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keister-meister · 3 years

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I'm currently watching the Bohemian Rhapsody film and it's got me thinking about how silly it is that this whole 70's rock aesthetic has become practically inseparable from the popular Marauders era fanon.

Like... we all know what the Marauders era looks like in a lot of fanon. Everything is kind of sepia, the Marauders wear nothing but bell-bottom jeans and t-shirts and denim and leather jackets, they rock those fluffy, shaggy 70's 'dos, light up a cigarette like every five minutes and maybe most importantly, they spend their free time listening to whatever the author's/OP's favorite popular 70's band is on a muggle record player whenever they're not busy participating in muggle protests for gay rights.

What's up with making the Marauders basically muggles in all but name only? Aside from projection? We know at least two of them were pureblood wizards, the third was a half-blood who grew up in the wizarding world (Remus had to hide being a wizard AND a werewolf – what are the chances that his parents would have allowed him to hang out with muggle children?) and the fourth was most likely either pureblood or half-blood. Point is... they all grew up in the wizarding culture, as far as we know, and whatever muggle influence Remus as a half-blood would have had from his mother would certainly not have included current fashion and popular music – those are things youth get from peers.

The boys likely wouldn't have had much contact with muggle culture until Hogwarts... but from what we know from canon, there doesn't seem to be much muggle culture in Hogwarts either. The kids from wizarding backgrounds just stick to their own things, and the muggle-borns seem to mostly adapt to the wizarding world. Also, muggle technology doesn't work in Hogwarts, so that's it for music records, movies and TV-shows being shared.

We also know from canon that the wizards as whole just aren't keen on integrating or adapting aspects of the muggle world into theirs, even if it was possible. They still write on parchment with quills and ink, FFS. Arthur Weasley was apparently the most notable connoisseur of muggle culture, yet he didn't even remember the word "telephone" correctly. While Harry's generation of wizard youth is said to dress in muggle clothes outside Hogwarts (which I assume was Rowling's way of making Harry's generation in particular more relatable to the reader), we are shown that adult/older wizards are mostly clueless about muggle clothing... to the point of old men wearing floral night dresses (no judging tho).

All I'm saying is... if the wizard society as a whole – not just the few pureblood fanatics – wasn't pretty much unreceptive of the ways of the muggle world, there's just no way they would have that medieval/victorian thing going on in the late 20th century. They would not wear robes and cloaks as everyday clothes. They would have debit cards instead of carrying gold around, they would write with mechanical pencils and they would definitely use some magic-powered version of a cell phone instead of... sending an owl or putting their head in a fireplace. Dumbledore would not be seen as the progressive icon he apparently is just because he thinks it would be evil to kick muggle-born magical people into concentration camps to be executed. IDK, the bar is pretty low.

The fact that the wizards haven't adopted many modern muggle inventions and ways of doing things even when they would be more convenient suggests that valuing tradition is something that is implicitly taught to all wizards. They either see their own ways as superior, or just don't feel compelled to change what is familiar just because something else might be more efficient or convenient. And it makes sense because isn't this how humans work a lot of the time when it comes to new, unfamiliar things, although maybe less extreme? Like, how America as a whole is still mostly averse to bidets, despite the fact that rinsing your ass with water is obviously a better way to clean up than just smearing around with a dry piece of paper? (Sorry for the shitty example.)

This is why I feel like the Marauders wouldn't be anywhere near as "muggle" as they are usually portrayed in fanon. I don't see any reason why they would be so different from Harry, Ron and Hermione – none of whom were into muggle things in canon, despite being "progressive" and despite two of them actually having been raised in the muggle world before Hogwarts. Teenagers don't tend to become invested in popular culture like fashion and music until after the age of 11, and these kids spend all but two(?) months a year at Hogwarts surrounded by wizarding culture. Since the expectation is that they stay in the wizarding world, why would they be interested in keeping up with the trends of the muggle world? I can see this being important enough for someone who is muggle-born and maintains close relationships in the muggle world, but for purebloods? No way.

Anyway, we know there are wizarding musicians (although maybe two were mentioned), wizarding games, wizarding fashion, wizarding literature, wizarding magazines, wizarding sports... so why not get creative and expand on that, instead of making everyone basically muggle? Like, it's interesting that most fic writers don't take the chance to explore the possibilities of wizarding youth culture beyond what is shown in the books. What if there was a wizarding band that had the same vibe as Queen or ABBA or the Sex Pistols or whatever band you want the Marauders to like? What if instead of everyone just smoking regular muggle cigarettes, there was some different habit that was popular with the wizard kids? Wizard drugs?

I guess people love the idea of Marauders being the definition of cool, but we forget that what is cool to us is generally stupid or insignificant to wizards, and what is cool for wizards is just... silly fairytale nonsense to us. The Marauders who wear like... high-collared Diricawl feather cloaks and smoke Purple Pixie grass or whatever through a nostril pipe while listening to some band called the Bad Goblins, or whatever whimsical things Rowling would probably come up with, just don't scream "cool guys" to us like the Marauders smoking cigs and wearing leather jackets do.

IDK, let's just be real, the canon Marauders would be scoffing at bad-tasting muggle cancer sticks, laughing at how silly muggles look in their bell-bottoms, listening to weird wizarding music... what's so wrong with that?

#the marauders #marauders fanon #marauders era #pro snape #<that one is because i know a lot of frequenters in that tag will agree with this

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conjurethecosmos · 3 years

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Honey we need to talk - Steve Rodgers x little!reader

AN:///Hey this is my first fan fiction so please don’t be that hard on me lmao. also i just wanted to say that this isn’t a kink and I don’t write any kink related stuff. PSA age regression is a coping mechanism. If you like my work please like <3 also my asks are open so feel free to ask or suggest stories if you like :)

Word Count: 2k

(Y/N) POV

The surviving Avengers were finally coming back to the tower. Life had already changed just within the hours of the blip, but (Y/N) was alone and did not know about the blip. (Y/N) had been home at the tower safe, protected, from the terror that the avengers were fighting. She knew about Thanos and how he was trying to get all the stones, but the Avengers are the most powerful superheroes ever, they have to win, right? F.R.I.D.A.Y had been keeping watch of the currently sleeping (Y/N) making sure she was okay. The Avenger’s tower was known to be soundproof to keep the bustling sound of the city outside, which is why (Y/N) hadn’t been disturbed. The screams, screeches of cars, and general commotion of the people were not heard by the sleeping girl. F.R.I.D.A.Y did know what had happened when she lost contact with most of the avengers. She did not want to alarm (Y/N) since she had been extremely stressed out and with stress came her age regression. F.R.I.D.A.Y just did not want her to panic without anyone to physically console her since almost everyone she loved was gone. She would just wait till the remaining avengers arrived back to tell her what happened and so she could inevitably regress in the comfort of someone’s arms.

(Y/N) woke up with a yawn surrounded by scattered stuffed animals and ruffled bedsheets. The first thing that she wanted to do was to check her phone to see if Bucky, Steve, or Peter texted her to check up or send a picture of them together happy and coming home. Peter was a regressor like (Y/N) and they would always play together in the toy room conveniently located next to (Y/N)’s room. But, when she tapped on their phone it would not turn on. Even the dead battery screen that would pop up if she did forget to charge her phone the night before didn’t even pop up. So, she decided to ask F.R.I.D.A.Y what was wrong with the phone. “I am sorry (Y/N) I can not seem to turn on your phone, there doesn’t seem to be any issue with it” F.R.I.D.A.Y states. “What do you mean nothing wrong? It won’t even turn on. Ugh I guess I will have to go and get a new phone then.” (Y/N) says. That is when F.R.I.D.A.Y quickly responds “I am sorry to tell you this, but I have been advised to keep you inside for your safety.” She let out a huff and decide that she might as well get dressed. She doesn’t even know when everyone will be back, but the night before Steve called and said that they would all probably be back the following day. All she wanted to do is color and play with stuffies with Peter while Steve sat in the chair in the corner of the shared playroom reading a book.

Steve’s POV

Bucky disintegrated right before his eyes. His best friend, gone, all from a snap. Thanos had disappeared and left Steve, Natasha, Wanda, and Bruce enraged, however, what could they do. The flight back was solemn and quiet. No one dared to cry in front of each other despite the trauma accumulated today, save for Nat who sat quietly crying. Steve only looked forward to seeing his favorite person, (Y/N), which he cared for most of the time due to her tendency to regress when he is with her. He did not mind at all, in fact his caring personality just made him gravitate more towards being (Y/N)’s caregiver. His brain was going a mile a minute just thinking of how to tell (Y/N) that half the population was gone, including some people she loved so much. The avengers were informed by F.R.I.D.A.Y which avenger had sadly been blipped. That only caused the already somber mood to become worse. Steve just sat there staring at the many buttons on planes’ cockpit thinking about how (Y/N) would react to the news of Peter being gone. He was her only little friend, he was always there for her when she was having a hard day and needed to regress. They were best friends, just like Bucky and I. ‘I think I will just tell her as an adult and then take care of her if she needs to regress’ Steve thought. They then eventually started descending onto the landing pad on top of the tower.

(Y/N)’s POV

It was now about 8 pm. You kept youself occupied by cleaning since oddly enough the usual cleaner never showed up.You thought that it was weird, but assumed that the cleaner may have had the day off or something. The T.V. was also broken, like your phone it wouldn’t turn on. You could not watch the news or a movie, so you were pretty bored the whole day. You were pulled out of your boring thoughts when you heard keys enter the lock on the front door. Steve entered first looking panicked as he looked around to see if you were there, alive. You smiled at him and gave him a big hug, which caused him to hug you tighter almost as if you would disappear right before him. Immediately, you knew it was a hard mission. I mean they were gone for weeks so it had to be hard. However, He had a look on his face that you had never seen before. “Honey we need to talk” Steve sighed. They both walked into your bedroom to talk in private. You sat down on your bed hugging your stuffed purple fluffy bunny that was won by Bucky at a fair one year. Steve got the chair by your desk and moved it to be in front of you and then sat. “So, I am sure you are wondering what happened today?” Steve asked. “Yeah kinda. I haven’t heard anything since my phone is broken and the T.V. was off” you huffed. “Sweetie there really isn’t a good way of putting this...” he hesitated for a second but then started talking again looking at you straight in the eyes, “So Thanos got all the stones and snapped his finger which caused half the population to disappear.” You then started hugging your bunny as he continued to explain which avengers were gone. Tears were already starting to spill as you shut your eyes tightly. When he mentioned that peter was gone that is when you let out a loud pained cry. Steve had to hug you, to comfort his princess. He was not sure if he should have told you that a ton of people were gone, but you needed to know. If he didn’t and you would have asked about Peter, it would probably cause him to burst into tears. You started to regress, he could tell because you started sobbing and rocking. He knew that he needed to comfort you better than just hugging you so he decided that distracting you might be better. “Princess, I know you are sad about what I told you, but I just want you to know I am here for you.” Steve calmly says. “Bu-But I wan Pete n buck” (Y/N) blubbered. “I know baby, you can cry as much as you want,” He says while placing your head on his chest. Tears stain his shirt. He was tempted to cry with you, but he knew he needed to save his tears for when he was alone. Now was the time for his princess to grieve. After you crying for about twenty-five minutes Steve grabbed your paci so you could sleep. He could tell you had regressed. He placed you on your bed to lay down with your favorite bunny stuffie in your arms. Steve decided to sleep in the chair for the night just to watch over you in case you woke in the middle of the night in need of some comfort. He sat there staring at your sleeping form silently sobbing just because of all the stress of the day. It just hit him like a wave, but he eventually fell asleep. You woke up at 2 am to use the bathroom. You looked around the nightlight lit room to find Steve passed out in a chair located in the corner of the room. You slowly walked over, stuffie in hand, to wake the superhero up. You could not go to the bathroom by yourself since she was scared Thanos would be outside her door. Not even the bravest stuffie you owned could calm your fears. You poked Steve’s thigh to wake him up. Steve looked around in a panic only to see your puffy face. “Hey doll, what does my little princess need?” he asks. “I need to go potty, but I scared to go alone...” You shyly stated. “That’s okay, come on baby.” He escorts you to the bathroom and back. “Um Stevie, could you pwease cuddle me to sleep. I scared to sleep myself?” You sheepishly ask. ”Of course my baby.”

The next morning

You had woken up small. You could only speak like a three-year-old. That was okay with Steve though because he loved caring for you. He carried you into the living room and went into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee and you a sippy cup with strawberry milk with a plate of mini pancakes. He turned on your favorite Disney movie while he cooked for you. Caring for you was a needed distraction. He needed to feel like he was making a difference and obviously, the events of the previous day made him feel like all his efforts of protecting America or the Earth were all for nothing. But, taking care of you was rewarding and therapeutic. “Stevie, thanks for the pancakes, dis milk is so good too!” (Y/N) exclaimed with a cute little smile. “Aw, you’re so welcome, sweetie.”

5 years later

Time had passed, (Y/N) regressed more often than ever. She was rarely ever her adult self. Thankfully Steve had set up a group talk therapy session with some survivors which (Y/N) joined every time they had a meeting. She would only talk about missing Peter while hugging a stuffie she would bring. The group members never judged her though since they all had their own coping mechanisms if they had any. She was usually really shy in front of the group since mentally she was three and really did not have that much to say in front of the strangers.

Eventually, Bruce hatched an idea to bring everyone back, which caused you to be alone again. You just stayed in the playroom alone playing with barbies or watching a movie. Steve would call you from time to time to check up on you, luckily F.R.I.D.A.Y was a great caretaker and gave you your basic needs. The Avengers were now successful in bringing everyone back. Sadly, Tony had passed away though. You attended his funeral with Steve at your side. You still hadn’t seen Peter yet but did not want to interrupt his grieving since Tony was his main caregiver and mentor. Tony was the only father figure he had and he was just gone. Steve decided it would be best to have you pick a stuffed animal at the store for Peter to keep during this hard time. You decided on a red bear with a gold ribbon on his neck. Steve had the red bear in his hands ready to gift to Peter, while you had a new Pink bear with a white bow around its neck that you named Poppy. Once the funeral was done Steve held your hand to walk up to Peter. He looked so small and in need of someone to care for him. Steve then spoke, “Peter, I am deeply sorry for your loss. I know how you feel and if you need (Y/N) or me, don’t hesitate. (Y/N) thought that she should get you this special bear for you to give you comfort.” He handed Peter the red bear and Peter just hugged it close. Steve knew that he was going to have to take care of Peter and (Y/N) from now on, but he was ready for it. He loved you both dearly. “I hope you like the bear Peter, I thought you would like him since he’s your favorite color. See I have a pink one like yours, we’re twins!” You said trying to distract Peter. Peter rarely ever spoke when he was little, and this wasn’t any different. He eventually accepted your gift with a tight hug as his tears fell on your shoulder.

