#maybe they didn't intend to murder him but they definitely didn't care if they did

[that-ineffable-devil]

I really appreciate that, in Charles' wrap-up of "the pennies dropped" he specifically uses the word "murdered" in reference to Niko. Because she was murdered. She didn't sponteously die. She wasn't killed by accident. She was murdered. It was intentional. Esther threw that bolt with the intention to kill whoever it hit. It doesn't matter that it was meant for Crystal.

Words are powerful. Words have meaning.

And of course he would use the right word. After all, both he and Edwin were murdered. Maybe the boys who murdered them didn't have that exact intention, but their intentions were no less lethal and no less malicious.

[unearthly-doting]

yandere portrait

a/n: new blog, first post!! it's longer than i intended but in my defense, i wrote this to cope w the aftermath of bugbear's route in saint spell's, so. sorry if it's messy </3

warnings: yandere content, gn reader, male yandere, delusional yandere, i think this technically classifies as stalking, the feeling of being watched, slightly graphic murder, kidnapping, they/them pronouns do get used to describe the reader at the end, no nsfw but still minors do not interact!!

— there's this portrait inside the attic of the house you had just moved into. you had found it while cleaning the place out, getting rid of the belongings of the former owner of the place.

— you had tried throwing it out along with all the other stuff, but there was just something about it that... well... you aren't sure how to describe it, but looking at the man in the portrait, you felt bad for wanting to throw him away. he looked so sad in the painting, staring down at a wilted rose in his hand while being surrounded by a field of yellow chrysanthemums.

— it was silly, to be honest. it was a painting, you aren't sure why you felt bad for it, but you did. so you kept it. in the attic.

— and it was all fine and dandy. you honestly forgot about the portrait after a few weeks since you rarely ever went up to the attic, and you were so busy unpacking and decorating your new home that you just didn't have the energy to think about it.

— but then one night, you heard a very loud thump coming from upstairs. you weren't sleeping, catching up on some work you had put back, but the noise startled you nonetheless. had somebody broken in? the thought made you feel sick as you looked up at the ceiling of your room, waiting to see if you could hear footsteps or anything like that.

— you heard nothing.

— okay... then maybe something fell? you hadn't exactly cared too much about where you put stuff up there, so you wouldn't be surprised if something did. you... should probably go check, to make sure nothing was broken up there.

— when you got to the attic, it didn't take you long to find the source of the loud noise you had heard. the portrait of the man had fallen from where you had placed him and was lying face down on the ground.

— you picked it up with a sigh, only for the frame that surrounded it to come undone in the process. the fall must've broken it. it was old, so you weren't surprised. you're just glad the painting looked okay—wait... was the man always looking at the viewer?

— you're... not going to think too hard on that. you're pretty sure you have a frame that would fit, so you carefully roll the portrait up, making sure to not accidentally bend the corners or cause any tears before making your way back downstairs to begin your search for a new frame

— it was definitely a long search, but you eventually found one tucked deep away in the closet you were using for storage. and it was a perfect fit! and after some debating with yourself, you decided you probably shouldn't put it back up in the attic, just in case it fell again.

— there wasn't any place for you to hang it at the moment, so you just decided to put it in your room for now until you could find space for it. you made sure to face it away from the bed, however. you aren't sure why, but it felt as if the man in the painting were watching you.

— that feeling never really went away, even after the days went by. whenever you would walk by the painting, it felt as if eyes were on you. and you couldn't help but notice little details in the portrait were changing.

— the flower he held was no longer wilted. he didn't look sad anymore. the blooming flowers surrounding him went from chrysanthemums to red roses. it was hard to believe, and you couldn't help but wonder if you were going crazy. maybe the painting was just dirty and you were mistaking the details?

— the painting did look a little dirty, so after doing some research, you bought the supplies you needed to clean it and got straight to it when you had the time to spare. you removed it from its frame and laid it out on the dining table since that was the only flat surface you had that was big enough.

— you were deeply focused, playing music to fill the silence and humming along to whatever song played, tending to the painting as if you had painted it yourself. and you were so caught up in cleaning the painting that you didn't notice that you were being watched. you didn't notice the way the man's eyes followed your every move or the way his lips twitched in a barely concealed smile.

— you did, however, notice some writing at the very bottom right corner of the painting. "aurin, by xxx." so that must be the man's name then, huh? taking one glance at him, it felt fitting.

— once you had finished cleaning the dirt and dust off the painting—aurin, as you now know him as—you put him back in his frame and find a nice spot in the living room to hang him up. he was definitely out of place with the rest of your décor, but you didn't really mind. he added a strange feeling of... life.

— the feeling of being watched never went away, however. even at night, when you were tucked comfortably in bed, you would wake up in the middle of the night feeling as if someone else were in the room with you. it was beginning to make you feel paranoid. maybe the house was haunted?

— not only that, little things would be different whenever you came home from work or an outing. the place would be cleaner, the fridge would be neatly sorted, your clothes would be neatly tucked away in your closet... this was a very clean and friendly ghost if you're house really was haunted. and you really hope it was. you don't want to think of the alternative.

— but it was still weird, and you were starting to lose sleep because of it, hoping to see if you could catch whoever or whatever was doing this. at some point, you called a friend to come over to spend a few nights with you. you felt like you were going crazy, and you needed someone there to keep you grounded.

And your friend did! They came over, promising to stay for the week to help you keep your mind off the weird shit happening in your house. The weird feeling of being watched was still there, but nothing was ever moved out of place anymore.

Tonight was the last night that they'd be staying over, and the two of you decided to make a little party out of it. You both went out and got some drinks and a bunch of snacks and you guys just sat down and watched some shitty movies.

You guys weren't drinking alcohol, but the jokey mood the two of you had going on certainly made it feel as if you were tipsy, collapsing into a fit of giggles at one of their lame jokes as you leaned against them.

The time spent with them this week was fun, tonight being the best of all, but eventually, the two of you had to go to bed. The two of you shared a hug before you left them to go to your bedroom. You went to bed that night with a smile on your face, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while.

...

You startled awake. It was dark outside, and the clock read 4am. A loud noise had woken you up, a thud that sounded like someone, or something, falling. You weren't immediately concerned, thinking that your friend might've fallen off the couch while sleeping.

You should probably check on them to make sure they aren't hurt. With a tired sigh, you climb out of bed and make your way to the living room, stumbling a bit in the dark as you rub some sleep from your eyes.

Your hand roams against the wall for a moment before finding the light switch and flicking it, opening your mouth to speak but your words get stuck in your throat.

As soon as the light fills the room, your stomach drops.

You had been expecting to see your friend on the floor, probably still sleeping, but...

You weren't expecting to see someone on top of them, some sort of blade in hand, stabbing into their neck multiple times. You just stood there, frozen as you watched the mystery man stab your friend. They were already dead, not moving, eyes staring up into nothingness. You had only spoken to them just mere hours ago, and now they're on your living room floor, covered in their own blood as the man continues to stab them.

He seemed so caught up in the act that he hadn't even noticed the lights were on, or that you were watching. You should run. You should get as far away from here as possible, but it's like you were frozen in place. Your legs felt weak, and they gave out on you before you could even try running.

You fall to the ground, hands shaking, tears running down your face, bile stuck in your throat as you force yourself to not vomit.

The squelching sound of stabbing stops, and the man turns his attention to you. It was Aurin. Aurin, the man from that damn painting. Your gaze snapped over to said painting, thinking that you must be going insane, but no.

The painting was vacant. The man inside of it was gone. What the fuck.

His expression was vacant, and you stared at him like a deer in headlights, wondering if you were going to be killed next. Ha... killed by a weird supernatural entity that shouldn't even exist... maybe you are going crazy. Maybe this is all just one really bad nightmare.

You'll wake up any second now and see your friend's smiling face as they drag you out of bed so you can help them pack their stuff. You'll wake up, and he'll be back in his painting again. Everything will be normal. This isn't real.

It's not real. It can't be. This is just some fucked up—

Cold hands cup your face, and the feeling of blood smearing on your cheeks is enough to snap you out of your thoughts. You hadn't even noticed when he approached you, or when he crouched down to your level.

The vacant expression was gone, replaced with a quiet, guilty one.

"I apologize, my love," He speaks, his voice sending a shiver down your spine, "You weren't supposed to see such a..." He trails off, a brief look of annoyance crossing his features as if remembering something he disliked, "Mess."

You were too stunned, too scared, to sick to speak. You just stared.

Aurin sighed, looking genuinely ashamed of himself, "I hope this doesn't make you think any less of me, my darling rose. I just couldn't... I couldn't stand the way they were looking at you. The way they were touching you. The advances they were making on you made me feel so angry," His nails dug into your cheeks as he spoke, and you wince slightly at the feeling. He took notice immediately, easing his grip on you as an apologetic smile appeared on his face, "I suppose I lost myself for a moment when taking care of them."

