#tried not to include huge ones that i imagine everyone on earth has seen already also :]

[xjulixred45x]

Hi! I was wondering if I can request mark grayson dating fem!reader who’s like raven from dc? Like powers and all that jazz? Also maybe can reader be mean-ish but has a huge soft spot for mark? And maybe since they’re both supers they just fly as a date? Hc’s please ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ (sorry if some of this doesn’t make sense 😭)

Hi! Yes! I love Raven! Thanks for the Request

Mark Grayson/Invincible x Raven! Reader

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: female

Warnings: some spoilers from Invincible season 2(and MAYBE comics), Reader is like Raven, so it's kind of mean to everyone but eventually softs up, Reader has an HORRIBLE dad, comfort, Fluff.

It seems that the reader can never have it easy..

reader is the daughter between a human and a demonic entity, which precisely wanted to use her as a channel to other worlds.

Fortunately her mother was able to take her to a safe place to raise her.

reader was on the run with her mother for much of her life, learning magic, about her lineage, her powers, etc.

but at some point something went terribly wrong, related with her father.

It's something painful to remember, but after that the reader's mother...was gone. and she was alone.

reader fled from her father for years, jumping between dimensions and existential planes to evade him.

which obviously generated a lot of mental exhaustion.

But, when she was older, she finally managed to find a relatively safe place.

the earth.

a seemingly peaceful planet, advanced enough to survive, but not a wonder.

and it was infested with people with superpowers.

She would fit in well.

Or well, she would have done it if she had presented herself to the public, reader she dedicated herself to staying in the shadows, anonymous, lending a hand from time to time.

If there were problems and she was around, she would solve it.

and she was fine with that.

But she would be lying if she said she didn't crave the same thing that the hero teams had.

friends, camaraderie... family.

but it was dangerous. It was better to stay out of it.

so it was. until a certain person got in her way.

In fairness, Cecil probably already knew about the reader and tried to send a couple of agents to recognize if she was a possible threat, but they couldn't really find her after that.

Even Cecil himself had a hard time appearing to her, if that says anything.

so they simply issued a kind of bulletin regarding her, that she had magical abilities, that they didn't know if she was an ally or enemy, and that she could be potentially dangerous.

Thanks to this, the reader was even more anonymous than before, even ceasing to appear when the situation required it.

She just didn't want Cecil's attention or for them to think she was an enemy.

Reader spent much of my time hiding in Midnight city or meditating to kill time.

and it continued to appear every time Cecil's agents had a fight where there was a lot of destruction (almost all of them).

Although it was not until the Midnight City incident that the reader met one of them, Invincible in person.

Can you imagine that a reader can access the shadowverse? She was probably there when Mark and Darkwing were "fighting" and she, tired of having her meditation interrupted, simply told Mark that if he caught Darwing he would have to take him out.

and Mark appreciated the advice👍

When he left the Shadowverse and knocked out Darkwing, Reader simply went out to check that he was still alive.

Mark would recognize Reader from the previous encounters, they formally introduce themselves, but Reader leaves when Cecil reconnects with Mark. She says nothing personal, it's just for security.

After that Mark begins to try to include the reader the times he encounters her in battle, he has already seen her using magic, he knows he can help more.

Sometimes it works, and the reader ends up helping to fight certain guys like the environmental scientist, or even the bugs from Mars.

but there are other times where it backfires, where the reader ends up using her powers excessively and that shows a side...not very pleasant about herself.

like a small incident with a member of the lizard league who almost blinded her with a stratospheric device.

...and in return that member went almost crazy for a couple of weeks.

Mark knows that the reader has magic, not what he doesn't know is HOW she has magic, he just knows that it's not something she likes to talk about and it has something to do with her father (and God knows he empathizes with that).

So Mark tends to defend the reader a lot in these types of scenarios, starting a nice friendship between them.

The reader will be somewhat distant and even borde with the guardians of the globe, but Mark gives her a certain feeling of security, after all he does not see her as a threat, so she tends to be in a better mood when he is around.

(and it seems like everyone is aware of this except Mark himself😅).

Reader has joined Mark on patrol several times when she notices how balled up he gets after each fight, and she's really worried that he gets hurt so often, so she acts as an extra backup.

and somehow Mark can't help but be touched by this, aww the bad girl cares about me kind of feeling. Although of course, appreciate the support and concern.

