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#this got weirdly long so i put it under read more lmao
dupliciti · 3 months
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my thoughts on sa.mpo in keeping up with st.ar ra.il - sp.arkle
i reorganized this post to have the content discussion front loaded then have the voice acting/language VO differences talk following it up
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if you don't watch the keeping up with st.ar rai.l videos, sa.mpo was supposed to be the one to help introduce for bla.ck swa.n's. sp.arkle crashed it. hence the taped name card, she tore it in the last one lmao. my additional note here is that i was robbed on commentary from sa.mpo on the "beautiful lady" smh.
sa.mpo himself says that he and sparkle aren't that close !!! in my mind he's always kept her at arm's length. willing to help her or work things out in a deal but they really aren't friends
sa.mpo apparently was knocked unconscious backstage, this is in dialogue with the real ow.lbert. so this was intended perhaps so he wouldn't pull a fast one? ow.lbert works for the IPC so i have to then assume that the IPC is aware that sa.mpo is dangerous to some degree to have to do this??? sa.mpo sending ow.lbert a scam text is so funny to me
sa.mpo wanting to move on by not bringing up the past and wanting to be a good boy to then be invited to more "good" things in the future. yeah, he definitely shrinks himself, act innocent, or tries to switch to acting good to get benefit out of it. time and time again this is proven.
fucking sa.mpo calling out ow.lbert and ow.lbert being like "DoYouWantYouAppearanceFeeOrNot" LMAO. sa.mpo then playing up spa.rkle is SO KJSDHGJKSDHG. ow.lbert like okay sa.mpo you're acting TOO MUCH asjkdgh
"what are the limits of the art of acting?" sa.mpo says that he "believes that mistress sparkle represents the limit of the art of 'acting' itself!" based on how he feels about her pursuit of elation, to me he means to say that she really is a limit. it's clear that he doesn't appreciate her viewing the galaxy as a stage or worlds as stages. thinks that this pursuit of elation itself is limiting for a person since it's just acting
when spa.rkle then replaces ow.lbert she says "i believe your acting is still confined to.." she doesn't specify here, instead goes on to say "mr. sa.mpo you have too many limitations. having limitations always kills the vibe". we know that because of how spar.kle exists, to her, sa.mpo is boring because of his self-imposed limitations
i don't dislike spa.rkle but obviously i write sa.mpo so in regards to that last bit, i think his take on elation is more focused on himself. and kinda how i said before it seems that fools have a drive to embody elation, so if he's feeling joy from what he does for himself, then that's what matters to him. in most cases that means it's related to a crime lmfao. i also have other thoughts based on like 2.0 and the sparkle trailers and information but that'll be a separate post
i watched it in english initially. okay. yeah. roger has settled into sa.mpo's voice. he's actually speaking a little higher here than in 2.0 which is… confusing. but i'm pretty sure it's all good under the hood. that's all. it's not a bad thing! in his own right it's great it's fine. english for sa.mpo is just not my preferred in the slightest asjkgh
although i've also said i don't draw my voice for him from spoken/voice acted lines, the way he speaks here outside of the context of the express, aka not pretending to be from belobog.. i think it's actually neat. and by neat i'm referring to the way he draws out some words.
okay as for the other languages. this type of content is so great for comparing and analyzing his VAs oh man. my bias lies between japanese and korean.
though i think more recently japanese has been winning out with his expression. newer lines and in this video we see sa.mpo's full range of emotions and his "acting". i think it's great and what i kinda aim for when writing him. even if i'm writing in english THE WAY in which he speaks is what i hear and where my goal lies. he's not just smarmy, he's not just overdramatic. he's capable of being all over the place when attempting to win someone over, and even when he sounds more genuine you still feel like you can't trust him
however, i have also said that the active balancer in my mind his his korean vo. also has had some rather amusing moments. now isn't the time to discuss past stuff, but for this video he also does the over the top bits when talking about acting and spa.rkle. the dramatics are still fitting! between all the vas i feel like this sa.mpo perhaps sounds the "coolest" if that makes sense. when speaking normally you can kinda hear it in this video
i do adore the chinese vo for sa.mpo. i've seen people say that he isn't as expressive, which i don't entirely agree with as a reason to judge his voice acting? this is technically the closest to source material in terms of the script right. i had said before regarding the reveal scene in 2.0 i think when it's called for then he IS more expressive, this comes through in this video. his dramatics feel purposeful and thus slightly more impactful since he's just a chill playful dude otherwise
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jamminvroomvroom · 2 years
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these quiet moments
CL x fem!reader 
read part 2: a fruit basket and a ferrari ✨here✨
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right so here is my first sharl fic. you do not realise how hard it was to type ‘charles’ lmao. so this was inspired by the events of barcelona and then, of course, the absolute shambles of the monaco gp. hey, at least it gave me a plot lmao. anyways, enjoy!! feedback is always welcome, hmu <33
songs that guided the vibes: ivy by frank ocean, woman by harry styles, north by clairo
in which charles feels things for his best friends, ahem, fuck buddy.
warnings: 18+!! angst, smut in a ✨shower✨, fluff kinda i guess, swearing, pierre gasly (affectionate... ish), alcohol, the curse of the monaco gp lol. 
6.8k words
the car came to a halt in the pit box, red men frantically changing his tyres and then waving him on his way. the stop was quick, almost perfect, not that it needed to be. he had a lead that didn’t put him in danger of being overtaken coming out of the box. he wouldn’t need to scramble to regain a position under the spanish sunshine that was beating down relentlessly on the crowd, he just needed to get through the next forty odd laps and he’d be on top of the podium. he’d spray the champagne and get a pat on the back and go back to the hotel. it seemed so easily in his grasp. 
he needed the win. he needed the distraction. he needed to not think of you. 
the longer the good times lasted, the less he had to think of you. he’d be able to bear the torment of watching pierre’s hand linger on your waist if he won the race, because it would mean that millions loved him, even if you didn’t. but if he lost, or came second or third, which was the same thing in his eyes, he wouldn’t be able to cope. he wouldn’t be able to cope when he watched you leave with pierre. he wouldn’t be able to handle it when he saw you at breakfast in the hotel the next morning, knowing exactly how you’d spent your evening. he wouldn’t be able to endure watching pierre saunter into the dining hall ten minutes later, acting nonchalant, as if no one had eyes or the faintest clue that pierre had spent the night on top of you. or beneath you. pierre wasn’t fussy like that. 
charles knew that you and pierre were just friends. best friends even. such good friends that sleeping together was like going for a cup of coffee, or going to the movies. your arms were open for pierre on a good day, a bad day, and every kind of day in between and charles had never envied another man more. he loved pierre like a brother but, god, he hated him too. it didn’t matter that pierre didn’t want you like charles did, he still had most of your time and attention. all charles got was conversations over breakfast after your rendezvous with his best friend, or a weirdly deep conversation when you got drunk with him and the other drivers after a long race weekend. it wasn’t enough. 
charles continued to fly across the track, light on the curbs but pace simply unmatched. no one on the track was as fast as him. no one could fucking touch him. this was his race to win. and so naturally, his engine decided to call it a day. of course. he heard himself shouting, white noise filling the air as he trundled back to the pit lane, where they’d already cleared a neat and tidy space in the garage for him. the rage just about dispersed and he finally got out of the car. the helmet came off, a quick wave to the crowd, a ruffle of the hair from mattia. he wanted to be alone. he had a good thirty or so laps to wallow. 
eventually, he made his way through the garage and back to the ferrari hospitality building. just as he stepped through the door, he heard a voice that sent a pathetic shiver down his spine. he turned around slowly, not quite ready to believe it was you. shouldn’t you be tucked away quietly in the back of the alpha tauri garage so that no one got the wrong idea? so that pierre’s fans didn’t find you on social media and ruin your life, for absolutely no reason at all? it turned out that his tired mind was not playing tricks on him, because there you stood. a weak smile on your face, hair blowing in the same breeze that had put his teammate in the gravel.
“oh. hi.” oh hi? he wanted to punch himself in the face. 
“i’m sorry about your engine.” you offered, tilting your head apologetically. he still didn’t understand why you were stood here talking to him, instead of watching the race. 
“yeah, so am i.” charles muttered, barely audible. he just wanted to go inside. as much as he would have loved to stay and talk to you forever and ever, he gathered that you’d need to conserve your energy to console pierre later on. he accidentally rolled his eyes at his own thoughts, and then watched on like an idiot when you furrowed your eyebrows and took a step back. 
“um, i’m gonna go, i just wanted to make sure you were okay.” just as you were about to turn on your heel, he couldn’t help himself and called out to you. 
“no! i’m sorry. i just, i’m not having a great day.” he laughed humourlessly, eyes lighting up when you joined in. 
“i should go anyway.” you waved your hand casually, brushing him off. 
“you don’t need to.” he spoke a bit to quickly, over eager to get you to stay. he felt his cheeks heat up. he didn’t miss the way your lips quirked up. 
“i can’t exactly come and hang out in the ferrari suite.” you challenged.
“you can with me.” he almost recoiled at the way that he sounded, far too arrogant for a guy who’s engine just passed away, but he chose not to care, standing up straighter and letting himself smirk. 
you shrugged, following him into the ferrari hospitality through the door that he held open for you. he could feel your eyes on his back, basking delightfully in the fact that you were here with him. you were in his territory now, somewhere pierre couldn’t get to you. as the door to his drivers room slowly shut, that feeling of momentary pride came to an unfortunate end. what the hell did he do now? 
“so-“ 
“so-“ you both spoke at the same time. it was awkward. there was no denying that. you were sat next to him on the small sofa, half a space between you. 
“go ahead.” he encouraged, blushing again and averting his eyes. 
stop fucking blushing!
“are you okay?” the sincerity behind your words made charles look at you again. 
“honestly? no.” 
“i appreciate your honesty.” you scoffed. 
something about the way you said that, as if you had a bitter taste in your mouth, made charles wonder. what made you appreciate his honesty? more importantly, who had made you appreciate his honesty? nonetheless, he couldn’t stop his heart from hammering away in his chest; you appreciated him, in that moment at least.
“are you okay?” charles asked. you’d piqued his curiosity now. 
“fine, thank you.” your smile, although breathtaking, was completely and utterly fake. 
you let out a sigh when you saw how he was looking at you. a look that said i call bullshit. 
the most notable thing about charles’ relationship with you was the strangely intricate conversations that you’d shared throughout the years. days full of chaos would be broken up by these quiet moments that you shared that held more substance than most interactions that charles had to endure. you weren’t best friends, not even close, but these moments of stillness and clarity meant a great deal to both of you. they usually happened when pierre was ordering another round of drinks, or when pierre went to get the car, or when pierre’s media obligations overran. basically, charles could only have you to himself when pierre was occupied. he had never been so happy to dnf before, as awful as it was. while pierre was driving in meaningless circles, charles was watching you collect your thoughts, watching the way your eyebrows furrowed and your eyes changed. charles certainly knew what he’d rather be doing. 
“it doesn’t really matter.” you said quietly. 
“yes it does. matters to me.” he couldn’t not say it. it did matter to him. anything bothering you mattered to him a great deal, an embarrassingly great deal. you just stared at him for a second, charles suddenly realising that you were both turned in to face one another, knees touching. 
“why?” 
well, that was a good question. 
“well we’re friends aren’t we?” he didn’t like the way the word ‘friends’ tasted on his tongue, nor did he like the way your eyes changed as he said it. almost as if you knew.
“sure we are,” you smirked, “but i won’t burden you.” 
“please do.” why could he not think before he spoke today? you raised your eyebrows at him. he shrugged.
“shouldn’t i be comforting you?” you looked mischievous. he almost felt like you were mocking him, but for some reason he was revelling in it. 
“your presence is more than enough.” he didn’t know where he found the nerve to flirt with you but nevertheless, he was. “so, please, what’s wrong?” he ignored the light dusting of pink across your cheekbones, refusing to get his hopes up, and tried his best to move the conversation along. 
“i just,” you were fiddling with your skirt, staring down at your hands. charles was practically on the edge of his seat, desperate to know what was going through your mind. “i don’t think i can keep doing… this thing. i know you know about me and pierre.” you averted eye contact. charles had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. anyone with eyes knew about you and pierre. “we don’t exactly want the same things.” 
if charles knew pierre, and he knew him very well, he knew that pierre wanted to live his life as he pleased, no strings attached, no obligations. after all, that’s why he maintained the relationship that he did with you. and if you and pierre didn’t want the same things, that meant that you wanted more than a place in pierre’s bed. or that’s what charles had deduced, at least. the room was silent as charles’ heart shattered in his chest. 
“oh. i see.” 
“do you?”
“i’m sorry?” he was taken aback. 
“do you see what i mean? i’m not sure that you do.” you clarified, voice a lot calmer than charles’. you gave nothing away. 
“well, i think i do. pierre doesn’t want a relationship. you do.” charles stated simply, growing frustrated. maybe he didn’t want to know what was bothering you, after all.
“i suppose-“ you started, only to be cut short by the monegasque driver.  
“then why are you questioning me?” he didn’t mean to sound so irritated. 
“who said i wanted a relationship with pierre?” you bit back quickly.
great. so there was someone else?
“actually, i need to do some media. i’m sorry.” he stood up. he instantly missed the contact of your knee against his. you looked up at him with wide eyes. 
“no, i’m sorry. of course, i’ll go.” he hated that you apologised to him when it was him that had absolutely annihilated the moment. it was rude of him, negligent. he’d offered to be your shoulder to cry on and as soon as he heard something he didn’t like, he was kicking you out. you left the room in a hurry, looking as flustered as charles felt. the door closed, a visual reminder that he had let you slip away. 
the day could not get much worse. 
-
apparently, the day could, in fact, get worse. 
charles cursed under his breath as he helped you manoeuvre pierre through the dimly lit hallway of the hotel. charles was bearing most of pierre’s weight while you guided them both back to pierre’s hotel room, a look on your face that charles could not quite distinguish. you looked exasperated. the frenchman was blackout drunk after a more than unsatisfactory race, slurring something about how much helmut marko sucked and how life was unfair. charles couldn’t help but agree with both of those statements. 
eventually, you made it to the room, pierre’s body being flung perhaps a bit carelessly onto his bed. you and charles both stood over him like disappointed parents. your arms were crossed, grimacing down at him, while charles stood with his hands on his hips, glaring down at his friend. charles hadn’t wanted to spend the evening with you and pierre but of course, the frenchman roped him in and then got himself so drunk that charles had to practically carry him back to his room. and to make matters worse, you were there too, along for every second of the tragic ride. you’d probably expected a different outcome for the evening, probably assuming that yes, pierre would end up in bed but you’d be there too. alas, that was not the case. 
“i don’t know if you’re staying here but i’m going to go. you can call me if you need anything.” charles spoke, not giving pierre the courtesy of whispering. pierre would be asleep for a while.
“no.” you said softly, but with a conviction that told charles that you meant business. 
“no?”
“no, i’m not staying here.” you sighed. 
“okay. in that case, do you want me to walk you to your room?” charles offered, wanting nothing more than to spend the remainder of his evening with you, whilst also wanting to make sure you got back safely. you smiled. he smiled back. it was hard not to.
“would you?” 
“my pleasure.” he said, as if it was nothing. it was everything. 
you poured a glass of water for pierre, while charles retrieved the small bin from the bathroom and placed it on the floor by pierre’s bed. what are friends for? you both spared the other driver once last look, before you left the hotel room. you both made the trip to the elevator, which was much shorter without pierre’s deadweight, letting charles push the button. 
you waited there together, hands at your sides. when he felt your knuckles brush against his, he almost jumped in the air. if that tiny, minuscule contact was enough to take him down, he could only imagine what kind of reaction your body against his would evoke. he tried to subtly look down, take in the sight of your hand against his. he wanted to hold your hand more than he wanted to win the championship. you seemed to be watching him from the corner of your eye, enjoying the flustered state of the ferrari driver.
the elevator doors opened and you stepped forward first, breaking charles out of his trance. he stepped in next to you, the both of you standing in a silence that lingered somewhere between comfortable and awkward. he wanted to know what you were thinking, dying to know what was going through your head. when he’d first laid eyes on you earlier on in the evening, he hadn’t been able to resist raking them up and down your body, no better than every other man in the bar who was undoubtedly doing the same. he felt guilty, but you were a sight to behold.
whilst pierre had been set on having a wild night, charles was content in the huge booth pierre had rented out for the evening, not up for interacting with anyone who’d seen his shambolic race. you seemed to be on the same wavelength, staying put and nursing a drink. as the night progressed, charles found himself gravitating towards you, and you to him, until you were both sat next to each other. one of your legs was crossed over the other and your knees brushed under the table. charles didn’t even know what the topic of your conversation was, all he could focus on was the shape of your lips when you spoke. he’d been on his way to leaning in when pierre had magically reappeared, whining because someone said he looked like nico rosberg in his white trousers. the annoyance that flashed across your face for a split second at pierre’s not so epic return gave charles hope. 
“charles?” your voice cut through the memories of the evening. 
“hmm?” he replied, turning his head to look down at you beside him. 
his eyes locked on yours for a split second before you were cupping his face and pulling him in towards you. when your lips met his, charles didn’t know what to do for a second. he was so utterly shocked that he just stood there. but it really was only a second, because he quickly realised that he had been waiting several years to kiss you and he could not let a second go to waste in such an important moment. he kissed you back urgently, hands gripping at your waist to pull you in closer. as you kissed him, one hand grazed his jaw and the other one trailed down his neck until it was laced through the hair at the nape of his neck. charles groaned into the kiss, unable to help himself. you unleashed something animalistic within him, something desperate, lustful, pathetic. he didn’t understand how he’d be able to let you go tonight. as his kisses trailed down your cheek and onto the flushed skin of your neck, the elevator slowed. you whimpered. 
“charles,” you breathed, “this is my stop.” he groaned in annoyance, pressing an open mouthed kiss right in the crook of your neck. as the doors slowly opened, he watched you saunter out of the lift, turning around as you walked away to bid him adieu.  
“i’ll see you in monaco.” you winked at him. he thought he was going to pass out. 
he fell back against the back wall of the elevator as the doors shut tantalisingly slowly, finally removing you from his sight. he smiled lazily, just about making out the image of himself in the metallic doors. his smile was contorted in the silvery surface. his hair was an untameable mess. his white dress shirt stood out to him in the reflection, able to see the way it had creased when you’d been pressed against him. 
as charles approached his floor, he tried not to think about pierre, and all of his shirts that you’d creased in elevators just like this one. all he could think about was what you’d said. 
i’ll see you in monaco.
-
i’ll see you in monaco.
i’ll see you in monaco.
would you? would you really? it was saturday and charles hadn’t laid eyes on you once. you lurked at the corner of his every single thought and he hadn’t even seen you yet. he held out hope all week that pierre would bring you along to dinner but you never showed. it was distracting, he needed to talk to you, needed to just be near you at the very least. there was something strange lingering in the air that charles couldn’t quite put his finger on. all he knew was that pierre’s eyes seemed to narrow when he thought charles wasn’t looking. 
he paced beside his car, getting himself into the correct headspace for qualifying. the noise of the crowd couldn’t quite be drowned out, the way they called his name, restlessly chanting for him. he craved the pole position, craved the honour of standing on the top of the podium tomorrow, almost as much as he wanted you beside him. his balaclava went on, followed by his helmet, a new design to commemorate a weekend at home. he settled into the cockpit, completely clearing his mind. almost. 
the laps around his hometown always meant more. it was a nostalgic route around the principality, one that took him back to his childhood, sat on the bus as a child who wanted to drive the red car. he owed that kid a good race, perhaps even a win. at this point, a race finish would do. charles pulled out of the garage and into the pit lane.
he topped q1. he topped q2. he topped q3. 
pole position. 
he pulled into parc ferme, ignoring the feeling of uneasiness. things were yet to go wrong for him, how long would this last? he gave his interview, deciding to lean into the elation of the situation. pole fucking position on home soil, and he didn’t even crash out. it felt too good to deny himself the opportunity to celebrate. the fastest man in the world. the interviews went by like a blur for once, the media circus usually dragging on. not today. he was distracted the entire time by the crowd. they loved him. he loved them too. it felt good to be loved. 
with a spring in his step, he bounded though the paddock, stopping every few steps to take pictures and shake hands. it always felt good to come home. charles watched a young boy run back to his mother, eyes bright as he took in the signature that now adorned his ferrari cap.  moments like those made all of the noise worth it. he made it into the ferrari building, exchanging a few more congratulatory hugs and handshakes. he finally made it through the suite, seeking a moment of quiet to make it all seem real, a moment to process that he’d done it. he shut the door to his drivers room, turning around, to be given the fright of his life. 
“fuck, you scared me.” he slapped his hand over his heart, feeling the way it raced within his chest. it wasn’t just fear. 
“i didn’t mean to.” the sound of your voice was like a break in the clouds, sunshine, the most beautiful song he’d ever heard before. he was already on a high, but the sight of you, hearing your voice, somehow elevated him even further. 
“how did you even get in here?” he was puzzled, unsure of how you’d actually made it onto ferrari turf without being swiftly escorted back to the alpha tauri suite. 
“that doesn’t matter right now.” you said urgently, crossing the short distance between you. 
he felt himself smiling as he kissed you. everything felt better. the stagnant week that had passed by without you seemed to melt into nothing as you pressed yourself against him as close as you could get, hands desperately fisting the material of his race suit, as if you’d missed him as much as he’d missed you. 
“congratulations.” you mumbled against his lips. he’d heard it a thousand times today but hearing you say it somehow meant more. you’d sought him out, potentially breaking into the ferrari suite to be here with him, to kiss him and congratulate him. that definitely meant more to him that bumping into a random stranger who just wanted a picture. 
he used the opportunity of you breaking the kiss to pepper kisses down your neck, enjoying the way your head instantly fell back to give him access. he wished he could stay in here, locked away with you, but he had a briefing to get to and a strategy to discuss. it pained him to pull away from you, instantly missing the way you were panting under his touch.
“mon amour, i need to go.” he whispered. you looked at him with wide eyes. that was the first time he’d called you that and it was obvious that you’d both realised the same thing. 
“don’t.” your smile was teasing but you were very serious. 
“where will i find you later?” he watched your face drop, suddenly breaking eye contact. he quickly realised why. guilt. 
“i, um, well i’m staying with pierre.” you said weakly, telling charles everything you needed to. the question was, which of the drivers made you feel guilty? 
“i see.” charles’ reply lacked any emotion. he didn’t want you to know how much it hurt. instead, he found a solution to the problem, “i’ll pick you up, take you back to my place.” he said, eyes quickly widening when he realised just how suggestive it sounded. yes, he wanted you, but god, he didn’t need to make it quite so blatant. “sorry, er, i didn’t mean-“ 
you cut him off with your laughter, caressing his jaw with one hand. you pressed a chaste kiss to his lips which you both instantly wanted to take further, but you were both aware of how time constricted you. 
“it’s okay. i’ll see you later.” you let yourself out of the room, trying to remain incognito as charles watched you exit the hospitality from the doorway of his room. he hoped that he wouldn’t have to keep watching you walk away from him, no matter how much he enjoyed the view. 
-
sunday morning in monaco was always chaos. there were hoards of people who thought they were important blocking every which way, as if charles wasn’t already frustrated enough. he hadn’t seen you last night. no, all he’d seen was a text from you, telling him that oh no, poor pierre had his strategy fucked and he needs me now! charles was quietly seething, slumped in the seat of his ferrari outside pierre’s apartment complex when he’d received your message. maybe his race weekends in monaco were a little bit cursed. 
he’d been trying to steer clear of pierre all morning, quite frankly sick of the sight of him. the only thing that he had today that pierre didn’t was pole position and it didn’t seem like enough. charles boarded the lorry for the drivers parade, trying to keep as much space between him and the alpha tauri driver as possible, which probably looked strange, considering they usually spent such ventures glued to each other. his plan to avoid pierre for the rest of his life quickly came crashing down when the frenchman made a beeline for charles, leaving yuki behind. 
