#it is not as complicated as it looks at least like the basics aren’t! and then you build from there!

[steveharrington]

another rant about the crochet community and idk how to fully articulate this so bear with me but. you can acknowledge that crocheting takes time and patience and skill to learn while also being encouraging about others learning it. i feel like so many big accounts will constantly talk about crochet as if it’s like literally rocket science and there’s only a select few who were gifted with the ability to do it and i think it’s partially a sales tactic for certain people who have etsy stores because like. if you tell people that crocheting this amigurumi that’s really nothing more than a sphere with safety eyes can be done with honestly a few hours of practice and dedication, then they won’t pay you $20 for it. and this is where it gets dicey because i don’t wanna knock anyone’s hustle, i understand that people absolutely deserve to be paid for their time and labor and materials, but also i feel like that kind of rhetoric dissuades people from learning the skill. i saw a post the other day that was like “you think crocheting is easy? we’re making hundreds of little knots over and over again, we have to worry about yarn tension and choosing the right hook and designing patterns etc etc etc” and it’s like. some of that is true yeah. but some of it is intentionally taking something easy and accessible and trying to make it sound complicated so that someone who’s never tried before will be discouraged before they even start. choosing the right hook? you look at the little number on your yarn and it tells you which hook to use. boom. and i’m not saying crocheting is easy, believe me i cried when i was learning the magic ring, but at the end of the day i crocheted a (very janky very improperly done) octopus on my first day! everyone can crochet and idk why people who claim to love the craft want to make it a competition and try to scare beginners off of it because like. these skills used to be so so commonplace when sewing and crocheting and knitting and quilting was a necessity to making your own clothes/blankets/toys/etc. little girls were taught these skills by their mothers and they were passed throughout communities with a lot less resources than we have now like the abundance of step by step youtube tutorials. idk it’s just weird to me how many people who have success crocheting have this “don’t even bother it’s too hard” mentality when asked questions by beginners. yes it’s a skill and yes it takes time and effort but it’s accessible to everyone

[un-lawliet]

Hellooo hope ur having a good day! Can I request the first years founding out about Y/N being Gojo’s girlfriend and Megumi is not surprised at all LOL they’re literally his parents. <333

(THANK YOU FOR THE REQUEST I ADORE THIS TROUPE THANK YOU THANK YOU i hope this is ok :)))) )

“Not So Secret.”

— In which the first years want to find out what is distracting their teacher, and Megumi is fed up.

“This is stupid.”

“Shut up Megumi!”

It was stupid.

It was stupid that Nobara and Yuji were peering through a crack in the door using each-other to balance as they both held awkward positions to see, fixated on catching the conversation that their teacher was having over the phone, in what Itadori coined as the “Secret Mission”.

“This is the fourth time he’s stopped teaching to answer his phone.” Yuji whispers, raising his finger to rest on his chin, his eyebrows scrunched in conviction.

“Exactly!” Nobara adds, whipping her head to look at Megumi eyes narrowed, crossing her arms, “It’s weird.”

They should be training, their weapons left abandoned in the training yard. It was Nobara’s idea to follow the white haired sorcerer, and Yuji had dragged Megumi along, despite his complaints, claiming, with a look of acute determination, that this was far, far more important than any training.

Satoru Gojo was an enigma to even those closest to him, his actions seemingly devoid of a will or want for understanding. His borderline erratic nature is what made this new repeated routine of ditching the first years for a something so benign as a phone call so inanely baffling.

“S’not that weird.” Megumi mumbled, because it wasn’t, because despite his constant affirmation that he was forced into a family with Gojo, he knew the man, and he knew who Gojo was calling.

The way the man’s entire face lit up when he glanced at his ringing phone, how he practically skipped out of the classroom without a second glance to his precious students.

His glee was palpable.

Gojo was on the phone with you…obviously.

“Itadori move I can’t see!”

“Huh? Aren’t we supposed to be listening???”

“Yes! But I can’t hear anything over your stupid breath in my ear, back up!”

“But then how am I gonna hear!?”

They were being way too loud, Gojo could absolutely sense them, even without his six eyes, and Megumi couldn’t understand why their teacher was pretending not to notice.

—“Maybe if you stopped talking we would actually hear something!” Itadori huffed.

“You stop talking!”

“No, I think I’ll talk plenty.”

“Megumi.” Nobara hissed, both her and Yuji now staring at him, “Take this idiot away please.”

“Both of you are being loud y’know?” Megumi deadpanned.

And they both glared at him indignantly.

“Well at least we’re trying!” Itadori frowned, “You’re standing so far back, there’s no way you can hear from there.”

Megumi could easily tell them, at this point he was considering it just to get them to stop this God awful attempt to spy.

But honestly? It was too warm outside to train and Megumi the was not in the mood to sweat today, and with Gojo distracted he could guarantee at least ten more minutes where he could relax.

When he had first moved in with Gojo, he remembers how the man paced around his apartment, practicing ways in which to tell you he’d basically adopted two children, on a random evening without telling you first.

Megumi recalls how Tsumiki had giggled, a sweet smile of her face, and asked if you were his girlfriend to which Gojo began to gush about you.

Your hair, your eyes, the way you laughed at his jokes, Gojo had shared every little detail about you, only freezing when Megumi insisted, “So, she isn’t your girlfriend then?”

“It’s complicated, you wouldn’t get it.” Gojo had glared, hands on his hips as he muttered “Brat” under his breath.

And Megumi held back a grin.

Now, almost ten years later, you had practically become a Mother to Megumi, doting on him and Tsumiki without question.

You were a teacher in Jujitsu Tech, just like Gojo, only you took the second year students under your wing, and you adored teaching them.

Every mission you came back from, you came with pretty bows to match Tsumikis hair, and when Megumi started using his technique you were his biggest cheerleader, bringing his demon dogs treats, and patting his head with shiny eyes, weeping about how proud you were of him.

And at some point the white haired idiot managed to finally grasp your affections, Megumi doesn’t know how or when but he does remember over hearing Gojos obnoxious laugh after he kissed you when he assumed nobody else was home.

Brazenly declaring his love for you in which you bashfully reciprocated, leaning into him with a giggle.

“You’re laughing.” Gojo had said, “I told you a joke and you’re laughing, I love you.”

And Megumi ignored how he had to hold back a smile, refusing to acknowledge the warm feeling of family that resonated in his chest.

He was good at playing oblivious.

“How is someone so loud so hard to hear?!” Nobara was back to pressing her ear against the door, ignoring the two boys. “I mean seriously it’s like he’s not even there!”

He probably wasn’t, Megumi thinks, Gojo likes to mess with people, he would never give up this opportunity to tease his students.

Nobara was facing them again, her eyes crinkled with mischief, before she’s gesturing to Yuji.

“Itadori, come here.”

“What? Didn’t you just say to back up?”

…

“Come here.”

“Ok.”

Megumi watched, amused as Yuji made his way back to her, oblivious to the devilish look in her eye.

“Now what? I can’t hear anything either you know, so what do you-”

Itadori yelped as Nobara pushed him through the door, a charming “Of you go!” on her lips.

Both she and Megumi jumped to each side of the door, shielding themselves from the eyes of anyone who was in the room as Itadori groaned.

“The hell Kugisaki? You could have just asked me to go in, I would have done it!” He pouted, rubbing his head.

Nobara rolled her eyes, “Is he there you idiot?”

“Is who- Wait huh???”

Nobara moved to look into the room, trailing Megumi behind her, curiosity getting the better of her.

The room was empty, a door leading to the back of the school hanging open, Itadori stood, his mouth open as he pointed furiously.

“Is that Y/N?” He gasped, his eyes shining with disbelief.

And Nobara glanced over, her eyes widening as she watched you kiss Gojo on the cheek, the pair of you holding hands as Gojo ate an ice cream that you must have brought back with you.

“Y/N and Gojo? Gojo and Y/N?” Nobara and Yuji were speechless.

“Megumi look, look!” Itadori grabbed Megumis shoulder and yet again, Megumi found himself being dragged against his will.

Gojo was looking at you, a ridiculous smile painting his features, as you fussed over him, readjusting his blindfold, so you could see his pretty eyes.

“There you are.” You sighed, your voice light as he winked at you.

“How was the mission hm? You’re back early.” Gojo mused, a hand reaching up to pinch your cheek, pulling it slightly, “Someone’s getting stronger.”

“Would you rather I stayed away longer?” You teased, swatting his hand away.

“Nah, how would I get ice cream during a hard days work without you.” And you gasped, your eyes flitting over his face.

“I completely forgot! You’re teaching I’m sorry oh my God-”

You’re cut off by his laughter, leaning down to whisper cheekily in your ear, “Look behind you baby.”

And you did, your eyes widening as you see Gojo’s first year class poorly hiding, observing the pair of you.

“Ah.” You sighed, then your eyes widened “Wait Gumi’s there too?”

Gojo pulled you back to look at him, nodding “He’s really opening up huh? I knew he would~”

You nod, opening your mouth to reply, before you were suddenly interrupted by Nobara and Itadori’s horrified exclamation;

“YOU KNEW??”

And as you heard Megumi’s groan, trying to silence his stupid friends, you and Gojo both laughed, leaning into each other, enjoying the company.

the end.

masterlist here <3

(A/N : i love writing nobara, she’s lit my fave character after Gojo i think- BUT also i love hana i hate that people hate her because she’s a “nobara replacement” she ISNT leave her alone!!!)

ANYWAY THANK U FOR THE REQUEST I HOPE THIS IS WAS OK :))

[sunnnfish]

Okay OKAY I wasn’t gonna propagandize the summer hikaru died but ive been thinking a little too much about it. SORRY I’ve been basically recommending a hundred different series. If you think my posts are all over the place you should see my brain. Anyways.

The THING about the summer hikaru died. The many things about it. That are getting to me. Number one the overwhelming feeling of SUMMER. Almost every page has the sound effects of cicadas or rain and sweat on everyone’s bodies. It’s so immersive, to me at least. It’s like it never lets you forget. A constant droning it feels like everyone has to speak a little louder to be heard. Something oppressive lives here, and it’s not just the eldritch horrors.

Number TWO. Grief. But in like that horror way. Mourning somebody no one else knows is gone. I’m just gonna say it bc it’s revealed in like the first 5 pages it’s body replacement. Some.. thing replaces the main characters best friend and it’s like. The twisting feeling in your gut looking at something that you should know but knowing it’s not the same anymore. It’s someone else. Look at this page I can’t stop thinking about it

[ID: A panel from Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu. Yoshiki sits with his head on his desk, drawn so his face and body are streaking down the page in smears of black. Around him float black text bubbles with scratchy text saying "To move on." Then he lifts his head with a gasp when someone exclaims, "Finally! There you are!" End ID]

That’s fucking GRIEF a sinking terrible grief. That nobody in their right mind could understand. But it’s also like. Christ it’s the mitsuba sousuke tbhk dilemma it’s that this new thing is it’s own person too. They aren’t the same but it’s damn near impossible to separate them because they look the same and act the same and desperately want to be the same. They want to be alive.

THREE. Cannot forget the queerness. The queer allegories and actual queerness are intense. Grotesqueness and horror at being different. Feeling like you know something is bad but you can’t help but enjoy it. Gut wrenching desire mixed in with every complicated feeling about losing your best friend while something pilots his body almost perfectly. It’s very fucked up. ALSO. Fear at being found out. Self hatred for being grotesque and different and not what everyone wants. Not what he wants.

Anyways uuuhhhh.yeah the summer hikaru died is fascinating to me. I love the feeling of it. Gives me chills. It’s cool 👍🏻 ALSO THE ART IS SO. GOOD. Haunting. I love it.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Behind the locked door

In honor of Izuku’s mask disintegrating into rubble, I think it’s finally time for me to really dig deep into his character. I’ve been keeping this one in my back pocket for a while. Amid all the talk about Izuku’s fading narration, the “control your heart” subplot, I’ve been trying to find the words to articulate how I know exactly where this is going, at least on a certain level. Most recently, I read this meta from pika who brings up how the word “control” alone can be misconstrued (by us). And then I thought about how a while back I made a similar point, although I said Izuku was the one who got it wrong. At that time, I was holding back a huge piece of evidence because it was external to the story and I wasn’t sure it would be received well. As a result, my argument fell a little flat. Well, now—after 411, right before leaks for 412—it might be my last chance to play this card.

So about that external evidence. I struggle to bring it up because it’s gonna sound an awful lot like I’m projecting onto Izuku if I don’t do it justice. But… I look at the way his storyline has been going lately and I see a pattern emerging that I’m very familiar with. Fortunately, I don’t have to dump a bunch of personal junk on you in order to illustrate this pattern, because a certain personality typing system already has it all figured out: the Enneagram.

Now, hang on. I’m not one to put people in boxes. My trans ass? I managed to get a different result every time I retook the P0ttermore quiz. MBTI, zodiacs—not my thing. But the Enneagram comes the closest I’ve ever seen to covering all the bases and revealing actually meaningful insight, at least for myself. On top of that, I find it extremely useful for fleshing out fictional characters, hence this post will be taking advantage of that.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, here’s a quick overview: The Enneagram consists of 9 individual personality types, each arranged carefully in a sequential, circular manner. They are also simply named 1 through 9. While this might seem kinda basic, there is actually a surprising amount of nuance and fluidity involved. Typing is done largely through personal introspection (you don’t really have to take a test). Adjacent numbers share some core themes with each other, and according to a web of arrows between them, one type can take on either positive or negative traits associated with other types depending on how emotionally ‘healthy’ they are, causing a lengthy spectrum of different ways each type can manifest. That part gets kinda complicated to explain here, so for more info, the Enneagram Institute website is a decent place to start. I also highly recommend the Enneagram album by Sleeping At Last (and if you really want to dedicate some time, the accompanying podcast) to really get inside the heads of the types on a deeper level.

My interest in applying the Enneagram to Izuku comes from observing how differently one can interpret his character based on whether you read him as a 2 or a 9. And even though no one uses this language to talk about him, the distinction accounts for a bunch of different rifts in the fandom: whether you appreciate bkdk’s relationship, whether you can acknowledge Izuku’s flaws and weaknesses, the severity of his vigilante/rogue phase, and most importantly the gravity of his concealed heart, his rage, and what it all means—what he needs in order to grow and triumph.