Besides, have the opportunity to see the reader work? sign him the fuck up.

When Mark is away on "family business" (for lack of a better term) the reader is quite anxious to say the least, but tries to keep calm with meditation and doing heroic work.

Let's just say that Mark ends up influencing her to be more heroic on her own no matter what Cecil says about her :')

The reader tries to encourage Mark to open up about his trauma with his father (and more recently Armstron) even if it's not with words, simply by being there for each other.

It is MANDATORY that the reader knows Oliver, I am not making the rules (okay, MAYBE I am, but it's for plot sake), I find it funny because probably at first she would not know anything about how to handle a baby (much less an alien baby) but in reality she knows some tips for dealing with superpowers from a young age(thanks to her mom).

reader asleep with Oliver in her arms 🥺(RIP, Mark Sebastian Grayson, cause of death: excess tenderness).

Debbie probably knows the reader at first only because of the times Mark talks about her (as a very cool, intelligent, elegant, pretty girl...) and she definitely takes advantage of it when they meet formally 🤣

Mark totally dosen't wanna go to the other side of the world and SCREAM--

(reader being especially attached to Debbie because she reminds her of her own mother is my Roman empire).

If we look at the relationship as it is, it is quite nice and relaxed, a reader despite being half-borderline, she shows her best side when she is with Mark since in general he encourages her a lot.

Just as the reader supports Mark when his father comes back into his life, Mark supports the reader when her "father" tries to enter hers or bad times come back to haunt her.

They can definitely do bonding through daddy issues😅

The reader probably got quite used to reading in Mark's presence, before to help him with his studies/university in literature matters, and when he left the university simply to relax him a little. the reader's voice is very relaxing (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)

and also in general it is nice to see the reader talk about things she likes like epic stories/poems, how certain magical writings work, etc. just nerding out and Mark listens.

(as the person who asked or asked the question said) there are days when they are both so exhausted by their jobs/problems that they want to be together in a quiet way, so they decide to have a flight, sometimes just flying over the city, other times they have reached reach other countries, sometimes they do races, etc.

Mark learns pretty quickly not to touch the reader's cool gadgets, one time he literally almost summoned the devil, NO JOKE.

I think the only gadget Mark can touch from the reader's collection is her cape, and it's pretty funny because it's too small for him🤣 and he tries to imitate Darkwing when he puts it on.

We all love silly guy Mark.

Mark lets himself be carried like a princess by reader, FIGHT ME--

Mark has probably wanted to at least learn the basics of magic with Reader, no, he doesn't want to use magic, he simply wants to learn to defend himself against it (especially after what happened with Armstrong) and he is surprisingly good at theory.

-"Are you sure you left university?"

-"Are you sure you never went to school?"

Yep, just like Mark influences the reader for the better, the reader ended up influencing Mark's humor😅 his sarcasm has evolved to unimaginable levels.

At least now Mark has less chance of dying now that he knows more about magic.

Honestly, the story could perfectly change a lot with a character like Raven because if Mark got lost she could simply look for him with her Chakra stone and bring him to earth with a portal.

Imagine being Mark, being super beaten up and READER coming out of a PORTAL to save your skin.

or even extend her power to other dimensions! (Raven can AND does it in some comics)

She is OVERPOWERED.

probably thanks to this Cecil is even more cautious with her and even hostile, which would open the gap even more between him and Mark (you can't expect Mark to accept that his partner goes with Cecil knowing that he will want to turn her into a weapon of mass destruction ).

very Sunshine(Mark) and Sunshine Protector(reader) dynamic.

overall a great pair honestly, they balance each other out really well and are ADORABLE together, I just hope their parents don't cause too many problems in the future..

