#this post was initially about all three of them but y'all see how long just Makoto is

[angelwonie]

LET ME IN || elijah hewson

PAIRING: elijah x reader

WORD COUNT: 3.3k

GENRE(S): fluff, a bit of angst, friends to lovers, hurt comfort

SUMMARY: when your best friend turns up at your front door unannounced, you decide to find out why he's acting so strangely. what you don't expect is for some repressed feelings to bubble up to the surface.

WARNINGS: smoking, mentions of drinking + being drunk, kissing, eli has daddy issues oops

this is it y'all i've gone insane... he looked at me once and this is what happens. @boobyskeetz made me post this btw

It’s far along in the evening when you come home to find Elijah Hewson sitting on your staircase with his head in his hands. 

He’s slumped over, leather jacket around his shoulders and a slowly burning, unattended cigarette in between the pointer and middle finger of his right hand. The sky is pitch black, the only source of light being an ancient lantern whose shine just barely reaches Elijah’s hair. 

You’re shocked at the sight, to say the least, the heaviness of your grocery bags suddenly a faint background noise. 

“Eli?” you move closer, albeit hesitantly, and your voice makes his head snap up.

When he looks at you, you fight back the urge to gasp. His eyes, half lidded, just barely glimmer in the faint light provided by the moon overhead, leaving room for his undereye bags to stand out. And they do stand out — so much that you almost don’t catch him stumbling over his feet ever so slightly as he walks over to where you’re standing. 

Almost. 

“Are you alright?” 

It’s not a question, not really, but he winces either way. You stand close enough to see it, but immediately, his lips pull into a lopsided grin to hide his initial reaction. 

“‘Course I am,” he takes a drag of his cigarette, and uses his other hand to take one of your grocery bags. “Just wanted to see you, that’s all.”

You nod, watching him drop the unfinished cigarette to the ground and step on it. You wonder how many he’s smoked today and consider asking, but decide against it upon realizing you probably don’t want to know. Instead, you let him take your grocery bags wordlessly, following him up the stairs. 

It’s a short staircase, but you’re walking slowly – too slowly for your liking – and there’s a million questions burning on your tongue. You hold them back, mostly because you’re tired, but also because something in Elijah’s eyes tells you not to push. 

He’s the one to speak first when you reach the right apartment. “Hey, your flowers are still alive.”

He’s referring to the roses he helped you pick out last month. It was a treat for yourself, for finishing all your assignments, and you had taken the whole ‘plant mom’ job pretty seriously, even putting the roses in a prettier vase and putting it on display outside of your apartment. 

“Yeah,” you chuckle. “They’re holding up really well.”

Elijah waits for you to unlock the door, then walks inside with you in tow. He wobbles a little as he drops down his shoes where he always puts them — where he’s put them ever since you told him three years ago it could be his spot. 

You watch him shoulder off his jacket and start organizing the groceries in the fridge from afar, slowly taking off your outerwear. It’s warm inside, and your skin feels like it’s about to be set on fire after being out in the cold for so long. You think of Elijah sitting on your doorstep. How long was he waiting for you? 

“Mind if I take a beer?” he cuts off your thoughts and you look up to find him with his hand on your fridge, an inquiring look on his face. 

Now the lighting’s better, and you can clearly see his face. The creases between his brows, the focus in his gaze, the stubble that he’s let grow just a little longer than usually. Whether that’s a deliberate choice or simple forgetfulness, you’re not sure, but it worries you. His state worries you. 

“Suit yourself.”

Maybe you should have said no, you think as he takes a sip of the drink and you’re reminded of the wobble in his walk. He’s probably had enough to drink already. To be fair, though, Elijah can be stubborn when he wants to, and something’s telling you today is one of those days. 

When everything is either in the fridge or in a cupboard, you and Eli wander into the living room, shoulder to shoulder, without much to say. It’s messy, and he scolds you playfully for it — like he’s not the guy whose dorm you have to clean each time you come over. 

You join his laughter though, and plop down on your couch a little more relaxed than before. 

“How long did you wait for me?” 

This time you manage to ask him the question, and he shrugs.

“A couple hours.”

He lifts the beer up to his lips and empties it, the can blocking out his view of you and your widened eyes. 

What the hell is going on? His gaze tells you nothing. It’s so indifferent it makes you want to rip your hair out, because no matter how much he wants to pretend spontaneously coming over at three am is normal, it’s not. Especially when it comes to him. 

Sure, if it were Robert, you would’ve figured it was just him acting on impulse, but it was never like that with Elijah. 

“You could have just called,” you say finally, a slight quiver to your voice. “You should have just called. You know that, right?”

He meets your gaze, but not for long; after a second it drops down to his lap, like he’s embarrassed. You hold your breath, awaiting an answer. His fingers drum against the side of the couch, but then he changes his mind about that, too, and brings his hand to scratch the side of his face. God, what is he even doing? Trying to see how long it’ll take for you to snap and throw him out of the apartment? 

Suddenly, he sighs deeply, dropping his hands in his lap. “Didn’t wanna bother you.”

You can’t help yourself from scoffing. That’s it? He ‘didn’t wanna bother you’? Maybe you would’ve believed it hadn’t he shown up unannounced at your front door in the middle of the night. 

You almost open your mouth to say just that, but stop yourself when Elijah looks up again, and his bloodshot eyes meet yours. Something’s definitely not right. You can physically feel it, the tightening of your chest, the anger somehow pushed to the back of your head. 

“Why are you here?” you ask him sternly, keeping your eyes on him. This time, he doesn’t look away. 

“Do you want me to leave?”

It comes out meek, frail, as he almost chokes on his own words. You’re taken aback by the shiver in his voice, the drop of his shoulders. He places the beer can on your table and you swear his hands shake — just barely, but enough for you to see and for your heart to clench in response. 

You shake your head. “No, I want to know why you’re here.”

He laughs humorlessly, leaning forward in his chair. His hands are definitely shaking, but you’re not sure whether it’s from the alcohol or something entirely different. 

You know this face on him — he’s bothered by something, but doesn’t want to admit it. He’s always been like this, ever since you met him at school and watched his eyes glow with the same sadness after his teachers told him he should work on his grades. It was the same look on his face, the same millions of feelings threatening to bubble over the surface. 

The only difference seems to be that now, he’s got no cap in his hands to close the bottle. 

“I’m just tired, that’s all. Wanted to talk to you ‘cause the lads are too much noise.”

You frown and send him a look of disdain. Perhaps this isn’t something you should push on him, but seeing as he just magically appeared at your apartment while drunk, you do have a right to at least inquire what the fuck is going on.  

“If you’re going to lie to me, you might as well leave.”

Silence follows your statement; silence so loud you almost regret saying anything at all. He grits his teeth, and you swear you can hear it from across the table — though that might just be your brain playing tricks on you this late in the evening. 

“It’s my dad,” he mutters finally, scratching his stubble. “Not that that’s much of a surprise.”

“What happened?” 

“Nothing new, really,” he exhales, closing his eyes briefly. “Just, you know, the usual ‘you’re wasting your life by not going to college’ talk. Total bullshit, as always. The only thing wasted is those twenty minutes of my life I spent listening to him talk about it.” 

You breathe out slowly, fighting against the urge to look away from his gaze. He keeps it on you, unwavering, but you don’t know what to say. It’s dangerous territory, one you haven’t ever entered fully, and the worry of hurting him pangs at your chest; the legitimacy of his vulnerability scares you and moves you all the same. 

You bite the inside of your cheek.

“He’s just worried, you know. I would be, too.” 

“Why?” his lip quivers and your heart sinks in your chest; so quickly it forces a sudden nausea upon you. “Because I’m not cut out for this?”

“No, Eli, that’s not what I–”

He cuts you off — not with his words, but with his hands gripping the arms of his chair to help him stand. It’s so abrupt your words die down in your throat, leaving a dryness behind. Hovering above you, he still looks small, like he’s fading into the light above; barely even present as Elijah but rather as some mass of feelings clumped together, ready to explode. 

“Do really none of you think I can make this work?” 

It’s the alcohol, you think, god, you shouldn’t have let him drink any more — how could you be so careless? But no, it’s not your carelessness or his, and you know that, even in this state of panic, it somehow reaches your mind — the revelation that this isn’t a random outburst. 

It’s the fruit of a tree that’s been growing for a long time; the ripeness isn’t fake, even if you’re unprepared to pick it.

“Do you really think that?” he asks this quietly, his voice barely audible, but it feels like he’s tearing your skull apart with a scream. 

Do you really think that? The very assumption, the very thought, disgusts you. The thought that you could ever believe he won’t make it — it’s so unnerving you let out a shaky breath. 

A movement of your legs from underneath you and you’re standing. Your feet tap against the floor as you walk up to him slowly, like approaching a scared deer. He is scared, you realize. Your fingertips tingle with the longing to run your hands over his face, but you hold them back, instead answering his question.

“No.” 

He blinks, and you say it again: “No,” and again and again, “No, no, no, no,” until it almost doesn’t feel like a word anymore and more like some sort of bandage wrapped around a bruised bone. 

“Your dad doesn’t think that, either. He’s just worried because he cares. Because he loves you.” 

He falls silent. “I’m not so sure.”

“About what?”

He doesn’t reply instantly. You look down on his hands, only to find that they’re still shaking, and take a couple steps forward. Elijah doesn’t notice, you think, or if he does, he doesn’t show any disdain for your closeness. 

“About love,” he says finally. “Isn’t love supporting someone unconditionally? Rooting for them, no matter what? That description doesn’t really fit my dad.” 

“I think you’ve got it all wrong.” 

You suppress the smile that threatens to form on your face when he sends you a confused look, his nose scrunched. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you can support whoever you want without much difficulty,” you look at the floor, thinking of what to say next. “That doesn’t mean you love them. If you love someone, it means you’re willing to suffer through discomfort and pain to make them happy. You’re willing to spend your nights worrying if they’ve chosen the right path. You let them into your apartment at three am. That type of thing.” 

Thirty seconds pass before you finally look back up, internally shivering at the way his stare bores into your soul. 

“You…” he trails off, wincing like it’s painful. Uncharted territory, yet again — that much is obvious from how your heart bangs against your ribs. The silence in the room makes you worry if he might just be able to hear it.

You hear him inhale sharply, taking a step back so he can sit at the edge of your sofa. Following suit, you observe his eyes shining in the light, less red than before though still uncertain. His shoulder brushes against yours and you breathe in — he smells of alcohol, but it’s oddly comforting in the storm of your thoughts. 

Elijah’s head turns to you. 

“Have you… ever thought this is all for nothing? That I keep leaving the tour bus with more and more bruises for no reason at all?” 

Your fingertips tingle again, and this time you do nothing to stop them from brushing over the back of his hand. It’s stupid, probably, but it feels right, his skin against yours. He’s warm, really warm, but it doesn’t bother you in the slightest, even when he leisurely drags his forefinger down the side of your hand. It tingles, but you don’t move away. 

Elijah’s hand doesn’t shake anymore when you interlace your fingers together. Finally, you get the courage to speak. 

“I’ve held your hair back while you were throwing up, Eli. Tied your shoelaces after a tiring show. Corrected your lyrics until four at night so you could send them to your manager before dawn. I wouldn’t do any of that if I didn’t believe you were on your way to the top from the first time I saw you,” you take a deep breath, eyes fluttering shut for a moment before you look directly at him. “I wouldn’t do any of that if I didn’t believe in you.” 

It’s silent after that. For a long time. But his hand sits clammily in yours like a pearl in a clamshell, and you hold onto it for dear life, praying he won’t slip out from your grip. 

“Promise me you won’t stop.”

Your head turns, startled by the sudden statement. His gaze scans you from head to toe, lingering on the curve of your lips, then your nose and finally your eyes, where it stops and plants its roots. You feel it spreading almost like wildfire, the warmth that comes with it. You almost tremble underneath it, squeezing his hand a little harder. 

“Won’t stop what?” you whisper, eyes wide.

“Letting me into your apartment at three am.”

His gaze drops in a manner someone might’ve mistaken for lazy, but you know him well enough to recognize the vacillation in his eyes. You feel his fingers shiver in your embrace, every breath strained. 

“Why not?”

You move closer, only by a centimeter or so, but he senses it — all the cells in his body seem to tingle with the paradox of wanting to touch and wanting to run all the same. Maybe it’s the unexpectedness of it all, or maybe rather it’s the arbitrary comfort that comes with it, that scares him to death, but whatever reason, he feels like he’s entering a deadly storm. 

And perhaps it’s the alcohol and he’s not thinking straight, but this storm appears more inviting than any sunny day he’s ever witnessed. 

He squeezes your hand tighter and leans down until his lips are impossibly close to brushing against your nose. You feel his hot breath on your face, sparks dancing across your skin to the smell of cigarettes and whiskey and beer, his hand shaking ever so slightly. 

“Because I still haven’t gotten the chance to let you into mine.” 

You smile — a real smile that you no longer manage to hold back. He mirrors the expression, albeit softly, lines appearing in the corners of his mouth. Let me in. Hues of colors appear in his eyes just as his shaky pointer finger grazes your jaw. Let me in. He cups your cheek gently, his lips parting in a breathless exhale. 

Let me in, let me in, let me in.

He does. Just when the clock shows 3:47am and your shirt feels like it’s sticking to your skin, he finally closes the distance between you.

His lips brush over yours — it’s featherlight and careful, but you accept it all and kiss him back nonetheless. You can taste cigarettes on his tongue when he opens his mouth. Suddenly, the clock’s sound doesn’t reach your ears anymore, and all you can hear is the beating of your heart inside your throat. His finger strokes your cheek and his nose bumps into yours, but it’s fine. It’s more than fine. 

You breathe in the scent of him, bringing your hands to tangle themselves in his hair in a moment of recklessness. Yeah, you’ve definitely gone absolutely crazy — but that’s a problem to solve later. For now, you’re kissing Elijah Hewson.

You’re kissing Elijah Hewson. It’s almost a revelation that dawns upon you like the waves of a tsunami, knocking the breath out of your lungs. It squeezes at your heart, a drawstring closing around it, and you have to pull away to breathe, to examine his face, puffy lips and tired eyes, to understand the gravity of your situation.

“We just kissed,” you say, and your voice shakes even though you strain to keep it calm.

“Yes,” he affirms, like it’s nothing. But it is something, and his eyes can't hide that. “We did.”

“But you’re drunk.”

“You think that’s why I did it?”

“I don’t know.”

He smiles and you swear your heart almost leaps out of your chest. “You do.”

“I don’t.”

He looks at you for a moment – your messy hair, reddened lips, the hesitation in your gaze – and makes his decision. 

In less than a second, he drops down to his knees and you’re about to protest (because what does he think he’s doing?) until he grabs your hand and holds it between both of his. You furrow your eyebrows to hide the fact that you’re taken aback, though from the glint in Elijah’s eyes you figure you’re not doing a very good job at it. 

He looks at you, like really looks at you, and you look at him the same. The fruit lies in the palm of your hand and squeezes to the beat of your heart when he speaks. 

“I love you.” 

Your breath catches in your throat when he kisses your knuckles softly, and keeps them against his lips. “That’s why I kissed you, why I turned up to your apartment at three am, why I don’t regret it. Any of it. I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Something pulls at the very back of your throat. You keep your mouth closed, but even that doesn’t stop a choked whimper from leaving you — a sound that makes Elijah’s lips quirk upwards. He smiles, and you attempt to do the same, yet all you manage is a half-laugh, half-sob that shakes though your body. 

Embarrassed, you look down, and you can hear Eli chuckle before the warmth of his arms envelops you whole. He hugs you tightly against his chest, fingers coming up to stroke your hair as you partly laugh, partly cry into his shirt. And even though it should be humiliating, the act feels so powerfully comforting that you let him hold you. 

“I love you too.”

You whisper this into his chest, breathing heavily. He pulls away and you look up, confused, but he smiles that gorgeous smile of his, with teeth on display and smile lines appearing, and cups your jaw. His eyes shimmer with undoubtable joy. 

He doesn’t have to say anything. You know.

“That’s a fucking relief, huh?” he whisper-laughs and you join in on it.

“Yeah.”

And you smile.

He’s let you in, and you don’t think you’ll be leaving any time soon. 

[azure-cherie]

Some astro observations pt:4🧡

Hello how have yall been it's been a long long time so i hope you guys enjoy this post 🥹🧡

All of the observations here are based on sidereal/vedic measurements, this is what I have observed, take what resonates I'm not a professional astrologer, do not plagiarise my work !! I recently got into composite and synastry so i included some of my observations I hope you can relate to them.

🍁Moon - mercury - jupiter conjunction can make the native really intelligent and wise , but the downfall of this placement could be that you're always required to act tough in situations where you just need to let it flow or cry it out , it's like you have to be the mom of the house , like being the person who understands, they expect you to be the bigger person all the time , truth is it's not possible, the faster you realise that you choose your battles the better for you , always choose yourself and let your emotions flow , you don't have to intellectualise everything you got this sweetheart.

