#josie x seb

[shenaniganzz]

Josie was walking around the party for a little bit, trying to have some fun, but right now, all she was getting was a little annoyed at some of the people that were at this place. She couldn’t find her friends, probably off somewhere else having the time of their lives. She rolled herself to herself at the thought. Completely ignoring some men who called out to her, trying to get her attention, she went up the stairs that seemingly had less people, her hand falling into her pocket where she found a little gift. Most likely slipped in their from Angie herself, always leaving little gifts. Grinning to herself, she quickened her pace up the stairs until she landed on the second floor. Checking the immediate rooms, they were locked, so she kept walking, practically skipping and checking each door, until she found a room that gave way. Opening it widely, she noticed that it was already preoccupied, seeing a blonde boy bent over a counter. “Oh, sorry,” she sighed, moving to close the door but then last minute, widened it again and stepped underneath the door frame, leaning against it. “What are you doing?” she asked, narrowing her eyes, almost looking suspiciously at him. 

[stayflaminhotmen]

me ranting about legacies in the tags again because I just finished it! 

[amorremanet]

You reblogged an OC meme! Thank god, tell us about Josie!

oc profiles meme!

…oh my god, i was so excited to click post and babble about josie at people that i initially forgot to come back and fill in the placeholder with something about how excited i was to talk about josie (—it’s like 4:15 AM where i am, which is probably part of the problem but i digress)

Full Name: Josiah Daniel Quinn — but, please, they explicitly prefer to be called, “Josie,” so unless you’re one of their bosses over at S.T.R.O.M.A*, whom they’re in no position to argue with, call them Josie. If not that, then use their surname. But if you can avoid it, just please do not call them by their full given first name, okay?

Shiny mutant superhero codename: Lyaeus — derived from an aspect of Dionysus who is traditionally invoked as a reliever of pain and a deliverer from anxiety and emotional turmoil and so on, which is one of their preferred uses of their psychic abilities and one of Josie’s larger goals in life (for them, it’s a mix of, “If something bad is going to happen, and you can do something to stop it and choose not to, that’s on you” and, “The world is a mess and largely sucks, but that’s no reason not to do what we can to take care of each other”).

Their codename is doubly special to them because although they were raised loosely Catholic and have a Mormon extended family who mostly doesn’t acknowledge their existence (and hasn’t for their entire life, since their Mom left the Mormon church to marry Josie’s Dad, oops), Josie is a hellenic pagan whose primary relationship is with Dionysus.

They thought for a long time and did a lot of reflection about whether or not it was too presumptuous of them to use one of his aspects as a codename, but eventually, they went with it because they see their codename and its meaning as someone who they’re continually striving to be and a set of values that they’re always trying to bring to bear in the world, and they feel like Dionysus is probably okay with that.

Gender and Sexuality: DMAB Genderfluid. // Bisexual.

This isn’t actually specifically about their gender or sexuality, but I couldn’t think of where else to put it: Josie grew up around all things Rocky Horror. Like, their parents were highly involved in the local community theatre, which did a semi-regular RHPS shadow-cast, and Josie’s parents brought their kid with them often enough that Josie grew up with their blood family and their, “Rocky family.”

Josie would rather deal with their Rocky family than their blood family a lot of the time, because their Rocky family was more immediately there for them during a lot of rough stuff while they were growing up, and their Rocky family handled it better at the various times when they came out, and their Rocky family didn’t say shit like, “Wait, I thought you were gay, why are you going back in the closet” when they came out as bi or ask invasive questions when they came out as genderfluid and was more supportive in general of Josie’s evolving sense of their own identity, and so on.

Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs.

Josie does also answer to He/Him/His pronouns, but that isn’t a choice on their part, so much as it’s an issue of, “Well, I can be out at work and open the door to potential harassment and people who will invalidate my gender identity and likely flat-out refuse to respect my pronouns, which will create more difficulty for myself in a job that’s already difficult because it’s stressful to begin with and I hate working here — or I can suck it up and just be grateful that my friends and parents are all good about this”

Like, one of the things that Seb does when he and Josie first meet that makes Josie go, “I’m still not totally thrilled at being assigned to help out the newbie (especially since I know I’m only getting this assignment because: 1. our bosses are playing a game of, ‘lmao just toss the LGBTQ ones together’ because the newbie’s gay and pretty much everyone here thinks that I am too; and 2. Deputy Director Gray is still cranky with me over that MSNBC round-table that I did last week where Yael kept pushing me to voice my own opinions and not the Bureau’s official line) — but maybe it won’t actually be completely awful and maybe he’s going to be okay as a new partner”?

…is noticing that Josie wears two woven yarn bracelets on one wrist — one of them in the lavender/white/chartreuse colors of the genderqueer flag, and the other in the pink/white/purple/black/blue of the genderfluid flag — and first waiting for them to be alone in Josie’s office, then going, “Oh, so are you genderfluid? What are your pronouns?” and then listening and respecting it when Josie explained that they’d rather Seb just kept using he/him/his at work

Species: Human (mutant with aforementioned mutant psychic powers)

Race/Ethnicity: White, and the only real part of Josie’s ethnic background that’s ever been important in their life was that their late paternal grandmother was very proud of being Irish.

Like, her parents had come to Ellis Island from Ireland — though she was too young to have any actual memories of the passage herself — and she wasn’t so insistent about it that she objected to her son marrying a Mormon girl instead of a Good Irish Catholic Girl, but still, the Irish thing was a big deal for her.

Josie, personally, doesn’t get it beyond, “I’m white and I have a particular aversion to St. Patrick’s Day because first of all, some of my extended family members can turn into a bunch of rowdy, off-putting little shits on St. Patrick’s Day, and I always had to suffer through that because we always had a party for it, first because Grandma wanted one, and then in honor of her memory.

“And secondly, because as soon as anyone hears that I’m partially Irish and/or a Dionysian, it is just assumed that I want to go get wasted on St. Patrick’s Day, which I don’t, but I still end up going out into environments that are absolute Hell for someone who has both telepathy and hyper-empathy, because the spaces are crowded, emotions are running high, and there is basically nowhere to escape to where you can get some peace and quiet and a break from the sensory and emotional overload of being at a rowdy bar on St. Patrick’s Day.

“And I endure all of this with people whom I may not even like that much just so they’ll have a designated driver, because I would feel bad personally if I didn’t go to make sure they all got home okay, and just because they don’t understand my god or might want to get something else out of him than I do, doesn’t mean that I should brush them off and risk them getting hurt while they’re completely shit-faced.

“Which doesn’t make this any less exhausting and awful, but it’s better than taking the chance that they might get hurt, y’know?”

Birthplace and Birthdate: Saratoga Springs, NY. // 22nd February, 1980 — they’re a Pisces (Libra rising, Gemini moon).

Guilty Pleasures: High-quality dark chocolate, high-quality makeup even if they can’t wear most of it as often as they’d like^, the original Vampire Chronicles novels (and though they will sometimes claim that only the original six ones, “count,” Josie owns everything that Anne Rice has published, even the ridiculous Jesus books), binge-watching reruns of Project Runway…

And they don’t feel particularly guilty about it, but one of the simple things that makes Josie happy is playfully teasing their emergency contacts/best friends over how their parents named them after Beatles songs

Jude, naturally, was “Hey Jude” and Rocky got named after, “Rocky Raccoon” because, at the last minute, his and Jude’s parents decided to veto naming him Desmond because he’s a character in “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” but his name is not in the title, which was apparently a deal-breaker because of reasons

Rocky also sometimes gets playful ribbing about all things Rocky Horror, because he and Josie are ridiculous nerds, and RHPS isn’t their exclusive thing because Josie will share it with anyone who gives them half a chance to do so…… but it is still a thing that is special to Josie and Rocky, so here they are

If you ask them, Josie will tell you that they don’t believe in associating pleasure with guilt, and in their defense, they do believe in encouraging people not to feel guilty for enjoying the things that make them happy or that help them survive, because as long as those things aren’t hurting anyone — yes, that includes you, person Josie is talking to — then you have a right to be happy and a right to take care of yourself

The reality is that Josie says this to people so often because it’s something that they often struggle with themself, and even though they’re better, in some ways, than they have been in the past, there are still a lot of places where they need work

Also, Josie wouldn’t call some of the more poppy music that they like, “guilty pleasures” — especially because, if you ask them, there is no reason to feel guilty about listening to, for example, Beyoncé or Nicki Minaj

—but it is still the case that, if they were going to have a mini-reunion with some of the old goth crew friends from high school whom they don’t keep in touch with that often, Josie probably wouldn’t mention Nicki or Beyoncé, unless it was by accident or until they were sure that the old gang wasn’t going to do the judgmental goth kids thing they used to do of going, “ugh, all pop music is soulless empty bullshit for posers” and so on

Also also, there is almost no chance of them ever admitting this to most people, but…… Josie kinda loves the goth kids from South Park. Like, Josie really kinda loves them.

There’s basically no chance of them ever admitting it to most people because for one thing, it’s embarrassing to them, due to the whole South Park of everything.

For another, they’d feel the need to give someone a lengthy, tedious disclaimer about how they don’t actually watch South Park or enjoy it very much, they just know about the goth kids because one of their best friends went, “Oh my god, Josie, you have to watch this, the new Goth kid characters are so you” way back when, after the first episode with them in it aired and said friend (Rocky) was still taping new eps on VHS to watch after he got home from night classes

And…… well. Josie still wouldn’t give South Park much credit for anything else, but they do really love the goth kids, and they agree with Rocky’s, “omg it you” moment because the South Park goth kids are often eerily similar to shit that they said and did as a weird little goth kid back in high school

At one point, Rocky actually made Josie little plush dolls of the goth kids that he’d designed himself, and they are a big reason why you’re not allowed in Josie’s room until they trust you.

Other reasons include:

Josie doesn’t want most people to touch their makeup or put any of it out of order, and they keep most of it in their bedroom, on their dresser, in front of the vanity mirror that they found someone just throwing out shortly after they moved to Baltimore, even though it’s a perfectly good mirror so wtf;

some of Josie’s favorite and most personally meaningful religious and spiritual paraphernalia is in their bedroom (they keep their actual shrine to Dionysus and their, “worship workspace” in a different room at their place, but some of the more personally significant things are in their room most of the time, and they’d rather you didn’t have a chance to touch them);

Josie just tends to be an incredibly private person who places a lot of value on their personal space and having spaces that are set aside as Theirs. They were like this even before their psychic abilities kicked in and made them value even more their personal space, and ability to have a place that is set apart as Theirs Exclusively where they can go to get some distance from all the mental, emotional, and sensory overload that comes from feeling almost everyone’s feelings and hearing many of their thoughts**, to some extent or another, almost all the time;

and the few albums of old photos and framed old photos, some of which are just garden variety embarrassing like, “yes, my hair is naturally blond, here is photographic evidence from before my parents let me start dyeing it, and oh yeah, that was probably backstage after the community theatre production of Oliver! that I did in eighth grade — oh yeah, definitely that one, there’s my Artful Dodger costume and my glaringly blond hair”

but others of which are, for lack of a better term, fairly emotionally complicated for Josie. There are several different reasons why any of these photos might be kinda complicated — ranging from, “they feature Josie’s one particularly heinous ex-boyfriend who used his wealthy family’s connections to get Josie blacklisted from working in fashion after they graduated from Pratt’s School of Design” to, “they’re from the year in high school that Josie wound up having to do over because they had to spend a few months getting inpatient treatment for their eating disorder”

^: even before getting recruited to S.T.R.O.M.A., Josie got really good at finding a balance between the, “I don’t want to look pretty, I want to look otherworldly and possibly like a vampire fairy from Wonderland” style of makeup that they want to wear, and a “more professional” style that is less likely to make their clients feel uncomfortable or get them harassed — but god, do they wish that they didn’t have to strike said balance.

It wouldn’t actually make their fondness for high-quality and often expensive makeup feel like any less of a guilty pleasure, for several reasons — on one hand, their awareness of how makeup is always politically Complicated, at best; on the other, if they got to wear their makeup exactly how they want it every day, they would end up spending more money on makeup, and it would make them feel guilty because they’d feel like it’s very irresponsible and probably going to screw them over down the line because they bought makeup instead of saving the money or putting it toward something else; and on the tentacle, a whole laundry list of other reasons

—but they would still feel more comfortable with themself and more at ease with everything because they’d be presenting exactly as they want, instead of censoring their own personal gender expressions (which they’re more okay with doing when it comes to their clients because that’s a case of compromising part of their well-being in the name of [probably] helping people who need them and pay them for that help, whereas toning it down at S.T.R.O.M.A. is tedious and Josie would seriously rather not)

(They have more than once said that the degree to which they have to tone things down for S.T.R.O.M.A. makes them feel like Ned “I’m not a Satanic sex god anymore, used to be a super gothed out androgynous rock star, but is now a straitlaced and nerdy substitute teacher” Schneebly from School of Rock.

This is not a good feeling, in Josie Land. They don’t like it and they live for the weekend because, barring any major incidents that get them called in to S.T.R.O.M.A., they get to wear what the fuck they want, forego pants in favor of their favorite skirts, do their gender how the fuck they want, and wear makeup that makes them look like a vampire fairy from Wonderland)

Phobias: Josie’s biggest fear, in the immediate sense, is losing control of their psychic abilities and ending up hurting people and/or destroying themself somehow.

Underlying that, they have a bigger and more further-reaching fear of being out of control of themself and their own actions, in general.

They’re simultaneously afraid of crowds (largely because they can get really overwhelming for Josie, really fast), and afraid of isolation, which ends up making them a lot like the sort of cat who goes all like, “cuddle me cuddle me cuddle me please please please i need love and affection… no wait, fuck you, this is stifling me and i need to get out of here… wait shit i’m lonely someone please love me… no, not you, you fucking suck… why am i so lonely, why won’t anyone pay attention to me… and so and so forth ad nauseam”

That said, when I was doing Pottermore quizzes for my kids because that is the sort of thing I find both fun and useful, Josie’s picked, “Isolation” for the, “Which is your greatest fear” question on the wand quiz

They picked, “An eye at the keyhole of the dark, windowless room in which you are locked” for the, “Which nightmare would frighten you most” question on the Sorting Hat quiz

Other miscellaneous fears and squicks: Worms, eels, and anything like that (but snakes are okay, snakes are great).

The possibility of never finding love (which they know is kind of ridiculous, because they do have a lot of love in their life… but Josie does want to be with someone romantically, and all their miscellaneous issues with their blood family aside, it’s weird and kind of disheartening for them that most of their cousins have gotten married or settled down with someone, so yeah, Josie knows that this fear is based on a lot of ideas that they generally don’t like and don’t want to live by, but still.

They’re 35, their closest friends both have longstanding romantic relationships, they’re one of the few cousins left who doesn’t have a plus-one to bring to the next family wedding, and they want a romantic relationship, so being perpetually reminded that they’re not in one kicks them in the larger fear that there is something about them that is just fundamentally unlovable, so they might end up being forever alone).

What They Would Be Famous For: Realistically? Probably how they’re going to start a new superhero team with Lucy, Pete, and Sebastian — later accumulating others — and how they’re all going to kinda stumble into trying to foil some other mutants who also happen to be neo-fascist supervillains. But had Josie’s one ex, Danny, not effectively gotten them blacklisted from working in fashion, Josie might well have made a pretty big name for themself there.

They used to joke about being famous for going on Project Runway and winning, but… this started after they’d already gotten onto the path that led them to therapeutic practice, and seen that they had the potential to do a lot of good in the world by continuing on that path, so the chances of them actually doing the Project Runway thing were almost nothing

What They Would Get Arrested For: While they haven’t technically been arrested before, Josie could have been arrested for illegally overstepping the bounds of what their particular level of metahuman license allowed them to do, and if they get arrested in the future, it is almost definitely going to be for something like protesting or some trumped up nonsense charges that actually boil down to, “getting on the wrong side of neo-fascist supervillains who have wealth and connections and political power.”

OCs You Ship Them With:

Romantically: Pete is my favorite here, but: 1. I’m also going to make them work for it, because they would be good for each other, but it wouldn’t just happen super-easily for several reasons, both about the two of them individually and about how they get on together;

and 2. I’d also dig shipping Josie with Seb, Stephen, Vince, Sylvia, Izzy, Raphael, and Cynthia — though tbh, I like non-romantic Seb/Josie better than romantic Seb/Josie

Platonically: As mentioned, Jude, Rocky, and Sebastian. Aside from them, Margot, Lucy, and Sara Grace (who are all ruled out as romantic options by the three of them being lesbians), and Josie being genderfluid, yes, but not identifying with womanhood enough for them to consider romantically pursuing someone who identifies as a lesbian. Todd (who I kind of feel bad for, because he’s sort of the loser in love so far, but otoh, that’s partially his own damn fault and he has a lot of growing to do before I’m letting him have a romantic relationship that actually lasts). Yael and Elizabeth. Really, everyone on the romantic list is a good platonic relationship, too.

“this is not a ship that i condone but i find their relationship interesting, and exploring Not Good relationships is Important to me”: Julian, who actually hasn’t met Josie yet, and won’t for a while, and their relationship will be…… tricky, in a lot of ways, many of which have something to do with how Julian is a huge tool who has a charming tendency to take his own self-loathing and insecurity out on everyone else while acting campy and making sarcastic quips as though this makes his behaviors totally okay.

Pretty much everything about Julian makes him someone who would make Josie say, “the Lord is testing me”

(only for someone — probably Lucy — to go, “But you’re not Christian” and get told either, “I was raised as one, maybe Jesus’s Dad is still grumpy that I found someone who’s better for me. Anyway, you know what I meant, right?”

or, “Fine. The Almighty Thundering Zeus, lord of the heavens and king of Olympus and He Who Was Cheating On His Wife With Everyone Ever Before It Was Cool, is testing me. There. Does that version make you happy?”)

But, yeah. Julian would make Josie go, “someone is testing me” because so much of who and what he is makes Josie want to help him, but so much of what he does makes Josie want to punch him

(an impulse that Josie largely won’t be acting on because, unfortunately for them:

1. they did not get any super-strength kinds of mutations and in an RPG, Strength would be one of their lowest stats;

and 2. first, they need to learn how to throw a punch without hurting themself more than the other person.

Punching neo-fascists isn’t their strong suit. They can let Seb and Lucy do the actual punching.

And Pete, even though Pete really shouldn’t because Pete also doesn’t know how to throw a punch without hurting himself more than the other person, so Josie is more likely to try and stop him from punching a neo-fascist supervillain in the face.

Not that Josie will always succeed in that, but… well. They and their teammates are all only human.)

Anyway, uh. Josie/Julian isn’t a ship that I’d personally want to see as the endgame of anything, ever, but I find their dynamic and the potential interactions between them interesting, and they’re something I’m looking forward to playing around with more, when it’s their time

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Conrad will kinda want to, because he finds Josie’s sense of ethics to be, “tedious and outdated,” but ultimately, he wouldn’t go through with it because Josie’s creativity would intrigue him too much.

Senator Huntington would also want Josie to die, but he wouldn’t do any of the actual murdering because he doesn’t do his own dirty work.

All things considered, Edward and Desmond are probably going to end up with the job, “Go kill the weird effete one who looks like some kind of vampire fairy from Wonderland” because everyone else is busy, and they will fail at it, because that’s kind of what they do.

They are Those Two Bad Guys, and they kind of suck at almost everything that they try to do.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Fantasy, vampire trash, psychological thrillers, magical girl everything, and horror (pretty much all kinds of horror, though Josie’s most fond of monster horror, anything with revenge-y themes, and religious or cosmic horror. They will probably tell you, “The weirder and more pointlessly, aesthetically symbolic, the better”).

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Josie would tell you that it’s how much romanticized abuse there is in paranormal romance, and to be fair, they do hate that…… but they still read it or watch it and get invested in these fictional relationships, even without necessarily coming up with a counter-reading of the text’s opinion, beyond, “this relationship is abusive even if the author doesn’t get that”

Which, to be fair, doesn’t mean that they don’t hate the prevalence of romanticized intimate partner abuse, just that it’s an, “I hate this thing” where they still engage with it, and not just because there aren’t always a lot of options without it

(Horror flicks that demonize and stigmatize mental illness are a thing where Josie doesn’t like the thing, but suffers through them because there aren’t a lot of other options otherwise)

But one trope that will make them, “nope” out…… uh.

