#the amount of kids freaking out because someone actually drew them something

[thetriggeredhappy]

i dont wanna exaggerate and use terms like "personal responsibility" and "doing the right thing", implying that there's any amount of like, homework that you need to do, any kind of requirement in your day to day life - but i do think that sometimes you gotta do a nice thing for a kid, y'know? don't you remember how nice it was, being a kid, when someone older than you or cooler than you or more talented or capable than you said something or did something that showed that you, like, existed as a non-negative and non-detrimental entity? it's so hard, being a kid. tell them they're doing a good job. encourage them to go be human beings. do nice things for kids. c'mon. it's always worth it

[honeygrahambitch]

One for sorrow, two for joy

Plot: Will and Hannibal are having a difficult but very needed conversation the day before the birth of their surrogate child.

"Hello." Will said as he sat next to Hannibal on the porch of their house. The sun was casting its final rays before completely hiding before the mountains. "Just so you know, we are not the worst parents on earth because we don't have a name for our kid. I've read many stories where parents just knew exactly when they saw their baby for the first time. And that will be our case as well."

Hannibal had been out there sitting on his own for most of the day, which was exactly why Will had decided to join him with two glasses of white wine. Hannibal accepted his in silence. He didn't say anything to Will's encouraging words.

Will looked properly at his face only when he heard a sniff followed by a deep sigh, filled with sorrow.

He freaked out for a split second, seeing the tears run down his cheeks, knowing it was a rare sight.

"Do you know when we will be the worst parents?" Will asked, guiding Hannibal's head to rest on his shoulder. "When we won't like her first boyfriend. Or her second. Or third. Fuck it, none of them will be good enough. Or when we will say "no" when she will want to go to a promiscuous party. But I promise that when we meet her tomorrow, we will just know exactly what to call her."

Hannibal let out another sniff and Will could actually feel his tears on his shirt. "I thought I knew what name would be perfect for her." He said eventually.

"And I told you I'm down with calling her Mischa if that's what you feel." He replied softly as he let his own head rest on Hannibal's.

"After doing some self-reflection, I realized I don't want that for her. She shouldn't carry my regrets." He said, his gaze following a magpie trying to build a nest in the pine tree which was shading their house. "Every time I would look at her, I would think of my sister." Hannibal said as he let out a soft sob. "I want her to be her own person, not to grow up in the shade of someone else who already carries so much weight."

"What else is on your mind?" Will asked empathetically after a few seconds.

"During the last years I knew that if we had a daughter I would definitely name her Mischa. I figured I would do that only to give myself the delusion of having her next to me again." Hannibal said. "Or maybe I need some sort of closure that I won't get. Truth is, I need to let her go. It's been too long."

"You know, you don't have to let her go. She is not here but she is still your sister. And she will always be. You don't need a physical reminder to get your closure. And we will make sure our daughter knows about her."

Hannibal let out another sob as he buried his face in Will's shoulder.

"There are days when I feel haunted by my own regrets." Hannibal whispered. Will knew. He had learnt to read his every expression and gesture in time.

"I also feel haunted oftentimes. But then you say something stupid like "Will, have you missplaced the corkskrew again?" And all my ghosts are gone."

Hannibal laughed bitterly for the first time that evening.

"I'm sorry, your own nerves must be wrecked as well because of tomorrow." Hannibal said as he lifted his head off Will's shoulder and wiped his tears.

"Pretty wrecked. But seeing my husband weeping tears on the porch is a rare sight. Poetic in fact."

"I'm envious of you." Hannibal said, finally taking a sip from his glass. "You're managing your emotions better than I do."

"Am I? I woke up at 5 and took apart the washing machine piece by piece because yesterday it made a subtle but weird sound. By noon it was in one piece again. Then I reorganized my lures. Then I reorganized all your spices."

"Pardon?" Hannibal asked as he suddenly turned his head towards Will.

"I was surprised you haven't noticed me spending an unusual amount of time in the kitchen, sitting on the counter and labeling spices. Some of them I had no idea what they were so I drew a question mark instead."

"I..." Hannibal started but didn't know what to say, amused by Will's coping methods. "You didn't touch my suits, did you?"

"No, I am not a psychopath. I did want to organize your ties based on warm and color tones. But I decided I wanted to be alive by tomorrow."

Will clinked his glass against Hannibal's and this time, he was the one to rest his head on his shoulder.

"And we are supposed to raise a child." Hannibal said as a conclusion. "Sorry I avoided you the whole day. I was completely unaware you took the whole house apart. You must have had a lot on your mind."

"It's not like you were doing better. But this" Will said gesturing to where they were sitting"-is a lot better than labeling your spices."

"I agree."

The sun was completely gone, a purple shade coloring the horizon. The lonely magpie was soon joined by a second one, who was carrying some straws as well, probably helping with the nest.

[jamiesfootball]

The super longest post about Keeley and her relationships: featuring interesting parallels between Keeley and Jamie, how her and Jamie's perspectives on their relationship is an inverse mirror, why Roy Kent, and other ramblings.

Heavy on the Keeley.

(woohoo boy this is a super long one I am not kidding. this is so long i busted out the laptop so I could add a readmore for you fools. you’re welcome)

Starting with the depressing bottom:

Jamie having a bad sexual experience with an adult that he didn’t choose in a very male-specific situation.

Keeley choosing something sexual with a teacher in a very woman-specific situation and the adult teacher not only letting it happen but also making it worse.

So we have two people with… not great experiences in their history, and their experiences are layered like a burrito in how other people perceive them through the lens of their gender. And yet somehow our cute little muffins battled on, and by the time the show starts they are 1) together and 2) freaking adorable, but 3) have a tendency to put sex first in a relationship (more on that later).

It’s adorable, flirty, fun sex definitely, but it also collapses pretty quick when Keeley begins starts making a relationships with what are arguably two of the most important people in her life: Rebecca and Roy.

First - Rebecca.

One can extrapolate from the context given in the show that before Rebecca, the friends Keeley had were industry-related acquaintances and other famous people. Not serious, sensible people. No disrespect to Sally, but while Silly Rebecca is a delight I think what drew Keeley in her general awe of Rebecca was how inner strength and outer persona were so intertwined. She was a formidable, self-sufficient, boss-ass-bitch. While Keeley clearly possesses an enormous amount of inner strength, she (as the script says) is used to people judging her book by her cover.

It's as she gets to know Rebecca - who is kind and thoughtful and caring behind that initial cold exterior - it's Rebecca who asks Keeley the probing, important questions, like why she's settled for messing around with someone who on the surface makes for a very shallow relationship.

Keeley's answer? For shallow reasons. Jamie is young and fit and fun, and Keeley's been stuck in the cycle of finding young-fit-fun for so long that she's actually lost track of the fact that one of those is beginning to not apply to her. Her joke about being Leo DiCaprio isn't entirely a joke - in industries of fashion and fame, it's pretty common for people to stop emotionally maturing around the age that they get famous.

So Rebecca asks 'what about accountability?' and that's the true start of Keeley's journey, because until someone said it, she didn't know how to put to words what it was she needed. And what she needed was room to grow, room to have a stable, normal, and dare I say adult relationship.

Enter Roy Kent.

Their initial interactions are loaded with fun, flirty chemistry, but two instances in particular resonated with Keeley: the scene in the club and the scene where he told her he didn't appreciate being used as a pawn in her relationship at the auction. And while the club is pivotal for Roy as a leader, I think the moment that sunk Keeley was when, amidst all of the team drama going on, he took a second to just stop and... acknowledge her. He didn't come there for her, she wasn't in his direct focus, but she was there, and for someone who's probably used to feeling a bit like arm candy? It felt like respect. Score a point for Roy Kent.

The second scene is a case of Roy 'accidentally putting his best foot forward at the right time' because she's pissed at Jamie, arguing about accountability, and then there's Roy demanding the same accountability from her. He challenges Keeley and Keeley does not back down. She jumps head first into accountability and it fits like a glove.

And just like that, it's over between her and Jamie.

BUT. BUT. Keeley and Jamie have been broken up since episode 4 and we’re still getting new facets to their relationship!

One of those interesting facets that’s come to light is that Keeley has a habit of downplaying to other people that her and Jamie's relationship had any emotional components at all. Before and after they break up, she always refocuses any mention of Jamie in the conversation towards the sexual:

“Now I’m in my 30s and I’m still dating a 23 year old footballer.”

“[To Jamie] Babe, if [bankers] looked like that, then we wouldn’t be together.”

“I just wanna know if I can bang him.” “Well you’ll have to ask him, it’s his dick, isn’t it?”

“Five out of five: would break again.”

And like, she tells Roy that she hooked up with Jamie to get back at Roy because she was hurt that he left her on read after a really fucking good kiss, but then you look at her face in that scene and that's not entirely true is it Keeley?

When Jamie stops by her house, Keeley's face is NOT that of someone plotting anything. That is not the face of someone who's bummed their crush might not like them and is looking for a rebound (well it is at first a bit).

But Jamie comes over and she. is. CHARMED. He's here to thank her for being so excellent to him all the time, and taking him to plays, and putting work into him that he didn't appreciate before. He's not even here for a hookup - she offers him a drink and he's just like 'nah, thanks tho'. He's basically out the door before he realizes what she's implying.

And that's the thing - the second sex is off the table between them is when their relationship actually begins to shine. She’s constantly charmed by his total… Jamie-ness. Like saying ‘you’re welcome’ when she says he made it easy to break up. Like seeming ambivalent about the break up, but then cheering when Keeley is still willing to help with his beer ad campaign. Stripped of the sexual connotations of a relationship, his honest appreciation of her is endearing. But that's it. She's refocused on Roy, and she's not looking at Jamie anymore as an option. That book is closed.

Now. Jamie.

Poor fucking Jamie, who has a history of losing a good thing right when he was starting to understand that he had one to lose (see: getting transferred from Richmond, losing Keeley).

Where Keeley has spent most of their post-break up intellectualizing that her relationship with Jamie was mostly just a sexual fling, Jamie has spent more of their post-break up time realizing that not only was their relationship was more emotional than he thought, but that its the kind of connection he wants in the first place. It's clear from post break-up day one that he still wants Keeley around, even if it's not as a girlfriend. Where she's dismissing things between them as having been shallow, Jamie is sitting there going 'she took me to plays, she listens to me when I talk about what's bothering me, she gives me advice. She's kind. I could always turn to her when I needed help. I miss her.'

It's as if before, they both found comfort in focusing on the sexual aspects of their relationships, so neither of them really tried for anything more.

And then Keeley went off to have an emotional relationship with Roy, and Jamie had to come to terms that that’s….what that is. That’s what a real, emotional relationship looks like. And it turns out he wants that. He feels left behind. And yeah, he was jealous. Why wouldn't he be jealous? He's never had anything like that before, and now it looks like the person he used to be with actually wanted that the whole time and he was just too. Fucking late.

So he's just been a big old confused ball of feelings since they broke up. They broke up, and then they slept together. His hopes got up a bit, and then she's dating Roy Kent. At some point he deletes her number. Then he's confused and alone, and he tracks her down to a cafe in London and she gives him good advice about talking to Ted to get back onto the team. And then he's confused again, because what's the trick? He's alone and everyone at Richmond hates him. He goes to Keeley for advice, and this time she doesn't talk to him- she drops him on a therapist instead. Maybe it's not a trick then. Her and Roy actually seem fucking happy. What the fuck?

And I know it in my bones that the moment he decided to delete rest of the pictures? Had to land square between The Hug at Wembley and confessing to Roy that he told Keeley he loved her. Because at some point him and Roy Kent came to a tentative understanding, and Roy started treating him like a real human person, and then it wasn't just about being hung up on his Keeley. Because there was someone else involved, and that person could get hurt if Jamie didn't back all the way off. It occurred to him that there was something to destroy, and he didn't want to be that person. He had to stop lying to himself that things were ever gonna go back. He deleted the rest of the pictures and videos of her, and he just has to live with the fact that he likes her, yes. But he also likes Roy now too.

And THAT'S how you be accountable to the people around you. Not just by stepping up to do the right thing, but by stepping back and making sure you don't do the wrong thing.

Like deciding to follow Roy instead of Keeley when he finds out they've broken up.

Jamie knows he's charming, and he knows that Keeley finds him charming. But he also knows that Roy is hurting. How could he not be? Keeley just broke up with him. Except she didn't, he broke up with her. And yet Roy's still hurting.

And Jamie. Sweet fucking Muppet he is. Decides to do the right thing. He empathizes with Roy. Let's him lick his wounds. Takes him to see a fucking windmill. And he stays away from Keeley, who's already told him before that she has trouble turning him away. He doesn't even tempt that.

For Keeley and Roy, I think it's fair to say they were each other's first real, serious relationship. And they grew and learned together as a couple. But without Roy, Keeley has new eyes for what she wants, and she can't help but notice now that some of what she wants? That's in Jamie now.

She doesn't go there either. She maintains her distance. Why wouldn't she? She's never the one that goes to Jamie.

Now. The rebound.

Keeley did the bravest thing a person can do after a break up. She took a new road. She met someone she had a good feeling with. They hit it off.

Jack. Jack who is fun and fit and makes her laugh. Someone who's a bit cheeky, sometimes a little inappropriate, assertive about what they want, and fucking hot in a suit jacket without an undershirt. Intense eyes.

Checkmarks all across. Exactly Keeley's type. But it wasn't quite working.

Keeley was going through the all the motions of an emotional connection in the hopes that it would bloom. But she's playing the game one handed. She's still got her heart in her hand over Roy, and then there's Jack and she wants it to work with Jack, she does, because on paper Jack is great! Sure Jack doesn't challenge her the way Roy did, never frustrates her like Jamie did, never seems to need anything at all from Keeley really. But Jack is full of big romantic gestures that make Keeley feel adored! With Jack she can just have fun and relax! Jack's a great rebound.

But Jack doesn't make her feel like she's been struck by lightning, does she? Maybe she could have, one day. And Keeley is willing to try - that's all you can do after a break up, is try. But she's trying to make it work with someone who is very much the Type of Person she used to like and there's something missing.

And then there's these little moments. Where the differences creep in and in until things split apart.

Jack takes Keeley out to fancy restaurants. On their first date, Roy took her home to cook for her.

Jack's 'that was so fucking hot' moment was telling the office that her and Keeley were dating when Keeley said she was feeling unsure. Roy's 'that was so fucking hot' moment was listening to Keeley when she said she needed space and going to read his book on the couch.

Jack says about the video leak 'I will take care of this' and Keeley believe her. Then she gave Keeley a press statement and an disbelieving 'how would i get it down? it's the internet'. The lawyers helped, but Keeley would have to do all the work.

On their first date, Roy threatened a paparazzi and stole their sim card.

(He also held her hand. It’s such a simple, almost childish gesture but he really did love holding her hand all the time.)

Jack prioritized social appearances over her relationship with Keeley. Roy once gave Keeley a video of him crying at a press conference just so she could have a wank.

Roy fucked up when he asked who the video was for. But you can not say that if it were him in Jack's position, that he would not have gone through ridiculous extremes to have made Keeley feel better. Whatever she fucking wanted. He'd probably release a video of himself masturbating if it he thought it'd take the pressure off of her. When that man is committed, there is no half measure.

But he doesn't have the right to that anymore, does he? And it's his doing. And all he can do - the most he can do without crossing any boundary - is '''''casually''''' run into Keeley in the parking lot and try to offer a quick word. He's dying inside that he can't do more.

And he fucks it up so bad. Ironically, his fucking up this time is what allows Jamie to put his best foot forward.

Keeley Jones. Hurting. Single again. Bitter. Let's be real - fucking traumatized. Because that shit hurts, and it's happened before when she was younger, and it's happening again. She was shaking when she first saw the leak. Couldn't even finish the video. And she's right on the money when she says she feels like she's fifteen again - because she's reliving the same damn bullshit and she's still having to argue for her own autonomy.

And who shows up at her doorstep (shaded in soft colors to match Keeley's earlier outfit, her whole aesthetic)? Jamie Tartt, the one the video was actually for. The one who is fucking kicking himself because he knows he got rid of those - even though they were special to him. He got rid of them because it was the right thing to do, and he came here to apologize because it's the right thing to do.

Jamie Tartt isn't entirely new to her - he's still painfully Jamie. He kinda drifts off on a tangent about himself for a bit. He's still so easy to read. Him showing up for her is new; but his sweetness is not. And he doesn't say the right things always. But he is there for her, and he fucking cares that she's hurting. And if part of that was on him, then he's here to claim that part and apologize. Because it's not her fault.

Again, with the words you don't know you need to hear until you hear them. This from the guy who used to have near-topless photos of her (although only her, eleven pictures all of her) all over his locker. But those are the photos that she chose to do, and she is proud of them, and they always matched sexually, didn't they?

And now they're talking again, for the first time in a while. And it's because of a sex video that she sent him. Yet somehow, for the first time in their relationship, there's....no sex. None. Not even a vibe of it. For once, they're on the same page, seeing each other clearly, and sex is off the table.

It's nice. It's a good look on them. It's downright loving.

Keeley Jones had a no good, terrible bad couple of days, but Jamie Tartt made it a little better.

Let them be close. Let them care for each other, however that looks for him. If it grows, so be it. They've all grown this season - Roy, Keeley, and Jamie. All it takes to fail is for all parties to stop trying, and there's no one here who isn't trying.

Also another bit that I couldn't quite flesh out the way I wanted to:

Jack cancelled a family meetup because of Keeley's scandal. Roy wouldn't cancel on his niece even if it meant missing Sexy Christmas. Something about the commitment of it all. Something.

[sharpth1ng]

do you know if theres a book behind scream? like most movies theres a book that comes first, and then its turned into a movie. if so im very interested in buying it

- ☔️

Nope, no book! Scream has always been a movie.

It had it’s humble beginnings with the venerable Kevin Williamson (father) freaking himself out because he was home alone watching a documentary about a serial killer and he realized he had left his window open.

Williamson was a slasher fan and a closeted queer man, he loved the camp, the gore, and the mystery inherent to the slasher formula, but horror was in a slump. The slasher craze had crashed into parody in the late 80s, so Williamson wanted to write something that was faithful to the genre as much as it was a satire. That’s one of the things I like best about scream 1996. It criticizes and updates the genre with an incredible amount of love. It isn’t mean-spirited about slashers, it elevates them as much as it calls them out for things like the virginity trope, which is something that most satires fail to do in my opinion.

The earliest version of the Scream screenplay was actually titled “Scary Movie”, and it got shopped around Hollywood for years because while lots of people were bidding on it they had trouble finding someone to direct it. People just didn’t want to touch horror at the time and people thought it would play out like a spoof. Even Wes Craven passed it up at first. It’s kind of a miracle the movie got made actually, it’s a real underdog story, it’s a movie that only exists because a few people really believed in it and fought for it.

Every part of it just kind of came together- like Drew Barrymore was originally going to play Sid but she couldn’t make the time commitment so we ended up with her as Casey. She basically sold the movie as a fake-out because she was a massive star at the time, like she could get people buying tickets and no one knew she died in the first 15 minutes of the movie.

And the mask? They found that in someone’s house when they were scouting shooting locations. They had gone to hollywoods biggest designers looking for a mask design, they literally looked at hundreds of mask designs and in the end they went with an actual Halloween costume mask from some kids bedroom. The executives did not want to use that mask either. They hadn’t created it in house so they couldn’t own the rights to the image of the mask, but Wes refused to budge and they ended up letting him use it in the end.

Anyways, there’s about a million more anecdotes I could tell but this has already been a tangent on a tangent.

Tl,dr: Scream isn’t based on a book, and while I agree that would be cool I kind of think that it could only ever have been a movie, because it’s fundamentally about movies, and so much of it’s substance owes itself to the process & pitfalls of film production.

[burned-lariat]

The way Carly pulled Josslyn into the house was how she needed to handle her & Michael after she divorced Sonny. Her marriage & divorce with Sonny has nothing to do with those kids & they need to stay out of grown folks business. Ofc Carly only backed off Nina cause she is holding DNA test secret which is totally going back fire once Willow is dying or dies & once again Carly kept Nina from her child. Excited to see her & Drew go to prison for insider trading.

Josslyn freaking out about Cameron is definitely her guilt of feelings for Dex. I’m worried about Spencer, he basically turned on Esme in the end & has the least amount of protection. I hope someone warns him or at least informs him. Looks like Valentin is back which means Laura & Kevin should be home as well.