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

[the-firebird69]

So our son had this idea to have these guys grow and walk through the house or Castle and it's really a fortification and imagine what they would do during the day and they already knows they think the day would go like this and this and that

Most of them are copying their day here and a few of them got close but our son got very close almost right on and he said that they're not there it means some Mansions were not there and they were relocated when discovered into others midst. But why do that and you can't use it as a giant and the other ones doing it so Tommy F was mentioned that's one reason the other is that they were fairly arrogant and move the whole place and practically nobody figured it out.. this is one reason why they're doing it but really it was more functional and it was because others would take the building over and say they built it like a grandiose Palace and would sometimes we seen as large until credit for what they did including stealing things and ruining towns and cities and crushing them and it's known for years that the max will probably doing it then Tommy f think I'm going like that for some time and it is part of the mystery but the other mystery is what was the function of these places if you put it all together it's very simple it's a town you'll sleep eat and you study there and you train and you learn and that's what they were doing it's very scary how you people think you don't have your stuff together only a few people figured it out and it wasn't that hard and people who are teachers on teaching our son and they've been doing it for a long time and they had a lot of Joy figuring it out and fear now they understand how they think it's utilitarian it's real it's it's right to the Bone and it's functions that are actually real and haven't tested and tried and true on many things including a failsafe about Earth possibly destroying the universe so we went ahead and started to examine everything and looked at it all we discovered something these people are making our son angry and scared that stuff does too but he has to do it but they're not even unnecessary burden all the time and he doesn't care for it and the stuff's real too and it's nerve-racking we want to reduce that stress to do so we found out that the warlock had to go and right now they are going. One of the reasons why they're leaving is they trying to find these places and sabotage them burn them down and more to try and keep people from figuring out secrets about the clans and their evil as hell and they're at it now and these things are historical places in buildings and we want them kept now we're putting warrants out on them and wanted posters and instructions to shoot the kill and where to shoot them on on the famous ones and the numbers are coming down here in the neighborhood. They're not as low as we said this morning but they are low. It's about 40 and it's going to be less shortly and yeah there's a whole bunch of trumpsters who left and pretty soon bja but before that is Jason and his team is hurting with three households left only everyone's fighting him on it and we said it was all going away and everybody started fighting over what they felt was left we have a lot of work to do there's a lot of things happening the crabs did come out and attacked fiercely it's almost more than the weaponry could handle I mean even ours it's really bad and it is going on now as well still the crabs are still attacking smaller ones came out again and recycling no the big ones are gone but this huge number is the small ones giant numbers and you're going to see this for quite a while huge huge numbers of dead and the crabs go up to eat them and people are killing them over and over and they come up to eat those and the fish have gone nuts out there and they're killing the fish and big fish are coming in and people are going to fish out all the fish that they can in the area and their gigantic. It's going to continue until the fish are fished out but this is going to be the start of Bobby McGee and Greyhound the movie and more. It's going to be really quick because he goes over there with the fleet does The DaVinci code. And it is a huge deal it's three films the keys used and it activates our priest program and kju activation

Thor Freya

Several of the movies are starting up the same time they're going for Jesus Christ they want the information it's saw something and they want to revive him heal him and figure it out and they're saying that use our son's body but they try and get Mom's body out and they can use other mixed races people and they're full of Bologna my son is good morning I know it is a war is a massive immigration to New York City and a huge influx to DC trumpsters got nailed BGA got nailed. There's a huge huge conflict coming oout it's a lot of work but there there's a payout right now we're going to take out the rest of the Midwest hardware and equipment I'm going to take over the territory that's about half of it that's empty wards the wall would be moved upwards. And we are also going to sink some more bunkers and it will make a lot of shaking we are also moving on to different states Illinois would drop in one tonight in Ohio too Michigan 3 all the same time and the whole area is going to have to evacuate. It's a fast way of doing it and people will think we're not ready and we're going to wall off Illinois and pull out bunkers and get to work. This is a massive operation and we have a lot of work to do and we need people to sign on now there's a lot that's going to happen tonight the morlock population is way down globally it's about 5% including all types and races except for clones which are 5% below and there are about 10% on the islands but the number is going down and tonight it will drop and the population of Mac morlock is pitiful at 1.9% it is going to be worse tonight and to get smaller and smaller with every snide remark and every stupid look and every dumb attempt this place is a swill hole it should be an embarrassment that's not enough of one they think that essentially treated bad and they're not as a Young Man so are working here. But it's going to change a lot of people are fired today they're grabbing a lot of them the sheriff is down