You struggled to process his words. He... he killed your friend because he thought they were making a move on you? Because of jealousy? That just... what the fuck...

"You..." Your voice cracks a bit as you speak, a wave of nausea hitting you as the taste of the blood in the air coats the inside of your mouth.

"Shhh..." He gently shushes you, running a hand over your hair. You cringe knowing there was blood sticking to the strands now, "Don't say anything, darling. I'm sure this is all a very big shock to you, but it'll be okay. I'll take care of you, the way you took care of me."

Your confusion only grew when he gently helped you off the ground, his grip on your arm was tight enough to keep you from running away but gentle enough that it didn't hurt, "But I haven't..." You trail off, going to deny his claims of you taking care of him, only to remember that you technically have.

He merely smiles, "But you have. I was so alone, up in that dusty attic. And then you came along, and you showed me a love that I hadn't experienced in decades. You took care of me. It's only natural that I take care of you in return, isn't it? That's what lovers do, after all."

"Lovers?!"

Aurin paid no mind to your shock, seemingly not even registering how odd and deranged this situation was, acting as if he hadn't just murdered your best friend in a fit of supposed jealous rage.

"I wasn't going to take you home so soon, trust me. I was content with helping you out around the house and making everything easier for you but..." He trails off, gaze wandering away from you to stare at the corpse on the ground, "Things happen. I don't think I can leave you to your devices here anymore. Someone may try to steal you away from me again, and I would hate for you to see another mess like this."

What the hell is he talking about?

You opened your mouth to argue with him, but you couldn't get a single syllable out before he was speaking again.

"Don't worry, it'll be a harmless trip. You'll just feel tired, but you can lean on me for support! Trust me, my love, you'll adore your new home." He says, excitement lacing his words.

It was a little scary, how you instantly began to feel tired after he finished talking. You're not sure if it was his doing, somehow, or if your body just couldn't handle the situation anymore and wanted you to sleep in hopes that everything would be better once you woke up.

Your eyes closed against your will, and you could faintly make out Aurin's soft humming as he held you close against him. You were too tired to fight against him, almost as if some sort of pressure were weighing you down.

Maybe everything will be better when you wake up...

A few months later, a couple had moved into a new home. The price had been on the cheaper side due to a fairly gruesome unsolved murder and kidnapping that took place there. They were determined to make a home out of it, even with its dark history.

"Honey, doesn't this painting feel a little off to you?" One of them asks, staring up at a painting that was hanging on a wall in the living room.

The other shrugs, moving boxes around and momentarily pausing to glance at the painting, "Just looks like a painting to me. Take it down if it makes you uncomfortable."

"Hm..."

They stare up at it, arms crossed as they take in the details. Two people were dancing together in a field of red roses. There was nothing wrong with that, it was rather romantic, to be honest. The man in the painting was normal as well, eyes closed with a serene smile on his face as he held his partner close. He looked as if he were in love, in all honesty. The part that unsettled them was the distraught look on the face of the man's dance partner, as well as the chains that tied their wrists to his, roses weaved into the chains as if to try and hide them.

It was a breathtaking painting, sure, but...

"Let's just put it up in the attic, that way we won't have to see it."

[eriexplosion]

Okay so. I cannot take it seriously when people say that we weren't led to think CX-2 was Tech. Because no we were not just having foreshadowing of the creation of an Evil Bad Batch. The clues led directly to Tech.

We have to start with the fact that they didn't kill him off definitively. Start with his survival being debated (and there's no way they didn't know it would be debated because I choose to believe they are not stupid) then introduce a character that lasts suspiciously long and has weirdly intense beef with Crosshair and you already are inclining people towards believing this is Tech.

CX-2 goes through a speedrun of Tech scenarios with 1. the leg crushed by a heavy falling object, similar to Ruins of War 2. knocked over by an explosion leaving him dangling above the abyss from a line like Plan 99 3. going over a waterfall and crawling out in a shot that completely matches the scene from The Crossing.

One or two of these is a coincidence, all three together less so.

Plan 99 notes mixed into The Battle of the Snipers. Which the Kiners only explained as the notes 'sounding good in brass' and nothing else.

He gets distinctly Tech like dialogue and no I don't just mean 'domicile' though we do have to acknowledge that no one else in Star Wars uses this word on the regular. We also have the exact match of 'Who are you' to Decomissioned, and the matching of 'I have simply cut off her means of escape' to Tech regularly saying 'I am simply-' when explaining himself, which again is something no one else in the show shares. Tech has a distinct way of speaking that matches CX-2, especially as of Point of No Return. (And CX-2 doesn't really sound like Crosshair, because Crosshair is just straight up not as chatty as CX-2 and never has been.)

He gets a long, unnecessary scene with Phee where he suddenly forgets how to be a murder assassin and starts playing soft.

He doesn't shoot Hunter when he has a chance and chooses to instead shoot his own man, he doesn't blow up the Marauder while Wrecker is inside, and when Omega surrenders he opts to just wait for her to hand him her communicator. He doesn't even shoot Shep when Shep starts talking back to him, all of which indicated that maybe for whatever reason he didn't want to, bolstering the Tech theories.

Getting into an opinion rather than analysis here but: Evil Bad Batch is a stupid fucking idea, it serves no purpose whatsoever other than a cool boss fight that adds nothing to the story. Having a CX be someone, anyone they actually cared about would have been interesting and actually played into the themes of family and forgiveness that were set up earlier in the season. Instead it's just more people to kill off to zero interesting payoff. It's stupid.

Every person I spoke to offline thought that this was Tech. All of them. People that have never looked on social media, watched a theory video, anything. All thought CX-2 was Tech and were confused when he was speared. This was not terminally online theorizing gone wild, this was a very widespread thought and assumption.

So, if they didn't mean to do any of that and at no point intended to imply this was Tech and were solely trying to foreshadow their 5 minutes of Evil Batch fight? They did it poorly. When the majority of your audience actively believes you are leading to one direction only for it to be some other direction that you meant to lead them to, the problem is not The Audience Didn't Read It Right, the problem is you wrote it badly.

[suzukiblu]

Ko-fi thank-you sentences for redflawedglass behind the cut; they asked for dealer's choice, and I picked "Clark wakes up alive". ( chrono || non-chrono )

“I hope you don't mind me just showing up like this,” he says, gentle and apologetic. Conner never had enough choices in his life, short as it was. He feels like–Clark just wants better for him, this time. “Is it alright that I'm here?”

It was partially his fault, that Conner thought he couldn't choose things for himself for so long. Thought he couldn't have things he wanted. Thought he just had to accept whatever he was offered, more often than not. 

Not always. Not every time. But–too much of the time. 

If Clark can help him learn otherwise sooner . . . 

Well. Of course he's going to try to. 

. . . yes, appears very slowly in Clark's head, and he smiles at Conner again. 

“Thank you,” he says. “I'm happy to hear that. I hope us meeting each other makes you happy too.” 

Conner's face stays perfectly impassive, but his eyes go wet. He blinks, and Clark hears his heartbeat stutter again. 

He could've done this last time. He could've done less than this, and Conner would've had a much easier and much less painful start to life outside Cadmus. 

But he didn't, of course, so he can't do any less than this now. 

“Call security,” Desmond says flatly. . 

“On Superman?” Guardian asks in disbelief. “Sir, even if there was a reason to call security, I wouldn't do that to security.” 

“He’s trespassing!” Desmond snaps. “And interfering with the subject, besides!” 

“I mean, I don’t know if this is interfering . . .” Guardian says skeptically. 

This is absolutely interfering, and Clark is going to be doing as much of it as (in)humanly possible, but he does prefer no one calling security and interrupting the conversation. 

“Don’t mind me,” he says to them, as pleasant and sweet as Ma’s most passive-aggressive “bless your heart”. Then he smiles a little softer at Conner, trying to be . . . careful, maybe. 

He did this so badly last time. Did so badly by Conner last time. 

He doesn’t intend to do anything like that again. 

Ever. 

“It really is so good to meet you, kid,” he says gently. Simple and straightforward, still. Easy for a child to understand, he hopes–or at least easier. Conner had enough trouble understanding other people to begin with, and he can’t imagine it’d be any easier while operating a younger brain and with an even earlier interruption to his education uploads. “Would you mind if I hugged you now?” 

Conner’s eyes . . . flicker, just barely. There’s confusion in them, Clark thinks, but it’s a little hard to tell. He’s even less expressive than the version of himself Clark’s used to. 

. . . was used to. 

Clark doesn’t think about that. Not right now. 

. . . ‘hug’? appears in his head, slow and hesitant over an obviously unfamiliar word. 

Clark debates throwing Desmond through a wall. Just a thin wall. Not a load-bearing one. 

But definitely a wall. 

“I mean I’d like to hold you,” he explains, because if Conner sees him get angry, he’ll blame himself for it. Of course he would, between his current age and the kind of things he’s likely had shoved into his brain so far. “Like you were holding your friend a moment ago.” 