“are you avoiding me?” great. pierre’s blatant directness was infuriating at the best of times, but today it managed to get on charles’ last nerve. 
“why would i do that? just trying to keep the focus.” it didn’t even sound true. pierre started blankly at the monegasque. 
“bullshit. were you ever going to tell me?” pierre narrowed his eyes, just as he had been doing all week, except this time, he made no attempt to try and hide it. charles gulped, feeling the blood drain from his face. 
“tell you what?” play dumb, it works with the media, it might also work with pierre. pierre scoffed. 
“i’m not mad.” pierre offered. well, he sure looked it. “she’s a great person, i don’t blame you for being interested in her. i just don’t think she’s looking for a relationship.” wait, what? 
“i’m sorry?” charles was truly confused. 
“listen, i see the way you look at her but i wouldn’t go there. she’s been distant lately, i think she’s interested in someone. won’t tell me who, though.” pierre tutted. what the fuck?
“pierre, i need to tell-“ charles started, only to be interrupted. 
“it’s fine, i get it. she’s amazing. i’m just giving you a heads up.” and then he was gone, pulled away into a conversation with daniel. 
charles stood there by himself for a second, dumbfounded. pierre had no idea what was going on, yet somehow he’d convinced himself that he knew the entire picture. maybe he should have felt bad. maybe he should have felt awful for the way he felt about you behind pierre’s back, but instead, a feeling of pride blossomed in charles’ chest. 
it was him. he was the reason for your distance, he was the person you were interested, he is was the person you wanted. charles had gotten it wrong when you’d said you needed to be there for pierre last night. at the end of the day, you were still pierre’s best friend, of course you’d be there when pierre needed you. finally, your relationship with the frenchman had changed. charles felt triumphant, and the race hadn’t even started yet. 
he ended the race weekend wishing that it never had. 
he was absolutely mortified, furious. it was a loss, as far as he was concerned, an utterly gut wrenching one. p4 meant absolutely fucking nothing to him. he left the track as soon as he could, trying not to have too much of a pity party. he was still seeing red, literally too, unable to escape the swathes of fans that had come to watch him win. it made him feel sick. he finally seemed able to breath when he’d slammed the door to his apartment, chucking his keys somewhere and his bag down onto the floor.
he wanted another shower, the hurried one he’d had at the track post race leaving him unrelaxed and somehow even more irritated than he already was. he stepped into the large en-suite, turning the water on as hot as it would go, letting the steam fill the bathroom. he stepped back out to get his phone, when he heard a knock on the door. he wondered who would dare bother him now. he grunted, quickly making his way over to the door, ready to tell whoever it was on the other side to fuck off, politely of course. but when he saw you standing there, playing nervously with your rings, a hopeful look in your eyes, he couldn’t find the strength to ask you to leave, no matter how much he wanted to be left alone by everyone. you included. 
“i can’t talk right now.” charles was straight to the point, talking a leaf out of pierre’s book. 
“i didn’t come here to talk.” you affirmed, standing your ground, your darkened eyes telling him exactly what you were here for. 
“then why are you here?” he wanted you to say it. he needed to hear it. 
“to see if i can make you feel better.” the way the words rolled off of your tongue dissolved several years worth of self control. 
he reached out for you and you met him halfway, lips meeting for the third time. charles managed to pull you inside his apartment, blindly shutting his front door behind him as he guided you over to the nearest wall he could find, holding you against it. your hands were in his hair, tugging deliciously at the short strands and he was groaning unabashedly into your mouth. his hands snaked down your body grasping your waist firmly as he deepened the kiss, fingertips gripping your flesh. he wanted you out of the short dress as quick as humanly possible, after all, the shower was waiting. 
charles let his hands wander further, fiddling with the hem of your dress, hands skimming your thighs, before he was picking you up. you almost squealed, throwing your arms around his neck and wrapping your legs around him tightly. he could happily get used to the feeling of you wrapped around him. charles moved you both away from the wall and into his bedroom, not stopping there. he carried you into the en-suite, steam pouring out of the walk in shower, the water hitting the marbled floor in a way that beckoned for you both to get under the stream. 
“care to join me?” his voice was low, gravelly, a clear signpost that he’d had a long, hard day. you smirked. 
“it would be my pleasure.” you whispered in his ear, hands moving to get your dress off as soon as he let your feet touch the ground. charles tried not to completely lose himself in you already, but it was hard not to. he’d wanted this for far too long not to appreciate every second of you on display for him. all for him. he somehow managed to undress himself, spurred along by your increasing nakedness, desperately needing to catch up. he felt less bad about his obvious gawking at you when he noticed you trailing your eyes hungrily over his skin, in a way that told him that you’d needed this for a while, too. 
you turned away to walk towards the shower, slowly making your way underneath the hot water. he watched you go, knowing that he could enjoy the moment, because for once, he’d be able to follow after you. he watched the way the water moved over your skin, leaving you glistening, waiting for him. your hair was slicked back, pushed out of your face, sending tiny droplets of water down your collarbone and over the curve of your breasts. charles watched you for a moment too long, simply trying to convince himself that you were real, that this was actually happening. he didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this, but he wasn’t about to complain. 
he stepped into the shower, joining you finally. his arms wrapped around your waist, your back flush against his chest, your body feeling everything he had to offer you, and it felt like a lot. he moved your soaked hair over one of your shoulders, pressing his face into the crook of your neck. he nipped at the skin, soothing the bites with his tongue, slowly trailing his hands that had been wrapped around your waist up your body. you threw your head back as he continued to kiss at your neck, whilst his hands moved to cup your breasts. he pinched your nipples, teasing the hardened buds with his fingertips, your quiet moans hitting his ears directly as your head rested against his shoulder. 
charles was growing impatient, and so were you, rolling your hips to grind your ass against him. he moaned at the pressure, placing his hands back on your waist to turn you around to face him. you pulled him in for a kiss as he walked you both further into the shower, until your back was pressed against the wall. it was cold against your heated skin, causing you to shiver, arching further into him. your chests were pushed together, hands back in his hair as you gasped into his mouth.
“what do you want, mon ange?” 
“want you to feel good.” charles was sure he felt all of the blood in his body rush towards his cock. you were quite literally a wet dream. 
“is that all you want, baby? don’t you want me to make you feel good?” charles would have loved some attention for himself, but knew he wouldn’t last if you gave it to him. besides, nothing would have gotten him off as much as seeing you writhing against the shower wall, all because of him. 
he kept one hand on your waist, the other one travelling down your body. he ran his fingers slowly from the top of your thigh down until he was caressing the soft skin of your inner thigh. you were looking at him so desperately, so intensely, that it almost made him dizzy, your eyes never leaving his. one of his fingers ran through your folds, making you hiss, hips instantly bucking at the contact. your reaction spurred him on, two fingers now tracing the seam of your pussy, both digits instantly soaked. he could have cum right then and there, painfully hard at the sight of you, the feel of you on his fingers. the same fingers he used to race around the streets of his hometown. suddenly he didn’t care at all about losing the race. he felt powerful. you made him feel powerful. 
he rubbed his fingers over your clit, slowly at first, until you were needy for him, his name tumbling from your lips in the form of a beg. he replaced his fingers with his thumb, sliding two of his fingers inside of you. you were moaning helplessly at the sensation, taking everything he gave you, without your eyes ever leaving his. it was like you’d both somehow entranced one other, neither of you able to look away, no matter how desperate you were to let your eyes flutter shut as the pleasure overwhelmed you. 
charles continued to fuck you with his fingers, his actions leaving your inner thighs soaking, nothing to do with the hot water pouring over you both. he traced patterns into your clit with the pad of his thumb, toying with his rhythm to keep you on your toes. charles could feel you tightening, inching closer and closer to your orgasm and it drove him insane, desperate to send you over the edge, spiralling for him. soon enough, you were there, panting and whining as you came, trying to pull him closer. 
you kissed him ferociously while he slowed down his ministrations. he pulled his hand away from your wet heat, using it to grab at your thigh and hoist it up over his waist. his body was quickly back against yours, hand splayed across your thigh as he held you against the wall. his nose brushed yours, as he guided his cock through your folds, both your breaths catching as he finally, finally, thrusted into you. as he bottomed out, you melted even further into one another, breath mingling as one of his hands held your thigh that rested on his waist, and the other locked with yours. the hand that held yours raised your clasped hands up and over your head, keeping you pinned against the wall, spread out delectably for him. your free hand was wrapped around his water soaked body, keeping him close as you dug your nails into the muscles of his toned back. 
he rocked into you, over and over, both of your moans meeting between your parted lips, electrifying the air between you. you were insatiable, never faltering, making charles feel better than any other person had to his recollection. you were perfectly in tune with him, body moving with his as if this was the way it was always supposed to be. you must have agreed with that, the way your sounds of pleasure were ricochetting off of the bathroom walls, fuelling charles’ ego in the way a race win never could. just when he thought it couldn’t get any better, you started to clench around him, the hand on his back finding it’s way back into his damp hair, as his hips snapped into yours. he let go of your thigh, bringing his hand between your slick bodies to rub your clit, coaxing you right to the edge. the feeling of your body reacting to him sent his eyes rolling back in his skull. 
“charles, fuck, i’m so close.” you whimpered. he was in ecstasy. 
“yeah? you gonna cum for me, mon ange? hmm?” he managed to get his words out, noting how exhausted, how desperate he sounded. 
charles didn’t get a verbal response from you, only a broken, earth shattering moan that set his entire body on fire. you let yourself go, falling to pieces in his arms and all he could do was watch, quickly meeting his own end. everything was white and hot and every single one of his nerve endings were wired all of the sudden, the hairs on his body standing on end. you shook in his arms, crying out his name one last time as you came back down to earth. 
charles pulled out of you, fucked out smile lazily creeping onto his face. the entirety of monaco chanting his name didn’t even come close to how good you made him feel. you really had meant it when you’d said you wanted to make him feel better. your eyes met and you looked at him shyly, a coy smile on your face that made him want to kiss you forever and ever.
you both stayed underneath the warm water a little while longer, gently washing each other as you relaxed. once you were both done, charles stepped out first, braving the cold air to hand you a fluffy white towel, smiling to himself as you wrapped yourself up in it. this was what he wanted. quiet moments with you that dulled out the background noise. he didn’t just want them in dark booths in clubs and in the back of taxis while pierre rambled to the driver, he wanted them all of the time. he craved this kind of intimacy with you, the domesticity of seeing you in a towel that he owned. 
once you’d both dried off, he found a t-shirt that you could wear, taking your worn dress and placing it with his laundry. he watched your absentmindedly towel dry your hair, the t-shirt hitting your mid thighs as you carded your fingers through the tangles. it was quiet in his bedroom, peaceful. he pulled the covers back on his bed, folding back the covers on the other side of the mattress too. your smile at the gesture told him that you’d stay, that you’d accept his silent offer and join him in the bed. you settled in comfortably beside him, head on his chest, his arm wrapped around you protectively, lovingly. a buzz from the bedside table caused you both to look over, quickly choosing to put your attention back on one another. 
you both ignored the name that lit up your phone, blissfully pretending like neither of you noticed. 
pierre would have to get through this solemn night without you. 
-
taglist
@boysthatgovroomvroom @thegirlinthefandoms @welld0nebaku @mcmuppetangelika @wmaximoffz @starlightoctavia @japanesekel @stardustinggold @vinvantae @chaoticallypan @ashleyo1611 @ggaslyp1 @poofy-baby-unicorns @dr3lover @smiithys  @turningxstrange @lees0015 @rachstash @infinitebells @multilovebot @1missglum1 @fizzpopsnap101 @gaily19 @shinydragondelusion @alexk2002 @icecoldtires @mysticalnightenthusiast @thatchickwiththecamera @oyesmendes @f-1-fan
long story short, the taglist got a bit broken and now looks like this lol. hmu if you wanna be added or removed <33
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velvetwyrme · 5 months
Note
Font anon again! Thanks for indulging me. Yes it is the fic where SF!Papyrus is Palatino. It’s one of my favs. I agree with Serif as a last name because it’s funny.
I’m going mostly off vibes. You completely nailed what I was going for with UF! Papyrus (you are definitely the right person to brainstorm with and have great insight.) My original font search prioritized fonts people complained about, sticking to the theme of Comic Sans and Papyrus being “annoying fonts.” If you can think of any other ones I’m down to hear them.
Here is my list of names:
Courier
Helvetica
Trajan
Bradley Hand
Gentona, Avenir
Calibri
Verveine
Corsiva
Frutiger
Bodoni
Vivaldi
Zapfino
Rockwell
Amadeus
Clarendon
Arvo
Avenir
Casion
Cooper
Didot
Carrington
Anviers
Fontin
Fertigo
Harrington
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*waves hand at you* nOOOOO WORRIESSS and thank you for the clarification ;D!! I'm always here for indulgence owu!! And thank you! I'm glad you like my take on things haha! (ANNOYING FONTS LETS GO!!!!)
This is a fantastic list :o!! I pulled up all the fonts in your list in another window for maximum ponderance lol.
I stuck my thoughts under the cut because as usual it got long (and for some of them I'm spitballing more than anything) but hopefully it's of some help ^^!
Swap!Papyrus: Hands down (haha), he suits Bradley Hand visually- the font is like Papyrus (font) but more loose and scribbled- it has more curves and thus has a more laidback kind of vibe, which is why I think it'd suit him... but also I'm losing my mind at the idea of calling him Bradley (derogatory) (/lh).
(I'm also biased though. I used to use this font for writing when I was younger LMAO. You know how people say to write with Comic Sans? I did that with Bradley Hand.)
Swap!Sans: I reckon he'd fit Cooper.
Round, bold, a little bit 'childish' when compared to other fonts, but infinitely more put together than Comic Sans. It also makes me think about comics like Archie or Garfield, which used similar rounded fonts for their titles! Cooper (font) feels so... cartoony to me, y'know? Also it makes me think of Sly Cooper just namewise lmaooooo
Underfell!Sans: Ok. OK. Listen I don't think this font suits him BUT!!! Fontin would be REALLY FUNNY just purely because I think he'd have the time of his life making jokes about "Fonting". Like: "ey! i'm fontin' here!" type of jokes which would get old so so so quickly. Do you see my vision.
If Carrington was less... curly-cursive I'd say it'd suit him purely for the potential visual association with like. the typeface you might see at a stereotypical tattoo parlour or something. IDK it makes me think about tattoos and motorcycles.
SAYING ALL THAT THOUGH: I think he could suit Rockwell! It makes me think of titles and bold headers, also cowboy westerns and Very Masculine and Cool products lol. Except... Rockwell is usually used with Uppercase, Title case or Sentence case. Purely lowercase Rockwell feels inherently cursed to me. (Like truly, what are you doing if you're using Rockwell in lowercase. That's committing a violence.)
Swapfell!Papyrus: Weirdly enough, I reckon I could see him with Corsiva or Fertigo? (Which... looks strikingly similar to Fontin. Huh!)
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(Fertigo on the LEFT, Fontin on the RIGHT)
IMO, Fertigo feels more laidback due to the curling tips (which still come to sharp points). The way that the ends of "strokes" get flicked gives it a sort of lazier vibe.
BUT the font choice here also depends on your interpretation of SF!Pap!!
If you want to have a font that's underrated and everywhere?? GO Calibri. It's used as the default font for Microsoft, and is designed to be very easy to read. This is particularly befitting of the interpretations of SF!Pap where he's well versed in computers/electronics and/or doing spywork. His presence is not actively noticed, but he's always there! Alternatively, if you wanted to name him after a serif'd font, similar to Calibri, one of the fonts from your list, Caslon, has a somewhat ubiquitous presence, and also feels a little rougher/crunchier than stuff like Calibri or Fertigo.
Other notes:
I know you already decided on a name for him, but Trajan is also a really good alternative option for UF!Papyrus imo. Similar Roman-Commander vibes except even more explicit LMAO. Plus, it's a solely uppercase font, which is even more fitting.
Didot... if you swap the 'i' for a 'd' and vice versa, you get 'idiot' which is simply ripe for the teasing, but I don't think it fits any of the skeletons lol.
I would have suggested Arial as an option due to it's former prevalence, but honestly that name (+Verdana) have like… cemented themselves in my brain as 'fan-made skeleton' fonts ajbhjsmhjmdh (no shade whatsoever to anyone who uses them ofc, but MAN are they used a LOT.)
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dappledpaintbrush · 4 months
Note
Are you the one who wrote 'A Jester's Lament'?
What inspired you to write it? (41 chapters!)
Oh no no no, I’d HATE to be that weirdo who wrote 400 pages worth of mario fanfiction! haughty laughter is then interrupted by 500 drawings of Lament Dimentio falling out of my pocket
Tbh what inspired me was. Myself? Weirdly enough? I mean of course SPM being my biggest interest was absolutely part of the reason why it’s so long and why I wrote it to begin with. But what specifically sparked the story of AJL was the fact there was an extremely specific type of Dimentio redemption story I was looking for. Of course, I’m not saying AJL is the first of its kind or something because it most definitely is not lmao😭😭 But there were just some things I preferred in an AU that tries to redeem Dimentio, and after searching for a while for, again, that extremely specific story, I thought, “DUDE JUST MAKE IT YOURSELF💀💀💀💀” and so I did. And a lot of people just ???? happened to like it??? :
Even though story length was one of my specific wants, I highly doubt I could’ve completed 41 chapters without the immense support I received. I genuinely cannot thank you guys enough. Seriously, if you like a fic, I highly highly reccomend commenting. You have no idea how much that means to writers 🤍
I’m putting this under a read more so I don’t clog people’s feed, but if anybody’s curious, some of my specific wants were:
- Length. I needed this fic to be almost unbearably long. I needed people to say GODDD DAAMMMNN when they looked at the word count.
- Dimentio somehow getting more unredeemable before he got redeemed (idk if I fully accomplished that, but I tried) (it’s hard to get worse than the complete annihilation of life) (I just tried not to purposefully write him in a likable way early on in the story)
- Dimentio dying the same amount of times he killed Luigi in the game
- Dimentio in general getting shit absolutely rocked
- Luigi not being a doormat, ESPECIALLY SINCE DIMENTIO ABUSED HIM
- DIMENTIO. BEING. IN. CHARACTER. THIS IS NOT JUST SOME SILLY GOOFY CLOWN!!! HE IS EVIL!!! HE TRIED TO KILL EVERY SINGLE ENTITY THAT HAS EVER EXISTED, DEAD AND ALIVE. HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE TERRIFYING AND SCARY!!! yes he’s naturally charming, write him as such, BUT NEVER FORGET THE THREAT HE IS!!!!
- Dimentio having a backstory that’s emo enough to explain the person he became but not emo enough to be his main source of redemption via pity if that makes sense. I think I achieved this? But of course that’s subjective, and looking back there were better ways to go about it. Basically what I tried to do is give him a good childhood with loving parents- minus the “accident” of course- and have Dimentio himself clarify in Chapter 15:
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Basically: the loss of his family and the shit he went through definitely played a role. However, instead of a Blumiere-like “My loved one(s) died, now all worlds are without meaning and deserve to be destroyed,” Dimentio’s grief triggered a very deadly greed that did not revolve around the ones he lost. Blumiere’s motivation for destruction, including himself, was purely the loss of Timpani. Dimentio’s motivation for destruction, excluding himself, was, well, himself. For once, Dimentio wanted to earn, not lose. Making Dimentio have an understandable backstory but be “less sympathetic” than his counterpart, Blumiere, was important to me during the creation of AJL. But this gets extremely complicated because something like hmm uh idk erm MASS MURDER is impossible to truly make sympathetic. Regardless of intention, Dimentio and Blumiere did the exact same thing. Regardless of intention, Dimentio and Blumiere were both selfish. You can’t exactly destroy life itself in a non-selfish way. Both characters are equally unredeemable (or… equally redeemable, technically). Strip their actions down for their bones, and all you’ll see is two characters that tried to ERASE EXISTENCE. Sure, you can FEEL more sympathy for one than compared to the other, but feelings are subjective. Facts are objective. And the fact is, Dimentio and Blumiere attempted mass murder. You see why this is difficult to explain and even more difficult to write? I have a headache. God speed everybody
- More shit I’m probably forgetting
- Picture of a cat I found
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playthelaughtrack · 1 year
Text
A Rabbit and a Mouse Walk Onto a Movie Set...
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Updates and Announcements.
Hey y'all! I've been writing off and on for this fic, and wanted to drop a bit of behind-the-scenes information.
First off, as I am both a student and a working actor, I write for this fic in between classes, rehearsals, and auditions. Thank you all for your patience thus far!
Second, this fic will be posted here and on my AO3 account, playthelaughtrack. New chapters will appear on AO3 before they are uploaded here!
And finally, I've rewritten this first chapter so many times, amd I think I've finally latched onto a start I like. That being said, if you'd like to read a non-canon, previous part of the first chapter, it will be under the cut below! I felt like it was a bit too bland of an intro for the silly tone I wanted to set, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. I hope you enjoy this little crumb while I desperately try and finish this thing lmao
______________________________
It's almost comforting, in a way to be as exhausted as you currently were. After all, less sleep meant more work was done, more hours well spent! Or, at least, that's what you liked to tell yourself. Maybe it was for your own conscience, to convince yourself that not only was horribly messing up your sleep schedule a normal thing, but also was what made you so successful.
That, or you were too tired to rationalize anything better. Probably a mixture of both.
As writers stumbled into the room, you could tell they felt the same way— eyebags, sleepy yawns, and cups of various caffeinated drinks were donned by every person present. That was the life of a working creative.
As soon as everyone is settled, you stand up from your chair at the end of the table. The room falls into a hush.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming in this morning," You begin, stepping towards the whiteboard hanging on the back wall. "I know this film's had more than a few rough spots, but we're going to pull through. You all need to be working double time— yeah, yeah, I know. Whoever groaned in the back, I felt that. But it's gotta be done! With the arrival of Bugs and Mickey—"
WIth that, you pin a piece of paper onto the board from the company CEO, ordering that the film would feature multiple cameos from big name toon stars to generate more income at the box office. The room erupts into chaos. The Bugs Bunny and the Mickey Mouse?
It wasn't uncommon, per say, to hear those two names in the same breath. The pair of faces from rival cartoon studios were constantly the main topics of cartoon critics everywhere, endlessly debating over who had the best ratings, characters, gags, merchandising… you couldn't help but wonder how the two actors personally felt about this silent competition.
A part of you felt weirdly sentimental about it. Clawing your way to the top, stepping on so many toes to get where you were, working long days and nights was just the way of life for a famous director, like yourself, to make it anywhere.
It wasn’t uncommon to antagonize other directors, writers, anyone whenever they got a little too good. But in a sense, it was almost admirable. The dedication put into every aspect of creating was enough to wear even the most determined souls down. You shake your head to rid yourself of the thought… There was business to discuss.
No use in wasting time to romanticize it.
_
You awoke the next morning to the usual sounds of falling anvils and fire alarms, taking a good look around your on-studio home— you wouldn’t consider yourself messy, but there was a good amount of takeout boxes in your trash bin accented wonderfully with stray bits of clothes scattered about. Home decor at it’s finest, really.
______________________________
Thank you for everyone who has stayed around for so long! Love you all. <33
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amskvaris · 5 months
Text
at long last! ilmaki time! in thought form! ft. taki's role/backstory! in multiple reblogs!
-
this is what i put on facebook as an intro:
she's still under construction but i can say she is generally a weirdo. seems airheaded and bubbly at first. has fun with basically everything. probably talks to herself. wanders everywhere. weirdly tanky (i don't like playing glass cannons.) her voice is basically like nyanners but with more rambling and family-friendly dialogue (sorry lol)
and impractical backstory is basically she was cooped up in a room/house by parents forever growing up (not sure on circumstances yet) and had to entertain herself and learn about halpha through reading and seeing pictures. this required bypassing whatever family security systems were on her mag. required getting into records without being caught. she literally learned hacking lol.
