#the “make his week/year” thing was from the previous version of this scene and that's about it

[jichanxo]

sunday six :D

taking the initiative for a change.... so i'm going to boop @four-white-trees @passthroughtime @skysquid22 @overdevelopedglasses

chipping away at sensei fic this week! here's kitakata and yagami making out lol excuse my bluntness... don't feel obligated to read if you're not into that o7

Yagami reached for Kitakata’s arm, found his hand, and guided it to his hip. Yagami pulled away from the kiss.

“Touch me, would you?”

Kitakata’s breath was warm on his lips. “Where would you like it?”

“Figure it out yourself.” He said and kissed him again. Kitakata didn’t seem to complain. His fingers slipped under the hem of Yagami’s shirt, meeting skin. He touched along the base of his spine, and Yagami couldn’t suppress the slight shiver that went through him. He could only imagine how gratifying this was for Kitakata. Hell, just seeing Yagami checking him out probably made his whole week, now this. He’d never be able to stop him from flirting now.

Yagami leaned into Kitakata’s hold, into his mouth, against that eager tongue. He was about to make Kitakata’s whole damn year.

[obxsummer]

messy // john b routledge

request: Would love to do a request if your taking? You know the bonfire scene where John b and Sarah were broken up and she came with topper and saw John b with another girl and a fight ended up happening where the girl pushed Sarah and John b was yelling crying for her name can we do that with y/n and John b but instead of the fight with him and topper we do a fight with y/n and the girl John b was with and the girl ends up pushing y/n which has John b going crazy and in protective mode and y/n got really hurt by that push from that small clif

pairing: john b routledge x cameron!reader (she/her)

warnings: the usual obx angst and violence, ooc rafe cameron (BRING ME PROTECTIVE RAFE WOOO), injuries

navigation 

--

Boneyard Bonfires are well known in the OBX but not for the reasons they should be. More often than not (a couple years in a row now), fights and arguments broke out between the two halves of the island which usually caused the hangout to end early.

You definitely weren’t planning on attending considering things between you and John B were rough right now. Still reeling from the previous events of the week, you just wanted some space to comprehend the loss your family was facing right now. You didn’t mean to make him upset or to put a wrench in your relationship, but John B was less than happy when you told him you were heading back to Tannyhill to find comfort in your brother and sisters.  

The news of Ward’s death traveled fast, but it felt like everything had stood still for your family. Despite being adopted before you could even remember, Ward and Rose had raised you, and your heart was still broken even after all of the horrible things he’d done to you and your friends. It wasn’t fair to have so many mixed emotions and still push yourself to be around John B when he was busy celebrating a loss that hit you hard.

“You okay?” The soft tone of concern in Rafe’s voice was surprising as you glanced over your shoulder where he was approaching. You were standing out by the dock, eyes on the slow-moving water. The same dock that had been full of cops and your friends only a few days ago.

“Fine,” You mumbled. He pulled you close, arms warm as he held you to his chest like it would protect you from the cruel reality. Rafe completely shut down when the yacht exploded, like all anger had left his body and was replaced with sorrow and fear of the unknown. For so long, Ward had fixed everything for him, and Rafe had been hit with the hard truth that it would no longer happen. Like a flipped switch, he went from an irresponsible party kid to a protective older brother. The one you remembered most growing up, the version you’d missed for so long.

“Did you talk to John B?”

You shook your head slightly. “No, not since yesterday.”

Rafe had tried to stop you from going to find John B yesterday, begging you not to leave him. You hadn’t seen raw emotion out of your brother like that in so long that it scared you, so you let Rafe drive you to your boyfriend’s house to have the honest conversation that needed to happen.

“Hey,” You whispered quietly as you walked down the dock to where John B was sitting.

“Hey.” John B looked up and stood from his seat to join you on the floor of the dock closer to the water.

You sniffled, tugging your knees to your chest as you wrapped your arms around them. Every nerve of your body screamed to run and hide from this nightmare, wishing it would just disappear from view and spare the pain.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” John B’s fingers were warm as the rested on your knee, his other hand gently grabbing your cheek to brush away tears, a small gasp leaving your lips at the action. You’d cried so, so much in these past few hours that it was surprising to have tears left. 

“Were you happy?” You asked quietly, watching his face to tell a reaction. “Because you looked happy.”

John B hesitated in his response, “Babe, he killed my dad.”

You licked your lips and tucked them in, giving a small nod of understanding. It was hard to come to terms that John B felt this was an even trade-off, a life for a life. But he wasn’t wrong, and that made it worse.

“I just think too much has happened,” You admitted honestly, sniffling against your sleeve. “I just thought of all people…you would understand what it was like losing a dad. And I needed you, John B. A-and maybe everyone was right, maybe this is too complicated.”

The two of you received so much backlash when you got together, from friends and family, that it almost broke you. John B reassured you more than once that he didn’t care what they had to say, that the two of you cared about each other and that was the most important thing. But sitting here, with him, you began to wonder if it would be enough.

“It’s not, it’s not too complicated,” He tried to reason, the puzzle fitting into place as he realized what you might be implying. “Please don’t leave. I’ll figure it out, I promise.”

You shook your head and faced him with teary eyes, letting yourself be so vulnerable with the boy you’d trusted your life and heart to. “I love you, JB. But I think I need some time to… to figure this out. I shouldn’t have come here.”

Standing up, you pressed your palms into your eyes to stop the flood of tears in order to see your footsteps as you walked away.

“Hey, hey. Wait,” John B was quickly behind you, his arms wrapping around your shoulders tightly as he held you. Your breath was shaky as you grabbed onto him and tucked your cheek against his skin, soaking up every second of it that you could. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Just talk to me.”

“Just… just give me some time, okay?” You asked quietly, tucking your hand into his like it was your lifeline. “I’ll be back, promise. I just… I gotta figure this out.”

John B pressed a kiss to your head, turning your form so he could hug you properly as you sobbed. He never meant to cause so much harm, despite the fact that he was glad Ward was gone after all he had done. John B almost forgot you lost a dad in the mix, so caught up in the idea of revenge.

The sound of your name being called broke your moment with John B, both of you turning to see Rafe standing in the grass at the end of the dock. You could feel the muscles in John B’s back tense at the sight, but you knew your brother wasn’t here to fight. Rafe wasn’t here to play Kook King, he was in older brother mode. He was here for you.

“I’ve gotta go,” You whispered to John B, pulling yourself from his embrace to press a kiss to his cheek. You turned away and began the walk toward your brother, each step creating a crack in the foundation of your relationship. It felt like the worst thing to do at the moment, but you had to take time to fix this. For you, for John B. For everyone. 

--

After three days of hiding in your room with Sarah, you gave up on the idea of rotting away. It was more harmful than good, anyway. It had taken some convincing from your friends and each other, but you, Rafe, and Sarah decided to go to the bonfire, hoping it would bring some normalcy and energy back to the three of you. Today had been better than the others, too, so it wouldn’t hurt to venture out for a little bit. 

The scene was already busy when you got there, cheers and music coming from every area while people mingled and partied away. You walked in with Sarah, having already lost Rafe to Topper and his usual group of rowdy friends. 

“Here,” Your sister handed over a seltzer she’d brought along, the two of you pregaming a bit to take the edge off and help shake the anxiety. 

You thanked her, popping the tab and taking a sip as you unconsciously scanned the crowd for the familiar faces you’d come to love. Kiara and Pope were found first, the duo sitting by the fire and conversing with drinks in hand. JJ came next, the blond busying himself with a shotgun alongside some girl you recognized from previous parties. 

And then, there was John B. Your John B who begged you not to leave, promising to fix things, was up close and personal with a girl. A girl who wasn’t you.

“Oh, I’ll fucking kill him.”

You barely had enough time to grab Rafe’s shirt sleeve, your older brother seemingly catching sight of the issue as you did. You weren’t sure when he had ditched Topper and whatever blonde hookup he wanted tonight, but he had, and now he was pissed.

“It’s fine,” You reassured and took a sip of your drink, not yet letting go of his flannel as you tried to act like you were unbothered. “Leave it. For now.”

“He’s still a Pogue,” Rafe reminded you, eyes flaring with the need to teach John B a lesson. 

You nodded and let your grip fall. “Rafe, I’ve got it. I’ll handle it, and if things go south, then you can punch him.”

Rafe sent the sharpest glare toward John B, which went unnoticed before he returned to his friends with a handful of beers. Sarah rolled her eyes at his aggressive change but didn’t say anything, the two of you clinking your cans together before taking another sip.

One drink turned into too many, but you were so carefree and light that you didn’t care. Kie and Pope had come to join you at one point, the four of you a little too buzzed or high to acknowledge the tension with other members of the group. Sarah was leaning on your shoulder, looking the happiest she had since everything went down and you were glad to see it. Your siblings meant the world to you and now, they were all you had left.

“I’m getting another drink,” You announced louder than needed as you stood up from your friends and made your way toward the drink area without another word. To your luck (or unconscious movement), you managed to find John B near the bonfire, his attention still on the dark-haired girl you’d noticed earlier.  The alcohol-based confidence pushed you to approach him, despite the warning in your head telling you it wouldn’t end well.

“John B, hi.” You gave him a sickly-sweet smile and titled your head toward the girl, who you recognized as Jasmine from the coffee shop up the road. “Wanna introduce me to your friend?”

No introduction was needed but John B definitely did not anticipate seeing you here, and his eyes went wide at your presence. Sarah was suddenly next to you as the boy attempted to find a response, “Look it’s not-”

“We should go,” Sarah tried to reason with you, knowing damn well you weren’t in the right headspace to have this conversation right now.

Jasmine nodded in agreement. “Good idea, you should listen to your sister.”

“Did I ask you?” You smiled at her, letting the heavy anger seep into your tone as you addressed her. 

“You don’t own everything, princess. Why don’t you go run on home and-“

“Why are you still talking?”

Sarah began mouthing off with the girl, giving you a chance to turn your attention to a very quiet John B. “She’s a real gem. Glad to know you’re working real hard on figuring us out.”

John B’s face hardened at your words as a crowd starting to gather around you. “You’re the one who said you needed time. Guess three days was enough?”

You shook your head, begging your eyes to stop burning with tears that threatened to form. “Did I mean anything to you, John B?”

The question seemed to strike him hard but he didn’t have time to react before Rafe was in between the two of you, eyes looking to kill. “Back the fuck up, John B. You’ve done enough damage to our family this week, maybe try to take a break.”

The first punch was thrown fast, but the following ones came even faster. JJ and Pope were suddenly in the mix, Topper and Kelce coming to back up your brother as the typical Kook vs Pogue war started again.

“Are you happy now?” Jasmine hissed at you, a snarky smile on her face as she watched you yell for the boys to stop.

You glared at her, tears of frustration filling your eyes. “Shut the fuck up, you bitch. Maybe keep your hands to yourself and off my boyfriend next time.”

She pounced instantly, her hands shoving your shoulders and throwing you backward off the brick wall you’d been hiding on. The pain was instantaneous, a sharp twinge up your back from landing on your tailbone and scraped skin beginning to bleed, but the heat on your arm told you the push had been a little more than aggressive.

You screamed out, rolling away from where you had connected with the bonfire. You could hear John B yelling out for you, your name was being shouted in different directions and there were suddenly so many hands reaching for you. You pushed yourself off the ground, crying in pain at the movement, but you weren’t concerned about yourself. The rage in Rafe’s eyes told you that someone needed to intervene, and it needed to happen now.

“Stop, stop!” Your voice was weak as you reached out for your brother, trying to catch his fist before he landed another punch to John B’s already bruised face. “Rafe, please!”

The pain in your voice stopped him short, both boys instantly turning to you with concern and worry. It took them only a few seconds to clock the burn on your arm, and even though you hadn’t noticed the sway to your stance, they surely did. 

Rafe dropped his grip on John B’s shirt instantly, his hands reaching out to try and assess the wound on your arm before he forced himself to focus. “Hospital, now. We’re going.”

“We don’t have the car,” Sarah pointed out as she pulled off her lightweight coverup and pressed it against your head where the pain was starting to pulse. A small whimper left your mouth, and suddenly, you were against someone’s chest within seconds.

“Move!” John B’s voice was unmistakable even though your hearing was slowly becoming a dull ring. Everything passed in a blur from there. The chaos of the fight faded away and the orange tint from the fire disappeared as the group moved away. You could barely make out Sarah and Rafe’s voices, your siblings arguing over what to do and where to go.

“I’m not getting in a car with them!”

Worn leather could be felt under your legs, the familiar stickered ceiling of the Twinkie coming into view. You groaned at the movement, your head feeling heavier with each second. You blinked, barely having the energy to look over to see John B staring back at you, his bruised face filled with concern as he held you tightly against him. 

“No no, stay with me.” John B’s fingers lightly tapped your cheeks to call your attention as you blinked slowly up at him. “You’re okay. I’ve got you. Sarah, drive!”

You could hear your sister shout back that she was trying. 

“I’ve got it,” Rafe’s voice followed her frustration before the car started moving beneath you and everything slowly turned to black.

--

You hated the smell of hospitals, but you hated waking up in them even more. It took a moment for your eyes to adjust to the dim lighting and when it did, you made out Sarah’s figure curled up on the spare bed in the room, her hair haphazardly strewn across her face. To your surprise, Rafe was slumped on the couch, his long legs barely hanging on as he lay across the piece of furniture, snoring softly. Which left one option as the person curled up in your side, the unruly dark curls giving away the answer.

“Hi,” John B’s voice was quiet in an attempt to allow your siblings to sleep. His green eyes met yours, sleep evident in the glassy haze they held. He leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead.

“Didn’t mean to wake you,” You whispered back, shifting carefully with the IV in your arm to cuddle into his side.

“Couldn’t sleep,” He admitted as his fingers dipped into the waistband of your jean shorts to brush against your hipbone. “Feel okay?”

You hummed in response. “What’d they say?”

“Concussion, second-degree on your arm, and a superficial blow to the head, my crazy girl.”

You chuckled, gripping his t-shirt between your fingers to pull him into you, “Gotta keep you on your toes, yeah?”

John B huffed a laugh and pulled your hand from his shirt to hold within his own. A few moments of peaceful quiet filled the room as you listened to his heartbeat in your ears, letting the steady sound calm your racing thoughts.

