#the vanessa stuff especially messes me up because like it gets so bad with her and everything

[themyscirah]

Thinking about how Wonder Woman in the Pérez run/early 87 series really needed a secret identity. (Stick with me here!) Now, this isn't something that as a reader i would want (I've never had much interest in "Diana Prince") or that would be helpful for Diana's mission, and I actively think a true secret id would be something Diana would dislike immensely and hate to use and maintain. But I honestly think having one, at least at a limited level, would have saved Diana and her loved ones SO much pain down the road. Because while they loved Diana, her presence in their live brought so many villains back to their home which in turn hurt the people she cared about

Like I just think about all the horrible things that the Kapetelises (especially Vanessa, she was used as such a punching bag) went through just by virtue of loving Diana... Its truly awful the unintended consequences that came with loving her and taking her into their home, just because everyone knew she was Wonder Woman. Like this was very public knowledge, they were on the news all the time and newspaper and magazine covers and everything together

Which while cool still was damaging! I mean Nessie was in MIDDLE SCHOOL of all places and everyone knew she was hosting Diana. It was shown that whether or not most people at school wanted to be around her directly and saw her as interesting or desirable depended directly on Diana and if she was in town with them! And that's really just the tip of the iceberg there with Vanessa but she was put under so much pressure and given such awful conceptions of herself through her peers knowing she was close with Diana.

It's just such a mess. And like I don't think a secret identity would be something that she would ever think of having realistically at this point, especially because she's so new, and there isn't a strong and visible need for one, (and her public identity as ww was already attached to her loved ones) but I do think that many things may have turned out better for the Kapetelises later if they were publically joined by Diana Deneiros, Julia's niece from Greece, as opposed to Wonder Woman

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

What do you think about Vanessa?

COMING IN TO EDIT THIS BUT I THINK I WAS A BIT HARSH IN THE POST BUT THAT WAS MOSTLY JUST BC I HAD DONE THIS EXACT RANT LIKE A MILLION TIMES BY THIS POINT SO UH SORRY THAT IT KINDA COMES OFF AS MEAN OR ANYTHING anyway vanessa my beloved lets get on with the og post edit over

So this question can be answered in a few different ways but it boils down to Vanessa as a character or as a person

As a character? I LOVE Vanessa I’m very passionate about her and love writing her I love exploring her characterization and getting into her mind and deconstructing and breaking down her thought process she’s like my top favorite characterization from aau

But as a person? I hate her, her actions are horrible, she was an awful manipulator and abuser, and that’s ok because that’s what she’s supposed to be! She’s supposed to be bad and evil and a villain that’s her purpose, does that stop me from liking her as a character? No! Because that’s what her character IS, a villain!

I feel like WAY too many people feel the need to excuse and justify her actions as a person just to like her as a character, which is a really bad mind set to have, you can like a character and still acknowledge they’re messed up people, and van specifically in fanon has a huge characterization issue

You either get people excusing her actions and making her a romanticized yandere owo girlboss OR you get someone going too far the other direction where her character is reduced to just a feral cryptid monster with no personality at all, I think the fans in terms of writing need to remember she’s right down the middle of those, if you go too far in one direction it can kinda mess with her character (ESPECIALLY the UwU AWOOGA pretty lady yandere whatever ones I hate those kinds of characterizations💔) romanticism is a huge issue with her fanon and it sucks that this happens so often I WANT MORE FICS OR AUS THAT EXPLORE HER AS A CHARACTER WITHOUT ROMANTICISING HER ACTIONS DAMMIT I WANT MORE PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO LOVE HER CHARACTER WHO AREN’T WEIRDOS ABOUT HER !!!!

hot take but I feel as though if things where in reverse and PRINCE was the abuser and not Vanessa the fandom would be really different I don’t think anyone would be caught dead simping for prince if he did all the stuff she did, but because ooh she’s so pretty or whatever it’s fine 😐 like bro what the hell, idk I definitely smell an underlying sexism to male abuse victims and hints of some sexualization/infantilism of women i might be looking too deep but like…. there’s SOMETHING going on there man. Also a lot of people use Vanessas mom as a way of excusing her actions which yeah that’s cool it’s based in beta canon I like that but her mom can’t take ALL the blame for what she did, Vanessa still was abusive and possessive and killed an entire kingdom of children might I add, idk I do love the idea of using her mother to explain how she got like THAT as a point A to point B thing I love it but I think it shouldn’t be completely her mom was bad and evil and Vanessa did no harm or anything youknow? This is probably why I haven’t put much thought into her mother in aau I’ve just been reluctant because of how often her mother is used in the fanon it kinda just puts a bad taste in my mouth ig? I dunno I think it’s just how often she’s used to justify her actions I just associate that with her mother instead of thinking about how I could do her character, maybe I will one day though 

But rant aside this is why in aau I make sure to explore her character while not excusing what she did. Hell honestly I make her worse lmao I turn her manipulative tendencies up to 11 and exploring her reactiveness and the not all there aspect of her mindset but am I making her some mindless monster in the process? no! Like I said there needs to be a balance, I feel like Vanessas curse is the best example of her characterization getting to shine I absolutely adore how she’s written in VC

Also again more aus should explore her character instead of just “cast goes to manor and they fight and then they one shot her dead and that’s it the end” it works yeah but ive seen it done so often i kinda wish more ppl spent more time with her, heck this was what I originally did way way back in the first version of the au but thankfully that didn’t happen and I’m so glad it didn’t because I’m so excited for the long manor arc it’s so good man I can’t wait for it

though getting her character down can be REALLY hard, it took me SO long to get her pinned down, it def takes practice with getting abusive characters right because of their more complex nature compared to just plain vanilla villains so i honestly don't blame people for the way she gets characterized in fanon tbh

but uhhhh yeah my Vanessa fanon rant™️ because I’ve said it in discord a bunch but never really talked about it on tumblr minus like in tags or something but yeah rant over bye sorry if this went on really long or dosnt make sense I didn’t bother to read over it I’ve made this rant like a million times already before I’m tired ig lmao 

Tldr a!Vanessa is way sexier and better then all the other Vanessas and I’m the only one who understands her fr (THIS ID A JOKE THIS IS A JOKW THIS IS A JOKE)

[blue-eyed-giant]

my opinions on the in the hights movie (part 2)

patrick page has become "the capitalism guy" for me lmao he has a character type that's for sure but he is a linen salesman why does he want rosario's?

again i don't exactly remember where this belongs but what is the purpose of sonny's father? he shows up for one scene, says a few words and doesn't add much to the story. why did they add him?

so kevin didn't actually fire benny and since camilla isn't around and kevin is a drastically changed character neither him selling the business nor nina dropping out are huge deals. so there isn't any actual family drama. and benny and nina are good. what. the. fuck.

anthony kinda lost the awkardness usnavi has during the club scene but i'll allow it it's just one song.

benny didn't get fired but still talks about getting fired. what the hell at least cut it out.

no drama between benny and nina. the fight also doesn't happen. between this and blackout the whole thing is a badly cropped and sticked mess and nothing makes any sense.

the dancing tho. it is the only thing that makes the scene tolerable.

blackout is a mess. there are so many things wrong i can't even get my thoughts straight. kevin doesn't search for nina. benny and nina don't have a fight and make up, since there is no conflict in their relationship there won't be a resolve do the relationship stays very one-dimensional. the whole "you abandoned me" thing with vanessa and usnavi seems so shallow because usnavi didn't run to abuela as he should have and was with vanessa the whole time. the shop isn't at danger, which is a bad strike for graffiti pete's character and on top of that we don't see how dangerous this blackout is, the whole tension is scrapped away.

"hundreds of stories" is gone. it was a very nice and comedic song i think they should have kept it somewhere as a comedic scene. it also explains usnavi's name way funnier than a simple dialogue.

everyone coming together at abuela's home was very heartwarming 🥺 even though i didn't like how they made the situation more fun than scary in blackout i enjoyed this scene very much ngl

paciencia y fe was the only song i couldn't forgive the writers if anything happened to it since it is such an emotional song for me. i can gladly say that i was not dissappointed this version of paciencia y fe is the only song i like better in the movie. the visuals were amazing and olga merediz delivered the song as wonderfully as always. the theme of abuela travelling all her life and finally reaching a destination where the options are home and death was poetic cinema as i understand the term lmao. and her seeing everyone being happy without her help and understanding her goal and job on this world is accomplished was incredibly emotional. i have to confess, i cried for the first time in a long while when watching a movie.

as a note, i have a feeling if they didn't get olga merediz for abuela she wouldn't be such a powerful character in the movie. imo she is the best abuela there is and captures the essence of the character better than anyone else. not being on a stage alone for her solo but with a huge ensemble and lots of settings and props could have affected any other actress's performance but they only strengthened olga merediz's.

with "sunrise" out of picture people teasing benny about him and nina is pointless because they've been together for a long while??? it's nothing new??

so the actually important songs get cut but "when the sun goes down", a song that could be easily replaced with a sinple dialogue stays for the cool effects? smh

champagne is in past tense because of the time skip lmao dunno why i found this so funny

i like how in the movie we see vanessa and usnavi's stories get wrapped up but the uncertainty in the stageplay was also a different kind of vibe. makes me sad that usnavi couldn't realize his dreams so he imagines his barrio as his bar tho that kinda broke my heart but seeing him be happy with vanessa and their daughter immediately fixed it :) i wish we had seen what happened of sonny too

some end of movie thoughts:

i feel like they focused too much on the younger generation of the barrio and not enough on the older generation. of course the today is important but the elders (abuela, kevin, and camilla) told us the story of the past which is equally important. they carried the cultures of their homes and told us about where this barrio came from but the young ones couldn't because they spent all their lived in the us. they tried to load all that onto abuela but it just didn't feel right because her experience wasn't the same as the rosarios'.

the other thing is wardrobe choices. in the stageplay the clothes showed us the socioeconomic situation of the barriovery clearly but in the movie all the women are dressed like models which doesn't make sense when they start talking about the economic struggles they face. i especially noticed this with vanessa because she seems to wear the most pricey clothes while supposedly being the poorest.

and lastly: how the fuck did this movie end up just as long as the stageplay when all these stuff are cut out????

[lyranova]

Children of the Future:

Chapter 6: A New Addition

Hi guys! Sorry this chapter took a bit, but its done! The next one shouldn’t take that long though! Anyway I apologize this chapter isn’t very good, I’m a little tired 😅. I hope you all enjoy~!

Taglist: @eme-eleff @crazyclownthanos @talpup @jovialnoise (if anyone wants to be added please let me know!)

Word Count: 2,398

Warnings: None

———

Zora sighed as he slowly packed his stuff up, he couldn’t believe this was happening to him. That he had, not one child, but two with a complete stranger! It was mind boggling, he didn’t know that woman from Adam and yet he had kids with her in the future! He sat on his bed and shook his head, how did he get into this mess? Why did it have to be him?! He never even imagined himself with kids, sure maybe one day he would have them, but not now! Especially not two teenagers!

He shook his head as he heard Vanessa call him, he knew he was taking too long and if he was anymore late the Captain would probably drag him out of the house himself. Zora sighed as he grabbed his bag and walked out of the room and down the hall into the common room, where all the Black Bull members currently sat.

“ Well of all the members to have kids, you were the one I was least expecting!” Magna said in surprise, Zora made a hmph noise in response.

“ Yeah, you and me both. Especially with a complete stranger, and a prissy stranger no less.” Zora grumbled before letting out a sigh. “ I’d better get going before the Captain comes after me.” He added before walking out of the hideout.

“ Good luck! You’re going to need it!” Magna shouted after him, Zora gave a short wave before shutting the door behind him, hopping onto his broom, and flying towards his temporary home.

——

“ Shut up Solid!” Nebra shouted at her younger brother, who was currently laughing his tail off at her. Nozel had told him why he and Nebra had been summoned to the Wizard King and he thought it was a joke at first, but once he saw the look on his older siblings' faces he couldn’t stop laughing. At all.

“ I-I’m sorry Nebra, but this, this is too funny!” Solid said between fits of laughter, he was sitting in her chair by the window and was about to fall out of it he was laughing so hard.

“ Maybe to you it is! Imagine having a child, no correction, children with a complete stranger and according to said children you’re happily married to each other!” Nebra rounded on her brother, he suppressed his laughter for a few moments before standing up.

“ I can only imagine sister. You, on the other hand, are living it!” He said with a smirk, she grabbed a shoe and threw it at him before she grabbed her bag and walked out of her room.

“ I still don’t understand why we have to move in with all of them, I’d much rather be here than with the Black Bulls and all those kids.” Nebra grumbled as she walked outside their home and towards her broom, with Solid following behind her.

“ Because it’ll be easier to keep tabs on everyone if you’re all in one place.” Nozel said as he walked up to his sister, causing her and Solid to jump, they hadn’t seen him standing in the shadows.

“ I figured that out! But why couldn’t the Wizard King put a magical tracing spell on us or something?!” Nebra exclaimed in exasperation, she did not want to leave and stay with complete strangers in some dump out in the middle of the woods when she had a comfortable home right here!

“ Because those kinds of spells can be altered or other mages can track them. For now, all of you must be kept in hiding. Just until we can figure this out.” Nozel said with a sigh before handing his sister a broom. “ You’ll have to use this to get there. The Wizard Kings orders.”

Nebra looked from the broom to her older brother and back again, he wasn’t serious. Was he? There was no way she was using that!

“ You’ll have to use this to get around, if I were to fly you there using my mercury magic everyone would know something was amiss. So, for now, this will be your mode of transportation.” Nozel said shoving the broom into her hands and walking away, Solid snickered behind her before following his brother inside.

Nebra huffed as she inspected it, she was a royal not some commoner or peasant, she should be able to travel luxuriously not like this! But she sighed, her brother had basically ordered her to use this stupid thing without actually ordering her too. She quickly sat on it, using her mana to levitate it off the ground, and flew to her new ‘home’.

‘Why? Why me?!’

———

“ Took you two long enough!” Yami grumbled as Nebra and Zora walked in, the two looked anything but happy. They had arrived at the same time and did nothing but glare at one another. This was going to go great. Yami shook his head as he helped Charlotte finish dinner. She said it was some sort of stew her family used to have when she was growing up. From what he could tell it didn’t smell too bad, it would be anything like what Charmy cooked, but he hoped it would be close enough.

“ Sorry Captain. There was traffic.” Zora said as he walked over to one of the chairs and sat down, Zebra rolled her eyes at his lame excuse and walked over to the chair opposite him and sat down as well.

“ Traffic my ass. You were stalling, both of you.” Yami glared at the red haired mage, who only shrugged in response. While the silver haired mage just ‘hmphed’ and looked away. Yami sighed as he looked over at Charlotte, they were both thinking the same thing.

This was going to be a nightmare.

“ Guys! Dinners ready!” Charlotte shouted as she walked over to the dining table and set the pot of stew down. Yami grabbed the bowls, glasses, and a few pitchers of water before he began to set the table, it was the least he could do since he wasn’t much help cooking.

The magic knights looked up as Hikari, Josslyn, and Ace walked into the room. Ace’s face lit up when he saw his ‘mother’ and he quickly walked over and sat down next to her, much to Nebra’s surprise, while Josslyn sat next to Zora.

“ I hope you all like this, I haven't cooked in a while so I can’t promise it’ll be very edible.” Charlotte said a little nervously as she sat down at one end of the table, Yami sat at the other end and Hikari sat on his left side.

“ I’m sure it’ll be fine, Prickly Princess.” Yami said with a shrug as he and the others began to fill up their bowls.

Dinner passed by awkwardly.