Time skip: a couple of months

Peter eventually moved into the tower and got a room next to yours. Steve now had two regressors to take care of now, but at least he had the aid of Bucky who would just baby sit. You were currently in your room putting on one of Steves old shirts with black leggings. His shirts made you feel even smaller since it was so baggy. Steve then quietly knocked on your door for permission to come in. “Yes?” you asked. Steve then opened the door and stepped in with his hand in Peters. Peter had a smile on his face for probably the first time in months. You smiled back and then turned to face Steve who obviously wanted to ask you something. “Are you little right now (Y/N) or are you big because Pete wants to play blocks with you?” Steve asks. You beam and excitedly say, “I wan play blocks! Pete can we make a town wif da blocks and cars and my dollys?” This just caused Peter to run and hug you. You two ran to the next room to play together. Storage containers were quickly opened and blocks were scattered to begin construction on the town. Steve watched you two play from the door with a smile on his face.

I am sorry this story was everywhere

#little!reader #age regression fic #regressed!reader #avengers x little!reader #cg!steve #little space fanfiction

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mapleandgingeroatmeal · 3 years

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The Mighty Nein Ranked by How Good They Are With Kids

-For these purposes, "kids" means anyone between ages five and ten.

-Ratings are a combination of Enthusiasm (how much they like/want to be good with kids) and Experience (how well do they know kids/how good at they at wrangling them).

1) Veth: Experience 5/5, Enthusiasm 5/5

This one is obvious. Veth gets bumped to the top just because she's the only one with canonical experience dealing with littles. She raised Luc until he was lets say almost three. Not many years, but the ones she did get are pretty big ones where you learn a lot. Even when it comes to older kids, growing up as a girl in a one-room-schoolhouse kinda town there's no way Veth didn't end up looking after younger kids growing up. She's also got that crucial mothers mindset in that she likes kids and thinks of helping them as part of her identity. When you go into a situation with confidence and ease, kids pick up on that and listen better in response.

2) Yasha: Experience 4/5, Enthusiasm 4/5

Either this or #6 will be my most controversial take, but hear me out: Yasha comes from a communal, matriarchal society where child-rearing would be a group experience and duty. Yasha changed diapers and maybe taught some lessons growing up. Assuming this, she would also have an idea of what kids at a given age may be capable of, which is very important. She's also someone that would enjoy the genuine personalities and antics of kids a lot. Yasha likes soft things, after all. Imagine her at a princess tea-party.

If you want some evidence in canon for this, look at her interactions with Luc in 110. Yasha is awkward with most people, but she immediately sweeps Luc onto her shoulders. This is a ballsy move that speaks to confidence and also experience. She knows how to hold him well enough to get him up there smoothly, and she does it with so little hesitation that it seems like something she's done before.

3) Fjord: Experience 4/5, Enthusiasm 2/5

Premise One: Fjord is a pack-oriented dude. He focuses on survival, but once you're in his circle he will fight the entire world for you and be very concerned with your well-being. Premise Two: Fjord grew up in a shitty orphanage, the kind that would be under-staffed and overflowing, with many kids who struggle and don't get the help and attention they need. Conclusion: Fjord as an older kid would be asked/expected to step in with the littles a lot. He would know how to do the mechanics of caretaking, like diapers, tying shoes, etc. He's also of a personality that would spend extra time soothing fights and nightmares and things as best as he could.

When it comes to enthusiasm, Fjord also was bullied a whole lot and had a terrible childhood. He can deal with kids so well partially because he has no illusions about how cruel or intelligent they can be. If he has to do it he'd be pretty good, but I don't think he'd ever choose to spend a bunch of time with kids.

4) Caleb: Experience 2/5, Enthusiasm 4/5

Caleb and Fjord are pretty much inverse of each other here. Caleb was an only child and his small town's Golden Boy. He didn't have siblings to learn about, and in his town he'd be allowed and encouraged to study instead of doing something like babysitting. Not lower than a two because in a small town, kids do run around in packs outside, so he's at least for sure interacted with littles in his life, which puts him above everyone still left.

Even without much experience though, Caleb seems like he really likes kids! He wants to be a teacher and is great with Luc on multiple occasions. Liking kids just fits with the goofy, sincere parts of his personality as well. Like Yahsa, Caleb would appreciate how earnest and uncorrupted by the world a child can be.

5) Caduceus: Experience 1/5, Enthusiasm 4/5

Caduceus is the kind of guy that probably thinks he's great with kids, but if you left him with one he would have zero coping skills. Remember that he grew up the second-youngest of four in a very isolated setting; it's very possible that Clarabelle was without exaggeration the only child he'd ever seen before the m9.

So Caduceus would like kids alright, as we saw with Luc, but he's not one to ever dumb himself down or really conceive of perspectives outside his own. He'd give kids knives and tell them horror stories is what I'm saying. I actually think Clay would be great with teens, because he's not one to condescend (well he is but not in that way), and he would assume they can take responsibility and understand complex ideas.

6) Jester: Experience 0/5, Enthusiasm 4/5

I have a feeling I'm gonna get some arguments to this (which I welcome; please come try and change my mind), but I genuinely think Jester Lavvore, esp early-campaign, would be terrible with children. She's got a perfect storm of personality traits to be bad at this: A Very Adult sense of humor, no ability/willingness to filter herself or control her first instincts, and a mostl-harmless rich girl innocence that would make jt hard for her to be patient or prioritize things that aren’t fun for her.

7) Beau: Experience 0/5, Enthusiasm 2/5 Much like with Caduceus, Beau is a prime example of why working with kids and working with teens are such different jobs. There are several canonical examples of Beau enjoying gaining the trust of teens by doing things like giving them explosives or booze.

For a 16-year-old who wants to grow up and discover themselves, throwing-star lessons and free reign of town are actually great and important strategies for gaining their trust and respect. But a 2nd-grader put in the same situation will feel lost, unsupported, and then cut their hand off with a bladed monk weapon. “Sorry”, says Beau with a shrug. “You shouldn’tve left me with a baby. I fuckin hate kids”.

#cr #cr meta #m9 #critical role #my writing

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eyeballjazz · 3 years

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gosh I LOVE whenever you talk about the crews (midnight or problem sleuth) because your ideas are always so unique and detailed but in a realistic way? like they're all very specific but also mundane so it all feels so natural and REAL, it's always so fun! Plus your writing is very pleasant so seeing that "read more" under your replies always makes me go FUCK YES

You said you had fun with the last ask so here's me asking you to share more headcanons you have! Could be domestic, silly, sad, whatever, I'm just giving you an excuse to talk about them whever you feel like it!

#1 and first of all THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’ve delayed replying to this not only because I wanted to cook up a good answer but because your words are so sweet and I wanted to spend longer just reading and rereading them. Thank you thank you thank you!

I got a few little ones and then some big ones for ya:

Problem Sleuth and Hysterical Dame both are from Brooklyn and have harsh Brooklyn accents, though Dame’s is much more pronounced. She sounds like a slightly less congested Fran Drescher. Sleuth, additionally, loves the Beastie Boys and thinks he could’ve been one if he’d had half a chance at it.

Droog loves Sting. That’s it, that’s the headcanon.

Droog is native Italian, from part of Tuscany that is just 1 kilometer from the official bounds for the Chianti region. The fact that he’s not actually, truly, from Chianti haunts him and makes me laugh a great deal.

Now for a big one:

What war did they all serve in?

This one I’ve gone back and forth on. While I love studying war I’m not any kind of expert nor do I have any relation to military culture. But, because I write Intermission stuff as period pieces (the adults all live in a pseudo 40s and 70s mash up, all the kids live in the early oughts and that’s why none of the StabDads knows how to work a computer despite all their kids being online constantly) the setting of mid-20th century America requires there to be some war that people are living during/living through the aftermath of. I have a whole thing about the 20th century being one long war but anyway.

There was a large scale global conflict that Team Sleuth and the Crew all experienced. The Crew saw more intense, violent conflict while much of Team Sleuth saw less direct action and often sunnier outcomes.

Hearts, Slick and Droog were all infantry men whose issues with authority prevented any of them from moving up the ranks. Clubs was a technician and occasional mechanic, he learned everything he knows about bombs between his years as a soldier and a few jobs working in plastic factories back home.

Hearts was a cook as well as a renowned fighter in his unit. Slick came in and went out buck private despite some award winning violence in the field. Droog was considered for a promotion to officer because of his neat habits and efficient performance but later denied when his more anti-social and unstable qualities showed through.

For both Slick and Droog The War is much more like WW1. They met and became friends/fell in love in the trenches and saw the intensity of suffering and combat on an almost daily basis. For Hearts and Clubs The War is a little more like Korean, they were stationed far from home and were effectively playing cat and mouse with the enemy. Clubs experienced and learned from chemical warfare, while Hearts saw much more guerrilla warfare.

On the Sleuth side, Ace Dick is the only person to have served in as intense a fashion as the Crew. He enlisted young and made the rank of sergeant before retiring to become a detective. Of all of them his time was the most like WW2, in the European theater. Though he maintains his rank in retirement, Ace has relaxed out of the rigidness that made him a good officer. His hard disposition however has not degraded even one iota.

Problem Sleuth had a gay li’l stint in the Navy where he mostly ferried trade vessels along the coast. The action he did see was at the distance of sea battles, so while it was intense it was not as close and personal as the Crew or Ace.

Hysterical Dame did not serve but instead worked as a riveter and community organizer back home to get more women into the workforce as well as to provide for the families of soldiers who had been lost. That picture of Rosy the Riveter eating a sandwich with her piston driver in her lap? That was Dame, just with much more buoyant and gorgeous hair.

Nervous Broad was a nurse and was stationed abroad for most of The War. She saw a lot of very bad and only very occasionally some good. While she was in the medical corps she met Pickle Inspector, who was a contentious objector and refused to serve when drafted. Because of this, he was dumped into the medical corps at the front lines and like Broad saw some very awful things. They both don’t like to talk about what they saw more intensely than the others.

Post war they all assume the roles we’re already familiar with, most of them using the combat training they already received to do their work as detectives and/or mobsters. Broad, Dame and Pickle Inspector all learned to handle firearms (and in a Pickle Inspector’s case a whole sniper rifle) post-war. As a treat.

And, while I really don’t come to fandom spaces for sad things (the world itself is hexing enough) I do have a sad headcanon for Hearts:

His parents had an awful marriage and his father was often abusive to both him and his mother. She, in turn, eventually did away with him but not before long years of hard times for herself and her son. Once Hearts was big enough to help with the manual labor of running their small farm she took his father out during a particularly bad fight. It was a brutal night that would have seen one or the other of his parents gone from the world, but his mother won out in the end and she and Hearts lived better and better once his father was out of the picture. Hearts, to this day, sends money to his mother and believes she is the strongest woman on the face of the Earth. And he’s probably right. She still lives up in the hills of Georgia with her gun.

Momma Boxcars loves Tavros and insists that he and the other kids come spend part of their summer with her out on the farm.

Like Hearts’s mom, Droog’s parents also love their grandbabies. They immigrated to America after Droog put together enough money to bring them over from Italy and keep them living in style in the city. They were not good parents to him, in fact they have a very fraught and often vicious relationship, but they are wonderful to their grandkids and often tell Droog how much more they love Karkat and Arabia than they ever loved him. Again, I find Droog’s pain and inconvenience hilarious, and he’s fine despite all this. He actually thinks of them as ideal parents, being as he is an ideal sort of person by his own metrics.

Again, thank you for your lovely words and for the excuse to gab away about all these clowns, this was so fun!!!

#the intermission #problem sleuth #spades slick #stabdads #stab dads #diamonds droog #hearts boxcars #clubs deuce #pickle inspector #hysterical Dane #Ace dick #nervous broad #humanstuck

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dontcallmecarrie · 3 years

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Replying to the commenters of this post [heads up for angst]:

To @kine-iende, who said:

hot damn. if "our" justin was a mom-friend in their home-universe, here people would start questioning if justin was in secret a very motherly scrull or something (and be fine with it ^^). but yeah, love the trope too. was it "for the want of a nail" or "through a mirrorm darkly"? well, contrast and a what could have been would be lovely. feel enabled, whenever you want to write this :)

I am not very familiar with the concept of Skrulls [...iirc, that’s something introduced in Captain Marvel, which I have yet to get around to], but yeah, that tracks. Assuming it’s a thing they know to look for, though, because here Justin’s being themself is the biggest and most obvious way to establish that they are not canon!Justin.

Sure, they’re identical physically, but the moment either Justin opens his mouth, the jig’s up.

As is, not five minutes into this strange hellscape where their oldest rival looked at them with no small amount of disdain in his eyes at first, Justin had already managed to charm their way out of holding and into a very relaxed “we’ll keep an eye on him” Avengers custody.

Well, on paper at least— in reality, most of the team doesn’t really give a damn one way or another, whereas Tony starts out morbidly curious as to just how different NHDD!Justin is to the one he’s used to dealing with, and ends up getting a concentrated dose of All The Feels™ because the moment NHDD!Justin realized this Tony had a metric buttload of undiagnosed-and-constantly-belittled mental health issues and a support system that was equal parts duct tape and caffeine, he went “oh, so this universe is the Hell Timeline, okay, makes sense :) :) :) dammit Ivan you’d better fix this stat”.

In retrospect, Justin’s not sure when exactly the horror show started; if it was the absolute lack of concern or care the Avengers had for their Tony, or the minute they noticed the gauntness in his face. Maybe the tension between Iron Man and Captain America, or the obvious bravado this Tony used– and the fact that none of the others so much as noticed.

All Justin knows is, a version of someone they care about is hurting, hurting badly and has been for a long time now, and that’s more than enough for them to go “oh, okay, mine now”.

For his part, Tony has no idea what the hell’s going on. The non-annoying Justin Hammer who crash-landed an Avengers debrief is...something else, and he’s torn between shock, pleasant surprise, and no small amount of existential angst and jealousy because in the span of a few hours, Tony’s had a brief taste of what some other version of him had for a lifetime, and...

