#it's about how SCOTT was right and he was wrong or how SCOTT doesn't trust him

[thiamblogger]

i'm rewatching 6x6 and i already knew that liam had decided to get theo out, but i never realised how quickly he decided that. it was like liam had been searching for a reason to get him out, everybody already knows that.

what i mean is that the scene where hayden and liam are in the hallway talking about liam's plan, the scene directly before mr. douglas mentions something about absorbing the lighting and liam instantly thinks of him.

when they're in the tunnels liam could've sent him back like hayden and mr. douglas suggested, but he hesitated, he always hesitated because he didn't really want to, which was why he never pulled the sword on him unless influenced and why he allowed theo to hold him against the walls in the tunnels.

[gege-wondering-around]

Stiles and Betrayal

I had this stuck in my head, how much different is Derek's and Scott's response to Stiles protecting his father and how he does that.

In 3x10

we have this scene (kind of, I had to make some cut here and there). Initially Scott tells Derek that Jennifer is the one killing people to which she says...

When Derek understand that they are right he tries to kill Jennifer but Stiles screams at him to stop and he does stop after 'contemplating' a bit if it's a good choise. And he decides it's what he think it's best for Stiles.

Derek knows how important Noah is for Stiles. He doesn't want Stiles to be completely alone since Derek knows what it's like living without parents.

He believes Stiles (+ Scott also explains the situation to him) and looks at him and he knows, he KNOWS Stiles is willing to do anything for his father, to keep him safe since he's the only family he has left and he doesn't wanna lost him too.

He knows that Stiles is desperate to get his father back and Derek sees it not only through his tears but his voice too, how hurried it sounded when he pleaded to stop compared to how broken it was before, when he asked where his father was.

The way Derek looks at Stiles, the longing eyes, his expression as he decides who he can believe - Jennifer or Stiles - and he chooses Stiles. Above the woman he loved he chose Stiles, 'skynny, defendless Stiles', like it's the easiest thing in the world for Derek to choose Stiles.

While in 5x9

we get this...

And (since i didn't make a gif with it) there's a sentence that's very important that must be added. After Stiles says "he was gonna kill my dad" (in 2nd gif) there's this back and forth between them:

Stiles: Huh? Was I supposed to just let him? Scott: You weren't supposed to do this. None of us are. Stiles: You think I had a choice? Scott: There's always a choice.

After which Stiles add the 'famous'

All of us can't be True Alphas! Some of us have to make mistakes. Some of us have to get our hands a little bloody sometimes. Some of us are human!

And Scott goes with the 3rd gif.

So after this has been said...

Stiles once again tried to protect his dad BUT ALSO HIMSELF and he did in a 'cruel' way, but did Scott really needed to spit in his face like that?

It was self defence and it left Stiles with a huge bite on his shoulder

Scott has presumably known Stiles for a good 4/5 of his life and he is his best friend, his brother. And he doubted him. He let himself being fooled by Theo and he stood too firmly on his morals - and I get it.

Scott doesn't want to kill or do the 'bad thing' but just as Stiles said 'some of us have to make mistakes' and it's not simply a mistake. It's a choise about what's the best option, what are you willing to risk and what are you willing to lose. Nothing is black and white no matter how much one - Scott - tries to stand on his morals.

He didn't want to see the circumstances and what Stiles was feeling, he tried to play the 'good guy' but ended up being the in the wrong, which happens a lot whenever he keeps insisting on the 'or totally black or totally white' with his morals.

Stiles didn't do the 'morally right' thing to do, he did what he needed to do - what he thought he needed to do - to save his father. And i don't think Scott thought about how much Noah means to Stiles.

Stiles only has his dad, just like Scott only has his mom. So, wouldn't Scott to the same to save his mother?

Would Stiles do the same that he did to him?

(I don't think Stiles would've done the same, I think he would have thought it through and compared his father to Melissa, ending up deciding that it was the 'right thing' to do to prevent a life from being taken.)

So:

Somehow we got Derek, who knew Stiles for less than a year probably, trusting Stiles' judgement and seeing the situation through Stiles' POV, and choose a (almost) random guy instead of the woman he was in love with.

While Scott, who calls Stiles his brother, ended up not trusting Stiles and going against him, almost saying to him:

'Choose a random guy's life over your father's'

And I get that Scott has the 'good' morals but sometimes morals aren't everything you can stand by, sometimes you have to put them aside to see how a situation really is. And while for Derek killing is almost not that big of a deal (it's almost the solution to every problem regarding an enemy of some kind) he is still considerate of how it might effect Stiles' life, while Scott almost implies that killing Donovan for SELF DEFENCE was the bad thing to do.

(and I get it, Stiles didn't explain the whole situation, but let me ask you, did Scott asked Stiles about it or did he blindly went with what Theo told him?)

So, Scott betrayed Stiles and thought it was better to give him a lecture about what was 'supposedly the best thing to do' while Derek trusted and sided with Stiles. He didn't betray Stiles when he needed someone to help him or understand him, he chose to listen to Scott and Stiles about Jennifer and he doubted Jennifer even before it was proved that she was the Darach.

But was it really worth it?

For Scott to betray Stiles like that (despite the fact they later got back on good terms) and ultimately ruining what they had, which was already holding on by thin strings by then due to the supernatural stepping in the way and all the situation they had been in where they had to be faced with decisions that were bigger than them - SINCE THEY WERE TEENAGERS.

Was it needed to break one of Stiles' strongest bond over such a thing? counting Scott didn't ask Stiles himself anything but just 'accused' him.

And breaking this bond he had with Scott just made the one he had with Derek a bit stronger (despite the fact these episodes are far from each other) since Scott bring Derek up to try to get to convince Stiles to share is point...

SCOTT: Now you're gonna try to at least give him (Theo)the benefit of the doubt? STILES: I give people benefit of the doubt! I've given a lot of benefit to a lot of people. SCOTT: Like Derek? ...Kira? ...Liam?

Why the first person Scott mentions is Derek, almost comparing him to Theo as to tell Stiles:

"He was the bad guy too, Derek was bad too but now look at how we are, couldn't it be the same for Theo?"

Scott tries to reason with Stiles trying to make him feel guilty for 'staying attached' to the past and seeing Theo as the bad guy he was before, but Stiles is right. Theo was the bad guy that was before.

In the end this all makes me think Derek cared for Stiles more than Scott when it's about Stiles' family. And that somehow Scott doubts his 'brother' when it comes to his judgement on 'good' and 'bad' people because Stiles doesn't give off his trust to everyone he meets.

SCOTT: Why can't you trust anyone? STILES: Because you trust everyone!

Does trusting everyone makes them automatically good without any kind of 'exam' to pass first?

I don't think so, or there would be no need to define people as bad in the first place.

Is it wrong to be skeptical of people you've never met before or people who have been bad to you in the past?

I don't think so since our experince define how we perceive others and how we wanna approach them at first.

In the end:

Scott could've done better in that moment - episode - and chose to listen to Stiles and ask him about it before jumping to conclusions.

Derek understood Stiles and how much worried he was for his father, and chose to help him save him.

(But i'm not saying Scott is a bad character overall, he just has his highs and lows as everyone does and I'm not trying to put Derek higher than Scott since being friends with people - in this case Stiles - isn't a race)

[jellieland]

Gem Cleo watches Scott leave. He's throwing wary glances over his shoulder at the tower that has what looks to her like a big red curly moustache on it.

It's always nice to see him, and this is a bit different to their usual encounters, which is really refreshing every now and then.

She pulls out the pufferfish he gave her and smiles at it brightly. "Hey there little guy!" She says. It stares back at her with unblinking black eyes.

"Dunno if you can call me a little guy when you're on a team with Bdubs, but sure, hey Cleo!"

She startles slightly. It's Martyn. He's not actively stabbing her, and apparently they're allies, so she turns to face him without much concern. "Hello Martyn!"

He's leaning against the rocky wall of the clock tower. He grins at her, and for a split second, his gaze flashes over to where Scott is disappearing into the trees across the river. "You still remember that thing I told you about last time, right?" He asks, giving her a meaningful look.

"Oh, yes, of course, absolutely!" She nods enthusiastically. "How could I forget!" It's funny, no-one else has really prodded at the details of Cleo's, uh, "amnesia cold", as much Martyn, although he's for sure just completely making things up to ask her about.

He looks highly amused. "Right, right, good. Just checking."

He glances over at the treeline again.

"So!" He says, and it's so very casual that it's a little bit concerning, "Don't suppose you'd let me know if Cleo's listening along or not?"

"Martyn!" She exclaims. "I'm-"

"Yeah, you are Cleo, I know, I know. Just." He pauses.

There's something in his eyes, suddenly, that gives Gem the impression that if she says the wrong thing here, something will be lost. She can't tell what, or why, or how. But it's a feeling she can't quite ignore.

After a second, Martyn shakes himself slightly and continues. "Actually, you know what, it doesn't matter. I-"

"No. She's not." Gem watches curiously as he goes very still. "I'm gonna tell her about it later, though."

"Huh." He says. It sounds very nonchalant. "Right. Well. Don't suppose I could tell you a secret, then?" He gives her a conspiratorial look. "Just you, I mean."

Gem leans in a little, intrigued despite herself. "I shouldn't..."

"Oh come on, you know you want to."

"Weeeeell..." She jumps in place a couple of times, and then nods quickly. "Alright, go on then!" He opens his mouth, and she quickly raises a finger to point at him, narrowing her eyes. "But! If it's something Cleo would want to know, I do have to tell them. It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

He considers for a moment, and nods. "Sure, seems fair enough to me. Trust me, though, Cleo would not want to be bothered by this. They have better things to worry about."

"I'll be the judge of that!" She pauses for a moment. "Because that's me." Another beat. "Because I'm Cleo."

He chuckles. "Well, Cleo, I just wanted you to know that I get it now." He says, lightly.

A few seconds pass.

"Um. Ok?" She says, because he seems to be waiting for her to respond. "Uh, I mean." She goes back to her perfect and beyond reproach Cleo impression. "Right. I understand what you're saying completely, Martyn."

He raises an eyebrow, grinning. "Well that's impressive. And here I thought I was being pretty cryptic."

"Oh. Um, I mean, what are you talking about? Explain yourself!"

He laughs, expression almost nostalgic. "Ah, I just meant I get why you chose him, last time." Once more, he looks over at where Scott disappeared from view. This time, he doesn't look back.

Gem frowns a bit, and stays silent. It feels wrong to speak.

"I wondered about that a lot, you know." He sounds vaguely wistful. "But I get it, now."

There is quiet for few more seconds before Martyn looks back at her, and the spell is broken.

He looks cheerful. There's nothing in his expression to suggest that he isn't.

"I think it's mostly that you and him are the only two on the server who have the slightest bit of common sense, honestly." He says. Something suddenly seems to occur to him, and he snorts. "Pretty sure he's alright at math, too."

"Oh, really?"

"...You know, I'm not sure actually."

He meets her eyes. His are just starting to turn the bright red of danger, the colour creeping in at the edges of the blue.

"He keeps his allies alive." He says. "For as long as he can. Even when it hurts him. Wasn't even a choice for you, really, when you consider that."

There's obviously something here she doesn't understand, but what exactly it is she doesn't know. "Good for him." She says awkwardly.

"It's not, really." He says.

"Oh. Um. Bad for him?"

He laughs at that. "Sort of, yeah." He looks down at the pufferfish she's still holding. "Alright for you though, right?" Before she's decided how to respond, he continues. "I just thought you'd like to know that if I were you, I would've chosen him too."

Gem frowns at him. There's something here. There's something here, but while she can certainly guess, she just doesn't have the context to know what that something is.

She listens to the noises of the river for a while before she speaks.

"Are you sure Cleo wouldn't want to know that?" She asks softly.

To his credit, he does appear to consider it, staring out over the river and frowning slightly.

After a minute, though, he looks back at Gem and shrugs. It almost looks resigned.

"Cleo already knows." He says.

She opens her mouth, but he keeps talking.