“Are you mad at me?” You asked quietly, fearing the answer he had to give. Your anxiety had gotten the best of you over the last few days and you’d been questioning whether a break from John B was actually the right thing to do.

“God, baby, how could you even think that?” John B shifted to lean on his elbow and look at you. There was a pretty gnarly bandage on your head where you’d hit the concrete on your way down. All John B could think about was how this was all his fault. He’d let you get hurt, let you down in every way possible, and here you were, scared he was mad at you. “All of this is my fault. If anything, you should be pissed at me.”

You opened your mouth to argue with him but stopped short. Yeah, your feelings had been hurt, but you knew if the roles were reversed and your actions landed John B in the hospital, you would never forgive yourself. 

“I’m sorry, about everything. You’re right, I was so caught up in revenge that I missed out on being there for you, and I’ll never forgive myself for that. You needed me, and I wasn’t there, and I’m so sorry.”

You moved your uninjured arm to hold the back of his neck, pulling him in slowly for a kiss. John B hummed in content, his fingers wrapping around your waist as he leaned in again, pinning you against the mattress to kiss you again and again and again. 

“I forgive you,” You said softly when he pulled away for a moment to catch his breath. “I’ll always forgive you.”

“This is cute and all, but can you guys shut up and quit making out?” You looked over to see Sarah glare tiredly before she flipped you off and rolled over on her other side to face away from you.

You and John B shared a quiet laugh and a handful of kisses before cuddling up on the tiny hospital bed in each other’s arms, preparing to face Rafe’s anger in the morning but moving forward together, one step at a time.

--

navigation 

[galaxymagitech]

hello!! i'm a big fan of your fic "Bleed the Poison Out" (and i'm definitely putting it on multiple fic rec lists). it has such a good portrayal of bruce and dick's relationship <3

so for the ask game: ✰ NEW SHAPES ☹ EVIL TWIN ♡ SMALL THINGS

Thank you so much!!! That is one of my favorite fics I’ve written, and probably in my top three of Bruce & Dick fics to write, so I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Sorry for taking so long :(

Bleed the Poison Out | Ask Game

♡ SMALL THINGS: pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite minor detail from it!

Hmm. This fic means a lot to me, so it’s difficult to find something that feels minor, but…I think I’d go with the soft rug that has the pizza sauce and blood stains. The fic can feel very isolating (to me, at least), like Bruce and Dick are the only two people in the world—even when other people come up, they’re a distraction tactic. But the rug is just there, and a sign of Dick’s connections beyond just Bruce. Even if he never talked to Bruce again (although he will talk to Bruce again), he would still have a family.

✰ NEW SHAPES: send me a fic and I’ll give you an alternate direction the fic could have gone!

Well, when I first started planning this fic (for last year's Dick Grayson Anniversary Week), I was trying to make it an actual heartwarming, complete apology that, while not fixing everything, left a very solid foundation. But every single fully sincere apology I could think of felt utterly ridiculous. I genuinely could not suspend my disbelief enough to believe that Bruce could apologize in a way that doesn’t make things worse. So, I ended up pulling out a draft that was permanently consigned to my notes. It was a personal thing, not fit for posting, but I figured I could try to fix it up.

After that, I think the main thing that nearly went differently was that I almost cut it off because I couldn’t think of an ending. Instead of getting through to Bruce, Dick would have forced down his feelings in the end, accepted Bruce’s apology (and lack of apology for the incidents they disagree on) and then Bruce would leave. And Dick would be alone.

But then I found a turning point, where Dick voices something that's just so out of place that it forces Bruce to confront how his actions are so messed up that they've created these really messed-up (but realistic, I think) thought processes. That, despite not meaning to, he hurt his son.

☹ EVIL TWIN: send me a fic or scene and I’ll give you the unhappy ending version of it!

This was really fun. My first thought was that the conversation escalated and Bruce got violent again, but I figured that's boring, and I could do better. So I challenged myself to imagine the actual worst dumpster fire of an ending possible. And then I worked back from there to light that fire.

That turning point I mentioned in the previous question? It could very easily have sent the conversation careening in the opposite direction. So I’ve started the story from there. Enjoy your dumpster fire ending!

***

“I want you to hit me again,” Dick admits. For a moment, there’s silence. And then—

“What.” Bruce’s voice is flat and cold. Dick flinches at the sound of it.

He—it made sense in his head. If Bruce just…just hit him. Now. After Spyral. Not under mind control. No Court of Owls, or dead sons, or dead friends, or justification. If Bruce just hit him, Dick would know. He would know that this is what Bruce does, that Bruce hits him, that it’s a thing, and Dick can be angry all he wants and it won’t be just stupid, childish resentment.

But sitting in the silence and listening to the words echo in his ears, Dick knows there has to be something wrong with him, something that makes him push and poke and prod and provoke until Bruce loses his patience. After all, what kind of kid—not that Dick is a kid, but he sure feels like one right now—what kind of kid wants his father to hit him? What kind of kid says that out loud?

When Bruce speaks again, his words dig their claws into Dick’s heart and scoop out the rot hiding inside. Because, as much as Dick wishes he wasn’t, Bruce is right. “If you’re looking for whatever villain you’ve built up in your head, Dick, you’re not going to get it.”

“Villain,” Dick echoes. Everything is cold, not just Bruce’s voice. The air in his apartment. The air in his lungs. The cavity Bruce has carved into his chest where his heart is supposed to beat.

“That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Bruce asks. “I fired you. I’m to blame for Jason’s death. I’m to blame for everything, aren’t I?” Dick’s fists clench, thumbs trapped against the wood of the table. “I made mistakes. I’ll be the first to admit that. But—”

“Mistakes?” Dick can’t keep the hysteria out of his tone. He was trying to be calm. Reasonable. He alwaystries. But something about arguing with Bruce turns him into a timebomb. And sooner or later, he explodes. And even if he calms down, even if he tries to reel himself in, he just explodes again. And again. And again. Until one of them leaves. “You want to talk about Jason’s death? Because you blamed me for that too, and then you hit me, and the first time you even thought to apologize is half a decade later! You beat me until I agreed to leave my family behind and go on that godforsaken mission and even now, you can’t even acknowledge what you did! All you can say is that you made mistakes!”

“What do you even want me to say, then?” Bruce asks. His face is contorted with something that Dick has only seen a few times before. In the cave, after Jason’s death. As Batman pulled him from Blüdhaven’s wreckage. In the cave again, after the Crime Syndicate. It’s a face Dick has only ever seen on Batman in their worst moments together. But now, Bruce is wearing it, and Dick can’t force his lungs to breathe. “You’re acting like a child, right now.”

“Maybe stop treating me like one then!” Dick screams.

He doesn’t mean it in the way he meant it at twelve, at sixteen, at nineteen. He doesn’t mean that Bruce isn’t giving him enough responsibility or independence, or that Bruce doesn’t trust him.

Dick means that he will never be able to say anything to convince Bruce that he did more than just make a mistake. No matter what, Dick’s words will always be less trustworthy, less valid, less real. Bruce will hold a court session in his head and Dick’s thoughts will never be anything other than an unreliable eyewitness testimony.

That’s unfair to Bruce. Dick has no way of proving that he’s right—about Bruce hitting him after Gordon’s supposed death, about the events before Spyral being more than just a brutal spar, about Bruce’s actions being a step above mistake and crossing over into something he doesn’t want to name. Why should Bruce trust him, when he accidentally lied about not agreeing to spar? Why should Bruce trust him, when he took the most thorough apology Bruce has ever given and pushed and prodded until he made it another argument, just like he always does?

But it still stings.

Bruce’s response stings even more.

“I tried to apologize,” Bruce says. “I sat here while you accused me of one terrible thing after the next. But—”

Dick can’t help but interrupt. (That’s wrong. He needs to take responsibility; he can help it. He just doesn’t.)“It’s not an apology if—”

“—playing the victim—”

“—you’re arguing with me—”

“—own up to my flaws but—” 

“—every other second!”

“I won’t apologize for something I never did!” Bruce roars, hands slamming into the table as he stands. The surface trembles, and Dick wonders if this will be it, and the kitchen table will finally crack. He’ll get a bigger one, this time. One with room for enough chairs for everyone.

His mind, Dick realizes, is not totally there. He can hear everything Bruce is saying. He can see the kitchen around them. But right now, the world doesn’t feel entirely real. “I didn’t ask you to!” Dick yells back. He thinks at least. He can’t really tell. His voice sounds too-loud and too-quiet at the same time. “I didn’t ask you to break into my apartment when I just wanted to sleep and try to talk about it, okay? Nothing’s stopping you from leaving!”

“I was trying to make things right!” Bruce screams, stepping forwards. Dick scrambles out of his chair and takes a step back, towards the corner of the kitchen. Away from the door. Not that Dick could reach the door anyway—Bruce is blocking the exits.

Dick remembers noticing that, when Bruce sat down. That Bruce put himself between Dick and the exits. Because he both of them appreciate being able to watch all the entrances, but he doesn’t know that right now, Dick feels like a cornered animal. Bruce would never have thought that Dick needed an exit to feel safe. “This?” Dick sweeps an arm out. “This is not making things right! This is making things worse, like you always do!”

Bruce takes another step forward. This time, Dick refuses to give any more ground. There’s not much further he can retreat in the corner anyway. Bruce opens his mouth, presumably to scream something else, before he abruptly pauses. When he speaks again, his voice is cutting, but no longer a scream. A knife, instead of a club. A knife that buries itself in Dick’s chest and twists. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? You said you want me to hit you. And so you do this.” Bruce shakes his head. “This isn’t you, Dick. There’s something wrong with you, right now, making you act like this. Have you been exposed to any—”

Bruce says more, but Dick can’t hear it over the blood rushing in his ears. All he knows is that he needs to get out. He needs to get out. He needs to get out.

He can’t get out. The exits are blocked.

He needs to—

Over the next few weeks, Dick will look back on this moment and replay it over and over again in his head. He will try to tell himself that he was just acting instinctively, that he wasn’t thinking, that his vigilante brain perceived a threat and lashed out. But he’ll know better.

Dick hand forms a practiced fist and strikes Bruce in the face.

No. Dick needs to take responsibility. Dick strikes Bruce in the face.

And for a moment, the world freezes. Bruce, with his head thrown to the side. Dick, with a fist raised, blood beginning to well from where one of his knuckles scraped against a tooth. And the room, empty, with no one to bear witness. Just like always.

Except it’s entirely different.

Dick sucks a breath of air into the vacuum of his lungs. Bruce slowly lifts his head. For a moment, they both stare at each other.

And then Dick collapses against the wall, barely remaining upright. His mind is filled with a cacophony of voices, all screaming the same thing. “I’m sorry,” Dick says. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I swear, I’m sorry.”

Dick hit him. Not to fight him while he was making a mistake. He just hit him. During an argument.

Bruce has never hit Dick outside costume. Even during the spar, they wore their cowl and mask.

Dick didn’t just hit Bruce, didn’t just make a horrible—a horrible mistake. He crossed a line.

“I’m sorry,” Dick repeats. It’s all he can do. He knows how it sounds. ‘I didn’t mean to’s and ‘I’m sorry’s. “I’m sorry, I’m—”

“Are you done?” Bruce asks, wiping away the blood from a cut on his lower lip. His voice isn’t warm, but it isn’t cold either. It just is. Are you done? Are you done being a problem? Are you done escalating every fucking argument you get into? Are you done playing the victim, when you just struck someone you love and made him bleed?

“Please,” Dick says. He doesn’t know what he’s pleading for. Forgiveness? That would make it worse. If Bruce forgave him. What he did— “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Bruce says quietly. “I’m sorry too.” Bruce shouldn’t be apologizing. Dick hit him. This is all wrong.

Bruce was right. Dick keeps playing the victim, when all he’s done is create the problems.

Bruce helps Dick into his chair at the table and steps back. Dick’s skin crawls the whole time, but he can’t think of anything except the impact of Bruce’s skin beneath his fist. “I’ll see you next week,” Bruce says. “There’s a case that could use another pair of hands.”

Dick looks down. When he looks back up, Bruce is gone. He doesn’t know quite how long it was between.

All this time, Dick held grievances against Bruce for, what? Treating him like an equal? Like someone he could speak to honestly? Like someone who could stand up for himself if he didn’t want to spar?

Bruce wanted to apologize. And Dick responded by hitting him.

It’s clear, now, where the poison lies. Seeping into Dick’s blood. Dripping from the cut on his knuckle. Pulsing within his very veins.

[divinedelusional]

𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞

jack schlossberg x fem reader

warnings: none, it's fluff!

a/n: intro is one of my favourite songs from eternal sunshine and idk i just see jack vibing with ari's music

how can i tell if i'm in the right relationship?

aren't you really supposed to know that shit?

feelin it in your bones and own that shit?

Last year when you first heared the song you already knew that you were in a right relationship, although you totally got what Ariana meant. You met a lot of people and many times you thought it'd be it, yet life turned out differently. So when you met your current boyfriend you had the exact thoughts Ariana put in lyrics of the first song of eternal sunshine.

But he proved you wrong. He was not like your previous partners. He was different. Made you feel safe. He was smart, funny, sometimes a little unhinged. His mom once told him he was not for everybody, but oh how glad you were, that you weren't everybody.

Jack Schlossberg, your sunshine, goofball of a boyfriend and tiny dancer, as you were calling him since he started doing ballet. You've been dating him for year and a half right now, but since months ago you moved in together, in a cute place on Metropolitan Hill.

Not a day went by that you could be bored with Jack. He loooved to talk, sure, but he could listen as well and was always excited to learn more about things you were passionate about. You were 5 years younger than him and at first you were a little anxious if you'd get along, that he'd be to serious for you, but he proved you wrong day before Thanksgiving, when he drove over to your sister's house upstate and sang under your balcony.

"Y/N you hear that?" your sister asked while you were sitting in front of your vanity applying eye pads.

You stop your movement. You heard something in fact, like someone tried to sing.

"Is that Britney song?" your sister asked, trying not to laugh.

You went outside and you saw Jack singing his heart out.

"And I, I MUST CONFESS"

"Jack what are you doing here?!"

"What does it look like to you? I'm doing that scene from freaky friday!"

then I had this interaction I've been thinking bout for like five weeks

wonder if he's thinking bout it too and smilng

On March 8 last year, International Women's Day weather in New York was very graceful and Jack informed you that he's taking you for a picnic. You asked him if you could listen to Ari's new album on the way here. And you both fell in love with the album. He was humming the intro for the whole day and on the way back to New York you listened to the record one more time.

if the sun refused to shine

baby would i still be your lover?

