#like whatever they’ve been through they were always meant to be in each others lives

[shiningstarr15]

Fated by the Cosmos ✨💫

Something about two stars being pulled into each other’s gravitational orbit and moving so fluid and in close proximity that they essentially become one, or whatever 😬🤷‍♀️

Doublestar Duo/Binarystar Duo fans rejoice ⭐️⭐️

Can you tell I’m obsessed with them?

Alt. Vers under cut

Original w/o text

Golden Princess and Little Knight 💛🗡️👑 (this one’s criminally underrated)

[persevereforahappyending]

No Man's Land |1|

Pairing: Sam Carpenter x Reader

Summary: Sam can’t help but be drawn to the cute stranger from her gym, even if everything about them makes them the perfect suspect, just when Ghostface has returned.

Warnings: Talks of Killings and Murder

Word Count: 3.5k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2

Sam sighed as she put her key in the door, slowly unlocking each of the locks. She wanted to go to the gym after her shift, but she forgot her gym bag at the apartment. She really needed to look into renting one of the lockers the gym had. Her gym wasn’t too far away but coming home meant having to deal with Tara and her friends.

“Hey,” Sam greeted.

Tara was stretched out on the couch, Chad had his knees pulled close to him as he sat on the floor, watching whatever movie they had thrown on, Ethan was curled up on one of the chairs, and then Anika sat in the recliner with Mindy draped over her. Sam opened her mouth to ask about Quinn when she heard the usual noise coming from Quinn’s room.

“They’ve been at it since we got home,” Tara mumbled, rolling her eyes.

Sam chuckled with a shake of her head. The only downside to Quinn as a roommate was how loud she was with her various partners. Sam made her way across the living room and towards her room. She quickly threw on a tank top and some sweats before grabbing her gym bag. She did a quick check to make sure she had a change of clothes, just in case, before grabbing her water bottle and making her way into the kitchen. As she filled her water bottle the sound of Mindy and Tara got louder, arguing about whatever they were watching.

“I’ll be back in an hour or two,” Sam said.

“Wait,” Chad said, making Sam stop just as her hand rested on the doorknob. “You’re going to the gym?” Sam nodded. “Cool if I join?”

“I thought you preferred the one on campus.”

“I do, but I missed my usual workout time and now it’s crowded,” Chad wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want deal with all that.”

It wasn’t that Sam didn’t want Chad to come with her, she liked working out with Chad. Mindy and Tara never wanted to step foot in the gym, Chad was literally the only person who would ever workout with her anyway. Chad was also a football player and had a solid routine, he taught Sam plenty when she first started working out.

“Fine,” she said.

Chad instantly jumped up from his spot on the floor. He rifled through his backpack until he finally pulled out a little gym bag. Chad was pretty much always ready to go to the gym, but he had a habit of doing a pretty intense workout and would always need a change of clothes.

The two of them waved goodbye to the others and began the trek to the gym. It was only about a fifteen-minute walk before the little, locally owned, gym came into view. It was the only thing in an otherwise abandoned parking lot, it was small, it was dated, but it had its own community. Sam knew she was all over the news, her history was out there for everyone to see, but not a single person in the gym ever questioned her or gave her a dirty look. Everyone who went to the gym was there to work out, they were also friendly and willing to help each other out if needed, and the owner was the same way, the kindest old man Sam had ever met. It was also a 24-hour gym, meaning Sam could get there in the middle of the night after a late shift and not be disturbed or she could go earlier, like now, and have the regulars around.

When they finally got there Sam swiped her badge, unlocking the door. As soon as they stepped into the gym Sam took in the slightly crowded room. Chad rested his hands on his hips and took a big whiff of the air. Sam glanced at him out of the side of her eye, furrowing her brow slightly.

“What?” Chad asked. “This is why I love coming here,” he gestured with his hands. “You can smell the sweat, smell the workouts being done!” Sam shook her head; Chad didn’t come to the gym with her often but whenever he did, he was like an overly excited child. “The one at school has great equipment but it all smells new,” Chad wrinkled his nose. “No matter what…” he began rubbing his chin as if he was contemplating the deep question as to how the gym could always smell that good.

Sam lightly slapped him on the shoulder and pushed him towards the weights. She had never worked out in Chad’s gym, she wasn’t allowed to since she wasn’t a student, but she had seen it a few times and knew Chad was right, the school seemed to have all the new equipment. Her gym didn’t have much, just a couple of each of the standard pieces of machinery. The gym had enough to give whoever came in a full workout, but everything was clearly worn-down from years of use. Sam thought the used equipment just added to the gym’s character.

As Sam followed behind Chad towards the weights she caught sight of you over in the back corner of the gym, where you always were. She shook her head, she was there to workout, the sooner she finished her workout, the sooner she could get back home, and the sooner she could go to sleep. They each put in their respective earbuds then each grabbed a set of dumbbells and began their warmup before they could get started on the true workout.

After a quick warmup Sam and Chad both made their way to the chest press machine. Sam did everything in her power not to look at you and only focus on her workout. You were in her peripheral and it was taking all her focus not to turn her head just a little more to get a better visual. She tried to focus on just getting her reps in and that be that. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to listen to her music as she finished up her last few reps.

“Hey,” Chad said, tapping her on the arm. She looked up to see he had already finished his workout and was now on his feet and stretching. “Spot me?” he nodded at a bench press that was open.

Sam nodded, she didn’t use the bench press often because she usually didn’t have a spotter and as nice as everyone was in the gym she didn’t want to inconvenience any of them by asking. As much as she wanted to continue her workout, she didn’t mind the break if it meant helping Chad.

Sam stood behind the bench as Chad got the weights into place then laid down. She got her hands ready, holding them under the bar as Chad got ready to start lifting. Sam stayed behind Chad, watching as he started doing his reps, ready to grab the bar if he needed. At least that’s what she was supposed to be doing. The bench press was on the opposite side of the gym still, but it gave Sam the perfect view of you.

Her gaze was intense as she stared straight ahead, stared straight at you. You were across the way, hitting the punching bag, like you usually were. You were one of the regulars at the gym and you ran on almost the same schedule as Sam. Sam had never spoken to you, she couldn’t deny that you were quite attractive though. Though being on such a similar schedule as her made her suspicious.

There were times, like now, when you were there, training with a few of the others around in the gym. Then there were times where it was late at night, and no one was in the gym save for you and Sam. Sam had almost left the first time she got to the gym thinking she was alone, only to see you there. The only reason she didn’t leave then or any time after that was because you never did anything. You would sometimes acknowledge Sam with a simple nod, like a lot of the regulars, and that was it, otherwise you focused on your workout. You didn’t really talk to anyone, though neither did Sam, the only time you truly engaged with someone else was when one of your buddies was with you.

Whenever you were there Sam’s eyes couldn’t help but gravitate towards you, even across the room. Maybe in another life, one where she wasn’t so paranoid, one where she was normal, she might have approached you, just over a year ago she would have even flirted with you, she might have even asked you out, but her life wasn’t normal. You were cute but you were mysterious, and a mysterious stranger was exactly what Sam’s life didn’t need.

“What are you looking at?” Chad asked, snapping her out of her daydream.

Sam looked down to see Chad had put the bar back up, even without her assistance. His hands still rested on the bar, but he was looking up at Sam curiously.

“Nothing,” Sam said, trying to brush him off.

This was exactly why she liked going to the gym alone. She liked to go to the gym and just get her workout done without any distractions, she also didn’t want the others to know about you. You were her little secret, her little crush, the first crush she had had since Richie. If any of the others had learned that she was even remotely attracted to you she’d never hear the end of it, especially not from Mindy or Tara. Despite hating the gym, if her sister and Mindy knew about you, they’d be begging her to come with her every day.

“Who is that?” Chad asked. He was now sitting up on the bench and looked back at Sam with a smirk.

Sam closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, she was just hoping she wasn’t blushing. Based on the way Chad’s eyes darted from her to you she knew Chad had figured out exactly what she was looking at. “Nobody,” she mumbled.

“That,” Chad pointed at you with a light chuckle. “Is not nobody.”

“They’re just a regular at the gym,” she tried waving it off again.

Sam walked off, making her way to the treadmill. She was silently begging for Chad to drop it, she hoped that if she didn’t acknowledge it then he’d forget about it, he wouldn’t say anything to Mindy or Tara. She hopped on the treadmill and began at a slow and steady speed, she liked to work her way up to a light jog.

She stared straight ahead, ignoring Chad as he leaned against the side of the machine. “So, you wouldn’t mind if I go say hi to them then,” he said. Sam stumbled, nearly tripping over her own feet as she snapped her head towards Chad.

“Don’t,” Sam warned.

“I’m just going to ask if they want to spar,” he held his hands up but was already walking away from Sam and in your direction. Sam didn’t miss the slight smirk on Chad’s face as he made his way towards you.

Sam let out a huff and started smacking her feet harder as she quickened her pace. If she finished her workout early then she had every intention of leaving Chad there, she might even lock the door and refuse to let him in the apartment for the rest of the night. She couldn’t help but glance out of the side of her eye every few seconds, catching sight of Chad as he approached you and tried striking up a conversation. It didn’t seem to be going as he intended based on the way you were shaking your head as he gestured from himself to you and then to the boxing ring in the middle of the room.

Most of the time Sam saw you alone at the punching bag. You would have your earbuds in and just focus on hitting the bag, as if the entire world disappeared and it was just you and the bag. At other times, like now, when the gym was busiest, Sam noticed that sometimes you’d get in the ring with one of the guys and spar a bit. You always used the same guys though, you didn’t randomly grab someone, and it seemed like you tended to deny anyone who just came up you, like she was sure Chad was about to find out.

After a few minutes of trying to convince you, Chad finally walked back over to Sam with his head hung low. Chad jumped onto the treadmill with a dramatic sigh and began a light walk. Sam rolled her eyes, shaking her head at Chad’s ridiculousness and focused on finishing her workout.

“What happened?” Sam finally asked, taking pity on Chad.

“They said no,” he mumbled, kicking his feet at the treadmill as he continued to pout.

“They don’t usually spar with random people.” Behind Chad Sam could see you getting in the ring with one of your buddies. Neither of you had on any sort of gear besides the tape on your hands. “And I think you’re about to see why.”

Chad scrunched his eyebrow then turned back to where you were in the boxing ring, you and your buddy already circling each other. You waited for your friend to throw the first punch, like you always did. You blocked your friends’ first few shots then you started throwing your own punches. The two of you went back and forth, dealing blow after blow, each of you landed a few hits, but both of you blocked most of them.

“Damn,” Chad whispered.

Sam smirked as she went back to focusing on her workout. Despite never looking back at you she could tell you and your buddy were still at it based on the way Chad never changed the speed of his treadmill, his entire focus seeming to be on you. She wouldn’t deny it, watching you spar was something else, you clearly knew what you were doing, it was obvious you had some sort of training. Sam never understood why you didn’t spar with others who were willing, until she saw you for the first time, everyone else here was an amateur compared to you.

Sam turned off the treadmill and slowed her pace until she came to a gradual stop. “You good?” Sam asked. She took a swig of her water while she waited for Chad to acknowledge her presence again.

“What?” Chad looked back at her before quickly looking back at you. You brought your knee up, nailing your buddy in the ribs, then didn’t hesitate to punch him in the face. Chad visibly winced at the hit before hopping off the treadmill. “Let’s go!” he waved at her as if he was the one waiting on her.

Sam rolled her eyes and followed Chad. Before she walked out the door, she met your gaze as you turned in the ring, the two of you probably only held eye contact for half a second but it was enough to make Sam hold her breath. The last thing she saw before the door closed was you and your buddy resetting your positions and getting ready for another spar session.

Sam had to listen to Chad ramble about you the entire walk home. She usually wouldn’t mind her thoughts being consumed by you but since it was Chad rambling, she knew Mindy and Tara would surely hear about it. She was just hoping she could get into the apartment and into her room before Chad started telling them all the details.

Sam put the key in the door, unlocking all the locks once again. “They’re just so badass!” Chad said, his eyes wide as he gestured crazily with his hands. “I can’t believe you tried to keep them from me!” Sam sighed, pushing the door open.

“Who are you talking about?” Tara asked with a chuckle as soon as the two of them stepped into the living room.

“Another one of your lovers?” Mindy snarked, laughing at her brother’s expense.

“Not mine,” Chad quickly denied. “Sam’s,” he pointed back at Sam, who instantly froze as she dropped her keys into the little bowl beside the door. She didn’t need to look to know Mindy and Tara’s full attention was now on hers.

“You’re seeing someone?” Tara said. She was already on her feet and in front of Sam by the time she turned around.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” Sam sighed.

“Who is this mysterious stranger?” Mindy asked, coming up right behind Tara, leaving Anika to sit alone without a second thought.

“Y/N,” Chad happily supplied. All three girls whipped their heads around to see Chad placed at the dining table, popping open a yogurt. Sam tried to hide her smile, she hadn’t known your name, it was a nice name.

“Tell us everything!” Tara said, dragging Sam by the hand to the dining table.

“There’s nothing to tell,” Sam shrugged. “I don’t even-”

“They’re badass,” Chad interrupted, never looking up from his yogurt. “I asked them to spar, and they said no but then I learned why.” Chad looked up at the ceiling in a daydream like state, tapping his spoon against the yogurt cup. “I want to spar with them even more now.” Sam furrowed her brow, tilting her head at the comment.

“You’ve been holding out on us Sammy,” Mindy said, bumping her shoulder as she plopped down into the seat next to her. Sam flicked a glare at her, but Mindy’s attention was fully on Chad. “Spill,” she ordered, leaning half her body across the table.

Sam crossed her arms and slumped back in her chair. She had to sit there and just listen as Chad rambled on and on about you. She wasn’t sure how he could possibly have so much to say, he talked to you for not even ten minutes. He gave the girls a complete recap of their entire gym experience, Sam was definitely regretting allowing him to come with her. He gestured wildly with his hands, trying to mimic the same punches you had been doing.

“Wow,” Tara and Mindy said at the same time, both leaning back in their chairs once Chad was done.

“Are you sure you’re not in love with them?” Mindy asked, tilting her head at her brother.

“No!” Chad said quickly, a little too quickly. “I just think they’re amazing and I admire their workout routine, and I just want to get to know them and become their best friend…” Mindy nodded but gave her brother an unconvinced look.

“Can we go to the gym with you tomorrow?” Tara asked.

“They might not be there,” Sam mumbled without thinking.

“Oh!” Mindy screeched right in Sam’s ear. “You know their schedule.” She wiggled her eyebrows as she looked past Sam and at Tara who was giving her a knowing nod.

“We have a very similar schedule,” Sam defended.

“Sounds like a match made in heaven,” Mindy sighed, leaning into Sam’s side.

“I’m not looking for a relationship!”

“Come on Sam,” Tara sighed, much more calm than before. “You deserve to be happy. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“My last boyfriend tried to kill all of us,” Sam deadpanned, looking her sister in the eye.