With this conjugation being in 10 H you might take an overload of work at your job , being in 11th too fixated on social media ,but at the same time you will be seen as someone who is really wise and would definitely listen to you , in the 5th 😭 it's like being a mother to your mother and people around you 😭 please don't, you are meant to live a free life , however with this being in the 3 rd house can make you a great writer a philosopher , very very intelligent, in 1st house would give you a nerd vibe or just someone who is very intelligent, this in the first could give you a very youthful appearance as well , since mercury represents skin along with the Jupiter and moon gives you like , people would say that you look like the young version of your mother . In the 12 would make you really spiritual and very psychic.

🍁The glass clear skin is a very Virgo thing y'all so pretty pretty. Along with it all chitras have a pearl shine to their skin , like greyish undertone , they're very famous as well.

🍁Having pisces placements in your big three might make you kind of aloof IDC what y'all say pisces know whom to give a fuck about, they ain't dealing with your half ass convos and half ass love, they are the loveliest people alive too i mean i don't know how they manage it , in purva bhadrapada know their worth they aren't sticking with you if you backstab them , they are mostly aloof and know their game very well , Uttara Bhadrapada's are great people very misunderstood, they are just kinda there is what people say , then one day you see the wrath of their anger and suddenly they are the villain like 💀 now no one likes them , you really cannot see a queen queening than that's your problem , with revati I've only observed one boy , like if you want someone to worship you get a revati man fr , they fall so hard in love , sometimes mould themselves which is not the healthiest thing , establishment of boundaries is quite a necessary theme initially for a revati after that you can vibe with what you have made for yourself.

🍁Pushya women will not hear you degrading yourself, they are one of the bestest friends you can have , they will love you more than you love yourself, be sure that you love them that deeply as well , their beautiful heart is a beautiful centerpiece it must be preserved with care .

🍁Hello Aquarius venuses so how many lovers did you gather this week damn like y'all charismatic as hell , i know some people with this placement they have so many lovers , they're pretty unforgettable 🥹 , also a lot of Aquarius Venuses could become others muses , they have the vibe of someone poets write about .

🍁9th H synastry is so interesting, like it's so much about wisdom and teaching each other stuff growing together, loving each other , being their for one another, like the person you are having with it could be a person with heavy anger issues and you are the only one who can calm them down , this synastry is good for partnerships , like in business as well , this will lead to the growth of both of you .

🍁Moon - sun synastry, oml 💀 initially it's great and nice and you love the play the tension, then deal with the ego clashes , i had it with an ex friend , could make you feel very unworthy, confused too but however it differs with houses as well , as for me it was my 1H moon so yeah 💀 rip my need to change myself anyway this was like when i was 13 or so , it's alright and works good if you're matured enough to handle it ig , no matter the synastry you can always work to make it in your favour .

🍁Composite moon in leo , is so good y'all see those relationships where people grow together and don't work against each other , this is that vibe , power couple, when with friends gives genuine happiness and appreciation for each other , in 2H might bring you money or you could work together for earning money , in 4H business investments, beautiful for growth .

🍁Composite moon in Taurus , i had this with two of the most closed off people I know you know what this makes them open up really easily to you like the whole world thinks they are really hard on themselves and always working but you know they love watching movies and cannot sleep without a soft toy and love heart shaped objects , how lovely is that 🥹.

🍁People with hasta placements are literally not addictied to the internet at all 😂 like please teach me too , and oftentimes they go off so that they can redirect their life , it's like initially they love being on the internet and then suddenly things happen in their life and boom they can't be found for months , but i think it's a good thing that they can focus on themselves now.

🍁Ardra woman and their joy and childlike energy and they way they love so beautiful so fierce , they are very upfront and tell you if they like you and will defend you fearlessly.

🍁Having punarvasu placements can make you very imaginative and good at writing, punarvasu placements can also deal with ardra like themes in their initial years , however due to the redirection theme of this nakshatra they go back to being soft . Also gossiping is a punarvasu sun thing not a punarvasu moon thing , you know i learnt that gossiping existed because of a punarvasu sun but then again that could be the synastry💀 .

🍁People expect Deva gana Nakshatras to be so giving oml it's just a gana no of us is a god 💀 and every Nakshatra has its good and evil side every human does , also a rakshasa gana keeps a Deva gana on their feet , like they can help them establish boundaries well , friendships between Deva and rakshasaganas are better than relationships. Manushya ganas keep vibing they can adjust with anyone which is the best part but if you're one know that your identity must only be influenced by things you wish to embody, don't just jump to get everything that attracts you , learn distinction, it's really nice to be a rakshasa gana , in this age you know how things work and can actively filter out what to fight for which is really hard for a Deva gana to do.

🍁Sun mercury conjunction can make you good with advice, your fame could be established through the education field, you could be really good at teaching people.

🍁Jyesthas literally do not have to try , they just naturally embody royalty, glamour , beauty , they know so much and are literally so humble , also i have noticed they're always busy or maybe it's a vibe around them , their life moves pretty fast they do a lot of things .

🍁Swatis are literally so pretty, so many popular and beautiful people i know have swati placements, rahu represents the divine feminine so makes sense, ardra being famous because of their childlike nature and social skills , Swati for their beauty and glamour , shatabhisha for their skills , rahu be ruling.

🍁An Ashwini woman is the definition of sophistication , so organized so pretty, knows their stuff and are really sweet and the bestest friend you can ever have .

🍁Vishakhas have had really hard experiences with their family, they could deal with a lot of emotional baggage of their mom , however i have seen most of it healing as they reach their adult stages after being in their teenage years, all the best to you my love you are strong and never alone.

🍁Mulas are very very religious ,they could even numb themselves through religion like it's okay to work on your traumas then to pray , like definitely god will help you but you gotta help yourself first , and after being really angry in their initial life they could become a believer of peace later, they value their alone time so much, also i know two mulas who just want to go down a pilgrim path although they are like so young.

🍁Uttara Phalgunis are so nurturing and loving, they literally love everyone which also makes them prone to being exploited 🤡 stop taking advantage of my queens 👑 , they deserve the world , they could also have a golden tint to their skin and are very enthusiastic towards life , could deal through some feuds with authority figure sometimes .

Do you guys want me to study divisional charts and make a post on it , if yes which one , general suggestions are very very welcome and requested , tell me anything you'd like me to make a post on 🧡

Thank you so much for reading

[stoopid-turtle]

made-up thoughts about dd's thoughts

Hi there! I warned y'all that I might post more and I've been watching SDC so I wanted to compile my massive load of DD thoughts. Apparently, I think about dd a lot.

I've struggle with how to organize these thoughts because they're so scattered and there are just a whole bunch of them. So I decided to center them around moments I think about a lot. Not necessarily fun dd moments, though some of them are fun. But just...moments that I feel tell me a lot about dd.

As a disclaimer, I'm making up a bunch of nonsense about dd as a person, but I don't actually know him and you shouldn't take anything I say seriously. I'm very likely to be wrong about most of it. In fact, if dd somehow managed to read this humble post, he would probably roll his eyes. And you know what? It would be an honor for him to have done so.

There'll be a few posts. There are three others in drafts right now, though I may combine two of them. We'll see. But I'm starting out with this one just because it was done first.

I'm at around ep 8 of SDC4, and I think the only way to watch subtitled versions of SDC5 are by downloading an app that Google won't let me download because of region restrictions (and then paying a subscription fee). Needless to say, I probably won't be able to watch SDC5 anytime soon. :(

(those episodes are sooooo looonnngggg)

There's an episode in SDC4 when the captains have picked 4 leaders to start off their teams. They put together a rehearsal battle to show the other contestants the captain's style and help make decisions during the next recruitment segment.

DD picks 4 top dancers as his leaders. These are fantastic dancers, specifically battle dancers. And they do horribly in the rehearsal battle because they're not used to dancing routine, there are no choreographers so while their performance was highly technical, it wasn't really entertaining or meaningful, and the team itself just didn't cohere because these are all people who specialize in battling alone.

DD has a little meltdown while his team loses, and it's kinda uncomfortable to watch. He says in a debrief with his team afterward that he's one of those people that likes winning (which, yeah, duh, DD).

I think a lot about DD's initial strategy. It seems straightforward. Get the best dancers. Have the best team. Work hard. Win.

DD's not a deep thinker. I don't mean he's stupid, because he's actually pretty smart and quick to pick up on things. But he just doesn't see the need to introspect or dwell on things. He strikes me as the type of person who might go through some difficult event and come out the other side wanting to just move on because, "It's in the past. Why bother thinking about it?"

(I think he is getting more introspective as he gets older, as evidenced with his performance of Like the Sunshine. I think that's typical as one ages though)

I'm also struck by the feedback he gives as a captain. He usually makes pretty detailed comments about the technical aspects of the dance, and sometimes, with the more thematic pieces, he'll just outline the story of it. He's pretty literal and straightforward in his thinking.

In any case, dd stands out among the captains for his emphasis on winning. The captains of the other teams cultivate a family atmosphere and often make an effort to emphasize having fun over winning (dd emphasizes fun...as long as his team is winning). The other captains will break down in tears when they have to eliminate dancers, and they'll give nothing but praise to the dancers.

DD is the prototypical "not here to make friends" competitor (though he does actually make friends). One of the most common comments dd gets from dancers or judges is that he works really hard and is a perfectionist with his technical performance. (As a fangirl, I love hearing other people remark on how impressive dd is. I'm all like, "Damn right, that's my bb!"). Dd has high expectations of himself and of the dancers in his team, and he'll criticize the dancers if he feels they fell short.

It's not mean-spirited but it is blunt and is something that the other captains don't do. DD will point out mistakes and be outspoken when he's disappointed with a performance. He also doesn't cry when he has to eliminate someone. He obviously doesn't like doing it, and I do think his style of doing it quickly without the anxiety of drawing it out is kinder. But it also fits in with his decisive, direct way of doing things.

I think about this all in connection with the bts of gg saying he prefers men without makeup. DD gets incredibly defensive, misconstruing what gg's saying as a slight against idols. It's a funny bts, because gg's clearly trying to pay dd a compliment, but dd doesn't even realize this because he's so caught up in defensiveness.

But the defensiveness tells us that dd's felt belittled and looked down on for his idol background, I think especially in some of his hobbies and other activities. Professional dancing, motorcycling racing, skateboarding. His being an idol has made people not take him seriously (I think that's what happened at the beginning of SDC3 when dd got the fewest towels of all the captains from the start).

I think that can be frustrating because dd's initial interest as a teen boy was dancing. I don't know all the decision-making that went into him going off to get trained by Yuehua as an idol, but doing so ironically made it harder for him to get respect from the professional dancers that he admires.

That's why dd works so damn hard, often to the point of overwork. He's demanding of his team just as he's demanding of himself. This is a guy who puts himself into the hospital with how much he works (and then forgets about it afterward). He's wearing himself out in trying to prove himself, and I'm glad that he recently actually took a day off when he was sick. GG's a good influence.

This all takes us to another DD moment, one that is more fun to watch, and that is dd's whole thing with the waacker, Xiao Bao. During a battle, Xiao Bao touches the back of dd's head, and dd immediately stands up and grabs Xiao Bao, keeping a hold of him even as he tries to dance away. Then there's some minor waacking and, um, lip-licking from dd.

When asked at hotpot, dd explains that he was trying to get Xiao Bao to run out his time by keeping a hold of him so he couldn't dance. By touching him, Xiao Bao had challenged dd and dd responded according to street dance rules. DD seems confused by others' confusion because it's self-explanatory to him.

It is just...so very dd to be so single-minded about a thing that he doesn't even realize how incredibly gay it looked. Just, immensely fantastically gay. (I'll get back to this in another post, but I'm focusing elsewhere here)

Honestly, he's sometimes come across as being on the spectrum, though that may well be me overidentifying with some traits. But he has his special interests and while he may be generally quiet, he will start happily rambling if asked about motorbikes or legos or skateboarding (or if plopped down next to gg). He's incredibly fidgety and has a weird thing with stroking tassels.

I know people on the spectrum are more often associated with sensitivity to lights and noise, but there is variation in that. Some folks tend towards the opposite and end up being thrill-seekers.

Some of his mannerisms and social interactions ping me as spectrum-y. During the "JC's fake butt" bts conversation with the rest of the cast, gg characterizes dd as the type to bluntly go up to JC and ask him about the fake butt. He's probably not wrong.

In the bts, dd also has several moments of not being properly romantic by gg's standards or of being a little mean to gg and then apologizing later. This may be more of a young man thing than a spectrum thing, though. IME, guys that age are more prone to that sort of thoughtless behavior than guys who are older.

In any case, dd's reputation as aloof is surface-deep, as seen when he's comfortable with people. He's able to joke and play around with others once he warms up to them. I know gg is often seen as uniquely able to soften dd up, and I do think dd is distinctly more affectionate/playful with gg. But it's a difference in degrees. DD also seems comfortable with the other DDU hosts, with his UNIQ brothers, sometimes with the other SDC captains (though not as often), with certain dancers (like Bouboo and Yang Kai).

Heck, Yang Kai even lampshades this in SDC S4. The captains are recruiting their team members and they send gifts to the dancers to woo them. Even though Yang Kai is a definite joiner on dd's team, dd sends him a framed photo of the two of them from Yang Kai's win the previous season. He also gifts Yang Kai a charm for his newborn son. Yang Kai is touched and he comments that he wouldn't expect these gifts from dd because dd just doesn't express his emotions like this usually. (I wonder if dd had some help in choosing the gifts, because all his gifts are incredibly thoughtful in a very uncharacteristic way (sorry, dd))

So, yeah, I have so many thoughts about how dd shows him feelings. I'm not super-attached to the autism spectrum thing, so don't take it too seriously. Hell, don't take any of this seriously. I've never met the guy. I'm just wildly extrapolating from translated glimpses of him.

[scarecrow-in-a-hatake]

Yo,

Speakin' of kiddos, I've always wondered something. Growing up, I'm sure y'all spent a good time around the OG Ino-Shika-Cho. How's it feel watching the new generation step into them same shoes? I think they did pretty well, but that'd be my opinion.

Sorry if this makes ya' feel a bit up-there Hokage-sama!

By 'OG', are you referring to Inoichi, Shikaku, and Chouza? Because I hate to break it to you, but there's at least... five more generations of that iconic trio before those three. The Yamanaka and Nara have been Akimichi clan vassals for a long, long time, if not from the start. Although I will concur that it was the three you have in mind who elevated the Ino-Shika-Cho formation into international infamy during the Third War, since their immediate predecessors were more diplomats and negotiators with a emphasis on trade at the time. I was too young to have really known them, aside from seeing them around the village from afar.

Long post ahead. You've been warned.

Now, Inoichi... I didn't know him beyond as a work acquaintance. Definitely addicted to caffeine, incredibly busy with leading both his clan and the intelligence department, but he made time for his friends' old genin students just so they wouldn't have to switch shrinks when they got older. A good man, if a tad absent from his home as the years went by, from what I've heard. I can appreciate that he kept whatever he learned about me separate from our working relationship, and honor all he's done for this village.

Shikaku was a great drinking buddy if you weren't looking for any drama, but a frustrating conversationalist when he was looking for something from you. It was difficult to stay mad at him when he was so... deadpan? Levelheaded? Blase? I don't know if I would have accepted my initial nomination to become Rokudaime after Pain's attack if he hadn't been the one to talk me around.

He left a very strong impression on me when I was younger. You could say I looked up to him, in a way. He wasn't a genius like his son— which isn't to say he wasn't a brilliant analyst, tactician, and strategist in his own right— but then, there are very few people who can match Shikamaru in that aspect. It was more his organizational skills that got him where he ended up as Konoha's jounin commander and the Shinobi Alliance's chief strategist. Incredibly efficient, incredibly sharp, and above all, you never saw him lose his cool or his resolve. He knew what had to be done and made sure that it would be done. Among that generation, Shikaku was one of the greats— not infamous like Minato-sensei, but rather, the epitome of what a shinobi had to be.

Chouza is only someone I know because Gai and Genma— two of his genin students— kept in touch. I used to get dragged to Akimichi-hosted gatherings when I was younger, ergo, lots of positive connotations. I appreciated his wisdom when he invited me to tea shortly before both of my formal nominations, and he remains the most easy-going out of all the clan heads I have to meet with on a quarterly basis. Although he's since retired from the field, he was one of our village's greatest combative assets through two wars. I'm glad that he's still with us.

That said, their successors are not them.

Ino is still making progress in leaps and bounds with her clan techniques and innovating with our village's barrier team. Shikamaru is learning how the tower operates and taking on more responsibilities. Chouji continues to be an exemplary shinobi of Konoha and a role model for the rising generation of new genin as he grows in his role as a squad leader on missions.

All three have been lauded for their admirable contributions during the Fourth war. It is my hope that they will never see another, and never become what their fathers had to be. Let the youth create new footsteps for others to follow, and let old shoes be buried with a past that we can learn from.

If you want a better comparison, maybe ask @whotookmysenbon. He's closer with everyone involved than I ever was.