-
(a friend offering ideas after that:) Hmmm, well, she hacked, stole a lot of data, got herself into trouble, so who rescues her? Eh... maybe... that one robot dude. He's white.
And she's like, introduced to the whole deal, and while they are PRETTY MAD, they are also impressed and offer her a job in tech reconnisance.
Scouting out machines of the past and trying to get them to work so she can take their delicious data. You know where there are a bunch of those? Kvaris.
(me:) validation of the century: hacking the heck out of the machines in lost central and getting all of laisas's everything out of the big ol computer.
wait that's actually really special isn't it. helping access all kinds of their grandpa's stuff. records no one would've noticed even existed because they were all so busy with the important info they'd miss all the little things about a person one can learn from the smallest details. he was only with them for a short time, he said in that note, so. i think all the random details would be welcome.
taki wouldn't know what their personal things mean necessarily (she didnt know him besides reading old studies etc) but... something like 'people back then used this font for personal observations instead of the usual note taking.' that's a good trivia thing to know while reading a bunch of records. (she is a fountain of seemingly useless details from all the things she read. it pays off.)
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as for how that happened:
so when ilma was saved and lost central becomes a thing to investigate. the supercomputer is on. so there's a lot to go through. and we'll say there's some info that wasn't immediately accessible or locked or encrypted or something too.
so. maybe crawford says he'll send "someone from the tech recon team" (or w/e) because they can help get access to stuff! and sort out whats going on! etc!
(and with the quintuplets having their great experiences w/ aina+manon+player right before this, sending someone their age would be a good way to start overall collaboration too, right?)
... more on next reblog bc tumblr is starting to disagree lmao.
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icharchivist · 2 years
Note
In reference to the opinions re-blog, can you share one such opinion for GBF? Or just any fandom you have a tickle for.
HELPPP
I guess it's my heated "obviously it doesn't matter but i'm heated about it" opinions about gbf are like
... under cut because eventually i got heated (at least you can be sure i am serious about those "stupid things that gets me heated despite knowing it's stupid" lmao)
-GBVS only people who constantly ignores the mobage or act like it doesn't exist, even if it's because they genuinely don't know, gets on my nerves. Similarly recent people who went "i can't wait for relink because i don't want to touch the mobage" please don't. This also extends to people who spams my recommended with "lol granblue sucks it doesn't even have rollbacks" i wish you a very "never get rollbacks if you don't get out from my lawn."
-Seeds of Redemption wasn't THAT BAD everyone is just mean. It wasn't even bad and the vitriol against it when it came out has always puzzled me. Also lowkey holding Nehan and Mugen in my arms like "if you only bitched about SoR don't look at them" which is the pettiest i can get.
-Also the argument against SoR that Seofon is "too manipulative and heartless in it" gets on my nerve like, i've never read him as being heartless, and, "too manipulative"?? my dude how long ago is the last time you read the Eternal recruitment quest, this is Seofon alright. Are you woobifying him.
-Enyo is fine, let a girl be murderous once in a while. this one is weirdly petty bc i've first heard of Enyo when she joined the pool and i was seeing people get VERY upset in gbf en's mentions to the point of insulting them, and i was so confused about it. Then i could gather, from also friends who disliked her, that it was because "she was mean and cruel and wants to kill us and also she was awfully mean to Athena" and i was just "..... and? We all want to fuck Belial here what's the problem?" and i've been an Enyo apologist ever since. well. "apologist" in the sense "let a girl have fun even if this fun is murder, you don't complain when Belial does the same". So i'm weirdly defensive of Enyo despite the fact otherwise i couldn't care less because i do find Athena a bit boring DLKJFDKLF
-It's fine that an event isn't exploring more about the angels. Really. It's fine. If you only come back when there's angels content and ignore everything else perhaps it's a you problem when you get upset the angels content isn't that good
-Bitching every Autumn about the 4kishi getting an event is getting old, "others saga deserves spotlight!!" yeah but it's the oldest running saga leave them be it's just a tradition at this point
That's the things that comes to my mind at least, which is just that basically i am pretty chill until i start to see bad takes too much that i start to be defensive out of things i wouldn't have defended out of pure spite.
But i also recognize those are pretty inconsequential
(very different from getting angry about what i sometimes see about Ladiva or Cags which really put me in a rightful anger that i don't think is THAT inconsequential, tho that does goes back to my point 1) of i really wish gbvs only people to stop discussing whenever Ladiva and Cags are good or bad rep when they then get to answer to clarification by "oh my bad i don't know the game" then don't discuss about whenever they're good or not. I'm specifically vaguing someone who said Cags was bad rep because she was evil which had mobage fans going hey what the fuck you on.)
tho on "inconsequential topics that makes me heated regardless" in any fandom tends to be linked to any conversation about redemption arcs (but ESPECIALLY in slice of life stories) and conversation about true siblings dynamic. On the later i know it's because i have perhaps more serious biases, but you can be sure that generally if i see a post about whenever or not a chara deserves a redemption arc or if we should "accept" their redemption, or whenever i see posts about how "those siblings are unrealistic because they love each other" or "the big sibling doesn't behave like a big sibling" i want to throw tables at people's face and i think we should admire my incredible self control for generally just taking it quietly.
But like those people are generally joking around when they talk about those things so i don't want to be a killjoy either but also i'm just "kill kill maim kill" in my head when those happen. Duality of man ect.
Redemption talks generally annoys the hell out of me because framing an entire character on whenever the apology is acceptable with the situation bores the hell out of me. Genuinely the most boring way to approach a character ever. Like i could be saying something more in depth about how it's reductive of the narrative and frame the entire value of getting better on the person hurt and the apology rather than taking in the personal journey of someone who has to grow with the guilt of their actions, but, i'll just be brief and say i find the way people talk about it boring as hell. (which by the way i will NEVER forgive Zuko from atla for being the only basis of “acceptable redemption arc” for people out there. His arc was great but he’s not the only arc possible and everytime you bring him up as being the only valid redemption arc and directly compare one saying it’s bad in comparaison i hate Zuko a little bit more everyday. Which fucking sucks because i started off loving Zuko, people are just annoying.)
In another fandom i was in (1, 2, 3 moment before the people who still follow me from the fandom goes "i fucking knew Icha would bring it up") one of my fav character was also the most controversial one because he kidnapped MC in a fits of misdirected revenge against someone he cared about but had a misunderstanding with that made him think he ruined his life, so he basically blackmailed him until he realized he was hurting the only person he had left to care about and is now having to struggle with the guilt of his actions while being forcefully adopted in the found family of the person he kidnapped, to whom he ends up becoming extremely soft with despite this guilt toward what he had done to them when he lashed out from trauma, despite trying to distance himself from them because of his guilt.
And so, i love this character to bits, but going into his tags was impossible because of the fact people refuse to accept that he's trying to be better, and constantly throws back his crimes to his face and all of that, and every single time i freeze like "dude, he's done the absolute bare minimum to be a temporary antagonist, it could have been worse. in gbf where i'm from, there's a character who did all of that AND started an apocalypse AND tortured people AND tried to torture your bestie and he's the most popular character of the franchise". Because i dare you, nonny, to reread what i just wrote about my fav from this franchise and not see the exact same way to describe Sandalphon especially in the first wmtsb event.
I was throwing fits WEEKLY about how "oh you guys would not survive ONE MINUTE in gbf.". Now for the sake of "i don't like being angry", at least i don't pay it any mind anymore (my amazing trap cards of "i'm never going in the tags" and "i only seek contents from Japanese fanartists because at least if they have bad takes i can't read them unless i force myself to"), but all of this to say this is probably the last straw of a chara i kept hearing "he didn't even have a proper redemption arc" that annoyed me over the edge. he didn't have one TO YOU. To me tho i'm kissing him on the mouth.
MOVING ON, Genuinely tho i hold gbf in such high esteem for this specific reason, i was fucking tired of hearing the most boring arguments ever to shit on a character because they decide their redemption is not good enough (bc they're not wallowing in misery enough i guess?), that it made me appreciate how much nobody gives a shit about that in the gbf fandom. We stan so many murderers and we just say it's sexy and we move on and i find it soooo sexy.
For siblings stuff in general i'm just genuinely pissed off by the general idea that there is a "one shoe fits it all" of sibling dynamics and especially when it bashes others ones in media. On this one it's a bit more personal because i have such a weird relationship with my siblings that everytime i see those takes i just get angry. It can be argued that therefore it's not completely 'inconsequential" but sometimes i just get angry for no reasons too about how "wow you guys are sO boring of not being able to make JOKES over anything else than your comfort zone of this bubble of normalicy you impose on everyone, do you.". Like man talk about the death of creativity because you refuse to accept something doesn't follow the Only Trope You Ever Considered Realistic To You And No One Else.
Once again i never really saw it in gbf due to the fact we don't specifically have major siblings pair in focus in stories? like there's a few and sometimes they fall more into the bickering side anyway but people barely talk about them so i'm at peace. But you can be sure this would end up firing me up.
and on general topics i just don't care for woobification of characters who did commit crimes. I feel like it's an overcompensation because when people say some characters don't deserve redemption they always highlight the bad things they've done, and so, people, instead of realizing it means your outline for redemption is bad and you should feel bad, they interpret it as "then we have to prove the bad things weren't so bad". And no!!! the bad things were bad!!! regardless of the reasons reframe them but don't change that fact. It doesn't make them less good of characters or less worthy of redemption. That's what happened recently over a discussion over Seox on my blog where i was getting heated on the idea of saying he did nothing wrong. What a waste of a good character to say he did nothing wrong just because you can recognize that the circumstances were out of his control. Those aren't mutually exclusive. You can still do bad things and still fundamentally deserves to grow from it, and you can be pushed into making those bad things for good reasons but that doesn't make them less bad, it just means you have a better change to heal from it.
Basically i love fucksup characters who did so much wrongs and intends to do better, and the bigger the wrong the more involved i am, so genuinely the two takes of either they're unredeemable or they are a sweet angel that did nothing wrong don't sit right with me at all.
so this is a good extensive list of stuff that gets easily on my nerves on fandom spaces that, technically, doesn't matter, but is it going to stop me from having it ruining my day? who knows!
So i did get heated and i want to formally apologize if there's any of those points that rings toward anyone, as in, at the end of the day, people have fun in their own way and it's not my intention to police how anyone does it. I'm perfectly aware those are stupid enough like that, so as long as it's not like, something that's thrown in my askbox or something, you do you.
But since you asked..... salutes.
Here you go!
9 notes · View notes
anyoneseenadam · 3 years
Text
Healing
pairing: Azriel x reader (acotar)
warnings: TW - sexual assault, rape, objectification and implications of abuse, smut, consensual sex, azriel is a sweetie and rhys is a good bestie
a/n: first of all PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS!!! i’m really proud of this fic but I don’t want to trigger or upset anyone, that being said it isn’t too graphic but still. Anyway I hope u enjoy, this took me three days lmao <333
based on: this and this
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You had your first less than savoury encounter with men when you had barely turned nine. Your body still hadn’t finished forming, but you were growing, and your body was gaining some semblance of shape as you did. It wasn’t much – just a whistle from across the street – but for a second your heart seized up with fear, and in the next you almost felt giddy. A man thought you were beautiful.
You felt like a princess that day – felt the way you had when the boy from your class had kissed your cheek, still too young to process the intentions behind that single whistle. But you didn’t care – someone wanted you.
When you got your first period at twelve – even more changed. Your body felt new, and you didn’t feel comfortable in the changes. Your old clothes didn’t fit and now your mother forced you into tighter corsets for those long, long dinners you had to attend. Your parents were respected Fae in the Hewn City – nobles who liked to drink and smoke and throw extravagant balls. And with your new body you could no longer simply hide in the corner or climb through secret passages with your friends – muddying your dresses.
Now you had to smile when men hugged you slightly too long, laugh when they commented on how much you had grown up, sit pretty and pristine with an old mans hand loitering to close to your rear for hours as you watched your parents drink away their troubles.
By the time you were fifteen you were used to the constant attention, your beauty not uncommon where you lived but still doted on often. Unaware of their desire for your youth, your naivety. The women never offering a helping hand but instead glaring down high skewed noses as their husbands slurred into your ears – still in shock that a pretty, young thing like you was all alone at this party.
When you were sixteen you decided to change that – kissing an alright looking boy at a party and telling him exactly what he wanted to hear so he would kiss you back. He stayed when you didn’t protest as he pulled you to the bathroom and pushed you to your knees. And for this small request, the greasy hands on your body at balls and dinners or any other social gathering halved – now only the truly self-righteous felt they could touch you still.
The only problem was you truly did love the boy you had chosen. He had faults yes, but he was kind – he brought you flowers and kissed your cheek. But he also spoke over you, forced you into silence and took what he wanted. And he always wanted the same thing.
If anything it was his father’s fault. The military commander never leaving room for debate when he argues with his wife – and sons only become what they see in their fathers.
Your father had left with a younger woman a few months after your fourteenth birthday, and you hadn’t seen him since – only heard stories of him galivanting around the autumn court from your classmates. You could see the distaste your mum held you in as she realised she would have to stick around to look after you, not yet old enough to be married. Then Amarantha had taken hold of the country and that possibility had been thrown out the window anyway.
Weirdly enough not that much changed in your life when she took power, the only major difference was that now you had to block out screams before going to sleep and even they had become like white noise. You still drank with your friends on Friday nights, went out with your boyfriend on Saturdays and slept the pain away on Sundays. Your weekdays consisted of school, dinners, balls and whatever more your mother could throw together to appease the high queen.
That and the high lord of the night court had started making appearances at the events your mother threw. He was a cruel man standing so proudly at the queen’s side – but you saw something flickering in his eyes whenever people spoke, complimenting his power and rule. You saw what you felt as you laughed at compliments and lingering touches – you saw pain, but more importantly you saw anger. And right now you could use anger.
During one ball you watched him leave, taking an odd route – not the one that would help him escape the loud music but instead a long winding corridor leading to a series of smaller rooms. Without thought you peeled away from your company, muttering excuses and went after him – grabbing a bottle of wine as you did.
You found him reclining in an empty room and knocked on the door gently. He cracked open an eye – slow like a cat – and beckoned you in. You moved to perch next to him, leaning back with a straight back and letting your head loll slightly as you took a swig of the dark red wine, before passing him the bottle.
“You looked like you could use a drink,” you smiled, eyes focused on his sharp jaw as he held the bottle to his mouth with a laugh.
“One way of putting it,” he smiled. The two of you sat in silence for several minutes as you took in his beauty, his looks plus mannerisms all made him seem like a wild cat - a panther trapped underground.
“Why are you here?” he finally asked, and you raised a hand to trace that sharp jaw. But instead of devouring you as any lesser man would’ve, he brushed your hand away and held it tightly in his larger one. “That’s not gonna happen, you’re what sixteen?”
“Almost seventeen,” you said, cheekily. He laughed but shook his head, squeezing your hand before releasing it.
“You’re still a child,” he said matter-of-factly, and you scoffed, stealing your wine back to drink again.
“Yeah well that’s usually a selling point,” your voice was sad, but you didn’t dare let your eyes stray from his – refusing to show fear, “And you’re so nice to me, I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
He laughed as you pouted, “You practice this in the mirror or something?”
“Usually works in three seconds,” you confess, and he whistles under his breath, “Men are rather easy to manipulate when they’ve been trying to get into your skirts since your first bleed.”
“And you wonder why I’m not about to take advantage of you,” he laughed, and you smiled – a real smile, or real enough. “Plus I don’t think your little boyfriend would be pleased.”
“Eh, he’s never pleased - I don’t think this could make him worse.” Rhysand took the wine back and frowned.
“Does he hurt you?” his voice was sincere but the laugh you let out was not.
“Don’t all men,” he swore, and you laughed again, “Yet you foil my plan to make you fall in love with me and whisk me away to the moon.”
He laughed, but his eyes darkened with deep sadness you were sure you would never understand, “I think we both no that even I could not do that, but I might be able to crush your fly.”
“Little boyfriend? Fly? You really don’t like him do you?” you laughed, head lighter already.
“I don’t like any man who thinks they can hurt women,” he said, frowning when he realised through your passing back and forth there was no wine left.
“Shit that took us like five minutes,” you complained, and he laughed, waving his hand lightly as several more bottles appeared before you – you grinned as you grabbed another.
“So any friends with weaker moral backbones that I could marry?” you asked with a laugh, and he smiled at you.
“I’m sure I could find someone,” he leaned back again. You smiled – finally happy that one night might pass in the company of a decent man.
Soon, you’d find it would be more than one night, a close friendship quickly blossoming between you and the high lord. All your friends were convinced you were sleeping together but true to his word he didn’t touch you, and by the time you surpassed the age of eighteen you didn’t want him to. But that didn’t stop other men.
After a particularly bad argument with your boyfriend that had left you with a handprint on your left cheek you had broken up with him – sending away his apologies and flowers, smart enough to see he didn’t hold the mental capacity to change.
Plus you were beautiful and young, you could certainly do better. And you soon did – rich men who liked to buy you jewellery, and fine clothes, men who enjoyed literature and art and spending time with you.
And at the start of each relationship, for a few blissful seconds you would believe in their pure intentions. But then a hand would drift from your lower back to your ass, or the gentle kiss that followed a necklace would shift from your mouth to your breasts. Not one of them wanted to wait until you were comfortable, so you made yourself comfortable.
You pictured pretty, strong men were holding you down and making you feel something, slipping your own hand between your legs and they penetrated you to try and replicate what you were sure a lover’s touch must feel like. And as always – after the first time- they stopped asking for permission, you were their toy, so you no longer had choice over that part of yourself.
But through nice guys and bad boys, for fifty years you had Rhysand who was a friend – who treated you with respect and finally let you talk, let you breathe.
In the end he was the one who found you, in the backroom of a party – drunk and undressed. You were weeping, curled in a ball with your attackers’ seed dripping out of you, bruises decorating your bare skin. When he turned you over with his comforting hands he found your nose dripping red and the vibrant lipstick you wore smudged.
He helped you sit up and redress, took you home and stood outside the bathroom while you scrubbed yourself clean in scalding water – still unsteady on your feet. You changed into a nightgown silently and neither of you said a word when you crawled into bed next to each other, crying in your best friends’ arms as he tried to console you.
When you woke up, he was gone with just a scribbled message about Amarantha and the name of a healer he trusted. But you just placed it back down, turning onto your back and staring at the ceiling as hot tears ran into your hairline.
You barely ate anything for the days following your assault – fighting with your mother more when you rarely saw her and subsequently breaking it off with your current boyfriend. You had thrown his hands off you when he tried to touch you and the screaming match that followed ended your relationship.
Your bond with Rhysand grew only closer however as you spent nights drinking in candlelight, talking about anything and everything until you were sure he knew every inch of your soul and you his.
“You know what I’m going to do as soon as she’s gone,” you whispered one night as you stared at the twinkling lights you had hung on your bedroom roof to imitate stars.
“What?” Rhys had asked, never letting his eyes leave the ‘stars’ which he had laughed at and then proceeded to rearrange to make them more accurate. To which you threw a pillow at his head.
“Find a hill, or a pier, or a large pit or anything and scream into it until my throat bleeds.” You said and he laughed, the bed beneath you rumbling.
“Consider me on board.” He joked as you sat up to perch at your vanity – smudging the sharp eyeliner you wore with a small brush and applying some red lipstick.
“Wanna go out?” you asked him, and he sat up to with a small, sad smile.
“Can’t.” you understood his implication and frowned.
“I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t gutted me yet,” you tried to lighten the mood, but his face darkened slightly when he joked back.
“Oh she wants to, I’m telling her any information you give me about citizens, so she doesn’t.” He said, ruffling your hair as he stood to leave.
“That’s fair, I’ll keep an ear out,” you smiled, squeezing his hand gently before he left.
Things changed when Feyre Archeron appeared, you saw the way your friend watched her and realised you might be competing for his attention soon, but you were happy for him. Until he brought her to that first party – drugged and barely dressed. You felt the bile rise in your throat as you pushed down memories of yourself in such a similar position, and while you knew he would never hurt her – he was still a man. And you were foolish to believe for all those years that he was a man who would realise this was wrong.
Making polite excuses you left the party, picking up the tails of your dress as you all but raced home – ditching the dress and closing the blinds tightly as you made yourself food in your underwear. The sick feeling in your throat spreading through your chest and stomach as you ate, abandoning your meal halfway for a book and large sweater. And when he knocked on your door that night, desperate to tell you all about her – all about the human girl who he was sure could be his mate, you pretended to be asleep.
You barely spoke to him the whole time she was there, unable to look him in the eyes when she was so clearly out of it – and the feeling only grew when the next morning she would have all eyes on her. You understood that feeling. You instead spent parties flirting with Tarquin, the young high lord who was only a few years your senior or warding off marriage invitations with laughs and carefully placed words.
Rhys would sometimes catch your eyes – furrowing his eyebrows at you when you avoided his gaze, the sick feeling never really leaving. But it wasn’t until you watched Tamlin slay Amarantha with a smile that he tried to speak to you again. Feyre was Fae and leaving with her betrothed and Rhysand had just confirmed they were mates – and never had he needed his best friend quiet like he did now.
You were sitting when he found you, head in your palms and blood dusting the skirts of your dress. You had been sitting near Amarantha when it happened. You looked up when he neared, smiling sadly as he sat next to you.
“Want to go home?” he asked you quietly and you scoffed, standing, and moving to leave quickly. He followed after you, grabbing your arm as you wrenched it out of his grip with more ferocity than he had ever seen from you.  
“Don’t touch me,” he held his hands up, backing away to give you space as you got your breathing under control.
“What did I do?” he asked – smart enough to not presume anything.
“How could you think it was okay, after what happened?” your voice was quiet again, and so sad.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he implored, stepping slightly closer again. You raised your eyes to meet his and he understood, the darkness you carried in your eyes shining through – the memories that resurfaced in those dark moments. “I’m sorry, let me explain please.”
You let him hold your arm softly as he winnowed the two of you to your house where you sat down heavy and tired.
“I did it because she needed out of that cell, but I saw what they did to you and you’re a fae woman, she’s… she was human. So it meant that no one else would touch her.” He tried to explain, “And she wouldn’t want to remember.”
“That’s a horrible thing to do Rhys.” You stated and he hung his head low, “How in anyway was that helping her, to get her out you could’ve snuck her here or just take her to a ball and let her dress normally.”
“I’m sorry, I just knew this would’ve been the safest option,” he grabbed your hand again and squeezed it like he did all those years ago, “It’s over, we can go home.”
“I am home,” you laughed bitterly, gesturing to your house.
“No, you’re coming out of this city – we’re putting it behind us.” He stood and held out a hand.
“I know you’re trying to be dramatic and all, but I have to pack – and think.” You said and he laughed.
“Take your time,” he said, sitting back to wait for you, “And I know it might take you a while to forgive me, but I’ll wait.”
You had left soon after, as he revealed his city to you. Winnowing to a house where two beautiful women stood at the door, strong winged men appearing next to them almost instantly – all sharing the same tear-eyed look. Well, all asides from a short, dark-haired woman who simply smiled.
The men you presumed were Azriel and Cassian barrelled towards Rhysand, attacking him in the most violent hug you had ever witnessed. Mor followed soon after and Amren simply offered him a curt nod, to which he bowed slightly with a cheeky smile.
Cassian turned to look at you and everyone followed suit, you straightened up – not wanting to cower under their gazes.
“And this, this is (y/n).” Rhysand said, placing a hand on your elbow, “She’s the only reason I survived under the mountain.”
You smiled at him, annoyed still – but you still held so much love for him in your heart. You looked away when Cassian approached and wrapped you in a tight hug, lifting you off the ground slightly.
