#love the characters like but if you want to call someone a straight up vile and irredeemable villain their your guys

[sonik-kun]

Here's the thing. I have absolutely NO moral compass when it comes to fictional characters. Asshole villain commits war crimes and has killed like one million people in the process? Cool. So long as they bring something interesting and compelling to the plot, I really could not be arsed. Bonus points if they look good doing it. ✨️

So I think I'm pretty qualified in saying that the MDZS fandom singling out a particular character to shit on when there are much worse villains in the story is pretty baffling to me.

I honestly don't really dislike anyone in MDZS. Not even JGS. But even me, a person who couldn't give a shit what a fictional character does to another could easily see that there are worse characters in the story you can rag on.. Like amongst all the straight up war criminals tyrants and rapists, the characters you all choose to hone in on are the two traumatised characters, who did what they had to do out of necessity? Really??

[katskitoshi]

"W-WAIT, YOU'RE NOT A BOY?" with TWISTED WONDERLAND

synopsis: he's gotten to the point where he thinks he knows everything about you, until you (accidentally) spring on him that you're not even a guy.

characters: riddle, trey, cater, ace, deuce, leona, ruggie, jack, azul, jade, floyd, kalim, jamil, vil, rook, epel, idia, ortho, malleus, lilia, silver, & sebek x fem! reader

includes: mutual crush relationships (everyone -ortho), cursing, mentions panties and bras, slightly suggestive in some parts.

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

if not for an unbirthday party where you needed an outfit that accommodated your body more, riddle rosehearts would have never noticed unless you outwardly told him. only now did he realize your more feminine features, and he turns as red as his hair. after realizing, he does treat you slightly more respectful because he was raised to treat women respectfully. besides being more respectful, flustered, and in love with you, not much changed in you two's friendship.

trey clover would have found out sooner or later even if his hand never touched your bra on accident while tying your apron. he straight up asks if you're a girl, and when you tell him you are he acts surprised and flustered. honestly, not much changes. he acts the exact same but gets slightly more protective of you.

when cater diamond found out over magicam that you were a a girl, he nearly died. he just though you were one of the guys that were more naturally feminine, only to find out you're actually a female. honestly, he's not mad. he still loves you! he'll help you keep it a secret if you wish, but if you don't want to, there probably won't be a student in the school who doesn't know you're a girl. but don't worry, he'll keep all those icky pervs away!

okay, okay. because he's a little shit, he wanted to prank you and it just happened to involve you dressing yourself. so ace trappola waited until he knew you were changing to barge into your room, only to be face to face with you in just a bra and panties. he screams, like a girl, more girly than you, and rushed out the dorm with his face red. the next day is awkward, but at least he knows his crush is a girl, and that you have a really cute body under the clothes that convinces others you're a boy.

it's just so strange, the feelings deuce spade has. he even calls his mom and tells her all about his little crush. but by the way he was describing you, ms. spade didn't think you were a guy. so deuce builds up the courage to ask you if you're actually a guy. to his surprise when you tell him you're not, he dies of embarrassment. queue delinquent deuce whenever someone makes some pervy comment (or generally speaks) to you.

honestly, leona kingscholar probably knew already. he could probably sense or smell the female hormones on your or something. i don't know, all i know is that leona knows. he doesn't really have to ask or anything. he just knows. and you think he knows because he treats you better than any other male in the school. his attitude towards you doesn't ever really change but he's definitely flirty with you.

ruggie bucchi is in the same boat is leona. they both can just tell you're not a guy. however, he fears you. male hyenas usually listen to their female counterpart, so ruggie usually just listens. however, when he realizes he has control and that you aren't a threat, he's definitely becomes more friendly around you. no matter how much he fears you, his crush never ever leaves.

i won't lie, but every person in savanaclaw probably knows you're a girl. jack howl included. he won't make it painfully obvious that he knows but he definitely lets you know subtly know he knows. he shows you great amounts of respect and sometimes can't help but feel absolutely vile for thinking of you in some... not so respectful ways.

look, you're gonna give the poor octopus a heart attack once he finds out! you're filling out a contract and you inform azul ashengrotto that you're a girl and ask for certain things to be changed. he simply dies on the spot from shock and is a blushy little octopus. he thinks of using you to convince more people to the monstro lounge, but he can't do that to his crush!

just as expected, jade leech finds out rather quickly. one walk in the forrest on a hot day and a crop top with some sweat soaking through was enough to spill the beans. of course he had his suspicions, but you confirmed them for him! he finds you somehow cuter with your secret revealed. don't worry, your secret is safe with him!

floyd leech always thought you were just so cute! so, he just has to squeeze you to show you his love, right? when he squeezed you, he felt something push against him. he realized what he felt was what all the female merfolk had. "oh, shrimpy! you have boobs!" and he enjoys squeezing your boobs more than you. it doesn't matter if they're big or small, he just can't stop squeezing them!

this shouldn't come as a surprise, but it takes kalim al-asim a long time to find out. i mean, he can quite literally see you naked and be like "wow! you're very female-bodied for a guy!" of course, he didn't find out that way, but he could have. he actually found out by spilling water on you and seeing your bra. anyways, he's surprisingly calm about it. he still treats you like a friend that he has an obvious crush on, so yeah!

jamil viper is surprisingly shocked at what he found out. a little cooking mishap caused you to take off your oversized hoodie and make jamil realize your more... feminine features on your upper body. of course, he's a lot more over protective of you, and oh! he just can't stop staring! he tries his best, but his crush is just a bit more apparent!

he had always had his suspicions. vil schoenheit always thought your more feminine appearance had been more than some accidental blessing. apparently, he was proven right when on a shopping spree he got a little look of your breasts while trying on some clothes. he'll bring you all sorts of clothes that he thinks will suit you, enjoying getting to see you try on the clothes. you can tell he knows your little secret by the more.. risky.. clothes, if you can even call them that, he requests you in.

rook hunt knew from the first second he saw you. you come into night raven and expect not to be observed by the hunter? how cute. he gets actual confirmation when he was watching you change one night. of course he looked away while you were naked (maybe not), but he saw your bra and completely knew. the next day, he obviously hugged you more to try and egg you on that he knows (and feel you), but don't worry, it doesn't take to long to find out.

okay, so epel felmier though you two were on the same boat. two really pretty men cursed by genetics somehow. but, after he takes you on a magic wheel ride and feels you against him, he realizes he is alone. he's obviously flustered but he feels more manly somehow? he protects you and comes off as manly as possible. surely other guys will see how manly he is if his crush, and the only girl on campus, sees it, right?

when idia shroud found out, he was more than surprised and honestly didn't even think he could face you ever again! with a bit of convincing from his dear little brother, he could face you again. although with pink tinted hair and a red face, he'll still see you! how did he find out exactly? well, he accidentally touched you boob when aiming to punch your shoulder after a won game.

(platonic) a simple body scan gave ortho shroud the answers he needed. ortho is the biggest idia x [name] shipper on the planet! he'll call you 'big sister', and probably lock you in a room with idia if it'll help speed up the love-i-fication process. eventually he'll break the news to his brother, but he loves playing the waiting game with him. is idia getting any closer to finding out? no- wait, yes, wait-!

malleus draconia is an intelligent man. however, to crack this mystery, he'll need every clue and sign laid before him. once he pieces the picture together, he still might need to to clarify that you are in fact a woman. and don't forget, malleus is a gentleman. he'll treat you with love and respect as he courts you, beds you, and makes you his queen.

at some age, you just realize what everyone is, y'know? lilia vanrouge just knows that you're a girl. it probably started out at a gut feeling that ended up true. and maybe he'll let you know that he knows by giving you a cutely wrapped box of matching black and pink panty and bra set! maybe with a rose and a note that says 'be my girl?'

sleepyhead silver realizes completely by accident when he just wanted to lay on your shoulder. next thing you know, you've pulled his head to your thighs and when he tries to look up, he's meet with a new type of pillow. he's conflicted between staying awake or going to sleep upon this newfound discovery. either way, don't think that his sleepiness will prevent him from wanting to be as knightly as possible for you.

sebek zigvolt accidentally unhooks your bra when trying to fix your posture. it's an awkward moment and sebek is surprisingly quiet when he asks you your gender. his loudness returns as he begins yelling about how informal he's been to you. as a servant of his dear master malleus, he promises to treat you with the utmost respect!

[phddyke]

Hazbin Hotel is actually healing my inner ex-Christian so hard.

No joke, I nearly started cheering when Lute called Charlie and Vaggie’s love “vile and blasphemous” (and then burst out laughing when Adam immediately followed it up with “Hot as fuck though”). I know that may sound weird considering that I am, in fact, a lesbian, but here me out:

Seeing Christians being explicitly homophobic onscreen? It validates me. It makes me think “Oh yeah, I’m not crazy, Christians are that hateful!” And, call me crazy, but I think homophobia being tied in with villainy is a good thing. Neither Adam or Lute are supposed to be good people; they are very obviously the villain, and that establishes their behavior as bad. Someone on Twitter said that Lute gave them religious fanatic vibes and I couldn’t agree more.

And here’s the thing, too: it’s explicit homophobia, not some dumb metaphor. There’s no way to take it as anything else. And I really need that. I need to see Christians being explicitly homophobic onscreen in the same way that other people need and create worlds where homophobia doesn’t exist.

But me? I want my pain and suffering acknowledged. I want the harm that Christianity does acknowledged. Homophobia is real and the religious kind doubly so. I related to Vaggie so much in that episode; I felt her trepidation about going back to Heaven. Felt like a good metaphor for escaping a fundamentalist church only to be forced to visit again.

And Viv is not afraid to explicitly point this out and criticize them. Like, yes! Say it! They are hypocrites! They don’t care about people being better, they only care about punishment! They maimed one of their own and left her to die because she spared a child! They’re homophobic freaks! They would never see the good that Angel does and how he’s improved and is wonderful, they only see that he’s a drug addict and a sex worker and think he’s worthless for that even though Jesus broke bread with sex workers and people considered the dregs of society. (And of course Angel is gay on top of that.)

And another thing: not only did the Adam line make me laugh, but the second homophobic Lute line about “he blew his shot like the cocks in his mouth” cracked me up too. It reminded me of the pilot where Katie Killjoy said “I don’t touch the gays” to Charlie, which is a line that made me laugh for 4+ years straight. When I told my brother that was the funniest homophobia I’d ever heard in media, he very wisely said, “All homophobia is funny if you think about it.” And you know what? He’s right. It is funny, because it’s so fundamentally goddamn stupid, so let’s give characters ridiculous lines so everyone can laugh at how idiotic they and their beliefs sound.

