#then again the audience for these is basically non existant anyway

[stormxpadme]

​Whumptober 2022 No. 19 - Knees buckling

08/2000

'That's enough for today, Cat. You did well. Get down here, come on.'

'We've got 20 more minutes till dinner watch. I want to use them. Go ahead, I'll finish up alone.' Katja did her best to not let her voice in the mental connection to her mentor sound too annoyed. Given all of her mentor's highly responsible duties, she didn't take it for granted that Emma took the time to help her with her training at all. This had been the best run in a couple of days, she didn't want to let it end yet. Her mind was only just recovering from parting with her actual home and her team, and the anxiety about the dangers from the Brotherhood following her everywhere, for both slowly to become a manageable part of her subconsciousness instead of dominating her thoughts nonstop. Bit by bit, she was starting to be able to channel her emotions again into that very particular state of mind she was trying to perfect here. One, both entirely controlled by what images she allowed in her head or not, and completely unhinged from recalling as many troubling memories as necessary for the wild combination of feelings needed to create the most difficult ability her powers could come up with. With how much progress she'd made with that today, it wasn't the right moment to prematurely end a training lesson, just because Emma probably had one of her business partners on the phone. When her mentor tried to speak more words of objection in her mind, Katja only focused even harder on that scenario in it that she'd chosen today to create the strong gusts of wind keeping her body afloat high on the gym ceiling. 'Permission to enter my head today revoked, Emma. Would be nice if you accepted that for once.' Her eyes still tightly squeezed shut, she blocked out all possible input and only let in the deeply rooted grief, the ongoing, yearning love, the helpless anger towards a sickness that had robbed her of her father much too early but not least all the happy years she'd had with him by her side. Pushing the energy of all those overlapping notions existing in her all at once into her cells, she transferred it to the outside once more, into the wind her gift was creating before it could start to subside thanks to Emma's interruption … All the more did she startle and almost crashed down straight to the thick mat right under her when Emma impatiently forced her way back into her head with a shrill, impatient mental shout of her name. Only at the last moment, she managed to catch herself and land more or less elegant on her knees on the mat, after a quick flip. "For fuck's sake, Emma, I said …" Blowing a few slipped strands of hair away from her face, she scrambled to get up, ignoring the slight dizziness from almost a whole afternoon of nonstop exertion to glare at Emma … Only to startle a second time within seconds when she realized her mentor wasn't alone. "What …?" A wink of the eye later, she was up, in spite of her knees shaking lightly from the brief shock, and threw herself at her fiancé's neck with as much force as she dared, seeing as Scott was still wearing that damn brace from his last encounter with Mystique.

  Who, hopefully, hadn't managed to sneak here in one of her devious shapes and was about to stab Katja right through the stomach. Because as unlikely as that was, it also was extremely unusual for her dutiful, disciplined husband to take off for a few hours when it wasn't the weekend, even at summer break when, due to mostly internal students who had no families living at Mutant High, there was only marginally less to do than during the semester.

  "It's Wednesday …" she murmured against Scott's shoulder, her voice just shaking slightly because she didn't want Emma to see how much every minute spent with her partner right now threw Katja off course since they'd come so rare because of her damn exile at Frost Ltd. From Scott, she didn't need to hide the few small tears dripping over his neck for a moment before she could get a grip. Heavens, this needed to stop, no matter how damn exhausted she was feeling both in her body and mind on long training days like this, and far too many of them of not being able to be anywhere near her partner. If she kept on despairing at every little thunderstorm in the sky, she couldn't expect to ever be good enough at controlling them for kicking the Brotherhood in the ass enough to earn her freedom back. Her hand softly gripped the short hair on Scott's neck to pull him down for a brief kiss. "Thank you for taking the time anyway, Herz."

  "Not a big deal. One of the jeeps needed a few parts from that shop a few miles from here. You know me, only the best quality for our vehicles." The chuckle on Scott's lips sounded slightly too hoarse as well. While a shopping trip to said garage always served as a good excuse to the other side of the town, at this point it was getting to them both that these kinds of drives were necessary at all to do the most normal thing in the world – spending time with the person you intended to marry in a year or so –, just because the Brotherhood had declared Katja into their most interesting lab rat a while ago.

  None of that was Emma's fault though, so before dragging Scott off to a few badly needed hours of privacy, Katja quickly entangled herself from him, to apologize for her rudeness to the woman who'd helped her so much in this dangerous situation already and who, judging by the high pitched clack of her usual murder heels descending was rightly of the opinion, she'd been snarled at for that enough for one afternoon; it was no secret that Scott and she usually didn't have a particularly kind and polite base of communication either. "Hey, Emma, wait a second, I …" But before Katja could get around to saying more, the floor was suddenly coming to meet her before she knew what was happening. Scott's startled hiss in her ear, his strong hand on her back, the other arm around her stomach just in time to cushion the worst of her fall, she landed far softer than she deserved it on her knees, her elbow. The short burning in her joints didn't even really reach her consciousness simply from how fucking nauseous she suddenly felt, from how the world was spinning around her. Somehow, she managed not to throw up all over Scott's jeans when he pulled her up, around, and in his arms, his chiseled jaw clenched in concern and a touch of anger that Katja knew only too well from the time when he had been her trainer. Though it hurt because she was being the reason for enough worry recently in his life already, she forced herself to fix his gaze on this upset expression, the irritation flashing behind the red of his glasses, so as to try and get her vision to stop swimming, breathing as slowly and shallowly as possible, her hand tightly clenched around Scott's while the other was on her stomach. "It's okay … I'm okay …"

  Emma was either too far away already to hear her strained reassurance or she didn't care. An at this point very well-known low peep from somewhere at the door revealed that she was activating the direct radio link to her most important pupil and helper in this house. "Wash, call the medic to the sick room."

  "Please don't bother. I don't need a medic." Katja pulled Scott's hand close for an apologetic kiss and sat up with his help, with gritted teeth, throwing her partner a grateful smile when he handed her both a glucose cube and her drinking bottle from her training bag right nearby, with a sad routine acquired on more than one evening especially in the beginning of her training when she'd still experimented with how much of the combat and defense training she'd never done she could ask of herself. Sometimes she still forgot about that, admittedly, but that didn't mean, she needed a white coat giving her the same lecture that was awaiting her as soon as Scott and she would be alone anyway. "I need a donut and five hours in bed, and that's where we're headed anyway."

  "Don't count on it. Not everything is about you, Cat." It wasn't until those tense words, said harsher than Emma had ever spoken with her, that Katja realized, there was a reason, Scott wasn't following her immediately when she pushed herself to her feet, fortunately without her knees buckling again immediately. When she looked down with a frown, she almost toppled over again anyway.

  Her partner had his left leg under him in a bent ankle that the brace around his leg should actually have not made possible. The thin, supportive hard plastic stays were neatly broken in two. Scott's cheeks were almost white from stubbornly swallowed down pain. "Don't … I'm okay, Katja." Ironically she had just as little reason to believe him as it had been the other way around a minute ago but Scott held her back with a lot more resolution and detached flatness in his tone when she wanted to bend down to him again, help him get up, get him to the sick bay, all at once. "You go get your blood sugar back to a higher level than a corpse's. Lay down. Give me ten minutes to get that damn thing replaced, then I'll come see you."

  That sounded a lot like this visit would be cut extremely short as opposed to the night together Katja had been hoping for, and after just fucking up twice in a row, she was in no good position to argue. She was at a loss for words anyway. And that hurt much more than a few bruises and feeling like she couldn't eat again at least until the weekend. If there was one thing Scott and she had learned early on in their relationship, it was talking to each other when things weren't running smoothly. That the Brotherhood was starting to damage even that natural ease of harmony was a worse punishment than being exiled for a few months. Once she was convinced Emma would get her lover to the nearest doctor in her stead just as well, Katja forced herself to turn away and walk towards the nearest elevator, hating herself for how relieved she was about it.

    *********

    After that less-than-ideal meeting, the last thing Katja expected was Scott already waiting for her after a brief shower, on her bed, and actually with a plate full of donuts for her no less. Whatever the doctor had persuaded him to take, it seemed to have done its job. There was not a twitch even of discomfort around his mouth when he scooted to the side of the bed, reaching out to her because Katja didn't join him immediately.

  Still shaken from what had happened, she was waiting at the bathroom door for a moment, rubbing through her wet hair with a towel absently, with just a not-too-exciting long sleeping shirt on her body to let her partner know she was willing to follow his not exactly subtle hint earlier. But before, they had something to clear up. With an unhappy sigh, she let herself be pulled close and sat down on the ground next to the bed, resting her head on Scott's good knee, that was easier than looking at him. "I … I don't know what to say. I know you hate it when I apologize too much but I … I also don't want you to think I'm trying to be stupid and a pain on purpose."

  "You're none of that, babe." Scott buried his fingertips gently in her hair, gently massaging fingertips chasing away what was left of that little almost-collapse earlier. "The only thing you're trying right now is getting your life back. Getting back to us. Do you really think I could be mad about that when I'm missing you just the same, every morning, every night alone in our bed? Every Danger Room unit you're not around for? Whenever I'm working on my bikes? I want you to come home just like you do but that's not happening right now. So the only thing I can ask you for is watching your back in the way I can't right now. Preferably without you doing our enemies' job and running yourself into the ground though."

  "I won't forget it again, I promise. Still trying to get a feel for how much energy I need for the whole flying thing." And suddenly it was so much easier, explaining one of the most normal things in the world to someone who knew her body and its limits like not many did. Something that had hurt in her stomach so much worse than being sick earlier dissolved. With a single relieved sob that this time, she didn't feel ashamed of, Katja nuzzled her face against Scott's hand. Just a little awkwardness and exhaustion on both sides. No real bump on the road. That her cheeks were still burning with a little bit of redness though didn't come from the shower. Her fingertips traced the slightly sturdier, old-fashioned-looking stays of Scott's new brace she had a feeling would be replaced again with the far more effective Shi’ar version, the moment he came back to the mansion. Scott never had a lot of patience with being longer off training and battle duty than absolutely necessary, and now Katja had possibly made sure herself that annoying condition would last even longer, without even realizing ... "Just … What Emma said …"

  "Emma Frost is a bitch, Katja," Scott stated calmly, half a grin curling on his lips when Katja gasped at the disrespect that might have earned anyone else but the leader of Emma's partner team a lifelong ban in her house. "Don't worry, she knows. It's part of her job description, and she's great at her job. In this case, she's wrong though. Everything is about you right now, babe. Why we had to get rid of Lehnsherr again, why I can't keep you safe in our own house and spend my nights trying to remedy that, every hour of training you do. And you didn't choose any of it."

  It was one of the few opportunities when Katja thought she could actually accept, not just understand what he was trying to tell her. New salt glistening in her eyes, she straightened up on her knees to pull Scott down for a kiss again, much longer this time, tenderly. One thing she wanted to get through to him too, though. "If I promise, I'll keep that in mind, do I get at least to apologize for the shit I do fuck up?" Her hand came to rest on his brace again.

  "I'll let you know when that's the case," Scott gave back, rather unimpressed. "Nothing new is damaged. I'm fine. If I hadn't been dumb enough to try and save you from getting a bruise more on a harmless ground, I wouldn't even be on too many painkillers to drive back in time for night watch right now. If you tell me now, you're feeling sorry for that, I'll just have to sleep in a guest room."

  And just like that, smiling was no longer a hardship. "Yeah, not happening." Her hands clenching harder around his shirt, she gave him a gentle but unmistakable nudge backward to get him to lay down and scooted closer to the bed without taking her head off his leg so she was soon nestled against his loins and could give the zipper of his jeans a mischievous little tug just with her teeth.

  For a moment, she was worried, he was maybe not in the mood for a lot of closeness again after all after that kind of welcome when he softly pulled her away from him before she could train that skill any further. Instead, his very distinctive glance at that plate still waiting on her bed had her roll her eyes with a snort. "No offense, babe, but my patience with complaints filed by the White Queen isn't particularly high even on good days. She said she wants all of those gone or the extra hours of her cook are on Charles' bill. And before you ask, yes, she's petty enough to go through with that."

  "One day, you're gonna have to tell me what it is with you guys and her." With a reluctant sigh, Katja got down next to him again, not surprised about her partner's dismissive gesture. For tonight, they'd had dealt with enough issues for a day that was offering one of the rare chances they got to be together right now. It turned out, she was on more of a sugar withdrawal than thought. But when half of some delicious caramel topping landed entirely by accident on her bare thigh, an equally hungry mouth promptly followed to lick it clean.

 Scott, always being the supportive coach, was apparently determined to make certain, Katja would get to train off all those extra calories in an a lot more fun way for the rest of the night … The giggle on her lips was quickly replaced by a gasp as her lover returned her favor from earlier once that small patch of skin was clean, and stretched up a little – in a movement assuring Katja that Scott's other injury from that last Brotherhood captivity, too, was a lot better –, to run just the tip of his tongue over the flimsy fabric of her panties. When she pressed down against him instinctively, her most recent, half-finished piece of sweet immediately forgotten, he pulled away with a chuckle and gave that spot on the inside of her thigh that was still reddened and shining from his efforts, a little nip. "Up."

 Her heart immediately racing in her chest, Katja raised her hips and put the food away for good, impatiently wiping her hands on her shirt that was about to find its way to the floor anyway, then helped her lover pull that very small piece of clothing down her legs so that he wouldn't have to twist his upper body too much that was still healing from that last fatal trip to their enemies' headquarters. Nothing either of them wanted to think about right now, not when the heat was already flashing in her lower body like one of her storms, a whimper on her lips when Scott's clever fingertips painted harmless lines over the bare skin between her legs … leaving behind the foreign, exciting sensation of more syrup, very much definitely on purpose. Oh fuck. Katja thought she might have said that aloud because she could hear her partner laugh again, turned on and hoarsely and full of weeks' worth of yearning, and she wanted him very badly suddenly. When she got out of her shirt as well, her nipples were hard and sensitive already, a shudder going through her whole body when she saw Scott reach for that plate with sweets again. Her right hand ending up on his shoulder for purchase, she traced the outline of his beautiful full lips with her thumb when he turned his head to press a soft kiss to it and gasped out another helpless whimper when Scott teased the pad of her finger with the tip of his tongue, his teeth, a very unambiguous promise of what she was in for in another place soon.

 But he was obviously not done yet preparing his meal. By now, Katja knew of a few of his preferences well enough, so she wasn't exactly surprised when he squeezed her hand for a moment and then guided it upwards a little. "Touch yourself for me, babe."

 The slight embarrassment and awkwardness from the first of these kinds of experiments long forgotten, Katja willingly sank back against the bedframe a little more, drawing one leg up to open herself up for her lover the way he liked it and slowly ran both hands over her curves, impatient fingertips catching on pebbled skin, twisting and pulling with that none too gentle amount of force she enjoyed most until she started to feel dizzy again in a so much more pleasant way than earlier. Her breath was going much too fast, both from that nice but definitely still too harmless stimulation and that unbearably shallow touch on her most sensitive spots when her lover left a mess of syrup, all kind of sweet fillings, and whipped cream there. By the time two of those cheeky fingers slipped into her for the first time, she was welcoming him hot and wet, her hips pressing down, an uncontrolled moan on her lips when she realized, her lover had pushed something into her there, some of those damn fruits decorating the sweets, and if her brain hadn't short-circuited 10 minutes ago already, now would have been the time. That touch, too, vanished as quickly as it had come though, causing her to actually growl at her sadistic lover this time.