He points at the G-gnome to clarify, and Conner . . . hesitates. Nothing appears in Clark’s head. 

“Call security immediately,” Desmond snaps at Guardian. “Now!” 

“Sir–” Guardian starts, half-raising his hands, and Desmond’s expression turns murderous. 

“That was an order, Guardian,” he says dangerously. Clark half-expects to feel G-gnomes in his mind or for Guardian to change his mind under their influence, but nothing happens. 

He doesn’t look at Dubbilex, but he . . . wonders, a little. 

Conner just barely shrinks in on himself, and Clark wonders how many times he’s been faced with an angry person so much bigger and older than him in real life, or even been out of his pod at all. Is this the first time? A regular occurrence? Something in-between? 

The G-gnome hops up on Conner’s shoulders; leans forward over his head and inspects Clark curiously, tilting its own head. Conner freezes, and Clark sees the faintest trace of fear in the back of his eyes. 

He wonders if the G-gnome’s putting it there, but Conner’s looking right at him. 

So if the G-gnome is putting it there . . . 

If it is, Clark can’t help but suspect it’s not actually a deliberate effort on the creature’s part, as opposed to a genuine by-product of Conner not knowing what to expect from him. 

Not knowing if he’ll hurt the G-gnome, he means, remembering the way Conner had hesitated when he’d called it his friend. 

Considering what he knows of how Desmond ran this place–is running this place right now . . . 

“Hello,” Clark says, and smiles at the G-gnome. “It’s nice to meet you too.” 

The G-gnome stares at him for a long, silent moment, and then slips back down behind Conner’s back and wraps its arms around his neck. Clark hears something like a whisper from another room, but not that clear, and Conner . . . hesitates, again. 

Then the word hug appears in Clark’s mind again, this time tentative and longing, and he doesn’t hesitate himself at all. He scoops up Conner and stands up with him in the same moment, and Conner lets out a little breath as his thrumming heartbeat stutters in his chest, and Clark holds him against his own chest very, very carefully, as if he’s holding something more delicate than melting frost on a sunny morning or cracked porcelain. 

Conner doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself; where to put his hands or arms. If he should hold onto him or lean into him or not. 

Clark keeps him in his arms anyway, and swears to himself he’s not leaving without the kid. Not for anything. If Conner doesn’t want to come with him right now, then he’ll wait here with him until he does, no matter what happens outside. 

If Conner never wants to come with him, well–then he’ll just stay, if that’s what it takes. 

He’s not giving Desmond the chance to hurt or hide him. Not giving anyone that chance. 

He wonders if the Conner he remembers even remembered being this small himself, or if it was so brief an experience that it didn’t stick in his head at all. 

He suspects it might’ve been, and hates the thought. 

Buzzes, appears in Clark’s head, still tentative. He doesn’t understand, for a moment, and then realizes Conner’s ear is practically against his chest. So he’s probably talking about . . . 

“I always thought of it as more a ‘thrum’, myself,” he says, and Conner stares mutely at him. Their heartbeats aren’t a perfect match–even with cloned DNA, Conner isn’t quite Kryptonian enough, and his heart beats a little slower and harder than his does. The separate beats are more audible, too. 

But it does still thrum, when it comes to it. 

Warm, appears in Clark’s head too, and Conner ducks his head just enough to hide his face from Desmond when the tears start falling. 

His expression doesn’t change at all, but the tears on his face are undeniable. 

Maybe a load-bearing wall wouldn’t be so bad to throw Desmond through, Clark thinks, bundling the kid up tighter in his arms and wrapping his cape around him as he does. Then he looks at Guardian, and puts on the most pleasant smile he can manage without needing to actually throw Desmond through a load-bearing wall first. 

“I appreciate you taking care of him, but it’s not good for him to be down in the dark like this,” he says, gently stroking what of Conner’s back the G-gnome isn’t perched on and pretending not to notice the fat, heavy tears dripping onto the El crest on his chest. “He needs the sun.” 

“There’s, ah–a solar suit, sir,” Guardian says, but he looks uncomfortable even as he says it. “I mean–he’s being fed solar energy, not just . . . uh . . .” 

He trails off, and looks much more uncomfortable; like he’s just realized what he’s saying. Maybe he has, given Desmond’s influence over the G-gnomes and what they do and don’t let people down here think. 

Guardian still thinks he’s human himself right now, after all.

[adventuringblind]

Drive with you forever

Chapter 1.1: coming home

Max Verstappen x reader x Charles Leclerc x Lando Norris x Oscar Piastri

Summary: Seb brings reader home for the first time

Warnings: mentions of abuse and neglect

Notes: cute moments with Seb. This is what I live for.

Masterlist

Seb looks beside him to the passenger seat of his car. The small girl he'd met just a couple weeks ago is finally coming home with him.

Hanna had gone back sooner to get a few things ready for her. They are basically starting from scratch. She needs new clothes, her hair is matted, she's smaller than she should be. It didn't dawn on him when he said yes that she was coming to them like this.

But he wouldn't have it any other way. In their small cross-country trip, he'd already grown fond of her. Christian is going to kill him later for needing a week off, but again, he couldn't care less.

He would've been home sooner if it wasn't for all the legal things they needed to tie up. Now she's officially his, last name and everything.

It's definitely going to be interesting having a newborn and a teenager around.

Her head is leaned up against the window. Soft music is playing in the background. She looks at peace.

There is something about this girl he can't figure out. From what he's been told, living situation was nothing short of inhumane.

One of the first things they did when she was allowed to stay with him and Hanna, was getting her hair taken care of. It looked absolutely painful. Hanna called a friend of hers to come help.

The girl had flinched at every motion, but the woman was patient and gentle with her. The was the first time she asked Seb not to leave her alone.

It was then they were told that the amount of neglect it takes for that to happen is ridiculous. The odd fatherly instinct that Seb has always had was kicked into gear. Maybe that's the reason he feels so connected to her.

Now her hair is a way that she wants it. The tears of joy she cried made him and Hanna shed a few as well.

Seb pulls into the driveway of his home. The girl perks up at the sight, frantically looking at him and then the house. It's not small by any means, but its peaceful and relatively secluded. A piece of land he intends to make into something great.

He parks and exits the car. Then he moves around the outside to open her door. "Welcome home."

Cautious. Every move she makes is cautious.

Even as they enter the house it's like she moves as if someone is going to jump out at her around every corner. He takes special notice of the way she touches nothing aside from the ground, and her steps are silent. She walks in a way that assures she won't make a sound.

Sebastian shows her around the house, making note of the most important places for her to remember. When he opens the door to what is her room now, his smiles at her. "This is yours."

She peaks her head inside with caution. Then she mumbles a 'thank you'. Seb can see the outline of tears in her cheeks. It shatters him.

"It's completely yours. You can decorate it however you want."

"Decorate?"

"Like fill it with things, move the furniture around, anything you like." He explains. Her confusion only makes him wonder if she even had a room at her previous place.

He's not sure that she really understands yet, but she nods at him anyway.

"Why don't you get settled in, feel free to explore the house and I'll come find you when it's time to eat?" He suggested. Sebastian had learned that even if she agrees with them, maybe she'll start to see that she can say no.

~

Seb joined his wife in the kitchen. Determined to give the teen some space to adjust to her surroundings and help Hanna with dinner.

"I've never wanted to commit a murder more than I do in this moment." He groans, throwing his arms around the waist of his wife.

"And why is that?"

"Because she looks petrified to step a toe in the wrong place."

Hanna turns to face him. Her head now resting on his chest. "Good thing she's here now. I know you'll protect her."

It's definitely going to be a challenge. They are already new parents and now they are in charge of a teenager. But they are a team, and they'll figure it out together.

~

Seb once again watches the girl at the table. He feels clueless. She has done nothing but stare at her food with her head down and hands neatly folded behind her.

He's noticed that she usually hides if she is in desperate need of food. He caught her once looking for food and she quickly fell to her knees begging for his forgiveness.

They'd yet to have a dinner all together at a table. Now he has no idea how to help her and that tiny voice in the back of his mind is trying to tell him he's not cut out for this. An annoyance he shakes away.

Hanna whispers to him that she's going to feed the baby and asks if he'll be okay. If he's honest, he doesn't know. But he shakes his head yes anyway.

Something of an idea hits him. He's not sure if it's a good one and will have to find out the hard way.

He switches his spot which was originally across from her to next to her. She still doesn't look at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

This seems to get her attention. Her eyes barely move to look at him at she slowly nods her head yes.

"Were you not allowed to eat? With your dad?" He says it as gently and carefully as possible.

He can see the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. She barely is able to shake her head yes.

"Well here you're allowed to eat whenever you want."

It's a barely even a whisper. "Really?"

"I wouldn't lie about something like that."

The smile despite the tears almost makes him cry too. He wants to, but they still have dinner to get through.

~

The first time Seb sees her Scars, he also feels the rage he feels every time something about her past home life shows itself.