Now year after that you've been awaiting a deluxe version of the album, being excited for the new songs. You've been at the best mood the whole day, sun making simple daily tasks enjoyable. After work you started cooking your favorite casserole for dinner and then you felt a need to go for a walk. You put casserole in the oven leaving note to Jack to it will be ready in an hour and you could eat together.

You bought yourself a latte to go and walked around Central Park, then taking a stroll to the next neighborhood to wander around bookshops. Nature graced you with a beautiful sunset today and you took couple pics and head home.

Before you opened door to your apartment you already felt a delicious smell. You entered and on a dining area you saw beautifully set table with wine glasses and lit candles. Music was playing softly and you saw you're boyfriend in the living room. Ever since the ballet show he took part in, he was dancing more around the house. Literally spinning like a ballerina sometimes and you loved it. You recognized a familiar tune and you saw Jack doing pirouettes while singing.

"Would you want me there, if the moooon went dark tonight? "

You couldn't help but let out a laugh and Jack's head went straight at your direction. His cheeks went a little red but he showed you his million dollar smile.

"Hi, baby. Set the table and now I'm uhm, waiting for you" he smiled, coming up to you.

"Mhm I see" you hummed and smile back.

He put your jacket to the closet and wrapped his arms around your frame, nuzzling his nose against your neck.

"Come here, give me a kiss" he mumbled into your neck.

You turned around in his arms, your hands going under his oversized hoodie and travelled to the nape of his neck as you pressed a loving kiss to his lips.

"Jack, I'd always want to be your lover, you know that?" you tell him, gazing into his big brown eyes.

"And I'll always be yours"

And if it all ended tomorrow

Would I be the one on your mind?

tagging: @caesarsaladlover @ddlydevotion @mystardustmelodyyy @remotewatch

[grannanna]

In Defense of Carlotta

So I was rewatching the Royal Albert Hall version of POTO and I kinda came to a realization: Carlotta didn’t entirely deserve what was going on.

I’m not saying she wasn’t a jerk. She is a primadonna for crying out loud. She’s got the ego of a peacock, but she’s still human.

At the beginning of the musical during her rendition of Think of Me and the bit between that version and Christine’s version, she gets attacked by the phantom. Of course everyone knows it’s the phantom but the managers all kinda just blow it off. We see her get upset and leave the opera cause she’s pissed.

You could frame this as her being a perfectionist OR you could see this as a woman finally breaking after years of abuse from a ghost of a man.

She says that “for three years these things keep happening” and that the previous manager never did anything to stop them. He simply paid the phantom and then kept casting her in the lead roles.

The phantom wants two things and that is to get Christine on stage and then into his arms. So, he sees Carlotta as an obstacle and has probably been attacking her for all those three years.

And what happens when she complains? When she gets scared and looks for someone to aid her? She gets either one of two responses:

The person is too scared of the opera ghost to do anything.

The person doesn’t believe in the opera ghost and acts like she’s crazy.

Both result in someone telling her “these things do happen.��

So can you blame her for leaving after she got close to dying AGAIN?

And then less than a week after leaving she finds out that they replaced her already? After all that talk about how she was the best of the best, the crème de la crème, her years and years of training, they replace her. And not only do they replace her, but they replace her with practically a teenager who has been getting trained by the very man that keeps trying to murder her?!

No wonder she was so angry when she stormed into the letters scene! Those she trusted had replaced her, sent her a taunting note, and then had the gall to ask her to come back!

I think this also recontextualizes the majority of Primadonna. These jerks are asking her to come back and of course she’s hesitant, she doesn’t wanna get almost assassinated again, but that tiny bit of vanity and pride comes up in the back of her mind.

Furthermore her “public needs” her. This could be the pride but I like to imagine her thinking of a little girl in that audience that wants nothing more than to be like her. Music was one of the only arts and ways to make money open to women at the time. Shes an example of how women can be independent in this world.

And ya know what? This man is trying to ruin her life. He doesn’t know her, but he keeps tryin to intimidate her and make her give up on something she clearly has a passion for. If you watch the recording of the 25th anniversary version of Primadonna, after the phantom gives his good ol “imma mess up the show” threat, she cocks her head and gives a little smirk. Shes saying “screw you. I worked hard for this. I spent years of my life, hours of my time, all of my energy, to be the best of the best and not you nor any spooky ghost can stop me!”

In the next opera, Carlotta and Christine are clearly having fun playing opposite each other. You could argue that this was just for the opera to go well, but I can tell you as an ex-actress myself that feelings towards your cast mates can get past you and the audience will see it.

(For instance, in high school I was playing opposite a guy I had a crush on and he had a crush on me, so when we went to a clinic (judges giving you advice on your show before competition) the judge basically told us to decide whether or not our characters liked each other or not cause it was making it too complicated for the stage. (For context we were playing Jo and Laurie. Laurie likes Jo, Jo doesn’t like him like that) Once the play was over we started dating. TLDR the audience will know if actors do or don’t like each other)

So Christine and Carlotta are having a good time because I think Carlotta realizes this isn’t Christine’s fault. Someone was going to have to take on the roll and it gave this young artist a start. Plus, it’s not Christine’s fault the Phantom became obsessed with her. He could have chosen literally anyone and Christine just happened to be the (un)lucky girl. I don’t see any evidence of Carlotta holding any grudges against Christine in this scene.

Also, this is just a minor thing, but I think that this was the right casting for this specific opera. Carlotta is much more voluptuous than Christine. She can’t exactly Mulan herself but Christine is younger and smaller and therefore can. This isn’t a talent thing this is basic casting. The entire opera is more important than the phantoms obsession. Also, the page boy is still a good role! If anything it seems like a pivotal role that just happens to be a mute one! The phantom should be excited that they’re not just throwing Christine back to the ballet dancers!

And then, when everything is going well, when she thinks that maybe the opera ghost has given up, that terrible voice announces that she and the mangers have pissed him off. You can see in her face she’s trying to be strong but she is scared. Shes not angry. She’s not petty. She’s scared.

She only gets mad at Christine when she reacts to the phantom. Yeah she acts like a jerk, calling her a toad. But the man trying to kill her is talking and the girl he is obsessed with his looking around for her “angel” which is Carlotta’s angel of death. So she’s gonna get mad. She’s gonna yell at Christine even during the show cause that’s her only outlet at the moment.

I would like to note here that that is a dick move on Carlotta’s part. However, we just had the two having a good time and we don’t know for sure that Carlotta didn’t apologize afterwards. We have a whole time skip between acts. The two could have made up.

But back to the show, the phantom seems to magically curse her to croak like a toad. In the version I saw in high school she took a sip of water that had something the phantom put in it to make her croak, but in the 25th version, you don’t see that. For all she knows this is no longer just a creepy guy but a literal ghost that just cursed her to sound like a frog! Getting rid of the thing she holds most dear! Her voice! No wonder she’s scared! Hell she starts crying! And Christine even tries to comfort her! Further proving that Christine is an angel and that the two could have developed somewhat of a working friendship/relationship.

And in her moment of terror what do the managers do? They replace her again! After all that talk about how they needed her the minute she becomes an obstacle they throw her out of the way.

She probably doesn’t have any time to process that before seeing that the phantom ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEONE! Any of that little hope she had that it was all just threats and taunts is out the window when the master of the fly ACTUALLY DIES! Hes killed and the phantom laughs and parades the corpse around like a piñata!

After that he manages to make a giant chandelier explode?!? If Carlotta doesn’t think that the phantom is an actual ghost before then she does now!

But a long while later, everything seems to go back to normal. We don’t know what happens in the meantime but we skip ahead to Carlotta managing to attend a masquerade party back at the opera. She’s all in black and back in her “don’t f with me I have the power of god and opera music on my side” vibes.

She doesn’t get much screen time here but we get three major lines from her.

“What a delight”

“Watching us and watching them”

“May its splendor never fade”

And “no more notes”

We can glean three things from this. Life has been good. The ghost has finally left her alone, and she’s got her art back. Her passion back! And I like to headcannon that she’s become a better person in this time and that’s why she’s dressed like she is.

If she was really still vain and conceited, she’d be wearing the most elegant angelic or queen-like dress she could find, but she’s instead a witch.

She’s dressed as who she used to be. She may have evolved and come to terms with sharing the spotlight hence why she says “watching US” She’s in a better place now that death isn’t breathing down her neck.

(Unrelated but also anyone notice Madame Giry with a young handsome dude? Is Giry a cougar and we just never noticed?)

And then, as everything is going good again, THE PHANTOM SHOWS UP AGAIN! And he’s literally LITERALLY dressed as the red death! A literal manifestation of Carlotta’s fears surrounding this monster of a man.

Yes Carlotta then becomes a jerk when she gets only a tiny part, which I will say she should have expected. The guy who wants you dead writes an opera and you expect him to give you a large role? Girl? You on the same planet as the rest of us? Once again, pride and vanity are kinda her big things.

Yet she still agrees to do it cause people are in actual danger now. And as she says “the things I have to do for my art!”

And yet she jumps back down the hole that she and the phantom are both in: blaming others for their problems. She thinks Christine is in line with the phantom and therefore blames her. She isn’t as… shall we say croaky about it but she still does point the finger. And yet she does seem to get a little worried when she thinks Christine is completely backing out. I mean after what happened last time Christine didn’t play the lead..

And then the phantom sends his note and once again you can see the horror and then also embarrassment when the phantom insults her acting.

Another headcannon is that yeah she does have an amazing voice there is no doubt about it, but she seems nervous about her acting. Maybe she knows her acting isn’t as good as her singing and realizes that if she messes up this time let’s just say she won’t get another chance.

(Also did the phantom really have to fat shame Piangi?)

And as the phantom addresses Christine in the note, I think Carlotta flops sides again when she hears that Christine has basically left the phantom. Hes not training her anymore. She had no idea of this. And if you can zoom in on her face in the background, you can see that Carlotta looks guilty for just yelling at this girl that’s just as terrified of the phantom as her if not more so!

And then she smirks again when Christine says no so then there goes that argument. And then again she goes back to pointing fingers but this time at Giry. Granted Giry does have some blood on her fingers so she has a point but once again EVERYONE IS SCARED OF THE PHANTOM! What makes Giry any different?! And when that pointing doesn’t work it goes back to pointing at Christine cause she can’t take into account anyone’s suffering but her own.

Then Christine had her break down and Carlotta comments “she’s mad.” But look at how she says this. Shes not making fun of her, she’s not belittling her, she’s worried about her. She sees the madness she’s experiencing is happening to others too. I think this is the final time she flips back to sanity. She realizes she’s not the only woman cursed by the phantom.

And while we can’t see much of her after Raoul’s solo we do see her almost run after a terrified Christine.

Yes she’s still jealous of Christine, we see that with the looks she gives during the rehearsal for Don Juan, but we also see something else I’ve been neglecting.

She’s an amazing friend to Piangi.

She gets upset when people correct him. He gives her support after almost being murdered and walks out with her. He pumps her up, she pumps him up. She compliments his skills and never once gets mad that he gets a role and she didn’t. I mean she’s mad she didn’t get a role but she’s still happy for Piangi! She’s willing to stand up to the phantoms writing not for herself but for her friend Piangi. And she backs down not for herself but for PIANGI. And she gets mad when he gets stressed and she gets stressed when he’s stressed and she’s a dick to everyone else but at least she’s a good friend to the few she has.

Which is why it’s probably for the best that we don’t see her react to Piangi’s death in this version.

Carlotta is definitely not perfect. But I don’t know if she’s entirely evil. She has been hurt by the phantom as much as anyone and deserves a future of peace just as much as anyone else does because that could allow her to grow.

Anyway rant over.

[happilyfeatherafter]

Happilyfeatherafter’s ficrec Fridays

Good friday y'all. Welcome back to a new fortnight of fics that I’ve read and loved recently. I took my first holiday of the year and IMMEDIATELY caught a cold that knocked me out for the week but at least it meant I got reading done. Save me, destiel, save me.

If you want to find more you can see my previous rec lists here!

29 March 2024

virga(e) by @shineforthee (art by @neversleepuntilfive) has gone straight to the top of the favourite fics ever pile, oh my god you guys, please read it immediately and admire the art that inspired it as part of @deancasreversebang. This fic is a thing of beauty from start to finish. In one version of the story of Dean and Cas, we find Castiel perpetually waiting in the desert, when a 26 year old Dean stumbles upon him drawn to the location mid-hunt. They must learn to trust each other, to figure out what's causing the push and pull that bonds them. The poetry of this fic, run through with this yearning devastating emotion on their journey together, coupled with the incredibly evocatively descriptions and research into the setting, come together to make the most gorgeous picture, the desert a place that seems desolate but is teeming with life. Much like the slowburn romance that flourishes between them. It also links back to post-canon in a way that is seeded so carefully and cleverly, and made my heart explode. It's funny, romantic, devastating, emotional, moving....I can't do justice to this fic with such a short snapshot, please read it for yourselves and come yell at me about it. It's so beautiful. shineforthee also has a great 9x06 fanfic gap one shot and an ongoing wip now too and I can't wait to read that! (Somehow need any more convincing? Check out @bloodydeanwinchester's Virga(e) liveblog).

It's all very complex by artichokeflower okay that was all very serious, so let's turn to a short and sweet smut fic that had me giggling gleefully throughout. 'After walking in on Dean's private time, Cas decides to do a little research and experimentation of his own and gets magically trapped in a book about sexual fantasies. And if that means Dean has to go in after him, well what are buddies for, right?' The thing that is just GOLDEN about this fic aside from the hot smut is the dry sense of humour, borderline French Mistake parody level porn and dialogue between Dean and especially Cas which just gets them so well...the cowboy scenes in particular. Glorious: “I’m sorry, Dean. That’s the end of the erotic violence. Are you hurt?” “Is there going to be any sex in your sexy fantasies?” Dean wheezed. “Not that the whole shoot out wasn’t fun. I just wasn’t expecting as much plot is all.” He coughed. That had probably sounded too eager.