 But Scott just grinned at her and lay back beside her instead of continuing. She couldn't even blame him because he had to go easy on himself still, and of course, that bastard calling himself her dom made use of that shamelessly. For a moment he just looked at her with a delicious flush on his cheek, reaching down to the edge of the damn shirt she needed off of him right now and an obvious bulge tenting out his jeans that he never came even close to touching though because Scott was nothing if not the master of self-control, and sometimes, Katja wanted to slap him over the back of his head for that. Only how fast and uneven his own breathing was going when he watched her torture her own reddened nipples with that relentless pressure and tugging, how her body was arching up in need against that emptiness and heat between her legs, revealed how fucking turned on he was himself at that point. And that needy, choked nuance in his voice when he grabbed her wrist, reluctantly stopping her from what she was doing, to pull her towards him instead. "Kneel over me."

 At that point, Katja was far too much gone in her simmering arousal to give any thought to how exposed, how vulnerable that position made her feel, and that, of course, had been her lover's goal from the start. And it was entirely alright because if there was someone she could be all these things with, it was the man who'd put a ring on her finger not too long ago. She let him guide her with his strong hands on her waist, her behind until her knees were left and right of his head, her legs spread wide, the sturdy bedframe against her upper body the perfect resistance to hold on to for when her slightly damaged energy reserves should try to give her trouble again … But the only thing her wound up sensations could really focus on was the hungry touch of her partner's lips against her messy skin. With how he was taking his time, removing every single trace of sugar he'd just decorated her with, she was writhing in that massaging grip on her behind soon enough, deep sounds of desire escaping her throat again and again. Her skin felt like it was on fire from those greedy, firm licks, the playful scrape of teeth against a few particularly stubborn stains, the extremely thorough touch of her lover's perfect mouth against her most sensitive spot that had her shaking wildly in his hands, her hips instinctively grinding against the quick swirl of that skilled tongue, again and again, the wetness of her lust leaving its own sticky traces on Scott's chin, his throat.

 By the time he finally got there with his efforts, she was groaning helplessly, her hands clenching so hard against the dark wood of the frame it hurt, but even now, her lover wouldn't let her rush anything, starting to thrust inside her just as slowly, exploring her heated tightness with obscene slick noises that had her blush just a little until her knees threatened to give in once more today, for the best kind of reason though. Only when Scott had freed her of those two raspberries he'd not so accidentally lost there and her whole body was a tense spring, her head firmly buried against her arms, her breath going so short and shallow, she could hardly hear her own desperate moans, he finally reached around her trembling thigh to get his equally trembling fingertips on her most sensitive point. That fast, firm squeeze was also well trained at this point, so she was coming all over his mouth basically immediately, shouting out her lover's name, riding every of those quick, deep thrusts of his tongue deep inside of her while, for a little while this night, this week, this horrible month, none of the darkness surrounding both their lives right now mattered. At that point they were both far too hot on each other to stop even for a second, so Katja very reluctantly forced herself to move away from that wonderful touch of lips and tongue against her swollen folds, scooting down with her hips high enough to avoid any pressure on her lover's still bruised side, her agitated hand already busy with buttons and zipper of an extremely annoying piece of clothing.

 Her other arm almost gave in under her from where she was bracing herself on it behind her when Scott's soft caresses found her center again, with clear intent, the thorough stretch of two, then three of his quickly moving fingers in her heated center making sure Katja wouldn't be asking too much of herself out of impatience once more. When she bent down to him for a long, grateful kiss, gasping out her lust once more when she could taste sugar, and fruit, and the sweetness of her own arousal, she could feel him smile against her lips. As important as it was that they brought up every issue potentially dangerous to that perfect team they were building in this relationship of theirs – well, safe for that one, unpleasant, red-haired one that was only causing misunderstandings and hurt pride whenever it came up so they'd both decided to ditch it for good –, as often as possible … Sometimes, not a single word was needed to know and agree. That fleeting moment of too deep emotion for an hour of passion was gone as fast as it had come, at the latest when Katja finally could bring her hips over her lovers, not even bothering with undressing him any further for now, and whimpered out her rebuilding tension of need as she slowly took him in. She was dripping at this point, and from how she could see one of Scott's hand clench tightly around some pillow, how his other left those delicious little marks on her leg she liked so much to see even the morning after, it was easy to tell how much he enjoyed it, just knowing, feeling how crazy he'd been driving her a minute ago. So she stayed like this for a bit in spite of her impatience, just clenching her muscles around him teasingly while her hands were busy exploring the firm shape, the deep lines of his chest, nails scraping over his hardened nipples until he threw his head back with a moan and arching his hips up against her impatiently. Only when she could tell from the way he was angling his jaw toward her that his eyes were open again behind his glasses, his lips slightly ajar in a kind of pleading that never came easily to him and that she didn't demand of him either … Only now, she rolled her hips against his, slowly, tentatively first, waiting for him to give her the rhythm his still slightly compromised body could deal with until they were moving as one, the room filled with the sweet scent of their lust and their strangled groans, minds blissfully empty. Just a few minutes later, they were filled with the badly-needed undisturbed silence and recovery of a few hours finally spent sleeping in the same bed side by side again.

 It was the second and last time they'd do it in this foreign school together and one of the last chances for this kind of closeness before the world would go to hell around them, though neither of them knew at this point. It was maybe just because of that, in spite of the evening having begun so disappointingly, that they'd always keep this night in beloved memory.

*******************************************************************************

@whumptober | @whumptober-archive​

[tokyo-debunker-idk]

Crushed | 03

Summary: He's tried to convince Leo that you're a cool person, to which the former just scoffs and accuses Sho of having a crush. Honestly, the reaction is obnoxious – people of the opposite sex are perfectly able to have platonic friendships. Just because Sho's taken to bringing an extra lunch for you on training days so you can eat together after, and he enjoys spending time with you, and you're pretty and smell good even after an hour of sparring, doesn't mean he has a crush.

Pairing: Haizono Sho x Reader x Kurosagi Leo

Genre: Humor, romantic comedy, slowish burn, no real plot, Leo bullying

18+, minors DNI

~~~~~

"Besides, what are a few nobodies compared to the shit you've been dealing with anyway? You can handle it."

You finally realize what's been bothering you since you confronted Leo at the Vagastrom dorms (outside of the usual annoyance of Leo's general existence).

His response, despite his condescending tone… had been worded suspiciously like a compliment. Which, since it's Leo, means it probably wasn't.

"YoU cAn hAndLe iT," you mutter quietly to yourself, imitating the TikTok asshole's haughty tone. "Fuck off."

It makes you even more annoyed about the stupid sympathy that flared up when Leo mentioned death threats. He doesn't deserve your consideration, but your empathetic ass doesn't care about logical little details like that.

Sure, you've seen horrible comments and exchanges online in fan wars, but it's always been as a spectator. Receiving such disturbing messages personally, ranging from unhinged fans who call you ugly (whatever) to those that wish vile things upon you (less whatever) to others that send inappropriate pictures you wish you could unsee (your eyes, your poor non-quite-virgin eyes)… it's affected you much more than you would have expected.

For you it's mostly a weird blip in your life, and you can just deactivate an account you rarely used in the first place. Since you're stuck at Darkwick, it's not like your social life in the "real" world is exactly popping off, anyway. Despite logically knowing that nothing will happen to you, that the vitriol is being spewed by complete strangers who don't know you at all, you still feel shaken at the reminder that regular humans can be even worse than many of the anomalies you've experienced.

Even the sparse comments about you being cute together (which are repulsive in their own way, for obvious reasons) feel weird and invasive, as if you're their friend. It's like they think they know you, and that their opinion matters enough for you to hear it.

Leo deals with all of that constantly? Sure, he basically signed up for it and is apparently completely fine, but it still just… doesn't feel right.

Yeah, you dislike him, but he's not exactly evil. He's a douche who cares more about himself than anyone else, which is not a rare trait in the world. He just also happens to have brains and guts, without the morals that would keep him from using those around him.

So, a shitty guy, but not the absolute worst. At least, not evil enough for the insane hostility you received firsthand.

Then again, he's gotten those types of messages and was more than willing to put you in the line of fire. So maybe he is a little evil.

Why did he even post you to his TikTok as his girlfriend, anyway? For all his apparent dismissiveness of your capabilities, the guy is definitely way too vain to choose any random passerby, even if he later reveals it to be a joke. In its own fucked up little way, it's almost a compliment that he seems to think you're objectively attractive enough to be a believable partner to his audience.

Not that you're flattered.

Well… a small, petty part of you kind of is, because while Leo acts like a steaming pile of garbage, he's a steaming pile of garbage with taste.

Huh, then maybe he did actually mean what he said about you being able to handle it?

Nah, that can't be right.

Whatever. You have more important things to worry about than a toxic, twink-shaped gremlin. Like your new assignment with the Jabberwock ghouls. That should be your current number-one priority. You should probably go over the investigation notes right now, actually.

SHOulders: Hey Y/N, u free?

You're a strong independent woman who can prioritize important, life-altering tasks over silly crushes. You are, you can resist–

You: Yeah! What's up?

~~~~~

"So? What do you think of the sign?"

"It's amazing! It's even more impressive than it was in the photo."

Sho grins at your compliments, though he tries not to show just how pleased he is about your heartfelt praise.

"Didn't I say flattery'll get you nowhere?"

He's lying, of course. Flattery from you is always welcome, because he can tell you mean it. It's also why he's asked you to look at his menu and signboard before officializing the food truck – you'll give him your honest thoughts. Leo would have opinions on things that are trending, but Sho doesn't really want to rely on gimmicks. For all his irritation with the restrictions at Darkwick (and having to deal with his annoying ass brother), this food truck is something he's actually excited about.

Sho doesn't tend to take most things seriously… he's naturally intelligent and athletic, so he's never really had to try hard to get by. Not wanting anything badly means he'll never be disappointed if something doesn't pan out. Besides, Leo's the type of best friend to make fun of any endeavor or interest he doesn't deem worthy.

But you're different.

You work so hard every day to make up for the qualities you believe you lack, from struggling through workouts to staying up late to catch up on the classwork you miss due to being sent on missions. Maybe once he would have scoffed at your efforts, but instead, it gives him the courage to try something new.

It's safe to show you how much the food truck actually means to him. You're the one who constantly raves about his food, whose encouragement and support has helped his tiny idea grow into an actual dream. He trusts you.

"Do you have a date?"

Huh? A date for what? Why do you want to know about his love life? Or is this your way of asking him to –

You hand back the menu you were looking at, and Sho realizes you mean for his food truck opening.

Right. Thank goodness, because you guys have a good friendship that does not need to be complicated by anything like that.

"By next week, I guess? So long as no one gets in my way."

"I'm really looking forward to it!"

Yeah, the sensation in his chest is most definitely relief, not disappointment.

~~~~~

"What are you doing here?"

"Hello to you too, Kurokawa," you reply drily as you put down your heavy bag, unsurprised by Leo's unwelcoming greeting. He's lounging on a couch in the common area, and you suppress an internal sigh.

It's not surprising to run into him at the Vagastrom dorm, but you had hoped he was out turning princes into frogs, forcing poor parents to exchange their firstborn for vegetables, or whatever it is he does for fun.

"It's Kurosagi."

You ignore his correction, because you know it pisses him off.

You sometimes wonder why Sho bothers with Leo when you've never seen Leo do anything nice for his so-called best friend, but it's not your place to judge. You're mature enough to understand that there's a history there you're not aware of, and that you've only known them for a very short period of time.

"Maybe I'm here to see my darling influencer boyfriend," you say sarcastically, giving him the fakest smile you can manage as you plop down next to him. You know he doesn't like you, so it's another easy way to annoy him (if at your own expense). "How could I go a day without seeing that pretty face?"

You're mature enough to understand. That doesn't mean you're mature enough to not hate it. If you can't avoid Leo, you're going to do your best to be as annoying as possible when you do have to interact with him.

"Ugh, don't sit so close," Leo grumbles, despite not making a single move to move away like the lazy little princess he is. He does smell nice though, probably some trendy cologne that he uses to cover up the stench of his rotten personality. "Have you even showered today?"

Wow. You know you smell nice because you did, in fact, shower today. Right before coming here, to be exact, because despite Sho's knowledge of your sweaty form after training sessions, you want his memories to be of you fresh and perfumed.

There is really no need for Leo to be so fucking rude all the fucking time. Especially when you've done nothing to deserve it but apparently have the audacity to exist in his presence. If anything, you've been downright charitable in never bringing up "the incident" at the Pit. Though if you're being honest, it's also something you don't want to remember, because the knowledge that you willingly ground up against his dick – even if it was out of spite – is too embarrassing to think about.

Sure, he's pretty, but you have your standards.

Why are you even thinking about this right now? Clearly you have been spending way too much time either studying, doing odd jobs for the ghouls, and daydreaming about Sho if you're even thinking of Leo in any sexual-adjacent light. You don't even really want to think about him at all.

You know that being ignored is one of the things that bothers him most of all (an attention-seeking diva, truly), so you grab a textbook out of your bag and begin to read.

~~~~~

Leo knows he's an asshole.

He's perfectly fine with it. Sometimes, it even sparks joy.

Such as now, when you're scowling at him in a way that makes him want to antagonize you even further. You're always so nice and friendly to everyone that it's satisfying to be the one to elicit a different reaction out of you. It's a matter of pride that he's the only one that can make you lose your temper.

Besides, it's not his fault you look so cute when you're pissed off.

Leo freezes when he realizes what just crossed his mind, but before he can figure out exactly where that ridiculous thought came from, you're pulling a textbook out of your bag.

… Are you seriously about to study while sitting so close to Leo he can smell your flowery shampoo?

"Can I help you, Kurohagi?"

His eyebrow twitches, and he realizes he's been staring at you. And that you fucked up his last name, again.

"You're getting very comfortable, aren't you?" he replies in a scornfully, wondering why exactly you're even visiting when Leo's the only one here.

Unless… you came to see him. Maybe you're just playing it off as if you weren't, to save face. Why else would you even sit so close to him, anyway?

"I'm just waiting for Sho to get back, he said he'd be here soon," you reply with a shrug that annoys Leo for reasons he can't explain. Your answer makes far more sense, and yet that just pisses him off even more. So he does what he does best.

"It's cute how you're being such a good little gofer for Sho," he says mildly, pretending not to care one way or the other. "He's always been good at getting people to do things for him."

You stiffen, and uncertainty flits across your face before you straighten your expression. Though you're obviously trying to hide it, the way you shift away from him reveals that he hit a nerve.

It was exactly what he was going for, but the usual satisfaction feels hollow, as if the words have left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. You don't snap back with your usual fire the way he expected. Instead you just look back at your book, and the sour feeling magnifies.

An oppressive silence blankets the two of you while unfamiliar pressure weighs down his chest, and Leo is almost relieved when the tell-tale sound of a rumbling engine signals Sho's arrival.