Discussion of Enneagram types in the fandom is pretty scarce, but where it exists, I have only seen him labeled as a 2. Type 9 and type 2 can be similar at a glance in a lot of ways (actually, 9s can be mistaken for any type because they are like all of them combined). It’s easy to see Izuku as a 2 because he is the helping hero archetype. He puts others’ needs above his own and he is always ready and eager to help. If you listen to Sleeping At Last’s song for 2, you’ll notice that it’s all about care and noble sacrifice with the underlying theme of neglecting or even harming oneself: “I just want to build you up, until your good as new, and maybe one day I will get around to fixing myself too.” Sounds pretty obvious, right? Well, here’s the thing. You really get to know what your type is by how it hits you where it hurts, so I like to focus on each type’s basic fear and basic desire, first and foremost, as a tell. A 2′s basic fear is of being worthless and unloved. Consequently, their most basic desire is to be loved. And 2s have been taught through their negative experiences that love is conditional, something they have to earn from others. They need to be needed. So let’s say you think Izuku is a 2. This means you consider his heroic, self-sacrificing tendencies to be a result of his growing up quirkless and being told he is worthless and powerless because of it. Through this lens, he is trying to prove himself to the world by being useful. Along these lines, you may also assume he is trying to prove himself to Katsuki. Taking this train of thought even further, you may interpret Izuku’s relationship with Katsuki as an obsession of his, where he is either blind to Katsuki’s more negative traits in favor of gaining his love and praise, or else bitterly determined to prove him wrong. This is how a 2 might behave in an unhealthy relationship with an 8, which, yes, I do think Katsuki is an 8. That’s a tangent for another time, though.

But does Izuku ever “need to be needed?” It’s worth noting that while 2s’ search for validation might seem insincere, it is actually motivated by a deep, heartbreaking insecurity. They think they don’t even deserve love unless they are useful to someone, so they do everything they can to be worthy. Does Izuku show signs of this motivation?

If I stop to think about it, I can’t exactly see this in Izuku’s character. Yeah, his dream is to be a hero, and in his childhood, he was denied that dream. However I think we need to take a step back from that for a second if we want to dig deep. I mean, a lot of the other characters also behave heroically, act selflessly, and strive to help. Does that mean all of them are 2s as well? Of course not. So let’s instead turn to observe how Izuku acts with his loved ones, friends, and peers in other/adjacent contexts:

Inko: He is committed to protecting his mother from fearing for his safety. He wants to be good enough to not cause her to worry, rather than good enough to make her proud or make her love him. Idk about his father but at this point I think it’s safe to assume he is deeply unimportant.

All Might: I would describe their relationship as one of mutual responsibility. Izuku feels a responsibility to uphold All Might’s legacy, All Might feels a responsibility to teach him well. Because of this mutuality, I don’t think it quite makes sense to say Izuku deliberately seeks approval for its own sake. You know what I mean? They may be a mentor and a pupil but in practice they are almost more like co-conspirators. They don’t really have a power dynamic going on.

Shouto, Tenya, other friends: Izuku seems to take an interest in what makes his friends tick, and he sets himself aside in order to both analytically and intuitively determine what’s wrong and how to solve it. Examples include his fight against Shouto in the sports festival, and his stubborn concern for Tenya’s reaction to his brother’s forced retirement. He will put himself in the line of fire specifically when confronted with another person’s inner demons. This is not a labor that is asked of professional heroes, it’s just who Izuku is. You can also extend this observation to how he sees through Tomura to Tenko, but I’ll get to that later. Basically, while 2s seek to help in all kinds of ways, a 9’s strategy is always centered on the realm of the mind.

Kota: Adjacent to the paragraph above, before Izuku literally gets into a position where he needs to save Kota, he becomes interested in the boy’s point of view out of genuine curiosity. He doesn’t go “oh no, this kid doesn’t like heroes, I better get him to like heroes.” Instead he seeks out information as to why he thinks that way, and patiently listens. He’s sorry about what happened to Kota, and he understands. Twice (ch 71 and 72), he recognizes the fact that everyone has their own point of view on quirks, and he can’t really do anything about that.

Mirio: This might be one of the most telling examples. Mirio is the platonic ideal of an All Might successor. He’s “perfect.” He even looks the part. While this initially makes Izuku uncomfortable, he doesn’t become insecure and defensive over it. On the contrary, he easily comes to the conclusion that actually, Mirio should have One for All. Just like that (ch 172). If Mirio hadn’t dismissed the “hypothetical,” he probably would have gone through with giving it to him. That’s not how a 2 would respond. A 2 would double down and aim to be better than Mirio by trying to establish some relationship of need, fueled by the insecurity. Their shared subplot with Eri would have looked pretty different, I think.

Katsuki: I’ve mentioned before that I believe their rivalry only exists because Katsuki put it there. First of all, we can see that after the sludge villain incident, Izuku weirdly takes Katsuki’s dismissal of Izuku’s help as practical advice. Like, “oh yeah, I guess what I did was pretty stupid and dangerous, and I’m not cut out for this hero stuff. Now I can move on and find a realistic career.” Hello?? He accepted that so easily. So Izuku clearly isn’t motivated by a desire to prove himself to Katsuki. Even when he proclaims he’s going to surpass him, it’s like he’s happily mimicking Katsuki, not reacting based on insecurity or pride. Izuku is content to meet Katsuki wherever he is, and he’s satisfied with whatever kind of relationship they are able to have, including a rivalry, so he isn’t vying for his affection either. We can observe this when he gives up the role of reaching out a hand to save Katsuki to Kirishima, and also when he thinks about how “blessed” he is to even have a normal conversation with Katsuki. He doesn’t push things. It’s also stated in Deku vs. Kacchan 2 that Izuku doesn’t excuse or overlook Katsuki’s “bad side” but still admires him for his other traits. This is not at all characteristic of a toxic 2x8 relationship.

When 2s are at their very worst or pushed into unhealthy situations, they tend to become more needy and self-centered, even downright manipulative. But at Izuku’s worst, when he went rogue, he pushed everyone away to avoid being a burden. When the refugees at UA tried to prevent him from returning, he was like, “you’re right” and would have turned back immediately if not for his friends, loved ones, and other people who care about him telling him it was all okay. Meanwhile, Katsuki, in true 8 fashion, was pissed off at being rejected and having to deal with Izuku’s stubborn and evasive side (oh yeah, have I mentioned 9s are actually stubborn as hell?), but he made sure to establish that they are (he is) here to step in when Izuku can’t handle things by himself. Katsuki even opened up and admitted to his own weaknesses to show why mutual support is so important. Tbh, a lot of the above can be construed as just super healthy type 2 behavior, but not this. The way Izuku acts at his lowest, and his dynamic with Katsuki? Totally different. Dead giveaway for a 9.

Let’s get into the type 9 itself in more detail to show how it applies to Izuku more deeply—seriously, it’s beat for beat. One of the key differences is, while 2s seek validation, 9s are actually resigned to the belief that they aren’t important. Similar to 2s, a 9′s basic fear is of separation, but their basic desire is actually just peace or harmony rather than love. Notice how these motivations are just like a 2’s, except they have the “self” part taken out. With that in mind, they “achieve” their basic desire through selflessness in and of itself, without the need for recognition. That’s not to say that 9s are better than 2s. In fact, a 9 can be worse, in a way. If unhealthy, they will seek peace at almost any cost to themselves. In other words, they can be more self-destructive while still under the impression that they are doing just fine. “Peace” may refer to the expression of empathy, fulfilling the needs of others, sheltering someone, or mediating a fight—but also to repressing their own opinions and needs, not “rocking the boat,” ignoring negative emotions, or becoming a vessel for someone else to vent to.

What about inner peace? 9s value serenity, and thus they have a complicated relationship with the most tumultuous of emotions: anger. On the surface, 9s look like the type that is extremely slow to anger and highly tolerant. However, as much as they would like to believe this about themselves too, deep down, 9s are afraid of what might happen if they lose control. My phrase for it is this: I feel like a bottled tornado. Personally, I also think of anger as a basic desire to make others feel your pain—not necessarily sadistically, but in an effort to be known, to be understood. The difficult thing to grasp, especially for a 9, is that this is NOT inherently a bad thing. It isn’t wrong to seek sympathy. On the contrary, it is harmful to tell yourself that getting angry is wrong, because it’s like telling yourself that your pain is wrong, your pain doesn’t matter.

The problem is it doesn’t stop there. A 9, in shutting down their anger, ends up with such a low opinion of their own heart, their other emotions dull along with it. They cry less, laugh less, love less. It’s often said that they “fall asleep” to themselves. It all starts with anger. It’s interesting to note how different this whole mindset is from toxic masculinity—where men only feel allowed/able to express emotions through anger. This is sorta like the opposite. Anger becomes the dam rather than the river. For Izuku, I want us to consider that his suppression of anger carries with it the implication that he is hiding other things, too. It’s a given. There’s a whole sea of feelings out there, and we can only see the waves hitting the shore. This brings me to the whole “control your heart” thing. I do think it is worth mentioning that Banjou didn’t just tell Izuku to exercise control. He also told him that his anger could be useful if it is harnessed. With this added context, “control” here means “to master.” And Izuku seemed to grasp this concept… sorta. I think that if Izuku is like a 9, we can assume he has trouble understanding how anger could be a worthy source of strength. His emotions in relation to Katsuki feel more like a weakness to him, a character flaw in a hero, who is supposed to be detached and selfless. But he’s trying to understand, even though he’s afraid of it. He essentially applied the same strategy he used for mastering OFA itself: incremental strength training. Which, okay. Take a moment to absorb how odd that is, in relation to emotions, specifically. Does one learn to cry incrementally? Does one learn to use anger by bottling a fucking tornado?? Like, what, you think you’re gonna be able to let out juuust the right amount of air to avoid an explosion??? No, man… if you want to be the master of your emotions you have to be willing to sit with them. Confront them. Listen to them. Take them in completely and accept them as a part of yourself.

For someone like Izuku, though, it is very difficult to imagine how this is even possible. Tomura, as with every villain, can be used to reflect his hero counterpart’s greatest fear about himself. Tomura literally touches everyone and everything with his rage, and as a physical manifestation of that desire to pass his own pain onto others, destruction radiates from his fingertips. Thus, losing control in this manner must be Izuku’s worst nightmare, as if he would be completely unable to stop the collateral damage like an infinite line of dominoes. But his anger is not something he can overcome, as such.

An overarching theme in this heroes vs. villains conflict is that the villains are not merely obstacles to be overcome. Just think back to Himiko’s bitter rejection of the heroic sense of superiority. She demanded not to be pitied, condescended to, or lied to. Likewise, the answer cannot be that Izuku needs to restrain himself where Tomura doesn’t. What purpose would it serve to show that Izuku is better than him? Certainly not saving Tomura. If this was a battle against AFO, it might have been a different story. In that case, Izuku would have to overcome his emotional manipulation tactics. Tomura, on the other hand, is not so strategic. With his strangely childlike tendencies, he must relish making Izuku mad because it brings them closer to the same wavelength. It’s his own twisted way or seeking sympathy, or at least, the closest thing to sympathy he can get anymore, because he believes he is beyond saving. With that in mind, Izuku isn’t going to get anywhere unless he rises to meet him. Izuku has to match Tomura’s hatred with equally strong emotions of his own, whatever they may be, or else face the loss of OFA (as established in 305). This is not an easy thing to ask of a 9, once they have started to pull the blood from their extremities, become cold and numb. Bringing back circulation is painful and makes the skin crawl.

In case you’re worried about the focus on anger here, I want to reiterate that concealed anger in a 9 is just one sign of so much more. Back when everyone started fretting about Izuku’s habit of self-sacrifice, which would have been the only thing we need to worry about if he were a 2, I was freaking out because Izuku was also starting to look like a person who has too many secrets. You don’t even have to acknowledge the possibility that he lied about what triggered blackwhip. It’s written all over his face all the time these days. It’s especially noticeable when you contrast him with Katsuki after all his own growth. Katsuki confides in people. He acknowledges his weaknesses. He enjoys being himself. He asserts his place. He thinks about Izuku all the damn time and now he even lets himself be soft about it. All this warmth while Izuku is distant, muted, and blank. I know all too well what this state of mind is like. Man, I hate secrets. You get to the point where you don’t know how to talk about even the simplest most inconsequential shit. And the bigger things? They’re like a growing snowball of words in your throat that cannot possibly fit out of your mouth. The “easiest” way to cope is to simply fade into the rhythm of life. Go with the flow.

Since 9s have a natural curiosity about the interiority of other people, they may choose to focus on that in order to divert their own attention away from themselves. Taken to the extreme, they will lose track of their sense of self. Like I said, you can see Izuku doing this as he fights, analyzing the psyche of his opponent, and his match against Shouto in the sports festival was a fantastic early example. They became friends because of how observant Izuku is. His emotional intelligence and intuition are very strong, but gradually, as he has taken on greater responsibilities and experienced more trauma, he has gotten worse at applying these skills to himself. You know, we go on and on about how his narration has been reduced to nearly nothing, and it’s not just an absence of introspection, it’s an absence of self. It creates a lack of ownership over the narrative—what should be his narrative.

Right now, he’s focusing on trying to see Tomura as a person, figuring him out. I think it would be really satisfyingly ironic if in the process, he ends up uncovering insights about himself instead. It’s about time we learn what Izuku’s secrets are. I don’t actually think that Izuku mastering anger will constitute the emotion that is strong enough to keep Tomura from taking OFA. Moreover, he can’t expect to reach Tomura’s core, Tenko, unless he exposes his own. Rather, anger is the conduit for Izuku to unlock something else. Think of the way he described how Katsuki is his image of victory. The feeling manifests when he asserts a stronger sense of self (the urge to win) and he becomes more free with his words. I have no doubt that Tomura has the power to make unfiltered honesty spill out of him. He knows how to bring out his selfish needs, his pain, his pressure points, his fears, his insecurities. Hell, maybe Mt. Fuji erupting is a metaphor. I want to see Izuku explode while Tomura watches with mad glee. But then I want Izuku to Realize Things such that it finally sets him free. Then, instead of Tomura witnessing yet another person he touches fall apart, he gets to see someone become whole.