Tony’s not sure how he feels about it. He’s a genius, he can wrap his head around string theory and all that good stuff, but numbers are one thing, having to live with the fact that somewhere out there, a version of him grew up with someone so unfailingly kind and supportive and—Tony can’t think of a better word for it than nurturing— and, in the span of seconds, had been able to call him out on his bullshit and seemed to instinctively push him to be better but not in the demanding way his father or the rest of the world had—

If he thinks about it too long, it makes him want to cry, just a little. Somewhere out there was a Tony who’d been enough for someone, who had never been asked to change himself, who’d been pushed up instead of repeatedly torn down and he didn’t know how to deal.

He’d thought having a non-annoying Justin around would be funny.

This was not, it was goddamn distressing is what it was, because Tony hadn’t even known it was a possibility but now he is acutely aware of the fact that he got stuck with his Justin— the human embodiment of one of those yappy dogs who nipped at people’s heels thinking they were so tough, despite not being able to back it up.

This Justin was, uh, not that. Tony wasn’t sure if he was always like this, or if it was only with him because he shared a face with someone Justin cared about, but... was he always this much of a mom friend? And where’d that granola bar even come from, anyway? Not that he minded, it was a nice change of pace, but really?

...Tony was really going to miss him, once they figured out a way to send him back home.

To the commenter who said:

Stephanie isn’t a canon character, is she? Because if not, NHDD!Justin might be able to pull off a “the birth of my little sister awakened my previously deeply buried parental instincts” to explain his whole… [gestures uselessly].

Technically, she could be, in that Justin Hammer has a sister and nephew in canon [according to the wiki and a deleted scene, apparently]. I chose to make her a younger sibling in NHDD, to really emphasize the ‘reincarnated with shitty memory’ aspect of this AU. Specifically, while it’s never specified, Justin’s past life was...not great, and part of it was the fact that their younger sibling was sick.

With what, they don’t remember anymore, but sick enough that they know health isn’t something to take for granted; sick enough that towards the end, they remember their parents had to choose between paying hospital bills and electricity, remember going to bed hungry because meds were expensive and their next paycheck wasn’t until Friday.

...suffice it is to say, there’s a reason Justin’s so protective of those he cares about, even if his memories faded a bit on the specifics as time went by.

To be fair, canon!Justin also cares for his sister and nephew; it’s just that NHDD!Justin acted more like a third parent than a sibling, once Stephanie was born.

Bear in mind that canon!Justin’s situation is very different than NHDD!Justin’s, because canon!Justin was basically set up to fail from the start as a normal kid who was constantly compared to a child prodigy two years younger than him and terrible parents. While NHDD!Justin’s situation is similar on the surface, the difference is they’re literally a reincarnated OC, with all the baggage that entails.

Maybe, if their second life hadn’t been surrounded by adults with A+ Parenting Skills, 0/10 Do Not Recommend, their issues and traumas from last time wouldn’t have been exacerbated. If they’d been born to a regular family, Justin would’ve been a good kid but nothing special, and their memories of a past life would’ve faded away by the time they hit puberty.

But instead, they were born to the Hammer family, and proceeded to be put through the wringer.

Which is bad enough, and meant they immediately started leaning hard on everything from their past life because these people wouldn’t know good parenting if it bit them on the nose, but...then Justin’s little sister was born, which immediately kick-started every older sibling instinct they’d ever had because last time they’d been responsible for their younger sibling’s health and safety and you can probably see where this is going.

aka yes, some of Justin’s behaviors could arguably be called trauma responses and/or coping mechanisms and it’s something I only realized as I was writing this, and no, this AU was not supposed to be this messed up

Justin’s responsibility, their willingness to deal with shitty parents and do tremendous amounts of emotional labor if it helped anyone they took under their wing? That’s no accident, that’s what happens when a soul has to be the adult, has to step up because nobody else is going to. There’s a reason Justin has so much disdain for Hank Pym and Howard Stark’s immaturity, why they have so little patience for their parents as time goes on; their mental age means the older they get, the more they’re looking at the adults around them and judging them hard.

...ahem. Sorry for getting a bit off-topic, but hey, at least now you know a bit more about what’s going on inside Justin’s head!

And yeah, if he had to bs an explanation for why he’s such a mom friend, Justin’d be more than happy to point to his little sister as an excuse. So long as they know she exists, anyway; if not, he’ll just laugh it off and try to chalk it up to one of the differences between their universes.

edit to remove the stuff that got through my nonexistent brain-to-mouth filter because I was averaging a not-optimal amount of sleep as I got used to my new job

#No Hero [Downward Descending]#Naught replies #replies #thinking aloud

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pigeontheoneandonly · 3 years

Text

Soulmate AU Snippet

This fic will never be finished, but what the hell, you can all suffer with me.

It’s called More Than Words Could Say, because what is the point of a soulmate AU if you’re not going to be cheesy AF.

Trigger warning for very, very broad brief implied reference to past domestic violence (not between the OTP).

Nathaly Shepard stopped believing in soulmates before the age of six.

Believing wasn’t quite the right word. Of course soulmates were real. The proof could be read on anyone’s body, those first words they would exchange written on the bottom of their foot. Like most children, Nathaly asked about hers, when she first noticed it, when she watched her first soulmate fairy tale, increasingly whiny as her mother refused to elaborate much. Hannah always was a bit of a prude. Then she came home from school, crying and clutching her paint-stamped footprint on a sheet of construction paper, because they had the standard health lesson about soulmate function, and even her teacher was unable to hide her dismay when Nathaly revealed her words.

“It’s hello!” she hiccupped. “Everyone one says hello. Sarah says I’ll meet mine and never know it.”

Hannah sighed. “That explains why I got an irate commlink from Sarah’s mother.”

Nathaly rubbed her hand against her nose, sniffling. “What’s irate?”

“Doesn’t matter. We don’t hit people when they say mean things. We tell an adult, okay?” She sighed and reached for the box. “And we use a tissue to wipe our nose.”

She allowed her mother to clean up her face and fingers. “Sarah’s right. Isn’t she?”

“Honey…” Hannah bit her lip, and after a long moment, she let out a breath and squatted in front of her daughter, eye to eye. “Do you know what word I got?”

Nathaly shook her head. Hannah looked down. “Mine is sorry.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“It’s… what we say when we bump into someone, or make a mistake. We hear it a dozen times a day.” She kept staring at the floor. Nathaly felt her own distress subside marginally, replaced by unease, at how obviously upset her mother was. Hannah only spoke with that steady, even tone when she was anything but calm. “When I was nineteen, I met someone who said sorry. I said it’s fine. Our words matched, and we assumed…”

She inhaled shakily. Nathaly grabbed at her hand. “It’s okay, momma.”

Hannah let out a sad little laugh at the incomprehension of children, and cupped her cheek. “Long story short… he definitely wasn’t my soulmate. He wasn’t even a good person.”

“So… you and papa… your words didn’t match?”

“They did.” She gathered up her hands in her own, and gave her a soft smile. “But that’s not what made us soulmates. The words aren’t important. Love, that’s important. And how you treat each other, how you talk, the way you feel. Even if your words are too easy to ever be sure, you’ll know. I promise.”

* * *

By the time she was twenty-seven she’d given up. Thousands upon thousands of hellos later, most in passing, some who became friends or even lovers, and not one moment of clarity. It would happen, or it wouldn’t. She didn’t care anymore. There was more to life than soulmates.

She wasn’t thinking about it at all as she walked home after a night out with friends aboard Arcturus Station. One last hurrah before she shipped out again. Officer’s quarters on base weren’t much, station housing never was, but she had a certain fondness for her six square meters of privacy. The clock approached 0200. The massive skylights were shut, casting military quartile in darkness appropriate to the late hour. Streetlights cast pools onto the composite walkways. Not a body in sight.

At least, not until she approached her dorm and saw two uniformed legs sticking out from under a skycar. It was a newer model, one with parking struts so the vehicle didn’t need to maintain any power while not in use. This economical feature also made them easier to steal. But she expected better of a marine.

She marched up without a second’s hesitation. This shit would be sorted right now. “What in the ever-loving fuck are you doing?”

A thump came from under the car, accompanied by a muffled cry of pain. He scrambled out from under the car. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring down at him as only a pissed-off superior could, every line of her posture demanding a good explanation this very minute or he’d regret being born.

He blinked up at her, one hand clutched to the large knot blooming on his forehead. “H-hello?”

A faint spark lit in her hindbrain, a tired, reflexive jerk as familiar as a sneeze, and just as ignorable. Her face flickered not at all. “I inquired, Lieutenant, about the what in the precise hell you are doing under a parked car at this time of night?”

He stared. A shock of his thick black hair had come loose from the rest, falling into his eyes. He seemed to be having some trouble finding his tongue. “I…” He looked back at the car. “I mean… I can explain.”

“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do.”

Another man came jogging up the road. “Alenko, what the hell—” Then he spotted her expression, and the access badge around her neck, and stopped short. “Ma’am.”

She glanced between them. “One of you idiots want to give me the run-down?”

Lieutenant Alenko opened his mouth. Closed it. “You see, I was just trying to get the car started.”

“I gathered that much.” She jerked her head at the other man. “This your back up? The navy not pay you enough, or is carjacking just how you get your kicks?”

“What? No.”

His friend rolled his eyes. “Ma’am, this is my car. Alenko was helping me figure out why it won’t start.”

“Really.” She crossed her arms and sat back on her heel. “You won’t mind proving it, then.”

“Of course.” He fumbled for his keys. Cars could and were started with omni-tools, but many still preferred the illusion of security provided by a dedicated device. Generally they needed a biometric marker to do anything beyond opening the doors. Unless it was hot-wired to bypass it, a technique that remained as popular as ever.

She watched him sit in the driver’s seat, and power up the vehicle. “It turns on, but I can’t get any propulsion. No lift.”

“Huh.” She chewed her lip, accusation forgotten. “I used to work on cars with my dad. Let me take a look.”

“Sure.” He shut off the car. Shepard hitched herself down under the vehicle, still dressed in her clubwear, which made the whole maneuver unnecessarily awkward. Alenko swallowed and looked away. “What’s the matter, never see legs before?”

“Usually not quite that much of them on a stranger.” He coughed. “Ma’am.”

She fished around the undercarriage. Alenko had removed the access panel beneath the control system. But this was a power issue. She moved towards the back and opened another access. “Here we go.”

“Yeah?” Friend this time. He sounded curious despite himself.

Shepard pulled the damaged component and leveraged herself out, smoothing the dress back down. “The capacitor’s shot.”

“Shit.” He took it, dismayed. “I only bought the car two months ago. Perfect check-out.”

“Yeah, you might want to switch mechanics.” She turned to Alenko. “And you might want to talk a little faster when you’re dealing with car trouble in the middle of the night.”

“I’ll… take that under consideration.” He still seemed a little dazed. Maybe he hit his head harder than she thought.

“And get that bump looked at.” She gave them both a nod. “Stay out of trouble.”

The friend stood a little straighter. “Yes, ma’am.”

Shepard walked home in the dark.

#soulmate au #nathaly shepard #kaidan alenko #domestic violence brief implied mention

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skztalkergo · 3 years

Text

stray kids reaction: you get a flat tire

chan

he’s absolutely convinced he can put the spare on by himself

he tells you to wait in the car while he does it because he’s worried about you getting run over

he’d probably be mildly successful, if not by skill then by sheer force of will

at any rate you get to the repair shop in one piece, where he lets you stand behind him while he talks to/negotiates with/pays the repairman

(but let's be real if you’re powerful enough to date chan then you’re probably like,,, doing price comparison checks with an actual calculator or smth idk. if it was me i’d be peaced tf out with my head buried in his jacket like an ostrich)

when it’s over you just look at him like :’( and now he has to buy you dinner to comfort you after a traumatic day :)

minho

you’re driving (obviously, the only one in skz with a license is chan) and you look over and see minho in the passenger seat on his phone

“what’re you doing?”

“calling 911”

“minho gIVE ME THE PHONE-”

honestly if i had to vote anyone in skz to have the capacity to successfully change a tire, it would be minho

but he’d probably call roadside assistance because he thinks it’s better left to the professionals (unless you force his hand and then he grumbles and tells you to wait in the car and changes it in like less than 5 minutes)

very good to have to deal with repair people, very adult and able to navigate adult situations

changbin

he’s going to put the spare on himself or he’s going to die trying

he’s out on the side of the road and you have to stand next to him and watch for traffic and hand him things out of the emergency toolkit

he’s got like three different wikihow tutorials open on his phone and none of them are working

eventually when you limp the car into a repair shop, he stands there with his arms crossed and glares at the repairman who says the whole tire’s gonna have to be replaced

“changbin it looks pretty bad can you just pay the guy so we can go-”

“mAYBE I’LL JUST PATCH IT MYSELF”

“changbin darling give the nice man your credit card :)”

you leave the tire shop and he’s muttering about pressure gauges and you’re holding onto his arm to keep him from walking directly into traffic

hyunjin

you ask him to be the man and go put on the spare and he gives you the most absolutely scandalized look

“babe, we’re both too pretty to know anything about cars”

you’re gonna have to put on the spare yourself, or otherwise he’ll call roadside assistance

if you were at all stressed by the events i feel like he’d be good to have around tho, like he hugs you from behind and narrates everything in that hyunjin way he does and soon you’re laughing too hard to be worried

50/50 on who has to do the talking. if it’s your car then probably you, but he can be coerced if your eyes are looking a lil watery

jisung

he could care less about cars he’s just gonna call a tow truck and hand over his credit card and let them take it from there

if you’re the type to get involved then he’ll stand by you with great interest but he’s not touching that spare tire if you paid him

the repairman goes on a tangent about why you need all 4 tires replaced and jisung’s like “yo true”

and unless you have the wherewithal to jump in with an “i don’t think-” you’re getting 4 new tires

“aren’t you glad i’m rich, babe ;)”

“if you wanna put it that way-”

felix

yeah bold of you to assume he has any idea what to do

you’re gonna have to be the adult here but he’s gonna be like,,, your #1 supporter the whole time

you’re calling roadside assistance and he’s sitting in the passenger seat like “:DD you tell ‘em babe!”

“felix i literally just gave the AAA guy our location”

if you were really freaked out by dealing with repair people he would highkey talk to them for you, but i don’t think you want that because if anyone’s getting swindled into buying an unnecessary set of snow tires it’s felix

if you’re both clueless then he holds your hand and calls chan

seungmin

“seungmin, the tire pressure warning light just went on”

“what do i look like, a mechanic?”

