#need to know every detail or have every explanation of what made them who they are to understand these situations

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

I feel like Wanda serves her purpose of explaining why Wade is the way he is. Also the thumb thing was pretty funny ngl

I agree! And at the same time, they're fairly similar too. Though Wanda can seem a bit more asshole-ey, it's usually in the stuff like. Starting shit for seemingly no reason. Other than that, she comes off as more antagonistic because of her framing as antagonistic to Wade specifically (like when we see montages of past Shabbat dinners, or her being suspicious of things Wade says).

Although frankly how they act during the Shabbat dinner and how their mother (Wendy) handles it is also just...fairly realistic to me? Like, sure. A bit of it felt dramaticized personally, but aside from that, it made sense for the characters' personalities. Both Wanda and Wade are (for lack of a better term) a bit childish, especially when it comes to each other. And, as someone who has a number of siblings, even when you're adults things can devolve into, well, childish arguments or fights. Whether she started anything or not (and despite the fork thing, a definite escalation of the situation, while one could tell Wade was trying not to engage at the beginning), you can see some realism in the way that Wendy pretty much becomes exasperated by the situation and focuses more on the fact that her kids are fighting at all than who started what. As a person who was once a younger person, I've also been on the receiving end of...dealing with your parent(s) seemingly branding the fight as a "everyone is being bad here" thing, even when you didn't escalate or start anything.

Or in short, that was a fairly real situation to me, down to how the characters acted (especially given their personalities) and how they each chose to handle the situation. To me one can tell that it was at least partially based upon some real life experiences of people involved in the show.

And I'll be real with you anon. To me, Wanda's level of rudeness/assholeness during...the scene where she purposely ignores her mother asking her to help with Shabbat traditions, until she stops bothering to get Wanda to participate, is kind of no different to me than the level of rudeness/assholeness in the scene where Wade purposely mispronounces Pachacamac's name, until the echidna just gives up and allows him an "easier nickname" to use instead.

And ahsjsjwjsjs the thumb thing. I think I was largely uncomfortable looking at it, but all in all it was kind of funny 😂 I love that the creators thought well enough into their new characters (even side characters) to be able to include moments like that. Even if the Whipple family (excluding Pete) is closer by the end of the show, Wanda never stops being who she is and she never gives up on her rivalry with her brother just because everyone is on better terms now. I love it😂

Anyways, thank you for the ask, anon! 😊

[moonstruckme]

Ok James but him and his slytherin girlfriend seem to come out of nowhere and the boys are supportive but are more mad at James for not telling them? Idk I loved your other fic SO MUCH

Thanks for requesting <3

part 1

cw: mention of injury, no details or anything though

James Potter x Slytherin!reader ♡ 1.5k words

You hesitate outside the doorway to the infirmary at the raised voices coming from inside. 

You don’t need to be here, strictly speaking. James told you his injury wasn’t bad, and he has his friends to help him if he needs it, but…you can’t settle yourself down. You hadn’t liked the way he’d limped off the field, nor the tiny grimace on his face when Sirius had wrapped a bracing arm under his shoulders. It would be just like James to downplay how hurt he is to make you feel better, and the longer the game had gone on without him the more your guts twisted themselves into knots over the idea that he was in pain. 

You’d seethed at yourself and your stupid soft heart all the way to the infirmary, where now you’re frozen just outside like a coward. Something inside you is coiled tight with tension at the idea of going to see James Potter, on purpose and in public, even though that’s dumb because now everyone at Hogwarts knows about the two of you anyway. Your sappy display on the quidditch pitch made sure of that. But now that you have official and widely-known claim to the girlfriend title, you have just as much right to see him as anyone else. You shove your anxiety back into your stomach where it belongs and open the door. 

As soon as you’re inside, the voices become clearer. “—like this isn’t a big deal. The Prophet’s going to be all over the two of you by tomorrow, and we had to find out with every other fucking bloke at the school!”

“Pads, you don’t think I would have told you if I could?” James sounds exhausted, and something mutinous throbs in your heart. It’s followed quickly by the more familiar twinge of irritation at the use of those moronic nicknames they all have. “She made me promise not to tell anyone, including the both of you.” 

They’re talking about you. Of course they’re talking about you. What else could possibly be more important after James has fallen a good twenty feet off his broom than his dating life? This is why you hadn’t wanted to tell people. Hogwarts wears away at private lives like dementors at souls, and the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin is too strong for your relationship with James to have any hope of remaining untainted once the gossip mill got ahold of it. 

Your instincts are screaming at you to turn around and leave before they catch sight of you, but you force yourself to keep walking. If you start letting what people think about you and James affect you now, you’ll never be able to get past it. 

Remus is the first to spot you, going still as if you’ve come to hex him, but James’ face splits into a lopsided grin that has the knots in your gut loosening very slightly. 

“Especially you,” you say to Sirius as you brush past him, perching by James' pillow and weaving your fingers into his curls. There’s a wrap around his middle. It’s very hard to appear calm and blasé when you feel like you’re going to rupture something if he doesn't promise you he’s okay right this instant. “You’d have had all of Gryffindor talking about us within an hour.” 

Sirius bristles but visibly shoves his temper aside, his voice matching your coolness as he says, “If I’d told anyone, Y/L/N, it would have been to inquire about whether anyone’s noticed you gathering ingredients for amortentia recently. James doesn’t keep things from us. Artificial infatuation is the only explanation for why he’d tolerate you and your secrets.” 

“Oi,” James says, but you pat his head placatingly. You can fight your own battles. 

“That how you got this one?” you jut your chin towards Remus, who’s looking somewhat entertained as he watches the two of you spar. “If I’m ever in need of the recipe, Black, you’ll be the first person I come to, but I don’t need to resort to such measures myself.” 

Sirius glowers at you, and James sets his hand on your shoulder just as Remus wraps a pacifying arm around his boyfriend. “Alright, I think that’s enough,” the taller boy says in his usual calm manner, and though Sirius is still tensed for a fight, he allows himself to be drawn into Remus’ side.

James nods in agreement. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys, really. I thought I’d get a chance to before everyone found out, but…” He turns up his palms helplessly. “Things didn’t go as planned.” 

“We’ll get over it,” Remus says, Sirius quietly fuming beside him. “Won’t we, love?”

Sirius looks up at Remus' face, which is clearly a mistake, because he softens like butter in the sun. “Yeah, yeah, just gimme a bit,” he grumbles halfheartedly. “Anything to keep our Prongsie happy, right?”

James beams, so clearly relieved at the settlement of the conflict that you feel a bit guilty for participating in it. He kisses you on the cheek, chuckling against your skin. “You stink.” 

“Some of us stuck around to play the whole game,” you reply.

“Ouch,” James says, but he’s grinning. “Couldn’t really help that, could I?”

You give him a look to let him know you haven’t forgotten how his negligence had gotten him hurt. “Debatable.” 

You hear Remus chuckle but don’t take your eyes off James’ face, inspecting it for signs of the pain you suspect he’s hiding. “How bad is it really?” you ask, softening your voice even though there’s no chance of his friends not hearing you. 

James worries his lip, big brown eyes looking into yours guiltily. “Pomphrey says I broke three ribs and bruised my tailbone pretty badly. Minor concussion, too, but nothing serious.” 

Sounds serious enough to you. You ghost a hand over the back of his head as if you’ll be able to find and fix his hurt. He leans into your palm though, so it’s not for nothing. “I’m sorry I walked away out there,” you all but whisper. “I should have stayed with you.” 

James eyebrows pinch together. “Hey, sweetheart, it’s okay,” he promises just as softly. He knows what it costs you to talk like this in front of people, like you’re turning yourself inside out for them to judge and stab at as they please, but James has no such reservations. He dots a kiss, feather-light, at the top of your cheekbone, wrapping an arm around you protectively. “Thanks for coming, I mean it.” 

You clear your throat. “Yeah, and in my fucking quidditch gear,” you say in your normal voice, attempting to banish the heavy mood. As if your heart isn’t still beating, hummingbird-fast and fragile, in your throat. “We both need to change and shower, and then you should rest. Did Pomphrey say you could leave?”

James nods, still looking at you like you’ve cracked open in his hands (he might be right; it feels like you have, and it wouldn’t even be the first time today). He rubs your upper arm affectionately, but his voice is easygoing when he says, “Yup, I’m good to go.” 

Sirius steps forward, as though to remind the two of you that he is, in fact, also present. “Great. We’ll walk you back to the room.” 

You turn to him, not quite ready for your time with James to be up and aching for the opportunity to dote on him in private. “That’s okay, I can take him.” 

Sirius’ eyes narrow. “You can’t even get into our dorms.” 

“Please, like Gryffindor’s riddles are so perplexing.” 

“I don’t need an escort,” James interjects. He pushes himself up with a grimace. 

You halt him with your hands on his shoulders and Remus says, “Don’t be stupid, Prongs, you can barely walk.” 

“I’ve got him,” you say firmly. Sirius stares you down, but you don’t flinch from his stony gaze. You know he doesn’t trust you. You don’t think he’d willingly trust any Slytherin. Since you’ve been at Hogwarts, the talk in your house has always been that Sirius Black shuns his family because they’re all Slytherins. Although James assures you there’s more to the story than that, it’s still obvious to anyone that he considers his friends his true family. He won’t entrust just anyone with James’ safety. But maybe that’s one thing you can agree upon. 

He must see something of this in your face, because after a minute Sirius relents, rolling his eyes. “Fine,” he says. “I wanted to stop by the kitchens anyway.”

James is looking between the two of you curiously, aware that something has transpired but not quite sure what. 

You don’t give Sirius a chance to change his mind. “Alright,” you say, gripping James' forearms and helping him to stand. “Let’s go, pretty boy.” 

James drapes his arm across your shoulders gamely, and the two of you start out the door. “I don’t think that’s the insult you think it is.”

[blushweddinggowns]

Prompt number 2 bc I’m praying for more jealous Steve content. Bc Eddie can be so oblivious and Steve can be such a bitch and those things are so important to me

Eddie was a glutton for self-punishment, that was the only reasonable explanation he could come up with on what the fuck he was doing here. Sitting at some random gay bar as he watched the man he loved dance the night away with his bestfriend.

He just had to volunteer to be their designated driver. Maybe it was stupid, but Eddie thought that y'know, a gay bar meant that no he would not have to watch Steve flirt with some randos. But he forgot the small detail that bisexual people existed. And he had seen at least three damn girls slip Steve their number.

Which was just...so fucking cruel. Why did life always have to do him so dirty? Eddie had thought that maybe...if they went to this type of place together Steve's mind would open up a bit. A stupid fucking thought honestly. Based off of nearly nothing. Like, okay sure, Steve was all touchy feely with him sometimes. When he was high or drunk suddenly Eddie became his personal chair. And he would say just...the sweetest shit. Going on and on about how happy he was to have met him, how he's so glad he's alive and well, how funny Eddie was, how nice and sweet and pretty and...and all of it had sent his traitorous brain into a tailspin that had him thinking he actually had a chance with a straight guy.

And the fucked up part was that Eddie had really tried to start doing the right thing. He put a little distance between them when he figured out that he was past a silly crush. No he was head over heels for the guy and he needed to get over it. Fast. And if he could just start saying no when Steve called to get high or have a few beers together he probably would have made some progress by now.

But no, he was still to eager for contact with him to say no. Which made him feel like a creep, always waiting around for Steve to be a little out of his mind just so he could get a hug.

When did he become so pathetic?

The only slight comfort he had tonight was the fact that he wasn't alone. It really wasn't fair to bring a straight guy to a place like this, but at least every guy who had eyes on Steve was going to have to suffer in silence with him.

And some of them were kind of cute. Cute enough for Eddie to try and use one as a distraction. He was sitting next to a preppy looking guy, talking to him a little bit. Maybe he shouldn't have set his eyes on someone that kind of looked like Steve, but fuck it. His name was Andrew, and he was nice, a good flirt. The perfect diversion for when Eddie could tear his eyes away from Steve.

And things were actually getting a little interesting with him. He had his hand on Eddie's arm, leaning in to loudly whisper everything he said in Eddie's ear. He was smiling at him, close enough for Eddie to see the pretty gold flakes in his eyes.

They weren't as pretty as Steve's but they'd do.

Andrew tucked a bit of Eddie's hair back behind his ear, leaning in again. But he didn't go for his ear this time, no, he was zeroing in right to Eddie's lips. Not that he was complaining, he let it happen, a sweet, light kiss that had zero time to escalate to more.

Because suddenly, someone was tugging at his arm, hard enough to force Eddie's whole body back, nearly out of his chair. He blinked, more than a little startled to see Steve coming out of nowhere, clinging onto him with that stupid, gorgeous smile.

"Eddieeee," Steve whined, completely ignoring Andrew's presence, "Robin ditched me to make out with someone in the bathroom."

Eddie couldn't help but smile a little bit, despite the fact that he was definitely interrupting what was probably the first good thing about this night. He glanced over at Andrew, who was staring at them, wide-eyed before saying, "Uh, I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"I don't-"

"I can't hear you in here," Steve loudly interrupted, looking adorably confused, "Come outside with me?"

If Eddie was smart, he would have gently pried Steve's hands off him before sending him off to find Robin. But...a drunk Steve was also a very cute and cuddly one. So fuck it, Eddie could find a rebound for his non-existent relationship next weekend.