[saeyoungchoismaid]

ᴄᴏᴜᴘʟᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ

ꜰᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ: ꜱᴛᴀʀᴅᴇᴡ ᴠᴀʟʟᴇʏ

ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ: ꜱᴇʙᴀꜱᴛɪᴀɴ, ꜱᴀᴍ, ᴇʟʟɪᴏᴛᴛ, ᴀʟᴇx

ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: ꜰʟᴜꜰꜰ

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: ɴᴏɴᴇ

A/N: trying out a new format, so lemme know what you think! Idk if this'll become a regular thing, but I like the way this looks lol. It's so fancy. Also, I got some requests for sdv on my other blog, so I'm posting it here and combining all the requests into one lol

ꜱᴇʙᴀꜱᴛɪᴀɴ:

out of all the bachelors (that I write for), I think he would take the longest time to warm up to

if you become friends with Sam or Abigail first, it'll definitely help him warm up to you faster

after y'all finally start dating (you probs had to ask him), he's still pretty shy around you

he doesn't have a lot of dating experience (if any at all), so he's very unsure of how to go about things

after getting to know each other more though, he finally starts to relax more around you

in general, I think homeboy is very reserved

so, I think when it comes to initiating physical touch, telling you what's wrong, etc etc, it can take him a long time to actually get around to doing those things

you always reassure him through everything though and make sure he knows that you're there to support, learn, and grow with him no matter what :)

after like a year of dating, y'all are basically perfect

you know the in's and out's of the other person

homeboy is a BIG cuddler

I think the way he shows physical affection is probably quality time

I can just see him wanting to share your space, even if you two aren't necessarily doing anything together

Like, just do your own thing while he games, or come join him!

when you two live together, I think things are kinda bumpy at first as you adjust to having someone else in your space all the time

probs leads to a few arguments, but nothing some good ol communication can't fix

when it comes to going to bed, homie stays up rather late, so if you don't, you banish him to the abyss (the living room) if he needs to do something with light or sound (if that'll keep you up, that is)

if you're also a night owl, you two are two peas in a pod

y'all will curl up and watch a movie, talk, play games, you name it

nighttime is always his fav time to spend with you bc you aren't busy doing farm work

I think his fav cuddling position is spooning, but where you spoon him 🥺 he just wants to be held man 🥺

ꜱᴀᴍ:

falls in love with you SO FAST

dude was smitten with you as soon as he saw you tbh

he's just such a simpy loverboy, he ca't help himself

gives you gifts probs just as much as you give him gifts

matter of fact, that's probs his love language right there

OMG loves writing short lil verses for you 🥺 (definitely is WAY too shy to read or preform them to you at first, but maybe once you two start dating he shows them to you and you literally SWOON)

probs asks you out at least three times a week and you always think it's a joke (aww and maybe at one point he stops asking and you're kinda bummed cause you thought it was really cute but when you mention it to Abigail or Sebastian they're like ??? he wasn't kidding and you're like GHOSRIGHR SAM BABE PLS COME BACK omg the potential angst I'm-)

when you two are officially together, he is not quiet about it

bro basically makes a public announcement that y'all are madly in love (he's so embarrassing pls)

even before you started dating, he's very touchy with you

in general, I think he's a touchy kinda guy, but especially with you

always has his hands on you, always wants you close to him, always always always

similar to Sebastian, I think he's also a night owl, so if you are too, he's just like :) let's! watch! a! bunch! of! movies! :) (and then falls asleep during like the second one lmao)

also a big gamer, so he'd piss himself if you offer to game with him

fav cuddling position is probs spooning where he gets to hold you as close to him as he likes :) (which is as close as humanly possible)

ᴇʟʟɪᴏᴛᴛ:

I think Elliott is super polite and friendly to you, but nothing more

so, it's you pursuing him, I think

he probs doesn't even realize that you're flirting with him and trying to rizz him up for the longest time LMAO

he's always very flattered and honestly a little flustered anytime you give him gifts, compliment him, etc.

will die ON THE SPOT if you write a poem for him (even if it's bad. it's the thought that counts <3)

when he starts to take romantic interest in you, expect a LOT of poems, actually

in general, anytime he speaks to you it's all very flowery and beautiful (and sometimes you don't even really know what he's saying bc it'll be old english, but you know it's romantic nonetheless)

"Thou art wise as thou art beautiful." and "Mine eye is enthrallèd to thy shape." and the probs the most romantic one by far that he said once you two started officially dating, "You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read."

treats you like royalty, on god

he's such a hopeless romantic, so he does the whole nine yards of flowers, candies, poems, love letters/notes, thoughtful gifts, you name it

he's enraptured by you and wants you by his side for all eternity

in general, I think his love language is probably words of affirmation

he tends to go on poetic tangents about your beauty (and just you in general) quite often

he's a simp, your honor

as for sleepy time, I think he's an old man that goes to bed at the latest 10 pm and wakes up earliest 7 am. This, of course, is if he isn't struck by creative genius and has to write until 6 am to get everything he needs out

awe, it's cute because if you're out and about trying to finish some farming stuff, by like 2 am he's waking up bc he's like :( where are you :( the bed is cold :(( come back :((( and is all worried about you bc "it's late." But the second he does it and you're like babe wha- he's like "No talk. Must write." and that's the end of the conversation LMAO

fav position to cuddle is the one where he's laying on his back and you're on your side with your head on his chest/shoulder/neck. He LOVES LOVES LOVES rubbing your back and/or playing with your hair as y'all fall asleep

ᴀʟᴇx:

is not shy about how he feels about you

compliments you EVERY SINGLE TIME he sees you without fail

he loves how flustered you get when he does it

is definitely the type to be able to dish it out but can't take it

WILL turn into a tomato ON SIGHT if you compliment his muscles or tell him he looks strong

he probs asks you out on a date rather shortly after meeting you and does his best to rizz you up

I think in his head he's this big, tough, macho guy with these big muscles and words made of satin, but in reality I think that while he is strong, he's such a dork (in the best way possible)

like, on your first date, he's probs like "yeah ima charm the pants off of them!" and then he sees you and literally can't stop stuttering and tripping over his own words because of how beautiful you are

bro is COMMITTED to you after that first date though

he's always asking to hang out to the point he even offers to help you out on the farm (which he ends up loving because he likes doing all the heavy lifting stuff, like moving bales of hay or chopped down trees)

bc of this, I think his love language is acts of service bc he knows that it's something he's good at

you need help around the farm? He's got you, babe. You need something from that top shelf? Easy, babe. Oh no! That one place is closing soon and you forgot to run that errand? He can get there in no time, babe. Had a long day and just need to relax? He's ready to give you a massage and run a bath for you. Whatever you need

he's definitely big on physical touch and I think his favorite way of greeting you is to sneak up behind you and hug you from behind

he loves feeling you jump in surprise before relaxing into him

I like to think he's on a very strict regime where he, of course, has to exercise and eat right, but I think he also is required to get at least eight hours of sleep every night

so, similar to Elliott, he's an old man and goes to bed early and wakes up early to start that daily grind 🤩💪

fav cuddling position is to have you lay on top of him, like full body just suffocating him

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

MASTERLISTS

More with SDV + more with Sebastian

Join my discord server : https://discord.gg/qnDxJ6rr67 

Tag List:  @katelynwithpaint, @babykirbysstuff ✦ if you would like to be added or removed, comment or send an ask. Also, remember to tell me if you ever change your username so I can continue to tag you :)

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

[cornerofcaelest]

Some Makoto A/B/O Headcanons!

Content Warnings: This is mostly general information/background, but it is an omegaverse post, so if that doesn't float your boat, totally understandable, and now is a great time to go. Don't like, don't read, ya know? Have a great day! There is some talk about heat cycles but in a pretty informative/non-sexual way. Stay safe!

Spoiler Warning for Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Yeah, so I do write some omegaverse stuff on occasion, but it's not my main focus, and admittedly my world isn't super developed yet or anything like that. That being said, if I get anything wrong, let me know! Here are some details about Makoto as I see them in this AU in case I ever do decide to write about it more formally!

Makoto Naegi

Omega, but occasionally gets mistaken for a beta because he doesn't particularly stand out, and his overall demeanor is a bit unassuming

That being said, their scent is pretty sweet. Snickerdoodle cookie-type beat.

There isn't too much to say background-wise; he had the same average upbringing he did in canon.

In my universe, omegas aren't really discriminated against, though roles pertaining to second genders do tend to be enforced. Overall, though, every role is considered equally important in society. Being a stay-at-home parent is just as noble an occupation as any other, and omegas are respected and honored for their capabilities in these areas. They certainly aren't seen as weak or inferior.

All that being said, Makoto never really had any grief about their dynamic. He's fine with it, and he feels pretty comfortable with the gender roles associated with it.

Some of that omega instinct really becomes apparent when it comes to other people. On a basic level, he's just really nurturing and empathic towards his friends, and he'll fight for them tooth and nail if one of them is hurting.

Omegas are scary when you piss them off :'D.

Mom friend supreme.

They pretty much always have a nest built, though theirs always consist of a (seemingly) incoherent pile of soft things all thrown together in a lump.

I headcanon him with ADHD, and nesting is just really nice when he's feeling stressed or overstimulated. There's plenty of soft things to stim with, it's quiet, and it's an environment where he controls any and all of the sensory input.

That being said, as long as they're not in mental distress or heat, they're usually pretty chill with other people (friends, family, etc.) hanging out in the nest with them. Especially other omega friends.

Speaking of which, his heats are usually pretty mild. He doesn't take suppressants of any sort; he just takes a few days off when needed and deals with it as it comes.

He just gets really clingy and seeks a lot of physical affection

When he was single, this just manifested as feeling really snuggly and tired and drawn to soft textures, but after bonding with Kyoko the clingy level shot up to a hundred

Honestly adding Byakuya to the mix made it even worse

Also, they get the hella munchies in pre-heat. Mild nausea, increased stress, and sensory issues make it really hard for them to eat enough while they're actually in heat, so it's mostly to prepare

He tries to keep this in mind and make easy, safe food snacks ahead of time to mixed success

However it works out, they tend to manage just fine

This isn't 100% related to A/B/O specifically, but Makoto is still transmasc in this AU

It causes a bit of conflict with some of their traits as an omega

For example, he does really want to have kids someday, but particularly with the occasional misconception that he's a beta, the thought can be really uncomfortable and does occasionally lead to some dysphoria

And honestly, his second gender is a blessing and a curse in this way

Yeah, it can be a negative, but it also gives him an opportunity to try to reframe things. If a particular AFAB trait is bugging him, sometimes he can try thinking about it as an omega thing instead

Obviously, this doesn't erase the problem, and sometimes it doesn't help at all, but he tries to stay positive about it. It's just one coping mechanism among many; it doesn't magically fix everything

As I mentioned before, they're bonded with Kyoko, and eventually with Byakuya, too.

I could go on for ages about how the three of them end up together

They're already bonded to her by the time they even start courting Byakuya, though

Initially, it causes some tension between Kyoko and Byakuya, but honestly, the dynamic between the three of them is even better than it was with just Kyoko and Makoto

Say what you will about two alphas sharing an omega, but when you both have family businesses per se to run and a world to rebuild, it's not the worst arrangement. Particularly since Makoto can demand a lot of attention at times

Hey, he's just a people person. Socialization is important to him

The pack instinct is strong with this one

This applies to all of class 78

Also the Remnants

Makoto took one look at them and subconsciously adopted all of them

It's part of why he's willing to go so far to help them

Oops

Like I said, omegas are scary when you piss them off. Especially when you hurt their pups

(Yes they're all a year older than him. Does he care? No.)

Honestly, I could go on all day. There's a lot of specifics I could explore, but I'll just leave it at this for now! I've simultaneously put way too much and not nearly enough thought into this AU, so I'm sure you'll hear more eventually. For now, thank you, and I hope you have a great day! <3

[batsandbugs]

Bruce Wayne’s Headache Classification System Chapter 3

IKEA Verse

A/N: The author shows up a month and a half late, with Starbucks: S'up, here's 7500 words of pure chaos. Feast! Y'all are the best, thank you for the amazing comments in the last chapter. I love seeing your excitement for this crazy little world I've created. I have a new fic that I'll be adding eventually, called: "The Stalking of Daminette: A Treatise by Steph and Cass" it's still in its baby stage, so we'll see how long that grows before I post. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it because I have not started on the next part and I'm moving in less than a month, so maybe the next chapter will be out sometime in October, but I'm not making any promises. Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Bruce narrows his eyes and pins his children with an unimpressed stare. “What did you do?

“He was totally willing!” Dick insists with an innocent grin.

“Coercion.”

“Manhandling.”

Dick’s grin disappears evilly side-eyeing his brothers. “Both of you suck at being back up.”

“He didn’t want to at first,” confesses Tim. “But they held my computer hostage to convince me to agree.” Tim rubs a hand over the top of his laptop in a soothing manner. “So, I stole all his knives so he couldn’t stab us, while Jason and Dick wrangled him into the car.”

“Little demon was spittin’ nails, but we persuaded him not to throw himself out the car, so he was trapped.”

“By the time we arrived, I convinced them how a game of hide-and-seek would be a fun, non-disastrous way to spend time together,” says Dick, his face one of ruined hopes and dreams.  

“Mostly through bribes, blackmail, and calls to our innate competitiveness,” says Tim.

“Dickie kept the keys so none of us could leave, and declared himself seeker first,” Jason continues. “He found me-" 

"In the food court," says Dick.

"Then Replacement-"

"At the Starbucks."

"Didn't even get to have that coffee," grumbles Tim.

"So we joined forces and decided to search for Damian together. We spent an hour chasing him in circles. Swear I almost caught him too.”

Tim scoffs, “Yeah no, he had us good. We had no clue where he was.” 

Jason rolls his eyes. “Oh, shut up Tim.”

“You shut up,” Tim shoots back.

“Boys…” warns Bruce, already regretting bringing all three of them into this sitrep.

“Okay, so he evades us long enough to team up with a girl named Marinette Dupain-Cheng-” starts Tim.

Jason growls a bit. “Lying bitch.”

“Jason…” Dick sighs but doesn’t refute the insult. This only serves to deepen Bruce’s headache which now strongly veers out of the I-am-not-mentally-or-emotionally-prepared-for-this category and straight into Ongoing-dumpster-fire territory.

This was fine.

Jason slams a fist on the table. “She lied to my face multiple times! She said she was hired to poison Tim and Damian in order to steal Tim’s phone and if I didn’t find them in time, they were gonna die from brain damage!”

Bruce blinks. Did he hear that right? “Sorry, what?”

Tim sighs. “Okay, rewind, so Damian evading us like the little assassin he trained to be, hooks up with Marinette, who, as far as my research shows, is a civilian-”

“Yeah right, girlie ain’t a civilian. No way, not in a million years.”

“Shut up Jason, let Tim talk,” snaps Dick.

“She lied to Jason about where Damian was, and between her initial meeting with Jason and the incident in the food court, about an hour passed. Then she appeared in the cafeteria with Damian’s card, how we tracked her there in the first place. She panicked when she saw us and used her magic on the shelves in the warehouse to cause a diversion-”

“She crushed a fucking forklift, and we got blamed and billed for it.”

‘How?’ Bruce thinks in despair. Not over the money, of course. They had more than enough to cover costs, just in the general sense of incredulity. One would think, after being Batman this long, it would inoculate Bruce from bewilderment at all types of situations.

It has not.

Tim shakes his head. “No, I proved we had nothing to do with that."

‘Oh well isn’t that grand?’

"Didn’t manage to pin anything on her either considering how much electrical interference occurred whenever she performed magic, but we don’t have to pay.”

“Magic doesn’t cause electrical interference,” Bruce reminds them. “Not unless it completely breaks the system in the process.” All three boys – men really, his kids all grown up now, even if they pulled stupid shit like this – turn to him. Identical expressions of contemplation played over their faces.

“Shit, you’re right,” mutters Dick.

“Well, her magic does,” counters Tim, his brow creasing heavily, grasping past the sleepy, foggy haze that comes with being awake for three days straight. Grabbing a notepad he jots down the observation. “Her magic doesn’t obey any rules we know to be true.”

“It’s magic, dumbass,” Jason sneers. “It doesn’t have to make sense. I’m still on the fence about whether she enchanted Damian though. On one hand, demon-spawn shouldn’t be capable of smiling that much, and he defended her, deferred to her, fucking used her first name without blinking an eye. That ain’t natural for him. On the other hand, she’s the same brand of demented as he is, and maybe they want to be horrible little demons together.”

“I…” starts Dick before trailing off, his face flickers through a series of emotions. Mostly fragile hope, pragmatic disbelief, and good heaping of uncertainty.

“See, Golden Boy, even you can’t say this is a good thing!”

“He made a friend?” Dick offers with a pained wince.

“She’s a psychopath!”

Bruce cuts off the argument. As much as he would love to hear more in-depth detail about Damian’s newest… acquaintance, he wants a clearer picture of what happened at the store before he judges the situation. “Boys, behave. Tim, please continue.”