“fine, i guess i’ll go check it myse-”

“dON’T MOVE I’LL DO IT”

because at the end of the day, seungmin’s a dandy boy

thinks along the same lines as minho that it’s probably better to call the professionals

is absolutely not getting swindled at the tire shop - he’ll stare down any repairman who claims to know more than the tires 101 training he gave himself on google on the car ride over

jeongin

i actually think he’d try to put on the spare himself, and you know what, i actually think he’d be successful

but he makes you stand outside and watch him because he thinks it’s really cool and sexy of him, and he’s absolutely delighted by this chance to be your knight in shining armor

“yeah jeongin i think you’ve got the bolt on the wrong way-”

“shh, i’m concentrating”

after that he’ll leave it up to the mechanics but he is so proud of himself and will not let it go

you’re gonna have to do the talking tho, he’ll just stand behind you and kinda O_O

#stray kids #stray kids reactions #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #stray kids headcanons #bang chan #lee know #lee minho #changbin #hyunjin #han #han jisung #felix #seungmin #i.n #jeongin

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miyosamu · 4 years

Text

Kuroo & Oikawa thinking their boyfriend’s gonna break up with them

Kuroo Tetsurou

ok ok

kuroo is a mature fully capable intelligent adult, he can handle this

he can handle this in a totally mature way too without needing to blow it out of proportion or get too caught up in his own head

no he can’t

that’s a lie

he’s panicking

he doesn’t know what to do

you haven’t been talking to him much

and whenever you did it was just yes or no responses

you don’t treat him like you used too

you weren’t giving him any sort of attention as of late

AND HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT’S WRONG

did he do something?

did he say something?

did he forget an important date?

he has no clue

he went through your past conversations before This Change happened and he couldn’t find a single thing that would prompt this kind of behaviour from you

and thus, he landed on the only possible explanation

you were bored with him

you changed your mind about him

and you were building this distance between you in order to send him hints and get him used to being without you so you could let him down ””easy””

fuck

"KENMAAAAAA I’M ABOUT TO BE BOYFRIEND-LESS AND THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT HELP MEE”

“just talk to him kuroo”

“and what??? speed up the process of him breaking up with me?? nO”

kuroo’s decided to deal with this the one way he knows how

he’ll just have to sweep you off your feet

again

so that’s how operation “Make Y/N Fall For Me: Pt.2″ was born

needless to say, kenma and yaku thought he was being absolutely ridiculous

bokuto thought it was genius though

“i always knew there was a reason i liked you bokuto”

so for the following week, kuroo has been nothing but EXTRA flirtatious and loving

he brought you small gifts that he thought you’d like

he was extra touchy and cuddly

he kissed you more frequently and held you close to him longer than usual

when you first noticed his increased attentiveness you thought it was strange and your first reaction was “what did you do?” because you assumed he was trying to appease you so you wouldn't be mad at him for breaking your laptop or something of the sort

but he insisted it was nothing like that so you let it slide

near the end of the week, kuroo had asked you on a friday date night!

at first, you had refused because “kuroo you had matches every day of this week you should rest over the weekend”

but for some reason he couldn’t pinpoint, your refusal to go out on a date with him, combined with your odd behaviour from before made him panic

so he grabbed your hand and damn near begged you to go out with him

“come on y/n, please. i want to do this i wouldn't have asked if i was too tired or something yeah? i want to spend time together”

you caught on to the underlying sense of desperation for him, which concerned you greatly.

so of course, you agreed and thankfully he relaxed immediately after

during your date, kuroo would be as charming as ever

maybe even try a little too hard but it was kind of adorable.

as nice and flattering as it all was, it did nothing but further your suspicion that something was definitely amiss

so on your way back home from your date, you decided to confront him about it

kuroo, knowing he couldn’t lie to you and get away with it, told you everything

you were really caught off guard by what he told you

but also?? super super delighted that kuroo had gone above and beyond to make you wanna stay with him

even though you never really planned on leaving in the first place

it was very sweet

it just made you fall for him even more

him going to such lengths just showed how much he cared for you and how much he loved you

you were deeply touched

you, of course, told him all that

and also ensured him that you never planned on leaving

things were getting too stressful, you needed some space so you subconsciously started pulling away from people

you hadn’t meant to worry him

kuroo was SO SO RELIEVED

it was like a dreadful weight just lifted off his shoulders

he laughed at the whole situation honestly, wrapped his arms around your waist and spun you around before kissing you lovingly on the lips out of joy

and also just to solidify his intentions of not letting go of you anytime soon

or hopefully never

Oikawa Tooru

he deals with it like most every other issue he deals with

denial

just

denial through and through

nope

no way

not happening

not possible

everyboDY SHUT UP

god

G O D HE WAS SO STRESSED

and he would not be able to hide it for shit

when oikawa is nervous it shows

he just has these little mannerisms than give it away

now iwaizumi was the first to notice he’s been tense so he asked

and oikawa just unleashed

he whined and whined about you possibly breaking up with him but then he’d turn around and deny it in the same breath

he’s trying to convince himself this isn’t happening

“i mean there’s no way y/n-chan would leave me right??”

“it doesn’t make sense i don’t think i gave him a reason to suddenly dislike me !!!”

“we were fine until recently !!”

“more than fine even!!!”

“i mean sure i’m often preoccupied with volleyball practice and that sometimes limits the time we can spend together and yeah ok maybe he would want someone who can offer more of their time to him and take him on nice dates every weekend like he deserves and maybe he just wants someone who’s more stable and doesn’t have a career that requires them to travel a lot and maybe he wants to be with someone who can make him feel like their relationship is steady and balanced and not always on the verge of being a long distanced one most time but that doesn’t mean he wants to break up right??!?”

he’ll just dig himself this hole and not get out of it

now

in reality

you could be just a little under the weather

just feeling drained & low on energy because Life Makes You Like That Sometimes

but Oikawa had convinced himself you’re starting to see how flimsy your relationship can be due to his choice of career and are now reconsidering being with him

Iwaizumi, being The Voice of Reason™, had told him that that’s a load of bullshit

you had known what you were getting yourself into when you got into a relationship with oikawa, but had done it regardless

“so stop being a dumbass and just go explain to him what you’re upset over so he can tell you you’re wrong and i can gloat about how i’m always right”

and oikawa had wanted to do just that

really he did

but anytime he saw you now his stomach flipped nervously and he gets all clammy

he knows he should talk to you about it but [Anxiety]

oikawa has a lot of self-doubts no matter how hard he tries to act like he doesn’t

so the thought of upsetting you due to him lacking as a boyfriend didn’t help him

and as much as he tried to tell himself he’ll talk to you about it he’ll talk to you about it

as a defense mechanism, his self-doubts and anxiety subconsciously had him pulling away from you

you can’t pull away from him if he pulls away first right?

by the time that you got back on your own two feet you had wanted to talk to oikawa and apologize to him for being distant lately

but he wasn’t giving you the chance

he wasn’t outright ignoring you but he was definitely avoiding you

you deduced that he was upset at you for being so distant lately and the guilt swallowed you whole

it was just an ugly mental battle within yourselves that convinced you the other has had enough of you

so neither of you was talking to the other now, or even attempting to which just made things woRSE and it was just no

iwaizumi, god bless his soul, decided it was time for a major intervention beCAUSE HE CAN’T STAND SEEING YOU TWO BEING SULKY LITTLE SHITS AND NOT COMMUNICATING BECAUSE YOU BOTH DECIDED FOR YOURSELVES THAT THE OTHER WAS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU

he forcefully sat you both down and had you talk it out

you literally owe him everything because he single-handedly saved you guys’ relationship

after removing all the misunderstandings between you two and after a whole lot of Physical Affection to make up for lost time

you and oikawa were back on track with your relationship

you both have to work on communicating your doubts

but hey

baby steps

also, iwaizumi got to gloat

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x male reader #oikawa tooru #kuroo x reader #oikawa x reader #kuroo x male reader #oikawa x male reader #kuroo tetsurou #hq oikawa #hq kuroo #hq!!#haikyuu imagines

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livsoulsecrets · 3 years

Text

Deanoru Fic: It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"

Summary: The one where the Runaways have to fight an unexpected criminal attack in L.A. during their night out and Nico ends up taking big risks to protect Karolina, which prompts her to ask Karolina the most important question of their lives.

§ - §

What was supposed to be a quiet Sunday night for the Runaways quickly turned into a mess in a matter of seconds.

Thinking in retrospect, Nico assumed she should have known they were bound to stumble upon a disaster every time they stepped outside.

Still, it had been the first time in a while they had managed to get the whole group together at the same place. With Alex off to MIT, Gert and Chase finishing off college and Molly about to graduate high school all while Nico and Kare adapted to moving in together last year, they had been too busy for a reunion. At the same time, Nico was pursuing her own career in journalism (which had been quite a surprise to her, once she realized writing about the things that angered her was a better coping mechanism than trying to solve everything with spells) and Karolina started working towards her Sociology Masters (which did not come as surprise at all, because this girl was amazing and capable of anything).

Because of the crazy times they had been going through, Nico had planned to have a peaceful night out with her friends at the amusement park downtown, followed by a sleepover at their old hideout, the Hostel, to blow off some steam. Of course, that didn’t go as planned thanks to some lunatic that had decided to attack LA and kidnap a bunch of kids in the middle of their night off.

Now, Nico was following the crazy man’s track to some abandoned warehouse (because he was a cliche like that, apparently), alongside Karolina, Molly and Chase. They had left Gert and Alex at the park, to make sure the civilians got home safe and nobody was hurt. When they finally reached the place Nico’s localization spell had pointed out, she stopped her friends in their tracks.

— Look, we don’t know much about this dude, other than the fact he’s insane enough to kidnap a bunch of kids without thinking twice. What we do know is that he seemed to know exactly what he was doing, so he may be a professional. — Nico explained, keeping her voice low while the four of them hid behind a bus stop. The sight was quite ridiculous, but the dark street provided a very welcome hideout.

— So, you think he is part of a gang or something? — Molly asked, appearing to be excited at the prospect of kicking some gangster’s ass, which did not appeal to Chase at all, considering his furrowed brow in Molly’s direction.

— He could be. Anyway, he had a whole crew and lots of guns. Be careful and don’t do anything dumb. And, yes, I’m talking to you, Chase, in case there is any doubt. — Nico reinforced, receiving a scowl from him.

— Oh, there wasn’t, baby. — Kare commented, earning a small smile from her girlfriend, despite the tense situation they were in. Chase just threw his arms up in frustration as a response.

— Just remember our main goal is to get the children back to their families before anything bad happens. Let’s go inside by the backdoor and, please, don’t forget to-

— Stick together. — Molly interrupted. — We know it, Nico. You give away too many speeches for somebody that hates motivational stuff. — With that, she turns and leads the way to the back exit.

— Ow, I was just disrespected by a fetus. — Nico sighed, but still followed said fetus’ steps.

— Now you know how I feel. — Chase replied, shaking his shoulders.

Their banter died down as Molly forced the door open and the four of them walked inside in complete silence. The place was pitch dark, so Karolina instinctively lightened up her hand, leading the way through an infinite amount of hallways that seemed to lead nowhere.

— Wait, I’m hearing something. — Kare whispers just when Nico was starting to lose hope of finding any clues in that place. Kare very quickly diminishes her light. — I think someone is coming, get ready.

Some moments after her warning, Nico manages to catch sight of a dim lantern light in the end of the hallway. Shortly after that, six men appeared, guns in hand.

Despite their muscles and armament, they had no time to react as energy blasts from Chase’s Fistgons hit the first two men right in their chests. Without missing a beat, Karolina flew over the fallen thugs to bring the next two to the ground as Nico attacked one of the remaining men with a restraining spell. Molly hit the last one of the men hard against the wall, leaving him momentarily unconscious.

— Tell us where the kids are. Now. — Nico demanded the man she was holding against the wall.

— Fuck you, bitch-

A burst of light hit a spot near the guy’s head, leaving a massive hole in the wall. Molly let out a surprised squeal, but Nico didn’t even flinch, knowing exactly where it came from.

— You will tell her what we want to know or the next one is going right into your head. — Karolina bluffed, rainbow couloured beams of light coming out of her hand.

Anyone who knew her could see right through her act, as Nico did, but, right there, in a dark creepy hallway with her exhilarating power consuming the whole place, it was no surprise the man was terrified of her.

With blonde hair falling into her face, an anger-filled look on her dreamy blue eyes and incredible power radiating from every part of her body, Nico thought she looked like an avenging angel.

Nico also thought several other things right after that, but she had to push those ideas away in favor of focusing on their mission.

— East side of the building. They are keeping the kids in the basement over there. You have to turn right in the next hallway and keep walking straight down. — The guy grunted out, visibly shaken up.

— How many people are guarding them? — Chase questioned, stiffening up.

— About twelve, but I guess you will have no problem with that. — He growled.

— Why did you take the kids? Is it to make a statement to a rival gang? — Molly seriously questioned, talking for the first time in a while, which earned a raising eyebrow from Chase. — What? I study gangs quite a lot, you never know when you will have to fight one.

— You terrify me sometimes, kid. — Chase said, deeply disturbed.

— She’s not wrong. — Their hostage said, once the hold Nico had on him tightened up. — I don’t know much, I was just paid to guard the place. All I know is the boss has some crazy guns and is trying to show off his firepower, the kids are just to attract attention.

— As usual, kids are the ones getting caught up in the middle of adults’ bullshit. — Nico murmured, anger burning inside of her. — That’s all we need to know, let’s go. — Nico dropped the thug to the ground and whispered a spell to make him fall asleep.

— Alright, guys, let’s find them. — Karolina pleaded, holding out her hand for Nico to grab. Without thinking twice, Nico took it and guided her girlfriend and friends to the basement. They successfully avoided being seen by any other guards, managing to reach the place rather quickly, now they knew what to look for.

Once they got to the spot where they were hiding the kids, Nico caught sight of plenty of guards gathered in front of the door. Nico signaled for the group to stop and listen attentively. They all waited together, trying to listen to the conversation being held near them.

— Is the gun ready? — One of the men questioned.

— The Boss says so. He brags it can take out any of those super powered freaks out there, anything that isn’t human. — Answered another.

— Do you believe it?

— I don’t need to believe it. Every other gang in town is going to be terrified. We are in for some good money.

Nico reached for Karolina without thinking twice, fear washing over her at the thought of some despicable guy harming Kare. The next thing in her mind was Molly, fearing the weapon could hurt her too due to her powers. Chase’s panic was also written all over his face when she looked up to him.

— So, what do we do? — Molly whispers, voice trembling.