The families all didn’t really know what to say to each other, there were a few comments made complimenting Charlotte’s cooking, while there was a little idle chatter between Hikari and Josslyn. But what really made things awkward were the looks Nebra and Zora were giving each other. They just kept glaring at each other, and making snarky comments towards one another the entire evening. Poor Ace just looked between them with a sad look on his face, he couldn’t believe these were his parents, he just couldn’t!

“ Well, this is awkward.” Josslyn commented as they all sat there in silence, Hikari laughed softly before nodding in agreement.

“ Yes it is. But I think it’s mostly because we all don’t really know each other yet. As time passes we’ll all become more comfortable around each other.” Hikari said as she took a sip of water. Charlotte nodded in agreement.

“ She’s right. This is an adjustment for all of us. It’s going to take longer than a few hours or a couple of days for us to kind of get a sense of each other.” Charlotte turned as Zora snorted.

“ I dunno, you three seem pretty comfortable already.” Zora pointed at Yami, Hikari, and Charlotte before drinking his own glass of water. The three in question looked at each other in surprise.

He wasn’t wrong. The three had only known each other for a day at most, and yet they were already pretty comfortable around each other. Yami helped Charlotte cook dinner, which wasn’t something he normally did. Charlotte had asked Hikari if she had any boyfriends, which was something she didn’t normally ask people. It was strange.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and all 7 people turned towards it. Yami and Charlotte looked at each other before standing up and walking towards it, Yami had a hand on his Katana as Charlotte had her grimoire at the ready. Zora and Nebra stood as well, ready to give the Captain’s back up should they need it. Ace stood and ran towards his older sister and hid slightly behind her, the pink hair girl had her grimoire out as did Hikari. They all waited with baited breath as Yami slowly opened the door.

“ Vangeance?” Yami said in surprise as he opened the door wider to reveal the masked Captain of the Golden Dawn. As well as a white haired young man that stood next to him, a small smile on his face.

“ Ah Yami, it’s good to see you. Julius said you would be here. May I come in?” William asked politely, he nodded and moved aside to allow them in. Charlotte frowned slightly.

“ What are you doing here?” She asked as she crossed her arms, William laughed somewhat sheepishly which only confused her more.

“ Well, you see-.” William didn’t get to finish his sentence before Hikari interrupted.

“ Alistar?!” She quickly put her grimoire away and walked around the table to look at him. She couldn’t believe it, he actually made it! Well, of course he made it, she didn’t have a single doubt in her mind that he wouldn’t. But still, she couldn’t help but feel relieved to know he was here safe. She was his bodyguard afterall.

“ Hikari. It’s good to see you made it here in one piece.” Alistar said warmly, he felt a wave of relief wash over him at the sight of her. She was here, and she was safe. He may not have looked it on the outside, but on the inside his stomach had been in knots the entire way here, he was worried sick about her. Sure she could handle herself if she had too. But that still didn’t mean he couldn’t worry about her.

“ Oh great, pretty boy’s here.” Josslyn grumbled as she say back down and glared slightly at him, Alistar chuckled even though she was glaring icly at him, his warm smile still remained.

“ It’s good to see you too, Josslyn.” Alistar answered shortly, yet still polite. He noticed Ace still standing next to his sister and he gave the young boy a small wave, which was returned. “ It’s good to see you as well Ace.”

“ What? Were you worried about me Golden Boy?” Hikari asked, quickly changing the subject. Alistar’s smile turned into a bit of a smirk at her question.

“ Not at all. I knew you’d be ok. After all, I wouldn’t have made you my bodyguard otherwise.” Alistar said, but a knowing look passed between the two. He hadn’t asked her to be his bodyguard, she appointed herself his bodyguard shortly after they had met.

“ Uh-huh, whatever you say, Golden Boy.” She said with a shake of her head before walking up to him. She gave him a once over, probably to check for any injuries, before nodding in satisfaction that he was in fact ok. But oddly she didn’t notice Alistar had done the exact same thing. She was usually very observant.

“ Honestly though, I’m glad you’re ok.” Hikari suddenly looked up at him, and Alistar’s heart stopped dead in his chest.

She was smiling, not a smirk or a half smile like she normally would give him. But a smile. One that showed she was truly relieved to see him here, to see that he was ok. It was a warm friendly smile, and it caused Alistar’s heart to stop. No one knew he had a crush on the young Sukehiro, he had done his best to keep it hidden from people, but she made it very difficult to hide when she smiled at him like that. Alistar looked away and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“ Thank you, I’m glad you’re ok as well.” He told her kindy, he mentally face palmed himself. ‘Seriously?! That’s all you can say? Just repeating what she told you?!’ His mind shouted at him, anytime she showed her kinder and softer side he always became tongue tied and his mind would go blank. He was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts as Hikari grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the table.

“ You’re looking thin and pale. C’mon, some of mom’s stew should fill you up!” She told him as she dragged him to the table, pushed him into the chair, and put a bowl and spoon in front of him.

The adults watched the exchange curiously, all the kids seem to know each other, and know each other pretty well. Yami turned to look at William.

“ Alistar’s your son I take it?” He asked before crossing his arms, William nodded.

“ He is. Which is why Julius sent us here.” William said before walking over to the couch and sitting down, Zora and Nebra walked over to others as well, deciding to let the kids all hang out together in the dining room.

“ How did you find him?” Charlotte asked curiously as she sat down as well.

“ We didn’t. He found us.” William said with a small laugh before leaning forward, Yami sat down across from him and leaned back in his chair.

“ I take it that’s what you were going to explain when the kids started catching up?” Yami asked and, again, William nodded.

“ Yes, I was. It’s a long story.” William took a breath before he began to explain his meeting with Julius and Alistar.

———

Again I apologize this chapter isn’t very good. But I hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good day~!

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

What do you feel about amandamaryanna’s video on gossip girl and cosplaying poor? It reminds me of those tik tok videos that are about the most insane rich person behavior you’ve experienced. I feel like it’s subjective because the characters Dan Vanessa and Zoya are basing their poor ness around THEIR environment. So yes, there are MANY people who are actually poor but compared to their UES counterparts they would be considered “poor” due to the fact that they do not have the insane amount of disposable wealth that the other characters have and I do not really see that as them trying to cosplay as poor.

Also what are your thoughts on her argument on GG not really talking about class consciousness and POC issues. Even though the characters Ursula, Jane and Raina had short appearances on the show, as a Black person I think that is was great that they added the few POC characters on GG because their identity was not the main focus of their characters. Usually with Black or POC characters they have to go through some racial turmoil as part of the plot and in GG they got to be rich UES-ers simply because they are. Even though GG is very verryy flawed Penelope, Nelly, Kati, Isabelle and Zoe were shown how POC characters can be rich like the white characters in the show as well GG is obviously a fictional show that’s not based on anything so I don’t think that racial income statistics/racial implications need to be talked about 24/7.

so i started watching this video & just ended up reading the transcript instead. anyway. under a read more:

like, yes. i agree with her on one hand - i think gossip girl 2007 messed up by making dan's grievances be connected to financial status, because the humphreys certainly weren't "poor". like i think this point she says makes sense to an extent:

The comparison between outsiders and insiders and gossip girl is all about relativity. To the average viewer it seems absurd that a character like Dan is supposed to represent the outsider when he is so farther in than any of us could get.

But honestly, something i hate is how people who talk about this show act as if everyone who's watching is expected to know the prices of rent in new york city, etc. like i did NOT realise how expensive that loft is until someone else mentioned it to me and i would not have guessed! who is your "average viewer" - is it an American? someone who lives in New York? someone who lives in Brooklyn? you can't just define an average viewer in that way, i feel! like you are making a BIG Assumption there and it's not necessarily accurate. people who aren't american watch american tv! such is the world we are living in.

but keeping that aside, yeah: dan and jenny had stable and secure housing, the guarantee of meals, and were attending expensive private schools, so i think the show's messaging regarding class was a little strange. they definitely weren't in a financially unstable situation.

but also, you're right. like, dan and jenny weren't super duper broke, and at no point do they actually act like they are, tbh. dan is very 'oh my parents sacrificed so much to send me to st jude's' and jenny is very 'damn i wish i was richer' but there isn't really an instance where the humphreys seem to view themselves as being extremely poor, that i remember at least. in s1, jenny says something along the lines of, "we're humphreys; we're not exactly royalty." and like. she is not wrong! they're financially stable kids, but they're ordinary kids living in an environment where everyone else has the safety net of millionnaire parents to fall back on, and however much money rufus has, he isn't that.

so i think it's a grey area, like, YES, the humphreys have wealth related privilege (i don't know if this can be said for v, because honestly we don't know much about her living situation, but we do know that she works as a waitress for a bit in s1, and also that she's homeschooled, so she isn't shelling out big $$ for school fees.) but also dan and jenny are treated as 'less than' because they are considered nobodies.

and i feel like THAT is the angle the show should have taken. not "i am oppressed because i am not rich" but rather, "everyone at school alienates me and treats me different and it's making things so difficult for me." whenever people say that dan and jenny acted like they were more oppressed than they actually were i'm like. they were both, in different ways, made to feel small and insecure and hopeless, at school? like of COURSE they're gonna feel victimised. dan is treated like he doesn't exist, and jenny is treated so horribly that i don't even have an adjective. like. i think the writing of the show would've been much stronger if it had focused on THAT and not made it a class thing.

i haven't watched the reboot beyond ep02, so i'm not gonna comment on that.

so yeah, i don't think it was 'cosplaying poor' as much as it was 'showing wealth related stuff extremely inaccurately.' like an anon told me, portraying nyu as community college is super inaccurate, as well. and it makes no sense? like i don't know why they had to do this and why they couldn't just... shoot at a regular community college. gossip girl 2007 did not care for representing poor people at all, like, if you watch the show you can tell that it just luxuriates in this aesthetic of like: more food than anybody can eat at every meal. so many luxuries. unnecessarily expensive things everywhere. like the show was very much luxury porn. to me it felt like it wasn't cosplaying poor as much as it was offering people a chance to wank off to the rich. & maybe because of that, the humphreys weren't allowed to be poorer. gg 2007 wasn't supposed to represent all of NY, it was supposed to represent the uber rich elite. and then you have dan and jenny humphrey, and vanessa abrams. they weren't allowed to be rich, because we needed a class conflict. but they weren't allowed to be poor, either, because this show was all about rich people aesthetics. so we got something weird & in the middle instead.

people forget that chuck was canonically a billionnaire - like, that is a LOT of money. and he is dan & jenny's peer! sadly, i think solely because of THAT, a lot of the oppression the humphreys face... checks out. like chuck being shitty to both dan and jenny - he' has an unethical, absurd, uncomparable-to-whatever-the-humphreys-have amount of money. he can do whatever he wants & buy his way out of there. rufus humphrey's ten thousand dollars or whatever amount he mentions are like pocket change to that guy. if jenny is gonna be treated like a commodity by everyone around her, do her upper middle class roots and expensive loft really matter? well, not do they matter as much as like. can they protect her? (we've watched the show. we know the answer is no.)

re: the characters of colour... i think it's subjective. i ADORE raina, and honestly, if we'd had a NJBC that was nate, serena, blair & raina, the show would've actually been AMAZING. like raina was such a cool character to me - i liked that she was driven, passionate, intelligent, sensitive, caring, fun-loving, thoughtful.... she wasn't on the show for long, but her character felt really solid and fleshed out. i remember a review (idk who wrote this one) in which someone felt that raina's character was "lazy" because a lot of her traits and her backstory paralleled chuck, but i strongly disagree. on raina, those traits were interesting. on chuck, any backstory and larger motive felt like a carpet to cover the dust that was his predatory nature, and to me, felt forced and off. like. this dude assaulted people, i don't care about his daddy issues. but raina seemed SO amazing. her backstory actually fit her personality and gave her depth, and to me, didn't feel forced.

i liked ursula, too! she was a really minor character, but she had a whole arc, and i liked that a LOT. her friendship with serena was very cute! i sadly do not remember jane. i think she was... someone's assistant? but i don't remember who. but i agree with you about raina and ursula, their arcs were very interesting and did not end up being about racial trauma & all that, which, like you said, is refreshing when done right.

that said, i think blair's minions were, uh, an example of blair's racism, and i think it would've been cool if the show unpacked that. blair uses her minions as a status symbol - her 17th birthday at kati's place which is anime themed (?) leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it feels very tokenising of a culture that blair isn't a part of? it would be different if blair treated her minions with respect and dignity and like they were her equals and peers, but she doesn't. the word "minions" itself makes me flinch because it's such a "oh you're inferior" kind of word. it felt to me very much like - they never got to be characters in their own right. they solely existed to prop up blair. and i think that is racist. there was a sense of "Oh, I can't be racist! I have a Black friend and an Asian friend" from Blair - like that's what kati & is were to her. and i think that is a big problem, especially glossed over like that.

i also do think that racial stuff doesn't always need to be the focus! but i don't think it can ever be completely ignored, either. an example of something that is maybe unintentionally racist, but racist nonetheless, is how dan cuts vanessa out of his life entirely but forgives his white friends for treating him farrrr worse. it's an inherent double standard, because dan kind of went "oh yeah. my threshold for white people fucking me over is really high, but if my Black best friend who's so close we're practically family does something even slightly wrong i'm going to cut her out of my life 4ever." did the writers realise this? i don't know. maybe they just didn't think about it. but this is exactly the sort of double standards and racist bullshit that woc, especially Black women, have to face irl (though of course i don't need to tell you that at all), except here, the narrative doesn't even address that, hey, maybe dan's being a dick by reacting this way. and i think that's a problem, too.

[ruzek-halstead]

change

pairing: jay halstead x hailey upton

jay recovers from his gun-shot wound & is back to full duty. hailey requests a new partner & he has no idea why.

“jay, you ride with kim. you guys are going to be partners for a while.”

masterlist || ao3 

warning: swearing, fluffery

it’s on jay’s first day back to full duty that he notices a change in his partner, hailey.

when he brings her a coffee in the morning (smiling like an idiot because he’s finally off desk duty), she takes it with a quiet thank you and avoids eye contact. he finds it odd but doesn’t read into it too much because he’s far too excited. he notices later on throughout the day, she buries herself in her paperwork and replies in one-word answers. whenever someone needs to make a stop or check in with a confidential informant, she jumps at the opportunity to go and leave him behind.

he’s starting to get annoyed.

then a case jumps off and sergeant voight assigns tasks, like he always does. jay has his coat in hand, eyes locked on hailey, ready to hit the streets just like before.

“jay, you ride with kim. you guys are going to be partners for a while.”

jay nearly drops his phone in surprise. he looks up at hank with a confused and irritated expression and he only shrugs and makes his way back into his office. he then looks at hailey, who once again evades his eyes and quickly goes for the stairs with vanessa. kim waits at the stairs, wielding a guilty expression.

he shoots kim a small smile. It’s nothing against kim; she’s a great teammate and he trusts her with his life, but she isn’t his partner. it just isn’t the same. “just give me a second,” he says to her and makes his way into voight’s office.

hank just looks at him as he enters, as if he was expecting this.

“sarge, what the hell?’

admittedly, it isn’t the best way to start a conversation with his superior, but he’s flustered and annoyed.

he softens his gaze and continues. “sorry. i just—what the hell?” he tries again. “is this my punishment for going off book? i know i messed up, i get it; but hailey and i are good together, why split us up?”

“i agree; you two are good together,” hank replies vaguely.

jay is more confused than ever.