Hanna had given her a pair of shorts and a tank top to wear to bed. The girl's night terrors caused her to wake up sweating and Hanna had suggested something more breathable to help the issue.

The teen came down to say goodnight before she turned in and Seb had the urge to call anyone who could tell him where her father is.

The lines litter a majority of her now visible skin. Some even look recent, the botched stitching still holding them together.

He doesn't care whether they are bleeding or not; he wraps all of them. It's not much, but it's Sébastien's way of helping.

It's interesting to him how she smiles at the gesture. She actually finds his franticness amusing.

So he does it for every cut after.

~

The first time Seb had come home from a race after she came to live with them, he brought her back a blanket.

He wasn't thinking too much about it. Just saw it on his way out and thought of her.

She, however, thought it to be the best thing she'd ever seen. Hanna said she never goes anywhere without it. Even has to pry it away from her to wash it.

It hadn't dawned on him that she's probably never had a comfort item before. That blanket is probably the most comforting thing she's ever received.

So, when he asked her one day if she'd had anything to eat all day (Hanna said she was struggling), she immediately dropped to her knees.

He felt strange. She'd done this a few times and often as a result of her feeling she did something wrong.

Seb grabbed the blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her, then got on his knees in front of her to make them level.

It's never sat well with him, the idea of having someone beneath him. It feels dehumanizing.

She buries herself it the blanket. Seb can see her body relax at the feeling.

She may not be his biological daughter. But he loves her as his own.

~

Next ->

@styles-sunflower @purplephantomwolf @boiohboii @reblog-princess-blog @jayda12 @faithm120601 @eugene-emt-roe @lpab @yaaadii @80sloverry @spongebeck3101 @eviethetheatrefreak @chanshintien @vellicora @hollie911 @pretty-little-bunny382728

[solitaire-sol]

Marauders Fandom Vent Post

CW: The following is anti-Regulus, anti-Barty Crouch Jr, anti-Slytherin Skittles, anti-Death Eater whitewashing, and a little general ranting about canon vs non-canon.

I should be finishing my Moonchaser Week fics but I made the mistake of browsing around and wow wow wow there are some truly terrible takes and I kind of really hate it.

"Regulus was abused and--" Really? Was he? Because all the info we get on him in canon is that he was Orion and Walburga's 'golden boy,' probably after Sirius started getting rebellious, definitely not reason enough to be Voldy's No. 1 Cheerleader until he was personally offended by the pursuit of immortality/mistreatment of Reg's house-elf. Just because ten billion fics follow-the-leader'd a handful of Big Fics where Sirius and Regulus were regularly Crucio'd on the daily from early childhood (and were still somehow functional when it landed Neville's parents, two adult and experienced Aurors, in the madhouse) does not make it canon. REGULUS WAS NOT A POOR ABUSED KITTEN AGAHGAHGAH

Oh, and speaking of the Longbottoms: "There's no proof Barty Jr really tortured anyone and he probably didn't even do anything at school so we don't know--"

Yeah, I guess that's fair. I mean, he was a dyed-in-the-wool Deatheater and was sent with two known murder-y/torture-y Deatheaters specifically to "take care" of the Longbottoms, who were as mentioned tortured into madness, but maybe Barty Jr was just sent along to take minutes or serve tea or something! No-one desperate to avoid Hell Prison might try to avoid it by saying they were innocent of the thing they did! We should believe the fascist fanboy who hangs out with other murderous and torturous fascist fanpeople.

"But Barty Jr was under the Imperious by his father! He was abused so--"

Yes, because his father stupidly broke his son out of Hell Prison as his wife's dying wish, tried to hide said son and couldn't control him because Barty Jr was a Voldy fanboy who kept trying to rejoin/restart their little Dark Magic gang! I'm not defending Barty Sr, he made a lot of very poor decisions throughout, but he Imperious'd Barty Jr to keep him from wandering off and doing Death Eater things like, oh, torturing and murdering Muggles and Muggleborns! There's no indication that Barty Jr was Imperius'd or cursed or abused or anything worse than having an emotionally distant workaholic father before he went into Azkaban, and there are lots of kids with emotionally distant parents who don't join hate armies and try to resume said activities after, again, his dying mother sacrificed herself for his freedom. Shockingly, Barty Jr is actually terrible!

I know, I know, it's fandom, do whatever you want, but I just don't understand this bizarre dual-vision myopia. Either canon doesn't matter, you can do what you want and ignore whatever's in the books, in which case why bother citing canon events at all? Or canon does matter, in which case your wildly speculative and sometimes outright incorrect 'facts' should at least be acknowledged as exactly that, rather than stretching the intended meaning of the phrase 'it could happen' so far that it snaps! Why are people so desperate to whitewash these murderous fanatics, they aren't even actually hot, their fans have decided they're hot and therefore should be whitewashed and I don't understanddddddd

[pastel-peach-writes]

Hi!!! Could I please request an aloy x sibling reader headcannons please for their protective relationship please?

RAHHH ALOY RAHHH

Two Peas In A Pod | Sibling!Aloy Headcanons

╰┈➤ PLOT: Headcanons of Aloy as your sibling

╰┈➤ WARNINGS: Not Proofread, No Use of Y/n, Cursing, Mentions of Loss, No Mercy Aloy, Lower Case Intended

⍣ ೋ Enjoy!⍣ ೋ

– older or younger than you, aloy is protective as hell and dares for someone to mess with you

– because you're related, you would be shunned as well and the close-minded Nora would talk about you behind your back

– gossip is inevitable and something aloy can't prevent, but she sure as hell can knock someone out for talking ill of you

– you don't like the talk either, but there's no reason to fight someone about it

– again, younger or older, aloy would totally tease, question, and bug you about you liking someone or having a partner

– at first, she'll act disgusted about the thought of you being romantic with someone, but then she'll grow to like the person

– y'know... after she investigates and spies on them to see if they're good enough for you

– older sister aloy is very protective, can be quite stern and goofy, but younger sister aloy is unhinged (as all younger siblings are)

– younger sister aloy would dump water on you when you're not expecting, purposely go out of her way to give you mild heart attacks, and never leave your side

– no matter the age gap or difference between you two, aloy is always bugging you about the questions that burn in her head

– she would ask rost, but she's been banned from asking him so many questions throughout the day.

– it's not like her questions are serious (some are, but she and rost discuss those later)

– a lot of her questions are questions she already knows the answers to. aka, the reason why rost banned her from asking so many questions

– okay okay

– when you guys are out training or out in dangerous parts of the world, aloy wants you to never leave her side and will constantly turn to check on you

– you two would walk for maybe a couple of feet, then her head snaps towards you to make sure you're safe

– twig snap? she heads towards you and her hand is already gripping your arm to stay close

– if you slip away to gather some healing plants or to, y'know, take a shit, all hell would break loose in aloy's mind

– "where are they?" "where did they go?" "they better be alive otherwise I'm killing them myself" "oh please be alive." "wait... is that them?"

– once she finds you, she's relieved but then swatting the crap out of your shoulder.

– "you can't run off like that! you could've died." – "but i didn't! :D"

– she would complain about you to rost when you gather to eat, but aloy complains about you wandering off so much that rost has learned to tune her out.

– if you ever get captured, aloy is slaughtering anyone in her way.

– if you know TLOU, think of a really aggressive ellie who after she gets the information she needs, murders the person when she's done with them

– in a fiery rage after seeing you locked in a cell or cage, all aloy can hear is ringing in her ears and her mind clouded with angry thoughts

– she's already lost rost, she can't lose you too. you're the only family she has left

– after getting you out from whatever containment you find yourself in, aloy goes silent.

– you think she's mad at you, but she's not. shes processing over the fact that bad things can happen to you. she thought those types of thoughts were her anxiety talking, not an easily accessible reality.

– when she's done processing, she's emotional and hugs you.

– you're definitely bruised from the hugs, but aloy doesn't care

– that moment on, she declares to never, ever, let you out of her sight

– you're valuable to her, this she already knew

– but when she thought she was going to lose you, life didn't seem worth living.

– a life without you, a world without you, a universe without you, seemed dull, boring, sad, and grey to aloy.

– like it or not, you're aloy's world and she would be stupid to let you slip through her fingers.

WC: 582

[wbswag]

Rjdjdndjfdn so you've found my sideblog I see, rjdifnd TY

But yeah, I only just got back into my hero after having a severe interest shift and I'm rewatching the eps, I think the anime played it so Kai looked like the one escalating everything though he had a good point I agree I dont think you were dunking on the league they do a lot of things deserving of criticism and we all know Shiggy didnt start being the beat leader until he had some skills under his belt of we literally need to care about our alleys, in the scene where Kurogiri was talking to him about of he cared if any of the guys he made go to the training camp died or not Shiggy said he does care not only because what they can do but in the long run I dont remember what he said word for word but he made it clear he cares about them and what they think/want and I guess he felt like Overhaul was insulting that but he didn't jump to attack Overhaul it was his guys flying off the handle, and he even told them to stop after Magne he told Compress no dont attack and only Toga and Twice listened because they had to get Compress to a hospital after that Kai said "I didnt mean to want to k!ll Magne, let's take a break and both calm down, because murder isn't productive. I owe your side an arm" that's almost word for word what he said in the dub, I dont think he intended to come there to hurt anybody he wanted to talk business

AND THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO BARELY REMEMBERS ANYTHING AND WATCHED HALF A SCENE LAST NIGHT I fully agree with you that he did not start this/ intend for this to happen like this.