"I let the scale tip, feel all of it. It's uncomfortable but right. And we were born to try to see each other through. To know and love ourselves and others well is the most difficult and meaningful work we'll ever do." --Sleeping At Last, 'Nine'

[universecorp]

Hearbeat pt.2 Teaser

Summary: After starting a situationship with your best friend from high school, things start to become complicated. Especially when you start to catch feelings.

Jaehyun x Reader Haechan x Reader (In pt2 and 3 )

w.c.: 2.3k

Genre: Comedy, smut, and angst

Warnings: Sexual themes, small argument

PLAYLIST: ♡

Sitting in a Dennys at 2:00 AM is not how you expected your night to end. You and Donghyuck had spent the better part of an hour talking and getting to know each other. He was easy to talk to, and funny, you didn’t feel like you were forcing any of your reactions which made you feel a lot more at ease than usual.

“Wait, you're Haechan? The streamer?” Donghyuck nodded, shoveling a scoop of hash browns into his mouth. “That’s so fucking crazy, my best friend loves your streams. We used to fuck and I remember one time he got the notification for your stream and stopped mid fuck to watch you.” Donghyuck nearly choked on the strip of bacon he was munching on.

“Please tell me you’re joking.” You shook your head. “That’s so sick, did he at least like pick up where he left off while watching?” Another shake. 

“I had to push him on his back and ride him.” Donghyuck laughed loudly, catching the attention of most of the other late night eaters, but it was clear he didn’t care. 

“Now that I think about it, there was this one time I read a comment and it deadass said ‘I was fucking my girl and stopped to watch.’ I thought it was probably a troll, but that might’ve been him.”

You scoffed, shaking your head once again. “There’s no way that was him, he would never refer to me as ‘his girl’ it would be kind of funny if that was him though.” Donghyuck hummed in agreement, it was all he could do since he didn’t even know Jaehyun. 

There was a small awkward silence filled only with the sounds of plates clinking and light chatter from the other patrons. Donghyuck looked like he was having a debate with himself befofe hr finally opened his mouth. “Look, uhm, I don’t usually do this, I honestly don’t usually take my hookups to pre-breakfast either, but I was wondering if I could get your number?” 

You were a bit shocked. You thought maybe this was normal and Donghyuck was just one of those nice guys who treated his fucks to post coiatal meals. Hearing otherwise brought a bit of heat to your cheeks. 

“So uh… is that a no? Don’t leave me hanging here.”

“Oh no, wait no, I mean yes! Yes… you can have my number.” 

“You’ve been smiling at your phone a lot lately. You and big head aren’t fucking again right?” Minjeong was doing your nails on the floor of your dorm, and you were definitely making it hard since you were texting Donghyuck with the hand she was trying to get you to dry. 

“Of course not. I’m texting a new guy, I met him at that party me and Jae went to.” Minjeong perked up at the mention of a new guy. Talks like these reminded you of being a teenager, but they were always relaxing. You seriously owed Minjeong some girl time anyway with how far up Jaehyun’s ass you had been for the past year.

“So what’s his name?”

“Donghyuck, he goes here obviously, also get this, ” Minjeong leaned in “he’s that streamer that Jae likes a lot.”

“No way!?” Minjeong gasped, she accidentally swiped a little polish on your finger, but you didn’t mind.

You nodded, smiling basically ear to ear. “Yes way, and he’s so cute. He’s telling me how he wants to take me on a date this weekend!” You closed your phone to give Minjeong your undivided attention while she swiped acetone over her previous mistake.

“I’m happy for you, I know I was kind of an ass with all the ‘I told you so’, but I really just wanted you to be with  someone who treats you for what you’re worth.” You knew that, but hearing it felt really good. You always knew Minjeong was just looking out for you, but she also knew that whatever you felt for Jaehyun wasn’t going away like magic. Even now you sometimes felt a twinge of what you used to when he did certain things, but it wasn’t as strong as it was a month ago. 

“It’s ok Minnie, I know you only had my best interest.” You brought your nails hand up to blow on the wet polish. “Look on the bright side though, I went through all that and now I've learned my lesson. No more wasting time or energy on people who don’t deserve it.” 

Minjeong jostled your shoulder, “That’s my girl.”

 A week later you were with Donghyuck in his apartment, playing a co-op game called “it takes two” that he specifically bought for the date. He turned on his twitch to stream, but he left his mic off to enjoy the moment with you. He was ticking so many boxes and even Minjeong gave him the stamp of approval when he met her a couple hours ago. Everything today was perfect, he bought you flowers, ordered from your favorite takeout place and even surprised you with slippers for you to wear around the apartment. You had been seeing each other for about a month now so you figured he would be asking you to be his girlfriend soon, but you were in no rush. His gestures meant the world to you and even then just his presence was enough for you to feel satisfied. 

Now the two of you were snuggled up side by side, controllers in hand and your head on his shoulder. Nothing could ruin this moment, nothing except your phone which had been buzzing on the nightstand for a good two minutes. “Hey babe, I can pause if you wanna get that?” You looked up at Donghyuck with a small pout before shaking your head. You felt bad that whoever was calling you clearly didn’t get the memo that you were busy. 

“We can keep playing, I’ll talk and play, m’sorry.” Donghyuck waved it off as he waited for you to answer your phone. You rolled your eyes slightly when you saw Jaehyun’s photo, but still answered the facetime call. “What’s up loser?” You sounded less than enthused, but he should’ve expected that since you ignored his calls for two minutes. 

“God what crawled up your ass and died weirdo and why aren’t you showing your face?” Jaehyun scoffed as if his facetime screen wasn’t paused.

“Just the fact that you’ve been calling me for two minutes. What the fuck did you want? I’m kinda busy.” You cursed under your breath since you and Donghyuck failed the game stage for the fifth time. 

“First of all, I wanted to see if you wanted to grab dinner and come watch a movie, I’ll buy obviously. Second of all, if you’re gonna lie about being busy at least make it believable, I can hear you playing a game in the background.” Jaehyun had some fucking nerve assuming you would lie to him about being busy, but you weren’t gonna fight about it. You were gonna be civil. Even though Donghyuck had heard the way you and Jaehyun talked to each other before, he was a little annoyed that the other man was accusing you of lying. 

“Jae, I’m on a date and we’re playing a game, so I actually am very busy. 

“Wait… are you playing ‘it takes two’?” Jaehyun didn’t know about Donghyuck. He knew you had been on dates, but since he didn’t ask who with, you didn’t bother telling him it was Donghyuck A.K.A. his favorite streamer. 

“Yeah, with my date.” You knew you sounded like a bitch, but you didn’t care. Jaehyun had barely been hanging out with you and even then it seemed like he only wanted to when he was bored. You were trying to follow Minjeong’s and your own advice and stop wasting time on people that don’t deserve it.

“If you’re actually playing a game with your date, show your face and his, then show the tv.” You were so close to hanging up on Jaehyun, but when you saw the screen pause and suddenly your phone was being held up by Donghyuck. 

Donghyuck didn’t look happy. All of the irritation must have been building up to a point where even Jaehyun looked concerned. “Look, Jaehyun, I get it, you’re bored. I’m sure you miss having Y/N at your beck and call because you knew she would drop anything for you before.” Jaehyun opened his mouth to speak, but one glare from Donghyuck had him closing it immediately. “Those times are past and whatever sick game you’re playing at needs to stop. Got it?” The silence on the line was loud, Donghyuck knew he made his point. “Good. Now I’m going to go back to playing games with my girlfriend, enjoy the stream Jaehyun.” With that he pressed the end call button with a sigh and immediately after you were straddling the man.

“Girlfriend huh?” 

Donghyuck set his controller down and placed his hands on your hips, it was all he could do to look cool despite the blush rushing his face. “Yeah uhm… I was going to ask you later during pillow talk after some earth shattering sex, but this is cool too I guess.” 

You giggled, placing a kiss on his cheek. “This is cool too, don’t worry. We can still have earth shattering sex but now as boyfriend and girlfriend.” It was Donghyuck’s turn to giggle now. “Do you want to keep playing, we could even turn on the mic?” 

Haechan shook his head, “No I think it’s time for that earth shattering sex we were talking about.” You bit your lip trying to suppress a laugh, he was so goofy and hot at the same time, you didn’t understand how anyone could be capable of that. 

“I think that can be arranged…boyfriend.”

“He told you off?” Mark nearly yelled, catching the attention of several of the other students in the library. 

“Dude keep it down, we’re in a library.” Johnny reminded before focusing back on his music theory assignment. 

“Sorry, he told you off?” Mark asked again this time in a more suitable whisper.

“Yes, and she didn’t say shit bro, she just let him.” Jaehyun grumbled, taking a chip from the bag Johnny had managed to smuggle in. 

Johnny was pretty unamused with the entire situation, given that he asked if the two men wanted to study in the library, but had basically been talking the whole time. “Have you ever thought that maybe she’s over how you treat her. I know you think you’re like bestie of the year, but you literally evaded her feelings for at least 6 months just so you would have an easy fuck.” 

Jaehyun scoffed, “Remind me to stop telling you about my problems.” Johnny simply rolled his eyes before training them back on the score in front of him. 

“I mean he has a point. You knew she caught feelings a while ago, and your agreement was to break it off, but you kept everything up. Plus you were the one who kept fucking with her and being all domestic, she’s probably traumatized.” Jaehyun shot a glare at Mark; he did not come here to be ganged up on.

“She can’t be but so traumatized since she spends all her time with Haechan, or Donghyuck, whatever the fuck his name is.” Mark and Johnny looked ready to hit their heads against the table, but clearly this was a delicate situation that needed to be nurtured and cared for so that Jaehyun would actually get some sense.

“Jae, buddy, pal, old friend if you will.”

“Get to the point Johnathan.” 

Johnny sighed, “See the point is, she’s in a relationship now. You had your 15 minutes of fame where she basically avoided getting into something because she was holding out hope for you. Now, she’s tired of waiting. She wants something that makes her feel loved and worth it and frankly, your bare minimum effort of taking her back to your place to watch a movie and then fuck, isn’t cutting it.”

“Bars.” Mark fist bumped Johnny, adding an explosion sound effect at the end.

“You guys are losers. She didn’t seem to be complaining about the movie and fuck a couple months ago.” Mark cringed and Johnny simply shook his head at the way their friend could so shamelessly talk about you like that.

“Jaehyun, listen to yourself, you sound delusional. She may not have been complaining, but that’s also because if she did you would’ve had to break all of that off. You’re acting like she broke up with you when the two of you weren’t even together in the first place.” Johnny’s volume was starting to increase, but he couldn’t help it, he wasn’t the closest to you, but he refused to let Jaehyun disrespect you like this. “Also you literally only text or call her now when we can’t hang out. Do you think that makes her feel good?” Jaehyun opened his mouth, but Johnny cut him off. “Don’t answer that because I know you’re about to say some bullshit. You need to get with the program and stop treating her like some play thing that you decide to pick up everytime your other toys are broken!” Johnny finished closing his laptop and packing up his belongings. 

“Dude, where are you going?” Jaehyun groaned before looking at Mark who was following in Johnny’s actions. “You too? Come on!”

Mark just shook his head, slinging his backpack over his shoulder before speaking again. “Dude, you have some serious soul searching to do. We don’t mind if you vent, but the way you talk about and treat her is sick.” Jaehyun just clicked his teeth in response to the younger man. 

“Whatever.” Jaehyun stood up from the table and stormed out of the library.

“He needs to get laid.” 

“Totally.” Mark agreed.

Taglist: @snapcracklen, @peachesmilk

[bindeds]

Hi! First I want to say I love your writing and I think it's amazing keep it up! I wanted to ask if you could do a fic/headcanon about a jinx like reader (the one from arcane) like the reader has her personality and her backstory they can be any gander you want. For characters you can go wild but I would like if Alastor, Lucifer and Vox were there. Bonus points if the reader is a teen that is alive and nobody knows how they got here but don't want to send them back because they are frankly terrified for them. Sorry it's so long. Make sure to take breaks and keep hydrated.

( LUCIFER, ALASTOR & VOX REACTING TO A JINX-LIKE READER. )

heyyy omg thank you so much for this request! jinx happens to be my highest (if not one of my highest) comfort characters of all time, so i’m happy to do this request!! thank you for this wonderful idea <33 ( ALSO OMG SO SORRY FOR POSTING THIS LATE AAAAAAAAAAAA )

mlist. requests.

“you’re — you’re alive? oh lord, this is bad. okay, what to do, what to do … ”

LUCIFER would definitely panic if he happened to be the first one to find you.

╰﹒he wouldn’t feel safe telling the others of your presence in the hotel—at least, not as of the first few hours of getting to know you. he would DEFINITELY warn you about alastor and put up a fight with you to keep you from leaving his room so soon. he wants to tell charlie you’re here, but doesn’t know if she can keep something this big a secret.

ꉂ ． ݁ ✦ “what’s all the hubbub?”

╰﹒ “you’ll be eaten alive out there! and even if you don’t leave the hotel, the crew isn’t exactly the best at, well—subtlety,” lucifer would warn you with his hands on your shoulders.

╰﹒ your past would also be similar to lucifer’s in the sense that you both felt utterly abandoned by the person you trusted the most, and lucifer would sit down with you and talk to you about it if you ever opened up to him, rubbing your back in slow circles, getting you water and leaving the room only to come back with gourmet meals that he cooked himself from the hotel’s kitchen.

╰﹒i feel like you’d have a complicated relationship with lucifer at first. because of how sweet and good he is at comforting and taking care of you you’d feel like his kid, too, but then reality kicks in every now and then that he has another kid who’s actually his biological child to take care of, and it makes you feel bad for not having your own family. but it’s only a matter of time before lucifer finally introduces you to charlie and charlie gives you the biggest bear hug in the world, and you’re too engulfed by your yearning to feel loved to feel jealous over her anymore, so you hug her back. you and charlie become basically siblings over your time at the hotel, and lucifer treats both of you like his children. and of course, charlie doesn’t mind when it seems like lucifer pays attention to you a little more because one, she’s older than you, and she’s an adult that can handle herself, two, she knows how much you’re in need of a father figure and she knows her father can and will be there when you need him.

