#i was gonna post this on New Years but look at me being Lame

[ectoentity]

Ectoplasm Gives You Wings - Flying Lesson

New scene for this fic! This one is a bit of a doozy: nearly 3k words just for one scene.

Masterpost/Subscription Post for this fic.

DPxDC, T-rated Genfic

Context: This scene is the second time Danny has met Red Hood.

The problem with a city like Gotham - or at least this part of it - was that there were very few open spots away from prying eyes. Even rooftops often had cameras near the access door, or looking over from the next building over. Danny got that people here were paranoid about crime and potential supervillain attacks. He didn't blame them. He just wished he had somewhere private to practice flying.

After weeks of searching, he finally found something. There was a corner of one park that looked like it had been allowed to grow wild for years. The remnants of a half-collapsed pavilion were completely overgrown with vines and flowers. There were even skinny saplings growing out of what might have once been a sandbox. People didn't go there. Danny couldn’t find any cameras aimed at it. This was as close to privacy as he could get.

Danny found a stump that was about two feet tall and stood on top of it. He spread out his wings. The muscles ached as he stretched them, too used to being folded close against his back. Danny awkwardly flapped them. It felt a bit ridiculous. He knew the basic physics of how flight worked. The air underneath the wing moved more slowly than the air on top of it, creating a pressure differential that caused lift. He just wasn't sure how that translated to flapping. Did he have to lean a certain way to get the right angle?

"Come on, Fenton. Bird brains do this every day. It can't be that hard."

He crouched down on the stump, wings arched over himself. Then he leapt into the air. He desperately flapped his wings downward. For a moment it actually worked. Instead of falling, he stayed where he was. Half a second later, the sensation was gone. Danny tilted to the side and hit the ground with a heavy thump.

"Ow."

Someone laughed. Danny shot up in an instant and spun to the source of the noise. A tall woman with red hair and green skin leaned against one of the pavilion's remaining pillars. Danny instantly knew why this part of the park was overgrown.

"You're not the kind of bird I expected to find out here," Poison Ivy said with a faint smile.

"I. Uh, I am really sorry, Ms. Ivy. I didn’t realize this was your park. I'll just..." Danny edged back towards his backpack. Poison Ivy rolled her eyes.

"As long as you don’t hurt the plants, you're fine. Stay away from the red flowers if you like keeping your limbs."

Danny stared at Poison Ivy. "What. Really? You're not gonna murder me for stepping on the grass?"

"Nature is more resilient than you think. If you get too rough, you'll get one warning." She smiled at him. Danny didn't know if that was good or not.

"My friend thinks you're cool," he blurted out when he couldn't think of anything to say. "In junior high she got detention for wearing a Justice for Ivy shirt she made. She's like. Extra-Vegan or something? I don't really get it, but she's really into environmentalism and stuff." The words sounded lame to his ears, so Danny couldn't imagine how dumb he must sound to the supervillain. Her eyebrows raised for a bit, looking a bit surprised, and then her face shifted to a muted frown.

"Well, I'm glad to know there are some children with sense." It looked like she was going to say something else, but her gaze was caught by something in the sky. Now that Danny was listening, he could hear the sound of wings. He wasn’t terribly surprised when Red Hood landed in front of them.

"Two visitors in a day? What a surprise." Ivy didn't smile at Hood, but she didn't seem like she was about to attack him either.

"You're a popular lady," Hood said. "How've you been, Ivy?"

"Just tending to my garden, keeping some rodents on their toes. I'm sure I can find something to keep you busy if you're bored."

Ivy's words were sharp, threatening in a way they hadn’t been when she was talking to Danny. He started to slowly edge his way closer to his backpack. If they were about to fight Danny didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

"Mask's keeping me busy enough, thanks," Red Hood answered. His head moved to keep track of Danny. Shit.

Apparently Ivy noticed it too. She smirked, her posture relaxing. "Oh, I see. Are you starting a little flock of your own?"

"Hell no," Danny sputtered at the same time that Hood said "Cut it, Isley." For some reason that only made Ivy smile more. Were they enemies or friends? Danny couldn't tell what was going on.

"You ought to teach your baby bird how to fly before he gets eaten, Hood."

"Hey! I'm not doing that bad."

"You landed on your face," Poison Ivy, the superpowered ecoterrorist with a doctorate, tattled. Red Hood snorted.

"I was about to offer," he said. "Sorry for trying to be polite."

Danny reached his bag and picked it up, but didn't put it on. Putting it on over his wings without going intangible was a frustrating task, and he wanted to be able to run if he had to. "I can figure it out on my own. I don’t need a babysitter."

"Do I look like a babysitter, kid?" Red Hood drawled. He dropped his hands to his sides with the palms facing Danny, as if to emphasize the twin pistols holstered at his waist. It would be a fair point to anyone whose parents didn’t regularly work on ray guns at the dinner table, Danny supposed. "I just wanna make sure you know how to get out of trouble. If you can't fly, all those things do is make you a bigger target."

Danny glared at him. That blank helmet didn't give away any indication of what Hood was thinking or how honest he was being. If there was anything he'd learned in the last few weeks, it was that good things usually came with a catch.

"For what it's worth," Poison Ivy interjected, "you're safer with Hood around than most other places in this city."

Oh great, the supervillains were teaming up against him.

"Do you offer to tutor all the homeless kids you find, or just the ones that remind you of yourself?" Danny spat. He didn't want some fruit loop in a helmet projecting on him. Poison Ivy burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Red Hood seemed to sigh.

"I do tutor kids, actually," he grumbled. "You should come by the community center on Seventh sometime."

That caught Danny off guard. He had seen that there was a community center there, but he wasn't sure whether it was another place that would hand him back to his parents. If Red Hood was involved with it, maybe they wouldn't. Who cared about catching a runaway kid when the area's murderous gang boss was there?

"Fine," Danny said. "But we're staying here. Uh, if that's okay with you, ma'am." He belatedly looked to Poison Ivy for her approval. Danny might not entirely trust Poison Ivy, but he figured it was better to stay here than to follow Red Hood off somewhere else. Ivy had recovered from her laughing fit. She looked over at Red Hood with narrowed eyes and slightly pursed lips, thinking it over.

"As long as you both behave, you're welcome to stay."

"Thank you, Ms. Ivy."

"I promise not to step on your murder begonias," Red Hood said. Instead of being angry, Ivy just rolled her eyes.

"I'll leave you boys to it." Poison Ivy waved at them as she walked off, the branches of trees closing to block the path off behind her.

"She's a lot less murder happy than I expected," Danny commented when he figured she might be out of hearing range.

"Ivy isn't as scary evil as a lot of media claims," Red Hood said. "She won't hesitate to feed you to her plants if you come out here with a hatchet, though." He shrugged and started taking off his heavy jacket. Now that Danny was looking, he could tell it wasn't a normal jacket that he'd just cut the back out of. It was made with holes for his wings, and the fabric between the lower part of his wings and the bottom of the jacket buttoned together to look a bit like a normal jacket. Red Hood undid all the buttons before pulling the whole thing up off his wings. Danny was a bit jealous. He'd had to cut holes in his clothes, and it was a struggle to get them on right.

"Alright, kid, spread your wings out?"

Hesitantly, Danny did as he was told. He still wasn't used to seeing the limbs stretch out on the edges of his vision. Danny himself had only really gotten a good look at them once. He'd taken a nap in a mall fitting room not long after getting off the bus in Gotham. There he'd been able to take a look at his wings in the store's large mirrors. They were mostly white, with black on the lower edge of the wing. There were black lines higher up in three rows, each progressively more spotty. The pattern was the same on the back as on the front. If not for the fact that they'd gotten him chased out of his home, Danny would almost think they were pretty.

Red Hood circled around him, looking his wings over. Danny didn't know what he was looking for. Other than having wings in the first place, Danny didn't think there was anything unusual about them.

"Okay, first lesson," Red Hood said. "There are different kinds of wings. They're good for different things." He spread out his left wing all the way. "What can you tell about the shape?"

"Uh... other than big?" Danny looked back at his own wing and tried to compare it. What if he thought about them like plane wings? He knew a little bit about how those worked, and there were different types for different jobs."Yours are really long and wide. I know in planes long, skinny wings are better for distance flights, but wider wings have less drag."

"Huh. Good thinking." The gang boss sounded almost impressed. "Yeah, in birds it's something similar. Big rectangular wings are good for long, slow soaring. They've got a lot of surface area so it's easier to take off than if they were skinny. So, what do you see with yours?"

Danny nodded and considered his own wings. Now that he was looking at them, it was obvious they weren't proportioned the same. Danny’s wings were shorter, more rounded than rectangular. He couldn’t think of any planes with round wings like that.

"So mine are, what, less good at soaring?"

"That's one thing," Hood said. "But they're more maneuverable. Think of it like being an acrobat when I'm a marathon runner."

That was neat, Danny had to admit. He liked the idea of doing cool aerial tricks. That would at least make this crappy wing situation a little more bearable. Except...

"I need to get into the air first."

"We're getting to that." Red Hood opened his other wing. "Alright, I'm gonna show you how I take off in slow motion and explain what I'm doing."

Danny wasn't sure how that would work, but he nodded and watched.

"First, I lean over a bit, but not enough to make me unbalanced." Hood did so, and bent his knees a bit. "Then raise up your wings as straight up as you can." Danny watched Hood stretch his wings up, up, taller than any person could stand. "When you do your down-stroke, it's not directly down. Imagine it more like you're trying to make your wings into scoops and push the air down and away." Slowly, carefully, Hood's wings lowered. Like he said, they went more forward than down. The wingtips stretched out in front of Hood, feathers fanned out as wide as they could.

"Okay," Danny said. "I think I can do that."

Danny crouched a bit, then raised his wings straight up above him. It was kind of like stretching an arm, but it moved differently. Then Danny flapped his wings like Red Hood had demonstrated. Instantly he could feel the difference. Air caught under his wings, forcing the rest of his body up. His feet left the ground. It felt amazing. Danny almost cheered, but he realized the one flap wouldn't keep him up for long. Danny's white feathers came up for another stroke.

Instantly he hit resistance. It felt almost like his wing slipped under the air pocket it had been above before. Danny swore as his feet hit the ground and he stumbled to his knees.

"You got some air that time," Red Hood commented helpfully. "Do you know what went wrong?"

"If I knew I wouldn't have done it," Danny snapped. He was suddenly struck by how weird this situation was. A couple months ago Danny's biggest concern was keeping away from Dash when he was near a locker. Now he was getting flying lessons from the Red Hood, of all people. The guy was a crazy gangster who'd decapitated people. He'd killed the Joker. Half of Gotham talked about him like he was a monster.

But then again, Danny thought, maybe that wasn't the whole story. Ivy was supposed to be a monster, too, and she'd just treated him like a normal adult would. Danny's parents had thought...

He shuddered, forcing his thoughts back to the present. Hood was looking at him silently with his head tilted slightly to the side.

"You alright there, fledgling?"

"Would you stop calling me that?" Danny folded his arms and tried to think about how it had felt when he tried to fly. "When I tried to bring my wings up, it felt like I hit a bunch of resistance, and then I slipped."

"You kept your wings wide open when you brought them up for another flap," Hood explained. "You gotta fold the primaries in a little bit, or you'll be fighting against the air above your wing." He stretched out one wing and demonstrated by halfway folding his wing, just the first part with the largest feathers.

Danny groaned. "How do birds make this look so easy?"

Red Hood chuckled. The sound was really ominous with his helmet's weird voice filter. "The birds that don't fly get eaten." For a moment Hood gestured like he was going to say something else, but then he stilled. "Shit."

"Uh. Should I run?"

The Red Hood shook his head. "Sorry, pollito, there's something I gotta go take care of. If you want, I can meet back here in a couple nights for another lesson."

"Why?" The word was out of his mouth before Danny could think. "I don't get why you're so worried about helping me. I'm not even from here."

Instead of making another stupid joke, Red Hood stepped towards him. Danny took half a step back on instinct, and Red Hood stopped. "Look, kid. Danny. I don't care where you're from. The minute you started sleeping on my streets, you became someone I'm here to protect, alright?"

Danny wanted to roll his eyes and make some flippant comment about capes, but he couldn't. There was something real in those words. Some kind of gut feeling told him that Red Hood was being absolutely honest. He didn't know what to do with that.

