here. His whole thing is saving the planet in the environmental sense, but Tom Taylor loves "good billionaires". He made Nightwing a billionaire. For some reason, I don't have much faith in his understanding of the global climate crisis.

Basically, if I see one more person call Tom Taylor a leftist I will scream. I am a leftist, he's an annoying liberal. We are not the same.

More seriously, the reason that I think performative activism is almost strictly White Person Thing, though, is because most people of color think more about what's going on and have more to say. Not because we want to know a lot about things like this, but because we have to. Systemic issues are our problems to deal with and white people's problem to sometimes talk about when they want some "good person points". And yet they never seem to do anything more than point at an issue and say it's an issue. It's a privileged position to be in.

And, we're done. If you want more information, try going through the 'anti tom taylor' tag. I'm lazy and don't have enough time to do any more before class. Byeeeee.

[hils79]

Hils Watches The King's Avatar - Ep 16

I love that all the pros logged in to fight Ye Xiu and see what his new weapon can do and he's just 'well, nice to see you all, bye'

Oh no I thought everyone knew but my sweet son Baozi doesn't know! I mean he does now but before he did not!

LOL there is an English book on Assassin's Creed on the table

Uh, he doesn't even work for her, does he?

Aww is he going to ask Chen Guo to be his manager?

I'm not sure what he actually ordered but I'm fairly sure it wasn't this

Ooh the official forming of the team is beginning. Love that he went to ask permission to poach Yifan. Also, lol, no I won't join your team because green doesn't match my complexion

I love that we're over a third of the way through this drama now and we're only just getting into what I thought the plot was going to be. Excellent amount of setup

LOL she saw Ye Xiu and Wang Jiexi together for like 2 mins and has decided she ships it. I mean fair.

LOL! Wang Jiexi is in on his plan to get Chen Guo to be his manager. That's also my 300th screenshot and I'm still not even at the halfway point

He's so good at manipulating people into doing what he wants. And, you know, she's been trying to think of a way to help him so everyone wins. She just needed a bit of a nudge in the right direction.

This is a trope that always annoys me. Like I get characters need to learn and grow but Chen Guo was so determined to do a good job but then just took a bunch of naps and hasn't even learned the rules of the game. You don't have to make people lazy and stupid just to show them getting better later. It just makes it look like she's not taking her new job seriously.

But, also, what kind of stupid rule is it that if your guild fails to kill a boss within a certain amount of time then you have to disband. It makes no sense.

YOU CAN'T KILL A UNICORN

OH YOU FUCKING SABOTAGING BASTARDS!

Oh no even her girlfriend is upset with her. But, also, she runs an internet cafe which seems to be pretty much just for playing this game and she's been following Ye Xiu's career for ages. Surely she must have learned at least a bit about the rules during all that.

Like I know very little about WoW, but if I ran a place where everyone plays WoW all the time and my idol was the best WoW player in the country I like to think I'd learn a thing or two about WoW.

I am very fond of him. I'd love to know if those are actual calculations or just fiction maths

Incredible! The spies attacked the wall so much they accidentally flattened the boss

Ahhh! Of course he knew what they were doing. That's what all the maths was for! I love this!

He's touching his boyfriend again. This makes me very happy.

Okay what I actually need is Baozi/Yifang/Luo Ji OT3. You've got the brawn, the brains and the heart in a nice little package

Uh, it wasn't just him that upset her

No liveblogging tomorrow as I'm on babysitting duty after work. Back on Saturday