“then what am i missing?” he asks, exasperated.

hank’s face still looks impassively calm. “hailey requested a different partner.”

it was as if the ground gave out beneath him.

he was expecting anything and everything, except that.

why would hailey give him up? especially without talking to him first; he just couldn’t understand. there had been absolutely no signs leading up to this, aside from her off standish behaviour today.

“oh,” jay breathes. he has no idea what else to say. voight studies him in silence. “alright then.”

“you didn’t know,” voight adds.

jay focuses on making his facial expression as stoic as possible. “no, i didn’t.”

“sounds like you two need to talk,” voight expands. his eyes are burning holes into jay and he’s starting to feel uncomfortable. “listen jay,” he clears his throat and sits up straighter in his seat. “i’m not going to lecture you; i’ve done that already. but cases involving partners aren’t like any other,” he purses his lips, “hailey didn’t tell me what you were up to, even when i pressed. she was loyal to you, her partner. but you lied to her and then you were gone, and she struggled; strong as she is, she struggled.”

as jay listens to the hard truths, a heavy cloud brews above his figure.

he’s messed up so bad with hailey and he had no idea.

she left him without even talking to him about it; he can’t get that out of his mind.

voight doesn’t expect a response, nor does he give him time for one.

“stick with kim today and deal with hailey after shift. okay?”

jay nods numbly. “yeah. thanks, sarge.”

as jay makes his way over to a patient kim, he feels an indescribably anger at not seeing his blonde partner.

🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒

hailey effectively avoids jay for the remainder of the day. she’s kept busy and isn’t stuck at her desk for long and she notices jay avoids her just as much since voight announced the changes. she kept telling herself it was fine, but god, it was so far from fine. he was her person and now she can’t even look at him.

when their day finally comes to an end, it’s well into the night. they’re exhausted and already expected to be back within a few hours, but jay still isn’t satisfied with how they’re ending. hailey still hadn’t explained to him why she decided to request a new partner, nor did she talk to him at all for that matter.

he was going to change that.

he follows hailey to her jeep and she’s so exhausted, she doesn’t even notice.

“hailey,” he calls out as she opens her driver side door.

jay watches her freeze for a millisecond before she turns to face him. “jay, i’m tired; not now, please.”

“you owe me at least an explana—”

hailey whips around to face him with a vengeance. “i don’t owe you anything, jay!” she hisses heatedly.

jay snaps.

“the hell you don’t!” he yells back ferociously, slamming his hand on her door to close it forcefully. she stares at the door for a moment before turning back to him, her blue eyes wild and angry. “hailey, what the hell? why wouldn’t you at least give me a heads up you were planning on leaving me, your partner?”

“i left you?” hailey snaps in response. “don’t make this about you, jay. i was the one who was lied to. i was the one who had to cover for you and lie to voight. i was the one who went hours without knowing where you were, if you were okay or even alive.”

jay tries to control his anger and sympathize with her. “hailey, i’m sorry i did that. but are you really just going to abandon me as a partner?”

“don't you get it?” she yells, exasperated. “i can’t trust you anymore, jay!”

he goes silent.

“you lied to me and you went off and got yourself hurt and i can’t be your partner if you’re going to do this kind of stuff without even consulting me! it's not even the first time, jay. you can’t keep doing that to me.”

jay didn’t even know what to say.

“i’m doing this for me. because i can’t watch you be an absolute idiot and get yourself hurt again.”

jay was just absolutely done; he needed everything to go back to normal.

“hailey, how do fix this?” he begs. “i need everything to go back to normal.”

hailey runs her hands through her blonde hair in frustration. “things can’t go back to normal, jay! things are different now and i can’t just—”

“can’t what?” jay snaps angrily.

“i can’t just pretend i haven’t realized my feelings for you!”

jay stops.

“what?”

hailey’s eyes widen.

“shit,” she swears quietly. “i need to go.”

she tries to open her suv door again, but jay holds his hand against it. “hailey,” he breathes gently.

“i didn’t know what was going to happen to you,” she admits, surrendering her attempt to escape and avoiding eye contact. “i didn’t even know if you were going to make it. and when i was sitting in that waiting room, i realized… i think i might love you.”

jay isn’t sure how to react; this whole conversation had been a rollercoaster.

hailey notices his hesitation and pales. “you don’t have to say anything. shit; this is why i didn’t say anything in the hospital room.”

jay opens his mouth to speak. hailey beats him to it; she’s mortified and dying to escape.

“it's okay, jay; this is why i need space. it's okay, i'll get over it,” she takes a deep breath and finally meets his eyes. “i'll get over it and i’ll be fine.”

jay's green eyes lock on hers and holds her gaze. “hailey, will you shut up and let me speak?”

hailey stares at him in bewilderment and surprise.

“why do you think you asking for a new partner is so difficult for me? i try so hard to pretend there’s nothing there because workplace relationships have been absolutely awful for me,” he explains, watching her surprise grow. “and it’s fucking terrifying to feel something for your partner because so many things could go wrong. but i do; i feel something for you.”

jay was never good at expressing his feelings and this was no different.

he takes a deep breath and says, “i think i’m falling in love with you.”

a slow, shy grin spreads across hailey's facial features. “well, aren’t we just a giant mess.”

“so, what does this mean for us?” he asks, inching closer.

hailey watches his movements carefully. “i don’t know,” she answers honestly, “but i really, really want to find out.”

“hailey upton, will you be my partner again?” jay asks hopefully, a soft smile on his lips. his smile matched his soft eyes as they stared at hailey with adoration.

the blonde detective nods, letting out a loud laugh. “i would love nothing more, jay halstead.”

[ahatintimestorybook]

AHIT Twin AU- Missing Brother

(Had to re-upload since I posted in the wrong blog)

Hey guys just an heads up. The next few chapters are going to be angst related. This one being the start to all the angst.

@winterpower98

Since day 1, since the day she met his twin brother, since the day his twin brother announced he and her were dating, since the day his twin brother saved up some money to buy a ring to propose to her, MJ never liked or trusted Vanessa Queenzel. MJ felt something was up with the woman, like an never ending blizzard when she passed by him.

Luka never felt it, he was so mesmerized by Vanessa, and MJ wished he could get into his brother’s head and find out why Vanessa was his one true love, his princess from the fairy tales they read when they were kids.

MJ had asked his brother countless times if Vanessa was the one and he always got the same answer. “She is, and I know it.” It made the older twin furious at his younger twin that he was just looking out for him. No one in their right mind can be this perfect especially someone like Vanessa.

Its been a month since MJ and Luka’s parents had died, and both twins were dealing with struggles. Luka was going to tell Vanessa to postpone the wedding till next year, and MJ was dealing with the fact their parents are gone. As you can tell stress lingered both brothers and were ready to snap at one another, despite never snapping or fighting once in their lives.

Soon Luka’s phone rang, which caught both twin’s attention. Luka reached for the phone and saw it was Vanessa was calling him. Luka gave a small smile and picked up the phone. “Hey Van.” Luka said. MJ looked up at his younger twin. His eyes showed he barely got sleep and with the glare written all over his face it made him look angry.

“Van, I need to tell you something its about the wedding.” Luka mentioned. “See, MJ and I spent a lot for the funeral, and I’m just wondering if we can postpone it till next year?” He asked giving a sheepish smile. Soon that smile faded and soon yelling was heard. It made Luka flinch, sure he’s heard his finance yell before, but never like this.

Luka sighed. “Look I know your mad, but we just spent a lot plus I just need to be there for MJ.” He tried to reason with her. Soon Luka heard the phone hang up. “Hello? V-Vanessa?” He asked. Luka looked at his phone and saw she did hang up. He groaned and slammed his head on the table.

Since their parent’s death Vanessa’s behavior towards Luka changed as well, she only comforted him when he revealed the devastating news and the funeral between that and after Vanessa didn’t seem to care about Luka grieving or trying to be there for MJ and insisted, showering him with gifts to make him feel better.

“Just don’t call her back Lu.” MJ spoke up. Luka turned to her brother giving a small glare. MJ looked up and saw his brother’s facial expression. MJ glared back, “do we have to argue about this again? Luka, the warning flags are right there!” He shouted.

Luka sighed. “Look, I know Vanessa has been...pushy lately but its only because I’ve been pushing all this mom and dad stuff onto her.” He replied as his defense.

“Its not that! She’s been like this months before mom and dad died!” MJ yelled back. “Remember she dyed your hair blonde?”

“Only because she dated you on accident! Hence why you changed your hair!” Luka replied. “Plus I didn’t mind it.” He mumbled.

MJ growled. “She did it without your consent!” Luka flinched, jumping back from MJ’s sudden anger. Luka glared and got up from the table and marched over his room to put on a jacket. “Where are you going?”

“To Vanessa’s and hopefully going to talk to her!” Luka shouted. He was about to make it to the door until MJ grabbed his arm using his magic. Luka looked down at his arm and looked up to his twin brother holding him back with his magic. “Let me go Micahel.” Luka growled, his eyes too starting to glow bright yellow.

“No.” MJ replied. “I’ve told you countless times, Vanessa is nothing but trouble. I don’t trust her! Mom didn’t even trust her! And for the past few days its nothing but you two arguing and making up!” He shouted. “Can’t you just open your eyes and see Vanessa is not the girl you should be with!”

Luka’s eyes turned back to normal but didn’t look at his twin brother in the face. MJ sighed and loosened the strings off his brother as his eyes turned normal too. “I’ll be back.” Luka whispered and slammed the door making MJ flinch. MJ stepped back, shaking that he just yelled at his brother. They argued before, but it was never this tensed.

Though MJ did understand things have gotten difficult thanks to the death of their parents and all the anger, sadness and stress just came down on both of them. He looked back at the door before heading to the couch to watch TV. “Come home safe bro.” He whispered.

By nightfall, Luka never arrived home and MJ started to worry. He checked his phone to see if Luka left him a phone call or message, but nothing only his lock screen wallpaper of him and Luka on their birthday, the last birthday to celebrate with their parents.

MJ decided to call Luka to see what’s up with him and Vanessa, but the call went straight to voicemail. Knowing Luka, he’d call back in under five minutes. “Hey Luka, listen I’m sorry about yelling earlier. Call me back where you are. Night bro. Love you.” MJ said before shutting off the phone and TV before heading to bed room.

Once there, MJ stared at the ceiling worried for his little brother. Luka should of called or even texted him by now. MJ thought Luka was mad at him for being mean to Vanessa, but he was telling the truth he didn’t trust her. The older twin felt something was wrong, Luka never ignored him or not answer his calls. This was unlike him.

MJ sighed and tried to fall asleep hoping that Luka would call him in the morning or at least show up. He hoped so.

Days passed, then weeks, until it was over a month and not a single call or anything from Luka. MJ wasn’t just scared, but horrified that something was up with his brother and he wasn’t getting anything from him. He hated to do this, but he had called Vanessa, but she would respond with:

“He’s not home,” or “He isn’t feeling too good, right now.”

Even though MJ didn’t like her, he didn’t want to fight with her. Knowing her status in town, it would make him look like the bad guy then Vanessa. Though he didn’t want to do this, it was his last resort. He needed to head on over to Vanessa’s manor.

MJ took a drive to the Queenzel manor and knocked on the door. As he waited he did his best to keep his cool so he wouldn’t go off on Vanessa. It felt like an eternity till Vanessa opened the door. “Oh MJ hi.” Vanessa said with a smile.

“Look Vanessa, do you know where Luka is?” MJ asked.

“He’s not at home, he went out for the day.” Vanessa replied.

MJ knew this was a lie, but he tried to keep cool. “Do you know when he’ll be home?” He asked. Vanessa didn’t reply and just shrugged. MJ sighed feeling his cool level head slowly leaving him. “L-Look if you see him tell him to either call me or see me!”

Vanessa sighed. “That’s only if he does show up. One night he didn’t come home for at least two days.”

MJ wanted to strangle this girl so much. He could sense she was lying. She knew something about Luka’s fate and was just staling MJ so he can leave or do something to her so she can be the victim. “Look! I may not like you, and I know you may not like me.”

“I do like you. You are going to be my brother in law.” Vanessa replied.

“But, we both like Luka. I just need you to talk to him and tell him to see me. I’m worried about him.” MJ begged. “Please Vanessa. Just let me talk to him.”

Vanessa went quiet as she looked down at MJ. “Alright.” She sighed. “I’ll try to get a hold of him and let him know you want too see him.”

MJ gave a small smile. “Thanks.” Vanessa nodded and closed the door as MJ went back to his car. Once he was back in drove back home, revealed he was out of that place and hope he didn’t have to go back there to ask for Luka again.

When he got home he slammed the door and collapsed on the couch and cried. “Where are you Luka. I miss you. I-I can’t loose you. P-please come home.” He cried and repeated those words over and over again.

MJ woke up his eyes red and a bit puffy from crying. He sniffled and wiped away the stray tears from his face. He looked outside and saw the sun was going down and that he was asleep for at least five hours. MJ checked his phone and saw no messages from Luka. MJ sighed, but got out of his thoughts hearing a knock on the door.

MJ sat their frozen hearing the knocks. Flashbacks to the day he heard about his parent’s death repeated in his head. Now the anxious older twin sat there waiting on some sign that this isn’t the police, he didn’t want to answer the door, see the officers and tell him that they found Luka’s body.

He couldn’t, he just couldn’t deal with another death! He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a familiar scream.

“MJ! MJ!” MJ flinched, those were Luka’s screams. Quickly, he got up and unlocked the door only to be tackled by his crying little brother. MJ held his brother and slowly made back to the door to close it.

Luka was here, and alive! But where was he all this time?

MJ looked at his twin brother and was in complete shock. His hair was a mess, bloodshot and tired eyes from crying, his wrist were bruised like he was chained or something and his clothes were a mess. MJ looked at his brother from head to toe, and he just knew who did this. “D-did Vanessa do this to you?” He asked.

Luka let out a sob and nodded hugging his brother tight. “Don’t tell her where I am!” He cried. “Please.”

“I-I won’t!” MJ promised. “I won’t.” MJ hugged Luka tight holding his twin brother close to him as he cried. MJ was sad yet relieved Luka was alright, but had to suffer in Vanessa’s hands. He’d ask his brother what happened, but he just needed to comfort his little brother.

[spookyboywhump]

Previous Parts

Tag List:  @constellationwhump, @what-a-whumpy-world, @faewhump, @inky-whump, @slaintetowhump, @sodapigeon, @justwhumpitwhumpitgood, @insanitywishes   Let me know if I missed you or if you want to be tagged!

also, @ a recent ask I got, I’m not sure how you feel about emotional whump so I have some special Zander whump coming for you later <3

 This is a bit of a self indulgent filler part, the first half mostly to lead up to what I do to Wren next part and the second half is a look into Zander and his relationship with Vanessa. So uh, big TW for implied/referenced dubcon/noncon and TW for aftermath of dubcon/noncon kind of, and TW for a bit of self harm

 ***

 He’d won. He’d actually won, somehow surviving the fight and also escaping his handler’s vicious punishments. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten so lucky, because he knew that’s all it was this time, pure luck. 

 He’d been left in that cell again and told to wait for his handler, he dropped down against the wall almost immediately, suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion. It was less from the fight and more from the stress that had wracked him all day long finally leaving him. He finally allowed himself to relax, he didn’t even have to fear punishment because he’d finally done something right. 

 He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, sighing heavily as he reached up, wiping blood from his nose on the back of his hand. He didn’t think it was broken, but he could feel the throbbing pain radiating out across his face. It would probably hurt even more in the morning, but not as bad as a beating or whipping or any other punishment Cain would’ve inflicted.