— We save the kids and get out of here. That’s the plan. — Nico answers, fearing Molly and Karolina would cross ways with a potential threat.

— We can’t let this guy keep the weapon. It could hurt people. People like me. Like Molly. — Karolina disagrees, nervously.

— This is exactly why we need to leave. We can’t put you and Molly in danger. — Chase pondered.

— Also, we don’t even know if this gun is real, the dude might just be making it up. — Nico argued back, trying not to raise her voice.

— We can’t take risks with this, Nico. — Karolina insists. There is a moment of silence where Karolina just holds Nico’s eyes on hers, letting her know she is not letting this go.

Well, Nico realizes she isn’t either.

— I don’t want to get in the middle of this staring contest you guys are having, but I think the guard is walking toward us, so maybe we can argue later and fight now? — Chase suggests, speaking fast as he prepared his Fistgons to shoot lasers at the upcoming target.

— Say no more. — Molly complies, eyes glowing in the dark.

After that mutual agreement, everything becomes a blur of punches, light and loud noises as the four of them fight through the wave of thugs.

Once they finally reach the door, Chase blows the lock up, sweat covering his face and his breathing heavy.

— Man, I don’t see you in this bad of a shape ever since you lost the Junior league championship. — Nico commented, earning an offended scowl from him.

— That’s low, Minoru, you know that’s the thing I’m sensitive about.

As Chase catches his breath, Molly screams a warning before kicking the door down. It’s all a bit dramatic and not that necessary, but Nico lets her have it. It has been a long night, after all.

They find about fifteen very terrified kids grouped together in the dark, loud sounds of crying and screaming reverberating through the room.

— Hey, it’s okay. — Karolina softly announces, lighting up the place. — We’re here to help. — The kids amusedly stare at Kare as she shines, momentarily forgetting their current situation.

— Yes, we will get you out. Just make a line and I’ll make sure you get back to your families. — Nico asks, turning to prepare for her next speel. With a deep breath, she pictures the amusement park with clarity in her mind as she tightens her hold on the Staff. — Open the portal. — She murmurs, focusing on keeping it safe for the kids. — It’s stable now, but it’s not safe for them to cross alone. Molly, you and Chase go with them.

The girl opened her mouth to protest at the same time Chase let out a breath of relief.

— Please, Mols. Those kids need protection, we have no idea if there’s something waiting for them at the park. They will need to be kept safe until finding their families. I’m trusting you with this. — Nico pleaded, hoping she would listen to her. Molly still looked unhappy about it, but nodded and accepted the request.

— Hey, y’all, just stay together and follow me. — Molly said, walking through the portal right after. Chase spoke softly to the kids as they crossed it as well, only stopping when the last one was gone, following them as well. Despite that, Nico kept the portal open, fortifying it.

— Kare… You should go with them. — Despite her request, Karolina sighed, unbothered.

— I’m not going anywhere.

— This guy is dangerous, okay? His weapon especially targets super powered people, you heard it.

— That is why I can’t let you go alone. If he can really hurt superheroes, I’m sure he can hurt witches with staffes too! — She argued back, hands crossed in front of her body.

— The Staff doesn’t count! Your power is engraved into your blood, Kare. It is too dangerous for you to stay. Also, I can handle him, believe me.

— I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but if you get hurt, we will be lost without you... I will be lost, Nico. — Karolina’s voice is shaking, which breaks Nico’s heart even more.

— I won’t let that happen. But, even if it does, the team needs you to go and keep everyone else safe. You need to make sure these kids get back to their families and meet me back at the Hostel. I added an additional protection to the portal. It doesn’t let those who cross it come back here, keeping everyone safe. Please, just go. — Nico insisted, holding onto Karolina’s arms, trying to get her to listen. They are standing right in front of the portal right now, its purple energy beaming so strongly Nico needs to put a lot of effort into properly seeing Karolina’s face.

— Nico, no! I’m not leaving you behind, especially with no way of getting back to you. — Karolina firmly denied, sounding terrified with the idea.

— Karie, that’s not leaving me, that’s following a plan. Trust me, I would never not come back to you.

— I do trust you. I just can’t-

Nico stops her mid-sentence, hands gripping around her shoulders as she presses their lips together, hard and sharp. It’s not like their usual kisses, it’s not soft or slow or loving, it’s desperate and rough, just Nico sealing them together one more time before she does what has to be done.

— I love you, Karolina. Don’t forget that.

— I love-

— Also, I’m sorry. — Nico whispers, before using her tight grip on Karie’s shoulders to push her through the portal.

— Nico! No, don’t you dare! I swear-

Karolina’s furious scream is cut out by the portal closing.

— Please, don’t go too hard on me for this, Karie. — Nico begged the empty space her girlfriend was in until a moment ago, before turning on her heels to face her target.

§ - §

When Nico makes her way back to the Hostel almost an hour later, Molly is the first person to throw herself at her. Soon enough, she’s being passed around, from Alex to Gert to Chase and, finally, to receive a friendly tap from Old Lace’s tail.

Karolina is the last one in her arms, holding her so tight Nico loses sense of everything around them for a moment.

— Are you okay? Are you hurt, what happened? — Karolina fired the questions quickly, hands scanning her body, looking for any injuries.

— I’m fine, really. Not hurt, just really tired. — Nico assures her, trying to sound light.

— Did you catch the guy? — Chase asked next, curious.

— Yes, I did. He had a weapon that was quite powerful, but it wasn’t capable of all the things that he was told about. Someone tricked him, apparently. It could cause a lot of damage, but not to the point of harming superpowered people. I mean, at least that’s what I understood from the cops’ talks after they took him away. — Nico explained, hand rushing through her hair, trying to keep it off her face.

— So I left for nothing? Damn it, I could have kicked his ass. — Molly complained, disappointed.

— It wasn’t for nothing! Nico made the right call. If this guy had the gun he claimed to, you could be dead right now just for crossing his way. — Gert refuted, arms around her sister in a tight embrace. Nico nodded softly to her as a way of thanking the support and Gert smiled back.

— Better to be safe than sorry. — Alex added, to Molly’s further disappointment.

— Whatever, I guess. — She muttered, arms crossed.

— Still, it took all of my energy to get him and his thugs to step down. I’m really drained. — Nico explained, breathing still irregular even now.

As their friends discussed the night’s unexpected turn of events and planned a brunch for the next day to make up for tonight’s disaster, Karolina took the chance to lock Nico in another hug, still not saying much, appearing to be just taking in her presence.

— We will… Huh, leave you to it? — Chase suggests, his voice nothing but background noise to Nico as she buries her head in Kare’s shoulder, relief washing over her. In a moment, all her friends have dispersed through the Hostel and Karolina is taking a step away from her, cleaning her throat.

— Kare, I-

— Let’s not do this here. — Kare asks, indicating the stairs with her head.

— Okay. Sure. — Nico complies, not sure of what to do, but still quietly following Karolina as she took them to their old bedroom.

Once they get there, Karolina closes the door and walks to the center of the room, nervously standing there. Karolina seems to gather herself for what she’s about to say. When she talks again, her tone is so sharp Nico feels as if her heart is being split in half.

— You’re unbelievable, Nico. What you did- I don’t even know what the hell to tell you. I was so scared for you, even more than I was mad. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you!

Nico knows Karolina needs to get her anger out, knows she has every right to be pissed at her, but she’s too tired, too broken to do anything other than let her body take over.

Her feet move before she even takes notice of them, arms enlacing Karolina’s waist, head fitting right under her chin.

She listens to Karolina’s heartbeat, furiously beating because of what she did.

Somehow, Nico is just really glad it’s even beating at all. Nico knows she put herself in danger more than anyone else in the team today, but she finds herself realizing the thing that terrified her the most was Karolina getting hurt. She didn’t think twice, didn’t hesitate, before throwing herself in the unknown, if that meant getting Karie to a safe place.

Nico would rather do it a thousand times again if that meant Karolina would be waiting for her on the other side of it. Even if they fought, argued and screamed.

Karolina was all there was, as usual.

— I love you, Karolina Dean. — Nico whispers.

Karie sighed, hands coming to tangle among the heavy locks of Nico’s hair.

— I love you too. — Kare says it back. — I’m still mad though.

— I know. I’m sorry-

Nico stops, breathes one time. Then, another. She runs what she’s about to say through her mind again and again.

Karolina waits for her, as she always does, even through Nico’s worst moments.

— I’m sorry I pushed you away. — Nico apologizes, taking enough distance for Karolina just to take a better look at her face. — I’m sorry I made you feel so worried for me, but I’m not sorry for what I did.

Karolina is clearly confused, but still pays attention to Nico. Now, she is looking down to face her as well, which would annoy Nico if it came from anyone else, since she hates feeling so small, but it’s always quite endearing when Karie does it. The difference is that Karolina does it to make sure she never misses a single movement Nico makes, she stares at her as if Nico is something precious… Something marvelous. When Kare bows down to touch her face, when she pulls Nico towards her, it’s never patronizing… Quite the opposite actually: Every time Karolina touches Nico, she feels unchained.

That is the one thing that prompts Nico to be truly honest about the reasoning behind her actions tonight.

— I'm not sorry for doing something stupid to keep you safe. I’m not sorry for putting you first. I’m only sorry for not letting you in. I just need you to understand that I will never stop trying to get you home safe. No matter what it takes. I promise to include you in that, though. It was shitty of me to just push you through the portal. I panicked and didn’t take the time to talk with you or respect your choice, and that’s all on me. I shouldn’t have been so reckless and stupid. — Nico was out of breath when she finished talking and Karolina was still surprisingly quiet. — Kare? Do you need some time to think? I can leave, I know you sometimes like being alone after stuff like this.

Nico moves to leave, but Kare’s hand clasps around her wrist. She feels more than sees her body being snatched against the other woman. Karolina kisses her the way Nico has been dying to be kissed throughout this whole nightmare of a night.

This time, there’s no threats, fears or risks. This time, it’s just the two of them.

When Karolina clutches Nico’s jacket and throws it across their room, she knows that means Kare was craving the same comfort from her. In a matter of seconds, Nico has gripped onto Karolina’s shirt and pulled it over her girlfriend’s head.

Kare knows Nico’s body as much as her own at this point, so it doesn’t take much time for her to get Nico’s shirt off and clash the two of them against their bed. Karolina’s hair is falling in a cascade, tingling Nico’s neck, but she is too busy kissing every inch of skin Kare has exposed to care.

Karolina is over her, but she’s also everywhere around Nico, light consuming their surroundings. Nico could watch her for the rest of her life without ever getting tired. More than that, she wants to spend forever getting to see Karolina like this, no walls up, just hopelessly opening up to Nico.

It never fails to amaze Nico that she’s the one doing this to Karolina. That it is all her, darkness and brokenness and all, making Kare lose all control, disclosing herself in the most breathtaking way possible.

Karolina desperately reaches for her, as if she will die if Nico isn’t closer. There’s nothing else in Nico’s mind once Kare touches her like that.

All there is in the world is Kare’s warmth washing over her, erasing every bit of pain and despair this night had caused.

§ - §

It’s pitch dark when Nico talks again, her head laying in Karolina’s chest, the two of them laying together in bed, Kare’s arms around her.

— I’m not one to repeat myself, but I really felt awful for shutting you out like that.

— I know.. I could tell it as soon as you did it.

— I’m predictable, after all.

— Only to me. — Karolina scoffs, making Nico laugh.

— I still feel like an idiot, though. — Nico confesses, causing Karolina to answer in a rather frenetic manner.

— You are not an idiot- Damn it, Nico. You’re everything, don’t you see? — Her voice is nothing but a whisper, but Nico still listens to it perfectly, years of secretive talkings like those preparing her to understand Karolina in any situation possible. — I can’t function without you, I can’t think, I can’t live if you’re not there. The worst part is that I’m so mad at you for doing something this crazy to protect me, but I would have done the same. I did before. Hell, I will probably do it again.

— I get it, Kare, trust me, I do.

— I'm not sure you do, babe. — Karolina disagrees, fingers coming to trace the curve of Nico’s neck. — I was raised to obey, to comply. I was taught that to love someone meant to be loyal beyond reason. With you, though, it is the opposite of that. I don’t follow your lead because I’m forced to do it. I do so because I trust you. I put myself in risk every time you’re in danger because I can’t imagine not having you there, even though I know you would never ask that from me. I think I love you even more because I know you wouldn’t.

Nico is not one to be left speechless, yet every single time Karolina tells her things like that, as if they’re a matter of fact, as if Nico is even deserving of that type of love, she takes a moment to convince herself this is real: that Nico is the one she loves, the only one she wants.

So, she figures she might as well try to make Karie feel that same way.

— Marry me, Karolina. — Nico tells her, eyes locking into hers as Kare’s breath catches, shock written all over her face. — Marry me and stay with me. Fight me and love me and never leave. You’re my light, Karie. You’re my heart. I don’t want to wait any longer to ask you this. So… Will you marry me?

As Karolina takes in the unexpected words, Nico’s heart desperately beats, terrified of what is about to come.

— Do you know that, when I fly, I can’t always see what’s ahead of me? — Karolina questions, confusing Nico, that doesn’t understand where she is going with this. Still, she’s smiling adorably, which warms Nico’s heart despite how nervous she feels.— The clouds blur my vision and I need to trust my instincts to make sure I’m not going to hit anything. I was terrified of getting hurt or falling at the beginning, but, over time, I realized that flying was part of me, that my body knew exactly what to do, even if my mind couldn’t quite understand it. My body can take over every sharp turn, every last minute deviant, before any thought crosses my mind. It's my nature.

She stops and the look she gives Nico is so full of love that she can’t find it in herself to panic over the fact she just proposed to Karolina out of the blue. Nico listens attentively as she continues, heart pondering in her chest with every word out of Kare’s mouth.

— That’s how I feel about you. You’re my nature. I have always known you, every part of my body did, even when my mind hadn’t caught up just yet. I always knew you, Nico, more than that, I always loved you, for all the things that terrified you and amazed me. So, yes, I will marry you. I will stay with you and I will never leave because being apart from you is denying my own nature and I won’t ever do this to myself again.

Kare is crying now and Nico notices she is too. Karolina’s hands are shaking when she holds onto Nico's face. She kisses her, her lips, her cheeks, her nose, her chin. Somehow, through the tears, Nico is also laughing, never getting tired of the soft feeling of Kare’s lips on her.

— You’re all I have ever wanted my whole life. Sometimes I still can’t believe I have you. — Kare utters, one last kiss being laid at Nico’s forehead.