Tara opened and closed her mouth a few times as she nodded. “But what are the odds of that happening again?”

“Guys!” Anika called, interrupting whatever excuse Sam was going to come up with next. “You have to see this.”

Everyone got up from the kitchen table and moved to the living room just as Anika turned up the volume. Everyone remained silent as the news played, talking about the murder of two college students. Sam didn’t even react to Quinn coming out of her room and joining them.

“It’s got everyone asking, is this the work of Ghostface?” the news reported said, ending the broadcast before showing the picture of the two boys murdered.

“Holy shit,” Mindy said. “Those are the dudes from our film class,” she pointed at the screen.

“We have to leave, now.”

“What? No!” Tara said, instantly trying to fight Sam. “We don’t even know what this is!” she pointed to the TV. “It could be nothing; they were clearly freaks!”

“Are you really willing to take that risk?” Sam snapped.

“Quinn! Call your dad,” Tara whipped around to look at their roommate. “Let’s at least figure out what’s going on before you uproot my life.”

Sam held Tara’s glare but didn’t argue as Quinn called her dad. She understood where Tara was coming from, she knew Tara wanted things to go back to normal and just wanted a normal college experience. Sam wanted to just cut and run though, even if there was no proof that Ghostface was actually back, she didn’t want to take the risk. Sam couldn’t help the feeling that it was starting all over again.

[cinnamoneve]

𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚.

atelophobia \ əˌtɛləˈfəʊbɪə \ (n.) - the fear of imperfection of not being good enough.

❆ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: gojo satoru x gn!reader ❆ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: satoru's been valued only what he could offer others, until he met you. ❆ 𝐰𝐜: 1.3k ❆ 𝐚/𝐧: more of a self indulgent character study to get back into the swing of writing !!! pls enjoy <3 ❆ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: none :3

satoru gojo held many roles and titles in his life. he was a son, a sorcerer, teacher, role model, a special grade, the honored one, the strongest. the strongest. whatever that was supposed to mean.

he knew what it meant, sure, but the lines were blurred a bit around the parameters of what exactly his role was. he was satoru, gojo-san, gojo-sensei, and whatever sweet term of endearment you thought up for him. between that, satoru’s identity and purpose got muddled as the titles and meaning were ever-changing.

he didn’t feel a certain way about any of it, really. or so he thought. the one accolade satoru couldn't claim was being totally indifferent.

you almost admired that aspect of him. how his nose scrunched up when something he eats tastes off, how he played with his blindfold when he needed to get something off his chest. or maybe, it was the way his eyebrow twitched ever-so-slightly if you pronounce a word in a funny way. there is no subtle, subdued, or nonchalant bone in your boyfriend’s body. everything on his mind was said before his mouth even opened.

because of that, you knew satoru was happy to be home by the way he refused to leave your side. it’s rare he gets a decent break like this; his students had a week-long retreat in kyoto that he’d meet them at eventually. for now, he had some small ends to tie up on the homefront that he was dragging out so he could stay a bit longer with you.

satoru sat on the edge of the empty bath, admiring you as you did your skincare at the vanity. if his legs weren’t long enough to touch the ground, you imagined he’d be swinging them back and forth as he gushed about his students.

“...and maki beat mai in a one-on-one. again.”

you rolled your eyes as you clipped hair away from your forehead, “even i could’ve predicted that.”

“i don’t know why those two always find each other if they’ve got such a grudge,” 

you patted your face dry.

“it must be a sister thing,” you chuckled.

“something like that, i guess,”

“you’re not upset you’re missing it?”

satoru studied you in silence as he let the question linger a bit more. part of him was. maybe more than just part of him. he let out a hum as he thought about it.

“not really,” he concluded, “i want to be here,”

you smiled at him through the mirror as you caught his eyes. 

“it’s okay to be both, babe. be as selfish as you want,”

was it really okay for him to be selfish? nobody had ever told him before that the choice was his. even if it always was.

satoru had spent a lot of time being what other people said he should be. unfortunately, most aspects of his personality and day-to-day life were not decided by him. maybe it was atonement for the way he acts. could it be his fault? is it punishment for the gift he didn’t ask for? it’d be rich to still call it a gift. it was more like a plague, or a curse. something he had to bear and live with, master and hone. 

it was admired, it was hated. it controlled him, he controlled it.

everything he was, fundamentally, came from what he could provide.

satoru didn’t realize how exhausting it was until you came along and shared the burden with him. silently, lovingly, and effortlessly. maybe he was a little selfish. was it selfish to miss his kids in kyoto while having the love of his life in front of him? or maybe it was selfish to relish in the time at home and drag it out for one more minute with you.

being in between is lonely. 

but the loneliness will pass, just like time always does anyway. and being lonely with you is still being with you in the first place.

satoru sank into the empty bath, letting his body fold as he lay across the width of it. he sighs heavily and smiles, closing his eyes. his drama was unsurprising–all you can do is shake your head and take his place on the edge of the bath.

he peers up at you.

“selfish, huh?” 

you place your hand on his knee, thumbing over where it bends as a way to soothe him.

“mhm, why not?”

satoru tilted his head back, just barely, looking up at the bathroom fan as he tried to think about what to say next.

“i’d like to stay like this for a bit longer,”

you smile warmly at him.

“in the bath? clothed like this?”

it wasn’t about the empty bath. or the clothes he was wearing. just like how it wasn’t about him learning about your skincare routine. it was never about the stories of his students, or the way you always checked in on megumi. nor was it about how you took all of his clothes when you were cold, knew how he liked his coffee in the morning, or the way he made sure the bed was nice and warm before you joined him there.

it was so much more in so much less. in his worst moments, he was in a warm bed with you, hearing you talk about your refreshingly mundane day as you drew a nonsensical pattern on his chest.

everything he was came from what he could provide, right? that’s how it always was.

what he inherited preceded his name, his personality, and everything nuanced about him. nearly everyone in his life cared more about his ability than anything else about him. he’s convinced people knew his technique more than they knew his favorite color. the music he liked. his favorite food. trivial things overshadowed by what he could provide. 

but the only thing he had to provide to you was love.

to you, who he was came from what he could provide. and that was pure, warm love.

he was matching pajamas, two cups of coffee waiting to be filled, two toothbrushes sitting together on the counter. he was the seat warmer that he always turned on for you when you rode in the passenger seat, along with the playlist he made with songs you listened to together.

it was refreshing. 

with you, he wasn’t satoru gojo. not the strongest, not gojo-sensei, not a special grade sorcerer. 

he was him. and it was always enough for you. 

satoru when you were doubled over from another lame joke he told, begging him to stop making you laugh so hard.

baby when he had a particularly hard day at work, holding onto your body on the couch like detaching from it would kill him.

sweetie when he was being ridiculous, dramatic, and over-the-top, watching a smile tug at your lips as he intentionally got on your nerves when you tried to hide it.

honey when you didn’t feel well, and he got to spoil you more than you’d ever let him before.

among a million other things. but never what you expected of him. 

most importantly, and his favorite, was when you called him love. is that what you really saw him as? it made him melt. the jujutsu world hardened him, but you turned a blind eye to that. it was enough to make him fall in love every day all over again.

what a privilege, he thought, to be so calloused and still love.

“yeah, in the bath like this,” he muttered.

you slid in next to him, folding your body too so the two of you were sitting in the cold, empty bath with your legs sticking out of the side.

“well, i’ll join you then, love”

there it was. he hummed contently. 

satoru felt like for a majority of his life, he felt like he had to search for his other half. seemingly, he was whole all along.

all content © cinnamoneve 2024. do not repost, modify, steal, or copy without permission.

[ma1dita]

trouble always finds me

a 'partners in crime' installment - luke castellan x dionysus!reader

words: 1.7k 

summary: (pre-established relationship) The one where he could tell you were trouble from the day he met you. Luke’s perspective on trouble & how they first met! think trouble’s origin story (Luke Castellan x fem!Dionysus!reader)

warnings: none, fluff? Mr. D being a clueless dad lol also guys they’re 14 here

a/n: welcome back to the trouble!verse hehe i was inspired by Mr. D being a bit of a jerk to Percy so that the kid doesn’t off himself. Similar concept but with Luke after he first gets to camp— another version for why trouble!reader calls him angelface coming soon

(posted 1/19/24, erm unedited and not beta’d so forgive me in advance)

—

You were always trouble, Luke knew that from the day he met you. 

Walking into Camp Half-Blood, worn out and weary after days of trying to not become harpy food, his arm was slung protectively over Annabeth’s shoulder as they were led onto the campgrounds. So many pity-filled eyes were focused on them after hearing what happened to Thalia, but the camp seemed promising, filled with other demigods who can resonate with what they’ve experienced. Luke thought it was too good to be true, but anything’s better in comparison to the streets they came from. You, however, looked at them in interest from afar, a playful expression on a pretty face watching their every move like him and Annie were shiny new toys to play with.

He was so sure something was off with you. 

Had to be, from the deranged glimmer in your eye that would appear when something bad would happen at Camp. He’d seen it in action a couple of times before you set your sights on him— setting off fireworks during capture the flag, replacing salt with sugar in the kitchens, cutting Mr. D’s hair in his sleep; all of this causing campers and staff alike to run amok and figure out who to penalize. Each time he’d find you enjoying how it all played out, excitement brimming on the cusp of revealing yourself as the culprit as he watched you bite your tongue. But as a mischievous kid himself, he wondered why you hid it. You preferred to orchestrate the show, to make a spectacle for your personal entertainment, and with a smile too soft to be considered guilty, you were a convincing actress. 

The other campers in 11 told him you’d been unclaimed for half a year now, keeping to yourself and making a safe haven within the busy cabin. You were a klutz to say the least, bringing chaos to Camp Half-Blood with a cool disposition, and you hardly seemed interested the one time Luke tried to say hi as he took the bunk next to yours. 

So why the hell wouldn’t you lay off of him?

At first it was small, shoulder bumps and raised eyebrows whenever he piped up in a conversation. That, he could deal with. Luke’s a tough guy, having gone through more than a typical 14-year old would. 

But then it just got annoying.

Glitter in his shampoo, his laundry load dyed purple, and shoelaces knotted together to make him stumble— things meant to be more of an inconvenience rather than an actual problem. Luke wasn’t sure what to make of it, or what to tell you. No one wants to be the new kid creating trouble, but you didn’t seem to have a problem with that.

Maybe you were a Hermes kid like him, but of that, Luke wasn’t so easily convinced—months of living in 11 would mean you’d learn all of the tricks of the trade, so it couldn’t automatically mean that you were related (a part of him also hoped you weren’t be half-siblings, or else the fact he couldn’t stop thinking of you would be slightly awkward). Perhaps a child of Apollo? When you weren’t being difficult, he’s seen you sprinkled in sunlight, usually humming a tune under your breath. Yesterday it was a song from the Sound of Music, and though he only remembers bits of a memory from a movie night with his mom years ago, he put his combat gear on slower just to hear you finish the song. 

Whatever you were, it was bound to be troublesome.

—

At this point in life, Luke hasn’t had many comforts while on the run. To him there’s no such thing as action without reason, without meaning.  Five years of running and not looking back makes this son of Hermes realize that he hasn’t had a chance to take a breath until he got here. It’s hard to let down your guard when you’re always supposed to be keeping watch.

He wriggles under his covers trying to relax himself before bed, purple socks sticking out of the scrappy hand-me-down blanket, and he hears a small giggle from the bed next to his. Luke shifts his weight onto his side, eyes darting to your direction in the quiet of the dark cabin.

“Nice socks.”

He blinks. Were you talking to him? His toes wiggle playfully, prompting more of your melodious laughter as he chews at his lip before he responds.

“Guess I’m getting used to them.”

“You’re getting used to a lot of things around here. That’s good,” you whisper, and thinks he can see you concocting something sinister in that brain of yours—he’s on the edge of the mattress hanging onto your every word as he realizes this is the most you’ve spoken to him.

“You did this. Why?” he says, more of a statement than a question. Why would you go out of your way for someone like him?

“Are you mad about it? Luke, right?” you mutter, a calm expression on your face shrouded in moonlight, and for a second he wonders if you actually don’t know his name until he notices the upwards quirk of your lip. 

Luke catches himself then, and the realization hits him like a blow to the chest— he’s not angry at all. If anything, he hasn’t had the time to feel anything negative with the antics you’ve been pulling. You’ve proven to be quite the distraction to his circumstances, and he can’t remember the last time he’s thought about Thalia or his mom since he got here. The melancholy falls on his countenance like a better-fitting blanket than the one he has on, and your words pull him from his thoughts before they can suffocate him again.

“Sorry about your sister. I lost someone right before I got here too. My mom.” 

This, he can tell, is not acting. Your eyes flicker to a polaroid strapped in the space underneath the top bunk above your head, two blurry figures huddled together in a memory.

“I’m sorry.” He’s not sure what to say. In the silence that follows, he swallows audibly. Everyone’s been worried about Annabeth, including himself that he hadn’t even thought of his own emotions being on display for everyone to see. Luke never thought you of all people would notice.

You shrug, “S’not your fault. I know when people are acting though. If you know I’m the one who’s been starting shit, why haven’t you told anyone?”

Luke almost laughs at that, a rough exhale leaving his lungs as he watches your hands clutch your quilt.

“It’s pretty entertaining, I guess. You’re annoying, but I don’t mind it. Kept my mind off of things.”

He watches you smile in the shadows now, and it shines—all lips, teeth, and sheer mirth that makes his chest feel a little lighter. A real smile from you, one that doesn’t hide your true intentions.

“I’m glad. Mine too.” 

The next thing you do confuses him further, but from what he’s gathered you’re always full of surprises. You chuck your quilt across the space between your bunks, and the end of it smacks him in the face as he grunts.

“Here. Keep it,” you chuckle a bit loudly, the both of you hearing a Shhhhh… from somewhere in the dark cabin.

“What… Why? Are we friends now?” Luke mumbles jokingly, inhaling the soft scent of berries and fresh linen. His purple laundry load smelled like this too.

“No.”

“Then why are you giving me your stuff?” he says, but still curls up underneath the handmade quilt stitched from memories of a past life, of motherly love and gentle hands. He doesn’t have anything like this, so he settles into this feeling of comfort instead, even if it wasn’t his memory to hold. You go quiet at the sight of him, eyes fluttering and chin tucked into the pink and purple fabric, and he looks as soft as a normal 14 year old boy should.

“It’s getting boring in here. Gonna have to change it up soon, I think,” you mumble, turning away and shutting your eyes before he can say anything else.

—

The next day, you get caught putting a month’s supply of bubble bath into the lake, but Luke’s convinced you did it on purpose. All of camp is standing on the shore, watching you wave at them from a river tube as Chiron and Mr. D yell at you in exasperation—finally revealing yourself as the troublemaker they’ve been searching for.

“Get on the beach this instant, young lady! You have no idea how much trouble you’ve put us through!” Mr. D’s voice echoes across the lake, his immortal form almost filtering through his frustration before you laugh in his face, unthreatened by the Olympian.

