#there arent many opportunities for me to see her. so i would like to use the time she's back and find a day in those TWO WEEKS

[navramanan]

Sent a risky text. Shaking

[inuyashaluver]

hiii i was wondering if u could write mccabe and just some couples fluff but the reader is also captain/part of arsenal?? pls ignore if u arent taking any requests 🫶🏼🫶🏼

captain’s armband- katie mccabe

katie mccabe x reader

description: in which kim and leah both are out, meaning you are next in line for the captain’s armband, your girlfriend didn’t realise how much it has an affect in her

warnings: suggestive, swearing

a/n: this was so fun!! thank you for the request ❤️ enjoy!!!

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

your arsenal captain, kim was out due to a minor injury. regularly, the next captain position was leah, but due to her acl injury, she was also out. next in line, was you. your girlfriend couldn’t be more excited.

you’ve been at arsenal all your life. playing in the youth teams alongside many of your current team mates. your girlfriend, katie joined arsenal in 2015, she had the fattest crush on you. you held yourself well, confident, but not cocky. the sweetest person ever but absolutely ruthless on the pitch, scoring goals one after the other.

your friendship sailed and formed into a romantic relationship when katie passed you a ball and you got a goal. running to each other immediately, embracing each other tightly, much too long to be platonic. she grabbed the back of your head to whisper in your ear, “let me take you on a date? please” you nodded frantically and gave her another hug, your teammates making eye contact with each other with knowing smiles. the rest, is history.

-present-

you never had the opportunity to use the captain’s band, katie didn’t even know you were third in line after 8 years of dating.

everyone was getting dressed in the change room, katie chatting with caitlin in the corner as you shrugged on your kit. kim came and stood behind you, limping. she placed a hand on your shoulder and turned you around.

“oh no kimmy, still injured?” you frown at your captain, “yeah, love, now my little superstar, take over for me and leah and give ‘em hell” she placed the captain’s armband in your hand, and she closed your hand around it, giving your hand a squeeze of encouragement.

“for you and leah” you smile at her and she nods, moving to go and sit with leah and the acl club the the stands. you put the armband on your bicep and go to stand at the front of the line in the tunnel. katie, still in the change room couldn’t find you anywhere, “anyone seen me girlfriend anywhere”

alessia, your cubby mate tells katie you’ve gone to the tunnel and she goes to find you immediately. you must be upset about something, as you didn’t give her your pregame kiss.

katie spots you in the tunnel, talking to the captain of the opposition. she quirks her eye brow in confusion. “hey! missy! who do you think you are? leaving me alone like that!” katie exclaims and you turn towards her, smiling and excusing yourself from the other captain.

when you turned to katie, her mouth hung open. the captain’s armband shining on your bicep.

“baby, oh. my. god.” she runs her hands on her face and turns her body away from you.

“what’s up katie bear?” (you only said this nickname in private - katie’s reputation would be ruined if people knew her soft spot was your pet names)

you were standing in front of her, she refused to move her hands, she couldn’t look at you. you grabbed her arms and tried to pull them down, she wouldn’t budge. “baby, are you alright?” you spoke so softly at her, she swore she was melting in a puddle. you kept your hands on her arms, rubbing them gently with your thumbs.

“baby, come on look at me” you plead, she gently opens her fingers, just so you can only see her eyes in between her hands. she instantly closes her eyes when she looks at the band again.

you make a noise of understanding, “ahhh, my lovely katie bear likes my new look, huh?” you coo and she groans at you. she finally moves her hands from her very red face and places them on your waist, pulling you close to her body.

“you’re so awful to me, this is possibly one of the hottest things I’ve ever witnessed, and you don’t even warn me. some fucking girlfriend you are.”

you then get pulled into the hallway, katie pinning you up against the wall and placing a passionate kiss on your lips.

she squeezed your hip and groaned into your mouth, you gasp and she uses the opportunity to move her tongue in sync with your own. you grab the back of her neck and leaned up into her, slightly grinning into the kiss. it was full of so much emotion and passion. you could tell that she was frantic, knowing that you were needed in about two minutes. you pull away from her, placing your hands on her chest distancing yourself away from her.

“woah, should I ask kim for her spare band, I didn’t realise it affected you this much” you smirk at her, turning into surprise when she nods her head enthusiastically at you. “I-I was joking”

“baby, you’re killing me” she throws her head back looking at the ceiling, hands on her hips. you grab her hand in yours, “come on mccabe, go and line up.” you stand on your tippy toes to whisper in her ear, “captain’s orders.”

she groans again, “awful woman you are” she shakes her head at you, you laugh at her actions.

you made it on the pitch. katie watched you the entire time, you doing any sort of captain activity had her weak at the knees. “mccabe, have you got a captain kink or something?” alessia claps her on the back, katie looks at her over her shoulder,

“fuck off russo” she paused, “maybe a little bit” alessia screams covering her ears, “my innocence!!” katie pushes her away red in the face.

the game was going well, the encouragement from katie somehow making you play even better than usual. you play in the midfield, and managed to gain possession, you saw katie running up and it was a no brainer, you passed to your girl. the pass was perfect, connecting accurately. katie decided to go for it and shoots from a long distance, she got the goal.

you squeak in excitement when she lifts you up on her waist, “oh my god I love you, my captain” she winks at you, “oh baby! you’re so cute.” you grab her face in your hands place a quick kiss on her lips, she smiles up into you. loving when you take control for once. she really needs to take this captain’s band home with her.

the game concludes, arsenal up 4-1. you exchange hugs and handshakes with the opposition. kim and leah come and find you. leah puts you in a headlock while kim taps the top of your head. “well done love!” kim exclaims, leah can’t stop smiling at you, they were both so proud of you. no one is prouder than katie though.

you stood there talking to them a little longer until katie sweeps you up bridal style and smiles down at you.

“my little captain! baby I’m so proud of you” she kisses your nose, you smile up at her,

“okay but my girl’s a goal scorer, I’m even more proud.” she looks at you offended, suddenly placing you on the floor.

“are you really gonna start this argument? I’ll win” she scoffs, starting again,

“I’m so proud of you baby, I mean you’re captain come on!” her hands are back on her hips, she’s looking down at you, her words and gaze are stern.

“for a day baby, but lovey, you got a goal! I’m so proud of you, are you kidding?” you gently shove her shoulder

“captaincy though baby-”

“enough!” alessia appears out of nowhere, “just be proud of each other! oh my god, you’re made for each other. ” she walks away after pushing you into her

katie smiles down at you, giving you a tight hug, hiding her face in your neck, kissing your shoulder. “come on, let’s get my girl home” katie says in her thick Irish accent and grabs your hand pulling you into the change room, stopping to sign a few shirts and taking some pictures with fans. many congratulating you for your position, even if it was for one day.

in the change room, people were in the shower or chatting and waiting for one. you take off the band and your shirt, leaving you in your sports bra. a hand grabs the band from behind you, placing a hand you know all too well on your hip. you turn and see katie putting the band on herself. your mouth hung open. “like my new look?”

“uh-um katie, I get what you mean now, baby” she laughs at you and grabs the base of your neck, whispering in your ear, “let’s just shower at home and get out of here.”

you nod your head at her, and she hoists you up over her shoulder, grabbing both of your bags and heading to her car. everyone laughs as you wave goodbye. katie was on a mission, getting you both home as quick as she could.

let’s just say, you both took turns showing your affection for your lover in the captain’s band. Kim was never getting it back. ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

liked by leahwilliamsonn and 44,232 others

katie_mccabe11: super proud of my girl and her day of captaincy @/yourname

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yourname: you love that band more than me!

↳ katie_mccabe11: only if you come with it

↳ alessiarusso99: smooth

↳ yourname: very smooth

[angelbitezzz]

SO 👏

I been thinking really hard about how I'll be writing magic for whatever undertale related stuff I write.

If viewed as straightforward, we get an example of magic that could be reasonably tied to every human soul "trait" (more on that later) in undertale proper. Listed as follows:

Cyan magic: Tied to patience, requires targets to stop in order to avoid damage. Many monsters in Snowdin use it, though notably Papyrus, Sans and Asgore have used it

Orange magic: Tied to bravery, requires targets to move in order to avoid damage. Many monsters in Hotland use it, but a notable example would be Asgore as well

Green magic: Tied to kindness, could be reasonably tied to healing magic since healing is often associated with the color green, not to mention the game requires you to touch a green attack on some occasions (such as vegetoid's healing veggies). Plus Undyne and her turning you green, forcing you to stop moving but giving you the opportunity to protect yourself in the process

Blue magic: Tied to Integrity, likely something to do with gravity. Notable example is Papyrus and Sans, though Papyrus only uses it to weigh you down, versus Sans using it to throw you around (or maybe forcibly changing your direction of gravity?)

Yellow Magic: Tied to Justice, seems to be used strictly offensively? Notably, monsters don't use it against you, but Frisk is given the opportunity to use it during the Mettaton fights. However, I believe that the Karma poison damage from Sans's fight is because he's actively using Yellow magic at the time

Purple magic: Tied to perseverance. An oddball magic type, because the only Real example we get of it is during the Muffet fight. And since she's not technically part of the main cast despite having such a unique and notable boss fight, we don't get Much information on her personally to make any real guesses or judgements. And THIS is my sticking point, the thing I think about a lot

Muffet turns your soul purple, and you find yourself only able to move along the webbing that she strings up along the battle screen. You can't stray from the lines, you can only pass from line to line and move along them, until the magic wears off and you can move freely.

I have been thinking of how these magic types can be tied to elements as well, since we see a lot of certain kinds of monsters use certain types. I'll list my thoughts below

Cyan: Ice

Orange: Fire

Blue: Water/Or just straight up. Gravity. I know it's not traditional in a sense but we don't really get much on this one either bear with me

Green: Plant-life

Yellow: Electricity

Purple: And AGAIN I come up blank. Best I could figure? Earth. Rock. Or, conversely, the wind. Air. Something adaptable.

Purple stands out. It's a different sort of "trait" compared to the others, because all the others are straightforward. Anyone can define themselves by their Bravery, or their Kindness, or their sense of Justice, but who is defining themselves by how much they Persevere? Or Persist?

Soul Traits as I write them in TSoT or even Crossbones and Starstruck arent the end all be all of a person. It's simply tied to what chiefly motivates them. If they happen to be a mage, then the magic they use corresponds to that motivation, to that Color of magic. There's no right or wrong trait here, only intent.

Intent is important, intent is what causes you to be able to clear the genocide route so easily! Because the game knows you're going out of your way to grind—in short, you do more damage because you want to do more damage. If you don't want to hurt someone, then it's reflected in your attack. That is why monsters were so vulnerable during the war, because human vitriol made it all the easier for monster populations to be decimated.

Swinging back around to Perseverance: I think this trait—this magic, is completely personal. I think it reflects the user more so than the others because the point is to persevere—to survive. To Get Through This Shit. It's adaptability at its core.

Muffet is in a position where her family is split by the cold of Snowdin, and it seems like her family is extremely important to her, all posturing and threat displays and money hungry persona is masking the fact that she is concerned with and takes care of her own. And they care for her in turn—they do everything she asks, assist in the fight with you and help run her bake sakes, and upon her death you are greeted with a solemn scene of one of them rushing up to drop a flower where she stood and then rushing off again.