Josie is really sensitive about The Uncanny Valley, and while they may not fully, “nope” out of things over it, they need to take more time than most people to prep themselves for seeing it and recover after seeing it

Also, not a trope, but Shia LaBeouf will make Josie “nope” out of anything. They have no rational reason for disliking Shia LeBouf, so much as he Just Irrationally Bugs Them, but they will “nope” out of things if he’s involved

Talents and/or Powers: Okay, so, a lot of Josie’s actual superpowers are discussed elsewhere, especially in the footnotes, so let’s talk about their other, non-mutant superpowers. They can sew. Even without having been actively designing anything for a while, they can still pull out a good design and they are capable of following a pattern pretty well. They know their limits fairly well, and better than pretty much everyone in the main team (this doesn’t mean that they always). And it’s almost 4 AM, so this answer is getting cut short by, “I am tired and I want to sleep” (and the next two answers will suck for the same reason)

Why Someone Might Love Them: Josie is creative and curious and once you get them to warm up, calm down, and stop worrying so much about anything, they’re a complete dork who, among other things, gives people, “C’thulhu kisses” (done by sticking your hands in front of your mouth and wiggling your fingers like tentacles, and maybe making a silly noise and saying, “C’thulhu kisses!” like you’re Sailor Moon shouting her transformation phrase). They have a pretty good sense of humor about themself, outside of their precious few no go areas. Josie is compassionate and they do genuinely want the best for most people, even people they don’t personally like very much. They try to be patient with people, even when they really don’t want to be, and even if they don’t always know what the best option is, they still try to actually do things and choose the best option for creating positive change.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: Their cycle of indecisiveness that leads to recklessness that leads to self-punishing thoughts and behaviors that leads to more indecisiveness, and rinse lather repeat. Their tendency to be really judgmental, even while acknowledging that being judgmental is something that, in their experience, causes more harm than good, and that they want to avoid more often. The way that they can lapse into talking like a high school goth kid who’s up-talking the superiority of goth subculture and doesn’t realize that they sound like an elitist, conformist prick, just like the people they’re complaining about allegedly do.

How They Change: Well, for one thing, Josie has some things to learn about how they relate to people and manage their relationships — which doesn’t necessarily make them special because this is just kind of a Thing for most of my main characters in one way or another. Josie’s specific issue wrt relating to other people has to do with their reluctance to trust people and open up and try to build any new relationships, which has often led to them practicing a sort of interpersonal-level isolationism that has hurt them and other people.

They also have something to learn about managing the façade(s) that they present to the world, much like how Seb has to learn something about his habit of acting like everything is okay while he’s suffering and thinking anyone believes him anymore because he doesn’t want to deal with his problems

and like how Pete has to learn about how…… yeah, okay, he is genuinely angry about a lot of things — some of them fair and really more, “righteous indignation” than anything else, and some of them less fair — but a lot of how he acts that anger out in the world is not actually as truthful as Pete feels like it is, but more a way of keeping people at arm’s length, testing them and testing his relationships with them, and trying to push them away before they can get the chance to hurt him

In Josie’s case, their façade(s) are a bit different because most of them came into being less because of an emotional choice on Josie’s part — e.g., Seb doesn’t want to deal with his problems because they’re painful and terrifying and they feel like they’re too big to handle — and more out of pragmatic decisions

……but then Josie came to rely on them in contexts other than the ones in which they were originally created, and balancing that many different versions of yourself is stressful as fuck-all, especially for someone who already has to do a lot of work to keep reminding themself of where their personal boundaries are, and Josie hides in their different façades every bit as much as every other character who has one, and largely only gets away with that because most people in their life don’t know them well enough to notice this, and their façades do still have pragmatic value, so most people who do notice don’t say shit about shit

Then, there’s Josie’s relationship to time, which

I’m going to explain this really badly now, because it’s 3:33 and I’m tired, but basically, I see Seb, Josie, and Lucy as complementing each other in how they relate to and orient themselves in time, and the negative side-effects that they create for themselves because of these behaviors

On one hand, Seb is way too prone to being stuck in the past. He clings to it too much — but also has a selective relationship with it, where people he cares about get forgiven too easily and Seb tries to deny that he still feels upset about anything (even when basically everyone around him knows that he does feel upset and is just trying not to deal with it), while Seb forgives himself for nothing and defines himself so much by all of his past mistakes

—and he goes past the point of, “honoring and respecting history, such as by not ignoring times when he did fuck up (of which there are many)” to, “actively impeding his own progress in life because, for example, he keeps trying the same shit over and over and over again, even though it literally never works, because it’s what he did before.” Plus, some of his ideas about the past are distorted by various factors, or missing entirely (most often due to intoxicated blackouts and/or head trauma that would have had more disastrous effects on him if not for his mutant healing factor), or otherwise unreliable, so that’s a problem.

On the other hand, Lucy is future-oriented and totally jazzed up about trying new things and meeting new challenges head on and doing things!! also STUFF!!!!! there is an entire world full of THINGS AND STUFF AND BY GOD, LUCY IS GOING TO DO ALL OF IT OR AT LEAST AS MUCH OF IT AS SHE POSSIBLY CAN AND THINGS ARE GOING TO GET BETTER SO HELP HER GOD OR JESUS OR SATAN OR WHOEVER EXCELSIOR YAH YAH YAH!!!!

……which is great and all, but she charges headlong into shit without an actual plan (seriously, most of her plans follow the good old, “step one: do this thing / step two: ………… / step three: PROFIT!” formula), and she’s a case of someone who is averse to learning from history at all because she doesn’t want to be shackled to it, but having no sense of history can be just as bad as being overly chained to it like Sebastian, and… well. You can try to outrun the past like she does, but it doesn’t tend to work out very well, and it’s not going to work for Lucy either

On the tentacle, we have Josie, who ostensibly has a balance between the past and the future orientations that we see in Seb and Lucy, because Josie’s primary focus tends to lie on the present, and at most, the very near future or very recent past

—but that’s not actually a balance like Josie wants to believe, because (among other things), it makes it very easy for Josie to ignore past lessons that are older than maybe the past two or three months; and it means that while Josie can see all kinds of potential consequences, their ability to predict what they could be gets a lot less reliable as you go further into the future; and it means that Josie has trouble actually putting together a longer-term plan, which is part of their problem with wanting to create positive change in the world but not knowing how

Josie also has a tougher road (imltho) to go on about finding a new and better balance here, because their focus on the present is something they learned in recovery, as part of learning about mindfulness, and it does help them sometimes — but on that personal level, Josie’s presentist focus can also hurt them because, even when they notice certain behaviors in themself that could get Bad For Them, they can also overlook some of these budding patterns because they’re not Obviously Bad Enough to feel like a major concern, or they look different from other past manifestations of Josie’s behavior patterns so Josie doesn’t think they need to worry about these behaviors, and so on

I’m mean to my characters and I’m going to make them work to be happy, but they will all be happy, eventually

Uh. Barring most of the villains, because letting the neo-fascist assholes win in the end would be a complete downer that would probably end up undermining a lot of the whole, “just because the world is a crapsack hellhole doesn’t mean that it has to stay that way or that we should give up on it” idea

Why You Love Them: Okay, so, this needs a bit of a story.

See, Josie is a retooled character from an old RP that I was in way, way back. I loved them a lot, and they weren’t entirely wrong for the game — they had a good run in their first incarnation — but they also weren’t entirely right for it, and they kind of floundered a bit because I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them.

A large part of this was due to how Josie was a senior at their school and, because of the year they did over, they were itching to get out and go to college, and the closest they got to an actual arc was how they didn’t want to leave behind their ex-boyfriend turned best friend (who was in the class below them), but did want to go to college already and get to the rest of their life

and how they had some trouble with accepting said best friend’s new boyfriend when Josie really wanted to be compassionate, because New Boyfriend was mentally ill and dealing with some trauma and Josie sympathized and wanted him to be well because why the Hell would you wish for someone to be *UN*well jfc — but also had trouble with that because New Boyfriend was sometimes aware of how some of his actions affected other people, but sometimes not, but sometimes he was and did the stupid things anyway, and even in working on his problems, he made the mistake that a lot of people do where they focus on getting well as defined by and in order to please the people around them, rather than doing it for themselves

—all of which Josie was sympathetic to in a big way, having been in some similar places before themself…… but they had a hard time always being as compassionate as they wanted to be because New Boyfriend’s actions had been hurting Best Friend, and even knowing that this wasn’t entirely something that New Boyfriend could be entirely blamed for (for several reasons), Josie still had a hard time trying to overlook the, “this lovable weirdo is my friend, my best friend, and even though we aren’t together anymore, I love him, and you hurt him, so yeah, I’m kinda mad at you for that” thing

And this all goes back to why I love Josie because one thing that they’ve kept in a big way, in getting retooled and updated and worked into my dumb little stories about neurodivergent and/or mentally ill LGBTQ mutant superheroes (and Pete, who is not actually a mutant but is neurodivergent, gay, an abuse survivor, and a superhero and I will fight anyone who says otherwise)

(I mean, ffs. Batman doesn’t have any mutant superpowers, and Iron Man wouldn’t have any actual superpowers without his ridiculous power-armor and, depending on the continuities, his arc reactors. So, no, I don’t think that Pete needs to have literal superpowers to count as a superhero — but that’s beside the point and to be fair, I will admit to being biased because I love Pete more than George RR Martin loves Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister)

Anyway. As I was saying.

One thing that Josie has kept in a big way is that ongoing fight with themself over two equally powerful impulses or reactions to things or desires — like their, “I want affections and I want to be around people…… okay no this is overwhelming and I don’t actually like these people fuck this I want to be alone…… oh but being alone sucks and now I’m lonely, I want to be where the people are, let’s go to the movies…… oh my god why did we go see the new Star Wars while it’s still a relatively recent release, I barely remember anything about the actual movie, I was too overwhelmed by the feelings of everyone else in that completely packed theatre… and so on” relationship with other people and being around them or not

Or like their big struggle in the first book of wanting to help people and create positive change in the world, but not being able to do too terribly much on their own for a lot of reasons (some of which are about Josie personally, and some of which are about the whole Lone Superhero thing be a lot of hot fucking nonsense that is fundamentally unsustainable), but not having an official team to belong to because although they work for S.T.R.O.M.A., they don’t like S.T.R.O.M.A., and while they are part of the extended Wardens family, they’re not a fully-fledged Warden and so much of the Wardens’ everything is based around Yael and Elizabeth’s school, so being one and not being up in Poughkeepsie would be weird and mean you end up missing out on a lot and, in Josie’s case, end up feeling like an outsider even when you’re surrounded by people who, for the most part, love you and accept you exactly as you are, but also not entirely doing everything they can to find a team because, in fairness, it can be really difficult to do that even if you don’t work for the U.S. government……

Basically, I love Josie because I love making my characters deal with internal conflict, and while all of them have a lot of it, I’m really fond of Josie’s particular brand of, “self-reflective, doing things but not things that add up to bigger things in the ways that Josie wants, trying to remedy that but it’s hard, not sure what to do or if going after these new possibilities and new ideas will make things worse, getting fed up with themself and needing to try something, but but but five million different elements all converging on each other but but but” internal conflict

And I’m really fond of it in Josie’s case because Josie is savvy enough to know that they can’t fall into the same, “do fuck-all nothing about anything until the last possible minute” trap, but their frustration is less about, “I can’t do anything” and more about, “but what do the things that I do actually mean, who am I helping, am I actually helping them or not, how can I do things that create more significant positive changes or is there a way to do that at all”

And, well. There is, Josie, but it requires you to trust some new people, bond with some new people, build relationships with them and work on maintaining said relationships, find strength in numbers, and learn more about loving and letting people love you back because one of your biggest problems in your previous relationships has been that you don’t open up — not, “you open up slowly” but, “you don’t open up with most people, period, despite knowing that this is not a sustainable way of doing things” — so yeah I’d say you need to learn about that, and learn to stop being such a lone wolf because do you know what generally happens to lone wolves? Either they find a pack somehow, or they die (without making any kind of positive changes in the world around them, relative to the size and interests of, y’know, wolves).

……Because I’m a lonely and bitter and it makes my half-dead little heart happy to make my characters find more strength together than they do apart and learn to love and be loved in return without it coming off as one-sided, like it can do in a lot of takes on that trope that are aimed at children, because…… uh, last I checked, the whole point of a relationship is that it is not exclusively about one person’s needs or desires???

Also, Josie is a compassionate but grumpy grown up goth kid who is trying to be a good person, and doing a better job than a lot of other characters, but definitely has a problem with their judgmental tendencies and how they sometimes externalize them and get super-judgmental of others, because on some level, their mind is like, “fuck, can i get a break from always punishing myself over here, jfc” and I don’t know, it’s almost 4AM and I have lost track of how long I’ve been writing this

Josie’s a nerd and a cat who can’t make up their mind about whether they want to be outside chasing butterflies or inside sitting on your keyboard so that you have to pay attention to them and not your computer and idk, I love them, the end

(except for the footnotes oops)

*: Special Taskforce for the Regulation and Oversight of Metahuman Affairs — or in plain-speak, the FBI’s wing of people who get involved in all of the shiny, extralegal superpowered mutant hijinks.

They have a pretty good working relationship with their counterparts at the Department of Health and Human Services (who actually end up handling most mutant affairs, because this world treats the question of super-powered mutant licensing as more equivalent to getting a driver’s license, and frankly, most mutants in the U.S. just want to go about their lives in peace — like, go to college, get a job, go on dates, come home and watch the Daily Show, and not be bothered about or make trouble for anyone else with the weird superpowers that most of them did not want or ask for — so there’s rarely any actual reason for the FBI to go stick their noses into anything, and there are plenty of cases where they get called in, only to find that they aren’t actually needed after all), but… yeah.

S.T.R.O.M.A. is a faction of people who exist. Josie works for them, for all they would really rather not. Unfortunately for Josie, particularly powerful metahumans tend to wind up on a lot of S.T.R.O.M.A. watch-lists, and they are more likely to do so when they have powers that the people at the FBI consider particularly useful or desirable — for example, telepathy and hyper-empathy, in Josie’s case. For the most part, these watch-lists don’t actually amount to anything because they don’t end up being relevant to most of the cases that S.T.R.O.M.A. has to deal with.

—but then you can have situations like Josie’s, where they were one of many mutants who got in a brief spot of trouble over genuine confusion surrounding a new bill that had just gone through Congress and revised some of the definitions of and privileges associated with/afforded to people at the different levels of metahuman licenses. (Since this is still America and we’re still talking about the FBI, there are also plenty of even worse potential outcomes for people who end up on their miscellaneous mutant watchlists — which is one of the big points that gets brought up by people who either want to reform or do away with the whole metahuman licensing thing — but in fairness to most people, they don’t know the full specifics.)

Anyway, Josie got in trouble because they are an actual therapist and, although they prefer not to use their powers with clients and extensively brief anyone who asks about trying that approach (about the potential benefits vs. potential risks, all the drawbacks, all the potential unintended consequences, etc.) while offering them plenty of chances to change their mind and go, “okay, let’s not do this,” they do still let their clients know that they’re a telepath/empath and that they can use their powers in a therapeutic context but it’s not the best thing to try as a first approach

Which is all great, except that Josie had been assured that they wouldn’t need to get a different kind of license to continue doing this, after that bill passed… except that they did. And this probably would’ve continued with no actual interference from anybody because Josie is hyper-responsible about using their powers with clients, about keeping up on all of the latest research and debates about therapeutic uses for psychic abilities and the ethical issues surrounding this, and so on…… except that one of their clients was a teenager who needed parental consent to go through with this, and one of their parents worked for S.T.R.O.M.A.

Relevant piece of context: Josie was absolutely not the only mutant who’d had some confusion over the revised licensing scheme. Josie wasn’t even the only mutant in the greater Baltimore area who had similar confusion on this issue.

But Josie was one of the only ones who was already on S.T.R.O.M.A.’s radar when they got in trouble, partly by virtue of being a “telempath,” partly by virtue of having trained with Dr. Elizabeth Woodham (who is: one of the most powerful telepaths in the entire world; a respected professor, activist, and philanthropist; one of the first mutants in the States to register for one of the early, “superhero licenses” [not their official name, but that’s the gist of what they are]; and with her wife, Dr. Yael Lehrer, one of the co-founders of the Wardens and co-headmistresses of one of the most respected schools for mutants in North America), and partly by virtue of having a lot of (mostly untapped) potential power.

And, see, one of S.T.R.O.M.A.’s problems is that it is perpetually under-staffed, in all areas but especially in terms of mutants who work for them, and moreover, mutants who will actually do fieldwork (like, Pete’s cousin Emerson is a mutant and he does work for S.T.R.O.M.A., but he’s lower on the powers scale than most of their employees who do active fieldwork, and he has no desire to do fieldwork when he could do lab-work instead). There are a lot of reasons for this problem of staffing, but one of the more noticeable end-results is that S.T.R.O.M.A. can be somewhat unethical in some of their recruitment bids. Like, yes, sometimes, you just get a visit from Some Guy Who Is Totally Not Nick Fury, who offers you a chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself and to use your abilities to help people

Other times, you get treated to a few hours of what S.T.R.O.M.A. sees and treats as the interview portion of applying for a Very Important Position somewhere, except that they don’t tell you that this is what they’re doing and they use “interview” (read: interrogation) techniques that people in law enforcement usually save for wrangling confessions out of suspects.

It will not look like it, but they are actually trying to figure out some specific things about you, including but not limited to: how you handle high-stress and high-pressure situations (like, for example, being accused of using your powers for any extralegal vigilantism, and maybe knowing things about [the biggest mutant-related news of the day] that they don’t; being threatened with a trip to one of the U.S. prisons designed to hold mutants; etc.); various details about your backstory and who you are as a person and what your biggest Deals are (i.e., getting you to help them run a damn background check on yourself); and how in control of your powers you are (since they trust the DHHS evaluations, but prefer to supplement them with firsthand evidence).

Then, once they’ve figured out what they want to know, you might very well be offered something to the tune of, “Alright, this is your first offense, and based on your dossier and this interview, we think that you could be an asset to S.T.R.O.M.A., if you wanted. If you like the sound of working for us, at least as an analyst or consultant if not a fully-fledged special agent, then we can make all of this legal trouble just go away. If you don’t like the sound of that, then……… well… *deliberately trails off to let you draw your own conclusions while still staying within the letter of the law, because hey, they didn’t actually tell you that you’d for sure end up getting prosecuted and going to prison*”

So…… yeah. S.T.R.O.M.A. and Ethics are not always on speaking terms.

Add this recruitment story to Josie’s frustrations with how metahuman employees at S.T.R.O.M.A. tend to get treated — e.g., they, themself, are often trotted out to go liaise with different media outlets as a public face of Mutants Who Work Here, Look We’re Trying Our Best So You Should All Just Totally Cooperate With Us, but they’re discouraged from voicing any of their own opinions and advised to just stick to these Bureau-approved talking points — and at having to be closeted and fairly masc-presenting at work because S.T.R.O.M.A. thinks they’re a cis man, and…… yeah, uh.

“Josie would really, really rather not work here” is an understatement af… but they continue working here anyway because: 1. as a consultant, they can still usually balance things enough to keep working as a therapist;

and 2. Josie wants so badly to help people, and for all S.T.R.O.M.A. is highly unethical (sometimes) and part of the goddamn FBI, most of the people who work there also want to help people and use their work to create positive changes in the world — and it’s not an unfair observation that, on their own, there really isn’t much that Josie can do (because the idea of the solo superhero who works alone… isn’t sustainable, like??

Aside from the political and ideological issues with that whole aspect of superhero mythology, it’s not actually feasible for one person, working on their own, to create any positive change. It would be massively unhealthy for them, there’s only so much they can do as one person, there are no actual safeguards in place if they ever get corrupted, and as multiple deconstructions of the genre have shown, it’s really easy for a classic lone vigilante model superhero to slide into a mindset like Rorschach’s — which is full of hypocrisy, double standards, misogyny and homophobia and ableism, and total moral absolutism that simultaneously allows no room for compassion and keeps Rorschach from being able to appreciate the big picture outside of his little myopic Objectivst bubble — or Frank Miller!Batman, who is often only a step or two off from actual fascism, but we probably won’t call it that because he’s wearing the Batman suit).

At this point, Josie has even had it all but confirmed that the agents who came to recruit them definitely “avoided certain truths to manipulate them” on purpose, so they’re reasonably certain that they could probably leave S.T.R.O.M.A without having their previous step out of bounds dredged up and handed to a D.A. who’d be pressured to prosecute them for it…… but they want to help people, and S.T.R.O.M.A. is one of the only options that they can currently see where they get to help anyone.

So, here they are. Working in a position that they’re not a fan of, looking at the motivational posters of gothed out kittens that one of their best friends drew for them, and trying to take, “hang in there!” kitty’s advice and tough it out at S.T.R.O.M.A. for the sake of doing some good in the world.