“Good thing I get it from you. Hello, dad!”

Jaws drop as everyone turns to look at Mr. D, the realization hitting his face as he points at you, his brain moving a mile a minute. Though you resemble your mother, your actions are all him. You revel in the grand reaction, looking up to see a purple thyrsus surrounded by grape leaves float over your head.

“Nice outfit, kid. I don’t think purple is your color. She do that to you too?” Mr. D notes Luke’s wine colored cargos and socks clashing against the harsh orange of his shirt as he pushes past him, scratching his head at the idea of another kid. Poor guy said two was the limit in a lifetime and he gets a grinning teenage girl who dares him to do something about it. He hasn’t raised a lot of girls….

“I don’t know. I guess trouble always seems to find me,” Luke laughs lightly, watching kids of all ages jump into the bubbly lake water happily. The glowing ember of his eyes are relaxed for the first time in a while— an inviting flame catching your own as you stare at him from across the sudsy water. Trouble, he thinks, a smile settling onto his face—how fitting.

He’s spent a lot of time running. But perhaps this time, he’s finding reasons to want to stay.

—

"After all, we are nothing more or less than what we choose to reveal." - Sylvia Plath

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[stardustethereal]

together — p. lahote

summary: after her confrontation with paul, y/n decides to just avoid him. however, things can never seem to go the way she wants them to.

word count: 1.9k

author’s note: sorry about the long wait. hope you enjoy this.

part one: here

“look just leave me alone, alright? i don’t wanna talk to you.”

it was all she could think about.

“no you don’t.”

the way he responded when she asked whether she meant something to him.

“i don’t care about you. i just kept you around because i didn’t wanna hurt you and i knew that didn’t have anyone else. but now i’m done. i’m not doing it anymore.”

that was what did it.

all she could think about were the hurtful words that he told her, how her heart broke with each thing he said.

she couldn’t understand what she did so wrong that he would say those things to her. she had guessed that it had something to do with his involvement with sam uley and jared cameron and the fact that they cut ties with basically everyone in their lives and only hung out with each other.

she was hurt whatever the reason was.

eventually that hurt turned into anger.

after everything they’ve been through, he just abandoned her? tossed her aside like she meant nothing? hurting her without feeling even an once of remorse?

it made her even more angry every time she thought about it. she wanted to confront him again, demand that he tell her what was going on and not letting him walking away until he did so.

but she didn’t.

instead she decided to avoid him at all costs.

if he had decided that he didn’t want her in his life, so be it. there was nothing that she could do about it.

no matter how much she wanted to.

that didn’t stop her mind from thinking about him though.

no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

it was even worse at night, when it was silent and she couldn’t sleep, so she was forced to do nothing but think about all the moments that they had together and everything that led to up to him disappearing on her. it was all she could do.

kind of like now.

right now, she was laying on her bed, thinking about what he could be doing right now. probably with jared or sam like always, since apparently that had something that she didn’t for him to just up and leave her for then without a second thought.

she rlly didn’t want to give up, but what was she supposed to do?

paul made his choice. he didn’t want her around.

he never did. he said it himself.

“i just kept you around because i didn’t wanna hurt you and i knew that didn’t have anyone else.”

the only thing she could do was avoid him.

no matter how much it hurt..

despite her decision to avoid paul, there was one place she couldn't stay away from: la push beach.

it held too many memories, too much comfort, to let him take that away from her. so, against her better judgment, she found herself there, seeking solace in the crashing waves and sandy shores.

she settled down with a book, hoping to lose herself in its pages and forget, if only for a moment, the turmoil inside her. for a while, it worked. the sound of the ocean drowned out the noise in her mind, and she allowed herself to relax, if only slightly.

but then, just when she thought she could escape him for a moment, she saw him. paul, along with sam and jared, playing soccer not far from where she sat.

her heart clenched at the sight, memories flooding back of happier times spent together.

she tried to ignore them, to focus on her book and pretend they weren't there.

but clearly fate had other plans.

a stray ball rolled her way, and before she could react, paul was by her side, retrieving it.

“uh..i'm sorry about that…are you alrig-”

their eyes met, and in that moment, everything changed. paul froze, his gaze locking onto hers with an intensity she couldn't comprehend.

she felt a mixture of shock, confusion, and overwhelming emotion wash over her. she wanted to run, to escape the sudden intensity of his gaze, but her body refused to move.

she couldn’t take it anymore. the longer she stayed there, the more the memories of their last interaction came rushing back, reminding her of the pain he caused her.

she forced herself to stand to her feet. she had to get out of there.

“wait, please. i need to explain.”

gathering her things in a hurry, she stood up, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. she shook her head, unable to bear his words.

“i don't want to hear it, paul,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the crashing waves.

turning away from him, she walked briskly back the way she came from, wanting nothing more to be at home in bed. she wished she never came.

she could feel his gaze on her back, but she didn’t turn around. instead, she kept walking, leaving behind the echoes of his apologies and the shattered pieces of her heart on the sandy shore.

instead, she left him exactly how he left her.

alone.

she continued to avoid paul, despite his persistent attempts to talk to her and explain. he would blow up her phones with calls and texts, begging her for a chance to explain, but she just ignored them, opting to put her phone on silent. he had showed up at her door, knocking and pleading for her to listen, to give him a chance. but she couldn’t bring herself to face him, not after the hurtful words he had spoken.

however, one rainy day, as she lay in bed, trying to escape the memories that haunted her, she heard a persistent knocking at her window.

she didn’t have to guess who it was on the other side.

with a heavy sigh, she pulled back the curtain to find paul standing there, his expression determined.

“please, just let me explain. i won’t leave until you hear me out.”

she contemplated it for a moment. she wanted to just close the curtains and ignore him, but she knew that he would be true to his word and not leave and she really didn’t want him outside of her window all day.

reluctantly, she opened the window, letting him in. he stood before her, shirtless, his tattoo on display on his right shoulder.

she crossed her arms, a defensive stance, and asked, “what do you want, paul?”

paul took a step closer, his eyes pleading. “i’ve been trying to explain, but you won’t listen. please, just give me a chance.”

she scoffed. “why should i let you explain after everything you said?”

he sighs, “i didn’t mean anything i said. please know that. i’ve been trying to protect you. i couldn’t tell you before because i had to keep you safe.”

she furrowed her brow, confusion evident in her eyes. “protect me from what?”

paul hesitated, his jaw clenched with the weight of his words. “come with me. i’ll show you.”

she hesitated for a moment, uncertainty clouding her thoughts. but then, with a nod, she quickly grabbed a jacket and slipped on her shoes before following him outside.

they walked in silence, the only sound the crunch of leaves beneath their feet. finally, they reached a secluded clearing, under the thick cover of clouds.

paul turned to face her, his expression solemn. “have you ever heard of the tribe legends? about how we can shape-shift into wolves?”

she looked at him in disbelief, her brow furrowing. “are you really about to tell me that you can turn into a wolf?”

paul met her gaze, unwavering. “just let me show you.”

paul took a step back, his muscles tensing as he began to undress. her eyes widened for a moment, but she decided against saying anything.

his body started to shake uncontrollably, wisps of smoke curling around him. she watched in astonishment as his form began to contort, his muscles rippling beneath his skin. then, with a sudden burst of energy, he transformed into a large silver wolf before her eyes. her breath caught in her throat as she took a step back, her mind struggling to comprehend what she was witnessing.

but as the wolf approached her, she felt a sense of calm wash over her, a feeling of familiarity overcoming her.

tentatively, she reached out a hand, brushing her fingers against the wolf’s fur. it nuzzled against her, its eyes filled with an emotion she couldn’t quite place.

“okay… okay, I believe you,” she whispered, still slightly in shock.

as paul shifted back into his human form, his features softened, and he stood before her once again. she stared at him in astonishment, her mind still reeling from the surreal experience.

after a moment of silence, paul reached for his clothes, his movements deliberate yet somehow hesitant. with each garment he put back on, the reality of what she had just witnessed sank in deeper, leaving her speechless.

she watched in silence as he dressed, her mind racing with questions yet unable to form coherent words. the forest seemed to hold its breath as they stood there, the weight of their shared revelation hanging heavy in the air.

paul swallowed hard, the weight of his confession heavy on his shoulders. “i couldn’t tell you because… because I was under sam’s orders.”

her heart sank at his revelation, the pieces of the puzzle finally falling into place. “so, why now? why are you telling me this now?”

paul took a deep breath, his eyes searching hers as he tried to find the right words.

he hesitated, his breath catching in his throat. “because… because i imprinted on you, y/n. it’s you, it’s always been you.”

her eyes widened in disbelief, her mind struggling to comprehend the weight of his words. “imprinted? what does that mean?”

“you know when everything just falls into place, like pieces of a puzzle fitting together perfectly? that’s what imprinting is like. it’s not love at first sight, but more like... suddenly everything makes sense. you become whatever they need you to be—whether it's a protector, a lover, or a friend. it’s like the world shifts, and they become your center.”

she listened intently, her heart swelling with a mix of emotions—confusion, disbelief, but also a strange sense of hope.

“and it's you,” he continued, his voice soft but unwavering. “it’s always been you.”

her eyes brimmed with tears as she took in his words, the weight of his confession lifting the veil of uncertainty that had clouded her mind.

“i don't know what to say,” she admitted, her voice choked with emotion.

paul reached out, cupping her face in his hands. “you don't have to say anything. i just needed you to know... i love you, y/n. i always have, and i always will. and it’s not just because of the imprint. it’s always been you. i didn’t mean any of the stuff that i said before. i thought i was protecting you. you mean everything to me.”

her breath caught in her throat at his confession, her heart swelling with a love she never thought possible. she looked into his eyes, seeing the depth of his feelings reflected back at her, and knew in that moment that she felt the same.

“i love you too, paul,” she whispered, her voice filled with conviction.

as they leaned in, their lips met in a tender kiss, sealing their love and their destiny together. in that moment, they stood in each other’s arms, their hearts beating as one. in that moment, they stood together.

i really hope you guys enjoyed this. i know that it was longgg overdue.

[morsmortish]

“we must not let our passions destroy our dreams.” | bartylily

a bartylily as lancelot and guinevere study

as tensions heat in the court of camelot between the king, his wife, and his favourite knight, arthur cautions: “we must not let our passions destroy our dreams.” he speaks of the bond between lancelot and guinevere that threatens to uproot everything they have all worked so hard to build. and yet, the pair can’t stifle all the feelings that seep through the cracks in the facades they’ve both built up. it was never meant to be like this. they were never meant to be together. guinevere is the queen: she has the responsibility of a kingdom of people upon her shoulders. lancelot is a knight: he exists to serve someone else. he lives his life in the capacity of how he can be useful to arthur. they are not a pair written in the stars. and yet. and. yet. they find whatever it is that they’ve been missing in each other. maybe it is the way they are able to see each other, in a way no one else can. through all the layers of expectations and facades of morality. they each see the souls beneath the armour or pretty dresses. and perhaps that is more powerful, more important, than what they’ve been living for until now. barty and lily are similar, in that they both see the other for who they are. behind lily’s “little miss perfect” facade is a real human being, with a soul made up of the same stuff as the soul that hides behind barty’s pretense of the ‘honourable son’ he is named for. they’ve both spent their entire lives pretending, living for other peoples expectations of them, and the freedom they find with each other is unexplainably special. the passions they experience much outweigh the dreams of other people that they’ve been living as thus far. “we must not let our passions outweigh our dreams.” but what if one’s passions become one’s dreams? what then? are the sacrifices worth it? for lancelot and guinevere, and indeed barty and lily, the answer will always be yes.

[made-ofmemories]

Steve has never worked a job without Robin by his side, but when they lose their jobs at Family Video he may not have a choice. Thankfully, things always work out in the end. Beta read by @ladydorian05

One of the things Steve has always underestimated ever since being thrown into the madness of monsters and alternate dimensions is just how jarring it is going from the life or death type situations of the upside down back to mundane real life. So when he and Robin lose their jobs at Family Video, it seems like a trivial problem in comparison to everything they’ve faced in the past week.

It’s not like they didn’t see it coming. They ditched in the middle of the busiest day of the week and showed up a week later with poor excuses and no evidence to back them up. What were they meant to say? Oh, sorry about that, we were busy fighting monster bats from another dimension in an attempt to prove our friend didn’t commit a violent murder.

They manage to hold down a job in the coffee place on the other side of town for the better part of a month, but that eventually comes to an end. After that, they hop between whatever odd jobs people will offer them until the end of summer comes and Robin goes off to college.

She decides to go for a linguistics course at a community college about 30 miles out from Hawkins. Her classes are only 3 days a week and it’s close enough that she can continue living with her parents, though most of the time she just crashes in one of the many spare rooms at Steve’s. He insists on driving her. She argues with him at first, but he knows how to stand his ground once he has his mind set on something.

3 weeks after classes begin, Robin is bogged down with more school work than either of them expected and Steve’s dad is starting to get on his ass about the fact he’s still unemployed. He needs to get a job and for the first time, he won’t have Robin by his side.

He knew this day would come, she was always destined for more than the shitty dead-end retail jobs they had been working. Still, he’s not sure he even knows how to function without Robin by his side, he wouldn’t have even gotten the job at Family Video if it weren’t for her. They’ve relied on each other for so long, even back in the early days of Scoops when they were both adamant that they disliked each other.

As reluctant as he is, he knows there’s no other option. He needs to try to get a job on his own. He’s faced down literal monsters and gone toe to toe with a demogorgan on more than one occasion this should be nothing in comparison.

The record store is a small indie thing, closer to Robin's school than it is to Hawkins. It’s more of a pro than a con if he’s being honest with himself, it saves him from having to drive all the way back to Hawkins and worry about being there on time. He soon finds he quite likes the thought of working somewhere and not seeing the same handful of faces he’s seen for the last 20-plus years of his life day in and day out, of not bumping into old high school classmates who are oh-so-happy to remind him of days he’d much rather put behind him. It’s perfect and he can’t quite believe it when they actually hire him.

It seems like relatively simple work, not all that different from Family Video. The owner meets him there for his first day, shows him the ropes, tells him his co-worker will be in any minute now if he has any issues, then leaves him to it. He’s sorting through a box of records in the stockroom, his back to the door when he hears a voice. It’s one he recognizes, though he hasn’t heard in a while.

“Harrington?”

He turns slowly and doesn’t quite believe his eyes when he sees Eddie Munson standing in front of him. The last time they saw each other Eddie was still in the hospital, pale from blood loss and covered in bandages. He looks different now, healthier, happier, it’s a good look on him. The wounds on his neck and face have healed into patches of raised pink skin, gnarled and twisted like the ones hidden beneath Steve’s shirt.

“What’re you doing here?” Steve blurts out after he’s managed to pick his jaw up off the floor.

“I work here.” Eddie doesn’t take his eyes off him, as if he’s worried Steve might disappear if he looks away for even a second. “And I’m guessing you’re the new hire?”

“Yeah, I uh- yeah I am.”