Just Being and Just Having by Englandwouldfall I have recced before but is now complete!! This the post-canon fic series delves so incredibly beautifully into Dean and Cas’ history of miscommunication and gives them the chance to truly talk things out, finding themselves falling more deeply in love as they do so and understand their own mistakes but also what makes them work so well together when they’re no longer under Chuck’s thumb. Each chapter feels like therapy and a brain and heart massage! It sticks the landing so well and I just love these boys so much.

Something Happening Somewhen by allthismusic (@folkbloodbaths, art by @eggchef) aaaahhh time travel young Dean brought to the future to meet older Dean and Cas fic trope my beloved. A @deancaspinefest fic, Allthismusic is a fan of the trope too and this fic is a gorgeous tribute to it and the fics that came before. Cas saves 24yo Dean from an accident and brings him to the future when he witnesses what his life will be. Will Cas have to remove his memories to stop a paradox? Sweet and heartfelt, a joy to read.

Books, Pies, and Roommates by @seidenapfel (art by @kitshay) is a @deancaspinefest two-person love hexagon, with some excellently farcical misdirection. Cas moves in to the spare room of Dean's house, but he doesn't meet him, he meets Sam, as Dean is busy working. Cas is professor but helps his cousin out as a barista and his favourite customer is Deano. Dean's intrigued by the barista but he's not his online penpal and best friend Angel. Lines blur, connections are made, and hearts are gonna get broken...or are they?

Tag list under the cut, let me know if you'd like to be added! Please reblog <3

@dean-you-assbutt-cas-loves-you

[andreafmn]

I'm Not Afraid | Chapter 21

Word Count: 4.3K Warnings: depictions of violence, mentions of blood, mentions of death

Story Description: (Y/N) Argent arrived at Beacon Hills to put to rest her father’s sister, Kate Argent. For the first time, her family has decided to settle down and sustain a life in this interesting small town. After 17 years, (Y/N) has the opportunity to establish interpersonal relationships but will she be ready to face the complications that come with relating to her cousin’s, Allison, friends; especially, the infamous Derek Hale. She will face the adventure of being associated with the Derek and McCall pack, as well as being faced with the discovery of certain aspects of her life she never imagined.

A/N: oof, I need some more practice writing fight scenes

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She couldn’t believe her eyes. After weeks of no contact and near disappearance, Derek stood before (Y/N) as though nothing had happened.

Probably because he wasn’t there to see her, nor had he been expecting to find her in the boys’ locker room after the match.

Derek cleared his throat as he broke his gaze from (Y/N)’s, regaining his stoic composure. “We need to talk,” he stated firmly.

“All of us,” a man said as he appeared behind the alpha.

“Holy shit,” Scott murmured under his breath. “What the hell is this?”

(Y/N) and Isaac exchanged confused glances. They had never seen that man before, but it seemed they were the only ones baffled by the new character. There was something odd and dangerous about him that much they could ascertain. But there was more to him. There always was.

“You know,” Derek sighed. “I thought the same thing when I saw you talking to Gerard at the Sheriff’s station.”

“Okay, hold on. He threatened to kill my mom,” Scott defended himself. “And I had to get close to him. What was I supposed to do?”

“I’m gonna go with Scott on this one,” the mystery man agreed. “Have you seen his mom? She’s gorgeous.”

The devious line was met with a chorused “Shut up,” but it still didn’t explain who he was or what he was doing there with Derek.

“Hate to interrupt the amusing banter,” (Y/N) interjected, “but who is this guy?”

“He’s Peter,” Scott said. “Derek’s uncle. A little while back, he tried to kill us all, and then we set him on fire, and Derek slit his throat.”

The words fell heavy upon the girl. Scott had told her about their run-in with the man, but he’d left a particular detail out. She knew he had terrorized Scott and the group; she knew he had perished in the fight, but she didn’t know Derek had been the one to land the final blow. Yet, Peter was there. Alive and well, and seemingly unbothered by the fact that his nephew had murdered him.

“So, we got necromancers in Beacon Hills now?” (Y/N) blurted. “How is he alive?”

“Look, the short version is he knows how to stop Jackson and maybe how to save him.”

“Well, that’s very helpful,” Isaac muttered, “but Jackson’s dead.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Scott answered Derek, “Jackson’s dead. It just happened on the field.”

“If I can put in my two cents here, I’m pretty sure something else is going on,” (Y/N) declared. “Gerard wouldn’t let his prize possession just die. It makes no sense.”

“I’m afraid the girl is right,” Peter said. “If Jackson is dead, it’s because Gerard wanted it to happen.”

Before the conversation could continue, (Y/N)’s phone rang, startling everyone in the room. She quickly excused herself, noting her uncle’s name lighting up her screen. It had been weeks since he had reached out to her. The family was at odds. That much was true. And it was almost certain that Allison had poisoned the well against her. But that wasn’t a night to ignore calls or have petty arguments. They all had a common enemy, even if they didn’t want to work together to stop him.

“Uncle Chris?” she asked as soon as the call connected. “Is everything okay?”

“You need to get here now,” he whispered. “It’s your friends.”

“My friends? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t have much time, (Y/N). Erica, Boyd, and Stiles are here,” he said. “I need you to get them out of the basement while I distract dad. Your dad is already on his way here to help you, but we need you, too.”

“How do I know this isn’t a trap?”

“Because I’m risking losing my daughter to Gerard by calling you,” Chris stated. “I need you to trust me, kid. Please. Your friends need you.”

“Alright, I’ll be there,” (Y/N) conceded.

“Hurry, (Y/N).”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” (Y/N) hurried back into the room as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket, turning the heads of the four people in the room. “I’ve, uh, gotta go.”

“Right now?” Isaac worried. “Where?”

“I’ve just gotta go, okay?” she said before her eyes fell on Scott. “Keep me updated. I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the boy nodded. “Keep an eye out for your phone.”

“I will. Be careful, guys. We’re in for it tonight.”

“You be careful, too,” Scott reciprocated.

Her eyes fell on Derek before she inevitably turned to run to her bike. She couldn’t seem to shake the worried look in his eyes as they met, a concern she didn’t know he still had for her. The words he had thrown her way had cut deep, slicing into her chest deeply. He had known exactly what to say to push her away and keep her there, using her fears to cement their end. But something in his eyes that night told her a different story, one that wasn’t finished yet.

But (Y/N) didn’t have time to question things unsaid as she sped through the streets of Beacon Hills. There were more pressing issues than the complicated workings of the heart. Her friends were in danger, and she had to do everything in her power to get them out.

She parked her bike three houses over, making sure to kill her engine before she was in earshot. Her phone buzzed with a message from her uncle, telling her to sneak around the back directly into the basement. The door was already open when she got there, allowing her a swift entry into the home.

Upstairs, she could hear her uncle and her cousin talking, and she could barely recognize Allison. She sounded cold, aggressive, nothing like the cousin she knew and loved. But she couldn’t worry about Allison at the moment. Not when Gerard was about to cross her path.

(Y/N) ducked behind the first door she found, hoping that her grandfather didn’t turn his head at the last second and catch her. Yet the man’s retreating figure wasn’t what startled her. As she closed the pantry door in front of her, her back pressed against a person. Instinctively, she drew her elbow back, colliding with someone’s stomach.

“Dad?” She whispered as the man hunched over in pain. “What’re you doing in here?”

“Hiding from your grandfather,” he grumbled. “Didn’t think I’d be attacked in here.”

“Well, next time, don’t hide in a small, dark room,” she shrugged. “But Gerard’s gone. We can head to the basement now.”

“Great,” he groaned. “He couldn’t have left a minute earlier?”

“Let’s just go, dad.”

The duo sneaked toward the basement door, careful not to announce themselves to the other blood-hungry Argent. But nothing could prepare them for the sight before them. Stiles had been beaten unconscious in front of a tied-up Boyd and Erica. The wolves were sequestered by their arms to the ceiling, their mouths covered with tape to keep them from screaming. It was something out of a horror movie.

“You wake him up while I untie these guys,” Henry said. “We’ve gotta get them out quick.”

(Y/N) dropped to the ground, finding Stiles’ steady pulse before she attempted to shake him awake. Half of his face was scattered with scrapes and slowly forming bruises, accompanied by a busted and swollen lip. There was no reason for him to have been hurt, but she was sure Gerard wanted a good enough distraction to cloud Scott’s mind.

“Stiles,” she said for the fifth time. “You’ve gotta wake up.”

“Slap him,” Erica offered hoarsely. “He’s been down for a while.”

“Or use this water bottle,” her father offered. “Might work the same way.”

“I like that idea better.” (Y/N) took the bottle from Henry’s hand, spilling it all over the boy’s face. Seconds later, the boy spluttered awake, choking slightly on the water that went up his nose. “Hey, welcome back.”

“(Y/N),” he croaked out. “You’ve gotta get out of here. Your grandpa…”

“Don’t worry about him,” she said. “Can you walk?”

“Uh, yeah,” he blubbered. “He mostly got my face.”

“Okay, listen to me. Take my bike to your house. Your dad’s worried sick,” she instructed as she handed him her keys. “Rest up and put some ice on your face. It’s gonna hurt for a while.”

“But I… I wanna help.”

“You can help by staying alive,” (Y/N) replied. “I’ll have Scott fill you in when he can. But right now, you’ve gotta go home. My bike is parked by the third house to the right.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “Thanks, (Y/N).”

“Just be careful out there, okay?”

“Yeah.”

The boy disappeared out of the basement as her father finished cutting Boyd down. He ripped the tape off his mouth, quickly checking on Erica. Something (Y/N) quickly made a note of. She knew they had grown close the past few months, but she hadn’t noticed just how close. His hands remained on the small of Erica’s back as Henry led them quietly out of the house and to the backyard, There was definitely something there worth exploring. Just at a later time.

(Y/N) put a pin on her observation and kept an eye on Allison’s room, knowing sooner or later, she’d have to go to bed. An afternoon of hunting would leave anyone tired.

A minute later, the lights in her room turned off, and the backlights flashed twice. “Okay, guys,” she announced, turning to the wolves. “I’m gonna need you to cut through the woods and head to my house. You need time to recover, and we can come up with a plan for you after everything’s finished. There’s a spare key inside the bird bath in the backyard. Get in and lock yourselves in my room, and do not open the door for anyone but me, okay?”

“Wish we had taken that offer last week,” Boyd chuckled. “Thank you both. I hope one day we can repay this kindness.”

“Just stay alive, kid,” Henry smiled. “Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen. My wife was called out for the night, so you should be able to at least get some food before locking down for the night.”

“Thank you, Mr. Argent.”

“There’s nothing to thank me for,” he smiled. “I’m just sorry that anyone in my family would do anything to you kids. No one deserves this.”

“Guys, you’ve gotta go,” (Y/N) interjected. “Go straight to the house. Don’t stop for anything or anyone.”

The Argents waited until they couldn’t see the teens through the trees before heading to the garage as Chris had instructed. There, he was already waiting in his van, ready for the next instructions.

“Where is Scott right now?” Chris asked as he sped down the street.

“Last he texted, he and Isaac were on their way to the hospital to check on Jackson,” (Y/N) answered, tentative with her words. Her uncle seemed to be on their side, but she could never be too sure. “Apparently, Jackson is not actually dead; he is forming a cocoon around him. Sounds to me like the Kanima is transforming.”

“I’ve gotta ask Chris,” Henry interjected, “you’ve been dad’s right hand all these years. What’s changed?”

“Allison,” he answered, his hands tightening around the steering wheel. “Gerard is twisting her mind just like he did to Kate. I don’t like what he’s doing to her.”

“If only someone had told you that the old man was a bit twisted,” the older Argent huffed. “We would have saved ourselves many headaches.”

“It really isn’t the time for ‘I told you so’s,” Chris sighed. “I know I should have listened to you, but I truly thought we were doing a good thing.”

“You were chasing innocent teenagers around just because they’re werewolves,” (Y/N) argued. “How is that a good thing?”

“I won’t say our view has been misguided for some time,” the man said. “But the hunters lost their way somewhere along the line, and I won’t let that happen to my daughter.” 

The only thing they had was trust, and they had to blindly walk into unknown waters if they wanted everything to end with the least amount of bloodshed. Henry and (Y/N) chose to trust Chris because, at that moment, he was the only one willing to help.

Isaac and Scott weren’t as easy to convince when Chris was the one to step out of the SUV first. They had no reason to believe that the man who had spent the last year with his eyes on them had suddenly had a change of heart. But once they had (Y/N)’s vote of confidence, they felt inclined to join him. In the end, he was right. The car was faster, and they only had so little time.

“I don’t like sitting next to Jackson,” (Y/N) muttered as the body bag wriggled next to her. She had changed spots with Scott to allow the boy to instruct Chris where they were going. “He keeps twitching.”

“Well, you’re the only one here we know his venom won’t work on,” Isaac whispered. “But for what is worth, I don’t think he’ll wake up any time soon.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Suddenly, a string of slime touched her arm, and all she could do was gag and wipe it on the car’s seat. “Any way we could go a bit faster?”

“No need,” Scott said. “We’re here.”

The car rolled to a stop somewhere in the warehouse district, but no Derek in sight, leaving everyone dumbfounded. But clearly, what he wanted was a grand entrance. He zoomed toward them at a supernatural speed, propelling himself with his arms and feet before coming to a stop with a front flip. If anyone asked (Y/N), she would have said there was no time for theatrics.

No one asked her.

“Why is he here?” Derek asked (Y/N), pointing at Chris. “Already turned sides?”

“He’s here for Jackson,” she spat at his unnecessary comment. “You should know a bit about people suddenly changing sides.”

“Let’s just get him inside,” he said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe he didn’t care about her at all.  

Chris drove the SUV into the garage Derek instructed to, and the rest of the people were walking behind him. Anger and adrenaline bubbled in (Y/N)’s veins, aching for some kind of release. The first person who stood in her way would be getting a punch. It didn’t matter if they were on the same side or not.

“Where are they?” Scott asked once he and Isaac had pulled Jackson onto the floor.

“Who?”

“Peter and Lydia,” the boy replied.

Instead of answering, Derek simply walked toward the body bag, crouching to reveal the transforming boy even as Scott tried to stop him. If there was no Lydia, it could only mean that he was ready to go through his very first plan. And no one but Peter would allow him to do that.

“Think about it, Scott,” the alpha offered. “Gerard controls him now. He’s turned Jackson into his own personal guard dog. And he set all of this in motion so that Jackson could get even bigger and more powerful.”