He shrugged at Andrew, mouthing a quick apology at him before Steve started to drag him outside through the back door. Eddie half expected Steve to do his usual routine when he was toasted. Sweetly asking for a piggy back ride that Eddie literally could never refuse before falling asleep on his back. Then he'd get him in the car, wrangle Robin from wherever the hell she was, and they'd be off.

But the second they were stepping outside Steve was straightening up and stepping back, to Eddie's immediate confusion. He leaned against the wall, glaring at Eddie in a way he had never seen. Or at least directed at him.

"So," Steve started, his tone way too close to how he sounded when one of the kids pissed him off, "Who was that guy? You looked pretty cozy in there."

Eddie's brain was still struggling to catch up to the change in atmosphere here. But he tried to answer anyway, "I mean we were but-wait. Why are you not drunk? You were literally just-"

"It's called acting dipshit," Steve mumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Which ow, rude. But his next words hurt even more, "Not like I have a choice, since you only seem to like me when I'm fucked up."

Eddie could feel his heart stop in his chest. He didn't-oh no. Oh god. Steve figured out he was a creep. A creep who was probably moments away from getting his ass handed to him.

Eddie swallowed, at a loss for what to say. But he still tried, "I-look dude it's um, it's not like that. I didn't- I wasn't trying to make you uncomfortable-"

"Then why the fuck would you kiss another guy right in front of me?"

Okay. That was enough of that. Yes, Steve could be mad about him being creepy, but no he couldn't be mad over having to bear witness for a gay kiss at a gay bar, "Well if I had known that you were apparently only okay with seeing girls kiss each other I wouldn't have come out tonight at all! Honestly Steve, how can you even say that? Like that is some real dumbass levels of homophobia, even for you. I thought the King Steve thing had died-"

"Shut the fuck up oh my god," Steve hissed out, "Are you really that damn dense? That's what you think I'm upset about? Are you fucking kidding me? And I'm the dumbass?"

"Then why are you mad?" Eddie half asked, half yelled.

“I’m not mad," Steve seethed, like he didn't look about five seconds away from choking Eddie out, "I...I just think you can choose better people to kiss.”

Maybe he really was drunk after all. Because now he wasn't making any damn sense.

Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose, beyond frustrated, "Who Steve? Like, I'm sorry to break this to you but not all of us can fucking look like you do alright? We're not all charming, golden Adonis basketball players okay? And sometimes you need to take what you can get. And there was nothing wrong with Andrew-"

"You think I look like a golden Adonis?" Steve interrupted, a weird expression on his face. He looked almost...hopeful? But that didn't make any sense.

"That's what you got out of that?" Eddie asked, exasperated, "I-come one dude. You know you're hot. But that's not my point."

"Well it's mine!" Steve groaned. He was biting his lips, a very distracting nervous habit that Eddie had picked up on, "Because what the fuck are we even doing? You think I'm so hot, so charming, so great, and you decide to kiss someone else in front of me? What the fuck is that? Do you like seeing me jealous? Do you get off on me pining? Please explain."

You see, that was the funny thing about Eddie's brain. One second he was lost, staring at Steve's red, bitten lips, and the next he was desperately trying to catch up with what just came out of his mouth. All of it the perfect blend to effectively shut his brain off completely.

Eddie stared at him, his words as dumb as how his face probably looked, "I-what? Huh?"

Steve narrowed his eyes at him, "Are we really doing this? Are you going to pretend like it's all in my head?"

"I-no. I just-please explain," Eddie is pretty damn sure he had never stuttered through a sentence that hard in his life.

"I've been coming on to you for months and you just keep giving me all of these mixed signals and..." Steve sighed, looking away, "I'm so sick of it Eddie. If you don't like me just say that! Stop whatever this is. Because it's mean and you know it. If you want a better option then just take it already and leave me alone."

He-what-that didn't even- Steve was straight, wasn't he? And now the stuttering had invaded his thoughts. Because if he actually understood all of that then...

He was the biggest idiot on the planet.

And his stunned silence was not helping anything.

Steve sighed, pushing himself away from the wall. He turned away, "I'm going to find Robin. We can just...act like this didn't happen I guess. I'm done."

Eddie had to give himself on thing, at least his body was working a lot faster than his brain. Steve barely had time to take a single step away before he was shooting his hand out to grab his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

"I didn't know you were an option!" Eddie blurted out, his heart hammering in his chest, "I-Stevie I thought all of it was in my head. I-I thought that you were straight and we were just hanging out-"

"You think I sit in the laps of my other guy friends?" Steve asked, completely unimpressed, "While playing with their hair and calling them beautiful? Really, dude?"

Eddie nodded, sure and fast, "Steve, I had to do my senior year three damn times. I'm not always the smartest okay? And in my defense you never mentioned like dudes-"

"Yes I have," Steve interrupted, "When you came out to me, I told you to your face that I understand. That I could relate about hiding things and not talking about it. I literally said we were in the same boat. What else could that mean?"

Eddie remembered that, crystal clear. But..."I thought you were talking about PTSD, not secretly being into dudes."

"One dude," Steve corrected, but he was relaxing a little, thank fuck. Maybe Eddie could still fix this.

He took a deep breath, using his hold on Steve's wrist to pull him closer. His hands were fucking shaking, bad enough for Steve to almost certainly notice when he rested them on his hips.

This was it, he might as well be as clear as humanly possible, "I am so into you. Like a scary amount. Like I'm...borderline in love with you."

He was completely in love with him, but he didn't have the balls to say that bit out loud. He kept going, "And I didn't know you felt the same way. At all. Like I am dangerously close to having a stroke from hearing all of that. You kind of flipped my world upside down there."

Steve huffed out a laugh. Eddie may have fucked up everything leading up to this point, but Steve was eating his little speech right up. He shuffled a little closer, wrapping his arms around Eddie's neck with a small smile, "Keep going."

"I thought that I had no chance. I mean even tonight, people couldn't stop looking at you. And you got those numbers-"

"I threw them away," Steve interrupted, "You missed that part."

He had definitely missed that part, too caught up in his own head. But that didn't stop a smile from breaking out on Eddie's face, "Good. Because if you want me, you have me. I'm all yours, in any way you want me. Understand? Fuck, Stevie if I had known any of this we'd be the ones making out in the bathroom right now. And I'm sorry about..."

For the life of him Eddie couldn't remember his name, not when he had Steve smiling at him in his arms, "The other guy. But it literally means nothing to me. Not if I get to have you. Do...do I get to have you?"

Steve hummed, pretending to think about it while he played with a lock of Eddie's hair, "I guess that depends. Is making out in the bathroom still on the table?"

"Fuck yes it is."

Steve grinned, leaning up to press the sweetest little kiss to the side of Eddie's mouth, "Then I guess you have me then."

[heliads]

I’d like to request a Pietro imagine. Pietro survived and became an Avenger. The female reader doesn’t have powers and isn’t an Avenger. She’s really smart and works with Tony and Bruce in the lab. She was hired after the whole Ultron fiasco. People underestimated her intelligence in high school and college because she’s a girly girl and loves the colour pink, but the Avengers aren’t like that. Pietro likes her and wants to date her.

'waiting around' - pietro maximoff

masterlist

When they tell Pietro he has to go to the labs, his first thought is to run.

He knows it’s silly. These are not the same doctors who made the Maximoff twins strong and fast and utterly alone in this world, these are the scientists with the Avengers. They’re the good guys. Apparently. But Pietro has learned fairly quickly that people calling themselves good aren’t always good in the end.

Pietro has a lot of learning to do since he and Wanda escaped Ultron a few months back. He’s doing his best to be patient and take things ‘one step at a time,’ as the Americans keep telling him. Mainly, he would like their steps to be faster. Pietro has things to do, and they don’t usually involve waiting in line for someone else to decide if he’s worthy of their loyalty or not. The Avengers are trying, he knows that. It’s just hard sometimes.

Especially when Pietro is still trying to shake off the feeling that he should have died back in Sokovia. He came away with his share of narrow escapes, but there was one moment towards the end, when the ships were firing at him, when Clint needed his help, that Pietro thought would be his last. Luckily, he was faster than a few bullets, but there’s still this nagging voice in the back of Pietro’s subconscious that whispers to him late at night:  what if you hadn’t been fast enough?

So he’s been uneasy as of late. What about it? Stress is common in inhumans and Avengers, one glance around this coffee-dependent complex could tell him that. Still, it’s a good thing to get checked out. That’s part of the reason Pietro is being directed to the labs, along with a need for a good annual physical.

It sounds good, too, were it not for the fact that Pietro has had plenty of experience with laboratories in the past few years and none of it was good. The Hydra labs made him strong, in a sense, but they were torturous. He can still remember the pile of corpses ushered out every day, the experiments that failed. He remembers curling up in a corner of his cell, begging his body not to give out, not to make him another body in a bag. He lived, but he remembers.

This is not Hydra. Pietro knows that. He left them behind. Still, there will always be some part of him that shrinks away from every syringe, that distrusts every doctor who comes poking and prodding at the bizarre novelty that is an inhuman. That will never go away, no matter who’s side he’s on.

Still, the lab remains. He has to go in, the others will know if he doesn’t. At first, Pietro hesitates just outside the door, afraid to knock, afraid to listen. There was always a chill in the air throughout the Hydra complex, he remembers the gooseflesh forever on his skin. Signs that nothing good happened within the walls. Or maybe it was just because of the stone buildings in cold climates. Everything has an explanation.

He can’t back out now. Pietro grits his teeth and swings the door open in one broad movement. For a moment, he stands there, waiting to walk back into his old cell, his old life, and then he looks around and realizes with a grin that he’s going to be fine. This isn’t a Hydra ploy to get him back under their thumb. For one thing, Hydra never used this much pink. Just barren walls and gloomy, monstrous skull logos. In retrospect, that should have been a bad sign. Pietro has a problem with ignoring details, though, and it tends to get him in trouble.

These details, however, are quite difficult to be ignored. Everywhere Pietro looks, he sees pinpricks of pink– the handle of a pipette, labels on equipment, notebooks full of scrawled data points, hair ties in a carefully organized container. No, Hydra never had this much fun, and Pietro is starting to think that this is going to be very fun indeed.

Smirking to himself, Pietro weaves further through the lab. He sees a few assistants scurrying around in the back, but they pay him no mind so he does the same. Pietro almost reaches the end of the room when a sudden voice calls out to him:  “Don’t take another step.”

Instantly, Pietro freezes. The owner of the voice walks towards him, a young woman about his age in a lab coat. She must be the owner of the lab, too, because he spots a pink tie in her hair matching the others near the door. The name stitched onto the left breast pocket of her lab coat reads Dr. Y/N L/N, so Pietro knows she’s the one he was supposed to find.

She points to Pietro’s feet, where he notices are just touching a line of caution tape on the ground. “If you went any further, you’d be at risk of getting your eyes blinded by the lasers,” she informs him cheerfully.

Pietro’s face drops. Only now does he notice the hazard signs. “Huh. Guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

Y/N arches a brow. “Do you always wander around lab space without watching where you’re going? Seems like an awfully dangerous habit for me.”

Pietro grins. “Well, I usually rely on my reflexes to get me out of trouble. I’m pretty quick.”

To prove it, he uses his speed to instantly move right behind the woman. She spins around, donning an indignant look that Pietro decides is very cute. “Don’t do that,” she scolds him.

Pietro folds his arms across his chest, grin broadening. “Why not?”

“I’ll tell Steve you’d like to do some weight training with him in the gym, and you think you can outlift him,” she threatens.

Pietro feigns surrender. “Anything but that, please.”

At last, Y/N’s lips twitch up into a smile. “That’s what I thought you’d say. Now, let’s focus. Tony sent you in to get a checkup, right?”

Pietro nods. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Wrong,” she tells him. “Tony actually sent you in here to get on my nerves. He does that a lot. I’m busy and he likes distracting me. We’re going to get through this as quickly as possible, alright?”

Pietro has to fight not to laugh. “And here I thought everyone in the labs gets along.”

Y/N rolls her eyes. “Most of the time, yes. Except when he sticks me with babysitting duty.”

“This isn’t babysitting,” Pietro protests, “I’m getting to know you. I already feel like we’re the best of friends.”

Something that might be a smile flits across Y/N’s face, but she takes great pains to hide it to him. Pietro, who has always cared a little too much about getting people to laugh at his jokes, follows her like a dog as she walks through her lab. “You can laugh, you know. It won’t kill you.”

The smile is gone as quickly as it appeared, and Pietro instantly wishes he hadn’t said a word. “I’m working right now,” she tells him abruptly. “That means I’m focused. Don’t get in my way.”

Surprised and somewhat hurt by her shift in mood, Pietro goes quiet, but he can’t resist asking a second later, “I’m not trying to interfere with your work, I promise. Does that often happen?”

Y/N goes still. Pietro is half expecting her to just ignore him when she finally speaks at last, very quiet and very unlike the fiery personality he’d seen before. “Every time someone new comes in here. And with half the people I’ve already met, anyway. You’d be surprised what a few pink accessories can do to someone’s reputation, and their credibility in a lab.”

Pietro grimaces. “I’m sorry about that, honest. That’s not what I was going for, by the way. I joke with everyone.”