“So, what brings you all the way out here?” Whatever spell Eddie was under previously breaks and he’s finally able to look away when he moves to grab one of the crates Steve had been sorting through, “Finally get tired of Hawkins?”

“Robin goes to college nearby, I drive her most days anyway,” he explains, following Eddie out onto the shop floor. “What about you?”

“Feds wanted us out of Hawkins, for obvious reasons. This was as close as they’d let us stay.” He’s quiet for a moment, but Steve can feel the unspoken words hanging in the air, “I wanted to call, but-”

“I know.” He gets it.

He knows Dustin and some of the other kids call, but that was different. Steve and Eddie were never friends. They were two barely acquaintances with a handful of mutual friends forced to trust each other in a, frankly, insane situation. It was difficult to know where they stood after it was all over and with Eddie no longer in Hawkins, presumed dead by the majority of the town who didn’t know any better, it was easy for Steve to ignore that nagging voice in his head that wasn’t ready to let him go just yet.

“Well, looks like you won’t be getting rid of me that easily after all.” Eddie smiles and bumps their shoulders together before moving off through the rows of shelves.

“Hey, Eddie,” He calls and Eddie turns to look, “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too.” An unreadable expression flashes across Eddie’s features, gone almost as soon as it appears, “Now what do you say about helping me with some of these boxes, big boy?”

The nickname shocks him for a moment, just as it had the first time he used it, but it’s followed by a wide smile. He may not have Robin by his side, but he thinks he’s going to enjoy this job just fine.

[gffa]

Even though I love Star Wars and the whole main theme of hope and stuff, whenever I hear about how those close to Anakin would've accepted him back, even after everything he has done, rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'm not getting the point of it, but to me it feels like when they offer Anakin to come back, to turn away, that there plan is to forget everything Anakin has done and just move on as if nothing ever happened. Like no consequences or anything. Like I said, I'm probably missing the point. But for some reason it feels wrong for him to run away with Padmé or Obi Wan and not face any consequences.

If that's the way you feel, then that's the way you feel! I'm not being sarcastic or throwing any shade about it, genuinely that your feelings on it are valid for you, because that's how stories and art works, that we each have our own reactions and I’m not about to try to talk you out of yours.  Everyone works differently and no person is obligated to feel one way or another. But when it comes to the greater themes of Star Wars, there’s a Howard Kazanjian quote that touches on it: “I said to George, ‘Why? This guy [Vader]—he’s like Hitler. He’s killed. He’s done all of these terrible things and now we’re saying he’s equal with Yoda and Obi-Wan, as if he’s gone to heaven or whatever?’ George pointed to me, he was real close, and he says, 'Isn’t that what your religion is all about?' And, boy, that was like being slapped in the side of the face, because, yes, it is what my religion is all about, and obviously his, but I hadn’t thought it through.—Howard Kazanjian, producer of Return of the Jedi. It’s not specifically about any one religion (especially as the Jedi are Buddhists) but it’s a common theme in many religions (for memory, Buddhism teaches that forgiveness is an end to suffering, which is an important theme with Anakin imo) and it’s not about letting someone get away with something or that there are no consequences, but it’s about not clinging to the past, it’s about not holding onto the anger and hurt because they make you suffer just as much, it’s about how the Jedi don’t strive to punish people, but instead to help them onto better paths. An important distinction to keep in mind here is that consequences and punishment are not the same thing.  Consequences can be “Anakin has to live with the knowledge of what he’s done.”  Consequences can be “Obi-Wan/Padme/Ahsoka can never again look at him and not see the trust he broke, even if he earns it back, even if they will love him through it.”  Consequences can be “They can never have the life they once had ever again.” Punishment is making Anakin suffer for what he’s done, punishment can be a form of consequences, there’s a lot of overlap, but that it’s important to note the two aren’t mutually exclusive and the Jedi have always leaned hard away from punishment that makes people suffer.  (Look at TCW, Anakin does stupid shit all the time and they never punish him, look at Ahsoka messing up and her punishment is working in the Archives, something that’s not meant to make her suffer, just to help her re-orient herself.) In death, Anakin’s last moments were ones of genuine selflessness, that (as Lucas explicitly says) he didn’t care about what happened to himself, he just wanted to save his son, regardless of what that meant for himself, whether he would live or die, whether he would force Luke into what Anakin wanted for him.  That moment isn’t about saying, “Well, then all the other stuff he did no longer matters.”, it’s not about saying that they’re equal, but instead saying that forgiveness is about letting go (one of the core themes of Star Wars), that the Jedi would rather help someone back to the light than to punish them in the dark. When the Force Ghosts offer Anakin the way to preserve himself in the Force, that’s what it’s about, that Anakin turned back to the light and they wanted to help that, they’ve always been about forgiveness and second chances.  To turn Anakin away after a sincere moment of selflessness and desire to turn back to a better path, that’s just not who they are. Now, when I talk about how Obi-Wan or Padme or Ahsoka would have accepted him back while they were alive, that can take on different shades of motivation, to my mind.  The above all still holds true, the Jedi repeatedly offered second chances when they could, but I think it’s also that those characters specifically loved Anakin so much that they would have taken him back even when it was maybe unfair.  Jedi aren’t perfect people, they have their own biases, they have the people they’re closest to, the ones that they would do more for, would pour more of themselves into than others, because that’s how people everywhere work.  And they loved Anakin Skywalker so much that they would forgive the terrible things he did because he’s burrowed his way into their hearts. We never really see what that taking back looks like, whether they were alive or dead when it was offered.  Anakin refuses to turn back for Padme, for Obi-Wan, for Ahsoka.  We don’t know what kind of consequences he would have faced afterwards, but I have a hard time believing that there would have been no consequences.  But the two aren’t mutually exclusive--being willing to accept someone again doesn’t mean you have to sweep everything to the side and pretend it never happened.  (Though, I think it’s fun to play in messy areas of how much would each of them be willing to look past, because they personally don’t want to lose him again, even if it’s not a moral or ethical thing to do?  If Anakin ran away with any of them and avoided punishment, I personally would see that as kind of a deliciously fucked up scenario that’s about how attached they are to him, how they’re willing to let others’ suffering stand because they can’t bear to live without him.  That’s one vein in which I write meta about Obi-Wan or Padme or Ahsoka accepting him back.)(Primarily, though, I’m of the opinion that there would be consequences, just that they wouldn’t be punishment-focused consequences.) When Anakin becomes a Force Ghost, we don’t see what that process is like or if there are consequences of it, we don’t know what his journey is like after that, only that Obi-Wan and Yoda were willing to accept him again and help him preserve himself in the Force. For me, I’m willing to roll with no consequences for Anakin if it means I’m getting other things I like, like I want my baby to be happy, I want shippy fic, I want Jedi reunion fic, etc.  But I do prefer consequences for him--not punishment, but consequences, like what he did is probably never going to be forgotten, they’re forever going to look at him and remember what he did, that he murdered children, that he helped enact genocide on the galaxy, that he helped enslave and torture billions of people.  Forgiveness =/= forgetting. But ultimately I think the Jedi are focused on healing and harm reduction, rather than heaping more punishment onto someone.  Punishing Anakin further wouldn’t gain them anything, they get nothing out of holding onto that anger at him, instead it actively hurts them just as much as it hurts Anakin, because that’s the whole way the Force works, that holding onto anger and hurt = the dark side. They don’t forget, but they do forgive, because that’s the way to end everyone’s suffering.  You don’t necessarily have to agree with that worldview, it’s perfectly fine not to!  Lots of people don’t, it’s normal.  But it’s how these characters view the world in general and Anakin Skywalker in particular, it’s the theme that Lucas wanted for Star Wars.

[daydreamgoddess14]