[beabnormal24]

https://www.tumblr.com/beabnormal24/749880910352105472/hi-i-just-need-to-vent-i-do-not-have-the-words

This!!!! Oh my god!!! I really did like landoscar fics at first. But the way the amount of fics now that just portray Carlos as the bad guy is insane!!! And it's not just landoscar but lestappen fics too!

Carlos always ends up being the antagonist or the ex that was horrible and well as you've said a ab*ser. I get it that it's fiction and it's their writing and they're free to do whatever they want.

And I understand that sometimes in some plots why Carlos had to be the bad guy. It makes sense plot wise. Great. You're free to write what ever you want.

But there's a line that should not be crossed. And they cross it all the time.

And sometimes you can clearly tell that they do not like Carlos just from how they write him. Especially in fics where Charles or Oscar are the main protagonist in lestappen and landoscar fics because the writer will always make Carlos this horrible character. And it’s always the fics with lestappen and landoscar as side ship or vice versa. Which again ok everyone has their fav drivers and are free to have opinions but the way they are so easy and quick to make Carlos (a real person that they don’t know personally) an ab*ser.

The way I have backed out of multiple ongoing fics that i did like recently because they didn’t tag it properly (probably for like a shock element) and Carlos was this ab*ser character and was horrible to poor Charles and Lando and Oscar and Max were this saviour protecting them from big bad Carlos. One fic is somewhat understandable but multiple fics that’s just hating and being vile towards Carlos is insane. And making him this character that is always this ab*ser like character.

The way this behavior has turned me away from lestappen (which was how i got into f1 rpf bc I loved them and still do but i just cannot read or appreciate them anymore) and landoscar is actually crazy. I have been in multiple fandoms with ships that I don’t like and let the shippers be. Always been a firm believer in “don’t like don’t read/dni” but sometimes you have to interact and call what they’re doing wrong. It’s not even the ships that are bad it’s the shippers. They are so toxic and this toxicity makes you turn away from the whole ship.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense but yeah…

Anon, this made incredibly sense, and I have to share this because I have never heard truer words. I, too, have had to clock out of ongoing fics because of this, I just can’t stand it when Carlos becomes the bad character, sometimes even without a logical reason at all!

Like once I was reading this Landoscar fic and all of a sudden they just straight out started saying that Carlos was stupid and an idiot and he was an asshole, but that didn’t even fit in the entire dialogue the characters were having!

In another fic, they went as far as k*lling Carlos, just because they hated him.

This is not fiction, this is a problematic mentality. I get that you can despise someone, but as anon said that’s just taking it too far and it has become extremely toxic and disgusting.

[litnerdwrites]

Let's get a couple of things straight. Lately, I've been seeing more posts with comments from Nesta antis saying the vilest things. From wishing SA onto Nesta (a fictional character), to actually saying to a victim of abuse, that they don't believe they were abused, but if they were, then they don't blame the abusers and that they should've 'ended' the victim.

To a person. Not a fictional character. A real life person.

Saying such vile things to fictional characters is fucked up, and honestly, if you do then you need therapy. However, saying these things to a real life person, a victim, none the less, goes a bit too far in my opinion.

Now, I don't care how you feel about Nesta or Mor or Rhysand. My posts have made my opinions on these characters clear, and if I haven't, allow me to make them clear now; I am a Nesta Stan, and anti IC.

If you're that bothered by that, then just block me. Please. For both of our sakes.

However, no matter who's side you're on or who you support, there are certain lines you don't cross and wishing harm on victims, fictional or real, is definitely crossing the line.

There are victims who don't like Nesta, and say that she reminds them of their abusers, and that's fine. That's valid. Their opinions and thoughts on this matter are valid.

There are victims who love Nesta and relate to her, because they relate to, or empathise with her pain and that's also fine. That's also valid. Their opinions and thoughts are valid.

The victims know themselves and their trauma well enough to decide how they feel about her, so claiming that a victim can't be a victim, or that they deserve it, or even that they're abusers, is not okay. Calling anyone an abuser is a pretty serious accusation, and shouldn't be used likely. Similarly, I feel as though some members of this fandom weaponise statements from real victims, as if they're some grand 'gotcha!' moment to prove their point on both sides, which I don't think is okay either.

Some people here need to learn how to treat others with respect and basic decency before they begin going off about feminism and justice for victims or anything else.

If you aren't capable of ignoring content you don't agree with, you shouldn't be on the internet. If you can't have civil discussions then don't interact with people you clearly don't agree with. If you are chatting with someone and the conversation looks like it's going to break into something less civil, end it. Spare yourself, and others the drama, no matter what side of the fandom you're on.

I really want to think that people are better than this, but that's obviously not the case. Anybody who can so confidently say such vile things should be called out and face the consequences.

[hell-drabbles]

I love your embittered companion au so much! Cause FINALLY, someone actually called out the behavior of canon MC, or Ra-on in this case, GROSS, like no sugarcoating it, just plain disgusting, he is not built different, he is built wrongly. The companion is a truly breathe of fresh air, blunt and cold but also protective which make me wonder if they know MC and Minhyeok when they were young.

Also, you make great point that canon MC would not be able to handle Leviathan. I was flabbergasted that THE Leviathan would actually come to likes them tbh, maybe he likes 'em pathetic but I don't get that vibe from him, and his H-scene? Tame, too tame compared to what Hades put MC through, bro literally almost got choked to death and poisoned, and immidiately proportioned himself out like THAT. I don't think they could handle Satan or Beelzebub either, cause when MC get angry and Satan get all horny over it like he just saw the first angry person in his life like BRO, you called that being angry and enraged? The kid that give the vibe of a wet towel ready to bend at any moment? The doormat of a person that don't even feels irritate at Sitri for not acknowledging them as their own person? Like be for real right now.

I would be sympathetic of MC if they have some kind of bounderies but when the angels L cards come out and I read the spoilers, it was bad, downright vile from MC and I won't be surprise of Solomon was the same, but unlike MC, the guy got wits, not sure about the self-respect part tho, since he be speaking like devils will forget him.

There really is just something about them that makes me want to throttle them. To the people that like the MC's personality, do not take offense at my words, it's not anything aimed at you. Horny characters are fine so long as they're funny. Unfortunately, the MC is not funny, so they're grating at me.

Oh, and to answer the question, yes the Companion did know of MInhyeok and MC when they were young. Basically the third party member of that little group, with the MC basically being looked up to as the role model by Minhyeok and MC.

MC has puppy rage. It is not fierce, nor anything to be proud of. It's the kind of rage that is so easily placated that I cannot take it seriously. I do have to apologize for adding some incel-like traits to the MC in the Embittered Companion AU, but that's because I'm heavily biased and I like have incel-ish characters for the sake of bullying them. Just, they're so pathetic! And irritating! I love putting them through the wringer!

Perhaps Leviathan gets off on having a fix-it project? He sees this wet towel of an MC and wants to change them into something he prefers? Which is a whole other brand of fucked up. All the other devils already project Solomon into them, and now you have another motherfucker that is straight up trying to change them. And if questioned about that, will probably claim that he's just "drawing out their true potential," actually believing in his own bullshit.

Huh, that'll be a fun headcanon of Levi to explore.

If the Companion was alone in the room with Levi, he's not going to be keeping his horns, that's for sure.

[indigoraysoflight]

This One Is For Melissa Mcbride (And Her Fans ❤️)

(original photo via @/calivero92 on IG)

~

Let me get straight to it. 

There should’ve been an official announcement of Melissa McBride’s return. After a lackluster final season, the absolute nightmare that last year must’ve been for her – she deserved nothing but joy, celebration, and endless praise for her in the media. Instead, her announcement was whittled down to a cheap click bait storm perpetuated by someone who had no right to speak for her (I don’t care how well-intentioned it may or may not have been). 

We all have some deep feelings about the Twitter storm + clickbait articles that followed yesterday. If you read the tweet in question and were hurt, angry, sad, confused, conflicted, or felt a mixture of everything – ALL YOUR FEELINGS ARE VALID. 

Let me preface this by saying I wasn't around for all that happened last year. But I have spoken to a lot of fans – many of them have emotional scars, asked reasonable questions, and were respectful towards people involved in the spinoff. From what I've seen, a handful of people crossed the line by harassing NR and threatening his family – that was vile and disgusting, and they should be called out for it. And they should’ve taken accountability for their actions. Nobody deserves that treatment. 

HOWEVER, bunching the entire fandom together with those few that didn’t control their vitriol and calling everyone “toxic” is infuriating and just plain sad. Especially when we remember that this relates to a TV show that THRIVES on showing us the gray areas of moral behaviour. 

These are the fans that put their wallets down to watch TWD. The people who passionately talk about their favourites, make fan art, write beautiful letters to the actors, and watch the shows to give them strength and hope in their lives. People who line up at cons, cosplay characters, buy expensive tickets and photo ops just to spend a few minutes with their favourite actors. 

But let’s talk specifically about Melissa McBride’s fans. 

My question is to anyone who believes all of Melissa’s fans are festering in toxicity – do you know what the fans she has ACTUALLY nurtured look like?

Let me introduce you. 

The majority of the fans that adore Carol are survivours like her. The type of abuse they face may have different names – but they resonated with Carol deeply because she showed them they were stronger than their trauma. Stronger than the people who caused those traumas. She taught them how to fight back. To rise up. 

These are some of the strongest, most vulnerable, perceptive, passionate, and empathetic people in the fandom. They’ve watched this show and looked up to Carol to get them through whatever difficult times they faced. Some are still deciding whether or not to subscribe to watch any future spinoffs.  

Here’s another question to anyone who believes the narrative from last year (not by Melissa or her reps) that was spread again yesterday – Do you *KNOW* Melissa McBride? 

Melissa McBride is the woman who has spent over a decade breathing life into Carol Peletier. She has shown us Carol’s strength, her raw vulnerability, and her tenacious spirit. Qualities that come from within Melissa that she harnessed to bring Carol to our screens. She is a class act. Everyone who has ever worked with her has called her wonderful and professional. She is charming, sweet, remarkably intelligent, and an extremely eloquent speaker.

And she can speak her truth for herself – when she wants to or if she wants to. 