Tim nods. “Okay, so Marinette escapes the warehouse, and we track her back to their entry point into the vent system. We split up to cover more ground, I take the warehouse and keep myself from the worker’s sight but close enough to the vent I could spot them exiting. About forty-five minutes later they set me on fire-”

“Wait,” interrupts Bruce. “Fire? FIRE?”

Tim looks at him like he’s being particularly slow. “Uh, yeah, I said that a time or two now, keep up. To be fair, the fire was more around me. But I did end up singed.” He shows his arm sleeve again, and the singeing on the sleeve takes on a whole new meaning.

“I wasn’t sure what happened at the time, I expected to catch the little twerps, not engage in guerilla warfare. So, understandably, I’m off my game. The security guard dragged me into the office, and I’m ready to call for backup, only to find my phone missing. I talk down the manager in the warehouse, but then he yells at these poor workers. And Bruce, they were kids, couldn’t be more than fifteen, working in this busy warehouse with no clue about any rights they had, and then after the manager became… distracted I conversed with the other workers, and-”

Tim’s one-breath ramble was swiftly cut off by Jason. “Yeah, yeah you caused a worker’s strike through the power of charisma and rhetoric. So original. No one else in the world’s history has ever done that. Can we get back to the French bitch tricking me?”

Tim huffs, crossing his arms. “You can continue then because I wasn’t part of that.”

“Cool, I will. So, there I wait at my post, and it’s been like an hour and a half at this point. Timmy finally calls, but it’s not actually him it’s the French girl. She’s actin’ like a paid assassin slash company spy, and says she poisoned Tim and Damian through tricking them into eatin’ poisoned coffee and shit.”

“And you believed that?” Bruce asks. Jason glares at him with piercing green-blue eyes, and although his second son puts off an air of anger and annoyance, it’s a mask for a deep-seated fear that his brothers were genuinely in danger. That he would be too slow, too late to save them, like what happened to-

Jason flippantly shrugs his shoulders, years of practiced reticence covering his care. “With our craptastic luck, I sure as hell wasn’t going to take any chances. So, I go chasin’ and-”

“~It’s a trap~,” Tim gloats in a sing-songy voice, his grin wide and eyes unfocused. He’s going to crash soon, it’s just a matter of time.

“Shut up, you ended up set on fire and pickpocketed. You have no leg to stand on.” Tim rolls his eyes but slouches back in his chair. “So, it’s a trap, and demon-spawn is waitin’ there with one of those tricked-out trip wires Timmy made. He and Frenchie wrapped me up good, taunted me, and stripped me taking my wallet and phone. Bitch also took my knife. I insult the brat, and he fires back, but before he does anything else Marinette pulls him back and tells him to simmer down and he does.” Jason’s wide eyes drip with incredulity and, quite frankly, a little awe.

“I see,” Bruce says, a fake calm surrounding his words. He really didn’t. They were talking about Damian. Bruce loves his only biological son, he truly does. He loves Damian’s sketches, and care for animals, he loves his dedication to sword mastery and sly humor. The way his son has the same wrinkle crease between his eyes Bruce gets, and that Thomas did before them. The similarity soothes a small part of Bruce’s aching soul. He’s ridiculously proud of all the work and effort Damian went through, put himself through, to become a better person. To overcome the trauma his upbringing caused and come out stronger.

That being said, Damian was still arrogant, stubborn, and quick-tempered. He considered his opinions and plans more highly than others, and unless one could give a quick and compelling explanation as to an alternative option, he would be proceeding with his plan with efficiency; damn anything else standing in his way. Damian spared no sympathy to the average person and even less for fools.

This behavior was extremely out of character for him.

Which made the entire situation ring with alarm.

Jason shook his head. “I don’t think you do,” he says, calling Bruce’s lie out. “You’re gonna need to see it to really understand. Anyway, they leave me there for the police to find me, and the wire’s wound on tight, so I’m still struggling to get them off when security finds me ten minutes later.” Jason smirks. “Now those idiots had no clue who they were dealing with, and they loosened the wire round my legs, cause they sure as hell couldn’t carry me. By the time we reached the car I was out of the bonds and knocked one out and escaped from the other. Fat-ass bastard.”

“Language,” Bruce reminds him. Jason flips him off.

“Fine, the heavy-set bastard. Better?”

Bruce sighs. “Not really.”

“I scale the building, figuring the store entrances would be monitored. They had a nice handy dandy human-sized ventilation shaft up there - no wonder with the place’s fucking size - so, I shimmy down-”

“Like Santa,” Tim giggles, well past bordering on a manic state, and instead moved well into the capital of it.

The comment doesn’t appear to have fazed Jason though, who takes another long sip of his alcohol-soda mixture. “And like Santa, I have a knack for toys. I emerge out of a vent in the children’s toy area and snag myself a nerf gun.”

Sharp pain blooms on the side of Bruce’s neck. He doesn’t let it show on his face though. “Why?”

“Seemed like a good at the time, ya know?”

Bruce mentally counts to ten, takes a deep breath, and says, “Sure.”

“So, I head towards the play area to find Dick, because obviously, Replacement was a lost cause.”

“Geeze thanks, Jason.”

“But before I can get there, I spot Demon Spawn constructin’ a wacky ass Rube Goldberg contraption-”

Dick winces. “I saw the remains when I chased after Marinette. It was initially meant for me.”

“You were chasing the girl?”

Dick pouts. “She stole my phone!”

“Wait, so a civilian pickpocketed all of you?” 

“She was quick,” mutters Tim.

Jason raises a finger. “She didn’t technically pickpocket me, she frisked me after tying me up. I was fully aware of the stealing.”

Bruce reminds himself that he can’t strangle his children. He. Can’t. Strangle. His. Children. “I plan to make all of you go through awareness training, again. A civilian!?”

“Still not convinced,” Jason mutters, crossing his arms.

“I don’t care she certainly hasn’t trained with assassins and spent half her life mastering stealth and deception. I expect better from you all.” All three men mutter in acquiescence, to the extent that they would do better. “Continue.”

Jason’s demureness fades to be replaced with a gleeful grin. “Yeah, there wasn’t much left of the trap after I jumped the little bastard. I started shooting-”

“Jason…” Bruce’s headaches gain a specific twinge of exhaustion whenever Jason becomes involved. It’s a talent he possessed since the day Bruce found him hi-jacking the Batmobile’s tires.  

Jason’s hands go up in defense. “With the nerf gun, chill Bruce I ain’t trying to contribute to America’s public shooting crisis. I wouldn’t take a loaded gun into a shopin’ center unless crazies were already causin’ chaos.”

“I’d prefer you not to use guns at all.” It’s a pointless request, but maybe one day Jason would cede to it.

Jason scoffs. “Yeah, you’re still gunna lose that one pops. I got a rep to maintain.”

Bruce reigns in a sigh. Expected.

“Anyway, everythin’ was fine, I’d managed to dismantle their little trap for ya, you’re welcome,” he says with a pointed glance at Dick.

His eldest crosses his arms, and with a total deadpan stare, replies, “Thanks, Jason.”

“But then a security guard interfered after I knocked down a display or two.”

“So, you strung him up and gagged him?” Dick asks voice rising into the hysterical range.

Bruce now understands why Tim looks exhausted, dealing with the fallout from a situation this unhinged for the past forty-eight hours.  

“No, I didn’t do that. Demon spawn already set the rig, waitin’ for you. The guard tripped it.” He pauses, cheese-covered chip in hand. “Although I did add the gag, he was shoutin’ too much and grabbin’ attention. It only took a second, but by the time I turned back, Damian had shot off like a rocket.”

“Don’t take your eyes off the target,” chides Tim, with a smug little grin.

Jason’s eyes flash a brighter shade of green. “Fire.”

“Shut up.”

“Boys…” Bruce warns.

“Fine, fine,” Jason mutters, as he takes another sip of his drink. “I chase him through the store and he’s barely keepin’ ahead of me. I keep shootin’ at him. Newer nerf guns have a range and a surprising amount of ammo. Bastard didn't even look inconvenienced; he takes a fucking phone call at one point.”

“That was when I was chasing Marinette and we found the remains of their plan,” Dick interrupts. “She panicked with the sprung trap and called someone, but I couldn’t hear a word.”

“Yeah, he jumps off the call when I manage a shot at his head, and I’m close enough to have him in reach. Unfortunately, he ducked into the employee-only entrance. We weave through security rooms and offices and shit, and of course, causin’ chaos there.”

“He was right there, and yet somehow, we’re the only ones banned,” mutters Tim.

Jason scoffs. “Yeah, don’t know how that happened. Pretty sure I saw him dump a pot of coffee on-” Tim groans in frazzled distress. “Bad Timbo, you can’t have any more caffeine until you take a goddamn nap!”

Tim slouches into the solid wood dining chair. “You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my dad.”

“Tim you can’t have any more caffeine until you sleep,” Bruce says.

Jason grins, sticking his tongue out at Tim, while Tim only glares and mutters something under his breath about ‘killjoys’ and ‘he’ll show them tired’ and Bruce really doesn’t want to see the result of that decision. This needs to wrap up soon. For both Tim’s sake, and his own as his headache has moved from Hassles-have-evolved-into-ongoing-dumpster-fires to Information-overload-caused by-dumbass-decisions-please-reboot-system.

“I get tangled in an office jam – literally, there were cords involved and by the time I scramble out of it, Damian’s already through a door and down a hallway. I haven’t a clue which way he’s gone, so I pick a direction and gun it because security is on my tail and there ain’t time to waste. I head down a hallway and lock the doors behind me to give me a second of breathing room. Then I spot the intercom system.”

“I wondered how you got close enough to use that,” Dick muses.

“I wondered what they did to piss you off so bad,” Tim adds.

Dick nods. “Same.”

“Yeah, so I call out Demon Spawn and French Bitch over the intercom, and I know they both must have panicked, but the guards broke through the locked doors, so I split. Now here’s the fucking miracle.” Jason leans forward, grinning. “I find the door that’ll take me back to the showroom area, the guards bearing down on me from all four sides. I don’t have a chance in hell, when the lights go off.”

“Blackout?” questions Bruce.

“Magic,” Dick says flatly. “It was Marinette.”

Jason slaps the table, snarling, “Damnit! Now I have to give credit to her.”

“She knocked out electricity to the whole store,” says Tim.

“And caused a display to collapse in front of me. I tripped,” admits Dick.

“You have fought off assassins while poisoned, and executed advanced acrobatic maneuvers with broken bones, and you tripped over a toppled Swedish store display because of the dark?” Bruce knows he’s trained his children better. Why in the world did this go so sideways on them?

Dick braces his arms against the table and roughly slides his fingers through his hair. ”I know. I know. I was right there. Any other day and I wouldn’t have blinked about jumping right over it, but this time it felt… off. Bad day?”

“You’re getting old Golden Boy.” Jason takes a sip of his drink, doing nothing to hide his shit-eating grin as he teases his older brother. “I guess it’s all downhill from here ain’t it.”

Dick flips him off.

Jason sticks out his tongue.

Bruce’s headache takes on a twinge of my-children-are-immature-brats feeling (generally categorized by a sharp sting right at his temple) and holds in an exasperated sigh.

“So, after magic girl shuts the lights off with her mind or whatever, I escape the security guards by an inch. One emergency exit later, and I’m back in the store proper. People are freakin’ the fuck out about the lights. By the time they turn on again, I’ve lost Damian for good, and now I just try to stay off security’s radar. I settle in a nice little blind spot right outside the children’s toy area and keep myself out of any trouble.” Jason looks over at Dick, fighting to keep a smug grin off his face. “Course I did see a woman go off on a poor employee. I kept my nose clean of it ‘cause it wasn’t my business.”

“Oh, ha, ha very funny. That woman was a menace,” groans Dick.

“Woman?” Bruce questions, almost scared to ask.

“Jessica Merope-Laverne, fifty-five, resident of Pleasantville. Married twice, has two children, a restraining order, and a police file with multiple notes about disturbing the peace,” Tim rattles off. “Thoroughly unpleasant.”

“That’s an understatement,” mutters Dick.

“Practically dragged Dickie Bird away by the ear.”

“Right as I was about to nab Marinette too. She’d hidden in one of the wardrobes in the room, and I was this close-” Dick positions his fingers scant centimeters apart from each other, “-to cornering her, and I got dragged away.”

“Shit, would have loved to know that,” mutters Jason. “Anyway, I stood around, making sure nobody was on my tail, soon I heard rumors about a ruckus in the atrium-”

“That would be me,” Tim admits with a grin.

“Well, I didn’t know that. I was hoping demon spawn and Frenchie were involved somehow, so I headed over, and then-”

“Oh, I know what happened from there. I saw the video.” Bruce pins Tim and Jason with a stare. “I respect both of you have opinions-”

“Opinions? Opinions? I have justified grounds for calling out his revolutionary bullshit! His entire life embodies nothing but the anthesis of systemic poverty, and he argues for class cooperation!” shouts Jason. Bruce always marvels at how eloquent Jason becomes when angry.

“Violence isn’t the answer,” counters Tim. “You would harm the very people you try to uplift in the process.”

“Sure, it is! It’s the natural response to a gluttonous, greedy, overburdened, bureaucratic system that’s leeching off the populous and perpetuating its own supremacy.”

Tim slams a hand against the table, raising to his feet, exhaustion clearing from his eyes. “It’s an option, not the option. We can do better than violence if we work at the cause's root problem without pulling out a fucking guillotine.”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Oh of course you would argue for that, you’ve never had less than six figures in your bank account in your life.”

“So says the self-proclaimed drug lord!”

“That was ten years ago!”

“A bag of heads on the steps of the GCPD!”

“Oh, get over it!”

“If it matters,” interjects Dick. “Probably doesn’t, systemic economic issues are hard to fix when we have bigger problems like an actively insane criminal population that likes destroying important city infrastructure on a monthly basis.”

“Which Wayne Enterprises does its best to counter,” adds Bruce, not bothering to chide his children back on track. This particular topic turned them into a bunch of unherdable cats.

“Funneling more money into the one percent’s hands!” Jason’s bordering on manic at this point.

“We are the one percent, Jason!” counters Tim. “And we stay that way, despite the copious amount of infrastructure projects, that we hire Gotham citizens for, and pay at least a living wage to all of them. Not to mention every other single employee we hire who also are paid a living wage, with benefits, and support. I know I am privileged. I am trying here.” The last sentence came out as a distraught cry, as he collapses back into his chair.

“Are… are you okay?” Dick asks tentatively, ready to cross the table to comfort his brother.

Tim shoves his hands into his hair and mutters, “I need an espresso.”

“No, you need sleep,” says Bruce, mentally calculating where all the caffeine in the house is so he can hide it. “Can we return to the recap, so your brother can go to bed?”

“My side of things is much shorter in comparison to Jason’s,” says Dick. “As long as nobody interrupts.” Casting a pointed glare in Jason’s direction. Jason shrugs casually and crosses his arms.

“I waited at the children’s play area. Now, a man my age would attract attention without a need to be there, so I’d ducked into the employee-only area, and grabbed a shirt to disguise myself. I hung out in the Starbucks for a good forty-five minutes trying to look like I was on break while observing the play area. Although I couldn’t tell where the vent entrance was, I figured two adults Damian and Marinette’s size would be easy to spot coming out of an area meant for children.

“When an hour and a half passed by, I’m nervous, because neither Jason nor Tim has sent any word. I called them both. They didn’t answer.”

“Yeah, 'cause the French phone napper took our phones,” mutters Jason.

“So, I decided to do some reconnaissance. The lady at the front desk looked bored enough, and so I went over to… chat.”

Jason rolls his eyes. “You mean flirt.”

Dick glares. “Shut up. So, I hang around the front desk for half an hour at most, before the kids went crazy. Like plastic balls being thrown everywhere, kids shrieking, this one little girl, later we learn her name is Abby, she’s doing this whole speech about a revolution-”

“Tim…”

“Not me, I’m not here at this point.”

“I stand there in shock, wondering what the heck set it all off. This one little girl runs up to the daycare worker, Melinda? Melody? Something. I don’t remember. And the little girl’s nose was bleeding, so there immediately goes my peaceful cover. I back up into the crowd, which at this point has gathered around pretty thick.”

“You know I wondered why there were so many people hanging around in that front lobby area,” says Tim.

“I’m almost sure the commotion has something to do with Marinette and Damian, so I keep my eyes peeled waiting for any adult-sized figures to emerge from the play area.” Dick sighs, rubbing a hand across his face. “I was right of course, but I missed Marinette slipping out, and she approached me from behind.”

“This is where you get pickpocketed too!” crows Jason.

“Really, Richard?” asks Bruce with a raised brow. This is ridiculous.

“Okay, look, I was distracted, off my game, there was a ton of screeching, and it had been a long day. And she was very good. The technique was flawless, minus a bit of overacting and a touch of obviousness. Which was her goal because-”

“~It was a trap~” Jason and Tim sing together.

“It was bait,” Dick corrects. “Leading me to a trap, that didn’t even work. So really, I did the best between the three of us.”  