“No,” Chris denied. “No, he wouldn’t do that.”

“If Jackson’s a dog, he’s turning rabid,” Henry agreed with his brother. “And our father would never let a rabid dog live.”

“Of course not,” Gerard’s voice rang out from beside them, making their heads snap in his direction. “Something that dangerous, that out of control… is better off dead.”

Gerard was lying through his teeth; (Y/N) could see that, and she couldn’t understand how no one else but Scott could.

Thinking it was safe, Derek set off to do what he had come for. He stuck his claws out and went to deliver a killing strike to the unconscious Kanime. But at that very moment, Jackson’s eyes flew open, and he sank his nails into the man’s chest, lifting him in the air as though he weighed nothing more than a doll before sending him flying across the room.

“Well done to the last, Scott,” Gerard smirked. “Like the concerned friend you are, you brought Jackson to Derek to save him. You just didn’t realize that you were also bringing Derek to me.”

Out of nowhere, an arrow came flying through the air faster than any human eye could perceive. But Scott was fast, and he ducked out of the way before it could pierce him. Isaac did not have that same luck. It sent him stumbling backward as it pierced through his chest, leaving him in pain as he failed to remove it.

(Y/N) was quick to wrap her arms around his shoulders, getting her friend out of the way before any more damage could be done to him. At the same time, Chris and Henry did not waste any time emptying their gun clips on Jackson, buying time for the werewolves to recover. Even if all they could get was a few seconds before the Kanima swiped their weapons from their hands.

“This is gonna hurt,” (Y/N) whispered to Isaac as she wrapped her hand around the arrow. “Don’t take it out on me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he groaned. “Just do it.”

He let out a loud growl as she pulled with all of her strength, snagging his skin in the process and somehow her own leg. But all he needed was a couple of seconds for the pain to subside and the wound to close, allowing his wolf form to shine through. (Y/N), on the other hand, had to endure the sting running through her silently.

There was no time to check if she was okay as Isaac, Scott, and Derek all went against the fully transformed Kanime, each trying their best to deliver a debilitating blow. They slashed and bit, punched and kicked, but he was simply too strong.

As they approached him, Jackson threw each of them around, slinging them farther than the last. Derek was the last one to face him, ending with a set of claws lodged in his abdomen. (Y/N) noticed it had been a weakening hit and was moving to help him until, at her side, she heard the sound of skin being slashed.

As the beta stood to help his leader, Allison appeared in front of him, cutting away at the front of his body before digging her blades into his back. Derek could wait, (Y/N) thought. Even if she knew that Allison’s sights were set on the wounded alpha, the other Argent girl thought she needed a bit of her own medicine.

(Y/N) ran toward her before the dark-haired girl could think twice, landing a crunching jab to her cousin’s face. She fell to the ground for a second as she spat out the blood that pooled in her mouth, but her determination was stronger than the pain. Not caring that she was family, Allison dug one of her knives into her cousin’s leg and the other on her shoulder, rendering her useless to continue the fight. All she could see was Derek. All she wanted was revenge.

She was so close she could taste it. Derek’s life was only a few steps away.

But that wasn’t part of Gerard’s plan.

Suddenly, the Kanima appeared behind her, wrapping one hand around her wrist and the other around her neck.

The look of surprise and fear on her face would have been delicious to witness if pain and concern had not been running through (Y/N)’s body. But, even if she wanted to help her cousin, she couldn’t move more than a few steps at a time.

“Not yet, sweetheart,” Gerard exclaimed as he appeared from the shadows.

“What’re you doing?” Allison worried. It was clear she had not expected her now beloved grandfather to betray her, not when he had been the one to mold her the way she was.

“He’s doing what he came here to do,” Scott answered.

“Then you know.” Gerard’s mouth stretched in an amused smile, knowing his secret couldn’t stay hidden around so many supernaturals. “It was the night outside the hospital, wasn’t it? When I threatened your mother. I knew I saw something in your eyes. You could smell it, couldn’t you?”

“He’s dying,” Isaac said as he helped (Y/N) to her feet.

“I am,” the older man confirmed. “I have been for a while. Unfortunately, science doesn’t have a cure for cancer yet. But the supernatural does.”

It didn’t take much for anyone to connect the dots of what Gerard was trying to do. They were simply surprised about the lengths he would go through to get what he wanted. Using his own granddaughter to twist Scott’s hand into doing his bidding was diabolical, but it was nothing short of what a desperate man would do for a chance at salvation.

“When it comes to survival,” Gerard exclaimed, “I’d kill my own sons!”

With no more instruction than his name, Scott did what he knew he had to do. With Derek wounded, he was able to drag him to his feet to face the older man. Even though he fought his grip, at that moment, the alpha was no match for Scott.

(Y/N) winced as Derek attempted to reason with Scott, knowing if Gerard turned into a wolf, he’d simply kill him afterward. The man wanted power and health the most, and there was nothing more powerful than an alpha.

“He knows the ultimate prize is Allison,” Gerard boasted. “Do this small task for me and they can be together. You are the only piece that doesn’t fit, Derek. At least not in their love story. And in case you haven’t learned yet, you should really stay away from the Argent girls. It never ends well for you, does it?”

His eyes snapped toward (Y/N) at those words, a pained expression painted across his irises. Scott also shot her a glance, his eyes waiting for confirmation as everyone around him told him to stop. And what the girl did surprised the alpha to enormous proportions.

She nodded.

Scott apologized under his breath and sunk his claws deeper into Derek’s neck, forcing his mouth to widen enough for Gerard to slip his arm between his canines. For that split second, he thought he had done it. He had pushed her far enough to betray him. After everything he’d done, maybe he deserved it.

But he heard her voice at such a low volume he thought he had imagined it. “Do it, Derek,” she muttered like a prayer. “Trust me.”

And he did. He trusted her with every fiber of his being.

Derek closed his mouth around the man’s arm, wincing as the metallic and bittersweet taste of his ill blood coated his tongue. He fell to the ground as Scott let him go, his eyes trained on (Y/N).

She gave him the faintest of smiles and nodded her head toward her grandfather. The show had only just begun. The red bite mark on Gerard’s arm soon enough started oozing a black liquid, surprising everyone in the room but two people.

“What?” Gerard questioned as he noticed his arm. “What is this? What did you do?”

“Everyone said Gerard always had a plan,” Scott said. “I had a plan, too. I just needed a little bit of help.”

(Y/N) limped forward with Isaac’s help, her father joining her other side, smiling at her grandfather as he questioned how Scott had been able to draw a fast one over him. She could feel blood running down her arm, leaving a trail wherever she walked. But blood and pain were the least of her worries. Wounds she could heal later, but that moment, oh, that moment needed to be savored. “You should have really asked around about me, grandpa,” the girl smirked. “Just one look into my student files, and you would have seen that I got in trouble when I was younger for being a pickpocket.”

“No, you got caught,” he croaked. “You aren’t good at it if you get caught.”

“I got caught once,” she said. “After that, I got a hell of a lot better. And I just want to say thank you so much for those mandatory family dinners. They were kind of a nuisance in the beginning but really came in handy there at the end.”

“Did you tell her, Scott?” Gerard spat at the boy. “Did you tell her I was sick?”

“I didn’t have to,” he said. “She was the one who came to me.”

“I could smell it on you from the moment I first saw you at the cemetery,” (Y/N) explained. “I thought the smell of death was coming from the place, but it was you. Then, I saw your little tin cup. What you were popping into your mouth was too big to be mints, and they looked too clinical to be vitamins. “I was at the sheriff station when you were talking to Scott, and I couldn’t believe that he would ever work with you,” she continued. “There had to be more, so I asked him. That’s when he told me his plan.”

“I already had the pills,” Scott added. “All I needed was a way to get them to you.”

With a mask of disbelief on his face, Gerard pulled his medicine from his pocket, crushing the blue and white pills in his hands. “Mountain ash!” he yelped before the rejection made him crumble to his knees. Black oozed out of every orifice, painting him in dark liquid before he crumbled to the ground, weaker than he had been at the start of the night.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Derek asked Scott, too ashamed to look (Y/N) in the eyes.

“Because you might be an alpha,” he said, “but you’re not mine. Definitely not (Y/N)’s.”

But all conversation was stopped when Gerard slithered on the ground. The kids may have bested his attempt at becoming a werewolf, but he would not go down without a fight. With a pained yell, he gave the Kanima his last order, “KILL THEM ALL!”

Next ->

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[kaizenproductions]

Natsu does NOT have any previous experience with romantic love

This is the (better) Tumblr version of my post from Twitter. Given the format of this website, I'll add some details to what's already written.

Before starting with this, I want to clarify that the motivation to write this post has little to do with nalu itself (it will be mentioned to highlight a point though). Having previous romantic partners DOESN'T really make any ship invalid. You'll find the actual reason behind this essay under the cut below.

This is about how Natsu, as a character, is never presented or seen by others as someone who has experience with love and such idea is never hinted or implied anywhere in the canon material. This lack of experience explains why Lucy thinks he has no interest in it.

As we will see later, Lucy isn't the only one who thinks like this... Let's get started.

Year 2024. Why writing all this? Some weeks ago I was involved in a discussion about whether Natsu was being OOC during a filler (non canon) scene of the anime where he snaps at Lucy in a way he never does with any of his friends in canon material. The discussion led to this...

I didn't want to assume that this person was taking Lisanna as some kind of first love. At the end it turned out that was exactly what was happening. The proof? The most platonic reunion ever... with Happy reacting the same way as Natsu and comedy being included. It is important to highlight that Mashima never makes two people between whom there have been romantic feelings reunite like this, with comedy references in between that downplays the seriousness of the moment to some extent. While this post is about Natsu and his feelings, I could also mention Lisanna's reaction to this, something that proves that there wasn't even a one sided love: after noticing this Natsu is the same one from her real dimension, she doesn't start crying because of him but because of her siblings.

Let's ignore the part where this dude started calling me and some other users "retards" because that speaks volumes for itself about his lack of real arguments. After all, he has been fighting for at least 4 years with teens over power scaling, a topic he may seem to be knowledgeable about but actually isn't so much, plus he has been banned from at least one Discord server because of his r4pe threats. It seems this individual was so obsessed with that specific thing that he said Zeref did it to Mavis and that's how August was made... That also speaks volumes about his media literacy and the fact that even if it's true that he did read the manga so many times as he claimed during this discussion, he has serious problems with reading as a normal person. When it comes to the topic of this post, the problem is that he has some influence within the fandom, at least on Twitter, so whatever he says is something that many of his followers will start repeating.

What does Mashima do when Lisanna finally comes back to her original home and she gets a proper reunion with everyone?

After the initial shock from seeing Edo Lisanna in Earthland and the big reveal, this is how Natsu reacts.

This isn't a reunion that suggests that Lisanna is special compared to everyone else in the guild, and particulary to those who grew around Natsu. Also, we can't say Mashima just doesn't know how to write such scene properly... because he's written it at least once (in Rave).

The emotion you can feel in this scene, the way ONLY both lovers are on the spotlight and the rest of their friends are in the background until the end... Well, the difference is so obvious that it's ridiculous to say more. Given how well Mashima handles the emotional dimension of his characters in his mangas, the possibility that he didn't know how to depict two lovers who got separated from each for some time due to circumstances beyond their control is off the table.

Also, notice how the end of the Edolas arc depicts this.

The difference with her reunion with Natsu and the others is so obvious that there's no need to say more.

We can also discard Lisanna as a former love interest because there's no akwardness between them once she's back to the guild. They can be seen playing together and briefly interacting from time to time, so it's not like they're avoiding each other.

Is it implied somewhere that they had something beyond friendship? Not in any kind of canon material. Every time Lisanna is mentioned in regards to Natsu she's presented as a close childhood friend. We have, for example, her profile from one of the first chapters where she's back home and the information of the official magazine that was released 10 years ago.

But what if they simply stopped loving each other due to being separated, as a fellow nalu shipper told me on Discord? Making characters fall out of love is something that Mashima also references (see Macao pic a bit below). It also goes against what we saw regarding Erza and Jellal, who still had romantic feelings for each other despite their antagonistic positions for many years, or against the whole Zeref and Mavis thing. In other Mashima mangas we have more couples like this. Elsie and Justice still loved each other despite being sworn enemies, and Let still loved Julia (and vice versa) when he discovered she was alive, a kinda similar scenario to Natsu and Lisanna if they had been lovers. Given that Natsu and Lisanna weren't even enemies to each other at any point and they were only separated for two years, we can't say they had something canonically and they simply got over it with no actual reference to it.

There was a very good moment to reference past feelings in 100YQ: when Touka includes Lisanna in the group of women "around Natsu".

Instead of offering us a comment like "it's not like that anymore", Lisanna just says something that implies they're not that close. After all, Natsu is hanging out with his team most of the time since it was established.

What's the reason this fandom has been so many years discussing about this friendship? Because the first anime adaptation goes beyond that friendship and the manga omake where both of them take care of Happy's egg, something Lisanna decides to help with because she loves animals and she felt Natsu wouldn't do it properly. The first season includes several fillers that pave the way for a love triangle, presenting Lisanna as a girl who is VERY interested in marrying Natsu when they're adults. In addition, Happy is presented as their son, something that totally goes against the source material. Even if Natsu is the one who saw Happy be born and was living with him since then, Happy is never considered as his son and is always called a nakama/companion/friend.

This long thread has everything that A-1 and Satelight added in regards to Natsu and Lisanna. As we can see in the info provided in one of the first tweets, Mashima let them "edit" the story the way they wanted to and it's mentioned explicitely by both him and Ishihara (the director) that Ishihara is responsible for those additions, not Mashima. We also can't say the additions were something Mashima asked for because he couldn't include everything he wanted in his manga for some reason. This is supported by the fact that Lisanna is never presented in the manga as any kind of romantic interest after she comes back.

There's also this tweet from 2012 where Mashima replied to someone asking him whether he was involved in the story of the anime. His answer is no.

It's also important to say that these fillers aren't canon: they're not referenced in the source material (the starry key arc was, even if Mashima wasn't involved in the writing), they're not referenced in the anime itself after Lisanna comes back and they have no impact in the events of the story during and after Edolas.