She has written to her fans, and treated her fans with love and respect. She’s spent hours at cons speaking to them. With her performance, she has helped DV survivours leave difficult situations. She has inspired people to move through their traumas and get out of toxic situations. She even skipped the red carpet at the finale event to skip the limelight and go spend time with her fans. 

And through all this, Melissa has shown nothing but love, gratitude, and respect for her fans. She has been a beacon of light in the lives of her fans. And most importantly, she has taught us how to stand up for ourselves. 

Did they honestly think that when the time came to stand up for her – we would sit still? They better think again. 

Melissa McBride doesn't just deserve better...

She deserves the goddamn world.

[creepereyes]

As someone who’s new to the Stranger Things fandom, I’ve got to ask: have there always been this many Billy Hargrove haters or is it a recent trend?

This will probably get ranty and long winded, but I don’t get all the hate.

Yes, Billy did some douchy things in season 2. I like him a lot, but I can’t sit here and say that it was okay for him to yell at Max or threaten Lucas. Antis love to spout the tired old “he was a racist piece of shit” line, but there’s no proof of it. He never used racist language, and unlike the bullies from season 1, he never called Lucas racist slurs.

The Duffer Bros, who are shitty writers, wanted Billy to be a racist, but then Dacre Montgomery read the script and said, “No, I don’t want to say that and I don’t want Billy to be racist.”

When he tells Max “There are certain types of people you need to stay away from.” it could possibly be read as racism, but that’s a stretch and personally, I don’t see it. It’s never addressed again after that episode.

He’s an abused teenager with poor coping mechanisms living in an unsafe home. Of course he’s going to be an ass at times.

The worst thing he does in canon—literally the WORST thing—is beat up Steve. His actions in that scene were uncalled for, but Steve wasn’t innocent either. They were both out of line there. And you can’t fault him for his actions in season 3 because he was a puppet for the Mind Flayer. It was controlling his actions just like it did to Will in season 2.

Meanwhile Jason Carver held Lucas at gunpoint, beat the shit out of him and actually tried to strangle him to death. Plus, Jason lead a lynch mob in his hunt for Eddie, who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said he was doing it to ‘avenge Chrissy’ but I don’t buy it. Given his actions towards Lucas, who he once viewed as a friend, Jason definitely would’ve killed Eddie if he found him.

Martin Brenner essentially ran a prison for children. He never actually cared about any of the kids, and his treatment of El was abhorrent. It didn’t matter how scared she was or if she didn’t want to do something. Dr. Brenner used her, and all the other children, for his own personal gain. Even his dying words are him trying to convince El that he wasn’t a bad guy.

Henry Creel was a straight up sociopath. I partly blame Brenner for his actions, but come on; Henry was killing small animals before Brenner started experimenting on him. He was abused at the lab, but he chose his path. Once El removed his tracking chip, he could’ve used his powers for good and helped the kids at Hawkins lab. Instead, he violently killed them all, some of whom were as young as 5 or 6. Then he tried to kill El, got banished to the upside down, became a literal monster, then started killing vulnerable and abused teenagers.

Yet Billy Hargrove, an abused teenager who Henry 100% would’ve preyed on if he’d still been alive, is somehow the most vile character on the show? Where’s the hate for Jason, Brenner and Henry?

I don’t get it. I really don’t.

I’m curious on your opinions, even if you strongly disagree with mine.

[drowninginredink]

I find this discussion really interesting, especially because it is always nice to see people being critical of the media they enjoy. Already wrote some of my feelings in your comments, but I am entering the soap box now to throw out my 2 cents.

Firstly, before I start, I have to mention that I am a big believer that anyone can joke about any subject. I think we should only look at the message of jokes, their meanings, what they transport outside, etc. That's how I judge these things. So yk what I am talking about.

I do think sometimes with the characters, it lands it territory that I disagree with morally. But I also think overcautiousness with jokes, even at the expense at (minority) groups, can be harmful in itself. Because it leads to the othering of those groups in a sense. That may sound counterintuitive because jokes against groups of people - coming from a place of hate and disgust especially - is one of THE tools to other a group. I do think it works the other way around as well.

For example, if you were in a friend group that constantly roasts each other, but for some reason, people are really scared to roast you, excluding you entirely from that dynamic. I think that's how I could explain it best.

So I do think a good handful of smosh characters make fun of ND people, but not all of that is actually bad, in my opinion. Especially when the comedy comes from a place to make fun one oneself/past self, etc.

A good example for jokes at the expenses at groups usually comes from inside said group. Which makes sense. Most of the time the basic respect needed is there, and it comes from a good place. Once someone from the outside does it, the track record becomes worse, but I also don't think we can/should make this a blanket rule. Especially because the inverse can also be true. For example most of the jokes trans people do about trans people on 4chan. They come from the inside and are mostly absolutely vile.

This all is my opinion ofc. People can find more unmoral/ be more uncomfortable with certain jokes. But we do be living in postmodernism, so anything is subjective and an opinion. So I do stand by my opinion. Lol this end paragraph is a mess, I just want people to take my words in good faith that's all :3

Ugh I wrote half a response to this and then it all deleted. Take 2!

I am a terrible judge of what's "acceptable" because as a psychotic person you just have to give up. It is so exhausting to call people out on ableist things and then have them ignore you. Which, I will say both times I've done that in this fandom people were fantastic about it (I even got a post edited, which was very nice and appreciated), but that's so not my prior experience. And even when people listen... I still just got to see how little people even consider the existence of psychotic people for certain jokes to seem okay in the first place. They wouldn't say those things if they thought about the actual humans who experience these things.

Like, there's this one podcast that's my comfort podcast. And the guy does occasionally fall into the kind of humor that can be summarized as "haha this guy is cr*zy" (granted he's grown out of it a bit, but you can still see the remnants of those sensibilities in his work) and like, I've called him out for misusing psychotic on twitter and he was just straight up like "yeah no, not unless *you* have a better word in mind, but I think it's very accurate." And like... Being psychotic is hard enough without giving up things you like. You can't give up stuff from anyone who's ever seen people like you as less than human because that's everyone.

Anyway. That's not about The Chosen. The Chosen very much is fine and just has some implications and subtext I don't love. That's more just me venting. But I feel like personally i don't have the luxury to care about where the lines are and what's acceptable. I wouldn't be able to watch anything and I'd be writing call out posts all day. So I respect your attitude, and I respect people with harsher standards than you as well, and I'm just kinda... Here

[englishstrawbie]

Serendipity (35/?)

Fandom: Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy

Characters: Maya Bishop & Carina DeLuca

Summary: A chance meeting at a bar leads to these two idiots falling in love. Follows canon and fills in the gaps of their relationship that we didn’t get to see on screen.

Also @ AO3.

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Do Better

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. - Maya Angelou

They arrive at the station just before seven o’clock, tired and weary. Ben meets them in the parking lot; he has already seen the video – one of millions of people by now – and they fill him in with what really happened as they head inside. Maya trails behind at the back, her body lacking its usual bounce and enthusiasm for work. Feet drag across the floor as they trudge up the stairs towards the beanery. No-one has had any sleep and, despite the relief they share that Dean and Sullivan have been released without charge, the mood is deflated.

She is still thinking about what happened yesterday and how she handled things. She knows Dean thinks she got it wrong by bringing in the police, but what else was she supposed to do? They were off duty and she had to follow protocol. The girls are safe and she had done everything she could to get him out of jail, so that had to count for something. Still, she can feel the weird vibe between them and she doesn’t like it.

They are faced with another twenty-four hour shift, although she has already offered to call in C shift and switch the rota so that they can go home and get some rest – except for Maya herself, since tomorrow is the annual inspection and she needs to make sure the station is prepped and ready. It is the last thing she needs to worry about.

“When’s shift start again?” Jack asks, too tired to even retrieve his cell phone from his pocket and check the time.

“In about an hour,” Andy tells him as she follows him through the door.

“At least they didn’t hold Joyce as long as they held us,” Dean comments.

“Wait, did they drop all charges against her, too?” Vic asks.

“If they did, it's only 'cause someone filmed it,” Ben says.

They head straight into the break out room, finding a place to flop – a chair, a sofa, the floor. The mood is low and sombre.  

“How vile do you have to be to lock up the mother of a kidnapped kid?” Travis says with disgust in his voice.

“And the firefighters who rescued the kidnapped kids,” Andy says.

Dean sits down in one of the chairs, leaning back and turning his head to look at her. “The black firefighters," he points out. “Just the black male firefighters.”

Maya’s instinct is to tell him he is being too sensitive but she knows it is not true. Maybe she was naïve before, but she can’t hide use that as an excuse any more. She has seen it with her own eyes. She steps into the room and looks around at her team. They are exhausted and it shows in every inch of their bodies. They might be used to intense stress and sleepless nights, but this is something different.  

“You guys sure you want to work?” Maya asks them, expecting them all to want to go home. There is nothing she can do to change what happened yesterday, but she can give them time off to process it all – like she needs to do. “You must be exhausted.”

“The alternative's bringing home all this rage to my perfect little girl,” Dean says, “so...”

“Plus, today's inspection day,” Sullivan reminds her.  

“No, that's tomorrow,” Maya says dismissively. She has been planning for this for months, she knows the date.

“I have it in my calendar for today,” Sullivan says. “And until recently, I was supposed to be the one doing the inspecting, so...”

Maya’s stomach drops. Shit. She can’t have got it wrong, can she? All eyes are on her as she pulls out her phone and checks her calendar. Yep, there it is, marked in red to remind her of its importance.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Maya cries. “Oh God.” She could kick herself for her stupid mistake, how did she get the date wrong? She feels the room deflate even more, if that is possible. She sighs heavily. “The inspection determines our budget for the entire year.”

“We'll reschedule,” Ben says diplomatically.

“Doesn't work like that,” Sullivan says. “They don't reschedule, we'll just fail. And I don't mean to be selfish, but...”

Maya feels her eyebrows arching in anticipation of what he is about to say.

“You're allowed to be selfish,” Vic tells him. “You're allowed to be whatever it is you need to be today.”

Maya knows she is cutting him some slack after he raced into the burning house behind Dean and helped save the two young girls, so she doesn’t say anything.

“I need to make a good impression,” Sullivan insists. “I need us to make a good impression. I can't lose anymore, I can't lose this house. I have a career to rebuild.”

It is important to Maya too – her first inspection since being promoted to Captain. She has a lot to prove in this male-dominated world. She knows that the fire department is full of people who think like Michael Dixon, who are watching her every move, who will jump at any chance to criticise her. She has no idea what they will make of yesterday’s events, or two of her team being arrested, or being caught up in a viral video that shows the Seattle police department in a bad light. She is pretty sure the Chief isn’t going to be happy about it, but that is a battle for another day.