"Plus she would not appreciate being reminded of how similar we are." He grins, his expression suddenly sly. "And anyway, I completely made all that up. That was a test to see how good you were at being Cleo, and you failed."

"Hey!" She yells indignantly. "What! No! That's so rude!" She draws her sword and he cackles, dancing back.

"Ha, you should've seen your face!"

She glares at him. "Why are you so good at acting, huh?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Aren't we all?"

"No!"

He snorts. "Yeah, I guess not. Just pure skill on my part, then."

Gem shakes her head at him, exasperated. How much of that was true, she has no clue. But if that's how he wants to play it, that's ok. "How about this: I won't tell Cleo about any of that so long as you don't try and mess with me again."

"What?" He gasps and claps a hand to his heart. "I thought you were Cleo!"

She narrows her eyes and raises her sword, and he hurries to continue, holding up his hands in surrender.

"By which I mean yeah, sure, sounds good to me am I right?"

"Good." She nods firmly. "That's what I thought you meant."

He nods back at her a couple of times, then starts to retreat towards the river, still facing her. "Well. See you, Cleo!"

"Bye! If you see Etho tell him to be afraid!" She shouts after him.

"Will do!"

And he disappears into the trees after Scott.

What an odd man.

She wonders if he knows that she wouldn't have told Cleo if he'd just genuinely asked her not to, without the deal or the confusion or the trickery. She's genuinely not sure if he realizes that.

She still doesn't know how much of all that was genuine.

She wonders if he does.

For some reason, she suspects not.

[life-winners-liveblog]

Watching Last Life- session 9

Part 2

Pearl: Hey! I take offense to that!

Scott: I was talking about my Pearl!

Pearl: All I hear are excuses! How will I ever recover?

Scott: Pearl!

Pearl: He he he.

Grian: And there goes the gremlin laugh...

Pearl: Wh- Hey!

Grian: Am I wrong though?

Pearl: ... Just because It's true doesn't mean you have to say it.

~~~~~

Pearl: You where so open about your issues back then, what happened mate?

Scott: I got even more issues.

Scar: Ooh! Same.

Martyn: Mood.

Scott: It's a buy one get two deal, but with trauma.

Pearl: ...yeah, I definitely get that...

Grian: We are all messes here.

Pearl: Well that was a given captain obvious.

~~~~~

Grian: Now that so many people are dead the server just feels earily empty.

Scott: Oh yeah... it doesn't get any better, trust me.

Martyn: Dude you litterally lived in a desert, thats like one of the emptiest place to live in.

Grian: That's totally different and you know it.

Pearl: Maybe you haven just gotten used to everyone visiting Scott's base every 3 seconds.

Grian: Yeah, maybe.

Scar: It does start to feel quite desolated after a while.

Martyn: Surprised that you can say that word.

Scar: Hey! There is no need to be mean friend! Where did treat others like you want to be treated go? Wouldn't want anyone to treat you badly in return, right?

Martyn: I...really hate when you do that.