When he released you he looked you dead in the eye, “I am forever in your service.”
“Cassian let go of the poor girl,” Mor exclaimed behind him, and you giggled, looking to Rhys for support.
“Forgot to tell you he’s a hugger,” he shrugged, and you shoved his shoulder.
“Oh did you!”  you laughed.
“Gotta get used to it, you’re part of the team now,” Cassian slung an arm around your shoulder as he guided you inside, “which means lots of hugs and long talks about emotions.”
“Don’t steal my best friend Cassian,” Rhys jabbed at his brother as you all moved to sit inside around a long table.
“He already had I’m afraid, can’t reverse love like ours,” you joined in, patting Cassian’s hand as he punched the air in victory, Rhysand feigning pain as he dramatically collapsed into his chair – a hand over his heart.
When you were finally seated you caught Azriel’s gaze, his eyes locked on you – having watched you interact with his family for less than five minutes and already completely enamoured. You smiled softly when you caught his gaze and he grinned at you, no words passing.
Later that evening – after too many drinks, you found yourself alone on a balcony you found, drinking in the fresh air greedily after all those years underground. You didn’t realise he was there until he was next to you – silent on his feet, his shadows a cool chill passing over your shoulders.
You tilted your head to look at him, in awe of his beauty. Not even Rhysand had awed you as much as this man was, his beauty unparalleled by anyone you had met before. He turned his gaze down to you as well, fighting the urge to reach out and touch you as he watched you move with such elegant curiosity.
“We haven’t had the pleasure of being formally introduced,” you smiled, lifting your hand delicately, “I’m (y/n).”
He met your hand halfway, lifting it to his mouth with perfectly poised and trained grace. “Azriel,” his voice was deep, gruff – and sent chills through you quickly. But when he moved your hand from his mouth you held on, the sparks flowing through you telling you all you needed to know. He similarly made no move to let go.
“Are we? I don’t really know how any of this works,” you laughed nervously but he smiled so warmly and tugged you slightly closer to him with the hand you were still clutching.
“You’re my mate princess,” he said, voice rough from disuse. You smiled widely, eyes forming tears as your gaze never strayed from him – finally getting one person who would truly love you, not your body – but you. He tugged your hand gently and you followed him inside, smiling and love drunk.
“We should probably go to the house of wind,” his voice was quiet as you furrowed your eyebrows at him.
“Me and Cassian have to share a room here, the bed are singles.” You smiled and laughed – irrevocably happy.
“Yeah maybe not,” you said, and he held your hand softly as he walked you to the front door, passed his past out friends, Rhys cracking an eye open when you walked past him, and you turned when he tugged your skirt gently.
You okay? He asked in your mind, and you smiled at him.
I’m perfect, why? You replied as he closed his eyes again, clearly too tired to hold them open - Azriel moving to retrieve your coats.
Just don’t feel pressured into doing anything you’re not ready for, Azriel is understanding he won’t get angry. A sort of cold feeling settled on your shoulders when you realised why Azriel wanted that extra privacy.
Shit forgot I had to do that you joked but Rhysand felt the stress growing, however before he could reply Azriel was by your side again and you were waving him goodbye, your smile tight lipped.
Honestly, you trusted Rhysand when he said that Azriel would understand – but so far you had yet to meet a man who truly respected the boundaries you set, a man who would truly wait. Azriel met your eyes in silent questions before scooping you into his arms, flying high above the house as you squealed in his arms, clinging tightly to his neck, and shutting your eyes tightly as you soared above the vibrant city.
He felt you tense as you neared the house, swooping lower in order to land on the large balcony attached to his room. He placed you on shaky legs gently and looked down to smile at you again – heart so full of love and peace.
Not only was his brother returned to him in one piece, but along beside him came you. His mate. His mate.
You caught his gaze and gave him a tight-lipped smile, terrified for history to repeat itself. You wanted to talk to him and know him – you didn’t want him to learn to love your body instead of you. And you were truly afraid to be touched again, you hadn’t been with a man since you were raped – fear stopping you before they could get close and walls slamming up if they tried.
“Are you okay?” Azriel’s voice was dripping with concern – genuine concern, and the way he said it made tears well up in your eyes. His own instantly widened as he sensed the sadness and fear rolling of you in waves, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as you sobbed into his chest. “Oh sweetheart we don’t have to do anything, c’mon lets go sit down.”
He guided you through the glass doors and sat you down gently on the bed, holding you gently and coaxing you through your breakdown. Once your breathing had calmed slightly and you had pulled out of his embrace, wiping your tears harshly with the butt of your hand.
“I’m sorry,” you muttered quietly, terrified to anger your mate when you’ve only just found him.
“It’s okay darling, what’s wrong – did I do something? You’re not terrified of heights are you?” he asked, and you laughed softly, a smile growing on his face as his worries eased slightly.
“No, that was fun,” he grabbed your hand in his scarred ones and you gripped it tightly.
“Then what was it?” you looked into those beautiful, worried eyes and let out an exhale – bottom lip quivering.
“I just don’t think I can – I can’t do that tonight.” You whispered the words lowly, afraid of his reaction as you clung like a child to his hand.
“Hey, that’s okay – we don’t have to do anything until you’re ready,” he smiled, worries easing. You still wanted to be with him, just not in that way yet – and he could wait. He would wait a million years if you asked.
“Even if I’m not ready for a while?” You asked, and he held your face in his hands gently – looking into your tear-filled, defeated eyes.
“I would wait forever and then some – I have already waited so long to meet you, I’m sure I can last longer, especially if you’re next to me.” Your smile was so sad when you met his eyes.
“I’ve been told that before,” Azriel just pulled you closer to him with a cheeky grin.
“And were any of them your mate?”
“No,” you smiled at him again and he thought his heart was going to combust.
“Well then, I love to prove people wrong.” You buried your head into his chest as his arms came around you once more, “Would you like to sleep here, or would you like your own room?”
“Here is fine, I like the way you make me feel,” you said quietly, tugging on the bond experimentally. Azriel just smiled and tugged back.
“That works for me, I’ll get you a change of clothes.” He moved to stand but you stopped him – tugging on the dress shirt he wore.
“I want this,” you grinned cheekily up at him, and he laughed, but undid the buttons and pulled it off anyway – turning around to let you change in peace. When he turned back around you were looking up at him with wide eyes – looking impossibly cute in his shirt.
“It has holes in the back,” you complained, and he laughed, sitting down to tug off his trousers before sliding under the covers as you scrambled to lay in his arms.
“Well I do have wings,” he cemented his point by letting one drape over your shoulders as you sighed in content.
“Really, I hadn’t noticed,” you deadpanned quietly, burrowed deep under his arms and the covers. His chest rumbled with the silent laugh as he pressed a kiss into your hairline.
The next morning he awoke to you laying on his chest, tracing the scars on the backs of his hands with a delicately pointed finger. He stared in wonder, and you must have felt his gaze because you turned your head to meet his eyes, face still puffy from sleep. As you whispered to him that morning, your chin resting on his chest as you gazed up at him until he rose to get your morning drinks. Barely daring to leave for more than a few seconds. And when he returned he was so glad he did – welcoming the sight of you curled up under his sheets with a shy smile and tired eyes.
“Do we have to do anything today?” you asked as you sipped your drink slowly, Azriel’s’ arm tight and secure around your waist.
“Nope,” he said, delighted at the prospect, “I just want to be with you and my family.”
“Sounds heavenly.”
True to his word, for the next few weeks that past, you and Azriel didn’t progress past slow, occasional kisses and lingering touches. But before either of those he was always searching your eyes – asking permission. And you truly fell in love with him during those weeks.
He was caring and consistent – never promising anything he couldn’t bring. And he cared for you, he cared for you past your body and looks. He wanted to be with you for an eternity.
One night, while you lay together, speaking lowly and listening to the rain fall outside your room – a glass door cracked open, you decided you were ready. You pressed closer to him, your lips meeting his own in a kiss more passionate than you had previously shared.
He followed your lead with just as much passion, but when you crawled into his lap he pulled away slightly.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to rush you,” he asked quietly, hands coming to rest on your hips.
“I’m sure, I love you and I want to be with you.” You told him sincerely, “But I haven’t been with anyone in a few years so I’m a little out of practice.”
You giggled nervously but he furrowed his eyebrows, “But you told me about your boyfriends?”
“Yeah but I – stopped dating about five years ago.” You tried to explain quickly, old nerves being brought up, but Azriel pulled you closer and as always his touch calmed you.
“Can I ask why?” he watched you drop your head a little as you breathed slowly – determined to not let your fear rise, you would probably end up telling him anyway so you might as well get it over with.
“I was raped.” You stated and his grip on your hips tightened slightly as he swore.
“Darling, I’m so sorry,” he started but you stopped him with a sharp glaze.
“You don’t need to apologise, it happened and it’s over now.” He could practically feel you pull away, so he loosened his grip on your hips and instead brought his arms up to hold you against his chest.
“Who did it?” he asked, voice dark and dangerous. You muttered a name lowly – under your breath – and he pocketed in the darkest corners of his mind for later. His shadows itching to tear the man apart.
“Look (y/n), if you’re ready I am more than happy to oblige but I need to know you’re really ready, I will wait as long as you need.” You pulled away from his chest and kissed him gently.
“I’m ready, I trust you,” he smiled up at you from where you perched on his lap and you giggled and he flipped you over, laying between your legs with a feral grin.
He made you cum three times with his mouth and those beautiful, beautiful hands alone – more than you had ever experienced with a man and he hadn’t even received any pleasure yet. Except from the pleasure of watching his perfect mate fall apart on his sheets, over and over.
And when he lay over you, your legs pushed up and wrapped around his waist, and his forearms on either side of your head – he would later swear he had never felt more complete.
“I’m here with you remember, will be the whole time.” He assured you, voice soft as he lined himself up and you smiled.
“I love you so much,” you whispered, and he pushed in slowly, filling every part of you and pushing against every spot you didn’t know you had. You swore under your breath when he bottomed out, the slight pain quickly being reduced to please as he dropped his head into the crook of your neck.
“Fuck baby, you feel so good,” you felt shivers run through your body at his gruff voice and smiled, moaning when he began to move.
He pulled his head from where it hid in your neck and watched as you closed your eyes – head thrown back with a smile – and his hips bucked, desperately trying to control himself as he watched you arch your back.
“Shit Az, you’re so big,” you moaned loudly, unaware of the trance you had pulled your mate into.
“You’re so pretty,” he whispered with a harsh thrust, a hand coming to stroke down your face as you opened your eyes to meet his, “So perfect.”
You felt as if your heart was going to burst from the love that filled it as you reached up to kiss him softly – conveying every word, every thought, through that kiss. When you pulled away you were nearing your end, the sensations building in you without the need of a fantasy or your own hand.
You moaned his name, gripping his shoulders tightly as one hand instinctively moved to stroke down his wing. He shuddered above you with a loud groan – his thrusts speeding up as he to neared release, yours hips surely bruising from the force of his own.
“C’mon baby, need to feel you, need to know you’re mine.” His words ignited something in your stomach, and you clung tighter to him, kissing his sharp jaw as you smiled.
“I’m yours Azriel, now and forever.” Your gentle words pushed him over the edge and his skilful fingers dipping between your thighs brought you down with him. The two of you crying out at the sensations you shared as a growing need to never let him go consumed you.
He collapsed on top of you soon after and he intertwined your fingers with his own as your breathing evened out. He slipped out of you, and you smiled up at him as he sat up, rolling off your body and laying to the side while you came to rest your head on his firm chest. He brought his spare hand upwards – twirling strands of your hair slightly as you rested in silence. After a few minutes, you clambered into his lap and kissed him firmly as he pulled you impossibly close.
“Thank you,” you whispered against his lips, and he felt his heart swell with gratitude to the world for giving him an angel that would willingly hold his hand and guide him out of the darkness.
“I am so in love with you,” he whispered back, and you giggled, a hand moving slowly to stroke him as you felt him harden beneath you again.
“Hmm, is that so?” you whispered.
Azriel, who had started pressing light kisses into your neck, nipped you gently, making you squeal, “What were you saying darling?”
“That I am also deeply, and unequivocally in love with you.” You replied and he rolled his eyes.
“Just putting me to shame with your big words.” He muttered and you giggled – crawling down his body.
“I’m sure I could make it up to you.”
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Hi! What is your very specific Twilight AU?
okay, so. New Moon.
party disaster, dumping her and dipping, all happens normally.
but THEN. Bella finds out she’s pregnant.
(and I know you’re thinking- pre-marital sex?!?! Edward would NEVER! but listen. I am the author now. I’ve been around Christians my whole life. shut up!)
so anyway after a million pregnancy tests and a lot of googling about vampire baby legends, Bella’s like...well this is probably gonna be a situation,
Nessie doesn’t have an insane growth rate here because I hate that, so she has a normal amount of time to prepare, and she’s very...aware that the birth is gonna be Rough at best. So she goes to Jacob
who is NOT a wolf yet but Is aware of the pack and the treaty, and they are closer friends already, and she’s like ‘hey. paranormal emergency. you’re the only person in this town who enables me. help.’
 and Jacob’s like I’m Fucking Fifteen and goes and gets Leah, since she’s technically an adult and a girl
(ms. meyer How did you make one of leah’s only 3 character traits ‘upset she’s infertile’ and then not have her support bella’s choices in breaking dawn please make it make sense)
 so they start brainstorming solutions and the best they can work with is. Bella’s gotta ride out the pregnancy in hiding. they have no way of knowing whether she can survive the pregnancy and the only clue they have about whether the baby will be a monster or not is from google searches, but they also can’t exactly take her to an obgyn when her uterus feels like it’s calcified and her ribs are getting broken and she seems to be craving blood
So, Leah’s got her own little place. Bella moves in there, telling Charlie she wants to move back in with Renee (she knows her parents would never willingly call each other so as long as she keeps up communicating with both of them they should be none the wiser of her growing a little dracula in Leah Clearwater’s basement).
Leah has already defected from the wolf pack at this point (because...the Cullen’s left and she didn’t really like any of the guys anyway lmao) so they don’t run the risk of them hearing her thoughts while she’s in wolf form. She goes out and hunts animals, brings them back and her and Jake drain the blood from them so Bella can drink it. All three of them find this extremely disgusting obviously but Jake’s loyal and a little bit lovestruck, Leah’s a supportive friend and queen, and Bella’s just trying to keep her and her baby alive, and none of them feel like trying to rob a blood bank
Bella is 100% certain the baby will just be a baby who happens to like blood, like she was in bd, but the tentative plan is that if a crazy soulless monster comes out of her Leah will...handle that...
Which neither are thrilled about, so Bella’s just trying to focus on staying positive. And between that, trying to survive and stay hidden, Bella doesn’t really have time to...Check Out the way she did in new moon. Like, she’s absolutely still depressed, and she’s still getting an occasional Edward hallucination because carrying a vampire baby counts as reckless in many books, but she’s just more...resigned and pissed than anything. She’ll have days like the ‘possibilities’ scene, but more often than not she’s just telling the Edward hallucination to go fuck himself when he’s begging her to find the real him so they can have Carlisle deal with the pregnancy 
at some point, Seth gets roped into the whole mess (he’s prone to just breaking into his sister’s house) but since he’s like, 13 and The Best Baby Boy he’s immediately supportive. He didn’t even fucking know about the wolves and the vampires until he walked in on a six months pregnant Bella drinking blood while his sister and Jacob are hacking away at a dead deer, but he’s like...you know when you were 13 and sneaking around about Anything made you feel like the coolest person alive? point is he’s helpful
AND he can get away with spending a lot of time at Leah’s house without anyone finding it weird, unlike Jacob, so he starts spending most of his free time there keeping Bella company and brightening her day up
HE is the one who enables her when she comes up with the name Renesmee lmao
(just because she hates Edward doesn’t mean Esme ever did anything wrong!)
“bella I’ll throw you out of this house if you don’t come up with a real name” “leah she’s white you can’t just disrespect her culture like this omg”
anyway these four become the DORKIEST and WEIRDEST little family it’s cute
so then. labor.
it’s less...graphic than in bd because Bella hasn’t been actively dying the whole pregnancy and she doesn’t snap her spine in half, but it’s still. bad.
she essentially delivers a rock that Nessie then begins chewing her way out of. she’s actively bleeding out. Jacob’s having a panic attack. Leah made Seth watch so he would never have unprotected sex and the scare tactic is working. Leah’s covered in Bella’s blood which is not great considering she’s Holding A Rock That A Vampire Is Emerging From
Leah’s been taking classes and researching deliveries so she needs to stitch Bella up and see what else is wrong but Seth is rocking back and forth on the floor crying and Jacob’s screaming and pacing too fast to grab so she’s like. Bella babe I know you’re dying but you need to hold this thing for me ksjdfllksf
so while she’s handling That, Bella’s got this weird little rock in her arms and is watching the baby slowly fight it’s way out like this is a very fucked up egg or something and she’s just. overwhelmed. maybe it’s the blood loss but she’s looking at the messy, scrunchy little face and she’s already in love and envisioning their lives together.
and then, you know, the baby bites her,
she has just enough time to think ‘how did we not think to prepare for that’ before she can feel the venom coursing through her. it’s just as bad as she remembers from James’ bite but somehow...easier to tolerate. she blacks out pretty quickly
the other 3 notice and are like : 👁👄👁
Jacob...literally explodes into a wolf On Spot
Seth darts out the fucking door he’s seen enough for one day
Leah, sole holder of the braincell, realizes Nessie just bit and isn’t drinking from Bella, and deduces this is like...a survival instinct or something. the baby instinctively changes it’s mother first thing. weirdly...touching? 
So she gets the baby and checks that everything is physically okay with Bella (apart from you know. changing species) and is like...guess this is an issue for 3 days from now Leah
more immediate pressing issues: screaming new born baby and oh, yeah, the giant red wolf in the basement,
“Jacob I know this is disorienting but if you break anything in my house I’ll fucking kill you”
she really just leaves the poor boy to go get the baby cleaned up and warm up some of the frozen blood they’ve got in her fridge (RUINING HER TUPPERWARE, BELLA)
she’s not worried about the wolf pack mind meld yet because she knows Sam took the guys on a mission way farther up the coast for a few days and they’ll be too far away to hear Jake. hopefully, by the time they get back, Bella will be awake and they’ll have made an escape plan by then
and as she’s bottle feeding blood to the baby she’s thrilled that it seems to be like...relatively normal and not s horrific monster or anything. mission: unwillingly murder my best friend’s baby has been successfully canceled 
“Oh Goddamn it....Renesmee DOES fit you...”
Seth, from where he’s cowering behind the couch: “told you”
so, Jake eventually calms down, they spend the next few days cooing over Nessie and brainstorming how to handle Bella when she wakes up a vampire, and also nicknaming Nessie ‘Nessie’ because they know Bella will find that intolerable and they feel she deserves karmic punishment for stressing them out so much lmao
so, three days are up. Seth’s upstairs putting on a way-too-elaborate puppet show for the baby with not a care in the world. Leah and Jake are in the basement because they know Bella probably won’t want their wolf blood and their ready to phase in case she gets a little aggressive
but she just wakes up and is like. hey! how’s it going? where’s my baby?
sjdhfksdj they were expecting feral but Bella still has her super self-control. she didn’t even realize she’d changed into a vampire until they told her lmao
Bella’s a little too freaked out to try hunting yet so they give her some of the stored blood they’ve been feeding Ness and she’s like. good to go. Leah’s about to scream like have the elders been exaggerating this whole time or is Bella truly a freak??? lol
So, they spend a couple days just...relaxing, Bella and Renesmee bonding, they’re trying to come up with fun places Bella can move to with the baby so no one she knows finds out, and every now and then Leah and Jake go out and she tries to help him get the wolf thing under control
and then,,,,the pack get back from their mission early
and immediately are able to read Jacob’s mind
so they head over to Start Shit because there’s two bloodsuckers on their land but,
the pack not attacking because Jake imprinted on Renesmee? tired. the pack not attacking because Jake’s Alpha Genes have taken over and declared Nessie and Bella as part of his Pack and attacking would literally start a war? inspired
so they hash the whole thing out....ultimately Sam decides Bella is more of a victim than a threat, and since neither her or Nessie seem to be going on a bloodlust rampage any time soon...he decides to grant them immunity from the whole ‘kill the vampires’ rule. He’ll let her and her daughter stay in La Push as long as they agree to stick to animals and only hunt out of town. PLUS from what little Bella knows about the Volturi, she’s worried about them finding out about Nessie, so they’ll offer protection if that does happen, in exchange for her being able to help them with intel on any other vampire threats in the area (you know like. if a nomad is fucking stuff up in a nearby city, they’ll send her to talk to them first before deciding if they need to intervene. Sam has become acutely aware he has a lot of teens and kids in his pack, so he’s trying to keep them out of fights as much as possible)  
anyway that’s the story of Nessie gaining like 17 chaotic as hell ride or die uncles,
let’s fast forward a bit
it’s like 15 years later. Bella’s not living with Leah anymore, but she’s got a cute apartment in a nearby town, and owns and runs a bookstore on the first floor of it. she got her ged and did college online and teaches night classes at a community college. She’s still in contact with her parents, who Adore the life out of Nessie. She still helps the pack out and they’re all close. Nessie is a handful but in a fun and lovable way. They go on little weekend trips whenever they have time. Bella’s happy.
but then a. Situation. arises.
basically, the Volturi have been made aware of some unknown vampire chasing others out of the pacific northwest and conspiring with shapeshifters. and you know when Aro gets curious he tends to spin things dramatically. who’s to say this vampire isn’t conspiring against all vampires? against them? why has no one’s special talents worked on her? he simply must find out.
Bella and the Pack get word and decide their best course of action for now is to go on the run. they’re not gonna be able to take on a whole army but if they can bide some time and lay low they might be able to figure something out
except Bella is like....I have a teenage hybrid that the Volturi don’t know about yet...it would be EXTREMELY irresponsible to take her with me
but she can’t send Nessie to Charlie or Renee because they don’t know about her...dietary restrictions. She can’t stay with Billy or anyone else in La Push because the Volturi might trace the pack’s scent there and discover her. She’s panicking, they have to leave in a few days max and she can’t find a safe place for her daughter
and then she’s like.....fuck.
she had run into Jasper a couple of years ago- they have the same forgery guy and were heading to his building around the same time as a coincidence. She promised to forgive him for the party incident if he promised not to tell Edward he saw her and that she’s a vampire now. He agreed, but then told her Edward’s been living on his own for a while now and insisted on giving her his number...she never could bring herself to call it or delete it...but now...if she wants to be 100% Nessie is safe and protected...
fuck
So, the past 15 years have been fairly rough for Edward
he’s still convinced leaving in order to save Bella was the best course of action, but like...the vampires canonically mate for life. that’s his soulmate. he’s absolutely miserable without her. he’s thought about cracking and going to find her again but he always talks himself out of it, convinced she’d just tell him she hates him or something
so as stated in his patented Edward Cullen Self Loathing Guide, first thing to do is isolate yourself from all the lovebirds you usually live with. Sure, he keeps in contact, but...not well. he’s currently living alone and posing as a university student. He’s not even really sure what he’s supposed to be majoring in. He’s mostly been in a haze since he left Forks.
and one day....he gets a call from an unknown number. he ignores it, thinking it’s a spam call. but then it calls like 8 more times in a row and he figures answering might be a bit smarter than simply throwing it at the wall
And Edward...swears he came back to life and immediately had a heart attack the second he hears Bella’s voice
He feels breathless and disoriented the whole conversation, trying to figure out if his memory did her voice any justice, trying to rush out 15 years worth of apologies, trying to comprehend she’s actually speaking to him.