“Okay, okay, look,” Andy says, standing up from the stool on which she was perched. “We know who we are. We've been prepping for this for weeks. We have to get this house in tip-top shape, let's just put our heads down and get through today.”

Maya nods, grateful that Andy’s pep talk has stopped them all from spiralling into despair at the thought of all the work ahead of them to be ready for Battalion Chief Gregory’s visit later that day. They start to move, dragging themselves to their feet.

“Okay, okay – we can do this,” Maya says resolutely, despite the guilt she feels at having to put them through their paces on a day when they really need an easy shift.

She leaves them in the break out room, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket as she makes her way downstairs to her office. She hasn’t checked in with Carina since their phone call last night and, with everything else going on, she longs to hear her girlfriend’s voice, telling her it will all be okay. Somehow, when Carina says it, she believes it.

Knowing she had an early start today, she doesn’t feel guilty about calling her at seven a.m. and hits the dial button, disappointed when it goes straight to voicemail.

“Hey, Carina. Just checking in. I hope your day is less eventful than my night was,” she says, trying to keep things light even though she feels a heavy weight on her shoulders, bearing down on her. She walks into her office. “Today is the annual inspection, which is the most important day of my captaincy so far,” she continues, dropping her bag on the floor and shrugging off her Gilet. “…and I thought it was tomorrow, so I'm not ready. I haven't slept or showered or eaten, or processed what I witnessed last night.”

She sits down on the chair in the middle of her office, momentarily relieved of the tension she has been holding in her body. “…and now I'm rambling on your voicemail because I miss you and – oh God, what if we fail? What if I fail?”

What if she does fail? She can hear her father’s voice in her head, telling her off for being distracted by silly nonsense instead of keeping her eye on the goal. It has been this way ever since she gave up running and decided to become a firefighter, her natural instinct to lean on his teachings and to wonder what he would tell her to do whenever a difficult situation arises. He doesn’t appear very often these days, but it is a habit she is still learning to break. She doesn’t need his approval any more, she has nothing to prove to him – but she is still the woman he moulded, still with a drive to succeed at all times.

“That is…”

The voicemail cuts off and she looks at her phone with despair, before throwing it onto her desk. Maybe Carina will pick up the message before her first appointment of the day and call her back with some words of wisdom.

She shakes the thought of her father out of her head. It is because she is tired, she tells herself. It is because she is wound up, because she is worried about her team and the inspection, and hasn’t seen her girlfriend for forty-eight hours.

Desperate to get out of the clothes she has been wearing for far too long and into something clean, Maya heads into the bunk room and shreds herself of her clothes, dumping them unceremoniously on the bed. She freshens herself up as best as she can and changes into her uniform. A ping alerts her to a message and she opens it quickly, happy when she sees Carina’s name.

About to video call.

Maya frowns. It is not like Carina to send her such short, curt messages. A video call comes through and she picks it up on her laptop for a bigger screen, sitting down at her desk. She can see immediately that Carina is in the car.

“Hey, should you be video calling while you’re driving?”

It is the firefighter in her that always worries about safety first. She has seen too many road traffic accidents caused by people distracted on their phones.

“It’s okay, Andrea is with me,” Carina says.

Andrew shifts the phone so that he comes into view alongside his sister.

“Hey Maya.”

“Hey. What’s going on?” Maya asks, curious about where they are headed so early in the morning when she knows that Carina should be at work.

“Andrea saw Opal at the hospital this morning,” Carina says. “She got into a car, we’re following her now.”

It is not what she was expecting to hear. “You’re what?” she exclaims.

“Did you see her yesterday?” Andrew jumps in before Carina can say any more.

“Yesterday?”

“Carina told me about the two girls who got abducted,” Andrew says. “Did you see a woman with red hair?”

“No, the house belonged to some guy called Bob,” Maya says. “There was no sign of anyone else.”

She is putting two and two together, and getting five.

“What makes you think they’re connected?”

“Okay, look, we don't have a lot of time to explain, alright?” Andrew says impatiently.

Maya doesn’t like sound of this at all, especially if Andrew is dragging her girlfriend into something that has the potential to get messy.

“Carina, are you okay?”

“Yes, we are safe for now, but...”

Maya doesn’t hear any more, as Ben walks into her office with his cell phone in his hand.

“Hey, Bishop, I just got a million texts from Andrew DeLuca, saying...”

He trails off when Maya picks up her laptop and turns the screen towards him so that he can see Andrew.

“Oh.”

Ben and Andrew exchange greetings as Ben walks around Maya’s desk, meeting her in the middle.

“Look, I've been trying Bailey a bunch, but...” Andrew starts.

“Yeah, she's finally getting some sleep, so don't bug her,” Ben says, protective of his wife. “What do you need?”

“They saw a woman at the hospital this morning and they think she's associated with what happened last night,” Maya says, although she still can’t connect the dots. But for as long as Carina is caught up in all this, she is going to go along with it.

“Yeah, well, we're not gonna let her get away this time,” Andrew says doggedly. “And she's got to be connected somehow to the guy that your team brought in last night. It's too much of a coincidence.”

Maya wants to disagree – it feels like a leap. But then she remembers yesterday, and her reluctance to believe the two desperate mothers until it was almost too late, so she is prepared to take that leap for now.

“Did you call the police?”

“Yeah, 'cause that worked out so well last night,” Ben comments.

Maya knows he is right to be cynical, but this feels way out of their control and she really is not comfortable with Carina and Andrew getting themselves involved in this without any back-up.

“Yeah, we tried the police, but they told us they'll follow up,” Carina says.

“So, your plan is just to follow her?” Maya questions.

Just because the police aren’t prepared to help, doesn’t mean that the next best thing is for her girlfriend and her brother to be playing car chase with a woman who might be a child trafficker. Just the thought of it is crazy.

“No, my plan is to not let this woman kidnap and torture other teenagers,” Andrew says.

“If we can follow her to a location or... or her home or something, at least we can give the police an address,” Carina says.

At least Carina has some sort of plan, but it still makes Maya feel anxious. Her mind is spinning as she tries to make sense of all this. They have just come from a messy situation, she doesn’t want Carina being dragged into another one – especially if it puts her at risk.

“Okay, Carina, this is crazy. You can't just follow some stranger all over the streets of Seattle,” Maya says.

She is ignored as they get distracted following Opal down a side road.

“She's stopping, pull over,” Andrew instructs his sister. “Pull over.”

“Who's stopping? Opal?” Maya asks, her frustrations starting to show.

“Okay, DeLuca, DeLuca! What are you doing?” Ben asks, equally frustrated.

They are both ignored this time as Andrew and Carina watch what is happening out of the window. Maya just hopes they are at a safe distance not to get spotted.

“She's talking to some man,” Carina says.

Great, now there is someone else involved in this. They have no idea who this guy is or what his role is in all this.

“Okay, Carina, these people could be really dangerous,” Maya points out.

“Yeah, they're dangerous to teenage girls,” Andrew says. “That's why we're here.”

“Stay in the car,” Maya pleads with them. At least they are safer in the car, she thinks.

“Look, you want to help? Cut through the red tape and get the police here right now,” Andrew says.

After yesterday’s fiasco, Maya has no idea how she is going to get the police on side, but she will figure it out – just as long as they stay safe. Maybe Officer Wicklund will be willing to help. After all, he looked pretty sheepish when he was confronted with the video of what had really happened and could no longer hide behind Schneider’s version of the truth. Maybe she can capitalise on that.

“Okay, we're on it,” she says. “Just please wait for the police.”

“We will,” Carina agrees.

“I'm not making any promises,” Andrew says.

Maya’s shoulders slump in defeat, her eyes staying on Carina, who meets them via the screen. She shoots Maya a look that tells her she will try, but they both know how determined Andrew is to catch Opal. She also knows that Carina will do whatever she has to do to support him this time around, especially since they had learned he was correct about Cindy Wright all along.

Maya slams the laptop shut in frustration. She shoots Ben a look that tells him not to say anything as she stalks over to the phone and picks it up, dialling the local police station.

“Officer Wicklund please,” Maya says when someone answers.

Wicklund takes her call at least, and is co-operative when she fires a series of questions at him and is willing to provide her with some information, but he is reluctant to help her push the case up the ranks to the right person.

“Okay, thank you.”

From the other side of the room, she hears Ben leaving a voicemail message for his wife as he matches her pacing up and down. When he hangs up, he turns towards her.

“Okay, I think Miranda has records, but I can't reach her,” he says. “I think she took a sedative.”

“It's okay, they were able to look up the incident at Grey-Sloan without the report number, but the detective assigned to the case is not in today,” Maya says.

“So?” Ben challenges her. “I mean, can't they get another detective? “

“They said they would try, but that it would take a while to process and to get them up to speed,” Maya says despondently.

“Unbelievable,” Ben says, shaking his head. “What about Ryan's old captain? Can he do us a favour?”

“Captain Rendon?”

It is a good idea – and the only alternative they have right now.

“We can try,” Maya says. She picks up the phone and dials another number, waiting for someone to answer. “Captain Maya Bishop, Station 19. Can I have Captain Rendon, please? I'll hold.”

“Um Andrew, he's…?” Ben starts to ask, but she cuts him off.

“He's stable,” Maya says. “He's been on his meds for months. He's getting sleep. He's good.”

She sounds more confident that she feels. She knows it is what Carina would say if she was here and, even if she is silently worried that Ben’s concerns might be justified, she is going to have his back.

On the other end of the phone, a police sergeant tells her that Rendon is unavailable right now. “”Will you please leave a message? Captain Maya Bishop, Station 19. It's urgent.”

Aggravated by the constant barriers, Maya puts the phone back in its holder, then immediately slams it into place four times before letting it go. Ben’s eyebrows raise and she shakes her head.

“Sorry. I’m just worried about what they’re getting themselves into, that’s all. I’d feel a lot more comfortable if they had back-up.”

Her gaze drifts through her office door to the entrance to the barn, where the team are working hard to get the station in top shape before today’s inspection.

“I don’t have time for this,” Maya says. “The inspection…”

“Some things are more important,” Ben reminds her.

“I know.” Maya lets out a sorrowful laugh. “I learned that the hard way yesterday. I got it so wrong.”

Ben raises his eyebrows curiously, but doesn’t ask her what she means.