His friend's face brightens instantly when his eyes land on you, which irritates Leo in a way he can't explain. You smile back, though it's more subdued than usual.

"I brought the rest of the stuff from the diner," you call out, and the way Sho jogs to greet you seems to restore some of the sparkle in your eyes. It does not alleviate some of the heaviness Leo is feeling.

"Awesome, thanks," Sho replies with a grin. "You know you didn't have to, right?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to."

Barf. Are you guys fucking serious? It's nauseating, the way Sho is smiling at you like a lovesick puppy. Does he have no pride at all?

"Oh, Leo," Sho calls. Great, he's finally been noticed.

"What?" Leo replies a little petulantly, crossing his arms. Everything about this situation is pissing him off, and he doesn't even understand why.

"Stop pouting and help me out, I was able to pick up some liquor when I went on my grocery run."

"Ugh, fine," he grumbles, mollified by the promise of a night of drinking. It's sadly the closest they can get to clubbing when Darkwick watches their every move.

Leo stands to help grab some of Sho's bags and notices that you're hanging back with an uncertain look on your face. Are you stupid enough to actually take Leo's words to heart when it's obvious you have his best friend wrapped around your pretty little finger?

"Are you coming or not?" he asks testily, shoving a few bags in your direction. "We're not sharing if you don't help."

Your eyes widen at the implied invitation, and even Sho makes a sound of surprise.

"I… uh… yeah," you stammer, hurrying up from the couch to take the bag Leo is holding out. "Thanks?"

You still look and sound confused, but the smile you give him is genuine. It's the first time he's been on the receiving end of that particular expression of yours, and sunlight eases the uncomfortable feeling in his chest. It's similarly disconcerting, and Leo has no idea what to make of it.