“You all will complete remedial awareness training, so a situation like this never happens again.” Bruce massages the bridge of his nose with a long-suffering sigh. “Just… just please continue.”

“I can’t full-out chase her or anything, but she keeps out of reach through the store, until we reach the place where they set the trap. Obviously, Jason already tripped it, so she turned face and ran in the opposite direction. I followed, trying to convince her to stop and talk. But at this point, she’s full-on outpacing me and doing well too. I’m hesitant to say trained, but she had practice.”

“She’s gotta be a spy, or maybe she’s working for the League?” muses Jason.

“Damian would see right through that,” interrupts Bruce. He knows his youngest son has an instinct when sniffing out undercover League members. Talia certainly sent enough of them over the years.

“Maybe she’s just that good?” says Tim. “I certainly can’t find a damn thing on her, and being a League plant would explain that.”

Dick shrugs. “We’ll figure out her deal later. She calls Damian, and they talk briefly, but I couldn’t hear the conversation. Soon after Jason does his whole intercom takeover Marinette pulls out her little magic electro bursts and short circuits the electricity to the entire store.”

“And then caused you to trip.”

Dick wearily nods. “And then caused me to trip. By the time I detangle myself, she’s long gone. The lights come back on, and I’m stuck wondering where the hell she’s gone. I try to avoid getting clocked by security, so I keep to blind spots, which is how I eventually spot her doing the same.”

“Suspicious,” mutters Tim. “More evidence for the ‘League plant’ theory.”

“Or she could know security is looking for a woman of her description and she’s smart, either way, I tail her and corner her in a display room, no idea why she chose that one, but when I walk in it’s empty.”

“She teleported, or vanished like a ninja,” gasps Tim, eyes wide, pupils smaller than pinpricks. Bruce is now counting the seconds until he passes out.

Dick shakes his head. “No, she hid in the fucking closet. Tim, you need sleep.” Tim sticks out his tongue.

“I was this-” Dick places his fingers centimeters away from each other “-close to nabbing her, and then the whole Jessica situation happened.” He rubs a hand through already messed up, fly-away hair. “She drags me away screeching about lawyers and customer service, and it had been a very long day, so the second her back was turned I bolted. I couldn’t risk heading back to the display room, although if I were Marinette I’d be long gone, so I backtracked to where I stuffed my actual clothes and headed towards the atrium.”

“Yes, I saw your arrival as well,” Bruce confirms with an exasperated drawl. The videos spread out across multiple platforms gave an all-around idea of what happened in the atrium. “You all know better than to escalate things in public. We have an image to maintain after all." The boys nod, cowed and guilty. "That being said, things wrapped up rather neatly.” He eyes the boys with a paranoid weariness. “Too neatly.”

All three sag into their seats and gaze at each other with sheepish grimaces.

“Yeah, B, we noticed that too,” says Jason. “But at the time…” he trails off.

Tim continues, his speech sluggish. “It felt normal, to accept what was going on. The fight, the crazy lady, the little kid with the ball pit balls, her uncle being Dick’s old friend, and the store manager, and they let us go. It was easy to go along with it.” Grimacing, he gestures to his assorted piles of papers. “You know, besides for all the work I have now.” Crossing his arms on the table he lays his head in the middle. “Too many people, so little sense.”

“Damian hasn’t said a word about any of it.” Dick slouches lower in his chair.

“Kid was all smirks when he and the little liar approached us after we left the store,” grumbles Jason. "Had fuckin' ice cream and everything." He spins the almost empty bottle of alcohol coke on the table. “Of course, they made us wait, because after we left and booked it to the car, Dickie realizes his keys are gone too. So there we are standin' in the parking lot, Timmy doesn't have his shoes, and all we got between us is one nerf gun, no phones, no keys, and no fucks left to give.” Bruce, too tired from the absolute rollercoaster of emotions and information his children just sent him on, can do nothing but muster up a stern and disappointed glare. He trained them all better than to let a civilian pull one over on not just one of them, but all of them.

“Yeah, yeah, I know situational awareness. We’ll work on-” Dick breaks off his sentence, and sighs softly. A small soft smile overtakes his face, and he raises a single finger to his mouth. He nods in Tim’s direction.

Tim’s head, previously cradled in his arms, now lolls to the side. Neon blue light from his laptop highlighted his closed eyes, and the purplish bags underneath.

“Finally,” Jason mutters. “I swear he has the survival instincts of a wet paper bag. He’s been up for way too long.”

Bruce is just grateful he won't need to physically drag Tim off to bed and force him to get some desperately needed sleep. “Now we just need to get him to his room.” He would have done it himself if his ribs didn’t spasm the second he thought of the idea.  

“Not it,” Dick whispers so quickly it’s practically a rush of air.

“Not it,” says Jason, barely a millisecond behind.

“Ha!” Dick impishly grins. “You do it.”

“But-”

“Nope, I said it first. You got to carry him.”

Jason turns his head towards Bruce, big bluish-green eyes looking for support.

Bruce doesn’t get himself involved in the decision-making games his children play. “He said it first.”

Jason’s hopeful glance turns into a disgruntled snarl. “I hate both of you,” he spits.

“Love ya too, Jay.”

“Thank you, Jason.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, wrinkling his nose. Jason pushes back his chair, and although he’s annoyed, the solid wood chair doesn’t scrape against the floor, so he can’t be too mad. Despite drinking his entire liter of mystery-alcohol-diet-coke mixture, his footsteps pace steady and strong. “Come here, ya little coffee-addicted gremlin.” Jason slips his arms around Tim’s body. It’s a testament to how exhausted his son must be, that Tim only flutters his eyes and protests incoherently at being lifted out of his chair.

“Quiet down, Replacement,” Jason murmurs, his voice soft as he speaks to his sleep-deprived brother. “All your calls and research will be there when you return from the land of nod.”

“But…”

“You can go willingly, or I can grab sedatives from the med bay and forcefully put your ass to sleep. I’ll put a bet on who’ll win that brawl.” Jason stands a good six inches taller than Tim, who looks like little more than a bedraggled rag doll in his older brother’s arms. Bruce knew who would win that fight too. Tim sighs and relaxes another inch into Jason’s arms. “There ya go. You can go back to bein’ insufferable once you’ve had some fucking sleep.”

“Hmm…” Tim's eyes fully flutter shut. Jason shakes his head and rolls his eyes, but softly traverses the room so as to not jostle him. Looking back over his shoulder one last time to shoot an I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this look at Bruce and Dick, before walking out of the room.

Silence overtakes the grand dining room as the last of Jason’s footsteps fades into the echoing halls of Wayne Manor. A light rain drizzles outside, the faintest patter hitting the tall arched windows letting in a soft grey light.

Dicks groans, pulling himself out of his slouch gracefully and into more of a respectable position. “I’m getting too old for that.”

“If you’re old, I must be ancient,” Bruce responds. He’s not, really. Only forty-seven to Dick’s thirty-two. What he’d been thinking taking in a ten-year-old at twenty-five, he couldn’t really quite say. The only thing that mattered at the time was the aching echo of loneliness reflected in the eyes of a child who had just lost their parents.

Now, look at them, all these years later.

“Nah, you’re not ancient, B. We’ve just been through enough shit in our lives to age a person twenty times over.”

Bruce gives him a look of high disappointment. “Stunts like this do not help, Richard.”

Dick has the decency to look properly ashamed. “I really didn’t mean for the situation to get so out of hand,” Dick insists in a soft, quiet tone. Bruce doesn’t quite believe it. His sons thrive off of chaos. Even if they didn’t mean for things to get out of hand, they tended to actively encourage it once in the middle of the undertow. “I know, I know, but how was I supposed to anticipate Damian teaming up with a… witch? Magician? Whatever she is.” Dick mutters the last sentence, but Bruce hears it clearly.

His sons certainly think the young woman is dangerous. Tim is thoroughly confused and stressed by her existence, although deciphering his third son’s emotions through his fog of exhaustion is a vexing endeavor Bruce still isn’t sure he accomplishes all the time. Jason clearly hates her or at least is holding a very large, very deep grudge against her. He wonders what exactly the content of the conversation was when she threatened Tim and Damian. He wonders if she knew the effect it would have on Jason.

Flickering light from the chandelier above pierces his eyes like a particularly vicious game of stab-the-vigilante, but this conversation is important, so, despite the full body ache accompanying his you’ve-pushed-too-far-and-now-you’ll-suffer-the-consequences migraine, he pushes through to ask, “What do we actually know about her?”

Dick sighs heavily, rubbing a hand across his face, and suddenly he looks every inch of his thirty-two years. “To be honest? Only a little. Tim wasn’t the only one to look her up. I did my searching too.”

“And?”

“Practically nothing. Basic info, but school records sealed tighter than Fort Knox, and firewalls grow tighter every time I try to hack ‘em. School activities, online media presence, and even pictures; all of it is whisps in the wind. Every time I try to look deeper, something...” Dick shudders as if shaking away a bad feeling. “I come up short and I can’t find a reason why. Even trying to think about Paris as a whole feels off and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“I can see if there’s anything in the League’s database about the city the past few years. It was Diana’s home base for decades until…” Bruce trails off, his mind an unexpected blank. Diana moved to the US from Paris eventually. Sometime within the last decade, but he can’t quite remember why. Surely, she must have told him at some point.

“She’s a fashion designer, I know that much. She has a website but it’s very bare bones. Commission work only. And her current course of study at Gotham U is Fashion and Business Management. But-” Dick’s hands flail into the air. “She’s from Paris! What on earth possessed her from moving from one of the fashion capitals of the world to here, to study fashion is beyond me.” 

“Hmmm…” Bruce’s brain whirls at a million miles a minute. Connections forming and rearranging on his mind’s case board. The incongruency is so stark, there must be a reason. They haven’t found it yet.

“As for her magic…” Dick shrugs. “She said her powers mostly affected situational outcomes, and from the incidents I saw, she told the truth. But I’ve never seen magic like that before. Magic that just… happens. She didn’t say words, she didn’t make hand gestures. She used tiny little - I want to call them mechanized balls, but we never came close enough to tell – to kickstart the magic.”

“A techno-mage then?”

Dick contemplates the idea for a moment before saying, “Could be. But it felt more than that. As soon as she became involved the whole day felt… left of normal. Which I suppose aligns with situational outcome manipulation. The day certainly went their way…” Dick shrugs. “I just don’t know.”

Bruce hums, finally asking the question that had swirled in his mind since the girl was brought up. “Do you think she’s a danger?”

Dick leans back in the chair, his face an avalanche of flickering emotions. Wind lightly howled outside the dining hall filling the intervening silence. Finally, he sighs and says, “No, I don’t think so. She was chaotic sure but genuinely enjoyed the game for what it was. Damian probably encouraged the more unhinged ideas. And yes, she has magic, but so do a ton of other, far more obviously dangerous people. Our system is tricked out for all types of magic users, and even if she can bypass them due to her own unique magic, we’d at least receive a warning. And as for our identities…” Dick half-smiles. “She didn’t even know we were the ‘Waynes’ until we were just about to leave, and she didn’t appear particularly star-struck. I doubt she’d make the jump from chaotic billionaire’s kids to vigilantes.”  

“As for Damian…?” Bruce hardly knows what to make of his youngest’s out-of-character reaction and hopes to receive some cohesive read on the situation from his eldest.  

Dick, being quite unhelpful, shrugs. “I think you should talk to him. Get his side of the story. Things may have been chaotic on our end, but he did genuinely have fun. And, yes, he’s acting out of the norm.” Dick pauses. “Way, way, out of the norm for him, but I don’t think he’s enchanted. I think he just has a crush.”

Bruce blinks. Isn’t that a hell of a thought?

Damian.

With a crush.

He doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with these kinds of realities. Reflexively he massages his temple with the tips of his fingers trying to relieve the paining, aching pressure.

“Headache again?” asks Dick with sympathy. After twenty years his son knows his tells well, and Bruce has always had headaches, although his reasons for having them have certainly increased over the years.

“Yeah, is what it is though. We’ll keep an eye on Damian, have you run him through the influence-affected protocols?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

Dick shrugs. “Nothing, it’s mostly why I think he’s fine. She may be a danger, or powerful, but I don’t think she’s doing anything to Damian. Besides making him run up the data plan on his phone. He really hasn’t stopped texting the past two days.”

They’ve spent plenty of time talking about Damian, but Bruce hasn’t seen a glimpse of him since he woke up this morning. “Where is he?”

Dick pulls out his phone. “On a date, according to Stephanie.” Pulling up a photo that’s taken in a long-distance setting. Damian is pictured, seated at a cafe table, drinking out of a white coffee cup. Across from him sits a girl, Asiatic features, black hair, clad in a colorful sundress. They’re both smiling at each other.

It’s normal and adorable. And slightly worrying. Damian doesn’t smile like that unless looking at a fluffy four-legged creature.

“Stephanie trailed him?” 

Dick flips the phone away. “Actually, she and Cass both followed him when he left this afternoon. Not sure what they planned, but they’ve sent some nice pictures.” He pauses for a moment and smiles fondly. “If she’s not a danger, or a League plant, this could be really good for him.”

Bruce hums, unsure, and hating himself for that unsurety. He’ll make a call when he has more information, and less of a migraine. “Go wash up and grab some sleep. I’m out until my ribs heal, so I’ll need you to take point on patrol.”

Rising from his chair, Dick stretches and shoots him a grin. “It took you twenty-five years, but damn, you’ve finally learned to call it quits when you need a break. Proud of you B.”

Bruce doesn’t bother to disguise his roll of the eyes. Dick would know he did it regardless. “Get on.”

Dick shoots him a lazy salute. “Sir, yes, sir.” He ambles to the door, and Bruce calls out again before he’s gone.

“And next time, Dick, please try to keep the antics out of the paper, and off the internet.”

The shit-eating grin betrays Dick’s real thoughts when he says, “Of course Bruce, won’t happen again.”

Liar.

Bruce shakes his head in reluctant bemusement – should he honestly have expected anything else – and Dick ducks out of the door without another word. Finally, the dining room is quiet, except for the pitter-patter of rain on the window panes, and the soft hum of Tim’s computer.

Carefully, Bruce rises from the chair, his side twinging, head throbbing in what is now a full-on migraine.

He should have stayed in bed.

Ah, well, he’s suffered worse, and now he has a good idea of what happened with his sons that caused a headache so insistent he felt it halfway across the galaxy.

Gently closing Tim’s laptop, he doesn’t bother to touch the articles and paper, knowing his son’s organizational system may appear a mess to outsiders – even him on occasion – but that it has meaning for him. He observes the rest of the room; collecting Tim’s coffee mugs, and Jason’s empty plate and coke bottle – no need to have Alfred do it if he was right here – and ambles slowly to the kitchen taking care not to drop the dishes or disturb his ribs.

Placing the dishes away, Bruce leans heavily on the counter. Mind whirling, analyzing, and connecting the information as he has always done, however, it battles for dominance over the present, persistent, migraine. His body screams for more rest, and as much as he wishes to dig to the bottom of these problems right now, he trusts Dick has given him an accurate read of the situation. Later he can pry information from the girls, maybe they’ll have a less biased view of Damian’s… friend than his sons do.

He flicks the lights off in the kitchen, for now though, he’s heading back to sleep.

-line break-

A nap, a full meal, and hours later, the pitch black of the night concealed a heavier storm than the light drizzle which draped over the manor earlier in the day. Bruce, knowing damn well he wasn’t fit for patrol, sat in his office, a bottle of forty-year whisky perched next to a crystalline tumbler and a box of chocolates. A minor indulgence, especially as he should stay far away from alcohol at the moment. But if he hadn’t died from insane nutcases, aliens, or his children’s antics, mixing medicine and alcohol probably wouldn’t kill him.

Bruce snapshots a picture of the newspaper Alfred gave him this morning.

The front-page cover contains enough of the story to showcase the significant amount of drama his children had caused.

He texts the images to both Diana and Clark.

All he adds is, ‘I always know, and I’m always right.’

He pours another finger of the amber liquid into his glass and swirls it around as the computer turns on. Just because he wasn’t out and about, didn’t mean he intended to take the night off. Bruce stretches his fingers and opens up a blank case file template.

Time to find out who exactly is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. 

[dejwritesarchived]

✧˖*°࿐ synopsis + warnings — just been thinking about skater boy!yuji ( skater boy!yuji, her/she pronouns, black reader, mentions of scars, mentions of broken bones, fluff, a little angst, & a lil suggestive content, yuji is aged up, lowercase intended )

✧˖*°࿐ tags — @maydayaisha @gojosmari @fiona782 @warmchick @fairiechuu @gabzlovesu @seyawrld @itad0riyuji @itzgabz22 @etherealluvrr @caribbeanwifey19 @sindinminpin @bbgiirrll @potterbell @gardenof-venus @bontensbabygirl @chieflawyerpastatoad @nanaminshousewife @akanelover @plussizeficchick @littlemochi @celi-xxmoon @queenmjp @po3ticb3auty @sunkissedebony97 @gaiasmight @himbrosimp

click here to join taglist. click here for jujutsu kaisen masterlist.