Scar: Me? I'm not sure what you are talking about Martyn. But do think about your words next time! Wouldn't want anyone to take them badly!

~~~~~~

Pearl: Ugh, the Last Life server looks like a mess.

Scar: Oh do you want to go all cleaning lady on it?

Pearl: What?

Scar: My Pearl did a cleaning lady service during season 9 of Hermitcraft!

Pearl: Oh? Good for her, if there is one thing Hermitcraft needs it's someone to clean the mess you guys make.

Grian: We aren't that bad Pearl!

Pearl: You don't know all the chest monsters I had to experience in season 8.

Grian: ...you know in season 7 Scar had a chest-monster inspired shop...

Pearl: Really? ...very in character.

Scar: Oh yeah! Might have been a while ago but I'm still quite proud!

Grian: I used it as a hiding spot for the barge quest!

Scar: Oh the barge! It's so nostalgic.

Grian: It was one of ths last places I visited before I found myself in Third Life... It's been a while since I tought about Hermitcraft this much.

Previous

Next

First

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hello there! I don't know if anyone has asked for this, but do you happen to know any fic on which Stiles and Derek are colleague nurses or doctors, and they meet each other in that setting?

Hey @darkmind-ofmine! Here you go.

(^gpoy at work. true facts)

Pretty Eyes by Inell

(1/1 I 1,720 I Teen)

Stiles doesn’t intend to become a resident during a pandemic, but he’s learned to roll with whatever life throws his way.

The Anatomy of an FBI Agent by orphan_account

(2/? I 7,347 I Mature)

Stiles nodded. It sounded like a day full of machinery and doctors muttering over his scans.

“Will I be hanging out with you or one of the babies?”

Dr. Cutie grinned. “How could I trust them with my most prized patient?”

Stiles laughed.

He barely noticed the pain.

Bet On It by IDreamOnlyOfYou (lauren3210)

(1/1 I 8,343 I Mature)

Stiles is an RN and Derek the attending trauma surgeon at Beacon Hills Hospital. They're constantly arguing, much to the amusement of their colleagues, who ultimately decide to take bets on when the sexual tension will finally explode. The only question is, who will win the jackpot?

Or

5 times one of the guys try to push Derek and Stiles together, and the time they worked it out all on their own.

Complications by DIEMONDS

(3/? I 17,273 I Teen)

“We can still be strangers. Strangers that hook up.” Stiles had to mentally curse at himself for liking Derek’s smirk. He honestly couldn’t help it, the man’s smile was too gorgeous.

“No!” Stiles ran a hand through his hair. “What we did-you and me-that cannot happen again! You’re an attending, and I’m your intern! It’s wrong on so many levels.”

(this isn’t exactly) where you’d want me by decideophobia

(1/1 I 19,070 I Teen)

“Do you even have any nice and soothing words in your repertoire?” Stiles asks, holding still while McBroody shines a light into his eyes. “Or is it only me who they let you loose on?”

“I actually just downloaded a new set of comforting phrases to use on patients this morning but I haven’t had a chance to listen to and internalize them yet. I do know how to say, Good news: you’re not dead, and We only need to take off one of your legs, though.”

OR, the one where Stiles keeps ending up in the ER and Derek almost gets brain damage from so much stupid.

Hazardous to Our Health by HenleyBeck

(6/? I 21,590 I Explicit)

Derek has just moved back to Beacon Hills and he works at the hospital with his sister. He loves his job, he loves the people he works with and then there's Stiles. Stiles who seems to pop up everywhere that Derek is and it doesn't help that everybody loves the kid. But Stiles is also the Chief of Surgery's son and there's no way he can get involved with Stiles right?

Wrong. As a doctor, Derek knows that certain things can be hazardous to one's health but sometimes it's nice to live dangerously.

Yin To His Yang by weirdwithhumor

(9/? I 26,125 I Teen)

Derek always wanted kids. He just thought he would find the perfect man, get married and settled down first.

He just never thought he would be left pregnant, unmated at nearly 30, and on a journey to become a single father.

But, Doctor! by stilinskisparkles

(1/1 I 30,269 I Mature)

“We had to splint a girl’s leg in a ditch,” Scott says excitedly.

“Bro, you sound way too happy about that,” Stiles complains, opening up his bag and pulling out a Twinkie.

Derek removes it from his hand silently and replaces it with an apple. Stiles scowls at him for a second then bites into it, regardless. Derek sits back and lets the group discuss the merits of dramatic lifesaving feats for winning over the ladies. Scott is convinced it’ll help impress Allison; Isaac thinks Scott’s a loser. Stiles—

Stiles is falling asleep on Derek’s shoulder.

AND

@wolfspurr suggested this one!

No Superman by WhoNatural

(6/6 I 48,830 I Explicit I Sterek)

(AKA The Sterek Scrubs AU)

In which Stiles learns that med school didn’t prepare him for much at all; even the most epic of bromances can be weakened with the right amount of long, curly hair and dimples; and sometimes, first impressions aren’t all they’re cracked up to be - it’s the digging beneath the bravado that reveals who’s worth getting to know a little better.

Dr. Hale’s probably still a dick, though.

[princeescaluswords]

Currently thinking of certain factions of fandom who tend to demonize Laura Hale. What exactly did she do that was so awful?

Leaving her injured and catatonic uncle in a care facility? Do they think he would've miraculously healed in New York if she brought him along (if that was even an option)? They seem to think she abandoned him or should've done more. What exactly, dear fandom?

Laura was a young woman who suffered a devastating loss and had to be the leader and look out for her younger brother and injured uncle. Cora was assumed dead too. Similar to Scott, she didn't ask to be alpha.

What did they expect her to do? Wage war against the perpetrators? She didn't know who was involved but she did return when Peter lured her. Fandom thinks she was unfit for the role of alpha because she wasn't ripping throats out and hunting down culprits, that she ~abandoned~ her uncle in a vulnerable state, blah blah.

The way they get angry at Scott disobeying Peter and Derek, you'd think they'd be livid over Peter killing his alpha who was also his niece who was the ~heir~ to Talia. Sacrilege!

Scott didn't ~trust~ Stiles? Well, Petey didn't trust his alpha! Why the secrecy? Why not report in immediately upon gaining consciousness?

*dons the stylish hat of Fandom Logic* Oh, oh Peter was involved in the Hale Fire! He always craved the mantle of alpha and needed Talia out of the way. But he got betrayed by Kate in the end and locked in with the rest of the family. That's why he insisted he's always been the alpha, he was promised the power if he helped destroy the pack. It's why he lured Laura back and killed her instead of communicating, he just wanted the power.

Your question puts me in mind of an argument both This Discontented Winter and Athena Dark have made to counter my indictments of fandoms worship of Peter Hale. To paraphrase TDW, "does all entertainment have to be a morality play?"

The simplistic answer to their bad faith riposte, is "No, it doesn't." You can watch two people sit in a room and not talk to each other. You can watch art hang motionless on a wall or paint dry, but these wouldn't be particularly popular forms of visual entertainment. What excites an audience is how the actors, the characters, the players treat each other, which is governed by principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. In other words, morality.

People watch the Real Housewives franchise because they want to watch rich women behaving badly. People watch John Wick movies because they want to watch ultra violence performed without regard for human life and instead operate on a different code of behavior. Telenovelas, true crime documentaries, space operas, super hero movies -- all the pleasure their audiences gain from it revolve around decisions people make about how to treat each other. They watch it FOR the morality -- or the LACK of it.

The only forms of modern entertainment I can think of that don't focus on morality are professional sports and talent shows, and both of these take it as a given that neither side is cheating. Even Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom proposed to show us the behavior of animals so we can recognize their beauty and right to exist. My apologies to the BNF, but that's morality, too.

When This Discontented Winter bemoans the idea of all entertainment as morality play and Athena Dark that storytelling doesn't have to have a message, what they are in fact arguing for is the ability to celebrate evil. To freely indulge in the type of moral equivocation that allows them to take pleasure in the triumph of a man murdering his niece for power. You know how I know this, because if they truly wanted to enjoy something without the moral dimension, they wouldn't go to such great lengths to protect their blorbos from any moral condemnation.

Thus, we get the idea that Laura deserved death because she abandoned Peter in the long-term care facility, in which he rested safely for six years without the Argents even being aware of his location. We get the idea that Laura deserved death because she didn't seek vengeance for her family, even though she was absolutely looking for the person responsible for the death of her family -- we saw actual physical evidence of it. Thus we get the idea that Peter had no idea what he was doing, that he was out of his mind, only to find out later -- when none of the other characters believe that anymore -- that he was aware of what he was doing all along.

Remember Master Plan (2x12):

Peter: No. It's a laptop. What century are you living in? A few days after I got out of the coma, I transferred everything that we had. Fortunately, the Argents aren't the only ones that keep records.

Wow, that's a remarkable amount of foresight for a person who was supposedly so out of his mind that he shouldn't be held responsible for what he did.

The true problem with BNF trying to argue that we don't have to approach the show with an eye toward morality is because the show absolutely did. It was baked into the substance of the show from the get go. The characters are formed to make choices about how they treat other people. To use their own words, we have to treat the entertainment that is called Teen Wolf as a morality play because it IS a morality play. Every story is.

And this is the problem with fandom, which I've noted again and again and again in regards to Star Wars, Shadow and Bone, and now Loki. They want to extract the characters from the moral schema in which they were situated and put them in a new situation, yet pretend that there isn't a moral dimension to this act. And there is, because this new situation is one where only certain considerations are treated as valid, mostly exploitation of the baser instincts of human nature for the benefit of a very small class of stand-ins, defined by race, class, and gender.

[inaris-mage-of-storms]

Content warning for illness, swearing, and allusion to gun violence.

}{ Part One }{ Part Two }{

When Scott dreams, he dreams of Martyn.

He dreams of Martyn on the island with coral all around it, sword in his hand and blood on his cheek and a wild grin on his face. Scott doesn't know whose blood it is, but he doesn't care. He only cares about the way Martyn pulls him in for a kiss, only cares about the way he knows whatever Martyn has done, he did it for him.

He wonders if Martyn will ever pull him close like that on a quest.

He wonders if that's why he's been accepting more and more of them lately, hoping for Martyn to join him.

He wonders what it would feel like if Martyn fought for Scott rather than for himself. (He already knows.)

"You should take it easy on those quests," says Cleo, leaning against his doorframe and watching him pull on his boots. "You're going to get yourself killed."

"I'll be fine." Scott doesn't dream only of Martyn, of course. His eyes drop to Cleo's ribs out of habit, and after a moment they sigh and pull up the edge of their blouse.

"Still all in one piece, see? No holes, nothing rotting." Their tone is light and teasing, but he knows they're worried. "Need to check my pulse again?"

They grin when he scowls. They aren't going to let him live that down any time soon, waking from a dream and stumbling out of his room to frantically grab at Cleo's wrist and assure himself that their heart still beat. Not after it happened twice.

"I'm just going for a walk, anyway," he tells them. "No quests today."

"Unless Martyn asks you to go on one."

He doesn't squint at the subtle hint of venom in their tone or unhappy twist of their lips, not anymore.

"He's not so bad."

"I don't trust him. I'd trust a Kite to watch my back before I'd trust him to do it. He doesn't look after anyone but himself." Behind them, Cruppy pauses its scurry across the grounds to give a little hop of agreement, and Cleo smiles.

He wonders how he knows they're right. He wonders why he trusts Martyn anyway.

(He knows why. He'll never admit it, but he knows. He just doesn't know how.)

Scott hooks his sword belt around his waist and makes sure his gun is loaded. The Faction Isles are safe, but safety is relative, and it doesn't hurt to be cautious. "I'll be fine," he says again as he leaves.

He wonders if they believe him. (He knows they don't.)

He wonders if he believes himself.

He stops by the quest board out of habit, but Martyn is nowhere to be seen. He hasn't seen him in about a week, actually, and it's beginning to make him anxious. It shouldn't matter. Martyn's capable of taking care of himself, and all of the Kestrels he sees in the town square on a regular basis seem as carefree as always. Besides, Martyn might not hate him anymore, but they're still only acquaintances at best.

If Martyn doesn't want to see him, it's not his problem. He wonders why the thought stings.

If something is wrong, it's not his problem. He wonders why his feet carry him to Kestrel territory anyway.

"Well hello there!" Scar greets him at the door, and even though they look nothing alike, his grin is so very much like Cleo's that Scott can't help but feel a warmth toward him. "What brings you to our amayzin' humble abode? Can I interest you in - "

"I'm not here to buy anything, Scar." Scott cuts off the budding sales pitch before it forms, and Scar huffs at him. "I was just - well, I haven't seen Martyn around lately, so I wondered - I mean, if he doesn't want to see me that's fine, but - "

"Oh, he's been sick!" says Scar, and his tone is still so bright and cheerful that it eases Scott's nerves about how serious it might be, until Scar's next words. "He came back from his last quest looking absolutely awful. Terrible cough, high fever, the works! Kyle went out for a doctor, and Sausage and Oli have been trying to get him to eat or drink something, but turns out he's really paranoid when he doesn't recognize anyone."

His tone is light, but his eyes are worried. Scott pushes past him and goes up the stairs, not bothering to ask permission. Scar steps aside willingly, his ridiculous pile of hats wobbling precariously, and Scott wonders how they never fall. He doesn't care.

"Come on, Marty, just a few sips." Oli sits on the edge of the bed and holds a bowl out to Martyn pleadingly, but Martyn has shoved himself into the corner against the wall with a wild-eyed snarl. Sausage looks up when Scott enters; unlike Scar, he isn't hiding his worry behind a facade, and Scott's heart aches for the fear he sees in his eyes.