But Bella’s very blunt on the phone. She doesn’t want to let herself get emotional. She’s on a time limit, and she has to focus on getting her daughter to safety
And Edward swears he somehow misheard her the first ten or so times she told him. He had a daughter? that wasn’t possible
“she has the audacity to be your Evil Twin so I’m pretty sure it’s possible”
so she gives him a rundown. she needs to go into hiding, no I don’t need your help with that, gives him details about Nessie, what she’s like, what she likes to do, her diet, her favorite color, how annoyed she is by this whole situation, “Edward I know you don’t love me anymore, but I remember how protective you were, and that’s what I need Nessie to have right now. She needs you right now” and Edward wants so badly to refute Bella’s claim of lost love, to tell her he has absolutely no idea how to be a parent, but...her tone is aching so much he can barely speak. He can’t let Bella down again, and he can’t let this little girl he foolishly created and left down anymore than he already has, either.
So he agrees, she tells him to be at the airport in a few days, and hangs up. 
Edward loses about half a day staring at a wall in shock, before he jumps into preparations.
Bella told him while their daughter possessed some speed and strength, hunting was fairly dangerous for her. She was more delicate than his kind, and had a heartbeat. Reheated blood bags had been their best option, and she also needed human food as well. He also had to get a room ready for her- he wandered around stores for hours, reading young girls minds to see if there was any furniture or decorations that were universally liked- which was of course, fruitless, but he did manage to find a handful of things he was sure Bella would have liked at that age, and prayed for the best. He somehow got himself covered in purple paint that was a nightmare to get off. Bella had sent him some forged documents claiming Nessie was his younger sister he’d won custody of, and he got her enrolled in a nearby school. He lived every day leading up to her arrival staving off a panic attack.
it wasn’t until he was on the way to the airport that he realized he forgot to inform his family about this life update. they must’ve been on a hunting trip, because he got nothing but voicemails 
imagine being Carlisle and you come home to a voicemail from your son who’s banished himself from the family that’s just like ‘hi. you’re a grandfather now. I’m having a nervous breakdown and might crash my car. call me back at your earliest convenience I suppose” like what would you DO
 after he gets to the airport he starts panicking again, realizing Bella had never actually sent him a picture, worrying about how he’d find her, but then- he sees a tiny girl with untamed, dark red curls, features strikingly similar to his own that are pulled into the expression Bella always made when she was reading, absently chewing on her lip, and before she looks at him with her mother’s big brown eyes, he already knows who he’s looking at, and he’s certain if he was human his tear ducts would be having a fit right now
Renesmee, however, seems less willing to have an emotional meeting. She mumbles out a simple greeting before gathering up her bags and heading for the door, Edward rushing behind her to try and help
listen. the awkwardness of Charlie trying to connect with Bella. but 10000x worse because of Edward’s overthinking, self-deprecating ass and Nessie being like ‘ah yes the guy who broke my pregnant teenage mothers heart, fantastic’ lmao
the car ride is p a i n f u l. Edward’s trying so hard for light conversation and Nessie’s barely giving one word answers. Bella had warned her about the mind reading so she was carefully keeping her mind blocked, which Edward is trying very hard to be understanding about instead of annoyed, but By God does he want to know everything about her
when they get back to his place, she quietly thanks him for the room and then promptly locks him out of it lol. He spends the rest of the day just pacing back and forth until he realizes he should eventually feed her lmao
and that’s...kinda how the first couple weeks go. she only emerges from her room if he bribes her with food, she awkwardly tries to dodge his questions, he drives her to school and then begs her to tell him how it went when he picks her up, he spends his college classes distracted because he’s freaking out constantly about how to successfully bond with her. His favorite time of day now is night, because she can’t block her mind while she’s asleep, and even if her dreams are all nonsense they’re still...part of her that he gets to know.
His family keeps begging him to let them meet her, but he’s pushing back because if she’s this bad at adjusting to one new family member, how is she going to handle six more?
(meanwhile Alice and Rose started a group chat with her and are having a ball clowning Edward lmao)
wait ksjflksd I think this vine perfectly sums up the dynamic im envisioning  https://youtu.be/wQZIUHNORHg
anyway they....very slowly make some progress. much too slowly for Edward’s taste, but hey.
Like he finds out snacks she likes. or jewelry she likes. stuff like that and just...wordlessly leaves it around for her lmao. he thinks it’s like trying not to startle a deer, Nessie thinks it’s more like a cat trying to gift you a dead mouse, but either way it’s weirdly endearing.
He notices she always has a huffy little frown when he picks her up on Wednesdays. So instead of begging her for an ounce of information of her school life, he asks her one Wednesday morning if she’s excited for the day and she admits she has an elective class every Wednesday with a girl she doesn’t get along with.
He gets her school photos (and Weeps) and realizes apart from her room the home is fairly barren of decorations, so he buys a bunch of picture frames and hangs up the school shots, and some pictures of the Cullen’s over the years, and the few he has of Bella that he could never bear to part with. Other than catching her smiling at the prom picture of her parents, Nessie doesn’t say anything- but the next time he comes home from hunting, there’s a pile of pictures of her growing up on the table, and he starts weeping all over again as he hangs them up
(there’s one of her and Bella hugging and looking at the camera with identical grins and joy in their eyes, he can’t help but put that in his room. He hopes one day he’ll get to see a scene like that in person)
He starts trying to get her out of her room a little more- he still hasn’t managed to a get a ‘favorites’ list out of her, so he starts playing movies Bella loved, to see if any of them lure her out. some do, some don’t- he got halfway through a Lord of the Rings marathon, which was Torture in his opinion, but then Ness came out and quietly asked if he could restart it and suddenly they became his favorite movies ever.
Bella’s not able to contact her on a set schedule or anything because of her situation (and you can bet your ass Edward’s contacted every vampire he knows and ordered them to help her out if they come across her or the Volturi), and Edward realizes that’s probably taking a toll on the girl, so he starts telling her stories of her mother when he knew her in Forks. She’s particularly amused by the blood typing incident- the first time Edward hears Nessie properly laugh, he literally starts crying on the spot
could you imagine the sheer panic if she ever gets so much as a cold
And yes, she’s still pissed on Bella’s behalf, and yes, she specifically blasts 70s music because Bella told her he hates it one time, and yes, if he looks at her like he’s a kicked puppy one more time she might claw his eyes out, and yes, she refuses to introduce him to her friends from school because she Knows everyone will then start asking her about her ‘hot brother’ and she can’t live with that and also can’t live with him knowing that so she told him if he ever introduces himself to any of her friends she’ll set him on fire, and yes, she’s homesick 95% of the time but...he’s growing on her. like a mold, or something.
(okay, maybe when Seth tried to analyze why Mamma Mia is her favorite musical, he might have had a point. half a point. quarter of a point. shut up.)
And Edward’s still trying to not have a panic attack every time she’s out of his sight- he’s got Carlisle keeping tabs on the Volturi for him, and it’s not exactly hard for him to keep track of her through other people’s minds- but she’s so tiny and her heartbeat is Too Fast and what if she inherited her mother’s unlucky streak??
but they’re toeing the line of co-existing peacefully and Edward’s scared to push it past that
then he has to, because it turns out he sent her to one of Those Schools where the parents have to be involved in the school in some way or another and Nessie’s Annoyed
sdkjfsdkjf she keeps trying to get him to just sign up for like pta meetings or something and he’s like ‘I need you to understand you are the only person in this town I actually know or like I Cannot survive around fundraiser moms I can’t’ 
so she’s like ugh fine I’m in the drama club
listen.....Stage Parent Edward Cullen.......the power this holds...
that’s right this whole post was an elaborate ruse for me to make a musical theater headcanon again lmao
no okay but seriously he starts off just helping build sets and stuff like that but then midway through the year their music teacher gets fired and the schools like begging him to take over because they can’t find someone in enough time that’ll know the music for the show they’re doing and he’s like “I need you to understand Nessie will never talk to me again if I start actually working at her school” and they’re like “She also will never talk to you again if we have to cancel the big musical, though” and he’s like. fuck.
silent treatment for a week and a half
lmao so now he’s trying to juggle being an overly-enthusiastic stage parent who’s making costumes and sets and kinda crying backstage when he sees his daughter in her costume with also being the music director for the damn show and trying to teach a bunch of kids how to read sheet music 
one day he ended up in a coffee shop with the hair and makeup moms, gossiping about the cast’s love lives, and he literally doesn’t know how he got there
is it wrong to pass Nessie in class even though she’s putting all the wrong answers on the test but he Knows she knows the right answers and is only answering wrong to try and get a rise out of him
Bella sneaks into town to see the show- they thought it would push their luck if the pack came, but they sent an ungodly amount of flowers and candy. When she snuck into the house while Ness was sleeping she Was Not expecting to find Edward up to his elbows in sequins, trying to fix a bedazzler he accidentally broke in frustration, muttering under his breath about how if Nessie’s romantic opposite in the show doesn’t keep his thoughts clean he’s gonna kill him- and it just cracks her up. She WAS nervous about seeing Edward again but now she’s assured he’s still a dork lol
So Edward freaks when he sees her but they don’t wanna wake Ness up so they’re trying to be quiet but like. they’re going through it 
Like Bella Wants to be pissed at him but she can’t, she still loves him- and while she can’t just get over what he did to her, it’s also not lost on her that ‘leaving to protect someone I love’ is literally what she had to do to her daughter
And Edward....Edward, who only left to give Bella a chance at a safe, human life, seeing Bella in front of him as a vampire, knowing it’s his fault she ended up that way and she had to go through it alone, had to raise a baby herself because he’d made it so hard to find him...knowing if he’d just pulled his head out of his ass he would have been able to be there for her...would be able to form a coherent sentence around his love right now, would have long and fond memories of Nessie’s childhood, likely wouldn’t have to watch Bella hide from the Volturi...he’s back in a self-loathing spiral already
But they haven’t seen each other in so long and they just don’t want to...deal with the unpleasantness right now, so they just push it aside. Bella helps Edward with the costumes. Edward fills her in on what she’s been missing with Nessie. Bella tells him some stuff about when Ness was younger. They just spend the night talking, and it feels like no time has past between them at all- which just makes the heartaches a little stronger
When Nessie wakes up to her mother there she’s ecstatic- bubbly and loud and glued to Bella’s hip all day, giving her in depth play-by-plays of her school and rehearsals and friends she’s made, bouncing on her toes all morning, hyper, giggly, and- it kind of breaks Edward’s heart a little, even though he knows he hasn’t really...earned this side of his daughter, yet. 
(at least he got his wish of seeing their twin smiles in person)
(he wishes he could see them every second of every day)
so the girls spend the day catching up while Edward mostly feels like a thirdwheel, and then they have to get Ness over to the school so she can get ready
Bella decides to hang out around the school theater before the show actually starts- she leans against the wall next to the piano, the two talking in hushed tones while Edward runs through songs. Bella really missed watching him play- the only thing that managed to drag her away from it was when Nessie called her to the dressing room to help with a hair emergency 
she didn’t talk to him much at intermission, her attention being stolen by the rest of the Cullen family (who had been Very Loudly supporting the show so far, she knew Ness was probably dying of embarrassment backstage)
after the show, the three went back to Edward’s and just...talked. Nessie was gushing about the show and eating while her parents assured her she was the greatest actress ever born, simple stuff like that. she fell asleep sandwiched in between them on the couch 
Bella realizes she’s never going to be able to bring herself to leave again if Nessie wakes up, and tells Edward as much. He clearly doesn’t want her to go just yet either, but...she’s on the run, it’s not like she has much choice 
He has so much he wants to say to her but he just- can’t. it’s not the right time. but he’s hoping she can see that in his eyes
Bella shifts Nessie off her shoulder so Edward can hold her, and she gives him a light kiss and says ‘thank you, Edward’ before disappearing in a flash. she needed to go before she lost her nerve.
Edward can’t bring himself to let Nessie out of his arms, so instead of carrying her to bed he just stays there, holding her, trying his best not to think that that could be the last time for a long time he’d ever see his Bella again, trying not to let thoughts of a life he gave up unwittingly consume him
okay I didn’t mean for this to be So Long so I’m cutting it here uhh...let me know if anyone wants a part 2? sorry lmao
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Touch Starved
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Pairing: Bakugou x reader
Warnings: Cursing, sfw fwb dynamic (lmao it’s secret hugging)
A/N:
*heavy breathing* I finally finished it!! I’ve had this request sitting in my inbox for literal months and I’m so sorry, anon, that you had to wait so long 😫. I hope you like what I came up with!
Also I ended up using she/her pronouns a bit towards the end, so if you’d like me to edit it so it has they/them I can repost it! Just let me know :)
-Sugar
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● Bakugou's never been much for physical affection
● Or, at least, so he'd convinced himself
● Even around his family, he found himself shrinking back from hugs
● And anytime one of his friends would try to put an arm around him or pat him on the back, he'd flinch and tense up (Kirishima and Kaminari had a few special privileges, but even they were on thin fucking ice)
● A part of him craved that touch, wished it could last longer
● But his ego always got in the way
● From a young age, he'd viewed acts like this as showing weakness and vulnerability. It's no surprise that by the time he arrives at UA, the longing is a mostly ignorable dull throb
● Until he got to know you
● You were one of the most sickeningly sweet people Bakugou had ever seen, and he despised you
● You were just as bad as that Shitty Hair, if not worse; always grinning and trying to include everyone, even him
● He hated how his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own around you, never letting you leave their gaze when you were around him. He hated how your laugh made his cheeks heat up and his heart pound in his chest. And most of all, he hated when the tips of your fingers would brush against his arm, or when you tried to lean on his shoulder. You truly were the most intolerable of beings
● And it seems like you're even worse today
● Class was about to start and you were talking with Ashido, Kirishima, and Kaminari
● He honestly wasn't even paying attention to the conversation, that is, until he heard his name mentioned
● His red eyes flicked to you, since it had been your voice he'd heard say his name
● You had definitely been trying to get his attention. Now your gaze was directed at him
● "I've never seen you hug anyone, Bakugou," you said, your head tilted slightly as you addressed him
● "The hell does that have to do with anything?" he grumbled, already getting annoyed at the topic of conversation
● "Well, I read the other day that hugs can make you happier! And you always seem so grumpy all the time, so I was wondering if you just needed more hugs."
● You seemed oblivious to the way your classmates were staring at you. Even Bakugou couldn't bring himself to speak, merely glaring at you with a confused, almost offended expression
● Panicking at his lack of response, you bent down and threw your arms around his shoulders. You thought you heard a gasp from one or two of your classmates behind you
● Bakugou seemed to have no reaction other than mild shock. He just froze there, neither pushing you off nor reciprocating
● The whole thing was over within a few seconds, but it felt as though it had actually lasted much, much longer. Seconds after you pulled away, the bell rang for class to start, and everyone had to go back to their seats
● There was an abnormal silence in the class after that. It was as if nearly every student was thinking, Holy crap, (L/N) just hugged Bakugou freaking Katsuki
● Bakugou was weirdly silent too. It seemed as if he hadn't had any reaction at all
● Sike—it was pure chaos inside his head
● He's just been pounded with a whole slew of new feelings and emotions—give the boy a break (and a minute to process)
● He can scarcely pay attention during class (which he can afford to do, it's not like he doesn't already know most of this stuff)
● Katsuki can't tell if he hated it or not
● His immediate instinct is to reject it and say it was awful . . . but he can't deny that there's a teeny tiny part of his brain that wants you to do it again
● No one can ever know this, of course. He has a reputation to maintain, after all
● But in the safety of his own mind, he replays it over and over, trying to remember every detail of how your arms had felt around him for that brief moment
● Boy was hooked on you even more than he had been before
● But it's not like anyone can tell. Bakugou's good at that. No one would ever be able to tell he had any feelings towards the incident at all, negative or positive
● Even after his friends bombard him with questions after class, he gruffly brushes them all off. He acts so uninterestingly about it, they don't even bother asking him about it again
● Bakugou hopes that this will all blow over within the next few days. He'd surely stop thinking about you all the time, right? Maybe somehow, if he ignored these thoughts, his eyes wouldn't trail after you on their own accord, and his mind wouldn't jump at every opportunity to think about you
● For weeks, he told himself this, and time passed to nearly two months. He avoided you at all costs, refusing to speak to you or even make eye contact
● You felt horrible, blaming it on the dumb mistake you'd made to hug him that morning. No matter how hard you tried to approach him to apologize, he'd turn you away, and soon enough, you'd given up
● Until one night, he couldn't take it anymore
● He had just been fantasizing about that moment again, and tentatively wondering how it would feel to put his arms around you while he was out in the dorm hallway
● Even through the haze of his thoughts, he was quick to notice your head of hair about to turn into the hallway to your room
● You. Bubbly, bright, overly touchy and friendly you. Fuck you.
● You were always hugging everyone, right? You didn't really mean anything by it, right? It was no big deal when you hugged other people. So, maybe if he were to just ask . . .
● "Oi."
● You froze in your tracks. You'd caught sight of him in the hall, but you knew better than to try to attract his attention. He was dead set on avoiding you, and you'd pretty much accepted that by now
● Turning, you met his fiery red eyes for the first time in weeks. "Yeah?"
● There was something . . . apprehensive in his expression. You weren't sure if you'd ever seen anything like it on his face before
● "Get over here, I want to ask you something." He shoved his hands in his pockets, shifting his glare to the carpet below him
● Uncertain of what might be going on, you cautiously made your way to him
● "What is it?" you asked, a little annoyed with how he'd been treating you lately
● "I, um, well—remember that thing you did a while ago?"
● You blinked at him, slowly. "I do a lot of things. You need to be more specific."
● You'd never seen him look so flustered. It was almost . . . cute
● "You—um, you hugged me. Remember?"
● Of course you remembered. That was what had made him hate you in the first place, right?
● You sighed and crossed your arms. "Look, I'm sorry I did that. I know it made you uncomfortable and I'm sorry it affected you so much. Really, I was just goofing around, and I'm sorry it got out of hand."
● He blinked at you. You were apologizing? Oh, maybe it did make sense, now that he thought about it. He had been being an ass to you
● "Is that what you wanted?" you asked. "I tried to apologize a long time ago but you wouldn't even look at me—"
● "Could you do it again?" he cut you off
● ". . . apologize?"
● "What?! No!" Bakugou's face reddened and he scanned the surroundings for a potential audience. He dropped his voice to a scarcely audible mumble. "I . . . —dammit, I want you to hug me again."
● You blinked at him, this time in surprise. You had, in fact, heard him, but you could barely believe it. You only knew that you'd understood him correctly by his posture, and how uncharacteristically flustered he was
● "You want another hug?"
● He scowled. "Don't make me say it twice."
● "So you liked it the first time?"
● "I never said that!"
● "Uh-huh."
● Even with your annoyed teasing, you felt as if you might be able to understand a little. Everything seemed to make more sense to you, and you were beginning to catch onto the bigger picture. He'd been embarrassed that he liked it, and that was why he'd been avoiding you
● "So do you want a hug now or—?"
● "Not where anyone could see!" Bakugou's eyes nervously darted around again. "We could . . . go in my room or something." His voice had dropped back to a mumble
● You snorted and rolled your eyes. "Secret hugs, huh? I didn't know I was in such high demand."
● "Shut up, dumbass. Just follow me."
● You do that, letting him lead you into his room. After he shuts the door behind you, you stand there awkwardly for a second
● "So . . . you just wanted a hug?"
● He shrugged. "Yeah."
● You closed the distance between you and took him into your arms
● He stiffened a little at the contact, heart pounding away in his chest. It was even better than he had remembered, and now he noticed even more things; like the way your chest felt pressed against his body, and how your hair smelled like shampoo, and—
● "Relax, idiot," you whispered beside his ear. Bakugou tried to let out some of the tension in his shoulders and even tried looping his own arms around you
● You snickered internally, until a thought struck you
● When you finally pulled away, you looked at him inquisitively. "When was the last time you hugged someone?" you asked. "Other than me."
● He frowned, still a little flustered. Then he shrugged. "I don't know. It's probably been a few years."
● You couldn't help but feel your heart pang a little bit for the boy. You knew how he felt about interacting with people. You'd seen how adverse he'd seemed towards physical interaction, even among his friends
●Touch starved, you thought. It was an awful thing to experience. Bakugou probably wasn't even aware of what he was missing
● You sighed. "We can do this again if you want," you offered, wondering if the proposition would set him off to ignore you again. "I won't tell anyone."
● "Better not," he muttered under his breath
● "Do you want me to come back or not?" you asked
● He shrugged. "S'whatever. Do whatever."
● You frowned right back at him. "Yes. Or no?"
● "Yes! Yes, come over here and hug me or whatever shit! Just—just leave now."
● You rolled your eyes at him, turning and twisting the doorknob. "Just ask when you're ready," you said before walking out of his room again
● Bakugou stared at the door for a long time after you'd left
● His chest felt like it had little explosions going off in it, and he couldn't help but feel ridiculously giddy
● What was he doing? But it had felt . . . amazing. And you'd offered to do it again, whenever he asked . . . .
● . . . You proved to stand by your word
● Sure enough, he'd catch you alone every few days and sneak off to his room for a quick hug. In return, he'd help you go over your notes for class
● Before long, you couldn't help but feel closer to Bakugou. Even with his harsh nature, you noticed how he could really be. Coupled with the moments of vulnerability he'd let you in on while you hugged in secret, your liking for the boy only grew
● And it did seem to have some effect on his mood. He wasn't so easily set off, and he yelled a bit less. Your fellow classmates didn't bring up the change, but they had certainly noticed it
● Even though no one was allowed to know about your shared moments together, Kirishima would often join you for a study session
● During those days, you'd wait until he left before going in to give Bakugou his hug
● Until the inevitable happened
● It was just you and Bakugou in his room. You'd gotten all your stuff packed up for the night and you were giving him one last hug
● He'd gotten better at it over the past couple of weeks, and he'd learned to relax more into your hold
● Of course, that was right when Kirishima came back in
● "Sorry, dude, I left my—" He froze at the sight before him
● Bakugou jumped back from you, trying to look as though it wasn't obvious what he'd just been doing
● "Sorry, guys!" he said, hovering in the doorway for a moment as he debated whether or not to grab whatever he'd forgotten before dashing back out. Ultimately he decided to go emptyhanded, slamming the door shut as he whisked back into his room
● You looked at Bakugou, trying to gauge how he'd taken this turn of events. He looked angry and flustered (a look on him you were starting to get used to), but he definitely could have looked more outraged
● You patted his back. "Are you okay?"
● The blond seemed speechless for once, unable to take his eyes off the door
● "It's just Kirishima," you assured him. "He'd get it. He's understanding."
● Bakugou wasn't so sure
● A few minutes after you left, there was another knock at Bakugou's door
● "What the hell do you want?"
● Kirishima poked his head in, making sure the coast was clear. "I just wanted my notebook back."
● Bakugou picked it up from his desk and launched it at Kirishima's head, which he barely managed to catch
● "Thanks, man." Even with his originally sought after item, the redhead proceeded to step into his friend's room. "So what's going on with you and (L/N)?"
● There it was, the question Bakugou knew was coming
● "Nothing." At least it wasn't a complete lie
● "No, you two were doing something," Kirishima smirked. "Are you dating in secret or something?"
● "What?! No! It's not like that! And besides, it's none of your fucking business."
● Kirishima shrugged. "That's fair. But if you're not dating, why was she hugging you?"
● Bakugou tched. "She hugs everyone, you know her."
● "Yeah, but you were hugging her back."
● "She just gives really nice hugs!"
● Kirishima pouted. "You never hug me."
● "That's because it's different!"
● "So does that mean you like her or something?"
● Bakugou froze for just a split second too long. "No."
● Kirishima gave him a look. "She might like you back. Just ask her out on a date."
● "I already said it wasn't like that—"
● Bakugou's friend shrugged. "Well, if it was . . . couldn't hurt to try."
● Once Kirishima was successfully kicked from Bakugou's room, he took a moment to think. Could he actually . . . like you? Maybe that would explain some of the things that he'd been feeling lately
● But what about you? Could you like him back?