At last, Y/N meets his eyes. There’s a faint tint of humor swimming in her gaze. “I think I got that.”

She’s smiling, though, so he takes that as a good sign. Once that initial barrier was crossed, Y/N opens up a little more, and then Pietro finds himself stopping by her lab almost every day when he’s not off on a mission. He sees her thrilled with success after an experiment worked, and desolate when they don’t. He sees her consumed with stress. He sees her brow knit with careful concern as she patches him up after a mission. Through all of it, Pietro is increasingly risky with his heart, and then one day, he knows he loves her.

It’s a foolish thing to do. Y/N has confided in him many times that she’s afraid people only will see her as a girl first and a researcher second, someone who can be taken out for drinks but never a valid source of knowledge. If he makes his move now, she’ll never forgive him for being just like the others.

So he doesn’t say a thing, and descends further and further into hopelessness. Wanda says he’s ridiculously obvious, but Y/N still doesn’t seem to have noticed a thing, so maybe the only person more oblivious than Pietro is Y/N, and that’s saying something. Pietro doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, but as the days slip by and Pietro only falls more in love with her, he wonders if he hasn’t already ruined it by always wanting more than he can have.

He’s starting to wonder if he is simply going to carry this secret with him forever, until Y/N catches him at it one evening. The night is growing late, and Pietro has retreated to one of his favorite hiding places in the Avengers complex, Y/N’s lab, to watch her conduct her experiments and indulge in some idle chatter. They’ve grown quiet, and Pietro is leaning against a benchtop, doing nothing but watch her. Some of the motion-sensor lights in the corners of the lab have gone off from inactivity, giving the lights above them an extra glow. The light plays upon Y/N’s face and makes her eyes shine.

Pietro is just thinking that he’s never seen someone more beautiful in his entire life when Y/N looks up and catches him in the act. Instantly, Pietro pretends as if he’d simply been watching her pipette some samples into the well plates in front of her, but her brow is already furrowing and she’s asking him what’s wrong.

Pietro shrugs elaborately. “Nothing, nothing. Just thinking.”

“Really?” She asks, grinning slightly. “I didn’t think that was a normal thing to you.”

Pietro rolls his eyes. “Very funny.”

“I thought so,” Y/N hums. “What were you thinking about? You seemed very preoccupied.”

“Nothing,” Pietro repeats, but Y/N doesn’t seem convinced.

“Come on, I didn’t think we were the type to keep secrets from each other. What are you trying to hide?” Y/N asks.

Pietro scratches the back of his head, suddenly awkward. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Even better,” she says, laughing slightly. “What is it?”

Pietro should stay silent, but he can feel the secret rising up his lungs and forcing itself out before he gets the chance. “I’m in love with you,” he blurts out.

Y/N’s eyes widen. Whatever she was expecting him to say, it obviously wasn’t that. “Oh,” she says quietly.

“Yeah,” Pietro says, wanting to stab himself in the eye with a nearby multitool. “Oh.”

He eyes the door, and has just decided that a strategic retreat is the best move when Y/N interjects, “I love you too, you know.”

Pietro turns around so hastily that he almost upsets a nearby rack of micropipettes. “What? You do?”

She’s glancing at her work, but he can tell that she’s embarrassed. “Yeah. Thought you knew.”

“Obviously I didn’t, or I would have done something about it,” Pietro blurts out.

Y/N glances up again, smiling again. “Like what?”

“Like take you out on a date,” Pietro returns. “How about it? This Friday. Seven. I’ll pick you up.”

Y/N laughs. “That sounds good to me.”

It sounds good to Pietro, too. When he leaves Y/N’s lab at the end of the day, he’s practically giddy. All this time, he was afraid of telling her, and now he’s wishing he spilled his guts much earlier. Regardless, he has what he wants. They’ll have their date, and Pietro is going to feel like he’s on top of the world.

requested by @thornyrose463, i hope you enjoy!

marvel tag list: @mayfieldss, @blondsauduun, @mycosmicparadise, @ellobruv, @callsign-scully, @with-inked-solace, @sher-lokid7, @eclliipsed, @23victoria, @watchreadfangirlrepeat, @gods-fools-heroes, @w1shes43, @deafsuperhero, @fadedver, @alex-1967s-blog, @crazyhearttragedy, @faerieroyal

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[yan-lorkai]

Good Morning/afternoon/evening! Can I request a headcanon with a reader who comes back to Twst (after they have returned to their world) and finds yandere Idia made a robot (like Ortho) that looks like them and have the same personality as them? Thanks! ✨💖

Returning to Twisted Wonderland this time was a choice you made after thinking and rethinking the pros and cons, after remembering everything you would be leaving behind. But the pros were greater than the cons, at least you thought. And when you came back, you knew what you wanted to do, look for Idia.

It wasn't really difficult to imagine where he would be, even though a few months had passed you knew he wouldn't have changed that much. However, you should have known how wrong things were when you saw Ortho and he looked surprised, and fearful, trying to dissuade you from opening the door. Trying to keep you from seeing what his brother had done.

But his attempt was futile. You opened the door, received Idia's permission and entered. But nothing could have prepared you to find your own face staring back at you when you entered Idia's room, the emulated expression of surprise making everything more uncomfortable. You and Idia were paralyzed for different reasons, inert, not knowing how to react. However, you recovered faster while he were still processing the entire situation.

"What the fuck is this?" You curse as you look with a mix of admiration and apprehension at your copy. Every little detail was exactly perfect, the same as the original, the same skin tone, the same hair, even the gestures were the same. It wouldn't matter if Idia had a plausible explanation for this, it was clear that he had created a robot to take your place to fill the void in his chest when you left. And it made you feel a little sorry for him, just a little.

"W-well, you see..." Idia can only mutter and whisper gibberish, his hair turning completely pink at being caught with such a strange creation. All this while said creation continues to maintain an impeccable posture, erect and proud, observing you, analyzing.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Yuu." The robot introduces themselves, without knowing or noticing the tension around them. It's so strange. There is no life behind those eyes like there is in Ortho, it is empty and dull plastic. It's uncomfortable to look at. "I'm Idia's lover and we're planning our wedding for after we graduate. Should we invite them, honey?"

Silence. It's embarrassing, invasive and wrong, this all felt too much, should you feel betrayed? Sad? Happy? Or honored that Idia created yet another robot? You didn't know at that moment. All you knew was that you needed to get out of there and you needed it now. But the door was now closed and locked, and no matter how many times you open it or yell at Idia nothing works. He has you now, he doesn't want to let you leave again. He can take your fear, he can take even your hate but having you leave again, even if only for your old dorm? That he can't handle. He won't.

"Prototype Yuu, shut down." He announces, finally recovering from his shock. He acts nonchalantly but you know he feels really awkward and anxious. "Listen, we can talk about it. It's not what it looks like."

You scoff. "Lover? Marriage? Yeah, it's exactly what it looks like, Idia. You created a robot that looks like me, that sounds like me. Because you still don't know how to deal with loss and you need comfort in the only way you know how to receive it."

Touché. He looks like a wounded dog that you kicked. But you find that you don't care at all. "You didn't have to call me out like that, you know." He mumbles but doesn't deny how right you are. "Plus how I was supposed to live without you? I felt so empty, so cold. But I didn't want to stop you from going home because it would hurt you. I can always destroy this prototype if you want, just please don't leave me again!"

He grabs both of your hands, holding onto them as if they were his lifesavers that keep him above the water so he won't drown while he stare at you without blinking, tiny little tears starting to run down his face. Now, can you forgive him or not?

[chaifootsteps]

Sorry this is gonna be long. Vivziepop doesn't understand the gravity of sin and hence cannot comprehend the idea of redemption.

It's so obvious Viv has had some bad experiences with the Christian church, but she is also totally unwilling to research the philosophy behind the religion. There are reasons we believe what we believe, and reasons why what we believe gets twisted and used to hurt people, and even reasons why our beliefs in their truest and purest form can STILL hurt people. But regardless of their effects, whether good or bad, there are REASONS those beliefs exist, reasons backed up by literal millennial of theology and historical/academic study.

The idea that her characters don't even understand HOW someone gets into heaven just proves she gave no thought to the other side of the argument. The premise of Hazbin Hotel is that people can change and deserve a chance to be redeemed, but she fails to illustrate any actual change or redemption.

Redemption is predicated on the recognition of what you've done wrong and the desire to do better. It is an internal battle of constant self-examination and dedication to improve. The people that make up her main cast are sinful. Whether or not their sins mean they deserved hell is up to interpretation. I'm not asking her to follow the Catechism of the Catholic church. But if these people are to be redeemed, they have to acknowledge themselves as full of fault.

Husk was a gambler. A gambling addiction is not a fun or quirky hobby. It, like any addiction, is a complete loss of control and subservience to a vice that destroys your life and relationships with other people. Alastor was a cannibal and serial killer, who took the lives of fellow humans and desecrated their remains for his own pleasures, showing a complete lack of respect for the sanctity of life. Angel Dust hurts himself over and over and over again through his addiction to pleasure and narcotics. Sometimes sin doesn't hurt other people as much as it hurts us, but it's still a sin because we are supposed to treat our bodies as temples. These are all massive flaws of the characters, sins that have overtaken their personalities and lives, and yes, they may be interesting and fun and entertaining, but that doesn't change the fact they did bad things.

Vivziepop can't redeem anyone, because she fails to set a standard of righteousness. Sin is just a mutation of virtue. It's taking prudence and turning it into greed. It's taking humility and turning it into self-flagellation. It's taking love and turning it into lust. Because of her, I'm sure, completely valid religious trauma, she fails to recognize the humanity of the people that hurt her. That they too are just people who struggle with their own sin and vice. She can't comprehend or give the benefit of the doubt that religious people have valid explanations for their beliefs.

She seems to think of heaven as just a place of stuck-up hypocrites who don't know how to have fun. She seems to think the rules and regulations of religion are just arbitrary rules someone made up for a power grab and not a detailed and dedicated attempt of humanity to understand God and his desires.

Viv's understanding of redemption is likeability. It's illustrated in Angel's scenes in episode six. Yes, Angel is being nice and kind and caring about people, but his problems were never a lack of caring about people. His problems were using substances to deal with his problems, and yes he did deny the drugs Cherry offered him, but there was no moment of reflection as to why he no longer wanted to take them. It seems more like he wants to make Husk happy with him than he actually wants to form better coping mechanisms or even a recognition that he doesn't need the drugs to numb the pain anymore now that he has a support system.

She seems to think that if a sinner is likeable, they don't deserve eternal damnation. That's why she woobifies every character she grows to like, because being a good person and sin cannot co-exist in her mind. People who are likeable cannot be bad people and thus a system that would put a likeable person in hell is rigged and stupid. But that fails to comprehend the multi-faceted of humanity and sin.

Sometimes people you love, people who are good to you, are bad people to others. Child molesters can be good friends. Rapisits can advocate for animal rights. Murderers can be good parents. A person who abused you could be someone else's best friend, and a genuinely good friend at that. A failure to recognize the complexity of virtue and vice is a failure to understand what redemption means.

She can critique the idea of perfection. She can critique the hypocrisies of the church. She can critique the tenets of religion. She can even say the things I believe in are unfair and nonsensical and evil. But she cannot make a good critique without understanding the other side of the argument. Because without that, she herself has no counter argument!

The plot of Hazbin is no longer that people can be redeemed, but that redemption is not necessary, because the rules that government heaven and hell make no sense. And that's a COMPLETELY different argument to be making.

I apologize for the length. I hope I've made some semblance of sense.

No, no apologies for the length. It was an interesting read!

Some would argue that all religions are nothing but arbitrary rules someone made up for a power grab, but it's true, there's at least supposed to be some kind of rhyme and reason to it all. In theory at least, it's supposed to improve yours and everyone else's quality of life, but that goes against Viv's theory that the only thing that matters is doing whatever you want all the time. Viv doesn't have to side with Heaven or go full blown scripture, but you can't tell me that Heaven doesn't even know what it takes for someone to get in.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[writtenbysprout]

I don't hate you

synopsis: Your boss, Aaron Hotchner, has made a point to make sure you know just how much he hates you. But the one time it goes to far, you confront him. 

pairing: aaron hotchner x BAU!reader 

word count: ca 1200

cw: swearing, jealousy, unfair treatment, somehow there's pining in here (don't ask how, it just happened.)

You had just found a seat at the precinct, allowing yourself a moment of quiet. The smallest of breathers before the inevitable would come. And just as you let out a sigh you heard the all to familiar sound of your boss approaching. Derek following suit behind him.

In a swift motion Hotch slammed the door closed, leaving the three of you alone in the room.

"You just had to go rouge, didn't you!?" Hotch was the first to speak up as he towered over you, arms crossed over his chest, the ever present frown plastered to his face.

You try to mutter a reply, but as always he cuts you off, leaving no room for explanation.

"You put both your life and agent Morgan's life on the line for something that might've worked." His tone felt like daggers poking at you, making sure you felt every rift and scratch they left.

Up until now Hotch's nagging about your every flaw hadn't gotten too you. But something about his tone and reasoning today just didn't sit right with you. Perhaps that was what gave you the extra courage you needed to make yourself heard. Regardless of the cause you spoke up.