There are items in the news to watch out for when is they keep repeating that Trump was indicted that's because it's huge news and is indicted for the January 6th attempted coup of the United States and he is going to be charged and tried he's already charged and he's going to be on trial and they are trying to pick a date for that took her now he's a steaming jerk and everyone hates him and he won't back off and he needs to be beat up all the time we heard him today saying it's going to screw around with the toilet so we're going to screw around with him until he dies no one can stand him anymore. We also have several people around here need to go they're ridiculous. And we don't want to deal with it I'm issuing all sorts of orders right now because of their threats

Thor Freya

We don't want to become these people they're so damned annoying sassy and b***** reported they make people angry and I'm tired of being angry all the time and I'm going to put a stop to it and our people are too

Hera

Olympus

[duodusk]

A-Z DSMP (related) Animatic Recs !!

needed an excuse to go back through my animatics playlist, sooo here's a list of some of my favorites limited by alphabetical order so i don't go on forever lol

make sure to check individual warnings on these!

A - All The Lonely People by ch00ks

B - BRUTAL by Dessa

C - Congratulations, You Beat The Maze! by jo_bilee

D - DICTATOR by GomiiDd

E - Epic III by tamato jam

F - The Fox by artlandom

G - GOOD IN ME by masyanajoy

H - Hayloft II Sam Animatic by LocalWheel

I - Innocence by Late-August

J - Just like you! by MelodyAnimation

K - Kwakiteeeee by Dice Shimi

L - Legacy by Ash

M - Memento by ToKtopus

N - new person, same old mistakes by qtiq

O - One Day [Lovejoy] by Poolbranch

P - Problems by SpiritBottle

Q - Quackity's spider ring by Cyburger

R - rat by Iridescent_Petrichor

S - SO BELOW. by RADIOCATIVE

T - Tubbo snaps at Quackity by ReddsMess

U - Under the Surface by Casserole :D

V - Villains by cobblecatt

W - what's a soulmate? by Kazuallyy

X - 6 x 3 by Kazuallyy [that's almost like starting with an X, right? bare with me]

Y - Your (Obedient) Servant by Linktoo

Z - Zephyrus by Jackie_Mae

(& honorable mention to L'manberg / Pogtopia | The Valley by Riley Ellis which has been unlisted so i will not be linking to it here)

[anyoneseenadam]

Home: Chapter Five

azriel x reader (acotar)

summary: (y/n) is a daughter of Persephone, still recovering from the trauma of her fall into Tartarus and doesn’t have time for a stupid, handsome, annoying, stunning, injured man. But now they’re stuck together in the middle of nowhere and there only chance of getting home is if she can heal him, and fast.

warnings: big spoilers for mark of Athena and house of Hades, also some for the acotar series, eventual smut, blood, PTSD, graphic descriptions of violence, injuries and torture, enemies to lovers so az is a bit of a dick to start, swearing, THIS PART HAS THE SEXC TIMES YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

word count: 4k

a/n: this is pretty much just fluff so pls enjoy :) also please comment you have no idea how much it means to me I cry when I get them lol :) also I have a playlist for this one so go listen if you would like!

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

When you woke Azriel had somehow wrapped his entirety around your frame, including his wings, tucking you tight against his chest. You pulled back slightly, moving your legs, trying to regain feeling in your muscles only to be greeted with a grunt and being pulled even tighter against his chest.

“Good morning to you too,” You giggled reaching up and pecking his jaw, smiling when he tilted his head to look down at you. He had a frown on his face but a playful look in his eyes none the less.

“Morning,” The deep tones of his voice vibrated through his chest and you bit your lip at him as he chuckled at your reaction. You lay your head back down on his chest listening to the soft patter of the rain on the roof, the storm had hugely calmed down however it was still raining lightly outside. Azriel’s hand moved to your back and you tensed as his hand moved over your scars, tracing pictures, and admiring them as if they were a piece of art. You lay in silence for minutes or hours, losing track of time as his scarred hands and your scarred back became one, soft murmurs keeping you barely awake as you spoke about nothing.

You eventually had to pull away when Azriel’s stomach was too loud to ignore. A shiver went through you as you sat up, not only losing the direct body heat but also the comforting press of his shadows as they had settled over you. The feeling of their embrace was an odd one; they were cold, and their darkness was everything you had grown to despise, yet they made you feel safe, indestructible. They felt like armour passed to you by the man you were falling for and gave you the feeling that as long as he was beside you, nothing would hurt you again.