Adaptability and survival is important, but the best way to adapt and survive is to lean on others. Find your people, build your village and so on. She's never doing this alone. She knows this and it strengthens her. Her fight wouldn't be nearly as tough if she didn't have her spiders helping with it.

And ideally, a user of purple magic gets that strength from their loved ones. How that magic manifests depends on the person, as I've said before.

Muffet is a spider. She traps you in a web. Subtextually, one could argue that your connections to others are like a web expanding outwards to those that you know.

Angel, my self insert, has the perseverance soul trait. In Crossbones and Starstruck, you've seen her use purple magic once—to force her health to stop depleting. In a physical sense, she stopped the bleeding entirely, if only briefly. Ensuring her continued survival until help arrived. What else she can do with her magic, if anything, remains yet to be seen. But I'll tell you what—

Connections are important. Acknowledging your love for others only strengthens you. Electing to pretend that someone isn't important to you out of misguided fear of being rejected or misunderstood only hurts you, and thus, your magic.

:-)

[canarypost]

pjo ep4. pacing is weird. it felt way too short which is weird bc the chimera and the arch was a MASSIVE thing in the book but at least they kept the ending w the naiad and him learning to breathe underwater. the scene of the three and echidna talking in the train was wayyy too long i was so bored. the fight scene w percy at the top of the arch was super fast i've noticed there is little to no actual action in this show like i wanted the cgi to go all out in the fight scenes but the minotaur fight was super super super dark and there was ZERO music which. wtf. and the clarisse fight was pretty good but this chimera scene was extremely lackluster like stop fucking talking. the chimera looked weird too i don't think there was enough color on it to differentiate the lion/goat/scorpion parts and it would've been really great to get a wide shot of the full form chimera + echidna so itd be really threatening. and there wasnt a lot of lore dropped w them either at least not like there was w medusa which is weird bc i thought they would've been setting a precedent w medusa and making every monster they encounter on their journey help us understand both greek mythology esp for people who havent read the books AND percy and his relationship w his parents. im hoping we get to see gabe being more of a dick on the news after this episode bc i really wanna see him more violent. make us hate him more yk. bc rn he's just pathetic.

but most importantly i've seen this thing go on with the entire show so far and it's that no one fucking talks like real people least of all the golden trio. stop saying "mother" and "father" no one fucking says that least of all these kids of single parents many of whom would rather pour chiron's horse shit into the campfire than show their godly parents the tiniest modicum of respect. no one has interjections like "um" "uh" or "like," no one says "bro" or "dude" not even between percy and grover which is completely absurd like i cannot understate how much it bothers me that we're only told that percy and grover have been friends for years bc if i didn't know better i'd say they've known each other as long as percy and annabeth have. not to mention annabeth's "she [thalia] fought valiantly" in ep3 which is so utterly bonkers annabeth isn't some kinda "old soul" she's a kid with neglectfully abusive parents (which we arent even shown the affects of!! she has to tell it to percy directly for some reason!!! this show has a massive problem with telling instead of showing) who's passionate about architecture and her godly parent. she's just a really fuckin smart kid. now that im typing it all out it's really not as big of a deal to me as the others but it's just fucking weird. but ig if u look at it from some specific angles it's in character. but whatever. i still love her to death for that candy scene in the gas station last episode

but going back to the dialogue thing percy and grover being dumb preteen boy best friends and calling each other "dude" and "bro" 1. shows us instead of just tells us that they've been friends for a long time, 2. has annabeth roll her eyes a bunch (a notable character trait) and shows us she's a little stuck up but more lonely than anything else, and then 3. gives the opportunity to endear percy and grover to annabeth so to not just grow the relationship between all three (golden trio!!! so important) but also the percy/annabeth slow burn AND the healing of the past grover/annabeth relationship which both of them are so so so guilty about. idk i think i need more one-on-one grover/annabeth scenes yet considering we haven't had A SINGLE ONE

last negative thing but the pool flashback at the beginning felt extremely ooc for sally. like i know how important it is for percy to learn to swim esp since he literally doesn't know who his dad is but she was being such a dick!!!! first of all ur kid is clearly more stressed out about swimming than u r about him NOT swimming and second of all it is totally unnecessary to be doing this in PUBLIC swim lessons. like u can see sally looking around at all the other parent/kid pairs like sorry ur worried about how u look to the fucking pool pta but ur kid is fucking terrified. give it another goddamn day give the kid a break. the real sally would never sally jackson i love you i love you i love you

what i DID like about this episode was the opening shot underwater, it reminded me a lot of the movie and controversial opinion but the show could actually use being quite a bit more like the movie bc it was actually pretty good even if it didnt follow the story whatsoever. i liked the shot of the centaurs on the train and i thought i also remembered that from the movie but i think i just remembered seeing the shot in my head when i was reading the book which is actually really impressive. the three getting into real world trouble w the cops is very accurate, percy sitting in the fountain while grover and annabeth splash him was funny, and i ESPECIALLY loved percy pulling a fast one on annabeth at the top of the arch i think it really shows off his self sacrificing nature imo better than him rushing the minotaur in ep1 bc we know his character better by now and we're more emotionally invested. and i really loved that they kept percy's way of learning he could breathe underwater + the naiad from poseidon

actually im not done being neg i really wish they would've kept "isn't that a kind of anteater?" and "prove your bloodline" which would lead to percy purposefully jumping off the arch instead of falling. idk it feels like we're slowwwlllyyy growing to see percy being percy bc im gonna be honest. rn he doesn't have much of a personality. where is persassy. bc i cant fuckin see him

anyway it was a fun episode if a bit slow. it had it's moments. im excited for waterland and the tunnel of looooove next week though :33

[thegeminisage]

plan of sitting atop zelda to farm her for parts ruined by 1. i have adhd and to get all my parts would be up to 90 minutes of doing absolutely nothing 2. star fell, had to get it

got lucky! she was really close to the great sky islands so i've gotten back to her by flinging myself off those

oh boy she's taking us through this storm lol

just doing this for an hour seems excruciating. she's been doing it for 10,000 YEARS. i'm gonna kermit

AAAAAUGH another fallen star................this is HORRIBLE i already gave up a naydra opportunity to sit up here! if i go get this one i definitely won't get lucky enough to get back on her back, she's head towards the sparse and UNEXPLORED skies over the gerudo desert so i'd have no way to fast travel back to her...i wish i could leave a medallion on her head

i got another spike so it'll be at least another 10m anyway...might as well go

goodbye babygirl 😢

i got it! AND without the bike lol

i've left epona out forever but right near a stable. felt bad so i let her run on the road to a different stable where i finally boarded her, except first she disappeared for a second?? which was a terrifying little glitch lol

forced my bike into this big cave with me which was good because i got to skip what would have been a very difficult climb in cave-rain

unfortunately even though i was a cheapskate about it i can't get it out of here :( rip. i hate having to spend fans...

a chest ALSO vanished on me :/ weird 1.0 glitches........

i only have one korok seed left in this little area but its next to a lynel :///

might as well try to fight it while i'm here i suppose.........

i actually got him?! man NICE......

even tho lurelin was my fav place from botw (and totk, bc i simply Love The Beach) i feel kinda bad coming here now like let me PAY you for stuff!!! i have moneyyy

but those koroks arent gonna fly themselves.........

awww the skyview tower rito is here. now that i've got them all he gets to get a wife and settle down here lol

ah! the proper heart shaped lake had SO many fairies but i dropped my bike before they loaded and then they loaded as it dropped which ofc scared all of them away :(

ugh my bike despawned AGAIN...............life is so hard all the time

ugh!!!!!!! i thought about going to get that shrine in eventide i missed since i'm sort of in the area but like. i'd have to kill ALL those pirate monsters again. this is why i turn shrines on sometimes. i want them to be a surprise but also missing one like that fucking SUCKS

naydra sighted again, but i feel like i see her a lot around here so i'm passing her up for now. i got shit to do which requires my bike. also the little list i used to know how much stuff i need was on r*ddit and it's shut down now lol so like

ok nvm i got my last seed on this route and she's literally right above me. i'd have to ditch the bike anyways

god i love riding dragons. can't wait until i can do this with farosh

i think she's about to go into the depths...maybe i'll see if i can stay on and go with her lol

oh maybe not...she's going sharply upward suddenly

girl where are we GOING???

oh no i think this may be it, she's descending again and there's a chasm ahead...

OHHH there's zelda in the distance :( i can't go to her now!!! i might literally not be able to lol, she's not near anything. but i really wanna see if naydra will go into a chasm while i'm on her back...

i climbed a spike to be sure i wouldn't fall off lol

OHHH THIS IS LITERALLY IT SHES GOING DOWN

and the kakariko chasm too! i haven't dove in here yet...

just realized she's going to be an eternity getting to the bottom. it takes ME forever falling at maximum velocity

still cool af tho

oh, i haven't been down this chasm but i have explored and lit up the world beneath it lol. let's see which direction she goes ig

I SEE A LIGHTROOT FROM HERE........i'm not ready to leave her yet tho. if i'm really lucky she'll take me right to it

there's an area, which tbh i'm just as happy to pass over for now...and a yiga hideout!! and we are literally going in the right direction. so cool.

ok bestie this is my stop! ugh i just realized i took video in the chasm but now when we went through it...whatever

i'm glad zelda doesn't come down here. poor girl.

i used the springs here and there were so many i sprung myself up to the ceiling lol

i see a flux construct and a lightroot. i could go down and fight it but that would make getting the lightroot much harder unless i spent fans on a bike.......

fuck it ig

easy peasy! i havent fought one of these guys in awhile and i'm pleased to see how much easier it's become

oh duh. i can just fast travel back to the lightroot i just got. i don't have to climb lol

oh COOL i'm just in time to see naydra exit the chasm!

this is such a fun little lightroot trail. every time i get to one another pops up. i actually see TWO from here. they're so addictive...

omg you can fuse stuff to the master sword 😭 i was out of weapons to fuse this flux heart thingy to and i tried and it worked but it is SO UGLY :( im so sorry fi

i am near the spring of wisdom i think!! im gonna ignore this lightroot (HARD.......) and see if there's a poe statue guy there

...i think i flew right into it. i cheated by checking my interactive map lol

oh no just kidding i was climbing to the ceiling! i flew OVER it. anyway i got there

DARK!!!

HOOD!!!

GIRL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM DARK LINK AT LAST

dark link my beloved.......................................

onto this last lightroot and then i'm outta here. too bad i didn't collect any zonaite...

oh good god. im on top of a mountain which means valley down here. UGH i have to climb

no way. bike time. this is what it's for.

lol and meanwhile i pass a monster camp with zonaite and can't be assed to get off the bike. and i've just seen ANOTHER lightroot. we are in hell

ok yeah i've had enough. i don't see anymore lightroots, i'm getting out of here. even though i REALLY need zonaite.