Yeah!! I know I didn’t really mention it, but Shigaraki wasn’t exactly the one lunging for Chisaki’s throat, either. I kinda think the main reason he attacked Chisaki at all is bc he saw how much damage he was doing so easily and like. Panicked/wanted to intervene. He wasn’t the one that talked smack either, so.

It’s clear that Shigaraki has never thought of the LOV as just pawns, unlike Chisaki (although, if I wanted to really deep-dive and reach, I could talk all about how I think Chisaki views himself as, like, somehow more unforgiving/monstrous than he actually is. Or maybe like, perpetuates himself as more unforgiving/monstrous than he is?? Both? Both. Idk), and that definitely rubbed salt in the wound, since Overhaul’s way of speech and behavior definitely signals that he does not view others as… I’m gonna say equals, even though that’s not exactly what I mean (I think how he perceives humans/humanity as a whole is very complex/complicated at like, literally every turn, but that’s not really relevant rn lol). I kinda think Chisaki doesn’t really care about what/who his subordinates are as long as they’re not interfering with his plans, whereas Shigaraki wants his band of misfits to achieve their own goals/dreams alongside him. Different mindsets, same outer result.

Buuut, I think the main thing I want to talk about is how I think the whole meeting would’ve gone a lot smoother if it’d been just Shigaraki & Chisaki meeting instead of Chisaki meeting the (almost) whole League. Like stated before, Shigaraki did attempt to shut down Compress before he attacked Chisaki, and before Magne attacked Chisaki, Shigaraki had told Chisaki to just get out, so I definitely don’t think he had any intentions to pick a physical fight.

Then, later, during the second meeting where Shigaraki went to the Hassaikai, Chisaki similarly shut down Mimic and Kurono when they started going off on Shigaraki, and said that they should at least hear Shigaraki out, as well as kept a relatively cool head despite Shigaraki’s (intentionally) abrasive behavior. So basicalllyyy… I think they might’ve actually been able to work out a genuine, actual agreement, had it just been the two of them from the get-go. Not saying that it’d be guaranteed, but there’d be a chance, I think. There’d have been no blood spilled, I’m pretty sure.

But yes. I don’t think Chisaki wanted to fight them. He was just prepared in the case that they attacked. Which… they did, so. Think he’s used to ruffling feathers, regardless of how much he intends to.

[bistaxx]

I'm still sorta catching up on everything and I have a lot of fucking thoughts... but honestly... hot take... circumstances aside this might be a good thing for them provided q!Cell is careful with what he does next ( which... idk man his mind is a whole 'nother can of worms rn-)

We can all agree that these two care a LOT about each other and they match quite well... but they definitely rushed into things during an intense time of their lives- I mean they hadn't even gone on their first date yet and were already engaged. They had just gotten out of a high adrenaline situation and were fresh off of realizing that they liked each other as more then friends and jumped to one of the furthest steps you can travel with a relationship on top of all the other shit that's going on in their lives rn. So, maybe they need this break right now before they actually do tie the knot, should that still be on the table for them.

I want them to make it work, but I also want it be healthy and for them to not just rush into things again just because they love each other... Cellbit's love for Roier, while genuine, can push him into dangerous places during this very stressful time for him- it is something that makes him happy and he does not want to let it go. He is very afraid of losing Roier and while Cellbit recognizes that Roier needs the space right won't try to pressure him to continue things I worry about this fear pushing him further into dark places while he's caught up in all of these painful emotions right now. Cellbit never ever wanted to hurt Roier ... but that fact is he still did... Right now it kinda feels like he is stuck on thinking about how he can fix things and make Roier happy when what would really make Roier happy would be taking the time to focus on helping himself recover from all the shit that's happened to prevent another incident and accidentally hurt Roier (and by extension himself) yet again. Cellbit is hot off the heels of stress after stress and we still don't know the full extent of what the federation even did to him- he loves Roier yeah and q!Cellbit has over the years made a lot of progress compared to the downright horrible person he once was, but the fact of the matter may be that Cellbit might not be in the right place for a relationship right now- especially something as serious as marriage.

And Roier, while doing the healthy and right thing with breaking things off, has already forgiven Cellbit which is a bit concerning given he literally killed his grandpa (real or not- the fact still stands he would've killed that old man)- I think he does still want to be with Cellbit, but he really needs to take the time to properly nurse the pain before going back into the heat of things- yes being with Cellbit made him happy but right now he feels very hurt and once again betrayed by someone he trusted with all his heart (and that first situation honestly didn't even happen that long ago) ... no matter how much he loves him Roier needs the time to consider if being with him is still good for him right now and if he can not only trust Cellbit again but be prepared for possibly being hurt again ( and I'm not saying that to push any of the responsibility of things going sour here off of q!Cell- he fucked up big time- I'm saying it because that's one of the hard parts of love- sometimes you will hurt your partner or get hurt by your partner even if there was no intention of hurt- and there's no shame with not being ready for that or not being able to forgive that.)

Both of them have been through a lot and I really want them to make it work but... well they gotta Make it work for things to Work, yeah :3

Wow this ended up being way longer then I intended- Basically- These two just need to slow down and take the time to sort things out- primarily with themselves rn... even if I have a nagging feeling that it may get worse before it gets better- ( because uhh,,, I mean- just- *gestures at the murderous traumatized tiny catboy* )

but uhhh I don't really wanna get my hopes up not because I don't have faith but man have I been burned badly before my track record with these things is fucking awful but like- I'm rooting for them I really am- can we have a ship that DOESN'T end tragically for once to spice things up please- can we have a wedding and mariage that DOESN'T END IN FLAMES PLEASE I 🙏

also yeh maybe I'm looking way too deep into the block game roleplay but dammit it's just so fun to do so LMAO

[justaduckarts]

I wanna try to compliment the SH fic in the least spoilery way possible but i will most likely fail but WOOO TIME FOR A RANT

Starting off, Star Holder

Everyone is so worried that Eclipse or Pluto will manipulate them when Aurelia has already done that. She's the reason why they are so traumatized and meek and so easily gullible. And now here they are, in between several gods while they are all pulling on different limbs in different directions trying to tell them to go their way and to not listen to the others. I don't blame Star Holder for being so god damn anxious about every single conversation. Every conversation could literally end up in a war if they say something wrong.

Lunar!

That cheeky fuck. I love him so much hes such an asshole(/aff). He's just a silly guy doing silly things and he might want to kill you but it's okay because he's just a silly guy! His back story is tragic and perfectly explains why he is the way he is. I also love how open he is to his plans. Is he using you? Yes, but at least he's honest about it. A true gentleman.

Moon

God damn. That's all I can say. Just- damn.

Okay but in all seriousness Moon is great. Maybe not great to others (after hearing what Pluto said about the star-) but he's a great character. Very anti-social and quiet but he can have fun if he wants to. *quiet chanting* Moon in a dress! Moon in a dress! Sorry, my demons. Anyway. He's definitely trying his best, but he's not very good at it. E for effort, F for execution.

Sun. Dear lord Sun-

Again, he's trying. He just has no fucking clue what he's doing. He's incredibly oblivious it's almost painful. I don't know if I want to give him a hug or slap him. I could do both. Hug then slap. That'd be nice. But anyway, he's very interesting but after learning more about his past I just keep thinking "hypocrite". Talking about how Eclipse is trying to manipulate Star Holder (which he may have at first) only for the star, but he made the star for the purpose of controlling his own brother. That doesn't seem fucked up to him I guess. Of course there's reasonings but it's still so incredibly wrong. But I think that's enough about Sun.

Pluto

Oh how I love her. She seems like the only one (besides Eclipse) who truly cares about Star Holder and doesn't want to use them. The moment Sun and Moon found out that the star was growing they immediately jumped to "we need to know how to use it." Though, Eclipse also seems to have a similar thought process, so he's not much better. Is it possible that Pluto is using Star Holder? Maybe. But lets be honest, so many gods are trying to use them that you can barely even tell which ones are actually sincere of their promise that they care. She is so lovely though. I love how she is actually trying to give them the choice of using the star for good and not just using it to control people (as it was originally intended) She seems genuinely good and it'd be devastating to find out that she isn't... concrete turning noises to stare at my angst loving self. Anyway.