"It worked, we got the guy." You said, calmly at first.

"That's beside the point! You made an irrational decision that could've been fatal." Hotch was quick to pick up, discarding your argument. His eyes a fiery fury of rage. "He could've had a gun, or a bomb or.."

"But we profiled him as a.."

"The profile isn't always correct! You of all people should know that, being a profiler." Hotch cut you off again, not even bother to let you finish.

Morgan, who up until now had stood there in disbelief, straightened up, relieving you of some attention. "Hotch I think you.."

Hotch was quick to cut him off, glaring in his direction. "This does not concern you Agent Morgan, you can leave." 

Morgan was about to argue, but was met with another glare and Hotch's infamous words; "that's an order, agent."

Morgan shakes his head with a scuff. As he reaches for the door you see the resentment in his eyes. He felt for you, but there was nothing he could do. The boss had spoken and his orders was to be obeyed no matter how ridiculous.

Watching Morgan exit, you pushed yourself up form the chair, feeling the whole situation fuel you. You stood as tall as you could, wanting to present yourself as someone to be taken seriously.

“What have I done to make you hate me?” You snap, finally allowing yourself to ask the question that's been on your mind ever since you started.

For a split second you can swear you notice a flicker of confusion in Hotch's eyes, but before you can make anything out of it his harsh glare returns.

“I don’t hate you.” he scoff.

“Bull-fucking-shit Hotchner and you know it.” 

“I stand my ground.” he shrugs, not allowing you the satisfaction of having caught him on something. Even though you knew very well he was lying.

“I just don’t understand. I never get into trouble like Prentiss does. I don’t argue with you like Morgan. I do my job without asking details. Hell, I even put up with all the verbal abuse you throw at me every day! So if I have done something please let me know, cause I’m clueless.” Your voice faded into a plea. Wishing nothing more than to have some peace of mind and not have to tiptoe around him at every waking moment.

“I don’t hate you." He persists, yet this time is different. He sighs as if to continue, but you don’t care at this point. All you want is to know why he hated you. Why he put you through something you’d fought years and years to get away from with yourself. 

"Then why do you act like it?! I've done nothing but obey orders, never once straying from them."

"That's exactly why! You're good!," Hotch yells, but quickly compose himself speaking more softly, "You're too good..”

You mind falters. It's torn into a million different questions, but quiets momentarily as he continues.

"You're right in that I hate you." he admits, but the look in his eyes tells a whole other story. "I hate you for how you make me feel. I hate that I want nothing but to be close too you all the time, comfort you when I see a case takes a toll on you. I wanna be the reason you smile when you look at your phone, reading a stupid text. I wanna be the person you look for in a room full of people.”

“But you are!" Your closed fist pound into his chest with little to no force, mostly out of frustration of him being complete and utterly oblivious to your subtle hints. His hand takes a hold of your wrist in a tight grip and with a yank he pulls you closer. "You've always been..."

You feel yourself dangerously close to him, yet somehow not close enough.

“Then who is texting you?” His next words was spoken through gritted teeth and you couldn't help but notice the venomous jealousy dripping off his voice.

“Emily," When the name of is subordinate escape you lips you can tell the machinery in the great mind of his are turning. "She keeps sending me pictures of Sergio, her cat, and I just find him adorable, ‘n they calm me down if I’m having a rough day or a hard case.”

 “So all this time.." He lets go of your wrist, sinking down in his shoes. "I’ve been jealous of a cat?” 

You send him the look. The one saying well-du-uh!

He steps back, unsure of how to continue. It was clear to him that he had fucked up - massively.

How could he have been so blind? Looking back he'd found all the times you were there, simply there for him. Never once asking for anything in return.

And what had he done in return? He'd given you hell every waking moment during your day. He'd treated you like you were his biggest flaw, and still you managed to show him compassion?

He couldn't recall a single time you hadn't shown him the kindness of your nature, regardless of his cruel ways. You'd time and time offer smiles and wished him 'good morning' each morning, never once straying from it.

In his mind you'd already made up your mind about him, which made it all the more easy for him to keep you at an arms length. But he could see now that he was mistaken. And knew he'd regret it for the rest of his if he didn't try to mend this somehow.

So he said the only thing that came to mind, praying it'd somehow fix things.

“I’m sorry, Y/n.”

"Sorry's not gonna cut it, Hotch."

Crossing your arms over your chest, you watched him closely as he did something you thought you'd ever see him do.

He got down on his knees. Eyes never straying from yours. His next words chosen carefully, "Then tell me how I can make it up too you, I'll do anything."

"I have a few things in my mind."

[angelstate]

Don't You Know Better?

Pairing: Peter Parker x innocent!reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending!

Warnings: Argument, Mention of kidnaping (nobody is kidnapped) emotional breakdown.

Summary: you always try to see the best in people, that often lead you to bad situations and your boyfriend is tired of you not knowing better.

Words: 2.5k!

Peter was mad, you knew that just by the way he was clenching his jax and furrowing his eyebrows without looking at you. just sitting in his desk chair in pure silence.

Silence you didn't dare to break because you were aware that no explanation you gave would be good enough to calm the anger boiling in his chest.

In your mind the events that lead to this awkward silence in Peter's room was still playing in your head, you went through every little detail before he appeared to save the day but nothing seem sketchy to you about the man you tried to help, so maybe it was just bad luck what didn't really happened or in Peter's words "what he stopped from happening".

________________

(flashback!)

you were cleaning the outside tables of the coffee shop you worked since it was already closing time and all costumers had left, it was just you outside, your coworker was inside cleaning the coffee machine since it had been a really busy day.

winter had already started so you had your jacket and your scarf on because of how cold it was outside.

while you were cleaning the table you heard steps coming from somewhere and before you could even turn around, a person was already touching your shoulder and making you face them.

you jumped slightly on your place you didn't saw him coming and placed a hand on your chest, feeling your heart beating a little fast.

"hi! i'm y/n and I'm sorry but we just closed so we can't serve you" you introduced yourself and quickly explained that you couldn't sell him any coffee for the cold weather.

"oh, i didn't approach because of coffee." the man spoke and took a step back from you to give you more space.

"no? is there anything i cant help you with?" you asked and put your hands in you the pockets of your jacket because the air was cold.

"actually yes, i saw a girl crying two blocks from here and was wondering if you could help me to calm her down" he explained and smiled at you before pointing to the direction you guessed he saw the girl.

"oh! yeah, i could help but i need to finish cleaning her" you explained and turned to face the table you were cleaning but the man turned you towards him again.

"she was crying really hard, i really think she needs help" he looked a bit desperate and worried.

you thought about leaving for 5 minutes to help the girl and then running back and finish cleaning up since you had just two more tables to clean before you could go home.

"uh- okay but we should be quick i have to finish cleaning" you gave in and the man just nodded and started walking towards the direction the girl was.

"so, what's your name?" you walked a bit faster so the both of you were walking side by side.

"uh it's- tyler" he gave you a quick smile.

"nice to meet you, Tyler." you smiled back at him and looked around, this street at night always gave you chills because of the big shadows the buildings would made since there weren't a lot of street lights that worked. It was one of the bad things of living in new York.

"yeah nice to meet you" he answered and also started to look around.

"was she crying hard?" you asked while you searched for tissues in your pocket, if the girl was crying then she would need them to clean her face a bit.

"who?" Tyler looked confused before he quickly spoke again. "oh, yeah she was a mess"

"poor lady, it most have been a rough night for her" the thought of her getting bad news or something bad happening to the lady made you feel bad for her. It must been a rough night and she really could use a little bit of sympathy.

you walked till where you supposed the woman would be there was no one, the restaurant you stopped in front of was closed already, you could see the staff walking and cleaning the place but other than that there was no one else.

"maybe she went home already" you said and started to look around, the woman couldn't have gone away in just 5 minutes.

"maybe we should walk just one more block to make sure she really did go home" tyler spoke, looked behind you and grabbed your arm.

he started to walk a bit faster and you hurried to match his steps but it felt like he was almost running.

you started hearing footsteps behind you and before you could even turned around to check you felt someone grab your arm and pulling you towards them.

it was... spiderman?

"oh! hi spiderman" you said in a friendly tone and a little bit out of breath, you already knew who was behind the mask since it was literally your boyfriend of 3 years. what you weren't so sure about is why he approached you with the spiderman suit on

"hi miss! nice too see you again, who is your friend?" Peter spoke and looked at the man, the eyes on his suit widen and suddenly peter stood up in front of you covering you with his body.

"hey! I also remember you." Peter said and you peek a bit only to see the face of 'tyler' turn pale and he's expression fell into one of concern and fear?

"i think you got the wrong person, but nice too met you spiderman" tyler took a few steps, trying to get away from the situation but Peter didn't let him walk far.

"hey! Why are you scared?" Peter said in a sarcastic tone and started walking towards him with a fast pace.

Tyler didn't answered and just kept walking away, peter catch up fastly and grabbed him by the arm.

"don't walk away, i want to know what were you doing before i got here, was there someone needing help?" Peter spoke again and pulled tyler by the arm.

"he saw a girl crying and we were going to help her" you spoke this time and gave the two of them a kind smile, trying to calm the situation.

"a girl crying huh? wasn't that the same emergency you had the other day?" Peter questioned tyler and you saw how he tighten the hold he had on his arms.

"yeah, right. But i guess the girl left already" tyler answered and tried to get off of Peter's hold.

"next time you should call someone instead of distracting people, im always in the neighborhood" peter finally released him from his grip, tyler rubbed the place on his arms that peter was holding.

"the girl isn't here anymore right? You can go now. nobody is in danger anymore" peter said and took a few steps back to get close to you again.

You saw how Tyler mumbled something before walking away fastly, almost running away. you kept looking at him until he disappeared at the end of the street.

You were about to speak but Peter shushed you up.

"let's go home" peter said sternly and grabbed your wrist before starting to walk away.

________________

(present!)

ok, maybe there were a few things off about the situation but it could have been coincidence or pure bad luck.

it's New York after all, anything and everything happens in the streets, especially at night. If you could help someone in distress you would always do it.

You couldn't help but feel a little frustrated, just like him, you had a passion for helping people in need.

"i'm sorry" you whispered.

Peter's eyes snapped towards you, he was looking at you with anger and frustration. his stare made you feel small and like a prey in the gaze of a predator.

"why are you sorry?" Peter asked.

You didn't know what you were sorry for, the situation didn't felt sketchy so you didn't felt sorry for trying to help. You felt a little sorry for leaving your work without finishing cleaning but that wasn't even on Peter's knowledge so why would you apologize about that.

You had nothing you felt sorry for.

"i don't know" you answered and looked at your hands that were resting on your lap.

"then why are you apologizing?" Peter questioned you again, his tone stern and harsh.

it was like you were 9 years old again and your father was scolding you for doing bad on your math exam.

"because..." you took a deep breath.

"because i didn't think through" you admitted.

and it was true, most of the time if not all the time you always believe what people tell you, you don't understand why anyone would like about certain things to bring you trouble.

"like?" Peter pressed and you weren't sure what he wanted you to say until you thought for a second.

"like... always" you whispered and started chewing on your bottom lip out of shame and guilt.

"like always." Peter repeated and when you looked up you noticed this time his gaze was just stern, you knew his anger hadn't vanished but the fact you owned up to your mistake made peter a little bit more calm.

"i know the guy you were with" peter said and stood up.

he started walking towards you, when he was in front of you he got on his knees to be on your eye level since you were sitting on the bed.

"he isn't a good person, do you want to know what he does?" peter asked and you shook your head.

You didn't want to know, Tyler was a bad person, that was enough information for you. You didn't want the details of his doings.

"he kidnaps girls" peter told you either way. He wanted you to know what the man does, he needed you to realize that could have happened to you this night.

"he does horrible things to them, y/n." you shook your head, not denying what he was saying. You just didn't want to keep listening.

"that would have been your fate if i didn't arrived in time" peter said and placed his hands on your thighs.

"no..." you shook your head and covered you face with your hands.

"yes. you could have ended badly hurt" peter emphasized and started rubbing your thighs softly.

you whimpered in distress and felt how your eyes filled with tears, you now knew that tyler was bad and what he does. You didn't want to imagine him doing does things to you.

"i understand." you whispered and uncovered your face, your face hanging low to hide your face from peter.

"don't you know better?" Peter asked, this time more to himself.

He sometimes couldn't believe how naive you were, how you believed everything and everyone. Just because you don't lie and aren't bad didn't meant everyone else is the same.

peter didn't know how to make you understand that, he wished he could take the part of you that was so naive and give it a reality check so you wouldn't end in bad situations like this.

he stopped this from happening, he has stopped before a lot of bad things from happening, but what would happen if one day he was too late.

You could end up being hurt badly, so many horrible thing could be done to you and he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if that ever happened to you.

He was a super hero and was ready to save you anytime you needed, but couldn't you also try and avoid needing to get saved?

"i do" you answered and rubbed your eyes with the hill of your hands, trying to get rid of the tears in your eyes. you felt like you would lose control at any moment.

"then why do i have to always save you" peter rested his forehead on your lap.

He was stressed, frustrated and even angry at you, but he knew he couldn't be to harsh on you. he would love for you to just understand without needing to be scolded but every time he used the gentlest approach you would never fully understand him.