"Yeah. Okay."

Hood watched him squirm for another moment before he went and picked his jacket off the overgrown picnic table. It took him a minute to slide it back on and do up the buttons on the back. Danny was still kind of jealous of how easy it looked.

"Keep practicing, pollito. I'll be back in two days." He leapt into the air and took one huge wingbeat to clear the trees. Showoff.

Danny watched him go, trying to take note of how Red Hood moved his wings in the air so he could practice it. Then his brain caught up to something.

"What the hell is a pollito?"

[earthtoharlow]

SERIES MASTERLIST

JACKHARLOW

liked by cozane, tmz, urbanwyatt, neelamthadhani, yungskylark and 841,425 others

jackharlow: Two weeks ago today, paternity test results revealed that I fathered a child with Stacey James. I take full responsibility for my actions and now that paternity has been established I look forward in raising our daughter amicably.

I want to sincerely apologize to all my friends and family that I’ve hurt and disappointed these past few months both publicly and privately. Most importantly, I want to apologize to YOURINSTA. You didn’t deserve the heartbreak and humiliation this has caused you. I will do everything in my power to get back in your good graces even if it’s only a friendship. I will forever love you.

View all 10,578 comments

user: YIKES!!!

user: you’re a fucking idiot

user: I don’t like y/n but she’s an idiot if she takes him back after this

neelamthadhani: proud of you for being so mature about this 🫶

user: mature how????

user: he’s mature because he finally stopped lying about that baby being his? Okay sis

user: is his whole team stupid?

urbanwyatt: you must have worms for brains, why didn’t you turn the comments off

saweetie: honestly I think you should go to hell

user: hope he starts dating Stacey tbh 🫣

thatgirlstacey: excited to co parent with you

YOURINSTA

liked by saweetie, lilnasx, normani, SZA, druski, urbanwyatt and 789,046 others

yourinsta: Smoking on my ex pack

view all 7457 comments

Saweetie : I KNOW THATS RIIIIGHT!

user: glad you aren’t letting the news bring you down

normani: GNO soon!

user: your post been kinda bitter lately

user: well her boyfriend of two years cheated and had a baby on her

user: we honestly should be glad she hasn’t killed Jack yet

SZA: KILL BILL

yourinsta: not the best ideaaaaa 🔪

urbanwyatt: check your dms please

saweetie: leave her the hell alone, and tell that mop headed friend of yours as well

THATGIRLSTACEY

liked by jackharlow, 1dessdior, theshaderoom, nemoachida and 678,456 others

thatgirlstacey: mom & dad 👨‍👩‍👧

view all 8,456 comments

user: he ain’t really want that baby fr

user: low down and nasty

user: I promise no one cares

user: Jack is really a dilf

urbanwyatt: 🤦🏼‍♂️

user: anyone else think she’s doing this for attention? Or to make y/n jealous?

SZA: LOL

saweetie: can’t stand a weird lame bitch

THESHADEROOM

Liked by 756,056 users

theshaderoom: Well, looks like Stacey and the judge are gonna make Jack Harlow’s pockets hurt! Jack Harlow will pay Stacey James nearly 10,000 per month in child support for their 3 month old daughter, Willow. The judge stating that Stacey doesn’t make enough to support Willow by herself.

view all 6789 comments

user: these men will never learn

user: DAMN

user: I mean it could’ve been worse 😵‍💫

user: is no one gonna point out the fact that the judge called her a broke bitch

YOURINSTA

liked by saweetie, SZA, dojacat,djdrama, thehomies and 967,367 others

yourinsta: Her baby daddy got some money, but I think I'm richer

view all 8,478 comments

user: HAHAHAHAHA

user: whole lotta money 💰

user: I love a petty queen

SZA: rich flex

user: Jack’s grandpa would have a heart attack seeing that

user: girl give that money back to whoever it belongs too 🙄

saweetie: humble brag 🤑

user: be my sugar momma

notjackharlow: seriously?

urbanwyatt: just shut the fuck up Jack

saweetie: y/n do you need me to kick his ass?

yourinsta: go be a father

NEXT PART

[glassofspoiledmilk]

New years kiss

Synopsis: Victor nikiforov throws a New Year’s party, and your friend Yuri plisetsky is having girl problems.

WC: 1.8k

“Alright what do we think about..this one!” I say as I spin around, holding a dress by the hanger in front of my body.

“Hmmm..I don’t know..maybe try that silver one behind you” Mila advises.

Today was the day of victors party, and this being my first year in the senior division, it was my first time being invited.

“You know that the party really isn’t all that right? It’s just a bunch of drunk people playing cards against humanity and dancing” she adds as you turn around to put the dress back.

“I know but it’s my first time going and I don’t wanna look lame” I reply, the sound of clashing hangers echoing in my closet.

“Orrr is the real reason you wanna look good because Yuris gonna be there” Mila teased.

“Ughh are you kidding me he’s gonna be there too!” I say as I whip my head around to look back at her.

“Well yea it’s for all the seniors sooo” she adds.

I groan and turn around to reveal the dress.

“How does it look?” I ask.

“It looks perfect….for Yuri” she laughs.

“Cmon Mila you know how I feel about him! He’s arrogant and rude and I do not like him” I scold, my cheeks burning red in embarrassment.

“Yea I’m sure you feel veeeery stronglyyy about him” Mila adds as she continues laughing.

“Ugh I hate you” I say as I roll my eyes.

“Love you too!” She winks.

“So are we going with this one?” I ask with a huff.

“Yup!”

“Mila are you sure I look ok?” I say as I walk out of the bathroom.

I had on the silver dress we picked out earlier, and a matching pair of heels. My hair was pulled back and my makeup was done with iridescent eyeshadow and pounds of glitter.

“You look gorgeous, don’t worry” Mila says as she tosses on a fur coat.

“Now cmon, we’re gonna be late” she adds, opening the door.

I grab a black coat off the rack and follow her out of the door.

The air was freezing when we stepped outside, I shivered as Mila unlocked the car. I climbed into the passengers seat turned on the heater.

“I’m kinda nervous” I blurt out as we started moving.

“Whaaat? Don’t be, I’m sure Yuri will dance with you” she jokes.

“Cmon Mila im behind serious, I hate him” I say, unamused.

“You say that but then whenever the two of you are together you’re all buddy buddy” she adds, pulling up to a stop sign.

“Ugh you are so annoying” I reply, rolling my eyes.

“But in all seriousness there’s nothing to be nervous about, like I said it’s just a bunch of drunk people doing weird shit” Mila says with a laugh.

“Yea I guess you’re right” I add as I pull out my phone.

Around 20 minutes later Mila and I arrived at Victors house.

“Hey you guys made it!” He says, opening the door with a glass of champagne in his hand.

Me and Mila step Inside and she is immediately pulled aside by georgi, who is obviously drunk, complaining about his ex.

“Mila she posted on her instagram, she got a new boyfriend…hic…I’m going to go beat him up…” he slurs.

“Ok yea let’s not do that..” she says, grabbing a red plastic cup out of his hand.

“Um I’ll be right back I’m gonna go handle this..” Mila adds, looking back at me.

“Mila please don’t leave me I have no idea what I’m doing” I say awkwardly.

“You’ll be fine, I’ll be gone for like a few minutes” she replied.

“Let’s go Georgi” she adds, placing a hand in his shoulder.

She leads him into the kitchen and then completely out of my sight.

I decide to walk down the hallway and into victors living room.

The live countdown was on the TV and Victor, Chris, Yuuri, and Pitchit were all sitting on the couch playing cards against humanity.

Leo, Seung-Gil, and Guang-Hong were all standing in the corner loudly talking.

I leaned against the wall and huffed.

I was friends with none of the people here and the only person I knew was currently handling drunk Georgi.

I scan the room until I see Yuri standing against the opposing wall, talking to one of the girls in my division.

She was twirling her dark brown hair and she bitting her lip as she talked to him.

It infuriated me.

I waited until she left to go talk to him.

“Who’s that” I say, leaning on the wall next to Yuri.

He jumps at the sound of my voice.

“None of your business” he says, looking away from me.

“Jeez what’s your problem” I add.

He took a sip from whatever was in his plastic cup.

“Are you drinking??” I say in shock.

“No it’s water dipshit” he says as rudely as ever.

I scoff and roll my eyes.

“So again why were you talking to that girl” I persist.

“Since when do you care who I talk to?” He adds.

“Since now” I reply.

He lets out a loud sigh.

“She’s some girl from the US, she just came up to me and started talking” he says, taking another swig of water.

“She seems pretty into you” I reply with a twinge of jealousy.

“Well I’m not really that into her, she’s weird I don’t know why she keeps coming up to me” he adds.

“Oh shit I think she’s coming back” he says in a panic.

“Uhh we can go in the basement?i think I saw the door next to the stairs” I quickly suggest.

“Yea whatever just get me away from her”

I take a firm grasp on his hand and lead him down the hall to a white door.

I open it up and flick on the light.

Me and Yuri walked over to a corner and sat down on the carpet.

“I swear if I get caught in another conversation with her I think I might jump off the roof” he says dramatically.

I roll my eyes and laugh at his childish antics.

I never really got to have a good look at what Yuri was wearing. His hair was down and he was wearing a black button down and black dress pants.

As I examined his body I felt my face start heating up.

“Are you ok?” He asks.

“Oh yea I’m fine it’s just uh hot in here” I reply, embarrassed.

“So why did you decide to come?” I ask.

“I was bored, and Mila kept pestering me until I said yes” he said with an annoyed tone.

“She did the same to me, she asked me literally every day until I said yes” I laugh.

He lets out a slight laugh.

I open my phone to check the time and it’s roughly 11:50.

“Shit we gotta go back up” I say.

“No please I don’t wanna talk to that weirdo anymore” he whines.

“Just uh..say I’m your girlfriend” I blurt out.

His face flushes red.

“A-are you sure?” He stutters out.

“I mean it’ll for sure keep her away” I say awkwardly, realizing what I had just said.

“I guess it’s worth a shot”

I grabbed his hand again and we climbed back up the stairs to the main area.

Everyone was dancing, and the girl Yuri was talking to was leaning against the wall talking to Sara.

Me and Yuri walked to the center of the living room and started dancing.

I held both of his hands as I swayed along to the music.

“Hey Yuri~ who’s this?” The brunette girl said as she snuck up behind me.

I watched yuris face go white.

“It’s my girlfriend” he says as he removes his hands from mine.

She looks me up and down and gives me a nasty look.

“Hi, I’m Jessica” she says, forcing a fake smile on her face.

“Uh im Y/N” i add awkwardly.

“You know you’d be really pretty if you like..didn’t put on so much makeup. Guys don’t really like try hards..” she says with a snarky tone of voice.

“Well I don’t think my boyfriend has an issue with the amount of makeup I wear” I spat back at her.

“Hmph what a pity, I’m sure he’d like a more natural girl..like me” she says with a sarcastic smile.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you two to it..but I’ll be back” she adds as she winks and walks off.

Yuri shivers in discomfort.

“What a megabitch” i say angrily.

“Tell me about it” he replies with a scoff.

After the song ended, I watched the TV to see who was performing next.

A singer I didn’t know got up on stage and started singing “take my breath away”

All the couples started slow dancing with the song while I started awkwardly at Yuri.

We were both completely still, faces bright red.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the brunette girl making her way towards Yuri again.

I quickly wrap my arms around his neck and in response he gently wraps his hands around my waist.

I lean my head on his chest and whisper “she was walking over, go with it”.

We sway slowly to the music, starting to melt into each others touch.

In the middle of the song I look up at him, our faces almost touching.

He was so close I could feel the heat radiating off his face. His eyes were glistening as beautifuly as ever, and he smelled like expensive cologne.

His eyes were peering into mine, almost like he was about to kiss me.

“q-quit looking at me like that..” he stutters, quickly returning to reality.

His face was redder than ever as he turned to avoid my gaze.

“Shit sorry…I started zoneing out” I say as I return my head to its place on his chest.

As soon and my head hit the fabric, I felt him pull me closer and rest his head on mine.

My breath hitched at the sudden gesture.

Thank god he couldn’t see my face, it was as red as a tomato.

As the song slowly ended, I felt him lift off of me.

I felt an ache in my heart, like I didn’t want the moment to stop.

I removed my arms from around his neck as the TV reverted to the ball about to drop.