**: This mostly happens if Josie doesn’t have the energy enough or keep focus enough to keep their mental walls up — which they are usually very diligent about because on one hand, hearing other people’s thoughts kind of sucks actually (Josie would definitely agree with the sentiment that, a lot of the time, being a telepath is like having a youtube comments section screaming at you in your head)

—and on the other, um, hello, telepathy can, in the wrong hands, become a walking violation of civil liberties. Like, if you ask Josie, telepathy has a lot in common with wiretapping, though they consider it potentially even more dangerous than that, because it’s harder to prove that telepathy has been involved in something, since:

1. yes, the traces of telepathy can show up on a CAT scan or an MRI of the brain, but you’d need a neurologist who is well-trained, very attentive, and up to date on as much of the current research into telepathy as possible — or hey, a team of neurologists might not be a bad idea, if you can get them all, because one neurologist might miss something

—but otoh, the traces of telepathy can sometimes also be mistaken as signs of something else, especially if someone is neurodivergent and/or mentally ill, has suffered any serious and/or recent head injuries, has a history of substance abuse, is sleep-deprived at the time of the tests, may actually have something else going on in their brain in addition to the traces of telepathy

Seriously, just about anything that affects the brain can make it harder to tell whether or not someone’s been hit with telepathy

Plus: telepathic abilities are sort of mid-level common among mutants, and some mutants use them without even realizing it because their powers haven’t manifested in ways that are for sure Outside Three Standard Deviations From The Non-Mutant Human Mean, so some minor telepathic scarring is common, even in people who haven’t been hit by something as awful as, say, memory modification, or having someone go in and pick around in their brain like they’re flipping through an issue of Us Weekly

—and without a keen, well-trained eye, it can be really hard to tell those types of telepathic scarring apart

2. some of the traces of telepathy are more subjective, and while they might show up on a brain scan, the best evidence of them will come from the people who’ve been hit with the telepathic whatever

—but that’s going to be a problem because, in a lot of cases, they won’t have any memory of it, or they’ll have a false memory of it, and there’s no guarantee that further telepathic probing will be able to help here, and it could just make things worse. Plus, there’s no guarantee that the people who’ve been hit will actually be aware that what they’re experiencing is related to telepathy.

This is especially true with experienced, exceptionally powerful, and/or highly meticulous telepaths, because some of them can dick around in people’s heads and leave barely any trace that they were there

Like, for an example of what a more subjective trace might look like: Conrad is a telepath, and unlike Josie, he doesn’t really care about ethics or the rights of most other people. About ten years before the story actually starts, he took an interest in his new brother-in-law’s youngest brother (Sebastian), because he could sense something in Seb — he didn’t know what it was, exactly, but it was definitely a something — that made him go, “huh, maybe this emotionally troubled nearly twenty-year-old boy is also a mutant”

(I mean, he’s not wrong. And the something that he got a sense of back then is the part of Seb that he’s eventually going to call, “La Bête,” because if he’s going to go for the superhero thing and need a codename, then, “Gévaudan” makes sense to him because his family is insistently French [despite not having lived in France since about 1781, apart from one ancestral namesake of Seb’s who stayed in Paris for their Revolution (and Severin Sebastien Moncrieff was a confirmed bachelor, so he left behind a partner but no heirs), well before La Bête du Gévaudan was a Thing, and despite not being from the region of France where that happened] and hey, he can apparently turn into a giant wolf-man, now

—and if he’s calling himself, “Gévaudan,” then, “La Bête” is just thematically consistent. But that’s beside the point.)

Anyway: Conrad wasn’t new to his powers ten years ago, but he was much more reckless with them — especially when he believed that he was absolutely right and would stop at nothing to prove it — and he had less finesse in using them.

So, he left behind plenty of traces when he decided to use his little sister’s wedding reception as a chance to go telepathically play around with Seb, trying to either figure out if his new brother-in-law’s little brother actually was a mutant, or maybe triggering his powers into fully manifesting (plus plying him with alcohol and adding rohypnol to the mix based on the notion that either it wouldn’t affect Seb because he’s a mutant, or if not that, then it’d trigger his abilities into manifesting).

The underlying logic of the rohypnol idea was actually not wrong, because toxin filtering is one of the more common mutant abilities you find in the States (and it happens to be one that Seb has), and some mutants have had their powers manifest in response to poisoning, drugging, exposure to carbon monoxide or other toxic fumes, and even being given antibiotics or certain medications

The idea was still morally wrong and ethically skeevy, but the mutant-related logic actually did work. Where Conrad went wrong on that count was that he overly simplified the situation, only looked for two potential reactions, and didn’t know what to make of how Seb was affected by the rohypnol but not nearly as badly as he should’ve been, so he went, “Was he affected or not?? I don’t know????”

[Here is where I cut a whole big tangent explaining that whole story, but it got way, way off the point, so.]

Anyway, the gist of the story is that Conrad is the only person who consciously remembers everything that happened, since most of the people who cared about it were not present for the encounter itself, and Conrad screwed around with Seb’s memories, both telepathically and not.

Like, Seb has more memories of it than he would if he weren’t a mutant, considering that he got dosed with rohypnol, but he also has false memories about some of what happened, and Conrad repressed Seb’s memories of certain events (like how many times he tried to break away from Conrad, or turn down the offer of another drink, because he’d promised his big brother that he wouldn’t get drunk and make a scene at Max’s wedding or the reception, and it was important to him to honor that promise)

Fortunately for Conrad, Seb is not one of the mutants who has an increased resistance to psychic attacks — largely because, contrary to what Conrad thought until about two years before the story starts, someone’s ability to resist to psychic attacks has nothing to do with whether or not they’re a mutant (aside from some special cases where someone has a resistance to any psychic attacks that falls outside three standard deviations of the non-mutant human mean)

—so, despite the feelings he sometimes gets that something about those memories might be wrong, Seb totally believes that they’re real and he doesn’t notice any of the incongruities unless someone points them out, which almost no one has any reason to do because there isn’t usually a reason for Seb to talk at length about the details of this particular incident that happened almost ten years ago

(there would be, if he ever brought it up in therapy or at AA and/or NA, or dwelled on it when he did, but that has yet to actually happen)

Unfortunately for Conrad, he did a sloppy job of this, and while it would be hard for a neurologist to tell the physical signs of his telepathic probing apart from the other brain damage that Seb’s accrued, the hardest thing for most other telepaths would be trying to find the right memories. The crap-shoot nature of telepathically digging through someone else’s mind is one of the many reasons why Josie doesn’t like using their powers as a first approach in therapy, because you can never guarantee with any reliable certainty that you’ll get at the parts of someone’s mind that you want

—but if someone did get to Seb’s memories of this incident, it would be really obvious to them that they’ve been modified. Like, images might be blurred around the edges, it might glitch like a video or audio track that’s skipping, the voices might get distorted, the colors might look wonky, and so on. Prodding a bit more would also be able to undo Conrad’s memory-blocks without doing too much damage to Seb’s brain (not so much on an emotional and psychological level, but the damage there would be more like the painful truth that hurts now but leads to something better)

Anyway, it’s much harder to get proof of this nature when you’re dealing with more skillful, more attentive, more powerful, etc. telepaths, because they aren’t as messy as Conrad was with Seb

and 3. Wiretapping operations usually involve more people, which doesn’t make them ethical or necessarily justified, but it does mean that they’re easier to find evidence of because there are more folks who can spill the beans and point you to it. Telepathy only needs two people to happen, and one may not even be aware of what’s going on, depending on how sensitive they are and whether or not they’re dealing with an ethical telepath

For example: while not metahuman levels of resistant to psychic attacks, Pete is exceptionally sensitive to them and he’s naturally better at resisting them than some people, so if someone wanted to paw through his mind, he has a better chance of recognizing that he’s being telepathically invaded and getting them out

Sebastian, on the other hand, is Bad at recognizing and resisting psychic probing. Unethical telepaths have an easier time of getting through him because at his best, if he isn’t told in advance, then he feels ill at ease, inexplicably anxious (not that it means much, because he tends to attribute that to his shitty mental health), kind of nauseated, and maybe like he’s being spied on. At worst, he doesn’t even notice.

So, basically, Josie considers it a moral and ethical responsibility on their part to do everything they can to not inadvertently spy on people, because there is already so much about telepathy that can go really bad and poses a lot of ethical problems — but they are only human, and there are a lot of ways for someone’s mental walls to come down or reasons why they would.

Letting their empathic walls down usually makes it easier for Josie to focus on keeping up the telepathic walls, since the empathic ones are a lot harder for them to keep up, but it’s only a temporary thing because if Josie takes those walls down, they open themself up to a looooooot of potential overwhelm from outside influence, and there’s always the option to find a balance between the empathic walls and telepathic ones, but sometimes, it’s easier said than done.

Josie is usually too hard on themself for it when any slip-ups on their part happen, even knowing that every other telepath and every other empath has moments like this and even if they got too overwhelmed to actually remember anything and/or heard nothing.

It’s such a big deal to them because the potential for psychic abilities to violate other people — and especially the potential to manipulate people and compromise or outright remove their agency — is something that Josie never wanted. They went into counseling as a profession, after their original plan of going into fashion went up in smoke, but part of it, for them, has always been about trying to help people get their lives back, or manage them better, and so on. Granted, they knew about their telepathic and empathic abilities before they officially went into therapeutic practice, but that, for Josie, was part of how they developed their approach to being a therapist.

Furthermore, on a more personal and less professional note, Josie never wanted mutant superpowers to begin with. After having their telepathy and empathy first manifest in full, they might’ve done plenty of things that they normally wouldn’t even consider, if they thought it could take their powers away.

Partly, that was because their powers manifested toward the end of a really bad mental health downswing that ended in Josie going back to an inpatient treatment center for their eating disorder. Any of these elements on their own would’ve been bad enough, but having them all come down on them at once was Hell for Josie, and worse, trying to get well while you are in an inpatient center and can feel everyone else’s feelings, hear a lot of their thoughts, and are currently having trouble sorting out which parts are your own feelings, which parts are coming from your eating disorder, and which parts are coming from everyone else (not least because you don’t have any proof that you are feeling things or hearing thoughts that are coming from other people).

Josie eventually got help for that part because one of the therapists at the center was a metahuman and had gone to the Woodham and Lehrer School before deciding that she didn’t particularly want to be a superhero in the traditional sense. She reached out to her old teachers, and Josie got help for that while doing more intensive outpatient treatment until they got better at tuning out other people’s thoughts and feelings.

But there’s a lingering problem here that goes back to the feelings that underlie Josie’s ED. When they are at their absolute worst, Josie can be an absolute control freak, and they tend to turn it inward more than outward because they realize that taking it out on other people isn’t fair and they don’t feel good about it. Additionally, feeling other people’s feelings as intensely as they do gives Josie an additional incentive not to take their issues with control out on other people (and did even before their powers fully manifested, because they’ve always been pretty sensitive). On some level, Josie realizes that they can’t control things like how people react to them, whether or not bad things happen to good people, and so on, but that doesn’t always help because it can lead to them feeling even more of a need to crack down on controlling themself.

Having psychic powers becomes problematic for them in two big ways, here:

1. It’s unfortunately very easy for Josie to slip into overly self-punishing thought patterns if they feel like they aren’t as in control of their abilities as they, “should” be — which happens very easily because Josie’s standards for themself aren’t always realistic, and they usually aren’t the best judge of whether or not they’re being fair to themself.

It’s even more noticeable, for them, when they try to do more complex and demanding things with their powers.

This was one of the big reasons why they’ve stayed on good terms with their friends and mentors at the Lehrer and Woodham School, and among Yael and Elizabeth’s Wardens, but consistently rejected any invites to become a Warden (and then regretted that when S.T.R.O.M.A. got them instead, since Josie would much rather be one of the Wardens than working for the FBI).

Basically, Josie trusted Elizabeth’s guidance, and they really, really wanted to trust Elizabeth’s faith in them to handle their full power responsibly…… but it was hard to believe that when they already didn’t feel like they controlled their powers as much as they, “should” have been doing, and Elizabeth wanted to push them further.

For Josie, it felt like the choice came down to, “be a superhero and do more cool superhero things, at the expense of my own well-being, which means I eventually won’t be able to help anyone and could hurt more people than I help”

or, “quietly go back to training for an entirely different career than I expected, keep in touch with Elizabeth and work on honing my abilities, and maybe not get to help people in as big a way as members of the Wardens get to do, but at least, as a therapist, I will still have the ability to help people and will probably be less likely to screw that up by virtue of losing my control over my powers”

(To her credit, Elizabeth was disheartened by this, because she believes in all of her students and wants them to believe in themselves, and really wanted Josie on her team — but she’s learned that the superhero life isn’t for everybody, and that it’s not her job, as a teacher and mentor, to tell people what they should do; it’s her job to show them new approaches, teach them how to learn, help them find what paths and methods work best for them, etc.

So, disheartening as it was, she’s been nothing but supportive about Josie’s choice not to be a Warden, and compassionate about how much Josie doesn’t like working for the FBI — and without trying to turn it into some kind of, “this could be super-beneficial for us, if Josie wanted to give us any advance warning about S.T.R.O.M.A. business that might negatively affect us here” thing like Yael)

(To her credit, Yael really does believe that she’s helping when she says things like that, because she is so fundamentally a doer, rather than a thinker, feeler, planner, or anything else. She is absolutely capable of all of those things, but she has an approach to life and problems that goes, “Okay, this is a Thing and it’s a setback, but what can we do about it, how can we use this to build something even better”

—so her idea of how to help one of her and Elizabeth’s students and comrades with an unexpected and unwanted “recruitment” to S.T.R.O.M.A.… is going, “But look, see, we can still potentially make something good out of this, and just because a government agency snatched you up doesn’t mean that you have to forget your own values or let them control you, this can be a good thing if you take advantage of the right pieces and opportunities”

—for a moment of MBTI nerdery: Yael is an ENTJ (***) vs. Josie’s INFJ (***), so while she has Extroverted Thinking (Te) for a dominant cognitive function and primarily approaches the world based on how to get results, Josie’s dominant function is Introverted iNtuition (Ni), and while they have an orientation toward the future that appreciates where Yael is coming from with her drive to get results, Josie’s primary approach to the world looks less at objective things and objective results, more at patterns and theories and trying to find the, “higher purpose” or, “deeper reason” behind how stuff happens

Which, oddly enough, is part of why Josie and Yael get on so well. They can butt heads with each other, sometimes, but at the end of the day, they complement each other really well because both of them have vision and the drive to act on it, but Yael is better at actually getting shit done, and Josie is better at checking things through the processes of making them happen, finding potential problems that Yael may not have seen coming and trying to work addressing them into the fabric of her plans.

Their Feeling functions also complement each other really well: Josie is a high Feeler, with Extroverted Feeling (Fe) as their auxiliary function, which keeps them more attuned to the state of the group and all the people in it, while Yael has a very good relationship with her inferior Fi (Introverted Feeling), which enables her to better evaluate how their actions and plans are helping or hurting their causes, where their ideals fit into everything, and so on.

So, basically, Yael is better at making sure that they all remember who they are and what they stand for, both individually and as parts of the whole, while Josie is better at attending to people’s emotional needs and keeping the whole intact by caring for the individual members of it.

And because they both respect and admire each other, neither of them devalues the other’s contributions to anything — and it doesn’t matter to Yael that Josie has a badge and would have an easier time getting a gun if they weren’t really uneasy about guns; Josie’s a mutant, they’ve been one of her students, and they care about helping other mutants, so officially being part of S.T.R.O.M.A. doesn’t mean that they aren’t part of Yael’s (larger, mutant) family

—which all means a lot to Josie because, in a lot of ways, they still haven’t entirely outgrown their early experiences of being one of the weird art freaks at school (which, even for someone who wound up being part of a subculture/clique that’s all about going, “fuck you, I’m gonna do my thing and you can love it or shove it,” gave Josie some trouble because, goth of not, they’re sensitive), and they have a huge tendency to be overly harsh with themself and don’t always love themself very much, so this whole unconditional acceptance thing is a Big Deal to them

But I digress.

2. Having psychic powers also gets Problematic for Josie because, in their mind, they’ve spent so much of their life fighting their eating disorder and their overall mental health to keep control of their life, and it’s difficult, periodically degrading, often horrific, and something that they wouldn’t wish on anybody, period…… so having the power to take away someone’s ability to control their own mind? Having the power to violate someone’s agency, potentially with more or less complete impunity? That’s horrifying, and Josie doesn’t want it

One of the easiest ways to make Josie go off the handle at you is to dismiss how hard it is for them to maintain any sense of composure. Like, okay, they can handle people teasing them about some of their self-care habits because humor is how a lot of people come to be comfortable with and accept things they don’t understand at first, and how a lot of people show that they’re comfortable with you and like you.

But if you act like Josie doesn’t have to work, impossibly hard and daily, on their own well-being, because if they don’t, then they could lose control of psychic abilities and this would be Really Fucking Terrible for everyone? ……Uh.

Just don’t do that. It’s not pretty, it’s not fun, it’s mean and please, just don’t do it.

An even easier way to make Josie snap at you is to play what they call, “the Aslan card” — which means telling them that the proof that they can handle the responsibility of psychic powers, is their own fear that maybe they can’t, their awareness of and attentiveness to the ethical and moral problems attached to them having psychic powers, the fact that they’d rather not have psychic powers in the first place because it can — and often does — feel like these powers and their attendant responsibilities are too big and too potentially Terrible Forever, For Everyone

Which Josie calls, “the Aslan card” because, uh. The first time they heard it was from Elizabeth (whose heart was in the right place in saying this, but she didn’t think about how it might end up sounding to Josie), and the first thing Josie was reminded of was Aslan telling Prince Caspian that he’s ready to become the King because he doesn’t think he’s ready

It’s just…… Josie understands where this idea is coming from, and they appreciate the underlying sentiment

But, to them, it always sounds more like, “why are you upset about how hard this is for you, at least it’s happening to you and not someone who doesn’t give a fuck about ethics or how they treat other people, quit whinging and cheer the fuck up”

Which…… yes, Josie knows that this isn’t what most people mean, but it’s still pretty upsetting for them to hear because of how much it reminds them of things that they’ve told themself so many times, when they’ve been at their worst, in terms of their mental health and emotional well-being — especially the things like, “My eating disorder isn’t bad because it’s only hurting me, not anyone else, and it’s only hurting me because I’m weak”

—and yeah, okay, Josie appreciates that you’re trying to help, but they already have enough work to do on keeping themself from slipping back into the comfort of those thought patterns, so if it’s all the same, can you maybe find a different way of trying to comfort them or praise them or whatever? Please?

Thank you, they’d like that

[bxcketbarnes]

Shoot Your Shot

Pairing: Johnny Nunzio x Reader

Words: 1400+

Another character for Seb in the books! Johnny is fucking adorable and I love him. He deserves the puss 😏🤣 I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you guys think! xox

"Are you sure that Marina won't mind? I mean, she's paired up with Johnny," you ask your friend, Tina, while fiddling with your fingers.

Tina laughs and shakes her head. "Y/N, I'm still in shock that you have a crush on Johnny Nunzio," she chuckles while tugging up the skirt of her wedding dress.

"Yeah, I agree," Donna mutters, helping the woman, "I mean he's kind of an idiot, Y/N."

Your cheeks blush and you shrug your shoulders. "I don't know, guys. He's really cute," you grin, causing the blonde to pinch your cheeks.

"Aw, Tina! Our little one is in love," Donna chuckles as you swat at her hand. "Girl, I'm sure Marina won't mind at all. She doesn't even see him that way."

"Oh, good," you mutter and let out a sigh of relief, the smile on your lips widening. "I should let you guys get ready. I'll see you at the church!"

The girls wave you off and you let out a laugh before walking out of Josie's, Tina's mother, house. You make a quick pit stop at home to change into the dress you bought for the occasion.

You walk up to the church, your fingers playing with the lace on your red off-the-shoulder dress. You see Johnny leaning against the car with his brother and two friends, a smile coming to your lips.

"Hey, Johnny," you greet the brunette and his blue eyes meet yours.

His pink lips part slightly as Dom nudges his side. "H-Hey, Y/N," Johnny stutters as you continue walking by.

His eyes follow you until you disappear into the church. "I don't think I've ever heard you stutter before," Tony mentions with a smirk.

Johnny rolls his eyes and takes a sip from his beer bottle. "Shut up, I was caught off guard," he mumbles while chewing on the ends of his sunglasses. "She looks good, really good."

"Go for it, dude. You said you were getting a girl tonight. Shoot your shot," Dom says while slapping Johnny's back.

He adjusts his suit and glances towards the guy. "You think she'd go for me?" He mutters while running his hands through his hair.

Tony snorts, causing the younger brother to glance towards him. "I think so. She looks your way a lot," Tony informs him as everyone begins piling into the church.

You cross one leg over the other as the Pastor starts the ceremony and you couldn't help but glance in Johnny's direction every few minutes. You gently bite your lip, wishing you could speak to him more often without acting like a fool.