“fascinating! truly curious — you’re quite the charmer, aren’t you ?”

ALASTOR would circle around you with prying eyes brimming with twisted interest, looking over your shoulders and dusting them off as he picked at the stray hairs on your head.

╰﹒ similarly to luci, he’d definitely keep you a secret up in his own as well, and when you’d protest he somehow find a way of easing your nerves and calming you down. in due time, he’d say. his head pats got to you at first. the fact that he stopped you from exploring the hotel got to you. first, he brings you here, but now he won’t even let you out of his room in the name of safety? what is up with that?

ꉂ ． ݁ ✦ “what’s all the hubbub?”

╰﹒ “the hubbub, dear, is that you’ll cause a commotion in the hotel,” alastor would reply with a tap of his microphone. “i can’t afford to alarm our guests now, and i certainly can’t have you overwhelmed by your new environment, now can i?”

╰﹒ alastor would explain the purpose of the hotel in his very demented perspective, but you would understand nonetheless. he would make you feel like his student in no time.

╰﹒ alastor would definitely teach you how to defend yourself in case you get attacked. you already know some basics about fending for yourself, but considering you’re leaning towards the mechanic side you don’t know how to use your bare hands. so he teaches you. he also gives you some really neat knife skills that he learned from when he was still a mortal serial killer.

╰﹒ niffty and you get along so well, and similar to lucifer and charlie, alastor treats you and niffty as his nieces, while he’s the cool uncle. he’s a bit of a bad influence on you, but it’s better than having no one at all.

╰﹒ when alastor finally introduces you to the rest of the hotel, everyone immediately noticed how protective/fatherly alastor actually was towards you. the difference is also very obvious considering the fact that he pretended to be a father figure to charlie in the past just to get on lucifer’s nerves, but now, a bit of his true colors show all because he’d spent too much time shaping you into the person you are now for him not to care. but considering alastor barely even had a heart before, everyone warmed up in no time to alastor’s soft side, and you even heard of charlie being excited about the fact that this could mean alastor will have a shot and being redeemed one day.

“huh. where have you come from, my dear? … the livi — haha, pardon? did you say … well fuck me silly, this is exactly what i needed after a hard day’s work.”

VOX was definitely being sarcastic with his teeth gritted through his sentence. nonetheless, you could have proved to be useful somehow considering your … moxie.

╰﹒ he would definitely consider signing you in for a contract, but given your personality you just seemed like the kind of person who would end up breaking the rules intentionally or unintentionally, meaning he’d just have to kill you—and that’s a complete waste of a living soul in hell, isn’t it?

╰﹒ so you’re under his care. for now, he thinks to himself, and despite how much he actually loathes having to deal with val’s shit, you were just different. you seemed content with his efforts in trying to please you, as small as they were at first, and was patient with him when he was rude or aloof. and sometimes you’d even help out with house chores that his many gadgets just couldn’t complete. he would even fall asleep on his desk sometimes and wake up with a warm blanket draped over him, and of course that had to be your doing.

ꉂ ． ݁ ✦ “what’s all the hubbub?”

╰﹒ “i’m doing this for your own good, okay kid, i’m telling you it’s not easy out there, and …” vox bit his lip. he didn’t expect his heart to beat so fast when you insisted to leave with gritted teeth. at this point, he’d almost forgotten how it felt like not to live with someone as unreasonably kind and funny as you had been. “judging by everything you’ve got going on i don’t think it’s the best idea for you to return to the living world. i mean, don’t you like it here? what is it that i haven’t given you? what can i do?”

╰﹒ obviously, you’re still angry, and he’s already done enough. he can’t keep you in forever, and as much as you enjoyed your time with him, he’s made it clear that living in hell just wasn’t feasible for you. you stay inside but that doesn’t lessen your anger at all.

╰﹒ meanwhile, the other vees have noticed vox was getting soft. he was still very much willing to kill low earning employees or employees who so much as implied that they don’t think too fondly of the vees’ companies, but he’s been a lot less moody, less whiney, and even less … obsessed with alastor? if that made sense? even if he watched alastor he was no longer as loud as he used to be, and it was worrying val and velvette. “oh for fuck’s sake—if anyone’s soft, it’s you assholes!” vox would yell when they didn’t drop the issue. so they left him alone after that point, hoping he would tell them what’s wrong.

[storiesofsvu]

Solace in Solitude Ch 11

Emily Prentiss x reader warnings: language, mentions of alcohol and tobacco, smut. Welcome to the beginning of the time jump chapters. in my mind each ** means that it's been at least two weeks since the last bit.

“Do you ever stop working?” Emily’s voice rang through the apartment, jolting you out of your hyper fixation spiral of the day when you glanced up at her.

“Huh?”

“You look like you’re cramming for finals right now.” She swiped a pastry off the counter, dropping down into the chair perpendicular beside the couch as you glanced around the room, letting out a small, embarrassed laugh.

“Oh god.” You dropped your hand into your face for a moment while she chuckled, what had started out as some research to combat the boredom of the day ended up with a bit of an explosion, and Emily was right. You had multiple pages open on your laptop, tablet beside you with a medical journal open and a pile of notebooks and textbooks spread out on the couch and coffee table. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to turn the apartment into a dorm room.”

You began to flip closed some of the books you were no longer working, piling them up so you weren’t taking up so much of the shared space. Groaning when a handful of high lighters toppled from inside a notebook to the floor.

“Don’t worry about it.” Emily shrugged, leaning forward to scoop them back up, dropping them into an empty coffee mug on the table, “what’s got you so invested?”

“Boredom.” You replied with a huff of a laugh.

“Okay but when I’m bored on a day off I end up numbing my brain with stupid tv not pouring over case files or true crime. You should’ve gotten out of the house, take advantage before the weather turns to shit.”

“I’m not just bored on days off, that’s the problem.” You sighed, relaxing back into the couch as you started to stretch out your body, realizing just how stiff your muscles and joints were.

“A trauma surgeon who’s bored at work? Okay, we definitely have a problem.” Emily half teased from her chair and you rolled your eyes.

“I don’t get a lot of patients out here and honestly being on your feet for that long is tedious enough but when you aren’t really in it anymore, it’s even worse.”

“Looking for a career change?”

“No.” You laughed, “before I got shipped out here I was working on start ups for a couple of different trials and I’ve always been super passionate about those kind of things. The medical field is incredible already but there’s so much that we either don’t know or can’t execute properly and figuring those things out just makes my brain happy.”

“You were a really big science nerd in high school, hey?”

“Oh shut up.” You tossed a pad of post it’s at her with a laugh.

“The hospital have any programs like that here?”

“Not really.” Your nose scrunched, “that’s what the other half of the research was, finding a home base to set up. There’s one in Germany that has insane tech but the language barrier has been tough enough trying to get information, a handful across the UK and a couple in France but nothing here.”

“Are you looking for an out?” She asked, cocking a brow in your direction and you shrugged.

“No... I mean as far as I know I’m here ‘til you’re cleared, I just… wanna have a back up plan, ya know?”

“Yeah…” she nodded, tugging her lip into her mouth and chewing on it as her gaze drifted out the window. You watched her for a minute, the way her brow scrunched, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she began to get lost in thought.

“Are you gonna go back?” You asked, almost timidly, continuing to watch her and her head tilted when she registered your voice.

“Hmm?”

“To your team? Or like, DC in general. From what I’ve gathered the world is basically your oyster.”

“It’s complicated.” She replied, her eyes still latched on the afternoon sky, “they were my family and I felt more at home with them than any place before but I don’t know how things are going to go… or if that’ll ever be home again.”

“Mmm.”

“Does that make sense?” She asked, suddenly looking up to you and you nodded.

“Yeah. But hey, Federal Agent means federal, you could pick up a job anywhere in the country. You’ve got tons of options.”

“Yeah...” She smiled tightly over at you before standing from the chair, “I was thinking stir fry for dinner? Use the rest of that chicken?”

“Sounds great.”

**

Emily jumped when the apartment door slammed shut, looking up toward the door to see you dropping your bag to the floor, kicking off your shoes and tossing your coat in the direction of the closet before you instantly disappeared into your room. By the muffled yell it was safe to assume that you’d dropped face first into your pillows to let out a scream. She thought about leaving you be, but you had left the door completely wide open and maybe you needed to talk, or a smoke and she’d be lying if she hadn’t been jonesing for one.

So she put down her book and tentatively approached the door, a chuckle escaping her lips as she found you having not moved an inch, face buried in the pillows, flat on your stomach. You were still in your scrubs, which she had never seen, you almost always changed at the hospital. It didn’t take a profiler to figure out that you had wanted to get out of there and home as fast as you could.

“You okay in there?” She asked with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest as she leant against the door frame.

“Uggghhhh!” Was the response you gave without moving a muscle.

“I’m sensing a little bit of anger here… I’m guessing this isn’t a lost patient kinda thing?”

“No.” You grumbled, rolling onto your side to prop yourself up on your elbow, “just the most terrible, impatient, demanding, nit picky bitch I have ever met.”

“What was she in for?”

“Lipo.”

“Seriously? Why were you working with her?”

“She needed a couple of incisions redone, her doctor was out today and the resident didn’t want to go near her. I figured after you no one could be that bad, but boy was I wrong…. No offence.”

Emily barked out a laugh, “none taken.” Her arms dropped to her side as she stepped into the room, “you seem pent up, I think I may know how to help.” With a smirk she crawled onto the bed, gripping your hip to flip you fully onto your back.

“Oh?” You raised a brow.

“Yeah.” She nodded, her fingers delicately undoing the tie on your scrub pants, “think of it as an apology for being your second worst patient.” You laughed softly, your breath hitching in your throat at the feeling of her fingertips on your skin as they snuck into the waistband of your pants, “relax…”

With a gentle smile Emily tugged down your pants, tossing them to the floor before her hands softly glided up your legs, thumbs rubbing relaxing circles as she went. She massaged lightly, continuing higher up your thighs as you let out a satisfied breath and your legs easily fell open for her. She tugged at your panties, nudging at you to lift your hips so she could rid you of them, tossing them over her shoulder before she settled on her stomach between your legs.

Her lips softly kissed up your inner thigh, breath just barely hot enough where you were already craving it before she repeated the action on the other side, her hands soothing across your skin as she went. You let out an impatient whine and she chuckled, choosing to nip at your inner thigh instead, resulting in a gasp leaving your lips. Not wanting to frustrate you further her tongue darted out, flattening and licking through your pussy. The gasp you let out this time was louder, a hand shooting downward to tangle into her hair as your hips rocked upward. She chuckled softly into your cunt, kissing it gently before she began to eat you out.

Pleasure almost immediately began to soar through you, there was no doubt Emily was skilled at this and it wouldn’t take her long to figure out exactly what it was that made you tick. Her tongue sank into you, coaxing out your arousal, letting it smear across your pussy and down her chin. She licked up again, flicking at your clit and you moaned, fingers tightening in her hair.

“Fuck…”

She repeated the motion, her tongue slowly dragging through you before circling around your pulsing nub, creating a steady rhythm as your hips began to rock up against her mouth. You could already feel your pussy fluttering around nothing, the sparks flying through your body relaxing it, making all the worries of the day completely melt away. Your eyes slowly shut, letting the moment take over as you practically melted into the mattress, little moans and whines escaping your lips as Emily continued to eat you with expertise.

“Oh God…” You groaned when her lips wrapped around your clit, sucking it into her mouth, “more…”

You could nearly feel the way her lips curved up into a grin against your body, her tongue dancing patterns across your pulsing clit. A hand snuck up between your legs, the tips of her fingers toying with your juices before sinking into your pussy.

“Yes!” You moaned, nails scratching at her head, your hips jolting up off the bed.

Emily’s fingers pumped in the same pattern that she sucked on your clit, sucking harder when she curled them perfectly to hit the sensitive spot inside your pulsing walls. It didn’t take very long before you let out a soft cry, your thighs clenching around her as your orgasm washed over you. You heard her laugh softly as her lips finally popped off you, her fingers gently fucking you through your orgasm. She pressed a light kiss right above your clit before her tongue cleaned you up, careful not to overstimulate you before she nipped at your thigh again.

“Feeling any better?”

“Much.” You replied with a relaxed sigh as Emily shifted between your legs, sitting up at the edge of the bed so she could toss your clothes back to you, “could probably still use a drink though.”

“Yeah? How ‘bout a smoke?” She raised a playful brow and you laughed.

“Why the fuck not?”

“I’ll pour the wine.” She swatted at your calf, “grab a sweater, balcony’s a little chilly.”

**

You were standing in the kitchen, laptop open in front of you as you chewed on your lip, scrolling through page after page of recipes. Every so often your movement would catch Emily’s gaze over the top of her book and she would watch as you pulled open the pantry, staring into it. You’d shuffle a couple of cans or bags around, pulling things to the front before letting out a huff and moving back to the laptop. Her eyes would flick up again when only a couple of minutes later you would repeat the process with the fridge this time.

“Didn’t you pick up groceries like two days ago?” She finally asked and you let out a huff, dropping onto your elbows on the counter.

“Yeah. But my sister called a couple of days ago, freaking out cause she couldn’t find mom’s stuffing recipe. I didn’t even realize Thanksgiving was this weekend and now I feel like I’m missing out.”

“You wanna make a dinner?” She asked and you snorted.

“For just two of us? We’d be eating leftovers til Christmas. Besides,” you glanced over your shoulder, “a turkey isn’t fitting in that oven.”

“It’s overrated.” She shrugged, placing her book down on her lap, “everyone knows the side dishes and dessert are the best part of the dinner.”

“Yeah.” You sighed, your chin coming to rest in your palm, “but without it, the stuffing’s always dryer than it should be.”

“Could use a chicken?”

“Nah. Not enough space for how much stuffing a person needs.” Your nose crinkled and she laughed.

“Your mom make one of those over the top gourmet kinds with apples, cranberries and shit?”

“Ew, no.” You laughed, “bread, spices and practically a pound butter, the way it should be.”

“Well,” she pushed off the couch, padding over to the kitchen where she pulled open the fridge and pantry, “let’s figure this out. What do we need to go pick up?”