GOD i love dark link armor...night speed UP babey. i only wish u could upgrade it (monkeys paw activates and i have to fight hands to do so)

i basically only have 3 areas left on the right side of the map - lanayru which i do not wanna do bc i hate the snowy mountain and the waterway makes me nervous, and the zora area, and death mountain. and i guess the tingle islands so that's technically 4

gonna start w the zora area tomorrow unless a different mood strikes me - there's a shit ton of caves and seeds i missed all clustered together that will be easy to knock out

for now tho bed. sorry for anyone scrolling past this i did the whole day in one post lol

[fetus-cakes]

unsorted Aggretsuko season 5 thoughts (with plenty of spoilers) part 2

Sanrio is too fucking chickenshit to commit to the themes they themselves introduce

{@charlie-b-t  I didn’t see season 3 because the ending of season 2 bothered me so much

Season 1 ended a little oddly but I didn’t have enough info to form a strong conclusion I ended season 2 feeling as though the show was preaching conformity. The boss being the one to convince her to stay at work after being abusive towards her and completely jaded felt so Tonally wrong I didn’t wanna see a single other episode

And then Everyone said the feeling of season 3 was off, so I am satisfied with my decision The show makes me feel uneasy, like I’m being hunted, maybe a pleasant looking snack that if I sit down to eat a box will fall on my head}

Exactly, ultimately their goal is conformity

it's a show about a woman who is into death metal, but they make particular choices to make sure she doesn't stray from the path

{(charlie) It’s like… yeah you might like unusual things and be non traditional because times have changed but that’s no reason not to be a productive citizen. Don’t dream of stardom, don’t step too far out of line. Find a man to settle down with, work an honest job, you can try unusual things but ultimately the best thing to do is conform

Like she’s 100% gonna end the series right where she was at the first episode but she’ll be happy about it because she’ll realize there isn’t actually anything More out there

It felt very realistic that she ended up in so many miserable situations but in the end it feels like that was a trick against the viewers.}

I would have been okay with an ending in which she's married and pregnant but only AFTER she has character development where she learns marriage is about having a partner that you trust and not just an escape from a tedious job

{season 1 " i wanna get married only so i can quit my job'

her season 2 boyfriend: quit your job and ill take care of you, but i don’t believe in marriage retsuko, suddenly: if you wont marry me then you arent really serious about me so ill go back to my job

it felt like the tone of the show was that she was looking for shortcuts and she should keep her head down and work at an unfulfilling job and then eventually become a housewife that works at an unfullfilling job

it didnt feel like it really matched her personality or wants. they had not previously established that she had a connectino to the concept of marriage outside of a way to quit work}

yeah her dreams of marriage and kids should have been developed better! She could have evolved to see marriage as an escape or just "something adults are supposed to do" When she broke up with Tadano would have been the PERFECT to show her inner thoughts on this too bad they expect us to swallow that marriage has been important to her all along, even though her feelings in the first season were clearly about escapism

The reason she hated her job in the first season is because working for a living in general sucks and her boss was shitty; as the seasons passed her boss gained some character development and became less shitty, but the show never addressed how she felt about the tedium of working for such a large company after that character development

she clearly likes accounting and it's more than just a job she took to pay rent

she had an opportunity in the first season to quit her secure, stable job to help with the accounting of her friend's little import shop, but it was super risky and in the end Retsuko stayed at her job for the financial stability

it's not a bad choice to make! just like breaking up with Tadano because he has different goals about marriage and children is not a bad decision either

but both times the showrunners failed to tell us how Retsuko feels

does she still resent her job? does she appreciate it more? has she given deeper thought about what marriage means to her now that she found a partner that's super compatible but is non traditional? there's hints and implications but I really wish they would spell out some of these things

{exactly, they don’t tell us which makes it feel like the show thinks 'this is obvious'

and its in contrast to them normally showing us exactly how she feels about everything, but whenever its time to conform she has no thoughts about it}

[kledface]

One of the harder things I've been trying to do is learn how to not just accept myself, but love myself. If you know me, and my past, im sure you can understand that this isn't an easy thing for me. I've lived surrounded by hateful people who have a habit of seeing the bad in everything and are also rather manipulative. This means i don't have a great sense of, not necessarily right and wrong, but truth and lies, and that i also see all the bad in me. Mom has made some growth, but that doesn't means she's perfect, and some days i don't know which version of her im talking to until she starts heavily suggesting im a demon again or starts rambling about reptilians. These are both actually rather intense triggers for me, and im not proud of it, but just starting to thing about the reptilians is starting to make me panicky, and part of my journey is learning to respect myself for what brings me shame.

I am a man who has lived an uneasy life. I don't have a strong sense of trust in certain matters. I tend to have issues relenting control, which is a serious problem i've been working on. I have a number of unusual fears and beliefs. Some things in my life have been genuinely traumatizing where no one would expect trauma should be able to be formed. When was the last time you heard of someone who had emotional flashbacks because someone accused obama of being an evil alien? I have an unusual set of things which i can and cannot stand. I can't take a compliment because they always feel backhanded or ingenuine and gifts make me feel in debt to the giver, but feel free to beat the shit out of me i genuinely don't care. As my journey involves learning to respect these differences, it means not beating myself up when i find myself unable to match others. It means stepping outside of myself and hearing the negative voices and correcting them, and talking to myself like i would a close friend; no, i am not a failure because someone calling me pussy makes me want to cry when any other vile shit just makes me laugh. You've seen this specific word used in a way hat was specifically designed to hurt you for the ways you arent like others. Your pain is valid, and instead of beating yourself up over that which you can't control, why don't we learn to make this easier to deal with? You too are allowed to feel this pain. No, you do not need to degrade yourself for forgetting so ething youve known your whole life again. You know you have these memory issues, and you're still living a mostly capable life in spite of this, and thats something to take pride in; others in your situation may not be able to. We should honor them for their capabilities just the same as we should yours. Treating myself this way has provided me the ability to recontextualize my own thoughts, and while correcting the negativity is a forever work in progress, it does get easier with time.

Along with this, learning patience with myself is also a tough task. Being raised with harsh and unforgiving critics, i am a perfectionist, which means i struggle to forgive myself when i mess up and may give up entirely out of sadness and frustration. Getting over this involves a lot of learning to recognize that failure, too, is a part of learning, and that not everything thats not a success is a failure. These two terms are as subjective as good and evil in many cases, and while perfection is unattainable, the ability to recognize my attempts as flawed but workable isn't. Again, speaking to myself as i would another is key here. Its okay that you weren't able to get this leg right on the first try. Progress can't happen without movement and movement can't happen without time. Your imperfections do not mean failure, they just mean opportunity for another attempt, and with every error we can observe why we don't like it and what we can do to make it closer to our goals.

And one of the final things that has been difficult for me is learning to let go. I don't mean in grudges, i mean in the things that i hate about myself. This has been the hardest part so far, because it requires an intense breakdown of myself and all the things which make me, me, amd all the things that make me unhappy about that. Learning to let go of these things is like trying to let go of a jagged rock on a cliffs edge, because these things are, in fact, fundamental to my being, and to eliminate them would be to destroy a part of myself, but on the contrary, hating them is only hurting me, like acid in a vile, it will erode over time. Acknowledging the things i dislike and not necessarily learning to love them, but learning not to hate them, is the first step. An example of this; i hate my weight. I like to say i don't to try and help me overcome this, because really, i know im not getting rid of my belly, but it does make me unhappy. Breaking down why involves a lot of elf reflection. Why do i hate my weight? And a question like this can be heavily multi-faceted. I hate my weight because mom taught me that being fat is painful. I hate my weight because society expects cookie cutter people and we live in a world full of too many deserts for a cookie cutter to fit everyone. I hate my weight because it goes to show the difficulties i have with my mental health in a multitude of ways; depression manifesting in the lack of energy to fix it– Addiction manifesting in the alcohol that i haven't dropped the weight from– A bit of both and my trauma in the things i eat to take my mind off memories i cant stand to see for the 50th time today– The guilt that cones with caving to my bad habits when i know better. How does obe correct this? First, i need to learn to eliminate the hate. Correct the hate. And that involves breaking down expectations of myself and understanding that prejudice against me is also prejudice against people i love. Yes, being overweight can be painful to some, but not everyone. Many people live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives while being at least as, if not moreso, overweight than me, because weight is not a direct correspondence to health, and not everyone can or is willing to drop the extra pounds. My struggles are part of what makes me human,and while my coping mechanisms may not be healthy and my mental problems do have a rather severe impact on my quality of life, i am actively learning how to improve these things, and my habits can be kicked so i may continue to enjoy the things i do without them consuming my life. Societal expectations of me aren't much i can do about, but how i handle them is, and in finding others like me and people who like others like me, im learning to recognize that my differences can still be appreciated and loved even when the majority of people don't necessarily agree with people like me for being me. There is much more than just my weight which i hate about myself, but this is my example right now. In time, i wish to learn more than just not hating myself for my differences, but also tolerating and even loving myself for them. The first step is always the hardest though, ad so means letting go; of hatred.

I am cringe. I am different. I am in pain. But i am still me. I still deserve to be treated with respect. And in learning to respect, accept, and appreciate me for me, i am becoming a better person, and realizing a way to love more than ever before.

[maschotch]

unpopular opinion- rossi gets more hate than jj and jj deserves it way more than rossi

hmm i tentatively agree with this. rossi has a lot of problems of his own: he’s played by a horrible actor, his mob/military background is boring as shit, he’s a misogynist (he’s gotten better but im p sure thats just him getting milder in his old age) and oh yeah he’s fucking racist aljdlajd so its hard for me to straight up say he doesnt deserve the hate he gets

that being said i feel like people arent necessarily mad at him for the right reasons? like i barely hear anyone talk ab any of the above, mostly its that he’s just mean to reid. which… i mean he’s not not mean to reid. but if we’re comparing apples to apples, i think he’s not nearly as bad as jj in that sense. it may just be a matter of personal opinion: i happen to think his jokes land better and overall his humor seems to come from a better place. it feels like he jokes around for the sake of the joke bc he sees an opportunity to be funny, as opposed to jj who seems to be making fun of reid as a way to seek validation from others that she’s better than him

this may just be me finding a snarky old man less threatening than a blonde haired blue eyed mean girl, but idk there just seems to be a difference between “we found him on the steps of the fbi” and the annoyed faces jj makes every time reid speaks. one is clearly a joke, obviously an exaggeration, and spoken with a bemused fondness. the other plays into reid’s insecurities, is only meant to be funny to others, and comes from genuine annoyance. this is just the energy i get from them, but idk how my many years of anti jj bias plays into the interpretation of their actions

i guess its bc, as much as rossi makes fun of reid, they’re backhanded compliments more than anything and unlike jj he’ll actually give reid credit (showing him off to his friend w the crossword puzzles). he acknowledges reid’s strengths even as he puts him down, while jj seems to tolerate him. i think rossi plays the grumpy grandpa role well, and it works bc he doesnt take himself to seriously either. he can take a joke when jj would just get defensive

but that confidence is also part of whats frustrating about him. he’s frequently wrong and stuck in the old ways, but still feels justified and a sense of pride. jj rejects her roots (she doesnt do it well, but at least she’s vocal ab her disappointment w her childhood) but rossi frequently reminisces ab “the good ol days” whether its back in his early bau days w gideon, back in his days w the military, back in his days w his mob buddies, or back when he was growing up in general. jj doesnt like to admit she’s wrong bc she’s defensive and has an inferiority complex. rossi doesnt like to admit he’s wrong bc, more often than not, he still thinks he’s right

personally i agree w u bc i find jj way more annoying. ive also grown weary of the fandom pretending she’s an angel when i have yet to hear anyone point out any redeeming qualities she may have (spoiler alert: there are none). meanwhile i dont really hear anyone talk positively ab rossi… not that he deserves it at all aldhakhd its just makes it more obvious that people like jj for no reason. ultimately it is just a matter of opinion, i just dont think many people bother defending rossi so its less irritating when he clearly does something wrong. pointing out jj’s flaws feels like an uphill battle against people plugging their ears, digging their heels, and pretending she’s perfect.

ultimately rossi is just a goofy old man set in his ways, and its hard to blame him for that. hate to use such an overused word, but he’s just a boomer aldhskhc and on the boomer scale he’s not that bad akdhkshd. but jj is young. part of being young is learning to grow from your mistakes. she’s not even willing to admit she makes any. i think thats why its harder for me to forgive her akdhskh which may not be fair: rossi gets the “he doesnt know any better” excuse from the “cant teach an old dog new tricks” cliche (as problematic as it is). jj is far more stubborn and abrasive, which is less forgivable when she’s still supposed to be growing as a person. she’s stunting her own growth and idk if she could ever admit it

[obsessivelycapricious]

Got an idea for a reader insert fic for the DC universe. I'm probably not going to write it so I'm putting it out there like this instead. Hell if anyone wants to run with this then brilliant. Just shoot me a message and we can talk. Its female reader insert and can be for many different pairings. Male/female/platonic. Mostly with villains.