Your breath hitches in your throat as you glance towards the brunette, his eyes already looking at you. A quiet laugh leaves your lips as Johnny aggressively chews the gum in his mouth.

He smiles at you and you tuck your hair behind your ear, feeling a bit shy under his gaze.

The ceremony was… interesting. Probably one of the most dysfunctional weddings you've ever attended, to be honest. But, you're extremely happy for the two of them.

After driving over to the place the reception is being held in, you decide to try and talk to Johnny some more. You find a seat to sit in after walking into the building, waiting for Vinnie, the owner, to call in the wedding party.

You sip on the drink you got from the bar as Vinnie steps onto the stage. "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Vinnie Black. I am the Cadillac of Caterers and I welcome you to the Coliseum," Vinnie greets everyone before continuing his speech. "Folks, I am honored that Josie and her late husband, Vito, have entrusted me with her lovely daughter's wedding party."

A quiet sigh leaves your lips as Vinnie drones on about Tina, finding it a bit creepy at how the older man described her. He first introduces Tina's mother, and Tony's father, Anthony, the two coming out from behind the curtain.

You clap your hands, watching the two get their photo taken before they continue forward. Johnny and Marina get called next and you can't help but feel your heart flutter in your chest. Your eyes watch him as they walk out, seeing the bored expression on the brunette's face.

You stifle a laugh as the two walks past you. A smile etched onto your lips as your eyes meet Johnny's. He gives you a small wave and continues walking forward, his head whipping back to look at you for a few more seconds.

Tina and Tony were announced, causing the whole room to cheer. You stand from your chair and clap your hands together, smiling fondly at the two.

The dance floor clears a bit for the newlyweds to have their first dance as you head towards the bar. You hand the bartender your empty glass before returning to the dance floor.

Other members of the wedding party start to dance with one another when you walk up to Johnny. You fiddle with your fingers and tap his shoulder. "Y/N, hey," he smiles while moving his hand to rest on your arm.

"Hey, Johnny," you softly grin as a shiver runs down your spine. "I-Do you wanna dance with me?"

He glances towards Marina and she just nods her head before walking away. "Yeah, yeah," Johnny says breathlessly and rests one of his hands on your hips.

A blush dusts your cheeks as your left hand clasps with his while your right sits on his shoulder. The two of you sway to the music playing as you keep your gaze locked with his.

"You look beautiful," Johnny mumbles while glancing towards his brother.

You press your lips together and quietly thank him. You move to rest your head on his chest, hearing his heart beating quickly. "You look handsome, Johnny," you whisper loud enough for him to hear as the brunette's hands on your waist slide across your back.

He clears his throat, causing you to pull away from him. "I- You make me nervous," Johnny laughs as the two of you continue to dance.

"You make me nervous as well. It's okay," you mumble while squeezing his hand in yours.

Johnny lets out a deep breath before grinning ear to ear. He wets his lips and halts his movements. You furrow your brows as the brunette looks around the room, noticing everyone interacting with one another.

"C'mere," Johnny mumbles and drags you away from the others. You bite your lip softly and glance over your shoulder, seeing Tina giving you a thumbs up.

The two of you move behind the giant heart before Johnny turns to face you. "Why are we back here?" You giggle as he rests his hand on your cheek.

"So I could do this," he mutters before leaning down to kiss you.

Your eyes widen as a sharp gasp escapes your lips. Johnny takes a step closer to you while slipping his arm around your waist. You kiss him back and flutter your eyes shut, moving your arms around his neck.

He presses your body against his as your heart pounds against your chest. "Shit," Johnny whispers after pulling away from you, his forehead resting against yours.

"I-That was unexpected," you mumble, feeling your cheeks heat up.

"I've been wanting to do that for a bit," he mutters before kissing your lips lightly. "I just never thought you'd kiss me back."

A grin comes to your lips and you glide your fingers through his hair. "I've wanted to kiss you for a long time, Johnny," you confess to him.

He goes to say something when his father yells his name, startling the two of you. You glance over your shoulder as your hands slide down his arms.

"We should probably get back," Johnny whispers, causing you to glance back at him.

"Promise me we can do this again later?" You ask him while biting your lip, hiding your smirk.

The brunette wets his lips and smirks. "Oh, absolutely. I'm gonna wanna kiss you a lot," Johnny mutters before quickly kissing you once more. You hum and jokingly bite his bottom lip. Johnny lets out a growl and tightens his grip on your hips. "Don't tease me."

"Mm, I'll think about it, handsome," you wink before walking away from him, heading back towards the dance hall.

"Fuck, she'll be the death of me," Johnny mumbles to himself and follows after you.

-

Taglist: @starbuckie @metalbuckaroo @whoreforbucknasty @jessalyn-jpeg @queen-of-mischief @hallecarey1 @glxwingrxse @bumblebet-20 @broadwaybabe18​ @thewxntersoldier

[jayankles]

The Culmination: Endgame

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x Reader

Word Count: 2362

Summary: Y/N doesn’t feel so good and it’s not like her to not answer the phone to Sebastian. He was right to send over Josie, Y/N’s friend, over to find out what’s wrong.

Warnings: Angst, Implied Smut, Fluff

Written for: @anyfandomangstbingo​ | @anyfandomfluffbingo​ | @anyfandomgoesbingo​ 

Squares Filled:  Sick fic | first time | “I really don’t like doing this over the phone”

A/N - Blake Lively is not a representation of the reader; it’s just for the dress. And the other beautiful woman is exactly who I pictured for Josie.

Feedback is gold and appreciated

Of course, you were sick today. The day that Sebastian had told you that he was to take a day at the gym then spend it with Don. You knew that when you woke up this morning it wasn’t going to be a good day, the cold sheets a little foreshadowing of how your day would have gone. The little guttural feeling you had punching you in the gut right now, it had you on the floor, bent over the toilet seat with your head in the bowl.

You felt awful. Unable to move, unless it was your throat spasming. Definitely the worst day so far, you couldn’t move and when you finally were able to move at all you felt like a robot. Not a good look.

You decided that it was time to head back to bed, none of your food would stay down so you made yourself a bottle of water and stumbled into bed with a bucket in your hand, ready to put the bucket on the floor beside your bed.

Pulling at the covers, you curled up under them and took a swig of your drink. Tears rolled down your face as you felt the pain grow stronger, you rubbed your stomach in hopes it would make you feel better; it didn’t.

All you could do was pray that you would fall asleep to not feel this pain anymore. Sleep evaded you. The pain is all there is that you feel. You threw up another three times before you finally succumbed to the pleasures of sleep. Rattling of keys had been the object that had drawn you out of your few moments of slumber. You didn’t dare move though, there was no point, you couldn’t move anyway.

“Y/N! Y/N, where are you?” It took you a minute to realise that it was your friend, Josie, shouting your name in hopes of finding you. “Y/N, Whe- There you are. What are you still doing in bed? Oh...”

She looked as if she sighed out a breath of relief before she retracted, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. Inhaling the stench of the room, she quickly ran out of there, returning with air freshener, spraying it around you to make her feel better.

“You need a bath, babe. Stay here and I’ll run you one. Of course you’re going to stay here, you poor thing.” Josie rambled, you stopped her before she could go on for another hour.

“Jo, pour some lavender in there. Love you.”

Freshly out of the bath after thirty minutes, you were wrapped up in Sebastian’s bathrobe, a reminder that he was home as it still smelt like him. “I hate feeling like this. It sucks. But I feel better already.”

Josie softly smiled at you, pity in her eyes. “Must have been that nap you took but I know it sucks. Could you imagine Seb with this kinda illness, though? It would be 100% worse just because it’s man flu.”

“Thank you for being here.” You said, taking a seat on the couch. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Seb called, said he tried texting and video chatting you but you wouldn’t pick up. I guess he was right to have me come over and check on you.”

“He’s such a cutie.” You groaned as you walked, the bath only slightly relieving some of the pain.

“I know. It makes me wanna barf… not like you, though. That shit is nasty, no, thank you, ma’am.” She tutted through a pinched nose, reminding of just how gross you felt and smelt not even a mere hour ago.

“You’re a pleasure as always, Jo. Always so kind to me, when I feel like shit. Thank you.”

She shrugged knowingly, a smirk on her face as she reached forward for the remote, finding a music channel and turning it down a little so it faded into the background becoming nothing but white noise. “So do you know what brought this on? Eat some bad food?”

“I don’t think so, otherwise Seb would feel the same way right?”

“Well you aren’t pooping as well as being sick so this isn’t a viral or bacterial thing. You’re not burning up? No severe migraines?” She asked and you only had one answer.

“Nope. And no, my appendix hasn’t burst because I’ve already had it out.” You said, becoming tired again as you let out a yawn.

“Well, I think I might need to slip out for a little bit.”

“Why? Where are you going? I thought you were going to take care of me?”

“I am. I’m just gonna head to the store and grab you some stuff to make tomato soup. I’ll be twenty minutes tops.” Josie was true to her word, never taking more than the twenty minutes she promised. Putting the bag of groceries on the counter, Josie pulls out the contents, revealing the ingredients she offered to get for you but you could tell that there was something else in the bag.

“What’s in there?”

Josie was fidgety, her fingers twiddling together. “I need you to keep an open mind because I think I know why you’re grossly throwing up.”

“Hit me. I wanna know how I can feel better right now.”

“It’s a good thing that you’re sitting down because…” She paused, making a face that she knew you weren’t going to like. “Because I think you’re pregnant.” her face unchanging as she pulled out the pregnancy test.

Then it hit you. 

No.No.No. Fuck!

Hands dancing.

Tongues twining.

Passion blooming.

It was everything you could have asked for when he was away but now that Sebastian was back, you couldn’t keep your hands off of him. You covered every area of the apartment possible.

Oh crap.

“Fuck!”

“Yes you did.” Josie laughed at her own joke, the reaction not quite the same on your end.

“Oh god, Sebastian is going to kill me. He’s never going to want to talk to me. Why was I so stupid? Oh, I’m never gonna hear from him again. I’ll be kicked out. I’ll be a single mother. I’m gonna have to live with you and if I have this baby, you’re gonna hate me, then you’re gonna kick me out too. ”

Josie scoffed at you, helping you scurf back your hair away from your face, making you look into her wide eyes. “First of all, chill. I gotchu, you know I gotchu forever. Sebastian isn’t like that, but if he is you will never see him again and that is a promise and maybe a little bit of a threat. He’ll deserve it if he hurts you so. Just be my alibi if anything ever happens. Just go take the test. Negative? You’re just sick. Positive? You call Sebastian and you talk to him like an adult.”

“Why are you always right? Don’t you ever get sick of it?” You huffed before you smiled at her, squeezing at her hand after taking the small handful of the pregnancy test boxes back to the bathroom.

Five minutes passed and you were holding the peed on sticks in your hand, four out of five of them being positive. “I think I need to call Sebastian, and a doctor.”

After making an appointment with the doctor, you took a deep breath and pressed the button to call Sebastian. He picks up the call pretty quickly and you are not surprised.

“Y/N! Finally! Are you okay? What happened?”

“Hey bubba. I’m fine, just a little sickness. But I really don’t like doing this over the phone. When are you coming home. We need to talk.”

Two months later.

It was the night of the premiere of Avengers: Endgame and you couldn’t be more thrilled for the success that the Marvel Franchise had. It was 10 years of absolute lovable craziness. Thank you, Stan Lee.

You had no idea that you would be here on the aptly coloured, purple carpet with Sebastian after all you would have thought that you would still be with him after the whole pregnancy fiasco but the two of you were able to talk things through. Things were thrown, voices were raised, and tears were shed but still after all of that, Sebastian made the executive decision to calm the two of you down. The stress was no good for anyone at this point. You were both going to be parents; it’s what was established.

The two of you walked hand in hand, palms sweating as the cameras flashed, and photographers called out to each and every star that was involved in the production of Endgame. The culmination of the whole franchise was just so surreal, the fact that it was ending with a bang both made you swell with pride but it also made you a tad emotional because this collection of amazing characters wouldn’t continue but the legacy they left would. And that was what mattered.

“Sebastian! Y/N! Over here!” You heard from one of the interviewers, looking beautiful in her outfit, Sebastian rubbed his thumb across your knuckles, you were going to be okay. He was right there with you and you had done this a few times before. He was there for you.

“Hi.” “Hello. You and Sebastian answered at the same time, making the interviewer laugh.

“Wait, I remember you. I bought you a soup in a thermos and Tom gave you his jacket. I see we got lucky with good weather today, huh?” You said, smiling at her.

“Yes. You remember me?!” The woman turned to the camera looking right into the lens of it. “Guys, I’m fangirling so hard right now. Ah!”

Once the woman got her fangirling out of the way, she moved onto the interview, trying to get any information that she could before the movie premiered. Sebastian took over that one, telling her that there was no way that they were allowed to say anything about the movie other than he was dust.

“Now we’ve got that movie non gossip out of the way. Are you okay to talk freely about your pregnancy?”

You looked to Sebastian, it was his decision just as much as it was yours, you knew that Sebastian wanted to keep his private life separate from his professional acting career. “It’s okay, honey. Go ahead.”

“I think you’re good to go.”

“Thank you. I must say that you do look stunning in that dress.” She gushed, you thanked her, hiding your face a little. You loved this dress, the nude under layer and the little white and purple flowers that scattered across your dress, your bump barely visible through your dress.

“How far along are you?”

“Well, we’re in the first week of the second trimester. So I’m a little more confident when telling you that.”

“That’s amazing. Was the pregnancy planned at all?”

You made a face, sucking in a little air, looking to Sebastian for a little light to be shed on the situation. “Not at all. It was Y/N’s friend that actually realised that her morning sickness wasn’t her having the flu. She felt absolutely awful that morning, it was enough to know that it was bad when I tried to call her and I didn’t get an answer.

“We had our issues, you know, we didn’t know what to do, we're new at this. But I think that it’s important to know that you don’t abandon your family.” Sebastian softly smiled at you, subconsciously putting a hand on your slowly growing stomach. “I guess that is what this franchise is about though, right? It’s about family and- and looking out for one another. Everybody’s got a somebody here and I love that.”

“And Thanos, fucks it all up and snaps his goddamn fingers.” The three of you and the cameraman began to laugh at your little outburst about the mad, purple titan. “God, I can’t wait for the premiere tonight but I’m scared. For everybody. But especially for me, you know, I’m an emotional person anyway, add a hormonal woman to the mix and a whole lot of angst. Get my ice cream and tissues ready, because I’m coming for you, Thanos.”

“I heard that!”

“Love you, Josh. For the record, Josh is a nice guy, the character he plays is a big old sack of balls and I have no idea how he does it so convincingly.” Lovingly, you made eyes at Seb. “But it’s just like my Sebastian, a dark hydra assassin but in reality he’s a big ball of sunshine and goofiness. And I love him for it.”

“This is- this is what gets me.” The interviewer leaned in a little as Sebastian’s voice dropped to a slight whisper. “I know that she is going to be the best mom for our child because Y/N loves everything and everyone and that is a great quality to have but she’s also caring and matches my goofy side but her sass outweighs mine of course, no one can beat that.”

“Aww, he’s making me cry already. Seb,” you whined. “My makeup.”

“Well that's it folks.” The woman spoke, telling the audience that this was one of the cutest interviews that she had ever taken, that she could die happy and quickly saying congratulations before the two of you were whisked away to walk the carpet again and pose for pictures.

“You’re way too good to me, you know that right?” You said to Seb as you admired the sky blue suit he was wearing over his plain white tee. “I never even got to tell them that this baby will have the hottest dad in the world as well as the sweetest man. Thank you for being my baby daddy.”

Unbeknownst to you, the cameras had caught every single moment the two of you shared. The kisses you shared together, were now shared with the world, all over social media. At this point you didn’t care, you only cared about the man in front of you and the baby growing in your stomach. And this god damn movie!

Feedback is gold and appreciated

[imaginefan]

Spelled

Sebastian X Reader

Word Count: 1580

Requested: Anon

Request: Request: Sebastian is spelled by dark!Josie. What he does is up to you :)

Lizzie had lost her chance to be with Sebastian when he started at the school, Alaric had let him stay and he had asked you as one of his model students to get Sebastian settled in your thought that it was weird at first but it seemed like there were very few people that he was able to get along with and most of the people that he could stand being around were female so that left you. You both grew close very quickly, you helped him with everything that he needed help with and taught him everything that had changed in the world. You had started out hoping that you would make him feel a little better about waking up with no one familiar around but the friendship quickly developed into something more intimate.

That was where the problems started, though neither of you knew that there was a problem. Josie had watched her sister long for someone that she couldn't have and given her state, she cared very little about your feelings or how you both would be affected when she pulled you both apart, so she got everything that she needed cast a spell the next morning she was sitting in your bedroom she smiled as you sat up "How can I help you, Josie?" You asked. "Oh I don't need your help, I wanted to tell you something." She answered. "What?" You asked. "It's about Sebastian." She said and you waited. "You see last night I did a little spell, so if he ever comes near you again he'll lose control and he will stay in that state until he kills you." "So what, you want me to stay away from Sebastian?" You asked. "Why?" "My sister, she watches you two every day, she wants him back and the only way that's going to happen is if you're out of the picture," Josie explained. "So the spell breaks after he kills me and you expect him to go back to your sister after all of that?" You asked. "Not straight away but he will seek comfort somewhere that he knows and the only person that can give him that here is her." Josie answered before standing up "So you had better get to running."

"Dr Satlzman!" You called through the door as you knocked frantically hoping that Sebastian wouldn't appear down the hall looking for you. "(Y/N)?" Alaric asked as he opened the door, you ducked into the room and slammed the door closed behind you. "What's wrong?" "What isn't wrong?" You asked. "Josie spelled Sebastian, if he comes near me he'll lose control and he won't stop until he has killed me." "How do you know that?" Alaric asked. "She told me." You answered, "she was there when I woke up this morning." "Did she tell you why?" He asked. "Because she knows that Lizzie wants him." You answered "she said that once he killed me he'll seek comfort from someone that he knows and that would be Lizzie." "Someone has to talk to Sebastian." Alaric sighed. "Lizzie." You said, "She's the only one that he's going to listen to." "No, she's not going to talk to him alone." Alaric denied. "I'm not saying that she has to, I'm just saying that she needs to be the one that tells him." You said.

Lizzie couldn't believe what her sister had done and she wanted to apologise one hundred times for what her sister had done but they needed to talk to Sebastian before they could start to break the spell "Elizebeth have you seen (Y/N)?" Sebastian asked as he attempted to walk past her in search of you. "Actually I wanted to talk to you about her," Lizzie said quickly, Hope was standing behind her in case things got a little volatile. "Is she okay?" He asked, now noticing Hope behind her. "She's fine, sort of." Lizzie answered, "look Josie spelled you." "Me?" He asked. "Yeah if you go near (Y/N) you lose control and you won't stop until you've killed her." She explained, Sebastian didn't say anything, he just stood there. "I can't see her?" He asked. "How do we fix this? I can't lose her too." "You won't, we're going to fix this but for now we're going to make sure that you can't hurt anyone, we don't know if Josie will get impatient and make you lose control," Lizzie explained. Lizzie took him down the cell under school locking him in and then she pulled out her phone dialling your number before handing it to him and walking out of the room. "Hello?" he asked "Hey, Seb." You greeted. "You sound happy for someone who can't see me anymore." He said and you laughed. "That's because I'm working on a way to break this spell and then everything will be the way that it was before." You answered. "You better not leave me, love." He warned and you laughed. "You can't get rid of me that easily." You reassured him before hanging up the phone.

Alaric still had you in the office, Lizzie and Hope had come back and you were all looking through books looking for a spell that mirrored what Josie had done and it was Hope that found something, through her aunt "Aunt Freya said that she's mirrored compulsion, we can get rid of it with a spell but I don't think any of us are strong enough to get into his head." Hope answered. "What about Freya?" Lizzie asked. "She can't get here." She answered. "She said that if we can distract him it'll be easier to do the spell." "Distract?" Alaric asked. "You mean let him hunt me." You said. "He'll fight it though right?" Lizzie asked. "That's when we'll be able to get in," Hope answered. "We?" Lizzie asked. "You and Hope are going to do the spell, your both very strong witches." You answered. "I don't have any magic," Lizzie answered. "I know you're scared and you think that you can't do it but you can. You think that he just forgot you and moved on but you are still special to him you were the first person to save him, you were the one that allowed him to be here and trust me when I tell you that he watches out for you every day and I trust you to save my life Lizzie and then we're going to save your sister." You smiled softly and she nodded.