The countdown started.

60…

59..

“Y/N.. I need to talk to you about something” Yuri says as everyone chanted the numbers around us.

48..

47..

“Yea what’s up?” I reply as I look up at him.

39..

38..

“Promise me we’ll always be friends ok?” He says, his face red and his eyes glassy.

28..

27..

“Yea I promise..are you ok?” I reply concerned.

17..

18..

“I..uh” he stutters.

I felt my face heat up in anticipation.

9..

8..

Yuri looks away from me.

7..

6..

I watch as he takes a deep breath.

5..

4..

“Seriously Yuri what’s wrong, are you ok?”

3..

2..

And just as the clock strikes midnight he cups my face and pulls me into a kiss.

I feel time stop around me, all the screams and cheers were completely muffled as I melted into his touch.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and returned the kiss.

It was sweet and gentle, and I wish the moment could last forever.

I pulled away as he looked me in the eyes.

“I love you..I always have” he says out of breath, a lovesick look in his eyes.

“I love you too yurio” I add as I jump back into his arms.

“Happy new years” he replies as he places a quick kiss on the top of my head.

A/N: happy new years!! So sorry for slow updates, I’ve been really busy with schoolwork but I have the next chapter of going gold almost finished so be ready for that! Love you guys!!

[harrywavycurly]

Hi Sarah!! Happy New Year!! 🥳

I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your positivity and all of your posts. They’ve gotten me through some not so fun times this year and always put a smile on my face. I feel like I’ve been channeling a bit of Bucket of Sunshine Eddie the last few months, so I’m wondering how those two are doing. Did they enjoy their first New Year’s together?

~🐈‍⬛

Hiii babes!! Happy new year to you as well!!!🥳🥳 I am sooo happy to hear you enjoy my posts that means the world to me!! Ohhh how I do miss my little grumpy Eddie and his little ray of sunshine!! So I hope you enjoy these conversations from their New Year’s Eve together!!💖

-find everything Bucket of Sunshine here✨

“What’s all this shit for?” “It’s rude to-” “Sorry…hello sweetheart.” “Hi Eddie…now was there something you wanted to ask me?” “Yes..what’s all this shit for? We are just going to the lake to watch fireworks.” “Edward James Munson as if I’d ever show up to a party empty handed? It’s not polite.” “Baby it’s not a party it’s us and Steve who is bringing uhm…uh…what’s her name again?” “Her name is Heather…don’t call her Maggie like you did his last date.” “I didn’t mean to! I swear I thought it was Maggie…looked exactly like her…kinda creepy if you ask me…how he dates girls that all look the same.” “Well thank goodness no one did…now can you please put this in the van?” “Did…you…just insult me?” “No? I simply stated a fact? No one asked you if it was weird that Steve dates girls who kinda look the same.” “Sounded like an insult to me sweetheart…” “Then it also sounds like we need to get your hearing checked…now can you please put this in the van?” “Yeah yeah I’ll go put it in the van.”

“What are you wearing? You’re going to be freezing.” “It’s a dress? And won’t you be there to cuddle me?” “Well yeah but still that’s uhm…a lot of leg to show off when it’s cold as fuck outside baby…” “you don’t like it?” “No no…that’s uh not…what I said…” “I’ll be fine…I packed an extra blanket and I still have your jacket so I’ll be nice and warm.” “Stealing people’s clothes isn’t very nice you know that right?” “It’s not people’s clothes it’s just your clothes and you’re my boyfriend so it’s fine.” “Oh right…yeah that makes sense…you look really beautiful by the way.” “Thank you Eddie.”

“Here you go…don’t worry it’s nothing crazy it’s just cheese.” “Will you ever stop trying to feed me?” “No…now take the pizza and say thank you.” “Thank you sweetheart.” “You’re welcome…where is Steve? Have you talked to him since we got here?” “He said he’d be here in a bit but that was…over an hour ago…maybe him and Heather changed their minds and want to party alone.” “That’s rude to not tell the other people in your party that you’re no longer going to be attending…I packed him a snack so he wouldn’t get grumpy waiting till midnight.” “I see he didn’t get blessed with the politeness gene?” “Apparently not.” “Well if I’m being honest I’m glad it ended up being just the two of us…not that I don’t like hanging out with your brother but…you’re my favorite Harrington.” “Awe am I really? That’s so sweet…you’re my favorite Munson.” “Oh Wayne is gonna be so upset when I tell him you said that.” “I’ll tell him you’re lying.” “What? You’d lie to him just to make him happy?…I’m so shocked.” “You’re making fun of me aren’t you?” “Teasing you baby not…making fun of you…that sounds way more harsh.” “You love how nice I am to everyone…just admit it.” “I wish you’d be a little more strict on who you’re so nice to but…yeah…I love you and how nice you are.” “I love you and how hard you try to be an asshole…it’s cute.”

“You’re going to give me an anxiety attack with the way you’re so reckless with that sparkler….just hold it still until it burns out.” “Hold it still? That’s not fun Eddie don’t be lame.” “Me? Lame?…now that’s just downright rude baby.” “Am I really making you nervous?” “You always make me nervous.” “What? Why?” “I’m just always nervous you’re going to snap out of whatever daze you’re in and you’ll see me for who I really am and you’ll…run away like everyone else.” “Eddie…I do see you for who you really are and that’s someone who loves me and would do anything to keep me safe and happy…what else could I want from someone? I’m not going anywhere.” “I do always find myself having to keep you out of harms way…so please can you just…stand still while you have a sparkler in your hand?” “Fine…this better?” “Much…thank you.”

“Ohhh Eddie only thirty seconds till midnight!” “Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it sweetheart?” “It really does.” “Happy new year Sunshine…I hope this is just the first of many new years we’ll be spending together.” “Oh don’t worry you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future…I love you.” “I love you too.”

[coralpolyp]

I'm not dead!

Hey look here's a redraw of the really terrible bit of digital art I did for last year's Mar13 day as proof! Apparently I didn't even finish the first one on time! Yikes!

I'm well aware that it's been a minute or two since I last posted anything on here or on AO3 - to be more precise, it's been since Splatoon 1 died and I wrote that 8000 word depressing thing - I don't know why 8000 words always seems to be my sweet spot, but it's good to know that I have one. That being said, and with Side Order: Dark Side Mix currently MIA, I thought it'd be a good idea to to have what it is that I'm doing right now on-record in some capacity, for the one or two people who were wondering.

The next few weeks are exam season, so I don't think it's going to be smooth sailing per se, but Dark Side Mix will be completed. After running into a snag with the opening act - namely with the fact that it sucks - I started reworking the entire fic from top to bottom under a new name...and then I lost motivation to do that because perfectionism set in, and I haven't really touched it in a little while.

In the time that I've been away from it, I feel like I've become increasingly aware of how that perfectionism negatively effects me and my work - namely the fact that very little of it actually exists. I mean, sure, people seem to like the stuff that does exist, but there isn't much, and a lot of things are unfinished - usually because I placed too much value on the potential of "the idea", and spent so long labouring over the start of it that by the 10,000 word mark I had realised the flaws of the idea and lost interest in it.

I can't help thinking that's a bit lame. Every other writer has 100s and thousands of words of terrible amateur works they can go back to and laugh at, before they created the masterpieces they're known for now, and my story is that I just kinda show up every once in a while.

I think there's a real beauty to that - creating for the sake of creation, with no fucks given. Maybe this isn't the finest example, but I finally started listening to My Dad Wrote a Porno recently and...I mean... the sheer lack of fucks given is well and truly a gift that keeps on giving. Same goes for Philosophy of the World. Or SMG4 back in like 2014. Or old Eddsworld stuff. There's just a certain carefree joy (or existential dread in the case of the Shaggs) to it all that you never get anywhere else. It's like the difference between a 30 second gesture drawing and 6 hours of carefully-deliberated-over anatomy.

All that is to say - Dark Side Mix is a fundamentally flawed story. It is not high art, it never will be. I should probably just get it out there in it's entirety for the world to see in the time I have available to write, and then move on to the next "brilliant-idea"-that's-actually-just-ok. Nobody likes an "idea guy" - what good is it to spend one's entire life going around saying "I never finished this story, but it was great in my head, and the bit that you can actually read was alright too,"? Creativity should be about getting in there, making a mess, and having fun - let fanfiction be fanfiction, with that being addressed to nobody but myself, because nobody else needed to hear it.

Oh, also, another reason for my absence besides creative block and exams - I'm getting into comics! That, and practising my art fundamentals a whole bunch - I don't think my drawabox is particularly interesting to look at, so I haven't exactly been posting it. I've decided that I want to try giving an idea I had for what would've been another depressing Squid Sister 8000-worder the comic treatment, although you shouldn't expect to see that anytime soon, considering how long it's gonna take, and the fact that I would want to release something like that in no more than two parts.

[bengiyo]

Cooking Crush Ep 11 Stray Thoughts

Last week was one of my favorite episodes of the season, because it focused on the drama between the friend trio. We delved into how important they are to each other, and their boyfriends (or soon to be (hopefully) boyfriends) supported them. I'm still thinking about the narrative of their dish. Ten got clarity from Prem after punching Chang Ma's nasty ass out, and Fire has promised to come out publicly when Dy wins.

Pang is a real one for recognizing a double date and getting out of the way.

"Put some meat in." Fire, he absolutely will.

Hell yeah, Ten! Show off your boyfriend.

Get you a squad that will cheer for your happiness like this.

Dish 11: Or...The Three Must-Eat-eers Will Only Be a Name

I love Dynamite so much. He said, "Girl, dish," and then immediately got jealous of the PDA and ran for his boyfriend. Some people think it's annoying to have a partner tell you exactly how to please them. Could never be me.

Oh no. The Internet is clowning them. Don't read the comments, boys!

Look at Ten. He got worried about a piece of information he found. He asked for clarity immediately. He got it. He moved on. He is the best man we've ever had.

I'm loving Boyfriends Era for them.

Wait why are they in the school kitchen? Didn't we get into trouble for being here before?

Nevermind. There's the security guard. This got so silly.

In the school kitchen??? Boys!

"It has to happen sooner or later," is the exact energy I expected from Dy.

He kicked my boy across the room!! I see the mom will be our final boss for them, because staying in the closet physically injured Dy there.

Now, Ten, don't leave that sticky note at your house like that!

Of course the bullies posted the punch on socials. Hateful.

Terrible, Ten's dad was right that Ten caused problems for Prem.

Dynamite and Fire are so fun to watch at this point. "Fy, I got slammed hard. I need to be hugged."

Oh, I like this A-B framing of the doc separate from the rest of the group.

Gun is beautiful, and we should have him smile with the whole squad backing him more often.

I love Dynamite so much. "Learn from them, Fy." "Of course."

This producer is like Masks Off and called them lame! Hold the fuck up! There are multiple posts picking at the dad scene but we don't want to cut her for this rude behavior? Priorities!

I'm actually enjoying the drama of this for Ten and Prem. Prem needs to be able to stand up to criticism if he's going to be a popular chef, and Ten needs to reckon with his own stubbornness if he's going to be a good doctor and partner. He gets all riled up about his dad, but he thinks he knows best about everything.

Oh no, Gun is crying. My weakness.

I like that Changma and Ten praised Prem for the same things. That's a good use of a second lead.

Hey, I like Changma also publicly owning his complicity in this bullshit.

I love these three so much as a friend group. I'm glad we have a good baseline for the rest of the year.

Goddamn this practice is not going great, guys.

For a second I hoped that Metha would show up to help Samsee.

Look at my boys go!!

The staff at this place is so bad at keeping the audience out of the show. You'd think they'd have done that after Ten interrupted the first time. Still, I love my boy Fire going public on TV like this.

Just gonna point out that the show remembered the dad laid hands on Ten earlier.

I really like the end of this episode. Yes, let's face that problem immediately;

Wow, we didn't have an episode 11 breakup. This was excellent. Ten and Prem tackled multiple crises this episode with open communication and mutual support. Dynamite and Fire are thriving and taking cues from their friends. Both friend groups are starting to blend. Our boys came together in the face of public scrutiny and pushed themselves to a new level. I'm having a great time. I love that we have three clear final hurdles: The Bully Gang Food War, Ten's Dad and the Scamming, Fire's Overbearing Mother. I'm so ready! The squad is together and we can take on anything!