© 2022 dejwrites, please don’t repost & plagiarize work.

currently thinking about skater boy yuji itadori who spends the majority of his time at the skate park with his friends. the hot summer skin slapping against his skin as he skated around attempting to do new tricks. he has broken multiple bones due to his reckless skateboarding, but he's an adrenaline junkie so he always goes right back to the same spot. even snapping a picture to post on instagram, quoting it 'here's where i fractured my wrist a couple months ago'.

skater boy!yuji whose the first out of his friends at the skate park that was littered with different people trying to claim a perfect ramp to try out or the spot closest away from the sun. the pink-haired boy always goes to the same skate rink that many people were intimidated to try. which wasn't the best judgment considering his older brother warned him that he wasn't sitting in the emergency room with him again if he broke another bone due to his hobby.

thinking about skater boy!yuji who has a scar on his face because he faceplanted the ground harshly after a poorly executed skate trick. many girls' hearts tend to flutter even seeing the scar as he walks by them just to plant a kiss on your lips as you're dropping off the thrasher bookbag he left at your place. the same skater boy who your pussy literally do backflips as you watch him bring the end of his graphic t-shirt to his face to wipe the sweat off his face. which this action would expose his extremely toned torso to everyone at the skatepark.

thinking about skater boy!yuji who attempts to teach you how to ride a skateboard and heart nearly dropped in his ass when you fell. it took a cool ten minutes to ensure him that you were okay and wanted to try again. (choso sitting on the side yelling he's not sitting in the emergency room because of both of y'all)

skater boy!yuji who has a customized skateboard deck with your initials and a picture of you and him. a lot of the guys call him corny and tease him and all yuji can do is smile like a dork while his cheeks are as red as a tomato

skater boy!yuji whose music playlist consists of rap and alternative. even some r&b songs that you suggested

skater boy!yuji who heart nearly leaped out his damn chest when tony hawk responded to his twitter comment !!

skater boy!yuji who comes to your apartment with a new cut or scratch on his body and his ass never know where he got it. like he'll tear his shirt off and you're mentioning the long ass cut on his back and he's just brushing it off as if it's nothing

skater boy!yuji who works full-time at a skate shop !! he's literally the coolest employee ever. been employee of the month three times in a row. he's always suggesting stuff for customers. hell, he'll even go outside and show off his skateboard trick he has been practicing on for weeks to customers. you always drop by to come see him, occasionally dropping off lunch for him or breakfast when he's the shop opener. usually, when you visit it always ends in a quite unique way. on slow days, which yuji's flipping the open sign to close and leading you right in the back just because his eyes seem to linger at your plump thighs in your skirt. in the back of the shop bent over a couple boxes filled with thrasher shirts and beanies. yuji's has the ends to his shirt up to his mouth, his teeth biting down on the fabric as hips thrust forward towards the plumpness of your ass. he's holding back the desirable groan as his large hands grasp at your waist. such an explicit moment with choked up moans and breathless mumbles of i love you's. which two days after the naughty moment, yuji's getting called in the office by megumi's whose trying to figure out how to delete footage from their camera footage.

idk i just feel skater boy!yuji would be an amazing boyfriend !!

[eulangelo]

callout for @genderfluidlucifer

google docs

tw for transmisogyny + TERFs + emotional manipulation

Transmisogyny

Lucifer is a huge transmisogynist who will complain 24/7 about how TERFs hurt the ace community, but the moment @randomclustermissile , a trans girl (who is not an exclusionist at all) tries to point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles (in the most vague and general way possible, without pointing fingers nor calling anyone names) Lucifer will immediatly jump to block her and so they did with me (another inclusionist) and i have to suppose to everyone else who agreed with that post, even arriving to vagueing about us in private group chats to suggest that we were “sympathizing with exclusionists”. all because we dared point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles. lucifer is TME but apparently they think they’re the authority on TERFs and their talking points but actual trans women are not, according to them, since this is the stuff that they would go and spew to other people. (screenshots from @enbyoctoling​)

here’s more examples of Lucifer (again, a transmasc person) going deep in detail about how according to them, TERFs/SWERFs hate aro/ace people and are an active threat to us

1. link

[Image ID: Three screenshots of a post by Genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot is of a paragraph that reads, "Hey. So I can actually answer this. Anon your commentary about how you thought terfs would approve of sex repulsed aces is sort of it. Except...not. Basically terfs hate ace people for not wanting sex in the approved by terfs way. Terfs are actually extremely interested in [forcing] amatonormativity onto everyone. Because for as sex negative as terfs are...they don't want to actually acknowledge or change the fact that amatonormativity is at the root cause of rape culture and misogyny."

The second screenshot is a zoomed in section of the post that reads, "So yeah no I have NO idea where exclus allies are getting this idea from that terfs would even remotely care about the sexual rights of ace people. Terfs generally hate any sexualities in the LGBTQ+ acronym that aren't LGB because they can't force a gender binary onto those sexualities. At least, not as easily. That's why it's actually a massive sign of someone who doesn't call themselves a terf being a crypto terf if they use the term LGB in a positive manner. Along with the term SGA, as it is deliberately exclusive of nonbinary and not inherently SGA centric queer-aligned sexualities. /END ID]

link to the full post, these are just excerpts but the whole thing is just a very long rant about how TERFs hate ace people and so on (i think it’s worth noticing that although the actual post is kinda long, trans women are never once brought op in a conversation about TERFs issues and the only time transmisogyny is mentioned is not relevant to the conversation)

2. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is nothorses. It reads, "Because apparently I have to say it: Testosterone is not a 'violent' hormone. It doesn't make you 'more aggressive' or a worse person, it doesn't make you 'dangerous,' or 'toxic.' Transmascs do not need to be 'warned of the dangers of T.' We do not need to spend our transitions terrified that we're going to become a danger to those around us - that HRT is going to turn us into a monster.

Everyone experiences mood swings during hormonal shifts (pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, estrogen HRT, etc.) and while you might have grumpy moments or feel anger/frustration that you need to learn to handle differently, that doesn't make you a bad person.

Testosterone can change the way you access/process emotions somewhat, but if you're already thoughtful about how you handle your feelings and treat others, you're going to be fine. It's normal to lash out on occasion, by accident, then apologize and work to do better. It doesn't make you a bad person. Everyone on HRT is prone to this, and everyone experiencing hormonal changes is prone to this.

Getting HRT should be positive and affirming; you should not have to spend your entire transition terrified of becoming a monster."

The post then has a reblog by captainlordauditor that reads, "The big danger of T is that needle ouchy." /END ID]

here’s them reblogging from known transmisogynist user @nothorses (once again, the irony that a post about how testosterone is seen as the "aggressive hormone" does not mention transfem at all which are literally the main victims of this rethoric in the first place)

3. link (1), link (2)

[Image ID: Two screenshots of posts by genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot reads, "Queer exclus: We're not repackaging terf rhetoric! Saying that is transmisogynistic! Also queer exclus: Remove the plus from LGBT!" and has tags that say, "I will pay these people to grow some god damn self awareness. Imagine being this dense. Queer discourse." The post has 15 notes.

The second screenshot reads, "Honestly it is so stupid and frustrating to see ace exclus continue to deny that the ace discourse was started by terfs. Proof was given countless times. And a big name terf like galesofnovember even admitted to starting it. Those of you who demand proof but ignore all of this never wanted proof to begin with." and is tagged with, "ace discourse. The post has 38 notes. /END ID]

heres another two post of theirs conflating TERFs with ace exclusionism

4. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblogged post by furbearingbrick. The original poster is boxlizard, Lucifer's old account. The original post reads, "By the way for people still in denial about it, here's galesofnovember, a terf, admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement. She's taking credit for it. Normally if the victims of this behavior weren't ace/aro or other queer identities y'all be ready to rightfully lynch her. But since it's us, y'all just still wanna stamp your feet and go, 'Nuh uh!' instead of acknowledging facts." The part that says, "admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement" is a link to a galesofnovember post.

There is then a reblogged addition from furbearing brick that reads, "archived versions of the receipts" and has two links to the webarchive. The tags read, "Bringing this back since it's apparently still relevant. Terfism mention. Aphobia mention. Queerphobia mention. Blocklist." and has 1,455 notes. /END ID]

this is their post that ive already talked about but basically they found a 52 notes post made by a TERF in 2012 and this one person said "i dont know why i dont get to be the princess of the anti-ace-brigade" and apparently they are convinced that this means TERFs started the ace exclusionism movement and that this is one of their goals. which is insane when TERFs in real life only care about making life miserable for transfem people first and foremost.

5.link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is yu-gay-fudo. It reads, “Just in case you happen to be unaware, some of the “radfem lite” they post to warm you up to their rhetoric, just off the top of my head:

- Ace/aro exclusionism

- Bi exclusionism or claims that bi people are “less queer” bc of “straight passive privilege”

- Saying you have to be dysphoric to identify as transInvalidating nonbinary people

- Calling queer a slur regardless of context, saying people can’t identify as queer, and saying that it can’t be reclaimed

- “Mogai hell”, “kweer”, or otherwise mocking less common labels and claiming they are “just cishets who want to feel special”

- Excluding sex workers from feminist discussions or claiming that sex work is inherently evil

- Basically anyone who thinks they can determine what other people identify as”. The tags read, "queerphobia tw. twerfs tw. no id." and has 70,727 notes. It was reblogged on March 22nd, 2021 /END ID]

another example of conflating radfems to things that, while wrong, have little to nothing to do with them because being a radfem, again, is something very specific that has all to do with transfem oppression.

Emotional manipulation

Lucifer has done nothing but block, break boundaries, spread lies and vague about people, some of which were even mutuals with them knowing they would see the posts. when confronted about it Lucifer's only answer was "just say you hate me and block me" but they actually ended up blocking everyone first, making it impossible for anyone to set some boundaries with them or even just to calmly confront them about anything.

[proof: Io(popncourse) and Lucifer had a disagreement in a shared discord server, which prompted Lucifer to vague Io in a vent post. Io confronted them, as being vagued is one of buns triggers, to which Lucifer initially agreed to delete the vent post, but then proceeded to victimize themself and immediatly blocked Io. later on, Jude(malewifedeckard) was confronted by Lucifer, then after Jude told them “I’m worried that you’ll vague me just like you did with Io” they proceeded to block Jude and vagued about him too. when Io made a post (which was not a callout, it was just bun setting buns boundaries) explaining what Lucifer did, Lucifer immediatly jumped to victimize themself, acting like they were being called out and straight-up lying, even going so far as to say that no one tried to hear them out, which is a blatant lie if you consider the aforementioned Io and Jude’s attempts at doing so, with Lucifer immediatly blocking and cutting ties with the both of them. ] 

(screenshots taken by @popncourse and @malewifedeckard)

as seen in the proof above Lucifer’s behaviour is not ok because they don’t accept any kind of confrontation and immediatly jump to blocking, and after blocking, they'd immediatly go and vague about the people who confronted them pacificly, spreading more lies and painting themself as the victim and even arriving to say “no one hears me out at all” which is simply not something you can say when you block people who are trying to hear you out in the first place.

this is by no means an invitation to go and harass them, send them hate or anything like that. i absolutely don’t want anything even remotely hateful or negative to be sent their way after this post. 

this post was only made because:

1. as an ace person who fully supports the inclusion of aspec identities in the lgbt+ community i don’t want to support an enviroment that costantly downplays transmisogynistic oppression in order to be taken seriously. there are hundreds of ways to make aspec activism without acting like we(as in TME aspecs)are the victims of a system that seeks for the annihilation of transfemenine people in real life everyday. i especially don’t want to support TME individuals who act transfem-friendly but then block any transfem who tries to speak on transmisogyny without a second thought.

2. Lucifer’s behaviour has hurt two friends of mine and i don’t want to associate with someone who actively breaks people’s boundaries without taking accountability when messing up.

3. i cannot associate with someone who spreads lies about me accusing me of sympathizing with exclusionists all while having me blocked so that i can’t see it nor defend me. they complain about people not hearing them out but they’re the very first person who does not try to hear people out, and instead jumps to spread baseless rumors. this is not someone i can nor want to associate with. 

(image descriptions provided by @malewifedeckard)

[phoenixes-and-wizards]

i read a post on here about bucky settling down in delacroix but think about this

imagine the community slowly warming up to one (1) bucky barnes

they're initially wary, that's definitely a given

but he's just so polite that some of the men start greeting him when they see him at the farmer's market every sunday for his weekly plum run, with or without sam by his side

after three weeks, he's got a long-standing cards-and-beer night with carlos and anyone else who wants to join

bucky having weekend dinner-and-movie nights with the wilsons that slowly become tri-weekly events because the boys just love him so much

he and sam take turns tucking them in at night, and seeing as they're still young enough for bedtime stories, bucky tells them sometimes about steve and nat and peter and wanda and anyone else he can remember

once, bucky wakes to find both boys curled tight into his sides and sam watching from the doorway, aj holding onto and drooling all over his metal arm, and it's such a blatant display of trust that bucky most definitely does not tear up, shut up sam, your cologne was in my eye

all of the older women coo over him, and there's definitely an age group joke in there somewhere ("oh, fuck off, samuel," bucky hisses when the other man outright snorts at the sight of him being subjected to yet another cheek-pinching session, courtesy of the wilsons' elderly friends, to which sam only replies "tsk, tsk, tsk, language"), but sue him, he'll take all of it if it means he'll get free apple pie afterwards

but it's the kids in particular who love him the most

sure, they're a bit scared of him at first, but after little marcia from cass' english class gives him a THANK YOU, MR. WINTER SOLDIER card, an artful rendition of bucky socking a glob of purple goo in the face on the front page ("i think that's supposed to be thanos, uncle buck," aj says from his perch on bucky's back), it's as if a floodgate has been opened and suddenly all the neighborhood kids adore him

little girls and boys randomly pasting stickers onto his metal arm when they pass him, and at the end of each day, bucky carefully peels all of them off and sticks them into his brand new notebook

he saves the captain america ones for sam, though

he develops a soft spot for one kid in particular, this skinny asthmatic who keeps getting into fights he can't finish, and sam doesn't even need to ask him why because he gets it right off the bat

at cookouts, bucky somehow always ends up being the designated babysitter

and it's not like he's got some super secret method, okay, but for some reason, the babies fall asleep faster when he's the one holding them

"excuse me, sergeant barnes....?" rachel, sarah's friend, asks, and she looks so close to tears that bucky immediately sets down his beer and reaches for the squealing bundle in her arms

("of course he's a baby whisperer as well. of course he is," sarah says, rolling her eyes fondly at the sight of bucky burping his fifth baby of the day over his shoulder)

he gains a mini-fanclub in some of the teenaged boys in town, most of them finding excuses to loiter by his garage door when bucky's fixing up his bike/car, and sooner or later, he finds himself teaching them a thing or two about machines

teenaged girls, though, are a different matter entirely

they start giggling whenever they bump into him around town ("hiiiiiii, mr. barnes") and it delights sam to no end to tease bucky about the fact that he's become something of a resident heartthrob

"seriously, sam, do these babies even know how old i am, i'm 106, sam, stop laughing at me, sam, i hate you" "no, you don't" "....no i don't"

for some reason, he also becomes the go-to person to call when pets get stuck up trees, because surprise surprise, even the animals here love him

"WHAT'RE YOU GOING TO HIM FOR I'M THE ONE WITH THE WINGS Y'ALL" - sam wilson, in the year of our lord 2023

just sam pretending to be annoyed by the whole thing, but honestly, he's way too happy about the fact that bucky is finally receiving the love and recognition he has always deserved

[ichigoromi]

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | 𝐒𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐬𝐚 𝐊𝐢𝐲𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐢 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧| 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 | 𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆

Alright, just want to put out there that I do NOT SUPPORT cheating. I'm going to write one where I might just lash out at OMI. Hmm, I don't like cheating for personal reasons, but I just don't think it's right.

So, for my previous post, I want to clarify that he did not full-on kiss the close friend but maybe like a lip to lip touch only; that was what I was going for initially.

Now, I want to write something that really hurts because I'm just reminded of something.

But, this post might be triggering and sad.

Warning (s): mentions of cheating, strong language, hospitals and breakups.

a/n: omg i didn't know i was going to write this long. just's a heads up, i used the she/her pronouns!

Enjoy...

Sakusa Kiyoomi

You felt like your relationship with Sakusa was slowly breaking down.

It was becoming toxic for you and him; it was not working out like last time.

When you guys fought in the past, you two would make up the next day, but these days, he stays out and comes back once every few days.

You tried calling him and even staying up to wait for him, but he never came home.

All the stress from your work and your relationship problems were becoming troubling for your body.

Still, you want to make this relationship work. You have been together with Sakusa for five years, almost half of your youth.

You two have been with each other through ups and downs; you guys can work this out.

Or so you thought.

It has been weeks that you tried to meet him and call him to have dinner together so that you two can have a proper conversation and makeup.

He never replies to your texts or calls.

When you are out at work, he only returned to the apartment to collect a change of clothes and belongings.