 He must’ve waited hours for the cell door to open again, Cain standing there with a look he’d never seen before. He was happy. It wasn’t that sadistic grin he got, it wasn’t mocking, it was genuine happiness. It almost looked unnatural. 

 “You did such a good job, little pup! And on your first try too!” He knelt down in front of him, hands placed on either side of his face, it took Wren a moment to realize he didn’t intend to even slap him.  He hesitated to respond, unsure of how to react to this side of Cain, but he was looking at him expectantly.

 “Th… thank you…?” It came out more like a question, but Cain seemed to accept it.

 “I never once expected you to do this well, to even win at all.” He laughed. He got up, pulling Wren to his feet. “I’ll reward you later pup, I’m sure you’re ready to head home.” He said, leading him out of the cell. He didn’t even yank on the leash, he was careful, knowing he was likely somewhat unsteady. It was almost disorienting, this change in him, he knew it should’ve been a relief but he just felt more on edge now. They had to find Zander before they could go home, Cain said that Vanessa had dragged him off shortly after Wren’s fight. The thought turned his stomach, from how she had spoken about him during their last meeting he felt like she shouldn’t be left alone with him.

 When they finally found them she was trying to leave through one of the many exits, dragging Zander with her. She had joked that she was just kidding about trying to steal him and Cain snapped at her, apparently this wasn’t the first time she’d done this. Zander himself looked almost unscathed, save for the marks littering his exposed neck and the familiar shade of red lipstick smeared on his face. That near permanent scowl was still there, but he kept his eyes averted, refusing to look at him or Cain. He was concerned, but didn’t dare say anything, knowing he should save it for later.

 By the time they returned home he just wanted to pass out, having been drifting in and out of sleep the whole car ride. Cain didn’t drag or yank him to the room, rather guided him gently while expecting Zander to simply follow. Before he locked them up for the night he smiled at Wren, something he still wasn’t sure how to react to, and reminded him that he would receive his reward the next day. He wasn’t sure what Cain considered a reward, but a part of him was excited, hopeful even that maybe he would do something nice for him. Or at the very least, something not completely horrible. 

 “Good job.” Zander said once he was gone, finally speaking up. “For your first time, that was pretty good.” 

 “Thanks… I think I just got lucky though, if I hadn’t hit him in the throat I probably wouldn’t have won…” He said, heading into the bathroom so he could clean the blood off his face, leaving the door open though.

 “From the way he went down, I don’t think you hit his throat.” He told him, coming to lean against the door frame. “The jaw maybe, that’ll do it for sure.” It made sense to Wren, his knuckles hurt from the impact, the same way they did when he was trained for work, when he was younger and reluctant to hit even his instructor. It was almost comforting to know though, a hit like that to the jaw was sure to cause less damage than to the throat. 

 When he finished cleaning away the blood he turned to Zander, taking in his current appearance, which he had yet to comment on himself. Despite finally getting a break from fighting he looked exhausted, and more disheveled than normal. His hair was a mess and the top buttons of his shirt had been undone, there was nothing to hide the purple marks decorating his neck and the lipstick left behind on his skin.

 “Are… are you alright…?” He asked hesitantly. He knew for a lot of people that was the result of a good situation, maybe not to him but he didn’t exactly know Zander’s preferences or say in the matter. He didn’t look like he’d enjoyed it though.

 “I’m fine.” He said curtly, his tone made it more than clear he didn’t want to talk about it. Wren knew better than the try and force it, brushing past him as he left the bathroom. 

 “Okay… um… Cain mentioned something, about a reward…” he said, trying to change the subject. “Is he serious or should I be worried…?” Cain didn’t exactly seem like the rewarding type, but he also didn’t seem like the type to smile and be careful and gentle with him. This whole night had been several hours of confusion and Wren was getting a little bit tired of it. 

 “Any fight after this you can look forward to it, once you get him in a good mood he can be somewhat generous. I’ve gotten some decent stuff out of him before.” He shrugged, glancing away from him as he spoke.

 “After this? Then what do I get this time…?” He frowned, anxiety creeping up on him again. For a moment Zander didn’t respond, unbuttoning his shirt further instead. He pulled it away, baring his right shoulder to him, the single initial burned into his skin. Wrens stomach dropped, eyes widening as it sunk in.

 Of course, Cain wanted his property marked, and that’s all he was. His property.

 ***

 Zander couldn’t help but feel guilty, further ruining the poor kid’s night. He could’ve just let him have a moment of relief, a moment to rest and think he was safe because he did good, but he would’ve felt worse if he let him believe Cain would give him something to look forward to, only to have the harsh reality burned into him. He knew, the shock would be so much worse if he believed it until he saw the branding iron himself.

 He waited to shower until Wren finally fell asleep, still insistent on sleeping on the floor. Zander didn’t understand that, he’d offered him the bed since day one but he adamantly refused. He thought it was stupid, especially now when he’d completely burnt himself out, too exhausted to even let the fear of his impending “reward” keep him awake. He was dead asleep, so Zander easily lifted him up, laying him down in the bed and pulling the blanket over him. It almost felt weird to him, handling another person without the intent of hurting them. Sometimes he forgot that he could be careful and gentle.

 Once Wren was settled he went and locked himself in the bathroom, turning the shower on to the hottest setting. It was almost a ritual for him when Vanessa was done with him, burn away the feeling of her hands on his body and her lips against his skin, scrub away that feeling that he was disgusting. He’d been covered in blood, sweat, tears, sometimes even vomit, yet never felt as disgusting as Vanessa made him feel. 

 He scowled at his reflection when he went to undress, he’d rather see himself beaten and bloodied than see the aftermath of her. Vanessa liked to make it obvious, mark her territory, he may have belonged to Cain but she had so much power over him, she could mark him however she wished because no one would really stop her. When she snuck off with him it would piss Cain off, he might yell at her but then turn and beat him for letting it happen, because his body didn’t belong to him nor her and she could only use it with Cain’s permission. 

 Technically, per Cain’s rules, he wasn’t even permitted to do this, if he was going to be hurt then it had to be done by him or while he watched. That somehow made the scalding hot water even more satisfying, knowing it was just another small act of defiance against that bastard. Even if Cain didn’t care, he needed that heat, anything less and he would still feel her all over him, even if it did burn like hell and even if he did have to bite back a whine the moment the water touched his skin.

 He only spent a moment allowing himself to relax under the pouring water, he needed to get clean, needed to get her off of him. He scrubbed furiously at his skin when he washed himself, rubbed his skin raw where she put her hands, tried his hardest to get the lipstick off his face and neck. He could hardly stand to look at someone in red lipstick these days, he knew she’d been wearing the same shade for years because it had been smeared on his face time and time again. She would complain they didn’t spend enough time together but he knew it was too much, way too much when it had become routine to wash her away when she was done with him. He hated that he couldn’t wash away all the marks, hated that he resorted to digging his nails into his own throat, digging deep scratches into his skin to distract from the bruises. 

 He didn’t stop until he was satisfied, until the water running down the drain was tinted red. He still didn’t feel completely better, but he finally felt clean, sitting down on the shower floor beneath the pouring water. He knew he would be there until the water finally ran cold, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest. He was clean, he would have time to recover before she touched him again, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it any more than he could stop the tears filling his eyes.

 In some ways, she could be worse than Cain. He didn’t hide his disdain for Zander, he knew to always expect him to violently lash out, and while he had no problem humiliating him, he rarely did anything intimate with him. Even when he did, the only pleasure he seemed to get from it was the knowledge that Zander hated every second of it. Vanessa claimed to love him though, claimed to never want to hurt him. Since the first time they met she’d called her obsession “love”, when lust was a more accurate word. It wasn’t love when she slapped him for crying the first time it happened, and it wasn’t love when she ignored his begging for her to stop, or when she had told him how good he was since he stopped fighting her. It wasn’t love when she kept doing this every chance she got, knowing that Cain would punish him and not her. He figured the only thing that saved him tonight was Wren winning, a distraction from another one of Zander’s fuck ups. 

 He sighed heavily, resting his head on his knees and squeezing his eyes shut. It was a brief moment of safety, a brief moment he could allow himself to be vulnerable. He had nothing against Wren, he even sort of liked him, but since he was forced to share a room with him his personal space had been made even smaller. It made his existence even more difficult, he felt some sort of obligation to not break down around him. When it came to Cain it was out of spite, even when he did cry around him it was always out of pain and never from a real break, he refused to give him that satisfaction. Wren however was in a tough enough situation, he didn’t need to see how completely hopeless Zander truly was too. He fought Cain every chance he got, he scowled and growled and struggled and cursed but after six years he knew, there was no escape, he was stupid to have ever thought there was. 

 He’d once been offered a way out in the form of a bullet and he refused it. Sometimes he wished he could change that decision.

[shadowthrone-ammanas]

Prompt-thing: Fire Spirits to torment Vanessa.

First, I can no long think about the Fire Spirits without also thinking about the Conductor, hope that’s okay. Second, another fic that’s probably in the same timeline as Guilt (I think I might just start calling it the ‘adopted timeline/au’). Third, this drabble fic thing ends sooner then I’d have liked it to but it’s almost 2am and I’m already running on like 6 hours of sleep (so if the end part is a bit more incoherent than other drabbles, that’s why) so that’s where it ended because I need sleep. It still wraps things up though, I think, and is a definitely at a point where I’d scene cut anyway. I might do a continuation later though, I know I would like to. And finally, thank you for the request!

Fire Spirits

The fire spirits were back. They always came back. If Snatcher didn’t know better, he’d say it was because they liked annoying him. But no, it was because the forest was a place of high spiritual energy, it attracted them like moths to a flame.

He couldn’t make them go away either. They didn’t listen to him and their brand of magical energy was resistance to his, making destroying them take a lot of effort. With how powerful he was, he could force it if he really had to but it was a pain and exhausting so he preferred to make contractors deal with them instead. He maybe wouldn’t have to this time though because he officially had an adoptive daughter he might finally have a real use for.

“Hey kiddo,” he said with a grin as he popped in on her as she exited her ship now parked in his forest. “I’ve got a job for you.”

Hat Kid’s face let up. “What kind of job?”

“The fire spirits are starting to come back. I would like you to take care of them before they start making themselves too much of a nuisance. Think of it as your way of earning you keep around here, a house chore or whatever.”

“Okay! But… I’ve always wondered why you don’t destroy them. I mean you’re like super powerful and stuff and they’re not so… can’t you deal with them? Are you just lazy?”

“No, I’m not lazy.” The fact that she’d suggest such a thing was a bit offensive but he’d let it slid for now. “The reason I don’t deal with them myself is it takes a lot of energy to take them out. They’re beings made of fire, meaning light basically. I’m a being made of primarily shadow energy. Not true opposites but throwing shadow magic at light beings doesn’t exactly have great results.”

“So… it’s like Pokémon? Your attacks aren’t very effective because it’s a poor type match up?”

“I don’t know what that means but… sure I guess, my attacks aren’t very effective against them. Hence why I prefer someone else to handle it so I don’t have to. So hop to it.” He clapped his hands twice to spur her on.

She didn’t move though instead she seemed deep in thought about something. “They’re fire spirits,” she mumbled to herself, “and going off Pokémon rules that would mean…” She trailed off as a mischievous smile spread across her face. An idea had occurred to her, that was almost never a good thing. “I have an idea,” she said, speaking to him again. “Instead of getting rid of them you should send them to torment your ex!”

Snatcher had been preparing to say ‘no’ but stopped. “Huh?”

“You should send them to torment your crazy ex,” Hat Kid repeated. “I mean they’re fire spirits with fire magic and your ex is an ice bitch with ice magic so they should be super effective against her. Don’t you want to mess with her? She’s a horrible wretched evil peck neck. You should burn her house down! I bet it’ll be fun!” She her smile was now more evil that mischievous. Good.

Snatcher had never considered doing such a thing before. He’d always been so focused on not having anything more to do with her, only fending her off whenever she decided to invade his forest, that he’d never considered trying to do anything to mess with them. It was honestly a huge oversight on his part.

“You know what kid, I’m suddenly glad I adopted you, you’re smart,” he said. She beamed at his praise. “There is a problem with your idea though, they won’t listen to me. I’ve tried to tell them to go away or take down their stupid fire barriers at least a hundred times over the years, if not more.” Probably more because the first time they’d appeared he’d still been trying to be at least sort of a good guy. They didn’t have souls he could eat – he’d tried but it had hurt him – and other than for the barriers – which weren’t intended to harm anyone and actually seemed to be just a byproduct of their rituals – they weren’t doing anything bad so he’d been reluctant to kill them. “I doubt they’d listen to you either because of how much time you spend with me and the Subconites, you reek of death and shadows.”

Her face fell. “Does that mean we can’t send them to torment Vanessa?”

“It means we can’t but I know someone they should listen to and that someone will listen to me.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“The Conductor.”

“Why would they listen to…”

Snatcher didn’t let her finish before teleporting away.

***

The Conductor was just about to leave his dressing room when he suddenly had the sense that something was behind him so he should probably turn and check. It was probably just paranoia but… It was Snatcher.

He couldn’t help jumping a little in fright and taking a step back. Not many people survived direct encounters with the infamous Snatcher. The Conductor was one of the lucky few but the thing he’d had to do to accomplish that feat had been abhorrent. So he wasn’t a fan of the ghost and was honestly terrified.

“What the peck do you want?” he said because no way was he going to let his terror show.

Snatcher grinned wide. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“I ain’t trying to kill the lass again, no matter what you say. You can eat my pecking soul, I don’t care.” He shouldn’t have cared the first time but… he’d been taken by surprise and terrified.

“Well good thing I wasn’t going to ask you to. Now, I would take your soul but alas I have a feeling a certain child now legally in my care would be rather displeased with me if I did. It’s annoying when she cries so I’d rather not deal with that.”

The Conductor had almost forgotten Snatcher had adopted Hat Kid because honestly, he didn’t want it to be true. Snatcher was well the Snatcher, he ate people’s souls, he’d tried to murder Hat Kid, had forced the Conductor and others to try as well. And yet Hat Kid insisted he was a good guy deep down inside and that he cared about her. She’d even shown the Conductor and DJ Grooves a copy of the adoption papers Snatcher had written up to adopt her. He had signed it though so Hat Kid’s claims had to have some truth to them even if the Conductor disagreed with the whole adoption. He’d no choice but to accept it and try not to think about it too much because he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Now,” Snatcher continued, “because of our history I know you probably don’t want to help me. And honestly, I don’t blame you, from your perspective things were pretty bad. But we’re past that now, right? So I need you to…”

“‘Pretty bad’? That wasn’t ‘pretty bad’, that was pecking…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Snatcher cut in, making a placating gesture with one had that made the Conductor’s blood boil with rage he couldn’t do anything with because he was facing Snatcher. “You’re an angry fire lizard, I understand. I’ll have you know though, the favor I’m asking you to do was Hat Kid’s idea. She’s actually really smart sometimes, would you believe it?”

“She’s smart all the time you peck-neck.”

“If you say so. Now, I need you to talk to the fire spirits in my forest and tell them to harass the Ice Queen Vanessa instead of me. They should listen to you because I’m pretty sure dragons are on the top rank of the fire beings, right? Even the small feathered ones like yourself.”

“What the peck are you talking about? I’m not a dragon.”

“Oh, you’re not? I’m pretty sure you are. I could be wrong though I guess because all I know for sure is you have fire magic. There are a number of ways that’s possible, none of them make a difference for what I’m asking you to do though so it doesn’t matter. Let’s go.” He snapped his fingers and the world around them shifted to deep purple.