Regarding the discussion around the dad that @lurkingshan has continued, I think we're fixating on a single moment in a single scene way too much. The show is aware of the dad's hypocrisy, and is using it to force Ten to reckon with himself. He does not care about his dad like that. They didn't forget that he struck Ten, because they brought it up as they set him up as one of our final problems to overcome. I won't be moralizing over that anymore. It's good drama inline with what we should be used to.

[echoing-gravity]

MLB X MCU AU in which Marinette gets revealed as Multimouse to the entire world

Because Alya cant be trusted to be responsible with a camera.

Every-fucking-one knows now. hawkmoth. her PARENTS. Hell even TONY fucking STARK knows she was a hero.

and then her parents make/force her to take Style queens offer to intern in NYC, because, from their perspective she is not safe in paris. and like- the AVENGERS are in new york so surely it must be safe there. so they pack up and move their entire bakery business.

and she ends up going to midtown high-school, where not to her knowledge, fellow teenage superhero Peter parker aka "Your friendly neighborhood SPIDER-MAN" goes to school.

Cute adorable shipping commences.

peter is all like "omg another teenage super hero???!!! like me???? i thought i was the only one???? transferring to MY school?!!! SO COOL!!"

"marinette is super smart, marinette is pretty, she was one of THE Miraculous Ladybug's sidekicks how cool is that??!, marinette is COOL!! maybe we can be friends? how am i gonna talk to someone that cool though?? i cant tell her my secret identity!!!"

insta-crush. peter is a marinette SIMP

(and yo, dont get on my case about marinette being super fucking smart, this is the girl who figured out she was getting a birthday party from just seeing one of her friends holding a bike pump. that girl is a tactical genius! she just has self esteem issues. they are both nerd, their just nerds about differnt things, let the nerds date!!!!)

of course Marinette still has the ladybug miraculous -even tho everyone thinks she doesn't have the rat miraculous anymore- and the miracle box. so she can still fight hawkmoth because the horse is basically fast travel irl, Space miraculous super conveintent.

(also concerning the mirsacle box, im going with my headcanon/Unlucky 13 AU on what that looks like post "ladybug becomes guardain" because that egg thing from canon? fucking lame

These ones^^^)

It would be canon compliant till season 2 and most? of season 3? but like fuck miracle queen, season3 finale + truth made me stop watching the show. so like in this au, lets just assume Fu is dead, and ladybug has had the miracle box for some time now. and that they got the miraculous when they were 13, and are currently 15? yeah? okay.

(also prolly chat salt, it doesn't HAVE to be chat salt, but like- He. Keeps. Trying. To. Quit. And leave all the work to marinette!!!! its happened like 3?? times now? Marinette CANT quit!!! its literally "do this or lose all your memories!!!" she is being held hostage by a fucking magic box full of responsibilities no 15 year old should have to deal with.)

I headcanon that marinette stress-bakes, so like cute scene number #1 after peter and marinette become friends, could be something like "marientte stresses for a test, and then bakes to much food so her parents make her take it to school to share with her peers, and she ends up giving like- 1/2 of them to parker, becuz of his super high metabolism.

and how marinettes got her whole "i'm RESPONISBLE!!! for the whole fucking universe now, omfg i'm the reason fu is basically dead" angsty shit going on which kinda parallels peters whole "i have super powers, and if i dont do something to help then its my fault if someone gets hurt, like how my uncle died. With great power, comes great RESPONSIBLITY!!!" angst. maybe they could trauma bond. who doesn't like a good hurt comfort trauma bond fic?

marinette likes designing fashionable but also functional clothes.

peter likes designing gadgets and techy things. let them be nerds together!!! in love!!

i feel like they would be the kind of couple/friends to just ramble on about their passions and they would listen to each other even tho they dont know much about each others interests yet. (also hey what if marinette and peter co designed one of peters early suits pre-stark suit??? the fucking writing potential this ship has omfg c'mon ppl!!! why are we sleeping on this??)

oh! and maybe peter figures out that marinette is also ladybug -but later on- cuz like, he has superhearing? and tikki isn't as subtle as she thinks she is.

and then he's all in awe like "Wow holy shit!!! she made her ladybug secret identity FOOLPROOF!!!! no one would ever fucking suspect!! maybe she can help me with mine???"

Fox miraculous shenanaigans insue????? The daily Bugles next headline be like: "SPIDER-MAN SAVES SI INTERN PETER PARKER FROM ETC ETC"

( the media thinks Ladybug and Chat are 1000+ years old due to that thing alya found in that museum that one time. and the fact that people know that Thor and Loki are super old.

Ladybug's excuse to the public for letting a teenager, Nay! for letting a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD use an extremly dangerous magical artifact for a little over 2 years, goes something like this: "Marinette was the ONLY person in france- maybe in the whole world! that was compatible with the Rat miraculous, it takes a very smart person to be able to multitask like that, and marinette has a photographic/phonetic memory."

i headcannon that marinette photographic/phonetic memory, and that the Rat Miraculous is the math miraculous that was mentioned in the comics that one time, and that if an incompatible person were to try and use it they would at BEST develop a severe case of split personality disorder/ or schizophrenia, and at WORST their brain would- just- melt out of their ears. )

Also he calls her "Spots" or "LuckyBug" when shes in hero mode.

(i cant think of cute nicknames for peter, ugh "web head" is just something i cant picture marinette saying. what's the french word for spider? what's the french word for cobwebs??)

She prolly just calls him "Webs" or "Spidey"

[felicitydanforth1692]

The Queen & The Freak: Chapter 1

Word count: 4,056

Summary: Chrissy Cunningham is suffering from horrendous nightmares that seem to real to be just that. Out of desperation, Chrissy goes to the school's drug dealer, Eddie Munson hoping he would have something to help her. But maybe it isn't the drugs that are keeping the dreams away, but maybe the drug dealer himself.

A/N: New account new re-posting!

Chapter 1

Chrissy could still hear it. The voice. That deep, gravely, evil voice she thought she could only hear in her nightmares. It was all she could think about as she poked and played with the salad before her. The constant mumbling of the many voices bouncing off the cafeteria walls didn’t help her mind drift to her more positive things; waking up at her usual time of 6:40 and arriving at school 20 minutes before the bell, acing all of her tests and study cards and practicing with her cheermates. Everything was going her way until these nightmares started, causing her to lose four hours out of her usual eight. But that wasn’t going to stop her from losing her straight A’s. The headaches may though.

Chrissy sat quietly amongst her cheersquard of her usual table, trying to pay attention to what they were talking about.

She could hear separate words from separate conversations such as “shopping” and “party” and “we finally did it”. They were such unimportant things, and Chrissy wasn’t going to try and participate. Instead she decided to focus on the pain behind her eyes, her temples and in her stomach. She wanted badly to take Tylenol but was scared of gaining those three pounds back that she managed to lose. Perhaps the pain will be gone tomorrow if she managed to sleep through the night. But she sighed, closing her eyes as realization dawned on her. Tonight was the championship game for their team, and as head cheer captain, she had to attend. That would be fine and all if she wasn't guilt tripped into staying with the team all night.

Chrissy had no desire to hang out in an abandoned restaurant all night where a man was murdered.

“Hey babe,” Chrissy jumped at the hand of her boyfriend, Jason “The King” Carver gripped her shoulder. She hated that, him being labeled “King”. Of a highschool of all things. Because they were dating she often flushed red in embarrassment when people called her “Queen”. It was unnecessary and lame. Something that wouldn’t get her through life after graduation.

Jason’s hand was cold and hard, his grip tight and unkind. Wasn’t a boyfriend’s grip supposed to be soft and gentle, warm and comforting? What she was feeling certainly wasn’t any of those things.

“Hey,” Chrissy answered in a small voice. She watched as Jason moved to her right and stood over her, not bothering to sit down. She swore he wanted the whole school to see him.

“Tonight’s the big game,” he grinned his all white smile down at her. “You’re gonna be there right?” “Of course,” Chrissy nodded. “Head cheerleader, remember? I kind of have too.” Wish I didn’t have to, Chrissy thought. She held back a deep and unhappy sigh as Jason played with her hair, stroking her head.

“Right, sorry,” he shook his head. “Of course you’re gonna be there to see us win. Cheering us on until we bring home the gold. You’re gonna be at the after party, right?”

“I don’t know,” Chrissy answered swiftly and honestly with a shake of her head. Her ponytail swayed back and forth as Jason suddenly sat down next to her.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” He asked with wide eyes as if she said the craziest thing in the world. “Chrissy, it’s going to be the biggest party of the school year. Once we win everyone is going, including you. You’ll have a great time.”

“I’ll try Jason, but I don’t think I’ll be able to.” Chrissy looked down for a moment. “I have a lot of studying to do.”

“Forget studying, you don’t need to. Listen,” Jason reached and he took her hands. Chrissy tensed as he squeezed her hands that said ‘look at me’, and Chrissy did. “My parents are going out of town during spring break. So I was thinking you could stay with me then. We can hang out and you know, I could help you study.”

Chrissy’s face flushed red as she felt Jason’s eyes roam her bare legs, her cheerleading outfit revealed. It showed too much leg for her taste, but just being the cheer captain there was nothing she could really do. From the start she thought the outfits showed too much; too much leg, chest and arms. She didn’t design them of course, but she wished they were more comfortable. Chrissy averted her gaze, wrapping her arms tightly over her zipped up cheer sweater, her finger gently brushing over her name that had been sewn into the soft white cotton.

“I don’t think my parents would be up for that, Jason,” Chrissy said honestly. “I can barely convince them to let me have sleepovers at Heather’s house.”

“They’ll let you if they know you’ll be hanging out with me,” Jason continued to grin but his attitude was becoming more pushy. “Your parents love me.”

Chrissy nodded with a soft sigh. “Yes they do.” She mumbled. More than me, for sure, she thought.

“So then it’s settled,” Jason kissed her head. “We’ll win the game and we’ll have a great time at the after party. Okay?”

Chrissy only nodded, no longer having the energy to fight back. Thanks to her lack of sleep and eating less every day, she didn’t have the strength to fight back anymore. Instead she allowed Jason to walk away to greet his teammates with fist pumps and hand shakes. So Chrissy turned back to playing with her salad, stirring it around the little bits of water within the bowl. Once she decided to attempt to take a bite of the dressingless greens, a sudden bang across the room caught her attention.

Eddie Munson. Also known as Eddie “The Freak” Munson. Everyone in Hawkins knew who he was and not all of them were friendly names. But the name “freak” seemed to belong to him entirely.

He was quite a sight too.

He had crazy long curly brown hair that probably hasn’t been properly brushed for a couple weeks, if ever. His big pretty brown eyes glowed with passion as he talked animatedly among his Hellfire Club at their lunch table. The various pins on his denim vest shined with his movements, and the strings holding the sleeves of his thick black leather jacket together dragged across the table with his arm movements. Every once in a while he would smile or laugh at something one of his friends say, his head tilting dramatically and his hair falling in his eyes. As he turned to talk to one of them, gesturing excitedly, she could see the demon head symbol for his club peeking out under the many layers he wore on a daily basis. Although she couldn’t see them, she knew he was wearing black ripped up jeans with a wallet chain, and his signature white Reebok’s. It was hard to forget his fashion style, especially since no one else wore it and he pretty much wore it every day, with small variations on hot days or days when his club wasn't meeting. Mostly he wore various metal band shirts that always gave her the creeps because most of them have scary and mean looking skeletons, but occasionally he would wear a Star Wars shirt under one of his vests, and very rarely would he wear a plain colored shirt. He never wore shorts, just black ripped up jeans, and she was pretty sure he only had one pair of shoes because she never saw anything else.

Chrissy sat there, watching with wide eyes as he stepped up onto the table, no doubt beginning another rant. It wasn’t something he did often during lunch hour, but it was something he did do. But, despite being labeled unfriendly things, it didn’t stop him from doing and saying what he wanted when he wanted. “We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game.” She heard Eddie say before he stepped up onto the table with ease. “But as long as you're into band . . . or science . . . or parties,” he openly mocked each labeled table and his eyes set on the basketball players. “Or a game where you TOSS BALLS INTO LAUNDRY BASKETS!”

“Loser!” Someone else yelled toward him just as Jason stood from his seat at his table.