● Bakugou rolled his shoulders. Of course you'd like him, what part of him wasn't perfect? But still . . . .
● One night a few days later, you were alone with Bakugou again in his room, doing homework together
● You couldn't help but notice that his vibe seemed off, and it looked like he was having trouble concentrating
● "Are you alright?" you finally asked him
● "Yeah," he snapped
● "You seem stressed," you commented.
● "I'm not fucking stressed," he said, refusing to meet your eyes as he glared at his notebook in front of him
● "Okay, then," you muttered, rolling your eyes to yourself and attempting to go back to your own notes
● You watched Bakugou fidget from the corner of your eye, but decided not to pay it any mind anymore. It wasn't long before you noticed that he hadn't turned a page in his book for the past several minutes
● Bakugou was, of course, internally raging
● Why couldn't he ask you a simple question? Did he even know what kind of question he wanted to ask, though?
●Go out on a date with me— too forward, it didn't sound right to him in his head
●For some reason, I think I might like you— no again, that wasn't right either
● His mind rolled over various phrasings, trying to figure out how to put his feelings to words. How was he supposed to do that?
● How could he iterate this weird burning mess he felt clawing in his chest every time he looked at you and touched you? How could he say that he wanted more than what you were doing? How was he supposed to get the reaction out of you that he wanted?
●Be fearless, he told himself. He'd faced worse than this before. He'd been through situations where his life had literally been on the line. How come you, of all people, made him feel more frightened than ever before? Why did he care about your opinion of him so goddamn much??
● He had to start somewhere. Maybe once he got going it would be easier
● "Oi," he said, straining to keep his voice steady and nonchalant as you looked up at his averted eyes
● "Yeah?"
● "I was . . . I was wondering if maybe you wanted to . . . study somewhere else sometime."
● You blinked at him. "Like . . . where?"
● He shrugged, just a bit too jerkily. "I don't know. There's this café a few blocks from campus."
● You squinted at him. "What's wrong with staying here?"
● He scowled, his eyes finally darting up to meet yours before dipping back down again. "I just wondered if we could maybe—do something together. Something a little different."
● A hint of realization dawned on you, causing a smile to alight on your lips and your eyebrow to quirk up. "Different like—a date? Are you asking me out on a date with you?"
● He shrugged again in the same manner, still scowling as he muttered, "Only if you want it to be."
● You considered for a moment. He was a decent enough guy. If you were being completely honest with yourself, you might say you'd developed a bit of a crush on him, actually. You'd never paid too much attention to it before, but now that he was asking . . . it couldn't hurt to try
● "Of course I'll go out with you," you said, breaking into an easy smile that Bakugou still wasn't certain if he adored or hated
● He immediately relaxed, a small smile of his own appearing on his face at your agreement
● He was glad it was you. You were the only person he felt comfortable being vulnerable around. He could already tell that he was growing to like you more and more with each passing day, and he could only hope that you felt the same
● You put up with him, and you were strong in your own way, and by goodness, he was beginning to fall for you so hard
● And maybe, if you agreed for him to be your boyfriend, you'd let him cuddle with you. It wouldn't be awkward, because that's what couples did. You'd be his and he'd be yours, and he wouldn't have to bottle up these annoying feelings anymore
● But that would be decided at some later time
● Even so, he couldn't wait for that day to come
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Taglist: @basicaegyo​ @fourteenow @iiminibattlehero​ @katsugay​ @nabo39​ @pyrofanatic​​ @sendhelpimstupid​ @xoxopam4​​
453 notes · View notes
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Alright alright alright
You’ve all been asking for it, so here it is! 
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This will be (edit: HELLA) long and obviously spoiler-y, so everything is under a cut. 
Are you ready?
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Before we get to it, I want to mention that for the sake of keeping things organized, I will NOT be talking about my AU (@ask-whitepearl-and-steven​) in this post. I want to just analyze the show as a viewer and a fan first. I’ll make a seperate post for AU-thoughts a bit later.
Without further ado:
EP 1: LITTLE HOMESCHOOL
This is a great way to open up the episode and show the changes through the lens of someone who has been a bit out of it for a while (we are all Cherry Quartz, fresh from the hiatus, aren’t we?) but I’m sorry, this post still takes the cake:
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Okay, okay, back to the program.
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“That used to be a loaded question...“
Right off the bat, Steven is SO much more confident about saying that he’s... HIMSELF! What a good feeling. I’m very proud of our boy. 
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I love the name “Gemglyph” for the gem language! I’ll need to know who wrote these, though. And who the heck drew the diamonds? Hopefully it was BP. 
And I’m not the first one to point this out, but MORE ANIME REFERENCES!
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Which can be seen as either a reference to the Chill Low-Fi Hiphop Beats to Study To OR Whisper of the Heart. 
And absolutely no one cares but something that caught my eye is the fact that they have an EARTH FLAG at Little Homeschool! How cool is that!
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Earth 4ever!!! 
Off-note - I love how INVESTED they are in this conversation Pearl is having with Holo-Pearl.
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Peak entertainment. 
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I love Professor Amethyst and I love the random human who snuck in to apparently take lessons on Not Giving A Single Shit About Anything, Ever. 
And here we FINALLY are in the FUTURE
Where we FINALLY get Jasper as a functioning character
And 
She’s
SO DRAMATIC, I LOVE HER.
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This is literally SO funny like she... she was just... laying on top of her house... under a blanket..... FOr WHAT? To stand up dramatically and throw it off when Steven inevitably paid a visit? 
Is that just what she dOES? 
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“It’s FINE I don’t need any HELP, I’m FUNCTIONING, I’m just having a SELF CARE DAY OK”
Also I’m sorry but
Jasper: “It took forever to yank those puny green earthlings out of the ground.”
Steven: “You mean grass...?“
THIS. RIGHT HERE. is peak Jasper. 
It’s also curious how INVESTED Steven is in this:
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“I’m TRYING to give you [a purpose]!“
Why are you... trying to do that, though? Isn’t the whole idea for gems to surpass their ‘purpose’ and just kinda... do whatever? Isn’t Jasper just kinda... doing whatever? 
I mean, sure, it’s not useful to anyone, but she seems relatively happy. Aside from. You know. The whole laying on rocks under blankets until she’s disturbed thing and-- okay, you’re right, maybe an intervention would be healthy. 
I’m not gonna talk at length about the rest of the episode - although I think it’s really good, I don’t know what I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. Jasper is definitely poking Steven’s buttons and rephrasing a LOT of what WHITE has said to Pink: “You surround yourself with inferior gems because it makes you feel better.”
And Steven REACTS to this. The taunt WORKS.
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And yes, he gains some extra powers for it, but something tells me this AIN’T the only thing he will get. It feels like a two-edged sword. Like it’ll be his own downfall somehow....... maybe at the end of the series. 
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Ashes to ashes.... hole to hole.
And oh wow I thought they were gonna bond but LMAO
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“Consider your fight back there your first and ONLY lesson.“
Basically:
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I love you Jasper.
EP 2: GUIDANCE
I LOVE YOU AMETHYST.
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sHE’S doing SO much and she’s SO good at it!! Look at her!! Organizing stuff!!!! 
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RUBIES IN SUNGLASSES. IN SQUARE SUNGLASSES. 
I need 20. 
And I also need 20 of Larimar because holy shit that’s hilarious. 
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Larimar: “I want to hear the human screams forever.”
Steven: “Okay that’s kinda troubling.”
I love the reference to Monsters Inc here and I love the callback at the end of the episode when Larimar switches to Human Laughter to get her fill of that particular erm... need. 
And honestly the ensuing chaos is equally predictable and entertaining. 
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I’m SO glad to know that Rubies are just... Like That and that actually Navy is not a deviation from the norm but rather a different flavor of the chaotic energy all Rubies naturally seem to possess. 
Amethyst is also super relatable:
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“Ah yes, the fool comes crawling back. Come to beg for forgiveness, have you?”
In fact, the episode’s WHOLe HUMOUR is just very much My Brand
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“Sometimes you save all the people but the rollercoaster still crashes into the ocean...... and that’s okay.”
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Including the Running Gag that is Onion. Who... does not appear to have aged. At all. And that’s okay.
EP 3: ROSE BUDS
Okay where do I even begin with this one. Um.
I have to openly admit that I spent the majority of this episode wheezing with laughter. Let’s start with the Zoomans:
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Who are CLEARLY STILL SUPER SALTY AT GREG ABOUT REJECTING THEM??? Which is hilarious. 
And also this paradise is fascinating in and of itself. 
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But the next scene is basically where I started losing my shit.
Okay, okay, alright so. Uh. I have... a few questions.
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Like Why. WHY. Does she look. SO MUCH like Rose? 
Clearly Rose Quartz differ in coloring and etc. But She literally looks. Like THE Rose. VERY explicitly. 
So here’s several options here:
1) Pink made Rose Quartz way before any of the Rebellion happened and Pearl just basically pigeonholed her into THIS specific Rose Quartz appearance because she (???) had a crush? Or somehow saw this specific Rose, thought ‘hot, i can make my sympathetic Diamond wear this exact costume and that would be EXCELLENT fanservice for ME’
2) Pink didn’t have any Rose Quartz until the Rebellion, and thereafter quickly decided ‘I need these gems as an alibi, so we’re just gonna make them” and she and Pearl basically inclubated Rose Quartz like a pokemon trainer hatching for a Shiny until they got one that looked Exactly Like That. 
3) There was no Thinking involved because this is Pink we’re talking about, and it was all just a huge coincidence for the sake of this Very Hilariously Uncomfortable Episode. 
While we ruminate on that, let’s look at some Relatable Reactions.
And here we have the holy trinity of “I have just seen the clone of my deceased parent/parental figure/lover.”
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Featuring: Bonus ‘I’m Almost Over It’ Pearl
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Also, I need y’all to make this into a meme:
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For example:
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Anyway, alright, alright. 
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That relatable feel when your (hot) dead lesbian lover’s clone asks you if you’re okay after another one of the (less hot?) clones offers you a whole ass stick of butter to eat. 
And then you and your friends all hide in the bathroom to talk about your feelings:
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Okay, the rest of the episode gives me FEELINGS and I love how hard Steven is trying, so I’ll just close it off with:
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I LOVE THEM. Unironically, they are EVERYTHING I had hoped Rose Quartz would be. They’re SO MUCH like Rose herself - did she model her personality after them? Or are they just like her because she WAS like that, and they’re made from her essence? WHO KNOWS?! They’re adorable!
And the conflict between them and Steven is honestly so gooD! I don’t know if it’s completely relatable but I’m glad they ended up talking it out.
I wonder if we’ll ever see Her again... you know who I’m talkin’ about. 
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Her....
I’m madly in love with Rose, ok, I don’t need a callout post. Just leave me be.
EP 4:  VOLLEYBALL
Alright, alright, alright.
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OKAy,.... It’s fine. It’s FINE. I’m fINE. 
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Confirmed: 8000 years. That’s. UH. A LOT? That puts our timelines quite a ways back. We kind of estimated as much, but still, it’s so jarring to think about. And PP is VERY casual about it. 
She’s also VERY casual about the injury.
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“This is all Pink Diamond!”
It doesn’t seem like it bothers her to talk about it at all. She’s not even trying to keep it a secret. So I’m almost wondering - was there a connection to her being taken by White and the injury at all or not? 
She came to Steven to get healed - she clearly wants it gone. At the time she was injured, did Pink not even attempt to heal the injury? 
Follow up question: If she DID care, why didn’t she try to heal it?
Follow up to the follow up: Was it because she didn’t know she could? Or did she simply not have the time to (White removed her before she could)? 
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When Steven goes pink, she gasps - but makes no further comment. It’s presumably because she’s seen this happen before. She doesn’t try to move away, weirdly enough - she asks him if everything is alright. Perhaps the context is too different for it to be triggering for her. Perhaps there’s more layers to it? HMMM. 
What follows is, perhaps, the SALTIEST we’ve seen Pearl since Greg rolled around.
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“Did you come to compete?”
This is doubly curious to me because Crewniverse has previously explicitly stated that Pearl was NOT in love with Pink Diamond. She was in love with Rose. So if this is true, why would Pearl care about her place as Pink’s Pearl? She is supposed to be past all that, isn’t she? 
And yet as time goes on, the salinity grows exponentially. Alright, you two, I know you’re Pearls but tone it down with the sass. 
(Also, I’m sorry but I will NEVER call her Volleyball. That’s all. Bye.)
Also it’s worth noting that... PP is clearly VERY much in love with Pink.
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This is, perhaps, where the lack of a grudge plays into it. She’s completely enamoured.
Moreover, she’s VERY casual about how she talks here. This isn’t exactly how one talks of their Diamond. This is how people talk about their romantic partners. She calls Pink silly, calls her ‘funny’. That’s not exactly a term of respect - it’s way more intimate than that. 
Also, did anyone else notice how, although CG Pearl’s gem is usually shaded in teal, it’s in Pink in this episode? VEEEERY subtle, Crew.
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Also, we can’t quite see Pink Pearl’s expression fully here because her working eye isn’t visible, which makes it hard to get a read on things like
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“I’m older than you.“ Is she just saying it casually? Or is she fully aware that she’s poking fun at CG Pearl? 
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HI SHELL. ISN’T IT FUNNY HOW YOUR VOICE AND YOUR NAME ARE A SUBTLE NOD TO PORTAL, WHICH IS FORESHADOWING HOW BADLY THIS IS GONNA END. 
Meanwhile, Pearl continues to be in character.
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“No need to be overly... attached.”
And this has nothing to do with anything but
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she cute
Aaaand now it’s creepy again.
The rest of this is super important so let’s get to it:
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“Oh, no. Pink did this.”
“What did you say?”
“It’s a funny story, really. Once, Pink got tired of asking Yellow and Blue for her own colony, so she went straight to White. Of course, White told her she wasn’t fit to run one... and well! That set her off.”
“Set her off? What are you talking about?”
“You remember how she was! With her destructive powers, throwing tantrums left and right! She had a scream that could crack the walls. She didn’t mean to hurt me! (giggle) I just happened to be standing too close to her that time and--”
And then Steven interrupts. 
We get more CG Pearl arguing for how wrong this image of Pink is to her. What CG Pearl knew was a totally different (or, well, same, but VERY changed) Pink. 
But what we have to prove our point is Steven himself. He rolls into the EXACT same state as Pink presumably did - and begins to over-use his powers. 
(This isn’t the first time we have seen him use this attack.)
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The reactions from the Pearls are telling - this is clearly not Pink Pearl’s first rodeo with this type of Mood. 
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And it’s important to note that Steven clearly didn’t direct any attack AT them. He simply yelled - and the whole dang place literally started to crack. There’s weight to the argument that possibly, Pink really DIDN’T mean to hurt her Pearl - that she was just collateral damage. 
Which doesn’t make it any better, obviously. Even if Pink had no direct intention of hurting her Pearl (and there are theories that Pink purposefully hit or threw Pink Pearl or somehow physically acted directly to damage her, which I was skeptical of) the result of it is still the same.
If you raise your voice and yell, even if you’re just yelling because YOU are hurt/have feelings, you might still hurt the people around you. If you throw a tantrum, even if your direct goal was just to let off some steam without aiming to harm anyone, whoever gets in your way is still the victim. 
And this is all very much On Brand for Pink’s timeline as we know it. We already knew this about her - we KNEW she tended to throw tantrums (like in the flashback on Jungle Moon) and that she was childish. The fact that she accidentally hurt her Pearl in the process because she had no self-control at that period in her life comes as no surprise. 
(Although it’s important to mention that perhaps hurting her own Pearl WAS the breaking point during which she finally realized how her emotional outbursts could have negative consequences on those around her.)
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And this is a very beautiful message - even if Pink Pearl still doesn’t want to blame Pink for what was done to her (”But... she didn’t mean to!”) Pearl brings the point of it back around to her (”But you were still hurt!”) The point isn’t the person who did the hurting - the focus is on the victim and how they were affected. 
And the rest, I daresay, is history. 
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I like the fact that they managed to still bring it back around to the main message: 
It isn’t about just “Pink was bad”. It’s about how she did bad things. And there were multiple sides to her - multiple stages. And the Pearls who knew her knew different sides of her - the side that didn’t know how to be a good person, who was selfish and childish and unrestrained... and  the side that was, arguable, too restrained. Who hated her own past, her own character and her own mistakes so much that she would rather bury them and keep secrets from everyone. 
And neither of those things were good, and neither were healthy, but they are a GREAT contrast to a GREAT character arc that is, arguably, still being unearthed. And we have so much more context for it all now. 
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I, for one, can’t wait to see and discover more of Pink through Pink Pearl - no matter how ugly that side of her might be. I think it gives great perspective to her later growth. 
And if you ship the Pearls.. .well, I get why. 
Personally I’m not interested in it that way. Call me unromantic - I don’t think their relationship NEEDS to be shippy in order to be satisfyingly deep. I love the idea of them having a deep bond over this - a shared past, a shared experience, and gaining confidence through one another. 
Cheers and thanks for listening!
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kerie-prince · 3 years
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We're Worlds Apart (3)
Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj!reader
series m.list | general m.list | previous chp
warnings: cursing, angst(?), Draco being a meanie :(
summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.
a/n: not my best lmao kinda gets cheesy. anyways, Y/M/N = your mother’s name and Y/B/N = your brother’s name
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(gif cred)
“Do I really have to get one?” Draco whined in the middle of the phone store, getting his very first cellular device.
“Yeah, man. It's 2008 and you still write letters. Plus, your bird took a shit on my car,” Blaine said matter-of-factly. He found it funny that Draco still used an owl post for communication; the only other person Blaine knew that still uses an owl is his 97 year old grandmother. And even she has a landline in her house. “It's just easier and quicker to use. Why wait a whole day for a letter when you can just text me and I’ll respond in two seconds?”
“I’ve never even used a wall phone, how do you expect me to use a bloody cell-phone, Blaine?” Draco was fidgeting in his seat as he waited for the store employee to finish, what was it called, a credit score? Muggles sure are weird.
She came back shortly with a small, black box that had a weird word on it. What the bloody hell is an iPhone? She explained how it turned on, all the applications it carried, and details about billing and more. Draco was still confused about the whole thing but Blaine said that he would help him understand it better.
“Well look at you, Dray. A modern wizard in America,” Blaine jokes. Draco played with the new device, working out all the kinks of it. He sent his very first text message to Blaine at that moment. Took him precisely 5 minutes to type out a very bland, simple ‘Hello. -Draco L. Malfoy’
It made Blaine laugh so hard that he held his stomach. “My god, we’re gonna have to work on your texting skills, man. First things first, you don't have to sign your name at the end of a text. I know it's you.” Blaine explained to Draco all the fundamentals of texting as they walked through the halls of Santa Marie.
Throughout the day, Draco shared his new number with his department. The more he shared his number, the faster he became at typing.
At the end of his shift, he went to a nearby restaurant where he usually picked up dinner —not one to know his way around the kitchen — and headed home.
It's been a good week for him; his mother had sent him a letter everyday, he finished setting up the guest room for Theo and Blaise, he has this new phone, and best of all, Y/N had not crossed his mind once.
Now he still hasn't accepted what she does in her free time, but also he realized that she’s not exactly harming him nor did she know what he was. He's usually busy with all the work he does, anyway. It was quite a sudden change of heart. But mostly, it was his mother that was able to talk to him and change his views.
My dearest son, had it been during the time before the war, I would have agreed with you. But you have to understand that things are different now. You're different now. Now I am not forcing you, but maybe you should just talk with her just once. If not, just ignore her. After all, she only lives next door.
When he read the letter, he could practically hear all of his friends telling him ‘She's right, you know.’ And deep down, he knew it too. So he went with her advice: ignore Y/N.
You’ve had a terrible week; your assistant manager forgot to count the inventory which meant she also forgot to make an order for inventory. A group of teens stole a bunch of little vials of oils you had put on display. And to top it all off, a man stood in front of your shop with signs that had biblical verses written on them, blocking the entrance way and essentially driving away any potential customers. You called security but they never came.
You were used to this happening, it's happened all your life. But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. I'm not harming anyone, so why does this happen to me? Next week, your mother was flying in from Maine to look around the house to make sure nothing would ‘freak Stephanie out.’ 
Driving back home, you were just waiting to mix some bath salts in your tub, play music, and relax for the next couple of days. By sheer coincidence, as you pulled in you noticed your neighbor that you now knew as Draco pull into his driveway.
This week can't exactly get worse you thought as your legs carried you to his front door. With gentle knocks on the door, you waited patiently. Being rejected once more didn't bother you, but you at least wanted to hear him speak to you and try your chance to become better acquainted.
Draco opened his door, his tie was undone and he looked confusingly at you. “Can I help you?”
Panic overcame your senses and without thinking, you blurted out, “Do you hate me?” You noticed his shocked face as it was probably not something he expected to hear.
“Excuse me, what exactly are you talking about?” he asked in his entrancing British accent. It was too late to take it back, so you just kept going with it. “I’m sorry, but you moved in here four months ago and you seem to have made friends with everyone around here but for some reason, you won’t even say ‘hi’ to me. Did I offend you or something?” You sounded exhausted and sad. Not only at the week you just had, but how Draco wasn’t being so neighborly with you as he was with everyone else on the street. It bothered you so much to no end. And the most frustrating thing was that you didn’t understand why.
“Uh, I apologize that we haven’t been on speaking terms but I don’t think I have to talk to you now, do I?” Draco scoffed. Why is he being such a jerk? “I’m not saying that you have to talk to me, but it’d be nice if you could at least wave or something. But instead, you look at me funny and ignore me. It’s kinda rude.” 
“Merlin, you muggles are so temperamental.” Draco said under his breath. The word sounded funny to you.
“Muggles? Did you just call me a muggle?” The look on Draco’s face didn’t go unnoticed. He stared at you for a few moments, not saying anything. What does that mean? “Is that what you call Americans in the UK? Doesn’t really sound nice.”
Draco started laughing mockingly at you, his grip on his door tightening and knuckles turning white, “Look, I don’t understand what it is exactly you want from me but I will say this; the fact that you are so offended that I won’t acknowledge you is honestly quite fucking childish and if you couldn’t get the hint then I’ll say it plainly for you now. I don’t. Wish. To. Be. Friends. With. You. Got it?” and with that, he slammed the door in your face.
Groaning out, you yelled at him through his door, “Fuck you then! I don’t wanna be friends with some rude prick!” You ran to your door and slammed it pretty hard. The sudden noise frightened your cat and made her run from her tower into your room. What the fuck is his deal? 
You walked to your room, pissed off and tired. Looking up, you saw Draco in his room. You stared each other down before you walked up to your window to close your blinds, flipping him off before it fully closed. Afterwards, you took a regular shower and went to bed. Anger built up inside you, and for probably the first time, you hated another human being. And you had to live next to him for god knows how long.
-
“I mean, did you really have to say that to her?” Ian and Ashley had just listened to Draco explain what had happened the night before. Ian just sat in the chair eating his lunch as Ashley responded to him. “I know things might be different in England, but you should’ve given her a chance. She could be nice. I have a couple No-Maj friends on my block.”
“I’m on Ash with this. Is it really all because she’s Wiccan? Be honest, Dray,” Ian chipped in. At that point, Draco didn’t really know what to say. He thought he could look past it, but he couldn’t. “Maybe, yeah. I come from two families that had very strict traditions and views of muggles. I thought I dropped those views but seeing first hand what they do and-”
“And it makes you feel like a freak? Because you’re a real wizard that can do magic and they sit in some weirdly drawn circle and ‘do’ magic?” Ashley finished Draco’s sentence, making quotation marks with her hands. “I get it, I really do. I was offended too when I had to read about No-Maj’s doing this during school. And then to see movies where witches are viewed as ugly, green-skinned hags with warts on her face and wear rags for clothes. Kinda brings you down as a kid. But I got over it. You should, too.” Ashley held Draco’s hand for a bit before she grabbed her coffee mug and left for her appointments.