Eclipse

He's my babygirl and no one can tell me otherwise. He is a pathetic traumatized stray cat that everyone thinks has rabies but is actually just starving and wanting love and affection. Okay! But in all seriousness! I love him. The more we find out about his past the more we realize "maybe the good guys aren't as good as we thought." They accused him of murder and didn't even let him explain. Sun didn't even try to use his gift? Although, Lunar did say that it's harder to use the gift when upset so I guess that makes sense. But I'm still annoyed cause I'm a whiny bitch. They seem to just never give Eclipse any slack or any benefit of the doubt. Though, we still don't know his entire story, so there is still likely something that changed things a lot (besides Moon's mother's death.)

I'm gonna stop here since I could go on forever. TBH all my thoughts of the characters could be totally wrong in my perception of them. If that's the case, I formally apologize, I don't think much as is so when I do it's not always the best thing. BUT YEAH. THESE ARE MY THOUGHTS. If you want more there is plenty where this comes from just say the word and I'll flood your ask box again with an entire tangent.

Anyway, this is Birdcage signing off dramatic bow

skips away like a goofy goober

Hello!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thank you so much this was so sweet. I love hearing people's thoughts and theories on the story and acvsgvsgvdth MAN. I don't want to give too much away. I will say that things are about to get interesting *looks at Saturday's chapter*

Anyway, thank you so so much!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I love getting asks so feel free to share your thoughts whenever (I may take some time to reply).

[hestzhyen]

!!CW: DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE/SA (and spoilers, obviously)!!

Highlights from my Paradise playthrough. Shout out to my saint of a partner for letting me spam him with my bullshit.

I use generic names for my partner's benefit (they're a sane person with no interest in BL VNs), so MC-kun is Azuma, Fluffy-kun is Takara, Asshole-kun is Mitsugi, and Reliable-kun is Madara. Let's begin!

Paradise is the 20th VN I've played and I think it's the first one to have this option. Overall I really liked the technical presentation.

I generally avoid checking spoiler tags when going in so at this point all I had was my experience with other BL games and a few hints about this game's brutality. Overall the content itself is in line with things I've seen before, but hoo boy did some of Azuma's inner dialogue hit hard. That poor guy.

As an aside: I always approach a VN blind until I get an ending. After that I choose who to target and get all their bad ends first, then the good before moving on to the next LI. This approach was perfect for Paradise since the bad ends gave you the context needed to fully understand the good endings and greater mystery in the narrative. Mitsugi > Madara > Takara is definitely the best experience.

(This is subtle foreshadowing of me using up the nation's entire copium supply a few days later)

(And this is subtle foreshadowing of my choice for Best Boy)

The translation for this game was pretty good until the last arc. Mitsugi and Madara's routes all felt natural. I'm not the kind of person who wants everything to be literal, so it was nice to see a real effort put towards localizing their routes. I think the only line I raised an eyebrow at was the Scooby Doo reference (which I'm assuming is localizing an extremely Japanese joke/reference). Sadly this didn't hold up in Takara's route. Suddenly it felt like a very unpolished machine TL- stilted phrasing and sudden tense switching pulled me out of some big moments. Inconsistent terms were suddenly an issue too; namely, the literal transliteration "log house" being used instead of the localized "cabin" in a few places. Lastly, the many instances of "we're" instead of "were" in the script. C'mon! I've read fan TLs with more polished writing and editing y'know? Was it due to a deadline crunch? Careless oversight? Don't know, but I do care.

My heart broke for Azuma over and over again. Just, all the time. At this point I knew the game was an utsuge so I just sat back and let my feelings get trampled as intended.

Classic BL problems.

Classic BL "solutions".

Go ahead and laugh at past me. I am so disappointed in him.

I can't tell you why I like having my heart crushed, spit on, set on fire, and launched into the sun. But at least I know what I like.

I have mixed feelings for the story itself but the characters are above par for a BL VN. Faint praise? Maybe. But I get the sense that the happy ends are supposed to make you feel despair too despite the upbeat music and framing. It's not a good thing that MC-kun comes to accept the guys who have fucked him up. It's uncomfortably true to life how he makes excuses for their abuse just because they showed him some kindness, and it leaves me feeling hollow to watch him disappear into the sunset with them. Yes even Mitsugi. He doesn't get a pass just because he sticks to verbal abuse in the same story as a violent sadist and a murderous cannibal.

Case in point about the "good endings still feel bad".

I was down so, so bad. Good job Paradise you successfully got me to pin all my hopes on this little fucker.

I'll spare y'all the long barganing phase I went through but it ran the gamut from "maybe he's possessed" to "split personality" to "unholy experiment gone wrong". By his first bad end the scales had started to fall, though. I hit rock bottom at last in the second bad end.

I generally limit the title of Best Boy to a LI, even if it's closer in spirit to "Guy I Hated the Least". The only VN I've changed that for is Tokyo Onmyouji because none of those men deserved Tengenjibashi. It wasn't even a fucking contest. Here? Well...

Badly stilted TL in a crucial emotionally heavy scene. This is just the worst example I snipped while playing but man, did anyone look at the script for this route after the machine TL spat it out?

I learned nothing.

And here is where all of my negative feelings about Paradise stem from...

I understand that writers need to rein in the story at some point. You don't have infinite budgets for VAs and all. But the janky, sudden skip to the reveals being recited right away followed by the drive off into the sunset soured the whole experience for me. I wasted hours of my life trying to figure it out when the writers just said shit we gotta go here's the Cliff's Notes see you never. I bought in and was rewarded with the most underwhelming delivery I've seen this side of Phantom Thief Jade. The payoff is the second most important part of a mystery story guys! You gotta take the time to pace the Big Reveal and let the player chew a bit before taking the plate away! It's such a shame that they went through so much effort to layer and misdirect only to give up right at the finish line.

Despite that, I still had enough fun that I consider Paradise a worthwhile investment. I hope the fan disk can be brought over too someday.

Never mind- burn it all down. No survivors.

[scoobydoodean]

sort of relevant to earlier posting but I reread the transcript to 9x06 and I didn't see any concrete indication that dean (or sam) had not called or checked up on castiel until that episode? maybe I read over it or misinterpreted it but I think that possibility's left open? not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things ik

what did stand out to me on revisiting the episode though is how dean handles things with cas and the ways he reassures him, I thought it was very sweet <3

Yeah, and I think Dean gave Cas that phone? I mean we don’t have any indication one way or another. But the way Cas just jumps right into the call (and Dean tries to slow him down and get him to tell him how he is) suggests to me Dean at least tried to call him and Cas didn’t pick up, but there’s really no way of knowing for sure.

So my memory of this episode involves Dean teasing Cas a little too hard at the beginning given the context. However, I also went looking at the transcript since you did, and the first thing that stood out to me is Dean lying to Sam Gadreel.

“I’m not even going to see Cas”

But on the phone just prior, Dean said:

He had every intention of working with Cas behind Gadreel’s back. He was eager for it. And then after getting into Idaho and learning about the case, he called Sam to catch him up to speed, but when Sam (who believed Dean intended to work the case alone) wanted to provide backup, Dean told him no—not because he didn’t want help, but because he planned to take Cas out on a murder date and couldn’t do that with Gadreel breathing down his neck telling him Cas is a liability.

In a case where people were being pulverized into smoothies, Dean traded out one of the best hunters in the world for his newly human bestie who barely knows how to “human”. Yeah. Real concerned with Cas’s “usefulness”. Definitely not just missing his friend—who he didn’t want to ask to leave in the first place.

Yes he is teasing Cas a bit too hard imo. But also… he is literally begging—pleading for Cas to come kill something with him. Kicking rocks with his hands shoved in his pockets.

Cas even brings up that he can’t be of any help without powers:

He is literally so excited by the idea of taking Cas on a case as a human. He wanted to hang out with him so bad. Also textually rejecting the idea that Cas has to have powers. Dean doesn’t have them himself. He doesn’t give a shit if Cas has powers or not. However, when he realizes that Cas is scared, he lets Cas’s safety prevail over what he wants.

Then at the end of the episode:

Dean’s main motivations in this episode: 1) Get Cas to hang out with him 2) Make sure Cas is safe. He doesn’t care it Cas is useful. He just wants him to be okay.