“You want something, freak?!” He yelled. But all Eddie did was raise his hands above his head like devil horns, sticking his tongue out while making a funny sound.

Chrissy held her breath as he and Jason seemed to have a stare down, Eddie grinning in delight, before Jason finally turned away. She read his lips as he did so, managing to understand that he mumbled “prick”. She turned back to Eddie as he lowered his hands with a successful smirk on his lips.

Chrissy couldn’t help but watch in fascination as he turned around while still on the lunch table, continuing a few lines of rant.

“It's forced conforming,” she managed to hear him say softly before he suddenly ran and jumped off the table, scaring a teacher and a few students half to death. “That's what's KILLING THE KIDS!”

Chrissy looked away, feeling it wasn’t polite to stare even though everyone else was. She breathed in and out, steady past her lips as she managed to eat a few more bites of salad before calling it quits. To distract herself from the need to eat more than that, she carefully turned her attention back to Eddie’s table. He was sitting back down, munching on what could be peanuts or pretzels, she couldn’t tell from where she was. But she could see his eyes, and they were intense as he listened to one of his friends speak.

He was honed in on something and seemed to love talking about whatever it was they were talking about. It made Chrissy’s head spin. It was very rare for her to see someone talk about and rant about something they were passionate for. Though it wasn’t art, crafts or anything like that. It was something called Dragon’s Dungeons or something? A board game? Or was it a cult from what the rumors had said? An evil one? Chrissy didn’t know and didn’t have the bravery to go up to Eddie Munson and ask him about it, no matter how curious she was. Not that he would ever believe she was interested anyway. She was a “queen” and he was a “freak”.

They were from two different worlds.

Chrissy suddenly became lightheaded, reaching up to hold her head while the other cradled her stomach. Her attention on Eddie Munson was completely erased as a wave of intense nausea consumed her. It was coming. She could feel it.

Chrissy didn’t bother to look at anyone as she grabbed her pink backpack and hurried out of the cafeteria. She didn’t care if she heard Jason calling after as she sped walked, jogged and then sprinted down the halls and into the girl’s bathroom. Diving into the first stall she saw, she slammed and locked the door and dropped to her knees. She allowed her backpack to fall to the floor as she hovered over the porcelain bowl and she started to gag.

It came out easily. She didn’t have to wait in anxiousness or prolong the situation. It just came up all at once. She gripped the toilet, regardless of the possibility of germs, her ankles, legs and toes cramping from the intensity of the heaving. It was as if she had eaten so much that her stomach couldn’t contain it all, when in reality it was only four forkfuls of salad and three sips of 1% milk. Though her throat and mouth felt full as she vomited.

“Hey,” a young feminine voice came from the sink area of the bathroom. Chrissy didn’t have the energy to jump in startlement, only breathing heavily as she shook. “Are you all right?”

Chrissy sniffled. “Yeah . . . yes, I'm . . . I'm fine.” She managed to speak through her cottonmouth, shivering from the fear of throwing up a second time.

“Okay, um . . . you're sure?” The unknown person asked again.

Chrissy closed her eyes, desperate to say ‘no’, that she wasn’t okay. But there was nothing this stranger could do for her. “Please, go away.” She whimpered.

She closed her eyes in relief as she heard the person finally leave the bathroom, leaving her alone with her many thoughts. She sighed, tempted to wipe her mouth as she reached to flush the toilet. But she stopped as she heard footsteps approach, and she closed her eyes. Maybe the person didn’t leave yet.

“Please, I said go away.” Chrissy begged, looking over her shoulder to get a glimpse to see if anyone was there. But she froze as the person spoke again, and it wasn’t a stranger.

“Chrissy?” She said, footsteps approaching the stall door. “Chrissy?”

Chrissy turned and faced the stall door, not daring to open it. “Mom?” She asked in shock but still shaken. She watched her mother’s favorite shoes suddenly appear under the door, her knuckles knocking against it.

“Are you ready to try on the dress again?” Her mother’s voice asked. “I loosened the back a little for you.”

Chrissy jumped with wide eyes as a violent pounding began on the other side of the door, causing her to scoot back as quickly as she could into the corner. She cried out and she covered her head as the pounding began to get more violent.

“Chrissy! Did you hear me?” The voice pounded harder. “Open the damn door, Chrissy, or I'm gonna gut you like the fat pig that you are!”

“No!” Chrissy began to cry, her fingers gripping the back of her head as the pounding continued, the lights above her flashing and flickering violently. “Go away!”

“Did you hear me?!”

“Go away, go, away, go away!” Chrissy begged over and over before . . .

Silence.

Chrissy gasped for air as she sat curled up in the corner, waiting for anything else. More footsteps, more voices. But there was nothing. It was as if nothing happened to begin with. Chrissy carefully and shakily lifted her head to see the door was indeed still again, no shoes or shadows could be seen underneath it.

There was nothing and no one.

Chrissy then managed to stand on her two feet, knees shaking as she stepped out from inside of the stall and into the empty bathroom.

Nothing and no one. Then what had just happened? Chrissy knew she had been seeing things lately, most likely from lack of sleep, but nothing like what had just happened.

Chrissy closed her eyes from sudden exhaustion, shakily walking backward to sit back down on the floor. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs to bury her nose into the softness of her sweater. Her mother’s voice still echoed in her head. “The fat pig that you are, the fat pig that you are, the fat pig that you are,” it echoed and mocked her continuously, bringing fresh tears to her eyes.

“I’m not, I’m not,” Chrissy whispered. “She’s wrong, I’m not. She wasn’t really here. She wasn’t really here. She’s wrong.”

“Chrissy?” A soft voice made her jump. She looked up to see none other than Heather Holloway, hurrying through the door of the bathroom to kneel in front of her. “Chrissy? Chrissy, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Heather was always a good friend. Most mistook her for being a bitch, especially during summer break when she was a volunteer lifeguard. But Chrissy understood. Taking care of rowdy, rambunctious kids in the heat of summer could bring out the worst in a person. During winter and fall though, Heather was pretty nice.

“I . . . I’m fine,” Chrissy sheepishly wiped her mouth and eyes with separate sleeves. She allowed Heather to help her to her feet and they approached the sink together.

“Well, Chrissy, I don’t think sitting on the floor of an empty bathroom with your knees to your chest says “I’m alright”.” Heather turned the sink on for her, letting the cool water run down the drain. “Something obviously happened.”

“It was nothing,” Chrissy continued to whisper, not quite finding her voice yet. She brought her soaked fingers to her face, over her lips and around her mouth and cheeks. “I just um, I think I had a panic attack is all.”

What else could she have called it? What just happened, Chrissy didn’t have an explanation. She could be losing her mind for all she knew. Which was more than likely.

“That’s all? Just a panic attack?” Heather watched Chrissy dab her neck next before rinsing her hands again. “Yeah because that’s not concerning at all. What happened, Chrissy?”

“I told you,” Chrissy was tempted to snap at her but was just too tired. “I had a panic attack. That’s it.” She avoided eye contact, the coolness of the water drowning her fingers being somewhat soothing and was a perfect distraction.

“You know, I read that stress causes panic attacks,” Heather said carefully. “And I also read that weed could help with anxiety if done correctly.”

Chrissy turned the knob of the sink, the absence of the loud rush of water drowning them in silence. “What do you mean? Weed?” She asked.

“Yeah you know, it’s supposed to calm you down. It’s not doctor prescribed of course but a lot of people say it works.”

Weed. Chrissy replayed that word over and over in her head. She had read some similar things about that particular drug and it dawned on her. It could also help the sleep deprived, which Chrissy was so close to that she felt like she could jump off the edge any moment. But she shook her head in denial, hopelessness clouding around her.

“You know who I am, Heather,” she said smally. “My family. I breathe one word about this to my mom, she'll never let me see the light of day again. And drugs? Weed? Where would I even begin trying to find something like that?”

Heather held a look that Chrissy knew she was holding something back. The thing she wanted to say so close on the tip of her tongue she could spit it out. Chrissy looked at her immediately as Heather grabbed her arm, leaning in close but not before checking if they were alone. They were, every stall empty.

“Eddie Munson.” Heather whispered. “He sells. Everyone knows it. He can get you what you need. Especially weed.”

Eddie Munson. Because of course Eddie Munson was the solution to her problem. The most intimidating person in all of Hawkins High had what she needed and it was terrifying.

“I know it’s scary,” Heather rubbed her arm. “But if you just be your sweet, Chrissy-self, I’m sure he won’t bite.”

“Biting isn’t what I’m worried about,” Chrissy mumbled.

“Then what is it?”

“Stay away from him, Chrissy,” Jason’s voice chimed in. “He’s bad news. A satanic freak with his little group of demonic disciples. Don’t pay him any attention. We’re better than him.”

Jason had gone to great lengths of trying to convince Chrissy that Eddie was pure evil. Even painting her a mental picture of Eddie assaulting or sacrificing her to his evil alter. But often Chrissy immediately forgot about his taunts seeing how it seemed Eddie barely knew she existed. But maybe that could work in her favor.

“What do I have to do?” She asked, looking her friend in the eye.

“I heard if you leave a note in Eddie’s locker, telling him what you want and a time to meet, he’ll give a note back with a meeting place.”

Chrissy nodded, almost relieved as the bell finally went off. “I’ll think about it,” she turned to approach her backpack. “Thanks, Heather. Um, can uh, can you keep this between us? I just, I can’t have Jason-”

“I won’t tell anyone.” Heather said with a smile. “No offense, Chrissy, but your boyfriend is very nosey.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chrissy felt calmer in study hall, the library air conditioned and peacefully silent. A book of psychological disorders sat in front of her before forcing herself to continue reading her latest romance novel. Gentle Warrior by Julie Garwood, and it oddly put her nerves at ease. But she couldn’t hold back the inevitable forever. She closed her book gently to look around her to see no familiar faces of her cheer team or the basketball team and she nodded.

Chrissy reached down and pulled out a homemade scrapbook with different colored paper. Wisely she chose pink, remaining in the realm of simple and innocent but chose a black pen. Maybe Eddie likes the color black.

“Be your sweet, Chrissy-self,” Heather had said and Chrissy nodded to herself. She could do that. She could be sweet. Woo him over. Tame the beast, if you will.

Chrissy gripped the pen with her clammy, shaking fingers and began to write.

Dear Eddie,

I’m sorry to bother you, but I need your help. I’m not sure how to explain so I’ll just say it like this; things have been happening and I need something to help me. I heard weed might do the trick, so I would like to buy some from you, and I’ll meet you wherever you want immediately after school. I would really appreciate it. But if you don’t want to sell to me because of your own reasons, I will completely understand.

Sincerely,

Chrissy C.

P.S. You don’t need to worry. This isn’t a trick. I promise.

Chrissy bit her lip, looking over what she had just written with her perfect cursive handwriting. She even went as far as to dot all the “i’s” with little hearts. Like her sweet Chrissy self. She folded the paper in fours, managing to get permission to use the bathroom and she ventured out into the hallways. She looked over her shoulder constantly from the fear of someone spotting her doing what she was about to do. But then she found his locker, covered in band stickers despite Hawkins High forbidding it, her hands shaking as she gripped the note with her hands, and she slipped it in.

There was one more hour in the day, Ms. O'Donnell's math class. Chrissy sat on the far side of the room, trying to pay attention to the romance of her book. Everyone was still filing in chatting, sitting on tables with no cares in the world. Chrissy, after every sentence she read, looked up in search of the crazy head of brown hair, but he hadn’t shown up yet. She looked back down as Ms. O'Donnell entered the room and then-

There he was. Leather jacket and all.

Did he see the note? Did he read it? Did he believe me? Chrissy thought with her palms sweating even more.

“So nice of you to join us on time, Mr. Munson,” Ms. O'Donnell smiled at the metalhead.

Eddie had been held back twice, to Chrissy’s knowledge. Some would think that would drive a few teachers crazy, especially with students like Eddie. But she was relieved to know and see that one teacher was still kind to him.

Ms. O'Donnell's smile was warm and teasing, and Eddie returned to the same grin. “I wouldn’t miss this class for anything,” he retorted.

“Mm-hmm,” Ms. O'Donnell shook her head and turned her attention to her desk.

Chrissy’s cheeks flamed red as Eddie caught her staring at him as he made his way to his desk a few seats behind her all the way in the back. She immediately looked down, gripping and bending the pages of her book as he walked past her. But not before dropping a folded piece of paper on her desk in front of her.