“Are you gonna tell them?” Ben asks.

“You think I should?”

“After what they all went through yesterday, it’s not fair to keep them in the dark.”  

“I don’t know,” Maya says with a shake of her head. “Miller…”

“Miller’s allowed to be pissed,” Ben says.

“I know that,” Maya says. “I just… you know how they’re gonna react when I tell them.”

“They?”

As soon as she says it, she knows how it sounds.

“I didn’t… I mean…”

“Yeah, I know,” Ben says, more kindly than she thinks she deserves. “Look, if there’s a chance that Andrew’s right and this woman they’re following, Opal, is connected to those two girls getting kidnapped, then maybe we need to give them the back-up that the police aren’t giving. Maybe there’s a chance to finally catch her.”

Maya tips her head to one side. “How are we gonna do that? The Chief is going to be here in…” She checks her watch. “… two hours.”

“I have no idea,” Ben says. “That’s way outside of my pay grade.” He steps backwards and holds out a hand, gesturing towards the door. “But you still need to tell them.”

Maya takes a deep breath and nods her head, then strides forwards, Ben close behind her. They head into the barn and she walks around the back of the fire truck to where the team are working hard.

“Listen up – announcement!” she says loudly, getting everyone’s attention. “Carina and her brother, Andrew DeLuca, are...” She falters, looking at Ben who shrugs. “They think they have eyes on one of the kidnappers.”

“Jada and Shanice?” Vic asks.

“No, no, the girls are okay. The girls are safe,” Maya assures her. “The guy from yesterday is still in custody, but we think his partner was at the hospital last night.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Carina and Andrew are doing what?” Jack says.

“Following her,” Ben answers.

Andy’s eyebrows arch. “Following her?”

“Correct,” Maya says, barely meeting her eyes. She knows what Andy is thinking just by the tone of her voice.

“Okay, good,” Vic says resolutely. “So, what do we do? How do we help?”

“I take it the police aren't rushing to the scene?” Dean says, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

“There's a lot of red tape,” Maya admits.

“Right, but you just keep calling it in,” Dean chides.

Maya looks at him, but he turns his gaze downwards. She understands why he is pissed at her and she doesn’t take the bait.

“Okay, look, I'm going. I'm just gonna take the aid car and…”

As soon as Ben says it, everyone else jumps in, offering to go with him. Maya feels torn, the inspection is too important to mess up but she knows that Ben is right – Carina and Andrew can’t do this by themselves.

“You can't all go, not if we want to pass inspection,” Maya reminds them.

“We just say that we're at an incident,” Dean suggests.

“It's not an incident, Miller,” Maya says, losing her patience a little. “Right now, it's just my girlfriend and her brother chasing someone in a car.”

“Wow, you really gonna just…”

“I'm what, Miller?” Maya challenges him.

She can feel his frustration with her – she is frustrated too. She doesn’t know what to do. She is the captain, the leader, and she feels like she has no power and no control in this situation.

Before they can get into it, Ben jumps in.

“Okay, I'm going. So who's coming?”

The team continue to squabble, all of them wanting to get involved. Dean is the loudest.

“Miller, Miller, you cannot get cuffed twice in twenty-four hours, man. For Pru,” Jack points out. “Maybe I can get some leverage as lieutenant or something.”

“Or something?”

Maya decides to step in, giving a command as captain.

“Gibson, Warren, go. The rest of you, there is still a lot to do around here.”

There is a part of her that wants to jump into the aid car with them, but she needs to be here when Gregory shows up.

Ben and Jack dash off to the aid car, while the others go back to their chores. Maya starts to retreat, until she hears Dean calling out after her.

“Aren't we gonna wait for the cops like you made me wait yesterday?”

Maya stops and turns.

“I told you what was going on in that house, I told you that I wanted to go in. No, and you ignored that black mother's cries because you waited on a cop who refused to help her!”

She wants to interject but she doesn’t know what to say because she knows that there is nothing she can say, so she just takes it.

“Those girls had to set a fire to get your attention, when you…” he takes a breath. “…you could have just had my back!”

Maya watches as he shakes his head and walks away. She can feel the rest of the team looking at her, curious about her reaction to Dean’s attack. She lowers her eyes and walks away, her face flushed with embarrassment. They know it is not like her not to bite back, but she can’t – not about this. She knows Dean is right. She let him down.

She heads back into her office and picks up her cell phone. The screen lights up with a short message from Carina, telling her that they have just pulled up outside the train station. She is about to fire a message back to her when Jack’s voice comes through the radio.

Captain Bishop, we have plate numbers for the police – VTQ 864. These are Idaho plates.

Maya picks up the radio. “Copy.”

She writes it down on the notebook in front of her, then picks up the phone and calls the station again.

“This is Captain Bishop…”

The sergeant on the other end starts to tell her that Rendon still isn’t available, but she won’t allow it this time. She has had enough of getting the brush off.

“No! I need to speak to him, now!”

After a bit more pushing, Captain Rendon finally comes on the line.

“Captain Bishop,” he greets her. “I hear you’ve been very persistent with my desk sergeant.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, but this can’t wait,” Maya says.

She dives into the whole story – the kidnapped girls from yesterday, the kidnapper at the hospital where a known child trafficker was seen early this morning, a pair of doctors from Grey Sloan on their tail (she avoids the part about her personal connection to them) and two of her team hot on their heels. She gives him a description of Opal and the plate numbers that Jack gave her, and he puts her on hold for five minutes while he does a quick check.

“Well, it seems your friends are on to something,” Rendon says when he comes back on the line. “This woman, Opal, is known to us. She’s been under investigation for some time thanks to her links to a child trafficking ring. The vehicle you gave us? It’s registered to a Robert Corson – he’s the man you came across yesterday. As well as the house here in Seattle where he was keeping those two girls, his name is also against a rental property in Boise, Idaho. If you’re right that Opal was at the hospital, I suspect it’s no coincidence. It’s likely that they’re moving kids across the border. I’ve spoken to the detective who’s leading this case and he’s on his way in. I’m sending Officer Patterson out, he’s one of our best and most experienced. We’re bringing in the FBI too. Where are your friends now?”

“Uh, Seattle Center train station,” Maya tells him, re-reading the message from Carina.

“Tell them to sit tight, we’re sending our people there now.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Maya says. “Thank you.”

“You know, if Tanner was around, he wouldn’t let this one go either,” Rendon says.

Maya feels a sadness wash over her at the mention of her friend.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Maya says with a small smile.

Rendon passes on the details of Officer Patterson so that she has a direct line to him, before ending the call. As soon as she can, Maya picks up her radio.

“The car is registered to Robert Corson,” Maya says. “He's the guy from last night. The Idaho plates mean that they're probably trafficking over state lines. FBI's getting involved and the cops are on their way.”

She hears Ben’s voice in reply. Copy that, Captain.

Maya is just about to call Carina to let her know when she sees Dean walking out of the barn with a bucket and cleaning materials in his hand. She wants to make peace with him, but she knows it is not going to be easy. Still, she has to try to make things right.

“Miller, good news,” she says, catching his attention. “The FBI engaged and the local police are on scene.”

She knows she sounds too formal, but she is keeping her guard up in case he is ready to get into it with her again.

“That's good to hear, Captain,” Dean says, his tone polite. She can feel them at odds and doesn’t like it. He gives her a respectful nod, then turns and starts to walk up the stairs.

“Dean,” Maya calls after him, softening her tone.

Dean stops and turns, retracing his steps back down the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” Maya says. “I got it wrong yesterday.”

It is a simple apology but she knows that anything more will sound like an excuse. She waits to see if does anything to repair their friendship.

“It might be a minute before I graciously accept your apology, Captain,” Dean says eventually.

It is not a cold reaction, but it isn’t exactly warm either. She hates that the exchange feels so awkward, but at least he doesn’t throw it back in her face.

“Understood,” she says.

Dean makes his way upstairs, as Maya turns and goes back into her office. She picks up her cell phone and goes to call Carina’s number, pausing only when she hears someone being greeted at the front desk. She panics. It can’t be Gregory already, he’s not due yet. She steps outside to investigate, relieved to learn it is a young guy with a broken finger who has come in hoping for some medical assistance. All it needs is a bandage, and she leaves him with Larsson, dialling Carina’s number as she heads back into her office.

She answers after a couple of rings.

“Maya, we have no news,” Carina says.

“I do,” Maya says. “The cops are on their way.”

“Ah great,” Carina says. Maya can hear the relief in her voice.

“Okay, thank you. Thank you, Maya,” Andrew says. “You know, you're my favourite girlfriend Carina's ever had? And there's been a lot.”

“No, don't listen to him,” Carina says.

Maya laughs, glad to hear them both joking. Except the momentary relief from the intensity of this morning doesn’t last long.

“She’s getting out,” she hears Carina say.

“Who's getting out?” Maya asks.

She hears Carina call after her brother – No Andrea! – and she starts talking in Italian. Maya is lost as to what is happening, but the relief she felt at finally feeling some control over the situation quickly disappears.

“Okay, what’s he doing?” Maya demands to know.

Carina continues to call out after her brother. “Maya, I have to hang up.”

“What? No, no, no… don’t hang up!”

The line goes dead.

“Fuck!” Maya cries into her empty office. She throws her cell phone on to the table and drops into her chair, her head in her hands.

She tries calling Carina back, but the line is busy. A couple more minutes and the police would have been there. Why the hell did they have to get out the car?

Maya sits and watches her phone, hoping Carina will call, but it sits silently on her desk, taunting her. She has no idea what to do now. The silence annoys her, until it is broken by the sound of crackling from the radio.

Captain Bishop, they’re getting on a train. Now, we're not sure where they're headed, but we're driving to the nearest train station now. Tell the police to standby.

Maya picks up the radio. “What? Why? Why did they...” She gives up trying to understand what the hell is going on. “Okay, okay, okay.”

She leans back and grabs a folder from the shelf behind her, and flips through the pages to a map of the train network.

“North or south?” she asks into the radio.

“We don’t know,” comes Ben’s reply. “Wait – I just got a message.”

Maya holds her breath as she waits for an answer.

“South. They’re heading south.”

“Copy.”

Maya picks up the phone and dials the cell phone number that Rendon gave her.

“Officer Patterson? This is Maya Bishop from the Seattle Fire Department,” she introduces herself.

“Ah yes, Captain Bishop, thank you for your help today,” the police officer says. “We’re almost at the train station.”

