#teresa's terrible friends

[bird-nest-32]

I feel like I need to give a TED Talk about Teresa's character and its complexities. Because if I see one more post about how she was a terrible friend and person I will curl up into a ball and cry.

[sukisheadlights]

PROTECTIVE TENDANCIES!

tmrminho x wckd!oc

summary: she took care of him all these years in the maze. But will she be there for him when he needs her outside it?

story: maze runner masterlist

rory’s voice mail 🎧: Sooo I'm not that well versed in the lore (that is a sign for re-watch + re-read I know) either way I haven't made any mistakes as far as I'm aware of but incase I missed anything, let me know <3 love you, say it back!

SPOILERS AHEAD OBVIOUSLY

Sadira spins around in her chair as the dark blue light reflects off her glasses; before coming to an abrupt and screechy halt when she hears him yell through the computer screen. She quickly turns and looks over the multiple cctv screens around her in search of minho, until she finds him. Eventually. She messes around with some buttons around her until the 'griever' as the gladers called it, slows down. She sighs and leans against the chair having succesfully saved him the third time this week.

Sadira could confidentaly say that she was the youngest at w.c.k.d. She was 16. She could tell you alot of things, except for what she does in the abnormally technologically advanced building all day. There isn't exactly a job description for saving the asses of the friends you've made through a screen who don't know you even exist. Infact, that probably hinders the consistent experiements being thrown at these children who are her age, heck— some of them are even younger.

Sadira knows that the only reason she isn't in that maze is because she's the daughter of Dr. Ava Paige. I guess even being an adopted daughter has it's own advantages.

That's why she's so careful when she saves the lives of the gladers, if ava finds out both her and the reckless gladers she watched over are doomed. Boy this would be tough to explain if she met them in person, how would she even act around them? Thankfully she doesn't have to worry about that yet. Right?

When Ava turned her away and banished her from coming to w.c.k.d for 'safety reasons', Sadira was MORE than curious on what her 'mother' was hiding. So naturally, when she called her back urgently she ran through the multiple maze like hallways of the building in search of Ava like a mad woman. Maybe in her own way, w.c.k.d was her maze and cage too. just in a non-life threatening sense. for now.

She walks towards the prison cell looking holding room as she stands next to the woman she calls her mother not looking through the window just yet; she should have, maybe she could have ran instead of walking straight to her demise.

Instead she stared gaping mouth at the other girl who happened to step into her peripheral vision. "You remember teresa, yes?" Ava announced loudly, her words ringing colder than the white lights above their head. Sadira could only nod in response; who the hell was inside that room?

"Unfortunately my love, it would be unwise to get into details here. But teresa recently found her way back to w.c.k.d, back to us. And she has been working with us in your absence. It is with a full heart that I can tell you that you will be learning hands on how to talk to a test subject today. Do not worry child, rest assured, you will be safe." She spoke again as teresa walked away, her tone laced with something unfamiliar which, looking back— could have only been something poisonous. "Go on." she nudged again as Sadira walked into the plain white chamber which, looked even sadder from the inside.

She turned around as the door closed behind her and this, mystery inmate. Her heart dropped to her feet. It was him. He was here. Nonetheless, she approached slowly and sat down infront of him. He looked...Terrible.

"Hello," She said blandly, but internally she was nervous as ever. But if she showed it, Ava wouldn't let her talk to him again. How would she help him out then? She should probably slow down but the difference in his character was unsettling.

He didn't say anything in response and only watched her intently, or dazed. She remembered how his eyes looked in the maze, even if they were facing near death every second of the day. And then she noticed how dead they looked this very moment, when this was the one time in life he was truly protected. She looked towards the one-way mirror hoping she was looking directly at Ava. That's when he scoffed. "They can't save you in here."

She looked back at him, eyebrows raised and all. "What would I need saving from, Minho? You won't hurt me." She said confidentally, but not in the sense that she knew he wouldn't. Well, still in that sense but she only showed Ava what was on the surface. Confidence in the sense that she was hiding her fear.

Minho ofcourse, knows that even if he wanted to kill her this very second he would be unable to, considering the shitload of drugs he was put on. She's pretty, it's a shame she's on the wrong side of all of this, he thought.

"Don't wanna talk? that's alright. We'll get you to one of these days Minho. Time is on our side." the words spilled out of sadira's mouth leaving a bitter after-taste. she didn't like talking to him like this, but if she even let Ava catch on to the idea that sadira had...once grown fond of the boy infront of her? she would have lost her chance. for what exactly? she's not entirely sure herself.

silence engulfed the small white room as she watched the nervous bob of his adam's apple before promptly getting up and leaving.

That night, without much shock. She was kidnapped. "Oh, it's just you lot." she said calmly, looking at the faces of thomas, frypan, newt, and gally. All the idiots she saved multiple times. Well, except for frypan— he was always a sweetheart.

The point is, she wasn't intimidated. Instead she laughed when they tried to threaten her. Then, she asked them to untie her and much to everyone's surprise, they obliged.

Not wanting to leave them high and dry Sadira explained everything to them. How she saved their lives, How she knew them, How she saw teresa, And about how she spoke to Minho. She then warned them that as a 16 year old saving them to those small extents was all she could have done and that it would be unwise to redirect their anger from w.c.k.d to her simply because she knew.

She also agreed to get minho out, but that was a given. The only condition she set down was freedom from Dr. Ava Paige. Who she had the displeasure of calling her mother. They sat on the floor that night and all the gladers and Sadira in unison decided the best plan to get minho out of that hellhole. And they settled.

On Gameday, Sadira offered to walk with Janson and pointed out how something looked suspicious with teresa and her guards. Inevitablly, Janson approached the disguised gladers and it was there that they grabbed her as she sneakily snatched janson's all building access card. She was with them under the ruse of a hostage, just so that Ava doesn't get suspicious and look too closely.

When they found out Minho was moved, it was only because of Sadira and another test subject that they could pinpoint Minho's exact location.

However, she should have probably thought to warn him in some way that she was on their side. Maybe then Minho wouldn't have mistakened her for the enemy and slammed her into the wall once they did find him. ouch.

The escape after that was mostly smooth sailing, there were no losses and only minor setbacks. But those don't matter enough to be mentioned here. [Authors Note: I didn't have it in me to kill off newt so don't blame me] Ofcourse, Sadira almost dying while protecting minho doesn't fall under minor setbacks but she would have done that for any glader.

When she woke up in the 'refugee' a few days later, minho was the first person she spoke to. The conversation flowed much more smoothly when her formerly alive mother (that was fun to find out) wasn't watching over them, she joked. And he laughed. And she thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. So she made him do it again, and again, and again. Until she finally realised she couldn't get enough of it.

They moved fast. From touches, to kisses, to something more. But it was never in the sense that it was too much to handle, Instead it was in the sense that they had waited too long for each other and that they were desperate for this. Needy, even. Which was insane considering he barely knew her. Oh well.

First Kisses and First loves are obviously difficult post-apocalypse but hey, atleast it makes one hell of a story.

[heliads]

Hello 💕🌸 can you do a Thomas modern au fic when the reader is not well, sad. And Thomas come to her house to shower her «  the boyfriend package » : hug kiss, etc… the reader is adopt sister of Brenda, Teresa is Thomas twin sister. Newt is their best friend (who also had been matchmaker before they dated..) can you do à maximum of fluff please 🥹🥹

'boyfriend checkup' - thomas

masterlist

Being sick is terrible, isn’t it? From the second you felt the first threads of the cold start to clog your throat and nose, you knew it was all over. Mentally, you signed your death certificate: Y/N L/N, passed away today, gone from the most horrific cough known to man. That’s how it felt, at least, yet you’re still expected to get up and act as if nothing was the matter. Those kids with tuberculosis in the Victorian age who got to lie around in bed all day while their parents treated them like royalty didn’t know how good they had it.

Thankfully, you have at least a couple of days to feel better before you really have to be productive. You started feeling poorly on a Friday, barely managing to stumble through class before heading home as quickly as you could. Not wanting to complain and spoil the good mood of everyone excited about their weekend plans, you had tried to tell as few people as possible. Specifically, you hadn’t told your boyfriend, Thomas, but now you’re missing him more than ever.

It’s not like you’re intentionally trying to keep things from him, you just don’t want him giving up whatever fun things he was supposed to do this weekend so he could hover over you. You love your boyfriend more than anything, honestly, but when it took you so long to admit your feelings for him because you were certain he would never like you back, small things like this make it even easier to talk yourself out of thinking he’ll want to know about it. Thomas is the varsity cross country athlete, the popular one. He loves you, and he’ll tell you that as many times as it takes so you believe it, but some part of you will always wonder why.

That’s why you haven’t told him, not yet, although you have a feeling that he’ll find out sooner or later. Your adoptive sister, Brenda, is best friends with Thomas’ twin, Teresa, and they trade gossip like no one you’ve ever seen before. Both of them have repeatedly assured you that Thomas is head over heels for you, but what if he’s not quite infatuated enough to want to drop his weekend plans to take care of an invalid?

As the cold progresses, though, you start to wish that you had bothered him anyway. You’ve shut yourself up in your bedroom with all the lights off, just lying there and reminiscing about the golden days when your nose had worked as it was supposed to. You had taken so much for granted, and now you’re afflicted with a truly terrible fate indeed.

You’re miserable even on a Saturday, which is how you know things have truly taken a turn for the worst. Not even the weekend, the blessed release from work, can lift your spirits. Your best friend Newt was the only one who knew that you were going through it, and he’d made you promise to call him the second you started feeling better so he could plan a friend group movie night or something. Newt’s always the one on top of stuff like that. You doubt any of you could accomplish anything without his work behind the scenes to keep you all organized. He holds all of you together and keeps anyone from straying too far.

You had hoped that Newt would forget that you were feeling down, but it’s half past noon when your phone buzzes with an incoming call from the blond boy. You briefly consider just letting it go to voicemail, but that would alarm him even more than if you admitted that you still aren’t feeling your best.

You end up giving yourself a second or two to put on your best fake smile before answering the call. Thankfully, Newt had elected to go for just a talk over the phone instead of FaceTime, so you only have to disguise your voice and not your expression, too.

Newt’s voice rings over your phone. “What’s up, Y/N? How’re you doing today?”

You’ve never planned on a career as an actress, but when you answer Newt as happily as you can, you start to consider it. You sound chipper and excited, surprising even yourself. “Doing fine, Newt. How about yourself?”

Maybe this is actually doable. Maybe you might be able to convince your friend that you’re fine so he doesn’t do something terrible like try to get involved. Right now, you just want to be left alone to wallow in your dark room until you’re physically forced out of it.

Newt clicks his tongue in disapproval, sending a rush of static crackling over the phone. “Y/N, are you being honest with me?”

You start to sputter in surprise. Hadn’t your ruse been perfect? “What? Of course I am!”

Newt lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Sure thing. We’ve been friends for years, I know when you’re lying. You want to let me know how you’re really feeling?”

“Really, I’m great,” you eke out. “You’re being paranoid, Newt.”

“Am I?” He asks.

“No,” you admit. “I’m still miserable. My head is killing me, and I haven’t left my bed for more than a couple of minutes all day.”

Newt sighs. “That’s what I was worried about. Is there anything I can do? Maybe rally the group to swing by your house to cheer you up?”

“No, honestly. I don’t want to do anything. Hopefully I’ll get better soon, but until then, I don’t want any crowds around.” You tell him.

Newt pauses for a moment, thinking, then asks, “What about just one person?”

You frown. “Are you offering? I thought you were busy all day.”

“I am,” Newt clarifies, “But Thomas isn’t.”

You go silent. Newt, always the perceptive one, sighs again. “You haven’t told him that you’ve been feeling under the weather, have you?”

“No,” you admit, “but I didn’t want to bother him, that’s all. There’s nothing Thomas can do about this. I don’t want him to worry about something out of his control. He’s already got enough on his plate already, you know that as well as I do.”

Although this conversation is happening over the phone, you can picture Newt’s look of disappointed consternation anyway. “No, he would be furious with me if you were sick and I didn’t tell him. I’m letting him know immediately.”