Patience

Luke Alvez / Penelope Garcia

Garvez Masterlist

Full Masterlist

My first Garvez fic! I hope I've found their voices... I've spent a long time in a Ted Lasso hole so this is my first venture out of that security blanket.... This is in response to a prompt from my 200 followers celebration which came from the lovely @darcyfangirlsfrequently who requested "I never meant to fall in love with you, I just did" & "when you fall, I'll always be right there to catch you"... Let's get to it, hope you like it! 💜

~~~~~~

It was a late night by the time everyone had filtered off home. They’d stayed as long as possible to enjoy being in each other's company again. Dave doted on them all, happy to be back with them. Once the ladies had squeezed onto the small sofa together with Tara’s long legs draped across the others, Will migrated to join Dave and Luke in the kitchenette.

“S’good to get this back.” He gestured with his glass,

“Family.” Luke nodded. 

“Well I hope we don’t get separated like that again.” Dave said a little louder, hoping Emily would overhear.

“Let’s see what the next few weeks bring, Agent Rossi,” she warned with a smile, “no promises.”

“But Pen, you’re coming back for real, right?” Tara asked.

“We’ll see guys, I need to think about it. Not sure I’m ready to let all that…. Ughh into my brain again.”

“Hmmm, I hear you on that.” JJ agreed, tucking her head into the crook of Penelope’s shoulder. At some point, Will managed to extract her from the sofa and to the front door, both of them dishing out hugs, kisses and I love yous as they left. Tara followed soon after, sharing an Uber with Emily.

“How is it that even with fewer people, the goodbyes take longer?” Emily laughed, pulling Dave into ‘just one more’ hug. When they’d gone, Dave insisted on washing up the last few glasses while Penelope split the last of the wine into hers and Luke’s glasses. As he left, he held Penelope’s face between his hands,

“I missed you,” she told him softly.

“I know sweetheart, I’m coming back slowly.” He tells her, his voice thick with emotion.

“Good, because my life is incomplete without a David Rossi in it.” She hugged him tight before letting him move on to Luke, stepping away to wipe a stray tear away. Dave patted Luke’s cheek gently, muttering something she couldn’t hear, and hugged him. As the door closed softly, she handed Luke his glass. “I swear, we are not splitting up again. My heart can’t take it.”

“You gotta come back then.” He tells her lightly, “we can’t do it without you.”

“You managed just fine,” she brushed him off. He laughs sharply.

“We so did not. We were a mess without you.”

“I’m not sure I can do it, Luke. It’s… too much. No one should see the things we’ve seen.” She points out. He knows she’s right.

“It’s about balance. Like I said, you saved lives - you can’t just dismiss that. I get that it’s hard, but when you fall, I'll always be right there to catch you.”

“We get through it together.” She reasoned, harking back to his previous rallying support. 

“We get through it together.” He repeats, clinking her glass with his own.

“I still can’t believe you know that Emily Dickinson quote.” She scoffs.

“Hey! Ever the tone of surprise with you.” He chuckles, finishing his drink. “I should get back to Roxy.” They linger by the door, the hugs feel more natural when the others are around as a buffer, when they’re alone there’s an awkwardness, a hesitancy. But those are blurred with the wine they’ve been drinking all evening and he envelopes her in a tight, all-encompassing embrace. She can smell the cologne on his collar and the earthy tones of his shower products. “So when Em calls you next week, you’ll think about whatever she says?” He asks quietly, his breath tickling behind her ear. The sensation sends shivers through her body, he’s holding her so closely that he notices and it causes her to pull away just a little.

“I promise I will consider whatever it is she comes up with.” She acquiesces. He nods in satisfaction and presses a warm kiss to her cheek.

“G’night Penelope.”

“Night Luke.” She watches him down the corridor, leaning on the doorframe.

“Hey, Pen?” He turns and calls out just before the stairs, she’s about to shut the door but stops to look at him, “If you’d ever consider a do-over on dinner…” he shrugs casually, but there’s a tightness in the way he holds the handrail, “might be a nice idea?” It might be the wine, but she can’t help the smile that breaks out across her face. 

“I’ll think about it, newbie.” He laughs and bounces down the stairs, out of view.

She does think about it, it’s just there’s so much else to think about as well - Emily offers her a full time return to the BAU and she has to consider what that means for everything else she’s worked on for the last three years. Also, if she goes back to the BAU, does that mean dinner with Luke needs to be parked? Penelope is torn, even on her first day back - which should be a happy occasion - she’s got Luke in the back of her mind. The situation with Tyler had forced her to confront her feelings for him, he was an open book - his disappointment when he’d found out about Tyler, supporting her after the shooting - regardless of how he felt… she’d seen every emotion cross his face and it only made her feel worse that she’d brushed his feelings aside for so long. Of course she liked him. She loved him, just as she did the others. More, maybe? Emily senses her distraction,

“Hey, you ok?”

“Yeah! Yes, I’m fine. Just weird being back, that’s all.” “Good weird?”

“Oh, sure. Sure!” Her eyes remain on Luke down in the bullpen.

“Something you want to talk about?”

“He asked me out again.” She says quickly, quietly. “Well, kind of. He said a do-over might be a good idea? Is that the same thing?” Emily can’t stop the corner of her mouth from twitching up, a half hidden smile.

“Yes, it’s the same thing. And yes, it would be a good idea I think, for both of you.”

“Really?” Penelope can’t help but feel a little incredulous.

“Really! I know we didn’t get a chance to debrief after your date,” Penelope rolls her eyes, of course Emily would refer to a post-date girl talk as a debrief, “but I think you both got so caught up in nerves that you forgot the most important part,”

“Which is?”

“That you’re already friends. That you’ve known each other for so, so long, been there for each other and supported each other. You already have a natural shorthand with each other, you already know so much about each other. The date was never to determine chemistry, Penelope, but I think you both forgot that?” Penelope thinks over Emily’s words. Thinks back three long years ago when she’d been on her best behavior, made sure she didn’t drink too much, didn’t laugh too loudly or speak too fast… when she’d stripped back her personality to its bare bones. When she wasn’t actually being herself.

“Oh my god.” She whispered. 

“There it is.” Emily muttered, mostly to herself. Penelope was on her feet in an instant, smoothing out her dress and hurrying to the door. She navigated the stairs carefully in her heels and marched to Luke’s desk where he was on the phone. She stood and waited, toes tapping softly on the carpet, her fingertips beating the same pattern on her crossed arms. He acknowledged her with an easy smile and… carried on talking. Eventually, she gave up and turned to perch on the edge of his desk. He eyed her curiously and covered the receiver with one hand,

“Shall I come and find you?” He whispered. She shook her head, determined to wait. He appeared to get the message and she got the sense that the call was wrapping up. The second the phone was placed back in the cradle, she gripped his hand and pulled him to his feet, dragging him out of the bullpen and down the corridor to her office. He closed the door carefully behind him and watched her pacing the room, “everything ok?” he asked softly, “first day blues?”

“I wasn’t myself.” She admitted at last. “On our date, I was…”

“Quiet. I didn’t get to hear your laugh. Your real one,” he adds. “You talked like we’d never met before.” 

“You knew?”

“Of course I did. I figured you were nervous, I know I was.” Her pacing slows so he takes a couple of steps closer, “You weren’t my -,” he stops, “you weren’t yourself.”

“What were you going to say?” She whispers, “were you going to say my Penelope?” He nods. He never lies to her, she knows that. 

“Look, I never meant to fall in love with you, I just did, and I know that you don’t feel the same -”

“You love me?” He laughs,

“Penelope, baby I’ve been in love with you for years. Years! And, that’s ok. It’s ok if you don’t return it.” He’s smiling, so calm, so at peace with his love that it takes her breath away. She stops. For once, she shuts down her brain, and she just stops everything. She does what she should have never stopped doing, and she listens for her heart and her gut to guide her.

“I love you.” It’s barely a breath, barely above a whisper and it’s aimed at the government issue carpet under her feet, but suddenly, she knows. “I love you.” She looks up at him, he’s still smiling.

“Yeah?” She nods, closing the small distance between them and reaching up to press a small, chaste kiss to his lips. His arms circle her waist, bringing her even closer and holding her steady. He kisses her back, their lips slotting together perfectly. There’s the tiniest whimper as he brushes his tongue against hers and he chases the sound, determined to hear it again. When they step apart, barely apart, breathless, she smiles shyly.

“I should have just done that three years ago.” She admits.

“Would have saved a lot of time.” He agrees with a laugh.

FIN

[setaripendragon]

Cress - Part 3

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 I really enjoyed writing this one and playing about with just the entire concept of dreams and the Dreaming and... I love the world building in Sandman so much, okay, and playing in this sandbox is just -happy author flailing- The Princess of the Dreaming comes home.

The Dreaming is in ruins. Ever since the library disappeared, there’s been nothing for Lucienne to do except watch the rest of the Dreaming crumble. She’s tried, as best she can, to hold it together, but she’s only a dream of a memory in the end, even if she has been favoured by their Lord. She hasn’t got the authority to order anyone to stay, and she doesn’t have the power to shape the dreamstuff back into what it was.

It’s an exercise in futility, and though Lucienne has never fallen prey to the fear that their Lord has abandoned them, has always believed that he will return when whatever is keeping him is done, she still finds it all exhausting. Even just existing these days is exhausting. The dreamstuff that makes her up is just as inclined to crumble back into its base state as the dreamstuff everywhere else, and holding herself together has become its own chore these last few years.

“Uh… Loosh?”

Lucienne sighs, and turns away from her consideration of the ruin of her Lord’s castle to face Mervyn with a forced smile. “Yes? What is it?” she asks. Back to business. Someone has to try and keep order while their Lord is away, and it might as well be her.

Mervyn makes a sound like clearing the throat he doesn’t actually have, and looks down. “We’ve got a new dreamer,” he tells her. Lucienne grimaces. Once upon a time, that wasn’t even an event to be remarked upon. These days, it’s an ill omen. How broken must everything be, for a new dreamer in the Dreaming to be a bad thing?

“Well, we may as well do our best to make them comfortable while they’re with us,” Lucienne says briskly. It’s the last kindness any of these dreamers will ever know. As the mortal world has – presumably – grown better at dealing with people who cannot wake, they survive longer, but they still haven’t discovered a way to convince the Dreaming to let them go again. So many dreamers have died in the Dreaming in the last seventy years, and if their Lord were here, perhaps that would grant them a second life here in the Dreaming like it had for Lucienne, but… There is no Dream Lord to claim them, and so they can only go with Death when she comes for them.

“Yeah…” Mervyn sighs. “That’s gonna take some work with this one.”

“Oh?” Lucienne prompts, suddenly wary. “Why is that?”

“Cause it’s a baby, isn’t it?” Mervyn asks, shoving his hands into his pockets with an air of deep discontent.

Lucienne doesn’t blame him one bit. She closes her eyes against the news. They’ve seen their fair share of children, toddlers, and even infants since their Lord left, but it’s never gotten easier to bear. The Dreaming is meant to enhance the lives of the dreamers, not steal their entire span of years away from them.

She caves to a moment of weakness, and takes her glasses off to rub at her eyes. She’s a dreamthing; she shouldn’t get tired. And yet. “Where?” she asks on a heavy sigh.

“The shores,” Mervyn tells her, and so off they go; leaping across the rubble and fragments of the bridge, across the now barren plains where Fiddler’s Green once lay, through the Gates of Horn and Ivory, which blessedly still stand, and out onto the soft shores of the Dreaming. Raw dreamstuff stretches out endlessly, waves of the Sea of Sleep lapping at its edges, and Lucienne finds she doesn’t need a guide any more.

The sight before her punches a soft ‘oh’ right out from the depths of her lungs. She’s not sure if it’s joy or sorrow. There’s no missing their new guest, because she’s wrapped up in a dream. A soft-edged infant’s dream of rainbows, bright primary colours fuzzing into each other, making strange shapes as they drift around their dreamer, tipping the babe from one vibrant cradle to another and sending sparkles of pure joy into the air.

Lucienne hadn’t known any such gentle dreams yet survived.

“Huh. Thought the little ones were all gone by now,” Mervyn says, echoing Lucienne’s thoughts with uncanny accuracy.

“I suppose we missed one,” Lucienne says helplessly.

She doesn’t know how long she stands there just watching, unable to bring herself to interrupt and end this moment. It’s such a small thing – such a small dream, for such a small dreamer – and yet that tiny thing lodges in her chest and grows until it threatens to burst. So she stands and watches as an infant dreams of rainbows, until quite suddenly, the babe is tipped from amorphous blue to bubbling orange, and falls right through the bubbles and into nothing.

Mervyn swears, covering the sound of Lucienne’s gasp.

“She woke up,” Lucienne says dumbly, staring as the dream twists in on itself, condensing down into a little blob of ever-shifting colour. It shifts, sliding around on the dream-sand of the shores, as though it’s looking for its absent playmate.

“Ah, damn. Come here, you,” Mervyn says, striding – more like staggering – forward to catch the attention of the dream. “Better get you somewhere safe, before you dissolve like the rest. What’s your name, then? I don’t recognise you t’all.” He sounds very indignant about that last part, which is fair enough. Mervyn was generally well acquainted with most of their Lord’s creations. Perhaps this one was made right before he left, and it never had the chance to become known to the other denizens of the Dreaming.

The dream fluctuates indecisively for a moment, and then turns a startlingly uniform shade of vibrant yellow. “Aureolin,” Lucienne says, when Mervyn flounders. The dream sparkles. “It’s very good to meet you, too,” Lucienne agrees. “I’m Lucienne, the Royal Librarian, and this is Mervyn Pumpkinhead, the… Royal Caretaker.” Mervyn humphs, but doesn’t contradict her “Now, let’s get you settled somewhere a bit safer, shall we?”

Aereolin agrees, and dutifully follows along behind as Lucienne turns her steps not back towards the Castle, but further into the Dreaming, towards the Houses of Secrets and Mysteries. These days, it’s safer there than it is in the Castle. One never knows when another set of rooms is just going to disappear in there.

Abel is absolutely overjoyed to see another dream, while Cain is significantly more disgruntled about being asked to babysit. Lucienne, having expected this, blandly suggests that if it’s too much for him-

“Don’t be ridiculous! It’s not as if we’ve got anything else to do around here!” Cain snaps, cutting her off before she can even begin to suggest Aureolin comes to the castle with her, and Lucienne smiles smugly.

“Of course. Thank you,” she says indulgently.

“Gregory! Look, Gregory, a new friend for you!” Abel calls to the gargoyle nesting on the roof. Gregory chirrups in confusion, and hops down, scattering roof tiles as he goes, to nose at Aureolin curiously. Aureolin blooms into a riot of colours in the air around Gregory, who yelps and rears back, turning on his hind legs to try and look at everything all at once, only to fall back on his rump when he overbalances.

Aureolin flares around him in a riot of sunshine yellow and neon orange and crystal white. Gregory shakes himself, then wriggles with more intent. Abel has just enough time to shout, “Gregory, no-!” before Gregory pounces. He catches most of Aereolin under one large paw, right up until Aureolin bleeds itself into the ground, turning the grass coquelicot and heliotrope and gamboge.

Then it springs back into the air like a mist rising out of the ground, coalesces into a rainbow, before darting off into the trees, a rippling ribbon of colour against the dreary Dreaming, with Gregory in hot pursuit.

“Where’d you find that one, then?” Cain asks suspiciously.

“On the shores,” Lucienne says blandly.

“What was it doing down there?” Cain demands.

“What we’re all doing these days,” Lucienne says, a little harder now. “Getting by.”

Cain harrumphs, but ceases attempting to interrogate her. Good, because Lucienne does not want to see what frenzy the last few residents of the dreaming might be driven to by the notion of a dreamer who isn’t stuck. They’d swamp the poor child, and probably cause no end of trauma.

She returns to the palace, for want of anything better to do, and catches herself looking mournfully at the once-vibrant stained glass windows of the throne room. They’re dull, these days. Even if there was more than the watery light of their non-weather, the glass is no longer jewel-toned and ready to glow at the touch of the sun. Lucienne hasn’t seen colour like Aureolin’s here in the dreaming for at least the last twenty years.

Somehow, she’s not surprised when Mervyn comes to fetch her again what feels like mere moments later.

“She’s back, Loosh.”

And so she is, when Lucienne goes back down to the shores to see. The child has called Aureolin back to her, and they’re playing on the sand together. And it happens again. And again. Lucienne begins to track time by days instead of years again, keeping an eye out for the infant. Sometimes Aureolin doesn’t come, and Lucienne will pick the child up and carry her back through the gates and into the palace, just because it’s better than leaving her lying on the dream-sand.

Some many days and nights later, Lucienne finds the infant on the shore again, and while Aureolin isn’t there, another dream is. Or, rather, a nightmare. An infant’s nightmare of cold and sharp, with no finesse to its form. To Lucienne, it looks a little like a soap-bubble, covered in pulsing spikes like shards of broken glass, surrounded by a glimmer of diamond-dust.

The infant is being cradled by the spikes, and her tiny little hand keeps closing around one, and then letting go with a whimper, and then trying to close around it again. And the nightmare, for all that it is what it is and it’s fulfilling its purpose in allowing the child to explore these things that scare it in a safe environment, is being so incredibly gentle with her as it holds her aloft, shards tip-tapping over the infant’s skin as it explores in turn.

It is not… typical, of her Lord’s creations, she has to admit. Neither is Aureolin. Even the children’s dreams and nightmares have had forms beyond their function, as far as Lucienne can remember. Human dreams with human shapes, the better to know those they’re meant to serve, and to communicate with the aspect of their Lord in charge of them.