"Whatever, just hurry up."

~~~~~

Prev | Masterlist | Next

[avelera]

Ugh, popped on Twitter to geek out about the Wheel of Time S2 and immediately find a bunch of WoT dudebro fans complaining that a 15 book series of 800+ pages each isn’t getting the exact word for word adaption that exists inside their heads when they read the books. And let me remind you all, these books were my life, my first fandom, and basically my personality pretty much from when I first read them in 1999 until Robert Jordan died (alas, I read to the end but Brandon Sanderson never quite captured the magic of RJ’s writing for me again, even if I think he did the best job anyone possibly could.)

So let me just say from a place of deep respect and obsession with these books that any hate for the show based on it not being a page for page adaptation is patently insane. Much of Wheel of Time relies on the strengths of prose which are untranslatable to a visual medium. Stuff like how magic (or the One Power) feels to cast makes up a huge proportion of the book. You can externally portray a feeling, sure, but there are still limits.

They forget that Book 1 was written to be standalone and has a ton of inconsistencies with later books that need to be shored up. That means logistical changes which cause necessary alterations almost all of which have actually been massive improvements in my mind. For all my love of Wheel of Time, its pacing is atrocious and I think even RJ would agree that if he could go back with the whole story in mind and edit it to be more streamlined, he absolutely would have. The show HAS to do that or we’d still be in the goddamn Two Rivers with the book pacing.

Centering the first season on the White Tower and Moiraine’s POV makes sense. The book relied on Moiraine being a Gandalf figure that gave information away at the pace of reader reveals, in tiny drips meant to tantalize a slow-paced book’s reader. That would be immensely frustrating for a tv show viewer of a story set in a sprawling fantasy world that needs tons of explanation and world building up front to have any idea what’s going on. Focusing on Moiraine, who has the answers, instead of sticking to the ignorance of the kids isn’t just a good choice it’s very nearly the only choice you can make. The White Tower is one of the most complex and interesting parts of that world. Centering it and introducing it earlier was an incredibly wise choice.

Other smaller choices make sense too if people thought about it for two seconds. Aging up the kids makes sense. They’re teens in the books and it would be incredibly awkward on screen. But once you age them up, it makes sense that at least ONE of them has been married before. Perrin makes SENSE to have been married if he left Two Rivers later. He’s a responsible guy with a good trade and a level head on his shoulders. He’s sweet and caring and mature. Of course he got married, he’s from a small farming community in a medieval-esque world with shorter life expectancies. Furthermore, I love Perrin to death but his obsessive fear of hurting Faile later is frankly ungrounded in anything that isn’t benign misogyny on some level. It doesn’t update and translate well on its own. Giving him Laila, giving him the manner of Laila’s death grounds his later attitudes towards Faile so well I literally gasped when I put it all together.

Other changes like in S2 having Min and Mat meet the way they do in Tar Valon was genius. It matters more that Mat and Min have rapport than that they meet in the same circumstances as the book (and Mat wouldn’t even remember that meeting anyway lol). The rapport set up and the way it showed Mat’s genius and con artistry was brilliant. Showing these characters LIKE each other was incredibly engaging and endearing which is so important because the adaptation has to be enjoyable to non book readers too, especially since the 15, 800+ page books of meandering pacing are pretty much impenetrable to new readers. Book readers simply can’t make up the majority of the audience, there’s not enough of them to sustain a show with any kind of budget which WOT requires. Thus, it needs to be an enjoyable show in its own right, not just a meandering exact adaptation ffs.

I can literally point to any show change and say it was either logical, practical, thematic, or simply genius. Wheel of Time desperately needs an edit to be accessible to modern audiences. What an adaptation prioritizes is always a risk that’s going to be run for a fan of the original material but so far I’ve been wildly impressed by every choice made in how logical or thoughtful and most of all loving it was to the actual important emotions and themes of the book. Any complainers are seriously missing the point of what an adaptation even is.

[imbecominggayer]

Part 3 Writing Advice: Stop The Self-Hating Narrative Around Disability

I'm BACK! I was working on some other Tumblr posts but i've decided to fulfill my promise to talk about the common associations people seem to have between disability and self-hatred.

You remember my own slogan "Disabled Adults Are Adults", right?

Well, here is the slogan for the majority of writers who are bad at writing good disability representation "Disabled Adults Are Tragic :`(

This association comes into everything so we'll go from the small chunks of ableist LOOORE~ and then move onto the really big ticket items? Right!

Assistive Aids Are Traps Designed By The Illuminati!

What do these common literary phrases have in common?

Confined to a Wheelchair

Forced to Use a Cane

Cursed To Always Use [Assistive Aid]

The answer: they are exceedingly negatively charged which incorrectly imply that mobility aids such as wheelchairs are horrible fates to be falled upon! This implication that living with disability is such a curse tends to be most forced upon "understandable" villains and sympathetic "tragic" figures who are "unbearably cursed" with a horrid fate

Those phrases are horrible not just because they incorrect imply that devices such as wheelchairs and other mobility aids are curses when, in reality, the individuals who use these assistant aids desperately need them in order to exercise their full potential but also due to the fact that it's an able-bodied centric perspective!

People who actually use these devices don't see them as unbearable weights bringing them down but tools of freedom and autonomy. Obviously, independence is not necessary to lead a fulfilling life but it's a nice cherry on top!

This "able-bodied centric perspective" will come up again!

Curing Disability

At the end of the story i'll cute and sweet protagonist/main character will be forcibly mutilated into an able-bodied person either by machinery in a sci-fi setting or through the gods.

p.s that's just eugenics. eugenics is what the nazis did

Curing disability doesn't just mean a literal cure but also the overall narrative of "overcoming" disability tends to be here.

"Overcoming disability" is when an author implies that through a character's dedication they have "overcame" the limitations of their disability and are functionally no longer disabled.

Basically, if you have a disabled character whose jokes tend to center on "wow, I always forget you are disabled" or "I am the author and I keep forgetting this character has a disability", you have this trope.

The reason why this is shitty is because you, able-bodied author, have disabled readers. Disabled readers of various different types of disabilties who are reading your story.

Can you imagine if every single story of an able-bodied character involved them being forcibly turned disabled as a "reward" for their good behavior?

Can you imagine if every story involving a queer character involved that singular queer character being turned into a cishet individual?

"Disabled people still exist even when your character stops being disabled"

All you have done is tell disabled and non-disabled audience members that disabled people don't deserve to exist. That's bad.

Final: The Self-Hating Narrative

"Disabled Adults are Adults"

When I was inventing that phrase, I knew it needed to be universally applicable. The only reason I specificed "adults" and not "people" was due to the fact I was talking about infantilization in the first part and I didn't want someone to be like "well, obvi special needs kids are going to be treated delicately".

Anyway, the phrase needed to be universal because disabled adults are just people at the end of the day. They struggle with some not universal things like chronical illness or disability. They also struggle with the universal things like: can I support my family, am I ready, will the bank be closed by the time I wake up, can I be a good person?

They also succeed. Sometimes this success is in the form of gaining more mobility then before. Sometimes this success will seem minor to not disabled people or even to disabled people who have never struggled with that particular thing before.

They also succeed at things we succeed at. They create what has never been created before. They prove to themselves that they can be relied on. They laugh when they struggle.

Yes, they sometimes hate themselves. But even then, they continue on. They struggle with their symptoms day-to-day on top of succeeding in the daily struggles we all deal with. They deal with ableist remarks while also having fun.

Disability Is Normality

Many disabled adults and children are fighting for the right to see narratives in which their lives aren't plagued by melodramatic angst about being disabled.

Many disabled adults and children go about their daily lives with an overwhelming confidence about their disability and don't give a shit about what ableist remark you have to say.

And one of the most important things an author needs to be if they ever want to write true, inspiring, and universal works is to listen to voices of those they wish to represent.

If an author wants to represent disabled people living disabled lives in fantasy and reality, they need to listen to the perspectives of those who are actually living those lives. Sure, they may be lacking in terms of how to fly a dragon but humanity is humanity with or without the added uniqueness.

If an author just takes a ableist-covered crap-filled myths of what disability is like, expect backlash! Or maybe expect nothing, disabled adults have way too many concerns to be dealing with your sorry ass.

[georges-chambers]

for the character asks...ishmael, ofc :3

Idk when you sent this but I wish I had seen it earlier because !!! VERY glad to do this!!

'How I feel about this character': So Much. In general. What can't I say about him? On one hand, as many point out, he's an almost definitely some kind of undiagnosable neurodivergent and due to this is incredibly relatable. ACCIDENTALLY CLICKED POST WHEN I MEANT TO SAVE THIS TO DRAFTS. ANYWAYS. I HAD MUCH MORE: He Also Suvks!!! He knows a lot but that doesn't mean he actually believes in objectively true things! Hes aware of his own faults but we get the feeling he's not too concerned with changing them very much! I also feel like some fans of Moby Dick kind of choose to gloss over the ways in which, beautifully as he puts it, his love for Queequeg is also almost definitely through a very warped lens due to the way he just thinks of Queequeg, and at times it also seems almost obsessive. And another important part of him, I think, is that he becomes just as obsessed with things that are important to him as someone like Ahab, just in a way that doesn't lead to relentlessly chasing them down and trying to kill them. Well, breaking down a door to 'save them' is. I'm sure you can see the similarities. But of course there's the way he writes obsessively about minor details about the whole voyage and people on it and Moby Dick himself in a way that implies he has a fascination with it all borne from the trauma it gave him. Which reminds me of how much he seems to actively want to hide any part of himself and his past from the reader but where it starts slipping out are often memories that seem kind of. Worrying(?) Definitely not Pleasant anyways. Which again, he seems to zero in on a bit. Also to me he is Not Cis. Of course.

'All of the people I ship romantically with this character': Ishmael's one of the very few instances where I think the only romantic ship I have of him are with the canon love interest (Queequeg of course). Aside from probably 2 ships or so, but those are either rather RPF (about someone who is dead but nonetheless real. I mean. He's kinda implied to exist in Moby Dick too, but he's very much real, its based on the real version) focused or Angst Heavy, so I would only share those in DMs at request.

Now as for potential sexual relationships? Another entire area I will leave to DMs.

'My non-romantic OTP for this character': Okay nevermind, I lied. I could Never explain it fully because its Not in the book and not based on anything in the book, but the 2011 movie. Showed me a whole layer to the potential of whatever was going on between Ahab and Ishmael and god. The toxic workplace relationship he had with that old man. That whole movie became Their Movie to me. Queequeg can of course become involved. I also like the idea of him and Bulkington of course.

'My unpopular opinion about this character': Its hard to say what'd be considered unpopular for this kind of a fandom, but I feel like the fact that the racism from his POV was progressive for its time only makes it even more immersive to him as a character. Its the sort of thing that's like . 'This is a fascinating indication about the time and the author writing in this time' and 'This could be considered a part of the character narrating all of this and how they view the world' Can very much coexist here. To me they feed into each other and I love it. Less like that, though, since that'd probably be the more popular of the two: I feel like a lot of adaptations are a bit less than accurate to what I personally think of with Ishmael because they often make him (even including the 2011 to some degree) a lot more overtly 'benevolent' than really fits. In the book, he does shit like contemplate just boarding up the room he's in and basically steal it from its original owner, and just the near frantic, almost aggressive tone he often takes with fucking Cetaceans, In General, towards his audience, I love, and really wish there had been like. Any of, in most adaptations, which seem to want him to be a much more 'relatable nice hero' which he just Fundamentally Isn't. There are so many times reading this book and rereading it where I've just gone, 'Ishmael, whoever you're having this argument Isn't here right now. I love you, but Please.'

'One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in-canon': I feel like actually learning more about what he did in his Past would kind of spoil some enjoyable and very fitting mystery and ambiguity so really what I wish we knew more about were his travels and life in general between the wreck of the Pequod and when he's writing that. Actually, no, if I absolutely Had to choose to actually be told 1 more thing about him? When and where was he a stone-mason. I love how hes very intentionally like, 'At Some Point in Time, For Some Point In Time, Neither of Which You Need To Know, I was a stone-mason.' And its just like. Actually no. Normally there'd be nothing odd about that but no, now I really do need to know what he could be hiding with that.

Once again Thank you so much for asking this and once again encouraging me to ramble incoherently about Moby Dick

[buildarocketboys]

nothing comes as easy as you

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Fall Out Boy, Bandom Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz Characters: Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley Additional Tags: Smut, Wet Dream, Coming In Pants, Dry Humping, physical violence, baby Patrick is a pent up little ball of horny rage, he basically has a horny meltdown no I'm not sorry, Teenage Patrick, Album: Take This to Your Grave (Fall Out Boy), Pete is a martyr to the cause of getting Patrick off, Dreams vs. Reality, Biting, Hurt/Comfort, feral teenage patrick can't be tamed, until he comes in his pants and is really embarrassed about it

Summary: Pete has a wet dream, squished between Patrick and Joe in the van, and wakes up to find Patrick glaring at him. Patrick can't take this shit anymore, and he wants Pete to know about it. Pete takes everything that Patrick dishes out. Read here on AO3

The hips he has his fingers pressed into are so soft that at first, Pete is sure the person he's straddling is a woman.

Then he opens his eyes and- oh.

It's Patrick.

This is kinda weird, Pete thinks, as he thrusts in and out of his best friend. But then Patrick opens his eyes for a moment, squinting up at Pete without his glasses. He sees who it is, that it's Pete, and smiles angelically up at him. Pete smiles back and thrusts into him at a slightly different angle, and Patrick moans. He goddamn moans.

So Pete decides to just go with it; this is kind of how he always imagined it going anyway. If the two of them ever-

Usually he stops that thought before it can go any further, but in his subconscious, when he's dreaming, or just when his brain wants to torture him with thoughts of what he can't have and shouldn't want. But right now, Patrick is smiling and groaning beneath him, meeting him thrust for thrust, so Pete allows himself to indulge, for once.

He always thought it would be like this, taking Patrick by the hand and showing him the delights of getting carnal with another dude. Patrick opening up before him, soft as cream, except the one part of him which is hard as a rock.

Except then he comes, and his eyes fly open, and he's in the van wedged between Joe and Patrick, the latter of whom is staring at him - glaring at him.

Pete's eyes fly open and meet Patrick's, who's been staring at him a little too intensely as he writhes and moans in the back of the van.

Pete twists round to check if Joe has been party to this too, but he's still asleep. The man can sleep through anything. Then Pete turns round to face Patrick again.

"Jesus," Patrick says, with a little too much feeling and something like disgust, and shame curls in Pete's eyes. Fuck, Patrick thinks, and punches the wall of the van hard enough to make a sound, but he's not sure if his violent reaction is due to watching Pete experience a wet dream when Patrick hasn't jerked off for days, or from seeing the humiliation in Pete's eyes and knowing it's his fault.

The semi in his pants might also have something to do with it, but Patrick tries to ignore that.

"You OK, Patrick?" Pete says timidly, almost sweetly, like he didn't just come in his pants in front of Patrick.

Oh, and now the semi is a full hard on and when Pete glances down he can tell, because when he looks up at Patrick's face again he's smirking.

And suddenly Patrick can't take it anymore - living in a van, no privacy, no space, playing shows to hostile or non-existent audiences, trying to jerk off quietly in a bathroom the one night in free they can afford a hotel room, trying to get some sleep in a space that's way too cramped for four guys to share, and always, always, Pete's face smirking up at him, like this all a game, or some big joke to him.

Before Pete or either of the others can react, Patrick has pushed Pete onto the floor and straddled him, punching him right in his smirking little face.

Joe's awake now, and Andy too - Joe protests and Andy gets up to haul Patrick off Pete, but Pete just shakes his head.

"Let him get it out of his system," Pete says serenely, like he isn't talking about Patrick beating the shit out of him. Andy stands there, unsure what to do, as Patrick rains down blows on Pete's face and shoulders, but he must just shrug and sit down, leaving them to it, since nobody attempts to stop Patrick.

Maybe he's rutting against Pete's thigh at the same time, but nobody else has to know that, do they?

Nobody else but Pete, who definitely knows, who can definitely feel Patrick's boner rubbing against him like he's trying to create enough friction to start a fire with his dick, who's still smirking up at him past the fat lip Patrick's just given him.

He scratches ineffectually at Pete's neck and shoulders and chest as everything comes to a crescendo, his anger and his orgasm, and when he comes he sinks his teeth into Pete's neck to stifle his moan.

When it's over, he lets Pete go and sits up, breathing heavily. He glances up at Andy and Joe, who are pointedly not looking at them, and then back down to Pete, who raises his eyebrows at him, as if he didn't also just come in his pants.

Then Pete eases himself up slightly, and puts his hand on Patrick's shoulder, very firmly. His touch grounds Patrick somehow, and he's back on Earth, on the floor of the van, instead of in a red haze of anger and arousal.

"You OK, Patrick?" he says again, with such tenderness and care that Patrick almost starts crying, and finally notices the bruises and scratches and bleeding lip that he's left on his best friend.

"Oh my God, Pete," he says, looking down at the carnage he's caused and scooting away, standing up and holding his hands up like he's innocent, even though he is absolutely, one hundred percent guilty. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, oh my God."

"Patrick," says Pete quickly, sitting up properly. "Patrick, it's fine."

"Fine? Fine?! Pete, I just beat you up!" And came from dry humping your leg, he thinks, but he can't deal with that right now. Better to just focus on the thing in front of him, the thing they can talk about in front of Joe and Andy. Which is Pete. Hurt. By him.

Pete gets up real quick, but then approaches Patrick slowly, carefully, like he's a spooked horse. "Patrick, I promise it's OK. I let you. You needed to get it out of your system."

"Yeah but- but not like that," says Patrick, his face white. He opens his mouth to apologise some more, but Pete interrupts him.