It was complicated, he needed to be stern but also couldn't be too stern. You were fragile like a porcelain doll, needing the most gentle hands to deal with you because one wrong move could shatter you.

"i just wanna help people" you felt the tears forming again in your eyes, your cheeks felt hot and your clothes were getting uncomfortable.

"then help yourself and stay out of trouble" peter gave you a little kiss on your right thigh before looking up only to find you fighting the urge to breakdown.

he hurriedly stood up and hugged you, you wrapped your arms around his waist and started sobbing your heart out.

Peter's heart broke at the sound of your sobs, usually you would just stay quiet when he scolded you for doing something careless in the hopes of being able to help people.

He never really had you breaking down out of pure guilt or shame because of the situation you had put yourself in.

Peter started humming a sof tune and rocking side by side, trying to calm you down. His his right hand he started playing with your hair while his right hand rubbed your back softly.

he let you let cry with your face pressed against his abdomen, he felt how his shirt got wet because of your tears but didn't care.

You needed to cry all you felt necessary, he wouldn't mind having his shirt wet.

After almost 10 minutes you finally managed you calm down a little, hiccups were leaving your mouth and you were sniffling a little.

"I'm sorry" that was the first thing you said after calming down.

"it's alright" peter said.

"is not, i made a mistake. Im sorry, pete." you continued to apologize.

You felt horrible for what you've done, you always want to help people but it always seem like to end up being the one who needs help.

It was frustrating that you never could tell if someone had good intentions because you always focused on the good things about them.

"i know you're sorry, it's ok" peter reassured you and made you stand up in front of him, he took a hold of your face with his hands.

"everything is ok now, i know you had good intentions but you need to be more cautious and be really sure that someone needs help." Peter smiled at you and leaned down to kiss you.

"ok..." you whispered against his lips before kissing him too.

The kiss was full of emotions, sealing the apologies and making up for the mistakes that occured tonight.

You would learn to be more cautious, to analyze and realize if someone is sketchy. You didn't want to get hurt and let peter feel guilty because of your mistakes.

You would learn and lean your best intentions to animals in need rather tan humans for a while.

Rescuing puppies seem like the safest option for helping someone in need.

you would learn to know better, but for now you would rather kiss your boyfriend and make up for the bad events of tonight.

[wolfes]

NEW EDITOR 101: A GUIDE FOR GIFMAKERS by v @shangs

Hi friends! I know I said I would do this way back in April/May when this change was announced but I've been massively busy lately so thank you all for being patient with me :)

Based on the results of this poll, I will be trying my level best to help make a guide for gifmakers to best deal with any problems that have been present with the new editor. However, it's worth noting that I have personally not experienced any of these problems myself and I have no record of any problems from other people that I could send to staff and get guidance on, so for some of these issues I will unfortunately be a broken record.

That being said, I have been using the new editor for a few months now and it hasn't been too bad. So don't be discouraged by the new editor if you still love to make gifs and share them. You may need to adapt a bit, but it's doable!

This is meant to be comprehensive and will be explanation and image heavy. Full guide under the cut.

CONTENTS:

What is the new editor?

Steps to take before posting

Making a post

Troubleshooting

01. WHAT IS THE NEW EDITOR?

Some of you may be asking yourselves what the point of the new editor even is and why it's being implemented in the first place when we already had a (mostly) functional editor. My very limited understanding of it as a CS student is app compatibility and flexibility. I'm not totally clear on the details nor am I 100% certain this is the case, but NPF posts (basically, posts made with the "new editor") first started with the mobile app. I'm unsure if the different post types were simply too unwieldy to transfer to the app - having to make a whole bunch of post types when with the new editor you can now have posts with any elements you want without the rigidity of a set post type - or if it was simply not able to be implemented, but the apps have always used NPF. The majority of Tumblr users are coming from the mobile apps. Then it became a case of having the legacy editor for the web users (which were fewer in number) and the new NPF editor for everyone else. That takes resources to keep around and it's pretty inefficient. Naturally the older editor that was used by less people was going to get the axe, especially since you couldn't tell on mobile that there was even a difference between NPF or legacy posts.

So now here we are and the posts are NPF. This means they're in "Neue Post Format." Basically, every post you make is by default a text post, containing "blocks" of other media - as gifmakers we will primarily be dealing with photos.

I understand that it's frustrating to many to see "our gifs are now rendered as text posts" and ask WHY it's happening when photos should logically be rendered as photo posts - but the fact is, there's now no real delineation between a "text post" and a "photo post." The reason NPF posts are now "text posts" is because that's how they are rendered for desktop themes, not because everyone is going to see your post as text and your gifs are going to be compressed into the quality of a potato (though I know some have seen this issue - more on that later.)

02. STEPS TO TAKE BEFORE POSTING

The long and short of it is that you may have to update your theme. More detail here for those who are interested, but check that your theme supports "new editor posts" or "NPF posts" AND that this is true for original posts (you can read more about why in this ask and, although this may be a bit time-consuming, test it out on your blog). I can say with certainty that my second theme Cygnus supports original NPF posts. This is NOT true of my first theme, though.

You can try to add the NPF Fix by @glenthemes to your own theme (beware if you don't know HTML/CSS) or try this tip by @burningblake for original posts.

Feel free to add theme makers with fully NPF-compatible themes in the notes! I have been happily using my own theme so I can't say to what degree others' themes are NPF-friendly.

03. MAKING A POST

If you're sticking around to post on the new editor and you have trouble ordering your gifs around, here's a little guide on how to post.

If I click on "Photo" from web and open up the editor, here's how it looks:

I went ahead and added three full-width gifs and the editor put them in like so:

You'll most likely also have to order your gifs around in the way you want them. You can go ahead and hover over your gifs to see the button to orient them (the four dots in the top left corner) and the button for an image description (the three dots in the bottom right corner). I've attached images of all three below:

If you hold the orientation button, move your gif around until you see the blue line that shows where your gif will end up in the spot that you want it. For example, I wanted to move the second gif below the first one, so I oriented it so that the blue line would show the marker between the two gifs:

Now my gifs are oriented nicely! Of course, this is a simpler layout, but the principles still hold.

If you save your gifs as a draft and reopen them or you just notice a large gap like this in between your gifs when you're in the editor, don't worry.

This will not show up in dash view or on a desktop theme that supports original NPF posts. For example, this is how the gifs' gap (without modification) looked in my desktop theme:

With your gifs ordered, the final step is to add alt text. You can read more about alt text and why you should use it here. (Feel free to ignore the sections about the captions on the legacy editor since it is no longer relevant. It's also unnecessary to clearly mark descriptions if they're not in the caption of your post because they will clearly show up under "ALT" on Tumblr.)

If you click the three dots in the bottom right corner as seen above, and click "update image description:"

You can add the description you like and click "update." Your photos' alt text will show up under the "ALT" bubble on Tumblr. This is generally a good practice to get into to make your content more accessible, so I hope you guys will consider using alt text regularly :)

Also, I've noticed that in the editor, if you go back and edit something it will take some time to show up. You may have to refresh the page or load it again after some time, but your edits should be there. I would not go back and edit posts again if you see your posts haven't shown up. I also advise against editing your posts on mobile because it's easier to make a mistake.

And there you go, you've successfully made a post with the new editor!

04. TROUBLESHOOTING

I'm sure you've all been waiting for this. Unfortunately I am probably going to be extremely unhelpful if the editor hasn't been refined in the last few months for those experiencing issues. I'm going to go in the categories that I listed out in my original poll, but keep in mind that I haven't personally seen any of these issues on my end so I haven't been able to contact staff with any evidence that this happened other than my poll.

Dashboard view quality issues: I haven't noticed this issue. I'm not sure if this has been fixed since the original poll was posted. If you're experiencing this issue, this is not something I know how to fix so I would contact staff with screenshots of the issue.

Desktop theme side padding: As noted before, this is a theme issue. If you change themes to something that is NPF-compatible with original posts, there shouldn't be any more issues here.

Small gifs on mobile: In my experience this was happening regardless of what editor was used; it's a bug that seems to have been fixed since this poll was created. If you're still experiencing it, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would advise contacting staff.

New editor doesn't accept gifs of size 9.8MB < x < 10MB: I haven't experienced this issue so I would say the only workaround would be to either trim the size of your gif so that it is under 9.8MB or whatever threshold seems to be the cutoff or contact staff (I am so sorry for constantly having to suggest this 😭 unfortunately there's no trick I can offer because the new editor has been taking all my gifs just fine)

Logistical issues ordering gifsets: I hope this guide has been able to answer the majority of questions and shed some light on some of the more buggy behaviors of the new editor, but if you have any more specific questions you can feel free to shoot me an ask!

HTML issues / colored text: Unfortunately it seems colored text may be deprecated entirely? This could be for accessibility purposes because I believe screen readers would read out every single letter of gradient text in captions which I imagine can get quite frustrating for users of this technology. I recommend just using the normal rich text editor. If you want small text, you can highlight and click the <s> button!

Other: If it seems like something I may be able to answer, please feel free to ask me. Otherwise... hound staff 😭

Here's where you can hound staff, btw. If you're having major issues I would advise you guys to submit support tickets. That way if there are any widespread bugs, staff will hopefully be able to fix them.

I hope this guide was helpful to you guys in dealing with the new editor, and happy giffing <3

[genericpuff]

Hello! I’m just here bc I’m a little confused on what you meant by Smythe drawing out “each individual asset” when she was making comics? Now, granted, I can see that it made her file ginormous, but me personally as someone who knows nothing about making online comics but is really wanting to get into it (and also as someone who has a ‘too many layers’ problem myself), is there a way to avoid using too many layers?

My current way of making comics has been to draw the panels individually and then format them (which I know is terrible management wise and also messes with the quality) but I honestly have no other idea of how to do it properly, and seeing how stunning Lore Rekindled looks, I don’t know how you would manage to put all that lighting effects and little details on the same layers. (But also I may be thinking of it wrong so I’ll let you talk qwq)

Ah I can actually give you a visual breakdown of what I meant by that!

So in this you can see there are a TON of layers, and not even all of them are visible because some of them are stuffed into FOLDERS that have been left closed. BUT if you look REEEEALLY carefully-

^^^ These layers right here? That's specifically Minthe from this panel in Episode 61:

(the unique pose here makes it real easy to tell that this is the corresponding panel, you can see the matching body shape with the dark shading that's clipped to the base layer below it!)

So what this means is that Rachel didn't draw all her characters on one base layer, she drew every single character in every single panel separately. Now of course, she could merge all these layers together as working on separate layers helps make it easier to work on elements that collide separately (like one character being 'underneath' another character like Hades is here) but because she has all of those clipping layers with the shading already added in, she likely didn't merge them afterwards because that would actually create MORE problems (because if she merged the Minthe layer in with Hades, then the shading for Minthe that she painted outside of the lines would show up on Hades and then she'd have to erase it which is just a bunch of extra work).

You can also tell all these characters are on their own layer because the layer thumbnail EXCLUSIVELY shows those characters. A layer will show as much canvas length as it needs to cover what's in that layer, so if the thumbnail is only showing one character, that means there's NOTHING ELSE on that layer. If there were more elements on this layer than just Minthe, the layer thumbnail would look more like this:

Now let's compare it to Rekindled's layers! I'll use a completed page to make it fair as we use a lot of extra layers in the post-production phase where we add the texture effects and glow and all that fun stuff, plus I'll even make it a more complicated page like that big nymph explanation spread from Episode 51:

So I'll break it down to make this make more sense:

BG 2 Copy (technically this is supposed to be BG 1) - Basically the panel shapes, what I'll do is mark out the panels with flat blocks and through that we'll add background elements in a clipping layer (usually done by Banshriek). Often times they'll do multiple layers to make the process easier and then merge them all together in the end. With these shapes operating as panels, it means I can just auto select the whole layer, invert the selection, and easily erase whatever's outside of it (such as the lineart and base colors that I put down afterwards). I could just use masking layers like I did in [AFTERBIRTH] but I find this way works better for the process of making Rekindled.

BG 2 - This is where we add objects / foreground elements. So stuff like furniture, interactables, anything that needs to be kept separate from the larger background to make it easier to work with. This can also include "floating" panels that need to be above other panels, such as this:

All of the backgrounds are then nested in a folder for organization purposes (we also sometimes use clipping layers on top of those folders to apply extra effects over anything contained within that folder without affecting other folders, that's a common technique that Banshriek applies)

Then we get into our Characters folder:

BASE - This is where I do the majority of my work, all the characters in every panel on a page are flatted into this layer. Sometimes I do have to create separate layers to, again, make it easier to work with overlapping characters, but usually those layers will be merged before I go into the shading process. I simply shade on a single layer by using the lasso / magic wand tool to select my area for painting, the flat colors make it really easy to do that. Sometimes I need to create a secondary shading layer if I've put down dark colors that start to bleed into the lighter colors, but again, I merge when I'm done into a single shading layer. We also sometimes employ an Add (Glow) layer into the clipping set if we need a glow effect that's exclusive to the characters and doesn't travel outside of their base colors.

There's a (leaves) layer here that I used for the dryad because I needed the leaves to be above the base layer, after that I selected the leaves elements so that I could erase the lineart in the layer above it where needed.