You noticed that his stuff was slowly getting removed, and you dread the worst.

Hell, you really wanted to confront him and ask him for the truth.

How did you two end up in this state?

You confide in your best friend that you consider as your sister from another womb. Since you only have brothers.

Your boss was being extra generous and gave you half a day off, considering that you have been overworking and decided to make his favourite dinner.

You bought tons of food so that you two can bond again and work the problems out.

It was a good day, and you were feeling hopeful.

Oh, hell no.

You felt your stomach dropped as you noticed the familiar pair of heels and that customised sneakers.

You heard giggles and moans.

There he was, half-naked and full-on making out with your best friend that you consider as your sister.

She hurriedly stops Sakusa when she noticed you.

Your knuckles were turning white from your grip.

"So this was why you have been avoiding me? I see two of my best friends hooking up. Ah, you must be glad that I was a fool so that you two can fool behind my back, huh?" You let out a bitter laugh and took a deep breath.

"How long has this been going on?" You asked the two of them.

"Six months."

They have been seeing each other for six months, and you spend all your tears on these two people you trust the most. They were your world.

"Was it fun? Hmm, Hanari? Tell me? How was it fucking your best friend's boyfriend knowing all of our relationship problems? Six months...I can't believe it. I must look like a fool where I pour my heart and tears to you about my relationship, and you two were fucking behind my back." Your eyes have gone completely dull, and the tears were threatening to spill.

"Kiyoomi, I was the one trying to work things out and trying to make this relationship work. What about you? I know that you are tired from your practice, and you could not even bother trying in this relationship?

How about me, huh? I am exhausted from taking care of patients and trying to please you. Was this relationship all about you?

Hanari, I know you like him since high school but just didn't have the balls to confess before I did. I felt bad, but now, I don't. But, as my best friend, how could you?

I am over this. Enjoy my sloppy seconds, Hanari. I hope you two are happy. Thank you, you assholes."

You flipped them off and turn your back on them. Before you even reach the door, you felt a sharp pain on your right cheek and taste blood in your mouth.

"Well, I guess you can't even handle words that you need to resort to physical violence." You threw her a nasty glare and walks out of that apartment and both of their lives.

Once you reach your car, you collapse on the car seat in excruciating pain.

It started when you confront them, and you felt the sharp pain in the lower right side of your abdomen. You could not raise your voice at them as it worsens the pain.

Your hand trembles as you reach for your phone to call someone to come and get you as you can't drive due to the pain.

"Oh, why are ya callin' me? Did ya miss me?"

"Tsumu, can you come to the parking lot in my apartment building? It's urgent." You requested, trying to pace your breathing.

"What's wrong? Are ya okay? Hey, I'm comin', hang in there."

You ended the call and laid back on the seat. It hurts so much that you feel like fainting.

Though it was only a ten-minute wait, it felt like ages for you.

"Oh lord, I'm glad I pull Samu along. Can ya walk?" He asked you, and you shook your head. He tries his best to make a minimal movement, but he sees you grimace at every small movement he makes.

Osamu got behind the wheel, and Atsumu cradle you close to his chest.

You whimpered in pain and clutch on to his sweatshirt tightly.

"Where's Omi? Didn't he went home earlier to get ya?" You shook your head, tears slowly trickling down your cheeks.

He knew something was wrong but decided to not probe you anymore.

You were immediately wheeled in, and Atsumu were left to handle your paperwork. Osamu sighed and started contacting his girlfriend that he might not return back today.

Hearing that you were hospitalised, she told Osamu that she would be driving up there.

Atsumu tries not to show his nervousness, but as his twin, Osamu clearly knows that he is distraught for you. Your boyfriend was supposed to be here, taking Atsumu place, but instead, he was nowhere to be found.

You were in so much pain that you could not even drive and had to ask Atsumu, who is an amateur driver.

"Doctor y/l/n requires immediate operation since she has a ruptured appendix. May I know who is her next of kin?" The assistant doctor asked and Atsumu followed after him to wrap up the paperwork for you.

Atsumu watches you slowly breathe in and out in a constant manner and gently brushes your hair away from your pale face.

He called and informed Sakusa about your hospitalisation, but his teammate just told him that he was just exaggerating and you were just down with the flu.

You were still in a deep sleep from the anaesthesia.

"Hey, how is she?" Mira, Osamu's girlfriend, asked Atsumu.

"She just came out from surgery about three hours ago. So, she's still asleep. Her brothers are coming tomorrow." Mira lets out a sigh and gently holds your hand.

She heard about Sakusa from Osamu and almost wanted to storm to his apartment and drag his ass here.

"I think the two of them broke up. She called me and asked me to pick her up, and she was hunched over in pain. Sakusa left practice early saying that he was going to pick her up, but it was a lie."

Mira lightly pats your hand and heads out of the private ward.

After Mira left, you squinted your eyes and grimaced at the faint pain on your right side.

"Oh, thank the lord you're awake! Do you know how worried I was? What happened between you and Omi?"

"We broke up. He cheated. I'll be fine." Even though you say that you would be fine, you can't help but feel the hot tears spill.

Atsumu pulls you to his chest and pats your back gently.

"Hey, I'll be here for ya. Don't ya worry, 'kay? Don't waste yer precious tears on someone who doesn't deserve it. Take care of yourself, 'kay?" He gently wipes the tears away from your cheeks and places a light kiss on your forehead and heads out of your ward for you to rest.

It's all going to be okay, you still have other people that care for you.

He never came to the hospital to check on you after you collapse in the parking lot. In fact, he released an announcement about the breakup.

Your brothers held back a lot when they went to pick up your belongings.

Atsumu offered for you to temporarily to stay at his place until you find a place for yourself.

You knew that Atsumu has been by your side this whole time and his feelings for you, but you just need to confirm it.

"Hey, ready to go?" He arrived just in time.

"Tsumu, I want to ask you something and you have to be honest with me." You pats the empty space beside you. He sat down beside you and you took his hand and held in your small hands.

"Do you have feelings for me?"

He froze and blinked at you.

"I know. Since a long time ago." His face fell and he braced for the rejection that was going to happen soon.

"Loosen up. I'm not ready for a relationship yet but if you can wait, I'm taking that confession."

Atsumu's expression lights up and he threw his arms around you, careful to avoid your stitches area.

"I'll wait! No matter how long it is, I'll wait for you!"

Alright, I hope this does not change your mind about Omi. ITS ALL AN IMAGINATION. I love Omi with all my heart but I had to break to y'all the harsh reality. Being cheated is never pretty and with the right support system, everything will all work out fine.

This has been the alternative ending that I would have written for my previous post.

Thank you for reading.

Stay safe and healthy!

With love,

Rosalie🍓

[alittlesimp]

Ranpo and Chuuya with a child who is like Dazai - headcanons

request: hello,can you do ranpo and chuuya with an adopted daughter who has a similar personality to dazai? if you do,thank you!

a/n: so while it does say ‘daughter’ in the request, i managed to make it gender neutral on accident? so ill change the title to something gn LMAO,, the ‘adopted’ bit was also hard to put in because i wouldn’t love an adopted child differently (so i cant describe it differently) and i personally have no experience with adoption so i cant put in relatable details that someone who does have experience might be able to put in ^^” i did write it with that in mind, but because it’s not obvious i’ll change the title to something a bit broader! ok phew long a/n, sorry!

warnings: reader is a child in this one

· Iconic father-child duo

· He absolutely loves how smart and funny you are

· He’s going to brag about you all the fucking time

· Like I think he’d be the type of parent who annoyingly brags about the most normal shit their kid does (‘ooh they pissed in the potty again yesterday’ shut up angela, they’re three, that’s normal, they’ve done it before, they’ll do it again, stop posting this shit to facebook, yes this is a personal experience)

· But somehow because you’re actually smarter than other kids this tendency gets amplified and thus, more annoying

· He’d mostly praise his own parenting skills

· “Look how smart my kid is! I raised them so well”

· If people call him out on this he’ll pretend to be confused and say it was just a joke (it wasn’t)

· Will take you to work and see if you can solve whatever crime happened

· And like, I wanted to say ‘if he’s sure it’s age-appropriate’ but I feel like he wouldn’t see the issue and the others would have to stop him from taking a five-year-old you to a murder scene

· He wouldn’t mind if you can’t solve the case, it just gives him the chance to flex his brain muscles LMAO

· This man is a sucker for praise and jumps up at the opportunity to show you he’s the best detective in the world / a cool dad

· He wants you to be as proud of him as he is of you

· He loves you

· But you really piss him off sometimes

· The key difference is that he has infinitely more patience with you than with Dazai

· The annoyances and grievances wouldn’t be there and the initial dynamic would be very different

· Like, you came into his life because he wanted you and not because he was forced to hang out with you by a weird old man with greasy hair and ugly shoes

· So while he might get slightly annoyed with your antics and endless chaos, he would never lash out

· He’d just laugh and joke around a bit

· At first he tried to tell himself you didn’t remind him of Dazai, but deep down he had to admit it

· He’ll go through the five stages of grief because of this LMFAO

· In the end he just finds it a bit funny, he can definitely put it aside and just let you be you

· I do think he’d keep you away from the mafia as much as possible, not just because he wants to protect you from the violence (and protect the image you have of him as a father), but also because he doesn’t want you to end up like Dazai would have, had he stayed in the mafia

· Chuuya’s not stupid and knows better than to put a young person he’s responsible for in an unstable environment like the mafia, even though he’s loyal to them and cares a lot about the organization

· Listen I could write for hours about Chuuya as a dad (same with other characters ngl), please don’t get me going lolll

please comment/reblog if you enjoyed! i’d love to hear what y'all think <3

taglist (please check this post for more information!): @missrown @pjofics @jessbeinme15 @whorefordazai

[myloversgone]

So, I don’t usually share personal stuff here or on any other social media, but it's been bothering me how absent I'm being from tumblr during the last three months or so, and I feel like I needed to explain it, which is why I'm making this post.

In late June I found out I had gallstones, and that I would need surgery to have my gallbladder removed. This came after several months of feeling sick all the time, not being able to eat properly, and then investigating the cause, which was all a huge annoyance.

The surgery took place at the end of last month, and it went well, despite my gallbladder being in worst shape than the doctor initially thought, which led him to put me on antibiotics. And this is where things got a little more complicated.

I had and allergic reaction to the antibiotics, and it appeared two days after I was done taking them - which I came to learn it's normal with this particular type of medicine. But, because of that, I had to take lots of meds to cure the allergy. That lasted two weeks or so.

After that was solved, I thought, well, now things are gonna get easier! I just need to heal properly from the surgery and then everything's going to get back to normal.

Silly me.

Lately, I've been dealing with an upset stomach, and nothing I eat stays inside me for long LOL. So I needed to see a doctor again, and he gave me more meds and a bunch of tests to make sure everything is working properly. He thinks it's still a side effect from the antibiotics. Apparently, it messed up with my digestive system.

So it's been a month since my surgery and six or seven months since I became to feel unwell. That's been taking a huge toll on my mental health, because I honestly can't remember the last time I felt 100% ok.

I was never one to be ill all the time, and now I've been seeing more doctors than ever, and I just hate it. I can't concentrate, I can't write, I can't enjoy the things I love to do, like being around here, talking with my friends and mutuals, reading fanfiction, or just chatting about the things I love the most.

I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating this all is, and how I wish I knew how to cope with all of that.

I know I'm complaining about stuff that will probably pass sooner than later while some people have to live with permanent diseases, but I just felt like I owed y'all an explanation. Also, writing this has helped me organize my thoughts.

I'm sorry for it all and I hope I can be myself soon and be around more!

Wish you all the best,

x

[msfett]

✨ Chapter 5: Parallax

Boba Fett x F!Reader

Rating: Wholesome Goodness

C/W: Smidge of Angst wrapped in Snuggly Fluffity Comfort

Some Stuff 😊 Thank y'all for supporting this lil saga! My heart is always so happy to hear from you 🥰 You never know how a fic will be received, and I am thrilled if this has meant something to you! It’s been a great escape for me 😌 If you prefer AO3 (msfett_ifyourenasty), this series is cross-posted there. If you're enjoying this fic, please feel free to reblog and share 💕

So…yeah. Initially this chapter was really long. I realized as I was writing, there were two very distinct sections. The first part dealt with familial love while the second part focused on romantic love (ie sexy times). I decided to split it into two separate chapters. As much as I wanted to jump into bed with romantic love, it just didn’t feel right to put them in the same chapter since they are so opposite from each other.

That being said, I hope you still enjoy this chapter, but in the next, we'll definitely be having some fun with ya boi! 😉

🎶 Musical Motivation/Lyrical Inspiration: Say by John Mayer (yeah, totally saccharine)

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

The sun-scorched plains of the Jundland Wastes reflect a penetrating glare across Tatooine’s endless Dune Sea. Very few organisms are apt to live in this blistering environment. Yet there are some creatures that have learned how to thrive in spite of the dry, barren desert.

Before you’ve even stepped through the synstone hut’s open door, you hear him shout, “Extra bantha milk?”

Unlike the stifling heat, the shade of the hut offers to wrap a gentle warmth around you. “You remember.”

Naturally he’s busy, hood covering the back of his head, nodding along as he hums an old melody you’d loved as a child. He pours a generous dollop of the rich, blue liquid into a steaming cup. “Of course I do. Most mornings it was the only way I could bribe you out of bed.”

“I see your sense of humor hasn’t changed,” you muse, removing your mask.

As the collection of sand-stroked robes turns around, the hood falls, and your smile seems to drip off your face as if the suns were actively melting it.

When you left, shocks of grey readily ran through his hair, but now there are no traces left of the fiery auburn color. His skin looks as if it has aged twice the number of actual cycles, a flash flood of wrinkles and scars worsened by the extreme elements.

“Don’t look so surprised,” he observes with faux contempt. “It certainly wasn’t easy providing a shield of concealment for the three of us all those years.” His grizzled, but steady freckled hand holds out the cup of caf. “You in particular, dear girl.”

At first glance, remnants of outward youth have vanished from his visage. But his eyes sparkle, hinting at boyish mischief, and his smile lights up with childlike charm in seeing his protégé.

He’s always been a frugal man, with the one exception of Garqi caf beans, the one item he’d splurge on. The caf is strong as it wafts into your nose, milk swirling in intricate patterns, marrying bitter with sweet. It tastes like home.

“How’s the kid? Still crashing his skyhopper in Beggar’s Canyon?”

“No,” he chuckles, seeming to recall fondly. “Fortunately it’s been fairly quiet since you left.” He absentmindedly scratches at his scruffy beard. “He’s growing into a fine young man. Though I’m not sure if his uncle will ever allow me to go near him.”

He appears deeply introspective, pondering his own words until he catches your concerned stare. “Where are my manners, please, come sit. I know you didn’t travel all this way to talk about the boy.”

In truth, you hadn’t had any plans to visit your Master. You hadn’t been sure if you would ever return to see him after the fallout, and guilt pangs through. He’s kindly received you, welcomed your presence, even presumed your visit was intended, planned.

It’s circumstantial that you were close to this backward speck of a planet after the bounty hunter decided to free you, the timing oddly perfect. You hadn’t been ready to forgive, to let go of the anger you felt towards your Master. But after the hunter’s explosive reaction to you, he’d unknowingly dislodged remains from your own wreckage, forcing you to pick up and examine the broken fragments of anger alongside his.

And while it had been easier to focus on him, you couldn’t deny the extra rubble belonged to you. Just as you had tried to help him reconstruct, you had to rebuild your own foundation, replace and strengthen. So you gather courage to be humble, express fault, laying down the first brick.

“Master, I want to apologize.” His eyes reflect more generosity than you feel deserving of. “I was so hurt, so angry when I left. I felt betrayed, deceived.”

His voice is forthright. “I should be the one apologizing, dear girl. It was never my intent to mislead you, but the less you knew, the safer you would be. I would’ve done…I would do anything to keep you from harm. The Empire thought you had perished alongside the others in the temple. Your life hinged on erasing everything from your past in exchange for a new future.”

He shakes his head slowly, regretfully at the remembrance. “If I’d told you about your parents and their defection from the Jedi order, it would’ve only caused confusion and grief, undue suffering. You were too young to understand. But as you got older, I let my own fears for you bury the truth.”

“When I learned your brother had survived order 66…” It’s as if he can’t allow the words to form. “Never did I consider that Vader would sense his connection."

“I did what I thought was right for you. I would not lose you to the dark side. I would not fail this time. But it wasn’t until much later I realized I’d condemned you to live in isolated exile out of fear, my fear. As I am now,” he murmurs contemplatively.

“I thought if I could teach you everything I knew, it would keep you safe if anything ever happened to me. That’s all I ever wanted for you, to be strong, to be independent no matter the circumstances.” His words are earnest, sealed with the bond of attachment adamantly forbidden by the Jedi order.

Your embrace is sudden, throwing your arms around him with the same carefree abandon as when you were young. There are holes in his threadbare robe, a testament to a lifetime of harsh conditions. The muscles in his shoulders have atrophied over time, made more evident as he soothingly pats your back.