"You're not tricking me into shit, not this time," spits Martyn. "You think I don't know you're one of them?"

"One of who? Martyn, I'm your friend!" Oli sounds close to tears. "Just drink the damn broth!"

Martyn scoffs, pressing himself into the wall even more, if that's possible. He's breathing hard and dripping sweat, and Scott hopes he doesn't try to bolt because he surely wouldn't get very far before passing out.

"You expect me to believe that, when you're wearing that color? Come on, I'm not stupid."

His glazed eyes fall to Oli's scarf; in the dim light of the room, the pink fabric looks almost purple. Scott isn't entirely certain, but he thinks of Martyn's dislike of Cruppy, and makes an executive decision based on a tenuous guess.

"Oliver, out," he orders. "Give me the bowl, and get out. You too, Sausage, just in case."

Oli looks indignant, but he doesn't argue, just hands Scott the broth and leaves the room with Sausage. Scott takes his place on the edge of the bed. Martyn slumps against the pillows as soon as Oli is out of sight, then his gaze snaps to Scott and his eyes widen.

"Scott," he breathes, and Scott wonders why his heart leaps at Martyn's recognition of him when everyone else is a stranger. "You're safe? They didn't - they didn't get you?"

Scott wonders who Martyn is so afraid of, but knows this isn't the time for questions. "I'm safe," he assures him, and Martyn's relief is palpable. "But you're ill. Will you drink some broth for me? Please?"

He holds the bowl to Martyn's lips, not trusting his shaking hands to do it himself without spilling, and Martyn lets himself be fed without argument. When he's finished Scott sets the bowl aside, then spies the washbasin on the table. He dips a cloth into the water and wrings out the excess, then dabs at Martyn's brow with a tender touch until Martyn's held falls forward onto his shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

"Whatever for?" Scott hesitates before putting a hand on the back of Martyn's head and stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry," Martyn says again instead of answering the question. "I didn't want to! But I had to. I had to betray you, Scott, I couldn't - I couldn't take anymore of - "

His voice breaks, and Scott's heart breaks along with it. "Shh, it's okay," he murmurs, wrapping both arms around Martyn and holding him close. "It's okay. I'm here."

He wonders what imagined betrayal Martyn's fever has convinced him of. He wonders who has hurt him so badly to inspire such fear.

He wonders if it's anyone he could find. He wonders if his sword would be enough, or if he would need to stock up on bullets.

It doesn't matter, not right now. What matters right now is Martyn has started coughing, and Scott soothes him as best he can. When the fit passes, he washes Martyn's face again and gets him settled under the covers, watching his eyelids droop with exhaustion even as he shivers violently.

"Stay," Martyn croaks, and even if Scott had been inclined to leave, he doesn't think the vicegrip on his wrist would allow it.

"Of course," he assures him, and answers Martyn's relieved smile with one of his own. Martyn slips into slumber, and Scott strokes his hair with his free hand.

His touch is gentle and his gaze is soft, and he wonders if what he feels for Martyn in his dreams has followed him into the waking world.

(He knows.)

}{ Part Four }{

[cellard0ors]

Listen:

This is very niche and very me and my own personal headcanon for a character, BUT:

Ash Williams.

Hear me out: the events in the original Evil Dead happened. Ashley Williams - a romantic and a dork - totally wimped out (at first) when Scotty talks about chopping up Shelly, because she's their friend and - at his core - Ashley isn't inherently violent.

At this point, he's a sweet boy who just went up to a cabin in the woods to spend time with his friends, his sister, and his girlfriend, Linda.

He even has a sweet gift for Linda, a beautiful necklace, and he loves her, but then things fall apart in the most horrific fashion possible.

His sister becomes a monster, as does Shelly and even Linda. His friend, Scott, someone he thought he knew and could trust, his friend, shows his true colors - making it a point to tell Ashley he doesn't care about anyone or anything but himself.

Then Scott dies too and also becomes a monster just like the others.

And Ashley survives.

But also, he DOESN'T.

Because Ashley Williams died in the cabin and from there Ash Williams is born.

The opening of Evil Dead 2? It's Ash's reimagining of events. His friends weren't there, his sister wasn't there. Right?!? It was just Linda and him, wasn't it?

His mind is fracturing and his form of PTSD takes hold in the form of minimizing the damage of how many people died and how much loss he suffered, but kept the most significant loss in the form of Linda and the necklace - two big moments he can't forget, not ever.

The loss of his hand only pushes this further, as he literally cuts a part of himself off. From here he also begins to take on some of Scotty's final traits - he becomes callous and self-motivated, but only a touch, because while Ashley died, there are traces of him scattered in there, in the debris of who he is now.

Ash turns to sarcasm and humor as defense mechanisms. Drinking, drugs, sex, women - these help too. After all, his mind is already shattered and the only woman he ever truly loved he had to dismember, so, yeah best to use those to cover up any and all of his problems.

My point in writing this here, is that I think both Ashley Williams and Ash Williams, while one and the same, are in essence also two very different characters with very deep traumas and I find that that's often overlooked when we think of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi and The Evil Dead films.

Don't get me wrong - I love the camp and the silliness and the excessive blood and gore played almost for laughs just as much as everyone else does.

But I think it's also deeply fascinating and interesting to breakdown this iconic character and think about him in this fashion. At least it is for me and I was curious if anyone else felt the same.

[theodorekarlraeken]

sorry but this has to be said because i?? can't understand how some people can't seem to fucking grasp that theo taking gabe's pain was NOT character development, and consequently don't understand that therefore it was also NOT genuine??? theo has NEVER fucking shown an ounce of authentic care that was not driven by his own self-interest/desire. he would both do AND say anything to get closer to scott, even AFTER killing him. if given the opportunity, he would do it AGAIN. you think theo wasn't fully aware of the opportunity that presented itself in that situation? WHO did he have the easiest access to that looked up to and trusted scott the most? LIAM. if theo could have a display of "growth" in front of liam, that literally EQUATES to building credibility and trust with SCOTT. word gets around, no one in beacon hills shuts the fuck up about the things they witness. you can't tell me liam wouldn't relay this information to scott, that theo didn't absolutely KNOW that everyone in a thousand mile radius would know how "he'd changed/grown/whatever the fuck." and i don't know how much louder i can say this, BUT THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE IN THIS LIFE THAT CANNOT BE REDEEMED, BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT REDEMPTION. theo is inherently INCAPABLE of being saved. there's no amount of love, of communication, and no amount of trust that will alter his chemical make up. theo's environment has NEVER be one of safety, and he has NEVER been driven morally to do the right thing. he doesn't CARE when he does the wrong thing as long as it gains him POWER. how many times did he willingly show he did not have any regard for anyone he hurt when it actually came down to it? how many times did he LIE? how many times did he lead people to think he cared WHEN HE DIDN'T? how FAR was he willing to go and how CALLOUS was he when people finally realized what he was doing? and the sheer amount of posts saying "i'm so proud of theo," and "look how much he's grown" make me CRINGE because it's so apparent the blatant lack of understanding of his character. i absolutely PRAY that none of you have encountered or will encounter someone like theo in your life, because those are the type of people who destroy EVERY BIT of you who are, remove you from yourself, strip you of all your prior beliefs, and ruin EVERYTHING they touch. STOP MISTAKING WELL-EXECUTED AND CONTINUED MANIPULTION FOR GROWTH.

[taeswolfie]

𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 : 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒊𝒙

☽︎𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒐𝒓☾︎

Ch.05 - Ch.07

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Stiles Stilinski x fem!Reader

Word count: 5.5k

Y/n sits next to Stiles in class. He's been mad at Scott since parent/teacher conference day because, while people were running around in the school parking lot in a panic to get away from an actual mountain lion (which was gunned down by Allison's dad, Chris Argent), Noah had gotten hit by a car. He wasn't seriously injured but he was hurt nonetheless. Now, as Scott makes his way into class and behind Stiles, he ignores their werewolf friend.

"Still not talking to me?" Scott asks. He sighs when Stiles doesn't answer. "Can you at least tell me if your dad's okay? I mean, it's just a bruise, right? Some soft tissue damage. Nothing... That big."

"Not helping." Y/n spoke under her breath knowing Scott would hear her.

He hangs his head for a moment before trying again. "You know I feel really bad about it, right?" Still no answer from Stiles. "Okay." He sighs again. "What if I told you that I'm trying to figure this whole thing out, and... That I went to Derek for help?"

Stiles rolls his eyes in disbelief before looking at Y/n who was looking at her notebook. "Y/n, can you please-"

"No." She cut off, not even glancing away from her paper. "You're not gonna drag me into this. It's between you two."

Stiles sighs and faces forward again. "If I was talking to you, I'd say that you're an idiot for trusting him. But obviously I'm not talking to you." The bell rings for the start of class and Scott pulls his books from his bag.

Y/n can feel Stiles' growing intrest and his feeble attempts to stop his curiosity in favor of continuing to ignore Scott, but she knows it won't work. She smirks and whispers to herself. "3...2...1..."

Stiles whips around to face Scott. "What did he say?"

"Bingo." Y/n smiles in amusement.

"Wh- he wants you to tap into your animal side and get angry?" Stiles confirms as he, Scott and Y/n leave the classroom, Scott having told them what happened with the Hale.

"Yeah." Scott nods.

"All right, well, correct me if I'm wrong, but every time you do that, you try to kill someone, and that someone's usually us." He gestures between himself and Y/n.

"I know. That's what he means when he says he doesn't know if he can teach me. I have to be able to control it."

"It seems more like you need anger manegment than tapping into it." Y/n mused.

"How's he gonna teach you?" Stiles continued his questioning.

"I don't know. I don't think he does either."

"Okay. When are you seeing him again?"

"He told me not to talk about it. Just act normal and get through the day."

Stiles stops walking making Scott and Y/n stop too. "When?"

"He's picking me up at the Animal Clinic after work."

"After work. All right, well, that gives us to the end of the school day then."

"To do what?"

"To teach you ourselves." Stiles grabs Y/n's wrist as they continue to walk and she gives him a confused look.

"How are we gonna teach him?" She asked.

"I'm still thinking of that."

...

Y/n listens in to Allison and Lydia as she sits in the cafeteria with Stiles and Scott, the latter hiding behind a World History book. Allison is reading from an older book to Lydia about the Beast of Gévaudan. Y/n's heard of La Bête before. Her mother would tell her stories when she was younger, one of them being about the Maid of Gévaudan. A woman who killed the Beast with a deadly spear head, a witch's charm, and the help of a man of Silver. Most people would think that the Beast's death was a triumphant story, but the story her mother told was one laced with sadness.

Lydia left after a bit and Stiles looked at Scott. "I think the book's making it more obvious. Besides, she's reading anyway."

"So did you come up with a plan yet?" Scott peeked around the book at his friends.

"I think so."

"Does that mean you don't hate me now?"

"No. But your crap has infiltrated my life, so now I have to do something about it. Plus I'm definitely a better Yoda than Derek."

"Okay, yeah, you teach me."

"Yeah, I'll be your Yoda."

"Yeah, you... Be my Yoda."

"Your Yoda I will be." Stiles chuckles at his not-so-great Yoda impression and Y/n huffs a laugh while Scott had no reaction. "I said it backwards."

"Yeah, I-I know."

"Have you still not watched Star Wars?" Y/n asked. "I mean, I haven't seen them fully but even I know who Yoda is."

Scott gives her a helpless shrug. "All right, you know what? I definitely still hate you. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah." Stiles gets up with his things, grabs Scott's 'cover', and pulls Y/n along with him as he leaves the cafeteria. Scott scrambles after them as Allison notices him. She calls for him but he hides in the boys' bathroom to avoid her.

"Why do you keep dragging me with you away from Scott?" Y/n asked as Stiles pulled her along with him down the halls.

"Do you want to sit with Scott?" He seemed to accuse.

"It's not that I want to sit with Scott, it's just that it seems like you're trying to keep me away from him because you're mad at him." When he didn't respond she sighed and made them stop walking. "Stiles, I'm not gonna pick sides, okay? You're both my friend so I'm on both of your sides, always."

"Yeah, okay. I get it. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." She smiled at him. "Now, let's go Obi-wan this shit." She lightly tugged on the hand Stiles was still holding her with and they started walking again. His eyes fell from her profile down to their hands, a bit of surprise going through him when she didn't let go. His mind was too occupied with trying to help Scott, so he was unable to overthink her actions as he usually would. Instead he just found that he liked the way her hand felt in his, and so he held on a little tighter and smiled when she did the same.

Later Y/n and Stiles lead Scott to the lacrosse field. Stiles carried a lacrosse stick and a duffel bag. "Okay." Stiles sat himself, the stick, and the bag on the bench seat. "Now... Put this on." He rummaged through the bag and handed Scott a heart monitor strap.

"Isn't this one of the heart rate monitors for the track team?" Scott asked once he looked at it.

"Yeah. We borrowed it."

"Stole it." Y/n and Scott chorused.

"Temporarily misappropriated."

"Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate with his phone while he jogs, and you're gonna wear it for the rest of the day." Y/n explains.

"Isn't that Coach's phone?" Scott spots the named device in Y/n's hand.

"That, I stole." Stiles nodded.

"Why?"

"All right, well, your heart rate goes up when you go wolf, right?"

"When you're playing lacrosse," Y/n gives an example.

"When you're with Allison," Stiles adds.

"Whenever you get angry."

"Maybe learning to control it is tied to learning to control your heart rate."