LINEART - It's lineart, enough said haha That said, I do think Rachel actually uses clipping layers for her lineart in places, it seems to be visible in some of her process videos where you can see the lineart present in a clipping layer, and that would explain why there are panels where the lineart suddenly 'cuts off' and doesn't travel outside of the base layer, like so:

GLOW - This is where we do an Add (Glow) layer that isn't restricted to the base layer, it's where we add all the fun lil' glow and sparkle effects over the characters !

The CLOUDS layer is, like the leaves, a background element that needs to be above the base layers rather than constricted to the background.

Above the Characters folder you can see what I mentioned earlier where Banshriek has added more post-production effects that are exclusively clipped to the contents of the Characters folder. This means the effects / blend modes do NOT affect the background layers or anything above it.

The BLUR (Overlay) layer is something we just started doing over the past several episodes, it's a technique I actually picked up from 66 of City of Blank where I merge all the layers into a new visible layer which I then apply a Gaussian Blur to at around 60% and then set to Overlay (and then I adjust the layer opacity until it looks right, usually around 25-35%), it gives it a bit of a softer "dreamier" vibe in the final colors and really helps unify everything!

CANVAS - This is an Overlay layer which is also set to an opacity of 25-35% where I go over the panels with the Add Canvas brush from the Kyle Webster set, unlike the Canvas overlay texture in CSP I can actually choose the colors I want to use which means I can match the canvas texture color to the mood and environment of the scene (ex. I'll use a very light blue for scenes in the Underworld). Not only does it give it that signature texture from S1 of LO, but it also helps balance out the effects of the BLUR layer.

The SKETCH layer sits on top of everything and gets turned off once all the base layers and lineart are down, and ofc the SPEECH folder is just where all the text is kept.

I know everything I just laid out is a LOT but ultimately it's how we operate, it works for us! But it also begs the question of why Rachel operates the way she does because a lot of it seems extremely unnecessary and more likely to bite her in the ass (the more layers there are, the bigger your file size gets, the risk of drawing on the wrong layer increases as well as the risk of posting a panel that's missing elements because the layer was left turned off by mistake, etc.) And it's more so concerning with how she operates with her assistants because if she's still using this many layers when collaborating with other people, hooo boy. Though based on what I've observed of what her assistants contribute, I get a lot more of the sense that she circumvents this by having the artists do the flats separately and then importing them in as separate assets that she then just imports into the page and places them where they need to be. Still not a great workflow IMO because it's what's led to a lot of the issues of characters "floating" rather than feeling like they're actually in the environment-

-but that's still an issue that could be solved by Rachel just taking more time to actually flesh out the backgrounds and lighting to give more of an impression of the characters actually existing in the space. Like that Hestia panel could easily be fixed by just giving the background a bit more detail and putting actual shading underneath her (and lighting from whatever direction it's coming from).

Either way, regardless of whether or not Rachel's process is productive or not, I hope that breakdown helps explain how we do it in Rekindled! Learning how to manage layers is definitely a skill that can be tricky to harness, but once it "clicks" there's a lot you can get away with. Ultimately how you do it is up to you, but my best piece of advice to offer is to just be open to other types of workflows because you don't know how much you might be shooting yourself in the foot doing things the hard way when there are often way easier and more efficient ways to get the same job done. That's basically the vibe I get from observing Rachel's workflow, it seems like she's still using methods that she thinks are working for her (and probably did work just fine for her when it was JUST her) but could be vastly improved for her and her team if she'd just get over the initial hump of stepping outside of her comfort zone. Would probably make for a better comic too LOL

I hope that helps! Good luck! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[sophieinwonderland]

A More Comprehensive Look At Proxy Bypassing...

One of my posts recently talked about Proxying and Proxy Bypassing. This seems to have created some confusion about how Proxying and Proxy Bypassing actually work. And I'll confess, I'm not always the best at explaining things.

So before going on, I want to establish what these terms actually mean.

Proxying: This is the act of typing or writing for another headmate who isn't fronting.

Proxy Bypassing: Bypassing occurs when, while proxying, the nonfronter's words start flowing directly into the fingers faster than the fronter can process them.

To eliminate some of the confusion, I edited the title of the diagram from before to make it clear that this is mostly about the bypassing itself, not just proxying in general.

It is possible for systems to proxy without bypassing happening, which I don't think I was clear enough on when I made the diagram.

But it does USUALLY happen. Especially when writing long paragraphs.

Some have also asked how this is different from possession. And the difference, to me, lies in the fact that possession is more voluntary movement whereas proxy bypassing is largely involuntary and happens unconsciously. People don't choose to Bypass and often may not even realize it happened until after the fact.

So... what's actually going on here?

Because the above is an explanation for what it is, but not actually why it happens.

Well for that, we need to talk about some basic psychology and neurology.

The Cerebrum and Cerebellum

To start, let's take this very basic diagram of the brain from the Cleveland Clinic. Later, we're going to draw all over it in a way definitely not approved by the Cleveland Clinic.

The Cerebrum is the biggest part of your brain. This is the part of your brain that deals with higher thinking, consciousness, emotions, autobiographical memories, etc. There is a lot going on here. But as plurals, just know that if your headmates are anywhere in the brain, it's going to be in the Cerebrum.

Meanwhile the Cerebellum is more for carrying out more automatic processes, balance, motor control etc.

Do you ever notice how when you walk, you aren't consciously thinking about putting one foot in front of the other? How you aren't consciously thinking about how to maintain balance and not fall over? You just sort of point the body in the direction you want it to go, decide the speed you want to walk, and then it kind of just handles all those other details on its own without you having to think about it.

One way to imagine this might be that the Cerebrum contains more conscious programs like headmates... while the Cerebellum contains nonconscious ones. Commands of where to walk and how fast are sent from headmates in the Cerebrum to the Cerebellum which then actually dictates the movement.

(Note: This is a huge, HUGE oversimplification about these brain structures. But it's a necessary one for what I'm trying to explain here.)

We might conceptualize this relationship like this:

Headmate 1 sends what they want to happen to the Walking Program which then sends it to the through your nerves to have the actions carried out.

As you might guess, typing similarly is ran by processes in the Cerebellum, as are basically all motor skills. That's why it often feels a little automatic when you're typing, and why you don't need to think of where every individual letter is on the keyboard as you type.

So just as there's a walking program, there's also a typing program.

Now, when Proxying without Bypassing, Headmate 2 sends information to Headmate 1 who sends it to the Typing Program in the Cerebellum.

But as you can see, this is inefficient. It's an incredibly inefficient way for the brain to work.

So what does it do instead?

Well, my theory is that the Typing program essentially starts listening to Headmate 2 directly, if it already knows that it's going to be typing what Headmate 2 is saying. There's no logical reason to keep Headmate 1 involved in the process with Headmate 1 just acting as a middleman.

Hence, the signal bypasses the fronter and goes straight into the typing program.

Headmate 1 has not actually left front even if they may be a bit dissociated. But this automatic program is now taking instructions from a different headmate.

And unless Headmate 2 can already possess limbs, they may still not be able to do anything else with the hands except type. Because they're still not actually possessing. They're just sending information to the typing program which is what's actually sending it to the fingers.

Conclusion

I hope this explains a bit better how proxying and proxy bypassing work.

Thanks everyone who asked about proxying and proxy bypassing, because I tend to forget that just because something is making sense in my head, it won't to everyone else's and I need to get better at explaining these concepts in ways people can understand. Hopefully this was a bit more successful.

And thanks to the Cleveland Clinic for giving me such a nice brain to draw all over! 😜

[lani-heart]

rejection || bright sun

|| series masterlist || next // previously

parings -> ( eventually ) enhypen x reader genre -> soulmate au, fantasy au, angst warnings -> none ( I think ? ) word count -> 1.4k

y/n's perspective

Declis Academy, Riverfield Academy, IST Korea Academy, and Bright Sun Academy were being integrated…

Declis was known for primarily being a vampire school. Riverfield is a hybrid school that contains half-human creatures like dragons, animal hybrids, and werewolves. IST Korea Academy is a school mainly for humans. While Bright Sun Academy is for anything magic.

Fairies, Witches, Sirens, etc…

Many people were scared but also open-minded… I was open-minded until…

“So stay away from me and my friends,” he said as he walked away.

“What do you mean you got rejected?” Wonyoung asked with disgust written in her face. “AND BY A VAMPIRE!” Eunchae yelled

“It doesn’t matter,” I said as I ate the ice cream my roommates offered me. I looked pathetic… crying over a man… my soulmate.

Someone made for me… not even my soulmate wanted me? “Come on… our witch student council president shouldn’t be wallowing!” Wonyoung said and I nodded. “She’s right! Tomorrow classes start and so does council” Eunchae said as I was about to eat more ice cream but was soon taken away

“Hey!” I yelled as they sighed. “Look… his loss. You’re amazing, smart, and pretty. So stop being depressed” Eunchae said and I nodded. “You’re right!” I said and they nodded.

The whole night was spent with movies and snacks. 

Of course, we fell asleep only to be rushed since me and Wonyoung had a student council meeting in the morning. 

“OK, the room is done! Now we wait for them” Wonyoung said as the meeting room was clean and ready for the academy 

“Hello” I heard as I saw two people come in. “I’m EJ and this is K. Were from the Riverfield student council” EJ said and I bowed while Wonyoung looked at them judgingly… 

“This is a nice room for the student council, a lot better than our school,” K said as I smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood. 

“You don’t mind the integration do you?” EJ asked and I shook my head. “As stuco president I want to help. So I really don’t mind the integration” I said and they nodded relaxingly.

“Oh, Hello” I heard as I noticed they were humans. “I’m Sangyeon, this is Juyeon. We’re from IST Korea Academy '' he said and before we could introduce ourselves two more boys walked in and I felt my mood completely diminish.

“Ah, hello! I'm Jungwon, and this is Heeseung” the vampires from Decelis said… how unlucky my soulmate who rejected me… Heeseung.

“We need to discuss how we’ll all work. And which rooms we’ll be in. I was told that there are only two student council rooms' ' EJ said and I nodded.

“Oh… I was hoping that I could be in the room with you y/n? It’s just I haven’t been on the student council that long” Sangyeon explained and I nodded but I noticed EJ and K’s discomfort. 

“That’ll leave with Decelis and Riverfield… I know the schools were rivals” I said and EJ smiled awkwardly. 

“Sangyeon, would you mind sharing with Declis Academy?” I asked and he looked hesitant. “You can still come to me or Wonyoung for help” I tried suggesting and he nodded. 

“Sure,” Juyeon answered for the two.

“Ok, before we all go to class. The headmaster wanted to know about announcements and activities the schools will be planning” I said and they all nodded. 

“I’m in charge of event planning and announcements. We do a written agenda given out every month to the dorms for events. I will also announce them and explain in further detail” Wonyoung said and they nodded.

“I think Maki would have a better explanation.” EJ said as he wrote down on the board Maki his event planner. 

“Oh! Jacob and Kevin are in charge of event planning but Chanhee would write scripts for the announcements while Younghoon would actually announce the school’s activities” Sangyeon explained as he wrote it down. 

“Sunghoon would do our announcements and Sunoo and Niki in charge of event planning” Jungwon said and I nodded. 

“Ok then…Wonyoung will discuss that with the members you’ve mentioned. EJ and K we’ll be here in the seventh period until the afternoon so I can explain how we’ll share the room. Sangyeon and Juyeon, you can ask me for help anytime. You can just talk to me when you see me. I look forward to working with everyone” I said but in reality, I felt nervous having to work with Jungwon’s vice president.

“Otherwise me and Wonyoung have first period” I said and everyone nodded as they went to orientation. 

I was packing when I felt a hand on my shoulder sending me sparks… I turned around to see Jungwon look at me in shock.

“I… you’re my soulmate?” he asked and I sighed. “We have to be civil with each other… So whatever rejects me, I accept your rejection.” I said as I grabbed my bag but as I was leaving the room he appeared in front of me rather quickly.

“Why are you rejecting me?!” He said and I scoffed.

 “Ask your student council president”

jungwon's perspective

“I met our soulmate today,” I said finally, waiting to confront Heeseung about it in front of everyone. He looked at me almost as if he wanted me…

I knew he was in love with Sooha… so was Sunghoon, Jake, and Jay

“OUR SOULMATE?!” Sunoo said excitedly and I laughed. “But she rejected me or kinda did” I said and Niki and Sunoo were the only ones to react…

“She said to ask you Hesseung” I said and he scoffed. “How can I love her when I love Sooha?” He asked and I scoffed. “She isn’t out soulmate… and she is literally meant—“

“Hey guys!” I heard as I saw the girl of the hour… Sooha was a sweet girl. But to reject our soulmate for her was out of the question. 

They started talking to her normally and whipped for her. Niki and Sunoo kept looking at me expecting me to continue talking but I didn't…

I soon see y/n walk in with EJ…

“Huh? Jungwon, where are you going?” Sooha asked me and I shook my head. “I have something to do,” I said as I felt the boys stare at me.

“Y/n!” I said and she looked at me clearly annoyed. “Jungwon I’m busy I’m discussing with EJ about the council room” she explained as the werewolf stared at me questioning my intentions…

“I wanted to introduce you to Niki and Sunoo… Sunghoon is a little occupied and actually shy.” I said, making an excuse as she looked around. “Have they met Wonyoung yet?” she asked and I shook my head. “I think she’s a bit scary,” I said and she laughed…

“He’s right… Wonyoung is intimidating” EJ agreed.