Alaric, Hope and Lizzie stood in front of the cell "we've got a plan but you might not like it." Alaric started. "The spell mimics compulsion and we have to get into your mind to be able to get rid of it, the only problem is that your mind is far stronger than our magic because of your age, so this is the part that you aren't going to like (Y/N) has to come down here and-" "No. I'll hurt her." He dismissed the idea immediately. "No you won't, you'll fight it and that's when we'll be able to get into your head and break the spell," Lizzie said. "You think this will work?" He asked and she nodded. "What about (Y/N)?" "This is her idea," Lizzie answered. "Okay." He agreed, Lizzie walked over to the door and opened it. You walked into the small space outside the bars before walking to the door of the cell and opening it. "Wait what are you doing?" He asked. "There has to be a real danger otherwise, you won't fight it." You said softly as you stood on the opposite side of the cell. "No no you can't, it's so..." He stopped talking. "Talk to me Seb, what's going on?" You asked. "I can smell you, you smell amazing." He answered. "I don't want to hurt you but my body just... It wants to move and I know if I move I'll hurt you." "Mmm you remember when we first met and you said the same thing about all of the warm bodies around, you said that all you could think about was hurting them? What did I tell you then?" You asked vaguely aware of the chanting that had started. "Find an anchor." He breathed out and you nodded. "Where's your anchor Sebastian?" You asked. "Here." He answered. "Good." You smiled "You asked me about that anchor thing before you remember that?" "Mmm." He hummed. "My magic used to be uncontrollable and I didn't know what to do with it and my mum taught me to anchor to my human side that helps with control." You answered. "How much longer?" He asked. "I don't know." You answered. "I don't know how long I can do this, you have to leave." He ordered. "I'm not going anywhere." You answered and he growled and he looked up at you. "Guys." You prompted and Alaric lifted his crossbow. "Don't shoot him unless he bites me otherwise you won't hit him." Sebastian moved across the room in seconds and his mouth pressing to your neck fangs bared before he pulled back suddenly, his grip on you tightening. "Next time I tell you to run, you run." He muttered, pressing a kiss to your shoulder as you put a thumbs up to the others to show them that they had done the initial breakdown. There was still quite a way to go but you would get there.

Requests and general question!

[pinayelf]

Gonna do my random rarepairs lol. Fergus Cousland x Nathaniel, Sebastian x Bethany, Josephine x Harding.

OOOH I haven't considered two of these

Fergus x Nathaniel

I can see this omg

Seb x Beth and Josie x Harding

They both sound REALLY CUTE

[knownlesbianalexandracabot]

Did u read josie and the pussycats in space

YES! it was soooooooo fucked up. like lots of fucked stuff happens in archie horror titles but this was next level though maybe im just more freaked out by sci-fi horror. also, THAT ENDING! did not see it coming honestly. like we knew sock and pepper (and albert with his one line) were gonna die for like the irony and all the randos too bc death is inevitable in these types of stories but it wasnt super predictable or anything. i got embarrassingly excited when the alexander and alexandra (AND SEBASTIAN!) showed up tbh. if you guys couldnt tell, im kinda a big fan of the cabots lol. overall i liked it though i wouldve liked more pussycats as a group and less alan m. not that i dont like alan m. but he’s more steve trevor than lois lane. josie mel and val’s friendship was sweet though, any good josie media has to have the three of them’s relationship with each other as focal point bc like they are the titular Pussycats and jatp in space delivered. not a fan of the weird alan m. x melody vibes bc pairing alan m. with any of the girls other than josie is stupid. there WAS a moment of alex x alan m. though so that makes up for it. also, this is nitpicky but i Could Not keep any of the background characters straight, more distinctive names and character designs wouldve been helpful imo. and it was probably to differentiate him from the blackness of space but i didnt like that sebastian was light brown instead of black and white. like oh so we can let seb be brown but we can’t let salem be orange even once smh. i know i just complained about a whole bunch of stuff but it was a really good read. would def recommend. unless you’re not a fan of scary stuff or dead body parts. 

[islcndxmisfits-a]

below is a list of my currently updated thread tracker since the website hasn’t working lately.... but here’s the link anyway.  the threads are listed in abc order (as best as i could) by partner url !!

now that i have updated my tracker, i am willing to take on more threads (will probably post some starter calls for muses without any threads since they need love too) .... with exception!!!! as well as bust out my currently old memes in my ask box :P

and figure out relationships & verses & bios & which muses to keep / get rid of since my last update and clearing out my followers / following lists !!! pretty much everythiiing!!

i will probably from now on, as replies come in for me, i will most likely reply & add them to queue as i do them so they don’t build up and i can also work on other things in between however some might get posted right away depending on how much muse and how much interest i have towards that specific thread at the moment.

if I’m missing ANYTHING please let me know.

I OWE: already replied and added to queue. if you want to drop or move any of the following threads, feel free to let me know. i will delete it from my tracker & my queue if it hasn’t already been replied to !!

plain text = done, queued, & added to tracker

italics and indented = queued, needs added to tracker after posting

indented = in the drafts, needs icon, queued, & added to tracker.

bold = needs replies, then queued, then added to tracker

@abrokenwitch​

Family Reunion // Sebastian & Lizzie

@actionrewarded​

Romantic Dice // Lizzie & Peter

Playlist // Lauren & Peter

@agentjadelance​

Resident Evil AU // Ray & Kayla

@aheroslegacy​

Early Lunch // Kara & Lena

@akumubaku​

Amnesia // Dabi & Yume

@bracteatum​

A Christmas Witch // Seraphina & Sharon

Almost Uncertain Death // Laurel & Sara

Arranged Marriage // Leonard & Sara

Bloodlust // Leonard & Sara

Dragon and Assassin // Eleanor & Sara

Familiar Faces // Steve & Diana

Gotham's Queens // Sofia & Sara

Sara & Enzo

Saved By The Flash // Leonard & Sara

Second Chances // Ray & Nora

Treasure Hunter // Chase & Jean

Welcome to Hell // Caden & Sara

@cheaburi​

Friend In Need // Charlie & Dean

New Friends // Charlie & Claire

@dalphahale​

Drunk Beck // Beck & Derek

A Helping Hand // Beck & Derek

@dawnblxde​

Escape // Marceline & Noctis

Long Live The Queen // Historia & Noctis

Investigating // Winry & Noctis

@demon-blood-youths

Blood Kink // Himiko & Shdwkyz

@devicus​

Bad Influence // Toni & Amber

Dangerous // Steve & Seb

Hot Tubbin' // Lea & Lana

I'm a Delacour // Adaline & Camille

Live To Party // Farah & MIchael

Snap with Sierra // Sierra & Camden

Stepcest // Kara & Gray

@dorthbaum​

Reincarnated Lovers // Dean & Dorothy

@fclsusrex​

New Visitor // Sonia & Yozora

Tomato Fight // Sonia & Yozora

@fxckingnxrd​

Soft Lips // Bakugo & Deku

Comfort // Bakugo & Deku

Nightmare // Bakugo & Deku

@galaxiism

Birthday Boy // Dominic & Jagger

Caden & Rory

Christian & Jagger

Hugh & Jagger

Klaus & Rory

Rory & Elijah 

@hallowcrown​

A ghost and a vampire // Hal & Sally

Who Sent You? // Hal & Sally

@heartonanoose​

Infamous // Tara & Alu

Kill to Survive // Natalia & Alu

Loners // Stefan & Alu

Truth or Dare // Nick & Alu

@inkdreamt​

A New Meta // Barry & Maddie

A Powerful Mutant // John & Victoria

After Cotillion // Ben & Mal

Another Kryptonian // Kara & Maddie

Another Mermaid // Cleo & Evie

Anything She Wants //  Lea & Kara

Corrupted Ben // Ben & Mal

Done Talking // Avery & Kara

Easter Dinner // Evie & Mal

Fake Girlfriend // Michael & Clara

Famous in Love // Josh & Maddie

Fancy Meeting You Here // Wes & Liv

Forgive Me // Erik & Ondina

Holden and Superhero!Liv

House of El // Kara & Clark

Hurt // Gar & Gwen

Hurt & Angry // Mon-El & Kara

Into the Spiderverse // Brainy & Gwen

Livewire's Apprentice // Livewire & Liv

Mermaid Reunion // Cleo & Emma

New Earth // Miles & Gwen

New York Minute // Holden & Liv

Old Friends // Sebastian & Lilly

Pain in the Ass // Tandy & Ruby

Peter & Mal

Poisoned Mal // Ben & Mal

Quiet Time // Hades & Mal

Return of Lilly // Lilly & Freya

Revisiting Themiscyra // Diana & Maddie

Romantic Evening // Ben & Mal

Seeing Double // Lilly & Harry

Stefan & Elena

Superhero!Maddie and Josh

Surprise Return // Mason & Alex

Survival // Lorna & Victoria 

Thank God You're Breathing // Mason & Alex

The World of Music // Barry & Kara

True Love // Harvey & Sabrina

Vampire Powers Activated // Hope & Lilly

What Do You Think You're Doing? // Ben & Mal

Winter Spirits // Noelle & Evelyn

@loktonphoto​

Shower // Levi & Prompto

You Can Be Useful // Levi & Prompto

@magicallyimpossible​

Drag // Harley & The Professor

Scoot Over // Clara & The Professor

Sit On My Face // Harley & The Professor

New Playmate // Harley & The Professor

Morning Sex // Harley & The Professor

Crisis Averted // Oliver & Lea

@multidivision

A Whole New World // Staz & Kise

Attractive Meme // Kageyama & Tsukishima

Gilthunder and Gowther

Impatient // Kageyama & Tsukishima

Puppy Love // Gilthunder & Gowther

@multiversalmagic​

Cisco & Hestia

Cisco & Aria

Cisco & Aqua

Cisco & Tara

@musesatyourservice​

Accidental Mistletoe // Hayley & Elijah

Ass on Display // Hayley & Elijah

Ass on Display // Lucien & Cami

Carnival Date // Kol & Davina

Comfort After A Nightmare // Elijah & Hayley

Karamel Angst // Kara & Mon-El

Mating Season // Klaus & Camille

Nude Pictures // Klaus & Camille

Oh Bite Me // Kol & Davina

Pinned // Klaus & Camille

Small Closet // Klaus & Camille

Smell of Blood // Klaus & Camille

Snowstorm // Klaus & Camille

Take Off Your Pants // Christian & Hayley

Trapped in a Closet // Hayley & Dean

@naturesloopholed​

Hizzie // Hope & Lizzie

Hosie // Hope & Josie

@paintedragcn​

Old Faces // Hades & Mal

Seduction // Harry & Mal

@prcttypoiscn​

Bucky & Harley

Drunk & Missing You // Mon-El & Kara

Kai & Katherine

Mommy’s Little Monster // Lucy & Harley

Selina & Harley

WinterQuinn

@predictableisnotbad

Bloodbath // Christian & Alice

Damon Royalty AU // Damon & Alice

Dark Kink // Christian & Alice

Familiar // Christian & Alice

From Playful To Possessive // Damon & Alice

Greece Vacation // Christian & Alice

High School Sweethearts // Christian & Alice

Late Night Phone Call // Christian & Alice

Mating Season // Damon & Alice

Need You Now // Christian & Alice

Negative Soulmates // Christian & Alice

Pray For The Wicked // Christian & Alice

Prince Christian // Christian & Alice

Sex Under the Stars // Christian & Alice

Surprise Me // Christian & Alice

Vampire Lover // Christian & Alice

@redemptivexheroics​

Brotherly Reunion // Kol & Henrik

Distracted // Persephone & Poseidon

Do You Knock? // Rebekah & Henrik

Fated Meeting // Hope & Raven

Forgot To Knock // Freya & Kol

New Students // Jackson & Sebastian

Opposing Sides // Natasha & Jake

Persephone's Garden // Hercules & Persephone

Please Remember // Hope & Kol

Singles Night // Riley & Kyle

The Modern World // Hades & Ares

We're Family // Hope & Henrik

Who The Hell Are You? // Hope & Jackson

Young Gods // Persephone & Blake

@storiescfdreams

A Pirate's Life For Me // Harry & Harriet

Children of Hades // Mal & Hadie

Children of the Sea // Uma & Uriella

Like Mother, Like Daughter // Jasmine & Jasura

Mermaid Teachings // Ariel & Aria

Riddle Me This // Chesney & Alice

Sisters At Heart // Ruby & Ginny

Stretch Your Wings // Maeve & Fleur

The Aftermath // Audrey & Preston

The List // Erica & Malia

The Sheriff and Archer // Roland & Skye

Underworld's Royalty // Hades & Persephone 

Voodoo Queen // Freddie & Mal

@strawberrycolaaa​

Childhood Crush // Gou & Sosuke

Future Fish // Rin & Sosuke

@sxcrificx​

Heaven and Hell // Maxxie & Cas

How Badly Do You Want Me // Maxxie & Cas

Oral Sex // Dean & Cas

Pin My Muse // Dean & Cas

The End // Dean & Cas

@tellmeitsadream​

High School Sweethearts // Hugh & Addie

@thecharmingknightemma​

Not Alone // Iris & Emma

A Princess and a Pirate // Killian & Emma

Super Friends // Kara & Emma

@thewxnderer​

Lucy Quinzel, Nice To Meet Ya // Rick & Lucy

@tofeelthecold​

Enzo and Bex

Brothers Salvatore // Stefan & Damonm

@violetxsilverxstark​

Ain't No Crying in the Club // Harley & Kelsey

Breaking and Entering // Harley & Kelsey

Hold Still // Kelsey & Asya

@wicxedxcharming​

Heartbroken // Luciana & Dahlia

Stargazing // Benny & Ben

@youngkopa​

Almost Killed Me // Lizzie & Oliver

It's Safe Here // Josie & Oliver

Lost Stray // Harley & Oliver

Make Me Feel // Lizzie & Oliver

New Roommate // Oliver & Harley

Oliver and Chloe

You're Staring // Josie & Oliver

YOU OWE: let me know if you want to drop any of the following !! i am also willing to move some to discord to make things easier. these threads will automatically be dropped if i don’t get a reply within a month except for those with a ** who have been on hiatus.

@actionrewarded​

School Work // Penelope & Peter ( x )

Upside Down // Josie & Peter ( x )

Tour Guide // Lizzie & Peter ( x )

@amnesiic

Alice & The Mad Hatter // Alice & Jervis ( x )

@bracteatum

Kennedy Cochran, P.I. // Kennedy & Sara ( x )

@daddyxreyes​

Master & Servant // Lucy & Kyon ( x ) ** will be archived temporarily due to hiatus.

@heartonanoose​

Cheryl and Alu ( x )

Don't Let Them See // Hazel & Alu ( x )

Oldest Friends // Jayden & Alu ( x )

Slow Dance // Dick & Alu ( x )

Terrifying // Valerie & Alu ( x )

@inkdreamt

Sorry I Ran Into You // Remi & Maddie ( x )

Travel Back in Time // Kara & Annabelle ( x )

Birthday Girl // Vera & Luciana ( x )

Practice Makes Perfect // Snow & Hope ( x )

Thief In The Night // Mal & Roland ( x )

Found Dog // Neal & Snow ( x )

@lonelybxstards

Aren’t You Afraid // Diana & Chaos? ( x )

Chaotic Good // Harley & Chaos? ( x )

Hot When Angry // Harley & Chaos? ( x )

@galaxiism

Too Much To Drink // Lux & Chase ( x )

@loserbled​ / @hcrlequins​

Mommy's Little Monster // Harley & Lucy ( x )

@mudbirthed

Handosie Threesome // Hope, Landon, & Josie ( x )

Landon & Ava ( x )

Landon & Jo ( x )

@multidivision​

Stolen Sweatshirt // Tsukki & Kageyama ( x )

Can’t Wait // Dean & Tsukki ( x )

Personal Chef // Tsukki & Shinomiya ( x )

Attention // Tobio & Tsukki ( x )

Summer Vacation // Gou & Momo ( x )

@musesatyourservice​​

Christmas Celebrations // Nick & Sabrina ( x )

Broken, Beaten, & Bruised // Steve & Nancy ( x )

One Scratch, Two Scratch // Nick, Nate, & Sabrina ( x )

Nick, Harvey, & Sabrina ( x )

Sweet, But Psycho ( x )

@ofeniigma

Sibling Bonding // Mia & William ( x )

I Own You // E2!Laurel & Felicity ( x )

Taking Care of Laurel // Laurel & Felicity ( x )

Apocalypse Now // Emily & Felicity ( x )

@paintedragcn​

Cold Weather - Penguin // Uma & Mal ( x )

Cold Weather - Santa Hat // Ben & Mal ( x )

Fake Girlfriends // Evie & Mal ( x )

New Villain at Auradon // Harry & Mal ( x )

Listen... // Ben & Mal ( x )

Happy Anniversary // Ben & Mal ( x )

@prcttypoiscn​

Alone // Toni & Cheryl ( x )

Harley & Wade // sms ( x )

Roommates // Ivy &  Cooper ( x )

@predictableisnotbad​

I’m Gonna Show You Crazy // Kai & Alice ( x )

Bad Things // Damon & Alice ( x )

Dance, Dance // Christian, Damon, & Alice ( x )

Newly Turned Vampire // Cristian, Damon, & Alice ( x )

Teacher’s Pet // Christian & Alice ( x )

Dark Kink // Christian & Alice ( x )

High School Sweethearts // Christian & Alice ( x )

Fifty Shades of Grey AU // Christian & Alice ( x )

@redemptivexheroics​

Christmas Party // Aurora & Henrik ( x )

Into the Unknown // Regan & Wyatt ( x )

Anti-Christmas // Kai & Henrik ( x )

Masquerade // Lucien & Ellis ( x )

@sheroaredlouder

Earth & Fire // Tara & Ember ( x )

@strawberrycolaaa​

Old Friends // Nagisa & Rin ( x )

@wicxedxcharming​

Shielded From The Rain // Ruby & Dorian ( x )

DROPPING:

Should've Been You (fcxsinned)

Protect Ban (fcxsinned)

Not Morning (fcxsinned)

Why Him? (fcxsinned)

Butterfingers (licnspride)

Drunken!Sins (licnspride)

Massages (licnspride)

Remarkable (licnspride)

Fairy Children (windscint)

Spanking (windscint)

Extra Special Service (pollutedxdesires)

I'm Fine (fragmntedx)

Home For the Holidays (monsterineveryone)

Gotham City Siren (sarcasmpersonified181)

I’m Your Mother (killersmoakism)

Snow Fairy (killersmoakism)

Brothers (memorystxrs)

Are You Cold? (pinafcl)

On Your Knees (multidivision)

The Hunter & His Wolf (multidivision)

Cook Off (multidivision)

Not Drunk Enough (multidivision)

Pinned (multidivision)

The Boar Hat (multidivision)

Oikawa & Shoyo sms thread (multidivision)

POSSIBLY MOVING TO DISCORD:

all threads with @chooseyourmuse​ & @ocylum​

Elizabeth & Howzer ( x )

Workout Routine // Izuku & Bakugo ( x )

Freaking Me Out // Meliodas & Elizabeth ( x )

New Friends // Gou & Kamina ( x )

Take Me With You // Xi & Colin ( x )

Is That Blood? // Cassandra & Matthew ( x )

Guzma & Alice ( x )

Blushing // Ochaco & Bakugo ( x )

Romantic Dice // Ban & Jericho ( x )

some threads with @multidivision already moved over; not linking bc too much work and they’re already linked in discord.

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Truth Set Free: Part 1

Fandom: Marvel (Mob Boss AU)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

As requested by @elivanah : Hey i have an idea for a request, if you like. Maybe one of seb's character is a mob boss who also owns a strip club. He and reader are dating but she doesn't know what he does. One day she finds out the hard way. Angst ending with a happy ending and maybe smut.

A/N: I decided to write this for Bucky cause I seriously love Mob Boss!Bucky. Also, this is became so unnecessarily long that I’m just gonna make it into a two part story.

You were sound asleep being spooned by your boyfriend, Bucky. Your face started to crinkle when you felt kisses being pressed to your back, making their way to your shoulder, then neck. You giggled when the pair of lips hit your tickle spot. A low chuckle reverberating behind you. 

“Good mornin’, doll.” the low husky voice causing arousal between your legs. 

You turned around to face your husband. Your hands grazing over the stubble along his face, “Mornin’ handsome,” you leaned in and pecked his lips. His arms wrapped around you and pulled you on top of him, “Bucky!” you squealed and he just laughed.

You sat at the kitchen island, going through your emails on your laptop as Bucky worked on cooking breakfast whilst on the phone with his best friend and business partner, Steve.

“Steve, this-” he glances over your shoulder to check to see if you were still there. He clears his throat, “This has to go as smoothly as possible. Nothing can go wrong. You hear me? Make sure everyone is up to speed and get the job done. Bye.” he hangs up the phone and sighs.

“Another business deal?” you ask, your attention no longer on your computer, but on him.

“Yeah. There’s this rival company trying to swoop in on my potential partners. It’s...frustrating.”