“Bread, potatoes,” you ticked off on your fingers, “gravy mix if we’re not actually gonna cook any meat, carrots… maybe brussels sprouts? I don’t like green beans, but if you want them.” You glanced over to her and she shrugged.

“We were never big on Thanksgiving. Wasn’t that much of a priority, and by the time I was an adult I was always working.”

“You never did dinner?” Your brow scrunched.

“Oh there was dinner.” She laughed, “mother would never waste an opportunity to host or show off, but she wouldn’t have even raised a finger when it came to cooking. Most years I’d finish a small plate, ask to be excused and go hide in my room.”

“What? No board games, football?” You asked and Emily barked a laugh.

“I was the only kid. This wasn’t like, a family gathering thing, this was my parents coworkers and people to make connections and network with, it was a place for a kid to be seen and not heard. Until of course my Mother was insistent I share what I was thankful for.”

“Ugh, the worst part of the meal.”

“Yeah, let’s get back to the best parts.” She grabbed the pad of paper you usually used for grocery lists, sliding it across to you, “you do main course I’ll do dessert.”

“Sure, as long as by main you mean sides.” You teased and she laughed.

“Of course.” She tossed you a grin, “and Carter…you’re not roping me into any fucking football.”

“Please,” you mocked, “you’re not ready for combat sports right now and I don’t wanna have to fix your rib again. I will however absolutely destroy you in Scrabble.”

“You sure about that?” She smirked.

“English words only!”

**

Emily shivered, pulling the blankets tighter around her and tucking them up right under her chin as her eyes wandered to the window. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, thick fluffy flakes of snow drifting through the air and coating the city. She’d already swapped her regular pyjama shorts for a set of pants, pulled a sweater over her shirt and grabbed a pair of wool socks. She’d stolen one of the blankets from the couch and still couldn’t manage to get warm enough in order to fall asleep.

You were faintly aware of noise outside your bedroom door and you did your best to ignore it, curling tighter under the blankets to hold onto sleep. Instead you heard your door open then swing shut and felt the weight of someone on your bed and you let out a small grumble.

“It is fucking freezing!” Emily’s groggy voice broke the silence of your room and you gasped when she pulled up the blankets, letting in a blast of cold air, “shove over.”

“What the fuck...” You grumbled, moving backwards on your side on the bed as Emily dove in next to you, quickly fitting herself right next to your body.

 Letting out a reluctant sigh you wrapped yourself around her, spooning her from behind as you knew there was no fighting it. She snuggled deeper into your arms as one of her hands adjusted the blankets and you realized she’d brought the blankets from her room too. Her hand grabbed at your wrist, pulling it around her body in an attempt to get more body heat and you nearly shrieked.

“Jesus you are frozen!”

“I wouldn’t be in your bed if I wasn’t.” She replied, burrowing into the pillow.

You held back an eye roll, letting your arm settle around her body, hugging her closer to you as you readjusted back to a comfortable position, your hand softly rubbing at her arm. As you settled against her your hand slid down her waist, wrapping around the hip she had against the bed, making sure she was snug to you before it rested there, just barely sneaking under the hem of her shirt. Your fingers moved absentmindedly, drawing what you thought were soothing patterns on her skin, movement that would lull her to sleep. Instead Emily let out a soft sigh, her back beginning to arch into the touch as her ass pushed backward into you and you couldn’t help but let out a dark chuckle.

“You know..” you murmured, your lips nearly brushing the shell of her ear, “I’ve got an idea that may just warm you up, even relax you to sleep.”

“Is that so?” She asked and you just knew her eyebrow was raised.

“Mmhmm.” You nipped at her neck and her breath caught in her throat.

“Whatever you’ve got in mind, go for it.”

Your hand easily slipped into the waist band of her pants, sneaking down until your finger tips found her clit, starting to lazily rub it until she was letting out breathy moans, her hips gently rocking in time with your hand. Even with you barely touching her she could already feel the heat beginning to spark through her body, each brush of your hands on her skin warming her up, her pussy tingling, sending different kinds of shivers through her.

“That’s it…” you murmured, lips kissing at her neck as you coaxed her to keep rolling her hips and she let out a moan.

“More…”

A small laugh escaped your lips, nipping at her earlobe as your hand sunk further between her legs, fingers swiping through her folds before they sank into her pussy, earning a gasp from her. Emily tossed her top leg over yours to spread herself open for you and you took full advantage. The heel of your hand continued to grind against her clit while you fingered her, thrusting faster and harder than you had been before. She was already squirming in your arms, little whines breaking free from her lips, ones that turned into moans as your other arm wound around her so you could start to play with her tits through her shirt.

“Oh god…” she groaned, hips grinding down against your hand, practically begging you to never stop.

Your fingers curled inside her, hitting that sweet spot right as you pinched at her nipple and she gasped, her body jolting in your grasp. Your lips formed a smirk against her skin, continuing your motions, beginning to suck on her neck as your fingers thrusted in and out of her dripping pussy. Not wanting to leave her hanging your thumb shifted, starting to rub at her clit in time with your thrusts and she let out a louder moan.

“Fuck!” She muttered through gritted teeth, “oh god, don’t stop. I’m gonna come.”

Her hips continued to grind down on your hand, her pussy fluttering around your fingers as you curled them a few times more, your hands toying with her body in just the way she needed it. It didn’t take much longer before she reached her peak, shaking in your arms, whimpers leaving her lips. Your hand slipped out of her pants, settling against her abdomen again as you felt her fully relax into your embrace.

“Christ…”

You certainly had warmed her up, a sheen of sweat coating her skin under all the fabric that brought warmth to the both of you. She was fast asleep minutes later, finally content with the temperature in the room and you weren’t far behind her.

_____________

@mickey-gomez @daddy-heather-dunbar @maybe-a-humanbean @rustyzebra  @leftoverenvy @dextur @supercriminalbean @daffodil-heart  @its-soph-xx  @just-a-torn-up-masterpiece @peanutbutterprincess @emilyprentisssluvr @lex13cm  @zizzlekwum @emobabeyy @riveramorylunar  @scorpsik  @happenstnces  @sapphicprentiss @geekyandgay98 @pagetboobstarcomments @onmykneesformarvel @inlovewithemilyprentiss  @desperate-gay @amypoehlfey @overtrred28   @regalmilfs4me @ara-a-bird @five-bi-five-mind @inlovewithmiddleagewomen @hotchs-bitch @ollysmulti @kmc1989 @irishavengersassemble @romanoffsho @ratsnestinmyhair @assgardangod  @originalbrunettecharacter @hopedoesntknow  @venromanova @waitaminuteashh @noahrex@imlike-so-gaydude @wittygutsy @cx-emerald-cx @lesbodietco @momily

[extasiswings]

Time to play the game of “in an episode full of deranged writing choices, what is making my brain go brrrrrr the most” and this week we have landed on: Christopher’s Mission Building Project.  

Now, for those of you who have never gone to school in California, this may require a bit of explanation.  Basically, anywhere from around 5th-8th grade or so, it used to be traditional to have a social studies/state history section on the California missions/Spanish colonialism which would involve picking one of the missions and building a model.  If you’re wondering at all if these lessons have historically involved very little critical reflection and a lot of glossing over of the treatment of indigenous peoples, you would be right, and that’s partly why at least from my understanding, that practice had fallen out of style a bit in more recent years (or at least in certain areas).

In sum: of all the school projects that they could have given Christopher to send Eddie to the hardware store, of any subjects, they chose to make it a history project, and one that is very traditional and at least arguably outdated at best.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Because again, what exactly is this project?  It’s building a model.  A replica.  Recreating a massive, towering, monumental piece of history in a way that, frankly, will never match or live up to the real thing (and could not be expected to).  Because it’s a fake.  A pale imitation.  How could it ever measure up?

That’s exactly what Eddie is doing in his love life though.  He says so.  He’s trying to recreate and recapture what he had with Shannon.  And Bobby even tells him that he can’t.  It’s impossible.  You have to build something new, you can’t go back, you can’t make something lasting and real if all you’re doing is trying to imitate what came before.  

And see, Eddie has learned a little bit.  He and Christopher aren’t using the premade models that you just buy and stick together.  He’s not going down the same “readymade family” path he did with Ana.  At least he’s trying to build something from scratch.  But it’s still a replica.  He’s still stuck in the past in his own way, still stuck in this narrow box of what’s traditional even if it’s outdated, even if he’s evolved as a person to a place where that’s no longer what he actually wants or needs.  

Eddie had a great love.  A real love, a young love, a complicated love, a love that died.  That love is part of his history, his past, and has shaped him as a person.  But the next great love, the love that’s meant to define his future, that’s not going to come from looking back at the past.  He can’t build a model, he has to build a whole new structure.  And the last little loud tweak of Christopher being an engineer...the implication that even in following his heart, not Christopher’s, Christopher is fundamental to helping him figure out what that new structure (for life, for family, for love) looks like?  Yeah...yeah...I’m OBSESSED.    

[astroyongie]

Seventeen October Reading 2023

Note: here's the first reading of our October plan! Tomorrow, Pagan Wheel Litha will be out ! <3

S.coups

Love: I believe that Scoups’s relationship is going through a very tough period. The couple is unable to find time for themselves and he is also lacking from balance in it. In a way, they don’t have much romantic or love complicity and that is becoming a problem 

Career: For his career, everything seems to be going well. He is happy, he has a good relationship with pretty much everyone inside the group and he is also able to use his creativity for the group, so overall he is happy. 

Self: Even if his relationship isn’t going well, I see that scoups is overall satisfied with his life. He still has some wishes about things he wants in his life and wants to achieve but he is overall in a good place within himself 

Wonwoo

Love: Everything going well for Wonwoo, his relationship is stable, and healthy and they have been using a lot of their communication in order to keep the love going and solve the issues whenever they come. No honestly, he is one of the idols with the most lasting and healthy relationships. 

Career: I don’t think the company is very honest with him, they are always finding new things for him to do and changing the initial plans without telling him about it. I also see that he has been having some difficulties in his relationship with one member in particular 

Self: He is very frustrated in general, I think Wonwoo has a bad time dealing with delays and changing plans and when those arrive he kept over the edge very easily 

Mingyu

Love: Single, this man is not looking for any official company at the moment and he also doesn’t truly believe in “true love”. Mingyu is just roaming endlessly and having his on-and-off flings without much care 

Career: He is having a challenging time with his career, mostly because the jobs that are offered to him are things he isn’t comfortable with and yet, still has to do them. Mingyu is also jealous of certain members for having it “more easy” or at least for being more popular or having more opportunities that he doesn’t have  

Self: His energy is very negative altogether at the moment, but I believe it’s because Mingyu is having a hard time accepting certain things and he doesn’t want to look at himself or re-evaluate himself in certain situations 

Vernon

Love: he is currently dating, this seems to be a new relationship or at least something that is pretty new since he is still in his honeymoon phase with the person. I also see that Vernon fought a lot to be with this person, he flirted and courted them until they accepted to be with him 

Career: He is trying to focus more on his own thing, trying to develop his creativity, his lyrics and his music. But he is also seeking for new opportunities, for activities that aren’t related to music directly as well. Vernon feels the need to improve as an artist 

Self: I see some inner conflicts inside his head, probably due to some morals and values that he hasn’t been following or maybe for choices concerning his career. Vernon is also in a moment where he likes to avoid anything that remembers him of his inner demons and self 

Woozi

Love: I believe that Woozi is still single but he has been having a very recurrent fling that he sees for some time now. He does have certain feelings for them, since he offers the person some material goods and he is overall gentle with them. He just doesn’t want to be official with them yet 

Career: Things are moving very fast, and Woozi is basically carrying the whole group by himself. He does a lot of backstage work, he plans the songs, the release, and the tour, and talks to the staff and the company. He has been more of a leader in that sense than Scoups 

Self: he is happy with his life, he is mentally and physically healthy and just enjoying things. His head is just a bag of roses at the moment 

Jeonghan

Love: He is still in a relationship and things seem to be going well, a lot of success and happiness around the couple. I don’t have much to say when it’s like that. 

Career: He has been a little bit impulsive with people who work with him but other than that, he has also been focusing a lot on his job and taking all the opportunities that were given to him. Either they are coming from the company or sponsoring, he is trying to do it all. 

Self: But his impulsiveness also has much impact on his personality and his behaviors, since he makes everything seem like haste. I believe that Jeonghan is also very ruthless with his words which ends up hurting people around him 

Joshua

Love: This boy is in love, dating and being happy. He doesn’t care about what the world says about him as he just wants to live his perfect life with the person he loves. Hate doesn’t touch him at all. 

Career: I see a huge opportunity being given to Joshua and him accepting that opportunity so he could potentially travel or work with brands and endorsements that he likes. Overall, a very stable career

Self: He feels lucky in his life currently. Both his career and love life are going well and he is just happy with what life is giving him 

DK

Love: He too is currently dating! And boy DK is like shining, his energy is so bright and happy. This person is making him feel completely and loved. Again, nothing to add, other than that he is the happiest at the moment 

Career: Not only does he see his career as being a full-time success with SVT, he was also smart enough to invest a lot of his money in things that are giving him back, the double he invested. So DK is like being blessed at all levels a the moment 

Self: He just has a hard time letting go of some of his past traumas, and it’s honestly the only thing that holds him back or that brings him sadness every now and then. But other than that, he is okay 

Seungkwan

Love: He is single at the moment, but Seungkwan is very close to someone he loves dearly and I believe that it’s a friendship that is slowly turning into something more. It just needs some time to actually develop correctly. 

Career: Again, I only see good things coming for him. Career opportunities in both the music department and on endorsements. But also his group continuing to have success and him being happy about it 

Self: Seungkwan went through a tough period as everyone knows, but I also see a lot of recovery. He isn’t alone, he is being followed by friends and professionals who are helping him mourn and also getting better. It’s a positive light for his recovery 

Hoshi

Love: He is definitely in his weird type of relationship, with that older person that is basically being his bank account as well. Hoshi has been living a luxurious and abundant life lately through his partner and honestly, he seems to like it a Lot. 

Career: I don’t see anything new for his career, however, I do see a lot of critics and self-critics. So he basically might have argued with a member and he also has a too much high standard even for himself, which makes him prone to negative talk about himself. And that energy can be seen through his performances

Self: He is way too careless. Hoshi doesn’t take precautions with his life, with his behaviors and on his consumption which would be an issue later on. 