Shes an artist and her paintings aren't really very popular as they tend to depict the underbelly of Gotham and usually feature a villain or two. the Elite don't like to dwell on such things so theres a bunch of canvases in her apartment unsold.

Shes also got a dark past and made some dumb romantic choices when she was younger. Sionis almost ran her out of town but Gotham is her home and she has nowhere else to go. Batman had to save her. It was a whole thing. She's still terrified of the black mask.

But then we reach an anniversary of Batman and his fight to protect the poor defenseless citizens of the city and someone picks one of her paintings to be on display at the gala. Its not even her favourite painting because to her it just isn't quite finished yet.

So she attends, rather reluctantly putting on a dress and everything. any interested potential buyers decide not to after hearing her describe the rest of her collection which is predictable but disappointing but at least she can admire the pretty people.

Just as things get interesting and she meets the one and only Bruce Wayne - did he just flirt with her? - disaster strikes as the joker and his goons interrupt the event with some typical scheme. Joker throws one of his blades into the heart of her painting during his dramatic monologue and she stares at the painting. Realising its finally complete.

She gets home safe from the gala after batman swoops in and saves her again. But at least this time its by proxy so she can keep some of her dignity. But when she gets home all of her paintings are gone and her apartment has been turned over. She finds out days later that the painting in the gala has also been taken.

A few weeks later she is walking home from work and is kidnapped and bundled into the back of a van. She's terrified its Sionis catching up to her again but they drag her into the basement of a seemingly random club and when they take the bag off her head she is sat at a table with Gotham's infamy elite. Cobblepot, the riddler, two face, mr. freeze, the list goes on. It could also include ivy and Selena kyle maybe harley too? At the top end of the table in command position sits the joker.

They explain, through no small amount of bickering and insults thrown between each other, that they have a proposition for her. They want to give her the opportunity to deal her paintings exclusively to them. First refusal goes to the villain that features in the painting and after that they'll arrange an auction. If no one wants the painting then it can be sold elsewhere.

Our reader is no meek and mild wallflower and can hold her own in the room negotiating a fee for herself for the paintings already stolen and future installments for exclusivity and convincing them to offer her protection. They laugh at first and wonder why she would need protection when the worse gotham has to offer is in the room with her now but she shudders and suggests that if Sionis is no match for them then they won't mind making sure he doesn't get near her again. Her one caveat to the deal is that if the batman shows an interest he gets first dibs. He did save her life after all.

And so begins an unlikely partnership with Gotham's criminal underbelly. Because they arent house trained and dont seem to understand how to use a door properly, her appartment keeps getting broken into when a new batch of paintings is ready to go. Johnny frost is usually the one who drops off her pay.

Sometimes she comes across her new clients in unexpected places. She meets Edward Nigma while out to buy the paper who spent his morning coaching her through various riddles. Sometimes she finds a car waiting outside to take her to Penguins club or on the very rare occasion she finds an errant joker in her apartment, constantly keeping her on her toes with his bouts of madness. She gets to know a few of them on an almost intimate level though she is vigilant enough to never cross that line. They somehow always keep her out of the mob business they conduct so she always has plausible deniability and so they dont have a good reason to kill her.

Meanwhile, Sionis hears from Victor Zsaz that our reader is flourishing rather than hiding away scared for her life like he left her. Whats more she is painting again and for other people?? This wont do. She belongs to him and only him.

So begins our final act where sionis carries out his diabolical plan and the readers favourite villian swoops in and saves the day. This could be a choose your own ending sort of thing where the reader can pick who she wants. Including batman and a version where the villians all team up and work together. Or yknow. Writers choice if youd rather just write one. Im a fan of it being the joker or batman or nightwing/robin (if you fit some interaction in between the plot so theres enough intent there)

Then the finale to it may be romantic and may end with the reader and their fave releasing the pent up tension between the two. Or if youd rather have a more platonic non relationshipy ending you could have the reader finish off sionis and take that step into villainy herself.

Ta daaaa! The end.

Message me if you wanna use the story! I would love to read it or see stuff about it.

[cavehags]

i realize this will probably bring up old drama so you might not want to answer it. but do you ever regret, however on purpose or on accident, bringing all that unnecesary hate towards Katara? i'm really sad and dissapointed tbh. i'm a woman of color and katara was so important to me growing up. my favorite animated woman ever. and then this resurgence comes and theres so, so much unnecesary hatred for her and everyone ignoring everything that makes her a good character.

(2/3) 2- and you know, i expected this from the male side of the fandom. they were misogynistic to her and the others even back then so i would expect it to be even worse with how internet culture is more mysogistic now that ever. and i wasnt wrong. male atla fans had some truly horrible takes and views that just came across as racism and misogyny. but, i expected these circles to be better. to be a safe space for us woc who love this character. but i found the same weird hatred for her.

(3/3) 3-i just, i cant believe i feel less welcome now that i did even back then. and back then i didnt even paricipate really. but at least i could enjoy fandom content without stumbling into misogyny and racism every other post. also sorry for sending this to your personal blog b i just wanted to let you know you controbuted to that too even if it wasnt your intention. at least you realized that and arent contributing to it anymore right? cause honestly the hate has only gotten worse not less.

hey anon. thanks for asking this question, because i hadn’t addressed this topic previously and this gave me an opportunity to do so. 

no, i don’t regret publicly interpreting a character whom i love through a nuanced and human lens. and i don’t regret combating the one-dimensional interpretation of this character, which posits that she’s merely an vaguely defined object of attraction for some boy or another, and a singularly gentle, mature, maternal figure whose sole purpose in life is to nurture others. those interpretations suck. they rob her of the humanity and complexity that make her character unique and they stem from misogynistic tropes that reduce women to the services they can provide to men. the thing in the world that matters most to me is fighting misogyny, and this trend to diminish a proud and powerful and angry teenage girl by exaggerating only her most socially acceptable traits is misogyny. 

unlike you, i did not grow up watching avatar: the last airbender. the shows i watched growing up did not have a lot of girls who felt real to me. the girls i saw on tv growing up were simple. they were the main characters’ crushes. they were simple, desirable, usually sweet and loving, and not much else. if they had a flaw, it was that they were, at best, “awkward.” whatever that means. or if they were the protagonists, which was rare, they were nice enough and tried to do the right thing, but they never had strong feelings like resentment and anger. they weren’t allowed to be unfeminine which meant they weren’t allowed to be bitter, angry or in any way flawed. they didn’t look like the version of girlhood i knew to be true for me personally, which included a lot of anger and frustration and powerlessness. 

that crappy representation left me with internalized misogyny that chased me for longer than i’d like to admit. i did not learn to think of girls as humans who could be as interesting and flawed and messy as the boys were. i did not value myself as a girl, and later a woman, because i thought the best thing a girl could be was... bland. boring. pretty, but empty. passionless.

it would have meant the world to me to see a character like katara. 

because katara is angry. she has every right to be: she’s had so much stolen from her, including her mother, her people, and her childhood. katara has a short fuse. she yells. she snaps. she fucks up. sometimes she makes mean jokes! i never saw a single one of those dreamily perfect cartoon love interests make mean jokes when i was a kid. she is extremely idealistic--it’s her defining character trait--but we see the bad side of that as well as the good. we see that her need to help others  leads her to act rashly, to get herself into danger, to put others in danger too. 

and she has her very own arc. it’s not about her love for another person, either (what a snooze of a storyline); it’s about growing up and learning to break down some of that stubborn black-and-white thinking that we all indulge in as children. it’s a true coming-of-age arc and it belongs to a fourteen-year-old girl. 

when i, to use a phrase i find crass, “entered the fandom,” i quickly realized that other fans’ perceptions of katara did not line up with the things i valued most about her. other fans seemed to valorize her most socially acceptable feminine qualities: her generosity, her kindness, her dedication to helping others. and of course i love those parts of her--i love everything about her--but what is really remarkable about avatar: the last airbender is that katara’s many important virtues are also counterbalanced by equally significant flaws. a good character has flaws. katara is a good character, and a deviation from the characters who made up my formative media landscape, because she has flaws. her temper, her idealism, her stubbornness--these are flaws. flaws make her seem real and human and challenge the mainstream sentiment that girls are not real or human.

it simply did not occur to me that celebrating these aspects of katara that make her a realistic and well-written teenage girl would spark ire from other adult fans. it absolutely did not occur to me that i would then be blamed for somehow causing misogynistic interpretations of this character, particularly given that misogynistic interpretations of this character are the very thing i sought to correct when i began to blog about this television show.

i’m told there are “fans” on instagram and tiktok who think katara is whiny, annoying, and overly preoccupied with her trauma. i do not use instagram or tiktok, so i wouldn’t know, but i’ll take your word for it. respectfully, however, they didn’t get that from me. misogynistic takes on katara have existed since before i came along. i have never, ever called katara whiny. and seeing as i have been treating my own PTSD in therapy for nine years, you can safely conclude that i don’t think anyone, katara included, is overly preoccupied with their trauma. that’s not a thing. do i think she’s annoying? of course not! as a character, she’s a delight. does she sometimes find real joy in aggravating her brother and her friends? yes, because she’s 14. i, an adult, am not annoyed by her. sokka and toph often are, because that is katara’s goal and katara always succeeds in her goals. she’s not “annoying.” 

if there are “fans” who are indeed following lesbians4sokka and somehow misreading every single post and interpreting them to mean that we hate katara and they should too, i don’t really know what you want me to do about that. l4s has over ten thousand followers and we have already posted so many essays disavowing katara hate. our feminist and antiracist objectives in running the blog are literally pinned with the headline “please read.”

furthermore, you cannot reasonably expect my co-blogger and me to control the way our words will be received. we should not have to, and are not going to, add a disclaimer to every post saying that when we critique or make jokes about a teenage girl we are doing so through a feminist lens. our url is lesbians4sokka, and we are clearly women. if that alone doesn’t make it obvious, then refer back to that pinned post. 