It would be ironic if Portia had a mental breakdown once the truth comes out because Jordan is right she had 20+ years to tell Trina & Taggert the truth, yet she absolutely refuses. It doesn’t seem like she would tell even if Trina could become schizophrenic

I agree. What happened with CarSoNa has nothing to do with Michael and/or Josslyn. And every time they harp on the topic, it really boils down to them being mad their mommy isn’t married to the rich mob boss who gives them anything they want. Plus, you can see how their obsession with Sonny has actively impacted the people they claim to care about, and there’s no better example than with Dex. Michael allowed him to get literally fucking tortured and Josslyn is not only stalking him because she’s horny, but she’s actively belittling him and trying to control his life. I give kudos to Carly for actually trying to move on with her life and though it’s not nearly enough, I’m also glad she’s telling her children that shit happens and life goes on. 

Now, after this whole Jacksonville debacle, the only thing that’s changed about Carly is her last name. She was still the same person at the Halloween fair, she was still the same person when Drew told her she committed insider trading, and she’ll still be the same person when the truth about Nina and Willow finally comes out and Willow is seconds away from death. The dragging from Nina will be justified, especially since she did this same shit with Nelle! 

I find it ridiculous that she’s concerned out of guilt. She said she didn’t want to lose Cam as a friend - why couldn’t that be her reason? She does love Cam still, even if she’s falling out of love with him, but no, we have to sit here and accept this BS “romance” in Jex when it’s just Joss lusting after another man. I think Spencer will be fine until he’s released from Pentonville, where he’ll be less protected. And if the killer is ADA Arden and/or Rory, he’ll be the most in danger for sure. Maybe Sonny or Victor will actually care about their nephew and give him protection. 

I’ve gone on record as someone who is very much not a Portia fan, so if she has a meltdown over the truth coming out when it was on HER to be upfront about Trina’s paternity and potential health concerns, far be it from me to feel bad for her. You had 20 years to say something, now your secret-keeping is blowing up in your face. Oops 🤷🏻‍♀️

[dangermousie]

Mousie’s absolutely subjective, very biased Top 10 web novels list

Please note that this is hardly aiming to be objective, if one can even be properly objective about a work of fiction. It is 110% based on my preferences, which means this list is heavy on the angst and has nothing set in the modern day. It is also heavily danmei-centric, even though I read way more het romance than danmei, because for whatever reason, most of the danmei I’ve read has been insanely good.

10. Return of the Swallow - one of the two non-danmeis on this list. Smart and nuanced and with a large cast of characters. Our heroine is a long-lost daughter of the family that is brought back in and has to cope with familial struggles, crazy royals, court intrigue, invasion et al. It’s SO GOOD! There is romance with the sexy smart enemy general but honestly, it’s the heroine that is the main selling point for me.

9. Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator - the only other non-danmei novel on this list, this was my very first web novel and what drew me into this insanity. This is just a ton of fun, probably the lightest novel on this list, not an ounce of angst to be found. But it’s hilarious and features competent heroine and tsundere hero and I will always love it for opening a new world to me. Anyway, our heroine transmigrates into the novel as the female lead. Unlike the original lead though she doesn’t want to seek adventures and angst - she just wants to comfortably live with the wealthy, nice husband heroine has. Alas, said husband is no longer nice since he has previously lived this story where he was betrayed by FL and then transmigrated/reincarnated into the past. Oh well, the heroine opens up businesses and makes friends. And eventually, her husband realizes his wife is way different this time around. This actually doesn’t have much romance, not until close to the end, but this is so fun I don’t care.

8. Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

7. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) - oh come on, how are you even on this tumblr if you don’t know MDZS/The Untamed? This was my very first danmei and it’s so much fun! I love everything about it - the unreliable narrator, the looping structure, the main OTP, Wei Wuxian’s laidback, traumatized insouciance, everything. Anyway, the plot in the event you somehow transported here from 2005 is that the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Wei Wuxian, was defeated by the righteous sects over a decade ago and fell of a cliff to his death. Only now that same Wei Wuxian opens his eyes in another body and everything that was supposed to stay in the past starts again.

6. Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF) - people either love its meandering narrative, picaresque structure and cast of thousands, or find it a detriment compared to much more compact MDZS. I love it even more than MDZS for those very qualities. It does have a rock-solid, darling OTP, but what really elevates it to me are the MXTX trademark combo of snarky/light tone hiding a ton of trauma underneath, the insanely intricate world-building, and what it has to say about the nature of grace and goodness. Xie Lian is one of my top 5 web novel characters and probably in top 10 from anywhere. Oh, and while MXTX’s stuff is not as angsty for me as Meatbun’s or even Priest’s, there are always exceptions, and there is one chapter in this novel that pretty much broke me and sometimes I still flashback to it and feel unwell.

Anyway, what is it about? There is a commotion in the heavenly realm - Xie Lian, the Crown Prince of a long-destroyed kingdom, has ascended to Godhood. That in itself is not so exciting. However for Xie Lian this is the third time (!!!!) as he’s ascended and lost his godhood twice prior. And now, the biggest joke of the divine realm is back, throwing the heavenly realm into chaos. And elsewhere, Hua Cheng, one of the four most powerful demons of that Universe, sits up and takes notice.

5. Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is also finding the middle path between their two very different philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

4. Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

3. To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant, sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two take up farming, get involved in the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

1. The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

[synonymroll648]

Random Sokeefitz Headcanons Because What’re You Gonna Do? Stop Me?

keefe got an iphone in the forbidden cities and refuses to let go of it “because elvin music sucks and human music doesn’t, and i didn’t make a bunch of mood playlists to just abandon them!” 

it was quite some time until sophie found out that he’d made playlists dedicated to her and fitz - which she “aww”ed over for, like, a week

they ended up spending a whole day at splendor plains just listening to their favorite songs in his room 

sophie added a bunch of songs to the playlist that he made for her, and they spent hours trying to construct the “ultimate fitz playlist” 

fitz is mostly an acoustic and instrumental type of guy, so he didn’t really get why they were so excited when they showed him the playlists the next day, but he was happy that they were happy (and he had to admit, the vibes were spot on)

sophie and fitz both love talking about human history

for sophie, it’s one of the few subjects that she knows a lot about, and for fitz, he thinks it’s an interesting learning opportunity

they talk for hours about various events

it’s like they’re in their own little world, speaking their own language. mostly because nobody else understands what they’re talking about enough to casually jump into the discussion and they’re too put-off to want to ask them to put them up to speed, but still

since keefe lived in the forbidden cities for a while he knows a decent amount about humans from firsthand experience, but his knowledge is all of how various cultures are like now, not their histories

he’s never bothered to explain that though since sophie and fitz always look and sound like charmed little kids whenever they turn to him with ridiculously specific questions. they share a childish curiosity towards the world that softens their edges in this way that just makes him melt, and whenever he tries to shrug off questions because he has no idea what the answers are (but doesn’t want to admit it), they give him puppy eyes that he couldn’t say no to under any circumstances

so yeah keefe’s google search history is really fuckin’ weird 

but at least he knows the full story behind why that one old dead white dude used 20 something canons for percussion for his symphony instead of drums like a normal person

insomnia’s a bitch so there’s no guarantee of who wakes up first, but on nights where they sleep the recommended amount, it’s usually fitz. he’s a big morning person

keefe is the exact opposite. his partners have to drag him out of bed. if they even manage to un-pry him from curling around their bodies beforehand. mans is a koala, i tell you

in the beginning he felt bad about it, but after being reassured multiple times by his partners that they don’t mind how clingy he is, he has no shame about making them an hour late to work because he persuaded them into giving him extra cuddles

keefe and fitz always snuggle up to someone in their sleep, but sophie doesn’t always do that. don’t get her wrong, she loves the feeling, but sometimes she just needs a starfish break. keefe and fitz have fallen off the bed before because of how far they have to scoot over to ‘give her her space’

fitz holds people’s hands in his sleep. his partners adore it; fitz didn’t even realize it was something he did until sophie pointed it out 

when they actually do get up out of bed and get ready for the day, fitz is almost always the one who makes breakfast 

he has a bunch of recipe books for baked goods. he has revisions where he thinks the recipes could be improved, and sticky notes on his favorite pages

keefe doodles on said sticky notes. one time he forgot to grab a sticky note for what he has drawing in pen and drew on the page. he freaked out because “oh shit that’s not removable fitz is gonna be so mad-”

fitz wasn’t mad. he thought the big mandala keefe had done in the corner of the page was super cool 

so did sophie

now keefe leaves little doodles on any unimportant/unofficial papers they leave out in hopes that it’ll make them smile when they notice

they always do 

ahem getting back on track - the thing that fitz makes the most is panakes pancakes. he made the recipe himself after sophie suggested it and everyone loves them, so it’s a regular thing he makes. also because they’re basically the healthiest elvin food he knows how to make, and he’s trying to cut down on sugar 

since he’s trying to cut down on sugar and sophie misses the variety of textures the human culinary world had to offer, they have a lot of human foods 

fitz doesn’t take sophie and keefe shopping in the forbidden cities anymore because they always get a shitload of stuff they don’t need. mostly containers and containers of oreos that they go through in a week 

once, sophie tried buying out the entire oreo section at walmart. fitz told her that buying out a huge section at one store was way too suspicious and to put most of them back

she did, but then she insisted on dragging them to five other stores to eventually accumulate the amount of oreo packages she was going for

keefe also got a bunch of other junk foods with way too much cholostreol for fitz’s comfort 

fitz literally just wanted to grab steak seasoning ‘cause it tasted good with some other veggies at home. that was all he wanted. and then he came home with seven bags of stuff he didn’t need

sophie has a habit of skipping meals when nobody tells her, “hey, you gotta eat something,” since she gets so consumed in assignments from various sources. hence why fitz meal plans and sends his partners with lunches (and sometimes even dinners, in sophie’s case, if he knows she’s gonna be at a long meeting or an overnight mission) like they’re first graders

keefe got her a lunchbox from the same company that made her sparkly unicorn journal that we saw in exile from when she was, like, five. it’s just as ridiculous as the journal was 

keefe and fitz laughed their asses off when sophie was so embarrassed by it that she literally painted the whole thing black so the rest of team valiant (mostly stina) would stop (lightheartedly) teasing her about it 

sophie’s super protective of her boys. she’s stepped in and told off strangers harrassing her boyfriends on multiple occasions, no hesitation, no regard for the whispers and eyes that follow her for a good while afterwards

it makes keefe’s day because !! someone cares about me enough to stand up for me!; it makes fitz’s day because wow, you’re so brave and i’m so lucky that you’re here for me 

they never say that stuff out loud, but the gestures they show her in return - from surprising her with fettuccine made from scratch for dinner after a long day dealing with the council to leaving extra kisses on her skin and holding onto her for just a little longer than usual - show their appreciation clearly enough

fitz has a thing for scooping up his partners in his arms and spinning them around when he’s really excited

but not to the extent that sophie does

it’s an easy thing for fitz to do, since he’s tall and got muscles, but it’s a lot more of an effort for sophie. a lot more of an achievement, since she’s literally an entire head shorter than fitz and not that much further up on keefe 

like, she lifted weights for months just so she’d be able to say she could carry not only keefe, but also fitz 

it was mostly to rub in keefe’s face that he’d lost a bet they’d made that she was too short to carry fitz around and owed her twenty bucks at first, but as time wore on she just liked the surety of having her bfs secure in her arms, and not in danger

keefe loves it when either of his partners pick him up and carry him around. it’s its own grade of attention that scratches his brain in a way he didn’t know he wanted just right 

i should probably stop now but i’m gonna add a few more things ‘cause you can’t stop me

forehead kisses are a Big Thing for them. it’s part of their daily routine. it’s mostly fitz giving and keefe and sophie receiving, but not always. they’re all happy about forehead kisses no matter what role they play in it, though 

hand kisses are also a Big Thing for them. moreso for keefe and fitz than either of them with sophie, but it’s still a thing 

sophie gets really flustered whenever either of her bfs (mostly fitz) kiss the back of her hand or her palm, but she doesn’t mind being a walking puddle of goo for the next few hours too much

keefe, on the other hand, relishes it. he’s overly dramatic about it when people are around for the laughs. but when it’s just him and fitz (or sophie - sophie doesn’t kiss hands very often, but when she does, it’s on his palm to put the cherry on top of a tender moment and keefe dies), he lets the joke-y mask fall. he lets the soft smile overtake his face. he lets himself give into the urge to pull fitz closer - for a long hug or a sleepy, loving kiss, depends on the day - he lets himself feel vulnerable and loved

when fitz eventually pulls away, keefe always draws a heart over the middle of his palm (where fitz kisses his hand every morning) as a physical reminder that this love is reciprocated and real  

and i have even more headcanons where this came from but i don’t think today is the day to see if i can max out the character/word limit with headcanons lol

[ratonnhhaketon]

Still Breathing

Read on Ao3 | Next Chapter

Summary: Six months after the defeat of Thanos, the world is still in chaos. The threat of the Flag Smashers combined with the new headstrong Captain America means it's time for Valencia Zicari to help save the world one more time. But, in doing so, she also has to pick up the pieces of a broken relationship.

Warnings: Major TFATWS spoilers, Swearing, Angst, Fluff, Slow-Burn, John Walker (just in general)

A/N: HHH, new fic time! TFATWS has been consuming my brain these past few weeks and it was only a matter of time before I made another oc and wrote for Bucky. I’ve had this in the works since the first episode but I’m super excited to finally be ready to start posting! This fic will be relatively short but I do also plan on doing a prequel fic eventually to further flush out my marvel oc, Valencia Zicari. I apologize that this starts off kinda slow, with just two phone calls at the beginning, but it will pick up a lot in the upcoming chapters. In the meantime if you have any questions or comments about the fic or Val’s story, don’t hesitate to send them my way! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Your Number On Speed Dial

Bucky’s eyes shot open, his throat closing and lungs gasping for air. He felt the sweat covering his body, the thin blanket tangled between his legs. The cool metal of his dog tags swung against his chest as he sat up, chest heaving as he sucked in breaths and tried to regain his breathing. He looked around his surroundings, slowly calming down as he noticed he was in his apartment. 

Another goddamn nightmare. 

Realizing he was alone, Bucky instinctively reached up onto the chair next to him for his cellphone. He flipped open the phone, eyes squinting to adjust to the light of the small screen in front of him. He noticed the time, 3:08 am. While he knew that she would more than likely still be up and wouldn’t mind talking, he felt guilty for instinctively reaching out for her this late. Still, he let his hand press accept and after only two rings he heard her familiar voice pick up. 

“Hi Buck,” she said with a smile, exhaustion evident in her voice.

“Hi,” he replied with a hoarse voice, sleep still clinging to his vocal chords. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” 

“I could ask you the same question,” she said with a small laugh. “But, yeah. Probably. I’ve been working my ass off trying to get in contact with Fury and nothing is working.”

“Not even through the SHIELD lines?”

She sighed, a hand coming up to rub at her temples. “I’ve tried, but he’s ‘on vacation’ and is only taking messages if they’re life or death.” 

“I mean, shouldn’t he be able to make an exception for you? Given, y’know..”

“Unfortunately I lost the ‘you’re my adoptive daughter’ privilege when I decided to grow up and join the Avengers.” Bucky chuckled in response, his nightmare finally starting to fade from the back of his mind. “I’m just.. worried about Wanda. The whole situation still isn’t sitting right with me, especially since any information has been classified and no one at all can access it.”

“Val,” Bucky said quietly, his metal hand coming up to rub against the chain hanging around his neck. “When was the last time you took a break?” 

He heard an audible sigh over the phone and a pause before she spoke up. “Not since half of the world disappeared.” 

“Well, how about this. Thursday, you finally put all of that aside for a few hours and we can grab lunch. I’ll buy.” 

She thought it over for a moment, Bucky’s breath hitching in his throat in the few seconds it took before she spoke up. “Yeah, that sounds nice. We can go to that sushi place you used to take me to.” 

“Sounds perfect, doll. I’ll see you then. Now go get some rest.” 

“You too, old man.” 

~~~~~

Valencia stood in the common room of the compound, a scowl present on her face as she watched the tv. John Walker’s Good Morning America interview was playing at a low volume. She hadn’t even met the man yet and already hated him. Partly because of how he talked about Steve without knowing the first thing about him, and partly because every journalist in the state of New York had been contacting her in an attempt to interview her about the new Captain America. Pulling her eyes away from the screen, she noticed her phone vibrating to announce an incoming call. She answered, a smile tugging at her lips for the first time in the past day. “Hey Bucky.”

“Hi,” he said shortly. She could feel the anger in his voice. “Have you seen the news?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, her scowl returning to her face. “Everyone has been bothering me about it for the past day. I had to tell Pepper that if one more reporter asked to take a statement from me I’d throw someone out of a window.”

“Jeez. Little harsh, don’t ya think?” 

“Probably,” she said with a small laugh. 

“Hey, have you talked to Sam recently?”

“Yeah, I was just talking to him earlier before you called. He was telling me about having to go to Munich today, something about the Flag Smashers? I don’t know, he didn’t really give me a lot of information.” 

“No, that's great. Thanks, doll. See you Thursday.” 

“Alright, Buck. See you then.” 

~~~~~

Any normal person would be astonished by the amount of trouble one person could get into in the span of 18 hours. But, in terms of being an Avenger, it’s just a normal Wednesday. Especially when it’s Sam and Bucky’s fault. But, Valencia still found a way to be freaking out when Pepper rushed into her room, shoving a phone into her face to announce that Bucky had a warrant out for his arrest. And had subsequently ended up in a Baltimore jail. 

In under an hour she had flown down to the city and found the facility Bucky was being held in. She pulled open the door to the jail, eyes quickly scanning the crowd of people before landing on Bucky’s literal partner in crime. 

She made a beeline straight for the dark haired man. “You want to explain to me what’s going on here, Sam Wilson?” Eyes narrowed, lips pulled into a tight line.

Upon seeing her he pushed himself out of his chair. “Val! How ya’ been? You been doing okay?”

“Oh cut the shit, Sam. You better have a good explanation for why I found out that Bucky not only had a warrant out for his arrest, but then ended up in a Baltimore jail leaving me to haul ass down here to figure out what in the hell is happening.” 

“First, I need you to calm down. Promise me you won’t freak out?” 

She glared at him. “Are you-” 

“Val,” he said in a stern tone. 

She let out a huff before nodding. “Alright, fine. I’m calm.”

“He helped me with that mission in Munich I told you about and then wanted to introduce me to someone in Baltimore. And he may have missed his therapy appointment in the process.”

“He missed-!” Val immediately yelled out, voice louder than anticipated, which drew the attention of the people around them. Sam put an arm around her shoulder and led the two of them over towards an unoccupied side of the room. “Sam, are you serious? He’s been doing so well! He put in so much effort to make sure he made the appointments and you let him go with you?”

“First of all, I told him repeatedly that I didn’t want him coming, but you know how stubborn he is.”

She let out a defeated sigh and dropped her hands to her sides. “So what do we do now?” 

“Well lucky for you they’re actually releasing him.” 

Before Val could reply she was cut off by the sound of heels clicking before a familiar voice spoke near them. “Sam. I’ve heard a lot about you.” She reached out to shake his hand. “I’m Dr. Raynor. I’m James’s therapist. It’s good to see you again, Valencia.” 

Val gave her a smile. “Good to see you too, doc.”

“So nice to meet you. You two already know each other?”

“I took Bucky to the first few of his appointments to make sure that he would, y’know, actually go. But that was before..” she waved a hand in the air, “everything.” 

Sam nodded. “Well thank you, Dr. Raynor, for getting him out.”

“Oh, that wasn’t me.” 

From across the room a booming voice spoke up, instantly grabbing their attention. “Christina!” The three of them all turned in unison and were met with none other than the new Captain America himself, taking pictures with a bunch of fans. “It’s great to see you again.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You know him?” Sam spoke up with a frustrated sigh. 

“Yeah, we did some field ops back in the day.” 

“I heard you were working with Bucky, so I thought I’d step in.” Val watched as he approached the group, her arms instinctively crossing over her chest. “Miss Zicari, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve been trying to reach out for a formal introduction for several days now.”

“It’s Agent, actually. And unlike you I’ve had a lot of other pressing matters that required my attention.” 

“Right. Well, anyway. Bucky’s not gonna be following a strict schedule any longer.”

“What?”

“We haven’t finished our work. Who authorized this?”

“Um,” John used both hands to gesture up towards himself. “He’s too valuable of an asset to have tied up.” 

Val’s attention went from John to the sound of a metal door closing behind her. Her head turned towards the sound and she was met with none other than a familiar set of blue eyes side-eyeing the blonde man in front of her. She felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a half-smile as his head turned and saw hers. Almost instantly the token frown he wore at all times faded and turned into his own partial smile. She walked over to him, her arms finding their way around his neck subconsciously. “Hey, Buck,” she breathed as his arms wove around her middle, pulling their bodies flush together. 