Your eyes moved to where he was pulling on his trousers, the expanse of his back rippling with restrained strength and making your mouth turn dry. He turned when he felt your gaze on him and you were once again shocked by how pretty he was. You had admired handsome celebrities before, but he was different, he had an elegance you hadn’t seen before. Every movement was planned and smooth, no stumbles or mistakes as he moved, even when he was ill he still held that perfectly poised form, you presumed centuries of training did that to a man.

“Are you going to stare all day or are you going to get me some food woman?” he said, grinning cheekily when you smacked his shoulder.

“I will hurt you.” You scrunched your face at him, pulling your underwear on and rolling your eyes when you picked up your ruined bra.

“I promised you wouldn’t need it didn’t I?” He smirked, climbing over you, and pressing wet kisses into your neck. You smiled leaning into his attentions, bursting out laughing when you were once again interrupted by his stomach and he looked at you with pleading eyes.

“Ask nicely,” you nudged his cheek with your nose, and he rolled his eyes.

“Oh please my darling, please do me the honour of eating your food so I may have the pleasure of devouring you on a real bed.” You laughed and sat up again, pulling your shirt over your head.

“Better.”

--

You were sat on the small balcony you had fashioned, leaning against Azriel’s firm chest, his arms tight around your waist. The clouds had cleared away and the forest was filled with the smell of evaporating water, you had been pointing out and naming species of lizards you saw basking in the morning sun, trying to get their internal temperatures back to a temperature they could function at. Azriel listened patiently as you spoke animatedly about the Komodo dragon you had seen the first night, he was in awe of how excited you were talking about animals, smiling as you explained how reptiles had always fascinated you.

“We once had a quest in L.A and I made everyone stop for like twenty minutes cause I wanted to take pictures of this frog I saw.” You giggled craning your head back to see him shake his head at you.

“You’re insane.”

“And what about it?” You closed your eyes, leaning back against his shoulder, letting the sun sink into your skin and imagining you could feel the individual particles wake up with the newfound energy.

“How are you feeling anyway? Do you think you could get us home today?” You asked, pulling away to sit next to him cross legged, your head resting against his bare shoulder.

“Probably, I just need more food and I don’t actually know where your house is.”

“Do you need like coordinates or something cause I don’t have that.”

“No, more like the area, it would help if I had been there. I could probably get us to the alley in that tall city again.” You laughed at his phrase.

“Okay that’s fine we can get a cab.” You stood up and climbed down the ladder, moving to a fresh patch of earth.

“A cab?” he appeared besides you, making you yelp and press a hand to your chest.

“I hate you, and yes a cab, it’s a car.” You explained, passing him an apple.

“Car?”

“Gods, an automobile. A carriage that isn’t run by horse but instead machines.” He just made a sound of agreement and you giggled.

“Oh you’re going to love it, those big ol’ wings stuffed in a metal tin.”

“Please no,” he dropped his head on your shoulder, pressing a soft kiss there and you debated the question that had been stirring in your head all morning. You frowned and focused on the potatoes you were growing, trying to still the thoughts gnawing at your brain. Was this a one-time thing? Gods he’s going to go back to his world and forget about me. I mean he’s immortal. But we’re acting like a couple, is that what we are now?

Azriel sensed your panic as your eyes glazed over, the vacant expression a sign that you were too deep in your own thoughts. He quickly looked around for something red, ready to get rid of it at any cost, but couldn’t see a glimpse of red in the green that surrounded the two of you, so he instead tilted your head to look at him, your eyes wary.

“What’s wrong baby?” he asked, thumb stroking your cheekbone reassuringly.

“It’s nothing, I’m just being stupid,” you tried to laugh it off, but he persisted. “I just- where do we go from here?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just that, you’re immortal right? And I’m not. And you’ve probably got other girls lining up back in your other world and I,” He motioned for you to continue, eyes unbelievably soft.