it is indescribably frustrating, and really goddamn depressing as well, that people are so comfortable with the misogynistic binary of Perfect Good Women and Flawed Wicked Bitches that they perceive any discussion of a woman’s flaws to be necessarily relegating her to the latter camp. if that is how you (a generic you) perceive women, then i’m sorry, but you’ve internalized sexism that i cannot cure you of. and it’s unjust to expect my friend and me to write for the lowest common denominator of readers who have not yet had their own feminist awakenings. we do not write picture books for babies. we write for ourselves, and with the expectation that our readers can think critically. reading media through a feminist lens is my primary interest; i have no intention of excising that angle from my writing.

as i go through my life, i am going to embrace the flaws of girls and women because not enough people do. as long as the dominant narratives surrounding women are “good and perfect” and “unlovable wh*re,” you’ll find me highlighting flawed, realistic, righteously angry women in the margins. and for what it’s worth, it’s not just katara. i champion depictions of angry girls in all sorts of media. that’s sort of my whole thing. my favorite movies are part of the angry girl cinematic universe: thoroughbreds, jennifer’s body, hard candy, jojo rabbit, et cetera. on tv, in addition to katara, you’ll find me celebrating tuca and bertie, poppy from mythic quest, tulip and lake from infinity train, korra, and more. i adore all these women and see myself in them. i hope you find this suitably persuasive to establish that i have sufficient Feminist Cred, according to your standards, to observe and write about these very flawed and human fictional women. 

what i’m saying is this: i decline to take responsibility for the misogynistic discourse orbiting a children’s cartoon. as someone who writes about that series from a perspective that seeks to add humanity and nuance to the reductive, one-dimensional, overwhelmingly sexist writing that already exists, i am pretty taken aback that i am the one being blamed for the very problem i sought to address. except not that taken aback because i am a woman online, haha! and this is always how it goes for us. 

finally, i think it sucks that you’ve chosen to blame me for a problem that begins and ends with the patriarchy. i can’t control the way this response will be perceived, just like how i can’t control the way anything will be perceived because i am just one human woman, but i do hope you choose to be reflective, and consider why you’ve chosen this avenue to assign blame. 

[gayspock]

trek thoguths idk when i last did one babe

ok, literally- feeling rather under the weather so if this is incoherent god bless us all<3 but what i said,a few seasonsback...

i didnt rlly mind the THOUGHT of kira and odo: i was actually rlly welcome to the idea of them sort of ending up together, somehow, but then realising they rlly werent a right fit. it made sense- with bareil passing, and odo still trying to learn to navigate human relationships, and them being very close friends but somehow reading the wrong things into it, but its just.... idk they left it on the back burner way too long and that it really doesnt even make sense to do that now so this entire episode i was jsut like. :/ ok? bc its not offering much of anyhting any more to me, my love, im afraid and tht makes me go -_- bc now youvrjust ... kind of wacked them both together and i hope u arent insufferable with it, but when that happens and relationships are made between core chars with little intention then . well thats honestly the case. i mean i guess maybe theyre trying to go for like... them literally being endgame, he really has been there and she just needs to open her eyes- but god it jsut doesnt work for me..... i dotn think they make a good couple that would stay together liek tht. like i said i think they could have easily grown together much earlier on in some way and then parted ways amicably as besties but idk this just feels off to m now

furthermore with regards to shakaar and bareil... like honestly i dont mind kira having offscreen boyfriends- sorta like how sisko has kassidy , where shes more lowkey, but shes STILL a fully formed character its just shes sorta not the main focus like. im kinda fine with tht you know like.... again i feel like. hm.

i feel like as a general rule of thumb for me . if a character in question is motivated a lot or if a truly significant part of their life is defined by their dynamic with another, more minor character... then that other character does have to have some significant substance and agency. like if u want me to actively give a shit when ur char does i have to actually.... see a another char there, and not a cardboard cutout. its why i rlly rate them for fleshing out jake: lots of parent characters are just given flat, meaningless kids (or vice versa) just to endanger them or to pull on the heartstrings whenever which. really just kinda feels hollow. sisko being a father is a defining part of him- and so its really good tht they have jake fleshed out properly...

meanwhile then im just infuriated by the absolute disservice done to keiko and molly on the REGULAR when o'brien is supposed to be the family man. always presenting keiko in the way they do- its beyond unfair- and at this point in the show theyve literally forgotten abt her for seasons and shoved her elsewhere. and im like. -_- ok.

anyways my point is omg i went on a tangent. .. i think with kira, again- id be frankly FINE with bareil and shakaar being not that relevant at all, bc it really isnt sth that defines her however i WILL say tht... god on both accounts thye both just feel like lost potential. and maynwbe im sayin that bc im sorely missing the politics between ds9 and bajor? i mean- the show has grown so much over the past few seasons, so theyve jsut left it a little by the wayside which is fine but... wahrgh. i dont know i think the fact kira was dating two very politically powerful men- whilst i dont think it ever was to the detriment of her character that they werent fullyy explored, it reaaally does feel like a lost opportunity as does all of the relationships between ds9 and bajor. i guess the show just decided to go elsewhere with a lot of stuff and a lot of the stuff it is focussing on now is GOOD, like... hell i mean . even just episodewise. right now its like 2-3 mediocre eps (one of which might genuinely be. bad.) in a whole season which ... out of like 26? like so many of them are just so GOOD rn omg .... adgosndgpsdh

anyways this gor away with me.my point is idc abt kira and odo jsut dont fuckinf act stupid with it for the love of god

[passionate-hedgehog]

Impasse pt 2

Impasse is a 3-part series revolving around Reader entering society in Regency-Era London. Completely inspired by me binging the entirety of Bridgerton in less than 24 hours, Impasse will end with either Duke Damien Haas x Reader, or Courtney Miller x Reader.

Pt 2.

Pairings: Eventual Damien Haas x Reader, Eventual Courtney Miller x Reader

Warnings: None

Word: 2187

A/N: I know that my masterlist links arent working. If you try to use it, and things dont go where you want them to take you...well...I warned you. I’m turning this into a 4 part fic. There’s no way I can comfortably fit what I want into 3 separate sections. Part 3 will be out when this hits 15 notes! Thank you to everyone that liked and interacted with the first part. And thank you to the fans of my toher works. I love all of you omg. Enjoy ♥

Chapter Summary: The social Season has officially begun. Deals are being made amongst friends and old flames are fanning. Will there be any sparks igniting as well?

“What do you suspect he wants to talk about?” After the morning activities with Lord Haas in the drawing-room, Y/n and her handmaid found themselves busy with average daily activities.  

Caroline’s expression was nonplussed as she stared at the back of Y/n’s head. The women were preparing Y/n for bed. The latter was in her chair as the housemaid brushed through her hair.

“Why must you give me that look every time I open my mouth?”

“Why must such ridiculous things come out of your mouth every time you open it?”

They discovered Shayne in his favorite study, books littering the desk he occupied. Y/n would always ask him when he planned on attending university but the young man tended to reply with something akin to “that’s not for me”. The young woman didn’t understand. She knew how smart her twin was, how clever he could be given the situation. Mayhaps one day he’d see the things he could accomplish.

“To what do I owe this visit?” The fair-haired man asked as his sister sat at the opposite side of his desk. A rather thick tome set open before him while his right hand held a fountain pen to sheets of parchment.

Y/n perched her arms along the length of the armrests and sat comfortably. “I thought I might see what you’re up to. But I find that you’re doing nothing different than normal. When are you going to talk to Father about university?”

Shayne restraint from rolling his eyes visible as he went back to his books, and scratching at the parchment. “When are you going to talk to me about Courtney?”

“What? That has nothing to do with...Shayne. My favorite twin, you could be doing so many more things if you were off to study. Collegiately.”

This caused the young man to sigh. “Y/n-,”

“I’m being serious here, Shayne. You’re in here, every day, reading and writing. It’s almost a different book a week. Sometimes, your nose is in a book about far-off adventures in distant lands and sometimes it’s about the history and tragedies of the lands around us. Look that book right there.” She motioned to the collection of parchment before Shayne. “I gather that one is not Shakespeare. What is it? The history of France?”  

Shayne lowered his head back to the pages before putting his pen back on the parchment, not meeting his sister’s eyes. “Spain, as a matter of fact.”

Y/n held a blank countenance. 

“I’m trying my hand at the Spanish language. Does that quell your curiosity?”

Y/n smirked. “You’re just proving my point.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” The young man laid his fountain pen on the parchment and clasped his hands together before leaning forward. “I’ll talk to Father about university if you read and respond to Courtney’s letter..”

The young woman grumbled and stood up from her chair. “Suddenly, I have a desire for some poetry. Caroline, I’ll be in the library. I’ll call for you if I need you.”

The handmaid nodded from where she stood by the fireplace, her hands clasped in front of her as Y/n walked to the door. “Of course.”

Y/n turned one last glance to her twin before exiting the room and found Caroline in the chair Y/n’s ownself just left. The handmaid was smiling at Shayne as he talked. The rosy tint to Caroline’s cheeks as the man laughed sparked Y/n’s curiosity yet still managed to make her smile. It was cute if she had to be honest. The handmaid had the tendency, lately, to be quieter than usual. While yes, Caroline was well-mannered and modest, it was different when Shayne was around. Had it just been the two women, Caroline could be witty. Y/n enjoyed that in the handmaid. It was refreshing and reminded her of a long-lost friend.

“For Heaven’s sake, Courtney. You’re not even here but you’re still here.” The young woman fiddled with a woven bracelet made from brightly colored twine.

“Y/n?” A voice called from next to her as her hand was on the doorknob to the library.

“Oh, Lord Haas! I did not realize you were here.��� Y/n peered behind her companion and to her own left and right, in case she missed any other person.

“It’s just me. And please, call me Damien. We’ve known each other since we were young, back when we had all of our friends amongst us.” The duke gave a gentle pleading look. 

“I was a tad cheeky back then. I wasn’t going to call you by any title.”

Damien cocked an eyebrow and smirked. “You’re still a tad cheeky to this day. Am I wrong?”

Y/n’s matched his smirk before opening the door to the library and making her way inside. A witty remark was caught in her throat when her eyes caught someone standing next to the nearest shelving of books.

“Court-Courtney?” Her hand slipped off of the knob of the door. “What are you doing here?”

The light-haired woman bit her lip. “I wanted to visit. You never responded to any of my letters. I thought...I thought maybe something had happened.”

“You...I can’t...Excuse me.” The young woman turned around in haste and scurried away. She found herself in the empty kitchen trying to breathe through what just happened.

Good going. You’re such a coward.

“I’m such a coward.”

“No, you’re not.” Damien had followed her into the cooking area. He led her to a chair and guided her to sit. “Some refreshment might make it better?”

Y/n watched her old friend as he went about collecting items. She noticed how at ease he seemed going through her icebox and cupboards. How expertly he sliced up fruit. She couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked in his livery, as well, but there was enough going on inside of her head. Damien approached the table with a modest platter and placed it in the center of the table before he sat himself in a chair across from her.

“I figure that some soft cheese might do some good as well as figs and berries. I hope they comfort you the way they do me.” He had gestured towards the food.

Y/n gave a thankful nod before reaching for a bite. “Thank you, Damien. This means very much to me.”

The man grabbed fig and brie, biting into them. “If you need to talk, I’m all ears. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course. But I’m here.”