— You do. Kare, you always had me. — Nico moves fast to lay a leg on each side of Kare’s body. She holds Karolina’s delicate face in her hands, the look of awe in her eyes almost burning through her heart. — It’s just official now.

— You really are everything, Nico. You really are. — That’s the last thing Karolina says before leaning forward to capture her lips again.

Just like that, Kare manages to surround Nico with her presence once more.

There she is again: Nico’s light in the dark, now and for the rest of their lives.

#deanoru #deanoru fic #karolina dean #nico minoru #nico x karolina #karolina x nico #my fics #runaways #marvels runaways #marvel #gert yorkes #chase stein #alex wilder #molly hernandez #old lace

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khaleesiofalicante · 3 years

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Yknow I love Charlotte as a character buuut her parenting is questionable. From telling a 6 year old crying Matthew to take care of his father while she and Charles do some political work and honestly being really neglectful towards Matthew to mentioning his alcohol problem in one of the worst possible ways. Yes he should face his problems but that wasn't the way AT ALL.

Also I get that her job is very important but when she knows that she won't be home most of the time and her husband just isn't suited to watch little children with him absent mind(mind you this isn't his guilty for this) then they really just shouldn't have had children.

Matthew obviously isn't comfortable sharing anything with her. And even tho he really loves his whole family (even charles) he isn't comfortable around them.

It's obvious he feels like the black sheep. 2 politicians and a genius. While he is over there and just enjoys art and parties.

Even before the poison accident it was obvious he wasn't happy and didn't think that he was worth anything.

I'm sorry for he rant but I'm seeing a lot of Matthew hate and it feels like no one actually sees that his problems run deeper than alcohol and academy bullying

Ohhhhhhh this is an interesting topic!

Okay here is my take.

1. I agree that Matthew’s issues move past beyond alcoholism. Remember that his alcoholism is NOT the problem. It happens to be his coping mechanism - which of course is unhealthy. So, even if Matthew becomes sober, unless he addresses the actual problem - which is the trauma he had to go through after the miscarriage - then it’s not going to be much help since he is likely to replace one unhealthy coping mechanism with another. So yes. While addressing the alcoholism and the bullying, it’s important that we talk about how these issues persist.

2. Which brings me to the lack of psychosocial support. Another reason why Matthew seems to be having a hard time coping with this trauma is that he has less parental or domestic support than his peers. While I do not wish to compare these characters, I must also admit that Matthew could feel that his parents are not as “supportive” or “present” as the parents of his friends.

3. I do agree that Charlotte could have done better. I’m not going to disagree with that. I feel like BOTH Charles and Matthew needed better guidance and support.

4. BUT I don’t really like the idea of blaming Charlotte for this (or mostly blaming her) as it reinforces the belief that “oh she is the mother so of course she is responsible for their upbringing”. Now of course one can assume that Charlotte is more responsible for the upbringing because of Henry’s condition. But I don’t think it was shown in any way that Henry is incapable of providing emotional support to his children. I don’t think that has anything to do with his disability - but just his general personality and absent-mindedness. But we have seen Henry be kind to Matthew and talk to him after Charlotte’s miscarriage.

5. I think what is missing here is consistency. It’s important that children have consistent support from parents. While Charlotte’s and Henry’s love might be no doubt unconditional - I don’t find it to be inconsistent. I don’t think this is because Charlotte prioritises her job more than her family (which I find to be another patriarchal stereotype btw) or Henry being oblivious. I think the circumstances pushed them to make decisions that led to the current situation.

6. I agree with the fact that Matthew wasn’t very happy before the miscarriage either. He used to be the caretaker of his father and he barely had any parental support and he didn’t get much from Charles too. I think even in the past and even in the present, one of the biggest issues is the fact that no one seems to be confronting Matthew. I mean, they don’t even seem to realise he has a problem - which is really careless and irresponsible.

In COI, James mentions that they have an unspoken pact not to mention Matthew’s drinking. But what prevented others (Except for Lucie!!) from talking to Matthew about it? Yes, Charlotte and Henry must have definitely noticed and addressed this! (I believed they did in coi - which led to Matthew moving out smh) but I don’t see any other adult addressing this or trying to help him.

Of course this doesn't mean “oh matthew is an amazing actor, he has everyone fooled”. I don’t think that’s true at all. I think people simply stopped paying attention to him. Or perhaps they don’t want to see something they don’t want to discover.

So, while Charlotte and Henry in a way failed Matthew, I think most people around him did/do as well.

7. I would never question their credibility as parents because I know for a fact that they raised Will and Jem at such a young age and they grew up to be amazing people. So, if something went wrong, I don’t think it’s because they are bad parents, but because they failed to find a balance or pay attention or realise how bad things are until they got very bad. So, “they shouldn't have had kids” isn't really fair (in my opinion) since they are good people and good role models. They simply took their responsibility for granted.

Having said all of this, I really do wish we could see something from or even about Henry or Charlotte. They are barely in the TLH books. And to be honest, I don’t think we have enough of Matthew content either - at least not enough of his pov.

Don’t apologise for ranting. You're always welcome here to talk about anything tsc related and share how you feel. I’m sorry there is a lot of Matthew hatred going on. But I am very pissed at him right now (understandably so I think) I don’t hate him and I don’t think I can ever will. I know there was some tension after coi ending. So, I hope people will eventually realise that this situation is more complex and not black/white as we want it to be.

Thank you talking about this though. I think this is something that had to be addressed.

I know this has been said by many, many people many many times. I think what needs to happen here is just proper, honest and straightforward communication. They NEED to talk to each other about their needs, feelings and expectations. If not, any solution is not going to be effective, not on the long-term.

#coi spoilers #matthew fairchild

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swimfuel · 3 years

Text

okay humanstuck thoughts under the cut

i owe a lot of this to @/rhythmic-idealist's kankri/vantasposting bc holy shit theyve got such a big brain (ill link to their individual posts when im on desktop since im using this to keep all my thoughts straight and i agree with most of what they say wholeheartedly)

general status quo stuff:

signless works in an extremely demanding career involving helping others (i'm leaning towards an attorney who works with organizations and does pro bono work), and is also extensively involved in social justice work outside of his job... he is very rarely home

he loves and cares for his children deeply and tries to express it whenever they're face to face, but the couch in his cramped and messy office has seen far too much use over the years for him to have been able to say it enough

his habits of working himself to the point of exhaustion are handily passed down to his kids btw

the kids had to grow up quickly because signless was out of the house so often and so consistently—kankri, who was already pretty high-strung, has to learn to take care of himself and karkat

they grow up near ms firuzeh maryam, who's their pseudoaunt/grandma (she took in a nine year old kavana vantas when she was about twenty), but they just call her ms rosa

they spent a lot of time in the maryam house growing up, with miss rosa's two nieces. porrim is a year older than kankri, while kanaya and karkat are the same age

kankri grows kinda sensitive to people trying to mother him since it rubs against the notion that he's the "adult of the house" and that he can take care of himself and karkat just fine

(and it also kinda underlines the fact that kankri has no idea what he's doing at the best of times)

and ironically enough, kankri becomes overbearing and naggy towards karkat in his own right, which forestalls them becoming close in any brotherly sort of way

they grow up really just... unable to communicate with one another clearly

karkat develops his ornery exterior in response to kankri's constant stream of opinions and frantic attempts at making up for the presence of a guardian in the house

i think there would actually be some really interesting parallels with rose in this au.. maybe i'm drawing from my own experiences as well but i think he'd begin to assume that every time his brother opens his mouth, he's going to criticize karkat

but instead of reacting like rose with the "making yourself more of a puzzle"/passive aggressive stuff, he gets a more defensive/hackles raised/"argue with you before you can argue with me" approach

and the thing is that they do love each other and would take a bullet for the other etc etc etc.. but they don't know how to express it because they've fallen into these shitty patterns

and it really doesn't help that kankri has grown somewhat resentful of signless over the years... that mix of resentment and fear and love gets more extreme and more polar every time signless gets injured during a political demonstration

i think kankri and signless would also be slightly closer than karkat and signless, as signless' job really only started to ramp up when karkat was less than years old and kankri was in his early double digits

kankri autistic btw its word of god (i am god)

karkat has a pet crab. its name is also karkat. he vents his frustrations to it.

i feel like the vantases exemplify both the best and worst parts of their aspects with one another as well... the strength of their bonds keeps them together and grounded, but TOO grounded. [insert Blood rant here]

the Blood rant:

i define Blood as bonds, responsibility, and the "core". if Life is the fertile soil and everything living on a planet's surface, then Blood is the gravitational core of the planet keeping everything together

i also think Blood, Heart, & Mind work in tandem to define a person just as blood serves to connect the pieces of the human body... Heart is the soul and the self, Mind is the application of one's self through active choices (agency), while Blood defines both the self and the choices one makes in greater detail [and, as an aside, Life provides the physical spark of life needed to keep the heart pumping blood]

OKAY wow that got tangential anyways

SO BASICALLY! too much Blood makes you stagnate, so for example:

kankri is split between staying home with karkat or going to college across the country and being truly unbound for the first time in years

another crisis of Blood: signless is caught between his empathy and responsibility to the whole world and his responsibility to his own children

okay so here's more status quo stuff:

the maryam and vantas kids grow up together and its hilarious because you'll see them all together and its just like (girlboss) (girlboss) (physical manlet) (emotional manlet)

the maryam girls are actually miss rosa's nieces but she took them in when they were both pretty young

the pyropes know the vantases well enough considering pyrope senior and sign have known one another from their respective legal practices for years, but they live on the other side of town

the leijons lived in town when kankri and meulin were very young, but they moved and travelled for a long time before coming back and reestablishing their roots

the captors (psii being one of sign's oldest and closest friends) move into town with the peixes family pretty early on though

the condesce is.. a horrible spouse and guardian, to put it plainly. she's very emotionally manipulative and isn't averse to smacking people around, including her own family. she moves herself and her perfect little family into town so she can properly oversee a new business venture close by

feferi is one of the best young swimmers in the country and has a pretty good shot of getting onto the olympic team.. a lot of this drive to be perfect and to be better results from the condesce's unrelenting pressure and thinly veiled resentment throughout her whole life

so yeah psii, )(ic, feferi, and sollux all live together and it's really not great for anyone involved. (meenah ran away years ago, and crashed on aranea's couch for a pretty long while—mituna moved out with latula for college before psii and the condesce got married)

it gets bad to the point of sollux staying with the maryams for two months while the adults try to sort out that absolute clusterfuck and get the divorce proceedings going (meenah finally convinces feferi to get out and come stay with her and aranea for the duration as well)

in terms of relationships i think latula and porrim were really really close in high school, and probably had some kind of unacknowledged thing going on for a while that never actually turned into anything because latula and mituna were going steady

kankri has had a crush on latula for years but never acted on it for similar reasons

meenah still carries a lot of that give no fucks attitude (it's developed moreso as a defense mechanism here) and can't understand why feferi refuses to leave the condesce with her

okay back to VANTAS MANPAIN i also think that karkat feels the weight of a lot of expectations on his shoulders as well

he feels responsible to live up to the example his dad and his brother set, even if it's to his own detriment—and kankri's oblivious rambling about his grades and his teachers and all his clubs certainly aren't helping the matter

kankri is one of those overinvolved kids taking a million AP's while simultaneously shitting on the collegeboard at every single step

hes this super overachiever anal retentive perfectionist type dude and (just as karkat preemptively criticizes others to forestall their criticisms of him only to harshly criticize himself) kankri subconsciously holds the people around him to the same expectations he holds for himself

so karkat also develops this sense of lacking which, in combination with everything else, culminates in self loathing and thinking he has to solve everyone else's problems and getting horribly mad at himself for every little mistake

GOD i have a lot more but lemme post this before i accidentally close out of the app and lose it all

more little details:

vriska's mom and terezi's mom HATE each other like HATE HATE HATE one another it's so bad

karkat wrote a ten page review of my immortal in middle school

jade is one of nepeta's best online friends

sollux can't raise one eyebrow at a time.. karkat gives him so much grief about it

the vantases eat a lot of shitty renditions of persian dishes until karkat learns to cook because literally the only person in the world with a CHANCE of getting KANKRI VANTAS to make an EDIBLE DISH is miss rosa

kanaya is really good at persian dance too but is VERY VERY embarassed to perform in front of people.. however porrim definitely is not

karkat has insomnia while kankri just stays up stupidly late for assignments that really shouldnt be taken that seriously.. but they both have the same rumination/sleep anxiety thing where your brain goes insane with horrible and depressing scenarios as you try to sleep

and more ideas that i thought were interesting but idk how to fit in the context of this au:

signless and disciple getting married pretty late in life after having been in love for years, the vantases move in with the leijons and karkat suddenly has two sisters

nepeta and karkat are both juniors at this point, meulin is probably in her third year at a local college nearby while kankri is about to start his second year at a university pretty far away

the kids in general honestly but ill figure it out

more random hcs this time with kids:

kanaya and rose get into a flame war online that gradually settles into elaborate courtship rituals

also nepeta + jade online besties

also bec can inexplicably still teleport

the first sbahj movie comes out and the next six months of dave strider junior's high school career are absolute hell

actually hc that dave senior goes by d strider professionally. the d stands for a lot of things

aradia and dave frequent a lot of the same forums but never end up really interacting

meanwhile karkat and john frequent a lot of the same forums and DEFINITELY end up interacting. this turns into grudging (at least on karkat's part) friendship after they find themselves fighting for their lives defending an objectively shitty movie together on the same thread

#humanstuck #vantas family #.

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thorne93 · 3 years

Text

History Repeats (Part 15 - FINAL)

Prompt: Life’s hard, right? Well throw in a not so great job, a broken heart, and chasing a pipe dream in LA. But could someone come along to make all the bad shit disappear? Or is he just another heartbreak waiting around the bend?

Warnings: language, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, angst/heartbreak, adult themes (??)

Word Count: 2986

Note: Aesthetic made by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo because she’s absolutely amazing Beta’d by @like-a-bag-of-potatoes and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo . Brainstorming from @carryonmyswansong

**Song Inspiration: 13 beaches - Lana Del Rey; Hoodie - hey violet

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seeing Hayden… it sent you back down to ground zero. You thought your coping mechanisms were helping. You thought surrounding yourself with so many people and friends every night was softening the blow of losing him.

But you knew it didn’t. Deep down, you knew the day he left your home, you’d never be the same. You would still feel entirely alone in a room full of people. You’d still want to see him before falling asleep and when you woke up. You’d still want to hear his voice as you shared good news. You still wanted to feel his arms after a long day.