“Hey to you too,” he said with a small laugh. “Pepper finally let you leave the compound?” 

She pulled away to look at him. “Less her letting me leave and more so her immediately getting me a flight and shoving me out the door when she found out you got arrested.”

“Alright lovebirds, break it up.” Dr. Raynor said from behind them. Val’s arms dropped to her side and before she had the chance to correct her, the woman spoke up again. “James, condition of your release, session now.” Bucky let out an audible groan, rolling his eyes slightly, to which Val couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “You too, Sam.”

“That’s okay, I’ll be out here with Val.”

“That wasn’t a request.” 

She pulled her phone from the pocket of her leather jacket and noticed an incoming call. “Just go, I’ll be outside. I gotta take this anyway.” Val walked outside of the jailhouse, sliding a thumb across the screen to answer the call in the process. She partially paid attention to what Pepper was telling her as the new Captain America walked past her, obviously checking her out with a side-eye as she leaned against the chipped bricks. Her eyes narrowed at him as he turned to steal another glance her way before turning her eyes away and down the opposite side of the road. 

“Yeah, he’s okay… no, I don’t know the specifics of how it works out with the pardon... I’ll keep you updated, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be back any time soon. I kinda feel like I’ll be joining the idiots on whatever they plan on doing next… Alright, I will. Keep me updated on the whole Westview situation and tell Morgan to stop stealing the snacks from my room. Oh, haha. Take care, Pepper.”  

As she hung up the phone she saw the door next to her swing open with a visibly angry Sam walking out of it. Bucky trudged out a few seconds later, looking angry but more upset than the man in front of him. As the door started to close behind him he saw Val and walked over to her.

“Do you think Steve was wrong about me?” She could tell he was fighting back tears by the way his voice cracked at the end.

Her hands cupped his face. “Bucky, no, absolutely not. Why would you say that?”

He looked away, not able to look her in the eye. After all the nights they spent together, her talking him down from a nightmare, reassuring him and chasing the negative thoughts away, he couldn’t admit that part of him still felt that same way. “It.. doesn’t matter.”

“If it’s making you this upset, then yes it does.” 

He let out a huff as her thumb began to lightly rub against the stubble on his cheek. “Sam shouldn’t have given up the shield.” 

“I know, Buck, I know. But there’s nothing we can do now, so let’s just try to figure out what’s happening with..” she lifted a hand from his face and used it to make vague gestures around them. “Everything right now.” 

The loud siren from a police cruiser halted their conversation, the sound making Val physically jump. She looked towards the source of the sound and scowled. This asshole again. “Gentlemen,” John’s eyes scanned Val’s figure quickly before adding, “and lady. Good to see you again.” Begrudgingly, she followed Sam and Bucky’s lead and walked towards the blonde haired man and his sidekick. “Look, if we divide ourselves we don’t stand a chance, you guys know that.” 

Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “So what do you got?”

“Should she be hearing this?” John gestured to Val. 

She scoffed. “I’m on board now, so out with it.” 

“Alright. Well the leader’s name is Karli Morgenthau. We’ve been targeting civilians that have been helping Karli move from place to place. They geotagged a location, then scrambled the signal. But our satellites have found their symbol popping up in various displaced communities all across Central and Eastern Europe. We think that she's taking the medicine she just stole to one of these camps.”

“Well there’s been hundreds of those put up across the planet since The Blip,” Valencia interjected. “So I guess you’ll have to look real hard.”

“Good thing I have 20/20 vision, huh?” John shot back, annoyance prevalent in his voice.

“Where is she now, Walker? Do you know?” Bucky spoke up, patience quickly being stretched thin.

“No, we don’t know, Bucky,” Walker’s voice rose dramatically. “It’s only a matter of time before we find out.” 

Bucky cocked his head to the side, eyes narrowing at the man in front of him. “Things are really tense for you, aren’t they Walker?” Val rested a gentle hand against Bucky’s chest, holding him back as a reminder not to do anything irrational- although she definitely wanted him to. 

Sam approached the super soldier, putting a hand in the air to further make him back off. “Take it easy. Look, Walker’s right. It is imperative that we find them and stop them. But you guys have rules of engagement and all kinds of authorizations you have to get. We're free agents. We're more.. flexible. So it wouldn't make sense for us to work with you.” 

The trio started to walk off before Walker stood up from the cruiser and spoke. “A word of advice, then.” The three of them turned to look at him once again. “Stay the hell out of my way.” 

Knowing that it wasn’t worth it to get a final word in, Sam put a hand on either of their shoulders and pushed them to keep walking away. Once they were a reasonable distance down the street, Val turned to Bucky and noticed he was deep in thought. “What’s on your mind, Buck?” she asked with a hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. 

“Well, I know what we have to do. When Isaiah said “my people”...” he trailed off, still staring ahead. 

“Oh, don’t take that to heart. That’s not what he meant-” Sam tried to correct him before Bucky cut him off. 

“No, he meant HYDRA.” He paused for a moment, feet coming to a stop as he looked between the pair next to him. “HYDRA used to be my people.” 

“Bucky,” Val spoke up cautiously.”

Sam scoffed. “Not a chance.” 

“Walker doesn’t have any leads.” 

“I know where you’re going with this, no.”

“He knows all of HYDRA’s secrets. Don’t you remember Siberia.” 

“Oh, you cannot be serious,” Val said as she dragged a tired hand over her face. 

“So you’re just gonna sit in a room with this guy?” 

Bucky hesitated for a moment, obviously not thinking about his idea that much ahead of time. “Y-yes.” 

Val sighed, shaking her head slightly. “Out of all your ideas, this has got to be the dumbest.” She looked at Sam, who shrugged his shoulders and nodded. “Fine. Let’s go see Zemo.”

[a-la-la-llama]

The One Where Marinette Meets Her 2nd Wayne #6

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 7

  Panic. Panic wasn’t an uncommon feeling but one that was not welcomed. She had felt it everyday in Paris. The alarms with their high pitched screeches alerting everyone of the danger. That it was time for their heroes’ to come out and save the day like every time beforehand. Akuma alarms were something she was all for but the sounds they made terrified Marinette to her core. Yet, this wasn’t what was causing her to freak out. No, it was something else entirely but the same amount of panic.

Marinette was running late to school. Her first day of school.

You would think she would have kicked the habit but Marinette still couldn’t get her life together enough to wake up with her alarm.

‘Maybe she should change the ringtone to an akuma alarm? That would surely get her out of bed.”, she thought while hopping down the sidewalk pulling her sock up.

Once secured just below her knee, Marinette took off into a sprint towards her school.

‘If I changed it into an akuma alarm I might transform and jump out my window half-asleep.’, she reasoned with herself.

Slowing her speed down to a fast walk, Marinette started her way towards her first class. She had just toured this god-forsaken building and couldn’t remember for the life of her where to go! Everything looked so different with students now in the hallways, most taller than her. Seriously, what did people in America eat? Everyone looked like they grew like weeds.

Focus! She stared at her schedule shuffling her feet to ensure she didn’t trip. Shifting her gaze just above the paper to avoid bodies coming towards her Marinette began to commit it to memory. There must have been a crowd because she got stuck behind people not walking and had to maneuver her way past all of them. What she didn’t realize was that they were surrounding someone. Then she walked straight into that someone.

///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~

  Damian was anything but a ‘happy camper’ this morning. Jon had left that summer on some out of this world mission for who knows how long. His father no longer wanted him to attend the school the two had previously gone to and transferred him to one closer to home. It was his first year of high school and to add to it, he was given the task of babysitting one of Selina’s pets. So no, he was not looking forward to this school year. As if it couldn't get worse, many of Gotham’s Academy's students knew of his name and decided that the best way to interact was to gawk. Seriously, Damian was only rich; it's not like he was an idol or something. He was trudging his way to his class when he felt something ram straight into his back.

‘Breath. Father would be disappointed if you snapped at a fellow student on the first day’, he told himself. Luckily, the person who ran into him spoke before he could insult her.

  Marinette was panicking. Again! Isn't she carrying the goddess of luck in her backpack? Why is her life so unlucky? Not only did she bump into someone, they were super tall compared to her. They were also the person the crowd had been surrounding. Which in turn meant they were important. So what did Marinette do?

“Je suis vraiment désolé monsieur! Je ne voulais pas faire ça, mais je dois y aller!”, she rushed out before walking past him.

( Translation: I'm very sorry sir! I didn't mean to do that, but I must get going! )

Why did she speak in French! Stupid fight or flight instincts making her switch to her native language. Hopefully no one paid attention and wouldn’t question her on it. Cover story, cover story, think of your cover story. Oh who was she kidding, Marinette couldn’t lie to save her life!

  She calmed down before entering the classroom. The desks were the standard science class tables and you were supposed to sit with a partner much like Ms. Mendeleive’s class back in Paris. Most students already knew others from previous grades so it would be easier for her to stay out of peoples ways for now. Her mind drifted back to Paris as she claimed an empty seat. They would have already started school last week. Could they be struggling on the information? Hawkmoth interrupted a lot of school days with his akuma’s. Then again, it was only Ms. Bustier’s class that ever ran off then followed the school's protocols. Alya who would risk anything for the scoop. Lila or Cholé would run because they would be the main targets. Her and Adrien would have run to transform and defeat them.

Marinette knew the Kwami magic protected their identity but she still kicked herself for not recognizing it until Adrien detransformed in front of her. He was very upset that she took his ring without giving him her identity. Adrien eventually understood that as Grand Guardian it would be a liability.

  The bell ringing drew her back to reality as she turned back to what the teacher was saying.

“ Good morning, everyone! I’m Ms. Jones and I’ll be your Pre-AP Biology teacher this year. I’ll call roll while you guys get out your science journals! Be sure to say ‘here’ when I say your name.”, she explained.

Marinette pulled her black bag onto her lap and smiled as she took out the 3-subject spiral. The Kwami’s had encouraged her to make a bag to carry the box back in Paris. It was a simple backpack but had the symbol for each Kwami. Tikki explained the symbols were forms of blessings. Like how Master Fu’s box actually represented prosperity in Chinese culture. Each Kwami symbol gave her blessings, like good luck and protection with Tikki and Wayzz. It even had a false bottom where the condensed version of her Ladybug egg fit. Neither she nor the kwami’s wanted to leave it at the apartment all day. So she sewed some extra material to cover it and put all her school supplies on top. Setting it back down under her desk, she flipped to the first page of her journal. She said here when her name was called and tuned out until Ms. Jones started speaking again.

  “Now that I have taken attendance, feel free to talk to your neighbor while I hand out this year's syllabus! These will be your seats until the end of the six-weeks.”, the teacher announced. This would have been fine for Marinette if it wasn’t for who decided to sit next to her. She turned in her seat to meet the boy from the hallway.

“Je m'appelle Damian. Ravi de vous rencontrer.”, he said. In French.

“I can speak English. My name is Marinette, again sorry for running into you! There were just so many people, some weren’t even moving and I wasn’t paying attention and I am rambling. Sorry.”, she muttered with a shy smile at the end.

“It’s quite alright. May I ask what caused the language change? Usually I make the mistake when I am passionate about something. Though, I don’t think you are passionate about apologizing.”, Damian asked.

  This could go two ways. She could admit she was terrified of him or play it cool and stick to her backstory?

The latter of the two for sure!

“This is my first time in Amer- real school! I have been homeschooled until now. I got nervous about what I was supposed to say, overthinked, and reverted to my first language.”, Marinette explained.

He let out a hum as the teacher put the syllabus on their desk with information on the class, tutorials, and how to contact her. They were told to glue or tape it onto the first page.

“So, your language trigger is the feeling of being overwhelmed. How many do you know?”, he asked.

“I guess you could say that. For sure French, English, and Mandarin. I learned the basics of Japanese and Vietnamese for old acquaintances. Oh, and Italian because of my grandmother!”, she exclaimed. The Guardian language couldn’t be mentioned but that made seven.

  That’s what they did in their free time. The two talked about everything they knew and had learned. Turns out they both were ahead than normal students, but Marinette knew she was anything but normal. They actually had five of the seven classes together. Neither he or she knew sign-language so that was deemed a fun class to Marinette. American school was not as bad as Marinette had thought it would be as she walked to work.

  She tied her apron on before starting her task of meeting each plant's needs. The Daisies were already complaining about how thirsty they were and begged to be water.

“Ah, Hello Mari-gold! Wasn’t today your first day of school?”, Ivy questioned.

Marinette grabbed the water mister, “Yup!”

‘Well, how was it? Harley and Selina would want to know.”, she continued.

“Hmm. It was great! The clubs will be opening in two weeks so I plan to join an art one. Do we have more plant food in the back?”, Marinette said.

“Yes, just behind flower pots. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”, answered Ivy.

“I think I’ll have to start packing lunch, however. I know it’s an academy but the cafeteria food is still terrible.”, she joked.

“Yeah, I think it’s just a school thing. Oh, that reminds me, Harley wants to bake more of those cookies with you. I quote, ‘I would totally adopt her if we had more room at our place just for cookies.’ She has a serious love of chocolate chips!”, sighed out Ivy.

“While the thought is nice, I have to decline the adoption. How does Friday sound?”, Marinette laughed.

“Perfect!”

Guess What! I actually have the outline for this story and how it will end and everything! Now I just have to write it all... T . T

Tag List

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[the-river-person]

The Eminent Doctor Gaster

Honestly Sans felt he was handling the afternoon rather well so far. He’d gone the castle that morning to speak with the King about plans for the Trial, which was going ahead whether he wanted to do it or not. At the rate things were going, the uneasy feeling Monsters had towards the Human might turn into civil unrest if they let it fester. Then he’d gone to help Alphys, who was having a breakdown, again. She’d been doing so well too. The Solution had given her a boost of confidence and she’d even managed to make some headway on what Sans was referring to as the “Amalgamate Problem”. But not fast enough. Even before everybody could remember the resets, people had begun trying to reach her for news on their family members, who had fallen down and then somehow been miraculously cured, or so the original announcement had said. That was before everything had gone wrong and the Determination proved to be too much for their Monster bodies to handle. Now the Hotland Labs were receiving floods of letters from anxious family members who wanted word of their relatives, especially after recent events. Some were even angry at Alphys’ attempts to evade answering questions. Naturally this had only made her more reclusive than ever. Sans had tried to convince her to make an official report to Asgore about it all. It’s not like she’d intentionally caused the whole mess, and her experiment had been approved by the Crown to begin with. The only thing that could get her in trouble was not reporting it sooner, and the King would understand. But no amount of convincing had been enough to get Alphys to agree, she was so stressed out by the near endless phone calls and letters that she couldn’t even think straight. He’d left her after making her more hot chocolate and getting her to watch some anime he’d plucked off the shelf. Maybe she’d calm down enough to see reason. Paps was not the person he’d been counting on to make the day so much weirder. The clothes were one thing. It wasn’t as if he never wore other things. But the mysterious friend in Waterfall, the creepy grey kid, and the appearing door... those were starting to freak him out. What on earth had Papyrus gotten into here? Sure he trusted his brother, who seemed to know what he was doing for the most part, but he had no idea how to even begin to ask the stream of questions that was flooding through his mind. The grey door creaked open slowly, revealing rooms beyond with a much lighter stone that was almost grey until you got a closer look at it, then it was silvery with veins of black running through it. Sounds of running machinery and the clinking of glass was coming from inside, and Sans hesitated a little at the entrance, not sure he wanted to meet whoever was inside. But Papyrus strode confidently in and after a moment Sans followed him. It was a lab. Not as fancy and well equipped as the Hotland Labs, but still functional enough. A figure was working on something at one of the tables. They wore a black coat and had a face of white, and white hands. Somehow they seemed a little blurry at first, as if they weren’t entirely in sync with everything else. But then that blurriness went away and Sans gaped as the white face solidified into a skull and the hands into familiar bones, though with a hole through the center of each palm. “Ah,” said the person, looking rather surprised. “Welcome. I wasn’t really expecting visitors. Papyrus its good to see you again. And Sans... Hmmm. Yes. It is good to meet you...erm... again.” Again? Had they met before? Something tickled at the back of his mind, like a half forgotten memory. It swam up as he tried to recall it, offering him images of working at the Labs, the back of a tall skeletal figure in a black lab coat, working with Alphys on the DT Extractor. This figure was the same one that he remembered, he was pretty sure. And hadn’t Papyrus mentioned the previous Royal Scientist who nobody seemed to be able to remember? Had started to call him... “Uncle Gaster?” Clearly this was not the response the person had been expecting, for they jerked back in surprise. But still, they didn’t seem displeased about it. “Why yes. I am, or was, your Uncle Gaster. Also Doctor Gaster if you wish. I do prefer the use of an Honorific, it makes me feel important.” The joke was rather dry, but Sans couldn’t help but chuckle a little anyway. The tension in the air eased a little. “Would you care to see what I’m working on? I’d offer you refreshments of some kind, but I’m afraid I have none at the moment.” Sans and Papyrus followed him further into the cave. Clearly it had once been much smaller, but large parts of the walls had been dug into, making more room  available for the tables and lab equipment. Gaster led them towards a particular table where bits of the strangely colored stone from the walls was broken into various pieces and some were being subjected to heat or chemicals. “WOWEE!” said Papyrus as he bent to look at the silvery liquid in a vial suspended over a bunsen burner. “NONE OF THIS WAS HERE WHEN I VISITED THE FIRST TIME!” Gaster smiled, “Yes indeed. I’ve begun to feel more like myself and get back into researching and experimentation.” He looked rather proud of himself, and Sans was struck with the intense feeling of familiarity. He knew this Monster. Knew how how he worked and what the tilt of his head meant, knew how he’d pretend to be finishing up work as they all left for home and then stay for several hours more to continue with some project or another. He understood Gaster as if he’d worked alongside him for years, which according to Papyrus, he probably had. “Looks like you’ve had a bit of a rocky start then,” he quipped with a gestured towards the stone fragments. It had been a moment before he’d managed to come up with a pun for it. Somehow it was getting harder and harder to pop out with them on the spot. It hadn’t been too big a deal at first, after all, he’d spent who knows how long doing the same puns over and over. He’d just assumed he was a little rusty at it. But every day it was a little harder for him to throw them out as quickly as he used to. Though of course he could still come up with jokes and puns at night so that he could use them later during the day. It was just when he was on the spot. Nervousness, that was all. Papyrus groaned and facepalmed but Gaster looked first confused, and then his face broke into a gleeful smile. “Of Quartz, but I managed to get back into things quick enough. I just had to be boulder with my ideas.” Sans doubled over laughing and Papyrus gave a shout of rage. “OH MY GOD! YOU TWO ARE JUST THE WORST! WHY ME!?” “Heh, Sorry Bro.” Sans made no attempt to look even remotely sorry. “So Doc, what is this fancy stone of yours?” Picking up one of the fragments, Gaster placed it under a microscope for them to view. “It’s actually quite fascinating. Though normal viewing of it makes it appear smooth, under close examination you can see the crystalline structure of the stone, which I’ve named K︎e︎n︎ó︎n. And of course the black veins are actually micro fractures in the stone, but instead of weakening it they actually make it much stronger than normal. This is because whenever the stone breaks it releases a blackish substance in an attempt to bind itself to the greater whole, resulting in a much stronger piece of stone than a fragment free from flaws.” Sans bent to gaze into the microscope. He could see the ridges and facets of the tiny crystals and the spiderwebbing of tiny cracks that covered the stone. There was also something else there, something he couldn’t quite pin down about the stuff, but it made him feel odd. But he shrugged the feeling away, from what he remembered, Gaster had always been experimenting with weird stuff and nobody ever got hurt... Except...somehow Gaster himself had vanished, not only from the Underground, but also from everyone’s memories. All records of him were gone or altered or unreadable. Only the things that couldn’t be erased were still around, like the Core, and the DT Extractor... Things that involved other people. Had it been some experiment that had landed the scientist here? Or something else? “My apologies, Papyrus!” exclaimed Gaster after about five minutes of happily talking about his experiments and findings. “I’d completely forgotten to ask if there was a reason for your visit! I’m more than happy to see you at any time, but I had thought that you might try to phone ahead or something.” Papyrus shifted, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “AH YES,” he said and hesitated. This caught Sans’ attention and he drew himself back from the pool of memories he was drudging up from the forgotten past. Paps wasn’t usually nervous about things unless it was serious. “I’VE ACTUALLY COME TO ASK YOUR ADVICE. YOU SEE, I HAVE THIS FRIEND. HE... HE ACTUALLY IS A VERY SMALL GOLDEN FLOWER WHO CAN TALK AND-” Both Sans and Gaster reacted in shock. Sans felt his eye sockets go dark, the white light that normally acted as pupils vanishing in his sudden fear and dread. Gaster on the other hand looked like someone had struck him and he stiffened. “A small golden flower?” the scientist asked, very calmly despite how he was acting physically. “What on earth has the Prince done now?” There was a long moment of silence as both brothers took in those words. In unison they turned on Gaster. “WHAT?!”