“Sure, EJ i'll meet you in the council room seven period?” she asked and he nodded as he went to get food from the cafeteria. 

“Have you eaten?” I asked and she scoffed. “Don’t act like your my boyfriend” she said and I smiled. “Well, my love I don’t agree with your rejection,” I said and her eyes softened for only a second. 

“You called?” I heard as I saw Sunoo and Niki behind me… “I’m Sunoo! I’m… was? Well I'm the event planner under Won’s council” he said and she nodded. “I help him with event planning in sports and field days' ' Niki said and she nodded as she also bowed. 

“Nice to meet you both,” she said with a smile. She was treating them differently cause she didn’t know they were her soulmates either…

“Ooh! You guys made a new friend and it's not even the end of the day!” I heard and I felt just a little annoyed. “I’m Sooha!” she said and y/n smiled. “Well, it's nice to meet you all. Sunoo and Niki, I hope you get along with Wonyoung. Just a bit of advice when you meet her: bring in some of the cafe’s coffee and pastries. Just do everything she asks and she’ll like the both of you.” she said and they laughed. 

“And if we don’t?” Sunoo said teasingly and she sighed. “She’ll turn you into a bat,” she said and Sunoo’s eyes widened. 

“I’ll get going now I need to do some work,” she said as she went to the cafeteria food. I was gonna follow her when I felt Sooha’s arm link with mine excitedly. “I wanna be her friend!” she said with a huge smile and I sighed. 

“Sooha don’t talk to her,” Heeseung said and I scoffed. “Huh? She seems so nice though… and she’s friends with EJ!” she said and I rolled my eyes. Those Riverfield wolves are already involved?

With our group being cut in half in favor of y/n and Sooha, this would be a long year. 

please don't be a silent reader !! reblog, comment, and like <3

[bearsintreesofficial]

a recreation of a sonic fanfiction i wrote when i was 10

ok y'all, some context is needed.

we have a song called cassiopeia coming out tonight. i made a tiktok that said if the sound for cassiopeia is used 100 times, i'll publish the sonic fanfiction i wrote when i was 10 that i joke about a lot but have never shared. anyway, this happened in an hour. i am shocked. i did not expect it to happen so quickly, if at all. i begin my search.

well, it turns out i can't publish it because the places it was published no longer exist, and 10 y/o me didn't back it up (although i thought i had). bummer. an early internet relic gone.

either way, the plot details are seared into my memory because honestly? for some reason, that small act of creativity was a core memory in my life. so while i can't share it, i can retell it, because it's silly and pretty accurately captures what it's like to be 10 and obsessed with a piece of popular media. so here goes.

enjoy, and stream our new single cassiopeia tonight.

SCENE OPENS

the fanfiction was about a page long. the story opens with me - in school, as i did most every day of my life up to that point. in the story, sonic/tails/knuckles live in the human world, and essentially function as superheroes. there's no explanation for it, they just are there keeping the earth safe and such. we are also friends. there is no explanation or backstory for that either.

with the setting established, we're straight into the action; an alien pod crash lands in our school playground after school. me and my friend are the only kids left. where are the teachers? who knows. as is evident, worldbuilding was not my strong point.

anyway, in this alien pod is...an alien. it was a spider that looked a lot like the facehuggers from the alien film franchise, because i'd seen a clip of that as a kid and it freaked the hell out of me. i call sonic (where did i get a mobile phone from?) and let him know something Serious is going down. sonic and tails arrive - knuckles is too busy trying to get the master emerald back from doctor robotnik in this instance.

my friend and i take a back seat and let sonic and tails deal with the weird alien thing. they deal with one, but as soon as they get rid of it 10 other capsules drop in the area. sonic and tails can't take them all, so me and my friend join in to help take them out. i didn't really account for how, but we're fighting all back to back and it's very epic. (sonic x was the prevailing sonic show at the time, and it was y'know - very dramatic. so this was like a scene from that.) tails even brings in the tornado two, his personal plane, to run rings around them. after we finish the final facehugger alien off, a final alien pod descends. but out of this pod emerges...

shadow the hedgehog.

the aliens had been sent by him, and he was here to take sonic down. this was all part of his master plan.

the piece then ended, because i suppose i was going to follow it up at some point. but alas, that did not happen.

moral(s) of the story:

archive the silly stuff you wrote when you were a kid, it'll be fun to look back on later.

stream our new song, cassiopeia. it has nothing to do with any of this, but i think it's neat regardless.

thank you.

[alittlebitofsainz]

a place in this world (carlos’ version)

Chapter 2: Enchanted

an invite to dinner with team 55, a weekend where your driver doesn’t even start the race, a late night hotel room visit to lift both your spirits. life is a rollercoaster, as they say.

pairing: carlos sainz x f!reader, slow burn colleagues to friends to lovers, angst/comfort if you squint

warnings: the usual swearing

a/n: yes I know the sainz family would probably never rent a holiday villa on villaplus dot com, I just needed a quick link to fit the texts in the story

masterlist | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

13th August, 2020

three days to the Spanish GP

two weeks. that’s how long it had been since carlos sainz had last texted your number. well, one week and six days. not that you were counting, or anything.

you’d seen him in between, of course, for the 70th anniversary grand prix at silverstone, and this weekend for the spanish gp, which had gone markedly better than the two in the uk. he’d scoffed when he’d seen his name in your phone: cs55? is that all I am to you, a pair of initials and a number? it had been playful, of course, but you wondered whether there was a part of him that had been genuinely hurt - you could swear you’d heard it in his voice. but then it was your turn: y/n engineer? what, in case you mix me up with other other y/ns you know? and that was how you’d ended up changing each others contact names (and, of course, carlos had insisted on taking a photo of you to add to your contact details, and you felt obliged to reciprocate, so now you were greeted with his goofy, lop sided smile every time you opened your messages app. a fact you weren’t exactly mad about).

you weren’t exactly mad about the message which confronted you right now, either - surprised, confused and once again intrigued were more appropriate words that sprung to mind. your mind was going into overdrive. dinner? with carlos? like, out in public? surely the rumour mill would go absolutely mental: carlos sainz spotted with mysterious brunette at restaurant in barcelona. but if he seemed to think it was a good idea…

one week and six days, that’s how long it had been since carlos sainz had felt that feeling of relief, of letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, when she texted him back.

as he’d reread his text over and over after sending it, he realised that it very much sounded like he was asking her on a date, god forbid. In reality, he was going out with a group of mates from his team at mclaren, and seeing as she’d mentioned that she’d never been to barcelona before, he’d only wondered if she’d wanted to join them so she could see some of the city. he was starting to wonder whether perhaps he should’ve lead with that fact.

but it hadn’t seemed to have phased her, thank god, although carlos would’ve given a pretty penny to know what was going through her head right now. in fact, he seemed to wish to know what was going on inside her head most days recently, her paradox being that she seemed so straightforward yet complex at the same time. how could a girl who was such an open book still be such a mystery to him?

a group meal. of course. of course! that made so much more sense, a thousand times more sense in fact. why had your mind immediately leapt to some weird, intimate, romantic dinner date with carlos when the obvious explanation was staring you right in the face? do you want to come for dinner with me and the team, seeing as you are in fact part of the team was so much more normal than hey, I’ve known you for five months and I’m a world famous, very wealthy formula one driver, would you, a regular degular race engineer from the south east of england, like to go on a date with me? yeah, no, you’d been a grade a idiot for that one. was there a small part of you that was disappointed? you decided that now was not the time to overanalyse your own feelings; now was the time to find an outfit.

carlos couldn’t hide the grin on his face, all the way to the restaurant. it only started to falter when they arrived bang on 8 o’clock, and then waited, 8:04, and waited, 8:07 and waited, 8:11. it reappeared again when she rounded the corner, slightly flustered and breathless.

“god, I’m so sorry, I got lost.” she apologised with a deep inhale, trying to get her breath back. carlos shook his head and chuckled, the sound low in his throat.

“don’t worry about it. we haven’t been waiting long.” he reassured her. it almost surprised him; usually he would take any opportunity to tease her, especially for being late like she so always was. But there was something about the way her cheeks were flushed that shade of red that gave away that she’d been rushing, and the way her eyes flicked nervously, apologetically, from person to person, that made him feel almost guilty. and when she offered him the warmest, sweetest, most grateful smile he thought he’d ever seen, carlos’ face lit up like a christmas tree.

he pulled her seat out for her when they reached their table, making sure to choose one next to him. an expression crossed her face as she whispered a ‘thank you’ that carlos had never seen before from her - was she nervous? shy? he couldnt put a finger on it. perhaps it was the fact that she didn’t know the rest of the people at the table that well - yes, that must be it. so why, when he knew everyone at this table, and very well he might add, was he feeling the exact same way?

“woah, this place is gorgeous.” 

a marbled kitchen adorned your phone screen, and you swiped to the next photo to see a similarly tiled, much smaller room. wow, even the bathroom was fancy.

“and you go here every year?” you continued, swiping again and again to reveal several photos of the master bedroom, all from different angles. you and carlos had been discussing family holidays whilst you all waited for your plates to be cleared, and he’d decided to show you, rather than tell you, about the holiday villa that he and his family often frequented on the costa blanca.

“not every year. as often as we can get out there, though.”

his breath tickled your neck as he leaned over your shoulder to watch as you continued to flick through the photos, the glistening aquamarine pool so large it took up the whole screen, the pale blue glow reflecting on your face. you both leaned back for a moment to allow the waitress to clear the empty dinner plates, before returning your attention to your phone. there was a loud laugh from down the other end of the table, clearly a hilarious conversation was happening between the rest of the group - you both seemed oblivious to it.

“well, it’s no costa blanca, but we love it there.”

carlos’ eyes crinkled at the edges as he grinned, now swiping through pictures on his phone. he let out a chuckle at her comment, as he swiped to reveal the kitchen, a tiny little alcove with slightly dated wooden cupboards and curtains on the windows that were covered in pictures of farm animals.

“where did you say it was again?” carlos asked, fingers swiping again, this time showing a picture of the dining area. his eyes were focused on the french doors at the back of the room, leading out to a patio and a small garden, but beyond that was absolute nothingness - just trees and open sky as far as the eye could see.

“north yorkshire. it’s like, five hours north of london.” she explained, knowing that london was really the only point of reference carlos had when it came to england. she reached out a finger, swiping on his phone to reveal the next picture.

“and that-“ she pointed to a railway line, a large, old fashioned steam train in the process of chugging up the hill, frozen in time by the image. “- is why we go there.”

“and that’s right outside the cottage?”

“and that’s right outside the cottage.” she repeated back to him, an almost proud smile on her face. it was the little things that made her smile. 

“that’s really cool.” carlos replied, almost surprising himself by how genuinely he meant that. since when had he been impressed by a tiny two bed cottage in the countryside, with nothing around but trees, hills and a steam train? but when her eyes lit up, her face cracking into a grin, he understood what had changed.

“really?” she asked, the same hint of surprise lacing her voice.

“really.” he replied, glancing up to meet her eyes. “I never got to explore much of the english countryside, and now I’m moving to italy I guess I probably won’t be able to.”

“I always saw you as more of a city guy.” she picked up her wine glass by the stem as she spoke, giving it a small swirl before tipping the wine glass back and taking a final sip, finishing the drink. carlos mirrored her, considering his reply.

“I don’t think I could live in the country.” he explained, “but it’s a nice escape from everything.”

“yeah,” she set her wine glass back down, a small, imperceptible sigh escaping her lips, “I know exactly what you mean.”

30th August 2020, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Belgian Grand Prix, DNS

you stared into the mirror on the wall of the bathroom you were getting changed in, and found your scowling face staring back at you. in the past four races, your driver had had rotten luck in three of them, and you could tell how frustrating it was getting for him, and you.

which was why you were surprised when you took out your phone from your pocket and read his message. you were sure he’d leave as soon as he could, which was half the reason you’d disappeared off to the bathrooms to get changed out of your overalls and into a pair of jeans, grand ideas of heading back to the hotel and catching the latest episode of love island going round in your head.

but carlos was staying? you loathed him for it - you now felt you ought to stay too, pulling your top on over your head and combing through your hair in the mirror before grabbing your things and heading out into the corridor. but as you stalked back towards the garage, a thundercloud still hanging fairly low over your head, you realised that you also admired him for it. not everyone would stick around after failing to even start the race. heck, the majority of drivers probably couldn’t be out the door fast enough. but there was something about carlos sainz. 

she was there before he’d even had time to pull out his phone, all fake smiles and an ingenuine spring in her step. faint, fading creases around her eyebrows were the only indicators that she’d ever been frowning, ever let herself be unhappy about the situation, now being replaced with new lines from forcing her lips to curve upwards just like that. how come carlos had only known her, what, five months now, and yet he felt like he knew her so well?

“hey.” he greeted simply as she made her way over to the monitors where carlos was stood, a pair of orange headphones around her neck, the same as he had round his. as she came to stand next to him, he threw an arm round her shoulders, squeezing her into a side hug. was he imagining things, or did she lean oh-so-delicately into his touch? the next moment she was pulling away, looking him square in the eye.