[snorkling-in-sodasea]

So I guess I can talk about Helluva Boss overall this time, or at least the main cast plus others. I'm not sure if it's mostly negative or mostly positive this time so just go ahead and read if you want to. Also, I'm going to be mentioning that I read posts on this site kind of often, just so anyone reading knows. And most of, if not all, those posts are ones I've liked - you know, clicking on that heart - so maybe it can be found if you do some digging

So I started watching this show back in 2019 and I was started for this show. Like I said, Blitz didn't leave a good taste in my mouth at the end but it was the start and wanted to see more. To summarize, Blitz didn't get better for me and it got to the point where I was incapable of giving a shit about his feelings in Ozzie's and Queen Bee. It was only until Exes and Oohs that I started accepting him. And that falls flat on its face thanks to Unhappy Campers. Because yeah, I'm incapable of caring about that jackass, especially if the writers want to keep writing him as the jackass who keeps getting away with shit. Some posts tell me where he's coming from, like his brushing off of Stolas in Ozzie's, but there's a difference to me when it comes to having a sympathetic backstory and actually being sympathetic

Loona I found more tolerable than Blitz. She wasn't my favorite most of the time because she acted like a bitch (pun intended). But I faulted more on Blitz for that because he was supposed to be her father but he acts like he just wanted something to dote on practically all the time. That and another post explained that Loona's bound to have developed an association of close physical contact that she herself doesn't initiate and closes in on her swiftly will set off Loona's fight instincts. Which Blitz is bound to set off all the damn time because he won't learn what personal fucking boundaries are. Plus, it does help me that Loona's normally in the background so there's not a lot of moments for me to get pissed off at her.

Millie I found okay. The thing is, like so many people said at this point of time, there's not a lot to her. It's just country girl, loving wife, physically strong woman, and brutal murderer. Loona may not have a lot of screen time or characterization beyond moody goth girl but I at least learned that she's an orphan who got adopted when nearing adult age and that she's anxious about making friends. Unhappy campers tried to fix the characterization and I think it should have been about Millie discovering new things about herself that she never would have otherwise, thanks to another post explaining it. Instead, they make it that she looks at herself with low self-esteem and I guess that's why I didn't feel much for Millie at that big calling out scene the first time I watched it. Because I didn't connect Millie's character with low self-esteem. Yeah, I didn't get much from how she acted before but I still had something. And none of what I did get indicated that low self-esteem was a possibility for Millie

Moxxie is my most favorite and it's mostly because of him that I'm watching the show at this point. I get some other cool stuff, like Ozzie and Fizz or Queen Bee, but whenever an episode comes by, it's Moxxie I'm looking forward to the most. Yeah, he's got his flaws like the low self-esteem (which is made obvious or at least obvious enough) and the nitpicking attitude. Honestly, I'm at fault for likely, if not definitely, downplaying the bad traits of Moxxie if I ever write fanfiction and the only thing keeping me from feeling guilty is that I'm hardly the first one to downplay negative traits for a favored character in fanfiction. (Seriously, I know someone who writes Blitz so favorably that I feel like I'm seeing a better character with the same name and backstory). Well, that and I'm still trying to write good stories when I write fanfics. The shortest I ever spent on writing fanfics would be a chunk of hours in a day and even staying up to 3 or 4 in the morning if it means making it better than otherwise.

Stolas, I was neutral towards but I didn't care much about him as time went on. It's like, if he can keep Blitz company, especially if he really wants to, then fine. Don't care. Besides, I still remember that post saying that Stolas is a bad dad because he won't stop being horny for Blitz that he just flirts with Blitz right in front of Octavia and keeps screwing around with the imp even after the second episode of season 1. Even when reading another post explaining that Stolas is just unlearned about social stuff thanks to how his childhood and his life was like, I still find it bad because it means Stolas is so desperate for companionship that he won't control his sexual demeanor even around his daughter. It never occurs to Stolas in the fucking first place to control himself and it's not like he's never caught Octavia being disgusted by his behavior before. I do find Stolas better than Blitz because he's certainly of nicer demeanor but he's capable of being selfish. He always had been, since the start what with the transactional fucking that was entirely Stolas's idea and Stolas proposing it when Blitz was running for his life and the horny-ass owl should have realized that since he was scrying on Blitz at the time. I would have been fine with both Stolas and Blitz being assholes to each other if they didn't pretend otherwise and still formed a relationship when forming an understanding of each other. And the fact that both Stolas and the show are pretending the owl's done nothing wrong irks me

While I'm at it, I dislike that Stella is so fucking flat. I mean, I don't have a problem with her being an abusive sadist. It's just so boring for her to pick on Stolas for just kicks and giggles. Honestly, it's weird that, by sheer coincidence, that Helluva Boss has the female characters be blander in comparison to the guys. That the male characters are more dynamic than the ladies. They even wrote Chaz with more in his one debut appearance, that he's a horny too-dumb-to-live homewrecker who likely had deep feelings for Moxxie and was part of the Knolastname mob. Like I said, Millie is four things: country girl, loving wife, physically strong woman, and brutal murderer. I don't see much else and the reveal of low self-esteem is just not connecting in my mind. Loona is a moody goth orphan girl who lashes out at anyone and everyone who wrongs her and Octavia is a moody goth girl who has parents and would keep her rebellion more subdued whenever someone upsets her. Verosika is a bitter ex, although not without reason. Barbie is female Blitz with a different life and is more competent at whatever she's doing. In the meantime, we know that Blitz and Fizz grew up in the circus together, had a falling out either as friends or more because Fizz became famous while Blitz didn't, Blitz is a jerkass who wants to be loved but considers it terrifying for some damn reason so he's a clingy fucker who also keeps pushing away until it explodes. Moxxie is a nervous wreck who's desperate to be loved, too, and so becomes a pushover. He's the only son to a sociopathic mob boss of a father in the Greed Ring. He likes music and theater and is a good chef and is super nitpicky and can come off as condescending and definitely gets stuck in his own head at times. Stolas has a neglectful father, likely been raised by an imp butler his whole childhood, liked Blitz when he first saw him for whatever reason, is oblivious to other people not having fun at best and willingly ignoring it at worst, is close-minded about affairs and cheating and so deflects from taking responsibility, loves his daughter but is rather incompetent at times if Loo Loo Land and Seeing Stars is any indication, is depressed to the point of taking happy pills but keeps taking abuse or will run away if it means not directly dealing with confrontation. Even Crimson is written better since he was better at being abusive than Stella (weird thing to say, I just realized that). He's the boss of a mob so that means that he's likely had a horrid upbringing on top of being in Hell, you can come up with all kinds of shit for it. And it's not just Helluva Boss, either, because I can remember that Angel is a gay man in the 1940s and part of the mob and that Alastor is a cannibal serial killer who has a radio gimmick and Husk is an old man who lived up to his 70s in the 70s and has been raised in a casino or grew up in one and speaks multiple languages. In the meantime, I remember that Charlie is the princess of Hell, that Vaggie is Salvadoran and the most recent death in 2014, and Niffty died in the fifties. So yeah, weird coincidence that I'm getting a lot more out of the male characters than the female ones.

Bottom line, I'm glad to read as many analytical posts as I do. I get to see what so many different people think and decide for myself what to believe in or to see things I wouldn't have on my own. And my personal opinion is, I can't care about one main character or his life but I do have another I do care about and I wanna see where his life goes. So that means there's still something in this show to look forward to and that's probably the way it is for most people. There's something for everyone

[gaesaekkii]

Kaidan could see how the other man would light up slightly at the newly offered option. Honestly, he didn't know if this guy knew what he was, he didn't know how much Haejin knew about him. "No, I don't require medical attention. I mean, I can get harmed, hurt even, but nothing will kill me. I heal faster than a human. I have a friend that can heal by touch, so if I end up with a very nasty wound, I may ask him." His smile is polite and he doesn't intend to make it seem as if Haejin wouldn't be a good enough doctor for him. But he was old and maybe he was getting a bit.. bored by life, sick of it. This lonely life he had. This was why he wanted haejin to offer him.. something. Maybe he would find something that would excite him. Kaidans gloved hands smoothed out the black turtleneck shirt he was wearing, before his gaze wandered back to the other, brows slightly raised. "I do have plenty of time on my hands." Again that polite smile. "But to me, it seemed as if you didn't have much time." His head tilted to the side slightly. "I am sorry if I misinterpreted the situation, I assumed you were on a schedule." Kaidans lips purse shortly. "I could eat." A simple reply that let Haejin know that he was accepting the invitation for lunch. "I won't force you to go into detail. Witnessing murder or dealing with the aftermath of it for sure is triggering and traumatic." His gaze wanders over the doctor. "And I am sure your decision to engage in murder comes from deep desperation. I am not one that judges, I simply like to get an understanding. And I hate when people abuse my powers for the fun of killing."

Haejin wasn’t offended. A man like Kaidan surely wouldn’t be needing medical attention from a doctor like him. Plus he found himself to be rather relieved, hearing that he heals fast. Haejin could only imagine how many people would try to take advantage of this man, how many people would try to get their hands on those wings, those tears. It made him worried almost, but he doesn’t let himself ponder over the thoughts for too long. Was it the doctor in him or did he simply care about the man? It had to be the first, he tells himself.

“Being a doctor it comes with having to be on call most of the time, but today— I’m actually done for today. I had some paperwork to take care of and I’m all free now. So, let me take you for lunch. Somewhere far away from the hospital preferably.”

A laugh is heard from Haejin. Was he actually joking with the man? Guess he was. Maybe it was just to lighten the mood. Maybe he was trying to show Kaidan that he wasn’t as bad as the man probably thought he was. Like he said, this decision hadn’t come easy for him and he definitely wasn’t a murderer and maybe he was liking the idea of them two going on lunch and not focusing on the grim matter they had just been talking about. It was for the best they didn’t.