Ian sat quietly, watching as Draco was sinking in everything he was advised. “Look man, it’s not really my business to be telling you what you should or shouldn’t like, and who you should or shouldn’t like. And you know what, you’re not exactly in the wrong to get mad about what happened. After all, she just kinda picked a fight with you out of nowhere.” Draco had a face that looked as if he was saying ‘Right? I’m not crazy here’
“But,” of course there’s a ‘but’, “from what I hear around the street, Y/N’s really nice. Super weird for sure, but an overall nice person. I think you should think about it.” Ian nodded at Draco before joining Ashley out of the breakroom. Draco sat there, thinking about what his friends said and also thought back to his mother’s letters. I’m such a child. And I’m the one that called her childish. If he was honest, you were but it didn’t make him better.
He knew what he was going to do after work. It pained him to have to apologize to someone. Apologizing wasn’t something he was exactly used to doing. He’s only done it once to Harry and his friends nearly three years after the Battle. He didn’t even really know what to say to you. But he’ll figure it out. Right?
-
You stood shocked at your doorstep, hands holding onto the sweater as you looked before you. “Mom, you’re here early.”
“I had been given an extra week off of work so I thought I’d just come and see my oldest baby before your brother and Stephanie comes. Also gives me a head start to plan our dinner and get this house situated,” your mother walked past you with her two large luggage cases and dropped them on your living room floor. She looked around the house and eyed all the decorations and pictures on the walls.
To her, everything was nearly normal. You had family pictures posted and some pictures of you and your friends from college. In the living room, you had a tapestry hung up behind your couch that used to belong to your grandmother. “Y/N please, will you take down that blanket? Why don’t you put up a picture of some flowers, or maybe something abstract?”
“Because I don’t want a picture of flowers and that’s not a blanket. It was Grandma’s. I want it hung up there. Ma, you gotta understand that it’s my house now.” Your arms were crossed due to the cold. You had the day off and tried to spend it well as you did your cleansing spell in the morning, but it seems that it wasn’t very effective seeing as your mother came in and immediately started nitpicking everything.
“It was cute in your room when you were a kid. But you’re 26 now. How would your boyfriend feel if he walked in here and thought ‘oh, didn’t know I was dating a 16 year old.’” Her constant criticism was nearly pushing you to the edge. “Ma, I don’t really want to argue with you tonight so I’m just going to bed-” a doorbell rang throughout the house and you were thanking whoever was listening for giving you a reason to walk away from your mother. 
As soon as you opened the door, you were met with another face that you weren’t exactly excited to see. “Can I help you?” you repeated Draco’s words from last night back at him in a spiteful tone.
Through gritted teeth, he looked at you and said, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for being an arse yesterday. I hope we can look past it and become well-acquainted neighbors.”
“Huh, you’re sorry? You don’t really sound it.”
“I know, I’m not really used to doing this,” Draco quipped. “But nonetheless, I would still like to apologize.”
“Yeah, whatever, I’m sorry too.” You were about to close the door until your mother came up and pushed the door completely open, “Honey, who’s at the door- oh! Hello, I’m Y/M/N. And you are?” She looked at Draco with the nicest smile that you had ever seen on her.
“Hello, My name’s Draco. Nice to meet you,” he awkwardly shook your mother’s hand. He didn’t smile, but he also didn’t have the usual scowl on his face when he would look at you. Guess he does have manners. “Y/N, is this a friend of yours?” your mother insinuated with a less than discreet wink. Without missing a beat, you replied, “No. Ma, this is my new neighbor. I just met him. But it’s late, so nice meeting you Draco. See you around.” And you closed the door.
“That was rude, Y/N. You should have invited him in. He’s very cute,” your mother grabbed her bags and headed into the guest room. From a distance, you could hear your mother speak to herself, saying ‘At least this room looks normal’. “It’s kinda late. Besides, we have all the time in the world to talk.” 
You walked to your small closet and grabbed the special bath salts for stress relief and walked to your bathroom. Starting to strip, your mother barged in. “Ma! Privacy, please!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Y/N. I gave birth to you. Anyways, how long has it been since he moved in? Do you think he knows about your witchy stuff?” She asked as she stood by the door, checking her reflection as you continued to undress for your bath. “I don’t really hold a sign around my neck that says I’m a Wiccan, Mother,” you said with closed eyes. Your mother said, “I hope not. Night, baby,” and closed the door.
This is going to be a long three weeks.
-
The morning came and you woke up before your alarm and did your daily routine. The only difference was that your mother was going through your pantry looking for ingredients to make breakfast. “Morning, honey. Do you want some pancakes? I’ll make your favorites! It’s still blueberry, right?”
“No, that was Y/B/N. Mine are chocolate chip and peanut butter.” You said flatly as you grabbed your watering can. “Oh that’s right. But I already bought the blueberries.”
“That’s fine, they still taste good.” Your mother was satisfied with your response and started right away. You walked out to your front yard and watered your plants along the fence. The betony plants were beautiful, its sight was calming your nerves as you poured water over them. The sound of a door closing caused you to look up, watching Draco as he was standing in his yard with what seemed like a cigarette attached to his lips before he took it out and placed it onto an ashtray that was on his porch.
He walked over to the fence that separated your yards. The smell of the cigarette was in the air and it reminded you of your late father. “I meant it last night,” he mentioned his apology. You didn’t really know what to say so you just nodded and went back to watering your plants.
“But if I recall, you did start that fight,” he chuckled. You glared up at him for a few seconds before returning to your task. “Alright, I guess I’m sorry too.” Draco scoffed and just whispered ‘Whatever’ and walked away. “Wait,” you called for him before he walked back into his house and luckily, he stopped. “I’m sorry,” you said with sincerity. “Can we just start over?”
He stared at you, visibly contemplating your question then finally said, “Sure.” He walked into his house and you stood shocked in your yard. Your mother walked out and announced to you, “Honey! Breakfast is ready! Come on, I think your plants are watered enough.” With the snap of your screen door, you were released from your daze and walked inside. Maybe this week is turning around after all.
-
Draco sat in his room, not exactly sure what exactly happened. Was he really going to try and become friends with a muggle? He could imagine the look on his fathers face. Just because he had lost in the Battle, didn’t mean that he magically accepted muggles and muggle-borns. Narcissa didn’t like them much either but she also didn’t hate them as Lucius did.
This would shock not only his parents, but also his friends, Blaise and Theo. Merlin, the person that would probably have a field day about this would be Hermione Granger. He sat there, imagining Granger either laughing at him or cursing him after all the bullying he put her through. All those years of calling her a mudblood and he becomes friends with a muggle. A No-Maj. A Wiccan No-Maj. But then he thought about what Ian said at work. Y/N is really nice. Weird, but nice. And when he agreed to having a fresh start with you, he figured that it would give you a chance to prove him wrong about what you were like.
Or she could be exactly what I always thought muggles to be. Foolish.
next chp
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The Brothers (+Undateables)
React to A CRONCHIE MC
MC who’s joints crack randomly OR has Joint Hypermobility Syndrome
For @offbrandmilk and The Simp Club 😂✌️
The Brothers ~
Lucifer 🔥
Y’all are chillin in his study as he finishes up his work when *CRONCH*
He snaps his gaze up, that disgusted surprise on his face at the noise
“MC... did you- did you just make that noise?”
“Ah yea, sometimes my back cracks randomly when I get up lol.”
*Disgust intensifies*
“Do you... need assistance of some kind, perhaps?”
Would relax and sigh with relief when you say no
“You humans never cease to amaze me.” “Thanks!” “... That wasn’t a compliment.” “:(“
Would Glare TM each time it happens, making you feel increasingly self conscious
Until he’ll inexplicably soften - “MC...” “Yes?” “When -“ he’ll huff, “Doesn’t that hurt you? To do that...?”
His brows downturned, blush upon his cheeks as he attempts to examine the latest CRONCH
If yes, will personally see to it that you are looked after during those times - “it’s not that bad Lucifer! Really!” Does not register lol
If no, will revert back to being vexed or ‘disgusted’ by it, especially in public
Clicks his knuckles, on purpose, with a sickening crack
“You hypocrite!”
Mammon 💵
You’re messing with the Levi, having taken a treasured figurine to ‘sell’ when you drop it
“Hurry up would ya? He’ll catch up!”
You squat to pick it up when *CRONCH*
In the heat of the chase, silence falls dead
A solid minuet of Mammon frowning between you and your knees before anyone speaks
The Most Expressive Derp TM
“Wha- what the heck was that?!”
You rise, brushing it off with an exasperated sigh “It’s nothing, happens a lot.”
“We don’t even make that noise when Lucifer punishes us.”
Would occasionally steal glances thinking he’s being surreptitious about it when you finally ask “What is it?” Would fiercely deny it
“Pfft Me? THE GREAT MAMMON? Starin’? Ha - in your DREAMS Human.” Blush
*Spongebob narrator voice* 5 Seconds Later
“Ok so what if i was starin’, huh? It was weird!”
... “You’re fine though, right? It didn’t hurt ya doin that to get the toy of his, right?”
... “Mammon! Would you stop looking at me like i’m going to snap in half if you breathe?!” Blush
Levi 👾
You’re doing a co-op match of a horror game you’re trying with him - things get jumpy when *CRONCH*
You’d bent your arms ‘inhumanly’ at a jump scare, accompanied by a CRONCH
Levi thought it was the game that made that sickening crack
You wish you could frame the horror stricken expression that turns to face you after a dumb moment
His face unmoving, his eyes flit to your bent back arms and your casual smile
Error 404, Levi does not compute
You break the silence with a laugh, “Oh yea i’ve got hypermobility -“ bends arms further
He snaps out of it with a “Wooooaaaaaaaahhhhh!!” “Eek!” As you tease him a bit further
“The game’s scary enough!” “LOLOLOL”
Actually finds it really cool
Quickly gets you two to cosplay and roleplay usuing your ‘Special Ability’ as he’d call it
Would 100% roleplay kinky and try to do it himself, too
Fails
Satan 📚
He’d be teaching you how to play chess in the library. Silent focus, from jovial to tense... until *CRONCH*
Raised brows as he meets your blushing features. You scratch your head, nervous for disturbing the silence
He frowns, a smirk tugging his lips, “Did you just make that sound?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose to put you off or anything -“ “Good. Or else i’d have to punish you.”
You try not to combust at the unintentional insinuation
Otherwise lets it slide, finding it ‘odd’ or ‘quirky’, even endearing...
Likes that he’s the first and only brother to know about this ‘quirk’ of yours
Barely notices it/doesn’t mind at all
That is until, you CRONCH in the silence he requires in order to read dense text
He eyes you darkly as you CRONCH for the fourth time in a row - you wince
“Sorry!” A harsh whisper before you creep out to CRONCH your back elsewhere
Smirks as you leave, shaking his head before calling you back in - as though it were an ‘inconvenience’ to do so
Asmodeus 💋
He’d drawn you a bath in his own king sized tub, ready to spoil you rotten for your spa day
You’d sunk into the tub with an appreciative hum as he began rubbing massage oil in your wrists
He’d set the mood PERFECTLY as usual
“How am I supposed to control myself when you sing so sweetly?” Wiggly brows
There wasn’t a crick, nor a crack... BUT A *CRONCH*
He freezes, you peel your eyes open with a suppressed smile. He makes a choked noise, the mood having been shot dead
“Honey... what the hell was that noise?”
Knowing full well it was your wrists that made such a deafening crack
You giggle at his tense expression, as he asks “So are you secretly an eighty year old, or?”
You explain you have joint hypermobility syndrome, which is sometimes painful
After getting over his initial freak out, he pampers you EVEN MORE
“You come to me if it hurts honey, ok?”
Your pain is his pain, though he may not show it, he actually gets intensely upset if something truly hurts you
Beelzebub 🍔
You’re chilling in your room together, with take out from a new chain beside Hell’s Kitchen, both making happy yummy noises as you eat
*CRONCH*
Beel pauses mid bite, but shrugs and keeps eating. Maybe there was lettuce in his burger after all?
You remember - sauce! Can’t eat with Beel without the full experience!
“Hey there’s some Hellfire sauce in the kitchen lemme grab it real quick -“ “:)”
You get up to get it when - *CRONCH* there go your ankles again. Welp.
His eyebrows raise a second, “MC... are you ok?”
You smile, laughing off how that happens sometimes
He frowns in thought before shrugging with a laugh alongside you, “Fair enough.” Seems legit lmao
He’s seen weirder shit and is still unfazed by it so he does not give a flying fuck lol
“As long as it doesnt hurt.” “:)”
If your joints/limbs were particularly sore or even dislocated that day, he would gently scoop you up and carry you anywhere <3
Belphegor 😴
Your napping in his arms as the little spoon, just between wake and sleep as he snuggles into you. You shift to get comfy when *CRONCH*
He freezes, you freeze too, trying not to laugh
“MC...” he begins groggily “What the fuck was that noise you just made?”
You explain sometimes you just CRONCH. It be like that sometimes Belphie, it do
He doesnt believe you, especially since you’re laughing as you explain it
“No really! I’m serious!” “Then why are you laughing?” “Because it’s funny! You’re reaction pfft” “>:(“
“If your weird human body wakes me up i’m not gonna nap with you again.”
He doesnt mean it
*Goes to leave because you CRONCHED* “Well, where do you think you’re going?”
*Visible Confusion* He flashes a cocky grin, “You’re not skipping out on being my Pillow.”
Grabs your CRONCHY wrist and tugs you back under the covers for more snuggles
“But you said -“ “Shut up and sleep”
*Kisses your forehead* “:)” <3
The Undateables ~
Luke 👼
He’s baking treats for you, Beel and Simeon when you offer a hand when you see him sturggle with the tray and *CRONCH*
The Most Disgusted Face TM
Almost drops the tray on your feet
“What in this disgraceful Devildom was that noise, MC?!”
“My joints do that sometimes” with a shrug and laugh as you #Take 2 with the baking
Turns his nose up “That was a horrible noise no wonder the demons love you so much.”
Tries and fails to act prim and proper as he carries the tray from your grasp, only for Beel to tackle the tray and eat the first batch
This ’Chihuahua’ is all bark and no bite, doesnt mean a word
After a silence, he’ll ask quietly, “Are you... hurt by it?” Little blushy face
If no, he’ll smile and turn his attention back to the sweet treats. If yes, he’ll be a sad puppy
“I’m alright, Luke! Don’t worry.” “Ok :)”
Will fight any demon anyone who may question or mock you over it, even though it doesnt bother you
“ChOtTo MaTtE! >:(“ #NotSoSilentProtector
Simeon 😇
Your walking to class together at RAD when he drops his books. You insist on plucking them from the ground for him when *CRONCH*
Surprised Pikachu Face TM
Breaks into That Smile TM and laughs with you at your cronchie knees
“That was... certainly an interesting noise.”
You don’t need to explain, but you do for the record so to speak
He gets weirdly curious about it, Is it all humans? Do you enforce cronchie joints upon your young? Mandatory or compulsory to be a human with cronchie joints? “:’)”
Will try to CRONCH too out of curiosity
It doesn’t go badly per se, but it doesn’t go well either
“Simeon, stop before you hurt yourself.”
Similarly to Beel, is hardly fazed by it at all when considering some shit this boi has seen
“Oooh like what?! *~*” He smiles all Innocent TM “You don’t want to know.”
Innocent my ass
“Now I wanna know more!”
Solomon 🧙‍♂️
He’s showing you some magic to prank the brothers in a sneak attack when *CRONCH*
He eyes you with That Smirk TM and bursts out laughing with you
“Hey! Me too!” *CRONCH* his knuckles
You two start CRONCH Wars
You act out lines of Star Wars to each other ever since and CRONCH, terrifying the Demon Brothers and Purgatory Hall
“MC, I AM your father.” *CRONCH*
Somewhere nearby, Lucifer holds the bridge of his nose with a deep *sigh*
You both sneak attack the others with CRONCHES, scaring the shit out of them
apart from Beel or Satan. They don’t notice or see it coming, respectively
You did it once to Lucifer. You did not want to do it again ... *~*
You start to slowly recruit others to the CRONCH wars, starting with Levi and Mammon
“When will this nonsense end?” “THE CRONCH WARS NEVER END, LUCIFER. NEVEEER.”
Would CRONCH next to you when you’re asleep to freak you out
*CRONCH* “Solomon... why are you in my bedroom?”
Barbatos 🕰
He’s showing you how to prepare the Hellfire cigar rolled cookies so that you can teach Lucifer, when *SPLAT*
...
Jk, it’s ofc a *CRONCH* - but i nearly got ya! haha ok sorry i’ll stop
Anyway, *CRONCH* go your shoulders as you bend over a simmering tray to get a whiff
Your eyes pop open as you hear the sickening crack and Barbatos makes a small surprised choking noise
You lift your gaze with a nervous smile only to see him smirk
“That was a... curious noise, MC.” That small chuckle behind his gloved hand, “Is that a regular occurrence?”
Laughs it off, shrugs. Surprised he didn’t see it coming when he quite literally knows all
Ignores it from then on
However will chuckle behind that glove if the timing is particularly humourous
Will seem unfazed if it hurt you, but his actions would speak for him.
Making you tea and checking on you more frequently, even if you’re not at the palace
Would snark anyone who comments on your CRONCHINESS like the diva he secretly is
Diavolo 👑
You’re visiting the palace on your best behaviour, taking a stroll with Diavolo when *CRONCH*
He’s smiling through a frown as he tries to work out where the noise came from
“Was - was that you, MC?” That Laugh TM head tipped back, tears in his eyes laughing
“Hahah such fun!” *CRONCH*
He CRONCHED his arms to CRONCH with you, only he CRONCHED too far
His arms are stuck in their newfound ‘unsightly’ position
Puppy eyes as he can’t seem to UN-CRONCH
Your turn to burst out laughing, he quickly joins you
Lucifer’s hand flies to his chest when he sees you two return - “MC... did you have something to do with this?” Glare
You flush, about to fight your case when Diavolo steps in with That Smile TM
“I wanted to joint in!” “...” “;)” *FacePalm*
“It was fun, you should try it Lucifer!”
Satan snickers at the double meaning - “Fun? Lucifer doesn’t know how to have fun.”
Diavolo pulls those Sad Puppy Eyes TM
By the end of the night Lucifer literally bent over backwards to make Diavolo happy lolololol
Don’t take these too seriously! Mostly a shit post for the simp club lolol - hope they made you smile! ✨
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aceofshitposts · 3 years
Note
I saw that you like CATS the musical. What are your thoughts on the movie?
AAAAH AHHAHA oh man oh boy y'all should BUCKLE IN cuz it's a ride
my simple thoughts? it's entertaining if only because it butchered the stage show so badly in an attempt to idk modernize it? Well, modernization is one part of it I think. The other part I'll go into below lol. I don't necessarily hate some of the more modern renditions of the songs (mostly the ensemble sets like Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats) but then others are just... so poorly done it's insulting.
I've said this at the end of this whole rant too but I'm gonna put it up here in case people don't (justifiably) wanna see me go on and on about it:
The movie wasn't made for fans of the musical. It was made to make money and I believe they choose, at least partially, to do that through making it the weirdest and worst possible adaptation they could so that people would want to go see the train wreck. Which, really, worked! It was all people could talk about for a good while so like... Goal achieved, I guess.
A MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT cuz i don't wanna. flood your dash with... this
ALRIGHT SO. Most of my friends know I'm actually a huge fan of new adaptations of things. I love remakes (provided the people making it are coming at it with some form of heart and not just... cash grabbing which is more often the case) I love seeing other peoples interpretations of characters, or changing settings. It's one of the reasons I like American comics so much, getting to see different writers takes is fascinating.
I think musical movies can be wonderful ways to introduce people to a stage show that might have been unavailable to them otherwise! Chicago, for example, is one of the BEST musical to movie adaptations in my opinion. It kept the heart of the show, it's funny and the song numbers are done really well.
There are of course other famous examples, such as Grease or Bye Bye Birdie. Hairspray was also a wonderful take. These are simply off the top of my head, there are of course more.
CATS in particular has a history. If you go through my CATS tag you may see a few posts from @catsnonreplica which posts photos from non broadway productions of CATS! It's a fascinating read and I love, love, love looking at the other interpretations of the characters! CATS is a musical full of fun and wonderful characters if you take the time to see past the ridiculousness haha and the Korean and Japanese runs of CATS especially have some of my favourites.
How does this relate to the movie, I hear you say well. As you might has noticed the movie's interpretations of the characters is........ lackluster at best and downright uncanny valley at best.
CATS is, at its core, a ridiculous thing. I will fully admit that! But it's fun, it's entertaining and if you pay a little attention you can actually get the plot. (Honestly I don't understand when people complain it has no plot but that's a whole other rant for another day)
The movie was... obsessed with this idea of like... semi realism? Like obviously, as a fan, I think they should have leaned into the over the top character designs but instead we got...w ell:
Bombalurina:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Demeter left and Bomba right. Demeter was actually cut! From the movie which is. upsetting lmao.
Macavity is one of the worst offenders for me:
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Macavity was... I wish I could know what the hell they were thinking there cuz it's even in his song? Ginger cat??? THAT IS NOT... A GINGER CAT...... but I digress. I would show more examples but I think you get the point.
So. We've butchered the characters appearances. Okay that's fine but what about their personalities?
ALSO BUTCHERED.
There's... there's a lot to unpack here. Just for context: the Jellicle Ball happens once a year and the Jellicle leader chooses a single cat to be reborn into a new life. In the stage play all the cats who are nominated for this honour are on the older side (Jenny-Any-Dots, Bustopher Jones, Skimbleshanks, Gus The Theatre Cat, and eventually Grizzabella) AND are always nominated by another cat. Not themself, unlike the movie where they all seem to nominate themselves.
Jenny-Any-Dots went from a doting grandmother figure who's celebrated for her selfless volunteering and tireless work into a conceited, vain younger cat who is obsessed with fame.
It's an incredibly strange dichotomy. I don't doubt some of it isn't the result of the uh people playing the characters honestly. I do think some of them did the best they could! I don't really blame Jason Derulo, for example, for Tugger. And honestly, Tugger was probably closest to his stage version (while being a trouble maker, he's shown to show Deuteronomy an immense amount of respect)
Speaking of Tugger! This will bring us to one of the biggest grievances with the movie and that is how they handled Mr Mistoffelees.
So... Ugh. So. We have Victoria as the pov character, which imo is like whatever in the grand scheme of things, and then we have Misto who they have decided will be get live interest cuz... Of course. Misto is shown throughout the musical to be awkward, unsure of himself and well. Really, kinda incompetent. Which is Wild cuz in the stage show he might be aloof but he's fairly confident in his powers.
So, Old Deuts gets kidnapped. In the stage show Tugger is the one to bring Misto forward! It's really quite sweet, imo, and I'm showing myself as a Tuggoffelees shipper here, but again Tugger is previously shown to be pretty conceited but then here he is boosting and hyping up Misto to bring Deuteronomy back. My friends and I have lovingly dubbed this the boyfriend hype song.
SOMEHOW. The movie manages to make this, easily, the MOST BORING number in the whole thing. Which, again, WILD. Misto awkwardly stumbles through his whole song, which again is... Boasting of his supreme magical powers which movie Misto clearly. Does not have or believe to have. The song, to me, feels super awkward and unnecessarily drawn out in the movie which sucks cuz it's one of my favourites in the show.
The declawing (heh) of Mr Mistoffelees actually reminds me strongly of how they changed Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast movie. He's gone from a beloved figure in the animated movie to someone so disliked in the town that Le Fou has to pay people off to say nice things about him. It's just. Wild character choices were made!!
Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat is probably my favourite in movie non ensemble number. It feels the most... Genuine? Compared to the other nomination songs.
Other problems include but are not limited to:
The inconsistent size scale of the CATS which throws me off constantly.