“I don’t want to be alone again. I was alone when we met because I can’t socialise like I used to, but I’ve got so used to this, and I want- no I need you to be happy and I’m sure that’s home for you but. I don’t want you to go, I don’t want you to become a memory that I think of when I’m sad.” He didn’t know what to say, hadn’t even considered it really. After he realised you were mates all he could think of was a house that you would make a home, he imagined a cat and maybe chickens and you with a rounded belly and a toddler on your hip. He hadn’t thought of the reality, you were mortal, you wouldn’t have eternity with him, your body couldn’t bear Illyrian children and he would lose you before you had really even had time together.

His heart broke as you took shaky breaths, hidden in his chest, and he wrapped his wings around you. He was determined, he wasn’t going to let fate cruelly pull you away from him. The first women that had ever loved him in the same, deep, all consuming way he loved her.

“I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure it out okay. And in the meantime you could come with me?” You looked up at him with glassy eyes and smiled sadly.

“I think I’m falling for you.” You whispered into the crook of his neck and he smiled tightening his arms around you.

“I already have.”

--

A few hours later you were standing looking up at your makeshift hut as Azriel readied to leave behind you. You watched as a finch flew over and perched on the side of your hut, a small twig perched in its beak, bristling its feathers as it rested.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Azriel sidled up beside you, an arm wrapping securely around your waist. You turned into his embrace.

“My thoughts are much more expensive than that.” He laughed at your difficult answer and tilted his head down, pressing his forehead to yours.

You sighed, tilting your head back to the side. “I think I have to destroy it. Keep the natural world natural y’know.”

“I suppose you do.” He said, the same sadness in his eyes as he looked at the makeshift home you had created him. The one where you had coaxed him through countless sleepless nights as he was overcome with sickness. The house you had shared as he took you for the first-time last night, and then the countless other times that followed.

He frowned but watched in awe as one hand reached out towards the house, your other wrapped firmly around his neck as you grounded yourself. The walls starting to warp and flow back into their original pattern and even when you dropped your hand, a faint sheen of sweat coating your brow, the branches still moved slowly.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked softly, picking you up despite your protests, walking the two of you out of the glaring sunlight and into a shadowed area.

“As I’ll ever be,” you whispered, looking up at him with those impossible soft eyes. To think not so long ago he couldn’t read them, believing that they were emotionless and cold, only to now feel his chest grow tighter and the air escape his lungs every time he locked onto them.

As he looked over your campsite one last time, the small fire pit sitting next to a vegetable patch where you had slept. The river where he had seen your scars for the first time. The whole place was filled with countless memories and as he thought of them, holding onto you tightly, he heard your soft voice.

“I think I’m going to miss being the only person in the world with you.”

--

You forgot how much you fucking hated shadow-travel. At least when he first did it you were hopped up on adrenaline and traumatic memories. This time however you were mentally present for the whole experience, feeling the sickness overcome you the way it did in the early days of autumn. There was a complete lack of life in the shadows, yet somehow the dark was still grasping at you. Azriel’s shadows had a different feel to them, however. Like the difference between a domesticated and wild dog, and you felt comfort as they protected you against the dark.

Thankfully, soon you were back in the light. The onslaught of noise making you flinch as cars honked and voices filled the air. You looked at Azriel to see he had a similar disgruntled face on as he gently placed you on your feet, steadying you when you wobbled.

You surveyed your surroundings, realising he had taken you to the exact alley you had met him, and you fought away the image of his weakening body on the ground, blood flowing out of him, when you saw the dark stain. You looked at him now, colour in his cheeks and the stern expression he had when you first saw him on. His eyes visibly softened when he saw you staring at him and he grasped your hand tightly.

“Come on,” he said, walking forward briskly, still not at all accustomed to the strange world he was in. it had seemed more familiar when it was just the two of you, but now as he watched you march ahead of him, a tight grip on his hand, head up and face impassive as you stared down anyone who so much as blinked at him the wrong way, his heart tightened again and he pulled you into the next alley he saw. You blinked at him confused but he just pressed his lips to yours in a deep, fierce kiss.

“What was that for?” you asked when he finally pulled away, breathless.

“You’re so hot when you’re scaring people.” He muttered and you giggled, repeating the sentiment, and standing on your tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips again. He smiled into the kiss, confused at how naturally it bloomed across his face and gathered you up in his arms, taking off with a strong boom.