“About that – the suspect, Opal, is on the move. She’s about to board a train heading south.”

“Which station?”

She double-checks the map. “South Lake Union.”

“Okay, we’ll head there too.”

He ends the call and Maya falls back in her seat, sighing heavily. Her eyes fall on the clock on the wall. The time is ticking closer to Chief Gregory’s visit and he is due in just over one hour, but she knows it is possible that he will turn up early to catch them out. She can’t just sit here and wait for news, it is driving her crazy.

She wants to call Carina, to check that she is safe, but if they are on a train following Opal then Maya doesn’t want to draw attention to them by making Carina’s phone ring.

Instead, she stands up and heads into the bunk room, stripping her clothes and changing into her Class A dress uniform. Her heart isn’t in this inspection, her head certainly isn’t. Her team have pulled it together without her help, despite everything they went through last night. She needs to remember to tell them thank you when this is all over. Maybe they can reschedule that day-drinking they had planned for yesterday, once everything has calmed down.

Once she is dressed, Maya looks at herself in the mirror. She usually feels such pride in her uniform, in the two stripes on her sleeve, but today that pride feels tainted. It doesn’t mean anything if they are not making a difference – and how can they make a difference when there is so much red tape holding them back? When every step they take is judged instead of supported?

She knows she will be criticised for what happened yesterday – despite what happened to those girls and her team. She will probably get criticised for today too, for letting Ben and Jack go out in the aid car when no emergency has been called in. She cares about that, of course she does; she wants to be good at her job – she wants her superiors to think that she is good at her job – but is she truly good at her job if she doesn’t fight against the things that her gut is telling her are wrong?

She has a choice, and she has made her decision by the time Andy shows up in her office.

“Helmets are polished, hoses are stacked. You could eat off the floor in the beanery,” Andy announces. “I know it's not much considering everything, but my dad always taught me, sometimes you take it from the outside in, and from the outside this station is looking pretty good right now.”

She leans back against the cupboards and watches as Maya straightens her desk.

“Battalion Chief Gregory's gonna be another hour, at least,” Maya says.

She can’t do this. She can’t be here, not when her girlfriend is chasing a criminal across the city. Not when she doesn’t know what is going on. Her dress coat feels heavy and she starts to remove it, disappearing into the captain’s bunk and hanging it up in the small wardrobe inside.

“Copy. You want me to make sure that…”

“I want you to be in charge of the station while I'm gone,” Maya says. She emerges from the bunk and walks over to the door, grabbing her SFD jacket. “I can't just stay here while Carina's...”

“Wait,” Andy objects. “Hold on… Maya, this inspection defines your role as captain; as the...”

“…first female captain of Nineteen, I'm aware,” Maya says. She sits down on the chair to change her shoes. “But I can't play by the rules I witnessed yesterday. The whole first female captain thing implies that if I don't play by every single rule, then I'm failing. And if I don't do this job like the men before me did it, then I'm not up for the task. But I played by every single rule yesterday. I went against my gut and those girls had to set a fire to save their lives because I was playing by the rules. Because I was worried about how it would look on paper. And these people, these disgusting, soulless human beings are kidnapping children and holding them hostage and selling them.”

She stands up, the words falling from her mouth as she lets all her frustrations out. “And there is something more that we can do. So, I'm gonna show up.” She turns and grabs the keys to the fire command car from her desk. “I'm a first responder. I'm gonna respond, and if that means it's the last day as the first female captain, then I can live with that.”

It’s not really a choice, she realises, and she is so resolute that Andy knows there is no changing her mind.

“I'll get everyone in their Class As,” she says. “Go.”

Maya shoots her a grateful smile as she rushes out the door. She jumps into the fly car and puts the siren on, speeding through traffic towards South Lake Union train station. It has already been ten minutes since she last heard from Warren, which means that Carina and Andrew are probably already on the train. She dodges traffic and pulls into the underpass just seven minutes later.

Ben and Jack get out of the Air Car when they see her pull up next to them.

“What's the status?” she demands to know as soon as she gets out of the car.

“They should be pulling up soon,” Ben says.

Maya is relieved to know that she has got here just in time. “Okay. When the cops get here, we'll post at both exits. Can you send me the photo of Opal that Andrew sent to you?”

She heads towards the station entrance, pulling on a mask as she walks, and calls over the first security guard she sees. She doesn’t have time to get into any detail, but trusts that her badge and status as Fire Captain will give her the credentials she needs to command him to follow her lead. She tells them to look out for a woman in her forties with red hair and shows him the photo of Opal.

“Bishop!” Ben calls out to her.

Maya scurries back towards the aid car. “What?”

“Carina just text me. They’re pulling into the station now.”

In stroke of good luck, or just coincidental timing, Maya hears sirens and turns just as two police cars pulls up behind her. An officer steps out of one and walks towards them.

“Captain Bishop?”

His name badge reads Patterson, the cop that Rendon sent her way.

“We have the doors covered.” She holds up her phone. “This is a photo of Opal.”

Patterson recognises her straight away from the file he was sent. “She's a 4100 suspect.” He turns to his team of officers. “Let's go. Take the right side and the left side. Let's move!”

They disperse, heading in different directions. Maya has been on a few stake outs with the police, but usually at a distance. Today she is right in the middle of it as she follows the police officers to the station entrance. All eyes are on the recently alighted passengers, all blondes and brunettes so far.

“That’s her!” Jack calls out.

“Here we go,” Patterson says under his breath.

An officer steps up to her. “Ma’am, freeze!”

The woman spins as the officer grabs her arm. “Hey!”

It’s not her, it’s not Opal, and Maya sighs with frustration. They are so close, they can’t miss her now. They keep looking, eyes on everyone who comes out of the doors.

“Over there, over there!” Ben suddenly says. “There, there, there!”

Maya spins and sees the red-headed woman, as sure as she can be that it is Opal. She has to stop herself from launching forwards, holding back and letting the team of officers do their job.

Patterson grabs his radio. “We think she’s exiting the north side of the building.”

His team surrounds her. “Ma’am, freeze!”

Opal feigns confusion. “What’s going on?” she asks, putting her hands in the air.

She doesn’t fool anyone though and Maya watches from a close distance as she is cuffed and read her rights. She turns to share a look with Ben and Jack as Opal is put into the back of a police car. She is not giving much away, her body stiff as she is guided into the back of the car.

“It's interesting how they didn't shove her face into the ground,” Jack comments.

As the police car pulls away, they make their way back towards their vehicles. Maya pulls out her cell phone and goes straight to Carina’s number.

“We should let Carina and Andrew know,” she says.

“I’m surprised they’re not here,” Ben says, looking around in case they have caught the end of the show.

Before Maya has the chance to make the call, the radio crackles.

“Aid car nineteen, are you still at South Lake Union?”

Jack grabs his radio. “This is nineteen, yes we are.”

“We’ve had reports of a stabbing victim in the main concourse, can you attend?”

Maya stops, her body frozen. Jack turns towards her, his wide, shocked eyes looking at her over the top of his mask.

“Copy. We’ll be right there.”

Ben is already on the move, pulling open the back of the aid car to grab the gurney.

“Bishop? Maya?”

Maya shakes her head. No, she’s not okay.

A stabbing victim, that’s all they said. But there is a heavy feeling in her stomach.

She starts to run, ignoring the car horns that scream at her when she crosses the road without looking. She charges up the steps and into the station, weaving through the crowds as she makes her way to the main concourse.

As she runs, there is only one thing on her mind:

Carina.

[felixschokehold]

Disclaimer: List is due to change over time as new things are learned about each character.

Bias|Favorites 

Ultimate Bias: Felix of the Volturi

He is TALL.

He has very little scenes in the books/movies but the back story I’ve given him and literally just my own story of him has made me very attached to him.

I also love Daniel Cudmore as Felix and I am perpetually Dead^TM.

Cannot help but to love fictional homicidal men.

Edward Cullen

Edward (and Bella) call to my BPD/bipolar so fucking hard. I understand the obsession. The mania. The self hatred. The lack of confidence in someone loving you because you don’t feel “good enough”.  

Love the vigilante vampire side story. Homicidal? Check. Justified killings? Double check. Love it. Living for it.

Leah Clearwater

An absolute badass.

She deserved much better.

Demetri of the Volturi

In the books he’s also Tall. 

In the movies he’s very charming and funny (i.e. shoving Felix to hoard food).

I feel very sorry for him since Aro literally kidnapped him from Amun’s coven.

Emmett Cullen

Everyone’s fave himbo. 

Felt very protective of Bella as a brother very early on (Midnight Sun describes this during driving away from the baseball scene). 

Marcus of the Volturi

His entire life was ruined by Aro and I feel so sorry for him.

He had the greatest love of all time and it was ripped from him. 

Is absolutely done with everything and is ready to die at any moment. Mood. 

Jane and Alec

Literally just two innocent children. 

Aro also basically ruined their life and turned them without their consent (afaik). 

Forcefully bound and kept content by Aro. 

So much pity for them. My children.

Paul 

Anger issues. Same. 

Have you seen him?

Indifferent

Alice Cullen

Continuously and borderline obnoxiously tries to force Bella into her own picture of femininity.

Literally is okay with loving a non-repentant Confederate soldier.

She is nice but just kind of rubs me the wrong way ig.

Carlisle Cullen

Created his own “family” without any consent from them as they lay dying. 

Sam Uley

Seems like a hardass, but was probs just trying to be a leader and do what was best. 

Esme Cullen 

She is wholesome but not my cup of tea. 

Some motherly figures make me feel weird because mine is dead lmao.

The Pack

Unnamed members above and below go here, just no reason to like or dislike them.

The Denali Coven

I understand where Irina comes from. Kate is pretty cool ig. Tanya is alright. Eleazar and Carmen are hot af. I just don’t feel any certain way for the whole clan.

Anti|Non Favorites

Ultimate Anti: Jacob Black

Imprinting on a child; Smeyers writing imprinting as how wolves “find their mate”, and the “future” Alice saw in the movie of them acting kind of romantic to each other has made me have a very vile taste for Jacob Black. Pre-wolf Jacob? Totally cool. Post-wolf Jacob? Absolute fucking incel. 

Aro of the Volturi

Aro doesn’t “recruit”, he straight up kidnaps. He uses Chelsea and Corin’s powers to remove vampires he wants from covens they’re in and ties them to him for ultimate loyalty. He killed his own sister, Didyme, because he didn’t want Marcus to leave as he and Didyme were mated and wanted to dip from the Volturi. Aro is enslaving and kidnapping vampires on the reg.