“Newt, don’t you dare,” you admonish.

He just chuckles. “Too late. Texting him now. With any luck he’ll be over within the hour.”

“You’ve betrayed my trust. You’re a terrible friend,” you admonish him, but only half heartedly.

Newt laughs openly. “No, I’m a fantastic friend and you know it. Did I not use everything in me to get the two of you together?”

You giggle in spite of yourself. “You did indeed. I remember you bringing that up many times.”

“As I deserve,” Newt grumbles. “The two of you fought me all the way despite supposedly wanting this. He had better make you happy now, I’m not ruining all of my hard work for a bad cold.”

You smile. “Thanks, Newt. I’m very glad that you suffered so much for us.”

“You had better be,” he says, but he’s laughing when he hangs up.

Seconds later, you get a text from Thomas: On my way ASAP. Might be breaking the speed limit.

You grin and text him back. Don’t get pulled over.

Never, he answers, and he’s true to his word, a knock sounding on your front door about five minutes later. The rest of your family is out of the house, so you have no problems creeping down the hall to unlock the door and let him in.

Thomas swoops in immediately, pressing a kiss to the top of your head before pulling away so he can get a good look at you. “How are you feeling, Y/N? Dizzy? Feverish? You look alright, if a little tired, but let’s get you back in bed at once.”

You laugh. “I’m not dying of the plague, Thomas. I’ll survive standing up for a few more seconds.”

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t have to,” he says. Pausing briefly to leave his shoes at the door, Thomas proves his point by picking you up in bridal style and carrying you back to your room despite your protests, which are admittedly pretty halfhearted.

Once Thomas has gotten you back in bed again, found a glass somewhere to bring you water, insisted on watching you drink all of it, run back downstairs so he could fill it again, and returned, he perches on the side of your bed, gently squeezing your hand.

“Well, Doctor Thomas?” You ask teasingly. “What’s your diagnosis?”

He grins and plays along. “Not terrible. I recommend bed rest, and maybe also letting your boyfriend know when he needs to take care of you.”

This last bit is delivered with increasing passion, and you’re left sheepishly smiling at him. “Alright, maybe I should have told you in the first place, but I just didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worrying is my job,” Thomas says, “I am excellent at it. Also, if I think you’re not telling me when you need extra love, I’ll worry even more than usual. The only way to keep me from worrying is to let me know when you’re sick or hurt. Deal?”

“Deal,” you agree, and smile when he kisses your cheek.

“You should get some rest,” Thomas urges you. “Here, I’ll close the door so the noise from downstairs doesn’t bother you.”

He moves to stand, but you reach for his hand and he freezes at once. “Stay with me?” You ask hopefully.

“Of course,” he smiles, and, careful not to disturb you, climbs into bed next to you, lying down on top of your blankets to keep his street clothes off of the mattress. You curl into him, letting your eyes shut as the steady beat of his heart lulls you to sleep. Once you wake up, you’ll feel better, and be more open to conversation, but for now, both of you are quite content with the silence. Peace is good for both of you.

requested by @hope92100, i hope you enjoy!

maze runner tag list: @rogueanschel, @ellobruv, @retvenkos, @neewtmas, @mayfieldss, @hiya-itsamber, @gods-fools-heroes, @23victoria, @w1shes43, @imwaysthelastchoice, @fadedver

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[nomoreusername]

It's Not Goodbye

Pairing:Newt x gender neutral reader

Summary:After finding out you're not immune, you are ready to get rid of yourself only to be caught by Newt.

It was okay at first. I felt no different than I always did. I was a bit sore from the Cranks, but it didn't matter. I had saved Newt from the one that tried to kill him, and that's what matters. Nobody ever died from a bite when they're immune.

Unfortunately, they do if they're not. It turns out I was one of the unlucky suckers capable of turning into those things.

At first, I didn't even notice it. There was a lot of pain in my ankle, but it wasn't bad enough to say anything. I thought I was just irritable because I was hot and tired. That's a reasonable explanation.

Then, I noticed something. Black veins started growing from the bite. That's when it finally kicked in. I wasn't immune. Now I have two options. I could kill myself or spend my life as one of those things. The choice is obvious.

I didn't tell anybody. I just didn't have enough energy. Apparently, the flare gives you enough energy to harshly shove your friend to the ground though. Minho ended up with bloody elbows after that. I went full force. All eyes turned to me, and it was obvious that everyone was pretty pissed off that I would do that. Everyone ignored me for the rest of the day.

As night fell I thought about it. My last day with them was spent with me holding back tears. I hurt my friend without thinking about it. I was dangerous which meant I had to leave. It was now or never.

Unfortunately, the only gun was in Newt's bag. I cautiously kneeled next to him. Since he was using it as a pillow I used my hand to support his head. By some miracle he didn't wake up, and I had the gun in my hands.

That's when it went wrong. Newt woke up, and in my fear I dropped him and ran. He was quickly startled awake. He looked in the bag and noticed the missing gun. By then I was already out of sight.

I put the gun against my head as my breathing grew heavy. I sucked in as much air as possible and closed my eyes. Then, I went to pull the trigger.

"No!"Newt yelled, snatching it from my hand. I quickly pulled him down and held him to the ground. He groaned in pain, and I realized just how evil I was becoming.

"I'm sorry Newt, but I have to do this. Just give it to me,"I pleaded.

"No. You're not doing this,"He argued, keeping it close to him. I knew it could go off so I took it from his hands. Before I could do anything he knocked it away, and the last bullet was set off.

"No! What have you done?! What did you do?!"I cried, rushing towards it. I did everything to click it over and over as if I could set it off. Nothing happened.

"Why would you do this? How could you do this to me?"I sobbed, burying my face in my hands. By now the others had woken up and came over to see what was happening. I'm sure it was a terrible sight. I was crying while holding a gun, and Newt was frozen in shock.

"You killed me. You killed me in the worst way possible,"I sobbed, biting my lip to hold back my screams. I heard my friends run to my side to figure out what was happening.

"I couldn't let you-"

"I'm infected. Why do you think I've been so angry lately? It's already happening. I'm losing my mind, and you just made it go on,"I explained, my throat sore from the sobbing.

A heavy silence filled the air. I pulled my pant legs to reveal the way veins were growing so it would sink in.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,"Newt uttered, wrapping his arms around me. I just sat there and let him hold me.

"I need another way. I can't live like this."

"What if we can find some way to help? Maybe we could slow it down until we get there,"Teresa spoke up. I sadly shook my head.

"You all saw what I did to Minho. I just did it to Newt. I'd rather die as I am than being hated."

"We don't hate you,"Thomas whispered.

"Not yet. Please, help me. Let me do something. Anything,"I begged. By now even the wind seemed to stop making any noise.

"I found a knife in the mall. It's the only thing I have. I don't think anyone has anything else"Newt whispered.

"It sounds better than being beaten by Aris's bat,"I attempted to joke, giving a sad smile. I was more than thankful when he did his best to return it though it looked like a grimace.

"I'll go get it now,"He said quietly. I nodded my head as he walked away.

As he did my friends, new and old, kneeled beside me. I let them hug me, knowing it would be the last time. By now several tears from them were falling. I didn't have it in me to do that. All I knew was that I would die still being loved. That was enough.

"I'm sorry,"Minho whispered. I just sadly shook my head.

"I think I'd be just as bad if something like that happened to me,"I assured him. Before he could say anything else Newt was back with a tear streaked face.

Everyone moved as he sat beside me. He was trembling as placed the knife in my hand.

"I guess this is goodbye,"He uttered. I shook my head no.

"I don't believe in goodbyes. I'll see you later,"I corrected him.

"Okay. I'll see you later,"He repeated, placing one last kiss on my lips. It was the slowest one we ever had because it was going to be our last for a long time. Eventually, we had to pull apart.

More tears ran down his face which I wiped away. He leaned into my touch.

"I need you to go back to the campsite. Don't turn back tomorrow. Go forward so you don't have to see me like that. Can you do that for me?"I asked.

"I will. I love you Y/N."

"I know. I love you too. Now this is the part where we walk hand in hand."

"And after that?"

"One last kiss, one last I love you, and whatever comes in the next life."

[petrichor-idyllic]

Hi Petri, soooo I just finished Dead man walking and already (not that soon though, cause I know you have many requests to get through) need a part 2 because this is my new favorite thing, I love it, you did amazing (as always <3).

You can do whatever you want for part 2 but I wish you could do a little scene where the reader is trying to figure something about her job out and Gally is there just staring at her, and how beautiful she looks when concentrated,and they're just flirting and having fun. Also please do a lot of Fry teasing them because I absolutely love it.

Yes, absolutely, I can.

Love my boy Gally.

Sorry I've been MIA.

DEAD MAN WALKING PT. 2

MASTERLIST | GALLY MASTERLIST

PART 1 | PART 2

SUMMARY: See above. Continuation from part 1. Time skip to the Safe Haven.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, Frypan bullying Gally, awkward tension, you not being sure what to do with yourself, reference to Chuck's death. WICKED being WCKD because movie. Newt's dead. Rip.

The past few weeks have been a blur of chaos and emotion.

You'd arrived at the Safe Haven. But, you were the only person left from the rebels.

Lawrence stormed the City, destroying and setting fire to everything, which was not the plan. And not something you agreed with.

You'd split off and made your own way through the City, managing to bump into Gally on his way to their escape ship. His group had taken some blows.

They'd lost Newt to the Flare. Teresa got swallowed by a burning building. Thomas had been shot. Minho had been deeply traumatised at WCKD's hands.

Life hadn't been easy on these kids. But at least they're safe now.

And so are you, even if you're permanently having some kind of identity crisis due to too much free time and losing your rebellious means.

But, hey, you've still got Gally, at least.

Well, sort of.

Things have been painful awkward since your kiss in the Last City.

It's no one's fault in particular. You've been moving a hundred miles an hour your entire life, and now you get shouted at for finishing your work too quickly, and you're not really sure how to deal with people when you're not bossing them around or being bossed around.

And, Gally is just generally terrible at feelings.

It's actually mildly concerning, sometimes.

Which has led to a weirdly tense friendship where neither of you really know what you're doing.

It's a painful watch.

And you kinda sorta forgot that Gally is still a slightly awkward teenage boy with no experience with women.

It's definitely an experience; but on the bright side, you've become an honorary Glader. Sure, you don't understand the slang still, and you have to remember to not ask too much about the Maze or some of the people because you'll be met with several PTSD induced panic attacks. But, you've befriended them.

Minho is funny and sarcastic and incredibly tough.

Frypan is sweet, and also kind of funny. And he's an excellent cook despite what the other boys say.

Thomas is bold and determined, even taking a bit of a leadership role alongside Vince - even after his well-deserved break.

And whilst Brenda and Jorge aren't quite Gladers, you also like them quite a bit. Jorge reminds you of Lawrence in a way. He's rebellious and bold, but instead of cold and occasionally terrifying, he's funny and fraternal. And Brenda is kind of like you in a way, except she's playful. Which you have severely been lacking in the last few years of your life.

Yet, despite integrating into his friend group, his new home, his daily life - yours and Gally's relationship is still at a weird standstill.

So, you've decided to dive into work. Helping Vince is an easy way to clear your mind, and helping out people who've suffered under WCKS's hands is kind of your speciality.

You prepare blankets, clean, help Frypan in the kitchen, help with building plans, settle petty disputes; you name it, you do it.

And that's something Gally has always admired about you.

"Oi, shank, you're starin' again." Frypan says, snickering as he sits next to Gally, the light from the flames bouncing off his face.

Bonfires are an almost nightly occurrence at the Safe Haven. A celebration of their freedom and security. But, it's a bittersweet experience for the remaining Gladers. Memories of happier times dance in the fires of community. They always thought escaping the Maze would be the end, but they often find themselves remembering simpler times.

You don't share the same heartfelt irony.

"I'm not starin'." Gally grumbles back, yet his eyes still linger on you.