“You and Steve will be able to reel ‘em in. You got that authority and charm that no one can say no to.”

He snorted, “Baby, you’d be surprised by how many people have said no to me.”

“I’m sure they end up regretting it in the end.”

“Yes they do..” the way Bucky said those words seemed like there was some underlying meaning to it. But you shrugged it off. Bucky can be weird sometimes You just accepted it. 

After breakfast and a very heated shower, you and Bucky dressed and got ready for work. You and he hopped into his town car and was brought to central Manhattan where you were you worked at the courthouse as a secretary for ADA Tony Stark. 

Before stepping out of the car, Bucky gave you a passionate kiss, “I love you, doll. I’ll see you later.”

You smiled at him, “Love you too. See ya!” Bucky watched as you climbed the steps of the courthouse, a fond smile on his face until you stepped into the building. Once you were out of sight, Bucky’s face changed. 

There was no warmth or love seen. Instead, there was a hard, stern, cold look, “To the club,” he said firmly and car began its journey to the east side of Brooklyn where Bucky’s strip club Winter’s Fair was located. 

Bucky walked into the place with determination, confidence, and intimidation in his eyes, “What’s the status of Rumlow’s partnership with Pym?” he asked as he approached his awaiting men. 

Steve spoke up, “Non-existent...for now. There’s been talk that Rumlow’s trying to get cozy with Pym’s new boss Hope.”

Bucky was confused, “His daughter? What happened to the old man?”

“Stepped down. He’s gettin’ old. His daughter took his place.”

Bucky nodded in approval, “Good for her, but I don’t want her getting tangled in Rumlow’s shit. She may have watched her pops but it’s different from observing to actually doing. Sam,” Bucky pointed to another friend of his. 

The dark skinned man stepped forward, dressed in a dark grey suit, “Yeah?”

“Send flowers to Hank Pym along with a nice note. Something along the lines of Happy Retirement and that if his daughter needs any help, that she could come to us. That will give us a leeway to teaming up with them.”

Steve nodded with a smirk, “Clever.” he then followed Bucky to his office, leaving the rest of the men to their tasks, “So, how’s your girl?”

“Fine. Stark’s really stressin’ her out though.”

“No news on how close he is to catchin’ ya?”

He shakes his head, “Not from what I heard from Y/N. All she says is that Stark’s been working hard on a case for the mob boss, White Wolf,” he snorted, “White Wolf. Not really sure why they call me that.”

“What’re you gonna do when Y/N finds out the White Wolf is you?”

Bucky clenched his jaw, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, Stevie.” he then sat down at his desk, ready to work.

When you arrived to your desk, your redhead coworker, Cheryl marched up to you looking in distress.

“Cher, what’s wrong?”

“Jo-Josie broke up with me.”

You immediately hugged her, “Oh, honey!”

“I-I thought everything was going okay! And then she says that I’ve become too possessive and she just dumped me! Then I see a picture of her and Reggie two days later!”

You rubbed soothing circles on her back, “Sssshhh. It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” you pulled back to wipe her tears away, “How about this? I take you to a strip club to help get your mind off her. That sound okay?”

Cheryl shrugged, “I don’t know...”

“Toni told me about Winter’s Fair down in Brooklyn. She says it’s really great, even if you’re not there for the strippers.”

The redhead sighed, “Okay.”

“Perfect!” 

You: Won’t be home until later tonight. Gonna comfort a friend after a bad break up. Love you! 

Bucky smiled whenever he received a text from you. He pocketed your phone and looked up to Steve, “Guess I’ll be working the club tonight. Y/N’s not gonna be home until later.”

Five o’clock was when the club opened. A few men and women came spilling in. Business was slow. However, once seven and eight o’clock hit, that’s when the place really came alive. People were getting off work and needed to let off some steam. So they came in for either the booze or the strippers or both. 

Bucky sat at the back of the club where the VIP section is. Him and his men all sat in a booth drinking beer, talking, laughing, and watching the stripper, Melody, dance for them. 

The mob boss’ attention was occasionally taken by you as you updated him on your location and activity. The last thing you sent was a picture of yourself in a more club worth dress. The fabric clinging onto your body, showing all your assets. He licked his lips as he typed out his response:

Bucky: damn! my baby doll lookin’ sexy as Hell!

You simply replied with a kissing emoji and Bucky went back to conversing with his friends.

After stopping by yours and Chery’s apartment to change, you both were dressed and ready to his the club. You and Cheryl sat in the uber, her head resting on your shoulder. When you arrived, you hopped out of the vehicle and waited to get inside. 

Once you entered, the place was booming with music, lights, and the occasional cheers from the audience in front of the stage. You gripped Cheryl’s hand and pulled her to the bar where you bought four tequila shots: two for you and two for Cheryl. 

“Any place you wanna sit?” 

She shook her head, “No. I’m fine here.”

You shrugged, “That’s fine.” after downing your shots, you ordered two watermelon margaritas. You two sat there, drinking and talking, Cheryl’s attention often swaying to the dancers on stage. You were impressed by them, honestly. They must’ve trained a lot for them to use all that upper body strength and make it seem so graceful.

After about an hour, you had to use the bathroom. You excused yourself and walked over to the corner where the bathroom was held. After doing your business, you exited and began to walk back to Cheryl. That is, until you heard an all too familiar laugh. 

You froze and began to look all over the place for your boyfriend. Then you spotted him in the VIP section sitting in a booth with some men and..Steve?

Feeling eyes on him, Bucky looked in your direction. His smile immediately fading. He moves to stand and you’re swiftly walking back to Cheryl, who seems to be in a pleasant conversation with a very attractive woman.

“Hey, Cher, I’m gonna be right back. Just gotta step out. The alcohol is making me feel a bit warm.”

“Oh, you want me to come with?”

You glance over to see Bucky starting to approach you, “No, that’s fine! I’ll be right back!” You then rush past the bar and out the door. The cool New York air hitting your face.

“Y/N!” you hear Bucky call out. 

You briskly walk and head into an alleyway, hoping to lose Bucky. Unfortunately, you don’t and he grabs your wrist, “Baby! Wait!”

You yank your arm from him, “What?!”

“I can explain why I was there!”

You scoffed, “Oh, I’m sure you can understand why and your buddies were drinking and staring at strippers while you’re supposed to be home!”

“This is my job!”

You looked at him confused, “What?! No, it’s not! You work at a business firm!”

“I used to. Not anymore. I-” he nervously rubs the back of his neck, “I own the club, many clubs, actually.”

“I don’t-I don’t get it. Why-Why would you lie to me about that?”

“Well-” Bucky’s explanation was cut off after hearing gunshots. He immediately peered around the corner to see Rumlow and his men waltzing into his strip club, “Shit!” he pulls out his gun from his waistband, “Stay here.”

You stop him before he rushes off, “Wait! No! What the hell! I’m not letting you get yourself killed!”

“Y/N, baby, I love you and I swear I’ll explain everything. But right now, just stay here and be safe. Okay?” he kisses your forehead and runs back to his club, gun in hand.

Part 2

[fightmewiatch]

1,000 Follower Celebration!

So, a couple months (or so) ago, I hit 1,000 followers. I know! Exciting! I’ve been struggling on my end a lot, but I knew I wanted to share something good with you guys, I just couldn’t make the brain function or the words go to make that happen, so I’ve been dragging on. That said. This is my gift to my followers! A STORY!

Pairings: Bucky x Female Reader, Steve x Female Reader, Bucky x Steve x Female Reader (Stucky x Female Reader)

AU: Not explicitly stated, I don’t think, but, mobster!Bucky

Warnings: SO MUCH FUCKING SMUT. GUYS. SERIOUSLY. IT’S JUST A THREESOME. So if you are under eighteen, DO NOT CLICK TO READ IT OR I’LL GROUND YOU. GOT IT?! 18+ only! NSFW. SMUTTY SMUTNESS.

A/N: Thank you to @n3shama for having read this before and enjoyed it, hugs love, & @bucky-plums-barnes, this is technically your fault, with your header & the pictures of Seb with rings, so I hope you enjoy this blame!

           Her legs were tucked under her on the couch, knees bumping the arm rest, as she peered over the back to watch Bucky dig a couple beers out of the fridge, pausing and chuckling at what Steve was saying, before passing him a bottle and grabbing another.

“You gonna watch a movie with us tonight, Steve?” she called, smiling as he walked in, and shrugged.

“I don’t know...Buck asked, too, I just, I don’t wanna weasel in on your night.” She chuckled, reaching out to lace her fingers with his, and pull him to the couch beside her.

“Not weaseling if you’re invited,” she insisted, smiling sweetly at him, before looking over at Bucky as he settled down on Steve’s other side. “You’re family, baby,” she reminded him, leaning against his side as he flushed a little, but hugged her, eyes darting towards Bucky, who just smiled, and hit play.

           It wasn’t a new movie, it was one they’d all watched before, but it was still a good one, a classic. Steve shifted during a love scene, almost halfway through, and she glanced over at Bucky, before she stood up, grasping her empty bottle.

“Drinks?”

“I’m good,” Steve promised, Bucky shaking his head, and she smiled, moving to the kitchen to toss the trash. She huffed a little, rolling her shoulders, before coming back out, and moving to the couch, but instead of sitting back in her seat, she glanced at Bucky, who winked at her and shifted a bit, before she pressed her knee into the cushion on one side of Steve’s leg, swinging her other leg over his lap. “Holy shit,” he jumped, hands immediately coming up away from her.

“It’s okay, Steve,” she promised, sliding her hands over his shoulders, and up to cup his head.

“Uh...y-ya know...you know Bucky is right there, and I really…”

“Steve, it’s okay, deep breath,” she insisted, her voice soft, as she rubbed her hands over his chest.

“Oh my god, I don’t wanna die.” Bucky snickered, rolling his eyes, but the sound caught Steve’s ear, and he looked over, wide-eyed, groaning as she rolled her hips against his.

“Stevie,” she murmured, leaning in, and brushing her lips against the corner of his mouth. “You’re not gonna die.”

“My boss is gonna shoot me, sweetheart,” he whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut as she took his hands, and pressed them against her hips.

“Steve, if you were gonna get shot, I wouldn’t be in your lap,” she pointed out, her lips curling up. “And, I’m certainly not about to be the reason he shoots you. You are way too pretty for that.” Steve cleared his throat, looking at her in surprise, before glancing at Bucky, who shrugged.

“We talked, man. This is okay.”

“Are...I mean, really? This isn’t some test?” he asked, eyes following as Bucky stood up, and moved behind her, his hands sliding around her waist to tug her shirt up. Her hips rolled again, making Steve groan once more, as Bucky peeled her shirt over her head, fingers dragging her hair off her shoulder as he met Steve’s eye, leaning down to kiss her skin while keeping eye contact.

“No test...she looks so good, doesn’t she?” he purred, tossing her shirt, and sliding his hands over her chest as her eyes fluttered, her hands clenching against Steve’s chest. God, his cock ached in his jeans, as Bucky smirked, and bounced his eyebrows at him. “Don’t you wanna touch her, Steve?”

“...I…”

“C’mon, Steve,” she whimpered, biting her lip as Bucky pinched her nipple between his fingers. “Have a little fun with us, nothing you aren’t comfortable with,” she promised, almost breathless.

           Bucky moved his head from her shoulder, sliding back a little, as Steve groaned, and lurched forward, capturing her lips roughly against his own. She moaned, her arms looping around his shoulders, as she rolled her hips down against his. Bucky lowered himself to the table behind her, his hand sliding across her back, as their tongues tangled together, his fingers clutching at her sides.

           When Steve finally trailed his lips over her throat, she rolled her head back, panting and whining, as Bucky leaned in, nipping at her other ear.

“I bet you are so wet, babygirl,” he purred, smirking as she moaned, and nodded, fingers clutching at Steve’s short hair. “Bedroom?”

“Please.” Steve lifted his head to see Bucky, unsure, but the man just nodded, and motioned down the hall, so, shifting, Steve stood, her legs curling around his waist. She clung to him, panting in his ear, dragging her tongue across his jaw and his throat until they made it to the bedroom, and he dumped her onto the mattress as he kicked off his shoes.

           With a wicked grin, she crawled to the end of the bed, tugging quickly at his belt, and shoving his jeans off his hips, rucking up his shirt as she kissed his stomach. The groan in his throat rumbled through his abdomen, fingers tugging his shirt off.

“You should lie on the bed, Steve,” Bucky chuckled, curling his hand around Josie’s head, and pulling her towards him, kissing her softly before nipping her lip. “You good?”

“Oh yeah,” she murmured, smiling. “You?”

“Oh yeah.” Bucky smirked, nudging her back towards their companion, as he stripped his clothes off, dropping every last piece to the floor.

          Giggling, she turned, crawling up Steve’s body, trailing wet kisses over his chest until she reached his mouth, her hair falling in her face as she sealed her lips over his. Bucky’s hands were large, warm, but gentle, as he helped her out of her shorts, tossing the items as he slid his hand between her thighs. The moan that fell from her lips as he dragged his finger over her clit made Steve’s hips jerk, before he let his head fall back, lips parting from hers.

“Fuck, baby...can I...can I taste you?” he asked, and Bucky chuckled, leaning in to kiss her back as she chuckled, and nodded, kissing him once more before she moved off his waist, biting her lip as she crawled above him, her hands grabbing the headboard. “Fuck, look at you...so fucking wet, baby, you’re dripping. Bucky…?”

“I’m sure, man...only thing you can’t do is fuck her,” Bucky replied, shaking his head, and Steve, with another groan, hooked both hands around her thighs, pulling her down and burying his mouth against her cunt.

           Her head fell back with a high moan, something that made Bucky stop and groan, as Steve plunged his tongue into her pussy, before flicking it over her clit, and dragging it flat over her core. Bucky slid his hands over his friends hips, leaning down to kiss Josie’s side.

“Gonna get your boxers off.” Steve hummed in acknowledgement, not breaking from eating her out as she rocked her hips against his hands, his beard scratching up her thighs, and moaned. Smirking, Bucky tugged his boxers off, turning to toss them, too, before he climbed onto the bed, and straddled Steve’s waist, leaning forward to kiss her shoulder.

“Oh my god,” she whined, leaning back a bit, as Bucky bit her shoulder, his hands smooth over her sides. His fingers teased her breasts, pulling a harder moan from her throat, but as soon as he pinched her nipples, Steve moaned, pulling her a little closer, and making her shoot one hand back to find Bucky’s hair, whining. “Oh god, he feels so good.”

“Good as me?” he purred, as she hiccuped a giggle.

“Closer than anyone, but no one is as good as y-oh fuck,” she choked out, her legs trembling. Bucky moaned, pinching her nipples again, and nipping at her ear.

“‘She’s close, Steve, c’mon...make her cum on your tongue...do it, baby, make a mess of his face,” he moaned into her ear. She lurched forward, her knuckles going white on the headboard, and with a few more licks, and a few more teasing touches to her chest, she sobbed out, head falling forward, body trembling. Bucky hooked his arms around her waist, pulling her off Steve’s face, smirking as she moaned at the sight of his beard glistening beneath her.

“Fuck, she tastes so fuckin’ good,” Steve moaned, a little hoarse, as he kissed her thigh, and shifted to sit up, reaching out to touch her waist.

“She really fucking does,” Bucky agreed, kissing her throat. “You good baby?”

“One second,” she chuckled, reaching out and pulling Steve in for a kiss, flicking her tongue against his lips and moaning softly at the taste of herself.

“Shit,” Steve mumbled as she pulled back, panting. “How d’you get anything done man,” Steve commented, as Bucky grinned, shrugging.

“It’s really fucking hard when all I can think about is bending her over the desk and fucking her until she cries.” Her hips jerked forward, whine on her lips, as Steve reached down, rubbing his fingers over her clit. “You want my cock, doll?”

“Fuck yes, baby, gimme y’r cock,” she gasped, as she rocked her hips on Steve’s hand.

          Steve looked back at Bucky, moving his hand away from her, but just as she started to whine, he shifted back a little more, reaching out for her as Bucky pushed her forward onto her hands and knees. The blunt head of his cock rubbing against her folds made her moan, as she dropped her head, her teeth digging into her lip as he pressed into her tight heat, hand rubbing against her back. Without needing to be told, Steve leaned down, slipping his hand back between her thighs to tease her clit.

          The sounds that fell from her lips as she thrust back against Bucky’s hips, his cock stretching her and filling her so well, made Steve whine a bit, reaching down to grip the base of his cock.

“C’mon, baby, treat our guest, hmm?” Bucky murmured, as she huffed, glancing over her shoulder at him. “God, you feel so good on my cock,” he groaned, thrusting in a little harder as she moaned, lurching forward, her hand coming up to brace herself on Steve’s chest. The push knocked his hand from her clit, but it nudged him back enough as she leaned down, immediately wrapping her lips around his cock.

“Oh fuck, your mouth, baby.” She hummed, eyes rolling up with a moan as Bucky began working her clit with his fingers. Steve tangled his fingers in her hair as she nodded, and moaned, massaging her tongue against the vein on his cock, and swirling her tongue around the tip as he dropped his head back and bucked his hips. “Fuck.”

“C’mon, Steve, cum for me,” she begged him, panting, her own moans pitching higher as Bucky pulled her closer to her second orgasm. Steve lifted his head, lips parting to say, fuck, anything, but the second he saw her take his whole thick cock in his mouth, he hiccupped, hips jerking, and came, fingers tightening in her hair as she lifted up to capture his cum, swallowing every drop. The sight of it made Bucky moan out her name, the sound falling off his lips like a prayer, as he worked her, a little harder, a little faster, just a few more thrusts before she dropped her head against Steve’s thigh with another sob and came, body shaking, cunt tightening around Bucky’s cock as she milked his cum out of him. He slumped over her, hips stuttering against hers, before he finally, huffing, pulled out, rubbing her back.

“God, she’s so fucking perfect,” Steve panted, helping Bucky move her so he could move up, and sit beside him. With a soft whine, ignoring her trembling limbs, she leaned up, kissing Steve, before moving between Bucky’s thighs and kissing him, too, moaning as he slid his tongue against hers.

“How’re you feelin, doll?”

“So fucking good, oh my god,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath. Bucky chuckled, and kissed her again, his hand warm on her jaw, as she kissed him back, smiling into it. “You two still good?” she asked, leaning her forehead on Bucky’s, but reaching out to scratch Steve’s bare chest, as he smirked, and nodded.

“I’m good.”

“Me too, baby,” Bucky promised, kissing her ear. She kissed him again, her lips pulling at his bottom lip, before pulling back, smirking, and tugged Steve in, kissing him too, until he was leaning towards them to press back into the kiss. She pulled back, biting her lip, and pulled them both closer, brow quirked.

           Any other day, any other person, any other time in his existence, Bucky would have made a face and stopped whatever he was doing. But they had talked about this, they had promised to try these things. With a small smirk on his face, he leaned over, his hand covering Steve’s jaw, and parted his lips, tongue slipping between Steve’s as they opened in surprise. Steve moaned, eyes falling shut, and kissed Bucky back, his hand scratching down Bucky’s chest. She smirked, lip between her teeth, as she pulled away from them a bit, shifting her knees beneath her as she leaned over, and dragged her tongue over Bucky’s ear. His groan into Steve’s mouth made both of their cocks twitch, as she grinned.

“He’s got such a pretty cock, baby,” she murmured, teeth grazing his earlobe, before she took his hand, and wrapped his fingers around Steve’s cock. The man groaned, jaw dropping open with the sound, as Bucky capturing his bottom lip with his teeth, nibbling as he pumped his hand over Steve’s cock.

“Oh, fuck, Buck,” he moaned, tugging Bucky to make the man move closer. She shifted on the bed again, dragging her teeth over Steve’s ear.

“C’mon, darling,” she purred, “touch his cock. It’s perfect, so thick, so long.” Moan rumbling in his chest, Steve dragged his fingers over Bucky’s chest, until he could grasp Bucky’s cock in his hand, making the man whine, a sound neither of them had really ever heard before. It made Josie moan, and shift towards the foot of the bed, her hand dipping between her thighs, two fingers sliding into her cunt, as she watched them.

           She wasn’t sure anything matched the sight of Steve pumping his hand over Bucky’s cock, his head falling back with a moan, as Bucky attacked his throat with nips and licks, his own fist working Steve’s cock. She worked her fingers in and out of her own pussy, her other hand teasing her chest, lip between her teeth, but god, watching them was like a whole new experience.

           If she had the control, she would have let them cum all over each other. Fuck, she really wanted to, watching their hips jerk to meet the hands around their cocks, precum leaking from their tips. When she felt the coil winding up, she whimpered, sliding her fingers out of her cunt with a moan, and moved up, straddling Steve’s thighs, her fingers tangling in Bucky’s hair.