"We need a hotel night," he announces. The other two protest, complaining about the expense and how they're not due another hotel night for the next two days, but Pete cuts them off. "No," he says, glancing at Patrick. "We can't spend another night in this van together, we're all going crazy." Which means Patrick's going crazy, he knows, and hangs his head. "I'll pay for it myself," he says, "let's just find somewhere to stay."

"Pete, no, you don't have to do that," Patrick says, feeling his face burn red with embarrassment. This is his fault; everyone else can handle sleeping in a van for nights on end without going insane and attacking their bandmate, why can't he? Now Pete's gonna spend money he can't afford, just because Patrick is a whiny little baby who can't control his emotions, and-

Pete grips his hand and Patrick's thoughts just stop. "I think I do," Pete says, with a stern look, but it's belied by the softness with which Pete is stroking his thumb across the knuckles of his balled fist.

They drive to a hotel in the nearest town that doesn't look to sketchy or too upmarket, and Pete goes in to enquire about the room. Patrick follows him, needing to apologise properly.

"Pete, I'm sorry," he says, yet again. "Pete, stop, look, let me apologise properly."

Pete turns toward him with a half smile. "You already did," he says. "Look, Patrick, it's not just you, we're all going insane in there. One of us had to break first."

"Yeah but...the others wouldn't have hit you. Or, y'know," he mumbles, the tips of his ears going red, "the other thing." Pete is still smiling, a little bit, but he also looks sad, and Patrick kinda hates it when Pete is sad. "We're still best friends, right?" he can't help asking in a small, tight voice, chin tucked into his chest so he doesn't have to see Pete's expression.

"Yeah, Patrick," Pete says, ruffling Patrick's hair, "We're still best friends."

When Patrick dares to look up again, Pete is grinning at him, so he thinks maybe they're gonna be OK.

"I don't know why I get like that," he explains, following Pete to the hotel reception, "it's just the enclosed space and all the guys and the van and the smells and-" You, he thinks. You drive me crazy and I don't understand why, 'cause I love you more than pretty much anyone else I've ever met. In fact maybe it's because I love you more than anyone else I've ever met.

Pete just shakes his head and nudges Patrick with his shoulder, and then turns to the lady at the desk and asks if they've got any rooms.

Usually they just get one room and bunk in together - it's better than sleeping in the van, but not by much. But this time Pete asks for two rooms and when Patrick looks at him quizzically, Pete just ignores him and fills out the booking form.

The lady hands Pete two key cards, and Pete hands one to Patrick.

"You can go now if you want, get some rest. Room 26."

Patrick is confused. "You gonna come and knock on my door later, then?"

Pete shrugs. "I mean, I can if you want company. But I thought I'd just bunk with the guys, give you some space. You need it. And rest, proper rest, Patrick, or you'll fall asleep on stage like you used to in math class. And don't try to say you didn't, your mom told me!"

Patrick snorts lightly in amusement, feeling relief roll over him like a wave. His own space, privacy, a bed he doesn't have to share with four other guys. A shower! Patrick is overcome with gratitude by Pete's gesture, and Pete must read it on his face (or maybe in the way his whole body has relaxed after days of being taut as a guitar string about to snap).

"You're welcome," he says. "Now go and get some sleep."

Patrick just nods and watches his best friend walk back out into the night to Andy and Joe.

Then he turns on his heel and heads down the hallway to sink into a blessed, peaceful, uninterrupted sleep.

[spicedwatermel0n]

just dropping in to offer you some motivation, because i totally get art slumps (i just left a 3 yr long one *gasp*). if you’re feeling lost creatively but also like you’re lacking the support you need to keep going, remind yourself that art is supposed to make you happy! draw for yourself, take a break, do whatever you need to step back and view your creations less as “content” for others to consume and more as something that brings you joy to make. and if you ever feel like people don’t care about your content, who cares! post anyways! if you love what you make, people will see that and become interested, but what’s really important is that you feel fulfilled. everything you make has value, always. it’s hard getting past self-deprecation, but if you ever need motivation or want to share your ideas, my dms are open, dude👍

The issue is that I've *tried* to do this. I'm not creatively blocked or anything. A matter of fact, I haven't had art block in... Years. I have a plethora of ideas and there's always new ones I'm creating. And of course, I do enjoy art as well. Buuuuut, I've also been doing it for years only to see the same consistent thing in small fandoms: everyone else has more interesting stuff, they get tons and tons of support, I do everything to satisfy the audience and bring in this following, but literally nothing seems to work because it's all just pointing to, "your art just isn't all that". And it's even worse in large fandoms because that's basically just nothingness lmfao. Haven't been in one in ages though

I'm not gonna stop drawing. But I also can't help that I'm extremely social and want my art to be viewed by others. Humans as a species thrive off community so when there's a lack of that within their space, they tend to feel down. I have no clue what issue it could be other than what I proposed, because small fandom algorithms are non existent. You basically see it all if you're a fandom member. I've tried everything to garner support on things and it's all just. Nothing. I never get the kind of support I've seen my friends here get for the past 2 years, and I'm getting hate mail often about my work. Not to mention the shit talk I get from people.

I mean, hell, you literally just joined (back) and you've got a better following than me. You've managed to get all this attention because your art is just simply amazing. I can't get that. It's sucky knowing everything has pointed to me not being good enough to amass such a following despite how hard I try and how confident I can feel about my skills sometimes.

Once again, I'm not gonna quit or shit like that. I'm well aware that I gotta do it for my own joy and I *do*. But a child is gonna be a little upset if they notice they're showing the same group of people their art that their peers are, yet their peers get so many more "so cute!"s when they get one when lucky, regardless of the child's enjoyment of having drawn it. The same goes for any time of small community where notice isn't dictated by an algorithm due to lack of size. It's the same few people, but the same few people always prefer the talent as one might expect. I don't have what they're looking for. Just a little sad, is all.

[nonbinarygamzee]

one of the spots of the comic i hate the most and yet find myself revisiting sooo often is the particular couple of logs between dave and karkat talking about terezi and the things going on with gamzee behind the scenes. i just. think its such a good little nest of all of the hypocrisy that exists in gamzees character writing. theyre unbelievably, laughably stupid, believing something so obviously untrue that its not even a question whether they deserve basic respect anymore, and yet their belief in this is also somehow an act of manipulation on their part for the sake of.... what? making terezi worse? this isnt even a point in the comic where the relationship is perceived by the other characters as unhealthy (past the idea that being with somebody delusional is a hindrance, and will ruin the otherwise sound head on her shoulders, i guess), but already that fanon interpretation that had been popularized around the time is seeping into the story. gamzee is simultaneously a fool, whom is funny to mock because inevitably their beliefs will be proven wrong, because that is who they’ve been from inception. but they are also a puppetmaster preying on the poor innocent girl who otherwise has always held herself as the judge jury and executioner but now is none the wiser and, worse, completely at their mercy. somehow.

and like. again this is all predating any idea that gamzee is treating her any particular way. and its even weirder when you go and read these logs because its always really felt, to me at least, that these are the first moments where you’re being told pretty explicitly that gamzee’s religious ideas are entirely true to what actually goes on to happen (or has happened already, non-linearly), because of the way dave and karkat keep digging in on how totally impossible it is, how funny it will be to see gamzee realize its bullshit. but even in writing a character arc for gamzee that does include, technically, confirmation of their beliefs, they cant actually be allowed to be right. letting gamzee ever believe something true is too much an act of respect towards the character, the only time this could ever possibly happen is when we are otherwise dragging them through the mud, this time in the form of a shoehorned “implied” story about intimate partner violence that cant even respect the audience enough to call it that until much later on anyways. and that was a shit way to do it when it happens to, hardly says a damn thing and tries to recontextualize these interactions without any of the work of having planned that heavy of a topic’s inclusion at all. its as always a pretty extreme act of racism and ableism, but it’s also hitting on this very veryyyyy homestuck type of misogyny that permeates the text in how it treats terezis “spiral”. the homestuck girls can be strong and they can be smart, are often the smartest person in the room even. but they will still always be proven incapable of avoiding being hurt so that the boys in her life have something to judge and worry over.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Recently, I've been getting into theater and it's interesting to me that the characters and story can feel so different between versions of the same play with the same/a similar script due to subtle acting and directional choices, and the way the stage is set up. In your opinion, how can writing, as a non visual medium, put a new spin on a scene even if the dialogue and storyline remains more or less the same?

So, a writer using the same dialogue as another writer is not a thing that typically happens, on account of it being plagiarism.

(For what's it's worth, directors can't legally stage plays without performance rights being licensed to them, either, which is why a lot of school just do Shakespeare for the millionth time--it's public domain)

Copyright protections protect the expression of an idea. For a director, a lot of that expression comes out in director's notes to put a prop here or there or decorate the stage this way or have a character in the background here or face the audience there.

For a writer, that expression is in words. If you use someone else's words without their permission and without crediting them and without it being in public domain, you're not expressing a new thing at all.

So the dialogue would have to change. The storyline (the idea) might be the same, but the words would have to change. And all of the narration would have to change.

When writers reuse ideas from, say, the public domain, they're not typically doing the kind of straight adaptation to tell the same story as the original--after all, that story already exists (where as theatre, as a somewhat ephemeral art, doesn't exist for long and thus can be replicated almost identically again and again...but literature sorta just hangs out). What they usually do is a retelling: they take a lot of the same ideas and twist them to tell something else.

However, I think there's an interesting question in here about "How does a writer set the scene outside of dialogue/plot" and that I can give you an example of with the same dialogue because I'll use my own.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Alex?"

Alex paced back and forth across the tiny room without answering Jenna's question. He threw another shirt into his suitcase from across the room. Picked up his cracked phone. Turned back to the hallway.

"I don't see what other choice I have at this point."

“Well, I do. You could just not go.” She stood in front of the suitcase when he went to throw another pair of socks in--fresh from the dryer. “They don’t respect you anyway. You know they don’t.”

The uneven floorboards squeaked under his feet. “I’m not doing it for their respect, Jenna, I’m doing it so they keep paying for my rent.”

Versus.

Jenna bit her lip and stood from the armchair as Alex paced across the room, looking for the last few things he needed to pack. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Alex?"

He didn’t answer right away. He picked up a shirt from the armchair, sniffed it, then threw it in the suitcase without folding it. He shoved his phone in his pocket before he headed down the hall calling, "I don't see what other choice I have at this point,” over his shoulder.

She huffed under her breath and crossed the living room to catch the next pair of socks he threw to the suitcase. “Well, I do. You could just not go. They don’t respect you anyway. You know they don’t.”

The wooden floorboards creaked warningly under his steps. “I’m not doing it for their respect, Jenna, I’m doing it so they keep paying for my rent.”

These are basically the same thing. they do the same actions and have the same conversation. But the first is written in choppier sentence fragments to match the sense of Alex’s pacing. Alex sounds much more terse because of the sentences and narrative around his voice than he does in the second.

The first are more details about what the place they’re in looks like. In the first, the socks are clean and fresh from the laundry, but the second has a shirt that’s wrinkled, unfolded, and clearly not freshly washed, if even clean.

And there’s a difference between the floorboards simply squeaking--probably in disrepair?--and “creaking warningly.” What are they warning of? Feels more thunderous from the way Alex is moving about.

So there’s lots of ways authors can put their tone and voice into a story.

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

so anyway i just watched the cat blanc episode bc i was curious and hey i guess we're doing this now i guess i'm getting back into ml even tho i had a terrible terrible experienced with it and swore to never return to it i guess this is happening

and the writing is just as bad as i remember, and also somehow worse than i remember it

i think the issue is that ml is too big for itself and the writers have no idea what they're doing.

bc you can do an episodic show with an overarching plot that's more akin to a serialized show. elementary did this. person of interest did this. burn notice did this. scrubs did this. leverage kinda does this. (there are a lot of other shows that do this too but these are the ones that immediately come to mind lol)

but what i mean by too big, is that its plot and characters are too big for a 30 minute show. when i watched cat blanc i felt like it was running at 2x the speed except i hadn't hit the option, i was stuck with it. everything was too fast. we weren't allowed to sit in the character's reactions and emotions.

adrien's anger over finding out what his father is doing. his grief. his turmoil and confusion and anguish over everything going on when he gets thrown into the eiffel tower. his "please, stop." falls flat bc he only has so much time to say it and then we're whooshing past everything and suddenly he's blowing up the moon???

not to mention ladybug's reaction to all of this. her finding out that chat noir is adrien. finding out that hawkmoth is adrien's father!! trying to calm chat noir down as he's having a mental breakdown and then gets akumatized. like we don't get to sit with any of it!

and these poor voice actors are doing their goddamned best to infuse some kind of emotional weight into their performances but when you've only got like 30 seconds to say a heartbreaking line, things are gonna get left behind. that emotional weight is not going to be there bc the audience doesn't have time to breathe! and neither do the fucking characters!

now i can hear the non-existent audience bc the fandom is dead arguing that it's like that bc it's time travel and it's not like anything that we see happen is going to matter anyway except for when they're on the right timeline again.

and to that i say, what a weak-sauce argument lmao. just bc the characters don't know anything about what happened (except for ladybug to a certain and very limited extent) doesn't mean you have to give the audience the fucking shaft and not put effort into it. like i want a little effort. i want to know the writers enjoy writing for the show. i'd also like to believe they're competent enough to write plots like this, but when you give me what cat blanc was giving, i don't believe any of that.

just bc it's not going to matter to the characters as we move forward doesn't mean it's not important to the audience. doesn't mean that you shouldn't hit those emotional beats. i mean really think about it--how good and emotionally devastating and cathartic would it have been if we could have sat through an alternate universe and watched all this happen, but actually sat with the character's reactions and emotions?

wait i just remembered that thomas basically wrote that episode to show why they can't reveal their identities and be with each other at that point in time didn't he

they wrote a bad episode on purpose why

[theminecraftbee]

Two incomprehensible beings of unknown power, those who Watch, the great malicious force behind the great game, hover over the world. Despite the difficulty properly perceiving eyes on any of them, one might get the sense that the second one is squinting.

“Are you sure this will result in appropriate emotions to feed off of? Is appropriately… entertaining?” asks the second one, in a voice that sounds like a thousand screaming echoes and silence at once.

“Huh?” the first one says, shoving popcorn into its mouth. “Oh, yeah, definitely. Punishment, torture, plenty of sadness, etc etc.”

The second one squints down at the world again. “The one who was so delightfully bloody last time is writing sonnets to the white-haired one,” the second one says slowly.

“Oh man. Are they bad?”

“We do not comprehend human poetry. We create a greater art—”

“Yeah, but are they bad?”

“…yes.”

The first one laughs. “Nice.”

“Regardless of any… bad sonnets… We still do not understand. After they flaunted Our rules so past time around, you promised a proper meal. A proper punishment for their disobedience. Especially from one of Our own. And now they’re… Look at the yellow one and the traitor. They’re cuddling.”

It’s impressive, just how well the second one’s voice conveys disgust there, given that it’s still made up of a cacophony of screams of the damned.

“Okay, look, I get it. Big picture stuff is hard,” the first one starts.

“We Watch all. We are the Watchers. Big picture is not hard. That is basically all We do.”

There’s the disconcerting impression of the first one patronizingly patting the non-existent shoulder of the second that it is probably best no mortals witnessed.

“Look, yeah, but you’re missing—okay, look. See over there? Pearl. Scott. You hate Scott, right? They may be bound together, but, oh man. They’re both like, unhinged. They’re looking each other in the eyes for that? Hah!” The first one shoves more popcorn into its mouth.

“They are still together. Their isolation is not complete. The mistake still thinks he can defy us.”

“No, no, you aren’t getting it. The drama, man. Where’s your sense of drama? Honestly, aren’t you supposed to be itching for the best stories? And this? This is—have you seen what Scar just did? Fantastic!”

“You’ve given them companions!” snaps the second one. “You’ve given them a happy way out! You’ve—”

“Have you met them? Have you seen their interpersonal dynamics? Look at them—we gave them perfect partners and they’re already falling apart,” the first one says.

“Petty interpersonal drama! We made a death game, and it’s petty lies and relationship drama! It’s—”

“New.”

The second one goes silent.

“Look. We can’t just go out the gate with suffering. That’s not gonna work, and you know what? Boring stories don’t taste nearly as good as the fun ones. The interesting ones. Wait, hold on, Tango’s doing the angry thing, and—aw, Jimmy stopped him. Okay.” It puts more popcorn in its mouth. “Anyway. We aren’t fed if the story’s like, boring. We’re fed if it’s memorable.”

“Suffering is memorable. We feed on it alone—”

“That’s not quite how an audience works, hon.”

The second one is quiet for a long time.

“We are more than a simple audience.”

“And yet, the truth,” says the first one. “Besides. Like I said. These people are a mess. If, by the time people start dying, you aren’t convinced?”

The first one—well, it doesn’t smile. It does something far more terrible than that.

“Trust me. We’ll still be fed well.”

They’re both quiet for a bit.

“…want the popcorn?” asks the first one, as though to break the silence.

“We do not need your strange mortal snacks.”

“Suit yourself.”

[reallyhardy]

went through the goes-wrong-verse playbills/programmes - that is, ‘the play that goes wrong’ and ‘peter pan goes wrong’ (thank you @cornleypolytechnicgoeswrong​ !) trying to piece together each society member’s career within the society PLUS if possible whatever it was they were doing at the polytechnic (university) course-wise, along with whatever other character snippets they give. this is mostly to inform me when writing but i thought it’d be useful for other mischief/goes wrong fans!