You walk around, handing out drinks and occasionally adding to the fire, making small talk; mainly with Vince, Thomas, and Brenda. You also occasionally take grimances sips of Gally's special brew - another festivity bought from the remains of the Maze.

"Uh huh, sure you aren't." Frypan chuckles as he sips his drink, a beat passing between the boys. "I don't get it. You guys kissed. Like, you kissed an actual girl. And now... what?"

Gally sighs, dropping his head as he speaks in a grumbled tone. "I... I don't know, man. She's... she was my boss. She saved my life. You know she found me in the Maze and-"

"And did everything to patch you up. Took you under her wing. Yeah, yeah, we know, we get it." Frypan rolls his eyes, knowing the story off by heart. "You clearly care about her, so why not actually doing something about it?"

"She hasn't done anything about it."

"Uh, yeah, she did."

"When?"

"When she shuckin' kissed you, slinthead."

Gally falls silent for a moment, eyes landing back on you. It's everything about you; your hair, your eyes, your smile, the way you hold yourself, your passion - everything.

"...I don't wanna shuck it up, Fry."

Frypan's eyes land on his friend, the teasing tone slipping away as he looks at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Gally anxiously taps his foot, eyes lingering on you again. He looked at you like you were a Goddess and him a feeble insect, blessed to be in your mere presence.

"Gally?" Frypan presses him, brows starting to furrow in worry.

Gally has never been good with words. He's aggressive, and scary, and dangerous. Even if he has learnt to forgive and become more humble thanks to you, it's not like he's become an expert at this. And now he has...

Feelings.

Ew.

He sighs, running his fingers through his short hair. "...I messed everything up back in the Maze. I was scared, and I acted on my own. I tried to hurt you guys, and I..." He trails off, the sound of the gunshot and Chuck hitting the floor still burnt into the back of his retinas. He shakes his head, clearing his throat. "I don't wanna mess this up, too."

Frypan looks at him for a few seconds, before smacking him on the back of the head.

"Klunk-! Fry! What the shuck, man?" Gally grumbles as he rubs the back of his head.

"Are you hearing yourself, shank?" Frypan leans forward on his knees. "That girl over there brought you back from the dead. She saw the potential in you and made it work. Without you, we would've never been able to save Minho, we would've never stopped WCKD - hell, we probably wouldn't even have made it here, man. Get a grip. You ain't that same sissy that spent his time buggin' out around the Glade, terrified of change. You're a hero and a rebell who risked his life for change."

Gally looks at his friend, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"And the only way that you're shucking this up, is if you sit you shank-ass here and do nothing." Frypan continues, letting the statement hang in the air for several moments.

Gally nods, churning the words over in his head.

"I'm right. Am I right, or am I right?" Frypan grins.

Gally snorts, shaking his head slightly. "You're right."

"'Course I shuckin' am." Frypan grins, patting his long-time friend's back. "Now, are you gonna sit here, wasting your breath yappin' my ear off - or are you gonna go get your girl?"

Gally struggles to hide the smile playing on his lips.

His girl.

He likes the sound of that.

"I'm gonna get my girl."

Whilst Gally gets his heart to heart (lecture) from Frypan, you've taken to cleaning up cups and desperately trying to stop drunk people from falling over. It's not a pleasant way to spend your evening, but it takes your mind off your boredom and constant speculation about your relationship with Gally.

"Hey, Boss." The familiar voice pulls you away from your thoughts, landing on the broad boy.

"I told you you don't have to call me Boss anymore, Gally." You roll your eyes slightly, continuing to pick up glasses.

"Yeah, sorry, force of habit." Gally rocks on his heels, anxiously looking at you.

"...You good?"

"Uh, yeah - uh, can we talk?" You raise an eyebrow at his words, a bubble starting to form in the pit of your stomach. "Like.. in private?"

"Sure. 'Course. Uh, wanna walk along the beach?"

"Yeah." He smiles slightly. "Sounds good."

You put the glasses you've collected down, nodding for him to follow you as you both head towards the waves, starting to wander as the waves just miss lapping up your feet.

Gally doesn't look at you for a while. His eyes fixed on the endless sand ahead of him; it's a heavy silence.

You don't push him. Sure, you spent months pushing him to his full potential. But when it came to talking, it was better to let Gally take his time.

After about ten minutes of walking, he finally takes a deep breath. "So, uh... I spoke to Fry.."

"Oh, yeah? What did he have to say this time?"

"He basically called me a useless slinthead." He chuckles dryly, glancing at you.

"Slinthead? That's like a dickhead, right?" He grins slightly; you're still getting used to the dumb slang of the Glade - it really doesn't help that every group of Maze escapees has their own set of personal curse words.

"Yeah, basically." He chuckles.

"...why'd he call you a dickhead? Sorry- slinthead."

He can't help but shake his head at you, that smile still on his face. "Well, uh, I've been a massive diaper-klunkin' sissy, basically."

You blink. What the fuck does that even mean?

He laughs at your confusion before composing himself, stopping to look at you, which makes you stop, too. You face him, brows furrowed slightly as nervousness starts to feel heavy through your inside.

"...remember before the Last City fell? When you kissed me?"

You freeze, embarrassment heating your face as you'd began to start cringing at the memory when you fall asleep. "Honestly, I thought you'd forgotten that." You attempt to joke to lighten some of the tension.

He scoffs. "Yeah... I've been a bit of an idiot." He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just... I was worried about ruining things between us, yanno? I'm so used to messy everything up and-"

"You don't mess everything up." You interject, immediately prepared to defend him against himself.

"Yeah - I know; Frypan already gave me the lecture." He grimaces slightly, almost like he's cringing at himself. "But... I like you. Like, I really shuckin' like you. And... we're safe here. I wanna stop being such a pussy and just..."

It takes a second to sink in what he's saying, your skin feels warm and tingly, butterflies erupting in your stomach. "...just?"

"...I just wanna ask you if... you'd... like to be my girlfriend?" His confidence falters with every word, voice raising in pitch, scrunching his face as he finishes his question in embarrassment. "That sounded shuckin' awkward." He sighs. "Listen-"

You don't listen, because he has no time to speak. Adrenaline takes over as you step towards him, hand coming to cup his cheek as you press your lips against his once again.

The kiss is short and sweet as you pull away, meeting his half-lidded eyes and wide grin. "Take that as a yes?"

"Yes, Gally, I'd love to be your girlfriend. Took you fuckin' long enough."

He snorts. "Yeah, yeah." He leans back in, kissing you again, this time deeper and with more passion, his fingers creeping around the back of your head and into your hair.

"Shuck yeah!" Both of you pull away from each other, seeing Frypan shouting from half way down the beach. "Told you she's your girl!"

You look at Gally. "The fuck is he on about?"

"...Don't worry about it."

So, I'm back.

Again.

And back with a part 2, nonetheless. Sorry for vanishing, lads, I've had some wicked lack of motivation and I feel like a bit of a dick about it.

Yanno... since it's been literal months.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed :))

[mackjlee9]

Gally x Male!Reader [Angst&Fluff]

Author's note: this is like... heavily based on The Rejected, but of course, this can be read separately from that, it doesn't affect this one shot at all.

Masterlist.

The Maze Runner

Requested by BåůmŠquåd W187 on Quotev

"We can make it out of here. I know that."

There was silence for a few seconds in the Glade as they let those words sink in.

And just like that, like the breeze blowing by, guys who were on their side started making their way to Thomas, mumbling quiet apologies to them.

Gally and (M/n) made brief eye contact, unsure of what to do next.

"It's over," their sight shifted back ahead of them, "Just come with us..." Despite Thomas' words being directed to all of them, his eyes were locked onto (M/n)'s, it was clear who he wanted to have by his side.

He stared at Thomas, at Teresa, and all the guys he called friends standing in front of him, ready to go into the Maze and maybe, find their way out. (M/n) looked at each one of them, at Minho, at Newt, at Fry, at Winston, and he soon remembered all of those who weren't here with them to witness what was happening.

Some of his best friends were waiting for him to come with them, but he couldn't do it.

He couldn't leave Gally just like that, not after everything they'd been through together.

(M/n) sighed and turned his head to look at Gally, whose eyes were locked on him, not even acknowledging all the other guys staring at them. Green eyes looked into (e/c) ones, pleading (M/n) to stay, terribly scared that he might leave him too.

It broke his heart to see Gally so vulnerable, his hand gripping onto the back of his dirty and worn shirt, trembling as the seconds went by, beginning to feel desperate at the thought of (M/n) actually deciding to go with Thomas into the Maze.

And the weak smile Gally received from him almost made him double over, wanting to wail and cry for him to stay.

(M/n) took a deep breath as he turned to look at the others, silently waiting for his response, hoping they would come along as well, but that's not what they got.

"Good luck against the Grievers," everyone saw how determined to stay (M/n) was, and some of them felt the need to stay, as if they'd changed their mind, no longer sure of their choice.

However, before they could make their way back to Gally, Thomas called to them and ran into the Maze, soon followed by those whose resolution didn't waver and the hesitant steps of those who did.

They watched how they left and got out of their sight when they rounded the corner.

It took a bit, but everyone left in the Glade began making their way to what was left of their home, and (M/n) wondered how things were gonna go now.

Will they survive? If so, for how long?

He couldn't take even a single step forward when Gally's arms wrapped around him, tightly. He was shaking and sniffing on his neck as he cried. Silently, he rubbed Gally's back slowly, whispering in his ear that everything was gonna be alright.

"It'll be fine. Things will get better."

If only he could believe his words.

//////

They tried. Everyone did.

Ten guys against two Grievers didn't sound too hard, but it didn't sound easy either. They tried their damnest and succeeded, but at what cost?

Everyone was dead, or dying, and nothing could be done.

(M/n) got up from the ground, and grabbed the spear a Glader had lost while running away before getting captured by one. He released a shaky sigh and cautiously started walking out of the Deadheads, everything was quiet.

The fight they had and all the screaming that echoed was now gone, it just disappeared, and the quietness did nothing to ease his freaked-out mind, sharpening his senses as he walked forward, trying to find anyone that could still be alive, but nothing.

And now he was panicking... What if he was the only one alive? What if...?

From afar, relatively close to the Maze Doors, he spotted someone, they were pulling apart the slimy flesh of the Griever and rummaging for something inside. A cylindrical device that beeped rather slow and quiet.

He got closer and saw them stand up to their full height. It was...

"Gally?" He whispered to himself, and he witnessed with horrified eyes how the blond ran into the Maze, alone and without a weapon, "Gally!"

The only logical thing he could do was run after him.

Navigating the Maze was hard, even if he had gone in a handful of times in the past, getting lost was easy, but he tried. It was weird that Gally seemed to know where he was going, and his legs trembled and shook as he struggled to catch up to him.

If he stayed quiet, he could hear the beeping of the device getting more frequent, and whether it was closer or further away, so he kept going, knowing that Gally was somewhere ahead of him and he wasn't gonna stop for (M/n) to catch up.

The sound of echoing footsteps reached his ears, and he ran faster, rounding the corner, stopping as he slipped and almost fell. He gasped for air and looked around.

(M/n) saw multiple Grievers dead, along with some of the guys that went along with Thomas, there was blood on the stone floor he was walking on, making dragging marks as they went over the edges on either side of him. Carefully peaking over, he realized he couldn't see the bottom, and he felt like his stomach was gonna spit through his mouth.

He took a deep breath, put the spear down, and slowly walked forward, and into the dark tunnel, following along it as he got closer to the light.

He knew better than to believe they were out of the Maze, everything felt off and unsettling. (M/n) stepped out of the tunnel and stepped into a long hallway, it extended to his left and to his right. He was unsure of which way he should go until he stepped on something gooey. It looked like Griever spit.

A set of footsteps left a mark on the floor heading into the hall on his right, and he walked that way, his hand unconsciously dragging along the wall he was closest to.

After a short while that felt a little too long, he came across a door that displayed 'exit' atop it, he rolled his eyes at the inconvenient comedic timing. Even so, he walked in.