[onthevirgeofdestruction]

Tied in Green

Words: 5,858 Content Warnings: Food, Lonliness, Magical S//H in a weird way?  Characters: Remus (POV), Roman, Virgil Ships: Dukexiety Rating: T Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort

FFN Mirror - Playlist 

   Remus isn’t ashamed of himself. He agrees that sometimes he doesn’t like the things that suck him in. The things that he can’t get out of his head and make him feel horrible for even thinking. Those things upset him, too. But ultimately, he’s not ashamed of who he is or what he likes. But he’s pretty certain everyone else is. 

   He doesn’t keep friends for very long. His mom pushes him aside more often than not. Remus can be himself in private, but not here, she says. It’s what she always says. People will laugh at his jokes in school, but they never actually want to hang out. Remus is alone again, listening to his brother and friends laugh in the other room. They sound like they’re having fun and he’s jealous. But he knows better than to ask to join. He would do something to ruin it for Roman, anyway. Remus knocked twice at his desk.

   Roman gets all awkward and weird and it’s clearly just a pity invite even if Remus did ask to join. They don’t make fun of him, but there’s not much of an effort to include him either. Roman and his friends don’t let him in on inside jokes, don’t ask his opinions, and sometimes talked like he’s not there. They acknowledge him if he talks, but that’s it. Remus doesn’t get included, which hurts more than sitting alone, sometimes.

   Remus only wanted to spend time with his brother. His friends are always over and Remus never has the chance anymore. He’s too busy with his homework when they’re not over. He missed Roman. And Remus couldn’t deny that it hurt that Roman always seemed to make time for his friends, but never for Remus.

   They used to be inseparable. His mom used to joke that they were twins because Remus never acted his age and they looked so alike. They weren’t supposed to grow apart. When they were kids, they planned on having adventures together. But this was the third time this week alone that Remus is stuck listening to Roman playfully bicker with his friends the next room over.

   The headphones weren’t enough sometimes, and tonight was one of those times. Remus sighed and dropped his computer headphones on his desk. He wasn’t paying any attention to this book, anyway. They were playing a four-player game with three players and kept lamenting that the game was too hard. But they never asked him to join. He kept hoping they would. He considered just going over and inviting himself, but he didn’t feel like being pitied today. And what if he said something? What if he did something? Remus rapped his knuckle on the desk again.

   Remus slipped on his boots and a windbreaker and headed out of his room, glancing into Roman’s open door as he passed. They were laughing at a TV show together. He headed down the stairs with a sigh. “I’m going for a walk, ma,” Remus called into his mother’s office as he passed and she held her finger over her lips while she was on the phone. Right. Remus headed out the front door and locked up behind himself.

   The fall night was enchanting. It was somewhat chilly for a windbreaker, but Remus welcomed it. Remus enjoyed having sleeves to play with, so he liked fall and winter. This windbreaker has a zipper on the cuff that Remus fiddled with while he walked down the street. He didn’t have anywhere in mind to go, honestly. He just wanted to get out of there. It didn’t feel right. 

   He could go to the corner store that was near his house that had a great selection of weird gummy candies. He could also go for some pizza-flavoured chips. This was a stomach ache waiting to happen, but Remus wasn’t exactly known for self-control. He was known for taking dares from strangers and getting suspended for scaling the wall of the school just to see if he could.

   He kicked at an acorn as he walked down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He was going to eat an entire package of pizza chips and he knew it. And they always made his breath smell like throw up, which Remus thought was incredibly cool that the flavourings could taste so good and smell so bad as soon as they got wet. 

   No one else liked his pizza-chip breath, though. Actually, he was the only one he knew who liked those pizza chips. Sour cream and onion sounded good, too. He liked to eat them with the pizza chips. If you got the right brands of chips, it was like eating pizza and ranch. His mom might get mad at him for just leaving to buy snacks at the corner store, so he’d need a way to hide the bag from her.

   Remus wished he knew how to reign himself in, he honestly did. He was always running his mouth and getting himself in trouble before he even knew what was happening. He knew he could be unpleasant, too. And he was worried about what he was capable of. Remus had some bad thoughts and dark knowledge and he didn’t want to act on them, but they were there. He knew how to do lots of bad things. In a weak moment he could, right? He didn’t want to… but…

   He tried his hardest, but he wasn’t soft and cuddly. Roman’s friend Patton was sweet and nice and Remus would give anything just to sit with him and watch a movie sometime. Patton talked through movies, too. They could whisper to each other and split a bowl of popcorn. It would be amazing. Patton smelled like fabric softener and made Remus feel bubbly with delight.

   But Remus unsettled Patton. He was too nice to say it, but Roman asked him to dial it back for Patton’s sake more than once. Logan at least was interested when Remus brought up interesting things that popped into his head. But Remus had seen Patton recoil before. And Roman would sigh and roll his eyes and tell Remus that they shouldn’t talk about that. Patton would apologize sometimes. 

   That generally made Remus feel worse because it’s not like he intended to freak out Patton, but it wasn’t Patton’s fault for not liking the subject matter, either. They just came out of Remus’s mouth and it was his inability to not run his mouth that was the cause. Remus pulled at the zipper a few times, feeling bad all over again for it. It had been a while since Remus’s last fuck up with Patton, but Remus never forgot. He knew he should stop pining pointlessly.

   Someone was coming up on the sidewalk drew Remus’s eye and out of his self-pity pit. It looked like there was a fellow weirdo out tonight. Someone in a stylistic fox mask and a trench coat was coming down towards Remus on the sidewalk from over the small hill Remus had to walk up to get to the corner store. The outfit reminded Remus of a comic book villain. Actually, if they flipped the fox mask for a kabuki one, they’d basically be Yokai from Big Hero Six. Remus wondered what a cosplayer or whatever was doing on a nighttime walk, and also if Remus could join them. Remus had a mostly put-together Deathstroke cosplay in his closet he could go put on.

   “Hey, can I ask what the costume is? It looks great,” Remus waved when he got close enough for the stranger to hear.

   “Thanks, but this is just me,” The stranger shrugged, walking up to Remus. “How would you like to be someone else, though?” The stranger asked out of absolutely nowhere.

   “I’d give anything,” Remus replied before he even considered it.

   “Even your soul?” The stranger asked, and Remus stopped to weigh his options. What was Remus doing with his soul, anyway? “I kid, you don’t actually have to think about that,” The stranger chuckled out a deep rattling noise that shook their whole torso while they shook their head. “Nothing so permanent. How about some time?” They offered again, an amused smile barely peeking out from under the mask.

   “Like sitting through a seminar or something?” Remus asked, shifting his weight on his feet and furrowing his eyebrows.

   “No, that’s so dreadfully boring. Just a bit off the end for as long as you use what I’m offering. It’s a very fair trade,” They reassured him dismissively. This was red flag central for some grade-A weird, dangerous shit. Awesome. Not awesome? Remus wasn’t sure. He still wanted to be someone else.

   “Oh, is this some deal with the devil shit?” Remus hummed curiously, still not sure how to parse this situation.

   “No, no. Not affiliated. Just someone that gets called the devil often. I’m sure you can relate,” The masked stranger waved their hands.

   “Boy, do I ever,” Remus agreed and crossed his arms. Remus’s stupid suggestions often got him in the hot seat. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but… “The exact amount of time? Not some stupid equation where I’m getting screwed like a prom date?” Remus did the smart thing and double-check for once instead of his impulsiveness taking the wheel.

   “Damn, who are you dealing with usually? No, the exact amount of time. Second per second off the natural lifespan. If you started taking better care of yourself, you’d barely lose a thing,” They shrugged, speaking as if they didn’t understand the distrust.

   “What’s in it for you?” Remus furrowed his eyebrows at the masked stranger, tapping his finger on his crossed arms.

   “I get the time and the entertainment value of it all. The paranormal gets boring without doing this kind of thing every once in a while,” The stranger twisted their hand in the air and leaned on one leg. They put their hand on their hip and looked Remus up and down. 

   Remus was still suspicious about the whole thing. Something-something and deals with the fae? Not that this looked like a fairy or anything. Actually, how would Remus know how to identify the fae? The fae could look like anything, and Remus doesn’t have any iron on him. 

   “Iron does nothing to me, anyway. Soft and cuddly, right? Something Patton would like? I’ve got just the thing,” They held up a finger and a bright green ribbon materialized around it.

   “Ah, didn’t realize you were listening,” Remus chuckled to himself. The stranger clearly knew what Remus wanted. He hoped that was the only thing they heard, though. “You know what, fuck me up, fam,” Remus declared, holding up his hand in the air triumphantly. The ribbon appeared in Remus’s hand and he gripped it enthusiastically.

   “Just tie it onto yourself. Take it off to be human again, so put it somewhere easy to reach. And if it goes more than a small distance from you, it’ll show up in your hand again. This is only yours, so don’t bother trying to use it on someone else or giving it away. It’ll never work. If you try to show it off, it also won’t work, because that’s a fucking headache. You’ll have to change somewhere private. Have fun and try not to get yourself killed, please. That sucks for the both of us,” They sounded delighted while Remus looked at the silky ribbon. It was a bright green, like fresh leaves in spring and not subtle at all. Exactly his style. Remus shoved the ribbon in his pocket and bowed deeply, twisting his hand in front of him and stepping one leg to the side.

   “So what does it do?” Remus asked, looking up to the masked stranger from his bow. They had lifted their mask just enough for Remus to make out a sharp-toothed grin as they faded from existence. Well, that was delightfully creepy. “Oh, points for style,” Remus hummed, and he made out the faintest deep cackle that also faded away. 

   What a nice… whatever that was. Mysterious entities that could read thoughts and create things from nothing were good in Remus’s book. He felt the ribbon between his fingers in his pocket. It felt pleasantly warm. He could find out what it did by putting it on. But this probably wasn’t private enough to use it. He was out in the open. Maybe it only mattered if people were looking at him? Well, he still had his chip-acquisition duty to get to.

   Remus resumed his walk down the street. He couldn’t have anticipated a depression walk resulting in a deal with a demon or whatever, but it certainly was a better outcome than usual. He continued to feel the toasty ribbon in his pocket as he walked down the road. The possibilities filled his mind as he trekked on. Soft and cuddly, huh? Another Patton? That would be weird. A bear? Bears probably aren’t cuddly for very long. Remus would love to be a bear, though. Remus, but capable of fighting his impulsiveness? Unrealistic, even for magic.

   Were there… weird magic people always listening to his thoughts? He really hoped not. Remus had some awful thoughts. Terrible, horrible, sickening thoughts. Thoughts he was always thankful that at least no one could hear. And someone heard. Magical beings probably wouldn’t listen all the time, right? If they were listening to all of his thoughts, they never would have talked with Remus. Or they would have treated Remus way worse. He also couldn’t imagine some weird magical entity wanting to listen to Remus thinking about what cooked stink bugs might smell like and what he would look like with a giraffe neck even when he wasn’t having shitty thoughts. Maybe they only listened out for random wishes. Was that a genie? No, there weren’t three wishes and the fox mask demon got something in return.

   He should be more concerned about literally cutting his life short with a magic ribbon, but he wasn’t. Remus couldn’t think out that far. Every time he questioned if it was the right idea, he wondered what he got to turn into. It was something non-human, and it seemed like the random magic stranger didn’t like things that would make a big kerfuffle, so it was probably something that would blend in. It made the most sense with what they said. Unless it was all a trick, anyway.

   Remus opened the convenience store door and made a bee-line to the snacks aisle. He grabbed some gummy brains and rats and examined the shelf for anything else. Candy moustaches? Sure, why not? Remus turned aisles to grab chips and headed up to the register, also tossing up a bottle of soda from a cooler near the register. 

   The cashier kept one eye on the TV while checking Remus out, not even acknowledging him. That was normal, at least. Remus waved after he picked up his bag of snacks, but the cashier was staunchly watching the TV again. He cracked open the bags of chips to snack on as he walked down the sidewalk, taking a handful of each flavour and shoving them all into his mouth at once.

   It was a tasty combo. If Remus ate them down enough, he could roll the bags and make them easier to sneak past everyone, and since they were open, he’d have to eat them evenly, anyway. It was a win-win. Maybe not for Remus’s life span, but that was years out and Remus didn’t know how to even conceptualize that. He could start jogging or something. That’s healthy, right? Probably not enough to cancel out eating an entire bag’s worth of potato chips on the way home. But he already planned on doing that and just because he got a magic ribbon didn’t mean he needed to go changing his very important impulsive plans.

   How did his lifespan work, anyway? Mm, chips. Remus decided he didn’t care. Was that an awful thought? Well, maybe as long as it was only Remus’s life span. It’s kind of like deciding to only eat fast food or something. He could ask the mysterious fox mask person if he ever saw them again, but otherwise, there wasn’t much else to do about it. He had more important things to do, like make sure he ate the same amount of chips from each bag.

   The walk back to his house went much faster as Remus gorged himself on chips. He rolled up the remaining chips bags so they wouldn’t stick out of the shopping bag. Perfect, now he shouldn’t have to share if Roman saw and his mom won’t see and he won’t get in trouble. He still had a random grocery bag, but maybe luck would be on his side. He didn’t want to share any of this. It would throw off the balance of the bags.

   The front door unlocked with a click and Remus stepped in, locking up behind himself. He glanced at the wall clock and realized the trip took a solid forty-five minutes longer than it should have. Does talking with weird demons warp time? He hoped he wasn’t in trouble. He could legally be out, but his mother didn’t like him wandering around at night getting in trouble. Remus walked down the hall, waving to his mom in the office. She didn’t even look up from her computer. What was she doing working that late, anyway? 

   Roman’s bedroom door was closed as he passed it. Remus sighed as he stepped into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. He had no reason to worry; it seemed. Nobody cared that he came home safe. Remus kicked off his shoes, which thudded on the floor, and dropped off the snacks bag on his desk.

   Remus looked around the room and reached into his pocket. Well, it was the moment of truth. Did Remus hate being perceived in the manner he was so much he was willing to literally shorten his lifespan to be something else? He stared at the ribbon. Finding out what it was he could turn into would help him decide, right? This should be an important decision. Or something. He didn’t care anymore. Remus put his foot upon his desk chair and tied the ribbon into a bow on his ankle. As soon as the ribbons pulled into place, Remus felt overwhelmingly dizzy. Like he did a backflip into another dimension and out again.

   His brain wasn’t working at first. There was so much new input he didn’t expect that it took him a moment to settle into even comprehending. Things were brighter and louder and stronger smelling. And… taller. Or he was significantly smaller. He did not know yet. Remus stumbled and fell over, reaching up for his head. There were no fingers, though, only a paw pad pressing into a damp nose. Huh. Remus closed his eyes and tried to get his bearings. He swore he had better senses and spatial awareness. Remus wobbled over to the floor-length mirror after he pulled himself up.

   That was the largest cat he’d ever seen, staring back at him with bright spring-green eyes in the mirror. It was not a cat breed he’d recognized. He was thick with fluff and had tawny grey fur spotted with black tabby markings. Remus swished his tail and spun around, looking at himself before turning back to the mirror. A big fluffy cat certainly fit the bill. Remus wanted to pet himself, even. 

   Walking on all fours didn’t take any adjusting to after he gained his bearings, and there was no pile of clothes where he was, so magic must have been helping Remus to adjust. His tail was weirding him out, though. He could only control it if it consciously focused on it, but otherwise, it swished about without his input.

   He licked his paw and ran it across the top of his head to make the big gray tuft there stick straight up. Other than being probably three times the size of his nana’s house cat, Remus was pretty cute. He sat on the floor and examined himself. He should turn back, right? No, he should check stuff out to help him decide. Remus headed around his room.

   Things were bizarre at this height, but it was an interesting type of strange. Remus weaved under his desk chair and went under the desk. It was a nice hidey-hole as a cat. He disliked small spaces less; it was comfortable under here. He pushed his head on the corner of the desk and his eyes widened. Fuck, that feels nice. No wonder cats do it all the time. Remus pushed his head against the side of the desk a few more times.

   Remus looked up at his loft bed. Could he get up there? Remus backed up across the room to get a running start and had to swerve to dodge the bed frame. Fuck, he was faster than he expected. He backed up to jump on top of his dresser instead and made it easily in a single leap. Remus primed himself for the wide gap at the edge of the dresser and bounded, landing easily in the middle of the bed. Wow, he could leap farther than he thought, too. It might have helped that he was big. He dug around in the sheets and curled up. Being a cat wasn’t the most fun possible choice when magic was involved, but he was loving every second of this.

   He hopped down with silent ease off the bed and jumped up to work the knob. It took him multiple tries to grip it, but he got the door open and walked next door to Roman’s room. The door was closed, but that was no match for his monster kitty paws now that he knew the trick. Remus opened the door with ease and strutted into the bedroom. Roman was doing homework with his headphones on at the floor-height table. He bounced his knee while he sat bent over the textbook and his notebook, humming along to the music.

   “Yeah?” Roman’s eyes moved to the door after a lag while he finished writing something. “Oh!” Roman chuckled to himself. “Did Remus bring you home or something?” Roman asked, holding out his hand. Remus walked up and sniffed Roman’s hand to keep up the act. It smelled strongly of pencil graphite and notebook paper, but there was a faint hint of some sugar cookies under that. 

   Remus bumped his head into Roman’s hand and Roman pet him. Remus thought it would feel more like a massage, but it was mostly that the motion was soothing. It made Remus feel safe and comfortable and loved. The petting was smooth and made his brain tingle in the best way. Remus flopped down on the floor next to Roman, who kept petting him. Roman leaned to look into the empty hallway.

   “Re?” Roman called out, and Remus meowed in reply. “Hm. You’re very smart to get the door open, but stay out of my mom’s office. She won’t mind if you visit us, but she doesn’t like pets,” Roman warned Remus. He was well aware. Can’t please everyone. Remus laid his head against Roman’s leg and started purring. It must have been reflexive because he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to.

   Roman continued petting Remus slowly while he went back to his homework. Remus’s ears twitched at the small noises the pencil made against the paper. He wouldn’t mind just sitting here doing homework quietly with Roman as a human, either. Maybe he could try again. But not right now. He couldn’t describe how happy he was to relax with Roman and get affection like this. It was honestly worth any minutes he lost off the end of his life. 

   What were minutes, anyway? They didn’t make a difference in the long run. Remus wasted minutes of his life on absolute shit. This was worth it. Remus closed his eyes and relaxed, listening to the muted sounds of Roman’s music and the rustling of pages while Roman worked. The time passed and Remus never second-guessed the use of his time again.

   “Hey, kitty. I’ve got to get ready for bed. C’mon, let’s get you back to Remus,” Roman alerted him, standing up. Roman stretched out his legs. Remus meowed in objection and rubbed against Roman’s jeans. Roman moved past Remus and headed out his bedroom door into the hall. Remus followed, rolling his eyes. Roman pushed open Remus’s door the rest of the way and stuck his head in. “Remus—” Roman stopped talking and looked around the bedroom. 

   “Huh. I wonder where he is,” Roman hummed. He squatted down and signed, picking up Remus. “I guess I’ll take you back out myself,” Roman told him, and Remus meowed in objection again. “Sorry, kitty, we don’t have food or a bathroom for you. You can come to visit again, though. I don’t know exactly where Remus found you,” Roman explained evenly and headed downstairs. He unlocked the backdoor and dropped Remus outside. Remus spun around to glare at Roman before bolting back into the house.

   “Cat, no!” Roman shot quietly, holding out his hand. Remus bounded up the stairs and rushed into his room. He couldn’t pull the door closed, so he rushed under his loft and yanked at the curtain before pulling off the ribbon with his teeth.

   That dimension-hopping sensation overwhelmed Remus again, and he fell against his desk while the world did a triple somersault and took him with it. Remus ran his hand through his hair and exhaled hard, the air hissing through his teeth. He held his head with both hands and filled his lungs completely. The world didn’t smell as strong as a human. He let out the air slowly.

   “Kitty,” Roman whispered, sticking his head into Remus’s room. “Kitty, where are you?”