These… are not human.

Perhaps, Lucienne dares to think, this is the Dreaming beginning to heal around their Lord’s absence? After all, their Lord is the Dreaming, and the Dreaming is him. It is not a creation that bears the mark of her Lord’s experienced hand, but… it must be of him, else it could not be. So perhaps they have simply been born of some part of her Lord that is… less than intentional. Impulse over artistry.

It keeps happening, too. The child grows, and as she does, more complex dreams bloom out of the dreamstuff as she needs them. Tesseract joins Aureolin and Dearth, as she discovers shapes, as she grows strong enough to operate her limbs properly and finds the world has substance, and then Schism, as she begins to walk and learns to fear falling, learns to dream of flying.

The first new dream to have a recognisable form is a spider, large enough for a small child to ride, covered in a thick fuzz of glowing white fur, and graced with a pair of magnificent translucent wings coloured like stained glass windows. Its eight eyes are all different sizes, from huge and liquid to small enough to be freckles, all of them black as night, all of them with eyelids far more like a human’s than any kind of insect.

The girl rides it across the dream-sand, sometimes shrieking with glee, sometimes yelling in triumph, and sometimes talking to it. Lucienne exchanges a look with Mervyn when they realise. It’s been a very long time since either of them has been around children. She’d forgotten they start talking that young.

“Should we…?” Mervyn asks. Lucienne looks to the girl, and after a moment of teetering indecision, nods sharply. Mervyn grumbles a wary agreement and, together, they start across the sand.

No matter where she is when she wakes, Lucienne notes, this girl always returns to the Dreaming here, on the shores, where all is raw dreamstuff like shifting sands, nurtured by the shushing shores of sleep. It’s curious, because most dreamers used to slip straight to whatever dream or nightmare called to them that night. But this girl never appears in the Houses of Secrets and Mysteries, nor in the palace rookery where Schism had taken to nesting, nor in the library where Tesseract tends to follow Lucienne around like a faithful hound.

They always come to her, instead.

On spotting them, the girl gasps in delight and immediately makes grabbing motions in their direction. In response, the dream immediately begins to skitter in their direction, wings flapping hard enough to lift it off the sand by a few feet, and then stopping, and then starting to buzz again.

“Pun’kin!” the girl cheers, as the glowing white spider skids to a stop at their feet, kicking up a cloud of shimmering golden dream-sand. “Birb!”

“Hello, little one. Little ones,” Lucienne greets, smiling a little tightly in her confusion.

“Hi! Hi, hi, hi,” the spider returns in a truly beautiful voice, while spinning around in a circle in its excitement.

“Up, pease!” the girl demands, raising her arms. Lucienne sighs, then bends down to pick her up and settle her on her hip. The spider scuttles up her legs, around to her back, and perches there like a backpack, front legs clinging to Lucienne’s shoulders.

Lucienne takes a moment to study the girl. She looks, perhaps, to be from somewhere in the Mediterranean; with warm skin, eyes such a dark brown they look nearly as black as the spider’s, and hair as glossy black as a raven’s wing. Mervyn leans in to study her, too, eyes narrowed. “Did you call me Pumpkin?” he asks.

“Pun’kin,” the girl agrees.

“This is Mervyn,” Lucienne corrects, refusing to laugh only because she knows it would annoy Mervyn. “And I am Lucienne. Who are you?”

“I’m Kess,” the girl says firmly. “Kessida!”

“Cressida?” Lucienne guesses. The girl nods in a full-body bobble. “That’s a lovely, name,” Lucienne tells her. “And who’s your friend?” she adds, turning her head to try and look at the spider still clinging to her back.

“I’m Arthur,” the spider announces sweetly.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Cress, Arthur,” Lucienne says entirely by rote.

“Luffly t’meechu, Looshen, Merfy,” Cressida echoes dutifully.

Mervyn winces. Lucienne doesn’t blame him. That’s a little bit too close to one of their Lord’s names to be anything but painful at the moment. “Maybe stick with ‘Punkin’, kiddo,” Mervyn suggests dryly.

“Kay,” Cressida agrees.

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Ok so I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (SPOILERS)

I guess this is Michael Bay’s soft retcon of the Transformers franchise since this is meant to be a sequel of sorts to the Bumblebee movie. Which I did really enjoy. This one was like a 7/10 if I put it all together.

The whole arbitrary angry robot alien coming to take over Earth with his equally angry main henchman doing his dirty work is kind of how all the transformers films go in terms of plot lines so that was kind of whatever. You don’t really come to a Transformers movie for the plot anyhow. You hope for some good action sequences and maybe some fun character moments.

I feel like a lot what of the individual characters in RotB had going on was a lot of fun but the character relationships felt a little lacklustre to me.

Like in Bumblebee you could see the connection between Charlie and Bee but that’s always been something Transformers has done well. Bumblebee is a staple and has often been the main Autobot and so we all hold affinity towards him. He’s the robot we can relate to and is our tie in to the story. Optimus isn’t quite that. He’s more a tie in to the world building, the sage mentor-instructor who expositions everything, and also gets to have his badass leader moments and epic speeches.

But regardless there’s always a really strong human-bot relationship, usually between MC and Main Autobot, which previously has almost always been Bee (I confess I have not seen the Mark Wahlberg Transformers movies).

This time it was Noah and Mirage (I see y’all with the shipping tags, I salute you but for right now I’m sitting in a more bros vibe XD). Noah and Mirage and to an extent Noah and his brother, had the most chemistry in the movie. Each of their scenes had fun, had natural banter, and then they brought down that banter to something sweet and heartfelt and I genuinely felt sad when Mirage “died”. Part of that was because we see Noah and his brother’s bond, and Mirage gets to see that bond, and so we kinda see Noah’s brother through Mirage. And we all know we love to see a goofball who has a serious moment. Mirage parroting back the same words Noah always said to his brother just ties in that bond and makes Noah feel that much closer to Mirage. So yeah the “death” scene was sad. It led to a goofy ass moment where they got Mirage to turn into an iron man suit for Noah and I was honestly like wtf is happening.

But I would argue they were the best dynamic in the movie.

They kept trying to have Noah and Optimus be mirrors of each other but it was a lot more showing not telling. They sacrificed a lot of that good storytelling of demonstrating their similarities in favour of big explosions. If they had axed the exposition at the start, and made the Maximals like a big surprise later on that hey we’ve been here all along and now we’ll exposit some info on you, that could’ve given them a lot more leeway to building those mirrors between Noah and Optimus.

Like again you’re not going to a Transformer’s movie for the story, but I will say the first couple of movies did a lot in the way of demonstrating the chemistry between Bee and Sam Witwicky and why Optimus saw potential in Sam and why Mikaela was drawn to Sam.

Like I could see how Optimus’s personality had subtly shifted. He was still wise and delivering banger lines. But he was also tired, frustrated, angry, distrustful and I genuinely found that so interesting given how we’ve known him in the past. They’ve kind of paired down on Optimus’s visual scale. Like he used to be freaking huge, as tall as buildings. Like Sam was like half the height of his head. Which I do miss. They really make you feel the size and majestythat are the Autobots in the earlier movies, specifically Optimus Prime, who is a living legend by all accounts. But if that means we get more depth to his character outside of knowledgeable and understanding old veteran, then I’m all for it.

And again we see a lot of Noah’s home life but they just don’t quite go far enough to make it home how difficult he has it, and leave a lot to be assumed. But you see enough of how it is and how tough he has it. But then he’s suddenly raring to go in saving the world and yeah I guess they tie that in to wanting to keep his family safe but it did feel kinda abrupt. And that’s definitely a scripting issue. Some of the lines and line delivery was very stiff and uncomfortable. I think the cast tried their best but some of the more heartfelt lines or intimate moments felt very monotone. When it was Noah on his own kinda just reacting to the situation, it felt much more natural. But the exchanges between characters didn’t flow as smoothly as they could have.

That said, we got enough of two characters to understand them. But you can’t pit them against each other as being similar to each other without banking on more dynamic interactions between them or demonstrating how they individually mirror each other.

Like I said. The individual characters were enjoyable enough. I liked Optimus’s tired dad vibe. Noah was a decent MC. But there could have been a few different avenues they could have taken in letting Optimus and Noah see eye to eye.

Show Noah not immediately trusting Mirage and the Autobots but slowly building that rapport. He was taken aback by Mirage at first and then immediately made peace with his presence. Show me how that dynamic shifts so that the sad “Mirage dies” moment feels earned. And while you’re doing that show Noah going out of his way to save an Autobot when he could’ve escaped. Show Optimus placing trust in a human BEFORE the trans dimensional space key thing gets stolen. Then they have the big apology moment where Optimus says he should’ve trusted Noah and yadda yadda big team up moment ensues.

Also just a weird side bar. I’m sure they talked like this in the 90s (I’m a 98 baby) but the part where Noah goes “squad up!” Kinda took me outta the immersion for a second. Also it felt so awkwardly placed. Like potentially adlib but idk. At no point had I seen Noah having demonstrated leadership skills or authority where he can just order around the Maximals/Autobots like that. I mean he wasn’t, but there was no gravity to his words. Like if he had said that to me, I wouldn’t immediately jump into formation. Not to mention it was followed up by really poor line delivery where he said something like “there’s gotta be something we can do. Just think” and it had no urgency to it… then in comes Optimus Primal who delivers his line so much better like “it’s too late” and I’m out here like I believe him.

Tbh the action moments were fine. Could be desensitisation to big scale fights bc we’re so over saturated with them now. The whole iron man suit moment was just goofy as hell and when he somehow managed to catch Optimus and stop him from being sucked away?? Like Optimus Prime. The dude as big as skyscrapers?? The dude who was carried by helicopter??? That part was absurd.

Bringing it back to Bumblebee. I think the best thing they did for this story was to take Bumblebee out of it so that a new Autobot could have his time to shine they wanted this to be about Mirage and Optimus interacting with Noah and they got that chance. Now don’t get me wrong. Even if I knew it was a fake out death, Bumblebee dying made me upset and him coming back brought a lot of joy back to the story. Like we love a comeback moment (cue that song XD). The moment could’ve been a touch more devastating to make his come back more powerful. But it was a lot of fun when he did come back and there’s a reason he’s such a compelling character and a staple fave of Transformers.

But had he been there, it would have taken away from what I have already said to be the best character dynamic in the movie which was Mirage and Noah. It would have turned into another Bumblebee movie. I do like the tie in to the Bumblebee movie and mentioning his history with Charlie. That was cute.

I didn’t mind Alana/Elaina/Alayna (I have no clue how her name is spelt). I enjoyed her most in her initial intro showing her historical knowledge and then she was given some of the driest lines to deliver. Idk if it’s her acting but her dialogue was clunky and uncomfortable.

All in all. Average action movie. Some nice moments. Wasn’t expecting a GI Joe tie in but sure. 7/10

[fuckedprophet-arch]

the muse death dealin with it meme: spoiler alert not well!!

It’s not supposed to go like this. It’s out of order, places reversed, everything turned upside down and gen doesn’t know why it’s fucked this time. All of it has been different since ––– no don’t think about that night don’t think about that life you’ll just cry even more. They’ve lost people before, the number well in the hundreds of thousands by now, and sure those made her sad. None of them were him, though, and nobody else ever would. There’s the small hope that they’ll see him again, sometime soon, that they’ll get a reset they actually want for once. Then, there’s that part of her that hopes he’s out of her chaos. That he doesn’t have to deal with what they do, it’s a half-life they wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially him. He deserves a soft ending and maybe this is just that? They don’t have the answers and it stings and burns even harsher this time. Everything, every little emotion and every little feeling, is so much more in this time. They’d promised him that they would be there, at the end, but they never meant it like this. Maybe they jinxed themself, making promises that they never should have, fucking over his fate ––– it always was, they remind themself, which just makes it worse.

They can’t remember the last time they ate or slept, the latter only concerning because usually they at the very least want to even if they can’t. The last thing in the entire world that they want to do right now is sleep. Sleep is when the memories don’t come and all they want is to remember the last part of the puzzle. Finding it means they can follow after him faster. She knows it’s selfish and that she should just let him go. he never deserved to get pulled into forever. Is this what grief truly is? Have you ever actually experienced it before now? 

They thought they knew what grief was. Thought they had memorized each and every little facet of it. They know now that whatever it is they knew before was just surface level. The ache in their heart radiates to their bones and through their veins. They gasp for air while the world crashes around them, simply because they came across a reminder of him. It’s all consuming and maybe if they had been prepared ––– they’ve heard this exact thing, when the dead are grieving their self loss, and they’re always ready to give some stupid line about it being something you can’t prepare for. They don’t know why it’s so hard for them to accept it for themself, that they aren’t immune from every law of the universe ––– they just never thought they’d have to face it. Or at least, not like this. 

There were too many things they hadn’t done yet, hadn’t seen yet, felt yet ––– so much living that they were supposed to do together. It’s not fair it’s not fucking fair and it broke the rules, it broke the script, but hadn’t he always done that for her? Hadn’t he always found some way to fuck over the plan? All starting with a sacrifice that, despite how much they miss him [ and miss is a disgusting understatement], they wish he never made? 

It’s been a year and everything, from the stars to the sand, have dulled to almost a full loss of saturation. The lights have all dimmed and they’ve been tripping over guilt and regret and fucking grief trying to find something good about all of it. Why are they still here? Why did he have to go and why can’t she just fucking get over it? 

They visit his grave every day, stay in the veil, keep away from reality because it’s still too hard to see so many others living while he isn’t. It’s been a year and they haven’t put away the laundry basket of clean clothes he left behind, turned off their weekly date night reminder, all of what he left behind is still exactly where he left it. Waiting for the day they wake up and find out it was all a dream ––– they know it’s never going to happen, but still, they hope.

They’ve never been left behind before, it’s always them doing the leaving, so maybe this is some fucked up repayment. 

They miss him every single day, hour, minute, and second until the day they wake up after another one of their resets. Forgetting him entirely, by an act of the universe, was the only true way to get over him.

They’ll meet him again, of course, he’s part of their story now, they both figured it out at some point –––  and they’ll, of course, eventually remember how losing him felt ––– and it will, of course, make her fight his fate this time. 

My muse is dead. Tell me how yours is dealing with it.

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO MARE COSMIA, SUA. 🌗

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: xing age: 23 pronouns: he/him ooc contact: shineonthesea @ twt  other characters in xc: akito shinonome, cain knightley, yukari takeba

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: Sua age: 23 pronouns: she/her series: Alien Stage canon point: up to date

app triggers: death, “killing game”, humans treated as pets, aliens, guns

personality: Sua is elusive. That’s the way it is, whether she cares for it or not. She doesn’t seek attention, nor does she shun it. She always acts unexpectedly, doing against what others might assume of her. She likes it that way.

Sua is not someone who’s defined so easily. That’s the way she likes it.

Sua is someone who’s more direct with her words, although this doesn’t mean she’s impenetrable. She’s simply bolder than the average person, but she still has sensitive feelings despite the facade she puts up.

Her eyes lack liveliness. They have for years now.

But they brighten up when she sees her universe. She gives Sua life, a real smile, and the feeling of being alive.

Sua’s well-spoken, polite, and poses as the perfect idol. She loves singing and only wishes to share her music with the world. That’s what she says. That’s what her parents and teachers have expected her to say. She only exists for others’ entertainment.

But her decision to sacrifice herself to allow Mizi to continue living… Well, Ivan called her a hypocrite for it. That word stains her. But her dream is Mizi’s dream.

something your muse struggles with: little to no excitement or purpose, self-sacrificial

your muse’s greatest strength: her hard work to maintain her air of perfection

history / background: The world of Alien Stage is quite vague, but it supposedly takes place in a world where humans have left Earth and are second to aliens. Aliens take in humans as pets and raise them. In this Alien World, a popular reality show known as Alien Stage is super popular right now, but it revolves around singing in order to ensure survival. Whoever gets eliminated will be terminated on the spot— this usually manifests in the singer’s collar exploding and killing them immediately. Otherwise, the aliens might shoot them. Whatever is more entertaining at the time.

This seems to be turning around, as the treatment of humans in the show is starting to become controversial— with some aliens protesting having humans as pets.

Humans don’t usually know who their parents are and refer to their alien owners as their parents or guardians. Sua refers to hers as her parents, but it seems like she is mostly treated as someone who must be beautiful and succeed.