An open door on the other side of the room made him groan as he covered his eyes, the sun was too bright and the air coming inside felt scorching hot. He stepped to the side where he didn't have to look at the light directly and soon, he got adjusted to the room.

He didn't see anything worth mentioning, just computers and scientists dead. He walked around the long table, seeing pictures of his friends on the monitors, labeled 'subjects' instead of their names.

He felt sick at the thought of just being treated like experiments, and he wondered where the rest of his friends had gone to. Maybe they were outside...?

His train of thought stopped when he looked down.

Lying by the door, was Chuck. Dead.

(M/n) froze for a few seconds, feeling tears gathering in his eyes as his brain processed what he was seeing. Slowly, he knelt on the ground next to Chuck and gently wrapped his arms around his body, he blinked and a few tears made their way down his dirty face, looking into his lifeless eyes.

He sweetly moved his curls away and pressed a kiss to his forehead, backing away and gently closing Chuck's eyes, letting him rest in peace. "Goodbye, little buddy."

He sighed and placed Chuck's body back on the floor, regretful that he didn't have a way to give him a proper burial. He deserved it, he was just a little kid.

His whole life was taken away by W.I.C.K.E.D, and (M/n) would do anything-

The frown on his face disappeared instantly the moment he looked up, his eyes landing on another body lying on the ground. He stood up and tried to make his way over to them, but his legs shook and quivered, his sight completely glossed over with tears as his bottom lip trembled, he could barely move, and the only thing keeping him moving was the adrenaline.

"Gally...?"

He mumbled, his hands shaking violently as he placed them on his face. Truth is, (M/n) didn't know what to do, just cry and hold Gally close.

There isn't much he can remember from that moment, but he recalls the sound of various vehicles stopping outside before making their way inside the facility.

"We've got a survivor!" One of them screamed and they approached him, these people had tactical gear and masks covering their faces.

And they were trying to pull him away from Gally.

"No! Let go of me! Gally!" (M/n) managed to elbow the guy holding him on the stomach, getting free from his grip and crawling his way back to Gally, "I'm not gonna leave you, okay? I'm not..."

His body shook with each sob he released, blinking away the tears to be able to see Gally's face clearly, wanting to engrave it in his memory. But then again, he was being pulled away from him.

He groaned and kicked, pulling his arms away from the foreign hands holding him back, "I won't leave him! Stop, let me go!" His voice broke, desperately pleading to these people to just let him stay there with Gally.

There was no point in living if Gally wasn't gonna be there with him, reminding him to eat all three meals, to mess up his hair with a playful smile, to show him his drawings, to hear his beautiful laugh, and to comfort him when he didn't feel worthy. He couldn't live if Gally was gone.

"I can't... Gally..." He whimpered and made a last attempt at freeing himself again but to no avail.

"Sir! He's still alive!"

(M/n) saw a spark of hope in the dark tunnel he found himself inside of, and he felt like he was moving toward it, needing the hope to be able to continue.

"Save... Save him! Please, save him!" He yelled at them, as he stopped fighting their hold, and he watched how they stabilized the spear through his chest to cut the handle off. He had refused to leave, struggling against these people again, who decided against it and simply stayed put, "Can I... Can I go with... With him?" He asked between gasps, "Please, let me... Go with him..."

One of the guys holding him released his grip, moving to help the other group get Gally on a stretcher and take him outside to their van.

(M/n) was taken outside in the scorching sun as it began setting, and he started squirming and screaming when he realized he was being taken to another vehicle than Gally.

"Fuck off!" He pushed the man behind him and ran toward the group of four carrying Gally onto the van, and he got in, closing the door behind him. Seeing as he hadn't run away or caused any other major problem, everyone got in their car and drove off.

(M/n) felt his eyelids heavy, but he refused to fall asleep, observing closely what they were doing to Gally to keep him alive.

From what he heard, it was bad, and it would be a miracle if he survived, but he clung to that hope.

He clung onto the possibility of a miracle occurring.

//////

The days that followed felt like a blur.

(M/n) was glad that Gally was still alive, and he hadn't been able to thank the doctor that saved him yet which upset him, but he couldn't leave his side. He had especially learned how to clean his wound and change his bandages, just to have an excuse to be with him, take care of him, and wait for him to wake up.

It was painful, really. He had been told Gally would wake up eventually, but they didn't know when it would happen, how they were unsure if there would be any other issues within his body, and (M/n) was constantly on edge, sitting by his side, sleeping on the worn couch in the infirmary, talk to him about the good memories they had back in the Glade, and where they were.

Even if Gally couldn't hear him or know he was there, he still did, because he cared, and he was scared.

The image of Gally's body lying on that cold floor would flood his subconscious every night, and he was convinced that he would never fully believe or realize that Gally was still alive.

It was early morning at the base, and he had just been taken to the cafeteria by the doctor, Lauren, to eat something. He couldn't, but he tried, for her.

They stayed silent, and after enough time had gone past, (M/n) got up and left, apologizing to her and heading back to the infirmary. It was hard to stay away from Gally for longer than twenty minutes, he couldn't do it.

He sighed and opened the door, expecting to see him there on his bed, still in a coma, just... Waiting for a miracle. But no, Gally was awake.

He was looking around the room, slowly, frowning at the sunlight coming through the slightly open blinds, setting a glass of water -the one he left there- down, when he heard the door being opened. Then, his green eyes, which had been devoid of all emotion, landed on him, shining brightly as they regained their usual glow.

"(M/n)...?" His voice was hoarse and raspy, probably from not being used, and (M/n) found himself shocked in place, looking at Gally as if he wasn't real.

He took a step forward and struggled to take a breath, his eyes filling with tears as he approached Gally, who was also getting emotional at the sight of (M/n) there, by his side, alive.

"Gally," he whispered his name, his voice trembling as he did so, and he got closer to the bed he was lying on. He held his face in his hands, and they looked at each other as if they couldn't believe it, smiling and chuckling between tears, "I missed you, so much," (M/n) hugged him, careful of not hurting him, his face buried on his neck, wetting his skin with his tears.

"Sorry, I... Kept you waiting..." The sound of his voice brought shivers to (M/n)'s back, and he couldn't resist.

He lifted his head away from Gally and leaned in to press their lips together, with no hesitation. Gally gasped in surprise but smiled against (M/n)'s lips and kissed him back.

Their lips moved against each other slowly, and Gally sighed through his nose at the feeling of (M/n)'s hands holding his face gently, his hand lifting to intertwine his fingers to his (curly/wavy/straight) hair, tugging on it weakly, feeling shivers down his body at the quiet satisfied hum he released.

Unfortunately, their kiss was cut short when Gally's breath faltered, reluctantly pushing (M/n) away to regain his breathing. The stinging pain in his chest worked to bring foggy memories back, but he was scared to ask just yet.

"Sorry, are you okay?" (M/n)'s hand moved through his hair, observing him attentively, and Gally felt his face getting hot, knowing he was blushing when (M/n) smiled at him, chuckling and leaning closer again, placing a kiss to his forehead, "I'm so happy you're awake, Gally."

He smiled back at him, "And im happy... You're here with me, (M/n)," at that moment, nothing else mattered to them.

They had each other again, and that's all they could ever ask for, or need.

[ashley-foster-13]

Tmr as dancers headcanon

Thomas:

- Hip-hop

- can get quite agressive during battles

- charisma wins every battle for him

- happens to attend ballet

- fascinated by the blond lead

- waits until the audience is almost gone to express his astonishment directly to him

- this wasn't their only conversation ;)

- after Newt gets seriously injured, helps him recover, deal with depression and build up a new life

- literally doesn't step an inch away from him, even when the blond says he's fine

Newt:

- ballet

- seriously dedicated and hardworking

- always nervous before performances, but when music starts he's so into the dance he wakes up only when the applause thunder

- noticed that brunet in the front raw cheering quite energetically

- had a brief conversation with him, and felt like wanted more

- and they had more, talks turned into dates, cafés, then at each other's houses and it became something more

- though Newt thought it was ridiculous he ended up with a hip-hop dancer

- a terrible incident left him with a limp

- just when he fell, the first instinct was to call Tommy, and only then 911

- is really broken and insecure but greatful for Thomas's help

- never felt safer in anyone's arms but Thomas's

- came to be part time barista and a musician in a local band

- always comes to Tommy's performances

Minho:

- break

- never misses a chance to show off some cool moves

- looks soooo confident but actually really nervous, always asking his girlfriend, Teresa, if he did good

- surely he did awesome. as usual. duh

- crosses paths with Thomas quite often

- they share some tricks/exercises/moves with each other

- these tricks often are a game changer for both of them in battles

- black&red clothes

- wears cap backwards and lookes hot af in it, but secretly hates wearing it because his hair looks so much cooler just like that

- organized sleepovers with newtmas boys when blond got injured

- likes competing with Gally best, although it's often hella hard

- doing choreos together

- that one guy that always does something rushed and stupid, ending up on the floor and everyone laughing their asses off

Gally

- breaker

- not really into it, just dancing for fun

- Thomas once won him in sypher, so now they are kind of enemies

- text Newt to get well soon, but other than that isn't much of a friendly talker

Sonya:

- is on Thomas's hip-hop team

- mocks Newt calling him "princess pretty skirt", but secretly admires his dedication and discipline

- is broken whem Newt gets his injury, doesn't attend any rehearsals

- which rarely take place since Thomas as the leader spends all of his time with Newt

- Sonya has to work part time to make up for both their lost jobs

- goes to Harriet to cry, so that Newt doesn't have to see her in that state since he's not good himself

Harriet:

- contemporary

- teaches students all the time

- loves different drills for difficult moves

- best friends with Sonya

- shares dance secrets with her

- gives advice to Newt as how to recover faster

Aris:

- no style in particular, just attends various workshops

- is that one shy kid in the corner but rocks it on stage

- is more flexible than anyone in the class

- has a crush on Sonya

- attends all the team's performances

- barely works up the courage to ask her to show him some cool moves

- end up in the movies

Frypan:

- chills on different workshops

- is on Thomas's team

- just enjoys the dance, no competition, just the vibes

- calms Thomas down when he's furious with poor lighting or music or that random guy that stared in his phone the whole time

- organizes celebrations after the team's big wins in his house with self-made fancy meals

- everyone enjoying the food holy shit so much

- advises Sonya on a healthy diet

- "bettet feel well and eat tasty, than get ill and look like a stick"

Alby:

- old man in dance industry

- hip-hop, break and variations

- has his own school that is really hard to get into

- is widely respected

- Thomas often comes to him for advice

- not so fond of Greenies but helps anyway

- old, old grumpy man

- but with a nice sense of humor

- doesn't say, but thinks that Thomas's team's really talanted

- and reckless, more often than not

- but that's the attractive part

- stands in the back so that no-one recognizes him and dancers don't get nervous

[foundfam2754]

garvez thoughts after cme s17e6, "message in a bottle" (kind of an essay)

yesterday's episode left me with a lot thoughts on where erica and the team is going to take garvez going forward in the show. it left me kind of conflicted. after downloading with another fan-friend of mine, here's a post on how i feel.

please please please don't be mad if you disagree - in fact i'd welcome conversation with other garvez shippers on this :) dm me, reblog or comment!! also, pls note when i refer to us as the audience, or use the royal "we", i'm generalizing.

thoughts (and spoilers for 17x5 and 17x6) below the fold:

-----------

overall, i think it sucks that they're floating a potential new love interest for luke in teresa; it seems like one more step away from seeing penelope and luke together on the show for real and we've already seen this kind of relationship play out with luke & dr. lisa. i'm ready for him and penelope to get together. plus, this frickin' love square cannot and SHOULD not get more complicated than it already is (anyone else who's seen gossip girl getting nate, serena, blair, chuck, dan vibes? everyone's dating everyone).