Jun

Love: He is really cold-hearted at the moment. Ever since he has broken up he hasn’t been with anyone else, he isn’t seeking anyone else and he just wants to be left in peace when it comes to love. That breakup really did something nasty to him 

Career: I also see so much conflict here. His career has been the motive of huge arguments between him and his family, but his behaviors have also been an issue for the group since it creates a lot of tension and aggressivity. He has been having a hard time keeping his idol image 

Self: I feel like Jun feels heavy, a burden even. He feels like everything is falling on his shoulders, that he has to do it all by himself and that people around him don’t care about him the way he wishes someone to. 

The8

Love: I believe that the8 is equally single and he is also not searching for someone. But in his case, it’s simply because he wants to enjoy his life, to have experiences and to meet people before finding someone to get with. 

Career:  He has been very productive and his mind is mostly focused on his work. The8 wants to give the best of himself and for that, he works a lot, perhaps even too much. But it’s also what makes him being such an idol, his dedication. 

Self: He is honestly balanced and his energy is good. The8 has been emotionally active, been there for people he likes and being diplomatic to solve conflicts whenever there is one

Dino

Love: He is in a relationship, but Dino has developed such a lousy co-dependency attachment that I am worried for him. He isn’t capable of being away from his person for long periods of time, he is very dependent and his moods depend on his relationship. 

Career: He has been having a hard time with the company and some of his members, and I kind of see his need and want to go on a hiatus period so he can focus more on herself. Although I doubt the company will give it to him 

Self: his energy is still good, though even if things aren’t as they are, he finds himself being happy with the little finds of life and he doesn’t dwell on his sadness 

[chaoticace2005]

Love your takes on Hazbin Hotel, I have a question regarding Vox and Alastor's relationship in contrast to Valentino and Vox.

I know there are many hints to Vox's previous relationship to Alastor as a friend, but I don't understand why Vox is still so obsessed with Alastor despite having a great relationship with Val even if it's just for benefits. Is it because Alastor knew him and liked his company when he was a 'nobody' in hell? I just don't understand why Vox is so obsessed and why he seems to be sexually attracted to Alastor as well? I mean he got so "excited" watching him almost die by Adam's hand and if he likes him why get excited by this?

I mean most people in the show seem more creeped out by Alastor than wanting to be with him and most people would not find a cannibal serial killer attractive up close.

I just don't understand Vox's creepy obsession with Alastor tbh, I like it but even I find it creepy.

It’s difficult to say exactly why one is attracted to a certain person, but I think one important thing to note is that people can still have feelings for others even when in a relationship with someone else. We don’t really know Vox and Val’s relationship. They are involved in some way and there appears to be sexual attraction, but it was stated in an interview that they aren’t in an established relationship. Also Val has his own weird obsession with Angel, which is albeit different but still very present and disturbing. In both cases however the obsessions are NOT healthy.

The reason he gets “excited” watching Alastor get destroyed by Adam is because of that very reason. Vox’s obsession with Alastor is NOT healthy. The idea of a “hate-boner” seems very accurate there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a “you denied me so now I want to watch you get destroyed”, with the sexual attraction still very much present but mixed with anger and rejection now.

We don’t know his feelings before the seven years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it went from a worshipping kind of obsession to what it is now, with Vox still having some feelings of reverence for Al but also a ton of betrayal, hatred, and attempt to hate him to block out the hurt.

This is at least my perspective on the matter. Take this with a grain a salt though because we only know a bit about Vox and Alastor, as well as VoxVal. Plus I’m on the aroace spec, so I have limited experience on such things. This is just my thoughts on the matter.

Basically though: logic for romantic and sexual feelings are complicated on their own, when you add the fact that none of the players are mentally stable in the slightest it gets even moreso.

As for the whole Alastor is a a creepy cannibal thing, I mean… you can’t account for taste. (Look at the fandom 😂 I mean Alastor isn’t real but there is also a concerning amount of people who simp for real serial killers.) Also Vox is a shitty person himself and enjoys watching people get hurt, being attracted to a serial killer is probably right up his alley.

[kiwi2229]

Books and stories

(James Potter / Regulus Black | 553 words)

For @jegulus-microfic prompt: Hero

James is lying on the soft covers of the bed making complicated movements with his wand. He learned a spell where you can basically paint into the air, making the colourful dots swirl around, mix them together and separate again. It’s not useful other than it calms his mind. It captures all his attention for hours absolutely fascinated by the colours.

The only sound in the come-and-go room is the soft crackling of the fire in the fireplace at the back of the room and Regulus occasionally turning over a page in his book. James doesn't notice the sounds until one of them stops. That’s why he looks at Regulus. It was too long since the boy moved.

Regulus is sitting on the bed his back resting against the headboard. He is watching James, the book lying in his lap. Something is different. Regulus sometimes watches him with tenderness in his eyes. The tenderness James absolutely adores is not there now. No. James can see something else. Sadness, worry.

“What’s wrong, love?” He asks snapping Regulus out of his head.

“Nothing,” Regulus answers immediately. “Just thinking.”

“Yeah, don’t do that. It makes you sad, I can see it.” James flops himself on his stomach resting his head on his folded arms. “You don’t like the book?”

Regulus looks down to his lap. “No, it’s nice. It’s just… the main character reminds me of you.”

James raises an eyebrow with interest. “Is he hot?”

Regulus barks out a startled laugh. “It’s a book, James.” The other boy rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me your wild imagination is not providing any images. Okay, at least tell me what he is like.”

“Lots of courage, high moral principles, show-off, but not a single self-preservation brain cell in his head.” Regulus deadpans.

“He sounds like a good fella,” James smirks. “So is the hero of the story?”

“Yes,” Regulus answers and James can see it again. The sadness in Regulus’ eyes as he watches him. James doesn’t understand. Isn’t that the point? The higher achievement to be the hero?

“He will never be happy, James,” Regulus explains. “He will sacrifice everything to save the world. He will tear himself apart just to do the right thing. He will probably end up completely alone in the world he doesn’t know anymore, or he will die saving it. It’s tragic really.”

James frowns. “But he will save them. Why wouldn’t he be happy? Maybe you read just sad books, Reggie, the books I’ve read have happy endings.” He tries to lighten the mood, but Regulus just gives him a pity look.

“Do they have a happy ending or does the story stop at the right point not showing what comes next? When you give everything up, what is there left?” James doesn’t like this conversation. He can see Regulus having a point, heros always get hurt. But that’s their destiny, isn’t it? They serve the greater good so no one else gets hurt. They bare it so others don’t have to. James would, he knows it in his soul.

“It’s just a story, Reg.”

“Aren’t we all stories in the end?” Regulus ask and James knows this conversation is something he will remember forever for some reason.

“Yeah.” He breaks out. “So, let’s make it a good one, hm?”

[echooefrost]

TGGTVAV x TGS AU!

Ok so Sage has always been talking about The Gentleman’s guide to Vice and Virtue and I finally got around to reading it and to say the least… I LOVED IT, every part of it! Whilst reading this fantastical tale, I just COULD NOT stop thinking of the Jekyon parallels to Monty and Percy… Just AGRGHHH they are all such big, lovable, queer Victorian idiots! Anyway If you couldn’t tell by the title of this post, I slam-dunked that book into my favorites pile and hastily made another AU. (also,,, SPOILERS! I am warning you. But what are you doing? Go read this book already!) 

In short I’ve basically taken The Characters from TGS and dumped them into the storyline/plot of TGGTVAV, In saying that neither Jekyll or Lanyon are strictly Percy or Monty, if that makes sense? I contemplated this over and over and I just couldn’t cram Jekyll or Lanyon’s characters into Monty or Percy’s. as an example; Lanyon’s personality is a lot more similar to Monty’s than Percy but Lanyon isn’t bisexual (a big aspect of Monty’s character) Yet at the same time both Lanyon and Percy play the Violin, both have dreamy freckles etc. But he just doesn’t fit into either of them, same goes with Jekyll; Jekyll and Monty both share similarities but are both very different, yet not different enough to take the role of Percy. So with all of that confusing explanation, Jekyll and Lanyon remain themselves with a few extra ~touches~: 

Jekyll is going to be sent to the mental asylum in Holland due to the existence of Hyde. Lanyon finds out about Hyde when he involuntarily transforms in Marseilles. 

Lanyon still plays the Violin and brings it on the Tour with him (for the reasons of plot accuracy and me pushing the Violin-Lanyon propaganda) 

Lanyon takes Monty’s position of power (as in his father is an Earl, and sends them on Tour) although Lanyon is rich, racism still very much exists and isn’t a terminated theme.

Before I continue and as a side note: Felicity Does not exist. As much as I wanted to work her into this, I just couldn’t without complicating a bunch of things, and as I said this is an Au, my au and I can do what I want - I do love Felicity but She just wasn’t going to work here.

Frankenstein (still a woman) takes the role of Mateu Robles because I thought it would be fun to play on the idea that Frankenstien created life and that Mateu’s panacea can heal people. After researching and experimenting, Frankestein tried the potion on Elizabeth but it stopped her heart, similar to how Frankenstein's original creation (the creature) ended up killing her love. I thought it would be interesting, that because Frankenstein kind of killed her wife, she created Helena and Dante the same way she made the creature, although they technically aren’t human, Helena and Dante still look and act like humans, and they believe Elizabeth equally as their mother as they do with Frankenstein. (Don’t ask me how a WLW relationship would work in the 1800’s ,,, everyone just thinks that Frankie is a guy {kind of like in TGS} ) 

Queen Lucy is Scipio because a.) We need more female badasses and b.) take ONE LOOK at her character design and Tell me she DOESN’T Look like a pirate queen- I also just think Lucy is a super fun character that I wanted to incorporate here. 

Those are about all the added things/changes - the rest basically just follows the same points of the plot :0 

If I’m completely honest, I probably won’t do much with this I just had an idea and wanted to share it :))

Here’s a little image of them - Also I gave them both slightly longer hair because I looked at fanart of Percy and fell in love. 

[luke-hughes43]

Get Out.

Luke Hughes x oc

This is the Luke fit I meant to post last night but I fell asleep lol, my bad. Here it is.

-

Background: You are a softball player at the University of Michigan. You met Luke while on a recruiting visit to umich and began dating shortly after arriving on campus. The end of hockey season is rapidly approaching as is Luke leaving for New Jersey from Tampa. Talks of Luke leaving have been put off, due to both of you being busy with your respective sports as well as classes, but have been brought up just days before he’s leaving.

It’s angsty but 100% will turn into fluff.

(I’m calling her Isabella but having her go by Bella just because lol)

Bella’s POV

*4 days before the Frozen Four*

“Hey baby.” Luke says as I walk into the sophomore hockey house for our movie night. We haven’t been able to have any time to ourselves lately because I’ve been traveling for softball and Luke has been traveling for hockey and our off time just hasn’t aligned. I smile as I hug him, “Hey lukey.”

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I know I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy with softball and then class, I just haven’t had much time. I wish I could’ve seen you more often, I know your leaving straight from Tampa.” I say as we settle on the couch. 

“Speaking of, can we talk?” He says and pulls away from me.

I turn to face him, “Of course. What’s up?”

“I want you to come to Jersey with me next year.”

I’m speechless. This is the first time we’re talking about this and he wants me to go with him. I want to, I really want to, but I can’t. Or at least right now I can’t. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and say, “Luke, I can’t.”

“What?” He says back shocked.

“I can’t go to jersey with you.”

“Why not?”

“My whole life is here Luke. I can’t just up and leave it all behind right now. I just can’t.”

“Why not though? I am leaving my life here to go to Jersey and I’m asking you to come with me.”

“And I’m telling you that I can’t. Me going to Jersey is a hell of a lot more complicated than you doing it.”

“You can transfer to Princeton or Rutgers or Columbia or anywhere nearby but I just want you with me baby. Is that so much to ask?” He basically pleads. I take a deep breath to try and calm myself and keep myself from snapping at him and getting upset. I say, “Luke, you don’t get it. It’s not as simple as just transferring to Rutgers or Princeton or Columbia. I just can’t upend my whole life and move to New Jersey right now.”

“Just tell me that you don’t love me then Isabella.” He snaps back and gets up from the couch leaving their living room. I am shocked at his fucking audacity to say that and full name me. That comment hurts a lot. Ever since I met him, I’ve been so hopelessly in love with him and it hurts that he’s saying otherwise to my face.

I get up and follow him, “I never said that I didn’t love you Luke. Do not put words into my mouth. I love you more than anything and you are my whole world Luke but you can’t expect to just pack up and move to New Jersey with you on a fucking whim because you want me to. I have school to finish and a softball career that I spent years building to make a name for myself.”

“It’s not a whim Izzy, it’s my fucking career. You’re the love of my life and I want you to come to jersey and be with me during my rookie year. Is it really that much ask my girlfriend?” He snaps.

I let out a sigh and say, “You aren’t even listening to me Luke.”

“I am listening to you. You’re just being unreasonable.”

“I am not being unreasonable. This isn’t just about you. I had to rebuild myself when I got to michigan coming off what was supposed to be career ending surgery, I cannot physically or mentally go through that again Luke. I left everything I ever knew in Massachusetts for this and I don’t have a family to fall back on if shit hits the fan.”

He looks hurt when I say that. I feel kinda bad about saying it but it’s to emphasize my point. He says back to me with hurt in his eyes, “That’s not fair. I didn’t ask for any of this and you know that Iz.”

He definitely missed my point. I sigh again and say, “I do know that Luke. I also know that I’ve been barely keeping my head above water for the past 3 months between classes, softball, and trying to be the girlfriend you deserve. I can’t just leave. I can’t and it’s frustrating that you aren’t listening to me.”

“Imagine how I must feel then listening to the first girl that I ever told I loved her and the only girl I have ever brought home to my parents that she doesn’t want to move with you for the biggest moment of your life.” He says. I can see it on his face how upset he is that I said that I’m not transferring and going with him. 

“I never said that I didn’t want to move Luke. I said that I can’t. There’s a difference. My decision in not going has nothing to do with you and has everything to do with me. You aren’t the only person in this relationship Luke.” I seethe at him.

“Neither are you.” He yells at me. 