Chrissy managed to slow her breathing as she closed her book, carefully taking the folded note in her hands, and opened it.

Meet me at the picnic table behind the school in the woods. Make sure no one sees you. I’ve got what you need.

Eddie M.

Forward and to the point. Chrissy fought the urge to look over her shoulder at him, but her gut told her she didn’t need to. So she closed her eyes and nodded, knowing that he was looking at her.

[ganeshkfp]

HI IM HERE TO RANT ABOUT CHALICE OF THE GODSSS

OKAY SO I KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE SAID THAT THERE WASNT ENOUGH FIGHTING AND BATTLES AND ALL THAT BUT. THAT ISNT PERCYS LIFE RN SO I THINK IT MAKES SENSE?? AND HIS FIGHT WITH OLD AGE WAS KINDA LAME BUT I THINK THATS THE POINT...?

ALSO: GROVER NEEDS TO BE PART OF THE TRIO BETTER :( I FEEL LIKE HE DIDNT HAVE AS BIG OF A ROLE BECAUSE PERCY AND ANNABETH ARE DATING WHICH IS LIKE COOL AND ALL BUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP IS IMPORTANT TOO!!

and yeah! your thoughts? (sorry i know this is a lot to dump on you but i saw you reply to my post :D)

OMG HI!!!!

Missing fight scenes actually makes sense since they are older and more capable of taking down monsters. Also this was supposed to be more like a crack book, where they just hang out as teenagers, without more trauma XD

I agree on that old age thing, it was kind of cheesy? But still, made me smile. And tear up 👉👈 They are my kids, thinking of them getting old-

About Grover, I think it would link with the other books because on Read Riordan we know Grover is very sad because he thinks they gonna leave him- I think in next books Percy and Annabeth would realize this and show him that he is wrong :) In toa they left for college all together, Grovar was with them. I think like he would be left alone at Hecate's house since both of them would be in school and maybe we would see his feelings- They are all just guesses tho XD

Other than that, their dynamics were everything! I mean there was almost nothing serious about it and I laughed at every page. Percy's pov are everything and I MISSED it sooo much! The titles too! The new characters are very good too, minor gods( Hebe, Iris, that Lake god, GANYMADE) their were amazing! Them turning to 8 years old babies by Hebe! Omg I LOVED IT. Humor and fluff was everything. And my fav scene: Athena catching Percy XD Like I lost it! It was sooo good. Her helping her future son in law, finally accept him because her love for her daughter :) Love them. Zeus's Llama story... Well, lets say I kinda missed them too XD And of course, Sally, Paul, Annabeth, Percy acting as a family. Annabeth and Paul's interactions were adorable! Grover banging in for tofu was also hilarious lmao. And he was sad there because it was their last summer :( Sally and Annabeth being close, Sally giving THE NEWS. Baby Estelle is on the way! Percy's reaction, also being sad because he would miss many of her early life :(

I only had one problem with the book: Lack of physical decriptions. I didn't really understand the reason because like in every book we had at least one page of Percy gushing over Annabeth, talking about her gray eyes etc. Grover and the gods same too. I mean, this made me a little sad because I really wanted to know what they look like, I am into imagining while reading. I mean, Rick changing the descriptions with the show ones or something? Don't get me wrong I adore the show and the cast but I really think they should have their own canon timelines ❤

Other than that, I can easily say it was now my fav pjo book. I mean I teared up with happiness, nostalgia I felt... I love OG trio more than anything 🥲 I can't wait for the next book-

Thank you so much for the dump, it made me soooo happy ^^ I never miss a change to discuss my fav books with the fans ❤

[whump-bunny]

A Choice To Make

CW: Restraints, Drugged Whumpee, Imprisonment, Threats, 15 year old whumpee, whumper is his dad, technically post-apocalypse, human weapon

Synopsis: Everyone was told that Asa was unwell, that he's crazy, and that Adam is treating him with the utmost care. But Bella believes otherwise. So she goes to find Asa herself.

-

She creaks the door open, waiting for the inevitable alarm or siren. But somehow, the silence is even more disconcerting. There, sitting in a chair at the center of the room, is Asa.

From a distance, he looks like less of a human and more of a doll. His black hair falls limply over his face, head lolled down to his chest. His arms and legs seem to dangle from his frame like pipe cleaners, held in place by metal restraints. Restraints that are wholly unnecessary, given his physical state, and must only be there to prove a point.

Bella swallows as she approaches. Her footsteps sound like gunshots in the quiet of the cell. And yet, Asa does not lift his head. Up close, the reason why is obvious. An IV, sharp and glaring, protrudes from the back of his hand. Bella follows the line with her eyes to the bag of clear liquid hanging on a hook above him.

Then she looks back to him, to the boy that she so quickly dismissed. To the boy who was right about Adam all along. With a trembling hand, she nudges Asa’s head up to see his face, expecting to find him fast asleep.

Big brown eyes are staring back at her, hazy and unseeing.

“Jesus Christ…”

Adam did this. Adam turned his own son into a weapon. And when that weapon stopped being useful, he left him here. Restrained, drugged, and so utterly alone. Bella has never been a very emotional girl… but this just might be enough to make her cry. That is, until her sorrow is quickly replaced by rage.

With a huff, Bella rips out Asa’s IV. Golden blood pours out behind it. Bella swears, scanning the room for a bandage, some gauze, paper towel, even. But the cell is as barren as it is tiny. Finally, with a groan, Bella uses her shirt to apply pressure to the wound. It isn't without difficulty. Asa’s blood seeps into her clothes, making her look like she's been gilded. But eventually, the bleeding comes to a stop, and Bella breathes a sigh of relief. All the while, Asa’s enhanced metabolism fights off the remaining drugs. 

“Hnn…” He groans. Bella puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Asa… you alright?”

He moves at a snail’s pace, but sure enough, he lifts his head, blinking in the synthetic light. His eyes land on her. For a moment, there's no recognition, but his mouth forms the word.

“B… Bella?” He whispers.

Bella tries for a smile, but it probably comes out more like a grimace. “Hey, Asa.”

Asa swallows several times, probably buying time for his brain to come back online. Finally, the haze in his eyes seems to clear up completely. He looks at Bella with an awareness that wasn't there before.

“What are you doing here?” He asks, suddenly very serious.

Bella opens her mouth to answer, but finds she doesn't have one. What is she doing here? Asa isn't exactly her friend. She should be in her room, playing video games, drinking coffee, sucking up to Adam when she wants something. But here she is, potentially getting into huge trouble just to talk to a boy she can't stand.

And then she remembers what she saw. The pillars of fire with golden smoke. The news reports of people dying on the streets, before the news went utterly silent. She remembers Adam's cold grin, looking out to the wreckage he had caused. And she remembers what Asa said, all those months ago.

He's not going to save the world, he's going to destroy it. And he's gonna use me to do it. You have to help me.

You have to help me…

He tried to warn everyone, but they didn't listen. Bella didn't listen. She was too blinded by Adam’s mask, his kindly, generous disguise. And now it's too late. As much as Bella hates it, she can't help but feel a crushing guilt.

Maybe that's why she's here.

“I… I was just-” she stutters, lamely. Reaching for a plausible excuse. But luckily, Asa cuts her off.

“How long have I been down here?"

The question catches Bella off guard, but she's thankful for the distraction. She thinks back to the last time she saw Asa, kicking and screaming as Adam dragged him to the basement.

“About two months, I think.”

Asa doesn't seem shocked by that. Just resigned.

“Oh.” He says. An awkward silence falls over the two. Until Asa gasps, meeting Bella’s gaze with renewed intensity. “My dad- the- the serum! Did he do it? Did he release it on the world?”

Bella considers lying, but decides against it. Asa’s already in a cell, the least she can do is be honest with him.

“Yeah… yeah, he did.”

Asa falls silent at that, but the expression on his face makes it obvious what he's thinking. It's all my fault.

“How many…” Asa falters. He can't bring himself to ask. He doesn't need to. Bella knows.

“He released it on the day he locked you down here. Since then… about 80% of the world population has died.” She tells him, trying not to think too hard about the scale of that number. About the children waking up to find their parents cold and unmoving, about the airplanes that fell out of the sky, about the fear and confusion permeating the whole world. Instead, she looks back at Asa and really takes him in. He looks so small in his chair, so… defeated. Like the only thing keeping him from crying is the fact that he has no more tears left to shed. The fact that someone as pathetic as him is technically the cause of the end of the world would be laughable in any other context. But now Bella feels only pity.

“I’m sorry-” She starts, but Asa cuts her off.

“You shouldn’t be here.” He says, with a startling amount of intensity. 

Bella can’t help but be slightly offended. “I came here to visit you, asshole. I didn’t need to come here.”

“You shouldn’t have.” Asa insists, “Dad comes down here every once in a while to feed me. You can’t let him see you.”

Bella bristles, realizing that the feisty and stubborn boy she knew is long gone. Maybe he’s even more of a doll than she thought. 

“He can’t just keep you down here like this, drugged to hell and back. Maybe I can talk to him-”

Asa pales, “No, please don’t. Don’t let him know you saw me. Just go.”

“He’s your father-”

“HE’S A MONSTER!"

Bella falls quiet. They both do.

Asa is the one who breaks the silence.

“Please, Bella… just forget about me. Don’t come back down here. It’s not worth getting on his bad side.” He starts to tear up. “I can’t… I can’t handle anyone else getting hurt because of me.”

Once again, guilt rises to the surface of Bella’s chest. She swallows it down.

“O-okay… I’ll go.” She says. And for the first time since she’d met him, Asa smiles.

“Thank you.”

Bella turns to go, but a thought occurs. “Wait, what about your IV? He’ll notice it’s out.”

“It’s fine, I manage to rip it out all the time. He’ll blame me.”

“But won’t you get in trouble?” Bella frowns.

Asa shakes his head, “I’m already sitting in a cell. He can’t do much worse.” He laughs. It's the kind of humorless, dry laugh that Bella would associate with a war vet, not a 15 year old boy. 

“Now go,” Asa says, smile fading as quickly as it came. “Get out of here before he notices you're gone.”

Bella doesn't wait to be told again. Her mind is racing as she sneaks back up the stairs and through the halls of Adam’s compound. How can she continue on as normal, knowing that Asa’s deep underground, a plaything to a mad man? But more than that, how can she keep what she knows a secret? Every day, more and more refugees of the apocalypse seek shelter in Adam’s vast commune. They worship Adam like a king… like a god. But if they knew the truth about Adam, about Asa, about everything, they would revolt.

She slows down as she arrives at the courtyard, and one thing becomes clear.

…She has to tell them. They can't go on believing that Adam has their best interest in mind. If he'll do something this horrible to his son, then none of them stand a chance. She has to warn the others before it's too late.

Thoughts of revolution and chaos dance around Bella’s head, pulling her attention away from her surroundings. That is until she all but collides with the very person she's plotting against.

Adam steadies her shoulders with firm hands, “Woah, watch where you're going.” He chuckles. 

His suit is pressed creaseless and his hair is groomed to perfection, as always. Bella has long thought he more closely resembles a mannequin than a human. If Asa is a doll, then clearly this is where he gets it from.

“A-Adam!” Bella balks, heart and mind racing. “I'm sorry, I was just…” She trails off. Normally, she'd whip out an excuse from the tip of her tongue, lying with all the ease of a practiced politician. But it seems the day’s events have left her brain scrambled.

Adam looks her up and down with an unreadable expression. It's not unusual for him, and yet Bella can't help but feel like the word GUILTY is written on her forehead. She needs to escape his scrutiny and fast. Before she buckles completely.

Luckily, Adam clears his throat and offers his own change of subject. “So, what have you been up to?”

“O-oh, y'know, just hanging out. Taking a walk.” Bella smiles weakly. Adam replies with a smile of his own. 

“Of course, of course. It's a beautiful day.” He gestures to the wide expanse of greenery within the courtyard. Looking out at the clear blue sky, the birds flapping their wings in the distance, it's almost like nothing's changed. Like just beyond the compound walls, people aren't dying by the thousands.

“Yeah…” Bella says, taking a step back. “Anyway, I'd like to continue my walk if it's all the same to you.”

“Oh yes, excuse me.” Adam nods, and Bella takes that as her sign to get the hell out of dodge.