plus plus shamefully i kinda love the tyler/luke bromance and luke / teresa could put a dent in that

however, and perhaps a more hopeful outlook than most fans have after 17x06, they've never leaned this explicitly into pen and luke as a couple on CM before. s17 feels like the first time. it's been implied, they've hinted at it, they've even gone on one terrible date, but the words (three words, eight letters for my GG fans) have never been said out loud by luke or pen before. so, to have them actually have the romantic and sexual tension between them be blatantly addressed (even if it is by elias) and for luke to say the words "i love her" (in a manner of speaking, of course) is a big deal to me. it's development of this storyline, even if slow. that gives me hope that there could be something that gets played out in the future.

adding onto this, i do think we have to acknowledge that when it comes to criminal minds, they've never done a romantic relationship within the team before (with the exception of spence and jj, but we can all agree that it was poorly done, rushed and abrupt). also, that it's the chemistry and camaraderie of the team and the friendships that go back 15+ seasons that make the show special. so from the perspective of the writers, i understand that they may feel it risky to play with the luke / pen relationship further than they already have. i'm not saying that having pen and luke dating would mess up the team dynamic, but i am saying it's a change and anything can happen. they know that flirting works with audiences (luke and pen, derek and pen), but they've seen that actual romantic feelings may not (spence and jj). overall, i understand if they want to take introducing and establishing penelope and luke as an official couple slowly

(i do understand that for us it's not been slow and we recognized the dynamic between garvez immediately, but s15 was really the first time the show addressed the possibility of a romantic relationship, and for the writers it may not be a long time coming)

i also think that if the writers are playing the long game, a relationship between teresa and luke may be interesting just to play with the dynamic and maybe get penelope to take some action. plus, i think it adds nuance to the love square. in an universe where we believe teresa's destined for tyler and penelope for luke, each member of the group may need to take their time realizing who they really belong with (but i'm still going to harumph at romantic!teresa/luke or romantic!greencia).

this is all to say that, we may have to just be a bit more patient. it can still happen and the eventual outcome may be even better if we let the writers play it out, now that they're actually addressing the relationship. i'm hopeful, in the meanwhile, we can revel the little nuggets of garvez love that adam and kirsten and erica throw our way and the incredible fanfics that writers in our fandom create.

now, pessimistically and on the other hand, it's very possible that luke's "she knows I love her" and teresa's "but she's still into tyler" were said because the creative team has decided that they played around with garvez enough and they're happy with how they are, and luke's ready to move on...with teresa. luke's feelings have been addressed and said out loud, so now may be his time to move forward. add on to this that PG wasn't too bothered by a luke/teresa relationship and that luke and teresa talked about how it's a bad idea to date coworkers, it's a possibility.

so really, my conflict isn't resolved, and i'm not sure on which side i stand. but, i really love this show, these actors, this ship and this fandom so i wanted to share how i feel.

man, i usually hate slow burns, but this show and garvez are worth it.

[creedslove]

🌹Anon here! No headcannon just a thought I wanted to share. Imagine if Carol admitted to her cheating on Dave, and that their daughters aren't actually Daves. He knew about the cheating but not the daughters not being his part. He was already planning on leaving her for Reader but this just finalises it and so he decides that night to have a baby, a baby that is actually his, with the woman he actually loves. Also wouldn't Teressa and Carol make a lovely couple?

Dave York x f!reader

A/N: bestie I know this ain't a headcanon request but like, how can I not write a headcanon out of this wonderful idea? I love you and your idea and you are right, Carol and Teresa make a lovely couple to rot in hell 😭

• Dave had never been a cheating husband, even if his marriage with Carol wasn't something that made his heart race and his hands sweat, butterflies in his stomach in a big anticipation to see his spouse, he just settled, mostly for the kids after she showed up pregnant and it had become a comfortable arrangement for everyone

• so he was just glad in working and providing for his family, in exchange she took care of the house and the girls and Dave had the normal unsuspicious family which came in handy to hide the kind of job he had

• sex with Carol was alright, surely there was something better out there, but he had had worse, so he settled for that too

• when he met you, however, he felt like a stupid teenager, as all those dumb signs of being in love were there: he felt slightly nervous around you, he felt butterflies in his stomach (!) he spent his day thinking of and yearning to see you; you were the last thing on his mind when he fell asleep and the first one when he woke up

• so when you both started dating, he felt guilty, not because of Carol, though, he knew she had slept with men here and there, and each time she went for "girls night out" with her friends and came back home smelling like booze and men, he just felt more indifferent, being sure he didn't love her and perhaps he never did in the first place, he just didn't have a meaningful feeling to compare with, but now he had it with you

• but he did feel bad for you, because you were a beautiful, decent woman and you didn't deserve the mistress status, instead, he wanted to come clean and be with you without having to hide

• so the divorce was already in his mind, he just needed to have a couple of meetings with his attorney and get the paperwork done

• when Carol found out about it and made a huge, terrible scene, Dave and her engaged into a real bad fight, he had to hold himself back not to get physical with all the provocation and horrible things she said

• but the moment she said the girls weren't really his daughters, Dave thought he was going to lose it

• at first he held some hope she was just bluffing in the most cruel way possible, but then, all the information she offered made a lot of sense and he realized she was telling him the bitter truth: he wasn't really the father of his daughters

• it broke Dave, he loved them so much, more than anything in the world, he took care of them since they were tiny little helpless babies, he couldn't believe they weren't his

• Dave's eyes were full of tears, he was brokenhearted as his girls had been the best part of his life, luckily to them, they were having a sleepover at their grandparents' so they didn't have to witness the grotesque scene their mom caused

• when Dave got to your home, he was devastated, he'd been crying and drinking and he gripped your body not wanting to let go, telling everything that happened once he stepped inside

"please, let's have a baby, I wanna start a family with you, you'll be my wife, you're the only one who's worth being Mrs.York, I need to put a baby in you, you will never gonna lie to me, it will be our baby, I need to know I'm the one responsible for something good in this world"

• he begged you

• and Dave York wasn't the kind of man to beg someone anything at all

• so you couldn't say no to him, taking that powerful and strong man who was so broken and small at that moment to bed and made love to him, a couple of times, always making sure he was inside of you and you were both doing the possible to get your baby to grow in your womb

• the next morning, Dave was a little ashamed of his behavior, but at the same time he was excited that maybe he'd got you pregnant

• you both had a heartfelt conversation and you reminded him that no matter what Carol had done, he would always be the girls' dad and they'd always love him as such

• and he was sure he'd made the right choice to have you by his side, even if being lied to was terrible, he was convinced he was going to have his happy ending with a woman he truly loved

____

[claremikas]

I've always loved the fact that a big part of Claymore has to do with childhood trauma. Like even though the warriors become extremely powerful beings, the things that happened to them in childhood are oftentimes the things that keep them from moving on.

Ophelia forcing her comrades to become awakened beings so she could kill them is her reliving the time Priscilla killed her brother in front of her eyes and she was powerless to stop it. So she takes it upon herself to prove that she's not weak anymore and no matter how fucked up that is, it's also extremely sad.

Clare's emotionally shut off after Teresa dies to the point that she doesn't understand that she's grown attached to her friends and life itself. Before that, during her period with Teresa, she actually started to recover from the things that happened to her in her early childhood. She starts talking again and enjoying her life, but it all goes to shit when Priscilla shows up. In her training days (and when we first meet her in the manga) she mostly isolates herself from others and puts on a cold demeanor as a defense mechanism. It's no surprise that it all comes crashing down on her in the final battle considering the amount of time she spent suppressing emotions.

Miata is still a kid but has moments where she regresses even further back to the point where she has to pretend to breastfeed to be stable mentally.

Priscilla might be the best example of it though. She actively forced herself to forget the terrible thing that happened in her childhood. She has, in her own words, "fought countless opponents and been swallowed up by unfathomable things and taken a blade to herself" all in order to try and escape her own hatred for the thing she did as a child as an act of survival. She actively searches for someone powerful enough to end her existence and even makes young girls "invisible" to her in hope that one day they'll become the warrior who could kill her.

[loneberry]

some notes on sufism

The other day I went to the Harvard Divinity School Muslims iftar (the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan), which was followed by a concert of Turkish music that is traditionally performed in Sufi lodges in Istambul. Before the music began, the professor I’ve been auditing Islamic literature classes with read some verses from Rumi’s Masnavi and offered a meditation on fasting through an interpretation of the lines: “If you have closed this mouth, another mouth is opened, which becomes an eater of the morsels of mysteries.” That is the nature of mystical knowledge—gnosis (or maʿrifa) is not understood intellectually, but tasted (dhawq). The closing of the bodily mouth is an opening of the spiritual mouth. He asked us to listen to the music with the inner heart.

I went with my friend S, who has been nudging me toward conversion. I’ve been allergic to religion most of my life because I’m not really much of a joiner. I distinctly remember being in (Catholic) Sunday School as a child and thinking to myself: This sounds fake to me. As in, made-up, irrational. The people who treated the fanciful stories like fact seemed like crackpots to me, even to my child-mind. I don’t think I ever believed in Santa either—I guess my disposition was innately skeptical; perhaps that contributed to my identification with anarchism from when I was 13 or 14. Yet at the same time, my feeling for the invisible, for the world of the dead, was always quite strong, even when it was unstitched from a belief system. As a kid I would wander the house alone at night, thinking I could hear my dead parakeet chirping from a shoebox in the garage.  

I hated Sunday School. While I was always good at school-school (at least when I was a child, before I became an incorrigible truant), I was terrible at Sunday School. Because it seemed like hocus-pocus to me, none of it stuck. My classmates had internalized all the stories I thought were outlandish. During mass I would think exclusively about donuts, the ones we would buy from the ladies who would sell them as a fundraiser. I’ve thought about returning to Catholicism, but sadly, after the post-1970s political realignment in the US, all the leftist Catholics (the Marxists who loathed the Vietnam War and exposed the FBI’s COINTELPRO) are gone. As much as I love reading Catholic mystics (St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, Angela of Foligno, Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Marguerite Porete, and others), Christian mysticism is more individualist than Islamic mysticism—asceticism and separation from the group is the way to commune with God, while Islamic mysticism is rooted in communal practices like sama (singing, dancing, reciting poetry, playing/listening to music) and dhikr (communal prayer for the remembrance of God). While Christian mysticism bears the imprint of the Neoplatonist trajectory of ascent, for Sufism, the trajectory is shaped like a paisley. After fana (annihilation of the ego/union with God/dying before you die), there is baqaa or subsistence, a return of sorts. 

I also much prefer the Islamic orientation to the created world than the Christian one, for in Islam, everything in creation can be understood as the breath or speech of God. The Hadith on which Sufi cosmology is based reads, “I was a hidden Treasure and Loved to be known, so I created the world that I might be known.” All of creation is a mirror to reflect God (this is why you must polish the rust from your heart, for the human heart can manifest all the names and qualities of God). In the Islamic mystical tradition there is an affirmation of the created world even though God and creation are not the same (as is the case in Pantheism). Everything has ontology. Nothing has ontology. The Sufi metaphysicians ask us to see with two eyes. The drop is not the ocean at the same time it cannot be separated from the ocean.

7 years ago I read Reza Aslan’s God: A Human History. After sampling the platter of world religions I joked to myself, Hmmm, if I had to pick the one I vibe with most, I guess it would be Sufism (Islamic mysticism). I didn’t know anything about Sufism other than the Rumi and Hafez poetry I read as a teenager, but the way Aslan described Ibn ‘Arabi’s concept of 'wahadat al-wujud' (or Unity of Being) reminded me of Spinozism. I guess what I’m trying to say is...I just think Sufi metaphysics is...right. Or, it speaks to how I tend to think about reality. It’s not something I can prove (that I don’t exist, while at the same time I am part of the ALL that is God), but it makes the most sense to me.

In the Sufi literature class, S jokes to me: “You’re the only non-Muslim in this class.” The same was probably true at the iftar + concert. S points to someone from the class: “The Maoist is a recent convert. This is their first time fasting for Ramadan.” “Is [our professor] fasting?” “Of course. I saw him at the iftar last night and talked to him about translation. I told him it’s ghastly to try to fit Persian verse into an English rhyme scheme. He agreed with me.” (We are clearly partisans of blank verse translations… yet so much of what’s out there has been poorly translated or not translated at all.) 