She was enrolled in Anakt Garden, which is a music kindergarten meant to help humans grow up and learn how to sing and perform— they are known for having the highest survival rates in the galaxy. From there, most of its graduates go on to participate in Alien Stage— it’s a great honor to take part in it according to her instructors at Anakt. During the humans’ studies there, they would have a sort of recess for their “psychological well-being”.

At Anakt Garden, Sua would spend her mandated playtime singing. One day, a pink haired girl named Mizi would always listen to Sua’s singing after class— one day, she sang along by accident, and Sua heard her. They’ve been close and inseparable since.

When it came to their time in Alien Stage, they were up against each other during the first round. They resolved to sing a duet, but Sua lost by one point.

She died instantly via an explosion through her collar.

powers / abilities: None

inherent abilities: 

Singing - Sua’s an idol. She loves singing the most, especially with her best friend Mizi… even without Mizi, she’ll continue to sing.

Studious - She's hard working, making sure to keep up with her studies by reviewing them nightly during her time at Anakt Garden.

Self-sacrificial - To round out the S’s… But this goes hand in hand. Is she self-sacrificial or is she just selfish? For a world without Mizi is not a world worth living in. 

items / weapons: 

She has nothing lmfaooo

starting ability: n/a starting item: n/a

extra: I MISS HER

Thanks oli alien stage encyclopedia for making sua possible

discord id: goddessdescent

[starrystevie]

the year is 1988.

steve and eddie finally get their shit together and learn how to live when there isn't a war going on, a battle to fight, people to protect with their own flesh and bones. they go to bars, go on road trips, see the world for what it can and should be outside of their small hawkins bubble. steve drives during the day, eyes hyper-focused on the road and the cars around them, making sure to stay in his lane with his hands firmly on the wheel. eddie drives at night, talking about everything and nothing to help keep steve awake, hands flailing around with moonlight glinting off his rings. they get hotel rooms when they can afford it. double queens that turn to single kings once stave can’t handle it anymore and kisses eddie at the end of a long drive spent driving through blankets of tree tunnels that had them both in awe. he couldn’t resist the wide brown eyes staring at the nature around them, the soft whisper of “can’t fight this feeling anymore” playing quietly in the background,  the way he laughed breathlessly as they whipped around the winding curves a little too fast. when they stop to change drivers as the sun was setting, pulled over somewhere in the hidden safety of the trees, he pushes eddie against the driver side door and makes him breathless in a different kind of way. 

the year is 1997.

eddie’s hair is short for the first time that steve can remember, traded the long locks for hair at his shoulders and a goatee to go along with it. steve’s is cropped around his ears, still as tall as ever. they’ve changed, they’ve grown and they did it side by side of one another. their road trips led them out west, settling them in the golden state for endless sunsets on the beach. eddie still plays his music far too loud and steve still calls to check in on the kids but the years have been kinder to them than they expected. they still have bad nights. nights where the darkness feels too close so they light candles and wrap around each other with kate bush playing through the speakers. but the good nights far outweigh the bad and they find themselves wrapped around other more often than not in their shared bed with sated smiles rather than fear. eddie makes it a point to live his life to whatever fullest he can, the new coastline a way to become whoever he wants to be rather than what people assume of him. steve makes sure their door is unlocked for whoever may need help, taking in new friends that fall on rough times with open arms and an empty guest room. steve and eddie find a balance, a partnership, a way to continue to grow together.

the year is 2004. 

they just happen to be visiting robin and nancy in boston, hair starting to grey just a bit and faint wrinkles showing with wide smiles when it’s announced. they’re in a bar where they can just be, the four of them, catching up with booming laughter as they recount the days gone by. eddie has an arm slung around steve’s shoulders, fingers brushing every so often against him as he talks animatedly about something his bandmate did. nancy has an arm looped through robin’s, head resting just so in the crook of her neck. robin and steve have matching grins as they poke fun of each other followed by something sweet to lessen the burn. there’s a cheer somewhere behind them that turns into multiple voices all at once, tears and clapping and hugging and kissing. the news is on, a man in a sharp dressed suit is saying something that they can’t hear over the cacophony of excitement, but they know. there are people all over the bar with one knee pressed to the floor before being pulled up into a teary embrace. steve feels a hand tighten over his shoulder and feels his own lip start to quiver, sees his best friends across from him stare at each other with looks too big to put into words. 

it’s all a blur from that point on. it ends with steve and eddie wrapped up with one another like they were always meant to be, swaying to reo speedwagon on a packed dancefloor, with the promise of tomorrow between them.

[bdbb-writes]

When The Darkness Comes

Pairing: Loki x goddess!reader

Warnings: enemies to lovers, swearing, angst, mentions of murder, slight suicidal ideation if you squint really really hard.

Word count: 2.6k (written in the middle of class)

A/N: heyyy sorry i fell off the face of the earth, new fics coming soon!!!!!!

Tag list: @iridescentloki @aliiiyyaaah

Loki Odinson, god of mischief, had been your arch-nemesis since you were just small children playing amongst the fields of Asgard. Despite the closeness of your families you never truly could get along. While he may have been one of magic, you were always known to outwit his trickery. Being the daughter of the goddess Sol, the living embodiment of the sun, had advantages to say the least. Whenever Loki would turn himself into some animal to attempt to scare you the same way he had done to Thor many times, you would cast hot beams of sunlight on whatever form he took, revealing the green aura around it; a dead giveaway to the boy and his prank. As if living in Thor’s shadow wasn’t enough, he couldn’t even outsmart the girl who tried to eat a sunflower whole because, “I want to become one with the sun like my mother”.

As you both got older his tolerance for you grew weaker and weaker, you arguing each and every time you were in each other’s presence for longer than 15 minutes, Thor on the other hand, was a good friend of yours, which is why he along with Sif and Fandral would tease you relentlessly about your crush on Loki. You only argued with him because he started it and at least that way you got to speak to him. Even when you were small, you meant no harm towards him, you enjoyed your little prank wars, it was an entirely one-sided feud. You cherished the glances you could steal at the bi-weekly family dinners before he caught you and immediately scowled in your direction, today happens to be one of those days. As usual, you’re hoping he’ll be a bit distracted so you can enjoy his presence just a bit longer than usual.

“Y/n! Terrace please” you heard your mother's voice call for you, pulling you out of your thoughts.

“Coming mother” you shouted back, tucking the golden dagger you’d been fiddling with back into your boot, making your way to the lower terrace where dinners at yours took place, being met with your mother’s face was truly a comfort, her soft and warm features never allowed you to wallow in whatever you were feeling at the time. As you looked around you noticed only two chairs were sitting at the gigantic table.

“Is something wrong?”

“I’m afraid so, Frigga has just informed me that they cannot make it tonight, in all these hundreds of years they’ve never canceled, I’m a bit worried. Though we’ll be dining alone tonight, would you be a dear and take them over a basket? Fruits and nuts and the sort, the latest ripened from our garden, whatever is going on is definitely worthy of a gift”

“I’ll take it over quickly, no problem at all” and you did, you grabbed the beautifully adorned golden basket and made your way to Odin’s palace, sure to greet everyone you saw on the way there. Familiar with the setting, you went through Loki’s hallway as you headed for the palace dining hall when you heard the breaking of glasses. Before you could question it, guards ran out of Loki’s room, an unconscious Odin being relocated before the double doors swung shut again. Screams that were easily identified as those of Loki himself. You knew he wouldn’t want you around, you knew it was a bad idea, but that part of you that so desperately wanted to be there for him overrides your sense of self-control as you pushed through the door, setting the basket on his table to be long forgotten. Slowly making your way towards the figure holding itself on the floor before his bed, head tucked between his knees, you let out a small make of his name, so quiet you weren’t sure if he heard.

“Loki?” The head slowly rose, slightly peeking over his shoulder to glance at you before stopping.

“Go away y/n” he weakly muttered.

“I have never listened to you once in our entire thousand years together, why start now?” You giggled at the memory of every time he had called you out for being so insistently stubborn with him. You had expected him to do the same now but were shocked when you were met with silence from the weasel.

“Seriously Loki, what’s up with you? What happened with Odin?” He tensed at the mention of Odin. You carefully moved to where he was, sitting next to him, copying his position on the floor. Being much closer now you could hear the weak sniffles just barely escaping, he was obviously trying to hide whatever was going on in that mischievous mind of his.

“Okay well I’m not going anywhere, so I will sit here with you as long as it takes for you to tell me what your major malfunction is”. No reaction. Being the persistent woman you were, you moved to sit opposite to him, back to the wall across from his bed, and you kept your promise. You have no idea how long you sat there but eventually, you heard the small gulps holding back the tears stop, and his frozen demeanor broke like a dam, tears falling out like he was drowning in them. Without hesitating you quickly made your way to him, reaching to his lean figure and guiding his head to the crook of your neck, his whole body wracked with sobs, enough tears falling to soak the very edge of your top. He was too weak at this point to fight back or care that you were running your fingers through his hair, or even notice that he’d wrapped his arms around your waist. You didn’t mind. Not one bit.

You stayed this way until he stopped, well, to be honest, he had stopped crying about 15 minutes ago but you couldn’t bring yourself to remove his body that was pressed against your side. When he finally detached himself from your body you felt cold without him, not actually because the boy was constantly below 0, but emotionally. He wiped his poor little flushed face.

“Loki, if you’re crying like that it’s obviously of major importance, talk to me sunshine” you rested your hand on his shoulder and he let out a dry laugh.

“You haven’t called me sunshine since that one time you gave me sunburn for cutting off one of your braids with my smallest dagger” he looked up at you somewhat smiley.

“Yeah well you deserved it then and you deserve it now, for different reasons of course. But I’m being truthful, you can tell me anything.” You gave him a light shove.

“Close your eyes, I’m going to show you something when I tell you to open them, that way if I truly look like a freak, I at least know you’ll put out of my misery, I can trust the person who hates me most to do that” you closed your eyes as he began to stand and huffed.

“Loki I don’t-“

“Oh shut your mouth for once y/n, and open your eyes when I tell you”

‘Fine” your reluctance evident in your voice.

“Open.” He barked rather harshly considering how he had spoken just moments ago, but you opened your eyes to be met with Loki, who definitely wasn’t Loki. You stood on weak legs and walked over to the blue man standing so far away with his eyes closed. Your fingers twitched, absentmindedly wanting to touch the fascinating ridges now gracing his face, he was within an arms reach now and you couldn’t help yourself.

A gasp flew out your mouth when you finally made contact with his face, he was always cold but he was truly freezing now, you could swear you felt ice on the tips of your fingers. None of that mattered though, as you pressed both of your warm hands on his cheeks.

“Why are your eyes closed sunshine?”

“You’re already seeing what a freak I am, you don’t need to see the monster as well”

“Oh Loki, you’re not a monster, please open your eyes, I promise I’ll tell you what I think after you do” you promised and you meant it, attempting to soothe him with the run of your thumbs across the apple of his cheeks. His eyes fluttered just before they opened and you were meant with bright red eyes, he let out a shaky sigh expecting you to scream or call him something horrible, he waited for what seemed like forever.

“You’re so beautiful Loki” you said in such a soft voice that he almost believed it, but he pushed away from you instead.

“Don’t lie to me y/n, I’m disgusting and we both know it, I am a living creature of the horror stories we were told as little ones. I am a monster, I am darkness, I am a danger to everyone around me. I now understand why Odin treated me so different all these years, why he favored Thor, I was nothing more than the bastard creature he hoped would actually be of use someday.” His erratic pacing making you nervous, his hand pulling at his black tresses from the root.

“Loki..” you reached out to him.

“I am lost y/n, who am I anymore? I’m a lie, a fabrication of Odin’s place on the throne” another step closer.

“You are Loki, you may not be Odinson but you are Friggason and you know that, your mother loves you dearly. You don’t have to be Laufeyson if you don’t want to, nobody needs to know” another step, you were so close.

“And as far as you being lost…’ you trailed off.

“Y/n?” You must’ve gotten lost in your mind, because Loki’s voice snapped you back into reality.

“Hold on one second” you dug in your boot and pulled out your dagger, twisting the sun pendant that lay just above the handle of the blade, when it finally came off you threw your dagger somewhere, you’d worry about that in a moment. You walked to the corner of the room, opening the pendant and closing it between your two hands, eyes squeezed shut. ‘Please let this work’ you pleaded to yourself. When you opened up your palm you were relieved, ‘it worked’! You stalked back over to him with the palm-sized sun presented before him.

“What is that?”

“It’s for a necklace, for you” he looked so confused you would’ve thought his head would be turned to the side like a puppy.

“How is a necklace going to change the fact that I’m lost?” You had the overwhelming urge to remove his eyes so he couldn’t roll them again.

“Just let me put it on you” you demanded and he reluctantly nodded, once you had it around him you melted the two ends of the pendant necklace together, before heading back to the front of him.

“Now enclose the sun in your hand and close your eyes” you could help but smile.

“Are you being serious right now?”

“One thousand percent sunshine, now do it” he sighed before following the instructions, your eyes lit up when the gift began to emit a warm glow, Loki’s face churned for a moment before relaxing and you knew exactly what had happened when his shoulders dropped, no longer tense. You watched his face contort in every which way until the glow faded out and he opened his eyes, just glossy enough for you to notice.

“What was that?”

“All of the times in our life I’ve ever cheered you up without you knowing it was me” you gave a shy smile, completely unsure of how the unpredictable individual before you would react.

“So when Thor snapped my dagger in half…”

“I basically welded it back together” you rotated your hands and looked at them, but he never took his eyes off of you.

“Why?”

“Well it was a really cool dagger-“

“No y/n, why did you do all of it? Any of it? You hate me” the gaze on your hands broke at that comment, could he seriously never tell???

“Oh don’t give me that Loki, I never have, but you always hated me and I’d rather play along than be viewed as a victim”

“Oh…” guilt seeped through his pores thinking about all the times he wished he would’ve pushed you out a palace window.

“Yeah, ‘oh’. So it's your turn now, why do you hate me?”

“I don’t hate you” he mumbled, fumbling with his new gift.

“That’s a damn lie and you know it” you couldn’t believe he would even try and play that shit after everything you’ve been through.

“I never hated you, I was just jealous” he crossed his arms.

“Of who, me? Thor? Any of my other friends?” You mimicked his body language, two could play this game.

“Perhaps all of the above. You’re closer with my brother than I am, friends with all his friends, you have this lovely family, you’re cunning and witty and smart and everyone loves you” how he managed to look like a dick when he scoffed, but also look so sweet still rubbing the pendant between his fingers made you want to snap his neck.

“Those are trivial things Loki, I wish you would’ve told me sooner”

“What does this necklace mean y/n?” Your eyes finally meet for a moment.

“You’re lost right?” You spoke up, throat dry. He nodded, still entirely confused.

“Well when you’re feeling lost, I’ll leave my love hidden in the sun, ya know, for when the darkness comes” you said sheepishly, not daring to look up from the toe of your shoe that was suddenly the most fascinating thing on the planet. Before you had time to process the sound of the footsteps, Loki already had your face in his freezing hands, tilting your gaze up just a bit before kissing you, you didn't hesitate before kissing him back with the same chemistry that spread throughout both of you. Your arms moving to wrap around his neck, heart beating out of your chest at a sudden realization, you were kissing Loki, and not just Loki, a blue jottun Loki who apparently didn't hate you. You pulled away on a whim and were met with the pasty boy with crystal eyes you’ve known all your life.

“So what do we do now….” Loki asked gazing so far into you that you swear you could feel it, his small smile and glossy eyes embracing you.

“Well… My mother and I are-“ realization hit you like a bus and you facepalmed.

“I totally forgot that me and my mom were about to have dinner when I came over to…” you walked over to the basket that was long forgotten.

“These are for your mother by the way” he took it from your hands and set it on his bed

“Do you wanna come over? We were expecting you guys anyway and it's not like food ever gets cold in our house-“ he shut you up with a quick peck on the lips, stroking his finger just along your cheekbones.

“I’d love to y/n” he softly smiled at you, you pulled him into another kiss before you began to lead him out the palace. You shared smiles as you walked through the field of flowers you essentially grew up in, hindsight making those memories even more special. As you approached your home you could feel the radiance of your mother, even from the outside. You opened the door and you were both immediately met with a very impatient mother's face, but she slightly softened at the sight of Loki, her eyes immediately dropping to his new accessory, a smile broke through and she simply waved you back to the dining area.