“Peck you, you pecking peck neck,” the Conductor said instead of being afraid like he’d wanted to be because whatever the peck was going on here was not okay.

The purple faded and suddenly they were in the forest next to Hat Kid and her ship, now parked. “Uncle Con,” she said with a smile.

“Uh… hey lass,” he said, glancing around. The forest was dark and creepy, he did not like it especially since Snatcher was looming over them now that he had all the room in the world to do so. He was a dumb showoff, why couldn’t he stay a normal person size? He just liked being bigger and taking up more room than everyone else because he was bully and a peck-neck. Before the Conductor could say something about it though…

“Now go talk to the fire spirits for us,” Snatcher said. “It’s important, right kiddo?”

“Yes! I don’t know why they’d listen to you Uncle Con but if they do, go tell them to burn down Vanessa’s Manor!” The evil glee in Hat Kid’s eyes and voice was concerning. But was it because she was spending too much time with Snatcher or just how she naturally was and that’s what had drawn her to Snatcher in the first place?

“Why?” the Conductor asked to avoid dealing with that question.

“Because she’s horrible and awful and evil and just the pecking worst.”

Well if Hat Kid hated this Vanessa person so much she must be truly terrible, worse than Snatcher because Hat Kid didn’t hate him. And come to think of it, hadn’t the Conductor heard tales about an Ice Queen Vanessa? She’d frozen her entire kingdom, killing everyone in it, or something like that, right? So yeah, she probably deserved to have her house burnt down at least.

“Fine.” The Conductor sighed. “I’ll talk to them.” And they probably would do as he asked because in his experience, fire spirits tended to more often than not. He’d always assumed it was because he was half fire spirit but maybe it was something else like Snatcher had suggested? … Nah, no way. And he didn’t care anyway. He just wanted done with this business as soon as possible so he could leave the damn forest.

For this drabble event.

[chonisbestmistake]

Missed opportunities and second chances [2]

[part 1]

Lisa x Female!Reader

Warnings: fluff, angst

Word count: 2,626

Summary: You broke up with Lisa almost three years ago. Then you met Jennie at the store and this is not something she expected. At all.

NOTE: It`s kind of a mid-part because I decided to split the 2d part in two and feed you all. All of your answers are gonna be answered in the 3d part. Soon.

It was a Saturday morning when you finally had the courage to text Jennie. You’ve been thinking about pros and cons of reaching out to her for a whole week, finally deciding it wouldn`t be so bad to have her back in your life again. The only thing still concerning you was that Jennie was Lisa`s friend, which means she`ll know about their little get-together in no time. Or she already knew. About you and Vanessa. Jennie wouldn`t hide it from her friends even if you asked her to, it was obvious. And that was indeed a problem. You weren`t ready to discuss anything with them, especially with Lisa. Thought you doubted she`d want to even look at you after all these years. Anyway, it was a matter of time before they knew everything, so you let your fears go and texted Jennie like a brave woman would do.

~

You: Hey, it`s Y/N.

Jennie: Finally! I thought you forgot about me.

You: Just been busy with work and stuff, you know. Do you still want to meet up?

Jennie: Hell yeah I do! Are you free today?

You: Yeah, I just need to pick Nessie up from her dance classes and I’ll be free. 

Jennie: Great! I wanna see this cutie again, can you take her too? Let`s meet at this cafe, I’ll send you the address.

You: Sure. See you! Nessie says hi by the way.

Jennie: Tell her hi too! Can`t wait to see you guys again.

~

“Are we here yet?” Vanessa was bouncing in her car seat, always ecstatic about going out and seeing new places. You were amazed at how energetic she was even after two hours of dancing and jumping around. Every time you picked her up she was blabbing non-stop with that high-pitched excited voice about new kids she met and new moves they learned and you honestly couldn`t feel happier.

“Almost.” You answered, pulling your car to the parking lot and smiling at your child. 

“What about now? Here?” Nessie tried to look out of the window, sighing happily when you stopped the vehicle. 

“Let me unbuckle you first, kiddo.” You got out of the car and put Vanessa down, stretching her outfit. Her pigtails were a little messed up from jumping, so you fixed them quickly, getting a small ‘thank you’ in return. “Let`s go now.” 

Taking Nessie`s hand, you made your way to the small cafe on the side of the street. A sweet scent of coffee enveloped you both when you came in and Vanessa instantly sighed at the sight of cookies and other desserts on the shelves. You chuckled slightly and pulled her further in, promising to buy some sweets and searching for the familiar eyes.

Jennie was sitting in the farthest corner, hidden by the curtains, with a cup of fresh latte and a phone in the other hand. She was chatting excitedly with a blonde girl by her side and when your eyes met - you immediately recognized her. Her eyes widened and you smiled shyly. Nessie let go of your hand and ran to meet Jennie while you were still staring at Rosé.

“Hey, sweetie pie! How have you been?” Jennie pulled Vanessa up on the couch and hugged her tightly. Nessie was ecstatic that her new friend greeted her so warmly and giggled loudly.

“Hi, aunty Jennie! I’ve been great, thank you!” She sent her a toothy smile, turning back to look at Rosé. You realized you zoned out and made your way to the coach, sending Rosé a smile. She stood up instantly and wrapped her arms around you in a tight hug.

“Chae.” You sighed, burring your nose in her neck and returning the embrace. 

“Y/N, I missed you so much!” She let go of you and you two sat down. Rosé turned to Vanessa with a beaming smile, who was examining her curiously.

“Hi! I’m Chaeyoung. But you can call me Rosie if you want.” She said sweetly and your daughter grinned, nodding.

“I`m Vanessa, nice to meet you! Are you mommy`s friend too?” She asked Chaeyoung and looked at you for approval.

“Yes, baby, we`ve known each other before you were even born, can you imagine?” You said in a playful tone and Vanessa gasped in surprise.

“Woah, that`s a whole lot!” Her eyes widened comically and she grinned at Rosé, holding her little fist up above the table. Chaeyoung paused for a moment and then chuckled in realization, fist-bumping her gently.

“You`re so cute, oh my God.” She whined, poking her cheeks and Vanessa giggled happily.

After a while, your nervousness faded completely and it started to feel like an old`s friend get-together. A waiter brought a set of cookies and some drinks to the table, Vanessa was enjoying her meal and the conversation was floating peacefully between the three of you. The girls talked about their love life, the comebacks, family matters and you were happy to hear they were finally getting their freedom after almost six years of being in a cage, as you used to call their company. Rosé was texting someone when Nessie called her attention suddenly.

“You look like a princess!” Nessie sighed in awe and you and Jennie shared a good laugh while Rosie`s face was turning crimson.

“Why do you think that?” She asked shyly and you answered before anyone could process the question.

“It`s the blonde hair. She has a thing for Rapunzel and we`ve seen it for a hundred times already.” You sighed dramatically, patting your child`s had.

“Yes, she`s my favorite!” Nessie giggled and bit another cookie like there was no tomorrow. 

“Aww, that`s nice to hear. I like her a lot too!  But don`t tell that to Lisa or Chu, she`s their favorite and they`re going to tickle me to death if they know.” Chaeyoung rolled her eyes playfully and your heart skipped a beat even though you were in the conversation with Jennie.

“Chu..?” Nessie tilted her head and Rosé hurried to explain.

“Jisoo and Lisa, our friends. Lisa actually has a strange hair color that I can’t really explain because it changes so quickly, but Jisoo`s a redhead. You`re going to love them though, they`re so funny!” Chaeyoung chuckled and Vanessa tried to smile with her mouth full, failing miserably.

“Chae, what are you talking about?” Jennie asked, concern written all over her face because she knew you wouldn`t be happy at the idea.

“Oh, Jichu texted me they were nearby and I told them where we are, so they decided to come and meet Vanessa as well. They`re so excited! Chu`s been dying to see you, Y/N.” She answered easily and you sighed, trying to organize your thoughts. Jisoo was one thing. But you were definitely not prepared to meet Lisa right now nor introduce her to Vanessa. “Y/N, I hope you don`t mind? I`m sorry I didn`t ask beforehand, but it`s been so long…”

“I`m not sure if it`s a good idea, Chae…” You desperately tried to think about any excuse to escape the situation and avoid meeting the girls but the doorbell already rang in the distance and you immediately heard their voices before you even saw them turning around the corner. Your hand unintentionally flew to Vanessa in a protective gesture which didn`t go unnoticed by Jennie. She frowned, probably trying to rationalize your actions but you didn`t give it a second thought because all of your attention was on the two women who were making their way to your table. They were wearing masks but their eyes were wide open, filled curiosity and excitement. Jisoo took off her mask, showing her pretty smile and Lisa followed her quickly, smiling shyly when they came closer.

“Y/N! My God, it`s been years.” You stood up, returning the hug, and realized you`ve been holding your breath this whole time. Vanessa was unusually quiet, sitting with Jennie, probably startled by the tension in the air. You looked at Lisa, who seemed lost and out of place, so you just smiled kindly and embraced her quickly, braking the ice like it was nothing.

“Hi, Lisa.” You whispered in her ear gently. Her sent was so familiar yet it felt like a distant memory. You zoned out for a moment but caught yourself quickly and let her go, owning a small shy ’Hi’ in return. It was obvious she didn’t know how to act around you yet and you felt just the same, desperately trying to look confident. Meeting an ex was never an easy task. 

The free of you sat down and Vanessa crawled to your lap, wrapping her hands around your neck and looking at two girls with suspicion and curiosity. She seemed to notice your discomfort and came to the rescue. It made your heart flutter and you smiled at how protective and sensitive she was already at such a young age. You loved your little girl so damn much.

“Aww, cutie.” Jisoo cooed at the view and you remembered that all eyes were on you now.

“It`s okay, baby. Don`t worry, I’m okay.” You whispered in her ear and she relaxed against your front. In the corner of your eye, you saw Lisa tilt her head curiously, like a puppy, and smile at your daughter.

“Hi, I`m Lisa!” She said in a cute voice and held her fist up. You saw Nessie`s eyes widen comically in excitement and everyone chuckled when she hurried to bump her fist in return, almost falling off your lap. Her little palm looked even smaller in comparison to Lisa`s and it made your heart ache.

“I`m Vanessa.” She grinned happily and you couldn`t help but smile brightly, admiring your child. Your nerves started to ease again, though it was still hard for you to look Lisa in the eyes, so you focused on your baby girl completely.

“I`m Jisoo, nice to meet you, Vanessa.” The older girl smiled and fist-bumped her too, noting the similarity between you and your daughter out loud. It made you blush and you felt pride warming your chest. Giving birth was really the best decision you`ve ever made.

“Chichu.” Nessie chuckled loudly and Jisoo glared at two other girls that were laughing hysterically. Lisa followed them shortly, adding a little 'You`re dead, guys.’ in between.

“It wasn`t me!” Jennie giggled while Chaeyoung hid her face in her hands, snickering and moving away from Jisoo`s grasp before she could catch her by the elbow.

“You`ll gonna pay for that, Chipmunk.” Jisoo shot her a death glare and everyone laughed again. You felt yourself relax in their company and you were thankful they made everything easier. They were just like that. And all of your concerns about meeting Lisa again faded into the background.

“So, Y/N, tell me everything! What have you been up to? How did you get this little nugget over here?”

“I`m not a nugget!!!”

You talked for about an hour and it felt like you never parted. Vanessa made everything seem so simple, carefree and bright, and by the end of the conversation, everyone was completely in love with her. You answered all of their questions, avoiding the topic of Nessie`s other parent like a plague. Jennie was paying close attention to you again, but you brushed it off, thinking she`s just missed you that much. Lisa was being unproblematic and you were thankful she didn`t mention anything about your horrible break up. To be honest, all of your previous fears were useless. It`s like she was the same Lisa you knew years ago - bright and funny, but now she was more mature and it seemed like she thought twice before saying anything. You were really enjoying their company and Vanessa seemed to like them just as much.

“Mommy!” She gasped suddenly in horror and you felt your heart speed up. “I forgot Nicky at the studio!”

“Oh my God, Nessie, you gave me a heart attack.” You sighed, closing your eyes and leaning back on the couch, and the girls chuckled. “We`ll get him back later, i promise. But please, don`t scare me like that ever again.” Vanessa nodded and returned to her noodles you ordered a while ago like she didn`t just nearly killed all of your nerve cells.

“A studio?” Rosie perked up and you snickered. Of course, she wouldn`t just skip something related to music in any sense.

“I dance!” Nessie answered happily and a noodle fell out of her mouth, making Jennie burst out laughing. You picked the food up and wiped her face gently.

“You like to dance?” Lisa asked excitedly and Jisoo rolled her eyes, grinning.

“Yes! It`s the best thing in the whole wooorld!” She nodded eagerly and Lisa high-fived her, asking Vanessa to show her some moves later.

“I wonder who she got it from…” Jennie muttered under her nose, but you heard it clearly. You frowned, catching her eyes with your own, but she didn`t look away, and you couldn`t help but tilt your head in question. She didn`t say anything, eyes falling to her phone quickly, so you changed the subject.

“Alright guys, we still have to go back to that studio and it`s someone`s nap time soon, so we better head out.” You said and Vanessa shook her head quickly with eyes full of concern.

“It`s not mine, mommy!” She looked tired already and was about to start getting fussy, but you still brushed her hair gently, took the money out of your purse and stood up.

“Yeah, it`s mine.” You smiled at her pouty lips and Chaeyoung cooed. “I so need a nap.” You said, showing how exhausted you were by rubbing your eyes softly.

“Okay then, mommy. I’ll stay with you when you get your beauty sleep, aright?” She nodded confidently and jumped off the couch in a second.

“Thank you, baby, you`re the best!” The girls stood up too to say goodbye and you smiled at them, still not believing everything went so good. 

“How are you so good with her?” Jisoo chuckled, hugging you and you grinned, returning the embrace. “I thought she was about to have a tantrum like any other kid would. You`re a magician!”

“Practice, duh. And, I’m the best.” 

“You sure are.” Jennie snickered, kissing your cheek.

“Don`t forget to say goodbye, Nessie.” You told your kid, who was hugging Rose tightly. 

“Bye-bye, aunty Jennie, bye-bye, aunty Rosie, bye-bye, aunty Jichu, bye-bye, aunty Lisa!” She lost her breath byt the time she said goodbye to everyone and the girls burst out laughing, melting completely. You hugged Jisoo and Lisa and took Nessie`s hand in yours.

“It was so good to see you guys!” You said on your way out while Vanessa was waving excitedly.

~

Lisa`s smile was still imprinted on your mind when you were putting Nessie to sleep that night and it felt so odd to think again about a woman you haven`t seen for so long yet who was related to you so much. She was still that Lisa you knew back then, but it seemed like she was completely a different person now and you couldn`t help but worry if this get-together with your ex would be a good thing for you or not. It got worse when Jennie texted you again that same night, wanting to meet up and promising that it would be just you and her this time. You were starting to get worried that she might be suspicious or if she knew something she didn`t need to, but you tried to reassure yourself that there was no way she would know. Right? You didn`t get much sleep that night, holding Nessie closer to your chest than usual, flashbacks of your past coming back to you till the sun rose in the morning and Vanessa opened her sparkly eyes again.

[luxurylives]

Missing Pieces Epilogue

Pairing: Logan x Ellie Wheeler

Book(s): Ride or Die: A Bad Boy Romance     

Word Count: 1,741

Rating: T (Mild language)

Summary: Logan and Ellie say goodbye

Author’s Note: At first, I was going to end with Part 7, but I decided to do this instead, it’s more open-ended. Pixelberry Studios owns the characters. Thank you so much to those who read!