Haejin takes off his lab coat, hanging it up on the hanger on the wall. Feeling almost overly dressed in that suit he had under the white coat. Taking off his pager and looking at it for a moment before putting it on silent. No distractions. No being disturbed for the next few days.

“It almost feels like a crime to have fun when you’re a doctor you know and I feel like I should be feeling bad about having days off. I’m not sure if that makes any sense, anyway. No one will disturb us now, don’t worry about me having no time or bring too busy. Frankly, I’m looking forward to hearing more about you over this little lunch date. Work, it can wait. I’m not the only doctor here.”

[the-truest-sentence-i-know]

Weird questions for writers: 4, 11, 18?

[weird questions for writers]

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

I love terms of endearment like dear, darling, love, sweetheart, etc. Used sincerely or not, I don't care. Both are phenomenal. (Or, you know, both; first used sarcastically and then sincerely. that's the good shit.)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

I have such a hard time killing my darlings. There are lines and bits that I have kept even though I knew I should probably cut them. On the other hand, I have kept pieces that I thought I should've cut, but then got comments saying they liked that piece specifically. So, y'know, it's very much a subjective thing.

I do have a 'deleted bits' doc though, for things I do cut and hope to be able to use elsewhere (or, inspire some other writing thing). Sometimes, especially when writing fanfic, I suddenly get on a tangent about a character that doesn't really fit the fic I'm writing, but it's something I want to explore in another fic, so I definitely save those. For example, in the first draft of one of my daemyra fics I started going into some like gender stuff for Rhaenyra. The fic I was writing was like a fluffy-ish oneshot, so it didn't quite fit. So I cut it and hope to use it in another fic.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

As Daemon slipped off to sleep, uncertainty began to broil in Rhaenyra’s stomach. His arm held her tightly to him and she began to feel like she couldn’t breathe. She carefully slipped out of his grasp and tiptoed to the bathroom, where she was once again confronted by her reflection. She stood there, frozen, bare feet on the cool tile floor, staring at her naked body in the low light. Her breath came and went harshly, so quickly that she felt lightheaded and had to reach out the stabilize herself on the sink.

So this is from the third part of The Serpent's Tongue. I had finished the fic before I started posting it because I cannot write serially. But, when I started posting it, I didn't have this scene yet.

(cw ahead for grooming & underage sex) Someone commented about how they couldn't wait to see Rhaenyra finally kinda break down about Daemon's manipulation and past abuse. And I realized that I didn't have a scene that did that and that I probably should. I also realized that maybe some of the details about the past abuse was a bit vague (I had some comments that made me think that maybe it wasn't clear enough).

So this scene leads into Rhaenyra kinda breaking down in the bathroom as she finally remembers the first time she and Daemon 'had sex' (in quotes bc she was fifteen). Throughout the fic, there have been indications that she sort of remembers some things that happened between them, but nothing specific. I imply that she's kind of repressed a lot of it, and because he started grooming her so young, sexual things just occupy a bit of a weird spot in her head.

Anyway, this is after she and Daemon sleep together for the first time after his return, so I thought it would make sense for her to remember now.

These answers were a lot longer than I intended! Thank you for asking! <3

[islaytonlost]

What have I done? LB;MR Fic

First Part, Previous Part, Next Part

Dislamer: Do not give people offencive nicknames! Especially if it's based on a something that makes their life harder. Again, Alfrendi is not real. Please do not base your view of dissociative disorders off a fanfiction! ----------

Lying to Hilda hadn’t worked. On top of trying to catch Lucy now and figure out a strategy to confront the Agonni family, her seeing immediately through Al’s timid attempts to be Fendi had just gotten him sent home until he snapped out of it.

There was also the matter of them being shot and being off the pain medication hurt and he wasn’t allowed in the field.

Still, Fendi wasn’t happy, Al could feel his fiery rage pounding in the back of his head. Screw you! Fendi snaps at him, reastless.

Al sighs. They hadn’t gone home. Not being able to bring case files home (and Al returning all the ones that they’d stolen from the mystery room out of fear of being caught) they’d opted to walk around London. For someone who had just been shot, not the best idea but they weren’t exactly known for thinking things through.

They ended up walking to the cafe Lucy sometimes went to whenever she wanted to treat herself to fresh bread and fresh ingredients. A smile ghosts their face as they remember how she devoured sandwiches when they were in the middle of a difficult case. How she’d always insisted on taking breaks and getting him food. Even when they never asked.

A familiar voice rings out across the cafe, “two sandwiches please, and, ooh! Is that fresh?” she grins. Al looks up, full of hope filling his heart. This was their Lucy, who took joys in the little things in life, not caring about what other people thought. Definitely not caring about Fendi’s sarcastic comments on it.

She’d been so nice to the both of them. She hadn't needed to have everything explained to her, she’d taken in stride Fendi’s outbursts and been so patient with Al. He couldn't express how grateful he was for that. For being looked at normally. That’s just normal! You’re too easily pleased.

Maybe Fendi was right. Still.

Lucy waits at the counter, eyes scanning the room. They fall on Alfendi. After a word to the waiter she sits opposite him. Tenser than usual, “so, you’ve found me, what’s your next move.”

“I’m not sure,” Al responds honestly, “I wasn’t looking for you.”

She’s dangerous. Maybe Fendi was too wary, maybe he was right but he didn't believe Lucy would hurt them. She already has. He did know that. He also knew that there were people here. Everyone who had been killed in these puzzle murders were criminals. In some twisted sense that was justice.

They weren’t murderers.

You want to say that again?

They weren’t murders. It felt too nice to think.

“You slow or something?” Lucy was glaring at them.

Al sighs, “no, I was just wondering why you didn’t kill me.”

“I were sending a message,” she leans across the desk, slowly. Her manner clearly intended to make this seem like some kind of threat. Knowing Lucy it seemed silly, Al smiles slightly. 

The waiter comes over, placing two sandwiches between them. It really ruined the mood. The way Lucy’s face lit up convinced even Fendi she wouldn't hurt them. It was hard to remember she was even capable of shooting anyone.

“What was it trying to say?” he speaks, so calm.

Lucy frowns slightly at his manner, “It’s saying I mean business.”

“You mean we? I think you mean we. DIane’s working with you.”

This does shock her. Lucy’s eyes widen, “Diane.. Who’s DIanne?”

“I am 100% sure you’re working with Diane Makepeace. I’m 76% certain that she dragged you into this. You clearly didn’t think of this yourself.”

“You think I’m not smart enough? I know your type, you cops, you detectives, you think you’re so much better than me!” she glares, the fact he’d upset her was worrying.

“I know you’re capable, more than capable but you couldn’t kill me. I don’t know if you could have killed them but you couldn’t kill me. I don’t think you’re a murderer.”

“I shot you didn’t I?”

“I’m not dead.”

“Would you like to be?”

“No. Why would I want that? All I want is to do some good in the world.”

“You threaten to mutate your suspects. Cut their tongues out. You may be a good detective but you get it wrong enough to scare people.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” 

“I’m sorry.”

“What has you acting so placid? You scared I’m going to shoot you again?” Al starts smiling, giving it to Lucy to notice these things. To pick up on them and not say something stupid, “and why are you smiling?! What are you hiding?”

“I’m not hiding anything. I truly do think it’s wrong to threaten suspects with cutting out their tongue.”

Suck up!

“Okay what happened?” Lucy was so taken aback, it was like when they first met and he’d just thrown her into her first case. He couldn’t seem to get rid of the smile.

“You want to know the truth?”

“Why else would I ask?” she snaps back, fingers creeping towards the sandwich.

“I’m not the Alfendi you know, I’m the other person living here. A friend called me placid.”

“You’re Potty.”

“It’s Placid actually.”

Lucy glares, frustrated, a slight smile tugging at the corner of her lips though, she could smell the mystery. Then a blonde stops at their table Al felt his feelings drain from him as Fendi’s anger suddenly flushed. Diane.

Now would be a good time to arrest her but he was injured and these people could get hurt. 

“Is he bothering you?” DIane takes the second sandwich.

AM I BOTHERING HER? WHO KIDNAPPED WHO, LET ME OUT!

Al struggles to stay in control, Lucy says something, shaking her head, eyes lingering on him. It was so hard to concentrate because Diane was going to hurt Lucy. She was going to hurt Lucy. She was going to hurt-

And they were gone, just as Fendi bursts to the surface. They caught a taxi just as he stood up.

I hate you Fendi thinks, so fiercely Al wanted to hide, instead he did nothing, allowing Fendi to leave. Go stomp it off.

I’m sorry. He says after about half an hour, I’m the one who made this deal, I convinced you it’s just… She tried to hurt her before. A long pause. I’m so sorry. Thank you, for not annoying her into shooting us again.