Y/n fidgeted with a slice of fig fruit. She mentally weighed her options before speaking again. “I haven’t seen Courtney in over a year. We got into an argument...about the things she wanted to do and where she wanted to be in life. I regret it. I regret it every day. I let our relationship ...decay...because I didn’t approve of what she wanted to do.”

“She wanted to work with horses, right? And entertain? That’s where she’s been this whole time?” Damien bit into some brie.

“I was treating her like she was someone like me. Someone that already had their life plans laid out for them. She was able to choose what she wanted in life.”

The young man studied Y/n’s face. “Y/n, were you...jealous that she had such an opportunity to live a dream that you tried burning bridges with her? She was your best friend. That had to be a hard decision to make.”

“It’s about more than that. I’m happy she was able to live how she wanted to...thrilled that she got to work with her passions. But..I wasn’t there with her. She wasn’t with me. It didn’t matter what she was doing...I just wanted it to be with..with me. 

“I had this asinine vision that society would be in a different place by now. That two close friends could...be closer. And that I wouldn’t have to feel like I was left alone for the rest of my life. I see so many friendships for what they could be. The feelings that I’ve had over someone that will never be attainable I see in others. All of the time. Especially while I promenade! And it makes me sad for those yearning and it reminds me of what I can never have.”

There was a moment of silence before Y/n’s eyes widened in the realization of what she had just let out. “Oh my. I-You didn’t hear any of what I just said. Promise me!”

Damien laid a soft hand on Y/n’s arm. “I promise. I had no idea that you had harbored such...persuasions. Not that it’s anything you need to feel sorry about. You can’t help it. Your reactions, for sure, but...not for what you feel.”

“You, Lord Haas, will make someone a fine husband someday. Maybe even sometime soon? It is our season, finally, after all.” Y/n tried to hide her watery eyes behind a coy smirk. “Someone is bound to catch your eye.”

Damien breathed out before responding. “Someone already has, if I’m being honest. But maybe I’m far-reaching more than I originally thought.”

His words seemed to spark a sense of excitement through Y/n. She sat up straight and gripped the edges of the table.

“Who is she? Will you point her out to me while we promenade? No. I have an even better idea; can you introduce her to me at one of the balls?” Y/n was nearly on the edge of her seat. “Damien! This is exciting!”

“It’s not quite that intriguing, I promise you. Especially since nothing can come of it.” The man picked at the fruit on the platter. “But I digress. It seems that you’ve got your own sorting out to do. What are you going to do about callers if Courtney plans on joining in on the festivities this season? She may not come from one of the families but she has enough friends.”

“Then I hope she enjoys herself. For all I know, everything I felt could have been my very own thoughts and not hers. If she’s here to find a match, then let her. If she’s here to have fun, then by all means...I hope she has it. I just hope I can keep my heart to myself this time. I don’t want to get hurt again.”

“Y/n,” The man licked his lips before continuing. “Might I suggest trying to find out what exactly it is that your heart wants before you do anything else with it?”

The young woman topped her fig slice with some brie. “I’m going to pretend that you did not just offer such advice. Who would even think about courting a woman trying to figure out whether or not she wants her story to end with another woman? You slay me, Lord Haas.”

“I’m being entirely serious. Y/n, you could…” Damien seemed to pause before paying very close attention to fiddling with a berry. “We could stop your callers from coming around and maybe I could use a distraction. We could work together.”

“What? Like...you and I? Together together?”

The german-born duke hesitated before taking one of Y/n’s hands into both of his. “We could go to promenade as a match. And then to the balls, And the parties. No one would be the wiser. You could use this time to figure out what it is you truly want. And then who.”

The young woman looked down at their hands, hers fitting inside his the way she suspects other women her age dream of, yet, she wasn’t sure what it did to her. What he offered could very much help her, but what if Courtney got the wrong idea? What if everyone got the wrong idea?

“But what if it went right?”

“Hmm?” Damien asked in confusion.

“Nevermind.” Y/n shook the thoughts from her head. “Damien, I think...you may be on to something. You’re right. I...I don’t know how to be a...a wife to anyone. Let alone a man. And I won’t know until I figure myself out a little bit more. And then if this girl is running through your mind and you firmly believe that you can never court her…”

“Trust in me with this. I always thought she was someone I could never hope to marry, far too good for me in so many ways. But...maybe this will help me to see who else is out there. Maybe I’ll find my perfect match. And if we come out as a couple, it’ll provide good reason for the other men to leave you alone.”

“Too bad they just don’t leave me alone as is.”

“I believe Olivia said the same thing after she met Sam.”

“Heavens, that was a riot.” Y/n lifted her pinky to solidify the agreement with her friend. “Lord Damien Haas, I believe we might have ourselves a deal.”

[mixtvpes]

— BREEZY LOCKERS ARENT FOR HIDING

info;

- words: 1371 words or something like that

- description: the newest survivor has just been summoned to face their first trial in Ormond, a cold snowy place often with snow storms and high winds. Ormond is home to the killers The Legion. their leader shall appear in efforts to get close to the newest survivor. however, none of them knew how turning the situation would become.

- ship: frank morrison x reader (gender neutral)

ع˖⁺ ☁⋆ ୭ 🕊.⋆｡⋆༶⋆˙⊹

you took a big inhale of the cold winded air and tried calming yourself down. being it your first trial you were scared out of your mind. what happens if you die? is that it forever? will marks be left on your body? do you even have the skills to make it out alive? so many thoughts in such a short amount of time. thankfully, you were next to your teammate David King. the tall brute like man was for the most part calm and silent but kept a very protective feeling close to him. he signaled you over to a generator he was working on, though you were very hesitant on joining him on it, he assured you that you’d do fine and all you needed to do was really focus. you trusted him and started working on the generator. over time it started getting easier to repair. David finished it and quickly told you to get out of the area. he split off from you and ran the opposite way. you didn’t understand why he left but figured this is your time to really get an idea of how these trials are. now you were completely alone and in a windy snow storm.

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the winds really started to pick up after the first generator was fixed. the air became very crisp and cold from the snow, the ground becoming crunchier the more you walk on it. however you had spotted a wooden cottage that looked like a good place to possibly hide in and at least it will get you out of the snow storm. you wrapped your sweater around your body and mouth as the weather declined in warmth quicker and quicker. you decided to start running to help boost the warmth back in your body and allow yourself to get to the cottage faster. when you got to the cottage, you suddenly felt a presence behind you and heard rapid breathing. “ We need to get in here come on!” the unfamiliar voice said before shoving you into the cottage. “h-hey!” you said back to the mysterious person as they continued to shove you. “the killers coming this way we need to hide in this locker! let’s go or we both die” he said in an assertive tone. you really didn’t have a choice here, you could either stay out in the cottage and get murdered or you could get in this locker with this random person. you figured it must’ve been another survivor you just missed meeting before hand. you got into the locker after the other survivor entered. “so what exactly are we doi-“ “shhhh shh shh” you were quickly cut off with a shush and a finger to your lips. “do you hear that?” instead of hearing the whisping wind blowing all you could hear was an enormously loud heartbeat. you got closer to the survivor incredibly fearful, hoping the rumors of killers being able to smell your fear weren’t true. you closed your eyes and just hoped the heartbeat would soon leave. in quick time it surely faded away and you let out a sigh. “is it gone?” you asked, looking towards the survivor, unable to see the whole survivors face. “yeah i think so.” through the lined of the locker, little light peaked in only visible enough to paint a picture of the mouth of this other survivor. “so, what’s your name? you look new” “oh um my name is (x), i am very new to all of this. i actually thought you may be new as well since i don’t think we’ve been properly introduced yet.” you saw a smile creep onto the survivors face. “you know i dont think we have been properly introduced, the names Frank.” you couldn’t tell if the breeze was actually getting chillier or if it was this dudes creepy grin. “(x), do us a favor and peak out the locker to see if the killers really gone” he was still smiling when he requested this which struck you as very odd but maybe he was just a weird guy. you faced the locker and peaked out and saw nothing. “i don’t see it, i’m gonna open the door” “good idea” as you were slightly opening the door you were once again pushed, this time landing on the floor. “what the hell!” you slowly turn your back to face the locker once more only now the survivor who was previously not visable now had a bloody smiling mask on. that’s when the heartbeat came back.

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“o-oh my god...” you whispered as you tried crawling backwards away from the killer. “well now we’ve been properly introduced! time to decide, do you wanna reeeeaaallly piss me off and make me kill you for fighting back or do you wanna make this easy peasy and let me just kill you without the pissed off part?” he turned his head looking at you, bloodied smile still cheerful as ever. in panic you turned back around to try and get yourself up quickly since there was a pallet behind you. as you attempted to getup however, frank decided to grab your leg, tripping you as a result of you staying down. he started walking towards you saying all kinds of wicked things. it was his way of riling himself up as well as provoking your fear so his high would last. as you attempted for your second time to get up he once again tripped you. bending down to you and getting ready to stick his knife in your back. “jesus christ do you not learn? so fucking stupid” he said to you. “get the fuck off me!” you kicked his stomach pushing him off you but in the process skinning your leg across his knife.”heh” he scuffed, getting back up and seeing your blood on his knife. the blood does things to killers and puts them in a fury, or better for frank’s case, a frenzy. as you got up you started running away trying your best to make it over to the pallet fast, frank was already in frenzy mode. his speed increased and he was out for more blood. he caught up so close to you and when he went to go swing his knife, you smacked him out of frenzy by a pallet. “fucking BITCH” frank called out. he destroyed the pallet as you ran away, losing track of your blood. to your fortune there was a survivor close by that was able to heal you up. she said her name was Claudette and how she was a studious botanist and was trained to help heal. when you asked her how much more the team has to do in order to escape she gave you a brief puzzled face. “we’ve already completed mostly everything, i think the last two are finishing the last generator up. how did you not notice, were you being chased or just not doing anything?” you coughed up at the direct question and said “yeah i guess you could say it was a chase, i didn’t realize it had lasted for that long though.” all of a sudden the last generator was popped and a loud noise ran across through the whole map. “come on let’s go open an exit gate and get out, this place is too cold” she says. you follower her along to go and find the exit gate.

꘎♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡꘎

there was one last attempt made by frank to try and get more of (x’s) blood. it seemed far richer and more exciting than anyone else’s blood, the fear you also held close to him was mesmerizing. never had he met a survivor to drive him this crazy. however all the survivors had left before frank could stick his knife into any. from that day forward though frank made it his new goal that if he ever saw (x) in another trial, he would really commit to the chase and not let you go. you became the thing he thought of most and he was perfectly fine with that. however next time, he’ll find every opportunity to get you alone into a trap again. you have become his prey, and shall the predator hunt once more.

꘎♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡꘎

AN:/ hi hi so this is my first writing piece 👉👈 i’m kinda proud of it but i hope you all like it and if you have any requests feel free to send some :)

[witchcraft-in-wonderland]

Rockabye Royalty (One-Shot)

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

"I dont care! Just get out of my house! I'm not taking care of a stupid baby!" Virgil's head rang with the sound of his boyfriend's yells. He hadnt meant for this to happen. He'd been on the pill, there was hardly a time when he wasn't. Erin had promised to keep him safe, he'd promised that nothing was going to break them apart. Yet here he was with fury in his eyes, holding a stick with two lines on it.