 Tagging: @desireepow-1986 @rodappreciationweek @leelee10898 @choicesarehard @shadowycreatorpaperopera @client-327 @brightpinkpeppercorn @liam-rhys @silverofdreams @mfackenthal

“Detective Salinas”.

Javier turned around to see Captain Michael Wen approach his desk. “Yes?”

“What did we talk about yesterday?”

The gruff and exasperated tone of his voice sent a chill down his spine. “Captain let me explain— “.

“Salinas, I will only say it one more time. You are not on the case regarding the Mercy Park Crew and the Brotherhood, it was turned over to the FBI— “.

“Captain, I think there is something we overlooked”.

“Salinas, what did I just say? It’s done, now clock out and go home, that’s an order”. 

Javier frowned and began to shuffle the files back into the box. 

Before Michael headed back into his office, he placed a hand on Javier’s shoulder. “Listen, I know that case hits home for you because of Salazar— “.

“Emilio was like a brother to me” Javier answered sharply. 

“I know, I assigned you after Wheeler left abruptly— “.

“That right there! Doesn’t that seem odd to you? A ‘Decorated Officer’ decides ‘I don’t feel like it’ and quits the investigation?”

Michael took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Detective, you need to calm down”.

Javier tossed a few papers aside and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just wish I could have stopped Emilio from going down that road”.

“Salinas, he made his choice, and as far as Wheeler goes, that was his decision”.

Javier slowly turned to face his boss. “Captain, I’m aware of that but— “.

Michael held up a hand defensively. “Look, if there are any updates, I will let you know but for now, it is out of our hands. I want you to clock out, go home, and get some sleep, are we clear?” 

Javier begrudgingly stood up from his desk. “Alright, see you tomorrow”.

Captain Wen gave him a polite nod and sauntered back into his office. Once the door was closed, Javier slid a few files into his messenger bag and headed out. 

As Javier walked to his car, his thoughts drifted back to all of the testimonies he read, security tapes he watched, and evidence he poured over. There was no way he was going to let this go, his cousin was dead, and the FBI was moving at a snail’s pace. The Brotherhood and the Mercy Park Crew must be held accountable.

 Logan awoke, gulping, and desperate for air. 

“Logan? What’s wrong?”

“Huh? What?” he asked worriedly. 

“Are you okay?”

Logan rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. What the hell? Was that a dream? Or a nightmare?

“Logan?”

“Sorry I…I had a dream”.

Ellie sat up in bed and gently rubbed his back. “About what?”

Logan hesitated for a moment; his heart thumped rapidly.

“Here let me get you something to drink,” Ellie said.

Logan gently grabbed her arm and shook his head. “No it’s fine…it’s just…the dream felt so real…”. 

KNOCK KNOCK

“Who is that?” Logan asked worriedly. 

“I’m not sure…it’s pretty late” Ellie reached for her phone to check the time. “Wait here”.

Logan absently ran a hand through his hair while Ellie slipped on a hoodie, slippers, and left the bedroom to answer the door. 

 “Hi, can I help you?”

“You’re Ellie Wheeler, right?”

“Yeah...what’s going on?” Ellie defensively folded her arms across her chest. 

“My name is Vanessa Kingsley; I’m an R.A. at Edwin Hall— “.

“Wait, what does this have to deal with me? I’m in singles housing— “.

Vanessa held up her hand as a signal to let her finish. “I understand that, but I’m here because someone filed a complaint about a parked car without a Langston parking sticker”.

Ellie nervously bit her lip; she could tell where this was going. 

“Also, this isn’t the first complaint because that same car was seen at Stein Hall in the President’s spot and at Foredale. Now, I know this isn’t your car because I saw you talking to the driver and so did campus security”.

Ellie anxiously picked at her nails

“Not to mention— “.

“Look, I’ll talk to my friend about it” Ellie interjected quickly. 

Vanessa pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at her. 

Ellie started to back away and close the door. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired, I have a huge exam coming up”.

“Listen, I wasn’t going to say anything, but people talk, and I’ve heard a few rumors about you”.

“Rumors?”

“Just that you got mixed up in something with some people”.

Ellie bit her lip; it was obvious someone knew something but how? She quickly schooled her features and refocused on Vanessa. 

“I guess what I’m trying to say is if you are hiding a ‘friend’ who is in trouble with the law, it probably isn’t a good idea to bring them to college. Especially with you being on a scholarship”. 

Ellie started to speak, but immediately closed her mouth. 

“Have a good night and make sure that the car is moved, preferably now. Normally campus security deals with this so…consider this a favor”.

Before she could respond, Vanessa turned on her heel and disappeared into the night. 

Ellie sighed as she closed the door, as soon as she turned around, Logan emerged from around the corner. 

“I should go,” he said quietly. 

“Yeah…” Ellie said as her voice trailed off. 

Logan shook his head and walked back into the bedroom with Ellie on his heels. 

“Let me give you some money for a motel room”.

“No need, I’ll figure something out”.

“Logan…”.

“I will figure something out” Logan asserted as he took a few steps forward and planted a kiss onto her forehead. “It will be okay”.

Ellie wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly. “I’m just worried since…you know”.

“I know” Logan answered quietly. 

After a few minutes had passed, they pulled away from each other. “I need to pack so you don’t get any more trouble”.

Ellie shook her head and took a step back; her eyes began to water. “Right”.

Once Logan finished packing, he and Ellie exited her house and trudged across campus towards Edwin Hall. Despite the situation, they reflected on the memories they shared with the crew and theorized what the gang was up to. 

“So this dream you had earlier…”.

Logan paused as he and Ellie reached Langston’s quad. “What about it?”

“You were pretty freaked out…what happened?”

“Um…”.

“I can tell it’s bothering you, so spill”.

Logan sighed and took a seat on a bench. “Well…it all started after the crew split up…I was working in a bar with someone named Javier who helped me get in touch with my foster parents and then there was this girl— “.

“Girl?”

Logan froze and swallowed nervously. “Listen it’s not— “.

Ellie laughed heartily and rubbed his knee. “I know, I’m just messing with you”.

Logan smiled and wrapped an arm around her. “There were parts of that dream that made me question things”.

“Like what?”

“My family”.

“You know whenever you want to try and reconnect with them…I’d be happy to help”.

Logan gently squeezed her and smiled. “I just might take you up on that offer”.

Ellie reached for his hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “It’ll be okay, trust me”.

Logan leaned in and rested his forehead against hers. “What would I do without you?”

Just as Ellie leaned in to kiss him, both of them turned to see a security guard strolling nearby.

“We better get going” she cautioned. 

Both of them rose from the bench and walked down a nearby path, hand-in-hand. 

“Do you think Teppei has done stuff we don’t know about?”

Ellie pursed her lips; it was a valid question and something she thought about too. “I guess we’ll never know”. 

After a while, they arrived at the Edwin Hall parking lot where a silver 2012 Marconi LX was parked underneath a tree with multiple tickets on the windshield. 

“It’s so weird seeing you drive a sedan”.

“Can you imagine what Colt and Mona would say if they saw this?”

Ellie laughed heartily. “I can only imagine”. 

Logan grinned as he pulled out his keys to unlock the door. 

“Seriously, I hope this car isn’t giving you any trouble, I read that Marconi Automotive was sued a few months ago”.

Logan opened the backdoor and tossed his bag into the backseat. “I’ll be okay, besides Toby hooked me up with this one and did some work on it before I drove out here”. 

Ellie sighed gratefully. “I hope all of us can get together again…someday”.

“We will don’t worry” Logan affirmed as he closed the door and walked back towards her.

Ellie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her. “If you say so”.

Overhead, a series of claps rolled across the sky. 

“It’s about to storm” Ellie cautioned. “Do you think you’ll be okay about driving in the rain?”

Logan grinned as he enveloped her into his arms. “Yeah, I’ve been through much worse”.

After they held each other for a moment, he planted a kiss onto her forehead and pulled away. “This isn’t goodbye, its ‘see you soon’”. 

Ellie reluctantly took a step back. “Promise?”

“Promise” Logan answered firmly and kissed her once more. “Talk soon Troublemaker”.

The tears steadily flowed down her cheeks as he slid into the driver’s seat and started up the car. 

Above them, another round of thunder bellowed across the sky and raindrops began to fall. Logan sighed as he adjusted the rear view mirror and slowly pulled out of the parking lot. 

Ellie wept as she watched the sedan turn a corner and disappear from view. While she trudged back to the house, a small smile appeared on her face. Logan was resilient and something told her he was going to be just fine. 

 Once Logan got on the highway his thoughts drifted back to the Mercy Park Crew. Even though they weren’t blood-related, they had a special bond, something that was unmatched and unique. However, there was something about his dream that bothered him—everything felt so real…almost like a premonition.

“Did Teppei ever…no…but…? No, it’s impossible” he mused and quickly purged the thought from his mind.  

After cruising for a while, he noticed an exit coming up on his right. Logan wasn’t sure where it would lead to, but he had all night to find out. 

[artificialqueens]

All the Stories (Begin With You and Me) (Branjie) -- athena2

Summary: Brooke is nervous about taking anxiety meds for the first time, and Vanessa comforts her.

A/N: This is a little hurt/comfort gift for Writ, because they are the absolute best and I just adore them. It also ended up a little therapeutic for me, and I hope you enjoy! Please leave feedback if you’d like! This does focus on anxiety quite a bit, so please be cautious.

Title from Message in the Wind from Carole and Tuesday (Thanks Writ for introducing me to that song!)

Read on AO3

—

“It shouldn’t be a big deal, right?” Brooke laughs nervously. “It’s just a little pill.”

Vanessa rests a hand on Brooke’s back. “It’s okay if it is,” she says softly.

Vanessa is torn, because she doesn’t want to make this a big deal, doesn’t want to make Brooke any more self-conscious than she is. She wants taking medication to just be part of Brooke’s morning routine, as normal as packing their lunches. But on the other hand, she’s so proud of Brooke for getting help, for making this change, and Brooke deserves to be praised.

Vanessa decided waffles for breakfast were a good halfway-point, not too extravagant but enough to make the day a little special. She made enough noise to wake the city pulling their waffle maker out of the cupboard, pots and pans tumbling out in an avalanche that ruined the surprise when Brooke came running to see if she was okay. They made them together, Brooke stirring batter that Vanessa let sizzle on the iron, and the golden stack sits next to the bottle of pure Canadian maple syrup—because Brooke wouldn’t use anything else—and the Nutella Vanessa slathers on hers. Their coffee mugs–red with pink hearts for Vanessa and black with white cats for Brooke–steam on the table, lying in wait for their first glorious sips.

She knows this is a big step for Brooke, one that’s taken months, even years. Vanessa has known Brooke’s anxiety as long as she’s known Brooke. She’s reassured Brooke that people in the mall weren’t laughing at her, watched as she stuttered her way through ordering food, sweaty hands holding the menu in a death grip. She’s held Brooke’s hands to stop her from chewing her nails off in a fit of restlessness. She’s talked Brooke down from a panic attack, sitting on the bathroom floor and coaching Brooke to breathe with a light hand on her chest. She was there, even when it broke her heart to see Brooke hurting so much.

When Brooke broke down crying after an anxious spiral one night, cuticles raw and bleeding, whole body trembling even after Vanessa wrapped her in a blanket, Vanessa encouraged her to get help. It took a month of coaxing before Brooke finally called, leading to consultations and paperwork and appointments and the tiny orange bottle looming in front of them on the counter.

“I just…it feels weird to need meds,” Brooke says. Her shoulders slump and Vanessa’s heart aches for her.

Asking for help doesn’t come naturally to Brooke, she knows that. Brooke is a fierce perfectionist, a trait only deepened by her dance training. She’s used to pushing her feelings down, straightening her posture, and holding her head high to cover up the anxiety twisting in her stomach, the worries racing through her mind.

Waffles and comforting words can’t magically fix things, but Vanessa’s going to do her best, and rubs slow, soothing circles on Brooke’s back. “It’s okay to need meds. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. If you had high blood pressure or somethin’ and needed medicine, would you be ashamed?”

Brooke’s cheeks flush pink. “No.”

“Right,” Vanessa agrees. “It’s just medicine to help your brain out. That’s all.”

Brooke nods, picking up the pill. It’s almost in her mouth when she stops.

“What—what if they don’t work?” She asks quietly, eyes wide with a fear Vanessa wishes she could take away. She knows Brooke’s brain is already calling her a failure over the possibility that they won’t work, like it’s her fault.

“They might not,” Vanessa says truthfully, recalling the paperwork she and Brooke reviewed together. “But it’s not your fault if they don’t. The papers said certain meds don’t work for certain people, or maybe you’ll need a different dosage. But Dr. Cain will help with that, okay?”

“What if they…change me?”

“Well, they will a little bit,” Vanessa says. Honesty is what Brooke needs right now, the best way to calm her fears. “They’re gonna quiet down the things that make you anxious so you can feel better. But you’re still Brooke, right? You’re still caring and patient and smart and think you’re tough when you really just a big softie. You can still eat half a pizza in one sitting. You can still dance and watch cheesy movies with me.” Vanessa smiles, heart lifting as Brooke returns it. “You’re still Brooke. And I still love you.”

Brooke squeezes her hand and Vanessa squeezes back. She holds on tight as Brooke washes down her pill with a sip of water.

“Can we have waffles now?” Brooke asks sheepishly.

“Of course we can.”

—-

All day at work, Brooke tries to decide if she feels different. She knows the meds don’t work that fast, but she can’t stop staring at herself in the dance studio mirror and wondering if anything has changed.

Same blonde hair that she’ll release from its bun and let Vanessa run her fingers through tonight. Same green eyes that Vanessa says remind her of spring leaves. Same legs that Vanessa traces her fingers up, marvelling at how long they are.

The meds shouldn’t change much on the outside, but what about the inside? Will she know the meds are working? Will her thoughts feel different? Is she still Brooke without that voice in her head telling her to find every last typo in her emails so she doesn’t look unprofessional? Is she still Brooke without rehearsing her order 10 times so she doesn’t mess up and sound stupid?

The fact that she’ll have to keep taking medication is strange. Vanessa got her a sparkly black pill holder with a slot for each day, something Brooke would glance over in the section of the store loaded with fuzzy puff-ball keychains and holiday napkins on clearance and old planners with vaguely inspirational quotes–random stuff that was fun to look at, but that she never thought she’d actually need. She can’t quite shake the voices in her head–whether they’re her own, her parents’, or her old dance instructor’s, she can’t tell–saying that she’s inferior for needing them.

You don’t need help. You’re overreacting. There’s nothing wrong with you.

Stop crying and get your homework done.

No excuses. Focus.

She takes a deep breath like she learned in therapy. There’s another voice breaking through, stronger than the others, and it sounds like Vanessa’s.

There’s no shame in asking for help.

Brooke has never had to ask for help. She’s always been the perfect daughter, bringing home straight-A report cards and landing solos in dance recitals, a perfect image neglecting the stress that went into creating it, the sleepless nights studying and practicing routines. She could write an essay with shaky hands and tear-blurred eyes at 2am and still get an A. She didn’t need help. She could chew her lip until it bled while working on the studio’s finances and have it all come out fine. Her anxiety isn’t a problem if she still comes out on top. She didn’t need help. That’s just how she is.

Or how she was, because even if they take weeks to fully work, the meds are supposed to help with that. It wasn’t until she went to therapy that she saw the things she thought make her succeed just make her miserable. She didn’t need to spend her entire lunch hour deliberating over a three-line email, her stomach growling all day after her leftover stir-fry went untouched. She didn’t need to stay up past midnight quadruple-checking studio plans she finished hours before when she could be sleeping with Vanessa.