chris bean:

as of TPTGW is the ‘newly elected’ head of the drama society, and is known at the university for his charitable & philanhropic work. he has six acting credits within the polytechnic to his name.

i was going to presume his choice of course at the uni was acting or directing, but his PPGW bio states that his ‘dacting’ (directing and acting) is all self-taught, so who knows. maybe he’s just in the society because of his aforementioned charitable work.

robert grove:

has starred in 40 productions with the society since 2002 (when he began work at cornley polytechnic as a caretaker - i’m taking this to mean he was never actually a student there.) anyway wow explains why they call him a “veteran actor” lol.

he offers acting lessons (reacting, gesturing, emotioning and acting) and can be contacted via twitter @robertgoodactor. i’ve looked this twitter account up and it does exist it’s just not been used since 2017 - that said there are some in-character photos of henry lewis as robert and nancy zamit as annie on there and plenty of tweets.

he runs an extremely dubiously safe cornley youth theatre program and can be contacted at his email robertgoodactor@hotmail.com (membership fees are non-refundable.)

trevor watson:

in TPTGW is arbitrarily from ‘the north east’ (rob falconer’s portrayal, whereas chris leask’s portrayal is firmly and specifically scouse.)

he has a twitter account (rob falconer’s portrayal) @trevtechie, with i think probably the most tweets of the cornley twitters. stopped being updated in 2017.

his participation in haversham was to complete an electronics module - as the light and sound technician i’d assume his course was in this kinda field.

he states that after haversham he wants to never work with the cornley drama society again, but as of PPGW he’s “following in his parents footsteps” and has pivoted to possibly actually studying stage management. (his PPGW bio states that he’s in his final year at the uni for the 3rd time running. so it could mean his staying on with cornley is like partially due to failing his course?)

dennis tyde:

in his TPTGW bio it states that he joined the drama society after failing to get in to any other societies.

he didn’t live on university campus and commuted in from his parents’ house. he mostly just wanted to make friends - he’s interested in snooker and wants to meet like-minded people.

in his PPGW bio he still wants to make friends and says you can reach him via twitter @dennistyde. i checked this account too and again it does exist but hasn’t been used since 2013, and there are only 3 tweets so its much more bare-bones than the others. i like his one tweet about drinking a mug of bovril to calm his nerves before a show.

as of 2021 in promotional vids we learn that dennis and robert now live together.

max bennett:

in TPTGW bio it says he was a first year studying human geography and crime which i was surprised about but sure okay. it also says here that he happily donated “a large portion of his recent inheritance” to the society to help fund it.

at the bottom of TPTGW’s cast page it states that the west end performance of the play is “made possible by a generous legacy from claude bennett” who’s presumably max’s grandfather? or just father? idk

his TPTGW bio also says his favourite movie is the legend of bagger vance which i’ve never seen but is apparently a will smith golf movie.

his hobbies as listed in his PPGW bio are chess, cooking & hanging out with friends and fam. he also dedicates his performance in PPGW to his grandma claire, which is sweet.

annie twilloil:

as of TPTGW she’s designed, built, painted, costumed & stage managed every cornley show for the past 3 years. in the PPGW bio, it states she’s studying cognitive behavioural therapy and pottery, and has taken up life drawing at the student’s union (as the model.)

after haversham, she apparently had an internship lined up at the bolton octagon.

she has WILD backstory in her PPGW bio that says she dedicated her performance to her estranged husband julian who she hoped was in the audiance and two children frangipani and ylang-ylang. not sure if the kids are with her or with the husband but either way, wild. nuts. pretty funny but also pretty tragic.

she’s also got an ad out looking for a new bloke (i suppose if her husband isn’t in the audience) apparently she’s been left by boyfriends previously for an air hostess, a stripper, and a coal miner.

she also enjoys knitting and playing the banjolin (an instrument she made herself.) her email address is greatfunmum@hotmail.com.

she has a twitter account that again hasnt been used since 2017 (@annietwiloil). a couple tweets chronicle dave hearn’s shoulder dislocation but as max so i guess its canon that max also dislocated his shoulder, but he did it while trying to open a twix? lmao

sandra wilkinson:

in her TPTGW bio it states that haversham manor is her 11th production with the company. idk how frequently they put on shows.

she won some kind of local kids beauty pageant in 1998 and did some modelling for a local restaurant (the sunam balti house, which apparently the cornley crew frequent? or have at least been to - seems they struggled with spicyness levels there, especially dennis.)

nothing on her course at the university, i might just take a stab and assume she was actually doing acting, since her bio is mostly about her being a performer.

she’s a big fan of jeremy irvine, they mention him in both of her bios.

jonathan harris:

is a total health & fitness guy. his course at the uni is in physical education and he’s also a model, though who’s to say what for. in PPGW this is expanded and he’s moved on to being a combo model/actor/photographer/lifecoach.

he loves his outdoor sports: mountain biking & kayaking are noted.

he had a bath salts advert out and he hoped it was gonna go national.

lucy grove:

her surname IS grove! i wasn’t sure, but that’s confirmed. not really much about her in there, because the bio is written by robert and he just used it to gas himelf up.

can’t tell if she’s a student at the university or just in the society through robert. genuinely there’s just not a lot to go on when it comes to lucy.

another note is that the murder at haversham manor and the version of peter pan that the cornley crew perform are both written by ‘susie h. k. brideswell’ who i guess either chris knows or chris is a big fan of?

other notes... they try so hard to make out like the characters aren't all the same age like implying that robert is genuinely older than most of them etc etc but ofc the cast featured in the TV broadcasts are all visibly the same age... ofc all this is just comedy innit so you can take it or leave it

also i realised that the american version of TPTGW calls it “the cornley university drama society” since i guess you guys dont have polytechnics over there. a polytechnic is like... a university that offers the arts (among the classics you know science law what have you) basically. by 2021 in promotional videos etc. shields in character as chris has dropped “polytechnic” altogether from the group’s name (but varies between calling it ‘the cornley drama society’ and ‘the cornley amateur dramatics society’) i assume to reflect how much time has passed since the group put on their first production under chris’ leadership - and that now they’re simply operating unattached to the university because they’ve become a real family. love love love, sillyness and love.

[fill-me-with-your-memes-daddy]

Watching the Rise of the Titans movie and I'll be documenting all of my thoughts/reactions here. [Spoiler Warning]

So instead of reblogging every new update, I'm just going to have this post up on my phone as I watch and type my reactions in a bullet list format.

Nari's human disguise is so cute. As someone who does have a cottagecore aesthetic, I want to cosplay her so bad

Are Skrael and/or Belroc non-binary coded? Regardless, I'm also obsessed and I want to fuck Skrael and be Belroc.

STEVE CARING ABOUT JIM BEING HURT YESSSS!!! My god his redemption has probably been one of the greatest there is because he doesn't just suddenly go from being a bully to a completely good person. You can see the gradual shift in learning better throughout the shows which is awesome.

IN NEW YOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!

The mugshot montage reminded me of season 1 of trollhunters when toby and Jim were arrested at the museum.

STRICKLER PUT A RING ON IT??? HE'S THE ONLY DILF IVE EVER ACTUALLY AGREED WAS HOT WYM I CAN'T HAVE HIM??? well I'm still really happy about his arc over the series probably one of my favorite character growths.

Eli my guy got his growth spurt!!! As an 18 year old who is still 5'0", I'm happy but envious for him

So I went into this movie without watching any trailers or promo, but I doubt anything could have prepared me for the existence of mpreg. In fact, I wasn't going to document my reactions until I saw that.

NAMURA!!!!!!!!! MY BELOVED!!!!!! I CAN STILL THIRST FOR YOU WITHOUT GUILT

The coach teacher just called the kids zoomers so I have to dock one point from my final rating just because of that. Unforgivable

Those husky animation models suck lmao

Oh fuck the titans got power ranger zords!!

God why did they include the mpreg??? This movie would have been perfect without it.... After that plot point being revisited only one time I'm already beyond done with it

Like it's bringing me back to the v*ltron days where they're was a suspiciously high amount of klance omegaverse and mpreg fics and art created and it physically hurts because Steve and Keith's voice actor is the same person meaning this is especially cursed to me since I was unfortunately in the v*ltron fandom and remember all of that

But like on another note, how old are these characters again??? I haven't checked any wikis because of spoilers but is Steve an adult??? I know aja might be technically a lot older than 18 because alien but is whatever age she is equivalent to an adult as far as emotionally and physically in Akaridion development??? IS THIS A TEEN (M)PREGNANCY IN A KIDS SHOW????

Like bruh I saw a singular post on here before going into the movie that was like "rott spoilers without context" and there was a pregnant belly but I was absolutely not expecting the actual context of it. I'll find the post after I finish and edit this post to tag the creator right here: @makoden

This entire post is just gonna be me ranting about mpreg huh

Anyway I love the whole roundtable allusion to the legends of king arthur (not the toa version but the one he's based off)

THERE'S 3 TO 5 BABIES????? I need to take a break bruh this is just too much

Alright I've taken a 30 minute break got some food and did some things i love (decompressed by tactile stimming with some owl plushies and watched some videos on my favorite owl, Garu. He lives in Japan with his owner and is a domesticated eagle owl who basically just acts like a sky cat. If anyone else needs some eye bleach, here is their YouTube channel)

Blinky and ARRRGHHH!!! saying their "if one of us doesn't make it" talk my god one of them is going to die I can see it and I will be utterly crushed. Jim can't lose another father figure and Toby can't lose his wingman again I will riot if this happens

On a similar but unrelated to the movie note, can we just talk about how toa started with Jim having 0 dads and (if strickler and blinky live to the end) will end with 2 dads? Like I just really feel happy for him that he has two dads who actually figured out how to put the past behind them to not have any infighting between them so that both of them are healthy father figures. Jim has already been through literal hell and back losing his actual humanity in the process so if he loses one of them, I'm going to be really pissed because at this point, this is just Jim torture porn. Y'all know how as SpongeBob SquarePants went on, the show just became Squidward torture porn? It's starting to feel that way for toa and I really hope they cut the shit by the ending

Jlaire is such a good ship but like I feel like it's too perfect they never disagree with each other

YESSSSSSS Someone finally doesn't treat toby like a fat waste of space who messes stuff up!!! I think out of all the characters that would have been most deserving of a rewrite, it's Toby. Sometimes I just feel he's only comic relief and any heartfelt moments he's had in the series was also born of stupidity (ie his flour baby project being unharmed was seen by him as divine intervention from his parents but was actually just Eli and Steve behind the scenes).

Ohhhhh yesssssss Archie's father!!! I was hoping I'd see him again because we got so little of him last

Ooooooooooh Asian trollmarket!!!!!

Oh never mind slavery trollmarket

Bruh titanic camelot

I feel like we're not seeing enough of the villains because I completely forgot about the power ranger zord things

NAMORA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LAST CRUSHHHH

STRICKLER NO NOT YOU TOO PLEASE

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ONLY TWO CHARACTERS I SIMP FOR ON THIS SHOW DIED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF EACH OTHER

THAT WHOLE ASS RANT I WROTE IS COMING TRUE FUCK THIS MOVIE THIS SERIES IS JUST JIM TORTURE PORN

WAIT JIM'S SPERM DONOR INFO?

Oh thank God I don't want to know anything about that person

For the record, I call that man Jim's sperm donor because he has no business being called a father to him. All he did was donate some swimmers to the creation of him and give him abandonment issues

Oh another blind troll elder???? This fucker is just if vendel was a bad guy

Bruh I was grieving

PACIFIC RIM WITH GUN ROBOT VEX AND THE BELROCZORD? I've never seen that movie but I know the reference

Bruh Blinky doesn't read horoscopes? Does he realize conspiracy theories are just the manly version of horoscopes?

NO DON'T KILL VEX STOP KO-ING FOUND FAMILY MEMBERS

Oh thank God he's okay

NO NOT ARCHIE AND CHARLEMAGNE OH MY GOD

oh never mind they're just gonna coup de tat I believe in them :))

But I want to see him again

But I'm glad to see vex

Yay they're in arcadia!

But yeah I wondered why the trolls and Merlin didn't keep the whole "daylight doesn't hurt trolls" feature from the eternal night but now Guillermo del Toro I see you were playing the long con in that just to kill my girl Namora :(((

Oooooh I love the animation of the Narizord over Chihuahua!! It looks very good and realistic (if only they could have put some of that into those huskies from before smh)

Bruh the character designs of the arcane order are so good I want to be them

Nari making sure the Skraelzord doesn't crush the bus

DAMN DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Bruh I'm just glad we finally have an answer on why arcadia had everything going on as opposed to literally anywhere else!! I always found that as a weird coincidence for plot convince.

BRUH WERE BACK TO THE MPREG IM SO JEALOUS I FORGOT ABOUT THAT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF MY LOVELIES.

Oh that's real convenient that the ninth configuration meant all of them. Way to not decide which character gets more attention. Though it probably was a smart way to not have any infighting in the fandom between each character's stan group.

Bruh I just realized where is Barbera did they just ditch her on the Camelot ship???

And where are the other trolls that migrated at the end of trollhunters s3? They said something about new jersey but obviously Jim and the other main characters got on Camelot instead.... This feels like a plot hole

And we never learned the process of how changelings are made and bonded to humans and stuff. We just know it's super painful but I'm curious ffs!!!!

THE DONT THINK BECOME HERO SPEECH ALL SAID TOGETHER!!!

BRUH THEY REALLY HAD TO SHOW HIM GIVING BIRTH??????? WAS THAT AN ABSOLUTE MUST??????

Plus the main audience for this series is little children (the rating for the movie is literally TV-Y7) so even though my adult ass is not in the target audience, I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD MPREG AND ANAL BIRTH WOULD BE AN IMPORTANT THING TO 7 YEAR OLDS???? THIS IS A LITERAL FETISH HIDDEN IN KIDS CONTENT ITS ELSAGATE ALL OVER AGAIN Y'ALL 😭😭😭😭😭

Though it's probably hypocritical of me to think fetishes don't belong in kids tv when I've openly admitted to thirsting for strickler and namora

HUZZAH

NEW AMULET WAZ GOOD????

STAB THAT BITCH JIM

WAIT NO I SAID STAB NOT GET STABBED

Alright good job just missed the directions at first but you fixed it

SEVEN KIDS?????????

T O B Y ????????????

W A I T NO

N O

IS HE ACTUALLY

OH MY GOD THERE'S HOPE

NO THERE ISN'T

F U C K THIS SHIT THEY REALLY JUST HAD HIM TO BE BULLIED THEN KILLED

Y'ALL IM ACTUALLY CRYING THIS NEVER HAPPENS

I NEVER ACTUALLY GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER MEDIA THAT I CRY IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE AT THE END OF VOLTRON BUT AHHHHHHHH

W A I T

HE'S GONNA BE BROUGHT BACK?????

HOLD UP THEY'RE JUST GONNA BRING ALL THOSE DEAD PEOPLE BACK??????

WAIT IS HE

BLINKY CALLED HIM A SON

HOLD ON IS THIS GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER???????????

BRUH THEY REALLY JUST CAN'T END THE SERIES WITHOUT CLIFFHANGERS like there's always an open ending

TROLLHUNTER TOBY????? You know what forget the whole rants I had on how toby was written they just redeemed it all

And that's all! I'd rate it a 6.5/10 because it's definitely the weakest of all the sequels but still had amazing animation and some good plot points. It's just really hard to look over the bad stuff enough to rate it any higher.

[olderthannetfic]

What do you think of writers of both fanfic and commercial fiction who focus on het relationships in the latter while relegating m/m ships /queer content in general to the former? I understand why this division exists (het is commercially viable and safer, i.e. avoids accusations of fetishization and misrepresentation) but I've seen backlash against it (mostly ignored by authors) and wanted to hear your take.

--

I don't read Naomi's pro work because it doesn't interest me. (What? What?)

If you were genuinely asking about authors broadly... I don't have that much of an opinion. As both a writer and a reader, I really only care about the rising genre of "m/m romance" and other burgeoning Western BL industry stuff. While that stuff may not make it into bookstores, bookstores are dead anyway.

I'm less annoyed at authors than at audience members. We're at a tipping point where we actually have the beginnings of an English-language BL industry, but people are still giving asspats to mainstream publishing for crumbs. With filmed content, I sort of understand because people want lengthy genre TV, not one-off art films, and a lot of the queer media out there isn't very fandomy.

But with novels and novel series, it's just a total failure on the reader's part to be chasing after these fic authors who go mainstream instead of the ones who write shit like Jordan L Hawk's SPECTR series. They're delightfully dumb urban fantasy about a possessed goth twink, the vampire demon thing in his head, and their boyfriend the federal agent/exorcist. Like... do you think Hawk isn't a fandom person?

My favorite shit is like... one of them is afraid of werewolves and the other is a secret werewolf and OH NO now they have to work together as buddy cop partners! (Yes, Charlie Adhara's Big Bad Wolf series is pretty good.) I read early Anita Blake but gayer type urban fantasy crime procedurals, cozy mystery, some high fantasy, etc.

There are gaps though. I wish there were more Asian-flavor historical fantasy and more nonwhite leads who aren't treated in the Good Representation bland-ass way. I'd like to see more varied settings, more OT3s, and waaaaay slower slowburn. That latter is largely an issue because of the format, which is long novellas/short novels marketed at least somewhat as "romance", so the leads need to at least kind of get together in the first book. Mainstream-published urban fantasy and series mystery with B-plot romance can string things out longer, which is sometimes nice.

It annoys me how hard it is to find comprehensive info on this kind of content in a way that would let us 1. call it what it is, which is BL, not the broader category of "queer fiction" or the only-sometimes accurate genre of "romance", and 2. build more of a culture and identity around the non-fanworks stuff, including not just textual novels but other types of media like indie games.

I have a lot of pent up rage over fic fans who claim to want this industry but do nothing to support it.

Weebs are doing a better job than Western fandoms types, tbh. There's something of a push from the sorts of people who go to Fujocon to publicize BL games, webnovels, etc. in English to each other. I just think that it would be good to link up that kind of community more closely with the sorts of people at GRL. (GayRomLit is the industry conference for "m/m romance" and is attended by a lot of the big names in... like... Kindle Unlimited selfpub m/m, basically.)

Authors who go pro in another sphere are irrelevant to what I care about. They may well be tired of only writing about men, or maybe it really is that the media they consume doesn't have female characters they like (but they can easily create them themselves), or maybe they're just old and still see selfpub as what it was 15 years ago instead of the vanguard of queer genre fiction that it is today. (Though, of course, people do go into het selfpub erotic romance all the time from fandom. But, again, who cares?)

[miraculouscontent]

Kagami and Marinette deserve so much better.