She begins to speed walk in the opposite direction. Is it her brightest moment? No, it's not. But right now she couldn't care less about appearing “tough.” All that matters is getting to the others, telling them the truth, and figuring out a way to bring a stop to Adam once and for all. 

She only gets a few steps away before Adam calls out behind her.

“Oh, Bella?”

She freezes.

“Y-yes?” She asks, turning slowly. Adam’s golden eyes seem to pierce directly into her soul. He smiles.

“If you’re going to lie to me, at least wash your shirt first.”

Time slows. The birds stop chirping. Her heart stops. She looks down, and to her horror, she sees Asa's shining, golden blood staining her shirt. In her hurry to leave, she'd completely forgotten about it.

When she looks back up, eyes wide, Adam is towering over her. Smile gone, replaced by a scowl.

“I- I didn’t-” Bella stammers, trying to come up with some sort of lie, but Adam silences her with a hand on her shoulder. He squeezes tight enough to leave a bruise.

“Save it.” He says. Bella’s mouth snaps shut. He stares into her eyes for a moment, as if looking for something. Before finally letting out a sigh. “I’m curious. Why risk your position here for a boy you hardly know?”

Once again, Bella wracks her brain for an answer. Why? Why did she do it? Guilt yes, but there has to be something more. And then it hits her. 

“You need to be stopped.” She whispers, voice weaker than she'd intended it to be. Adam hears her all the same. He tilts his head.

“Stop me? Why would you want that?”

Still playing the hero of humanity, even now. Even when his hands are drenched in blood, he claims to be a savior. Bella would be offended that he's still putting on an act, but it's clear that Adam truly believes in what he's saying. That's what makes him dangerous.

Bella glares, “He… Asa was right about you… every word.”

The hand on her shoulder tightens to a painful degree.

“Well, now you know what happens to people who are right about me. They end up underground, where no one can hear them scream.” Bella's eyes dart to the entrance of the basement, where Asa is sitting in his cell, alone and miserable.

“So is that what you want? To be right? Or do you want to keep living in this paradise I’ve created? With everyone else who’s wrong. The choice is yours.” Adam pauses, giving her time to think.

And Bella does think. She thinks about Asa, about what he'd choose. But in the end, it doesn't really matter what he chose, does it? He stood by his ideals and paid for it with his life. Sure, he's not dead. But the life he's living is no life at all. 

All Bella wants… all she's ever wanted is to be happy. So the question is, can she be happy living a lie? In a paradise built by blood? Can she be happy walking in the sun while Asa rots underground? She's not sure. But she's sure of one thing. 

She wants the chance to find out.

She nods, lowering her head. Adam removes his hand for a shoulder with one final squeeze.

“Go near Asa again, and you'll end up in the cell next door. Got it?” He says, and Bella doesn't doubt that he means it. She nods once more.

Adam’s smile returns, as if it never left.

“Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

Then he walks past, whistling a happy tune, leaving Bella to think about what she's done.

[vivvy-of-the-lake]

I'm gonna go on a dumb rant but this means a lot to me because it just hurts so much thinking about it. I feel stupid and silly and immature getting this worked up over it but also entirely justified and valid in my feelings and I need help (more under the readmore)

so I've been reading the manga for Bocchi the Rock after having finished the anime (no spoilers in this rant, don't worry) and even before having started reading it, I had come across all the major 'gay Bocchi' meme panels and i was definitely keeping an eye out for them as i was reading

(also i was reading it at https://bocchitherockmanga.com/ which for reasons i will get into I do NOT recommend AT ALL. all the issues i'm about to talk about aren't there in the mangadex version)

i've gotten through most of the series with no issues whatsoever, until I got to chapter 58. These latest chapters were being scanned by someone new to scanlations as a whole, and in particular bocchi stuff (I won't name names because that's not what this post is about, you can find who to blame just by reading it yourself from anywhere that isn't mangadex)

I was very keenly on the look-out for this panel, because for very obvious reasons it's become a very popular bocchi meme:

...but reading the version i was reading, not only were there very blatant grammar and spelling issues, but when i finally got to the panel-

what the fuck. what the fuck is this bullshit

"I've it's been popular nowadays..." doesn't make any fucking sense and had i not read the other version first i might not have understood what it was trying to say, and all of the text is so horrendously scaled and placed so awfully

but the real issue is in that "fine print":

"I already know the scope of the test, and it seems I'm going to be that one big-breasted popular girl on the exam!"

what.

the.

fuck.

this makes ZERO FUCKING SENSE given the actual illustration, i know bocchi has big boobs in the manga but WHO'S THAT GIRL WITH THE BIG BOOBS, HUH??? WHAT'S HER SIGNIFICANCE???

it doesn't take an expert to realise that what bocchi's saying here doesn't even make any sense if she's not even the one with big boobs in her fantasy of what will happen if she repeats a year

now i always lean on the side of never attributing to malice what can be attributed to stupidity, and i was ready to just assume this was a piss-poor translation

but i found the scanlator making a post on the MangaDex forums about the situation, and in it they said this (reminder that the panel in question comes from chapter 58):

so it was intentional. it was a person actually trying to censor the original intent of the author because they didn't like that there was gay representation.

...

i'm done. i'm so fucking done with this.

"i have given up on the lame goal of censoring bocchi the rock" yeah that's a little too late pal. the damage this guy has done is still apparent because in almost all of the places online, including the TOP RESULT for searching "bocchi the rock manga", they still use this guy's awful, rushed, and - let's be honest - homophobic scans instead of the new ones that are actually good.

oh and of course only one guy in the thread actually calls out OP for censoring it in the first place, and then another guy backs up OP and that's the end of that.

these things are small, but it feels like being queer is just kinda not possible nowadays. everyone tries to take it away from us and it's inescapable, even in the places we go to in order to get away from all the bullshit and awful stuff happening in the real world.

stuff like this seems minor but it sends a very real message to queer fans of stuff like this:

we can't have anything.

[sleepis4theweak]

Hiya! I’m kind of a small creator on here and trying to get my rottmnt fic an audience but no matter what I do as promo material (art, skits, rambles) nothing ever works to get more than like 2 notes max. I’m confident in my story’s quality so I’m fairly sure that’s not the issue. I was wondering if you have any advice or anything like that? Your stuff is lovely and get a lot of community engagement so I’m curious if there was anything you actively did that helped you grow! I hope this doesn’t come off as rude or desperate, I just wanted to know if I was missing something since I’m pretty new to Tumblr. Enjoy your day ^^

Don't worry! You don't come off as rude or desperate at all!! <3

But tbh... you are asking the wrong person here...

I'm going into marketing, and I spent a full school year in high school doing an independent study on social media algorithms. So I know a LOT about how to grow social media followings- specifically instagram accounts.

But I never actually studied tumblr. I used to use instagram as a platform, but knowing how the algorithm worked was too stressful for me... I'd post stuff and be like "the algorithm won't like this because blah blah blah." Eventually I was drawing for the algorithm and not for me, and so I quit because it just wasn't fun anymore...

Which is why I have very specifically not studied Tumblr's algorithm, because I don't want it to turn into the same situation as with instagram. So I don't know a ton about how to grow a following... and also I've only been on tumblr for 5 months...

THAT BEING SAID: I can walk you through my tumblr and how it's grown!

My very first post was of a meme redraw with the 2012 turtles. I think it got around 1,600 likes?

I posted a couple more things, with varying amounts of likes and such. My first comic (which I never actually completed past the first part) got a total of 7 likes within the first months of posting it. Only when I got more followers did the like amount change.

When I posted my first chapter of the Flashbacks AU, I had 33 or so followers. I think I got to like... 300 followers from that first chapter alone. From there it was just... a steady growth of followers I guess. And with followers comes more reblogs, and with more reblogs comes more followers.

I have around 1,600 followers now. Not everyone is gonna like my posts, I think I get around 20 for responded asks and 100-300 for random pieces of art. Comics get closers to 600 or so. It depends on the content.

I think there are a couple of universal things that help grow an account:

1- Making sure your content is reaching the right people. Put the right tags in. Go crazy with them in fact. If I'm posting a piece with Rise Mikey in it, Im gonna tag: Mikey, Mikey tmnt, Mikey 2018, ROTTMNT, Rise Mikey, etc etc. On instagram they are currently trying to get people to limit their use of tags, but I don't think the same thing applies here. Even tho tags don't help as much here, they are still a good tool!

2- Consistency. Idk how it works on this platform, but consistency is generally a good thing! With instagram theres an actual method to it (1 post a day= good, but the more posts you do a day the less people it shows it to), it might be worth it to look up if tumblr has something similar.

3- Have fun with it! I know this is kinda lame to say... but don't change your content for views. Just... do what you like and eventually your target audience will find you :)

4- Engage with what audience you do have! It's fun to bond with people online, and it helps that "community engagement" piece you talked about!

5-... stalk people hehe. (By which I mean: Look at what other artists post! What tags do they use, do they reblog their own posts a lot, etc etc. Also look at artists with similar followings to your own. For example, studying Cass might not be very helpful, because Cass has a large amount of followers and I'm convinced they could post a picture of a blank canvas and still get 1,000 likes hehe... BUT- I mean you could scroll down to Cass' (or other artist's) first posts and see what they were doing then! Just... observe others I suppose!)

Id love to tell you likes don’t matter, that what matters is having fun and loving what you are drawing. But also I do know how it feels to post something you are really proud of and then have no one like it- it sucks.

But just keep on going :) You'll find your people eventually I'm sure.

OH ALSO: IF ANYONE ELSE HAS ANY TIPS FEEL FREE TO REBLOG AND ADD STUFF IN!!! <3

[freshrained]

BOY WITHOUT A CAR / A.I

Requested; no, but requests are open!

Pair; Ashton x reader

Note; first longer writing that im posting to Tumblr, and its sort of an au, based in 2013/2014. this has been sitting in my drafts for almost two years and it just needs to be posted lol, please be kind & i would love any type of feedback. more to come

Prompt; somewhat based off of boy without a car by the vamps

Word count; 1k

———

He sat there under the tree just glancing at her while trying to remember the rhythms he had to know for band practice later.

It was his typical spot, usually to just watch her with her friends. Everyday he'd come to the same tree in the courtyard of school. Most of the time it was a way for him to get away from his friends that were pissing him off, but he just wanted to see her, other than at 3AM.

He knew her, but she didn’t talk to him while they were at school, or public in general. He understood though, she was popular and he wasn’t. He was just in a lame band and he didn’t quite have himself figured out.

His fingers had stopped moving and he realized that he was staring at her, when she glared back he knew he had to leave. He just wanted to talk to her, tell her how he felt, but he knew she wouldn’t feel the same way about him.

hey pretty face, I need to tell you something xx

He sent it as soon as he was out of her sight. He couldn’t get over her, and the fact that he knew she didn’t even care about the ‘friends’ she was with, even if she never really got close with them.

Ashton knew she didn’t get close to anyone, but he was an exception, and he still didn’t understand the girl.

“Bro you’re late. Again,” Calum muttered, confused to who he had been texting, and he used to never be late to a band practice.

“I know, just kinda got caught up at school,” Ashton didn’t even think twice about his answer and avoided eye contact with the dark haired boy.

“Ash, come on that’s been your excuse for the last week, what the hell is going on?” Calum quirked a brow, not putting up with his bullshit.

“Calum, I’m serious, school has been kicking my ass and I’ve been trying to learn new songs, promise it won’t happen again,” he looked up at Calum, defeated because he didn’t want Calum to be disappointed in him.

“Just fucking play the songs,” Calum spat, hoping Ashton would spill at some point what he was actually doing.

“Stop being such a fucking asshole, Calum,” Luke glared at him, being the only person to know what Ashton was dealing with, he knew Ashton was being lead on, he knew Ashton was gonna get hurt at some point. He tried to tell Ashton and he wouldn’t listen.

“Guys its fine, he’s right, I’ve been late recently, I’ll step it up,” Ashton mumbled while sitting on the drum stool, hoping they would just drop the subject.

“How do we expect him to be on time when he doesn’t have a car and rides a bike?” Michael spoke up, trying to help Ashton out, even though he didn’t really know what was happening.

———

Once band practice was over, Ashton didn’t even know what to do. He still had 4 hours until he could go and meet her, so he decided to keep texting her and he knew it was a bad idea.