It’s the way she is, but maybe it didn’t have to be that way anymore.

People have given it many names since she was a kid, in hushed voices like it was some scandalous secret no one was supposed to mention. Brooke was just a worrier. A perfectionist. Detail-oriented. Type A. High-strung. Fussy. It wasn’t until she was sitting in her office that Dr. Cain told her its name: anxiety.

It was anxiety that whispered in her ear and told her she wasn’t good enough. Anxiety that told her a booming laugh from fifty feet away was aimed at her, that she had done something stupid. It was anxiety that told her she didn’t need help, that she didn’t deserve it when people needed it more, that she needed the anxiety to function. But Dr. Cain said none of that is true. She deserves help, and she doesn’t need anxiety to function.

Brooke hasn’t told Vanessa, but she’s scared. All those things–the worrying, the perfecting, the what if-ing–have been part of her as long as she remembers, from when she stayed up way too late as a child worrying about bad things happening at school. She doesn’t want to keep those parts, especially after Dr. Cain showed her how harmful they are, but she’s had them for so long that she’s afraid to lose them. She honestly doesn’t know who she is without the worrying, without the fretting, without the need to be perfect.

You’re still Brooke, Vanessa said.

Vanessa is right. She is still Brooke. She’s still going to let the dog and cats cuddle with her on the couch when they can hardly fit. She’ll still going to make popcorn and let Vanessa choose on movie nights just to see her smile before they trade salty-buttery kisses. She’s still going to work in the studio, and dip French fries (maybe or maybe not stolen from Vanessa’s plate) into her vanilla milkshake, and fall asleep with her wife in her arms. She’s still Brooke, who loves Vanessa with all her heart.

And nothing will ever change that.

—

The smell of chicken with lemon and garlic fills the kitchen, Vanessa tending to the stove in her pajamas (‘Who says I can’t put my pj’s on right after work? It ain’t against the law’).

Brooke knows that no matter what happens, whether the meds work on the first try or need adjusting, if she has any side effects or not, Vanessa will be there, and that’s enough.

“You have a good day?” Vanessa asks.

Brooke answers her with a kiss. “You were right.”

“Ain’t I always?” Vanessa smiles. “But about what?”

“I’m still Brooke. And I still love you.”

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

Any complaints or problems you have with Ahit game (plot/story wise)?

A lot of my thoughts have already been said before but only main complaint is mu, some weird characterization, and cut content:

Not really a secret that mu was done dirty as a character but from a game standpoint her plot feels kinda clunky? You play the game and get so wrapped up in subcon and dbs and the alps that you kinda forget she’s there, I feel like the game would have benefited from the cutscene with mu and snatcher being added back in, as well as the cafe scene so the mu fight feels more natural that the characters like you and wanna be friends because in canon it doesn’t fully hold up with how they act to you in the fights

OH and I think hatties diary should be more prominent to show her POV more, like think of if after every chapter ends you get to read her respective entry about it! It’d be really cute plus add more insight to her thoughts, similarly to the cafe scene for the other characters youknow? also would have loved if giving mu the timepiece was at her fight when you beat her instead, like as an option to either take it back to your ship or give it to her like so SHE fixes things back to normal and it’s not hatkid having to fix her mess it’s mu learning her lesson, plus it would be more sweet, kinda reminds me of undertale when you get to choose to spare or kill flowey or when you hug asriel it’s like that sorta vibe I’m still mad that the ending doesn’t change, though this is a case where I wouldn’t use the cut cutscene bc hat adult doesn’t exactly fit with the canon game to me so this is the only cut cutscene I wouldn’t add back but yeah if I was a modder I would so try to do these ideas because I think it could definitely help with things being less clunky

I also think the third floor of the manor could have been reused/reworked to be more fun instead of just being scrapped, like imagine if it was made into more of a maze type idea where Vanessa chases you? It has a pretty good layout for a maze type thing already well, though it would need to be edited a bit to not have beta lore but I definitely think it would help, my friend was playing it and he said it was too short I definitely think the third floor could be perfect for a more scary final room with just walls to hide with you have no tables or rooms to use like the other floors it could add more suspense I think! Also I’d love for a few more diaries like more stuff with Vanessa as a kid or meeting prince I would have loved for more letters from him besides the one or maybe he gets his own diary just one page extra would be good like with all the papers on the walls theres good opportunity to show Vanessas decent or maybe diaries from prince where he’s worried about her or something I think it’s a cool idea if the second floor is showing her manipulative tendencies in life and the third gets to show the aftermath, it would add to the creepiness definitely

Also: grooves should have been on the cruise too and or whoever is on the cruise is dependent on who you fought, I also think conductors reasoning for wanting the timepiece should have been reworked because it works for grooves he's the one who is best for for being the one you fight, but I feel like conductors motives just are bad it makes him seem like way more of an asshole which yeah he is but he’s not like a straight up bad scummy guy especially compared to how he acts in the grooves fight, it just doesn’t fit to me like maybe there can be a backstory into the specific movie it was he lost, maybe it had a family member acting in it or maybe that family member wrote it so the movie meant a lot to him and had some sentimental value, but it lost because the writing ofc wasn’t up to par with HIS writing so grooves got the award, youknow just something small like that helps so much, plus to make his grandkids in the cruise feel more natural if we are told about them or his kid or youknow just SOMETHING to make his motive work besides “lol I hate grooves and I’m the best” like grooves at least had more substance in his motives for them to work, his was more justified idk it’s just bothered me ig?

like I said No real complaints complaints but mostly just stuff that could be added to make the characters motivations and personality more set in stone and make the story flow a bit nicer is all? I guarantee if the above mentioned stuff was in the game I think it would fix a lot of the fandom issues lol

[scrapyardboyfriends]

Caught up on 3 weeks of Emmerdale that I’ve been avoiding. Haha. I definitely needed that 3 week break though because I was not ready to just move on from Robert that first week after he left. And binge watching it all way after the fact makes it a lot more palatable and certain parts of it less painful because I’d seen all the Aaron stuff in gifs already and I’d already gotten a lot of my frustrations out about all that. 

Of everything from these last three weeks, I think I’ve enjoyed the Lydia stuff the most. I mean I hate the thought of them giving her a ticking time bomb of an eventual death sentence with this Huntington’s thing but I think it’s great that they’re expanding her family and giving her more focus. It’s hard to believe that she started out as a bit part grief counselor that Jimmy met for a comedy plot. She’s become such a great character since then and it’s so nice to see. 

I also enjoyed the general teen focus. I mean, the Sarah/Danny stuff is really kind of random and I don’t really know where they’re going with all of that but I like that her need to experience more of life has given the teens more to do. And I like her and Noah hanging out and him sort of trying to look out for her. And Samson having something to say about it all. It’s been really nice seeing Gabby again. I’ve missed her. I hope they do give her a real storyline again some day but until then, it’s nice seeing her in a background and supporting role. I like her actually being friends with Leanna now and I’ve liked seeing her and Leanna and Dee Dee altogether even if Dee Dee’s accent still drives me insane. Haha. 

I wasn’t sure what the Jacob stuff was going to be like from the live blogging I’ve been reading but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, boy still needs therapy badly because he’s clearly so messed up. But I’m glad Maya getting out did at least bring all of this stuff back up and give it a chance to escalate and arrive at some kind of attempt at closure. I still think it would have been better to do this months ago rather than letting it sit for this long but I’m glad it wasn’t dropped and that they built on everything that they’d done before with Priya too. I’m still not sure Jacob totally gets what Maya did to him but hopefully he’s at least starting to. I do agree that David’s methods were not the best and haven’t been since he found out because he should have gotten him help ages ago instead of leaving him to fend for himself and hoping he’d just get over it. I guess we’ll see where it goes from here. It does break my heart that he equates people being nice to him with wanting to have sex with him. That is not good. 

I felt bad for Leanna in the whole thing but again, it was nice to have a focus on teen stories and let Gabby support her a bit and I liked Liv FINALLY being able to talk to people her own age and have coffee with Gabby and yell at Jacob. This is where Liv needs to be more often. 

The Vanity break up stuff was interesting. I still don’t like that this break up came off the back of the casino job which seemingly came out of nowhere. The thing is that their break up addressed very real issues, which I believe that they would have. I liked that they tied in Vanessa’s visit with her mum and how she felt about Frank into how Vanessa feels about Charity doing all of her scheming. It’s just that I don’t think we got enough of that stuff before this to have this be some kind of payoff. They’ve been too lax with them. They haven’t been sharing as many scenes. They have sort of forgotten their wedding prior to it now being an excuse Charity was saving money. So even though the break up made a lot of sense for their characters in terms of the issues they were fighting about, I don’t think the build up was there. And certainly the fallout wasn’t. I kind of preferred them broken up and just being bad at it because they were still talking all the time. That’s the most interested in them I’ve been in them in a while. Although since there was zero build up to their break up drama, I’m not sure how it could have lasted much longer than it did considering that they kept having scenes together anyway and there was really not much stopping them getting back together. But I think they should have let it go on for way longer and tried to find something in there to make it worth while rather than just Charity swearing she’ll change. But who knows, maybe this won’t last and this was papering over the cracks and Charity will screw up again as she always does and then they’ll have a longer break up and they’ll get more out of it. 

On a Cain and Moira front...god. Hahaha. I was cracking up at that scene where she was just trying so hard to find a reason why she had the affair. Because there wasn’t one. It was dumb. Haha. That story is still such a mess. I did like Moira and Laurel talking though. That was nice. I just really can’t stand watching Cain and Moira in scenes together right now. I hope they keep them apart for a good long while. I was glad to see Matty and Vic and Amy all speaking to each other because of this plot though. So I guess there’s that.

Everything involving Kerry is still awful. I can’t believe she’s just going to get away with all of this Frank stuff. And Amy too. I mean, there’s obviously a very real possibility it will all come out in the end. These things usually do. But then...many many people still don’t know who shot Robert. So...who knows. But it’s bad. I’m very done with Kerry. And I hope they don’t put her back with Dan because what’s the point? And if they don’t do that, why is she even there at all at this point? Amy at least is still a mostly viable character even though I still want the truth to come out for her too just so she can move on from that. 

The Arthur/Archie stuff was...a thing. It’s a lot. I mean I don’t know that Arthur would really go quite that dark so suddenly but it’s an interesting concept. A little curious and a little scared of where it will go. But both kids are doing a good job with it. Also glad Jai and Laurel are back on track for the moment. 

Graham and Rhona is umm...also a thing. Haha. It’s not terrible but he’s still so robotic it’s weird. Obviously not going to last though so who cares. It is what it is for now and it’s more tolerable than him hanging onto Kim. 

Speaking of Kim, I have no idea why she’s taken a sudden interest in Nate. Or why she’d be giving him Wylie’s if that’s true. All so weird. 

The Billy/Dawn stuff is cute. They’re very sweet together. Was it Billy that whacked Al over the head though? Cause that seems a bit extreme. I guess we’ll find out. I do like Marlon still getting involved in Billy stuff though. I’m glad they’re keeping that relationship alive. 

Chas and Paddy are still pretty insufferable. I just really hate them together. Haha. I don’t get it. And I think it’s weird we don’t really see Paddy being a hands on dad. I mean I know the story was about Chas this past week with the feeding stuff but even still, we’ve barely seen him interacting with her. It’s weird. Especially for someone so intent on having a biological child. It’s really a shame how much they’ve ruined Paddy as a character for me over the last few years. 

The car stuff with Cain and Aaron was pretty uninspiring. I agree with that assessment from my dash. It was more about Cain but it wasn’t even interesting from his point of view either. It felt really lazy. As far as Charity goes and whose fault it was. I’m kind on team no one. They were all in the wrong really. Charity shouldn’t be forcing her kids on people who can’t actually watch them and especially not two days in a row. And Cain and Aaron shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing. Also Chas was just sort of wrong altogether and she annoys me. 

On the Aaron front...it did hurt way less so far after the fact to watch him smash up the photo and throw all of Robert’s stuff away. Although it hurt seeing him fold up the good two toned maroon jumper. You should keep that Aaron. It’s his best jumper. Wear it yourself. I’m still concerned the show isn’t going to give Aaron a proper emotional payoff in the end but oddly the random little scenes this past week gave me more hope for that than anything because he just looks so empty and like he’s going through the motions, apologizing to keep everyone else happy so his feelings aren’t inconveniencing them. I mean obviously we have those insane terrorizing Wendy spoilers so he is going to go further off the rails. I’m nervous how it’s all going to be framed on a Wendy front though. 

On principle, I still hate that Wendy is around. And Luke. It just makes me uncomfortable that they’re still trying to show her as a good helpful person and portray her as a victim when she hasn’t even apologized to Vic for harassing her and calling her a liar. I’m kind of dreading everything coming up on that front. But I’ll probably just binge it all after the fact so maybe it won’t be so bad. 

[emsartwork]

ask dump! Separated loosely by topic 

Questions and Comments

1. is this a homestuck thing. this is a homestuck thing isnt it  2. lol i love doing both!!! i love world building but i also like trying my hand at redesigning the mess that is canon fashion. @theoretical-artist​ 3. thank you!!! oritel and marion are in this post! 4. ayyyyy inginio hit me up (thank you lol) 5. Thank you! 6. maybe? i’ll see if i get around to it, i still have a few characters to get to so the school fairies and the last two selkies might show up with them 7. probably not.... it would be super fun but unless it was a commission i don’t feel like i have time haha 8. I’ve seen their blog around!! i can’t remember if i follow or not but i know who ur talking about and they cool @winxy-writing @winxys-written-world