Much of the lyrics sung with the gorgeous music were verses written by the great Turkish-language Sufi poet and mystic Yunus Emre ("the Dante of Turkey," I whispered to S). S was ecstatic listening to the haunting ney (a kind of flute). We just so happened to be sitting in the same row as the professor. I tapped S and whispered that it looked like he was really enjoying the music. He was smiling with his eyes closed and swaying his head from side to side. He looked like he was having...a profound experience. This prof usually has what I guess you’d call ‘resting bitch face’ (which I always found funny because it runs counter to his sweet and gentle personality). But not at the concert. Pure bliss was painted on his face. It was then that it dawned on me that Sufism, for him, was probably something more than a scholarly interest. I thought about what it must have been like to discover something so beautiful and profound, and to know, in that moment, that your life will be changed forever—you might go off to Iran and devote your entire life to studying medieval texts. 

Of course this Ramadan I am thinking continuously about the genocide in Gaza, how an entire population is being starved to death by the sadistic leaders of Israel, how terrible it must be to be bombed and shot at during the holy month, or to break your fast with boiled grass and animal feed. I feel truly ashamed to come from a country that is complicit in this violence. I hope everyone continues to apply pressure to end this war—it feels hopeless now, but it is making a difference.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

APRIL O'NEIL (TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (2012))

1.) the writers were So misogynistic when they made her. every one of her storylines revolves around a man. instead of. y’know. herself. whatever personality she Was given immediately got swept to the side for alive triangle. she’s treated as crazy or irrational by the narrative for having completely reasonable grievances, or she is given completely unreasonable grievances for the plot (other characters do not receive nearly this level of this behavior). also she mothers motherly down the stairs bc that’s the Girl Thing in this all-guy group

2.) Homegirl got done SO DIRTY. She was the victim of a love triangle, was constantly treated as a worse fighter than everyone else no matter how hard she trained, was given sick psychic powers and COULD NEVER DID ANYTHING WITH THEM. She's also portrayed as kind of selfish and bossy in the later seasons and WE KNOW she's not supposed to be like that because she wasn't like that in the first season. She's often called annoying and the worst version of April because of this poor writing.

3.) Stalked, harassed, victim of “two boys fight over pretty girl”, constantly sidelined and belittled

TERESA (MAZE RUNNER SERIES)

1.) One of only two relevant female characters in a primarily male cast. In the first book, she is a mysterious ally and potential love interest of the protagonist, which is inoffensive on its own. In the second book, she decides to cooperate with the villains in order to get herself and her friends out of a terrible situation. In practice, a lot of this is framed as her having some secret plan to work against the protagonist, despite the fact that not only was she promised cooperating wouldn’t hurt him, it actually doesn’t! Her choice makes perfect sense, yet the narrative frames her as an almost seductive traitor, disqualifying her from love interest status and replacing her with another underdeveloped female character as the main lead. In the final book, instead of attempting to write anything interesting with her, the author decides she’s worthless if she’s no longer the love interest and barely includes her, only having her in one scene where she sort of makes up with the protagonist and then. Literally three pages before the end of the book. KILLS HER. Because she’s no longer the love interest, she doesn’t get to come with the rest of the cast to the happy ending!! It really seems like this guy doesn’t know how to write a woman the protagonist isn’t into, and it SUCKS.

2.) very quickly became the ‘girl who is just an attachment to the main character and has little to no personality or importance outside of that’

[bow4thecamera]

WAVES FRANTICALLY. so happy to finally have a full pic of All my nintendogs idiots :3

info on them all is below the read more <33

Ted Rumsworth [he/him]: Our fav dog show announcer !! A cis closeted gay man who's proud to be the smiling face of Chow's pet competitions, and is always happy to compliment a well-trained pup either on the job or on the street, but it doesn't keep him from chatting rightful shit about some owners in his spare time. He's not actually too keen on dogs himself; though he has his own toy poodle, Chocolate, he's much more of a cat person, and hopes to own one or two in the future. He just barely has enough self-restraint to not scoop up every stray on his and Chocolate's walks.

Archie Hubbs [he/him]: Our fav dog show commentator!! Archie is a trans bi man with the lack of self-restraint for gaining animals that Ted mortally fears. A man who owns seven dogs, a pet duck and goes to work ready to see even more canines is quite the man to be reckoned with, and for someone with such a relaxed demeanour, most would wonder how the guy could handle a house bursting with animals; while others would know he was a champion in dog competitions himself. After all those years, he turned to being a commentator purely because of a dare. For the bit, of course. And although he's known for his quick, witty remarks around town, he'll scurry away from any fan interaction faster than anyone even realises who they're spotting.

Sophie Summers [she/they]: A trans lesbian demigirl with a seemingly never-ending competitive streak, and the manager of the neighbourhood's local supply shop, BARC. She's a lover of all sorts of critters, from fluffy to scaley (even slimy!), but only has a few pets of her own: a couple of birds, named Cookie and Crumb, and an excitable German Shepherd who's won his absolute fair share of competitions, Milo. Soph's always proud of their winnings, and will proudly boast if they get a new gold trophy to take home, but is no sore loser when it comes to second or (god forbid) lower--at least not in public. It won't stop her from sulking about it over a milkshake with Teresa. Off-hours, Sophie has a deep love for aviation and planes; any shelf in their room that's bare of a trophy instead has a carefully-crafted and painted model plane in its place--they've even taken a few purposeful losses with Milo to make room for new ones here and there. Otherwise, she's a firm believer in always trying your best, and a loss stings particularly bad when she knows she hadn't given it her all; she's just especially adamant on the belief when it comes to others, and won't miss an opportunity to give someone, even a stranger, a very enthusiastic pep talk.

Teresa Addams [she/her]: A bi trans woman who'll put your pitiful mismatching patterns to shame; Teresa's the proud manager of the local Coletta in Chow, though her expertise on clothing doesn't stop at just pets. She's always had a good eye for fashion, and won't hesitate to give others a friendly nudge away from a colour that doesn't flatter their complexion one bit; Sophie's the usual recipient of her advice, and Teresa can only roll her eyes each time Soph' assures her that, pretty or not, her joggers will end up scuffed to hell at the end of the day, anyway. Overall, Teresa's not exactly one to stay in her own lane, and will speak her opinion, fashion-related or otherwise, whether it's called for or not, and she may as well have an "I-told-you-so" jar for the other shopkeeps--and as much as she butts into others' business, it doesn't stop her from chatting to Bruno about other folks similar behaviour. Under that condescending outside, though, it's clear that she just cares terribly for her friends' wellbeing, even if it's in a slightly roundabout way, but her loyalty is tried and true. Don't expect her to coddle you after a bad competition, though.. it's a new coat, and Truffles' paws are sensitive to the artificial dirt.

Thomas McGraw [he/him]: Thomas is a demiromantic trans man, and essentially the baby of the shopkeeps despite his flawless taste in interior design; you'd never even think he still lived with his parents. On the job at Modo Home, he oozes confidence in a way that's almost obscene, reacting to every little idea a customer tells him just to gently guide them toward something a little less sore on the eyes, but as soon as his shift's over, the mere thought of talking to someone sends his adrenaline rocketing. He tries to cover it up as best as he can, wanting to fill the shoes that his brother left in the shopkeepers' friend group, while also wanting to make something for himself. It's hard to juggle, but he manages.. just about. His emotional support pup, Dudley, keeps him together well enough to at least get him going to his next shift, and out of bed.

Bruno Ortega [he/him]: A bi trans man who's fought his way through life to get to the best place he's been in years. The sole worker of Mr. Recycle, Bruno's more than happy whenever he's made himself work to do, whether it be a new recycled craft for himself or the town between customers, he's almost always busy with something new. If he's not crafting, he's picking up litter on the beach, and if he's not doing clean-up, he's taking himself for a jog with his rescue, Moxy, and self-made RoboPup, Roberto. He's a cheerful figure around town whose name sits well with the locals of Chow, and he's always thankful to be helped by those who recognise his hard work to keep the green town as it is. Though he thrives off being helpful, Bruno recognises that he's easily fatigued, even if having to face it hurts, and he knows that he pushes himself too hard under the smiling face he puts on. Getting more in-shape has helped, but his body can only do so much, and he's glad to have his cosy seaside home to curl up in when the day's got him bad. It's not a permanent fix, but it helps him through the worst.

Diego McGraw [he/him]: A cis bi man who's left a sour taste in his old friends' mouths. Once the rather unenthusiastic but well-meaning manager of Modo Home, now the bitter front clerk of Altesse in the big city who's been caught up in the side of city life you don't hear about, leaving him with bad habits that he scolds himself for letting his little brother know about. He up and left Chow with barely a goodbye to even Thomas, just an explanation that he needed something 'more than this', which Tom makes a quiet deal about each time Diego bothers to show his face in town. Whether the excuse was true or not, Tom and the others don't care, and Diego doesn't even know. While the others mourn the dorky mess he used to be, they're equally thankful he's cleared off if this is who he really is. Diego's too prideful to admit it, or even think it, but he knows that he fucked up. He doesn't belong to the city, nor did he ever, but he knows the look in his friends' eyes whenever he comes back to Chow, and it's that he's not welcome in the town he was raised. He never liked mutts, but he likes to be treated like one even less.

Nikita "Aitra" Dyakov [they/it]: Aitra made a bold first impression when they moved to Chow, to say the least. Entered the stadium with a bang and won second overall, having not even lost yet they went screaming to their coach about how it was completely unfair--their later trials haven't been too different, either, except for when they win. It's arguably worse when they're rubbing it in everyone's faces. It's a big presence in Chow, and they'd honestly be missed if they were to move away. Good thing Ted and Archie are here, else it probably would--aside from making a huge scene, it also utterly freaked out about seeing the two of them in-person during its first competition here. It watched the two of them on TV for years while training itself, so seeing them for real was exciting, and.. distracting. Outside of competitions, you'd think Aitra would be a bit less of a character, but.. nope, that's just them. They try to be the best at everything they do, even their fast-food job on their side feels their wrath, and they don't take 'no' for an answer. Well.. they don't take 'no' well. They're not spoilt, but they know what they deserve! They've always been confident and they have a naturally smug demeanour about themself, but they just want to do well, and make their mother proud. Boring sappy stuff aside, though, Aitra's alright, really. Brash and a bit pushy with how they do things, but not nasty by any means. They get carried away easily and will hesitantly acknowledge that maybe they're a bit much, but they argue that it gives them character. And it.. certainly does.

Abel McGovern [he/him]: Abel is a gay trans man, and Aitra's personal coach who he could not be more unlike. Having been a strong competitor back in his day, it took Abel a while to get used to being off the field after he left a hip injury for too long, and he still finds himself rolling his eyes at rookie mistakes from others. He was a well-known dog trainer and had won many-a trophy and championship, and now lives vicariously through his coachee. The two are polar opposites, to say the least. For every bit reserved Abel is, Aitra's three times as extroverted, and they're often bumping heads over petty disagreements, as much as Abel tries to keep the peace. They've hired him, after all, and he knew their mother before he started working for them.. he knows they just want to do well and, despite their differences, he wants to see them do their best. Abel can come off as grumpy from time to time, and isn't afraid to match a bit of Aitra's snark now and again, but his softer interior is never far. His criticism may be a bit harsh, but well-meaning, and he'll pull you up far more than he'd ever try to drag you down. He'll offer his help with a warm smile, if with a healthy jab at how you'd have to really try to mess that last move up, and at the end of the day, he wants to let others achieve what he once could, and what he still admittedly misses. Retiring from his old profession wasn't all bad, though. Some years later and he adopted his best friend, an older husky, Venti. She goes with him almost where-ever he does, only having her skip on his coaching with Aitra to make sure she doesn't frighten the pups--her age won't stop her young soul shining through! Plus, retiring from that job meant he'd move onto his next, and he would've never gotten to help Aitra like he has. They can grate on each other on occasion, and as much of a loudmouth Aitra is, they bring a good bit of amusement to Abel's day, and having someone so.. unlike him is.. new. He likes the quieter things in life in recent years, but Aitra keeps things fun.