“Hey,” she murmured, leaning down to catch his lips as he lifted his head to see her. “Can we change the rules?” she whispered, dragging her nails over Steve’s chest as he groaned, and looked up at her, pupils blown wide.

“Which one?” The way she wriggled her hips on Steve’s lap made him sigh, but not out of exasperation, out of pleasure, lips tilting up as he nodded. He leaned in, grazing his teeth against Steve’s ear. “You wanna feel her cunt around your cock?”

           Oh that groan was so perfect, as he looked over, stunned.

“You sure?”

“You gotta wear a condom, but I wanna see you fuck her…” Bucky moaned, flicking his tongue over Steve’s earlobe as the man whined. “I wanna see your cock in her tight cunt before I fuck her, too.”

           How Steve didn’t blow right then, they’d never know, but he nodded, frantic, as she leaned in to kiss him, and dig a condom out of the drawer. She trailed her lips over his chest, shifting back on his legs to give him room to lie down, before she rolled the condom over his cock, nipping at his abdomen before she straddled his lap.

“You ready, Steve?” she murmured, and he nodded, turning his head to pull Bucky down and kiss him again. She smiled, biting her lip, as Steve reluctantly released Bucky’s cock so he could plant both hands on her hips, lips and tongue sliding against Bucky’s as she lowered herself onto his cock, her head falling back on a deep moan. He dropped from the kiss, brow furrowed, panting.

“Oh fuck, baby, still so fucking tight, squeezin’ me like a fuckin’ vice.” She moaned, her hands falling to the bed beside his shoulders, but when he wrapped his lips around her nipple, she bucked her hips, crying out his name. Bucky moaned, scratching his hand over Steve’s hair, before moving around behind his girl, rustling around in the drawer until he grabbed the bottle of lube.

           Watching Steve thrust up into her was not something Bucky ever expected he would do. Hell, most of this night was something he never expected he would do. But the sounds she was making, the way it all felt so far? He couldn’t fathom why they hadn’t tried this sooner.

           Rubbing his clean hand over her back, he nudged her forward, watching Steve curl his arms around her so she was flush to his chest, before Bucky reached down, carefully adding one finger, and then two, into her cunt alongside Steve’s cock. Both of them moaned, needy, but Bucky didn’t rush, working her until she was stretched enough, before coating his cock liberally, and pressing in alongside Steve’s thick member.

“Oh holy shit,” he gasped, as she buried her face in Steve’s shoulder, sobbing out. “You okay?”

“God, fucking fill me,” she gasped wetly against his skin. “Want it, both, so bad, fuck me,” she begged him, as he moaned, hips jerking.

“Fuck, I’m not gonna fuckin’ last,” Bucky panted, eyes lifting as Steve shook his head.

“Me either, man, I’m about to fuckin’ burst.” Bucky planted his hands on the bed on either side of Steve, leaning down to pin her between them, stretching his neck enough to brush his lips over Steve’s. Steve groaned, kissing him back, flicking his tongue out against Bucky’s, before they started rocking, carefully, into her.

           Her needy sobs turned into wanton moans, nails dragging over the bedding as she panted out their names like it was the only thing she knew how to say. Bucky sucked a mark into her back, teeth and tongue rough over her skin, as Steve sucked a hickey on her throat. Fuck, the friction of Bucky’s cock against his inside her, he couldn’t hold out much longer, head falling back on the.

“F...fuck, Buck, I’m gonna cum,” he groaned, hips jerking two, three more times, before he spurted into the condom, hands grasping hard to her hips to work her on his cock as she moaned, eyes rolling back.

          Bucky’s hand worked between them, fingers flicking over her clit only a couple of times before she sobbed out, clenching around them. God, Steve almost couldn’t handle it, eyes crossing as he came harder, at the feeling of her clenching around him, and of Bucky as he came alongside him, too. The sounds in the room were nothing but pleasure, moans, groans, pants, whimpers, it was pure bliss, even with the soft whimper as Bucky slid out of her, hand rubbing soothingly over her back, and Steve slid out, too.

          Her body slumped down against Steve’s arm, too fucked out to think beyond laying down, but she did smile when Bucky, despite his heaving chest, kissed her softly, and then moved to kiss Steve, gently taking the condom from him, and tossing it into the can by the bed. Without a word, he moved on shaky legs to turn off the light, before tugging the blanket up, and climbing in behind her. Steve sighed, squeezing her hand, and rolled, shifting to sit up, grunting when she tugged him back.

“Baby?” he murmured, as Bucky wrapped his arm around her, kissing her shoulder as he smiled at Steve.

“Too late...too tired...you stay.”

“...oh...I...no, I couldn’t.”

“You can, man,” Bucky replied, sleepily. “She won’t be happy if you don’t.” It was strange, he knew, wanting their third party to share the bed - not one partner he had ever brought back to the room ever stayed, but he knew he was different than the man he was before, who used to do that to her. Those women were his choice, she just went along with it, desperate back then to keep him happy. Steve was their choice, and he wasn’t some stranger. He was their friend. And they were both happy, regardless.

“...are you sure?” Whimpering, she tugged his hand, until he was back on the bed beside her, fingers laced with hers.

“Bucky’s my blanket...y’r my pillow.” The boys laughed at how fucking exhausted she sounded, but honestly, they were just as wiped, as she wriggled her back against Bucky’s chest, squeezing Steve’s hand again.

“G’night, darling,” Steve told her softly, kissing her hand, as Bucky patted his chest and kissed her shoulder. “Night, Buck.”

“Night, Steve...g’night, doll.”

“Night boys.”

Buy me a coffee?

[avengers-r-us]

25 EMAILS [4]

Summary: You have written Sebastian Stan 24 emails over the years, none of them sent and all of them drafts. As you start to gain popularity as an actress, you get the chance to meet Sebastian. You exchange emails and decide to take the plunge and email him. Instead of sending him one email however, you send him all of the past 24 embarrassing emails.

Pairing: Seb x reader

Warnings: None

To:sebastianstansrealemail@ gmail.com

From:thisistherealthisismey/n@gmail.com

Subject: MEME QUEEN

Dear Mr Stan,

My friend Josie just sent me a few of the funniest memes and I thought I might share them with you.

Lots of memes, y/n x

Attachment:

MASTERLIST

Tags: @cevanstann @easytransformations​ @learisa @justcasualdeebarnes @endofthefuckingfangirl @justhappydays  @c-a-v-a-l-r-y  @m-xrphineinjectixns @buckysforeverprincess @yourwonderbelle  @raventt5-bb

Thank you all for the support, if you want to be added to the tag list just send me an ask :)

[amorremanet]

Well, today, I slapped together several playlists about my loser nerd OC’s and some of their relationships, and was reminded in stereo of just how painfully questionable my taste in music sometimes is. ………Yay?

[jinjagi]

Tag game

Sorry kids I love these things and I have jack shite to do now I’ve got my exam results back lmao

I was tagged by the lovely @thorcdinsson and @zadyalyss

Rules: Answer 30 questions and then tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better.

Nicknames: my real name is Anna-Josie so I get the occasional AJ from people who think they’re funny

Gender: Female

Star Sign: Scorpio

Height: 5′4″

Time: 4.45pm

DOB: Nov ‘98

Favorite Bands: LANY, the 1975, arizona, the maine, mumford and sons, bon iver, lumineers, harbour

Favorite Solo Artists: John Mayer, SZA, blackbear, chris stapleton, shawn mendes, jeff buckley (weird combo I know)

Song Stuck In My Head: The Weekend by SZA

Last Movie I Watched: Hacksaw Ridge

Last TV Show I Watched: Parks and rec

When Did I Create My Blog?: 2013 - after 2+ years of multi-fandom carnage and then a year long hiatus I was reborn as ivartrash about a month ago

What Do I Post?: vikings, got, lotr, marvel and lots of seb stan recently, favourite actors/actresses

Last Thing I Googled: the skarsgard family, my friend recently fell in love w alexander and i had to break it to her that he’s only my 4th favourite skarsgard

Do I Have Other Blogs?: narp

Do I Get Asks?: yaaaaah and they make my day<3 

Why Did I Choose My URL?: sums me up

Following: +1000

Followers: 886

Favorite Colors: blue and green

Average Hours of Sleep: 7

Lucky Number: 11

Instruments: used to play saxophone lmao

What Am I Wearing?: john mayer tour tshirt and dick me down shorts yeah u know the ones

How Many Blankets I Sleep With: 1

Dream Job: screenwriter / director

Dream Trip: Copenhagen or Canada

Favorite Food: not picky about what I chuck down the pie hole

Nationality: English thru n thru (apart from that quarter swedish lol)

Favorite Song As of Now: Hericane by LANY / 8TEEN by Khalid / Prom by SZA

Tagging: @noaor @kristabec @inhoemane @xchaoticbloodx @what-a-fuckin-nerd @sargebrnes bc I wanna get to know y’all better (if u wanna) and I’ll also tag anyone who is bored or has too much time on their hands like me x

[amorremanet]

Things I did tonight: blah blah writing, and then also screwing around with some of those, ”toggle the settings to make the dolls look like however you want them” to put together images for some of my loser nerd OC’s

Headshots (L to R, top to bottom): Sebastian, Josie, Pete, Stephen (who got screwed by the lack of body type diversity in these games because he’s supposed to be fat with an undercut and a fondness for cute pink shirts), Lucy, Sara Grace — and the twosome shot is of Seb and Pete, because loser nerd best friends are perpetually my aesthetic, even when that game doesn’t have a lot of variety in clothing choice

Josie would be the token blonde, if they didn’t dye their hair, but their hair hasn’t been its natural color since they were like thirteen. Stephen only looks calm and composed because he’s not currently trying to tell a joke and laughing at his own punchline before he gets it out. Also, I did make little ones for Margot and Todd, but I didn’t like how they came out, so here we are

[amorremanet]

Lucy for the oc meme if you're still doing it :)

oc profiles meme!

*facepalms @ me* I apparently really suck at remembering to fill in my placeholders before clicking post because I get too excited about clicking “post,” this is the second time that’s happened

Full Name: Lucia Raven Murphy.

Lucy is one of my kids who got stuck having a Significant Name in universe, because unfortunately for her, her parents liked significant names. (Not quite as much as Sebastian’s entire family, but… it’s kinda hard to top them without getting into, “James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna” territory.)

Anyway. Lucy’s parents picked, “Lucia” for Saint Lucia of Syracuse, one of the early Christian female martyrs who went, “Mmm, pass” at the non-Christian dude she was betrothed to because of Jesus reasons and wound up getting killed for it, who is traditionally invoked against blindness and eye disease, but also against, “spiritual blindness” because the Catholic Church loves playing on concepts like that — one of the things I remember from Sunday school basically went, “Saint Lucy lost her sight but it gave her better insight into spiritual matters because of Jesus.”

One of Saint Lucia’s other claims to fame is that Dante invoked her throughout the Divine Comedy, and she was one of the saints in Heaven whom Beatrice went to in search of help to go save Dante’s self-insert from himself. This reference was 500% intentional, on the part of Lucy’s Mom.

And the in-universe significance of, “Raven” is that it was one of her Grandmothers’ middle names, but the meta significance is that I meant to use Mystique’s given name as a placeholder until I found a different middle name for Lucy, but then I really liked how, “Lucia Raven Murphy” rolled off the tongue and had to make up an in-character reason for it because Lucy’s parents were big on significantly significant names.

They named her big brother Damian Alexander Murphy, after one of his grandfathers (Grandpa Alex is one of Damian’s least favorite family members) and the Saint Damian of the brother pair, Saints Cosmas and Damian, the Holy Unmercernaries, who are traditionally invoked by physicians, pharmacists, surgeons, apothecaries, and veterinarians, and for protection against pestilence and plague.

Damian has still not lived down the fact that he got the, “we want our kid to go to medical school” name, but Lucy is the one who actually wanted that, herself. (Not that she wound up going down the med school track, but she did consider it very seriously and for a couple years before deciding that she liked the sound of public health advocacy better.)

Gender and Sexuality: Cis girl. // Lesbian.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers.

Species/Race & Ethnicity: Human (mutant). // White, and if you ask her, she will claim to have no idea what her background is beyond, “I don’t know? White?”

She does this specifically because it annoys her parents and the one uncle who happens to be a priest. Lucy knows damn well that her family is mostly Irish.

Birthplace and Birthdate: November 21st, 1992. // Baltimore, MD.

Guilty Pleasures: Lucy would tell you that she doesn’t have guilty pleasures because, as part of her project of giving the Catholic church a massive, “Fuck you” for a laundry list of reasons, she does not believe in guilty pleasures. Sadly, and unfortunately for her, the Catholic guilt is not actually that easy to shake, and Lucy definitely has guilty pleasures.

Just, for her, they’re usually guilty pleasures because she feels like she’s supposed to be, “above” this or “better than” this, or she’s not supposed to like these things because she’s an adult now, right? And these are kid stuff things, so she shouldn’t be liking them anymore.

For an incomplete list: the High School Musical movies.

Scooby Doo cartoons. All of them. Even the ones that heavily feature Scrappy Doo. Even A Pup Named Scooby Doo.

Carnival games. Lucy knows damn well that they’re rigged, but they get her almost every time, because dkffjfh, she’s REALLY going to get it this time, okay.

Similarly: skill cranes.

You know the episode of Spongebob where Squidward gets obsessed with playing the skill crane and ends up giving Mr. Krabs everything he has, in exchange for more quarters, so he can play the skill crane, and drives himself into the ground with it?

Yeah, that’s why Lucy isn’t allowed to play skill cranes

Because there is precedent that suggests that she could all too easily end up doing essentially that

The old Gameboy Color that she used to steal from Damian, because it was technically his and it was more fun to play with his than to play with her own, because she got to feel like she was super-sneaky and cool (and because it made her big brother actually pay attention to her, even if it was to go, “brat, that is MY Gameboy, you have your own”).

She still has her own old Gameboy, too, but it’s more fun to play with Damian’s.

Either way, some of her favorite games on it are:

the first and second gen Pokémon games

(because she was the right age to be part of the target audience for Gold/Silver/Crystal, but she also wanted to take Damian’s copies of Red/Blue/Yellow, for the same reason why she took his Gameboy).

The Pokémon TCG for Gameboy thing.

Tetris (which usually involves a lot of yelling wordlessly, but vaguely in tune with the theme music).

Frogger.

Link’s Awakening DX, and the Oracle games.

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

Centipede and Millipede, and Space Invaders (the old arcade games that are older than Lucy, put on a Gameboy cartridge because why not).

The Powerpuff Girls trio of games.

and Super Mario Land.

In addition to the whole, “this is kid stuff for children and I’m supposed to be an adult“ thing, Lucy sometimes feels guilty about her Gameboy because when she gets really overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS, she wants to be doing something, but if she can’t handle doing actual, real-world somethings now, she’ll go zone out with her Gameboy for a while, which will feel better to her than doing nothing…

…right up until she starts berating herself for being okay enough to fight Whitney’s Miltank or get through a few levels of Tetris, but not enough to do something for real

And it’s not a guilty pleasure at all (most of the time), but if the Gameboy coping strategy doesn’t work, then Lucy becomes the person who goes jogging when she’s upset, except for when it kinda stops being, “jogging” and starts being, “running until she feels like she’s going to pass out because she might”

Phobias: Not being good enough (this is one of the big ones for her, and there isn’t really an answer to, “good enough for what or whom, exactly?” because there will be either thousands of answers all at once, or none whatsoever because Lucy is fixated on the general, overall sentiment right now).

Not living life to the fullest or achieving her full potential or doing everything that she wants to do in life

Her Dad — but to be more specific: she’s afraid of letting him down (and kind of hates that she’s afraid of letting him down, because she knows that he’s a homophobic douchebag who may not have been an outright abusive father but certainly has not been exemplary, either, and she knows that she’d probably be better off if she stopped caring what he thought, and she’s kinda tried, but it’s been rough going and she’s gotten a whole lot of nothing for it);

she’s afraid of both what might happen if he finds out that she’s a lesbian, and of the possibility that he might die without knowing, which would mean that she never gets the chance to confront him about it and fight that dragon ever again — and on the off-chance that he didn’t just cut her out of his life (since, sadly, we are talking about a guy for whom, “well, at least he doesn’t believe in reparative therapy anymore”), then she’d end up missing out on the time they could’ve had without that secret hanging over everything;

and she’s afraid of what her Dad means to her and of what it might mean that she can find him reprehensible on several counts, and acknowledge the chance that he could very well turn on his own daughter and erase her from his life, or his conscious daily life anyway, and yet, she does still love him and care what he thinks and want to not let him down

and extraterrestrial life — but not in that she fears an invasion, exactly? Lucy would probably actually welcome an invasion by extraterrestrial aliens, because then she’d be right and they’d be out there for real, and that would be cool…… but in the big picture sense where she doesn’t really deal with it every day but when it does crop up, it derails whatever else she’s doing very easily? She’s afraid of the possibility that aliens are real, but they just don’t want anything to do with humans

Were that the case, Lucy supposes that she could see why and all…… but it would still suck, and think about how much we’d all be missing out on with the aliens, all because we just had to be a bunch of shit-sticks to each other

What They Would Be Famous For: This answer is starting to feel a little bit repetitive, but…… I mean. Lucy’s going to be part of a team of heroes who get together because they just want to do some real good in the world and help people, but then stumble into fighting a shadowy cabal of neo-fascist super-villains (most of whom have their own shiny cool mutant superpowers, though some of them do not and get treated as if they’re, like…… pets, more than people and full team members).

If that hadn’t happened, though, Lucy probably wouldn’t get famous and she’d be okay with that. But if she did get famous without superpowers, it’d probably be due to rabble-rousing in Washington, D.C., or being particularly loud and obnoxious in order to draw people’s attention onto the public health crises and causes that she would’ve thrown herself behind.

She probably would’ve wound up making a lot of enemies, in that way, or at least getting on the bad sides of several people — and to be fair, she’s going to end up on the bad sides of a few choice douchebags anyway — but if she’d stayed on the public health advocacy track instead of the superhero track, she would’ve definitely had a Leslie Knope moment of saying something like, “What I hear, when I’m being yelled at, is people caring loudly at me.”

What They Would Get Arrested For: Breaking and entering, trespassing, unlawful surveillance, assault maybe — basically, a lot of shit that most vigilante superheroes should be getting arrested for (and that Lucy only won’t be getting arrested for because she has a team of people who care about her enough to go, “Sweetie, no. You don’t have your license yet. If you really care about the work and the helping, and not just about running headlong into doing ALL THE THINGS because you’re bored? Then you won’t risk getting arrested just to go out there right now, unlicensed”)

OCs You Ship Them With: Lucy has Sara Grace, her girlfriend, and I don’t know if they’re going to be endgame or not, but if they’re not, then it’s going to be because they’re 22 and 23, and just getting out into the world after going to college, so growing up happens, and it’s not fun, but…… Sometimes, people can love each other and still not work out best for themselves and each other in a romantic relationship (which is pretty much Seb/Todd in a nutshell, too, right down to them having first met each other in college).

But the Lucy/Sara Grace relationship, if it doesn’t go all the way to endgame, is not going to be broken up because one of them died, because that’s rubbish and I’d rather not because it’s more fun for me to write about people who love each other trying to work through difficult times, and maybe coming out of them not loving each other romantically anymore, but without the whole, “bury your lesbians” thing because

I mean

Are we done with that trope, or are we done with that trope

Anyway. If not Sara Grace, then I’ve also been shipping Lucy with Layla, Antoinette (which would be really complicated, in a potentially bad way, because she’s kind of with the villains, for all she’s one of the ones who could be redeemed or at least brought around to work for the non-villainous side, since Annie mostly got dragged into this because of her family… but still), Helena (which would also be complicated, but mostly by virtue of Helena being one of the All-Stars — and no, she’s not one of the big movers and shakers on that team, but she’s still on the team of superheroes who have a reality show and that does tend to complicate things)

aaaaand a little bit with Allison, though that one is more like, “Lucy had a crush on Allison for a while, but pursuing any kind of romantic relationship would’ve been awkward, because first, Allison was one of her big brother’s best friends, and then, Allison was Damian’s girlfriend, and now, Allison and Damian are engaged, soooo…”

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Conrad will probably try, on the grounds that he, “wants to believe in her potential, but then suffers through watching her squander it” (which is his way of saying, “ugh why don’t you just want to give up on doing good things or helping people and come be a super-powered neo-fascist, uggggggggh”), but I already know that he’s not allowed to win that one because I’ve got other plans for both him and Lucy.

And, as with most of the people on the main team, Senator Huntington will want Lucy dead, but he isn’t going to go after her himself. He will send people after her, sure, but he hasn’t done his own dirty work since about 1984, and he has no intentions of starting it up again now.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Science-fiction. All the science-fiction (and probably an ensuing round of, “but do the aliens believe in me” and, “what if aliens ARE real but we haven’t found them because they think we’re a bunch of fuck ups and no one else in the universe wants anything to do with us”).