You shrieked and he laughed, holding you tight as he swooped about, before starting a steady pace and looking down to where you were huddled in his arms, eyes clenched shut.

“Open your eyes baby, you need to give me directions.” He said into your hair and smiling as you hesitantly opened your eyes, swearing as you saw the sight of New York below you.

“It’s beautiful.” You muttered, completely sincere as the view took away any sarcastic comments you had bubbling. He grinned and did another loop as you laughed loudly, hair flying about your face. He finally stopped and nudged your head with his nose, you slowly lifted a shaking hand as you released it from the death grip you held him with a pointed in the direction of your home. He took of that way, with you sometimes muttering more specific direction until he landed you on the road in front of the gate that led to your cottage.

Your legs were shaking when he let you down, but you pulled him along the small path that led to your front door, whispering to the plant that kept your spare key and smiling when it passed it to you. You pushed open your door and Azriel followed inside, smiling when he was overcome by your scent. His gaze trailed over your house as he moved through the archway that kept the entrance from the rest of the house. The kitchen was simple, wooden with old fashioned dishes kept in glass cupboards and sage green accents, a worn-down table with mismatched chairs and a simple stove with a kettle and more sage green cupboards underneath. He looked then to the living area, there was a small fireplace and a few armchairs around, the whole house filled with natural light, plants and books in a language he didn’t recognise, but he also noted the string lights you had looping around the beams in your roof, interwoven with trailing ivy.

You wandered over to him, smiling as you tugged on his hand leading him upstairs into a small bathroom. He cringed as he caught sight of himself in the mirror above your sink, before laughing as he saw even more plants on the windowsill over-looking the road.

“Now I really like you Az but I’m afraid this relationship will be over quickly if you don’t shower right now,” you laughed at him as he frowned sniffing himself before grunting in agreement. You reached into the shower and turned the nozzles letting a stream of warming water run, then peeling of your old clothes. Once you were done you stepped under the water, groaning as it hit your aching muscles and Azriel joined soon after, his hands finding residency on your hips and pulling you in for a kiss. You reached around him when you pulled away and grabbed your shampoo, rubbing it between your hands before moving to massage it into his hair, laughing when his expression became that of a blissed-out cat. Practically purring under your touch.

You pulled away allowing him to rinse off as you did your own hair. Soon after the two of you were done cleaning up he pushed you against the wall of your shower, kissing you harshly and pressing the length of his body into you, smirking when you mewled and arched your back into his wandering hands. One of his hands groped your breast as his other travelled south, gentle fingers trailing between your legs and stroking your wet folds. He moved to press kisses against your neck when you gasped for breath as he pushed two long fingers into you, the texture of the rough scars adding to the euphoria you felt as you moaned into the steamy room. His thumb moved to rub softly against your clit as his fingers pumped in and out of you, your walls tightening around his fingers as you neared your orgasm. The pads of his fingers pressed into the spongy spot inside you that always made you see stars as he tugged on your nipple and rolled you clit under his thumb all at once making you fall over the edge with a silent cry.

He grinned as he pulled away from you neck, obsessed with way you fall apart from just his fingers. HIs hands usually only brought him shame and guilt but now were filling him with pride as you clenched around them. He pulled them out slowly, sucking your essence off them as you slumped back against the wall, spent. You reached a hand to his erection, but he pushed it away and turned the shower head off and stepping out of the shower, wrapping you in a fluffy towel.

“Later baby, you need some rest.”

You both slowly dried yourselves in silence and you groaned when you looked at your dull skin in the mirror and turned to Azriel biting your lip.

“What?” he laughed,

“Can we do facemasks later?” He looked at your hopeful smile and rolled his eyes, unable to say no to you.

“Later.” He muttered and you smiled before walking through to your bedroom, Azriel trailing like the lovesick puppy he was. He smiled at the sight of your room; it was so very you. The sun was glowing over the unmade bed that was covered in pillows and blankets and, upon further inspection, stuffed toys, making it look ethereal. There was even more bookshelves and a wardrobe and burnished mirror, your windowsill had soft cushions on it and a pile of stacked books next to it. And of course, plants. Everywhere. He walked further in as you fished out clean clothes and he frowned when you passed him a pair of boxers.