Nothing you did was helping, and you realized it.

With a lot of work, you kicked your habits. First to go was the coke. You ordered all your friends to never offer you any and if they saw you with it to take it away from you. It took a while, but eventually, you were able to sit right next to someone doing blow and it not phase you.

Next, was the booze. That was a lot harder. It was easy to reach for a drink. It was easy to go to a bar. It was easy to open a bottle in your house. So you started there. You emptied every bottle and threw them out. You only ordered water and soda when you went out.

Every step was hard. Turning down drugs and alcohol was hard, but with patience and work, you got better at just saying no. Each day you put between you and your habit was a day you got back. You got back to songwriting now that you could think clearly and drugs weren’t clouding your mind.

New songs and works in your hands, Trey agreed to get you back in the booth to finish out your EP to a full album. The response to the EP was amazing and you were already getting a lot of recognition. As soon as the album was to hit, Trey worked with a manager to get you a US tour.

The EP evolved, you added so many songs they had to cut a few just to wait for your next one. You worked on album art and merch. Things were looking up, and finally, your album dropped.

It was a huge hit.

Every platform it went on, it exploded. Almost as if overnight, you were the next star. You had radio interviews scheduled, shows booked, photography sessions scheduled, critics and fans alike agreed that there was so much raw emotion and talent that they all wanted more. Trey and your manager couldn’t move fast enough to get you to every new gig you needed to be at. Merch was flying off the shelves, so to speak, and you were adored. Your fan base was growing every day.

You were on top of the world, respectively. You loved your life now, and your bandmates were more than just that. They were truly your friends. They helped you when you were down and when you said you wanted to get clean, they supported you as well as everyone else in your circle.

With your career finally where you wanted it to head, and your social life getting better than it ever had been, all that was missing was a love you weren’t sure you’d ever thought you’d get back. But like with everything else, you channeled it into your art, hoping for some catharsis.

Now the tour was next week, so you decided to take some time to write and reflect before you left LA to embark on this new chapter.

----------------------

Meanwhile, in the city, Hayden had listened to your album for probably the tenth time. He was lying in his bed in the hotel. Your album had been on repeat and he didn’t know what to think.

The songs had to be about him.

Or maybe he just wanted them to be.

Or maybe they really were.

But then again, that could be conceit talking. Surely you loved other people. He didn’t even know if you loved him. He had a hunch, based on your self-destructive behavior after the breakup, but he still couldn’t be sure and he didn’t want to just assume.

He decided to take action. He was tired of waiting. He texted a friend and asked where you might be. When his friend got back to him, he said the best shot would be the beach. When he asked which beach, what part, his friend replied with the spot. The exact same spot where he first asked you to date him.

He threw on his jacket and made his way there. The beach was starting to get dark. An overcast covered the sky, but it was light enough to see everything. The beach was fairly deserted, as he walked up. He saw you, sitting in the sand, your knees pulled up so you could rest your notebook against it as you wrote.

The wind was strong, making it chilly, and to keep you warm, he recognized what you were wearing -- his hoodie.

He watched you write for a moment, admiring how you looked. Your hair was shinier now than the last time he saw you. You looked better, and he was glad about it.

“They’re about me, aren’t they? The songs? The whole album,” he said as he stood behind you.

You stilled, stopping your writing. “Does it matter if they are?” Your stomach suddenly felt uneasy.

“Yes.”

You took a deep breath. “Then yes, they are about you. Is that all you came to say?”

“No, it’s not,” he said as he came closer and sat next to you in the sand. He pulled his knees up and rested his arms on them, holding onto his hands as he looked out over the ocean.

“What else did you come here for?” you asked softly.

“To apologize,” he began and you groaned gently.

“Hayden, we’ve been over this. I’m trying to move on with my life. I’m trying to get over you, if that wasn't evident by every song on that album.”

He turned to you. “I don’t want you to. I don’t want you to move on or forget about me.”

“Oh, great, lovely then,” you said, getting exasperated. “If you’re here to hurt me more, please--”

“I love you,” he fervently said as his hands went to each side of your face. “I’m here to say I’m sorry for not saying it sooner. I’m sorry for breaking you the way I did. I didn’t mean to, at all, but then I did, and you were so hurt, I didn’t know how to help you.”

Your eyes searched his as he let go of you to look back at the waves. Did he mean it? Was he just saying that? Was this a cruel game? Why did he say it now?

“You could’ve told me that,” you breathed. “You could’ve told me you loved me, it would’ve saved me.”

“I know, but I didn’t want to use it as something to save you. I wanted to save you, or I wanted you to save yourself. I didn’t want me loving you or returning to you to be the reason you got better. I wanted you to realize that all on your own, to be your own hero.”

You nodded as you muttered, “Thanks. It worked. I’m clean now. The last time we saw each other kind of… sobered me up.”

“I’m glad,” he said with a small smile. “Can you tell me what happened? We broke up and you… you went off the deep end. I know we were perfect, and I hated ending it the way I did but… drugs? Alcohol?”

You chewed on your lips as you nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty stupid. I just… I looked to alcohol to numb the pain, you know? Not that atypical. I did it after Jason, that’s where you and I met, with me crying in my beer at a bar over my ex.”

He nodded, understanding.

“But then… it wasn’t enough. I…” You took a deep breath, fighting the lump in your throat and the fear of saying this. “I love you. I loved you. More than I’d ever loved anyone else, and suddenly the drinks weren’t enough to mask the pain. I needed something stronger. Anything stronger. I was seeing you every day at home and suddenly I couldn’t kiss you any more, I couldn’t hold you anymore, I couldn’t do anything with you any more. I couldn’t have what we had, and it killed me. I thought that if you stayed around, that if I let you live there, I could get over it. All I needed was you in my life, right?” you asked rhetorically with a sad laugh as the tears rolled down. “Then I kicked you out and it was worse. You weren’t there to help me, to brighten my day. You just… you left. I know I kicked you out, but I was mad, hurting, and high. I went to apologize and ask you to stay, and you were gone, as if you were never there. No note, no letter, no text, nothing. I felt like you were just waiting to get away from me.”

“No,” he assured while shaking his head. “That wasn’t it at all. I just didn’t want to make it awkward for you and I couldn’t watch you do that any more. I tried to talk to you a few times when you came home and you just blew me off. It was killing me to see you like that all the time. I wanted to help you, I really did, I just didn’t know how.”

“I know,” you said with a thick voice. “That’s not your fault. None of it is your fault. You broke up with me, and I handled it poorly. I just… I lost the greatest love my life had ever known. I finally found you, and you just left…” Your gaze turned on him, scorching him. “Why? Why did you give up on us? On me? I deserve to know,” you demanded in a whisper.

He nodded. “You do deserve to know. That’s why I came here. I’m tried of not being with you. I want you, I’ve always wanted you.”

“So what happened?” you asked quietly, your eyes on his, trying to read his mind.

“Do you remember that date at the restaurant, when Rachel showed up?”

You nodded. “Of course. You were weird that night and the rest of the week before we broke up. I just assumed you weren’t over Rachel. Is that it? Was that it? =”

He shook his head. “No, not at all. She asked me outside, she wanted to talk…”

“Hey, Rach, what’s up?” Hayden greeted once the two of them were outside.

“Who’s that?” she wondered, getting right to the punch.

“That's Y/N. I’m staying at her place. She’s the one who owns the house where you dropped Briar off that one time.”

“So she’s been around Briar?” she asked, sounding as if she were betrayed.

He laughed, looking around, confused. “Uh, yeah. It is her house. We went to the park and stuff. It was fun. Briar really liked her.”

“Oh, I’m so glad to hear our daughter had fun with a stranger.”

He frowned. “Rachel, what are you talking about? Y/N isn’t a stranger. I’ve known her for several months. We’ve been roommates for a while now.”

“And how long have you two been dating?” she demanded.

“What makes you think we’re dating?”

“You’re on a date and you didn’t deny it.”

He held up his hands and laughed slightly, no humor in the sound. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s any of your concern. You’re the one who left me.”

“It’s my concern if she’s around my child. Did you think to ask me before you took her on a playdate with your little girlfriend?”

“No? Briar has a right to know who’s in my life.”

“Oh, but I don’t,” she said, clearly offended and angry.

“That's not what I said. Look, I care about this woman. She means a lot to me. I would like Briar to get to know her, I think she’ll be in my life for a while.”

“Not if I can help it. I don’t like her being around strangers. So long as you’re with her, Briar won’t be coming around.”

“What? Rach, that’s ridiculous. You can’t keep me from my daughter--”

“I’m not, you can come see her any time you want. I just won’t take her to her house. Jeeze, Hay, you don’t waste any time, do you? We broke up less than a few months ago and you’re already with someone else?”

“We bonded. I don’t know what you want me to say. Do you want me to apologize for finding someone that makes me happy?”

“No, of course not. I want you to be happy, I’m just a little surprised that you found them so fast.”

“What? Am I hard to love or something?”

“No, I’m just wondering if she’s a rebound, so soon after we broke up and everything. I doubt it though. What kind of example is this for Briar?”

“The fuck are you talking about?” he asked, thorugohly confused.

“Well, her mom and dad just broke up, and in no time at all, you’re with another woman. It might make her think less of love. That if we can go from what we had and you can just hop to the next girl who says hi to you. It’s probably very confusing for her. Did you even think about Briar?”

“It’s not like that,” Hayden assured her, getting frustrated. “Of course I thought about her. I spent a lot of time with Y/N before I ever let her around Briar.”

“Ah, hmm, good to know you’ve spent so much time with her. It really shows how much you care.”

“I do care, Rachel. I still love you but we’ve agreed to end things. You brought it up, not me. Now, I’m trying to find happiness again rather than wallow in it.”

“Yes, that much is clear. Let’s just hope it’s not a rebound and both of you get hurt, hmm? Good to see you, Hayden.”

He explained everything and you sat there, dumbfounded.

“She used Briar Rose against you?” you questioned quietly, flabbergasted.

“In a way. I think she was ultimately jealous that I was moving on before her. I did love her, I still do. I mean she was a huge part of my life, she’s Briar’s mom. But I love you so much more. I just… what she said, I started to worry if it was somehow true. If I was setting a bad example for my daughter. The rebound thing didn’t worry me, I didn’t feel like it was a rebound for me, but I wasn't sure about you, so before anyone got hurt, I thought we’d end it. I thought maybe if we put some distance between us, we’d be okay. If we waited a few months, it would prove to us that we were okay, but then you took it so badly and it all got so out of control. I thought if I told you I loved you back then you’d just think I was lying or trying to get you to get better. I didn’t want it to be questioned when I said to you, finally.”

You couldn't help but grin. “Failed on that front. Still questioning it.”

He took your hands in his.. “Well please don’t. I do love you. You aren’t a rebound, you never were. You’re no one’s replacement. I love you and only you.” He stroked your hair as he looked at you. “I just made a horrible decision to make a choice for both of us without consulting you.”

You nodded slightly.

“And for that, I am so sorry. I am sorry I wasn't there to help you get clean and I’m sorry I’m the reason you even had a problem to begin with. I love you so much and I’ll never leave your side ever again. Of course, that’s… if you still want me.”

Your eyes flashed to his. “Of course I still want you. All I want is you. Did you not hear a word I said in that album? You’re all I can think about, you’re all I ever want. You’re all I will ever want.”

He let out a relieved laugh. “I’m so glad you feel the same way. I’ve hated myself every day since I ended this between us. I’ve wanted to make it right, to come back to you for so long.”

“I’m so glad you finally did,” you breathed as you looked into his eyes. You leaned forward, hoping you weren’t crossing a line, hoping against hope that he wanted this too.

Your lips hit his and life ignited in you. Your hands went to his hair and his hands wrapped around your back as he lowered you to the ground. His lips moved expertly and fervently on your mouth, as if it were the air that he breathed.

When you two broke, you stared at him in wonder.

“Do you mean it? Do you love me?”

“More than I ever imagined was possible.”

“I love you too, please don’t leave me again.”

“I would never even dream of it. I’m here, and I’ll never go anywhere else. I’m yours for as long as you want me.”

“I’ll always want you.”

“Then you’ll always have me.”

That was all you had ever needed, from anyone. You thanked your lucky stars that it was Hayden who granted you that wonderful, beautiful, unconditional kind of love, the one you’d searched for all your life. The one you deserved, you finally had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forever Tag:

@essie1876

@magpiegirl80

@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked

@marvel-imagines-yes-please

@missinstantgratification

@thejemersoninferno

@rda1989

@munlis

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@marvelmayo

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@pandacookieowo

@beiroviski

Hayden Christensen:

@coldlilheart

@haydens-moles

History Repeats:

@multifandomblog315

#history repeats #hayden christensen x reader #hayden christensen fic #hayden christensen

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

Text

June 25: 2x24 The Ultimate Computer

Belated notes on my watch of The Ultimate Computer yesterday.

Kirk’s definitely in Captain Mode today. You can tell when he’s on edge and suspicious and serious.

Yet another old Kirk friend. Does he know everyone in Starfleet?

War games lol. But it’s “not the military.”

Spock is super into this computer.

A-7 Computer Expert Certification.

The crew’s not needed? Wow, okay, this is going to end badly.

“This gadget.” How do you really feel, Kirk?

And there’s Spock literally making faces behind the Commodore’s back. He is soooo that type. He’s like “Jim, are you hearing this? Can you believe this guy?”

I’m insulted on Kirk’s behalf right now. Replacing people with machines so blithely is offensive.

Of course Bones doesn’t like it.

Oh yeah triumvirate walking scene. I love them. it takes so little for me to think ‘what badasses.’ S2 is really stepping up this dynamic in particular.

And Spock is comfortable enough around Bones to be sassy around him

Oh no, the computer is already glitching, and there is no backup and no plan B.... Bones is completely right in his assessment. This is essentially a Titanic situation: way too much hubris involved. Nothing can go wrong so nothing will go wrong so we’ve planned for nothing going wrong!

McCoy has BFF Clearance. He can go wherever he wants.

“It’s the M-5? What happened to Ms 1-4?” Channel #5.

Ahhhh little gratuitous touch to Spock’s arm. They’re In Love.

“There are certain things men must do to remain men.”

“The right computer finally came along.” Damn Bones.

Jim’s suspicions about the computer coming right after that line make it look like he’s jealous that Spock likes it so much.

He’s getting a “red alert right here.” Computers don’t have that kind of intuition.