That’s the first time he’s ever yelled at me in the year and a half we’ve been together. He then yells, “you say that I’m not the only person in this relationship but that’s exactly how your acting right now.” 

“I am well aware that I’m not the only person in this relationship Luke. You’re acting like your career with the Devils is more important then my softball career. I love you Luke, I really do. I love you more then anything but I can’t go with you. I need to prioritize myself right now. I cannot and will not upend my whole life and career and move across the country for a boy. I won’t do it.”

“Oh so now I’m now just some boy?”

“That’s not what I mean and you know that.”

“Do I? Because you’re making it sound like your just wasting your time being with me. That you only want to be with me when it’s convenient for you. You’re the first girl I’ve ever loved and the only one I plan on loving and it’s like I mean nothing to you.”

“You mean everything to me, but what about me? You aren’t even considering my life in any of this. You honestly thought I would just pack up everything and move because you asked me to?”

“I didn’t think I needed to ask.”

“And that is my problem Luke. You didn’t think you needed to ask me to move across the fucking country or mention it until 4 days before you fucking left. There’s nothing that you can say that will change my mind, I’m not going with you to Jersey Luke.”

“Then go.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Leave. Get out of my house Isabella.” He spits at me. I can feel the tears welling in my eyes. I just nod quietly as the tears build while grabbing my bag. I walk towards the front door but not without saying loud enough for him to hear, “I’m sorry Luke. I love you.”

I leave the house and instantly burst into tears. I get into my car and try to calm myself down enough to drive home. I calm down to the point that I can make the short drive to my house before I start crying. I don’t even bother trying to wipe my tears before going inside. I walk in and then upstairs and just lock myself in my room and continue to cry in peace.

After a while, there’s a knock on my door, “Bella, are you ok?”

That would be my best friend Lauren. I don’t say anything in hopes she walks away but she doesn’t. I hear her sit on the other side of my door and then she says, “I don’t know what’s wrong but I’m here for you girl.”

I just say nothing and stay locked in my room. A little while later I hear movement on the other side of my door. There’s another a voice that I recognize as Dylan Duke’s says, “Bella? Are you ok? Can we talk?”

I don’t say anything in hopes he gets the hint but he doesn’t and says again, “Bella, I’m just here to talk I promise. I’m sorry about Luke, he’s an ass. I just wanna make sure your ok.”

I roll my eyes aggressively and stand. I open my door to face him knowing that I look like an absolute mess. I snap at him (way harsher than I should’ve because he’s just tryna be a good and he’s not responsible for Luke’s actions), “Well, Dylan, I’m not ok. The guy I had every intention on being with for the rest of my life tried guilt tripping me into moving across the country for him 4 days before he was leaving and when I told him no, he flipped out and kicked me out on the first date night we’ve had in 6 weeks. On top of the fact that I have to pitch tomorrow against the team that gives me the most anxiety 4 days before my boyfriend leaves for good. So no I’m not ok and I’m not gonna be ok. I don’t wanna see you right now Dylan and I certainly don’t wanna talk to him. If he’s done, then so am I. Go home.”

I close the door on him and Lauren and I don’t come out for the rest of the night. I don’t get any sleep last night which sucks because I have a big game today. It doesn’t help that I hate pitching against Minnesota and that I get so anxious that I throw up when it’s my turn to pitch against them. Once the sun is up and the house is awake, I let them know that I’m going to the field early and then just go. 

I get there at like 9 and dressed in the warmup gear for that and just chill out by myself for a while until it was time for everyone to come in. They come as it approaches the time for warmups and everything like that.

We go through warmups and soon enough it’s time for the game. I take a deep breath before getting on the mound for the game. Surprisingly, I’m throwing fairly well. I have 4 strikeouts and no hits or walks through the first 3 innings. 

After the top of the 3rd, stupid me looks up in the stands and I am met with the sophomores of the hockey team. Luke gives me a soft smile, Ethan waves at me, mark and mackie have smiles on their faces because they love watching me play, and Dylan gives me a sympathetic look. All of a sudden, I want to throw up now.

I get into the dugout and empty the little contents of my stomach into the trash barrel. Lauren comes over and rubs my back while I puke. Once I finish, she hands me a towel to wipe my mouth and a water. She asks, “You ok?”

“He’s here.”

“Who’s here?”

“Luke.” I say and throw up again. I throw up until I hear Audrey say to me, “Hey girl. You’re on deck. You ok?”

“I’m fine. Just the minnesota anxiety.” I say and wipe my mouth again. I slug some water and grab my helmet. I get up to bat and I’m a hot mess. I’m swinging at awful pitches and my head just isn’t in it. I strikeout on 3 pitches to end the inning so I run back and grab my glove to pitch the 4th inning. 

I somehow pitched fine for the first two batters and struck them both out but after that, my pitching performance quickly went downhill. I walked the next batter and then hit the girl after that. So now there’s two runners on. I get the next batter down to 2 strikes and then just leave it down the middle. She hits a ground ball up the middle and I roll my ankle hearing a crack as I go to try and field it. 

I instantly fall and clutch my ankle in so much pain. Once the play is called dead, the trainer and coach come running out. The trainer asks, “What’s wrong?” I take a deep breath and say, “I rolled my ankle over trying to field the ball. I heard a crack in my ankle.”

“Ok. Is it your push foot or your landing foot?”

“Push."

“Ok. I’m gonna try to move it ok?” He says and moves my foot. 

I wince a little bit but do my best to hide the pain. It hurts a lot but I refuse to be taken out so I’m gonna try to tough it out. He then says, “Ok. Let’s get you up and see how it feels standing.”

I stand and it hurts like a bitch but I’m playing. I say, “I think I’ll be fine. Can I try to throw?”

“Of course.”

I get on the mound to throw. I throw a strike but it’s definitely like 10 miles slower but whatever. I’m just tryna make it through the inning. I say to the coaches and trainers, “I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m good enough to finish the inning. Promise.” They nod and the game continues. I strike out the next batter to end the inning and coach takes me out to make sure my foot is ok. We win 3-1 and that’s the series. 

I grab my stuff and start to head to my car to go home when I see Luke standing by my car. I roll my eyes but don’t say anything trying to act like I don’t see him. He says, “Hey.”

I don’t say anything which prompts him to say again, “Izzy, please. Just hear me out.”

“No.”

“Baby, please.”

“No Luke. You yelled at me and then kicked me out when I told you that I wouldn’t pack up my whole life and future to move for you. I’m not in the mood for this today so please just leave me alone.”

“Are you at least ok? How’s your foot?”

“I’m fine. Go home Luke.”

“I love you Izzy.”

“Yea. I know.” I say getting in my car and leaving. I wanted to jump right into his arms but he hurt me too much to do that. I’m gonna forgive him or let him apologize so quickly. I love him with my whole heart but I am hurt too much right now. He hurt me too much to just forgive so easily.

(I can write a part 2 of the makeup and fluff if y'all want.)

[swordfright]

I want to know about the ouroboros AUs very badly

The amount of words I'm about to type is gonna make me look INSANE but in my defense I had to think about this every day for like a YEAR OKAY.

Island AU Spiderette AU: This AU operates on the premise that the Vault considers any structure c!Sam builds with the intent to imprison someone as an extension of Pandora — an extra limb. In Ouroboros, Sam was planning to kidnap Michael and keep him at the island house in order to lure Ranboo to the prison (as in canon), but he doesn’t have a chance to actually go through with that plan because he gets distracted by, y’know, Pandora becoming a sentient eldritch horror. So basically, Island AU diverges from Ouroboros in the final chapter. When Dream fakes a suicide attempt to force the Vault to spit him and Sam out, Pandora doesn’t dump them in the prison lobby…it dumps them in Sam’s island house. Essentially, the Vault considers that house (which Sam intended to keep Michael in, ostensibly as a hostage) to be a type of prison, and thus, an extension of Pandora’s Vault. So, Sam takes the only course of action that makes sense to him: he treats Dream’s injuries and officially incarcerates him in the island house. It’s supposed to be temporary, but after a while Sam is resigned to the possibility that he may never return Dream to Pandora Proper. And y’know what? This is fine! This is fine, actually. Dream is still his prisoner, Sam can still be warden here.

In the beginning, the situation is very similar to his and Dream’s dynamic in Pandora. Sam keeps Dream in the little room meant for Michael. The house isn’t really set up for full-on incarceration, so Sam has to make modifications. He can’t exactly install a lava chamber, but he adds chains to the walls so he can keep the prisoner secure. Michael’s room doesn’t have space to add a desk or a cauldron or a toilet, so Dream must be permitted to leave a couple times a day. Dream moves around the house with Sam’s permission and occasionally helps with chores/maintenance/daily tasks (a freedom which Sam justifies as “prison labor” lmfao)

After a while, the two of them fall into a bizarre domesticity: they are essentially cohabiting, but Dream is still Sam’s prisoner and Sam is still Dream’s warden. It’s weird. It’s tense and awful, but it’s also kind of okay sometimes, compared to the prison. Dream eventually hatches a plan to escape, but things get complicated. Honestly, a lot of the “plot” for this AU hinges on the idea of Pandora’s sentience, and the fact that people in-the-know can basically fast-travel between buildings on the server as long as those buildings are limbs of Pandora. It gets very technical so I won’t bore y’all with all that.

Ouroboros Extended Cut AU: In this AU, c!Dream does not attempt to fake his own suicide in order to force Pandora to release him, as he does in Ouroboros. The idea occurs to him, but he has extreme reservations about actually going through with it: what if the plan works too well and he actually kills himself? These reservations aren’t unfounded, given the intense anxieties he has surrounding death in canon. Sam can’t revive him because he has not given Sam the book. So basically, Sam and Dream spend way, way, wayyyy longer trapped inside the prison. I’m talking at least another year or two. And the longer they spend there, the weirder shit gets. This AU leans really heavily into the horror elements of Ouroboros. Dream eventually figures out how to communicate effectively with the Vault. Sam also communicates with the Vault, but far less effectively because he’s Sam and he fucking sucks. There’s plenty of bizarre space-time continuum stuff. Also, the prison gets really good at recreating illusions of people who have spent a lot of time in the Vault in the past. The strongest illusions are capable of speech and sometimes even conversation, though they appear to have a limited variety of possible responses. Quackity is one of those people, but it’s Tommy’s illusion that’s the strongest because he wasn’t just resurrected inside Pandora (like Ghostbur), he actually died there as well.

As things get more horrifying inside the Vault, Sam and Dream become progressively more desensitized to that horror; it changes their dynamic somewhat, because they have to be pragmatic as hell if they want to make it out one day. The Vault wants to keep them alive, and yet is fundamentally hostile to living. Dream is allowed way more freedom (under Sam’s supervision) for reasons of mutual survival. He and Sam become more codependent. I probably will never write this AU down, but if I did, I’d want to incorporate a bunch of minecraft gameplay and environment elements from the big spooky 1.17 Caves & Cliffs update: the warden creatures, the ruins, the Deep Dark biome, the skulk, etc.

Timewarp AU: One of the big decisions I had to make when writing Ouroboros was whether time inside the prison should pass at the same rate as time passes outside the prison. If you’ve read the fic, you know that time inside the Vault passes slower after the prison gains sentience, so Sam and Dream spend months in there but only a few days have passed in the outside world. However, if I’d decided to have time pass in the prison at the same rate it passes on the rest of the server, that would mean Dream completely misses Techno’s rescue. In this AU, Techno shows up on 11/28 to break Dream out and finds the prison seemingly abandoned. After having a thorough look around, he leaves. His thought process: Dream must’ve found some other way to escape! Makes sense! If escape was possible, why would he wait for Techno?

Because of this, when Dream pulls his fake suicide stunt and forces the Vault to spit them out, his incarceration continues as normal because he missed the jailbreak. Ngl, this AU is pretty bleak because Dream is alone and locked up for a much longer period than in canon. (I actually ended up NOT going with this option when writing Ouroboros because my good friend aaron ringenthusiast told me very plainly that any version of events where Dream misses Techno’s big rescue was too depressing to contemplate!) 

Eventually the Syndicate get suspicious, of course. It’s been over six months since the failed jailbreak and if Dream really did escape prior to that, it’s weird that he hasn’t tried to contact Techno or reach out to any other Syndicate members…right? Eventually, Phil and Techno are contacted by Punz, who’s forced to out themself as Dream’s ally because they haven’t heard from Dream in an alarming amount of time and are frankly confused. Tbh, I haven’t decided where this AU goes after that, but I think it’d be neat if Dream still gets rescued or maybe even escapes Pandora by himself somehow. I'm fond of stories where Dream is ultimately the one to save himself.

The final AU is Amnesia Island. It’s similar to Island AU Spiderette in that after the events of Ouroboros, Sam manages to move Dream from Pandora onto his island and imprisons him there. However, Dream is in really bad shape. In this version of events, his suicide fake-out was unsuccessful in that he accidentally does kill himself. The Vault still spits them out, but the blood transfusion comes too late and it looks like Dream is actually gonna die – bummer! That’s not what either of them wanted! Luckily, Sam has a secret: he’s already created a clone of Dream’s body (without his consent or knowledge, because of course.) So when Sam realizes Dream is gonna die FR fr, he uses the power of (canonical!) cool awesome unethical science to transfer Dream’s mind to the new body just before Dream dies. This all happens in the triage ward in Pandora. After the process is complete, he whisks his prisoner away to the island. 

All should be well, theoretically. Except, uh oh! When Dream wakes up in his new body, he…isn’t Dream. At least, he isn’t Sam’s Dream. Something went wrong, either with the cloning process or the transfer of consciousness. New Dream has clearly got the same personality as old Dream, but minus the traumas he’s recently acquired. Huge chunks of his memory seem to be gone. He doesn’t recall who he is, who Sam is, L’Manberg, the Disc Saga, any of the events of the past couple years. It’s all gone.