   “I’ll handle it, Ro,” Remus informed him, pulling open the curtain on his loft bed to look at Roman.

   “Oh! I didn’t see you in there. Cute cat. It’s almost bedtime, so hurry,” Roman waved and stood up straight.

   “G’night,” Remus waved back.

   “Oh. Yeah. You too,” Roman sighed and turned into the hall. Remus slowly pulled himself up to his feet. The dizziness was all gone, but he was still disoriented from the missing senses and the height. Remus was so tall. How did he never notice?

   Remus needed some contingency stuff. He pulled a fashion scarf out of his dresser and tied it onto the doorknob so Remus could pull his door closed. Well, there was still the potential of getting locked out if he left and couldn’t turn back… Remus glanced at the window. It’s the second story, so it’s not a big deal if he left it unlocked, right? Remus didn’t know how he’d get up there just yet, but maybe he could jump from the tree? The gap was wide for a human, but as a cat, he should be okay. Maybe he could change back and move some stuff around in the backyard. Remus unlocked the window with a small nod to himself.

   He started to get ready for bed but ended up glancing at the window again. Maybe he should make sure he can make the gap, right? Remus kicked off his socks and opened up the window enough to get out, pulling out the screen and leaning it against the wall. He crawled through and sat on the slanted roof and closed the window again. He took a deep breath of the night air and looked up at the moon. 

   A good night to prowl. He tied the ribbon on his ankle and turned into a cat again. It was much easier this time, though it was still extremely disorienting. Remus waited to regain his sense of up and down before standing up and walking along the ledge of the roof towards the big honkin’ American Elm in the backyard. Roman and Remus’s tire swing still hung from a low, thick branch.

   Remus primed himself and took a running leap of faith towards the Elm. He soared across the gap easily and ended up overshooting just barely able to sink his claws in another branch in time and avoided hitting one that was on his lower left and tumbled to the ground. Remus scrambled to pull himself up and took a deep breath for his pounding heart.

   He looked down, and it looked like he was miles from the ground. He suddenly understood how cats got caught in trees because this was freaky. Remus knew intellectually that he could hop down to a lower branch or jump for the tire swing. The branch he was on didn’t allow for much mobility, so he made a hail-mary for the tire swing, landing in the net over the hole and getting his paw caught while the tire swing swung from the motion. Remus hissed at the net and pulled his foot out carefully before hopping down to the ground.

   Well. That was scary-awesome. But Remus was a free cat right now who happened to be able to jump farther than Remus could even comprehend. Remus made a run for the fence and used his back claws to propel himself up the fence and bounded over easily. He jumped down into the grass and ran for the sake of it. 

   All the fun of running away without actually doing so. There was a playground they used to go to as kids that Remus wanted to check out. It was long since not fun anymore, but as a cat, who knows? Remus wanted to feel like a kid again. He was too amped up to sleep anyway, and he was once again at a height he could enjoy a playground at and it was all he could think of.

   He bounded across yards and down the lane. The public park was between Remus’s neighbourhood and the apartment complex next door, so Remus had to make two blocks on much smaller feet. He was moving much faster, though, and had more endurance. He enjoyed the wind in his face as he ran down the lane.

   The playground’s parking lot was lit, but the playground itself sat shrouded in darkness. That was no problem for Remus’s cat eyes, though. They adjusted almost instantaneously as he stepped into the shade and walked into the park. The playscape was probably not comfortable on his paws, but there were other things to check out, still. Remus walked past the play structure. The web might be fun. That was still kind of fun as an adult. The park was technically closed, though, and he couldn’t play on it while kids were here. He could hurt one of them or someone would think he’s a pervert, and he’d get in trouble and go to jail.

   Remus wasn’t alone out here. There sat a person who looked Remus’s age sitting on the swings. Their head hung limply, and they held onto the chain at eye height. They were barely swinging at all. It was more like a minor despondent sway. They looked really miserable. Remus couldn’t swing as a cat, but he also was curious about the other stranger. One stranger tonight gave Remus magic powers, so random night strangers were much more interesting now. 

   That fact alone made Remus also wanted to return the favour to the universe if he could. The fox-masked being cheered Remus up. Maybe Remus could cheer up the sad person who appeared to be 70% hoodie by volume and kicking at the pebbles under the swings. Remus walked up in front of the person and sat down, meowing. Their head was down and their hood was up, so Remus couldn’t see their face.

   The stranger didn’t look up from soundlessly staring down at nothing. Remus stepped closer, meowing again. He looked up at the stranger’s face from the ground. They looked empty. Their eyes were unfocused and their expression was somewhere between numb and desolate. Remus meowed louder, and the stranger blinked. They recoiled their head and rubbed their eyes, blinking a few more times before their eyes focused enough to notice Remus.

   “Oh. Hey,” The stranger greeted Remus. Remus rubbed against the person’s legs. He hoped they weren’t allergic. They watched Remus weave around their legs for what felt like an eternity, but they never sniffled, so it seemed okay for now. “You’re really friendly, huh?” The person reached down their hand and Remus bumped into their hand right away.

   The sad person let out a weak chuckle through their nose and scratched at Remus’s chin. Remus froze for a moment and pushed down into the stranger’s hand to help them scratch harder. That was better than pets. That made Remus feel like his entire body was tingling with elation. The stranger stopped scratching and sat up on the swing. But Remus wasn’t having that. He jumped up and deposited himself right on the person’s lap.

   “Woah,” The stranger seemed amused and went back to gently scratching behind Remus’s ear. Remus purred like a motorboat idling on a lake. One that might explode and kill twenty bystanders and sink a dinghy named Frank. Remus’s back leg twitched automatically as he settled down. He was probably vibrating the entire stranger he purred so hard.

   When the stranger stopped again, Remus meowed and licked at their hand, sitting limply next to Remus again. “You’re kind of needy,” The stranger sounded amused, switching to petting Remus with their other hand instead. Remus carefully laid down and licked the stranger’s hand again. 

   Remus liked it when cats did this, so he hoped this person would, too. They reached up to rub their eyes again and paused, sniffing the air. They sniffed again and tried smelling where Remus licked them. 

   “Fuck, cat, that’s noxious. What the hell did you eat?” They snickered, putting their hand back down. Remus tried to say ‘chips’, but a weird meow came out instead, so he rested his head on the stranger’s hand.

   “Do you belong to someone?” The person asked curiously. They sat up more and looked around the area. They dug around at the thick fur on Remus’s neck and hummed in dissatisfaction. “A nice cat like you deserves a good home. It’s not safe out here for you,” They shook their head and went back to petting them. “But thanks for visiting,” They smiled down at Remus. “I’ve got school, I should get going,” They sounded sad, but Remus jumped off and spun around to sit and watch them get up.

   The stranger dragged themselves off the swing and waved to Remus. Remus meowed and waved a paw back, which made the stranger give a small smile in return. Remus had school too, so he should probably get home. But he got them to smile, so it satisfied the need to do something nice for the world in return as he bounded down the street back towards his house.

---

personal taglist: @elizabutgayer @ollyollyoxinfree 

The Taglist Repository (ask to be removed): 

Everything: @katelynn-a-fan @dwbh888 @royal-stormcloud @thefivecalls @awkwardjester @intruxiety@brain-deadx0 @the-grounded-raven@just-your-typical-trans-guy

Remus-Centric: @thatgaydemigodnerd @aceawkwardunicorn @hekking-happy-nonsense

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Cuddles: @idont-freaking-know @aceawkwardunicorn @enby-ralsei

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

What to Binge Watch While in Quarantine

Do you feel yourself running out of things to watch on DVR or you don’t know which streaming platform to explore for your next watch? Or do you just find yourself with more time on your hands and don’t know what to do? If you answered yes to any of these questions I hope this thread helps you out. A lot of these picks are some of my top choices no matter what the case (which means I might have spoken about them before-possibly A LOT. Or they may be upcoming March picks, which just shows how great they really are). So without further a do here are some things you should consider bingeing as you maintain your social distancing and seek a form of escape...

Need a laugh?

Check out DERRY GIRLS

This half hour comedy (which honestly should be longer because the episodes go by too fast and there are not enough of them in the seasons) follows Erin Quinn as she navigates high school during the 1990s in Northern Ireland. She attends an all girl Catholic school along with her cousin Orla, and friends Michelle, Clare and James. (That’s right James also attends the all girls school. He’s a Brit and it would be too dangerous for him to attend the boys school during this time of civil unrest.) As the girls experience trivial problems like how to get to a concert or how to avoid people eating pot brownies at a funeral, the historic problems play out in the background. During the pandemic we’re experiencing we can take away living in the moment like these girls from Derry and not overly stressing on big world problems.   

Streaming on Netflix

Wanting more of a ROM COM kind of escapism?

Then look no further than the Netflix original Set it Up. 

Two assistants, Harper and Charlie, work in the same building and are experiencing a very “Devil wears Prada” relationship with each of their bosses. They meet one night at work after hours and believe they have the worse boss. A plan gets set in motion to set up their terrible bosses with each other. Then when they’re happy, the two assistants can have their lives back. You already see where this is probably going and who this love story is actually following: Harper and Charlie. I’ve been raving about this movie since 2018 when it first came out and it is still just as great as the first time I watched it. It honestly still gives hope for a great romantic comedy. 

Streaming on Netflix.  

Up for a good mystery? 

Give Cw’s Nancy Drew a try.

One of the Cw’s latest new shows this season, Nancy Drew, re-invents the classic stories we all know and love with a more darker and supernatural spin. If you like Riverdale and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina then this might be right up your alley. However, as someone who doesn’t watch Riverdale and didn’t fall in love with Sabrina, I am still a big fan of this new adaptation of Nancy Drew. I feel like I’ve experienced a roller coaster of reviews with this one, from really liking it to not so much (because there was too much of the supernatural involved and I just wanted a good mystery) to now really liking it again. I think I just needed some time to understand the vibe of it all and now that I really know the characters I’m liking it a lot. I’m also excited it has been renewed for a second season. 

You can catch up with all 16 episodes now on the CW app or online cwtv.com. New episodes return in April. 

Want more of a magical kind of mystery?

Then you gotta watch Locke and Key.

Thanks to Netflix’s new trending list I decided to check out Locke and Key and I am so happy I did. It was fantastic and I can’t wait for season two. Based on the graphic novel by the same name, the series follows the Locke siblings who have just witnessed their father’s murder before traveling cross-country with their mother to his ancestral home, Key house. The house is filled with these magical keys that all have different properties from getting into your mind and looking at your deepest thoughts and desires, a key that opens any door and can take you anywhere, or one that opens a music box that lets you control people. The kids get drawn to the keys and unlock a deeper mystery of the keys and how their dad was involved in it all. Plus, there’s a sinister presence that is after the keys and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Definitely worth checking out!

Streaming on Netflix. 

Need some music in your life?

You must watch Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

This show gets better and better each episode. After a freak accident, Zoey gets the ability to hear people’s innermost feelings through song and dance. She’s the only who can hear it, which means she needs to help the person get through the problem in their life. Each episode has a good amount of musical numbers from popular songs to classics and even musicals. Great cast. There is not one character I don’t like. If you are a fan of Glee I would highly suggest checking it out. It’s the show that often gets compared to it, but you don’t have to be a fan of Glee to enjoy it. I wasn’t a die-heart fan and I’m loving Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. It’s a feel good watch that is just what we need at a difficult time like this. 

Watch it on NBC on demand. 

Did you love High School Musical?   

Then why haven’t you watched High School Musical the Musical the Series?

This show has been promoted since Disney Plus was released back in November. There was a lot of hype over it, which made me unsure if it would be worth it, but I gotta say that I really enjoyed it overall. A cross between Glee and the Office, HSMTMTS follows students who attend the school the Disney Original Movie Series was filmed. When the new drama teacher comes to “East High” she is shocked that the drama department has never put on the musical for themselves. There’s a love triangle(s), a large cast of talented singers, drama and mystery. Great new songs that will get stuck in your head and the promise for a second season with a brand new musical to perform. (I’m just bummed it’s Beauty and the Beast and not HSM 2). The episodes are only about 25 minutes and you’ll find yourself finished with the 10 episode season in a matter of hours.

Now streaming on Disney+.  

Feeling a telenovela musical?

Then Violetta is for you!

Drama, laughs, love, and music (with more catchy songs you won’t be able to get out of your head), this Disney original from Buenos Aires has it all. You will get sucked into the episodes just like I did and be shocked how far into the series you are in such a short amount of time. I watched all 80 episodes (that are about 40 minutes a piece) in a matter of 2 months. (And now I’m upset that Disney Plus hasn’t released season 2!!) The show follows Violetta Castillo who has just returned home after traveling the globe with her father for years. She wants to be like a regular kid and attend school rather than having a tutor, but her father forbids it. He’s over protective because her mother was a famous singer who then tragically died. He ties it back to the music and forbids Violetta from performing as well. Throughout the first season, she is exposed to a music school where she makes new friends, enemies, and becomes a part of a love triangle (naturally). In the process she rises to be one of the most talented performers, but constantly is worried her dad will find out the truth and make them move again. 

Streaming now on Disney+. 

Needing a Sci-Fi fix?

Tune into the Cw’s Pandora.

The show aired on the Cw this summer and needs more love and recognition. I was surprised over how much I enjoyed it. When each episode aired I wanted to watch it right away, which then made me upset because I had to wait a week, but you won’t have that problem! The show takes place in the future in the year 2199. Our main character Jax witnesses her family getting tragically killed and is forced back to Earth to live with her uncle who runs a training academy. Jax enrolls in the school and makes several friends a long the way (there are so many ships on this show that I often had trouble deciding who I liked with who). While at the academy she starts to piece together that her family’s death might not have been an accident and that more lies behind it as well as her own past. There were times when I was confused by how much time had passed from the last episode because characters would be very close or references would get made and I’d be like: Did I miss something? But despite all of that I really enjoyed it and am happy there will be a season 2. It feels very Cw in the best way possible, so if you already watch a lot of shows on the network then you should give this one a try. 

Watch the entire first season on the CW app or online @ cwtv.com

Wanting an ironic watch in this difficult time?

Then add Daybreak to your queue.

This Netflix original had been on my list for a while and once the Corona virus was getting more and more serious I felt I needed something to take my mind off of it and also to have a good laugh. Daybreak is doing just that. (I am currently still watching the series so I don’t have a full review just yet.) This show takes place during the aftermath of a nuclear attack. In this apocalypse adults have turned into “zombie-like figures” who are muttering the last thought they had (often a very funny one). The kids are now in charge and each clique in high school has a territory. We follow social-outcast/new kid at school. Josh who is on the search for the love of his life, Sam, that he lost during the night of the explosion. Along the way he finds allies and they form their own tribe. This show is constantly breaking the fourth wall, having characters directly talk and look at us. I thought I would hate it, but I actually really like that feature and am kind of upset now that Josh has not narrated an episode in a while. 

Now streaming on Netflix.    

Still looking for more laughs?

Add Kelsey’s 100 Baby Challenge to your Watch Later

Throughout last year, Buzzfeed multiplayer’s Kelsey Immpicciche took up the 100 baby challenge in the Sims 4. What she thought would be a fun challenge and a couple videos blew up into a full series spanning 50 episodes, multiple spin-off series and even a line of clothing (which I am happy to say I own a sweatshirt). Who would have thought watching someone play the Sims and try to have 100 babies with all different parents would be so much fun? Kelsey has made me want to play the Sims and have my very own 100 baby challenge. This challenge is hilarious and fun. I loved all of Kelsey’s commentary as she plays as well as reading the comment section where everyone tries to give her tips. It’s so exciting to see how so many people got involved in this challenge. I hope she continues for season 2 soon! 

You can watch all of season 1 on YouTube.

Need a change in location?

Venture back in time and to Prince Edward Island with Anne with an E.

L.M. Montgomery’s beloved series is adapted with a fresh new take on her classic characters and setting. Across Anne with an E’s three seasons we watch Anne Shirley come to Green Gables and form a family with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. We watch her shake up school and form life long friends. Something that I love about this series is that it is able to incorporate so many of the issues our society is facing today. While not always 100% accurate to the original novels, the show takes liberties with the source material and expands upon it to create something audiences can see as an echo of our conflicts. While this has been a problem for some, I think, once you realize this, you can enjoy the series even more. I know of so many people who have turned to the book after watching and falling in love with this series. Now, during this time, it is the perfect form of escapism. With each season spanning about 10 episodes you will be done and wanting more just like I am. I’m still upset the series has not been renewed. 

Streaming now on Netflix. 

Early Releases:

LITTLE WOMEN is now available on digital copy.

FROZEN 2 has been released early to Disney Plus.

Rumor is that EMMA will be released on digital copy as early as March 20th.

With so much to watch I hope that you can endure this quarantine happily. If there’s a show you’d like to add to the list make sure to attach it below in a comment or by sharing this post!

[yangssunglasses]

All right, not into femslash as you know, but for the sake of seeing you fulfill such a random prompt (because you numbered Naruto girls, didn’t you?): 8, 12 and ‘Give up’

Thanks for the prompt! I also used FemslashFeb2020 prompt: denim.

Pairing: Sakura/Anko (or as I’m calling it, Ankura :)

Rating: T

Length: 2k+

Available on FFN / AO3

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Full Circle

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The sexy and beautiful Mitarashi Anko was great at many things, usually having something to do with maiming and torture. She knew how to get under the skin of her targets, slip under their guard and into their minds, then strip them bare of all their secrets. Alternatively, she threatened them with her snakes, that usually did the trick. Whatever worked best, she would do it, she was flexible like this when the situation called for it. No wonder she bragged that she could touch her heels when she did a back bend.

What Anko didn’t know was what to do with an itty-bitty pink-haired genin standing in her way with a determined look on her little face.

“What do you want, kid?” Anko asked bluntly, fingering her new senbon pack as she fought off the trained reflex to turn anyone that even slightly inconvenienced her into a pincushion.

“Anko-san, right? You probably don’t remember me, but I was in the chunin exams when you were a proctor. I’m Haruno Sakura. Tsunade-sama’s apprentice,” the girl introduced herself.

Actually, Anko remembered her, it was hard not to. She was one of Kakashi’s cute ducklings and a teammate of that moody Uchiha kid that had gotten a little love bite with a cursed seal as a bonus and then had run off to that bastard for more power. Ugh.

Anko crossed her arms. “Whatever, I have shit to do, so cut to the chase, kid. I don’t have all day.”

A fire lit up in the girl’s clear green eyes. Anko had a bad feeling. She knew that look and it only meant something fucking annoying was coming her way. (Boss Nara would simply call it troublesome, but she wasn’t a boring old man playing shogi for fun.)

“Teach me,” the kid implored. “Teach me how to beat Orochimaru.”

Anko lost it. She doubled over, howling with laughter.

“You? You want to fight Orochimaru? And beat him?” She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. “Man, do they make genin stupider these days or what?”

The girl looked like she ate a lemon. “I’m serious! Please teach me. I heard you were his apprentice. You must know something about his strengths and weaknesses.”

Anko straightened up again, her momentary amusement gone with the mention of her past relationship with that bastard. That was where she drew a line at tomfoolery. The girl wanted serious, she’d get serious.

“Kid, Orochimaru is a freak of nature. And a real genius of ninjutsu. Whatever I know of him is a decade out of date. Go home.”

“Anko-san, please, he has Sasuke-kun! I need you to teach me so I can rescue him!” the girl still insisted, like she didn’t understand a word of what Anko had said to her.

The jounin scowled, getting mad. This was becoming ridiculous.

“Kid, what rescue are you talking about?! From what I hear that Uchiha brat defected. He joined the bastard out of his own free will. Traitors don’t get rescued, they get eliminated like they fucking deserve.”

“E-Eliminated? No… but we promised to save him… that can’t be true…” Blood drained from the girl’s face and she turned ghostly pale as she stared up in disbelief at her. Anko would have felt bad for the poor, delusional genin if she had any feelings to spare, but her deficiency of caring was permanent and incurable, so she just shrugged it off. That’s just what happened when you were smacked in the face with a brutal reality check.

“Let me give you a little advice,” Anko leaned in towards the shocked girl. “Give up, kid,” she told her straight to the face. “There’s nothing I can teach you about Orochimaru, besides don’t you have Tsunade for that? She was his teammate, wasn’t she? Just let her teach you how to crush mountains with your pinky or flatten the forest like a pancake. Then we can go together traitor-hunting if you’re still interested,” Anko suggested with a feral grin.

Sakura shuddered, but didn’t back down. The fierce light returned to her eyes. “No! I won’t give up on Sasuke-kun so easily!”