"Like The Incredible Hulk." Scott realizes.

"Kind of like The Incredible Hulk, yeah."

"No, I'm like The Incredible Hulk." Scott seemed to really like that idea.

"Would you shut up and put the strap on?" Scott obeys.

They all stand in the middle of the field as Stiles tapes Scott's wrists together behind his back. "This isn't exactly how I wanted to spend my free period."

"Tell me about it." Y/n comments.

"All right. You ready?" Stiles asks as he and Y/n move a good distance away.

"No."

"Remember, don't get angry." Stiles sits the bag down and Y/n sits down behind it, taking Coach's phone and opening the heart rate app.

"I'm starting to think this was a really bad idea." A moment later Stiles takes up his lacrosse stick and hurls a ball at Scott who groans in pain from the impact. Y/n checks the phone. His heart rate is 115. He throws another ball and it hits Scott square in the chest. "Okay, that one... Kinda hurt."

"Quiet. Remember, you're supposed to be thinking about your heart rate, all right? About staying calm."

"Stay calm." He mutters to himself just as he gets hit again. "Staying calm. Staying totally calm. There's no balls flying at my- agh!" He's hit again. A few more are thrown. "Aah! Son of a bitch!" Scott groans.

"You know what? I think my aim is actually improving."

"Wonder why."

"Ah, buh, buh. Don't get angry."

"I'm not getting angry."

She looks again and it's 130 this time. "You seem to be enjoying this a little too much." Y/n looked up at Stiles.

He scrunched his face. "Nah." He continues to throw balls at Scott.

After another particularly hard one Scott tries to stop Stiles for a moment. "Stop. Just wait. Wait, just hold on."

"Stiles, wait-" Y/n tries to catch him, but it's too late as Stiles throws another and Scott drops down to his knees. "Stiles." She shows him the phone. Scott's heart rate has jumped to 160. Scott groans as he tries to calm down.

"Scott?" Stiles calls. Scott ends up tearing the tape and he hunches over on the ground, breathing heavily. He seems to calm down as the monitor also starts to drop.

Y/n gets up and goes over to Scott to check on him, Stiles following. "Scott, you started to shift."

"From anger." He pants. "But it was more than that. The angrier I got, the stronger I felt."

"So it is anger, then. Derek's right." Stiles says.

"I can't be around Allison."

"Just because she makes you happy?"

"No, because she makes me weak."

...

Y/n had left the boys as they went to the locker rooms. She could have followed them in as long as the other boys were decent, but she didn't want to. Scott was convinced at the moment that Allison made him weaker, yet Y/n wasn't quite so sure. There's something about the girl that Y/n thinks helps Scott. It's like it's on the tip of her tongue and she can't grasp it. For now she tables it for future thought and makes her way to her locker to retrieve her present for Allison. With Scott whisking her away Y/n hadn't been able to give it to her on her birthday, but now is just as good. A late gift is just as good as an on time one. Once she grabbed the gift bag she went on a search for her friend.

She found Allison sitting against some lockers with the book Y/n saw her with earlier in her lap, a few papers on the floor next to her. "Hey, you." Y/n greets as soon as she's close enough.

Allison looks up and smiles once she sees Y/n. "Hey."

Y/n plops down next to her. "I wasn't able to give you this because you ran away with Scott, like the cute couple you are, so I'm doing it now." She held the bag up for Allison to take. "Happy late birthday." She said the last part quietly.

"Oh, Y/n! You really didn't have to." She shyly took the bag.

"I didn't have to but I wanted to. It was no biggie, really. Just open it." She excitedly coaxed.

"Okay, okay." Allison chuckled. Once she did open it she gasped and pulled out the gift. A brown wooden arrow held a small dreamcatcher, and hanging around it were strings with white feathers and some beads. "It's beautiful! Did you make this?" She looked at Y/n.

"Yeah." She nodded with a proud smile. "It's just something I like to do sometimes."

"The arrow. How did you...?"

"Scott told me you liked archery." Allison nodded in understanding as she continued to admire her gift. She lightly touched the webbing with a smile. "My mom used to tell me that dreamcatchers help you when you sleep. The bad dreams get caught in the web while the good dreams slip through the hole in the middle. She taught me how to make them when I was younger." A sad smile came to Y/n's face and Allison noticed.

She put a comforting hand on hers. "Thank you. I love it."

"It's no problem." Y/n glanced up and saw Jackson coming their way and scowled. "I hate to ditch you but I'd rather not be around him."

"Yeah, that's fine. I get it. I'll see you later?"

Y/n nodded. "Definitely. I'm glad you liked your present." They shared one more smile and a quick hug before Y/n got up to walk away, unfortunately having to walk past Jackson. She stopped in her tracks just as he passed and she glanced back at him. A faint scent of decay clung to him and she's just now noticing how awful he looks. She frowns, almost wanting to ask if he was alright. After a moment she ultimately decides to leave it, he wouldn't appreciate any concern she would have anyway.

...

Y/n is already sitting in Coach's class when Scott and Stiles come in, the last few students taking their seats as the bell rings. "Let's go. Sit, sit, sit, sit. We got a lot to cover today. Let's go. Quicker." Coach coaxes the students.

Scott sits next to Y/n and Stiles goes to sit behind her until Scott stops him. "Hey, Stiles, sit behind me, dude." Stiles scrambles to take the seat yet Allison beats him to it making him bashfully retreat, giving Scott a helpless look. Stiles settles down behind Y/n and they are forced to listen to Scott's awkward conversation.

"Hey." Allison greets Scott.

"Hey."

"I haven't seen you all day."

"Uh, yeah. I've been, uh, super busy."

"When are you gonna get your phone fixed? I feel like I'm totally disconnected from you."

"Uh, soon. Real soon."

"I changed lab partners, by the way."

"Oh. To who?"

"To you, dummy."

"Me? I mean, are you sure?"

"Yeah. This way I have an excuse to bring you home and study."

"Oh."

"You don't mind, do you?"

"I just- I don't want to bring your grade down."

"Well, I mean, maybe I can bring your grade up. Come to my place tonight. 8:30?"

"Tonight?"

"8:30."

Coach slams a book down on his desk. "Let's settle down. Let's start with a quick summary of last night's reading." A few students put their hands up. "Greenberg, put your hand down. Everybody knows you did the reading. How about, uh..." He walks around his desk. "McCall."

"What?" Scott looks up at Coach.

"The reading."

"Last night's reading?"

"How about, uh, the reading of the Gettysburg Address?"

"What?" Scott asks, confused.

"That's sarcasm. You familiar with the term 'sarcasm,' McCall?"

He nods and glances at Y/n and Stiles. "Very." Stiles smiles and Y/n smirks, the two discretely high-fiving.

"Did you do the reading or not?"

"Um... l-I think I forgot."

"Nice work, McCall. It's not like you're not averaging a D in this class. Come on, buddy. You know I can't keep you on the team if you have a D." Scott glances down and nods. "How about you summarize, uh, the previous night's reading? No?" Stiles looks at Coach's phone to check Scott's heart rate. "How about the, uh, the night before that? How about you summarize anything you've ever read... In your entire life?" Coach's voice rises along with Scott's heart rate.

Y/n grits her teeth as Coach rants. She folds her arms, her fingers digging into the flesh. If she were a wolf she would be shifting right now. Coach was normally cool but today was obviously not a good day especially with Scott failing and his position in lacrosse becoming shaky. That didn't mean what Coach was doing was right though. Unfortunately there's nothing she could do to help. She slumps down as far as she can in her seat and closes her eyes.

"I- I, uh-" Scott tries to think.

"No? A blog? How about, uh, how about, uh, the back of a cereal box? No? How about the adults only warning from your favorite website you visit every night? Anything?" When Scott can't respond, Coach continues. "Thank you, McCall, thank you." He bangs on his desk. "Thank you, McCall! Thank you for extinguishing any last flicker of hope I have for your generation. You just blew it for everybody. Thanks. Next practice you can start with suicide runs. Unless that's too much reading." The phone was doing its rapid beeps until it suddenly started going down. Stiles looked over to see Allison holding Scott's hand under the desk, the gesture calming him down. "All right. Everybody else, settle down."

Stiles get's Y/n's attention and nods his head towards the couple. She sees their hands and smiles.

...

Scott goes through a door with his friends following as they walk down the halls.

"It's her." Stiles blurts.

"What do you mean?" Scott asks.

"It's Allison." Y/n clarifies.

"Remember what you told me about the night of the full moon? You were thinking about her, right? About protecting her." Stiles questions.

"Okay." Scott nods.

"Remember the night of the first lacrosse game? You said you could hear her voice out on the field." Y/n gives another example.

"Yeah, I did."

"So that's what brought you back so you could score." Stiles explains. "And then after the game in the locker room, you didn't kill her. At least not like how you were trying to kill us." Scott looks at Stiles. "She brings you back, is what we're saying."

"No, no, no, but it's not always true, because literally every time I'm kissing her or- or touching her."

"No, that's not the same. When you're doing that, you're just another hormonal teenager thinking about sex, you know?" Scott gets a smirk on his face. "You're thinking about sex right now, aren't you?"

Scott nods a bit. "Yeah. Sorry."

Y/n rolls her eyes with a head shake and a sigh. "Boys." She mutters as Stiles continues.

"That's fine. Look, back in the classroom when she was holding your hand, that was different, okay? I don't think she makes you weak. I- I think she actually gives you control. She's kind of like an anchor."

Y/n's eyes widen with a small gasp. "An anchor! Stiles, you genius!" She grabs his arms, giving him a slight shake and an excited smile before she seemed to catch herself and let him go. "I was trying to remember that word all day." She covered up. Before anyone could question it she turned to Scott. "She's your anchor."

"You mean because I love her." Scott says.

"Exactly." Stiles agrees, rubbing at his arm from Y/n's slightly too strong grip.

Scott pauses in his walking as he realizes what he had said. "Did I just say that?"

"Yes, you just said that." Y/n smirks.

Scott smiles. "I love her."

"That's great. Now, moving on-" Stiles is cut off.

"No, no, no, really. I think I'm totally in love with her."

"And that's beautiful. Now, before you go off and write a sonnet, can we figure this out, please? Because you obviously can't be around her all the time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Scott nods. "Sorry. So what do I do?"

Stiles sighs. "I don't know. Yet." Stiles spins in a slow circle as he thinks and once he faces them again he looks like he's got something.

"You're getting an idea, aren't you?" Y/n observed.

"Yeah."

"Is the idea gonna get me in trouble?" Scott asks.

"Maybe."

"Is this idea gonna cause me physical pain?"

"Yeah, definitely. Come on."

Stiles led them to the parking lot near a truck and four tougher looking guys. "What are we doing?" Scott asked.

"You'll see, hold on." Stiles stopped them near the truck. "Okay. Stand right there. Y/n stay with me." He directs.

"Okay." She said unsure, standing next to him in front of Scott.

"Do you have your keys?" He asked Scott who pulled his keys out. "Perfect. Hold 'em up like so." He positions Scott's hand to where he's holding up a key in plain view. "Just like that. Now, whatever happens, just think about Allison. Try to find her voice like you did at the game. Got it?" Scott nods. "Okay. Just... Keep holding it right there. Y/n, come with me." She follows as told and sees him casually pull out his own keys.

"What..." She whispers shocked as he keyed the truck. He moved to the sidewalk, pulling Y/n along, and casually stood there. For good measure he put his arm over her shoulders before he really put his plan in action.

"Hey, hey, hey, dude!" He yelled towards Scott. "What do you think you're doing to that truck, bro?" He glanced at the guys who were now looking at them because of the yelling.

"Oh, no." Y/n muttered.

"What the hell?" One of the guys yelled, spotting Scott holding up the key. Scott flounders and hastily puts the key away, but the damage is already done. Scott gets decked.

"Ow! My God. Wow." Stiles winces. Scott gets back up and rushes into the guy only to get kneed in the face and making him go down again. He gets dragged back to the guys and they all start wailing on him. Stiles checks the phone as Scott's heart rate rises again. "Ah, come on, stay calm. Stay calm."

"Oh, geez." Y/n groaned. "Was this really necessary?" She glanced at Stiles.

He clicks his tongue. "Uh, yeah, totally. Oh that's not okay." He comments again.

Y/n furrows her brows as she looks at Scott. "Find Allison, Scott. Find her voice." She whispers so he could hear her. He seems to listen as a moment later he starts to calm when Mr. Harris suddenly arrives to stop the beating.

"Stop! Hey, stop it right now." The guys run as Mr. Harris comes closer. "What do you idiots think you're doing?" He looks down at Scott. Scott props himself up and Stiles holds the phone up for him to see, a grin on his face as it shows a calm heart rate.

The trio now sit in Mr. Harris's classroom having got detention for the stunt outside. Y/n sits at the table in front of Scott and Stiles. She boredly has her elbow propped on the table with her chin on her hand. She's pretty sure she's supposed to be doing some type of homework while she waits to be released, but she just can't help not really listening to Mr. Harris sometimes, this being one of those times. There's just something about the teacher that really gets on her nerves. Probably because he's an asshat.

"Excuse me, sir?" Scott calls Mr. Harris politely and he looks up. "Uh, I know it's detention and all, but, uh, we're supposed to be at work," he gestures to himself and Y/n, "and I don't want to get fired." Mr. Harris just gives him a small smile and looks back down at his papers. Scott sighs then looks at Stiles. "You knew I would heal."

"Yep." Stiles nods.

"So you did that to help me learn?"

"Yep."

"But partially to punish me."

"Yeah. Well, that one's obvious."

"Dude, you're one of my best friends, and I can't have you being angry with me."

"I'm not angry anymore." He's quiet for a moment. "Look, you have something, Scott. Okay? Whether you want it or not, you can do things that nobody else can do. So that means you don't have a choice anymore. It means you have to do something."

They look at each other. "I know. And I will."

"All right, all three of you, out of here." Harris suddenly announced.

They all perk up. "Thank you."

"Wait." Y/n narrows her eyes. "Really? They fix their friendship and exactly now is when you decide to let us go?"

"You can always stay a few more hours if you so desperately want to, Ms. L/n."

Y/n holds up her hands in mock surrender. "No, thank you." She gathered her stuff and left with her friends.

...