Alyssa Hall [she/her]: Alyssa is a pansexual cis woman, and a runner for others who never quite gives herself a break. She mainly works alongside Abel to quickly fill in for him when he needs a break, but when not with him, she can be found doing quick jobs for others to make their lives a bit easier. She's swift and efficient with whatever she's been tasked to do and will perform it with a smile, even if being so eager to please can wear her down from time to time--nonetheless, knowing she's helping others makes having to get her breath back so much, worth it. From working with the two of them so much, Alyssa's made quick friends with Abel and Aitra, even if it took a little while to get used to Aitra's attitude. While they're off wearing themselves out with dogs, though, Ally likes to chat and cackle with Abel after he insists that she takes a break from fetching him coffee and delivering messages. She sometimes doodles plants and flowers in his notebook while she rambles to him, and gives a playful scoff to Aitra when they come over to quickly retreive a disc that got sent her way. For as much of a rocky start the two of them got off on, Alyssa's grown to appreciate Aitra's.. themness. Where she once softly scolded them for talking bad about other opponents before competitions, she now giggles and gives them a dissuading nudge, much to Abel's dismay, and may even join in if she knows the other person's out of earshot. Otherwise, she generally tries to keep them under wraps when Abel can't, even if she can get caught up in their slacking now and again, and they often hang out together when not training. She loves to drag them camping, reciting skills she learnt from her older siblings when she was just a kid and essentially saving the other two's asses when they scoff over unseeming bugs. After having years of practice, she's gotten a bit too good of a storyteller around campfires, and has had to comfort Aitra once or twice while Abel quietly lost it at Aitra's insistence that they weren't scared. All the trips out sometimes make Ally wish that she gave herself more time to just.. relax, but routines aren't exactly easy to break out of!

[aphrodisiac-siren]

Ettore X Fem!Reader

Summary: A deadly virus has begun spreading, a disease attacks the brain and causes victims to lose their humanity, rendering them violent and insane creatures. You were chosen, along with a bunch of others, to help find a cure for the same. Along your journey at the organisation, you meet a certain someone who is as daunting as he is captivating.

Warnings: swearing.

!! Read chapter 6 first !!

Masterlist

<<Previous Chapter

Alternate Ending 2~ You chose 'b. Call it quits for now"

To say Ettore was beyond confused would be an understatement.

It absolutely crushed your heart and soul but you knew it was for the best. The punishments here were rather brutal and were only used to discipline rogue and uncooperative subjects. You had witnessed one of these 'procedures' and gods have mercy, it was a sight that left you feeling both sorry and afraid in equal measure.

You did not want Ettore going through any of that.

He at first thought he'd done something wrong. He pried for an answer even after you'd told him it had nothing to do with him.

"Is it because of my past? Or perhaps you've found another chap, someone who doesn’t get into fights almost every single day?"

You tried to explain to him, that you just couldn’t afford to continue with something so risky and that this decision was just as beneficial for him. You both would still talk whenever you had any sessions together but beyond that, all of your scandalous endeavours had to come to a halt. You took back your access card as well and Ettore was rather annoyed about it.

So annoyed that he barely even smiled at you in the cafeteria, and made minimal to almost no conversation in the labs.

He blamed himself mostly, for being stupid enough to fall for you and to further hope you'd fall for him as-well.

As time went on, you were sent to Denver and even though the news scared you at first you were assured that you were being sent to work alongside the doctors. You missed Ettore terribly and your darling Aris. You did manage to make two new friends who worked alongside you and were the same age as yourself- Thomas and Teresa, both of them working here for three years now.

Your job was to record the subjects' activity in the maze, sometimes even help with the operations that involved installing little chips in the back of subjects' necks that would help track their brain activity. You weren’t very fond of the excessive blood at first, but eventually, you got used to the sight. You never really had to perform the surgery, just assist them with retrieving tools they would need.

You had worked at the new place for almost two years now. You thought of Ettore a lot, almost every day. You wondered what he would be upto; if he still was notorious for getting into constant fights. You wondered if someone cared enough for him, the way you did, to tend to his injuries after the fights. You wondered what he looked like now, was he taller? More intimidating?

These would be the times when you desperately wished you were allowed to make phone calls. You would be happy to even opt for the old-fashioned letter writing as well, just something that would let you know he was okay.

Yet all you could do was think of him and only hope that he still thought of you as well.

~

You smoothed out your dress, looking in the mirror in the hallway for the millionth time that evening.

"You look fine, Y/N" Teresa gently nudged you with her elbow, offering you a warm smile "a literal goddess"

You rolled your eyes at her exaggerative compliment and burst into a fit of giggles. It was nice having a girl for a friend after years of only having a boy to fill in for the job. There were other girls who were elites back at the previous establishment but none of them seemed to get close enough to you to be called your friend.

"Never thought we'd be here" Thomas interrupted you "it's been years since we first arrived at W.I.C.K.E.D."

"I know" you hummed a sigh, a small smile appearing on your lips "I had almost given up hope, yet here we are"

"Four years later, at this grand party which celebrates the discovery of a cure" Teresa beamed, linking her arm with yours "so many people's lives are going to be saved. The flare will finally be controlled and eventually terminated"

"I would like you to put your hands together and applaud our doctors and group of elites who we couldn’t have done this without"

You heard Ava's voice boom over the mic just as the doors opened to make your entrance dramatic. You walked in along with the doctors, scientists and a few other elites who worked at the Denver establishment.

You were welcomed into the large hall, walls covered with mirrored gold tiles and ceiling decorated with glass chandeliers, with loud cheers and claps. You walked with the others up onto the stage, the floor made of black marble.

You found it a bit upsetting that she was giving major credit to you lot instead of the many subjects who had died in some of the trials, thus quite literally giving up their lives in the search for a cure.

As Ava continued to congratulate and thank all of you, your eyes began to scan the large hall, looking for those familiar blue eyes.

"Looking for him, are we?" Teresa whispered playfully into your ear. Over the years, the both of you had gotten quite close; close enough for you to tell her about yourself and Ettore.

"I don’t even know if he's here" you mumbled, heart beating with anticipation "I haven’t seen or heard of him in years"

"He will be, he wasn’t part of the maze trials" Teresa tried to remind you that there was almost no chance he was among the ones who had sadly passed along the way.

When Ava's long speech finally came to an end, you walked off the stage toward the bar. You hadn’t touched alcohol in years and you felt that you had finally earned yourself a pass to drowning in a few drinks. On your way there, you ran into your old friend who you didn’t recognise at first but then immediately smiled once you realised who it was.

"Oh my god, Y/N look at you" Aris threw his arms around you, pulling you in for a tight hug "You look absolutely stunning"

"Me? Look at you!" you pulled away to compliment him. His arms were a lot more buff than before and you could tell by the outline of his physique that he had been making use of the gym all those years you'd been away.

"You call this a fuckin' whiskey neat? Mate, I can tell its got fuckin' water mixed in this"

Your eyes widened just a bit. You would recognise that voice anywhere.

Aris too seemed to notice and threw you a smirk, excusing himself to let you go and make conversation.

You took a deep breath and exhaled slowly when your eyes landed on him. He was taller and his dusty blonde hair was a bit longer. He was clad in black from his black dress shirt and tie to his leather shoes- typical, daunting as ever. His jawline was sharp, neck tattoo right under it, peeking out from beneath the collar of his shirt. His lips were just as kissable and his demeanour was still intimidating.

When at last he took notice of you, his pretty eyes meeting yours, It was as if time had stopped.

You saw his lips part ever so slightly as he stood there frozen, probably contemplating like yourself if this was a dream. He left his glass full of whiskey at the bar, eyes not leaving yours even for a second as he pushed past a few people to walk toward you.

"Hi" you breathed out once he was standing right in front of you. He smelled of cigarettes and whiskey, which meant he had already had a drink before you found him.

"Hi" he said in response, suddenly forgetting how to speak.

He was truly at a loss for words and it didn’t help that you were dressed up in a glamorous gown with your hair and make up all done. Ettore knew he'd always found you attractive and now with you all glammed up, he found it surprising that you could get even more beautiful.

"You’re looking pretty" he said gruffly and you almost giggled at how rigid he was. You were rather used to his cocky persona.

"And you’re looking handsome" you took a minute to admire him from head to toe, eyeing him shamelessly. God, you had really scored with Ettore, he had grown into a handsome young man in the years you'd been apart "I missed you"

"You’re the one who ended things" he said almost immediately but then quickly cleared his throat, not wanting to start something as soon as he was reunited with you "I.. I liked you and you-"

"You know why I had to. I liked you too, but we didn’t have a chance back then" you sadly told him, gingerly reaching out to grab his hand as your heart started to beat even faster upon hearing him confess he had a crush on you "but there wasn’t a single day when I didn’t think of you"

Ettore just stayed silent, now looking at your intertwined hands.

"Did you.." you hesitantly proceeded to ask "did you think of me too?"

Again, he didn’t say anything. He just simply reached into his pocket and retrieved something that he held up in the palm of his hand to show you. It took a minute for you to recognise what it was: an old, crinkled-up wrapper of the jolly rancher that you'd given him on the night when you both had first kissed. You looked up and saw that he had broken into a sheepish grin that you found absolutely adorable.

He pocketed the wrapper again, taking a step closer before he hooked a finger under your chin to make you look up at him.

"I missed you too Y/N" he softly told you "more than you could ever know"

This time it was your turn to break into a smile.

"Friends?" you playfully asked, quoting him from years ago.

"I think I've waited long enough to become someone more than just a friend" he graced you with that familiar cocky grin of his just before he dipped down to capture your lips with his in a sweet kiss "now that we're just Ettore and Y/N, can I take you out?"

You bit your lip to keep yourself from smiling as you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him in for another kiss right as you mumbled a 'yes'.

Alternative Ending 2: You and Ettore finally get into a relationship after going on multiple dates (not secretive this time) and Ettore has never been happier, to at last finally have found someone he can love and call his.

[cantsayidont]

Haterating and hollerating through the '90s:

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990): Carrie Fisher scripted this witty adaptation of her novel about coked-up, pill-popping actress Suzanne Yale (Meryl Streep), who overdoses in the bed of a strange man (Dennis Quaid), ends up in rehab, and learns that the only way the production insurance company will let her keep working is if she stays with her mother, an aging singer-actress-diva (Shirley MacLaine) whose love for her daughter is equaled only by her tireless determination to upstage her. (No, it's not autobiographical at all, why do you ask?) Fisher's deftly paced, funny script weaves in various serious mother-daughter moments without ever becoming mawkish, and offers a fabulous part for MacLaine, who has a ball poking fun at herself as well as Debbie Reynolds, Fisher's real-life mother and the obvious basis for the film's lightly fictionalized "Doris Mann." Curiously, the weakest link is Streep, who never quite sheds her customary air of prim affectation and always seems ill at ease with Fisher's layers of self-deprecating, sarcastic humor. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Apparently not, although I had questions about Suzanne's rehab friend Aretha (Robin Barlett). VERDICT: MacLaine's finest hour, but Streep's primness keeps it "good" rather than "great."

TERESA'S TATTOO (1993): Painfully unfunny crime comedy, directed by Melissa Etheridge's then-GF Julie Cypher and costarring Cypher's ex, Lou Diamond Phillips, along with an array of incongruously high-profile actors like Joe Pantoliano, Tippi Hedren, Mare Winningham, Diedrich Bader, k.d. lang (!), Sean Astin, Emilio Estevez, and Kiefer Sutherland, most in bit parts (some of them unbilled). The headache-inducing plot concerns a couple of brain-dead thugs whose elaborate hostage scheme hits a snag when their hostage (Adrienne Shelly) accidentally dies. Their solution is to kidnap lookalike Teresa (also Adrienne Shelly), a brainy Ph.D. candidate, and disguise her to look like the dead girl — including giving her a matching tattoo on her chest — in the hopes that the dead girl's idiot brother (C. Thomas Howell) won't notice the switch until it's too late. This truly bad grade-Z effort, barely released theatrically, feels like either a vanity project or a practical joke that got out of hand, and is interesting mostly as a curiosity for Melissa Etheridge fans: The soundtrack is M.E.-heavy, and Etheridge herself has a brief nonspeaking role. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Technically? (Etheridge has no lines and lang plays a Jesus freak.) VERDICT: May erode your affection for M.E.