“you okay?” she asked softly.

“not really, you?”

“no, not at all.”

and then they were both smiling, almost laughing, all curved lips and sparkling eyes, nothing fake or ingenuine about their expressions. how did she always manage to do that? turn such a shitty situation on its head, leave carlos smiling when all he wanted to do was crawl into a dark hole and avoid everyone for a very long time? as he looked at her, really looked at her, he was beginning to understand that maybe, just maybe, he had the same effect on her.

you’d used that phrase a few weeks ago, after the second race at silverstone, the second thirteenth place in a row, and now carlos couldn’t stop using it. you’d noticed him picking up a lot of your phrases and mannerisms recently, his friends teasing him whenever he pulled out a ‘swings and roundabouts’, or god forbid a slap on the thigh and a call of ‘right!’ to announce that it was time to leave. they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

it was several hours after the race had concluded; you were now bundled up in a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt, splayed out on your bed mindlessly scrolling through instagram when his message came through. you were becoming increasingly less surprised every time carlos texted you, a level of understanding developing between you that you enjoyed each other’s company, and you wagered that you could both do with some cheering up round about now. 

it had been a bit of a long shot, carlos realised. the two of them had never hung out one on one outside of the events of the race weekend, but right now there was no one else he’d rather speak to, rather while away the hours of the evening watching all the trash tv they’d spoken about over dinner a few weeks ago. no matter how frequently he messaged her nowadays, he still always got butterflies when she texted back.

it wasn’t even five minutes before she was knocking at his door, the orange of her mclaren sweatshirt picking up the flecks of amber in her eyes, still somehow shining through even in the low light. since when had he started to take notice of things like that?

her presence lit up the room immediately, both metaphorically and physically.

“anyone would think you’re a vampire, considering how many times I’ve found you sitting alone in the dark.” she chastised as she flicked on the lamp in the corner, adding a soft warm glow to carlos’ hotel room. he chuckled.

“can you blame me?”

his tone was light, a soft smile across his lips, but there was a hint of sadness to his voice which gave him away. her own smile faltered, as she went over to join him sitting on the bed. she sat shoulder to shoulder with him, as she had done on the pitwall earlier, watching the remainder of the race in companiable silence; the warmth seemed to radiate through carlos’ body from the spot where her upper arm met his, as it had done then as well.

“no, I suppose not.”

she sighed, brushing a stray strand of hair off of her forehead. carlos turned to look at her; she appeared to be thinking before she finally spoke.

“you know, I admire what you did today.”

“what, not start the race?”

that earned him a playful bump to the shoulder and a small, musical laugh.

“no! no, I mean staying around to watch the race. not many drivers would do that in your position.” the corners of her mouth still twitched with the remnants of the way he’d made her laugh, but he could sense some sort of sincerity behind her words. he shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to shrug off the swelling sense of pride he was feeling as it sunk in: she admired him.

“I’m sure many drivers would have done the same thing. I’m not special.” he replied, feeling suddenly very humble under her gaze. she shook her head, the movement almost immediate.

“you are special.” her voice caught in her throat slightly at the first word, causing the other two to come out quietly, her voice almost a whisper. if the room hadn’t been completely silent, carlos might have been able to convince himself that he hadn’t heard them, that he’d imagined it. 

they spent the rest of the evening as he’d imagined it - talking about anything and everything whilst netflix took them through episode after episode of selling sunset in the background. it was nearly midnight by the time she returned to her own room, latching her arms round his neck as she said goodnight to him with an embrace. her hair tickled his nose; he swore he could still feel it now, even when he was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, several hotel rooms separating them. her words were still going round in his head. he reckoned they probably would stay there for quite some time.

you are special. you are special. you are special.

taglist: @itsjustkhaos

message/comment if you want to be added!

[maraudersmyloves]

Hello! I was reading this post about bada doing the reader's hair and her doing her makeup, and I liked the way you wrote it so much that I wanted to request a story from them.I was thinking about a dance in the rain, they had gone on a date in a beautiful countryside, with the perfect forecast, until it started to rain. You know, it was his fifth wedding anniversary, he wanted to please his girlfriend who loved the landscapes at night, he just wanted to make her happy and take photos of her before she returned to Europe, but the plan had been ruined and he felt terrible, until the reader stood up and asked her to dance, and thought again that she really loved that girl and that no matter how many months she was away, she would always wait for her. And oh! Can you have them kiss and an explanation of the feelings expressed by the kiss that Bada gives to the reader? (If it's too much, just don't do it, sorry, those details excite me a little) a big kiss. 😘

Thank you so much for this, I love taking longer requests so always feel free to add as many details as you like!!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆｡ﾟ. ───

pairing: Bada Lee x Reader

Warnings: My bad English, unedited, a bit angsty

Disclaimer 1: Everything on this Blog is fiction!!!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆｡ﾟ. ───

Bada felt so bad. She fucked everything up. This was your last night together before you had to return to Europe again and she managed to fuck it up.

She feels so stupid, why hadn't she looked at the weather forecast?

You sit down on the wet grass next to her, staining the pretty dress you wore. She looks over to apologize and is stunned. You look so incredibly happy. Bada is confused, has she not fucked up everything? You let out a little giggle while standing up again, "Dance with me. Please?"

Still in a daze Bada follows you and takes your hand. You lay your Hands on the back of her neck and she pulls you closer by the waist.

You're swaying without any music just staring into each other's eyes. You giggle again, causing Bada to join. She doesn't know what you find so funny but seeing you happy is all she needs right now. You look up at her through wet eyelashes. "You know, I've never told you this but I always wanted to dance in the rain with you."

Bada grins, "don't lie."

"I'm not! I always thought that only people who grow old together dance in the rain, at least in books. I thought it was silly so I didn't tell you."

Bada's eyebrows furrow, "You can tell me everything, love. I never think you're silly."

You give her a look.

"Okay, sometimes, But I think you're silly in a very cute and loveable way."

You smile your lovely smile again, and Bada can only think about how lucky she is to have you. She loves you so deeply that she simply wouldn't be able to stop. No matter how far away you are or how long she has to go without seeing you, she could not stop loving you. On her wedding day, she said "'Till death do us part," but not even death could stop her from loving you. Not even death could stop every part of her belonging to you. Her Body, her heart, her mind, her soul. Whatever Souls are made of, hers was made for you.

You squint up at her, "What are you thinking?"

She smiles lovingly at you, "Just how perfect you are."

You blush and Bada doesn't care about her soaking clothes or the ruined food she bought. The only thing she cares about is kissing you.

You angle your head and she leans down to connect your lips.

You hope Bada knows what you want to say through this kiss. You're so incredibly thankful for her. Her putting up with you, caring for you, loving you. You pour the endless love from your heart into the kiss hoping it could last forever.

[nhlclover]

tutor and tutoree sparks fly au

✭ — summary: sofia offers to tutor rutger

✭ — warnings: one instance of cursing

✭ — a/n: this is literally just rutger falling in love with sofia but he doesn't realize yet

✭ — word count: 1.20k

It didn’t take long for Rutger to spot her familiar blonde head of hair, pulled back into a messy braid and headphones on her ears. Rutger wasn’t late this time, ensuring he could sit next to Sofia and giving himself time to talk to her before the professor started the lecture.

“Hey.” Rutger says.

Sofia doesn’t reply, in fact doesn’t even turn her head. Rutger realizes her headphones are probably noise cancelling, so he waves a hand in front of her face.

Sofia jumps, pulling her headphones off. “Oh, hey.” Sofia says, pausing the song.

“Hey.” Rutger replies. “What’re you listening to?”

“Uh, Zach Bryan.” She replies, showing Rutger her phone screen, displaying the Elisabeth album cover. “You’re not late this time.”

Rutger lets out a dry laugh. “Yeah, made sure I knew where I was going this time.”

“Oh I’m not judging, I’ve gotten lost like 8 times already.” Sofia jokes.

There’s a lull in their conversation and Rutger just stares at the blonde girl in front of him. “So did you do the readings?” Sofia asks, a little intimidated by his glance

“Oh, uh… some of it.” Rutger says, fishing the book out of his bag. “I read the first 5 pages and then Luca asked me to play chel with him and… chel is a lot more fun than reading.”

Sofia laughs. Her laugh is like a melody in Rutger’s ears. He doesn’t quite know why her every little detail has him so entranced but he isn’t complaining.

“Listen, I know how hard it can be to balance being an athlete with being a student. How about we get together once a week and I can help you with some of the work?” Sofia offered.

A smile comes across Rutger’s lips. “Yeah! That’d be great.”

“Just uh…” Sofia starts. “Don’t let Luca or Adam find out.”

Rutger furrows his brows. “Why?”

Sofia conjures up a lie in her head quickly. “They probably won’t like me trying to become friends with their teammates. They can be a little territorial.”

Rutger seems to buy this explanation. “Oh so we’re not just tutor and tutoree, we’re friends.” He smiles, receiving an eye roll from Sofia. “I mean I’m sure they won’t care if you’re helping me out with English and we just happen to become friends.”

Sofia breathes in deeply, considering the situation. On one hand, there’s this incredibly cute boy, who is charming to no end, and something, somewhere within Sofia desperately wants to get to know him. But on the other hand, he’s her brother’s teammate. He’s the one person in the whole universe that Sofia has been explicitly told to not go near.

But to hell with Luca and Adam, they can’t control her.

“I’m sure they won’t.” Sofia says.

“Great!” Rutger smiles. “Listen, how about you come over to the sophomore house and go over the readings for this week? And, if he’s there, we can tell Luca so he doesn’t just find out randomly.”

This sends a rush of panic to Sofia’s core, but she finds herself nodding before she knows it.

By the time class is over, the two of them are packing up their stuff and Rutger is leading the way to his place.

“So you didn’t get into hockey, huh?” Rutger asked, trying to get to know Sofia a little more.

Sofia chuckles. If she had a dollar for every time she was asked this question, she’d be richer than Adam (even with his new contract). “Uh, no.” She says. “I tried to get into it, but playing just wasn’t for me.”

“Mhm.” Rutger nods. “So what is for you? What do you do for fun?”

“Uhm, read. A lot. My book collection’s a thing of beauty.” Sofia says. “I also like to bake.”

“What’s your favourite book of all time?” Rutger asks.

Sofia answers immediately, with no need to contemplate her answer in her head. “Little Women.”

“Like the movie?” Rutger asks.

Sofia laughs at this. "Um, yeah like the movie. Have you seen it?"

"Um, no. I just know it's a movie with Timothée Chalamet." Rutger sheepishly replies, making Sofia laugh.

"Well, It's this amazing book about these sisters living during the civil war and they have such intricate personalities, and it also delves into women and how they are people with their own thoughts and-"

Only then does Sofia look at Rutger, realizing she has been going on a rant about Little Women. He's staring at her, delicate eyes as she spoke about the book she's so passionate about.

"Sorry, I just went on a tangent." Sofia chuckles.

"No, It's cool how passionate you are about that book." Rutger smiles.

They turn down a walkway and up to a house. Rutger unlocks the front door, allowing Sofia to enter. “Luca? You here bud?” Rutger shouts out.

“Yeah, wassup?” Sofia hears her brother's voice from somewhere in the house.

“C’mon.” Rutger says to Sofia, walking down the hall. They enter the living room where she sees her brother slouched on the couch, a computer on his lap.

Luca pauses from typing and glances up at his roommate. He looks back at his screen before glancing back up. He thought his eyes were deceiving him but, sure enough, his baby sister was standing next to Rutger.

Sofia reads his confused, almost concerned, look on his face. “Hey Lu…” Sofia chuckles.

“What’re you doing here?” Luca asks. His eyes flick to Rutger, suspicion now lacing his eyes. Sofia recognizes where his brain is going so she jumps in before he can make any snap judgements.

“We’re in the same English class so I’m helping him make sure he doesn’t fall behind, especially while he’s away at road games.” Sofia explains.

Luca’s eyes soften and they go back to his computer. “That’s actually a good idea. She’s a fucking genius when it comes to reading.”

Sofia’s slightly taken aback by Luca’s immediate understanding, but Rutger doesn’t flinch. “Great. We’re gonna go over the readings.” He says. “Here, we can go to my room.”

Rutger walks out, not receiving any pushback from Luca. Sofia follows, wondering if Luca didn’t hear him or simply doesn’t care. They go upstairs and into his bedroom, Rutger closing the door slightly. “You can sit wherever.” He says.

Sofia sits on his desk chair, pulling her legs in, sitting cross-legged. She takes out her notebook and book, opening her page notes.

“You handwrite your notes?” Rutger asks, taking out his things.

“Um, yeah if it’s notes from a book or readings. If it’s class notes I use my laptop.” Sofia replies.

Rutger stands in front of her, looking down at her notes. “How do you read that chicken scratch?”

“What do you mean? I actually have really neat writing.” Sofia laughs.

There’s her laugh again.

Rutger joins her laughter, sitting down on his bed. “Okay so I’ll give a quick rundown of what happened in the first 20 pages, then we can talk about the discussion questions. Sound good?”

I get to hear you talk for the next 10 minutes? Sounds perfect.

“Sounds good.” Rutger nods.

“Okay, so the story opens with George and Lennie walking on a path.” Sofia begins.