"Erin you promised! You said you werent going to leave!" Tears were pouring from Virgil's eyes, his chest was tight, he could barely see straight.

"I never promised anything for a baby!." And then Virgil was on the sidewalk, leaning against the building with his head in his hands. He couldn't go back inside to get his things, that was for sure.

"I'm so sorry. . ." He whispered, holding a hand to his stomach. They were supposed to be a family, they were supposed to be happy together. He was only twenty, he couldnt take care of a baby.

Virgil waited for himself to calm down, staring up at the sky in the hopes that no one would look at him.

When he finally calmed down he made his way to the nearest hotel he could find, he supposed it was lucky he'd always remembered his friend's advice of keeping the large bills in bras, Erin had always hated looking at those. Virgil pulled out a few before walking inside, covering up with his hoodie so it didnt look strange.

"How many nights can this cover?" Virgil said to the woman at the desk, placing a few twenties on the counter. He bit his lip, not really expecting an answer.

The woman looked him up and down, a sympathetic look in her pale green eyes.

"Stay as long as you need sweetheart, I'll cover it for you," Virgil let out a sigh of relief, he felt like he was about to start crying.

"Thank you thank you thank you-" he stopped himself from adding anymore thank yous at the last minute.

"Do you need anything special in particular?" Asked the woman, Virgil scanned for her name tag, Mrs. Evans.

"I uh-" he paused, shuffling his feet. He wasnt sure this would count as special arrangements or get him turned away. Subconsciously he pulled his hoodie further over his stomach.

Mrs. Evans' eyes widened, a look of realization dawning on her face. She ducked under the counter and thrust a key into his hands.

"Here you go, room 13, and dont you worry about meals or anything, it's all free," she pushed a few magazines toward him, a quick scan of the covers showed him a few job opportunities. Virgil merely nodded, scooping up the magazines and rushing off to the room, he heard Mrs. Evan's making a call in the distance, she sounded worried, he felt a twinge of guilt in his chest.

The room was larger than he'd expected for only having one bed. There was a tv, multiple appliances, including a coffee machine, and of course, a bathroom. Virgil sat down in the couch at the corner of the room, opening the blinds slightly before holding his hands to his face.

"Oh gods what am I going to do for clothes? I cant go looking for jobs yet! I wouldnt even be able to stay that long!" He didnt really know who he was talking to, there was no one else in the room.

He got an answer to his question a few days later when what seemed to be a trash bag full of clothing showed up on his doorstep. He picked up the card attached to it, but all that was there was the image of a heart bursting into flames, with a crown around its middle. Virgil shrugged and dragged the clothes into the room. It was mostly hoodies and overly large t-shirts, but there were a few outfits in an appropriate size as well. He set to work on hanging them all up, ignoring the pain in his stomach.

The real problem started a few months later. He'd been laying on his bed watching the tv and flipping through a magazine when he felt it, the baby was coming.

He didn't think he'd have time to get to the hospital, but he remembered an offer Mrs. Evan's, or Cassira as he knew her now, had made a few days after he'd gotten there. He buzzed the front desk quickly and in a matter of minutes, there she was.

Virgil didnt remember much else, if he was being honest with himself he'd probably passed out. When he opened his eyes he was laying in the bath tub, a mess of towels and a pair of underwear and sweatpants discarded on the floor. He blinked a few times, and then he heard crying.

"Shhh, shhh, it's ok little one,look, daddy's awake, its ok," Cassira was holding something swaddled in Virgil's hoodie, she passed it over to him and he held the small child in his arms.

"Its a girl," Cassira said, not putting much emphasis on the last word.

"Hi," Virigl said softly, looking at the mini version of himself swaddled in the jacket. She had the same soft face, and the same purple and green heterochromia, though her hair was a more jet black color, like Erin's. She smiled as she looked at Virgil, letting out a laugh somewhat like wind chimes.

"You let me know if you need anything," said Cassira. Virgil nodded and watched her leave.

He sat there for a while, watching the bundle in his arms with a fond smile on his face.

"I think we'll call you, Olivia," Virgil said, holding her close.

It took him a few minutes to finally get out of the tub, clean up, and redress himself, all the while keeping Olivia safe.

About six years had passed, Virgil was working full time at a retail job, the only thing he could get while he was working on a degree in Education. When he wasnt working or studying, all of his time went to Olivia. While they were still living at the hotel, Virgil had finally started earning enough to pay for her clothes and schooling and at least a few toys. He was looking into houses as well, he couldn't live in Room 13 for the rest of his life, even if it was free.

Virgil watched Olivia play with a rubik's cube he'd bought her as he wandered the aisles of the shopping center, uncomfortably aware of the people around him.

"Remus I'm just saying! It's not that bad of an idea!" Virgil stopped the cart just moments before a tall man with dark crimson hair and green eyes walked out in front of it.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Virgil growled.

The man stopped "Remus I'm gonna have to call you back," he said, hanging up the phone.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"And who is this little princess," the man turned his attention to Olivia, who was sticking her tongue out in concentration over the colorful block in her hands.

"'m Olivia," she said quietly, giggling.

"And we were just leaving," Virgil said, anxious to get out of the aisle. Whoever this man was, he didnt want to be near him for to long.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but Virgil was already pushing past him.

But that wasnt the last time he'd meet the man. The two started seeing each other at nearly every store, on the way to the movies, and eventually, at the hotel itself.

"Ok, can you just admit you're stalking me like some freak or are you just going to act all innocent every time we bump into each other," Virgil said, covering Olivia's ears.

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Said the man, Virgil took a step back.

"Wait- I didnt mean-" the man paused for a second, looking at his hands.

"Look, I'm not intentionally trying to meet up with you, though you seem like a nice guy, my name is Roman Prince-Duke, I run a modeling agency with my brother," Roman said, tapping his fingers together.

"Oh?" Virgil raised an eyebrow slightly.

"I wasnt taking pictures of you! I mean I'd like to- but like as a job! Not in a creepy way!" Virgil's face went red. This seemed to catch Olivia's attention, as she finally stopped fumbling with his hoodie strings to look over at Roman.

"Daddy's gonna marry a prince," she whispered, causing the blush on Virgil's face to grow even further. Roman let out a small chuckle, covering his mouth.

"Ollie that's not how it works sweetie," Virgil said with a laugh.

"So how much would I be paid? What are the requirements?" Virgil asked.

"Fifty dollars per photo, and you get to make the decision on outfits used and pose adjustments," Roman said.

"Alright, I'll bite," Virgil said, if he was honest, he'd do anything to get out of his current job.

It was about a week before he could finally make the shift. He'd decided to bring Olivia with him to the building. It was large and ornate, posters of attractive men and women were smiling down at him. But it was different, the people in the photos were dancing, singing, they were acting like people. Virgil pushed the door open, snatching Olivia out just before she started spinning it in circles.

"Daddy look!" Olivia pointed upwards towards a fountain at the center of the room.

"I see it Ollie," Virgil said, smiling. He walked to the front desk, where a short man with light brown hair and round glasses was typing away at a computer.

Virgil was about to open his mouth before the boy looked up, and noticed Olivia.

"Oh my gosh look at you! Arent you just the cutest thing!" Olivia giggled as the man ruffled her hair.

"You must be Virgil then? Roman's been absolutely raving about you," said the man.

"Did I hear my name Patton?" Roman said as he walked into the room, and then he noticed Virgil.

"Virgil! Lovely!" He clasped his hands together.

"Come with me, Patton can take care of Olivia while we're at our meeting," Roman said. Virgil stood there for a few seconds, looking between Patton and Olivia before finally letting go of her hand. She rushed behind the desk and stood on her tiptoes to stare at the computer.

Roman's office was covered in decorations of mythical creatures and outfit designs. In the center es a desk with two large and comfy looking chairs in front and behind it. Virgil sat down in the one in front, watching as Roman made his way to the opposite one.

"So, first things, you seem to be more into comfort yes? Overly large sweaters, t-shirts, sweatpants, that kind of thing?" Virgil nodded.

"Anything you absolutely wont do? Any aversions to skirts? Dresses?" Roman continued.

"As long as it's not form fitting and you cant see anything on my chest or below my waist I dont care," Virgil replied. Roman nodded and wrote something down.

Virgil had been at the job for about two months when he noticed the changes. He'd already known that he thought Roman was hot, but now Roman seemed to want to be around him more as well.

They went out for ice cream after photo shoots, Roman came with Virgil to pick out a new house, if Virgil needed a break Roman would let Patton watch Olivia so they two of them could have spa days.

Virgil had been suppressing it for a while, he didnt want to believe he was falling in love again, or that a boy was falling in love with him. He was afraid, afraid Roman would become the new Erin. But fate seemed to have other plans.

They were relaxing in a hot tub, Virgil's back pressed up against one of the jets, head resting on the outer rim.

"Virgil, I've been planning on this for a while, and I think now might be the best time to tell you," Roman spoke softly, but Virgil could still feel his limbs tense.

"You can say no if you want, I wont mind, but I think- I think I want to go on a date with you, like an official one," Virgil looked up, clutching the edge of the 'seat'.

"Well- I uh- I mean you're very nice but I-" Virgil could feel tears forming in his eyes.

"Oh no no Virgil- dont cry- I understand, you dont have to, we can just be friends," Roman pushed Virgil's hair out of his face, worried evident in his eyes.

"I-I do want to be more than friends- but I-" Roman's eyes widened suddenly, his hand instinctively moving to Virgil's side, his thumb brushing against Virgil's stomach.

"I wont, I swear, you have my permission to chuck me off a building if I do," Roman said, earning a laugh from Virgil.

Virgil wrapped his arms around Roman's neck, pressing their foreheads together and smiling.

"Then yes, I will date you," and Roman pulled Virgil into a kiss that would only be rivaled by the one they shared ten years later, with Olivia by Virgil's side, and her girlfriend by Roman's, as Virgil finally realized he'd found the man who would keep him and his daughter safe for as long as the family lived.

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Tag list:

@nerosdayinhell

@meowthefluffy

@youtuberswithalex

@thecolorfulolive

@frog-candy-bee

@spooky-scary-virgil

@boobmaster69

@melodiread

@thefivecalls

[orangezinnia]

Your most painful headcanon in my mouth, in my mouth I am nothing!!!!

ohohoh.... since you did not mention a character, i will use this an an opportunity to subject my followers to me exclusively talking (read: rambling) about nastya, as is custom :>

i expand on each one under a readmore, bc i can never be short abt this stuff, but tdlr:

A- Realistic: nastya's quicksilver blood gives her chronic pain. it literally only makes sense that this is true. in fact i am begging ppl to adopt this into their hc's

B- Unrealistic: nastya can control gravity via room settings on aurora, and uses it to torment the crew

C- Pain: a pre-Out nastya has a better version of reality that she goes to when she dreams, similar to the lore of her mother dreaming fictitious scenarios in both the Cyberian Demons song and fiction

D- Not canon compliant but fuck canon: nastya canonically dislikes earth, but imo she hyperfixated on all the technological advancements of it and LOVES earth arg's and internet mysteries, like the markovian parallax denigrate (which actually wasnt an arg)

again, further details under the read more!