BLUE JUICE (1995): Tiresome comedy-drama about an aging surfer (a terribly miscast, painfully uncomfortable-looking Sean Pertwee) who's still determined to continue living like a 20-year-old surf bum with his obnoxious mates, even though his back is giving out and he's perilously close to driving away his girlfriend (a disconcertingly hot 25-year-old Catherine Zeta Jones), who is keen for him to finally cut the shit. Meanwhile, the scummiest of his mates (Ewan McGregor) doses their pal Terry (Peter Gunn) and gets him to chase after an actress from his childhood favorite TV show (Jenny Agutter) in hopes of dissuading from marrying his actual girlfriend (Michelle Chadwick), and their mate Josh (Steven Mackintosh), a successful techno producer, flirts with an attractive DJ (Colette Brown) who's actually furious at him for building a vapid techno hit around a sample of her soul singer dad's biggest hit. The latter storyline probably had the most potential (although a weird scene where Josh is castigated by a group of outraged soul fans seems like a lesser TWILIGHT ZONE plot), but none of the script's various threads ever amounts to much. CONTAINS LESBIANS? It doesn't even pass the Bechdel test. VERDICT: If you happen upon it, you may be tempted just for Zeta Jones (and/or Brown), but the rest wears out its welcome with alacrity.

HIGHER LEARNING (1995): Potent story of simmering racial tensions on the campus of a university that definitely isn't USC (writer-director John Singleton's alma mater, and where most of the film was obviously shot), let down by incredibly heavy-handed execution. (The film's final shot is of the word "UNLEARN" superimposed over a giant American flag!) A capable cast (including Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Connelly, Ice Cube, Tyra Banks, Cole Hauser, Laurence Fishburne, and Regina King) tries to maintain a sense of emotional reality through Singleton's frequent excursions into overpowering melodrama, but there are so many competing plot threads that few characters have any depth; curiously, the script's most complex characterization is in the scenes between budding white supremacist Remy (Rapaport) and Aryan Brotherhood organizer Scott (Hauser). Singleton made this film when he was 25, and there's no shame in its sense of breathless ambition (even if it inevitably bites off more than it can chew), but the overwrought stridency undercuts its intended impact. For a more effective treatment of similar themes in roughly the same period, try Gilbert Hernandez's graphic novel X, originally serialized in LOVE & ROCKETS #31–39 and first collected in 1993. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Jennifer Connelly gives Kristy Swanson a bisexual awakening. VERDICT: The '90s through a bullhorn.

CRASH (1996): Divisive David Cronenberg adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel, about a movie producer called James Ballard (James Spader) and his desperately horny wife (Deborah Kara Unger), drawn into a loose-knit group of car-crash fetishists organized around a man called Vaughan (Elias Koteas at his creepiest), who stages recreations of famous celebrity crashes like the 1955 accident that killed James Dean. Despite some pretentious dialogue about "the reshaping of the human body by modern technology," the controlling idea might be better summarized as "anything can be a paraphilia if you get weird enough about it." Part of what offends people about the film is that Cronenberg deliberately treats the entire story with the same frosty clinical detachment, rendering the "normal" sex scenes just as remote and perverse as the characters' fixation on the grisly aftermath of car wrecks; the point is that there is no line, just different facets of the same erotic longing, which each of the (admittedly unsympathetic) principal characters embodies in different ways. Spader, Kara Unger, and Koteas are very good, as is Holly Hunter, in perhaps the bravest role of her career, but Rosanna Arquette is underutilized. A worthwhile companion piece would be Steven Soderbergh's 1989 SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE, also with Spader, which is much more highly regarded (though almost as contrived and scarcely less perverse), perhaps because it seeks to titillate where Cronenberg does not. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Briefly. (See previous note in re: underutilization of Rosanna Arquette.) VERDICT: Icy but interesting.

[jamespotterthefirst]

Secret Santa (Ethan x MC)

Book: Open Heart, Year 1 Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Lilac Allende) Word count: 1.5k Rating/ Warning: None

Premise: Lilac gets the unknowable Dr. Ramsey for Edenbrook’s Secret Santa. The problem is: what could an intern possibly get for a world renowned doctor who has everything he wants?

"Moment of truth!” Sienna all but sang, shaking the sparkling Santa hat. She lifted it up to Lilac's nose level. “Hoping for anyone in particular?”

Lilac rolled her eyes at the knowing smile her friend sent her. Luckily, it appeared that everyone in the break room missed it.

“Bryce,” Lilac said with a shrug. “I'm terrible at shopping for gifts and he seems easy.”

“He's definitely easy,” Jackie returned without missing a beat.

“Hey!”

Bryce did a convincing job looking indignant. He even threw a balled up paper towel Jackie's way. The latter dodged it without even looking up from her textbook.

“You're out of luck,” Sienna informed her. “I know for a fact that Bryce already has a Secret Santa.” The brunette lifted the hat even more, so that it was only inches away from Lilac's face. “Now, pick.”

With some mild trepidation and a suspicious look at her simpering friend, Lilac reached into the hat. She withdrew the small, folded up piece of paper, acutely aware of the break room full of interns watching with interest. By the time she opened it, her stomach was a coil of anxiety.

“Who did you get?” Bryce asked after a brief pause.

Lilac merely stared at her paper, convinced there had to have been a mistake.

“She obviously can't say, meathead. It's a Secret Santa,” Jackie supplied.

Bryce replied with an impressive comeback that earned him a middle finger. Elijah laughed and her friends dissolved into teasing banter. Lilac, meanwhile, barely heard anything, her attention on the two words on her paper.

Dr. Ramsey.

“Is there a reason you're staring at me, Dr. Allende?” Dr. Ramsey asked dryly without glancing up from his clipboard.

Lilac gave a little start, slightly embarrassed at being caught. Though by now, she should have known better. The man was so astute and aware of his surroundings. Nothing could escape his notice.

“Did you enter that Secret Santa that Dr. Delarosa organized for the staff?”

The question gave him pause. He glanced up from the file, striking her with an azure gaze. It made her stomach somersault.

“Not by choice.”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed as though exasperated by the mere memory.

“I always opt out, finding the whole thing a frivolous waste of our valuable time.”

“That checks out.”

“However, Dr. Delarosa was in charge of the whole affair this year. She must have been far too optimistic about my desire to participate, because she asked me. The unfortunate part is that she did so in front of Teresa Martinez.”

Lilac laughed, understanding.

“Did Mrs. Martinez peer pressure you?”

“She did.”

Lilac's laughter continued. Ethan, meanwhile, threw her an unamused look. He closed the patient chart in his hand with a sense of finality.

“It doesn't matter, either way.”

“Why?”

“Whoever ends up with me will be wasting their time. There is nothing I need or want.”

“Just tell me who it is!” Sienna exclaimed, watching Lilac pace the expanse of her bedroom for the hundredth time. “If it's stressing you out this much, then fuck secrecy!”

Despite the nervous energy pumping through her limbs, Lilac threw the petite doctor an impressed little look.

“I can't help you if you don't tell me,” her friend argued, eyes pleading.

With a defeated sigh, Lilac slumped on her bed right next to her friend.

“I got Doctor Ramsey.”

“Oh. I can't help you,” Sienna returned almost at once. Upon seeing the look of utter shock and indignation on Lilac's face, however, she laughed. The fit turned almost hysterical when Lilac smacked her with one of her pillows. “Sorry, sorry! I was just kidding. Well—kind of… Doctor Ramsey is an enigma. Shopping for him will be a nightmare.”

“You're telling me,” Lilac said, falling back on her mattress. “I have no idea what to get that man. I've been searching everywhere for ideas. He even caught me staring today when I was trying to figure something out.”

“You were staring more than usual?”

“Be serious,” she admonished, failing to look indignant at the true statement. “He told me he doesn't want or need anything, which makes sense because he's Ethan Freaking Ramsey and he has everything he could possibly want in the world.”

“There has to be something,” Sienna said thoughtfully. “You guys talk a lot. What are some things he likes?”

“We do not talk a lot.”

“Please. He barely even glances at the rest of us. One time, he told me to move out of the way. It's the most he's spoken to me in weeks.”

The blush on Lilac's cheeks burned painfully now. When she said nothing out of sheer mortification, Sienna continued.

“Let's see… He likes coffee?” she glanced at Lilac for confirmation.

“Yes, but he already has a ridiculously expensive coffee machine in his office.”

“Wow. He's my hero. How about candy? Or baked goods?”

“He's picky with that,” Lilac countered. “I know he likes the chocolate bars from the vending machine but that's a terrible gift.”

They went on like that for half an hour— Sienna thinking of fantastic gift ideas and Lilac listing five reasons why the unknowable Ethan Ramsey would hate the gift. In the end, both exhausted doctors gave up for the night. They decided to stick a pin in it and try again in the morning.

Except, they were both busy the next morning, rushing to get to work on time.

By the time Lilac thought of the Secret Santa exchange again, it was only two days before it was supposed to take place. Panicked, she decided to go for a homemade gift. Lilac wasn't particularly talented with those, but it was too late to turn back.

As her project came together, she regretted the decision more and more. But since there was virtually no time left, she decided to finish the monstrosity. Besides, it's not like Ethan could fire her for an ugly gift.

“You're not going to fire me, are you?” Lilac asked the very next day as a stony-faced Ethan opened her gift. He had been briefly surprised that Lilac had been his Secret Santa.

“Fire you?”

He held the midnight blue scarf, peering at it as though it was something alien. Now that Lilac looked at it, it didn't look half bad. Calling her sister at midnight and forcing her to assist had paid off.

His prolonged silence, however, made her second guess her choice.

“You hate it.”

“What makes you think that?”

“You haven't said anything in minutes.”

“I'm just surprised.”

He did not look it. In fact, his expression was as unreadable as ever.

“I made it,” Lilac supplied into the silence of his office.

“I know.”

For some reason, the monotonous and dry way he delivered the words made her snort with laughter. It bubbled up into something close to hysterical. The handsome doctor raised an eyebrow at her.

“What's so funny?”

“Sorry,” she managed when she composed herself. “I spent days trying to decide what to get you and I came up with an ugly scarf I knit myself. You must have hundreds of much nicer scarves.”

“Not quite,” he corrected. “I own two or three. To be frank, I rarely wear them.”

“I know,” she returned. “You always walk in here with no scarf and no hat even though it's freezing. I don't know how you do it. I thought of that when thinking of what to get you. You told me the other day there's nothing you want or need but I think you definitely need a scarf.”

His blue eyes remained on her, watching her quietly. Lilac's pulse tripled, noting a flicker of something cross his expression. It was gone before she had time to analyze it.

“Thank you,” he said.

Lilac could not get a single word out so she merely nodded. 

“I picked blue since I think it'd suit you well,” she said before she could stop herself. “I realized I didn't know your favorite color.”

“Black.”

Lilac snorted.

“Very on-brand, Doctor.”

Ethan said nothing, instead holding her gaze so steadily, she froze in place. The smile slowly vanished from her face, her throat dry. Every one of her limbs felt like liquid and her poor heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

Then, in that low baritone that made her knees quiver, he said, “Though I'm also partial to green.”

That surprised her.

“Huh,” she said thoughtfully. “I never would've guessed that.”

He had no reply. Instead, he averted his gaze down to his laptop screen.

“Well, too late to change the color of the scarf now. I'll make you a green one if I get you next year.”

“I won't be entering next year,” he deadpanned, now typing away at impressive speed.

“We'll see,” she taunted in sing-song.

Note: Spoiler- He does enter next year lol. If creativity, time, and health allow, maybe I’ll write a follow-up! 

I’m ambitious this holiday season with fic ideas. Wish me luck!