Anyway, let’s just start literally where this episode starts, because it makes no sense. Remember back in my “Truth” critique where I basically said that the episode seemed like it’d been shoved through multiple drafts and no one checked the final one?

Same applies here.

Like--okay, ”Truth” and “Lies” take place at roughly the same time, which means that the same filler akuma/sentimonsters appear to interrupt Adrimi’s moments just as they did with Lukanette’s, giving its audience a clear timeline of how the episodes line up. The reason this is important is because the writers can’t even keep consistency within singular episodes and then honestly thought that they could do it within two.

“Lies” begins with Marinette talking to Tikki about the grimoire, because apparently she has the non-translated version and there’s a secret to figuring out the code that Tikki believes Marinette will discover eventually.

...Alright, I’m derailing here but I have to add how absolutely stupid Fu was when dealing with translating the grimoire. He was supposed to teach Marinette how to be guardian, yet he didn’t teach her how to read the grimoire (if there’s supposedly a “secret” to it, is he really going to bank on Marinette figuring it out herself eventually instead of just giving it to her and avoid the risk altogether??), kept the translated pages on his tablet without sending them to Marinette as he deciphered them, and took time to write a letter to her in “Miracle Queen” but left no guardian-centric advice for her to work off of, meaning that Tikki had to explain how the Miracle Box worked to Marinette back in “Truth.”

The show goes out of its way constantly to turn everything against Marinette even if it makes all the characters around her look either incompetent or cruel. It’s not that I’m not used to this by now but it’s just infuriating that it keeps trying to raise the stakes and tension when Marinette made such a tiny mistake to cause the issue in the first place, and now we find out that Fu had no back-up plan or strategy, apparently expecting this 14-year-old girl to act perfectly and cover for him.

And of course, instead of leaving the scene off on Marinette being encouraged by Tikki and Marinette showing confidence in herself (i.e: what would’ve been a nice scene), the kwami accidentally fumble with the keyboard in such a way to have Marinette’s computer bring up  a news story about Adrien, which leads to Marinette leaning towards her computer and sighing over Adrien and his “amazing life.”

Can I just point out how annoying it is that all the Adrienette moments so far on Marinette’s end have been forced, not just in general (because we’re used to that), but literally forced by the plot so Marinette would talk about him or other characters would bring Adrien up?

“Truth” had Alya insult Marinette to her face over her Adrien crush because Marinette was freaking over something non-Adrien related that they couldn’t have known about, Luka was sent a no-context picture of Marinette’s Adrien wall which led to him lowkey teasing her about it, and then Truth was forced to listen to Marinette’s friends and Tom babble about Marinette’s supposed crush on Adrien even when Truth points out that it’s not a secret, making the “joke” fall absolutely flat.

And now “Lies” comes along and has the kwami drop things and step on the keyboard in the exact way to pull up Adrien stuff for Marinette to fawn over. It’s at this point I’m realizing that - had the kwami stayed inside the box or just not been around in general - Marinette literally wouldn’t have brought up Adrien at all in either “Truth” or “Lies” and now I’m sad. I really don’t want to have a counter for “episodes where Marinette wouldn’t have so much as breathed Adrien’s name if the kwami/someone else wasn’t there to force it.”

So yeah, the episode had to force Adrienette into its Adrimi episode because the show can’t go five minutes without reminding the audience that Adrien exists even though this episode is primarily from his point of view, made worse by this scene’s lack of ability to exist.

See, from the timeline in “Lies” lining up with “Truth,” there is no possible way for this opening scene with Marinette talking about guardian stuff and then fawning over Adrien to happen. There’s an akuma scene in “Lies” that literally is just copy-pasted from “Truth” (it actually does this again with another scene later but that’s not important right now), so that means anything that takes place before said scene in both “Truth” and “Lies” have to line up.

Except they can’t. The akuma scene in question interrupts Marinette’s movie date with Luka in “Truth,” and before that, she had just opened the Miracle Box, wrangled up the kwami, talked to the girl squad over video call, talked to Luka, and then immediately had to leave. There are no cuts or wiggle room anywhere in there.

Therefore, the scene in “Lies” is impossible. Either the scene is supposed to go elsewhere in the episode (we don’t actually know how many days it takes up so it’s hard to say on that front) which just makes the episode even more convoluted, or this means that one would have to pick between the scene in “Truth” and the scene in “Lies” because they literally cannot co-exist.

“Lies” was supposed to coincide with “Truth” and they messed it up in the first scene of the episode.

Then comes Adrien himself, who really shows the series’ clunkiness in focusing on other characters. It’s not that I’m against the show moving away from Marinette to show other people’s point-of-view (I definitely didn’t complain during the Couffaine sibling scene in “Reflekdoll”), but Adrien cannot carry his own episode.

In Marinette’s opening scene, we immediately got details on the grimoire and lore about how reading it actually worked. I didn’t like it and it wasn’t good, but it was new information.

Adrien, meanwhile, spends a large portion of the episode being sad (a very grand and unique plot, my dudes) and giving us information we already know. “Truth” has to come first because “Lies” is half of a follow-up on it, meaning that the audience is already aware that Ladybug has been forgetful and has had to miss out on patrols. It’s just that now we get to see Chat Noir sulking about it and--okay, I am just going to go off, alright?

Firstly, Chat Noir tells Ladybug later on that he “understands” her guardian duties, but he previously mocked her behind her back by using air quotes when he was talking to her answering machine (since she obviously wouldn’t see that). We saw in “Truth” where he admitted that he doesn’t mind her being guardian “as long as it doesn’t change their relationship,” and that’s on display right here with his comments.

Not only is it extremely disrespectful, but for someone who claims to be so loyal and understanding to Ladybug, he sure doesn’t show it.

Secondly, he leaves her a message about how he’ll take care of patrol, then proceeds to slack off because she’s not there to keep him in check. He sulks around Paris, mumbling about how Ladybug isn’t around and constantly checking his messages to see if she’s replied to him. Chat Noir has shown his “priorities” in terms of heroism before, but patrol isn’t supposed to be about getting time with “““his lady”““ yet that is clearly all he cares about. He even ends the patrol unprompted, either giving up or just generally having not finished, because I don’t believe that the “end” of patrol just happened to be at the place Kagami was.

Patrol is about protecting Paris and scoping things out. Ladybug is trusting him to pick up the slack when she’s not around and he should be picking up slack, yet he has completely failed on that front. This is made worse when considering that the Season 3 finale had Ladybug breaking down to him from guilt and we know that Marinette had a breakdown before that to Luka, yet Chat is doing nothing to lighten Ladybug’s burden, putting up a falsehood on Ladybug’s answering machine to make him look better than he actually is.

Then, thirdly and most importantly/infuriatingly, Chat Noir knows that Ladybug is busy and he knows that she’s taking on a new responsibility, yet he not only jabs at her for “how hurtful it is when she leaves him to patrol alone” (one, cry me a river, and two, I don’t care if it’s a joke, it’s insensitive), but before that scene, he was actively hoping for people to get akumatized so Ladybug would be forced to show up and he could spend time with her. He egged Xavier Ramier on, even asking him if he “missed being Mister Pigeon,” and then looked on with glee as Chloe bullied Sabrina because he thought that an akumatization might happen.

And this is on top of so many other issues with this whole scene. Adrien complains all the time about his schedule and how restrictive his father is, but suddenly - in the episode right after Marinette had to break up with her boyfriend due to her cramped schedule - is lounging around and wasting time. It hurts to see Marinette suffering from all of her responsibilities while Chat’s biggest problem is how little time he gets with Ladybug.

Also, another point on Mister Pigeon is that that’s the akuma that had interrupted Marinette’s movie date and kiss with Luka. I’m not suggesting that Chat egging Xavier on led to him getting akumatized, but I am saying that Chat wanting akuma to happen with no regard for Ladybug’s happiness is yet another point on the list of why I hate the love square. Marinette genuinely forgot about patrol with him - genuinely was forgetting about everything, really - and as a “punishment,” her own partner whined, didn’t patrol properly, and egged on an akumatization that eventually ended up happening which then broke up the little bit of happiness that the universe was allowing her to have.

Oh, and did I mention that he’s also dating Kagami at the time as well because here we freaking go.

Now, I did not get on Marinette’s case for her Adrien wall and stammering because Luka is largely aware of where she stands in the relationship and she only brought Adrien up when someone else did, even when Luka wasn’t around or being mentioned. Adrien, however, I have multiple bones to pick with, starting with how utterly needy he is for Ladybug’s attention.

This guy has tons of friends, all these fans, and could get people to flock to him whether in or out of the mask, but he wants Ladybug, and anyone not Ladybug isn’t good enough. There’s a scene later in the episode where Kagami - his girlfriend, mind you - is pouring her heart out to him, and he gets distracted by Ladybug instead of listening to her. Even when he excuses the distraction, he then gets distracted again even though Ladybug is no longer in the background.

Lying to protect his identity is one thing, but what Adrien does to Kagami goes beyond that. He’s pining after and flirting with another girl and Kagami has no idea. She’s speculated before that Adrien likes Marinette, but she’s mostly left in the dark because Adrien hasn’t told her anything, nor has he confirmed with her whether it’s okay or not for him to flirt with other girls so long as he’s not pursuing them. He could’ve admitted that he was in love with Ladybug but that he wants to try things with Kagami, but he refuses to open up to her or put himself out there.

Except, he technically does, once, when Kagami tells him to pose for her and he strikes his transformation stance, but he caught her completely off-guard and it’s no wonder why she was put off by it or thought it was unnatural. Not only that, but when Kagami tells him that he’s acting like a clown in that scene, we can see by jumping back to “Truth” that Chat Noir fished for Ladybug’s compliments which then led to a line about him talking about how Ladybug enjoyed him acting like a clown; a direct connection.

Kagami didn’t validate him, so he fished for Ladybug to do so because Ladybug was both forced to answer the question and wasn’t able to lie to him. The show has Ladybug state that her most preferred trait of his is his humor but I am certainly not laughing.

Chat Noir even goes further after the fight with Truth (so another copy-pasted scene) by saying that he has the most fun with Ladybug specifically, and this is all while he’s still dating.

Then this guy has the gall to talk during his break-up about how his fun times with Kagami weren’t lies after apologizing to her for his constant lying, as if he’s trying to earn her sympathy when we know that he’s been pining after Ladybug and flirting with her like she were his number one when he already had a girlfriend waiting for him (and who, by the way, had covered for him earlier and was sitting sadly on a staircase outside, feeling abandoned). The episode presents the break-up as if Adrien’s problem was the fact that he had to constantly lie to Kagami due to being busy with hero work (which is already dumb when we also saw him lounging around and complaining about how nothing was happening, meaning he was inadvertently supportive of the idea of having less time with Kagami and more time with Ladybug even if that means Paris is in danger), but the real problem ends up being that Adrien neglected Kagami emotionally and wasn’t able to give her the attention she wanted.

It’s both sad and annoying that Adrien has always sulked about his dad not paying attention to him and then we get Adrien not paying attention to Kagami, looking for Ladybug when Ladybug had already left and Kagami is trying to tell him something very important.

This is what I mean when I say that Adrien can’t carry an episode on his own. He’s incredibly selfish and most of his dialog just involves him complaining about Ladybug or making excuses. Kagami carried the episode more than he did because more details were revealed about her - specifically the fact that she likes drawing - and she’s active in making things happen (being the one to make the excuse to set up their fencing lessons, deciding what they’ll do with their hour of free time, etcetera).

And regardless of what girl he’s interacting with, Adrien can’t respect either of them. I just talked about Kagami and I’ve already talked about how he treats Ladybug when she’s not even around, but now we get to how he treats Ladybug when she is around.

During the climax of the fight with Lies, where Ladybug requires a distraction to safely pull off her lucky charm, Chat Noir decides - without Ladybug’s input - to sacrifice himself yet again.

I have to stress that Ladybug is stressed and Chat has always talked about her plans and listening to her, yet he has a horrible habit of making decisions all on his own and letting Ladybug deal with the fallout. Whenever he has the chance, he’ll throw himself in front of her and take the big hit, presumably with the mindset that Miraculous Ladybug will fix everything so it’s not like it matters.

Ladybug even shouts at him when he hints at what he’s about to do and there was absolutely time for them to talk about it, but Chat Noir just lets himself fall and be bait, even throwing out what is a clear confession (again, while he’s still dating someone else) before he’s knocked unconscious by Lies’ power.

And when Ladybug yells at him for it when everything’s said and done, pounding at his chest and looking absolutely upset over the whole thing? He not only brushes her off, but he boops her nose and talks about how “irresistable” her “angry little pout” is.

He might as well have just said, “you’re cute when you’re angry,” because that’s exactly what he’s implying; that Ladybug’s anger is something “amusing” to him and not something he takes seriously. We’ve already seen it before in “Reflekdoll” and “Oblivio” as well, so this is just a continuation of already-annoying behavior.

Then, instead of Ladybug getting even angrier for it, the episode has her smile at him, which not only isn’t a normal reaction compared to how she’s reacted before, but now gives the impression that she’s being conditioned by the narrative to accept Chat Noir’s behavior in whatever shape or form it takes.

Because think about it: regardless of how upset Ladybug gets over Chat Noir, it never works out for her and she’s forced to either make up with him quickly or just get over it because she can’t be fighting with her partner (meanwhile, like in “Glaciator,” Chat Noir can be as upset as he wants and she’ll apologize first). She presumably would now have the authority to take away his ring by virtue of being guardian, but he’s also been her partner from the beginning and he’s had so much time to get used to the cat. Most likely, she would sooner blame herself for failing to reign him in than blame him for failing as an adequate partner.

There’s nothing she can do. She has to deal with the hand that she’s been dealt and getting angry at him has done nothing; rejecting him has done nothing.

And of course the episode throws everything under the rug in the ending with an insulting LadyNoir scene where Ladybug and Chat Noir talk about the secrets their forced to keep but also how they can trust each other.

Meanwhile, Ladybug has no idea of all the things Chat Noir has done behind her back. She still has no clue about “Copycat,” nor “Syren,” nor any of the stuff he did in this episode that she’ll probably never know about. Factor it in with “Miraculous New York” (whether one considers it canon or not) where she rightfully shouted at him because he betrayed her trust, and here we are one and a half episodes later (since “Truth” and “Lies” take place at similar times) where suddenly they’re all buddy-buddy and Chat Noir doesn’t have to deal with any consequences to his selfishness.

I’m glad that Kagami didn’t forgive Adrien in the end (even if I’m upset that she doesn’t know how bad it really was) because she had every right to walk away and not want to be friends with him. I only wish that Ladybug could do the same thing and never look back, but due to the love square’s status as endgame, we know that can’t happen, and Ladybug will eventually be forced to fall in love with a guy who mocked her responsibilities behind her back, disrespected her authority by opting to tease/flirt with her, continued pursuing her despite her rejections, and hoped for Paris to be in danger just so he could see her.

And... yeah, that hurts. It really does.

[moonbaby26]

Title: The Battle

Pairing: Peter Maximoff x Reader

Summary: Continuation from last chapter. Set during X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, you and the others fly to Cairo to confront Apocalypse and his soldiers in an attempt to rescue Xavier.

Warnings: Apocalypse being a leg breaking, hero strangling jerk. Characters fighting for their lives, but bookended with fluff from Peter x Reader pairing.

Chapters: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Taglist: @drikawinchester , @n0obmaster69 , @alexloveskili , @what-a-silver-lining , @bluesprings18 , @weakmoony-stuff , @slytherinsi-mp, @wintwrsoldiwr, @tommy-braccoli, @amourtentiaa

Peter Maximoff x Reader Masterlist

———————————

You’d at least gotten to clean up somewhat. Earlier as Hank and the new woman you’d just met, Moira, had worked on readying the jet, you’d found some bit of helpful supplies. Clean rags to wipe off the blood, and bandages that’d you’d hurriedly applied to your shallow claw wounds.

All the remnants of your restraints were gone, and your old, torn clothes you’d just tossed in favor of the thin jumpsuit and lightly armored black flight suit over the top of it. You all wore these suits, commandeered with this experimental jet now rumbling beneath you as you shot off to Cairo together.

There was silence for a good while, after some initial nervous chatter and joking from the others. It would have been too easy to fill this quiet with any of the myriad of questions still rushing through your brain, but you really had just listened and little more when they’d filled you in earlier with the gist of what they’d learned.

All that really mattered was that the Professor was being held captive by a seemingly omnipotent mutant. One that had now declared war on all and recruited his own powerful soldiers. This was a rescue mission, with likely all your lives at stake.

You leaned your head back, wondering if anyone else would really even know or care what had happened to you if you never came back from this.

The escape from Stryker’s lab had been life threatening as well of course, but it was so different when it’d just been one thing after another. Events unfolding too quickly to really develop any sense of dread, it’d been all adrenaline and luck really.

But even in a jet like this, flying all the way to Egypt was more than just a skip and a jump. It was well enough time to dwell on your own inexperience and shortcomings, to wonder if this was the last time you’d ever do anything at all.

“Hey,” Peter’s voice was quiet, just to you, as you glanced over, having been mired only in your own thoughts until that moment.

He was sitting beside you, both of you strapped in these jump seats that ran along both sides of the jet. Vaguely you realized the others had started talking once more as well then. Maybe that was why he felt more comfortable speaking to you again now.

He hadn’t addressed you directly since you’d reunited with the others. Though you wouldn’t blame him if he was just as nervous as you were deep down. But from his self deprecating jokes in front of your friends earlier, about still living at home with his mother, he would at least seem better at hiding fear if he did have any.

“Hey,” You answered back reflexively, looking at him fully again.

“So uh....” He was chewing a piece of gum, as if some part of him still had to stay in motion in order to remain comfortable. “That car, that was pretty sweet. That yours or what?”

Honestly it took you a very long, awkward pause before you could piece together any idea of what he was referring to. But being that you’d only known him since literally just earlier today, there wasn’t anything else he could possibly mean. “The yellow convertible?” You questioned anyway, not really surprised by much of anything now.