Alan works in the back room of the clinic when he hears the front door. Thinking it's Y/n and Scott he starts talking to them. "Scott, I kind of expect something like this from Y/n, but you're late again. I hope this isn't getting to be a habit." He looks towards the door but instead of the teens he sees Derek Hale. "Can I help you?"

"Hope so." Derek responds. "I want to know about the animal you found with the spiral on its side?"

"Excuse me? What animal?"

"Three months ago. The deer. You remember this?" He unfolds a paper he had found on his car and shows it to the vet. It's a picture of a deer with a spiral carved into its side, exactly like he had just said.

"Oh, yes." He nods. "It's just a deer. And I didn't find it. They called me because they wanted to know if I'd ever seen anything like it."

"What'd you tell 'em?"

"I told them no."

Derek is quiet as he puts the paper away and takes a few steps closer. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Alan takes a few steps back and puts the metal table between them.

"The sound of your heartbeat rising." They now stand across from each other, the only thing separating them is the table.

"Excuse me?"

"It's the sound of you lying." The table does nothing to help as Derek reaches over and pulls Alan over.

Alan blinks his eyes open and finds himself in a chair. A cut is on his cheek and his hands are bound behind him. "Oh, God." He pulls on the tape around his wrists and looks around.

"Are you protecting someone?" Derek asks and Alan looks over his shoulder at him.

"All right. The key to the drug locker is in my pocket."

"I don't want drugs. I want to know why you're lying." He gets up close behind Alan to intimidate him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Derek spins him around in the chair and lifts him and the chair up in the air. "What are you doing to me? What do you want?"

"I want to know who you are or who you're protecting."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Y/n yells, her and Scott having finally arrived.

Alan looks over at them. "Y/n, Scott, get out of here!" Derek sets him down and then decks him, knocking him out.

"Stop! Stop!" Scott yells as they rush over.

Y/n kneels in front of Alan, lightly touching his cheek under the cut, then she glares at Derek. "What is wrong with you?"

"Look, when he's conscious, he can stop himself from healing, but unconscious, he can't." Derek explains to them.

"Are you out of your mind? What are you talking about?" Scott asks.

"You want to know what the spiral means, Scott? It's our sign for a vendetta, for revenge. It means he won't stop killing until he's satisfied."

"You think he's the Alpha?" Y/n asks bewildered. "He's not. I mean, I would know if I was living with a damn werewolf for several freaking years."

"We're about to find out." He goes to swipe at Alan with his claws but Scott stops him, now fully shifted. He growls at Derek and shoves his arm away.

Scott looks at his hand and breathes, calming down and shifting back while glaring at Derek. "Hit him again, and then you'll see me get angry."

"If he hits him again he won't see tomorrow's sunrise." Y/n threatens. Derek calms down and she gets a cotton ball to clean the cut on Alan's cheek. She gently dabs at the spot and frowns at her unconscious guardian.

"Do you have a plan?" Derek asks Scott.

"Just give me an hour."

"Then what?"

"Meet us at the school. In the parking lot." Derek doesn't say anything and just walks away. Y/n huffs angrily and throws the cotton ball away.

...

Stiles pulls into the dark parking lot of the highschool, a fuming Y/n in the backseat. They all get out and stand at the back of the Jeep. "This is a terrible idea." Stiles says.

"Yeah, I know." Scott agrees.

"But we're still gonna do it?"

"Can you think of something better?"

"Well, personally I'm a fan of ignoring a problem until eventually it just goes away."

"Just make sure we can get inside." Stiles opens the back of the Jeep to get the bolt cutters.

"I can always just shove wolfsbane down Derek's throat and we wouldn't have to do anything at all." Y/n suggests.

"No." Scott shoots her down and she rolls her eyes just as Derek pulls up. "He's here."

"Where is he?" Y/n asks as soon as Derek gets out of his car.

"He's in the back." Y/n looks through the windows and spots Alan still knocked out in Derek's backseat with tape over his mouth.

"Oh, well, he looks comfortable." Stiles says.

"If there is even one more scratch on him-" Y/n points a finger at Derek.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. No more sunrise." Derek rolls his eyes. Scott pulls Y/n away from Derek and Stiles follows as they head for the school. "Wait. Hey. What are you doing?"

"You said I was linked with the Alpha, I'm gonna see if you're right." Scott leads the way as they make their way into the school and towards the office.

"Okay, one question. What are you gonna do if the Alpha doesn't show up?" Stiles asks as he sets up the PA system.

"I don't know." Scott admits.

"And what are you gonna do if he does show up?"

"I don't know."

"Good plan." Stiles nods.

"All right. You said that a wolf howls to signal his position to the rest of the pack, right?" Scott looks at Y/n. She nods.

"But if you bring him here, does that make you part of his pack?" Stiles asks.

"I hope not."

"I doubt it will." Y/n says.

"I hope not, too." Stiles finishes setting up and nods to Scott. "All right. All you." He sits the microphone in front of Scott. He clears his throat, takes a deep breath, presses the button and... Howls?

"Was that okay?" Scott asks once he's done making ears bleed. "I mean, that was a howl, right?"

"l- yeah, technically." Stiles tries.

"It was awful." Y/n shakes her head.

"Well, what did it sound like to you?" Scott asks.

"Like a cat being choked to death, Scott."

"It sounded like a million nails scratching against a mile long black board." Y/n grimaces.

"What do I do? How am I supposed to do this?"

"Hey, hey." Stiles goes around to stand behind Scott and grip his shoulders encouragingly. "Listen to me. You're calling the Alpha. All right? Be a man. Be a werewolf, not a teen wolf. Be a werewolf." Scott nods and Stiles backs up. Scott takes a deep breath, a determined look on his face. His eyes glow, he presses the button and HOWLS.

"I'm gonna kill all three of you." Derek threatens the teens when they get back outside. "What the hell was that? What are you trying to do, attract the entire state to the school?"

"Sorry. I didn't know it would be that loud." Scott apologized.

"Yeah, it was loud. And it was awesome." Stiles said the last word in a sing-song voice. Y/n snorted a laugh at him.

"Shut up."

"Don't be such a sour wolf."

Y/n smiles at the joke and her eyes wander over to Derek's car. The smile fades when she notices the lack of a man in the backseat. "Where's Alan?"

"What?" Derek looks back and finds that Alan is indeed missing, the door left open. "I didn't do anything." He looks back at her. A sudden growl rips through the air and Derek coughs up blood. He gets lifted in the air by the Alpha with his claws in Derek's back.

"Shit! Go, go, go!" Y/n shoves the boys into gear and they sprint to the school. They burst through the doors and quickly close them, hiding under the windows.

Ch.07

[kell-eramis]

🔥talk some mad shit on taao

OOOH ok this is gonna take a while and i'm writing this in many places--on campus, after school, on the bus, so forgive me if anything doesn't make sense.

Topics: windblade, starscream, elita, combaticons, combiners, and bumblebee

Windblade:

Disclaimer, I *love* Windblade and I love what she represents (and this could be it’s own mini essay).

However, I don’t think M Scott had those ideas particularly in mind when writing Windblade. Retroactively knowing she intended Windblade and Starscream to have a r*ylo dynamic, paints both of them and their dynamic in a completely different light: Windblade is now no longer her own character, but a tool to redeem Starscream, and becomes a “blank slate or self insert” for this dynamic and purpose. As a result, she’s not really given the opportunity to grow from flaws, and she’s not really punished for mistakes (it’s moreso Starscream paying for her choice to have Optimus Prime reveal himself as the “true Prime” to Caminus, and this is almost always framed as Optimus being in the good and Starscream being in the wrong), it’s moreso that we’re told that Windblade is “tempted by Starscream’s ways/by power, but triumphs over this because she is Good, and is able to redeem Starscream in the process.” We also see others taking the fall for her mistakes, as Chromia takes the fall for the cover up—there is no repercussions on Windblade’s part in terms of trust of Cybertron. (This also serves to take Chromia out of the picture and focus on Windblade and Starscream over any potential chromeblade narratives that could (and did) arise).

I think if I were to fix this, I would look at how the war that affects everyone on Cybertron also affects her, one of the first Camien immigrants. Like… living in this new environment that is *so* traumatized, and you, yourself are traumatized too but in a completely different way. (And this is especially obvious in the first Windblade run, with both her and Chromia’s arcs.) Not the idea that Starscream/Cybertronian politics “corrupts” Windblade, but the idea that living in this environment that has barely started to heal will inevitably rub off on her—in both good and bad ways. And she, being someone on the outside coming in, can see how the factions are flawed and how everyone needs to come together to make Cybertron more of a home than it has ever been. I don’t know if I worded this completely right, but I hope I’m getting my point across.

Starscream:

OOOOH. I could go on and on for days on end. I think the way M Scott handled Starscream’s dysphoria is very transphobic and concluded in a way that’s like “if I were not dysphoric, I would not be evil.” That’s… not what dysphoria does. Starscream would be Starscream no matter if he were cold constructed or forged—maybe just with different problems. Nurture over nature and all that. Another problem I have is due to the established windblade and starscream dynamic, starscream is often portrayed as evil—often to the point of irrationality. While Starscream might not be the best leader, she’s smarter than sending badgeless after random cons and inciting further violence as a result. We get a lot of “tell and doesn’t show” with Starscream’s tactics (and Onslaught’s, as well), and while it would make sense for Starscream to be paranoid (hence the distrust of Windblade) and to try to prepare for a second coming of the war (even if she doesn’t realize that’s what he’s doing by amassing combiner and titan power), some of the actions Starscream takes are outright irrationally evil, just to put that dichotomy between her and Windblade and incite the redemption. Other characters become tools either to show how evil Starscream is (the Combaticons, Rattrap, etc) or to redeem Starscream (Windblade, Bumblebee). I could go on and on about this but I will end it here (for now).

Elita-One:

Again, a case of “tell and don’t show”. We’re told that she’s “another Megatron” but there’s nothing to back that up—why is she another Megatron? What has she done to imply that? She’s traumatized from being hypervigilant over being the one in charge of Carcer (wherein Vigilem and Liege Maximo are incarcerated), and that shows in how she interacts with Cybertron. I don’t think she’d be a good leader for Cybertron—for the same reason neither Bumblebee nor Starscream (nor Optimus or Megatron) could be the right leader for Cybertron. They’re too stuck in the war, though it is possible to move on from it with time and effort. I do think, however, that she’s not this grand villain that M Scott paints her out to be. God forbid women do anything.

The Combaticons:

I could also talk at length about them for days. I think that they have the issue of becoming a tool to show how evil Starscream is, rather than their own characters with their own arcs. Which is a shame, as I think all of their individual arcs and as a whole gestalt could be *so* interesting.

With Blast Off and Onslaught:

We see Onslaught being extremely stuck in the war--he *wants* it to come back because he *wants* that purpose--what does a tactician do when there's no battles to be a tactician for? And Blast Off, who loves Onslaught (and his group), wants peace. Wants rest. Wants that peace and rest for Onslaught most of all. TAAO contextualizes what Blast Off does as a *selfish* thing—he does what he does because he wants that relationship. But that’s *not* what it is. She does what she does because she wants to see Onslaught heal from the war. He (as well as Starscream) knows this can’t happen unless Onslaught is given something new to obsess over—without that something, he’ll go back to the war and vengeance. So Blast Off, in a way, offers herself to be that. This isn’t selfish, in my opinion, because he knows that the relationship is doomed if she does that. Onslaught will find out, and when that happens, any possibility of a relationship will cease to be. It’s a sacrifice Blast Off makes to save Onslaught and the other Combaticons.

Brawl:

Now, I love the part where Brawl goes to Windblade and says he can’t have the war come back. He goes behind Onslaught’s and Starscream’s backs to do so. However, I wish this transition was shown more. He willingly chose to go with Galvatron and continue the war. He’s with Onslaught and Vortex when they want to make Cybertron burn. What changes? He says it’s “feeling what it’s like to die”, but beyond a few moments in Issue #4 and the annual, we don’t *see* this. No feelings of uncertainty at post war or relief when it comes to just staying Starscream’s bodyguard, just a comic relief along with Vortex.

Vortex:

Which brings me to Vortex. He’s reduced to a comic relief character. However, we know he’s an interrogator. I think we should have seen him interrogating bots for information on Swindle, searching it out. And then I think we should have also seen the ramifications of such a violent combination on him, too. (Though that could be said about all the Combaticons).

Swindle:

And that brings me to Swindle. I think Swindle, (and I also think Bumblebee should, too, but that’s a different argument) should be more present in the narrative even when she’s dead. While this is arguably present in the first arc, she’s moreso used as a catalyst for Onslaught’s grudge with Starscream turning into something more, but I think he’s used moreso as an excuse for why Onslaught’s doing all this more than an actual reason. Then Swindle is brought back in an *incredibly* traumatic and violent way. What does this mean for how she feels about the new Cybertron? How the gestalt and combination intimately affects her in ways it doesn’t affect the others? How this —frankly, violation— of her mind and memories for Onslaught’s purposes affects her and his relationship with the other Combaticons? Ooooh the things I wish TAAO went more in depth about. Then, there’s also the fact that he had helped Windblade. How does this affect the relationship between them, especially now that Chromia’s gone? How does this affect Swindle’s relationship with Blurr???

Combiners in general:

This is a problem I have with phase 2 in general, but I wish combiners were used more. They’re A Thing now that the enigma of combination is a prominent artifact. But they’re only really seen as temporary threats. We don’t go into the reason why Starscream wants one, and when that reason fulfills itself, they’re NOT used. We could have used combiners in Titan’s Return, for example!!!