The weirdly overt sexual overtones added to MANY of the songs (Jenny and Bustopher being the worst)
This is just a personal gripe and opinion but I don't like that they used the UK version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. The American version is both better known and tbh way more fun. Teazer's giggle? Adds ten years to my life every time.
Victoria's added solo song, Beautiful Ghosts, while I like the song as a song it doesn't fit the style of message of the musical. In the movie she's singing directly to Grizzabella who's being an outcast for years that she should be grateful she even has memories of being part of the tribe?? What?? But I know they had to add an original song to be able to be nominated for awards in like the Grammys n shit (which is why all musical movies will have an original song, fun fact!!) kinda funny they went to the effort though considering........... I don't think anyone could have genuinely believed CATS 2019 was gonna win anything but golden rhaspberries.
Movie Mr Mistoffelees has made repeated appearances as my sleep paralysis demon
The various cut characters, shout outs to Jemima, Demeter and Jellylorum especially
Bombalurina being a henchman to Macavity rubs me the wrong way
God I've written... So much. You probably get it by now haha. Like I said at the beginning, I try to go into any adaptation with an open mind but... Let's be honest, this movie wasn't marketed to people who are fans of the musical.
It was marketed, and made, to make money. And they choose to do that through, I think, intentionally making the worst possible version ever. Bad press is still press and the more outrageous people said the movie was the more people wanted to go see exactly what kind of train wreck it was.
Which is a disservice to the stage show, honestly, and all the people who've worked on it over the years.
But what can we do, right?
And besides all that, I do... Still own the movie version and I do still rewatch it on occasion. It is entertaining even if it's in a train wreck kind of way. I usually end up watching the 1998 version, then 2019 and then various tour runs that are on YouTube. (I highly recommend the 2016 tour, it's very good)
So in conclusion. It's fun (?) to watch. I enjoy picking things apart and doing analysis (if you couldn't tell!) so like... I don't hate it?
It did what it set out to do, I guess, and I can't fault it for that but. It's not a fair metre with which to judge the stage show imo. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, haha.
Jazz hands. I'm more than happy to elaborate or just chat about CATS if anyone wants! I grew up listening to the Broadway CD since I was a toddler so it's been! A very long standing obsession haha. Probably the only other thing on par with CATS is my obsession with Jurassic Park which I've also been a fan of since I was 3 (but that's a whole story in and of itself)
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Text
scars and stories
prompt: scars
whumpee: nick burkhardt
fandom: grimm
hi! this fic is weirdly not very whumpy...it’s much more like...Thinking and Talking and not hardly any pain at all which is So not my brand but this is how it ended up. i hope that you like it despite the fact that, for a fic written for a whump event, it’s really not so whumpy at all lol. (title from champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends by fall out boy)
Renard has been at the hospital for six hours now. At first, it had been stressful, but he’d had company. They’d all shared in the anxiety and the fear of Nick being in the hospital - again - with a very large, very bloody stab wound in his stomach. And then a nurse had come out and they’d all stood up in unison, and he’d given them one look and taken a step back like he was worried they were going to attack him, then delivered the good news. Nick was okay, stable, and sleeping. And then the bad news - visiting hours were up. 
Renard had managed to talk his way into being allowed to stay until Nick woke up (one of the perks of being a police captain), and the rest of the group had insisted that he provide them with updates as they had made their way out the doors. They’d also half-bullied, half-begged the hospital staff to let them stop by an hour before the visiting hours resumed the following morning. 
And now, Renard is here, by himself, sitting in a chair while Nick sleeps in the hospital bed next to him. It’s odd seeing him so still, paler than normal with several small cuts and scrapes on his face and an IV in his arm and a pulse monitor on his finger. 
“He’s alright. I know you’re well aware of that, but it’s worth repeating, anyway. He’s a real fighter,” says a voice from the doorway. Renard looks up in surprise, instinctively reaching for his weapon until he realizes it’s a doctor. In fact, it’s the doctor who is responsible for stitching Nick back up. He relaxes, slightly sheepish, and lets the man continue.
“He’ll have another new scar to add to the collection, though it’ll hardly be his worst. I have to say, I’m…well, impressed sure isn’t the right word, but…I’ve worked on plenty of cops before. Your detective here has more scars than any of the others, and I’ve operated on lifelong officers, thirty year veterans, the works. Detective Burkhardt has them all beat.”
Renard doesn’t know what to say in response to that. It’s not surprising that his young detective - young Grimm - has scars - he’s been shot and stabbed and in countless fights, and frankly he’d be more surprised if Nick didn’t have scars. It’s more the fact that he apparently has so many - enough to impress a doctor who creates scars for a living. 
And what’s more, Renard realizes, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen any of these supposed scars. Nick is virtually always wearing long sleeves and pants, and his face and hands have somehow avoided being badly hurt. 
Before he can do too much more thinking on the fact that he’s worked with Nick for years and never seen any of his scars that he can recall, the doctor says, “I’ll be on shift until four, if you need anything.” He leaves the room, giving Renard a wave goodbye, and then he’s alone again.
Renard gives Nick another once-over. He still looks as pale and vulnerable as before, and his right arm is poking out from under the blanket with an IV sticking into the skin. He doesn’t want to touch the arm and risk pulling the needle out, so he instead carefully untucks Nick’s left arm from the blankets. Just to see if the doctor had really been telling the truth (though there’s not any reason for him to have lied). 
There are a couple of scrapes, clearly from this most recent fight, and a few small, faded scars. Most of them are short, thin. Grazes from knives, maybe. There’s one near the inside of his elbow that looks like a bite. He’s about to push up the sleeve of the hospital gown, where he can just see the edge of what looks like something jagged and deep and painful on Nick’s upper arm, when Nick moves and makes a soft noise, and he quickly pulls away before Nick can wake up and ask him what exactly he’s doing. 
Nick wakes up slowly, blinking around and looking down at himself and the hospital bed, clearly completely confused. He winces softly as he sits up, putting a hand to the spot on his stomach where Renard knows several fresh stitches are holding him together.
“What…?” he asks, voice soft and scratchy, as his eyes finally land on Renard. 
“You were stabbed,” Renard reminds him. He passes over a small cup of water that had been left for him by a nurse at some point. “You lost quite a bit of blood. You were in surgery for awhile, and you’ve been asleep for the past few hours.”
“Oh.” Nick looks at him with a kind of questioning expression, and Renard pretty easily works out what it means. 
“It’s the middle of the night. The hospital staff allowed me to stay, as a police captain, but visiting hours are long over.”
There’s a look of…surprise, mixed with something like gratitude, on Nick’s face. 
“Why?”
Renard shrugs. “It’s confusing enough waking up from surgery after being stabbed. And more confusing if you’re completely alone.”
Nick hums softly in response, his eyes starting to close. Renard doesn’t want to keep him awake, but he is also a bit curious, and his detective is…uninhibited, thanks to the pain medicine he’s currently on, and he may not get a chance to ask again. So he goes for it.
“The doctor who operated on you told me you have more scars than anyone he’s ever seen.”
That wakes Nick up. His eyes open fully, and make contact with Renard’s. “What?”
“I’ve just…never seen them. You’re always wearing long sleeves, and we’re not exactly the kind of people to talk about…anything like this.”
Nick shrugs like it doesn’t matter at all. “Yeah, I’ve got scars. Part of the job.”
“Which job?”
“Both, I guess. Mostly the Grimm stuff. Y’know, my Aunt Marie was covered in scars. I never knew until a doctor told me, when she was here, before she…”
Scars run in Nick’s family, Renard realizes. Physical, emotional…being a Grimm takes its toll over the course of a life. Has already taken its toll on the man in front of him, who has only been a Grimm for a few short years. 
“How bad are they? The scars.”
Another shrug. “Some are big. Mostly they’re small. I don’t know, I don’t pay much attention to them.” Nick looks down when he says this, his left hand picking at the edge of the blanket. “Guess this will be one of the big ones.”
“It will,” Renard agrees, matter-of-fact. The injury itself had been bad, deep and long and jagged, and he’s sure the new scar, right across Nick’s stomach, will serve as a very prominent reminder of this particular event. (He’s also pretty sure it won’t be the only scar - getting stabbed tends to leave more than one kind of mark, but that’s a talk for another time). 
“Do you have any scars?”
Renard shrugs, not entirely surprised that the conversation is now turning towards him. “A few. Mostly from my time serving as an officer. One or two from Wesen-related incidents. Nothing close to what you have, though.”
“It is kind of a lot, isn’t it?” Nick asks, and he sounds as though he’s never really thought about this before. As though he’s always accepted this - this pain, these scars - as something that is simply a part of his life. The thought makes Renard equal parts angry and sad, and he looks away from Nick for a moment and decides to change the topic of conversation to something a bit lighter. He’s hounded Nick with enough questions for now, he decides (though he also decides that they will be picking this topic up again at a later date).
“How’s your -” he starts, looking back at Nick. Who has fallen asleep again, still pale and not himself, but peaceful, now, too. “Never mind,” he finishes. Lighter topics of conversation can wait.
Renard stands from his seat by the bed, and before he can think the better of it, reaches out and pulls the blanket tightly around Nick, tucking his left arm back beneath it. He lightly touches the side of Nick’s face. “Sleep well,” he says softly, then sinks back into his chair and waits for the morning to arrive. 
thanks for reading! hope you liked this despite it being not my usual sorta thing lmao. anyway i wanted to write this when i rewatched the first couple eps and a doctor asks nick if he knows about aunt marie’s scars. it got me thinking like, nick should have scars too what with all the shit he’s had happen to him. so i decided to write it and give him some :) may revisit this concept later...who knows.
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lizacstuff · 3 years
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EPISODE 34 - Sen Çal Kapımı/Edser Asks
(asks under the read more)
Anonymous said: Thoughts on the episode? I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel which is the end of this current storyline. Very much looking forward to Eda & Serkan being reunited at which point I will delete episodes 30-34 from my memories. This episode to me had the same vibe as 32 which overall had the feeling of actual progression for Eda & Serkan. It has been said before but the amnesia storyline and Serkan falling in love with Eda again could have been much more enjoyable with better writing and no Selin or Deniz but this is the plot we were given. So hoping for another Edser filled episode that includes Serkan professing his love to Eda in front of everyone.
YES, LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Me too. I think we’re close to being rid of Selin and Deniz. 
As for the episode, it was a LOT better than the last one and was probably the easiest episode to watch since 28, but it’s still part of this unenjoyable arc. I agree that it had a similar vibe to 32, which was one of the best of this stretch. The writers seemed to have fixed the Edser screen time issue that plagued the last episode. I always want more, but there was enough in this episode to where at least I didn’t feel cheated. The episode was a lot lighter and had more of a romcom feel than any since Serkan lost his memory and I welcomed that as well. There were a number of very enjoyable Edser scenes AND the icing was very little Selin. 
That gave the episode room to breath, and room for Serkan and Eda to breath, which was much needed. 
Their bickering, starting at the station was fun to watch. And while I was pretty skeptical about an episode centered on Serkan trying to get Eda to admit her engagement is fake, it lead to some fun scenes. Him taunting her in the office about love gave us back some of that old romantic comedy sexual tension. Engin’s couple game gave us a few good moments, but, wow, it was really, really poorly constructed. Seriously, Serkan, you have to find someone savvier to do this sort of work for you. Leyla would have been better, even Erdem would have done better! Probably.  But the looks that Eda and Serkan were giving each other through that sequence gave me life. Squinting, peering one eye open, but always finding one another. Good stuff. 
As for the boxing, I’m glad they waited to do that sequence for a time when she had some anger at him to deal with! It just wouldn’t have been the same if they’d been playfully sparring. I equally enjoyed her beating the shit out of him and how hot her climbing all over him was. 
The catwalk was hot. Like really, super duper, 5 alarm fire, hot. I love that the editors made a 30 foot runway seem like it was 300 feet. And when they turned and she put her hand on his shoulder. I swooned. I don’t even care that it makes no sense to ask your architects to walk in a fashion show... though when one of your architects is as next level beautiful as Eda, you can see why they’d want her. (Sorry Selin, they probably saw you walk at the charity show too, but passed) Though why did they want Deniz? He’s not famous or attractive. It would have made more sense if they’d wanted the famous and handsome Serkan Bolat from the start. Though this way was more fun. GO MELO. BEST FRIEND EVER. Can we get her some sort of prize? She has her dada’s back, ALWAYS.  Serkan and Eda are going to owe her for life.
Having Eda fall off the boat was... extra. Especially since I’m sure she will be fished out no worse for the wear right off the top. Is it too much to ask that Serkan accuses Selin of pushing her? Please!?!?!?
Anonymous said: is it bad that deniz is now annoying me more as a villian than selin.. granted, last ep selin had very little screentime (thank god) and when she was there was usually playing third wheel to edser.. but deniz is slowly getting worse and worse.. manipulating eda into continuing their fake game and now basically pulling the puppet strings with selin. as much as i hated how ceren told serkan about the fake engagement, i WAS rooting her on when she yelled at him about him taking advantage of eda.
Deniz needs to take a long walk off a short pier. Good gawd he’s really turned into a psycho, hasn’t he? 
Look, I know Eda and Serkan are both awesome. They’re insanely good looking and charming and smart and successful, BUT, PEOPLE, even they are not worth losing your dignity and your sanity over. Balca, The Prince, Selin and Deniz... all gone crazy over them.
With Selin this episode, though, she sort of struck me as resigned to her fate. Like she’s still going through the motions of being a psycho stalker and playing the game, but deep down she knows she’s lost.  She’s seen this movie before, she knows what it looks like when Serkan is falling in love with Eda, and she knows it’s happening again and that she doesn’t stand a chance. She’ll keep trying on the off chance Eda gets hit by a bus (or falls off a boat) and because she is seriously not right in the brain, but she’s lost all her swagger. 
Think about all StalkerSelin has witnessed. In 30 she saw them having intense moments by the fire, in 31 she saw them having intense moments on the boat. She knows Serkan took off on her birthday to go help Eda with the project and they spent all day together. Then later that same day she was abandon by him before she could blow out her candles so that he could go save Eda, then she saw him sleep snuggling with Eda, all so they could come back and she could go spy on him planting terrariums with Eda and then he lies to her face and she watches him go to meet Eda for dinner. In this episode, Eda and Serkan were bickering about whether or not Serkan was staring at Eda and they didn’t stop when Selin entered the office and neither one even seemed to noticed her! Serkan is fixated on Eda and Selin knows it. 
She was acting defeated before she got the photos. Now that she has them... what will she do? Crawl in hole and die? One can hope!
Anonymous said: just general thoughts: i was able to enjoy this episode way more than the previous ones and not cause there was miracle occurrence in the episode.. but because there was minimal selin lol. the selin fatigue is real!!! it also helps that while yes, serkan was teasing and trying to rile eda up, he wasn't using selin to do it this episode. for some reason with how it's going (and with neslihan's emoji spoilers for next ep) i do believe he's gonna remember at the end of next ep.
The Selin fatigue is real.  They really ruined what could have been an interesting and good batch of episodes by inserting her unnecessarily into the plot. I really think amnesia was enough drama and enough of a stumbling block without this aggravating nonsense. Every second she is on screen is a chore to watch. 
As for him remembering at the end of next episode, it’s possible. A lot of people are out there selling spoilers (which almost every source of spoilers has been so wrong so many times, that I’m not sure why anyone pays attention to any of them anymore) that he remembers by the end of the next ep. 
Here’s the thing though, he has to tell Eda he loves her before he remembers.  That’s what all of this has been leading to, him falling in love with her again from scratch, so as long as that happens, it’s plausible. But any theory that involves him getting his memories back and then going after her... doesn’t ring true to me. I mean with this batch of writers anything could happen, (because they have some issues) but if they do that, then I have no idea what this entire arc has been about. 
Anonymous said: The mystery person has got to be Ferit, right? ever since that first episode back, they've been sure to throw in one scene each episode where he's delivering some sort of warning to Selin telling her to knock it off. Unless its a random new/returning character that we haven't seen as part of this arc yet.
I don’t know. He’s definitely a suspect, but here’s my thing with that theory, a) Ferit is not the sharpest tool in the shed b) Ferit is usually such a straight forward, honest character. I mean this is the guy that blurted out in episode 1 how happy he was that Serkan was engaged to such a beautiful woman because he considered him his rival for Selin. No filter. 
It’s hard for me to believe he’s become this diabolical and sneaky and savvy. I feel like if he had the photos he’d just hand them to Serkan. But we’ll see. 
He’s on my list of potentials, but I also wonder if someone hired a PI or someone to follow Selin, and on that list of suspects for me is Aydan, Babaanne, Alptekin and Serkan himself. 
Anonymous said: one of my fav scenes from last ep was weirdly the girl talk scene between melo, eda, and ayfer. them talking about eda's feelings and encouraging her was much needed. and for once in the entire show, ayfer actually spoke some sense.. guess her little stint with alex woke up her eyes to love or something lmao. we need more scenes like that where character motivations are laid out plainly.
Ayfer made up for a LOT with that one scene. Wow, she actually wasn’t thinking selfishly and put Eda’s heart first and didn’t immediately vilify Serkan. A miracle! 
It was a very good scene. And when I rank characters (in my head) from best to worst, she’s now above Piril and Ceren! Oh man, Ceren really out did herself with the way she framed Eda’s fake engagement to Serkan. I really don’t understand where her rage at Eda came from, but she better seek help soon if she wants any chance at redemption. 
Also I know it’s terrible, but when Piril was upset about Engin potentially cheating... I LAUGHED out loud. I think I might have also yelled, “SUFFER BITCH!” I really can’t stand her and I loved seeing her miserable. After enabling Selin she deserves the pain. 
Anonymous said: So I kind of felt bad for Serkan because of Eda’s strong reaction to him kissing her but at the same time, not. His out of the blue invitation to dinner and the kiss with no explanation was just never going to go over very well after his recent behavior. And of course she was going to think he got his memory back because in her mind it is the only explanation for him kissing her at this point. But at the same time it would have been really interesting to see how he reacted to her just pulling him in for another kiss. He clearly would have been totally into it and then who knows how the rest of the episode would have gone 🤷🏻‍♀️. They are stuck in a bad cycle, he overlooks her sensitivity to things due to not remembering their past and she is unable to overlook his insensitivity due to their past together. And the writers want to keep dragging this out so Eda & Serkan are constantly interrupted before they can talk stuff out.
They did a nice job of finally having Eda talk about what’s going on in her brain box. She wants her Serkan back just as he was before. Which is understandable, but she’s pinning all of her hopes on Serkan remembering and when he doesn’t she loses it. 
Thank goodness Melo and Ayfer were there to gently talk some sense to her. It isn’t his fault that he doesn’t remember and he’s not doing it on purpose. And as Melo said he’s falling in love with her again, him walking in and kissing her was a big sign of that. I think we all worried he was going to say something jerkish to her after the kiss, but he didn’t. He was just honest that he didn’t remember, and I think slapping him was a little harsh. I mean she’s definitely not in the wrong here, he’s been a whole jackass at times, but she’s putting all her effort into getting him to remember, and she’s not succeeding, but she should maybe recognize when she’s making other headway with him. You know, like him arranging a dinner and walking up and kissing her. Maybe ride that wave and see where it goes! 
As you said, if she’d kissed him again, things would have ended differently. Or if instead of getting angry she had said, “Okay, you kissed me but you still don’t remember, where do we go from here?” However, slapping him in that moment is very true to her character. We know she reacts emotionally, and her spontaneity and volatility are a part of her, and he loved all of her. 
Anonymous said: I guess the writers pay attention to some details - seems the project that got cancelled in 32 was the same Serkan said was going badly in 28. But not other details - Leyla puts down the papers to say the project was cancelled without telling Serkan, knowing that he'd see them on his desk right away, and he does. So wouldn't he have noticed the envelope the day of the surprise dinner? He had plenty of opportunity. I thought this ep it would be revealed he saw the pics but he didn't seem to know.
I find it hella hard to believe that those photos sat on his desk all day and he didn’t open them (in 33) or that they hit his desk this episode after Eda handed them to him and he didn’t open them. So, yeah, either he’s seen them or this was a big writing fail. (Right now I’m thinking it was a big writing fail).
Though personally, at this point, I don’t want them to be found until after Serkan declares his love for Eda. Let him make the decision and then lets have the evidence that makes everything guilt free and easier to humiliate and punish S/D.
Anonymous said: Is Deniz trying to trick Eda into a real legal marriage? is that what is about to happen here? I can't decide if he is worse than Selin now. I'm going to need Ayfer to bring back her threat to expose everything.
They can be equally psycho and bad. I’m not sure overall he’s worse, yet, but he was definitely way worse this episode. How has Eda not noticed that he has interrupted intense moments between her and Serkan too many times to be helpful? That’s one thing I hate about this storyline is that they have had to dumb down both Eda and Serkan to make it work. 
I have no idea what Deniz’s end game is. Is he going to trick her into marriage? But even so, what then?  If she thinks it’s a fake ceremony, but it’s real, what does he think Eda is going to do? Does he really think she’ll think his lies and tricks are charming, and stay married to him? 
Or does he think that if he gets Eda to the wedding day, and Serkan doesn’t make a move, Eda will just go “Okay, then I guess I might as well marry you for real.”  Good grief. The guy is delusional. 
I admit that I yelled, “FUCK YOU” multiple times during his scenes. This was a very vocal episode for me. I was so happy when Melo outmaneuvered him at the fashion show. Finally, someone was able to turn the tables on him. 
Anonymous said: I am so tired of hearing on Twitter that the Eda is entirely to blame for Edser not being reunited yet. Nope, that does not rest entirely on Eda or Serkan’s shoulders. The writers have created a never ending cycle of the two of them hurting each other directly & indirectly and also being manipulated by their so called childhood friend/fiancés. This Serkan does not even believe in true love and has been manipulated to think Eda is an awful person. Eda has been watching the love of her life getting cozy with Selin and he has repeatedly told her that they do not have a future together not to mention Deniz’s manipulations as well. Regardless of what they are each feeling, they do not think the other person feels the same way. The fake engagement with Deniz is awful just like Serkan’s real engagement with Selin is but again not solely Eda’s fault. And saying that Eda needs to be the bigger person because she has her memories is not fair. She does not know if he will ever get them back and again he has repeatedly said they have no future together & he is with Selin. Eda walks into that office everyday to be close to him and she puts up with his crap comments and the bs from Selin in the hope that things turnaround. And for the boxing scene, yes, it would have been great if Eda has poured out her true feelings but not 100% sure the writers would have let Serkan reciprocate in that moment not to mention Deniz showed up 3 seconds later. The real people to blame are the writers that came up with this plot where no one wins.
Someone said Eda is entirely to blame for Edser not being reunited yet? Where are you hanging out on twitter? You need to find better people to follow who understand that Serkan HAS AMNESIA and is being manipulated. No need to play the blame game on this one, it’s a horrible situation for both of them. 
Eda has been dealt a lousy hand, very lousy, she and Serkan are both victimes here trying to find their way out. That being say, she decided to go on the offensive and play a game, and in that game she’s made some tactical errors. Which is not laying blame it’s just saying she’s made some missteps. 
Where she’s going wrong, as I said above, is that she is doing everything to get Serkan to remember, and she isn’t focused in on the fact that he’s falling back in love with her regardless of his memory. That’s pretty extraordinary! 
I really think when she answered “Yes” to loving Deniz and wanting to marry him, that was one of those missteps. A big one. I’m not saying she should have bared her soul right then and there, but I think she probably would have been better off not answering the questions at all. Perhaps telling him that he can’t ask her that while he’s engaged to Selin. Turn it back on him, but saying she loves Deniz when they were having a very serious, raw moment... mistake. And that’s why the whole thing is going to go right up until the wedding day.  Let’s hope one of them puts their stubbornness aside before she’s shackled to a psycho. (Don’t worry, they will). 
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