Jim’s so thoughtful and self-aware. He really cares both about his instincts and about interrogating those instincts for bias and unreasonableness. This is giving me real S1 vibes: the quiet, intelligent, idealized hero Captain at the fore.

This whole scene is perfect, eminently quotable, and sounds exactly like something that could have been written about automation in 2021. You’re okay with it when it’s happening to someone else but then the computer comes for YOUR job....

Uh-h, M-5 is turning off all the lights...

Space merchant marines... good to know.

HOW are the Captain and CMO “non-essential personnel”? The first sign that M-5 is illogical. They should bring some doctor on the landing party mission given that uh humans are going on it and might get injured.

Anyway I can’t wait for Kirk to destroy this bitch and save the day.

Lol it turned off the lights on Bones in sickbay.

Damn, now it’s trying to take Uhura’s job too!

Chekov is so bored.

Spock wants to serve under one man and one man ONLY. Loyalty to one man... sounds like a wedding vow... and Kirk looks so soft...

So, if Spock has to describe to McCoy what that (unnecessary bitchy and catty) “Captain Dunsel” remark means, by saying that it’s a phrase that “midshipmen use at Starfleet Academy,” is this to imply Bones didn’t go to Starfleet Academy?

He’s never felt so at odds with the ship.... a lover’s quarrel...she’s cheating on him with another man...

Jim Kirk, certified Poetry Nerd. He’s such a romantic.

So glad Bones got him a drink so he can return to the bridge and a possible emergency with just a little bit of a buzz going.

Spock in the chair...

Huh, an automated ship with no crew. Interesting concept.

Oh no M-5! She’s got control of the ship and she won’t let go!

Kirk’s face when Enterprise attacks.. the betrayal... his beautiful lady used for mindless destruction.

“Only a robot” ship--! Bones is insulted.

Kirk orders the computer turned off but we’re only halfway through the ep so...

....And the computer is sentient now.

That was the shortest Captain’s Log ever. “The computer has taken over the ship the end.”

Scotty’s like, “...Well what if we just unplug it?”

Okay so now they only have 19 crew.

Spock and Bones are on point today. “Don’t say it’s fascinating.” / “I won’t. But it is... interesting.” This bitch knows exactly what he’s doing.

The computer isn’t a child, guys!

We need powerful computers “so men don’t have to die in space”--like uh that man your computer literally just killed?

I don’t get Daystrom’s logic at all. He talks as if people, like, needed to do work in space, to survive or something. We don’t need to. We want to! We want to go out and meet cool aliens! This guy is no fun.

What is the thing “greater” than fact finding in space that the robots are going to free us to do? Like what is more impressive than SPACE? I don’t even get that.

Time to mix up fake sci fi world-building references with real references! The Nobel and Zee-Magnee Prizes. Sitar of Vulcan.

A theory emerges... the computer acts illogically...Daystrom won’t let Spock near it... I know this isn’t where this is going, but it kind of sounds like they’re implying it’s a scam, lol. He sold an idea he didn’t have so it’s like.. not a real computer.

Spock’s little protege, Chekov.

“We have been pursuing a wild goose.” Aw, bb’s trying so hard to be colloquial. (Also he 100% learned that phrase from McCoy in The Gamesters of Triskellion and now he’s trying it out on Kirk...when McCoy isn’t around.)

“Not to offend you by using the h-word, but... could it be... human?”

Kirk’s really mad at Daystrom now.

The Commodore really set up that dramatic turn to camera there.

Poor Kirk. His ship is being used for evil.

“They can’t destroy the ship, what would happen to the computer?!” Yes, the computer. And the other 19 people and himself but mostly the computer. Daystrom really has lost it.

I love the actor who plays him, though.

“You are great. I am great.” Nothing weird happening here.

Spirk attack! (Spork it out.)

Spock’s way too sure Commodore Wesley is about to die. “He was decent, it’s a shame the ship I’m on is gonna kill him.”

And now another round of Kirk versus the computer and Kirk’s logic wins.

M-5 should argue that it did not commit murder, it committed homicide in self-defense. But then Daystrom didn’t program it with a lawyer’s brain.

It’s uh just gonna leave? Not turn the lights back on?

Kirk is so smart! I know I say this all the time, but it’s true! He knew what to do to save the ship because he knew Bob Wesley. He had formed connections, he had experience and knowledge that doesn’t come from logic. He is not replaceable!

McCoy’s like “Spock, fight me. Debate me Spock. Fight me. I’ll be fun.”

Spock HAS answered the computers versus humans question--he likes humans. He wants to be surrounded by humans.

That was really good! One of the better S2 episodes. Great Kirk, great triumvirate--as a trio and all three sides of the triangle--great sci fi concept, great guest star, great social commentary--still 100% relevant today.

i definitely have to think more about the ‘human computer’ concept. I liked that they specifically went out of their way to explain why the computer was human, how that was part of its design, and then tied that into its creator, his background, his belief system, and his insecurities. I feel like most ‘sentient computer’ or ‘advanced AI’ narratives just assume a computer that’s powerful enough will eventually be alive, which is not something I believe. The scariness of advanced AI to me is the incredible power it has to act quickly, but in a complete black-box way: you can’t literally see the logic string of its thought processes, and nor can you figure them out easily or completely using the creators’ intentions or logic because the machine has ‘learned’ since its inception, and its learning processes are not human. There is a real alienness to them that I find scary. And I do think this ep captured that nuance in M-5: it has the speed and abilities of a super computer, the “human” qualities of its creator for well-explained reasons, and the unpredictability of a mechanism that is NEITHER human nor human-controlled tool. And of course the ep’s ultimate thesis--that humans cannot be completely automated or replaced, and that we should not want to automate or replace humans--is comforting and of a morality I can and want to agree with.

This was also one of those eps that made me curious about the differences in AOS and TOS Kirk--in other words, an ep that relied on his history with Starfleet and his experience, on the reality that he’s a 34 year old man with 15+years of experience in the Fleet. Time, experience, connections, these aren’t things you can replace no matter how smart you are, and I feel like it would have been interesting to see AOS!Kirk deal with some situation that is trickier for him because he’s a Captain with a startlingly small amount of institutional experience. It’s not just about being young or generally inexperienced, in other words--it’s about NOT knowing every Captain, Admiral, and Commodore in the service, it’s about NOT having friends across the galaxy because he just hasn’t had time to make them. Even in deep space, that matters. And I think it’s something that I appreciate more as an adult myself, with actual real world experience of the importance of connections and experience and time, especially in sort of insular or smaller work communities.

Anyway, next is Bread and Circuses! Another great ep for the triumvirate. I can’t believe we’re almost through S2!!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #2021: fandom thoughts

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lunavadash-creates · 3 years

Text

Hunting for Santa Claus

Oneshot No pairing Altaïr and Malik as children Warning: none Read on my ao3 😁

"Have you heard about this Christian prisoner?" Malik asked while walking into Altaïr's room. In his hands, there was a box with knives they were supposed to sharpen for the Assassins. Maintaining knives was one of the duties for children of the Assassins, it was teaching them patience and respect for the weapons, the value of hard, honest work.

Altaïr raised his gaze from the knife he was polishing and looked at his best friend questioningly.

"I heard him talking with another prisoner. Do you know they believe in Santa Claus?"

"What is Santa Claus?" asked Altaïr, furrowing his eyebrows.

"According to him, it's some priest who used to give children presents and help people in need. Even after his death, he comes back every 6th December to give children presents." Malik was quite excited while talking story about Saint Nicholas. He had always been interested in history, in books and all the secrets and legends, something Altaïr couldn't quite understand. But they still were best friends, who supported each other no matter what. They got into troubles together, and together they escaped them.

"They said they received sweets and little gifts years ago, and they even tried to capture him, but no avail."

"You don't believe in such nonsense, do you?"

"6th December is tomorrow. Why won't we check it out? We can make a trap and capture this Christian ghost. Don't you think Al Mualim would be happy?"

Since Malik knew Altaïr since the beginning, he knew how to manipulate him. Altaïr would do anything to impress Al Mualim. So the moment Altaïr looked away, Malik knew he had won. He always did this, to hide his thoughtful expression.

But for Altaïr, who lost his father too early and never had the opportunity to meet his mother, Al Mualim was the only adult who cared about him. He was his substitute for a family, the only one he knew.

"Fine. We can try to hunt down that Claus of yours."

They decided to set a trap in Kadar's room.

He was only four years old, still an innocent child who did not yet know about the Assassins. He was blessed with unawareness of the secret war they were participating in. And because of it, they decided he was the best person to observe. If in the whole of Masyaf there was a child who deserved a present from a weird man, it was Kadar. And because it wasn't unusual for Malik to visit his brother at night choosing his room was the most uncomplicated option. Only Altaïr had to sneak in with all the necessary tools.

Soon they started to work on their traps. Malik was making sure no one would be able to walk through the door without getting their attention.

His trap was simple - whoever would walk through the door would pull the string that was attached to the heavy bucket full of stones. It should be enough to stun a grown-up man, but not enough to kill anyone. Unless it was someone short, who would be hit straight in the head. But both - Malik and Altaïr assumed that Santa Claus cannot be a little man. As someone who was breaking into people's houses and castles, he had to be strong enough to fight guards!

On the other side of the room, Altaïr was setting another trap on the window. If Santa Claus decided to come through it, he would activate another mechanism. String attached to the window would make a ball filled with white paint fall on the man's face, impairing his vision. Neither of the traps were supposed to kill anyone. They were just giving Malik and Altaïr a chance to attack the man and capture him. In the end, Al Mualim definitely would question a strange man, with the ability to break into Masyaf Castle.

As soon as all the traps were set, both boys sat down on the floor, in complete darkness so as not to scare away the Santa Claus. They were wrapped in one blanket and had knives in their hands, ready to attack whenever someone would try to sneak in.

Time was passing terribly slowly when they sat like this, waiting. Before midnight it was Malik who slowly started to drift away. His head fell on Altaïr's shoulder. The other boy wasn't feeling better either, his eyelids became heavier with each passing seconds.

"Don't you dare fall to sleep on me, it was your idea," he muttered and yawned.

"What do think Santa Claus looks like?" asked Malik, deciding that talking should keep them both awake.

"I don't know. Maybe he is as old as Al Mualim? Strong and stealthy...?"

"And smart! He needs to avoid all kinds of traps, I'm sure we aren't the only one who tried to capture him."

"But we are the best!" Altaïr said, a bit too loud, as the result, Malik quickly covered his mouth. Kadar turned around in his bed but didn't wake up so Malik let go of Altaïr face.

"How do you want to be an Assassin if you can't keep silent?" Malik furrowed his brows, mocking Altaïr, it was this pleasure he could hardly deny himself.

"On the day I will be better than you, you will see. And all generations of Assassins will tell the story about how I caught Santa Claus," he muttered, making Malik snort.

"You wish."

Then, they heard a sound, one that made them jerk up.

"Did you hear that?" Malik asked excitedly. Soon there was another sound, louder this time. It sounded like someone was walking while carrying something heavy. Or maybe just the person was weighty? It didn't sound like steps of an Assassin.

Both boys stood up, ready to attack the intruder. It was clear for them that Santa Claus would come through the door, so Malik and Altaïr had to be ready for attack. They heard as the steps got closer and then there was a thud on the ground that made them jump. The door slowly opened, activating the mechanism and the bucket full of stones fell down. The person managed to jump away before the attack, so the bucked hit the wall and spill stones around with a loud noise. It made Kadar wake up suddenly, but Altaïr and Malik didn't waste a second, they jumped on the person, ready to fight.

"Malik? Altaïr?! What on earth are you doing?!" the angry voice of Malik's father made them stop midstep. Soon in the room other Assassins appeared, all still in their sleeping robes, wielding weapons, ready to fight and protect their home. No one expected to find two 8 years old boys, still holding knives and Faheem, Malik's father, looking at them disapprovingly.

"I'm sorry for waking you up, brothers. I have to talk to my son and his friend," he said, dismissing the rest of the annoyed Assassins. He waited until they were alone and then crossed his arms.

"What on earth are you two doing! This thing," he pointed at the metal bucket, "could kill someone untrained!"

"I'm sorry dad, we just tried to catch Santa Claus," said Malik and inclined his head apologetically.

"You tried to do what?" the man asked, not understanding anything. He was about to ask another question when the window slammed open.

Both boys looked at it surprised and saw their trap untouched.

"Did you see it?! We set a trap there!"

"He has to have broken inside already!" exclaimed Altaïr.

Faheem furrowed his brows and stopped the boys from going to the window. He went himself to investigate the trap and with surprise realised that it was actually really well done. As soon as he closed the window the ball full of paint fell down and splashed on his arm when he covered his face.

"What are you two...-"

"I'm sorry, Faheem. Al Mualim wants to talk with them. Right now." An Assassin just walked through the door, interrupting the talk Faheem was about to give to the boys.

"What were you thinking?!" Al Mualim was looking at the two boys, standing in front of him. They were both looking at the ground, visibly ashamed about how this whole situation turned out.

"We wanted to catch Santa Claus..." said Malik silently.

"Why?"

"We thought you'd be happy if we gave you a Christian spy," added Altaïr.

Al Mualim's gaze became softer when he heard their reasoning. He couldn't hide the pride he suddenly felt. Two boys wanted to catch Santa, not to take gifts, but to serve the Brotherhood. Indeed, they had a great future in the Brotherhood.

Al Mualim walked closer to boys and kneeled in front of them, putting his hands on their shoulders in a fatherly gesture.

"Santa Claus is a legend. Christians tell it to their children and they themselves hide presents for them. But I'm actually proud of you two. You wanted to serve the Brotherhood and from what I heard, you were well prepared. So I won't draw any consequences. But you have to clean Faheem's bracer and robe and clean Kadar's room."

Both boys looked at each other and then at their master, with smiles.

"Thank you, Master!" they both exclaimed.

"And don't do that again."

"Yes, Master!"

"Now, go straight to your beds."

As soon as the boys came back to the room they shared, they noticed something weird. On their beds, there were little packages. They immediately grabbed them and unpacked them, only to see sweets and a little note saying 'from Santa Claus'. Grins appeared on each boys' face as they looked at each other, already knowing that next year they will be much better prepared.

#Altair Ibn La'Ahad #malik al sayf #Assassin's Creed #assassin's creed 1 #ac 1 #ac: 1 #Altair ibn la ahad #fanfiction #Luna Writes #christmas story #i know its past christmas #and i dont care #santa is forever

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