Currently, thanks to Mashima's Twitter Spaces, we know two things: he revived Lisanna because some people in the anime staff liked her (Ishihara is one of them for sure), which explains why she's not very relevant and is always tied to her siblings, and he once considered to include a love triangle between Natsu, Lucy and Lisanna after Edolas, but he liked Natsu and Lucy's dynamic by then enough to not introduce such storyline. He also said Lisanna was "だめ" in regards to that triangle that never came to be, implying that she would have been the one that doesn't get the boy in that scenario.

So is Lisanna our supposed former love interest? As far as the canon material goes, no. Was she close to Natsu? Yes. Is she dear to him? Yes, just like everyone in his family, the guild, is (I can't believe I'm writing this in fking 2024). Now, what if there was someone else? The assumption that characters may have dated another (unnamed) character offscreen isn't totally crazy. After all we saw how Juvia dated Bora, even if it was a narrative tool to show that not even dates would make Juvia stop being depressed. However, we can't say there was someone else as more than a headcanon unless it's implied or mentioned somewhere explicitely. We know Macao was married but got divorced thanks to the official magazine, for example.

When it comes to Natsu, nothing is ever mentioned.

100YQ, the official FT sequel, has several pannels that go against the whole idea of Natsu being experienced with romantic love. As I mentioned at the beginning, even others from the guild, and especifically Macao in this pannel, who knows Natsu since he was a kid, have a hard time believing he's interested in love.

This part of the story includes a very interesting pannel that also debunks the whole idea that Natsu felt more than frienship for Lisanna before she was transported to Edolas.

Why would Lisanna's brother react like this over such comment if Natsu and his sister had romantic feelings in the past? Easy: because those feelings never existed.

Even Lisanna is a bit surprised when Touka expresses her interest in him.

Previous romantic experience would also mean that Natsu's relationship with Lucy would be more advanced than it is as of now, not to mention this recent scene.

Natsu is still quite dense with romance, even when it doesn't involve him, and while he talks about his and Lucy's kids they still have a long way to go due to his total inexperience in this area as of now. Someone with past love experiences wouldn't be like this. I could say more about this but this isn't the post for it so...

Conclussion: the first season of the anime did a lot of damage that resulted in many years of discussions, fights, misogyny towards both Lucy and Lisanna. There was no childhood or teen love, no jealousy from Lisanna when she saw how close Natsu and Lucy were as a team and nothing suggests that Lisanna was more than a friend in canon material. Claiming the opposite at this point of the story is useless.

[hauntedhowlett-writes]

✧*̥˚ my muses, acquired like bruises *̥˚✧

a collection of my fics inspired by taylor swift songs/lyrics, in honor of the release of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT

JOEL MILLER

cruel summer | au | explicit | chapters: 6/6

Joel takes a contracting job renovating a master bedroom and bathroom while the homeowners are away for the summer on a cruise. He wasn’t expecting their twenty-three year old daughter and the thoughts he’d have about her.

↳AO3 | Tumblr: chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 | chapter 6

crimson red paint on my lips | post-outbreak | explicit | connected work

Joel Miller is an asshole. You should have known better than to show up at his door with your lips painted red. Connected to me and the devil and marked me like a bloodstain

↳AO3 | Tumblr

marked me like a bloodstain | post-outbreak | explicit | connected work

You save Joel’s life when the two of you are attacked on a smuggling run. He has an interesting way of saying thank you. Connected to crimson red paint on my lips and me and the devil

↳Tumblr

karma is my boyfriend’s dad | au | explicit | connected work

Your boyfriend, Sean Miller, is an asshole. The one redeeming thing about him? His dad, Joel Miller. And he's just invited you along on the family vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida.

↳Tumblr

in a feud with her neighbor | au | explicit | connected work

Five times you think Joel Miller is the worst neighbor ever, and the one time he isn’t.

↳Tumblr

bonus scenes: in a feud with her neighbor | au | PG-13 | connected work

Fluffy bonus scenes for "in a feud with her neighbor" as suggested by anon!

↳Tumblr

toyin’ with them older guys | au | explicit | one-shot

Joel Miller is the grumpy bartender and owner of your favorite bar near campus, where you attend trivia every Tuesday night. Thinking there’s no way Joel could return your feelings, your friend suggests trying out Tinder. But when you bring them to the bar for a date, they keep leaving mid date with no explanation. Maybe there’s something Joel isn’t telling you after all.

↳AO3 | Tumblr

help me hold onto you | post-outbreak | explicit | one-shot

Joel always tries his best to keep his mind from wandering to its darkest corners, but occasionally, the frayed threads holding him together with sloppy stitches start to unravel. Sometimes you need to give him something to hold onto.

↳AO3 | Tumblr

seven | post-outbreak | explicit | one-shot

Joel Miller has spent twenty years pushing the grief and guilt surrounding the death of his daughter, Sarah, to the darkest recesses of his brain in favor of survival. Living a more quiet life in Jackson means the ghosts of his past have returned to haunt him. He finds his solace in you, the town librarian.

↳Tumblr

the last great american dynasty | au | explicit | one-shot

Joel Miller has loved the historic Victorian home in his neighborhood since the first time he laid eyes on it. When the elderly owner passes, he thinks he might get his chance to finally buy it and fix it up. He doesn’t expect to find you, the granddaughter of the previous owner and trustee of her estate, standing in the way of his dream.

↳Tumblr | AO3

TOMMY MILLER

wrong place, right time | pre-outbreak | explicit | one-shot

What if Joel didn’t answer Tommy’s call from jail? And what if the waitress he’d been defending that night bailed him out instead?

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JAVIER PEÑA

i can see you (javier peña's version) | au | explicit | one-shot

When Javier Peña takes credit for your lead, you take revenge. Good thing you know Javier can't resist a girl in red lipstick.

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FRANKIE MORALES

my tears and my beers and my candles | au | explicit | one-shot

It’s been a bad week and you just need to have a good cry. You didn’t expect Frankie Morales, best friend and unrequited crush, to crash your pity party. He’s got some interesting ways of making you feel better. Maybe it’s not so unrequited after all.

↳AO3 | Tumblr

invisible string | au | explicit | one-shot

After fifteen years, the invisible string that ties you to Frankie Morales pulls you back together

↳Tumblr

MIGUEL O'HARA

i can see you (miguel o'hara's version) | au | explicit | one-shot

As Dr. Miguel O’Hara’s graduate teaching and research assistant, you’ve spent years pushing down the inappropriate thoughts you’ve had about the brilliant, gorgeous man. But what happens when a late night at the lab and a scientific breakthrough leads to a breakthrough of a different kind?

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EDDIE MUNSON

the mark you saw on my collarbone | vampire au | explicit | connected work

A snippet of life with your human and your monster. A oneshot in the bat out of hell series

↳AO3

[isa-ghost]

(BTW I'm very down with wanting sapnap being dead for being sapnap I just wanted to be sure I was hip qirh the kids and pissed for the Correct reason)

DLSKFLSJFSKF SORRY I WAS OUT TOUCHING GRASS WHEN YOU SENT ME YOUR FIRST ANON.

Also in hindsight I worded this answer like you have 0 clue who Shartnap is but I'm gonna keep it that way for anyone who sees this and Doesn't Go Here At All.

Here's a good overview post abt Crapnap from my friend.

This Specific Instance we're wishing death upon him more than the default amount because he's participating in Squidcraft, a Latino-made/hosted and primarily Latino-played Minecraft competition with a big cash prize. (Aka that irrelevant ass sweaty ass racist Texan is literally only playing to win more money he doesn't need. He also won last year's SC 🙄). Last year there were a few non-Latino players (like him), but this year there were a BUNCH, most likely thanks to the existence of QSMP. There were Americans, Brits, and French just to name a few!

My mutual @pixiecaps has been the most outspoken on my dash about the dumbshit being in Squidcraft, so I'll tag them here and they can add any additional context they see fit in the reblogs or replies. They might have insight or perspective that I don't bc they're Latino and I'm not. 👍🏻 And this was baby's first Squidcraft for me purely bc QSMP members were in it, so idk much abt previous ones whereas Pix might.

It's annoying enough that Crapnap is in the competition at all, but yesterday a bunch of other previous DSMP members (Philza, Tubbo, Foolish, to name a few) all died in one of the games together and were thus eliminated. Shatnap's petty nobody poopy ass was literally CHEERING when they all died, which is poor sportsmanship for one (he has none tho let's be real here), and two: No Toxicity is one of the competition rules. So by all means, he should be investigated by the Squidcraft mods and (hopefully) disqualified for his bullshit.

And some additional context bc my guess is this all plays into why he was so outwardly toxic like that: Tubbo has outspokenly hated the Dr*m Team for a while now. He also had direct beef with Shatnap bc the dumbfuck tried migrating to Kick (basically Twitch for bigots & predators, to say the least).

AND, most relevant and recent: Philza was just on Tommy and Jack Manifold's podcast Shut Up I'm Talking about a week ago, and on the Patreon version of the episode the three of them talked about how Dr*m is a piece of shit, they all hate him, and how nasty and weird he was behind the scenes during DSMP, especially to Tommy.

Dr*m Team 100% knows this was all said, bc a) some of it was clipped ofc and b) Dr*m fucking posted the DSMP world download as damage control after people started talking abt what was said on the episode bc god forbid he look bad and get negative attention for 2 seconds. He's been begged by numerous people for LITERALLY LIKE 3 YEARS to drop the world download and only JUST did it to do damage control and make himself look all good and innocent or At Least distract people (spoiler alert: didn't work, he just made himself look even more pathetic. He basically gave the people who correctly hate him a gift in addition to clowning on him).

Shartnap literally lives with Dr*m, so there's no way he doesn't know Tommy, Jack & Phil have spoken some of the truth TECHNICALLY PRIVATELY. IT WAS ON PATREON BEHIND A PAYWALL.

Soooo yeah. As usual, Dr*m Team fucking sucks ass (many such cases, no one is surprised). Crapnap is the ""last remaining"" of the Dr*m Team to not have some Extreme horrific controversy and that's what keeping him able to be in competitions like this, rather than isolated to a shitty corner with the other two dumbfucks. (CLARIFICATION: He DOES have controversies. You can assume what some of them are based off of things said in that post I linked. Plus the Kick thing. But in comparison to Dr*m [a groomer, among other things], and George [sexual predator, among other things], Shatnap is ""the least awful"" of them, which is almost definitely why he's still ""welcome"" in competitions like this one).

Additional silly context: I'm calling him variations of shit because he openly admitted sometime earlier this year that he shit himself (or at least sharted) on stream.

[justforbooks]

PH Moriarty

Actor known for his menacing, often violent roles in British gangster films, notably The Long Good Friday and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

PH Moriarty, who has died aged 86 after suffering from dementia, came late to acting as he approached 40, but made an indelible impression, most chillingly in two British gangster films. The simmering menace he brought to the screen led one critic to observe that he could “make Hannibal Lecter look like Noddy”.

Distinctive for his moustache, smart grey suit and tie, he was ever present in The Long Good Friday (1980) as Razors, henchman to Bob Hoskins’s brutal underworld property developer, Harold Shand, who seeks to build his empire through the regeneration of London’s Docklands. Moriarty is seen driving Hoskins around on a quest to discover who is threatening this ambition (it turns out to be the IRA).

After placing the barrel of a pistol in the ear of a police informer interrogated by Shand (played by Paul Barber), Razors reveals the source of his nickname. As he lifts his shirt to display endless scars on his torso, patched up by what he describes as “65 inches of stitching”, Hoskins says he is known as “the human spirograph”.

Picking up a machete, Razors tells Barber: “Now you’re going to feel what it’s like, boy.” Several slashes follow in what proves to be just one of the violent scenes that, combined with Barrie Keeffe’s intelligent script, made The Long Good Friday a high-water mark in the history of British gangster films. Moriarty is also alongside Hoskins when rival gang bosses are suspended upside down on meathooks in an abattoir.

The film set him on a career largely typecast playing such characters, but on both sides of the law. “A guy in America saw it just after it came out, rang me up, the next thing, I was over there and starring in Jaws 3-D,” said Moriarty, who played the cockney sidekick to Simon MacCorkindale’s British oceanographer and photographer in that 1983 film.

At the end of the following decade, he appeared in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), the writer-director Guy Ritchie’s acclaimed gangsters and gamblers drama, as “Hatchet” Harry Lonsdale, a porn seller who bludgeons his enemies to death. When a criminal played by Nick Moran loses £500,000 in a card game rigged by Harry, he is given a week to pay up.

The agent Simon Drew said of Moriarty: “The actor in him could make you fear for your life. If you knew him, the scowl quickly changed to a wry smile.”

Paul Hugh Moriarty was born in Deptford, south London, the son of William Moriarty, a lorry driver, and his wife, Mary (nee Griffin). On leaving St Joseph’s Roman Catholic school at 15, he trained as a cooper at the Admiralty’s victualling yard for six years – while boxing as an amateur – before becoming a stevedore at Surrey docks, Rotherhithe, where he lost the sight of his left eye in an accident.

When the TV producer Tony Garnett was filming there for a 1978 episode of Law & Order, Moriarty’s brother-in-law, GF Newman – the writer of the gritty four-part drama questioning the judicial system – suggested him for a part. As a result, he played a prisoner in the final episode and, as there was already an actor called Paul Moriarty, he took the professional name PH Moriarty.

He was then cast as a pub bartender in the cult mods and rockers film Quadrophenia (1979) before growing a beard for the big-screen version of the banned TV play Scum (1979) to play Hunt, the borstal warder checking in Ray Winstone’s young offender in a manner that suggests the staff are as unpleasant as the inmates. “You have heard of us, Carlin, aye?” he asks as his colleague roughs up the teenager, who has assaulted an officer at a previous institution.

In a similar vein, Moriarty played one of the prison warders giving a beating to Jimmy Boyle in A Sense of Freedom (1981), based on the Glaswegian gangland murderer’s autobiography.

He became a regular on television and was clearly cast to type when he was credited as “Evil Jim Dalton” in a 1990 episode of The Paradise Club. Later, he brought menace to the Sci-Fi Channel series Dune (2000) and its sequel, Children of Dune (2003), as Gurney Halleck, a character distinctive for a whip wound on his jawline. The producers saw that the scar, combined with the actor’s damaged eye, made his face incredibly expressive, angry and sad at the same time.

Moriarty’s later films included Evil Never Dies (2014) and Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins (2021).

In 1961, Moriarty married Margaret Newman. She, their son, Mark, and daughter, Kathleen, survive him. Another son, Neil, died at three days old.