When you look at him, his eyes appear to have grayed as well. But you feel the same loving reassurance wash over you as hints of blue still glint through. “Despite all my shortcomings, you were able to achieve balance, a balance that is vital to the future of our galaxy.”

“But Master, I don’t know what my purpose is.” Your voice catches, fighting back an ugly sensation. “What good am I if I can’t bring about change?” The tear almost immediately evaporates when it rolls down your cheek. “It feels so dark sometimes.”

The contraction in your chest acts to further suffocate, but the hand that reaches to touch your forehead aids in releasing the discomfort, and you gratefully lean into it, relaxing so you can take that deep inhale of life giving oxygen.

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth, dear girl. Do you feel I lack purpose?” he questions sincerely, drying residual rivulets coalescing with dust on your face.

“No.” Your brow furrows in response. “You’ve devoted yourself to bettering the galaxy, bettering me.”

He nods slowly. “Trust me, it can be difficult to remember that when you’re sitting by yourself, when you’re alone with your thoughts.”

Projecting comfort, he continues. “A single star may not appear capable of casting much light. But when it joins with the light of other stars, the night sky becomes brilliant, and we’re able to see things that we couldn’t before. If each of those stars faded one by one, you would notice long before total darkness stretched across the sky.”

“Your contribution is just as great as mine, if not more. You are at the beginning of your life with a future of possibilities. Even when you are my age, you may never fully realize the impact you’ve had, but it is vast in ways we often cannot understand.”

“You are strong and wise, dear girl. I have trained you since you were small. I have taught you everything I know, and you have become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”

His hand rests softly upon your shoulder.

“You have truly become a Master.”

“No.” Your mind is flooded with rules you’ve disobeyed, even completely ignored. “I’ve strayed too far from the order.”

“Perhaps it was the order that strayed too far from its own ideals. You represent a new generation of Jedi. You have rightly earned this.” His seriousness turns into a gentle chiding. “Don’t argue with me. I’m an old man.”

The light appears overwhelming at first glance, as you follow behind your Master to exit the hut. But as your eyes adjust, you can clearly see the twin suns in the cloudless blue sky. It must be around midday. One sun has already begun its descent as the other continues its ascension, growing brighter as it reaches the zenith.

“Your saber.” You kneel on the warm, soft sand and present the hilt, bowing your head. The humming vibration is reassuring as he speaks. “Your mother went to great lengths to fashion this after her Master’s. In that way, you carry on both your mother’s legacy, as well as Master Windu’s.”

So attuned to the amethyst kyber crystal, you can visualize its change in direction before he moves it, the living force surrounding you collectively.

“By the will of the Force, I, Obi-Wan Kenobi, bestow upon thee, guardian of Light and Peace, daughter of Jedi Knights Mallie and Kento Marek, the honored title of Jedi Master.”

A strong gust of wind swirls up loose sand, but breezes by leaving you untouched as if are encircled by an invisible shield of protection. You hear the blade retract, the hilt fitting perfectly into your outstretched hands before you rise.

“You’re like a daughter to me. I couldn’t be prouder of the person you’ve become. My legacy will also live on through you. You hold the future, and just as I taught you, so you will pass your wisdom and knowledge to others in the ways of the Force. We are all connected. Even if you can’t see me, know that I will always be with you.”

His eyes project truth and hope, but there is also melancholy that sifts through.

“Thank you, Uncle.” A universe of meaning lives within those three simple words. You place the warm metalweave across your face, an attempt to hide the shadow of apprehension on your lips. “I will see you again.”

His kind smile is as permanently etched into your mind as the wind-weathered erosions of the desert canyons. “Remember, Master Jedi, there is freedom in life. But there is also purpose in death. Fulfill your destiny. Go be the bright light for others in this dark time. May the Force be with you.”

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

Anyone want some crackers with that cheese? 😋

Small Digression 😊 I just have a deep love for Obi-Wan and could probably write an entire fic about these two. I feel for Kenobi and all the shit situations he handled with such humor and grace and kindness 😭 He suffered so much tragedy and loss. He watched helplessly as Qui-Gon was defeated and brutally killed. Satine, the freaking love of his life, died in his arms. Anakin betrayed him, turned to the dark side, and helped Palps hunt down and kill like 99% of the Jedi. Then he had to live the rest of his life in exile on one of the shittiest planets in the galaxy 😭The Kenobi series is gonna break my heart, but I’m so glad we’ll get the opportunity to delve into the universe from his perspective.

[bluesclves]

I saw a video where someone (I forgot who, it might've been jstoobs or straw-hat-goofy on tiktok) said how the three mcu Disney+ miniseries shows represent three different types of love. They said that wandavision is about romantic love, fatws/caatws represents brotherly/platonic love, and loki represents self-love.

I disagree; I think each show takes a commonly used trope about love and subverts it.

Wandavision is about learning to accept the loss of a loved one. The usual trope for losing a loved one is that it's not something you can move past on your own; in typical media, a new love interest or friend comes in and helps lift the grieving person out of their downward spiral. Instead, wandavision shows Wanda in serious denial, but she ultimately pulls herself out of her grief and recognizes that she is enough on her own, she can be strong despite her loss, and while she initially dragged an entire town into her grief with her, she ultimately releases them and resolves to accept her grief on her own, and move past it on her own.

Captain America and The Winter Soldier: I know sambucky is a hot topic right now, but I feel that there really is something in this show between Sam and Bucky. This show takes the quite common trope of two men in a strong friendship forged through battle/conflict and, in my opinion, takes it that one step further. "Just friends" don't do couples counseling exercises together, you feel me? They started out as two dudes with a mutual friend, but I think they've become closer to each other through this show than either one of them ever was with Steve. I think the expectation with their dynamic was for it to be a buddy-cop sorta show, but instead we got a really wholesome relationship (whether you see it as platonic or romantic) where they explicitly trust and care about each other, shown in how they easily share personal spaces and information with each other and in how they check in on each other when they can tell one is in an uncomfortable situation.

[This is your spoiler warning for episodes 1-5 of Loki, hit j to skip the rest of this post]

Loki (2021), is by far my favorite of these subverted tropes. I think we're all well-acquainted with TV's nasty habit of pushing every male & female protagonist duo together into a hetero (or hetero-passing) relationship. We know that Loki & Sylvie are not going to be a couple; the director has said that there won't be any (explicit) romance between them. Any hints have, at best, been het-baiting (oh how the tables have turned!) And now with episode 5, we've seen a male-presenting and female-presenting protagonist duo confirm their lack of romantic feelings, but continuing with their strong desire to be close and be friends who support each other. It's showing how you really can just have a man and a woman be close friends without having a romance subplot forced onto them. (And with that confirmation from them, Mobius's accusations flung at Loki in episode four sound even more suspiciously like a jealous man with a crush, and paired with that long-ass hug loki & mobius had in episode 5??? 👀 draw your own conclusions y'all.) I've seen so many TV shows where female protagonists are shoved into a relationship with the male protagonist, whether they have chemistry or not. And I've seen so many shows where, if the relationship doesn't work out, things either become weird between them, or they just don't bother to be close anymore (almost like society dictates that men and women should only spend time together if they're 'getting something' out of it). It's so nice and refreshing to see that subverted here, so Loki & Sylvie can just be close without having to be 'together'.

Anyways, that's my take on these three shows. I'm looking forward to this next phase of marvel content, it seems like they're finally diversifying their casts and writers and directors, which I really hope will lead to more diversified and interesting stories.

[liighty]

Guzma babysitting Reader’s Niece

(A/N): BACK ON MY BULLSHIT AGAIN! BUT THIS TIME IT’S NOT ALL THAT SELF-INDULGENT AND MIGHT POSSIBLY BE TURNED INTO A SUPER FIC IF I FEEL LIKE IT

In all honesty i’ve thought about making another largeass super self-indulgent Guzma x Reader mega fic, but I’m not sure if I want to? I don’t know if anybody would read it, so that’s what this post is for!!! If you like this and want to see actual Guzma x Reader with plot and not just fluff drabbles lmk!! I have a bunch of asks to address so maybe i’ll get to that too soon

Anyways, back to the fic.

Mini Summary: (Y/N)’s niece needs to be babysat while (Y/N) is interviewed, so they turn to Guzma and crew to help out for a bit. Chaos ensues.

Rating/Triggers: UH drugs are mentioned but not really? THE KID DOES NOT DO DRUGS!!!! but yeah if that makes you uncomfy i’d be careful with it??\

Pairing: Guzma/Gender Neutral!Reader (I used the honorific ‘Titi’ which is gender neutral for ‘Tia’ or ‘Tio’ [extra thanks to Ocha_Bocha for helping me with that one <3] and tried to make it as gender neutral as possible. Originally this was written with a male reader, and then I went female, and ultimately attempted to eliminate gender completely. [Following the footsteps of Splatoon teehee])

Fic under cut!!!!!

"Are you sure this is a good idea, honey?" You clutch your niece's hand as you approach the large walls that separate Po Town from the rest of Ula'Ula Island. It's not that you don't trust the man who you're leaving her with- in fact, those two have been acquainted previously and seem to get along fairly well- It's his friends who you're concerned about.

"..." Her silence is expected, as the kid isn't all that talkative. Recognizing the young girl's silence, you frown. 

"You can stay in the office lounge if you really want to. I know you aren't the biggest fan of crowds, and um- Guz has some pretty loud friends-" Your explanation of what to be expected is quickly interrupted by a blue haired young man decked in black and white clothing. "Yo yo, what's with the kid?!" 

You arch a brow. You knew that Guzma worked with kids, but this guy couldn't be any older than 15! "I could say the same for you. I'm here to talk to Guzma-"

"Ya mean the boss? Why would some random chick want anything ta do with the leader of the Team Skull, huh?!"

A pink haired girl dressed in the same outfit walks up to the boy, crossing her arms. "Shut it, ya clod. Don't you remember the conversation we had with Boss yesterday?"

Hearing this, the blue haired boy's eyes light up in an epiphany. "Ohhhhh shit- Right-"

"Watch yer fuckin' language around the kiddo." She lightly smacks the back of Dansei's head. "She's in good hands, ma'am."

Another pink haired woman, this one being someone you finally recognize, walks in and smacks both of the delinquents in the head once more. "You say that after cussing, Reese?" 

Thank God. Plumeria. "Hey Plumes-" You smile weakly, waving politely with your free hand. Your niece does the same. Another young man, this one much shorter than the first and with green curly hair scrambles after Plumeria, jumping up and down to be seen. "Sorry about these numskulls. I'll lead y'all to the big boss man, yo. No worries at all, so you can chillax!"

I'm regretting this more and more by the second.

The crew starts whistling some hip hop tune as they make their way to the Shady House, the smaller boy beatboxing. You've taken this time to offer a piggyback ride to your niece, who's politely declined. Are all kids like this? Or is it just her?

Once they approach the boss, Guzma immediately jumps out of his chair, his signature shit-eating grin plastered on his face. "Eyyyyyy! (Y/N)!!! Kiddo!! What's up, homeslice?!" He hops down the stairs and crouches so he can get at eye-level with the young girl, offering his fist for a pound-it.

She bumps her fist against his, smiling just a bit. It's more of a reaction than you expected, at least. "S-sup, Uncle Guzma-" 

Looks like his slang is rubbing off on her. That's cute.

"Thanks for droppin' by, Doll. No need to worry about Little Miss Troublemaker over here, I got it all under control." He picks up your niece and walks over to you, pressing a looooooooongass smooch on your cheek. The other Team Skull members all make mini comments, like "Ewwww-", "Grosss-", and "Cooties-", causing Plumeria to once again smack their heads together. 

You roll your eyes, unable to stop the smirk on your face from growing any further. "Not in front of the kids, Guz." "Ah, right, right- My bad." His shades slide onto his face, hiding the bright red blush that had crept onto his cheeks. "Well, you should probably get goin', ey? The Aether Foundation's one lucky company to have you interviewin' for a position."

"Dork." You boop his nose, then your niece's. "Call me if you need me, okay honey? I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay, Titi (Y/N)-" You smile at the nickname while the others snicker. 'Titi' sounds an awful lot like 'Tittie', and considering three of the 7 people in the room are immature teenagers, there's definitely some laughing going on in the background. Plumeria looks very tired. How does she deal with these kids all the time?

"Alright, I'll be back. Don't light anything on fire, okay?" You yell as you walk off, feeling a slight hint of unease at the idea of leaving your young niece with so many delinquents, even if it's just for a few hours. It'll be fine, though. Guzma's there to keep them from doing anything stupid.

You laugh at the thought. Who am I kidding? He's probably gonna be the one who explodes something first.

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The interview itself wasn't all that bad. You're fairly certain that you either aced it or put yourself up for consideration, which in itself helped your confidence just a bit. With the absence of Lusamine and the arrest of several of her chairmen, the foundation was very antsy and in need of someone who could handle the Pokemon Observation department. With your background in medicine and PR, you were rationally on the list of potential replacements, and despite your initial resistance, learning that the company would be run by somebody that WASN'T the manipulative little bitch Lusamine gave you enough comfort to accept the offer for the interview. Was it just an offer or an invitation? You weren't quite sure, but Wick was very insistent on you showing up.

Either way, you're pretty certain you got the job. Good on you. 

You can't help but wonder how your niece is doing, surrounded by so many troublemakers. As you make your way to the entrance of the Shady House, you can hear loud music, causing you to feel a small tint of anxiety. She'll be fine.

You walk up to the door and creak it open, the smell of burnt… whatever the fuck that is flooding your nostrils. Of course. They lit something on fire.

"Guz??" You call out to the empty room. "Plumes? Anybody home?" As expected, there's no response. You start to feel more and more anxious the more ground you start to cover. Where are they? Peeking your head around the corridor, your anxiety comes to its peak when-

"And that's why you should never do drugs, aight?"

H-Huh?

Your niece sits on Guzma's knee as he bounces it up and down, his signature shit-eating grin plastered on his face like usual. Awfully burnt cookies sit on the table, explaining the smell from earlier, and Plumeria seems to be asleep with the other team skull grunts. Are they… napping? Seems like it. 

She nods enthusiastically, taking a bite of a charred cookie and grimacing shortly after, causing the two to both laugh in unison.

"Doesn't matter if it's just for recreational purposes, you could still get hooked, and that's the last thing we want!" Grinning once again, Guzma pokes her forehead.

Hypocrite. You're reminded of the first time you two had kissed, which happened to be shortly after you both had blazed a couple of joints. It's enough to get you laughing, though.

"Huh?! What're you doing here so early? Don't tell me ya flunked THAT bad!" Guzma's eyes widen, a genuine look of bewilderment painted on his face.

"I did not flunk! I think I did great!" You huff, crossing your arms defiantly. "It's suuuuuuuper comforting that you thought I failed, Guz."

"Nononono I was joking!! Right, kiddo??" Your niece quickly nods. "See???? No harm, no foul!"

Arching a brow, you walk up to the two and pick up the young girl. "Mhmmm. Did you have fun, honey?"

She nods again, unable to contain the grin on her face. "Uncle Guzma told me about his Pokemon training! And I got to ride on Golisopod's back!" 

The large bug type pokemon bops up and down upon hearing its name, prompting a smirk from Guzma. "Yeah, I told ya I'd take care of her. She's welcome back anytime, okay?"

"Thanks, Guz." You peck his cheek, and your niece sticks her tongue out, closing her eyes. 

"Icky cooties!!" Where the hell did she hear that? The only people you can think of who'd say such a thing are in the other room snoozing, so- Yeah, actually, you know exactly who taught her that word.

"Well, I'm gonna getchu with my cooties! And my tickles!" You raise a hand menacingly, wiggling your fingers with one eye closed. She immediately curls up, not out of fear, but out of excitement. It's nice to see her so happy again.

After a very long tickle session, you quickly glance at the large grandfather clock, noting the short hand of the clock slowly approaching the number 8. Shit. "We gotta go, kiddo. Your dad isn't gonna be all that happy if we get home any later than 8:30. Besides, it's past your bedtime."

"I bet Uncle Guzma stays up past his bedtime-" She yawns. "Can we stay for a little longer?"

How can I say no to that face? You find yourself incredibly conflicted. Do you tell her you have to leave anyways? Or do you stay and risk getting in trouble by your brother-in-law?

"Eh, as much as I'd love to have you over for longer, kiddo- Look at your Titi (Y/N). They look exhausted."

You smile gratefully at the comment, glad that it doesn't have to be you to tell your niece to go home. "Yeah, I'm beat. We can hang out some other time, okay? I promise." You pat her head and get ready to leave.

"Aww… okay. Bye, Uncle Guzma!! Bye Golisopod!" She holds your hand, and the two of you eventually walk your way back to the car. As you drive away, one thing lingers in your head. You can't think of anything else, in all honesty.

Guzma's great with kids. I should've expected as much, but… I'm glad he gets along with my family.

Your stomach rumbles at the intersection. I'd kill for some malasadas right about now- 

Okay, maybe you CAN think of something else.