Caius of the Volturi

He is the only member of the Volturi that Aro has not forced to stay. Caius stays on his own, he only uses Corin’s ability to cure his boredom when he isn’t committing mass murder or punishing lawbreakers. 

Rosalie Cullen (Hale) 

Supreme Bitch for literally no reason. 

Pro-lifer. 

Treats Bella like absolute garbage and almost gets her own brother killed because “Bella I eNvY yOu”

Rene 

Was never a real mother to Bella, Bella had to mother her. 

Selfish. 

Just annoying and a terrible person lol.

Charlie Swan 

Didn’t do anything in the movie when Jacob kissed Bella without consent. In the book, he praised Jacob for kissing Bella.

ACAB. 

Jasper Cullen (Hale) 

I only put him here because he’s a Confederate soldier with no remorse. 

Probably a racist.

Quil 

Also imprinted on a child.

[astharoshebarvon]

I try really hard to just ignore things like this, I really do. Then I end up seeing something so bad it makes me upset.

I mean the sheer audacity, the entitlement to believe a gay ship should be turned het and it’s alright. No, it’s not, it will never ever be. Shut the hell up and be tired in ofc/character, si, reader crap. Stop trying to turn gay ships into your gross het agenda.

Then bring in all sorts of crappy reasoning, atrocious lies to justify your bull takes. It’s astounding the amount of nonsense that can come out of homophobic writers when they are called out for their crap.

the homophobic/self insert awful genderbent writers are saying its self insert in their notes, they want to get done in by the dominant male, have his babies or whatever nauseating crap is they want and you have weird freaks defending them.

Who the hell is femharry? who is that? While we are it, how come these lies, bull takes vanish in FF, FM stories?

Where are Male wednesday/male enid stories, or one of them male other female. Where are male rhaenyra’s, female daemon’s, ff, fm stories? where the hell are male rey’s and femkyle ron stories? male know it all and her malfoy brat stories, female darkling and male alina, both fem, both males? nah, this special distinction, need only ever exists for MM ships. even writing this makes me uncomfortable. 

Just say you are pathetic that you can only make yourself feel better by being so homophobic in a MM ship. there are thousands of fm stories, mangas, fiction. what’s the appeal of coming between a gay ship and erasing the sub male. because it’s him only who gets erased, never the dom one. if he is, the stories are unpopular as hell and are so few in no it’s laughable.

to go so far as to say, oh look how intimate would be if it was straight bull, lol, we dont like slash.

just say you are jealous and so so upset that your vile fm ships will never reach the popularity and  love of MM ship so you have to be gross and bring in your straight crap into them,

tom riddle will never ever be with any imaginary mary sue fem harry/ofc/ reader insert, in any way or form. stay mad about it. it really hurts them he is loved with harry, the real, main, male protagonist of harry potter. all he will ever do for is him, Harry Potter, the male, the guy, boy not some imaginary fem.

it’s not intimate if mm but only if fm, shut the hell up! this one sentence tells you exactly how homophobic some people are

it’s the same bull now prevalent in abo stories, they are also homophobic now, because somehow females are omegas but males arent. go to hell and stay there!!!! they were never omegas, abo is gay erotica sub genre, it exists because of them, it is for them, it was created by MM slash fics. i have to say, a person has to be way way too horrid, jealous and insecure to take so much from a gay ship. are all your lame, pathetic, gross fm ships dead?

why shouldnt we feel rightfully upset to see these vile stories in MM ship tags? if these homophobic writers have the so called right to do this, we have the right to get angry too and call it out for what it is, blatant homophobia towards MM ships only.

i just cannot understand why. why are straight/fm shippers so weird? you’ll find them shipping young boys with old hags but will come after MM ships because surprise surprise, they are popular and no one cares for their lame het agenda.

this reminds me of a thing where some people hate lucemond, daemyra, especially daemon, hate boner for this man is unreal!! but ship worst of the worst ships and like literal trash characters. are we upset he wasnt a fool, an idiot? he did something with dark sister in his last act which some people dont like. they give dark sister to someone else. have him be killed.

jealous jealous jealous. saying he is bad and supporting a rotten fem who made a woman walk after giving birth.

[loves-em]

YOUNG AND BOLD

As previously stated, I do things. Such as many, many school projects. Anything I can get my hands on. In one of these projects, the members are a little bold with the teachers, who don't really seem to care much.

So not only am I part of the student exchange, I am also part of another project. For privacy reasons, I will not mention it's name. It's an international thing here in Europe where people from all countries meet up. They are connected through one language though. I am part of the team for my school and we are in planning right now. As of the time writing this, it's not much longer until we're headed off to the place. Updates shall follow.

Since we will be doing plenty of workshops there, we have to make preparations. We are 8 people in total and 1 used to be on the waiting list. She was allowed to join in recently because another school reported that someone would not be able to come. Two others, including the one that joined later, and me are in one subgroup. Our preparation task was to write a short play.

I'm kind of proud of it, so here's a summary: Two duos meet up. They're teens from 1966 and 1996, two each. One group has time traveled. After finding this out, they discuss the differences of their times and talk about what they believe the word freedom means. The play ends in us breaking character and telling the audience what it mean to us and how that differs from back then. We will also ask the audience to describe their current definition of freedom and ask their expectations for the future.

It's going to be one boy and one girl from each time, as to also tackle sexism in the play and have the binary genders' viewpoints represented as well. The initial group (us, the ones who write the play) is 3 girls, so only 2 of us should play in the play. So we wanted another 2 boys from the group to take the leftover roles.

Initially, it would have only been 2 girls anyway, but the teachers advised us to make it have 4 people, so we made it 4 people.

Now, noone of the boys wanted the roles. "It would be a lot to learn, text-wise". "They also had their own tasks in preparations". That was their main point. It was fair though, everyone had to do something. But someone needs to do this as well! And we're allowed to take the script up to the stage as well. It's not much to learn, only about 2mins of active talking each.

We (the writers) messeged into the group chat (where the teachers are!), asking for someone to please take the roles.

Context time: One teacher is a guy in his mid-late thirties, very chill teacher and an incredibly based person. Due to hum being so laid-back, students don't respect him much, talking over him often. He is one of my favourite teachers ever and I have him in both latin and history. Even though everyone disrespects him all the time, most seem to like him. Cool guy.

The other teacher is a woman, slightly older than teacher 1. She is incredibly strict when it comes to grading but also very consistent and fair in grading. Her requirements are unusually high, but fulfillable. She also dresses a bit oddly and has interesting manners of speech and behaviour. Most think she's weird and dislike her for her strictness. All she does is set boundaries for her students. She also just handles being disrespected with absolute consequences for anyone. She is a powerful presence and I love her so much for it. She really cares and is very dedicated if you ask for her help. She is so fair and professional and competent! Everyone else at the very least dislikes her techniques.

Context time over.

After sending our request into the group chat, it went wild. The chat used to be semi-formal. No fancy speech, but also very respectful. The boys went haywire. They insulted one-another as sons of bitches, and in return as sexists. They got political. They insulted mothers and other family members. They were vile and unhinged and straight up bold. They called both teachers by their first names for fun. This is a group chat with the teachers in it!

I was very confused afterwards. Where does such boldness come from? Especially with teacher 2! She is usually very much respected as a teacher, and now they go on to write insults (not to her, dw) in a group chat she's in and call her by her first name?! Crazy, so it seems. We still haven't decided on who gets each role, and we're leaving for the place in less than a week.

I hope the boldness of these young boys will wear off and they'll take the roles, otherwise that would mean stress and work for us.

If anyone reads this, what do you think? I find this boldness weird and wanted to ask if that's normal for boys that age (16-17).

[autistic-beshelar]

1, 12, 20

the character everyone gets wrong

oh you fucking KNOW i'm gonna say mollymauk. EVERYONE gets him wrong.

the people that like him woobify him and act as though he's just a teeny baby who has never done anything wrong ever (these are also often widomauk shippers who sexualise/romanticise the 'socially casually shove him against the wall' scene).

and the people who hate him are often straight up fucking vile. one breed of these people are the youtube ableists who also hate taliesin for crimes of stuttering or taking a minute to find abilities. there's also people who have called him a terrorist sympathiser???

and generally people think he's just a complete asshole, manipulative bastard, and refuse to acknowledge that 1 - he was 2 fucking years old and raised in a circus by a man who planned to feed him to a lizard and 2. ALL of the mighty nein were assholes in the beginning!!! molly had some fucked up morals, but he made an attempt at having them, for the most part. caleb murdered his family. beau tried to strangle a six year old. fjord wanted to unleash an ancient evil god to get a cantrip. they were all fucked up in the beginning, the entire point of their campaign was that they gradually became better people, and molly's death, their grief for him and their memory of him was a major catalyst for that, particularly for beau.

it really irritates me when people say 'molly had too much of an influence on the rest of the campaign' bc like. that was the point. that was the whole story. they knew someone who was bright and shining and tried very hard to be and to bring joy - and he died. and he was also fucked up, and petty and bitchy and mean and they loved him. the mighty nein campaign is about grief and growth. you don't have to like molly, but it's so disingenuous to act as though his character and his death weren't important, when they defined so so much of the campaign, and of the characters' development.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

so you're actively willingly making me return to my hunter x hunter bullshit?

[pensive emoji] illumi zoldyck. my beloved who i have not thought about in so long

he's just so FASCINATING. because hxh is so much from killua's perspective, of course we're going to see illumi at first for, well, exactly what he is - an abuser, a manipulator, a villain.

but then you meet his family and they're all like that. illumi to me is so much a representation of cycles of abuse - an abused child who then went on to abuse his younger siblings - and cult upbringings. illumi knows NOTHING ELSE outside of what his family has taught him, he has no experience or understanding of the outside world unless it relates to his family's work.

he's also very different to the rest of his family in terms of his behaviour - while the rest of his family are also assassins, he's the only one that reads so clearly as Off, and to me reads clearly as neurodivergent - the flat affect that's so contrasted with his animated voice, the tendency to ramble to himself, the unstable emotions, the unusual posture. and there's also so much to unpack about the fact that illumi isn't the heir, despite the fact that he's (certainly in the beginning of the series) a thousand times more powerful than killua, upholds his family's values, excellent at his job, and actually WANTS to be an assassin.

man. he's just so fascinating. it's such a great look at how the situations people are in affect how 'good' or 'bad' we are able to be. illumi is a bad person - but how could he ever have been anything else?