🔔PH (Paul Hugh) Moriarty, actor, born 23 September 1938; died 2 February 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[weneverlearn]

Dream Syndicate -- Demo Recordings, 12/27/81

Here's a cool thing I stumbled onto, like a couple years ago, then stumbled on again recently.

Steve Wynn -- singer/leader f one of my favorite bands, the Dream Syndicate -- posted this great sounding demo from the band's first rehearsal with forever drummer Dennis Duck. And you can hear from this demo that he fit like a glove from the get-go.

Below is Wynn's explanation of the demo from the band's 12/26/21 Facebook post, on the then-occasion of the band's 40th birthday, below; and below that, the demo! Check it all out!

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

December 27, 1981…….a memory from a Sunday evening, 40 years ago.

Karl Precoda and I had been meeting regularly and jamming in my father’s basement in West LA over the course of the previous months, having met when he showed up to try out on bass for a band I was goofing around with at the time. “I don’t like this band very much but you’re really good—we should get together and play again sometime.”

There was an immediate chemistry between the two of us and, most of all, we were just having fun jamming on one chord for hours or playing loose versions of CCR covers or fooling around with some new songs I had been writing. I called up Kendra Smith, my best friend at the time and band mate from when we had both attending UC Davis in the years before. Like me, she had moved back to LA and had just recently started playing bass. I knew she’d dig what we were laying down and she enthusiastically joined our aimless duo and before long we found a drummer named Randy who I believe I met at the Rhino Records store where I was working at the time. Randy was game and enthusiastic but as much as an inspired but limited amateur as me and Kendra and Karl which was just fine since we had no ambition beyond making noise in the basement.

One day Kendra said, “I was talking to Dennis Duck at a party in Pasadena and he said he might like to play with us sometime.” Now, you have to understand that Dennis was a rock star as far as we were concerned. He was 6 years older than the rest of us and had already made a mark on the LA post punk scene, drumming with his band Human Hands. They’d put out records! They’d been played on the radio! I had seen them play live several times including a great show at the Whiskey a Go Go where they opened for the Feelies and the nervous energy of both bands coupled with a 103 degree fever I was battling from the flu to make for one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen to this day (and interestingly enough, the topic of conversation with me and Dennis and the Feelies’ Glenn Mercer at a show we played together just a few weeks ago in NYC at City Winery).

Anyway, I was a little incredulous that Dennis would want to play with us. But I was also pretty cocky and full of beans about our cool little raggedy combo and on Sunday, December 27, I called him up on a torrentially rainy afternoon (it DOES rain in Southern California sometimes) and said, “Hey, we’re getting together to jam in my dad’s basement tonight. Wanna come over?” Dennis lived an hour away in Pasadena, it was pouring and he would have to load up his own drums to make the trek but somehow I was doggedly persistent enough to convince him to come out. I guess I made a good case or maybe just wouldn’t shut up until he said yes. To this day, he’s surprised he agreed.

Anyway, Dennis arrived, drums dripping from the rain outside, set up and started playing with us in the basement . He had brought along a boom box to record the rehearsal. We didn’t try to impress him or even say much about what we were doing. We just did our thing and he played along. At the end, he packed up and I helped him to his car. “Thanks for coming out and playing with us,” I said—I am nothing if not polite—and he didn’t say all that much in return. I figured he was probably wondering why he bothered to come out and play with kids like us and pretty much assumed we wouldn’t be hearing from him again.

A few days later I called Dennis to thank him for coming out and asked him if he had listened to the cassette he had recorded of the rehearsal. He answered, “I’ve listened to nothing ELSE since then. It’s one of the best things I’ve heard in a long time. I want to play with you guys.” And that was that. Three weeks later we made a quick four-song demo that became our first EP and only a few days after that we played our first show, opening for PIL spin-off band Brian Brain at Club Lingerie in Hollywood and we were off and running, only a handful of days after the first time we played together.

40 years ago. Hard to believe. Since then, Dennis and I have held the fort, first with Karl and Kendra and then, over the following years in the 80’s, with Dave Provost and Paul B. Cutler and Mark Walton and now for the last 10 years with the consistent lineup of me, Dennis, Mark, Jason Victor and Chris Cacavas. Our new album comes out next June with the first single being released in March. With any luck we’ll be out there on road for much of the latter part of the year.

But for now, happy 40th Birthday to the Dream Syndicate. Like many good and incendiary things, it all started in the basement.

Here’s a link to that first rehearsal, copied directly from Dennis’ cassette that he still has all these years later.

Dream Syndicate Live at Rehearsals on 1981-12-27

[shadowriel]

Every Sound Your Heart Makes

Here’s chapter 2 of my secret Santa gift for @headcanonheadcase! It’s been so fun creating this for you, and I hope you enjoy this next part.

Summary: It’s been six years since Azriel came back to his hometown, with his newborn daughter in tow. Six years since Gwyn moved away from whatever heartbreak she’d left behind in her previous life and opened up a diner in Starlight Grove.

Now, unable to resist the urge to help Gwyn, Azriel volunteers to design sets for their town’s Christmas musical. But what happens when the town grump and the woman he’s fallen for can no longer hold back from the inevitable?

Chapter 2: Follow Where You Lead

Read on AO3: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Read a snippet below:

It’s just him. Until he feels someone step out behind him.

There’s a note of surprise, evident in the tensing of Azriel’s shoulders. Even without turning around, he knows who it is: Gwyn, who surely should still be inside, engaged in conversation with the other townspeople. That’s what she does most Thursday nights—he knows this because he often finds himself blinking at the ‘Be Back Soon’ sign settled atop the door of her diner. It seems that even with her limited time in Starlight Grove, she’d already engrained herself enough into the community that people didn't seem to remember a time without her.

Azriel does—remember, that is. Before Gwyn, there had been few things he’d looked forward to in their small town. Yet, ever since he’d met her six years ago, her very presence had reshaped the way he saw this place. The Archeron’s bakery was no longer known for the best pies, but it was where Gwyn giggled in delight as she took bite after bite of what was supposed to be Azriel’s slice. Where she had whipped cream on the tip of her nose, that he gladly wiped off with the pad of his thumb. The town’s bookstore was no longer a place to get books, but where Gwyn had dragged him between shelves, stacking romance novels into his outstretched arms. Where she blushed when he’d settled them on a nearby table, picked one, and read a scene aloud.

And, somehow, Starlight Grove was not only where he’d grown up, but where he’d grown into this new version of himself—one marked with heartbreak and pain and, despite it all, love. He feels it, stirring in his chest, when he holds his daughter, and when he laughs with his mother as the two of them cook dinner. He feels it when he teases Nesta and Emerie, and when he has his annual snowball fight with his chosen brothers. He feels it now, when he recognizes Gwyn from the sound of her footsteps and the feel of her fingers as she wraps a hand around his wrist.

“Come on,” she says simply, using her hold to pull him along. She moves easily across the sidewalk, and even as Azriel presses his heels into the ground, there’s not much force behind it.

He lets her guide him. Of course, he does.

Turning towards Gwyn, he sees that she’s wearing her blue hat again. The material covers the tips of her ears, and, from this close, he can see every stitch in the knitted pattern. Her gloves, however, are absent now, so he can feel the cold press of her fingertips against his skin.

It draws a shiver up his spine, for more reasons than one.

“Where are we going?” he asks, the words strung together in a single breath.

Her response is short—curt. “To the theatre.”

To talk more about their plans for the musical, he’s sure. That’s what Gwyn had told him the week before, but there’s an urgency to her movements that prompts him to shift more of his weight onto his heels. To push back.

“What’s the hurry?”

Gwyn huffs, using her other hand to tighten her grip on him. She puts all her strength into trying to move him, and when he doesn’t budge—not even an inch—she turns narrowed eyes at him.

“I don’t want anyone to see us leaving together,” she admits, her tone more accusatory than anything.

Azriel blinks at her. He wonders if she can see the surprise in his expression as his gaze darts over her features, searching for more of an explanation to make sense of her words. When he doesn’t find it, he can only ask “Why?”

“They’ll talk.”

He laughs. And maybe it’s the lingering effect of the wine, maybe it’s the sight of colour rushing to Gwyn’s cheeks, but the sound is deep—uncontrolled in a way that leaves him nearly breathless.

Taglist (please let me know if you'd like to be added or removed): @foundressofnothing @captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship @trashforazriel @sv0430 @sunshinebingo @shadowsxgwynriel @thelovelymadone @damedechance @talons-and-teeth

For the @acotargiftexchange

[daresplaining]

opinions on the red fist saga? :0

Resoundingly negative, unfortunately. I actually only just read it, because I was having a rough time with it while the issues were coming out and so decided to put it off until I was in a better headspace for it (or until I saw a preview for an issue that excited me and gave me the motivation to catch up, which is what happened with next week's anthology issue).

As I said, I disliked this story very much, so if you aren't interested in hearing me rant (perfectly fine! I wouldn't blame you!), read no further. I really hope you liked it. I really don't want to get you down if you did. This whole run was just the epitome of Not For Me.

Ahem.

The "Red Fist Saga" is, in my opinion, a flimsy "Shadowland" knock-off, centered around the abrasive, moralizing religious zealot who has been inhabiting Matt Murdock's body for the past few years. Elektra Natchios, an incredibly complex character whom I love dearly, had her backstory savaged to remove its autonomy and complexity (that's a rant for another post...) and exists in this story as an accessory to this Matt look-alike and as a handy target of his moralizing (at one point he comes to the revelation that this recent journey she has been on has been worthwhile because it was all about God saving her from her wicked ways!!, at which point I may have blacked out from rage for a few seconds). Matt and Elektra GET MARRIED, and the implications of this massive shift in their relationship are not explored at all. And phew...the less said about Sam Chung's single scene, the better. As was true throughout Zdarsky's entire run, Matt speaks and thinks in this story like he is reading a prepared speech at all times, making grand-yet-hollow pronouncements about the nature of good and evil. He doesn't sound like a real person, but rather like a robot that has been fed a steady diet of religious texts, along with a few surface-level social/systemic reform concepts. His personality consists of being alternately sad, angry, and making lofty proclamations about "fighting evil in the service of God's plan", and I just have no emotional investment in that. I'm not Catholic (and neither, until recently, was Matt Murdock, making this whole thing profoundly weird).

There were some cool elements to this story. I'm a huge Stick fan and I'm thrilled that he is finally back from the dead after all these years. I love Stilt-Man. I love Speed Demon (for some real Speed Demon goodness, go read Superior Foes of Spider-Man, one of my favorite comics of all time). Foggy had a few good panels. I got to read Milla's name; always a treat. Kirsten didn't actually die. Mike was...mentioned (I've already griped about his death; I won't do it again here). The twist that Foggy and Stick were actually already dead was effective and very cool and I didn't see it coming at all, so I will give full credit for that. And I'm someone who genuinely does enjoy Hand shenanigans. I love that stuff when it's done well. But the degree to which I could not stand this new Matt and did not care what happened to him or what he was doing, plus the fact that I had seen all of these plot points executed already, and better, by previous Daredevil teams, meant that this story was just a protracted slog through painful writing, past scene after scene that could have been so much better in the hands of a different creative team or centered around a version of Matt Murdock who was actually a compelling protagonist.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Potential spoilers below the cut, but a super interesting article.

Some non-spoiler pull quotes:

Tom is my producing partner in a true sense. Before we had any writers or directors, it was Tom and I for months building this story out. We had a 30-page document that was like, This is what the show is: TVA, He Who Remains — even Victor Timely was in that first document years ago. And it’s just carried through. -- This is maybe — not maybe — this is the first Marvel series to never have any additional photography. The story that is on screen is the story we set out to make. -- We were casting, and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was playing in L.A. and in New York, but it hadn’t gone nationwide yet. I think it was going the very next week. We had gotten a call from our casting director who said, “Hey, I’m about to put together a list for OB — just initial thoughts. But before I do that, I really think you guys should meet Ke, and I think it should be Ke. I think you guys should meet with him quick, because probably by Monday, he’s going to have a lot of offers for different things.”

Of the eight live-action TV shows that Marvel Studios has produced for Disney+ to date, only one has concluded with the explicit promise of a second season: That would be “Loki,” the outrageously entertaining series about Tom Hiddleston’s god of mischief and his metaphysical exploits in the Time Variance Authority.

It turns out, those plans were already in the works before a second of “Loki” had ever streamed. As executive producer Kevin Wright explains to Variety, he and Hiddleston began talking about Season 2 of the show while in production on the third episode of Season 1.

“As we were shooting the ‘Lamentis’ episode, Tom and I started having lots of conversations about how this world could build out, how we dive deeper into it,” he says. “A large part of what we wanted to do was not trying to repeat ourselves, and not try to play the hits.” At the same time, he adds, they also wanted to make sure didn’t start Season 2 by “fast-forwarding through the drama” of the Season 1 finale. 

And so much happened in that finale. To recap: Loki and his variant-turned-potential-soulmate Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) arrive at the end of time, where they meet the creator of the TVA, He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) — the variant of the supervillain Kang who won a massive multiversal war. To prevent future Kangs from emerging, He Who Remains has used the TVA to maintain a single, sacred timeline — pruning away trillions of potential lives in the process. He gives Sylvie and Loki an impossible choice: Replace him as the head of the TVA, or kill him and bring forth an infinite number of Kangs.

Loki wants the first option; Sylvie wants the second. She wins, kills He Who Remains, and boots Loki back to an alternate version of the TVA, where previous compatriots Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) don’t remember ever meeting him.

Variety has screened the first four (of six) episodes of “Loki,” and without spoiling anything, Season 2 picks up pretty much exactly where the first season left off — before then charting its own storytelling path. The full cast has returned, including Gugu Mbatha-Raw as former TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer and Eugene Cordero as TVA functionary Casey. And Majors returns as well as He Who Remains, in addition to another Kang variant, a 19th century inventor named Victor Timely. They’re joined by new actors including Kate Dickie (“Game of Thrones”), Rafael Casal (“Blindspotting”) and recent Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan as TVA technician Ouroboros, aka “OB.”

Behind the scenes, there have been some changes from Season 1. The series’ original director Kate Herron and head writer Michael Waldron both stepped back to focus on other projects. In their places, “Moon Knight’s” Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have stepped in as lead directors, and Season 1 writer Eric Martin stepped up as head writer for Season 2.