A- Realistic: i think it would be off-brand if i didn't talk about chronic pain/spPOTS nastya, so! YES i hear the "nastya is buff bc she carries her metal blood around all day" headcanons and YES i love them, but consider: it sucks for her! it sucks! she's weak and she can't carry shit without big consequences! would you like to know why?

because like a good little fan, i've scoured Mechs Lore thoroughly, and Nowhere does it mention that nastya's veins have been modified to support the weight of her quicksilver blood! it's just her normal fucking flesh veins holding that heavy heavy metal! they probably have a super tough time carrying it back to her upper body when she sits up/stands! her muscles probably ache like all shit from it, AND from being cold all the time, because liquid mercury is really damn cold!! hhhrg i am just BARELY sparing y'all a good spPOTS nastya rant. i literally have so many thoughts aughhh. and MAYBE i just want to see other authors incorperate spPOTS nastya into their fics bc it ONLY MAKES SENSE ok??? /lh

B- Unrealistic but funny: she installed dimmer switches (that only she can control) on aurora to manipulate the gravity in various rooms, and she uses this to her absolute advantage. she will turn off the gravity and leave the mechs stranded in mid-air, or turn it super high and it'll keep them pinned to the floor. whatever it takes to get them out of her special little engineer way

C- Pain: oh man. oh man oh MAN. so i don't believe this headcanon personally (read: it is not in my fic lore) BUT do you remember the parts in both the Cyberian Demons fiction and song that mention how the mother giving birth was dreaming the entire time, and how nastya's mother was "uploading every quaint tea party that she could dream of?" i think a pre-but-approaching-Out nastya has one of those worlds in her mind, that she goes to when she dreams.

and maybe in that world, all the little things have been perfected. maybe the octokittens arent such a nuisance to the peace. maybe the crew aren't so rambunctious, and they don't inconvenience nastya by shooting and killing her so often. maybe aurora's walls and floors arent marred with bullet holes and scorch marks along every few feet- the sour reminder of her crew's uncaringness toward her love, her singular reason for staying here for as long as she has. maybe the crew is happier to see her, sending truer smiles her way, and offering a hug more often than once every couple centuries.

but it all rings hollow in the end, because through it all, she knows that none of it is real. not in a way that matters, at least. eventually, she dreads visiting it more than she is excited for it, and with nothing worthwhile to keep her aboard- not her love, who has changed so much that she is practically dead, nor the crew, who she's more than certain can sustain themselves without her, and especially not even her dream world, now a burden more than an indulgence, simply an archive to all that she's lost, preserved proof of what she's so desperately missing- that's when she decides to go Out.

now, since i can't leave you on such a harsh ending, i'll tie this into my Out fix-it ("And I Must Sleep Forever"), and say that one of jonny's bullets hits her ARI hub/microwire brain nodes, and it corrupts the dream file into inoperability. she'd been working on it for centuries, fine tuning all the minutiae, so she doesnt see the worth in trying to rebuild it, when she could just focus on making the real world bearable, instead. 

D- Not canon compliant but fuck canon: not only does nastya love ARG's and internet mysteries, bc getting to the bottom of them typically invovles some deep, knowedgeable sleuthing, and hacking-adjacent activities, but sometimes she creates her own random shit (like the markovian parallax denigrate) and tosses it out to the internets of various planets, just to see what they make of it. if anyone manages to REALLY get to the bottom, and realize that infamous space pirate criminal Nastya Starship-Rasputina is the creator, she asks jonny to spare them from his killing sprees. they can have little a life being spared. as a treat

[bigskydreaming]

Height discourse confuses me so much, because I, a 4'9 21-year-old Asian perceives anyone taller as tall. But reading international posts saying 5'6 is small makes me double-take, like, "Wut?"

LOL, ahh yes, the infamous “How Tall IS Dick Grayson Actually” discourse. I feel you. And I can definitely see how it would be bemusing as hell given your perspective, lmao.

And I mean, its definitely up there on the list of “Things I Can’t Believe There’s Actually Discourse About” buuuuuut I’m not really judging because I know damn well there’s a fuckton of shit I’ve Discoursed about on pretty much everyone else’s “Things I Can’t Believe There’s Actually Discourse About” list. 

*Shrugs* But I also do get why it exists, if you scratch beneath the surface - as is often true of a lot of seemingly inane discourses. Its not really about height so much as it is about the why’s of writers specifying certain heights for him, and stereotypes associated with height.

On the one hand, you’ve got the fans who look at writers who make a point of writing Dick as particularly short, or the shortest of the Batfam once all of them are adults, and think: this is because of fandom’s fixation with writing Dick as effeminate or the least ‘manly’ of the Batfam, and thus I dislike it and do not trust this writer’s take on him.

Then on the other hand, you have the fans who look at objections like this and think: this is because of bullshit fostered by the toxic masculinity and sexism that’s so present in society, even women can be guilty of perpetuating the idea that there’s anything TO object about there, that a man being effeminate or less ‘manly’ than his brothers is some kind of insult or slight against him in the first place.

But then go back to the first hand.....

And on the one hand, of those fans, you’ve got the fans that don’t actually think there’s anything insulting about a man being effeminate or less manly themselves, but given that the bullshit fostered by the toxic masculinity and sexism in society is so everpresent, even women can be guilty of perpetuating the idea that ‘shorter = weaker’ etc, etc.......its not him being written as short that’s objectionable to them, its what they believe the writer is implying by making that distinction that they’re objecting to, like that it reads to them as though its being used as a smokescreen to create associations in readers’ minds, with the idea of him being weaker or softer or whatever the fuck compared to his brothers, without those writers actually having to SAY what they’re getting at there and spell it out. Plausible deniability kinda thing.

And then on the other hand, you have those fans who object to writing Dick as short because they actually DO buy into that bullshit and they ARE simply objecting to the idea itself because of toxic masculinity and sexism and etc etc.

But then go back to the original second hand.....

And on the one hand THERE, you have the fans whose responses to people objecting about writing Dick as short are based on exactly what they say they are......pointing out that its only objectionable if its viewed as insulting and the only reasons its viewed as insulting are toxic masculinity and sexism which they’re calling out as being perpetuated here.

And on the other hand there, you have those fans who DO buy into the associations between ‘shorter = weaker’ and actually ARE writing things that way with the intent of hoping to form that association in the minds of any readers who similarly buy into those lines of thought or are susceptible to it......and are simply using ‘arent you the REAL misogynist here for thinking shorter equals more feminine which equals weaker or frail or whatever’ arguments that are simply typical flipping the script tactics and hiding behind buzzwords they don’t actually believe in themselves but know are effective in getting people to back down, etc, etc. The plausible deniability thing.

And I’ve been out of hands here for awhile now, obviously, but you get what I mean. Round and round and round it goes, with the true point always hidden juuuuuuust beneath the surface, and more than a little tedious to have all unpacked and catalogued like here, which is a major factor in why so many people rarely dig beneath the surface of a seemingly inane discourse to get at what people are REALLY arguing about but nobody wants to ‘lose ground on’ by being the first to admit to.

As for me, again, this really isn’t a dicourse that I spend much time on because I’d rather cut straight to the point of an argument in general, and this isn’t an discourse that’s particularly amenable to people doing that, obviously. 

And also, I honestly just don’t care that much. LOL. Yeah, I often read works where Dick is singled out as being distinctively shorter and feel an author is trying to ‘imply’ something and its the implications of that which are the source of any ‘Not Good, Scoob’ feelings rather than because I agree with what’s trying to be implied. But y’know......when an author IS playing that game and they actually do buy into toxic and sexist stereotypes.....I mean, there’s literally always other indications of this in their work, giving them away all over the place. So there’s honestly never really a time when his height itself is actually what that hinges upon, y’know?

So my big takeaway from all of this is: headcanon and write Dick as whatever damn height you feel like and if you want to imply something about him just fucking say it directly and if you want to accuse someone of something just fucking call it out directly.

*points to the above unpacking of this particular discourse and how fucking tedious and unnecessary so much of it is and all just because people won’t just say what they actually came to say or lay claim to what they actually said*

ANYWAY.

Personally, regardless of how Dick is written in a fic, I will always headcanon him as somewhere between 5′10″ and 6′1″ for reasons that are entirely irrelevant and meaningless to anyone but me, pretty much. LOL.

In my head, Dick obviously has to be that height because he’s walked a runway as a model before. That’s it. That’s the whole reason my mind automatically goes to that span when picturing him or reading something about him.

(As most people who have followed me for a bit know, I spent a number of years working in the TV industry. There were a couple years there where I did a little bit of print modeling too, nothing major at all, but enough to know that the fashion industry has a Very Definitive Thing about male runway models and height: If you are a male runway model, you are between 5′10″ and 6′1″. If you are not between 5′10″ and 6′1″, you are not a male runway model and you never will be. Its a Thing. And not one the industry is shy about. 

Because of the fact that the fashion industry is mostly centered around women models with name recognition, and very few men who model have star power specifically in terms of modeling, rather than because of crossover/overlap with acting, there’s a major difference in how designers tend to approach designing for models. Most designers designing runway looks for women do so with specific models already in mind. Most designers designing runway looks for men do so without specific models in mind because there simply aren’t enough male models with the kind of branding/name recognition that does a designer any good. 

So designers literally JUST design runway looks for men in that height range, and anyone outside that range would require tailoring that could feasibly throw off an entire runway look. So they just don’t do it, to the point that an agent or manager sending them someone outside that height range to consider for a job means that agent’s not getting called back, because they just gave themselves away as a clear amateur by not knowing better.

Of course, keep in mind that my experiences with modeling are based on the industry re: ten years ago, so it could be that things have changed in this regard since. But that was the status quo then.)

So yeah. Dick Grayson walked a runway for Cheyenne Freemont, thus in my mind he’s obviously between 5′10″ and 6′1″ lolol, because any up and coming designer trying to make a name for herself would absolutely know better than to send out someone shorter than that and still think anyone in the industry would take her seriously.

LOL. I told you it was inane. But in my defense, plenty of people headcanon that Dick HAS to be small because he’s a gymnast, and uh.....that is not how that works. Anyone can be an amazing gymnast, its just that smaller body types lend themselves to gymnastics better than bigger, bulkier bodies. And thus the competition oriented gymnastics SPORT heavily favors cultivating and training gymnasts on the smaller side, because coaches and endorsers are looking for literally any advantage possible.

(Being shorter means you have a lower center of gravity which is a help when balancing, or stabilizing yourself. Its easier for a shorter gymnast to keep their balance or to stick a landing. But it doesn’t become impossible just because someone’s hit six feet tall. It HELPS to be shorter. It doesn’t determine whether or not you can do a trick at all, much like being short and having a lower center of gravity by no means GUARANTEES you have good balance.)

And of course, though Dick excels at a ton of gymnastics, he is not and never has been a gymnast per se....he’s an acrobat. From a family of acrobats. Who have been doing this as a family business generationally, thus.....why would they have future height requirements when training their son in the family business? And being from a family of acrobats doesn’t ensure you’re going to be short, if your family members are not already short to begin with. Evolution does not give a fuck about future employment opportunities when selecting which gene sequences to flip on while in utero.

The correlation is ‘most gymnasts who excel at gymnastics feats are small,’ not ‘to excel at gymastic feats, you must be small.’

I am absolutely and completely just rambling now and have been for awhile so I’m gonna go beat up my insomnia until it caves and lets me go the fuck to sleep.