I also think that IDW writers in general don’t really know what they might symbolize. Are they abject? Are they holy? Unholy? A monstrosity or a beauty?

If I was writing a continuity, I would look at combiners as the closest one could go to “being one in the allspark” without being dead. I could go into Augustinian philosophy and theology here, but I won’t (for now). However, they change the members of the gestalt in irreversible and abject ways! They blend together with the other members—they are no longer inherently individual. They are bound to each other.

Bumblebee:

Same as Swindle, really. I wish he was more present in the narrative as haunting it. Their death is the catalyst for many things and adds to others. However, M Scott only really uses Bumblebee as a passive advisor for Starscream. I think TAAO and starbee could be a significantly more impactful narrative if Bumblebee’s ideology and perceptions of things such as factions and power also moved in a way that was more towards Starscream’s perspective, rather than just Starscream becoming more “good”. It would also give us a chance to actually highlight the flaws of the autobot faction without being like “optimus is shitty, prowl is shitty, the primes were shitty, insert cartoonishly evil villains that happen to also be autobots to show how flawed they are”.

Okay, I’m finished. This was not at all all of my opinions and ideas but with a topic as broad as all of TAAO, how could I choose?

[amatchinwater]

Pairing: Steo

Warnings: mild blood, violence,

Words: 2149

Prompt: @badthingshappenbingo square Slammed into a Wall

ao3 link Masterlist

---

The Shunned Fox

Stiles really wishes he took Cora’s words to heart about what it felt like to lose a member of your pack. Now, he didn't necessarily not believe her. It's just that Stiles felt it five times over. Scott kicked him out of the pack because of what happened with Donovan. Blaming the fox part of him for his wrong doings and not believing it was self defense. 

That night, while soaked from the rain, sitting outside of his broken down jeep, Stiles felt all five of those pack bonds snap. Scott, Malia, Kira, Mason, and Liam. All torn away from him for an awful mistake. Thankfully, he can still feel Lydia because she'd never do that. And he never accepted Theo as pack, so there's that too. 

Minor silver linings. 

It doesn't make the pain any lighter. Just something small to cling to when the loss gets to be too much to handle. 

So yeah, he wishes he had listened and really processed what Cora tried to tell him after Boyd died. But how could Stiles have possibly properly understood? He was still human then. 

Untainted by the Nogitsune's mark. Which was just Deaton’s way of saying that Stiles was a werefox now. Apparently when a thousand year old fox demon spits you- a now carbon copy of your own body- out, it doesn't make you with a clean slate. No. Because it had to use part of itself just to create you. 

Ever since the Nogitsune, there was no such thing as a "clean slate" for Stiles. 

And it's not like Stiles didn't know what he was. He saw his name on the deadpool right under Scott’s like everyone else did. He kept his nose down. Helped the pack like he'd always done. Dealt with the nightmares and residual mental turmoil and stress. Not to mention Isaac leaving without so much as a goodbye and Derek leaving with Cora. 

Scott never quite looked at him the same way after Allison died in his arms. As if the wolf couldn't differentiate between Stiles and the Nogitsune because they had the same face. 

Aside from Lydia, Stiles goes through all of this alone. 

If it really came down to it, the fox is almost certain that he could confide in Theo. After spending hours alone in his jeep just talking, Stiles believes the wolf would listen. After all, Theo didn't have to talk about his sister or offer to keep the fox's secret and he did. There's also the fact that Theo was Stiles' first crush. He almost wonders if he had been a little more trusting and accepted Theo as pack if he would've felt that bond snap too. Or if like Lydia, Theo wouldn't drop him no matter what. 

Because even as a kid, Stiles could've sworn he saw the same twinkle in Theo's eyes when they looked at each other. Stiles still sees it. 

But then he would have to deal with the smug smirk of satisfaction painting the wolf's face. The obligatory 'I told you so' when he admits that they're friends or that Stiles trusts him. And it also comes with the fear that the fox doesn't think he can reach out to Theo. Not after his blatant mistrust and disapproval that Stiles displayed. Why would he deserve it? 

For now, he'll continue to lick his wounds alone. Heal himself and figure out where to go from there. Pocket the childhood crush rising back to the surface for now until things cool off. 

When Stiles first became a supernatural creature, he thought it was so cool that his senses went into overdrive. While having a bad day in class all he needed to do was listen for his friends' heartbeats. Or the chance that they were talking in class and simply hear their voices. Now that he's been ostracized, walking the empty halls and hearing them planning in an empty room tears at Stiles' heart. Usually, the fox will keep walking as if he'd heard nothing. Respect the fact that he's no longer welcome. 

But this time, "you need him," stops Stiles in his tracks. He keeps his breathing slow and steady in attempts to avoid being caught eavesdropping. 

Theo could be talking about someone else. Except judging by the annoyed growl Scott gives as a response, there couldn't be anyone else. 

"Stiles is smart," Liam tries to reason with his Alpha. 

"Scott, the Beast has gotten out of control," Theo sounds just as annoyed as the Alpha. "If anyone can figure out a way to stop it, it's Stiles." 

Scott snarls, "that's what Lydia is for." 

How kind Scott, sounding like an animal while talking about why someone is useful. Would you toss her aside if she did something to protect herself too? Until her usefulness no longer fits with your perfect agenda. Though it warms the fox's heart to hear the others stick up for him. 

"I need help, Scott," Lydia scoffs and Stiles can see the exacerbation on her face. "He was onto something last I talked to him. I think Stiles knows how to stop it." 

That's true. Stiles found a book that showed a hellhound dispelling the Beast from its host. 

"Great," Theo claps. "He's outside so why don't we hear what he has to say?" 

"What?" The Alpha snaps. 

Stiles is right there with you, Scott. He thought he was being quiet enough to go unnoticed. When the door opens, Theo is standing there with his ever present smirk while the fox stares in shock. 

"Don't tell me you didn't smell him when he walked up?" Theo's smirk widens, "I could pick out your scent anywhere." 

Lydia groans, rubbing her temples, "so not the time, Theodore." 

Right again, Lydia. Now is not the time for Stiles' cheeks to be painted a hot red color. The fox doesn't miss the wink Theo tosses him before yanking him into the classroom, making the blush burn that much hotter. 

Liam and Mason, sitting on two desks offer him a small smile, the latter speaking, "what's the theory you have?"

"Do you really think it can be stopped?" Liam asks quietly. Having seen the Beast up close and personal, Stiles can't blame the young Beya for his fear and hesitation. Or for him following along with Scott. It takes a lot to defy your Alpha.

"Yeah," the fox clears his throat, slipping his backpack off his shoulder and onto a desk so he can show them the book. "I found this a little while ago," he tells Theo, fingers wrapping around the text, "it shows the Beast being-" 

"Enough," Scott growls dangerously, low and angry in his throat. Stiles recoils at the sound. "There's some poor kid stuck with the Beast in its body. I don't want to hear your half thought out plan that ends up with another teenager dead." Scott follows the fox as he takes steps back. 

He needs distance or something bad is going to happen. Another teenager dead. Scott is standing here throwing Donovan’s death in Stiles’ face as if he murdered him on purpose. Like it wasn’t a matter of life or death for Stiles. All Scott sees is the blood on his hands and Allison dead in his arms, nothing else. 

"Half thought?" Stiles shakes his head. That's not the case at all. The teenager will be fine. "Scott, I'm just trying to help y-" 

"I said enough," Scott roars, fisting the collar of the fox's shirt and slamming him into the wall. 

Sparkles dance around his vision as his head smacks the wall. 

So much happens so quickly, the fox barely registers it. But that could just be from the harsh crack his head just took. 

The second he hits the wall, Stiles half hears Mason’s, "what the fuck," over Theo's vicious roar. No sooner do Scott’s searing Alpha eyes come into focus are they being yanked away by Theo, shoving him against the teacher's desk. Malia steps in between the two and the fox, crouched and ready. Lydia appears at his side, locking their fingers together. 

"Some True Alpha you are," Theo says, managing to sound menacing and calm all at once. Like it's effortless for a Beta to overcome an Alpha like that. 

"He's not a part of this pack anymore," Scott defends, "he has no right to even be here!" 

"It's Stiles," Theo growls and shakes the Alpha. "Touch him again and I'll kill you." 

What?

"Holy shit, he's actually doing it," Lydia sounds amazed and proud. Does she understand what's happening here? 

"I'm your Alpha, you can't-"

Theo chuckles darkly, "better yet, you so much as look at Stiles again and I'll break your hands to where not even your Alpha powers can heal you. You're no Alpha of ours." His words shoot a surge of warmth in the fox's chest. The feeling of his former pack members rushing into him. 

The best of all, feeling Theo in his chest. Warmer and softer than the others. Stiles can’t explain exactly what it is, but whatever it is, it’s amazing and he wishes he could’ve felt this way the whole time.

"Theo-"

"No," he cuts Scott off again. Nice considering how little the Alpha let Stiles finish a sentence. "Come near him again and I'll officially challenge you for Alpha. Got me?" 

Scott aggressively brushes Theo's hands off of him and storms out of the room. 

No one follows him. 

Not even Liam. 

The door slams closed and Theo turns to face him, golden eyes flickering red for the smallest of moments. But Stiles saw it as Malia backed out of the way.

Theos hands cup the fox's face, "are you okay?" 

Stiles' heart hasn't quite stopped thundering in his chest, but he's alive. Bringing a hand to the back of his head, he winces at the sting the action elicits. "That hurts," Stiles says, pulling his hand back to find blood on his fingers. 

“I’m going to kill him,” Theo snarls, taking the fox’s pain.

“Allow me,” Malia growls, stalking out of the classroom. 

Liam sighs, “I’ll go keep an eye on her,” before following the coyote. 

“Mason,” Lydia tries to sound nonchalant, but her voice chirps, “he’s going to need help.” But the way she looks at Stiles and Theo- who’s still stroking the fox’s face despite there being no more pain- speaks volumes as to why they’re really leaving.

At least Mason doesn’t verbally question it, despite his face also being about as subtle as a billboard as he dutifully follows the banshee out.

“You didn’t have to do that,” the fox murmurs, gently removing Theo’s hands from his face now that the wound is healed. “I’m not worth challenging your Alpha over,” Stiles takes a step back, avoiding eye contact. 

Theo looks dumbfounded. “Not worth it? Not worth it? Stiles,” the wolf steps closer, grabbing Stiles’ hands, “I would have done it the night he kicked you out of the pack if I wasn’t focused on trying to keep Hayden alive. To me, you’re more than worth it.”

“Why?” Stiles asks, his heart fluttering at the steadiness of the wolf’s. Not a lie in sight. 

Was he right? That he isn’t the only one with a past crush that isn’t exactly in the past?

“You can’t tell me that with how ridiculously smart you are that you don’t know.” Theo smirks, “come on, Miecz.”

“I-” the fox clears the crack in his voice. He’s in a cross between disbelief and happiness that Stiles doesn’t know how to handle himself. “I think I do, yeah. But I’d rather you tell me so I don’t get my hopes up.” Stiles isn’t sure he can survive anymore blows to his heart. 

It’s fragile enough. 

Theo chuckles through his nose, dropping the fox’s hands to snake them around his waist. “How about,” the wolf pulls Stiles close, “I just show you.”

The burn in Stiles’ cheeks and the pounding in his chest don’t get to be processed because Theo’s mouth is on his. Theo’s fucking kissing him and the fox doesn’t remember how to breathe. Stiles was so swept up with being kicked out of the pack and not initially trusting Theo that he never thought this was possible. Yet Theo’s perfect lips are against his and it’s everything Stiles denied himself of wanting.

Much too soon the wolf pulls back, placing one last gentle kiss on Stiles’ mouth. “So you understand now?” Theo whispers, resting their foreheads together.

Feeling courage for the first time in who knows how long, Stiles grins, no. I think you need to explain it again.”

“I protect what’s mine. You’re mine, Miecz,” he rumbles in his chest, “and you’re worth everything to me,” Theo says before sealing their mouths together again. Explaining over and over again exactly what he meant while Stiles purrs from the affection. 

[erstwhilesparrow]

what's up it's time for me to have life series derangements again. you ever think about scott smajor? <- an entirely rhetorical question

a little while ago, i was like, "oh, it'd be fun to me if cleo in double life looks at martyn, looks at scott, realizes which of those two people is going to be more dedicated to helping them survive, and makes a decision that is both tactical and emotional, where even they can't be sure where the division between those two motivations is." and that IS fun, especially in light of martyn then teaming with scott in limited life, maybe because he's now seen what scott's like. however, actually, out of [cleo, scott], i think maybe i had the wrong guy! (relevant here: scott suggesting to cleo in secret life that the best thing to do once etho's on low enough health is to have him let her kill him to get extra hearts. cleo's pov saying, "i couldn't.")

the thing about scott that i think about sometimes is. at the double life finale. scott has the tnt that whole time. he's the one holding the flint and steel, he's the one who calls pearl to spawn, he's the one who gets his final word in and decides when and how they'll go out. "you deserve it more," he says to pearl, as if he doesn't know full well this will kill them both, as if he couldn't hand over the explosives to pearl and let her decide. there are ways to read this that are. deeply cruel. it's the same thing he did at the start, right? yanking the rug out from under pearl, making decisions about their relationship on his own and then forcing her to deal with it, knowing it's come down to just the two of them and snatching this last choice out of her hands too. there are, also, kinder ways to read this. by "you deserve this," he means pearl deserves the win, of course. she deserves to win the game, because it is a game and they are playing it, and after this much, she shouldn't have to figure out what to do about scott, too. he should just give it to her, make this as easy as possible.