To delve into the second season of “Loki,” Wright talked with Variety about casting Quan just before his performance in the multiverse spectacular “Everything Everywhere All at Once” changed the actor’s life forever; what the future of “Loki” the show and Loki the character might be following Season 2; and how Majors’ arrest in March for assault did (or did not) affect their plans for Season 2.

What were the discussions like about how to approach Season 2?

I think we had to just keep reminding ourselves that the TVA is a great world, let’s live in the drama of what we’re creating there. Which means not fast-forwarding through the drama that they just decided to stop pruning timelines, but also staying in the emotional turmoil that Loki and Sylvie are coming into this season with.

Also, there were certain things in Season 1 that felt like they were maybe a risk, and we didn’t know how the audience would respond. Once we realized that they embraced it, it felt like a lot of freedom to go further.

What did you feel was a risk?

In a very early draft of the script that Michael Waldron had written, that first Time Theater conversation between Mobius and Loki was maybe a couple of pages. And then a lot of other big Marvel-y action things happened afterwards, and we all went, “That’s not the interesting stuff. This Time Theater conversation is interesting. That’s what the show could be.” If we are really diving into the character-driven philosophy and introspection of self, that’s quite different than the last 10 years of Marvel movies. Would the audience follow us along on that? 

Tom Hiddleston famously held seminars on the character of Loki for Season 1. Did he do anything like that for Season 2?

No, because we tried to bring back as much crew as we could from Season 1. It was largely the same team. Obviously, we went from Atlanta to London [for production], but a lot of our department heads carried over, so there was an institutional knowledge that was built in. And Tom is my producing partner in a true sense. Before we had any writers or directors, it was Tom and I for months building this story out. We had a 30-page document that was like, This is what the show is: TVA, He Who Remains — even Victor Timely was in that first document years ago. And it’s just carried through.

So even as Kate Herron kind of handed the reins over at the end of Season 1, there is an institutional knowledge that comes with us being the glue between the seasons.

You mentioned He Who Remains and Victor Timely. You finished shooting Season 2 in 2022, but did Jonathan Majors’ arrest for assault in March resulted in any changes to the show? 

No. This is maybe — not maybe — this is the first Marvel series to never have any additional photography. The story that is on screen is the story we set out to make. We went out there with a very specific idea of what we wanted this to be, and we found a way to tell it in that production period. It’s very much what’s on screen on Disney+.

It’s clear that Majors plays an integral role this season, and you just alluded that Marvel usually does additional photography on all its titles. So was there any discussion about making changes to the show, given the uncertainty about what was happening with Majors?

No. And that mainly came from — I know as much as you do at the moment. It felt hasty to do anything without knowing how all of this plays out.

How early into the writing of Season 2 did you decide to cast Ke Huy Quan as OB?

We were in London, so I had at least some version of our scripts. The way the process works, they’re always being rewritten, but OB was in there, and his introduction scene was almost exactly as originally written. I would like to say it was in early spring, which was maybe just two months before we started shooting. We were casting, and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was playing in L.A. and in New York, but it hadn’t gone nationwide yet. I think it was going the very next week. We had gotten a call from our casting director who said, “Hey, I’m about to put together a list for OB — just initial thoughts. But before I do that, I really think you guys should meet Ke, and I think it should be Ke. I think you guys should meet with him quick, because probably by Monday, he’s going to have a lot of offers for different things.”

So that that Friday, myself, Justin and Aaron, two of our directors, had gotten on a Zoom with Ke. We pitched him the show and this character. We shared that introduction scene with him and maybe the full script. And then we called in the big guns that Monday; Kevin Feige got on the phone with him and said, “Ke, I know you read the script. I know you talked to the guys. We really think you should do this. I really want you to join the Marvel family.” And he had already made up his mind over the weekend. It was like, “I’m there. I’ve been a huge fan of this for a long time.”

In Season 1, the show explored several time periods and locations outside the TVA, but in the first four episodes of this season, you stick to just 1880s Chicago, 1970s London and 1980s in the Midwest. How did you come to that decision to focus more on the TVA and building out its history?

Because that felt like where so much of our core character conflict was going to come from. There was so much intersectionality of our characters and what they think of the TVA. Sylvie wants to burn it down because the apple is rotten, as she says. Loki sees it as potentially the only form of defense against whatever else is coming in a war with Kang. Mobius and B-15, they’ve dedicated their whole life to it. They’re not quite ready to give it up. Renslayer feels like she’s been keeping it together, and you get a real understanding of why she thinks she should be the one to get this thing back on track.

We want everybody to be in the gray area — they’re neither good nor bad. They might make bad choices or heroic choices, but they are trying to figure out who they are. The TVA felt like the place where we could maximize that storytelling and learn more about those characters through that. But also stay tuned, because we are going to more places [in Episodes 5 and 6].

Do you think the TVA could start to appear in other titles in the MCU?

I would love that. Look, I’ve been siloed in on “Loki” for almost five years now, by the time this show finishes, and with every filmmaker who has put their hands on the show, we’ve all had the same conversations: It feels like the TVA could really be this exciting connective tool for all of this storytelling. And we’ve only seen a fraction of it. We’re dealing very specifically with this one smaller department with Mobius and B-15 and Renslayer, but you look out at those vistas — this place is infinite. The exciting thing to us is there certainly are more stories to be told there. We’ve carved out our own little corner of the sandbox and built something cool. We’re hoping that other people want to come and play with it.

One of the things I’ve most enjoyed about “Loki” is how it’s telling its own story, but have you considered bringing more of the MCU into it?

Yes, in both seasons of writers’ rooms. It always felt wrong to go too far outside of the box of things that would directly contribute to Loki’s character arc in these two seasons. So that’s why we get [Jaimie Alexander as] Sif in there [in Season 1], we play with the variants in the void and various levels of Asgard-specific storytelling. But while we’ve had nearly 12 hours of storytelling, it never feels like we have enough time. Eventually, just handling the stories of our ensemble and not shortchanging them has always been priority number one.

Now, Season 1 and 2 were always built to be two chapters of the same book. The hope would be going forward, there are more books that we can tell these stories with. I certainly think that we could start doing that.

Would there be a Season 3 of “Loki”? Is the future of the show finite or more open-ended?

I think it’s open-ended. We certainly did not develop this season going, “We have to tee up Season 3” — in the way that we did with Season 1, where there was a very specific, “Hey, we’re coming back.” But I also think that where this show goes, there certainly can be many, many, many more stories told with Loki in the “Loki” world, and in other worlds connected to Loki, the character.

Do you think Loki would ever rejoin the larger world of the MCU? 

That’s the hope. I don’t want to — yeah. I think the the sun shining on Loki and Thor once again has always been the priority of the story we’re telling. But for that meeting to really be fulfilling, we have to get Loki to a certain place emotionally. I think that’s been the goal of these two seasons.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

[jules-has-notes]

2019 VoicePlay fall travels — projects, plaudits, and parties

A comfortably busy summer for the guys rolled straight into autumn at a similar pace. Between music videos, concerts, educational outreach, and spending time with friends and family, they had plenty to do, but weren't caught up in quite as much of a whirlwind as they had been in previous years. (Well, except J.None. That guy just wouldn't sit still.)

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Mostly treats

Layne and Tony spent the first day of October in the PattyCake studio filming not one but two new videos. They did a tasty collaboration with Jillian Hopke, baking Hocus Pocus themed cupcakes as a tie-in for their new Halloween video. They also got a solo Maleficent version of Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy" ready to release on the same day as Disney's sequel film.

Some of the other guys had a more leisurely day, allowing Geoff, Eli, and sound guy Paul to catch up with Chris Rupp over lunch while he was in town.

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Mysterious and spooky

A few days later, VoicePlay truly kicked off their Halloween season with the release of "Trapped – Billie Eilish in 3 Minutes", a music video that's basically a short horror film set to a medley of the pop star's eerier songs. (And a prequel to their "Panic! in 4 Minutes" piece from the year before.)

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But wait, there's more

Since YouTube had rolled out channel memberships in order to capture some of the crowdfunding cash that was mostly going to Patreon at the time, VoicePlay added that option for their fans.

They had filmed the announcement video for it at the same time as their new Patreon promo that they'd put out in August, but waited a couple months before letting the public know so that they could ensure everything was ready behind the scenes.

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That same night, J.None headlined a local showcase show at The Abbey to perform some of his solo music.

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The next day, YouTuber Malinda Reese released the fairy tale inspired video for her song "Don't Make Me", featuring Thomas Sanders and produced by PattyCake.

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On Saturday, J.None ran his first 5K in nearby Sanford. He was in good company with a couple friends and his track star nephew, and even managed to place well enough for a medal.

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Creepy and kooky

The following weekend, the spookiness continued twofold. VoicePlay released their long-requested version of "Oogie Boogie's Song" from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and PattyCake put out their sorcerous "Bad Guy" video.

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Bits and bobs

A few days later, Geoff hopped online for a brief interview about VoicePlay with the Living 757 news magazine show based in southeastern Virginia.

J.None continued the spoopy theme when his second JamSchooled music video was released. He and Nikita turned "Old Town Road" into a handy guide to the "Bones in the Body", complete with skeleton onesies.

Then on Sunday he ran his second 5K, this time with longtime buddy Antonio Fernandez down in Clermont.

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That's a lot of eyeballs

Near the end of the month, VoicePlay hit a massive milestone of a hundred million views on YouTube!

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That night, J.None took part in a showcase show headlined by rapper Bezz Believe at a local venue called Soundbar.

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One last shiver

On the day before Halloween, Geoff uploaded his first short story narration, a seasonally appropriate recitation of Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven".

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Noses to the grindstone

The guys seem to have spent most of November preparing for the holiday season. Although their concert schedule was fairly light compared to previous years, they had a number of video projects to complete in the final two months.

They started by announcing one last stop on their Warm Up tour in Tempe, Arizona.

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J.None had two mid-week shows with different gig bands. First was an annual school supply conference with Paradigm.

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The next night brought some serious party time with yacht rock group Summer Breeze.

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All of the guys went pretty quiet on social media for about a week and a half in the middle of the month. Judging by the timing of other things, that time was probably dedicated to filming and editing various video projects, and rehearsing for their holiday shows.

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Can't stop, won't stop

J.None reappeared first, releasing the video for his introspective single, "Back At Home". The day after that, he hit the road with Paradigm for a swanky wedding at a museum down in St. Augustine. He then spent his Sunday running yet another 5K, this time at Lake Nona, and wearing a weighted vest for an extra challenge.

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Mission accomplished

The next weekend started a little early with some unexpected kudos. VoicePlay's "Mission: Jingle Bells" music video from the year before won a bronze in the home entertainment category at the Clio Awards, the industry accolades for advertising. (It had been commissioned to promote the home video release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout.)

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Tally ho ho ho!

With that wind at their backs, the boys popped up north for a show just outside Chicago. It wasn't officially part of their holiday tour, but they snuck some jolly tunes into the setlist anyway.

While they were in transit, the next episode of PattyCake's Villains Lair series went live. It was a crossover with their other ongoing series, The Princess Academy, and introduced their version of Megara from Hercules.

Then the guys went home to spend Thanksgiving with their families before Christmas season really revved up. (Keeping on that hustle, J.None also squeezed in one more wedding with his Paradigm pals.)

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May your hearts be light

December began with the release of VoicePlay's Christmas song for the year, a cozy doo-wop rendition of the Judy Garland classic "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

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A couple nights later, Layne and Cyndi met up with a gaggle of pals from the local performance community for their friend Nic's birthday bash. Among the crowd were Cyndi's sister and brother-in-law (both members of the band Soul Funktion, among other things), Jeremy and Shalisa James from Vox Audio, former 4:2:Five tenor Danny Alan, and a couple Villains Lair cast members.

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Meanwhile, Geoff sat down to answer some of the frequently asked questions he receives about bass singing techniques in a brief overview on his YouTube channel. That first video led to several more over the ensuing months.

A week after that, PattyCake released their Princess Academy holiday special, "Snowed In", featuring a cavalcade of Disney ladies making the best of an unexpected blizzard during their annual celebration.

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On Dasher, On Dancer(s)

When the middle of the week came around, VoicePlay headed back to the Midwest for the middle leg of their holiday tour. First up, they spent two days in Greenville, Ohio performing workshops for students from all of the local junior high schools.

The travel route to their next gig took them northwest through Chicago, where they happened to cross paths with their buddy Emoni Wilkins and made time for a few hugs.

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The next day, they graced the western shore of Lake Michigan for a double-billed show in Waukegan, Illinois with the Cimorelli sisters.

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Then they returned to Greenville for another concert. They'd last performed an all-ages show there in January 2016, and were invited back by popular demand.

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Home again, home again

The next day they flew back to Florida. While the others unpacked and had some well-deserved rest, Layne was gathered up by his extended family for his annual dinner-and-fun-activity birthday night. This year included an outing to a local driving range so they could practice their golf swings (and poke fun at the man of honor for the temporary mustache he'd decided to sport on a whim).

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Since his reading of "The Raven" had gone over fairly well, Geoff recorded another short story. In the spirit of the season, he took a crack at "’Twas the Night Before Christmas".

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On Wednesday, J.None and pal Joey D'Angelo-LaJoie were part of a group of singers from Entertainment Central Productions performing jaunty seasonal tunes with the Mt. Dora Symphony.

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On the road again

Thursday brought the start of VoicePlay's final string of holiday concerts with a show close to home at Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee. The location allowed some of their family and friends to attend.

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The next day they scooted up to the whimsically named King of Prussia, PA, a town northwest of Philadelphia, for a show at the Valley Forge Casino Resort. Then they closed out their travels with a jump to the other side of the country for one last show in Arizona.

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To provide a bit of bonus wintery cheer, the guys brought in a new collaborator for a joyful medley of songs from Frozen 2 that they released on Christmas Eve. They had approached Adriana about working together over the summer, and this was the result.

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On the home front, Layne and Cyndi hosted a holiday party for their family and friends.

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To make up for not putting out any music videos in November, VoicePlay squeezed a third one into December, an "Aca Top 10 – Hits of 2019" countdown to close out the year.

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As usual, J.None spent New Year's Eve playing a raucous party with Paradigm, this time at a country club down in Naples.

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The upcoming year would be full of happy surprises and unexpected challenges, but first the guys had a bit of well deserved rest. Those stories will keep for a while longer.