“Yeah, I mean, I take the road if there is one. I saw you guys on the way to the house,” He answered, still offering a little explanation regardless. “Looked like you knew what you were doing though.” There was a more sheepish grin emerging. “I was going to stop and say hey I guess. But then I saw the, you know, fireball coming out the house and all, had to go see what that was about. Save everybody or whatever...” He trailed off after a bit, maybe realizing that you were just letting him ramble.

It reminded you of how you’d acted with him during the whole lab fiasco. He seemed the more confident one down there, while you got easily flustered. You really wondered if having your friends here now was making the difference. As if he was more unsure of himself when there was a potential audience to hear what you might say back to him.

It was interesting, getting to put more of those pieces together, or at least starting to be able to when it came to him. For putting on the display of an extrovert, and if you could finally admit it, even him being an outright flirt, you felt more and more sure that that was only skin deep really. That was just the outer layer he protected himself with.

“It was one of the Professor’s cars,” You smiled genuinely, probably the first one since they’d told you where you were going in this jet and why. “We were on our way back from the mall.”

That warmth from you seemed to ease him back into his normal tone, maybe a slight relief in him that you didn’t find it off putting that he’d already taken notice of you before you even knew he was anywhere around.

“Oh, mallrat, huh?” He quipped, “I can picture that.”

He was teasing, but you gave it right back. “There is no way you can tell me that you don’t end up in music stores wherever you live, like a lot.” You hadn’t forgotten his band t-shirt after all. You thought you’d seen him putting away headphones at some point too. “And that leather jacket and pants you had? Come on, that didn’t come from some bargain clothes rack.”

You might have had him for just a moment there. Just a flicker of surprise in his eyes to know you really had paid him that much attention, before he retorted, “Hey, what’s the point of a fast car if it has no style, right?”

“Says the guy who most people can’t even see until he slows down.” But you were purposeful to make clear in your tone that that wasn’t an insult at all, just continuing a little more bravely afterward, “Though their loss I guess.”

There was no mistake then, he really did pause. You could feel the slightest bit of heat in your face again, but you were not about to take that back. Not when you didn’t even know what was really awaiting you all at the end of this flight.

And you were still the next one to speak, that resolve remaining. “If we make it out of this, maybe you can come with me back over there to our mall. Help me pick out some new stuff.” You tried not to make it sound funny, but on some cosmic level it still was. “Seeing as how my room and everything I owned was incinerated and all.”

“Deal.” He said immediately. Only a little afterward seeming to realize that maybe he sounded a bit too eager. He cleared his throat, shifting in his seat. “I mean, I’m pretty good at Ms. Pac Man too. They have an arcade, right?”

“Yes.” You answered, trying not to look too amused, and going along with him to help him feel more comfortable. “I can’t say I’m actually any good, but they do have a Flash Gordon pinball machine I always play. And a couple of air hockey tables. That’s my go-to.” No question with his speed that he would likely annihilate you on both. But the idea of being in a much simpler, safer place like that with him some day was a pleasant one right now.

“Oh yeah. I can show you a thing or two.” He was clearly back in his element then, looking smug once more.

“I’m sure you will.” You could only wonder if the god complex mutant and his lackeys you were now off to go challenge would have any idea that in the back of your mind you’d now be dreaming of a simple date in an arcade as extra motivation to get back home in one piece.

———————————

It wasn’t long before things had started spiraling in quick succession again. You’d all arrived in Cairo to find it essentially destroyed, save for what this fake god had already erected in monument to himself. A huge pyramid in the style of the ancient Egyptians, one he’d taken Xavier hostage inside.

It hadn’t been clear though how much of the destruction was done by this mutant, and how much had actually been at Magneto’s hands as it was with more shock that you’d found him in the middle of this as well. Now serving this apocalyptic mutant.

You knew enough about Magneto to both fear and respect him. Even though his history with the Professor went back so many years, Erik Lehnsherr as he was actually named was always more on the side of peace through violence. While Xavier preached ideals of tolerance and education for regular humans to one day accept mutant kind, Magneto thought them incapable of such, and had no qualms on preemptive strikes against non mutants as well as eye for an eye type vengeance.

But even for Magneto this seemed surprising. He would really just give Xavier up this way? As you’d gotten closer, Jean had sensed that Apocalypse (what you were now calling the new enemy in your own mind) intended to take over the Professor’s body, possessing him permanently to gain access to his mind control powers and become basically omniscient. He’d be unstoppable with everyone as his puppets then. Free will would cease to exist.

“You guys help Nightcrawler get into the pyramid!” Raven called back to all of you as the jet was landing. “Get Charles and I’ll take care of Erik.”

You’d snapped back to attention at the orders, and you saw that Peter was suddenly at her side.

He looked so focused all at once, “I can get you in there,” He told her, referring to the debris field of broken buildings and all else now churning, stuck in a huge magnetic orb with Magneto at its center. When she didn’t look sure, he continued quickly. “I came here for him, let me help you.”

Raven nodded to Peter then in agreement, knowing there was no time for more back and forth. “The rest of you, get Charles on this plane and get him out of here!”

You too knew what was at stake, there was no reason to argue, even if there still must have been concern on your face. You didn’t understand Peter’s change and sudden fixation on Magneto.

But it was only Kurt that spoke up immediately, yelling back to Raven and Peter, “We’re not leaving without you!”

Peter looked back at that, “Don’t worry.” In fact, you realized he was looking directly to you for one moment. “We’ll catch up.”

———————————

While Peter had sped Raven out of sight to try and reason with Magneto, Moira had stayed with the jet and Hank had come with you, Scott, Jean, and Kurt.

But as you all ran along the rubble, trying to make your way to the pyramid, it hadn’t been but moments until you encountered Apocalypse’s other soldiers, mutants set on stopping you all from interfering by any means necessary.

A tall, blonde man with wings made out of metal, a ninja seeming woman with a pinkish purple energy she could wield from her hand like a blade even while also carrying a katana, and a girl nearer your own age with stark white hair and seemingly the most power out of the three as she’d flown right towards you throwing lightning bolts from her hands.

You’d had no choice but to split up. Which you were sure was what they’d wanted even as you’d chosen to try and take the white haired girl’s attention. You didn’t really want to find out what would happen if one of those bolts struck you directly, but you could guess you had the best chance of anyone to maybe absorb some of it in your energy form.

You’d immediately powered up, glowing white as she’d chased you around the sky, both of you darting and flying in some kind of bizarre dog fight.

Your heart had been racing though, no amount of training at the mansion could actually prepare you for dueling with someone who actually wished to harm you. Everything to this point had just been about learning to control your powers, maybe even firing an energy blast at a dummy or paper target or two. But you’d never tried to hurt anyone. Not on purpose.

“Why are you helping him!?” You yelled out to her, swerving again as she tried to get close enough to you to land a hit. You generated an orb of light energy from one hand, letting it destabilize before you threw it towards her. It collapsed into itself, exploding to make a shockwave through the air that pushed her back again.

“He’s going to make it so we never have to hide what we are again!” She growled back in frustration, steadying herself in the air before her eyes hazed over into solid white.

You doubted that could be good, and of course it wasn’t as she raised her arms, a tornado like blast of wind then trying to knock you from the sky. You were able to shield yourself somewhat with your force fields, but the barrage of debris and wreckage that came with the winds made it too difficult to keep track of her as she did nearly land a direct lightning strike then.

“You’re wrong!” You yelled back, even as you felt numb and disoriented briefly, like the electricity surge was messing with your own energy. “He’s just using all of you! He only wants slaves, nothing more! And you’re just going to hand us all to him!”

She didn’t answer back after that, but you knew it wasn’t as if you could change anyone’s mind for them. She’d have to live with her own choices, just as you’d have to live with yours.

After a good while of this tit for tat though, you were really trying to take her out of the sky at last, knowing you needed to find and help the others as this had already been going on for far too long. You started trying to get her in the chest with white energy beam after energy beam shooting from your hands. She was fast, but you were able to at least get her in one shoulder at last as she spun with the force, losing altitude quickly with the hit.

Even as she fell, you could see her already correcting course though, trying to take aim at you again as she glared upwards.

But you didn’t get to see what happened next. A three fingered hand grasped your left arm suddenly from thin air, and then you were collapsing onto the floor of the jet you’d come here in.

“Gotcha, time to go!” Kurt spoke quickly as you looked to him in surprise, that strange burning smell hanging in the air briefly that always accompanied his teleporting. It was as instant a feeling as moving with Peter, but thankfully without the subsequent vertigo as you stood quickly, powering down, even as you were already looking around for the speedster.

With relief you did see Jean cradling the Professor’s head as they sat on the floor, Xavier unconscious but still breathing. But you did not see Peter or Raven.

Moira and Hank were already firing up the jet engines and you grabbed hold to the wall as you felt the craft quickly rising. “What about Peter and Raven?” You called out over the noise of the turbines spooling up faster and faster.

“We’ll have to trust them to figure it out, we’ve got to get Charles out of here now!” Hank answered back, leaving no room for debate.

You felt an unease building in your stomach, but it was true that if Apocalypse got Xavier, that Peter, Raven, or anyone else would then no longer matter anyway. At least for now you could hope Peter would just take Raven and run somewhere far from here. Xavier and Jean could use their psychic abilities to find them later and you could reunite.

But a hard thud above you left you all looking upward as the jet rattled.

“What the hell was that!?” Moira called out.

As soon as you saw that pinkish energy blade emerging through the jet’s hull, you had already powered up again, glowing and ready to shield the others as best you could. Apocalypse’s soldiers were proving too difficult to shake.

Yet Jean had other plans, “Everyone, grab onto Kurt!” She yelled.

You didn’t know what altitude you were already at, but you knew it wasn’t a survivable one for the jet itself if it was ditched now. Yet a fight in this close of quarters with all your powers would likely end in the same result. So her choice wasn’t as irrational as it first seemed.

You reached one hand quickly back, firmly grabbing onto Kurt’s shoulder, even as you kept your other hand raised towards where the metal winged mutant and the blade wielding woman were now trying to force their way in through the breach they’d created in the hull.

“I’ve never done it with this many people!” Kurt warned as you all held to him.

“Get us out of here!” Jean commanded, her desperation bringing out a forcefulness you hadn’t yet seen from her.

But Kurt was still straining, the sound of his opening whatever portal he used clearly heard but not bringing you anywhere as he tried several times.

The man with the metal wings jumped down into the cockpit, now just feet away as you realized what you had to do.

“Go without me!” You screamed over the rush of wind now coming through the hull breach. You let go of Kurt, making direct eye contact with Jean.

You could get out on your own. At least you were going to try. It was the only way. Kurt wasn’t able to take you all.

You felt that Jean was listening, that she heard your thoughts and that as difficult as it was, she agreed just as quickly. It was the only way.

“Do it!” She urged Kurt even through the horrified look he gave you both.

“I’m taking it down.” You also heard her voice say in your head almost simultaneously. That briefest warning to ready yourself before she willed the controls to throw the plane into a nosedive and cause Apocalypse’s soldiers to lose their footing.

The last you saw of your other friends was still their shocked and frightened expressions as they disappeared from right in front of you. But this was your only chance as well, propelling yourself as fast you could, right through the fading cloud of gas they left behind and past the now tumbling winged mutant as all your focus went to that small square of sunlight that they’d cut into the hull.

It was your one window of survival. For just the briefest moment, you felt him try to grab hold of your leg as you flew past him. But you kicked him with the other leg as hard as you could manage, breaking free into the open air as the jet plummeted on without you.

Out the corner of your eye you saw the woman had remained on the outside of the jet, but jumped free from it as well. You lost sight of her as you both fell, focusing only on trying to slow your descent to a survivable speed. It was one thing to levitate yourself up from a neutral position, and wholly another to try and control your energy field around yourself enough to reverse the terminal velocity transferred to you from being within a crashing plane.

The ground still came too fast, too hard. You blacked out on impact, laying alone in the dirt as your light energy faded, receding back inside you.

————————————

An unknown time later, something jolted you awake. You could hear screaming as you opened your eyes. You were laying on your side. Everything hurt and you could taste blood in your mouth.

But you were already forcing yourself back up as you swallowed. Disoriented as you were, you still recognized that voice. It was Peter. He was hurt.

You were looking all around you, and it didn’t take long to see the source and reason for the screams.

Not far from you at all, Apocalypse stood in a clearing from all the rubble. Peter right beside him, half crumpled to the ground. One of Peter’s feet was encased in the earth, trapping him there like an animal in a snare. His other leg was clearly broken, twisted at a grossly unnatural angle.

You felt a foreign rage beginning to burn up inside you, but before you could even physically react you saw the woman with the katana again. Nowhere in your mind did you take any time to consider how she would look so clean and uninjured having just come from the same circumstances as you of barely escaping the crashing jet.

All you saw was her walking towards her master, sword at the ready to finish Peter.

“Stop, (Y/N)!”

Charles screaming inside your head was the only thing that kept you from revealing yourself at that moment.

“It’s Raven! I’m telling you, it’s Raven!” Even Charles was struggling to break through your flaring emotions, as he repeated himself desperately. “He’ll kill you, (Y/N)! Stay in place, I beg you!”

The Professor had never spoken to you in such a way before. You gripped onto the broken wall in front of you, still only just obscured from their view as you saw Apocalypse grab Peter by the hair, jerking the young man’s head back roughly to expose his throat to the woman.

“It’s Raven, please trust her!” Charles did not let go. You could feel him actually starting to control you even, something he had absolutely never done before, though your emotions were exploding like they also never had. He didn’t want you to make a life ending mistake.

“(Y/N), please.” He called again and you realized you were being held in place, unable to move out any further. You were forced to only watch as the woman raised her blade, Peter wincing in fear and pain beneath her as she swung it.

But it was only Apocalypse’s throat that ripped open. Yet even in your surprise, any sense of victory was still non existent. No blood poured from the wound, and it healed completely within moments as he only grabbed his supposed traitor by the neck, holding her up immediately.

Raven’s feet hung in the air while she choked, her blue skin and true appearance quickly returning as she could no longer control her disguise as Apocalypse strangled her.

And it was only then that you felt Xavier letting go of you, in his own shock as Apocalypse tried to bait him out.

“Charles! Come! Rescue your weaklings!” Apocalypse challenged aloud, still dangling the now helpless Raven while Peter stayed trapped at their feet. “Give your life for theirs!”

He was going to kill her right in front of you. You powered up, knowing there was no other choice. You had to-

“No. I’m still connected to him. Let me get in his head, (Y/N), then you can go to them.” The professor spoke quickly, yet with a touch of new resolve.

“Charles! Will you do nothing?” The false god continued to bellow.

This time you listened without being forced to. You did see Apocalypse pause as if Xavier was indeed making contact. It was still an agonizing wait, but when he finally let go of Raven, you allowed yourself some shred of hope. You’d never seen anyone be able to overpower the Professor mentally, once he was fully in.

But that hope was also short lived as just moments later Apocalypse raised his hand abruptly. At will he dissolved the outer wall of a nearby building. You could see Scott and Hank then exposed, themselves just as surprised and staring out. But you knew it could only mean that Apocalypse had used Xavier’s connection against him just that quickly to root out his hiding place.

This could be the end then. You resigned yourself that the only choice was to die fighting if that is what it had to be. But you weren’t as alone as you thought.

As Apocalypse had left Peter and Raven behind, now striding confidently to his prize, two massive steel beams suddenly shot into his path. They buried themselves into the ground, crossing into an X to block him.

You looked back into the sky, glad in this single moment that you had been right about at least one thing. Magneto wouldn’t give Xavier up in the end. Not without bloodshed anyway.

“You betray me?” Apocalypse asked, already turning to deal with Erik instead.

“No. I betrayed them.” Magneto unleashed hell then, every bit of metal he could pull shooting towards Apocalypse in an unending assault as the other raised a shield that incinerated each and every piece as it hit. But doing so clearly taxed him, allowing the perfect moment for the rest of you to join the battlefield.

You got to Peter almost simultaneously as Hank got to Raven. You and Beast were clearly in the same mindset of getting the injured out of the immediate firefight before you would join in.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, the Professor froze me,” You spoke in quick apology to Peter, using a small energy blast to break up the earth that had been hardened around his trapped foot. Once cracked, you broke the rest of it free just with your fingers.

He was obviously surprised, grateful, and maybe even confused all at once as you gently lifted him with the help of your powers. You wrapped his arm around your shoulders, trying to mind his broken leg as you helped support him while gliding over to a safer spot some distance away.

“Stay here.” You spoke, sitting him down so his back was against a mostly still standing wall to shelter them.

Hank was sitting Raven down in the same manner beside him as Peter suddenly spoke up to you. “Wait.”

You were still crouched in front of him, you’d been about to stand back up when his hand went around the back of your neck and pulled you in closer.

Before you could register anything else, you felt his lips press against yours. It was a bit harsh, desperate even, and then it was over just as fast as you pulled back in surprise.

“In case we don’t ever get to make it to that arcade,” he responded to your shocked expression that was still evident even in your energy form like this.

You took a breath, now was not the time for verbalizing any of this. But you wanted to show you agreed with the sentiment. You leaned back in, kissing him yourself for one longer moment, one hand gently cupping the side of his face before you stood back up. He allowed the contact readily and you could only wonder what it felt like to him when you were enveloped in light like this.

Hank and Raven just gave you both the most confused of looks, but nothing was said as you and Beast had then rushed back off to throw yourselves into the fight.

——————————

(Continued in next chapter here)