“Bad choice, really,” Anko replied, shaking her head, then sidestepped around the genin. “Well, you just study hard with Tsunade, kid, and I’ll ring you up when I figure out how to beat Orochimaru. See ya!”

She shunshined away from the aggravating little pink blob, then changed direction and made a beeline to her favourite dango shop. She was in a desperate need of a pick me up. Anko couldn’t believe she discussed going after Orochimaru with an unfledged genin, Tsunade’s apprentice or not! Hell no! Better forget this had ever happened.

Thankfully, the girl took some of Anko’s advice and left her alone, concentrating solely on the apprenticeship with Tsunade. Anko didn’t cross paths with the pink menace again for many years, but Konoha wasn’t that big. Bumping into each other was bound to happen someday.

The Fourth War was but a memory by then and the lasting peace among the nations basically put her out of the job. Orochimaru was contained by the village and no amount of begging and cajoling could get Anko close enough to finally shank the bastard (she swore it was all Kakashi’s fault. Damn that smug one-eyed masked party pooper.)

Her best friend, Kurenai, popped out a baby and was so busy with diaper-changing and all that motherly shizz that she had no time to hang out with Anko anymore. Maybe that was for the best, she’d be a bad influence on the tyke.

Everything was boring and peaceful, there were no new prisoners to interrogate and Anko was too keyed up to devise another brilliant plan to achieve her revenge on the snake. Instead, she restlessly prowled the streets of Konoha, looking for something, anything she could do. She was munching on dango, the sweet flavor filling her mouth and calming her mood like a horse tranquilizer, when she saw someone interesting.

Some babe in a red tunic was browsing through skirts at the clothing stall. She was putting some of them against her hips in order to decide which to buy without actually trying them on.

“Get the denim one, it will look good on your butt,” Anko’s foul tongue activated, giving unsolicited advice before she thought it through.

The woman jolted and whirled around. Surprised clear green eyes landed on Anko, mesmerizing her. She cursed herself internally for not recognizing that pink hair sooner. But how could she be blamed, the last time she checked, it belonged to some headache-inducing, scrawny genin. Not this… sex on legs.

“You’re not a kid,” Anko stated dumbly.

Sakura cocked her hip and put a hand on it. “You thought you were saying that to a kid?” she asked in disbelief.

Anko winced. Right, that butt comment made her sound all kinds of bad. “No, hell no. I just thought it was some hot chick, not you,” she backtracked, belatedly realizing she again put a foot in her mouth. She couldn’t help it though, Sakura really wasn’t that kid anymore, she was a grown up bombshell of a woman and Anko still couldn’t get over that.

Sakura’s brow scrunched up as she regarded her with narrowed eyes, fists clenching and releasing with indecision. “I can’t figure out whether you just called me ugly or hot,” she said slowly. “If it was the former, I would deck you.”

Anko’s eyes gleamed eagerly. “Then if it was hot, would you come with me for some drinks? Uh, I mean, coffee?” she proposed, since it was still too early for sake. “We could catch up.”

Sakura pinned her with a hard look, then shrugged. “Only if you’re paying,” she stipulated and Anko nodded.

“You know, I meant it about that denim skirt, take it. It will really look good on you,” she added.

Sakura hummed thoughtfully and examined the piece of clothing in question again. Then she folded it and took it to the seller.

Two minutes later, Sakura joined Anko and they walked side by side to a nearby café. They placed their orders and settled on the opposite sides in a booth. Sakura put her shopping bag on the seat next to her, then looked at Anko inquisitively.

“You wanted to catch up?” she reminded.

Anko startled, realizing that she was caught staring. “Right! Sooo… how’s it going?” she asked with a chuckle to mask her awkwardness.

Sakura shrugged. “Not bad. We have peace.”

“Yeah… that’s the worst. I’m so bored most of the time. There’s no work for me!”

Anko’s outburst of frustration made the other kunoichi blink. “I didn’t think about it before, but it makes sense… So you’re free most of the time?” she asked.

“Pretty much…” Anko confirmed with a morose sigh.

“Then what do you do? Any hobbies?”

“Not really…” Anko replied, frowning. Their coffees arrived and Sakura poured sugar in hers, then took a dainty sip. Anko didn’t touch hers, she wasn’t really that thirsty. Instead, she discreetly took in Sakura, when a brilliant thought occurred to her. “Say, you were Kakashi’s student and he’s been a real bother to me recently…” she said.

Sakura looked at her in surprise. “Kakashi-sensei? What did he do?”

Anko scowled darkly into her coffee before raising her eyes to the other woman. “He’s protecting that lowlife Orochimaru from justice. Killing the bastard would be a community service at this point and he won’t let me,” she gritted out.

“Oh,” Sakura muttered in understanding. “I’m sorry.”

And that was it. Anko knew that she wouldn’t get any help. It was a long shot anyway. In the silence, they both contemplated the absolute unfairness of it all.

“For the record, I was against letting him go, but all the villages decided to take his offer and let him live,” Sakura informed her with an anxious look.

“I know. The slippery bastard got away again,” Anko said and sighed in defeat, closing her eyes.

A warm touch on her hand made her open them in surprise. Sakura gave her a light, reassuring squeeze.

“That doesn’t mean the battle is over. Old habits die hard, you know. The moment he puts one toe out of line…”

“… I will be waiting,” Anko finished with a bloodthirsty grin. “And take his head off.”

Sakura smiled back. “Exactly. Don’t give up.”

She took back her hand and Anko found herself already wishing the touch lasted a little longer. She leaned back in her seat, more relaxed, and tried the coffee. Too strong, she thought with a grimace and set it down.

“Well, at least everything worked out for you. You got back your teammate. I didn’t think it would be possible,” she remarked lightly.

Sakura tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes, that was like a miracle. I’m glad Sasuke-kun is okay now,” she said modestly.

Anko pierced her with a hawk-like stare. “So, anything going on between you two?” she asked candidly.

Sakura jolted, a few drops of her coffee spilling on the table. “What, me and Sasuke-kun? No. It’s not like that… He’s a very dear friend of mine now, but that’s all,” she explained as she wiped the stains with a bunch of paper napkins.

Anko internally cheered, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone else in the way. Better double check if she actually needed to get her assassination kit from storage. “Oh, so you’re ‘too busy for romance’ kind of gal?” she teased.

Sakura frowned. “Kind of… I’ve really got a lot of work,” she admitted despondently. “What about you, Anko-san? Any success in love?”

“Nope! I am completely single!” Anko announced with a broad smile. “But I’m always up for a bit of fun with a right person,” she added, giving her a suggestive wink. She noted with pleasure a subtle pinkening on Sakura’s cheeks.

“I-I see,” Sakura mumbled and reached for her coffee. Anko let her have a moment of peace to compose herself before changing the topic to something less personal. Fashion. Clothes were good.

They chatted for a while, then Sakura checked her watch and put down her empty cup on the table. “Sorry, I need to get going,” she said regretfully.

Anko nodded in understanding. “Duty calls, right?”

“Right. It was great to talk to you, Anko-san.” Sakura bit her lip, thinking something over, then she fished a pen out of her purse and wrote an address on a napkin. “Here.”

Anko picked it up in a daze. She couldn’t quite believe her luck. Did she just get invited to Sakura’s place? After all that lame flirting and constantly putting her foot in it? “Aww, are you going to miss me so much that you already want me to visit?” she joked.

Sakura gave her a slow, careful once over, then smirked. “Maybe.”

This time it was Anko’s turn to flush at the unexpected flirtation. She was blindsided!

“Actually, I’m starting a children’s mental health clinic. I could use your help there,” Sakura offered in all seriousness.

Anko gaped at her. “You would allow me around kids?”

“Don’t worry, they don’t bite. Most of the time,” Sakura answered blithely. “You said you were bored at work. These kids are war orphans. I think with your own experiences your advice would be really useful in the clinic.” She checked her watch again and hissed. “Shizune will kill me!” Sakura grabbed her shopping bag and stood up. “Please, just think about it, Anko-san. That’s all I ask. See you!” she threw the last words over her shoulder as she left the café in a hurry.

Anko watched her go, then looked at the address pensively. After a moment, she crumbled the napkin into a ball and threw it across the room straight into the trash bin. Score! Ha!

At leisure, Anko stretched, paid the bill, and ambled out of the café, hands in pockets of her trench coat. She walked the streets of Konoha until she stopped in front of a new building. She looked at the freshly painted, cheerful yellow walls and read the gleaming sign.

Children’s Mental Health Clinic in Konoha.

Kids. Anko mentally sighed. She wasn’t so sure she’d be any good at dealing with them, but she supposed Sakura wouldn’t let her traumatize the munchkins even more. Just having the opportunity to see her every day was worth giving this a try.

Well, at least Ibiki wouldn’t lose any more hair because of her. Anko trembled with quiet snickers at her own joke and turned back. She had some paperwork to fill and a superior to shock into a cardiac arrest.

[mysterylover123]

BNHA Rewatch: Two Heroes

mysterylover123

And before we start Season 3, one more road stop: The Big Freaking Movie, Two Heroes, last year’s surprise anime blockbuster and HeroAca’s first excursion onto the big screen. Time to share my thoughts and rewatch this very entertaining film!

We open with bald eagles, deserts, and cowpoke themes, to make sure we know we’re in America. We fly into “California” which looks more like Las Vegas (not really complaining, I loooove that they picked my hometown state for this) to find young, white schlera eye-having All Might and his hunky bro David Shield kicking ass and taking names. My state’s name, to be precise. 

Some exposition follows, basically recapping the premise of HeroAca, as I’m reminded of what a stroke of genius Hori had when he decided to make the MC an easy expositor thanks to his geeky knowledge of all things Hero. Deku will always be Captain Exposition.

Melissa! She’s fun and adorable and amazing, and I just love that the first HeroAca movie chooses to focus on a geeky, kind and energetic lady. 

Deku looking back and forth between Melissa’s breasts and All Might’s crotch belt is peak Bi energy.

I’m so jealous that Melissa gets to touch Deku’s hand.

Melissa describing All Might as someone David ‘loves’ is just throwing away all pretence of his heterosexuality, if it ever existed. How the hell did this guy end up with a kid?

Deku blushing around and enthusing over both Melissa and David is max bi energy.

Uraraka’s Annoying Crush Counter: 5

But I’m glad the girls are here! The Bones animators clearly know well what the fanbase wants to see, choosing to give all 6 class 1-A girls at least a cameo in the film, and three of them involved in the main plot. I especially love that, despite being initially pitted against each other, Uraraka and Melissa develop a bit of a womance in the film. OchaLissa ship!

My one major regret about this film is that Mineta is included in the Main Cast. I wish either Mina or Tsuyu had come along for the ride instead - one, they’re better, more lovable characters who could do the same job he does, and two, then we’d have a nearly gender-even cast! (6 Boys: Deku, Katsuki, Tenya, Shoto, Kiri, Kaminari; 5 Girls: Ochaco, Momo, Jiro, Melissa, Mina or Tsu). 

Kacchan makes his appearance! This bit was leaked online before the film’s release and drew quite a lot of ire from BKDK shippers and Bakugo fans. I’m mostly annoyed that Deku is acting OOC here; this is Post-Final Exam Deku, post Hero Killer Deku. Would the guy who punched All Might in the face and Bakugo in the face and the Hero Killer in the face be cowering in fear behind Iida, the guy whose life he saved, from the guy he, only a few weeks ago, punched in the face?! Badass Deku Rights!

Ooh a wild Todobaku moment! I always love when they bicker. Or rather, Katsuki bickers and Shoto ignores him.

OH NO you cannot slap me with the Ingenium OST theme and hardcore feels out of nowhere! God this scene is heartbreaking. I love, however, the cut to the whole of Class 1-A and Melissa when they talk about the future.

AH Bakugo’s feet! Why are we staring up his crotch? So this movie has a lot of KiriBaku scenes, and I should probably talk about them a little, since their friendship is a big deal in S3. They’re the only major HeroAca ship I’ve never shipped as a romantic pairing, per se. Like, in this scene, I see Kiri as Katsuki’s wingman, his bro, the guy who teases him about his obvious feelings from someone, not as the guy he has feelings for.

And for Kiri’s sake, I kinda dislike making him basically Bakugo’s sidekick. He willingly hangs out with the guy, when he wants to, in canon, he doesn’t follow him around and become the butt of the joke, and he has lots of other relationships in canon to draw from, so this dynamic between them doesn’t appeal to me.

Melissa being a quirkless kid like Deku is a great idea for the film, especially since she and David still find a way to help others. They’re a brighter image of the person Izuku could have been. 

Full Gauntlet is pretty cool

Everyone dresses up pretty! The movie suits/dresses are awesome and (almost) everyone looks great. Why Deku is wearing a baggy zoot-suity mess is beyond me, but hey, he sheds it pretty quickly so I’m not complaining. 

If by ‘female assassin’ you mean Beauty Queen. Jiro is gorgeous.

OK the plot ensues! Darn, I could’ve easily enjoyed a movie that was just everyone hanging out and goofing off...ah well, I still love what we got.

This villain does what neither Tomura nor All for One could ever do! Subdue All Might! My god he’s a criminal mastermind!

Deku wants to help, and everyone but Shoto basically piles on the bandwagon afterwards. “And me!” “And me!” “Me too!” “And Me” “Nobody cares Mineta.” I like how they bring up the Powers dilemma, since that’s a big deal in Season 3.

I was pretty impressed by the amount of level grinding our heroes had to do to make it to the top floor. 200 freaking floors, that’s impressive.

Todoroki saved Bakugo! Yay! BTW I love all the tactical planning stuff in this portion, and how lots of characters get to contribute.

10 little superheroes, trying to save the day. Two got lost and then there were eight.

8 little superheroes, escaping from the garden. One saved the others and then there were seven.

7 little superheroes running against the sea, four were trapped by robots and then there were three. (i don’t count mineta). 

Three little superheroes, reached the top and flew; one had to float them so then there were two. (she’s fine, Bakugo saved her. Save to win!)

Two little superheroes, faced with a gun. One fell out the window and then there was - never mind, she saved him, he’s fine.

That was fun. Anyway, to sum, the group gets split up as they work to get to the top, leaving only Deku and Melissa to reach the final boss dungeon. Highlights include the usual Kamijiro bantering, Todobaku making an awesome combat move, Uraraka standing against the coming onslaught of robots in a weirdly dramatic scene, and Reciproburst.

Dislikes include Kirishima being portrayed as not much use and kind of stupid (c’mon, he can do better than that!) and Uraraka not getting to kick any real ass other than floating Melissa and Deku. 

So we make it to Dramatic Plot Twist Tower and find out that David set up the whole thing. I joke, but I actually didn’t see this coming the first time around and was genuinely surprised. I also think it fits really well with the story they’re telling here: about trying to hold onto the past and forgetting to look to the future. I usually measure good plot twists in terms of how they change the story, characters and themes, and this one does.

On the other hand, Sam betraying him is just kind of silly. “Oh no, not...that guy!”

The villain being named Wolfram makes me wonder if there are any secret Buffyverse fans on Bones’ writing staff. With the next movie’s villain be named Hart?

I love how Melissa is a quirkless character who gets to save the day every bit as much as the powered ones. Also, Deku is freaking awesome in this scene, ngl. It has vibes of his fight with Muscular, that “pinned by an unstoppable wall” thing.

And this has vibes of Deku vs Overhaul trying to save Eri. OMG S4 IS GONNA KILL ME. Anyway Deku tries really really hard to save David Shield and does lots of cool leaps and gets beaten up while doing it, enough to earn some of Wolfram’s respect, but is unable to. Fortunately...

Watashi Ga Kita!

But then...duh duh duh! Wolfram has that power-enhancer-plot MacGuffin! Actually, it’s not a MacGuffin now, because now we the audience kind of care about it. It has weight, it’s significant. The characters care about it, but there’s more to it than just being an interchangeable object.

I LOVE how they animated the metal on this guy. That’s Metalbending. OMG. 

Class 1-A showing up and kicking ass as always. I just wanna quibble for a second with how this movie uses Howitzer Impact: a giant mind-blowing explosion in manga canon, a small underwhelming fizzle here.

DUH DUH DUH DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST. Again this one floored me the first time around. My jaw actually dropped when AFO’s theme started playing. Holy crap WHAH How what how. I’m not as excited about this plot twist, as it basically just happens for the sake of being shocking, but hey, that is clearly something AFO would do, and I like seeing him and hearing his theme here anyway, so who cares. Just roll with it!

And now, the reason this movie was made and the premise behind it. We never, in the canon of the manga, actually get to see All Might and Deku fight the same villain at the same time, so the movie I think was made for that purpose: DOUBLE DELAWARE DETROIT SMASH + YSR

OH YOU SAY RUN. You could soundtrack a scene of people sitting around staring at the wall and turn it into the most epic thing ever. I will never get tired of this beautiful, peerless, impossibly good composition. And this is honestly one of my favorite YSR scenes, because dayum, you can’t get much cooler than the Double DD smash. 

Visual storytelling here is on point. David Shield’s image of All Might turning into Deku is perfect.

We end on a sunrise, fittingly, and Long Hope Philia sountracked credits - with a small bit of depressing to end on, as we see David is probably gonna get arrested and All Might can’t do nothing about it.

Two Heroes is great. My quibbles with it are all minor. It’s the perfect first movie for BNHA; it is big and bombastic and action-packed, but more important, it gets what MHA is about at it’s core. BNHA is a story about the prior generation of heroes (and villains) passing the torch down to the next one. You know, like how teachers pass info onto their students in Academia. The movie gets that, and it delivers it with aplomb. It’s a great script, every scene and moment is necessary and everything happens in the right place and right order. It’s a thrill to watch, and I can’t even begin to imagine what insane stuff they’re gonna put in Movie #2 BKDK Boogaloo. Starting S3 tomorrow!

BKDK CORNER:

On a rewatch, I’m a little more OK with this scene, because Deku pretty quickly bucks up and takes the challenge - and he doesn’t exactly cower from Kacchan, Iida just gets in the way. I also love that gay sounding “Kacchan, people are watching!” line in the sub. 

All of Deku’s Love interests where white flowers on their fancy wear.

NGL this is my favorite part of the movie. That is the sweetest, softest, most endearing smile Bakugo has ever had, and Todoroki seeing it and smirking is just perfect. Baku is peak Tsundere in this scene.

RANKER: The Formal Wear

Girls:

4. Momo - I like the tiara, and the dress is kind of a nice color.

3. Melissa - pretty but a little birthday cake-y.

2. Ochaco - Very cute and well-tailored. The tights really sell it.

1. Jiro - unconventional is the winner of the day here.

Boys:

6. Izuku - Deku where the f did you get that suit? Take it off, please. Why is your taste in clothing so bad.

5. Kirishima - it’s ok, but a little generic.

4. Kaminari - the waiter look isn’t half bad on him

3. Iida - sharp dressed, of course. It looks nice!

2. Todoroki - perfectly handsome, and of course his suit is white.

1. Bakugo - that vest tho. damn. 

[thattimdrakeguy]

Bendis has gone from one of my secretly favorite writers to one of my least favorite. Like not only has he made the last so many issues of Young Justice contain some of the most bare bones writing, not only has he made some of the most un-logical decisions of Tim’s fictional life (which is jaw dropping), but he also can’t write Damian worth a damn. He showed he couldn’t get more then two things right about him in 6 pages.

Like I’ve already made it clear that I think Damian’s writing for a while now has just been horrid even if no one talks about it, but just ... no, Bendis, no. Bendis can’t even get one of the simplest trademarks of Damian right.

Damian has a very particular way of speaking, it’s something that even fan fic writers can get right, but just, right away Bendis has him say “Yo”, like, it’s so nitpicky, but it’s just such an obvious thing to avoid. Damian’s way of speaking is so straight forward and obvious, so so obvious. How does one get in the position to write a character in an official medium and get something so obvious and simple wrong?

Is it like on the application to be a DC writer “make sure you never read our character’s before”, because I keep reading current comics every now and again and I wonder.

Has Bendis ever read Damian before? It’s like he just had him described to him as he was dozing off, like, how can you be so bad at writing him? He makes him mean and snarky, but like, come oooon, stop being a parody of bad writing. Why is everything with you lately so bare bones and awful?

Damian would not have a card collection, you absolute dolt.

I’m plenty aware that other writers act like he’s a normal kid and crap, but those writers are absolute crap too. You don’t choose the bad writers to be your inspiration.

Do you know a single thing about what you’re writing?

Why are you writing something you clearly don’t understand?

Damian is such a simple and specific character, it should not be this hard to get more than only two things right with him. 

You couldn’t get the simplest things right with him.