i think... it's not even that scott loves throwing himself on other people's swords -- there are other people in the series for that type of thing. i think it's that scott has figured out that throwing himself on someone's sword is a useful thing to do, not just for his allies but for himself. oh, we can tell each other about his loyalty and trust and love and sacrifice, and he can tell that type of narrative too! but there's an element of business, or practicality, or calculation to a lot of it. i think the story that gets out and lingers IS more often about loyalty and trust and love and sacrifice and maybe that's there too, but telling someone, "oh, yeah, you can kill me for the time / hearts / victory, go for it," is also a way of shoring up alliances, of ensuring you stay in people's good books, of reminding people you can be trusted and relied upon. it's a death game, but it's also a social game! your reputation is a tool, and your life can be a bargaining chip. (relevant notes: he yells for martyn to kill him when he's the last yellow left in limited life. lets cleo knock him off the tower in limited life to get some time from him. in his secret life finale, once he gets down to fewer than ten hearts, he goes looking for gem, throws her all his good items and tells her she has to kill him. talks about deliberately saving / not saving the one gift heart per session for trade deals. he thinks this stuff through, when he can.)

this also, when you start putting focus on it, makes it really easy to read scott as just straightforwardly manipulative and cruel. i don't know how interested i am in that. i think it's important that watching scott, i find myself surprised a lot at how often he keeps promises, offers food, shares information. he is honest and generous when i think other people would not be. there are, as demonstrated by the other players, funnier or less complicated or more secretive ways to play the social side of the game. whether that just reinforces [scott is always on-purpose carving out a more positive reputation for himself] or adds more interesting dimensions in other ways, i don't really know either? but i feel like understanding him as purely sadistic flattens him somehow. he tells gem in his secret life finale he's going to stay loyal to his day-one alliance above all, no matter what, and even that is tied up in him trying to convince / remind gem that her loyalty should stay with scott and impulse, but i think it's often like this with scott.

it's cleo and martyn (and also scar, i'm pretty sure, but he's cleo's ally in limlife so.) specifically that he gives up time to -- he'd rather his allies get the time (in limlife) and health (in secret life) than anyone else. and it's not that it's not tactical -- even teaming up with cleo in double life, where he gives the justification to pearl that he and cleo already bonded: because they're not soulbound, they've got two health bars between them for pvp instead of one the way the other soulbound pairs do. but he also just. likes cleo! makes the choice over and over to stick with her. i think it's hard to separate out how much of any given choice scott makes is motivated by [this is a tactical / social advantage] from how much is motivated by [i like and care about this person] because those things blur together so often. certainly i can't separate those two, can't say, "oh, this time he was being calculating 100% and this time he was being much more emotions-first nice." i don't know that i want to be able to do that, and i don't know that scott can tell either? it's both of these things at once, and it works, so there's no real reason for him to try separating them.

my examples are from secret life because that's what i watched most recently, but scott loves to remind people how well he knows them and is startlingly good at knowing / guessing / pretending to know what other people are like. he gets a task where he has to get people to say 'i love you' back to him and at the end, he rattles off the list of people he knew would say it. he's halfway up a cliff and etho calls to him, asking him to come back down; after some back-and-forth, etho admits he was trying to stall so bdubs could get away, and scott replies, "i know you were." and like. i don't always believe him! he did fully climb back down the cliff to talk to etho. i'm sure some of the time when he says stuff like this it's true -- these are people he knows fairly well, of course you can predict some moves -- but i wonder how often he figures something out mid-conversation, goes, "oh, okay, this is what we're doing," and adjusts accordingly as if he knew all along. (relevant note: when boat boys start chasing pearl around after going red and scott gives up on trying to convince pearl to appease them, he switches to hurrying into the midcentury modern whateverthefuck and setting his spawn there so he's not running back from spawn to get his stuff when pearl dies.)

i wonder how much that contributes to the blurring motivations, the idea that scott himself doesn't necessarily go into these interactions really thinking about the tactical advantage all the time, but maybe he'll tell himself afterwards that that's what that was. i've been thinking about the limited life finale (when am i ever not thinking about the limited life finale) and the like million different ways i've thought about scott and martyn's motivations going into and coming out of that final betrayal ("betrayal"?), and how "i wouldn't have it any other way" is still something i like to come back to chew on sometimes. like, yeah, that's his closest ally, and he's already won before. that does in fact work out great for him. i think, maybe it's like that. oh, okay, this is what's happening, scott thinks. i knew it. this works out great for me, and i knew it all along.

[henrysglock]

Not to Byler your Creelarke too much but I was thinking about a possible scenario for season 5 between Byler and Mr. Clarke. Post Byler getting together.

Maybe they have a Super Important Science Question they need answered Right Now so they head over to his place because the phones aren’t safe. And they ask their question, and get their answer, but Mike gets this idea. Mr. Clarke seems to be the right age, maybe they knew each other?

So he asks, “this is a weird question… but do you know anything about… Henry Creel?”

And Scott gives them a bit of a wishy washy answer, lots of “he was quiet and nobody really knew him…” but seems to be holding something back. And Mike gets more frustrated that he won’t be straight (ha) with them, but Will puts his arm out and quiets him, before saying, “you can trust us… we’re.. family”

And Mikes fully confused by this, doesn’t understand what he’s saying, but Will reaches over and holds his hand in his and they share a soft look before Scott sighs, and explains that he did know Henry well.

You can ALWAYS byler my creelarke because I'm a hardcore shipper of both!!

And god, yeah. This is actually the kind of scenario that's on my st5 bingo board, because Scott always has the answers. The Party knows this, so when it comes to surviving the apocalypse...who better to ask than Mr. Clarke?

Mike remembering how Bob went to school in Hawkins, and how Bob taught Scott everything he knows about AV...it wouldn't take much for him to put it together that all three of them went to school together.

Will "If there's anything you know...you can tell us. Please tell us. Anything helps." Byers vs Scott "Well, it's a bit of an odd story, bear with me..." Clarke spilling the beans on Henry and what 1957-1959 was like for them, especially re: the Creel family and Henry's pre-lab run-ins with Brenner.

Scott "He was my best friend. I haven't met anyone quite like him since, and I doubt I ever will, although...I have to say, Will...You two're remarkably similar. You remind me of him quite a bit. I think you would have liked him." Clarke vs Will "[awkward silence]" Byers

Will "Why does it feel like we have entirely the wrong guy/this reeks of Brenner" Byers going to El, who was explicitly told she doesn't have the full truth, and the two of them puzzling together the actual truth/the full truth being the key to saving Hawkins.

Willel being the solution, but only because they heard a firsthand account of Henry from Scott, the only person left both alive and accessible who truly knew/loved Henry. So many different forms of love being the key to saving Hawkins would make me so happy, actually.

[usermischief]

People saying Stiles is stupid and gets bad grades is actually hilarious, especially because he’s supposed to have ADHD. He’s over here keeping up perfect grades, stated by Gerard—the principal—in season 2, and take it from someone with ADHD, that’s not easy. People took that one scene about Stiles answering a question on the wrong topic and took it to mean that he’s bad at school; a) Coach literally says that was on the last question and “last” implies that there were other questions as well so it’s doubtful Stiles did that on the entire test since Coach probably would’ve mentioned him messing up on the whole test and b) this is the same scene where Finstock, the very teacher we learn about the Econ midterm from, claims Stiles is “super smart” but doesn’t take advantage of his talents and can’t focus (you know, one of the main symptoms of ADHD)

So many people called Stiles super smart. Did he fuck up by completely going off topic by talking about an entirely different subject on a test? Yes. Does his brain not cooperate sometimes? Absolutely (and I feel that, so much). Are those reasons to call him stupid? No. Sometimes the ADHD brain does what it wants. So 🤷🏼‍♀️

Stiles isn't the genius of the group, but that doesn't mean he's not extremely smart. Not at all. Because he's the one who always figures it out. I mean:

Lydia: You don't need the instructions. When was the last time you've ever used instructions? Am I right? You don't need them because you are too smart to waste your time with them, okay? You can figure it out. Stiles, you're the one who always figures it out. So you can do it. Figure it out.

-

Stiles: I don't know that. How would I know that? Peter: Because you're the clever one, aren't you? - Gerard: Mr. Stilinski. Oh, perfect grades but little to no extracurriculars.

Getting perfect grades is super hard even without ADHD.

Theo: He was smart! Smart enough not to trust me.

-

Scott: With Stiles back, he'll be able to help us figure out a plan. Malia: He's good at that. Peter: So the plan is to get Stiles to come up with a plan.

And I feel like there are more instances where people talk about how smart Stiles is, but those are the instances I remember. It's also a thing that happens throughout the series. s1, s2, s3, s6, and not just a random comment somewhere. But we don't just hear people talking about how smart he is, we see it too. He watches Lydia make a molotov cocktail once, then turns around and does it himself. The bear trap. He copies key cards. He figured out himself that he/the nogitsune was the one who gave the order to kidnap Kira.... and more.

[princeescaluswords]

The Respect She Deserves

Another day, another WTF take from a member of the Sterek fandom. Apparently, members of the Sterek fandom are leaders when it comes to giving Allison Argent the 'respect she deserves.'

Okay.

The next time you're reading a selection of Sterek fanfictions, count how many of them have their Stand-In with a Stiles Name Tag echo Derek's first season trauma-powered fear and hatred of Allison. Tally up how many times the story blames Scott's desire for Allison as one of the reasons Derek fails or calls Scott stupid for loving a hunter, even though everyone is aware that Allison didn't even know werewolves existed or that her family hunted them until the end of episode 10. Is the 'respect she deserves' being treated as if her last name is the only thing about her that matters?

The next time you're reading a selection of Sterek fanfictions, count how many of them describe Allison's relationship with Scott as 'puppy love' or as something that is 'on-and-off.' Notice that Allison's relationship with Isaac is seldom, if ever, described like that, because the main thing for these respecters of womanhood that marks her relationship as immature and ephemeral is that it is with Scott. Notice how often her relationship with Scott (and thus her decisions) are demeaned in order to compare it with the glorious so-slow-burning-it-is-nonexistent maturity of the Sterek relationship. Is the 'respect she deserves' being treated as if her primary romantic relationship is inherently childish?

The next time you're reading a selection of Sterek fanfictions, count how many of them snidely insinuate that the basis of Allison's relationships is lust rather than actual love. See how many times they remark on how easily Allison and (usually but not always) Scott engage in public displays of affection, where they make out in front of other people or sit on each other's laps constantly or disappear into a quiet corner even during tense times to engage in carnality. Allison and Scott (as well as Allison and Isaac) do engage in physical intimacy during the show, but it is never in public (Silverfinger (3x17) doesn't count) and the only time it backfired was when Scott and Allison made the mistake of falling asleep after sex while watching Jackson in Frenemy (2x06). Is the 'respect she deserves' being treated as if she is a sex-crazed slut?

The next time you're reading a selection of Sterek fanfictions, count how many of them come out and say that Allison is a b*tch because of her actions while being manipulated by Gerard. After all, she hunted down her classmates! Compare that to how the Hale betas are described, who also hunted down their classmates on Derek's orders, including the point where Erica bashed Stiles with a car part and left him in a dumpster or Isaac attacked Allison and Stiles in Scott's house or when they bushwhacked Scott (again on Derek's orders) at the ice rink. Once you're done with that, compare the way Derek's bad decisions and violent behavior is excused due to his family's deaths and Stiles's insecurity and aggressive lashing out is excused due to his mother's death, but Allison's vulnerability and overreaction to her aunt being murdered right in front of her and her mother committing suicide on her bed fails to generate any sympathy whatsoever! Often, these stories only talk about how she's going to have to work to make up for what she did wrong (as she said in the show) and even then Stiles will never trust her again. Is the 'respect she deserves' being treated as if the terrible tragedies that befell her -- members of her family dying -- cannot be considered anywhere near as exculpatory as similar white male pain?

It might take you a few seconds to figure out what the original fan meant by the Sterek fandom giving Allison the 'respect she deserves,' but it should be clear in the end. They would never have paired her with the Latino flop they despise because the show treated him as if he was "The Only One that Mattered!" The Sterek fandom, to prove that point, highlights how terrible it is for Allison to not be single so she could focus on making it up to the Hale Family for the actions of her family members. When her relationship to Scott isn't being insulted and mocked, only then can she full her best destiny: serving as fire support for the glorious return of the Hale Pack (while graciously forgetting all of Peter's serial killings, Derek's biting of her mother, and the Hale betas trying to execute her friends on the basis of an old wives tale and a crappy test.) Find a Sterek story where Allison's relationship to Sterek covers anything more than her being a military asset or a penitent. They are certainly out there. Somewhere.