You know, ive never met a girl like you

Im glad i did though

Because you always have me wanting more

She never responded to him, but it was normal. He’d text her, she wouldn’t respond and they would still end up meeting at 3AM anyways. It was always at the park, and even though she didn’t wanna be seen with him, she went with it, and has kept with it.

3:01AM

“Ash you’re late,” she faintly smiled, hoping he would sit next to her.

“I know, just kind of confused because you still show up, and still meet me here. And I know you don’t get close to anyone. I’m just wondering how we got this far I guess,” he rambled taking the seat next to her. Ashton was so caught up in looking at her, he didn’t even realize she was speaking to him.

“I don’t know, you’re just easy to talk to I guess, you understand me, trust me I’m surprised we still meet every night too,” she hoped she didn’t lead him on because it was all fun in the beginning until she caught feelings for the boy she couldn’t be seen with.

“Don’t quite understand how this happened though, like I’m just a boy without a car, you have a car, you have guys lined up with cars that want to date you.  I ride my bike everywhere, and that’s no way to get around. like girls like you don’t talk to guys like me. and it’s so easy to talk to you, like I literally pour my heart and soul out to you and you don’t ever judge me, I just wish you felt the same way about me,” the last part he whispered, hoping she didn’t catch it.

“Fuck Ashton, if you had any idea about the way I felt about you, you wouldn’t be left high and dry all of the time,” she looked up at him, thankful something was finally being done about it.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He was confused, especially because she felt the same way towards him, even if she ignored him at school and wouldn’t ever respond to his messages.

“If it hasn’t been obvious this whole time, I like you, and I love talking to you, I know I might not be good at showing that, but if you wouldn’t be a dumb boy for 2 seconds you would know I like you back and would of interacted with you more,” she was messing with the hole in her jeans, becoming more nervous by the second because she really did like him and wished she hadn’t treated him the way that she did.

“y’know, you’re like rain, I love to drown myself in it,” Ashton smiled, glad his feelings finally got across to her.

“Glad to say that I feel the same way,”  she smiled, thankful for all of the times they met up to talk at 3AM.

[darthchic]

It’s literally been years since I’ve posted anything TMNT related on here (mostly I just come on here to lurk… That’s such a great word…)

But I have now seen TMNT: Mutant Mayhem and I wanted to jot down my thoughts before I forget, cause I freakin’ LOVED it!

- first off, loved the animation, it was hideously beautiful, an imperfect beauty. I mean, the style is supposed to look like a teenager’s messy scribbles, right? And it does.

- Did anyone else get ‘Stranger Things’ vibes from the background music at times? Guess they wanted to inject a little 80s/90s flavour. Understandable.

- Most people seem to have a favourite turtle and mine is still Leo. I’ve not consumed every iteration of the turtles, especially not the comics, but for everything I’ve seen, he’s always consistently won my heart. He’s just such a GOOD BOI! My blue lame-o dork (said with much affection)

- I was just awwwing away during that scene where they were watching ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. For me, it’s really the first time a version of the turtles really hammered in the longing the boys have to be a part of the human world and be normal teenagers. And seeing Leo notice a couple snuggling together and clearly wanting something like that himself? My boy just wants some romance dagnabbit!

- They added another element of sentimentality into Splinter’s backstory. Establishing that as a common rat, humans didn’t like him, and not many other animals liked him either. And then he finds these baby turtles who just love him unconditionally from the start? You can kinda see why he’s overprotective and a tad clingy. And when all those people made him drop his babies on the street, and Mikey onto the road in front of incoming traffic, it was a very “HOW DARE YOU” moment for me.

- April was a pretty cool character, I liked that she could relate to the turtles’ goal of wanting to achieve something great in order to be accepted. Throwing up in front of your school would be hard for a teen to live down. Poor Puke Girl. But I also liked that April kinda realises, at least from my point of view, that even though she went through something humiliating, it really doesn’t compare to what the turtles have to deal with. Maybe she even realised that she takes what she has for granted? So, I love that by the end, she was more focused on helping the turtles find acceptance rather than trying to help herself.

- Then the same could be said for the turtles. They still wanted to be heroes, even if that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be accepted by humans. It was so cute seeing Leo hype up his bros; I think the music for this scene is called “Better Than Mark Ruffalo”, and I had to go find it to listen to it again, cause it puts a smile on my face. Plus, Raph is able to tip over a van with his bare hands. Do they all have super strength or is this just the awesome power of Raph’s rage?

- Can I say, I was kinda shocked that SuperFly was allowed to say things like “Piss me off” in a PG rated movie? I’m so used to PG movies being extra kiddie-proof, where even words like *gasp* God and “kill” are seen as baaaaaaad words

- It’s kinda amusing to me that only poor Mikey and Raph got their blood sucked by the ‘Milking Machine’ and Leo and Donnie got off scot free. Though they did all get electrocuted several times before that.

- Also, Cynthia Utrom, is she gonna reveal that she’s really a tiny alien in a robot body some time down the road, or is this gonna be a red herring?

- I think the all-star cast they had for all the extra mutants (minus Ice Cube as SuperFly) was kinda wasted a little bit, but if they’re brought back for the sequel and the series then I’m assuming they’ll get a bit more attention.

- Seeing the turtles going to school was such a sweet new take, I imagine there’s probably a few fanfic authors out there screeching

- As for any romantic subplots, I don’t think people are gonna be as bothered by Leo’s crush on April as they were by Donnie’s crush in the 2012 series. But, we’ll see how the series deals with it going forward, especially if they decide to re-introduce Casey. Please not another love triangle! Does anyone even like those things anymore!?

- And uh, Splinter’s ‘relationship’ with Scumbug? Well, at least he’s happy…

- And last but not least, the reveal of Shredder at the end of the mid credits scene... Why is he connected to TCRI? Will the Foot Clan still exist? Is Shredder really just gonna be some bounty hunter for TCRI? Cause I feel Shredder always needs a much grander role, or a more personal vendetta with the turtles, and seemingly with Splinter no longer being Hamato Yoshi or having any connection with that character, I wonder where they’re going with this version of the Shredder?

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (16/04/23)

took it easy this week, so no crazy catch up like last one

things of note this week are the new pokeanime and Kill Blue, by the author of kuroko no basket

Anime

Pokemon (2023) Ep1 - 2

I've been asking for ash to get retired for a billion years so I was STOKED when they announced that was actually gonna happen. he still didn't deserve to become champion with all the cheating he's always done but it was inevitable if he was to get taken out back. but onto better things. the new pokemon anime! it's really good! I wasn't sure about it, since pokemon has been airing for 20+ years but it felt like a breath of fresh air. the animation wasn't animation to write home about, even the fight with charizard and ceruledge looked good but it wasn't anything crazy, but it had some fancy looking scenery shots. it's strongest point was riko and sprigatito tho, their interactions are cute and endearing. anyway there's more I could say but I waited to write this til I was done with manga, cause I finished ep 2 like right when the chaps came out, so forgot some of the stuff I wanted to say, but that's the basic gist of it. it's really good, if you like pokemon you'll wanna be watching it.

Mashle Ep2

oh hey they got to the first scene that made me go "oh maybe this can be something special after all" in the manga, still nothing impressive in terms of animation but, again, the start is p chill til it becomes a battle series so we'll see

Jigokuraku Ep3

another good ep, still sticking very closely to the manga and nothing too special in terms of animation, but the sword fighting isn't bad also love seeing my lad gabi being such a wifeguy

Manga

Kill Blue Ch1

fujimaki-sensei of kuroko no basket fame is back on jump! I really enjoyed robo x laserbeam when that ran some years ago (golf sports manga) but it ended up getting axed. kill blue is their newest series, based on their previous one shot with a similar name, like I mentioned in that news post some time ago. anyway, it's kinda like sakamoto and conan, a legendary assassin gets turned into a child and due to various reasons has to go back to school. the first chap was p decent, fujimaki's art is still great and the premise isn't bad so hoping for good things. hope it doesn't get stuck in the "old man goes back to school" thing and does some more stuff but I trust in fujimaki. also calling it here now that his daughter is gonna ge transfered to his class eventually, since they specifically mentioned she's around his (now reduced) age, so he'll get to interact with her and get to know her and become a better dad cause of that

Dandadan Ch101

always funny when yukinobu just drop visuals like this outta nowhere nice chap tho, momo got a new power and we're learning a bit more about vamola before she re-enters the fray

Saihate Quartet Ch9

they really went and made me him into an eboy huh

Kaiju 8 Ch84

another very poggies chap bless, it's been good to see kikoru's character growth

Pension Life Vampire Ch3

another cute chap, like usual, and keeping my yuri alarms ringing let's go

Tokyo Underworld Ch37

not a bad chap, kinda lame jeanne just gets to walk away but at least the mcs realized there's an amogus

Ichigoki's Under Control!! Ch19 (Finale)

MAN it's finally over, thank god, I thought shugomaru was a bad comedy, but at least it made me chuckle once, and when it learned it was gonna get axed it went wild and actually did something remotely decent, ichigoki was just bad from start to finish this is the first 1 I've ever given, and as rude as it might be, I hope the author doesn't do anything else on jump again

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch21

just when I thought maybe it was getting better it takes another turn for the worse, not really much more to say than I just want it to end already

Fabricant 100 Ch18

hey another decent chap not bad, was expecting him to just copy the way andy uses his powers in UU but they went a different creative route so that's good, still think the series' doomed but the author has improved since the start, which is a good sign for their future stuff

Jiangshi X Ch12

alright chap, not much to say tbh, still expecting a timeskip soon but we'll see

Witch Watch Ch105

I thought it was just gonna be a silly chap with comedian moi as the punchline, but there was actually some plot progression so that's nice

Cipher Academy Ch20

a very good chap, the end was especially hype, maybe the medaka comeback is still on the table for nisio after all. I can only hope so

Tenmaku Cinema Ch2

really good chap 2, himeki is very intense but she's also p goofy, which makes for a good contrast. wasn't too sure on chap 1 but yeah this'll be good, you can really feel the author's love for movies and tosh's art is sharper than ever

Blue Box Ch97

another very good chap, it's still funny to me that the jump sports manga is actually a shoujo romance but it's really such a good blend of the two, god bless miura

Mashle Ch152

he's back baby!!! finally time for the final showdown

Sakamoto Days Ch115

good chap, the scene with sakamoto jumping the bridge was very pog, got to see slur's motivation too

Undead Unluck Ch155

this is an unexpected duo but they're p funny together

The Elusive Samurai Ch106

good lord that was an intense chap, very curious about how they're gonna get out of this. shouldn't be that much left til the manga ends either since takauji is the final boss, but it's had a good run

Akane-banashi Ch58

another great chap, not only did we get to know seiyuu-chan's motivations, akane is also learning more about herself and her art

[melodyofmeows]

intro :D

hi, i’m syd! i’m a sixteen year old woman type of thing who identifies as queer and genderqueer. i am fat and mentally ill (i’m saying all of this right off the bat so i don’t get any lame people following me)

i’m always looking for mutuals of any fandom, just comment/like/reblog to let me know

i am not new to tumblr despite this being a pretty inactive and dead account, but i haven’t been active for many years so it’s all new to me!!! i’m gonna introduce myself and hopefully i can pin this post but i don’t actually know if i can lol, enjoy

i am multifandom! my posts can be a bit chaotic, i usually become obsessed with something and forget about it later LMAO

in no particular order:

analog horror (many series ex. the mandela catalogue, monument mythos, gemini home, etc.)

splatoon (i started playing a few weeks ago and i love 3 sm!!! big man has my whole heart)

animal crossing (very near and dear to my heart, grew up playing this series)

deltarune (i didn’t play undertale whoops but i enjoy it still and am excited for 3-5)

dhmis (the new series really got me back into it, i loved the original as a kid too!)

rilakkuma (i can talk about the shows for hours)

dni! do not interact if you apply to any of these

-13 or +18

racists, homophobes, fatphobes, xenophobes, bigots

ed tumblr or any side of tumblr that is harmful (i’m in recovery for many things so i do not enjoy or will not put myself in a position to see that content)

if you post animal crossing nsfw i hate it sm

screenshot from my carrd! a bit outdated but yk

anywho, that’s my little intro :D i hope you enjoyed and if you’re interested in being mutuals just let me know!!! i’m always looking for new friends 🫶