These are such small things, but it’s blowing my mind how reoccurring these things constantly happen.

Even the artist, I love David LeFuente so much, like he’s one of my favorite artists, and I love his Tim and all that, but like, why doe he choose to draw some of the characters so weird?

I love the way he draws Jon, but why does Jon look older then how he drew Conner? They’re the same age currently aren’t they? Conner’s like a young adult now by the way they act. Very late high school years at the very least since they don’t actually specify how long he’s been in Gemworld. So why does Conner look about 4 years younger then his Jon when if anything he’d be older? Like Lefuente’s Conner didn’t look like Conner at all. How did he make Conner look younger than Jon?

And why does Damian look 5? I know a lot of artist struggle to draw younger kids, but why do they constantly get artists that seem like they never seen a 13 year old to draw Damian. It cannot be that hard to have an artist that knows what a 13 year old looks like to draw Damian. There has to be at least one person that can do that. DC, just hire a guy that can draw a 13 year old, to draw your 13 year old character, please. If they’re going to draw them, that should be one of the requirements, you know, actually being able to draw them.

Like why is it so hard to find artists that can draw Tim and Damian? Neither one of them has an easy time finding creative teams that get them. It seems like both of those guys have such struggles finding artists and writers that seem like they actually know what they look like and act like.

Even the language used to describe the issue feels off “These two best buds”, like I don’t make it a secret Super Sons is garbage, and the whole progression of their relationship when it became a thing is some of the worst I’ve ever seen in any comic ever, but like, DC clearly loves them, Didio has said so, and it’s no surprise DC can’t even get what they love right, but “two best buds” doesn’t sound like it’s referring to a thing describing Damian.

It’s another nitpick, but it’s another that’s like, so easy to avoid, because it’s like “oh hey maybe this doesn’t sound like it’s referring to a Damian thing, maybe we should change it. Like it’s so simple, so freaking simple. It’s not a big deal at all in the big run, but something that takes a literal nanosecond to realize is off isn’t that hard to fix. It’s so simple, so genuinely simple, and they got it wrong. All these things they’re getting wrong just keep adding up to the point it’s becoming parody-level’s of stupid it keeps happening.

DC is so inadequate at such basic things at this stage in the game. Even describing things to fit what they’re describing is becoming hard for them. Damian is not a character you describe like he’s a bro or something, it’s not that hard.

Damian is not that hard of a character to get right at all. He’s genuinely very simple. If you never seen him in your entire life. It would take like 3 to 4 issues to understand his character. How he acts, what his thought processes are like, and his life style, but somehow they keep messing that up.

I want Damian to be in a comic that actually knows what to do with him so badly. Like I’m so sick of every comic he’s in getting the most simplest yet obvious things wrong with him.

A big flaw of this specifically, is just how much Super Sons doesn’t work as a concept. It’s very superficial why people want them together, and yet somehow the way they put it together doesn’t work even worse. They have to ignore a lot of obvious stuff to make it even be a thing, which is exactly what they did, so anything involving them is right away so forced that it’s gut-wrenchingly distracting.

But it’s like stuff like this, with the smallest details, just sort of represents a lot about DC, and I think this is why it’s bugging me so much. The amount of obvious stuff they get wrong or at least off is becoming more grating to me.

DC has a massive habit of avoiding the most obvious simple stuff, to instead make a crap load of dumb ideas in.

In this case it’s super small, like a few choices of words, but at this stage it’s just slaps in the face. Get one freaking thing right.

You some how think Tim would change his name just like that, which is just stupid.

You forget almost everything about Damian’s character to put him in places he doesn’t belong.

You think Batman would beat up his kids. His parents died when he was a kid, that happened, but he didn’t become Batman because he was a psychopath, he became Batman to avoid crimes like that happening. That’s the very DNA basic level of Batman, and you got it wrong multiple times in the past few years, and he is your most popular character. You can’t get the basics of your most popular character in Batman right.

And you seem to think doing everything people don’t want is going to get you sales, when after a while people are just gonna leave.

You cannot get the simplest of things right, obvious, simple things, that take a nanosecond of thought, and you get them wrong.

A character that never wanted to stop being Robin like Tim, probably isn’t going to randomly change his identity to match a person that just tried to kill him like how you’re acting. It should take no thought at all to realize that’s a very dumb idea, but you seem to be doing it when you probably shouldn’t.

A character who became a crime fighter to stop crimes, probably isn’t going to beat the crap out of his kids for doing nothing wrong. He didn’t even try to find out if Jason did something, he just assumed without doing any detective work, and he’s a detective. He hit Tim in the face so hard he fell to the ground because Tim wanted to help him. That’s so stupid. I don’t care if Batman’s being mentally tortured by Bane during that last bit, the very basic morals of Batman would probably kick in considering it’s like no one’s ever tried to mentally torture him before. I’m pretty sure hitting a kid in the face isn’t gonna be his first thought when all the kid did was try to help him.

These small minuscule things that they can’t get right. The people that do that are in charge of major things in a company that used to give people something to be happy about each month, are just like this. Even simple (most likely barely noticeable to most people things) things escape them.

Damian is more then just being a snarky, mean, dude.

I’m so unreasonably upset that they keep messing up this character in the simplest of ways.

They’ve already ruined the whole point of his character development, they ignore half the bad stuff he does almost like they purposely want to avoid character development, the very simple basics of his character they ignore to pander to a very easily amused audience, and it’s just tiring.

Damian is like that unmentioned horribly written character, and I think it’s because his arrival was that beginning of the end era of DC were all the crap we hate now started. Like his character ever showing up at all was ridiculous and I won’t pretend otherwise, but at least as an Elseworld’s character he had promise. 

Like because his character showed up in the beginning of the end, a lot of the fans that are still around care less and less about stuff, so no one comments on it. Compared to someone like Tim who been around since 1989, so when they got the smallest but most simplest of things wrong with him it got called out more. Plus, the somewhat surprisingly large amount of people that are that easily persuade by easy pandering praise some of the stuff, so other people assume nothing is wrong.

DC, please, just get writers and people in-charge that can actually think for more than a nanosecond.

Within 6 pages they already got the basic trademarks of a very simple character wrong, and couldn’t even realize that two measly words were bizarre choices. He is not a little kid bro-ing around with his school bestie. I know Super Sons probably did that, but because a comic did it, does not make it a good idea. That’s still completely ridiculous and out of character for Damian to do, seeing how he showed no interest until it suddenly happened. He is a stubborn, half-way anti-social character, he is not going to kidnap, terrify, threaten, and stalk a little kid, to then have the kid he did that to, mostly ignore all that and be okay with it, while no one barely does a thing about his behavior. They set those kids on a trip together. That makes no sense. I get Jon is a superhero with powers, but basic parenting says don’t force your kid to be around someone who would realistically traumatize them. Like, basically, it doesn’t work. At a molecular level, it does not work. Fiction that can be as fantastical as superhero comics is typically maintained by following human logic, or at least in the modern day of comics, but they just ignored that completely.

I don’t expect every writer ever to get everything right about every character, but they couldn’t even get the way he talks right. They couldn’t even realize that “hey, maybe he wouldn’t like this stuff”.

I’m so tired of Damian being reduced to tropes and archetypes that don’t fit, and seeing people actually cheer it on.

He’s not a normal kid, he’s never been shown to be interested in the stuff they act like until they suddenly acted like he was. 

He was a unique character that had stories that could’ve been told but instead people chanted for him to be one of those blood curdlingly generic characters ever.

He’s just a school bully type of character now with a secret heart of gold or something.

He was more then that, and he deserves to be more then that.

Why is the generic and simple being cheered on?

He stuck out like a sore thumb, and had unique stories that could’ve been told, but instead it seems like so many people just want him to be the most bland, generic excuse of a character ever because they find it cute or something.

To me, Damian should’ve never been made, at least not have been put into the main DC universe. I believe that his introduction broke a lot of the Bat-Family because of writers constantly making everyone out of character to try and make him work, when just letting characters react like how they would react would be much more interesting and unique. I think in the long run he was a very bad idea, BUT, if you’re going to do it, why are you constantly ruining the character that you soiled a lot of stuff for to begin with just like that? You can’t even care about that? 

You are a comic book company, your basic design should be to create characters and stories that entertain people. Your basic structure shouldn’t be to just bastardize the stuff you made when people were enjoying it.

Even the stuff you went out of your way to do and partially left a mess you later on just butchered.

How is a company that produces fiction run by people that can’t understand what’s in their own product?

I wouldn’t be nearly, even close to as upset as I am unreasonably so right now if this stuff didn’t keep happening. If this obviously avoidable stuff didn’t keep showing up. If this was one time weird thing then what ever, but this obvious stuff keeps happening, like no one knows why they’re writing what they are.

Like this isn’t about so much as Damian saying “yo” and implied to have a card collection, as it is me being upset that DC keeps getting the simplest things about their own characters wrong to such an extent that even the most bare bones obvious thing about a character is even being done wrong. They couldn’t even get how a character that talks very distinctly speaks right, they couldn’t even get their very straight forward and simple life style right.

I wish DC would just go bankrupt or something, because it’s so stupid that every comic I read there’s a bunch of ridiculous stupid garbage in it.

But OH HEY, NIGHTWING’S COMING BACK.

Tynion’s a bad writer, but he at least knows that maybe fans would like their favorite character to be called by their actual name. So I guess one of the dumbest decisions DC’s probably made ever is being undone, but the fact the decision was ever made to begin with is ridiculous.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

CSUaPr prt 60 ...