Character and Worlbuilding

1. My brilliant nerd daughter!!! She sometimes gets so into coding or a video game she forgets to eat or drink so the girls watch out for her. She’s prone to dissociating, especially if the situation is emotional. Her hair is really soft. she actually loves sappy romantic things but has trouble accepting them or vocalizing that she wants them because they’re impractical/illogical. she discovered romcoms when she got to alfea and they are her ultimate guilty pleasure(only flora knows abt this and is always slipping recs to her) 2. They’re weirdly one of my fav couples??? like maybe its because i relate to and have projected onto both of them lmao. but any ways. Daphne and Thoren actually met when they were kids, but didn’t spend much time together because it was at a formal event. Daphne is technically 20 years older than Thoren(only a few years older than Sky), but they’re the same physical age because Daphne spent so long as a spirit. They probably wouldn’t get married as quickly in my version, especially with Daphne’s trauma. Daphne will have nightmares sometimes and Thoren has a whole routine for comforting her and helping her feel safe and grounded. Thoren gets anxious easily, and Daphne will use her magic to subtly change the environment so he feels more comfortable. they like to watch reality tv together and yell at dramatic people. 3. omg yes. this was the most frustrating thing i was watching through winx with my dad like a month ago and every time bloom called her adoptive parents by their first names i yelled at her lol. she would call Vanessa mama and Mike daddy(if you make a kink joke i will eat your liver). She would call Marion and Oritel mom and dad.  4. Yeah kind of! part of her exhaustion in Dowlland was the fact that she had been in fairy mode for so long, hiking underground, and tossed around in a river like??? anybody would need a pick me up after that. She (and all solarians) do have to live where there’s a lot of natural light as they require a high amount of vitamin d(or the equivalent of it for solarians). short trips usually aren’t a problem, Stella is just hella unlucky in the second season lmao. @moonpeachblossom 5. the short answer as to why she’s a blond (scottish??? in one of the dubs???) in an asian inspired culture/planet is because racism (or not so short bcus its a lot to unpack honestly). the answer in my version however is a pretty simple fix. She bleaches her hair. she’s paler than musa but she aint white.  6. I haven’t really yet!! Helia is struggling with his two fairly opposed cultural influences, trying to figure what he wants and whats right for him. He was raised on Lynphea but had frequent trips to Vaonaa. Lynphea is very grounded, they’re slow and steady and stubborn. Vaonaa is much more flexible, they’re flighty and spontaneous and easily adaptable. Helia’s dads love eachother and helia very much but they are VERY different people and both want different things from Helia(they try not to pressure too much but the expectations are still there). Helia’s Vaonaaj dad wants him to pursue magic, specifically wind or air magic. Helia’s Lynphean dad wants him to become a warrior. Helia feels like he’s kind of a misfit in both Vaonaaj and Lynphean culture. It took a while, but he did finally confide his feelings in Flora and she encouraged him to talk with his dads about finding his niche.  7. oooooooh fun fun relationshipsssss Bloom and Sky: so bloom and sky aren’t the most stable couple, and in my version it would take bloom a little longer to be ok with dating a prince. Bloom is fairly insecure in her relationships because of self worth issues, and tend to run away from problems instead of dealing with them. Sky on the other hand is confident but doesn’t really know how to handle people’s feelings and tends to push confrontation. I do believe that with better writing Sky and bloom could be a dope couple but as is in canon they’re VERY problematic.  Stella and Brandon: babies. they love each other so much its the best omg. Stella finds her worth in her appearance but she always seems to take brandon’s complements in a less.... arrogant way? if that makes sense? like she truly appreciates them and wants his support. i wish we knew more about Brandon but he’s legit such a good boyfriend. I think they fight mostly when Stella is being a little selfish, or when Brandon is too busy to meet her emotional needs. Flora and Helia: MORE BABIES. so Helia is more of a drama queen in the comics but we’ll ignore that for right now lol. Flora and Helia are probably the least problematic couple in the entire show. They met. Flirted a little. Confessed. and started dating with out any major problems. if i can remember correctly they don’t even really fight??? unless icy has frozen helia’s heart or something lol. I think both Helia and Flora’s love language is quality time so they’re fairly low key and just like to be in the same space and each other.   Musa and Riven: boy oh boy. Ok so, ignoring the several times Riven was LITERALLY MIND CONTROLLED his character is still difficult to deal with. I think Musa and Riven are both very intense people, and while that can be super fun and develop into a good relationship, it can also lead to LOTS of problems. I think my major problem with how they broke up was that Musa didn’t support Riven’s training? like i understand being upset you can’t see ur person often, or if they’re really busy, but Riven supported Musa’s music several times in the previous seasons it just seemed weird Musa was so unfairly demanding of him? Tecna and Timmy: nerd babies. They’re super cute honestly. I think Timmy was probably the one to instigate the relationship and bonded with Tecna over technology since she wasn’t super emotionally available at first. They have issues when Tecna is unable to voice her emotions and timmy needs to know what she’s feeling mostly, but after the first few times they’ve both learned to give the other space to figure their stuff out. Aisha and Nabu: ugh perfect couple. minus the kind of sketchy beginning lol. Aisha and Nabu generally don’t fight once they get used to each other. Nabu is a focal point that aisha is kind of bungee corded to if that makes sense? like obvi not in a restricting way. its just Aisha is hella active and needs her own space to explore and grow, but Nabu is her solid ground that she relies on.  Aisha and Nex: i actually don’t hate nex as much as the rest of the fandom lol. so like i said Aisha is an active, independent woman, and if Nabu was a separate, stationary, focal point for her, I think Nex is related, moving, counter point. So like Nex can actually keep up with Aisha, and push her and challenge her. Which isn’t a bad thing in relationships so long as a mutual respect is there.   8. well. canon is a little..... messy. My version of the girls definitely retain their individualism. for other differences... they’re just a little more fleshed out? i guess? like Bloom’s moody behavior in the show i think is because of her insecurity issues, so that plays a part in how i draw her and think of her.  9. ok wow this is gonna be tough well here we go Sky: I think sky is an ESTJ he’s not super emotional(inf Fe) but can lean toward controlling(dom Te). he seems to like tradition and think social promises are important(Si). Brandon: ESFJ. Brandon is the mom friend of the boys ok. He goes along with sky’s crazy plans, tries to subtly set Riven up with musa(season 1 i think?), some how managed to land a social butterfly like Stella and seems to just navigate social situations REALLY easily(dom Fe). he also seems to hate being disrespected or taken for granted(Si) stella does this occasionally.  Timmy: ISFJ???? thats the vibe i get hear me out ok so in season 2 Timmy gets tecna the exact computer part she needs because 1. He knows they both like things to be practical(Si) 2. He knows and remembered the part she was talking about and filed it away in his brain(Ti) and 3. He and Tecna bonded over tech (Fe) Riven: honestly he’s a tough one.... Maybe a really stunted and angry ISFJ? (speaking from personal experience i am an ISFJ) i don’t have a real reason why but riven’s behavior is really confusing in the show so it makes typing tough..... possibly INTJ as well....... Helia: ISFP. Lmao I might be basing this entirely off of stereotypes but helia has a strong pacifist belief and can be moody(Fi, and more in the comics lol) is attuned to his surroundings(Se) seems pretty focused??(Ni) and i can’t think of his Te showing up be it is an inferior  Nabu: ISTJ weirdly a good fit with Aisha(ESTP) tho?? even though he’s an Si dom, he doesn’t go along with the arranged marriage because its not what he believes(Fi) and he’s stubborn about it(Te). Roy: ENFJ honestly just a cutie. He’s personable(Fe), focused for the most part(Ni), and is comfortable in his environment(Se).  Nex: ENTP? maybe?? He’s pretty impulsive and has that “work around” mentality I associate with ENTPs.... idk this one doesn’t seem to fit super well...  Thoren: Maybe INFJ?? i mean thoren honestly doesn’t have a lot of screen time but he’s attentive(Ni), and tries to take care of people(Fe). most of the infj’s i know are fun but weird lol, but i think thoren has anxiety so that could play into him being less “out there” in his behavior.  if any of yall have input on this feel free to let me know. 10. ooooooh good question. So I’m basing these on their parent’s name and the names of people from their planet. Bloom: Hestia or Enya, i also think she got sent to earth with an article of clothing or a blanket that had her name on it, which is why her name is the same lmao Stella: Stella is actually named pretty appropriately considering the other names we have are Luna, Radius, Nova, Chimera, and Casandra, all of those are fairly latin/roman based names.  but she could also be called Clara, Aura, Venus etc. Musa: Her mom and dad have very asian sounding names but the princess of melody is named Galatea, so honestly anything is on the table. Aulos, Hee-Young, Jia Li, Kaida, etc. Tecna: lol everybody on Zenith has ridiculous names so im just loosely basing them off of sciencey stuff. Nobelia, Xenon, Titania. Aisha: I actually really like Aisha’s name! Ayize, Sizani, Mehrbano would work tho. Flora: what even is the naming system of Lynphea i don’t understand it. Im gonna make them vaguely naturey and European-ish?? Calla, Terra, Rowan, Willow, I could go on and on there are so many plant names. 11. Hmmm yeah, so basically in my world a person with TOO MUCH magic gets overwhelmed and kinda goes a little crazy(the ancestral witches) the same thing happens with tritannus when he gets the emperor's throne power. He’s loyal to icy and she to him until he looses his ability to think clearly and turns on icy, icy gets freaked out and leaves with her sisters when they swoop in to rescue her. they don’t so much “break up” as they are “broken up” by the circumstances. In general Tritannus does really like Icy, hes attracted to her ambition and powerful personality. Icy started out just manipulating Tritannus but caught feelings oops 12. Yeah so, humans in general can withstand a lot of wild magic as their body “metabolizes” it quickly. Kalshara(the cat lady you don’t know the name of) used extremely concentrated samples, combined with other spells to keep the wild magic in her body permanently. If a human with out a properly developed magic biome (a lot of earthians only have a low functioning one) get exposed to a wild magic source they would probably gain some aspects of fairy animals, probably not like, fur, or anything but eye and hair color changes, maybe some patterns on the skin. but there’s also the chance that they would just.... die..... cus that happens with animals too lmao sry. @weirdghostly

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

So I have a curious question: as both a writer and someone who genuinely seems to care about Dan Humphrey and his character arc, how would you handle the concept of a "dark!Dan" arc, given the chance? As much as I HATE Dan's season 6 storyline and Sara Goodman's handling of the "dark!Dan" thing, I can't help but feel that there's a small nugget of something interesting there. S6!Dan was clearly written just to prop up Chuck, but I wonder what might have been if the writers still cared about Dan.

this is actually a difficult one to answer, mostly because i have too many thoughts. well, here’s to trying! (to the surprise of Nobody, this got pretty long!) 

uh so, the thing i noticed about dan on first watch but became even more clear while i was rewatching certain episodes is that he’s very... passive isn’t the right word, nor is tolerant, but at the same time, something along those lines? dan keeps quiet when people hurt him or disappoint him - he doesn’t really do anything with that hurt. notable example is vanessa’s coming back? vanessa tries to pick up where they left off, and dan sorta goes along with it to the extent where both jenny and rufus need to tell vanessa that things aren’t how they were before when she left + that she actually really hurt dan - because dan isn’t telling her this himself. 

basically, dan seems to be, by nature, VERY non-confrontational.

given this, i feel like dan’s whole exposé thing in s6 is very out of character  - being like “oh yeah i’m going to actively ruin the lives of the people around me and show no remorse!” feels super uncharacteristic to dan, especially out of the blue like that. 

when it comes to “tolerance” - i don’t know what better word to use,  but throughout the show we see a few instances in which dan spends time with people he doesn’t like, for his own benefit or simply because it’s easier than getting out of that situation. for example, him hanging out with chuck for the charlie trout story, despite regarding chuck with the highest distaste - he puts all that aside because he needs that story, and he’s determined to get it, because he wants to succeed so badly. to some extent, i think that is bad writing (i don’t see dan forgiving someone who hurt jenny that easily or that casually) but at the same time it does fit in with the rest of dan’s character - imo he forgives georgina too easily in the s3 arc, which. does he really believe that she’s changed? maybe! but it feels weird to me because it’s like, while dan seems to have such high morals for himself he doesn’t really care what his friends are like, which i think is INTERESTING. 

based on how you interpret the show canon, dan i think has had somewhere between 1 and 5 friends before the whole thing with serena, & most of these friends are his family (which is sad, i mean. rufus is rufus, alison LEFT, and jenny’s his little sister so there’s definitely things he can’t possibly talk to her about) or vanessa, who left pretty abruptly and hurt him pretty badly. i think given this, it makes sense that he would get into really weird and unhealthy friendships, because he doesn’t have much experience with healthy friendships and ends up just settling. 

when we’re talking about dark!dan, these two things become super essential to me - dan’s non-confrontational slightly passive attitude to his friends, and the fact that he, potentially, could get in unhealthy friend groups and not realise it. i joke a lot about how the dan & georgina dynamic in s6 was my favourite part of the season, but it’s not actually a joke!! i can see how like. dan is still “friends” with georgina, and georgina loves to call the shots, and dan doesn’t mind doing what he’s being told. georgina for the most part seems sympathetic to dan’s problems, and dan, enabled by that friendship and her being there with him, goes and causes absolute havoc. sounds right! like, not the exposés themselves, but just the fact that someone needed to Be There Encouraging Dan to be Bad - i think That’s how it’d start. 

i can imagine dan getting in with the wrong group of people, or whatever - like, dan having friends like s1 carter baizen. and it’d start innocently enough, like “oh these kids who are millionaires and billionaires don’t ever face any consequences for their actions and end up treating people from other class brackets like shit” and evolve into something like dan scamming nate at poker out of spite, and then realising that he’s in this group wayyy too deep, because, yes, he hates the rich kids as a matter of principle, and he’s been bitter about it for a long time, but “isn’t this going a bit too far, guys?” at this point though, much like jenny surrounded by her clique of mean girls, he doesn’t have an easy escape. “no,” carter will say. “we’ve only just begun. do you trust me?” and dan’s friendship is just Like That, which is not great, but he says yes and he means it. 

so that’s one possible dark!dan arc i’d give him - joins a group and his intentions at the time aren’t even Inherently bad, and then just gradually slowly finds himself doing worse and worse things. at first it’d be reasonable stuff - maybe he does the anon call to yale that gets blair’s acceptance rescinded, maybe he’d find some way to mess up chuck’s business deal behind the scenes - things he can rationalise away as things they had coming because blair and chuck did something wrong and if they hadn’t, none of this would be able to affect them. then suddenly he finds himself sabotaging serena and nate and he’s like. holy fuck, what is wrong with me? that would be an interesting thing to explore. 

another thing - i can’t believe i got this far into this response without mentioning jenny. but: jenny.

dan’s canonically not too pissed off about people treating him terribly. it’s what he’s used to, and he doesn’t expect any different! jenny, comparatively, is ready to say ‘fuck it’ to everyone and do whatever she wants to do to get what she wants, even if she hurts everybody around her on the way there - but that’s not what this is about, this is about how dan would never react recklessly and maliciously if someone was bad to him. but if someone hurt jenny??? 

unpopular opinion, but i can see him being gossip girl in THAT very specific context. girls in school are being cruel to his baby sister? he needs to shift the focus away from jenny. he needs to do something to keep his sister safe. so he creates a website, “gossip girl.” he starts blogging about one of the popular girls in his class, serena van der woodsen, because if people are busy sending tips about the girls in his grade, they’ll back off and leave jenny alone. i think if someone hurt jenny really, really badly, dan would basically go, ‘okay, i’m done being a good person’, and running gossip girl or doing something equally big that enables him to hold power over the group of girls who ruined his sister’s life? it could work.

the thing about dan being gossip girl is it makes no sense how the show did it. “a love letter”??? no, no way. dan and serena BOTH know that gossip girl is malicious and cruel and nasty in the early seasons. they both express their distaste/hatred towards the site and whatnot. dan’s “i could just write my way into the story” thing doesn’t sound right to me either, and his whole “i actually secretly wanted to be just like you guys” thing makes me shudder because. hey, whoever wrote s6, did you even watch your own show?

but dan being gossip girl because he’s bitter about the dynamics in high school, the privilege a few groups of people have, because he sees girls like jenny being treated terribly and harassed and pressured and coerced into things they don’t want to do, and he’s like, this is fucked up, why is nobody doing anything about this, what if i did something about this - and he starts gossip girl hoping that it’ll show people how none of their “friends” are really their friends, or that it’ll just form some sort of consequence for kids who never face consequences... like, i can see THAT happening and i think that’d be interesting to explore for a character like dan, especially if at some point jenny gets to like. smack him in the face with a handbag or something and go “you’re so righteous! you only made things worse with your stupid gossip site, dan!” and he’s like oh shit. but he doesn’t know what to do at that point - he’s been running the site for like 3 or 4 years and he doesn’t know who he is without it. 

dan being gossip girl also makes sense given his non-confrontational nature - he can cause conflict without getting involved directly in the conflict, so it’s comfortable for him.

okay, so! wow, this got long, but you must’ve known that it would when you sent me this ask, haha. to summarise: 

dan is very non-confrontational and often tolerant of the wrong people, this could be explored in a certain direction such as if he allied with toxic and dangerous people

dan never really fights for himself, but he’s naturally a protective person, so if something were to happen to jenny, i see that as the most major and natural incentive for a dark!dan arc. 

wow, everything i said fits into 2 bullet points! who would’ve thought.