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliches: Protagonist-centered morality.

Edgy mcedgelord grimdark antiheroes who are all like, “rawr, I am so doing what needs to be done and therefore I am morally justified in acting like a douchebag and doing all of these skeevy-ass things and raaaawr, fuck you that’s why, I think I’m the goddamn Batman, but like all of the stories where Bruce Wayne is at his worst, or maybe like that run in the 90’s where Jean-Paul Valley got to be Batman because Bruce was busy having a broken spine, thanks to Bane.”

Lucy is just kind of averse to people acting like edgy mcedgelords in general

She has been for a long time, like. When Damian was in his early to mid teens, and Lucy was about five to nine, she was right there, getting on her cranky goth trash edgy mcedgelord big brother’s case and being all, “Yeah right, blah blah blah, the darkness in the depth of your soul truly knows no bounds, that’s totally why you turned into a big dumb puddle of mush because Allison’s new cat likes you. Calm down, edgelord.”

There’s a reason why she got, “if i were a drink i’d be a cherry vanilla coke / if you were a drink what would you be / everyone’s like, ‘bleach’ or ‘sewage’ please calm down edgelords” on the textpost meme

And that reason is that Lucy doesn’t have much patience for it when people start acting like edgelords

This can be sort of hypocritical of her, sometimes, but not that often, and if she’s going to have an edgy mcedgelord moment, she’ll usually preface it by going, “At the risk of sounding like I’m trying too hard to be edgy…” or similar

Torture being not only condoned but treated as if it’s actually effective at doing anything but causing pain and traumatizing people into telling you what you want to hear, whether it’s true or not — just…… don’t go there.

Do not try to justify torture to Lucy.

Because she’s done her homework and she knows that it doesn’t actually work, so anyone who engages in torture is just violating human rights and civil liberties for no freaking reason, and excuse you but no. She does not believe that the only way to uphold and protect your ideals and values is to violate them in one of the worst ways that you can possibly violate them.

She may not actually argue her case very well in the heat of the moment, because she is very passionate about this and about how Torture Is Straight-Up Wrong, Period, End of Discussion, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, and it’s really easy for Lucy to lose track of a logical argument when she’s wound up

But she will, however, tap into pathos pretty well and make an argument that makes people feel bad for even thinking of supporting torture, because for having such a problem with her Catholic upbringing over the entire thing of Catholic guilt? Lucy is pretty good at sending someone on a guilt-trip

While she will acquiesce that he is not a trope, Lucy can’t stand Deadpool. She doesn’t think he’s funny, she doesn’t think that he’s saying anything particularly insightful or constructive or fun, and if you’re going to be a satire of your genre that doesn’t contribute to the discussion but rather mocks the discussion and makes fun of literally everyone having it, then the least you could do is be enjoyable in your pointlessness.

Lucy is annoyed by hipsters, poststructuralism, dada, and Deadpool, who is, to her, the worst possible conflagration of the other three things on that list, except dressed in red spandex and annoying the shit out of her.

(This is really only relevant because: 1. I’m watching Deadpool right now, and 2. at least two of her teammates think Deadpool is cool and fun, and she is judging you so hard right now, Petebastian. Why are you like this. Why.)

And Lucy says that she hates forced love triangles in stories that did not need to have love triangles — she would point at The Hunger Games series as an example — but the reality is less that she objects to the love triangles, and more that she’s just not a fan of the two boys involved, but if the love triangle were between three girls (like, Johanna/Katniss/Madge, in this example), then she’d be all over it.

Talents and/or Powers: Well, non-superpower talents first. Lucy is a go-getter and while her rousing speeches have room to get better (because, y’know… she’s 23, and has more time to learn about the art of the rousing speech), she’s getting good at giving rousing speeches. She’s almost always ready, willing, and eager to get out in the world and try absolutely everything.

If you have her on your team for a competition like, “who can sell the most raffle tickets,” then you stand a good chance of winning, because she has dedication, enthusiasm, and persistence, plus a few of the Gifts of Gab (they aren’t really her strongest suit, but she is pretty good at them).

She’s also good at scavenger hunts, for a few reasons, one of which is the way that she’s totally cool with trying to scale the side of a building, or going and digging around in a muddy field on her hands and knees, or going and bothering strangers at the mall to pose for some ridiculous selfie with her, and so on — like, whatever weird scavenger hunt shit you can throw at her (or weird shit in non-scavenger hunt contexts), Lucy is here for it because that sounds fun and heck yes, she’d love to do it

She does have a problem of needing to learn better from the past and from previous mistakes (whether they’re hers or other people’s), but the flip-side of that problem is that Lucy doesn’t usually let setbacks get her down. She should let them get her down just a little bit more, so that she can learn from them a bit better, but…… well.

When people are yelling at her, she hears them caring loudly at her, and when things go wrong, Lucy will do her damnedest to find some way to turn this messy situation into something useful and constructive, and and then drag it into the realm of Good Things, kicking and screaming if necessary. Also, she’s 23 and she’s learning, and despite having some real world and real life experiences, she’s still naive about a lot of things, so… yeah. She’s learning.

And now for the superpowers

Lucy’s most notable power is hemokinesis — which is the term that I’m using because, “blood-bending” doesn’t really work outside the world of ATLA, where it actually makes sense as a term, but that’s the gist of it.

The ATLA conception of blood-bending is also inaccurate for Lucy because their blood-bending works by having the water-benders manipulate the water in someone’s blood, which is a really neat concept, but as Lucy learns more about how to control her powers, she’s going to learn that she has control over more than just the water in someone’s blood

For example: one of the applications of her hemokinesis that she’s going to rely on a lot is manipulating platelets in order to make smaller wounds scab over quicker. (In the case of larger wounds, she’s going to have to learn how to simulate the outer walls of ruptured blood vessels by directing blood-flow in certain directions, and then how to stimulate the body’s regeneration of the different kinds of blood cells.)

(The latter power is going to make her go, “!!!!!!!” when she learns that she can do it because OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. SHE NEEDS SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD AND WILLING TO LET HER DO THIS, COME ON, WE NEED TO GO TO THE RED CROSS RIGHT NOW AND DONATE ALL THE BLOOD, BLOOD BANKS ARE PERPETUALLY IN NEED AND LUCY CAN USE HER POWERS TO GENERATE BLOOD SO COME ON YOU GUYS, SERIOUSLY. SEB, PETE, YOUR TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO NOT BE AN ISSUE SO CAN YOU JUST LIE AND PLEASE PRETEND YOU DON’T HAVE SEX WITH GUYS, AND SEB PRETEND THAT YOU’VE BEEN CLEAN FOR AT LEAST A YEAR, FOR THE SAKE OF THIS, IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT.)

(strictly speaking, both of them would do so, since neither of them has hepatitis or HIV, and they agree that this is important… but Lucy’s argument would work better on Seb before he learns that he’s a mutant.

Once he learns that, though, he would need to be sat down and given a thorough powerpoint presentation about how… yes, he has a healing factor, and yes, he would definitely be dead if he didn’t have it, with everything he’s ever done to himself, but it doesn’t actually mean that he’s secretly harboring hepatitis and/or HIV and just not feeling it because of his healing factor. If his tests come up clean, then he’s clean.

And… nb: they’d be having this conversation before the FDA changes the lifetime ban on giving blood for MSM, to, “you must abstain from having sex with other men for a year or you can’t donate blood.”

Seb, however, would still have to lie about the intravenous drug use, since…… yeah, he much preferred getting high without using a needle, because despite having multiple tattoos, he’s really easy to squick with needles — like he’s fainted a few times while watching other people shoot up because needles freak him out — but easily squicked by needles or not, Seb has used IV drugs that were not prescribed by a doctor, much less monitored by one, and he’d need to lie about that.

But Pete would only need to lie about the sex with other guys, and he thinks lying about his sex life in order to donate blood is okay, given that he knows he doesn’t have hepatitis or HIV.)

(This whole thing is just going to get a lot worse when Lucy learns how to regenerate plasma. Just.

She cares so much about this particular application of her powers and YOU GUYS SHE KNOWS THAT IT’S IMPORTANT TO WORK ON TAKING DOWN THE FASCIST MUTANTS BUT CAN WE PLEASE GO DONATE BLOOD COME ON IT’S IMPORTANT.)

Anywho. Some other uses of hemokinesis are going to scare Lucy a lot more, because, for example, she can use this power to heal…… but she could also create a blood clot and give someone a heart attack or stroke, and if she isn’t in control of it, she could do that without necessarily meaning to (e.g., if it happens as a panic response to being attacked by someone else)

And, uh. While it’s kind of cool to be able to generate the blood enough to make a sword, then make it dense, hard, and sharp enough to actually function as one? It’s also… kinda gross? And unless Lucy gets injured and gets her blood from there, her options are ““borrowing”” someone else’s blood — which she’d rather not do because what the fuck, that blood isn’t hers to go turning into a sword just because she can — or self-harming, which?

Even granted that she could get away with just pricking her finger or something, uh.

That’s pretty scary for Lucy, and more so because her girlfriend has dealt with self-harm before and it’s just?? Lucy isn’t sure if her belief in the greater good and getting shit done to benefit everyone would be enough to get her through self-harming in the name of creating a blood weapon when this could end up hurting Sara Grace

If she had no other options that would work, Lucy would probably do it, but…… seriously. Creating a blood weapon is going to be one something she’s only going to pull out if the other options have been exhausted and she’s basically down to, “surrender,” “die,” or, “make the damn blood weapon.”

Tangentially related to her hemokinesis, Lucy is eventually going to be able to tap into different uses of osteokinesis (or bone manipulation).

If she weren’t so excited about science and medicine, she might not make the connection on her own, but… blood is generated in bone marrow (which is why, if you get a bone marrow transplant, your body will generate blood that looks like it belongs to someone else, genetically).

Lucy’s going to have a lot on her mind for a while that’s more immediately pressing and that keeps her from fully making this connection — and getting into manipulating bones and bone marrow in more ways than, “generate ALL THE BLOOD for the Red Cross!!!” and so on, Lucy is going to have a harder time learning to control these powers and making them do what she wants

—but she will get a handle on her osteokinesis eventually, and be able to use it to heal broken bones (and several other things, but healing broken bones will probably be one of her preferred uses because…… no, seriously, a lot of the other uses of bone manipulation are going to freak her out kind of a lot).

(And at the risk of sounding like she’s trying too hard to be edgy, but? Holy shit, why did she have to get a bunch of edgelord powers like she’s just languishing outside a fucking Hot Topic, dressed all in black and complaining about all the goddamn conformists like how dare they listen to Beyoncé and Britney Spears instead of “Wake Me Up Inside” or Korn or whatever the fuck goth kids listen to, UGH.)

(Josie: “……Actually? It’s called, ‘Bring Me To Life.’”

Lucy: “………Huh?”

Josie: “The song that has, ‘wake me up inside’ as part of its chorus. Its actual title is, ‘Bring Me To Life,’ and…… eh? It isn’t not-Goth, but you would find quite a few Goth kids who’d rather not be associated with it because it was too big a hit when it first came out and they feel like this makes it a conformist song.”

Lucy: “…………Okay, question. Did I ask for a lesson about how you used to be a goth kid fairy princess back when you were in high school or whatever?”

Josie: “Okay, that song came out well after I’d finished high school, but who’s counting—”

Lucy: “Or did I ask for someone to please listen to me vent about how my powers are such freaking edgelord trash and it’s annoying?”

Josie: “……Neither, technically. You didn’t ask, you just kind of started venting.”

Lucy: “……*folds arms over her chest and just gives Josie an incredibly unimpressed face*”

Josie: “……I’m sorry. You were venting. Please, go on. I’m listening.”

Lucy: “Nah, I’m gonna go vent to Pete instead, he doesn’t correct me about songs I don’t care about when I’m mid-vent.”

………and then, about two hours later, Margot had to stop Pete and Lucy from going to stake out the nearest Hot Topic because…… no, you two. No. There is nothing untoward happening at Hot Topic.

Margot generally agrees with the grievances that you both have with Hot Topic, but there is not actually anything criminal going on at Hot Topic; you’re both just looking for something to be happening so you can justify wasting time on what is essentially a glorified game of you two hanging around outside Hot Topic, people-watching, and making pointlessly judgmental comments about the people who work or shop there.

Which Margot isn’t actually against, most of the time or in principle — except she is against it when you’re calling it work and wasting time that you’re really supposed to be spending on following up on leads about real supervillain problems.)

Other miscellaneous powers that Lucy has: a healing factor (it’s nigh impossible to find a mutant who doesn’t have one, and hers isn’t as intense as Seb’s, but that’s just because his has been through worse shit and it’s gotten a lot tougher as a result because environment and experiences have an important role in shaping if, how, and/or when the mutations that are coded in someone’s genes fully manifest and what the full extents of these manifestations will end up being)

Heightened senses (which is going to help contribute to Lucy finally finding out that she’s on the autistic spectrum, because the sensory overwhelm Hell is going to finally outstrip her ability to cope with things and make herself seem more or less neurotypical)

Increased stamina (which her healing factor helps with, yeah, but they are technically separate)

Super-strength (……ish. Like, she does end up with enhanced strength, yes, but the things is, she also ends up supplementing it with two things:

1. working out and strength training — and asking Seb to teach her how to fight because he knows how, and he didn’t learn it in any organized martial arts or boxing or whatever blah blah blah, he learned it from an actual need to defend himself and others, which means that he knows how to fight effectively, and come on come on come on, it’s not like Lucy’s asking him to start a Fight Club with her, she just wants to be a good superhero, pleeeeease?;

and 2. temporarily increasing the density and weight of her own blood to make her punches hit harder — which is a very specific way of supplementing her enhanced strength that doesn’t actually translate to most uses of it that don’t involve hitting things, and it may not hurt her as quickly and obviously as, say, trying to punch someone when you don’t know the right way to make a fist, don’t have your knuckles taped and/or can’t prep yourself for the pain that will come if you don’t have your knuckles taped, etc.

…but a couple hours after she does this, Lucy will have to deal side-effects as her blood tries to shift back to its normal density, and as her body tries to catch up with that, and all of it will suck)

And (in Sara Grace’s words), “a super-mutant refusal to give up in the face of things that are terrifying and difficult and might make other people run screaming” and, “the most super-mutant cutest little nose-wrinkle ever in all of the history of the entire planet ever”

Why Someone Might Love Them: …it’s late and I’m tired, so fair warning, we’re getting into, “this is where the crappy answers start up” territory right now but with that being said:

Lucy is enthusiastic, and completely earnest about it. Like, she has some semblance of tact, but it’s really difficult for Lucy to fake being enthused about something when she isn’t, so when she’s all excited and eager and everything? It’s for real, and it can be contagious, because she just believes so much in how cool it is to care about stuff and give them your all and fight for what you believe in and so on, and her energy and enthusiasm rub off on other people

(Which, admittedly, some people don’t like very much, but other people do, so.)

She may not be perfect, but she does always try to be a better person. This is hindered most by how slow she is to learn from past mistakes, and by her eagerness to keep plowing forward and to get up, dust herself up, and get back in the fray as soon as possible — but she’s the member of the main cast who is most likely to give a, “You know, I learned something today!” type of speech about how they can all take the most recent odd miscellaneous misadventures and turn them into practical self-improvement and being better people for real

(One problem that she needs to work on here is that she’s a definite Gryffindor, and she has that Gryffindor tendency to sometimes steamroll over people because she’s made a decision about what the Greater Good is or what’s best for everyone — and to Lucy’s credit, she can be stopped if you’re patient with her and go, “No. Here is what you’re doing, now stop”… but, still. She’s trying to work on the whole steamroller problem, but…… it’s a process for her.)

(Also, she’s not exactly a Pollyanna, but Lucy does believe in trying to find the bright side and the potentially useful aspects of everything, even if it kills her, so she can kinda seem like it, sometimes.)

For all she puts up a front as much as most of the rest of my characters — and Lucy’s front generally tends to be a version of herself that is more competent than she necessarily feels and definitely more self-assured than she feels at any given moment — Lucy is also more comfortable with being genuine and real with people, without it having to be that she’s breaking character or slipping up or something.

Like, her front isn’t one she uses to try and push people away or keep them from seeing her vulnerabilities; she uses it to try and convince people that she’s okay, and she’s got this, and you should take her seriously because she knows what she’s doing and she’s got this and if you don’t believe her, just watch

(Who listens to “Uptown Funk” when she needs a pep talk? Uh, yeah, that would be Lucy.)

So, she’s not one of my characters who’s going to go to ridiculous lengths to try and keep her true self from coming out — aside from: 1. trying to minimize some of her vulnerable spots. specifically the ones that make her; and 2. the balancing act she has with being half-closeted, but that’s not based on trying to push people away; it’s about being genuinely terrified of what her parents would do to her if she came out to them

—and when she wants to get to know someone, then she she’s more comfortable sharing parts of herself with them than most of her teammates

And she’s dedicated. Like, really, really dedicated. She tires not to expect the same level of dedication from other people… but Lucy herself won’t feel good about her efforts on something ‘til she’s given it 5,010% percent of what she has to offer and then tried to give more

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She can be overwhelming to deal with, even when she doesn’t mean to be. Her dedication can be exhausting to deal with, and she sometimes doesn’t really get that seriously, Lucy: it’s okay to chill out a little bit and not try to go charging headlong into absolutely everything. She often doesn’t get that she’s being a steamroller until someone points it out to her, and while she is genuinely sorry for that (most of the time), the whole thing where she doesn’t learn from her mistakes very easily is kind of a problem.

And, on the (usually) less understandable end, some people find her earnestness off-putting, and genuine belief in always doing the best that you can, trying to be the best that you can be, and trying to do the most good in the world that you can possibly do.

Sometimes, this is understandable, because Lucy can do this without being as sensitive as she could be about everything that’s going on in any given situation — most likely because she thinks that she’s right and hasn’t stopped to consider the other perspectives in play right now — and is being a giant, runaway steamroller with no brakes and a lead foot on the gas pedal.

Other times, though, people have gone after her earnestness and her attempts to be a good person, and a hero in her own right, because they’re being cynical dicks and going, “ugh, you are so naive and it’s annoying, stop it”

How They Change: Probably the biggest things that Lucy’s going to deal with as part of her character growth are: 1. learning how to learn from her mistakes, or other people’s mistakes, or the past in general because she really needs a better balance between her, “YEAH LET’S GO FUTURE YAY LET’S WORK FOR THE FUTURE IT’S ALL GOING TO BE SO MUCH COOLER THERE, I DO NOT WANT TO BE CHAINED TO THE PAST BECAUSE IT SUCKED, YAY FOR THE FUTURE” positive view of and approach to life, and the truth at the heart of, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”;

and 2. her naivete is going to get kicked in the teeth. It’s not as clear-cut as, “the naivete is completely wrong and all of the cynical dicks in her life have been right all along” — it’s more the case that everyone involved in this discussion is being too extreme and/or too absolutist about something in how they approach life, they all have some fair and valid points (some of them more than others), and they all have places where they’re really in need of some changes to better themselves and to do better by the other people in their lives

—but Lucy is still really naive about some pretty important shit, and her naivete is going to get kicked in the teeth, and then her commitment to positivity and finding the bright side of things or a way to make them useful and so on? Yeah, that’s all going to be tested. A lot.

A big part of her development is going to be about finding a balance between her ideals and commitment to trying to be a positive force in the universe, and needing to pay better attention to the practical details and actual reality of what’s going on around her and what she’s sticking her superpowered bunny nose into.

Also, she’s going to learn that she’s on the autistic spectrum and have to deal with that, and like.

Mutant superpowers? She didn’t expect those, but she has thought about what she might do in this kind of situation because she’s grown up in a world where mutants with superpowers are real and fairly well-known and so it’s entirely plausible that she or someone she knows could turn out to be a mutant, so there are some aspects of this that Lucy hasn’t really prepared herself for and wouldn’t have seen coming and so on and so forth, and it’s not like the adjustment will be that easy for her, but it won’t take long to find a groove to settle into

But she really didn’t see being on the autistic spectrum coming and she consequentially has no idea what to make of it when it comes to her awareness

Why You Love Them: 3:11 AM crappy answer time, but… because Lucy is, in a lot of ways, kind of a mess — not as much as some of her teammates, but to be fair here, among the main team and with the exception of Sara Grace, they’re all 7 to 12 years older than Lucy is, so they’ve had more time to get themselves into a ton of shit and make themselves into different kinds of human disasters — but she’s trying and so freaking help her, she’s going to do it all with a positive attitude and a mind to help create good changes in the world wherever and whenever she can. And I admire that dedication in her