Cuba felt almost cruel as Keith held his husband’s hand. The week started slowly and Lord knows he nearly killed Luis over the dinner table, but Lance had bounced back so strong from those tentative first few days, by the fourth day he he’d finally gotten his wish to breast feed their boys, crying as he did which did all sorts of things for his heart as Keith panicked at the situation, only to find they were tears of happiness because he could actually do it. Now they were on Erathus, and Lance was recovering from his first surgery, with his second the following day. Taking the Talula, Daehra, Marco, and Lucteal were all staying at The Guilded Cage... the same place Keith was supposed to be right now. Visiting hours had long since passed, but no one had the heart to kick him out, though maybe they didn’t care he was there as it meant someone was watching Lance and his vitals carefully. The injection they’d given his husband to numb below the waist had triggered a seizure. When he’d come too, the situation had been explained to him carefully, to both of them really, by doctor that’d been Lance’s obstetrician. Technically she’d referred his case on to a close colleague, assisting where she could on providing pertinent information of Lance’s biology and the procedures they’d carried out on him before. The slow release capsule that’d been implanted should have lasted longer than it had, Lance’s quintessence burning through the capsule at an accelerated rate during the birth. Those were... mostly... her words, but given she hadn’t actually been there she could only work on theory. Lance had been pretty out of it, out of it enough to sob and beg Keith not to let them put something in his head. Now his husband was sitting there with a neat dressing over the small site where they’d attached some kind of electrical sensor that would essentially map the damage in Lance’s brain in a way ordinary tests couldn’t. Lance would be sleeping for the next 12 hours, meaning Keith could have left if he’d wanted and returned before Lance even knew he’d gone... but there was absolutely no way he was leaving his husband. He didn’t care if the staff remembered Lance from his previous visits. He didn’t care if Lance told him he should rest during the procedure. They’d quiznakking drilled into his husband’s goddamn head. He wasn’t moving. He hadn’t received Lance’s permission for the procedure. He’d acted on his own, knowing they couldn’t do anything about the tissue that may or may not have been removed, and that most probably they couldn’t do anything about the scarring without the chance of causing death, or at least permanent brain damage. His penance was to sit and watch. To stay by his husband side until he woke. Their twins were in the care of Marco... Keith almost snorting as he remembered the way Lance had completely overreacted to the news of Daehra and Marco dating. Yeah. His husband was a complete dork, and he’d never grow tired of it. It’d come about the second day of their trip after Jorge and Lance had spoken. Naturally Keith and Miriam had kept their distance... In other words, Keith had stayed in the kitchen for all of 5 minutes, which he was exceptional proud of and was no easy feat, before going to rush off to find Lance. Catching his arm before he could go marching into the living room, Miriam had urged him not to interrupt. The wait had been even worse as they stood by the stairs. When Jorge had seen the pair of them spying towards the living room he’d laughed softly. The man’s large and weathered hand ruffling his hand as he wrapped an arm around Miriam’s shoulders. The contents of the conversation was a secret, though Jorge did say he’d been promised a trip out to the shack and that Lance could really use some time with their sons. With Miriam’s help, both boys were brought to where Lance was curled up in the corner of the sofa, Keith, once again parent of the year, all but shoving Hunter into Lance’s hold. Maybe wasn’t exactly shoving, but there was a slightly unnecessary amount of fake bossiness as he “made” Lance take Hunter. Lance’s best interests were in mind, his husband needed cuddle time and if offered he’d probably over think everything, and with his hearing far better than the average human’s, Keith may have heard some of Lance’s conversation with his father. Taking the morning slow, Lance was too busy holding his son to fret. The Cuban seemed to have all but forgotten that Luis and Rachel was scheduled to visit. When they had arrived, Rachel had been weirdly... nice? to the point she seemed far too overjoyed to meet her nephews. Luis had had a smile on his face, congratulating them both... yet... He hadn’t brought his own three kids to meet the twins. He’d come without Lisa, then explained it away as they’d be coming later. That was Luis’s first mistake. His second had been when they’d moved into the kitchen for lunch. Miriam had cooked her heart out, leaving barely any space between the table full of delicious dishes. Fussing over Hunter, Lance ignored the food in front of him, Keith knew this would happen. It was why he’d taken their son during breakfast with the hopes Lance would eat. Not wanting to make a fuss or turn things into a big deal, Keith had taken Lance’s plate and begun serving his husband, skipping everything that clearly contained tomatoes and potatoes as he didn’t know how allergies that formed during pregnancy worked. Mami had a lot of mouths to feed, and though she’d made an attempt, Keith ended up placing a small pile of salad on his husband plate with a little bit off some meat thing. In an act of solidarity, he’d filled his plate similarly, ignoring how good everything looked. This would have been fine. Everything was prepared and Lance would have been able to handle stabbing things with his fork. But Luis... Luis had to fuck it right up. Either being a dick, or trying too hard, Luis pushed his chair back and took Lance’s plate in his hand. Loading it up with a little bit of everything, the cherry on the top was Luis laughing at them both and stating “Lance looked far too thin”. Placing the plate back down, Lance bit his bottom lip, the table falling awkwardly quiet as his husband’s scent began to turn. Leaning in, Keith resisted the urge to nuzzle Lance’s cheek “Babe, we can just swap plates” “I can’t eat this...” “I know. It’s alright” Swapping plates drew Mami’s attention, even as Keith picked up his cutlery with the hopes of relaxing Lance’s nerves by eating “Is everything alright?” Luis answered for them, Keith’s cheeks burning as he did “Keith’s not letting Lance eat. No wonder he looks so sickly. He needs the calories” Miriam cast a glance to Jorge who gave a nod, before she continued talking “Keith, Mijo. Is everything alright?” “Yeah, Mami. It’s all sorted” “No, it’s not alright. I filled that plate for Lance’s sake” Lance flinched as if he’d been slapped, before hiding his face against Hunter’s beanie “Lance is still recovering” Lance was right there. Keith loathed these kind of conversations, but Luis was being everything Lance feared he would be. Keith wasn’t sure why, but the man now seemed to also dislike him. It wasn’t his fault Lance had allergies, nor was it Lance’s, yet he didn’t feel he had to explain their actions. Having been on a liquid diet more of the food would probably be too rich to sit comfortably in his husband’s stomach. Forcing Lance to eat more than he could handle would only eventuate with Lance feeling guilty as he threw up. “Whoa. No need to snap at me. I’m concerned about how ill my baby brother looks” Keith wasn’t aware that he had snapped. He’d thought he’d explained it away in his normal tone “That’s because he’s recovering” “Then he needs to eat and build his strength. He has so many options, but you’re controlling his diet. Lance would never choose a salad first without filling his plate with sides” Jorge cleared his throat, Luis looking to his father “You’re not agreeing with this are you? He’s treating Lance like a pet! He can make his own decisions” “Luis. That’s enough” The three words clearly got under Luis skin. Keith was gripping his knife so hard that he’d begun to bend the handle. Though it was socially unacceptable, the Half-Galra once again felt the urge to smack Luis. He had no right to upset Lance like this. Coming home had been a lot as it was. Mami was supposed to talk to Luis and Rachel about Lance “First he gets our Lance pregnant. My little brother, pregnant! Now Lance is sitting here looking as if he hasn’t had a good meal in the last 6 months, with him controlling what he eats. I thought Keith was good for him, but now I’m not so sure. How are you not worried?!” “I can’t eat this!” Pushed over, Lance snapped. Keith could take the insults pushed in his face. He was doing everything he could to be a good husband to his partner. He has the love of Miriam and Jorge, but more importantly he had Lance’s trust. Pushing his chair back, Lance turned to Miriam for backup “What do you mean you can’t eat this? You’ve been eating this all your life. There was no need to swap plates. We are not going through this again. You’re not skipping meals while you’re living under this roof!” “I wasn’t skipping! I’m allergic! Don’t you talk to Keith like this. I don’t care if you hate me and consider me a freak! But don’t hate Keith, or our sons! I hate it when you do this, you’re not papi! Keith was trying to make sure I wouldn’t get sick. Even if he was controlling what I ate, I wouldn’t mind because he’s my husband and my faith is in him! Shhhh.... shhh, daddy’s sorry. Daddy’s sorry for yelling” Hunter wailed, Lance hushing him as Miriam climbed from her seat “What do you mean you’re allergic? Why did no one tell me he has allergies now?” Probably because Luis wasn’t Jorge. He might be Lance’s older brother, but he was definitely not his father. Coming over, Miriam placed her hand on Lance’s left shoulder “This is not how we behave at the dinner table. Keith, dear. Thank you, with so many mouths, I fear it slipped my mind entirely. Lance, Mijo, you eat what you can. Don’t go making yourself sick because you feel you have to. Luis, we do not treat our guests like this. We do not treat our family like this. Now, I want a word with you. And Rachel, you stop laughing at brother. Both of you can do the dishes” Rachel spluttered, Marco opened his mouth only to be cut down by Mami’s narrowing eyes. Closing his mouth, his brother-in-law wasn’t stupid enough to earn himself dish duty like his other two siblings. Luis was red face when returned, they’d all heard him and Mami fighting over Lance. Luis seemed as if he was only seeing Lance as he had been. He yelled because he cared too much. He yelled because he didn’t understand Lance any longer. Their family Christmas had been nearly a year ago now, and so very much had changed. As Luis sulked over your his seat, Keith still felt the urge to punch him. Uncharacteristically, Rachel had held her tongue over Luis being taken off to be lectured, only complaining to Marco that it wasn’t fair she was the one on dish duty and he wasn’t. Daehra was quick to then volunteer Marco for dish duty, Lucteal huffing out a laugh. To Keith it felt as if they’d traded places, he was no longer on the outer circle of Lance’s family, and Lucteal was. It didn’t sit right with him, yet he didn’t know how to make Lucteal feel more included when all his brain was taken up worrying over his husband. Lucteal was there because of Lance. He hadn’t needed to accompany Daehra and Marco, his energy would have been better spent running the outpost, or at least visiting Yule if he needed a break from working. It was problem he was going to need to fix, but when it came to problems like this Lance was the expert. Having been pulled back into line, Luis finally called to allow Lisa and the children to visit Lance and their twins. Nadia asked a billion questions over it all, barely stopping for breath between them. Lance seemed to perk back up around his nieces and nephew, not growing the least bit anxious as he answered all Nadia’s questions as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do. Lance had conceived with the help of a magical princess and Nadia accepted it, even though he wasn’t a girl which was promptly overlooked in her excitement when she was allowed to hold Hunter. Having spent most of the morning holding him, Lance was content to fuss over Laith. How his husband ever doubted his maternal skills, Keith wasn’t sure he’d ever know. Lance made it all seem so easy, despite battling his busy mind. With it all being so foreign to him, it’d slipped his mind that Lance would have done this a hundred and one time’s helping out his family. Luis never apologised for his outburst, not in any real meaningful way, leaving Keith still feeling bitter about it when they left, and somewhat bitter that Lucteal remained on the edge of everything. The one time Lance had sleepwalked, Keith had been there to stop him, meaning despite asking for his help, he felt as if he’d set Lucteal up with a dummy job. Jorge had roped Lucteal into helping around the farm in the morning but as far as Keith could tell the man hadn’t had much alone time with his friend. This second side to him had left him useless when Lance wasn’t in the room. His anger would flare back up into small fits of jealousy for absolutely no good reason. Heck, if Lance spent longer than 10 minutes in the bathroom he practically wanted to break the door down. But as Lance had improved the fits lessoned, they just needed Lance’s actual fits to get the message. * Falling asleep by his husband’s side, Keith woke to a blanket being laid over his shoulders. Rubbing his tired eyes, Lucteal was staring down at him “Your friend’s arrived” Scrunching his brow, Keith was confused. He was supposed to be going to Daibazaal, not Daibazaal coming to him. He hadn’t told his husband that Krolia had contacted him, asking if he wanted to speak to Krystaal before he was reassigned. There was no way he could bring that conversation up when their holiday was all about Lance recovering “Hey, bud. Didn’t mean to wake you” Hunk? Why was Hunk here? That made no sense. As Keith sat up his back protested straighten after however long he’d been in his hunched position. Squeezing Lance’s hand, Lance was blissfully still sleeping “What are you doing here?” Tiredness left a slight edge to his question. Having not turned to Hunk, Hunk came to him, skirting around Lucteal to give him some kind of weird and brief hug “Shiro couldn’t come...” “He wasn’t going to...?” Trust Shiro to be planning things without telling him “This is hard to watch. Your friend came to the club without notice. I think Th’al scared him” Keith nodded. Th’al was good for that. Rubbing his thumb over the back of Lance’s hand, a yawn crept up on him, causing him to yawn his reply “Th-Thanks for bringing him. I didn’t know you were coming... that either of you would be” Doing that thing he liked to do when anxious, Hunk moved back, pushing the tips of both his pointers together. Keith was far too tired for a serious conversation, yet it seemed there was more to Hunk’s visit than simply being there on Shiro’s orders “Lucteal, can you sit by him? I need to get something to drink” Lucteal had the grace to buy his lie, though seeming annoyed as his sentences were clipped and too the point “You don’t need to ask. He’s my friend too. I know this hospital. Go talk with Hunk” Hunk was a worrying mess. Keith was forced down to the hospital cafeteria to get that drink that Keith didn’t really need. Feeling a little stupid for having walked through the hospital with a blanket over his shoulders, he wondered if he was getting all the strange looks he was because of who he was, or if they thought him a patient. Shooed over to sit a small two seater table, Hunk brought over two cups of what was supposed to be coffee as Keith got settled. Sitting across from him, an awkwardness hung in the air. Taking a sip of the “coffee” Keith couldn’t help the face he pulled. It tasted like he’d tried to boil coffee in a pot and boiled it down death “Is Lance alright?” Humming, the question took a few ticks to hit his brain. Keith nodding as it finally did. The hum wouldn’t have assured Hunk. Hunk was sunshine and nerves “It looked pretty bad, didn’t it?” Smooth. That wasn’t reassuring Hunk “His head... what was that?” “He’s being monitored for seizures. He was supposed to go into surgery today, but the increase of pressure led to a seizure” “And the boys? They’re not here with you?” “I had no choice. Marco’s watching over them. They’re both doing great... I didn’t want them to be here” Not that the club was much better, but the club had security for both their boys and their friends “Ah, man. I didn’t see them while I was there... Pidge sent photos, Shiro’s been showing everyone who’d stand still videos of his godsons. But it’s not like, the same...” Taking another sip of his coffee, Keith didn’t know why he’d gone back to it. The second sip was worse than the first “Hunk, you’re not here for Lance’s sake are you?” Moving his left hand up, Hunk scratched the back of his head “I... uh... not just for him. I mean, Shiro told me he had an appointment... I sent Lance a message and he got back to me yesterday. He didn’t mention he had an appointment today...” With how nervous and halty his friend was, Keith was getting the feeling it wasn’t just jitters but something deeper. Lance had never mentioned messaging Hunk, nor could Keith remember him having time to... Then again, Lance could be sneaky as quiznak when he wanted to “Hunk, whatever it is, you can tell me” “I know, man. It’s just.. it’s a lot...” “Hunk, you came all the way out. It has to be important. You’re not sick, are you?” Hunk hurried to hold up his hands, spilling his coffee as he did. His anxiety was starting to play on Keith’s own anxieties “No! No... um... it’s just... um... well, it’s Shay” No wonder Hunk was a mess. If it was his fiancé he turned to a ball of goop every time he thought of her “Is she alright?” “Um... Wewantohaveababybutwedon’tknowifit’sgoingtobepossible” Keith blinked at Hunk, Hunk flushed red as he took a deep breath, knowing that what he’d said was unintelligible “Shay and I want to have a baby” Discarding his own coffee to the table, Keith grabbed Hunk’s right hand, channeling his inner Lance as he smiled “That’s great news!” “You think?” “Hunk, I know you and Shay will make wonderful parents. I bet Lance said the exact same thing” Nodding, Hunk still looked flustered by it all “He did. I know he had some trouble on Altea so I asked about who he saw here... and with you both being here...” “You came out to see if you could get an appointment?” “Yeah. Yeah... It’s not weird is it?” “Not at all. Lance had a lot of trouble on Altea because the obstetrician was a total dick. He was scared to see him. He was made to feel wrong and stupid. He didn’t want to go back and he didn’t want to be treated on Daibazaal. You should have seen how good his obstetrician here was. Made him feel at ease. That he wasn’t messed up or gross. You would think a male Altean would be more open to concept of a pregnant man. Even though she’s no longer Lance’s treating physician she still took the time to check on his case and offer her input into his surgery. She’s been great with him” Keith didn’t know he was gushing. He didn’t mean to be gushing. He was just so damn proud of his husband and his sons. Starting to laugh, Hunk’s laughter startled him until his friend started shaking his head “Oh, man! Being a dad has changed you... You’d never say that before. Normally you get all grumpy when it comes to anyone near Lance” Keith rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. He wasn’t that bad “That’s not my fault. Blame Allura” Blaming Allura sobered Hunk’s laughter. Scratching the back of his head again, Hunk’s voice was low and measured “You know, I never thought she’d do something like that. I’m glad you didn’t let him push you away” Their poor friend would have a heart attack on the spot if he knew the full details of everything “He tried. If you had any idea how hard he tried... He can be unreasonably stubborn” “Dude, he’s always been stubborn. I know he said it was fine... but do you think he’d be mad if I did make an appointment for Shay?” “No. Lance would be mad if you didn’t” “Maybe... Are you sure he’s going to be ok? The tour took a lot of out of him. Then he vanished with Curtis... when you were...” “Lance is going to be fine. Tonight they’ll collect data on his brain and the damage. Tomorrow they’ll plan their approach to the surgery and how we can stop the seizures. He doesn’t know, but I’ve booked an appointment for both of us with his therapist” Keith expected Hunk to appeared shock, instead his friend smiled widely at him. After half a tick it started to feel somewhat creepy. It was just a therapist appointment. He’d thought maybe... no. He’d known that they both needed the appointment. That they’d both been through so much that reassessing coping mechanism would be a good start for them. Lance had grown so much better at stopping and breathing before proceeding. Just because it didn’t work all the time didn’t mean that it was something to give up on. “Red” may not be used as much, yet Lance knew if he needed to, he could use the one word to state he needed a break to breathe, or cuddles. “I’m proud of you, man. I know that tour wasn’t easy on either of you. Especially with the man it ended. Did you... Do you remember what happened?” Keith shook his head. That was problem for tomorrow. He wasn’t sure what facing Krystaal might shake loose but he still wanted to understand why things had to happen the way they had. Why Lance all the others had to be hurt the way they’d been, and most importantly, why he had to miss so many precious weeks of Lance’s pregnancy “No. It hasn’t come back” “Maybe that’s for the best? As long as you’re all ok...” “Yeah. Maybe. I think I want to know. It really cut Lance up inside... I remember that it was going to be our last planet because of all the stress... but I think I need to know for both our sakes. I don’t want to leave the Blades with any regrets” Hunk took his coffee up again “So you’re really leaving? Or on a leave of absence?” “Leaving. At least, I’m planning on leaving for now. I’ve got Lance and the boys to think about” “Have you asked him what he thinks?” “Not really. The plan was to phase out of work before we even found out he was pregnant. Now... Now I’ve got my sons to think of too. I don’t want to... I don’t want to leave for a mission and never come back to them. Knowing mum, she’ll probably still ask for my input but for now, I’m happy just being a dad” “You’ll be a good dad... You and Lance have both come a long way... It’s still so weird that you... I don’t mean Lance is weird. I mean... I don’t think any of us expected Allura to do what she did...” “Yeah. We have... Come a long way that is. No. Some days I can’t... I just can’t understand how she could decide this on her own, and on the spot like that... It hasn’t exactly been easy to process” “Yeah, I get what you mean. My best bud just gave birth out his arse” Keith snorted lightly “Shiro showed those videos, did he?” Hunk blushed. That was yes. High Lance was hilarious, and cringy at the same time “I hope you don’t mind... we wanted to come see you both as soon as we found out...“ “You had work. We understand. Lance was pretty out of it for that week” “Pidge mentioned that. She mentioned that his parents were there... and Krolia?” If Hunk was trying to imply or stealthily ask something, it went right over Keith’s head “Yeah. Jorge was fantastic with Korra. I was worried he’d be annoyed... But no, he was happy to hold her so Mami and mum could keep their hands free to help” “Mami’s always been good at adopting all of us as her own. We were all homesick out here, but seeing Lance with his family again... I was worried for him. Especially after Allura” “We were all worried after Allura” Hunk gave a small hum before silence fell between them. Feeling the need to do something, mostly get back to his husband, Keith downed his foul coffee before pushing his chair back. Taking the hint, Hunk looked down to his own cup before giving a shrug “I don’t want to know what they fed you on Daibazaal for you to be able to stomach this. I’m going to have to have a word with the cafeteria staff” “We both know you won’t. I’m going to head back up to Lance’s side. It’s probably too late to see about getting that appointment today, but if you see Th’al tell her to add your room to our bill. Her and Lance have some kind of arrangement seeing he’s technically the owner of the club. His surgery is scheduled for 11am Earth time, if you want me to come with you, I don’t mind” “What about the boys?” “Marco’s always said he was the best uncle ever. He and Dae are bringing them in so Lance can see them before he goes back under again” Then Marco would be staying at the hospital while Keith took both his boys with him over to Daibazaal... At any rate that was the plan. Telling Hunk that Lance’s surgery may be pushed back depending on the results from the overnight monitoring would only add to his friends worries. A night apart from them was breaking his heart, but right now they were safe and Lance needed him more. His instincts weren’t pleased his family was separated, even if it was necessary. The tick his boys were back in his arms, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to let them go again “So... do you think... would he be ok with a visit before? I don’t want to upset him” “Hunk, he’d be more upset if you didn’t visit. I know things have been... whatever they are, but you’re still like a brother to us. That hasn’t changed. I know he’s proud of you, and of you and Shay. These appointments aren’t easy, but trust me when I say she’s the only obstetrician I’ll ever trust near Lance” “That’s saying a lot. Alright. I guess I’ll head back to the club and see you in the morning” “Lucteal will probably walk back with you, if you’re interested. He and Th’al go way back” Hunk fiddled with his coffee cup “That’s alright. I get the feeling he doesn’t like me very much” “Nah. He’s like that with everyone. He hated me to begin with. He’s an empath so sometimes he gets a bit... grumpy” “I think Lance mentioned that before...” “If not him, then Daehra would have. This is a huge step for you and Shay, and we’ll help you guys out however we can” “Thanks, Keith” * By some cosmic miracle Lance slept through the night. Confused over the morning fuss about his brain, Keith had climbed onto the bed to cuddle with his husband as they waited for the results to be processed. Still early, they took the morning slow. Soft kisses and cuddles as Keith avoided mentioning what had happened the day before. Lance had already realised he must have had a seizure as he didn’t feel anything weird around his butt, as he put it. His husband was far too smart for his own good as the first thing he asked the attending doctor was if he had the results of his brain scan. Something Keith had half selfishly wanted to keep from him until after they’d spent time with their sons. He didn’t want his husband going into surgery worried. He wanted to spend their time surgery as they’d had, cuddling and close. Happy with just a touch of anxiety over what was coming. Naturally he didn’t want either of them to be stuck with the unwanted seeds of anxiety festering, but that was only natural when the one you loved was facing surgery again. Pulling up scans of Lance’s brain, Keith felt himself nodding along as the doctor spoke. A surgical option was possible, however, Lance’s brain had started forming new pathways around the damaged tissue. To perform surgery ran the risk of damaging his memory, as well running the risk of causing a surge of repressed memories to surface once the scar tissue was removed. Seeing his husband’s brain, and seeing the way his mind was working around the damage felt like something more out of a movie than real life. The best course of action would be a permanent implant at the base of Lance’s skull that would help to regulate the electrical activity of his brain. Lance instantly rejected the plan. Keith knew he would the moment the doctor had suggested it. He got it, he really did. Kre’el had placed that goddamn thing in his head. The idea of something else foreign there was something that Lance couldn’t cope with. Keith knew, and he understood, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a huge part of him that was angry over his husband’s decision. The implant would prevent his seizures, meaning Lance wouldn’t have to live in fear of when the next one would hit. He wouldn’t have to worry about one hitting in front of their friends, or when he was alone with the kids. With time, he was sure Lance would have been able to live with it, once he’d seen the benefits. Once he’d seen how it would ease his anxieties and give him that peace of mind... But Lance wasn’t at that stage yet. Everything happening right now was too overwhelming for him as it was. Recanting his objection, his husband softly reiterated that Keith had control and permission to make all his medical decisions for him. Pills were out of the question, limiting that Avenue to the shakes Daehra had made. Colleen had worked her arse off to help develop pills for them, which Lance had taken despite the gagging side-effect. Dios knew how tempted Keith was to again ignore his husband’s wishes. To be selfish and to never have to witness his husband seizing again... but, he knew deep down, if he didn’t allow Lance time to adjust to their new lives as parents, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if the mental stress got to his husband, or if psychosomatic symptoms were to present he would be entirely to blame. It was a “no” for now, but not a “no forever”. Lance could lead a relatively normal life provided he followed whatever medical regime Daehra devised. They’d have 6 months with her as it was, and possibly during that time, Lance would reach the decision to get the implant under his own terms. Awkwardness hung in the air after the doctor left to consult with Lance’s surgeon. Lance apologised tearfully for not being strong enough, and for angering him, while Keith felt like a dick for his scent betraying his true feelings on the matter. The soft warmth of holding each other had been tainted by the “ugly conversation”, leaving Lance to fall silent and Keith to simply hold him tighter. When Marco and Daehra arrived, Lance perked back up. His husband seemed to forget he was by his side as he happily greeted their sons with both hands out and a smile so big that Keith’s heart clenched. Passing Lance Laith, Lance immediately cuddled into his boy, kissing his hair and asking if he’d behaved, Marco then throwing himself down in the visitors chair that Keith was supposed to be in with a dramatic sigh “They cried all night. We’re fiiiiiiine, by the way. Can’t hear anything out either ear, but fine” Lance laughed softly at his brother’s antics as Keith sought out Daehra’s face. The same black bags under Marco’s face marred hers too. Holding his hands out, Daehra almost seemed happy to place Hunter into his hold “They cried all night?” He didn’t mean to sound accusing. He knew their sons could scream up a storm if they really wanted to, but to know they’d been distraught all night rubbed him the wrong way. Tiredly, Daehra nodded “I’m sorry. Neither of them wanted to settle... I... I’m sorry” Grabbing his girlfriend’s hand, Marco pulled her down into his lap “Babe. We talked about this. Babies are weird screaming, pooping, puking creatures. Sometimes they cry because they’re crying” “It does not mean it was a nice feeling” Wide awake in his arms, Hunter made a grabby motion for his finger as Keith moved his hand near his face. Letting his son take his finger, the baby boy gripped it lightly “Daehra, Marco’s right. Thank you for watching them. The only reason I could be here with Lance is because it was you guys who were watching them. Did you get any sleep at all?” Marco sighed again, Daehra letting her weight mould against him “We had some help. Hunk and some of the workers that know Lance tried to help out. Lucteal and Hunk took the morning shift” Sitting up a little straighter, Marco groaned “Mami would kill us. Do you know they have pr-sex workers at the club? And that Lance is friends with almost all of them? I shouldn’t be surprised. I know I shouldn’t be surprised. But the club is the club, and the outpost is the outpost and oh my god, was my brother a prostitute?!” Ending in an almost horrified whisper, Keith was glad Lance hadn’t noticed. As tempting as it was to punch Marco, Marco was still trying to learn the ins and outs of everything and everything Lance found normal in this sector of space “His first time was with me. Consensually” Lance’s first time had been stolen from him. They’d hooked up drunkenly, then... well... but as Keith saw it the first time Lance had had sex was with him. Though the term “making love” probably better fitted the scenario as Keith had already loved Lance from the very bottom of his heart when they had “Of course it was. What am I saying? You two dorks are the biggest dorks I know” With a gentle smile, Daehra kissed Marco’s cheek “They’re idiots. Two halves of the same idiot. That’s what we have agreed upon” “Right. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I need sleep” “You can sleep later. You humans need so much sleep. It’s rather ridiculous” “What are you talking about?” Craning past him, Lance had decided to rejoin the real world. Laith was asleep in his arms, as if he hadn’t been screaming all night “Marco called us “dorks”, and Daehra was correcting him” “She called us “idiots” right? We’re not “dorks”. Sometimes Keith is a “douche”, but that’s still not a “dork”” Marco rolled his eyes “Lance, I don’t think you’re supposed to call your husband a “douche” in front of the babies” “He’s my husband and if he’s being a douche I’m going to call him a douche. Right, babe?” Keith nodded, because what else could he do? He could be a “douche”, even when he didn’t mean to be and he’d far rather Lance calling him out when he was “Mhmm. Just like you can be a “dick”” Faking a pout, Lance settled back against the pillows behind him “Hear that, Laith? Your daddy is so mean to me” It was Keith’s turn to fake a pout “I’m not mean” “No. You’re not. I love you. Wanna swap babies? This one’s sleeping” “Nah. I’m right with Hunter. He doesn’t call me names” “Laith doesn’t call you names either” “Yeah, but he’s asleep. He missed you last night” “Not as much as I missed them. I can’t believe I slept soooo long” Keith went to kiss Lance’s hair before eyeing the bandaging, and changing to kiss his cheek “You needed it. Oh! That reminds me, where are our other two visitors?” Yawning, Marco earned himself a dig in the ribs from Daehra who replied instead of him “Gift shop. They got distracted. Lucteal got a call from Yule, so we left him behind. The other visitor seemed set on buying something, even if he didn’t know what he wanted to buy” Poor Hunk was probably agonising over a gift for Lance. Keith didn’t mind, provided Lance’s room didn’t turn into another gift store like it’d done on Earth “Other visitor? Who? Kosmo doesn’t have a credit card or GAC” Lance’s almost serious reply over their fur son had Keith snorting out a laugh. As tempting as it was to play along that Kosmo was shopping up a storm, he shook his head “No. Hunk popped by last night while you were sleeping” The words were instant, Lance nearly waking Laith “He came?!? Is it for... is it because...” Stopping himself from blurting out Hunk’s news, Lance stared at him with wide eyes “Yeah. I told him I’d go with him” “Oh good. You were supposed to. You know we can’t leave him alone or he’ll get too anxious” “If I was supposed to, why didn’t you tell me?” Lance shrugged “I forgot?” Knowing he couldn’t be blamed for his terrible memory, Keith felt as if Lance was dodging the question and instead had hoped that Hunk would come so Keith had someone else there to help support him “He said you might have” Lance gaped, then promptly shut his mouth after mumbling a low “traitor”. Despite how low the news of his brain trauma must have made him feel, his husband was trying so hard to be strong. Keith admiring him that little bit more for fighting hard to step forward with his life again “Don’t worry, babe. He gets it and he’s excited to see you and our boys” “Then he better get here soon. I wanna get this over with as soon as possible. I’m starving” That Lance wanted to eat was yet another positive point “That’s all you care about it, isn’t it? Whether he brought you snacks?” “I’m not Kosmo, I don’t get “snacks”. I get very manly cupcakes” “Of course you do” “You’d get very manly cupcakes too if you pushed two babies out your arse. But you didn’t, so none for you” “Ok, babe. Whatever you say” Brushing off the playfulness, the mood helped to ease the upcoming feeling of dread. Lance might want to get this all over with so he could eat, but each passing tick meant he was that much closer to having to kiss him goodbye and head to Daibazaal without him. A prospect that now looked exceptionally unappealing under the light of day... and maybe even a little traitorous as Lance wouldn’t be there by his side.