“Everything is alright I presume?” Her smile more radiant than usual.

“Yeah” you make eye contact.

“Everything’s alright” you could feel his thumb gently stroking the back of your hand.

And for the first time ever, you didn’t receive a scowl when he found you stealing glances, you were met with the same cocky smile that got you here in the first place.

[bubbleteaimagines]

He cheats and gets someone else pregnant

Haikyuu Boys Drabbles

The one where you finally realize your worth and don’t forgive a cheater

SUNA RINTARO

It was inevitable, he supposed. You weren’t a dumb person- you’d figure it out soon enough. You’d pick up on the signs- notice how much he’s been going out lately and staring at his phone. Laughing at things you hadn’t sent him, becoming distant, slowly but surely.

Suna knew you’d find out.

He just wasn’t expecting it to be soon.

He had come home one evening and took a shower like normal. While he washed up, he made the terrible mistake of leaving his phone in the kitchen, thinking that there was no way she’d text him. Their relationship was dwindling, after all. Suna was beginning to let the guilt get to him.

After 3 long months, he finally realized what he had wanted. He wanted you, forever and always. He wanted to marry you and spend the rest of his days traveling and experiencing new things with you.

Unfortunately though, he figured it out too late. A boys mistake, thinking that the grass was greener on the other side. And he’d soon pay the price for that wishful thinking.

While you were cooking dinner, you couldn’t help but notice how often his phone was going off. It kept dinging every few seconds, quickly causing you to become irritated.

Suna’s phone never went off that much, and so you thought surely it must be the boys. They probably added him into a group chat, you figured.

Oh how wrong you were.

The minute you walked over to the device and picked it up, you could truly feel your heart break. Searing pain burst through you like a rocket, a gasp leaving your lips as you scrolled through the messages.

8:53 PM

Unknown: Suna? Do you think we could talk?

Unknown: I know you said that you were going back to Y/N, but I...I’m pregnant. And it’s yours

Undeniably, you were shocked and confused. Pregnant? Who was this that was texting his phone? And why the hell did she think she was pregnant by your boyfriend?

A sickening feeling began to bubble in your stomach. Putting the phone down, you clenched your fists and took deep breaths.

In and out, Y/N. In and out.

Surely there was an explanation for this, right? You’d ask Suna as soon as he got done showering, and he’d laugh and tell you how this was all a misunderstanding. Some prank by Atsumu, wanting to get him back in his own cruel way.

But...

One look at his face, though, and you knew everything.

“Tell me you didn’t,” Your bottom lip trembled as you stared at Suna, his eyes widened as he looked at the phone in your trembling hands. Once again, it pinged, but you didn’t even have the energy to look. The only thing you were focused on was your heavy breathing, and the fact that you were becoming light-headed as Suna stepped forward.

“Y/N, baby, I can explain.”

As soon as those words left this lips, your entire world shattered. Letting out a sob, you dropped the phone and used your hands to cover your mouth in horror.

“So you did.”

Suna became panicked as soon as you started crying, holding onto the kitchen table to keep yourself from falling over. The pain that you felt was indescribable, not to mention the absolute betrayal. You had given everything up for Suna- and he repayed you like this?

“Y/N/N, please,” Suna was begging as he moved closer, trying to embrace your crying figure in his arms but you pushed him away, sudden anger taking over you.

“Don’t touch me!” Suna flinched as your damn near threw him off, backing up so far from him. The look in your eyes nearly killed him as you made eye contract, “I don’t want your filthy hands on me now that I know where they’ve been!”

“Y/N...-”

“Shut the fuck up Suna!”

You could no longer control yourself as rage began taking over your body, slowly but surely replacing the tears. The more you processed it - the more you looked at that bastards face and realized that he had went and knocked someone up while you were at home, cooking his dinner - the more infuriated you became.

“I cannot fucking believe you. Like are you serious right now?! I spend all day, all fucking day waiting for you Suna. I cook your food, I run you baths, I do everything I can to make your life less stressful and then you go and do this shit?”

“Baby just listen me, it’s not like that, okay?Whatever you saw- it’s in the past! Me and her- it meant nothing. I realize that now. It’s me and you baby- just us. That’s all I want,” Suna felt tears trailing down his cheeks as he desperately pleaded his case. Desperately grabbing at you, trying to hold you as if that would make everything okay. As if a simple “I’m sorry,” could fix what he broke.

Instead, you found yourself laughing bitterly and fought the urge to smack him in the face. No, you decided you’d have more dignity than that. You’d pack your stuff, peacefully, and leave this asshole here to rot.

“Whatever.”

That was quickly decided in your mind and within seconds, you were shaking your head, scoffing as you pushed passed him and practically ran to your shared bedroom.

“Wait-! Y/N, what are you doing? No, no, no, no!” Suna panicked even more when he followed you and saw that you were hurriedly packing your stuff in a suitcase. It was messy, and you barely had half of your shit but you decided that it’d do. At least until right now. At least until...well, you didn’t really know anymore.

You and Suna, you guys were supposed to be each other’s forever. You were supposed to be endgame, but as it turned out, Suna ruined that before you could even get a ring.

You scoffed again at the prospect of ever marrying him. Now, you began to think about why you even wanted him in the first place. How did you not notice the signs? The lack of effort for weeks until Suna suddenly warmed up again and began treating you like you were his world.

How did you not catch on? How did it completely slip your mind that you were dating a cheater, until the facts suddenly smacked you right in the face?

“What does it look like I’m doing, Rintaro,” You rolled your eyes, zipping the suitcase and then booking it to the bathroom. You quickly grabbed your body wash, all your hair products and then your toothbrush. You lazily threw them in a another bag and then stood up, glaring at Suna who tried to block you from exiting the door.

“Move,” You stared him down, venom lacing your words. “I don’t fucking have time for this.”

“Baby, please,” You flinched as he reached out to touch you, to stroke your cheek with the same hands that had touched her. They were slightly wet, presumably from wiping his tears away, but all you could think about was that you weren’t the only one he had been coming home to. You weren’t the only one he had been fucking and touching.

The thought made you absolutely sick. You were sure that if you didn’t get out now, then you’d puke all over your- his expensive furniture.

“You have to listen to me,” Suna silently cried, his body shaking as he stood there, begging for the one person he needed in his life to stay. “I told you- she means nothing. I don’t want anything to do with her, I only want you, Y/N.”

“And the baby?” Dammit. You couldn’t help yourself. Once again, your anger began to fade as tears gathered in your eyes.

Suna had a child. He had a fucking child with some stranger he’d known less than six months. She was carrying his blood, something that was supposed to be your moment. You were supposed to give him his first child. You were supposed to be the one he shared that part of life with, not her.

“I- what?”

From the looks of it, you’d almost think that Suna didn’t know. His eyes were wide, his whole body stopping as he stared at you incredulously.

And then it hit you.

He didn’t know.

He didn’t even know that she was carrying his baby. He was completely clueless. Both of you were blindsided.

At this, you couldn’t help it. You did laugh, a bitter sound that sounded almost like you were mocking him.

“Wow Rintaro. How fucking stupid could you get?” You let out a watery chuckle, shaking your head as a tear ran down your face. “If you’re gonna cheat and fuck someone else, then at least be smart enough to wear a condom.”

“But I...that’s impossible,” Suna whispered, mostly to himself. “I don’t...I mean she can’t possibly...how did you...?”

“She was blowing up your phone while you were in the shower. How did you think I found out?” You gave him a fake smile. “For someone that doesn’t like putting in a lot of effort, you sure did put a lot into making sure you fucked this relationship up. And then your own life too.”

You hated to say it, but you silently enjoyed the way Suna was going to suffer. At the very least, it was absolutely what he deserved for cheating in the first place. Now, his life was probably going to be ruined. His career, his dreams, everything he had planned...

It was gonna go down the drain.

And you for one were grateful he wasn’t dragging you down with him.

“I...” Suna was at an absolute loss for his words. His whole body slumped, seemingly going numb as he just stayed in the doorway, looking shocked. It gave you the perfect opportunity to push past him, a small smirk on your face despite the searing pain in your heart.

You knew it was serious when he didn’t even try to stop you when you opened the front door.

“I left your phone on kitchen floor. Maybe you should call her. I’m sure you’d like to know more, seeing as it is yours. For your sake, I hope it’s a bouncing baby boy. That’s what you always wanted, right?”

You spoke one last time, making sure to rub salt in the wound before taking a final glance at the man you loved.

He looked broken, a sheer sobbing mess as he still stood in your bedroom door. A part of you couldn’t help but feel bad. You couldn’t help but want to go over and embrace him, dropping everything and tell him that things were gonna work out.

That was the part of you that still loved him.

But the other part...

The other part of you told you that it’s what he deserved. He cheated, and now he has to live with the consequences. Loosing you, and becoming a father at the age of 20.

That was the part of you that gave you the extra push. That was the part of you that gave you the strength to close the door, forever walking away from the man that broke you and the empty house that held all of your dead dreams.

——————————— ☁️ ——————————

BOKUTO KOUTARO

You didn’t believe it. Or more like, you didn’t want to believe it. You didn’t wanna shatter your fantasy world, one that you had been living in for four years.

You didn’t want it to break, because if it did...

You didn’t know what you were going to do.

For the last four years Bokuto had been your world. Your absolute rock, your sunshine on a cloudy day. He made you laugh, he made you feel welcome and special like nobody else had before.

Surely...your Bokuto wasn’t capable of this. Surely didn’t...he couldn’t have...

You didn’t even wanna think about it. Bile rose up in your throat every time you thought about it...his lips on hers. Caressing her and holding her the way he was supposed to only hold you.

You didn’t wanna think about it, but yet-

You had no choice as you stared at the pregnant woman before you.

“I’m sorry,” She had tears in her eyes as she sat on your couch, sobbing while simultaneously holding her belly. While holding his baby.

She had come to you only a few hours before, taking you by complete surprise. Never in your life did you ever think you’d come face to face with your boyfriend’s baby momma.

But that’s exactly what had happened.

Apparently, she and Bokuto had both had a one stand a few months ago. It was when he had traveled to Tokyo for a game and you stayed behind because you had school.

It was the one weekend you weren’t there to support him. One weekend...and you had lost him forever.

“It’s not...it’s not your fault,” You told her somewhat awkwardly, although you didn’t really mean it. She had slept with your boyfriend, after all. And now she was pregnant, claiming the baby was 100% his.

That wasn’t even the worst part though.

The worst part was that you couldn’t even be mad at her, because she didn’t know. It was a one night thing. She had told you Bokuto had left in tears the next morning, rambling on about how she meant nothing and that he had you to come home to.

She claimed that he regretted it the minute he realized what happened. Crying out about how he was going to propose and then rushing out without so much as a goodbye.

Oh how stupid he was to name drop you.

You almost wished he hadn’t, because that was how she had found you. After finding out that she was pregnant, she tried to reach out to Bokuto only to realize that he was telling the truth. He’d been with you for four years.

But did that really even mean anything anymore?

“It’s just- I just-” The girl shook her head. “I just want you to know that I never meant to hurt you. If I had known...if I had any other choice...”

“Actually, I’m sort of glad you reached out to me. Thank you for that. That was good on your part, seeing as I doubt he would have told me,” You smiled numbly, not capable of feeling anything at the moment.

It was like...your entire body was on shut down mode. It had become numb, desperately trying to block out the pain you were sure that was coming. And you, for one, were absolutely grateful. You didn’t wanna think... you didn’t even wanna fathom how broken you were gonna be.

So you didn’t. Instead you kept your thoughts quiet and relished in the numbness.

“You know...” You laughed bitterly, sadly shaking your head as you sighed, “Bokuto’s always wanted a kid. He kept begging me a few weeks ago to have one, but I said no. We’re both so young, you know? We had our whole lives together.”

You hadn’t meant to make her cry even more, but that’s exactly what your words did. They cut a knife through this random girl’s heart, causing her pain that she had stolen that from you. Bokuto, he had taken that from you as well.

“I’m sorry,” Once again, she apologized, but you weren’t much focused on that. Instead, your attention snapped towards the front door as you heard keys jingling outside. With a sharp push, your stomach dropped.

Bokuto was home.

“Hey hey hey! Babe whose car is that-”

Bokuto’s smile suddenly dropped as he walked into the scene, your dull eyes and the girl’s tearful ones ones trained on him. Immediately, his whole demeanor began to crumble down and he nervously looked between the two of you, his shoulders dropping.

“...outside. What’s this?”

“Bokuto, I believe you know her,” You were eerily calm as you pointed towards her, showing no emotion as Bokuto’s eyes flickered to her stomach. “This is Kayla. From Tokyo, right? I think you guys have much to discuss.”

Bokuto was at a loss for words as you rose from the couch, gesturing for him to take your seat. But instead of listening, he decided to make things difficult and run after you like a lost puppy as you made your way to the bedroom.

“Babe, babe wait! Y/N, please baby I can explain. I can explain, I can explain, I swear! Just let me, just please let me-”

“Bokuto,” You stopped him, holding up your hand and shaking your head. “I’m not in the mood, really. Just go talk with her alright? She came all this way to find me, so it’s rude not to.”

“But baby-”

“Go,” You suddenly became firm, gritting your teeth as you stared him. For a second, you took a small pause, and then Bokuto heard the words he never wished to hear his in life. “And don’t you ever call me that ever again, Koutaro.”

“K-Koutaro...?” Bokuto stuttered slightly, reeling back at the use of his first name. “But baby...y-you never call me that. Ever.”

“Oh yeah?” You couldn’t help but laugh on how clueless he was. I mean honestly, you never thought that Bokuto was stupid but now...“Well what the hell else am I supposed to call you? Read the fucking room Bokuto. Your pregnant fucking mistress is sitting on my couch, crying her eyes out and you’re worried about me calling you by your first fucking name? Get a god damn grip.”

For the first time that day, emotion began peaking out from your eyes. Pure anger bubbled up inside of your body, finally manifesting after holding it in for so long.

It felt good, in your opinion, to finally feel something. A delayed reaction, sure, but late was better than never.

“B-But-”

“Shut up,” You rolled your eyes at his trembling form. “I don’t wanna hear anything else from you. So go talk to her. Figure your shit out while I pack mine.”

“No!” Panic was evident in his voice as he suddenly grabbed your arms, preventing you from entering your bedroom. Shocked, you siteuggled in his embrace but Bokuto was extremely strong.

“What the hell? Let me go!”

“Y-Y/N! Baby y-you can’t leave me! You can’t! What about our plans? What about forever and always, you and me?”

“Did you think about that before you got drunk and fucked her?” You snapped harshly, causing him to whimper. “Exactly. So don’t come pulling that bullshit out on me, Bokuto. You’re the one that ruined that.”

“But-” At this point, he was searching for something, anything to make you stay as you shoved him off and then stormed in your shared room. “But baby I- we had this whole plan...I was gonna propose! Please, I...I even got the ring! Here I’ll prove it to you!”

While you were busy running around the room throwing all your stuff together, Bokuto suddenly dashed to the kitchen and retrieved a box he had been storing for a special occasion. He completely ignored the girl that was sitting on his couch, not even sparing her a second glance as he rushed back to you and dropped to his knees.

“See?” He hurriedly opened the box and desperately grabbed your hand, slipping the shiny diamond on before you could even protest. “I had it made for you, Y/N! Pure diamond, princess cut. It’s even engraved with your name baby! Please...”

You had to admit, you wanted to break down as Bokuto began to cry, looking awfully small as he kneeled by your feet. To make matters worse, he kept kissing your hand and mumbling tearful apologizes that yanked at your heartstrings.

By now, your initial exterior had began to crumble. Pain began to surround your heart, squeezing it so bad it almost felt like you were burning. A swell of tears gathered in your eyes, and you almost, almost gave in.

You almost sank to your knees and cried with him, almost pulled him into your arms because you didn’t wanna let go. You loved Bokuto, you truly did, and you wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of your life with him.

He was a good man, that probably made an honest mistake. He was everything you had ever wanted. And you were so tempted...so tempted to give in. Until you realized that you deserved better.

“I’m sorry,” Sniffling slightly, you yanked your hand out of his grasp and shook your head. “But I need to go. I can’t stay here anymore Bokuto...you ruined this. You ruined us, and now you have a woman in there carrying your child. You have the family you’ve always wanted. Don’t ruin that too.”

Hastily, you leaned down to press a bitter kiss on his forehead and then stood back up. Bokuto sobbed as he watched your figure retreat, standing high despite the heartbreak.

It was then that he realized that even though you were letting him go, you’d be just fine. You’d pull yourself together eventually, you were strong like that. You didn’t need him, but god, what about him?

He wasn’t sure if he could survive without you. He could barely even breathe and you hadn’t even walked out yet.

Was this what it was going to feel like from now on? Empty, hollow...meaningless?

“Please.”

One last time, he cried out of you. He begged you to stay.

But you knew you deserved better than that.

“I’m sorry.”

And with that, you left him behind. Forever.