Sam’s reaction to the amnesia is…messy. First, he doesn’t believe Dream, thinks he’s faking it. It takes an unpleasant interrogation to finally convince Sam that Dream really doesn’t remember anything. After denial comes anger: this version of Dream is both familiar and alien; he reminds Sam more of the man who built the Community House than the prisoner! Which means all the time and effort Sam spent conditioning the prisoner to fear him and respect him and obey him is wasted. Sam gave up parts of his soul for that deference, that submission. And now it’s just gone. He’s not happy about it. Next comes the bargaining, and finally, acceptance, or something that passes for acceptance until you hold it up to the light. According to Sam’s worldview, Dream is fundamentally corrupt. Even if amnesiac Dream doesn’t remember doing terrible things, he still did them, right? Which means Sam still has a responsibility to keep him locked up. The warden is still needed! This is a huge source of relief, since it preserves Sam’s self-concept.

Only…the situation is a bit more convoluted now. No version of Dream is innocent in Sam’s eyes, which means amnesiac Dream cannot be innocent. But the amnesia complicates things. For one, this Dream doesn’t have nearly as many reasons to fear and hate Sam, which means he’s openly affectionate — helpful, even. Sam appreciates that, and his appreciation throws a wrench in his plan to reincarcerate the prisoner. This is post-Ouroboros Sam, so he is aware on some level that he loves Dream, though he perceives that love as an unforgivable weakness. Not to mention he and Dream have been sleeping together for months and Sam misses that. Given these compounding factors, Sam opts not to punish Dream as frequently or as harshly as he did when they were in Pandora. It’s not that he regrets his former treatment of Dream (after all, Sam has never had any qualms about treating a lover sternly, has he?) but he does have a vested interest in encouraging Dream’s affection. He wants Dream to be obedient, and obedience is an easier thing to offer when you think you’re in love. So Sam does what he has to: he lies.

He doesn’t exactly tell Dream the two of them are married, not quite, but it’s heavily implied. Sam does everything he can to avoid verbally defining their relationship in such clear terms, while simultaneously doing all he can to make Dream believe that the two of them are in an established, committed relationship. It’s not so far from the truth, Sam tells himself. After all, what is the relationship between warden and prisoner if not committed?

In short, their life together on the island is fucked upppp. The two of them cohabitate and eventually resume sleeping together. Dream is not allowed to leave the house without Sam’s supervision, and he’s never allowed near the shoreline under any circumstances. He’s not allowed to send or receive letters or communications of any kind. Dream’s also forbidden from touching or picking up weapons and tools, lest he use them to harm someone (or himself. Sam has nightmares about watching Dream stab himself in Ouroboros.) The list of rules goes on, and the consequences for breaking them are…varied and creative. Dream understands, on some level, that Sam hurts him, that being around Sam is frightening and stressful. But Sam is also his partner, a man Dream thinks he loves. A man he feels comfortable with, sometimes. Dream has been told in simple terms that he’s dangerous, that he needs the warden’s guidance in order to keep everyone else safe. Dream doesn’t remember who “everyone else” is, but he has no reason to wish them ill, whoever they are. So he’s also grateful, in that sense, that Sam is willing to help him not hurt people. It is a gratitude that Sam has manufactured entirely, but it’s a powerful force nonetheless. 

So, in summary, they’re codependent as hell and their life together is scary and bad. Don’t worry, it gets better but first it gets worse. As time passes, Dream feels more and more often that the way Sam treats him is unfair, which is objectively true. He has misgivings, but with very few concrete memories to base them on, these misgivings don’t serve him particularly well. However, after about a year of island living, his memories do start to come back gradually. This creates problems. Sam is quite happy with their new arrangement, so Dream’s memories coming back is a nightmare scenario for him. When he begins to notice little clues, it makes him incredibly paranoid, which in turn causes him to act…rashly. There is one notable incident where a bird dies by accidentally flying smack into a window, as birds sometimes do. Dream calmly picks it up and steps around the back of the house to bury it in the garden. But when Sam comes to check on him a few minutes later, he finds the bird alive and flapping, as if it was never hurt. Dream tells Sam he doesn’t remember how he brought the bird back to life; he can’t explain it, he just knew. Sam doesn’t believe him. It’s a rough night.

Of all the AUs, Amnesia Island is probably the one that’s rotted my brain the worst. It's definitely the most detailed so I could probably go on about it forever, but this post is already way too long so I’ll conclude by adding that in none of these AUs does Dream ever cave and give Sam the revive book. He’s holding onto that motherfucker, always and forever. Amen.

[wisteria-cherry]

forty days and forty nights (day eleven!)

(double header)

(read them all here!)

you were tired.

last night was one of those nights where you couldn’t sleep, no matter how tired you were. you ended up staying on your phone quite a bit before finally deciding to take a melatonin gummy at 3am. bad move. you’d been tired all day. usually you’d perk up at least a little when bakugo came in, excited to see your friend again, but alas, his presence had minimal effect.

“you look dead.” bakugo stated bluntly as you rung up his coffee.

“mm.” you didn’t bother with words. he studied your expression closely.

“add another coffee.”

“hm..?” you look up, not quite registering what he’d said. bakugo tched and looked away.

“i said add another damn coffee to my bill.”

“ok, what kind?” you ask in a somewhat monotonous voice that would be sure to earn you a scolding if your boss were here.

“whatever you normally get, i don’t fuckin’ know.” it took you a second to realize that he was buying you a coffee, but when you did, you immediately protested.

“oh, no, i can’t let you do that.” you say quickly, waking up instantly.

“why not? ‘s’it against the rules or some shit?” bakugo retorted, knowing damn well that it wasn’t.

“no, but..”

“so ring up the damn coffee.”

“i’m fine, i don’t need coffee.”

“you look tired as hell. if you’re not gonna accept the coffee ‘cuz it’s comin’ from me, accept it ‘cuz you give shitty customer service when you’re tired.”

“i do not..!”

“the only things you said before i asked for another damn coffee were just mumbling.”

“you mumble too.”

“i’m the fucking customer, i can do that if i wanna.” bakugo scowled. “just take the goddamn coffee!”

“fine.” you agree finally and reluctantly. “but just a small.”

“good.” bakugo huffed, satisfied. “how much? you (again, very reluctantly) rung him up and he paid for it via cash.

“i’m paying you back,” you warned.

“like hell.” bakugo tched.

“i am.” you insist.

“good luck.” was his reply, complete with an amused snort. he sat down as you gave him his coffee and began to make your own.

“…the hell did you do to get so tired?” bakugo asked after a few minutes of silence.

“i couldn’t sleep last night,” you admit, opting to leave out the melatonin aspect of it, lest he make fun of you.

“that’s stupid.” you couldn’t tell whether he meant it as a sympathetic agreement or he was just straight up telling you that you were stupid for not being able to go to sleep. knowing him, it could be either one, so you simply agreed with him.

“yeah. so how was work today?” you ask instead. he rolls his eyes.

“you’re not gonna fuckin’ believe it.” he grumbled.

“sidekicks still not meeting your atrociously high standards?” you raise an eyebrow.

“it’s not atrocious, it’s common fucking sense! you beat the villain’s ass and you do the report. it’s not that fuckin’ hard.” bakugo frowned deeply, thoroughly annoyed.

“is it really that simple?” you ask curiously. surely it’s more complicated.

“yeah, well, there’s more to it, but that’s the basic premise.” bakugo looked away, glaring at nothing in particular.

“i’m sure.” you take a sip of your coffee. it definitely hit the spot, and, despite your annoyance at bakugo buying you coffee even though you said no, you were happy he did it.

“thanks for the coffee.”

“whatever. just don’t expect shit like this every day or something.” bakugo replied, frown deepening, before adding for good measure, “dumbass.”

“if i’m a dumbass, what does that make you?” you ask amusedly.

“the best.” bakugo answered firmly. “i’m the number one hero.” you were too tired to argue, so you nod with that faux interest that people usually show towards little kids when said kids are rambling and the people either aren’t paying attention or don’t understand.

“quit givin’ me that look.” he snapped.

“okay, bakugo.”

“and quit sounding so damn smug!”

“okay, bakugo.”

“stop saying that!”

“…okay, baku-“

“i’ll kill you.”

“what am i supposed to say to that?” you ask, taking another sip of your coffee. it was amazing.

“nothing, that’s the point.” bakugo responded. “shut up and drink the damn coffee.”

“you first.”

“getting sassy, huh?” bakugo narrowed his eyes, resting his arms on the counter and leaning forward. “don’t fuck with me, y’hear?”

“loud and clear, sergeant.”

“it’s not atrocious, it’s common fucking sense!”

<- previous next->

@k0z3me @cherryblossomclarity

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The Hero's Journey Character Arc Explained

Heroic characters are useful archetypes. Readers are familiar with them and love watching them succeed. Each hero’s journey takes them through trials and failures, but they always become better people in the end.

Here’s a quick guide to learning what a hero’s journey is and how you can write a character arc for your next heroic protagonist.

What Is the Hero’s Journey?

The hero’s journey is a specific character arc for the hero archetype. It has many ups and downs compared to the traditional mountain-shaped plot outline. 

A hero’s journey also includes many parts that aren’t all necessarily required. They’re simply plot points you can consider as you plan or write your stories. 

What Is the Hero’s Journey Character Arc?

The hero’s journey character arc is the general plot progression that takes the protagonist through their overall development. It’s customizable to each writer’s story, but contains these basic parts:

Part One: A Typical Day

Most stories start in this same place. Your reader needs to experience at least a bit of what your protagonist’s life is normally like. It establishes what matters to your protagonist, what they don’t like about their life, and the structural challenges they face.

Part Two: Receive the Call for Adventure

This part is Gandalf showing up on Bilbo’s doorstep. It’s the proposal of a grand adventure or the option to make a drastic change in the protagonist’s life.

The reader has seen what their life already looks like and if the protagonist is happy, so they understand what your hero has to potentially lose if things go wrong on their adventure.

Part Three: Refuse the Call

It’s very human to be scared of change. It’s also relatable to feel unequipped to handle a monumental responsibility. Hero archetypes often initially refuse their call, which can look like a few things:

Literally saying no to someone

Understanding their identity and running from it

Learning about their destined fate and rejecting it

Great heroes can also immediately accept the call. They don’t always have to refuse. It depends on your protagonist’s nature regarding change, adventure, and if they’re ready to overturn their life on a risky bet.

Part Four: Introduce the Mentor

Mentors help heroes prepare for their journey. This is the classic training montage, time spent in classes, or however your protagonist will learn the skills they need to achieve their journey’s goal.

Does your protagonist need a mentor? They may not if they already have most of the skills they’ll need. They can always learn new talents along their adventure as well.

Part Five: The Adventure Begins

The adventure is your overall plot. It might be a literal adventure, like exploring an unknown world. It could also be a new phase in your hero’s life, like going to college. Think of your hero’s adventure as the entirety of their upcoming experience that causes them to grow.

Part Six: Trials, Action, and Conflict Occur

These are your plot twists, your action scenes, and your interpersonal conflict. There’s no specific amount of each thing to include in your story. You only need the elements that further your hero along your plot or teach them more about your theme.

Example: Your hero’s adventure is a road trip across the country. They want to find the family car that got stolen a year ago, but your theme is the complicated nature of processing grief. Losing the family car caused a specific loss to occur within the family. 

The events should help your hero recognize the grief, understand how they’ve been avoiding it, and learn how to process it. Anything that doesn’t build to that overarching theme won’t move the adventure along.

Part Seven: The Protagonist’s Goal Is Close

Your hero’s goal will eventually become within reach. It’s that moment when a character says the cliche, “XYZ is so close, I can almost taste it.”

Will your hero feel more motivated as their goal gets closer? Will they feel intimidated and try to run away? There are many ways this moment affects protagonists in the hero’s journey character arcs.

Part Eight: The Biggest Test or Trial Occurs

This is the part where your hero has no option left but to face their biggest test. It’s the final boss fight scene in a video game or the one-on-one fight in a movie between the protagonist and antagonist.

It can also mean your character faces the inward dilemma that’s the heart of your theme. Does it go well? It depends on how you want to end your story. Readers sometimes love a story that ends in defeat, especially if it sets up a sequel. 

Your hero doesn’t have to end their story perfectly. If you think your theme will be more relatable or understandable through loss, go with your gut.

Part Nine: The Hero Ventures Through the Dangerous Journey Home

Sometimes this part isn’t necessary in stories, but it’s worth considering. After journeying far from home, your hero has won or lost their ultimate test. Now they have to return to their life as their changed self. 

How will their adventure impact their relationships or way of life? They won’t be the same person they were on page one because you’ve had them experience an entire arc.

Part Ten: A Final Test Makes Your Protagonist Learn the Plot’s Primary Lesson

After returning home (or on the journey there), your hero may experience one more trial that drives your theme home. It’s not a required part of every story, but it’s another way to make your theme clear to the reader. It may also help you feel like you’ve tied up loose ends, if you feel like some remain.

Part Eleven: The Hero Returns Home Successful

Closing your story with your hero successfully back home brings your plot arc full circle. Heroes typically complete the arc in this way because they’re not stereotypically looking for a new place to live. They initially reject the call for adventure because they don’t want to leave.

However, your hero’s journey may include the dream or newly inspired desire to change their life. As long as they end up in a place where they are either happy or feel ready for new beginnings, you’ll have successfully included this part of the plot arc.

Examples of The Hero’s Journey Character Arc  

The Odyssey

This classic example of a hero’s journey character arc includes every step outlined above. He leaves home for adventure (war), goes through numerous trials along the way there and the way home, then has a final test when he’s back home.

Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth is the hero of Pride and Prejudice. When she receives the call for adventure (a marriage proposal) she rejects it. The novel’s events carry her on a seemingly unknown journey to the biggest test, which is when she realizes she’s in love with Mr. Darcy. A final test (Darcy’s second proposal) makes her confront her love and her concept of marriage.

The Hunger Games

Katniss’ hero’s journey character arc happens in each of the three books, plus the overall arc of the trilogy. She accepts the call to adventure (taking her sister’s place), experiences trials along the way (the Games), and faces a final test (saving Peeta along with herself by recognizing her true feelings for him and her power over the Games). 

The story doesn’t end perfectly because two more books follow. However, it ends in a satisfying place for readers because every thread gets tied up (Katniss protecting her family, surviving, and learning to recognize and deal with her emotions).

Write Incredibly Heroic Characters

Writing a hero’s journey character arc might take some more planning than you’ve done in the past, but it isn’t impossible. Remember these steps to write an epic story with a hero your readers adore.