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

stares at dragon age inquisition

tedious doesn't BEGIN to cover my fucking issues with inquisition but it's certainly part of the problem. there's just... so much wandering around doing fetch quests and it's so unnecessary. they created this BIG OPEN WORLD!!! and it just felt so... empty?? like dragon age 2 had three dungeons and a dodgy back alley but somehow there was so much more life in that game.

i never finished inquisition, partly bc i fucking despised what they did with hawke (the OOC ness, not the leaving them in the fade), as well as the anti-mage pro-templar propaganda, and the fucking. dont get me started on cullen. but also the game was just boring tbh. whereas origins i have played like 7 times and will undoubtedly play again

[being-so-normal-about-reploids]

Hai so what are ur fav headcanons that you can’t stop thinking about? :3

God tho I don't even know where to begin. I'm actually not that much of a headcanon generator, I don't think! Which I know sounds absurd considering I'm out here absolutely just making up noncanon shit for hundreds and hundreds of pages, but then if you actually ask me like, 'Quick, name a headcanon!' I just kind of bluescreen, lol. All the writing is more AU to me at this point so it's like, entirely separate real canon, so I feel like I can't really pull from any of that to answer, if that makes sense? Like it's not headcanon at that point.

But I have been playing X6 and laughing about Dynamo for like a week so you know what I'll go with that as a starting point: if they weren't already enemies, Zero would still probably love to slap Dynamo's teeth out of his head because they're too just a little close to the same type of flippant (you get this from Zero a lot more in Japanese than English), but X would probably get along with him pretty okay. And not just because X could probably get along with anybody, either. He would think Dynamo is actually, legitimately funny and chill to hang out with. Zero would think he's a shit influence who could stand to have fewer teeth, but I also headcanon that Zero probably got along just fine with Vile for a while and probably would have continued to had Shit Not Happened, and he's just defensive (and maybe a liiiiittle jealous? He is a Wily creation after all, from a long and storied line of Nobody Is Allowed To Kill You But Me type idiots) over X, so there's that. None of these idiots have any taste in friends and nobody has any room to talk shit about anybody's weird socialization.

Then again considering the actual plot that last sentence is literally just back to canon again. These dumb fuckin boys looked at each other (destined to try to kill each other from creation) and said, 'Oh no, he's so goddamn stupid, I can't not befriend him.'

Most of my headcanons are a lot more general rather than being about specific characters, and I just straight up called them 'worldbuilding' and slapped them directly into my writing, lmao. I think some of them are actually not popular, like 'reploids are generally aroace from a human perspective (though they very much have their own things going on instead)' and 'reploids don't really eat/drink' are like, I'm probably a minority for those, lol. There's a ton of alloromantic and allosexual works out there and it's actually kind of hard to find a fic where someone isn't eating or drinking human food during downtime for whatever reason. They're just very common. And to be clear I don't have a problem with it or anything either, it's all chill. I don't even mind explicit shit even if it's not as much my thang in this fandom. I just think it's a little bit more interesting when they're not just humans except metal, but instead they've got their own kinda parallel inorganic biology, and not a lot of people are doing that so it's kinda my happy niche to fill lol. Like I don't think they should be too overly familiar from an organic perspective. I actually like the uncanny valley effect. I think it's cool.

Also having a partner with a background in robotics/mechatronics and electrical engineering has super tilted what I find interesting to headcanon, I'm sure, lol.

Uh one more. I'm very team X Has Brown Hair and I love imagining different haircuts on him lol. Couldn't tell you why, but somehow most of them look cool anyway, so it's a fun pastime and I should draw some of them.

Yeah okay that's a lot of words! I think that's good for now. Unless you wanted specifics about a given game/character/etc.? (Bonus points if it's an OC because I'm always looking for an excuse to start rambling about them.)

ALSO TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY JUST FYI

[darling-i-read-it]

Going Anywhere

Albert Weser x fem!reader

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: manipulation, general bad guy stuff, violence, guns,

Author’s Note: no cause mr matrix man albert wesker please let me make out with you

here you get wesker today as a treat

Summary: You mention that if Wesker doesn’t need you than you should just leave. He doesn’t take to kindly to that.

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

Ada reloaded her gun swiftly and then holstered it. She took out her shotgun and reloaded that one, doing her regular maintenance before moving on. You did the same.

“You know, I see you more than I see Leon,” she commented, a fond look on her face. You raised an eyebrow as you handed her some extra arrows you had grabbed for her.

“That’s too bad. He’s got a pretty face,” you muttered.

“So do you,” she said. You rolled your eyes.

“But I’m not head over heels in love with you like he is,” you said. Ada stood up straight. She was very good at knowing which buttons to push, even better than you.

“No, because you’re in love with Wesker.” You scoffed.

“I am not in love with Wesker,” you said but even you had to admit it didn’t sound very convincing. You and Wesker had been working together for years. You and Ada worked together on and off, mostly when you ran into each other but it wasn't a constant thing. You always were working on the same side but you trusted that if you weren’t she wouldn’t hesitate to move past you. But you and Wesker were aligned. You always have been.

“You can’t lie to me,” she said.

“I most definitely can Miss Wong. We lie to each other all the time.” You looked over yourself, making sure that everything was where it should be. It all looked in order. Ada rolled her eyes.

“Not about the important things.”

“You consider my love life important but not global termination?” you asked, laughing. She pushed forward and opened the door.

“If it involved Wesker finally having someone to take out the stick up his ass, then yes it’s important.”

“I thought you didn’t like Wesker.”

“I don’t. But I don’t like anyone.”

“You like Leon Kennedy.”

“Stop deflecting. We have work to do.” You rolled your eyes and took out your machine gun. She was right. Your love lives were not the priority here. But Ada always had a way of making the conversation about something other than the awful things you had to do.

“Alright alright.” You held up your gun. “Move aside.” She smiled.

“No.”

====

You put your hair down as you walked into the small place that Wesker was holding up. It made you miss the mansion. It was too small and it didn’t fit him at all. You had at least been able to stay here for a couple weeks. You would rather have a shitty place to stay for longer than a nice place to stay for a day.

“How is Ada Wong?” Wesker called through the thin walls. He always knew where you were. It was creepy.

“Ada is fine. Still wearing those awful heels,” you muttered. You started to take off the many weapons and put them on the pile along with the ones Wesker had. You took off your coat and placed it down. He was silent on the other side of the wall. Focused. You took off your boots and walked to the other side of the wall. He was leaning over a desk, furiously typing something into a computer.

There were viles next to him, syringes, different liquids you didn’t understand. He was the one who dealt with that kind of stuff. You were going to be silent, just let him work, until he spoke up.

“Did you run into any friends?”

“What do you mean by friends?” You picked up one of the chest prototypes that he was looking into using. He had Jill Valentine and he wanted to make sure it was ready before he dared try it on her.

“Did you run into the Redfields?”

“I did not. Good thing too, Chris has the capability to kill me,” you said. He lifted his head up and turned to look at you. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, they were tossed to the side on the desk.

“Chris couldn’t kill you. He liked you too much.”

“Chris liked Jill and then you killed Jill,” you commented. “Or at least he thought you did.”

“Why do you continue to bring that up?”

“Because Jill owes me 20 dollars that I will never get,” you said absentmindedly. You picked up one of the papers Wesker had out on the tables. It had details about things you didn’t understand but you still tried to read it. You didn’t want to not know what was going on.

Wesker grew silent again. You walked over to the desk and took out the medical supplies you kept in there. You had gotten a few cuts you should tend to. You sat down and took off your bulletproof vest and then your shirt, revealing the injuries you had gotten.

Wesker glanced over at you and then back at his work. He wasn’t sure if you were trying to distract him on purpose but it was working. You seemed to be trying to give him his space, tending to yourself in content silence. But he watched as you wrapped the bandage around your shoulder with a wince. He looked down at his papers then rolled his eyes, standing up.

“You should learn how to properly do that,” he said, taking it from you forcefully. You scoffed.

“I can do it,” you argued.

“No,” he said, pulling up the chair behind him so he could sit. “You can’t.” You looked into his eyes.

“When are you going to learn that just because I’m a mere mortal, doesn’t mean I can’t do things on my own. We’re partners, Wesker.” He looked up and met your eyes, tugging on the knot he just made tightly. You didn’t wince.

“We were partners,” he said, referring to your time as S.T.A.R.S members. “So was Jill and Chris. Now look at them.” You rolled your eyes, moving your shoulder around to stretch it.

“So I can leave then?”

He had a rare surprised expression on his face at that.

“Do you want to leave?” His tone remained neutral as ever but there was a slight tinge in it that only someone very close to him would even notice.

“If we aren’t partners, why not?”

“I get what you’re trying to do but it doesn’t matter.” He stood up. “You won’t leave me.” You stood up as well. You were in a mood to challenge him. You hadn’t done that in a fat minute.

“How can you be so sure? I could walk out that door and never come back. I could work with Ada Wong or hell, I could find Chris and take up a job with him,” you suggested. “Chris would love to see me.”

“Stop toying with me. We have work to do.”

“Can you get it done without me?”

“Yes, of course I can,” he insisted but he didn’t even believe that and it showed in his voice. He honestly didn’t know what he would do without you. You had been a part of his plan since the very beginning. You were his partner, he never wanted to leave you behind and you were strong enough to never be a weak spot.

“Alright then,” you said, picking your jacket back up. “Mail Chris my sunglasses.” Wesker grabbed your arm tightly. You had been tempting the line between a joke and something serious. But you didn’t regret it. He needed to be tempted every once in a while to keep him as humble as he could be.

“Why must you be so infuriating?” he asked and it seemed like a genuine question. Like he was also trying to figure it out.

“It keeps you sane.” He grabbed your chin with his gloveless hand. You looked up at him and he couldn’t help himself. He kissed you. It was a wonder he had never done it before. It was brief but fueled by years of emotion on both ends.

He pulled away and let you go.

“Go run to Chris Redfield then,” he said offhandedly. You were so shocked he had kissed you that you didn’t even have a quip back. You went to grab his arm but his reflexes made him move fast enough away from you. You leaned forward anyway and kissed him again. You stumbled into him but he caught you expertly, not even losing his balance a bit. You pulled away and he brushed your hair out of your face. “What, don’t want to leave now?”

“I don’t appreciate this kind of manipulation Albert,” you told him. He couldn’t help but smile.

“I knew you weren’t going anywhere.”