“Whose are these?” he asked, trying to keep his possessiveness tamed as he thought of another man living with his girl, his mate.

“Mine, they’re comfy.” You shrugged, pulling an oversized sweater on and bringing it to your nose, revelling in the clean smell. Azriel blushed bright red and quickly pulled them on, adjusting them as he watched you bend over to pull on another pair of boxers. You moved to sit in front of your mirror, fixing your hair as he ran his hand over the spine of the books, not recognising any titles, jumping when he heard music suddenly play and quickly searching for the source. He moved over to where you were looking through folders of disks.

“I lost my phone and I only have my dad’s old disks so it’s a lot of 50’s sorry,” you giggled as he stared in wonder, listening to the soft tunes. You turned to him and wrapped your arms around his neck, swaying softly to the music, your head on his chest.

There's a place where lovers go To cry their troubles away And they call it 'Lonesome Town' Where the broken hearts stay.

You can buy a dream or two To last you all through the years And the only price you pay Is a heart full of tears.

He smiled and held you softly, dancing with you as your breathing slowed, completely relaxed. Soon the song finished and a new one started but instead of continuing to dance you looked up at him with tired eyes and a soft smile and he tugged you over to your bed, laying you down gently. Your body sank into the impossibly soft mattress and he laid down next to you, your arm waving slightly as your trailing ivy tugged your thin curtains together. His shadows settled over the two of you and you grinned up at him, as sweet as spun sugar.

“I love you,” you whispered softly, voice shy.

“I love you.” He repeated, kissing your head gently as you burrowed deeply into his arms, the two of you falling asleep as soft music played through the room.

--

Azriel woke alone, golden light in his eyes as he noticed the lack of your weight pressed into his side. He panicked instantly, jumping out of bed, and racing down the stairs, only calming when he saw you in your kitchen signing quietly along to a song coming out of the radio on your table. His heart rate returned to normal as he moved wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing the side of your neck as he watched you flip pancakes.

“Pancakes?”

“I’m allowed to be a stereotype if I want to be, it’s my house.” He laughed and moved to where a pot of coffee sat on the table, preparing his cup. His friends always laughed at the feared shadow-singer when he put two sugars in, and he was struck with homesickness when he did it now. You turned off the stove and put the plate in front of him, pouring your own coffee and drinking it black with a longing sigh. He groaned as you laughed when he reached for the creamer.

“What was it you did for a living again?”

“Shut up.”

You giggled and took two pancakes, coating them in fruit and syrup as he followed suit. They both devoured the mountain in minutes, and he reached over, pulling you onto his lap, your kisses sticky and sweet with sugar coated tongues. He took you again right on the table, before carrying you back to your room to take you there too, addicted to the soft sounds that fell from your lips.

When you finally pulled away from each other, some hours later you reached for your laptop. “I believe I promised you movies and Tony Stark,” you said, fingers moving across your keyboard as Azriel watched over your shoulder as the screen changed before his eyes. You found the first Iron Man movie and started it as Azriel stared at the screen, blown away.

“So this is your technology?” he asked, eyes filled with childlike joy as the movie began.

“Yup, and this film had technology we don’t have in its universe.”

“Cauldron.”

“Plus I figured I should introduce you to the loves of my life that are the marvel men,” his grip on your waist tightened and you laughed, “they’re not real Az, I’m not going anywhere.” You pressed a kiss to his lips and leaned back. You brain finally at peace as you laid back in the arms of the man you loved.

You tensed when the suit first appeared, the red colour of it making you clench your hands into fists and Azriel was quick to reassure you, moving to turn the film off, but you stopped him.

“This is my comfort film, and if I don’t start somewhere I’ll not make any progress. Just- can you hold me please,” you asked him, and he kissed your temple.

“Always, my love.”

You finished the movie together and moved to watch the next, hours passing as you found yourself completely consumed by the man by your side, ignoring the pressing concerns for now and instead focusing on his steady heartbeat. Content to stay in his arms forever.

[petitelepus]

Birth And Name

You carry the one and only Ultra Magnus' sparklings.

It hurt, it really did hurt to see your loved one in Spark Support. You sat on your seat next to your beloved Ultra Magnus, holding his only intact arm, seeing that his whole left arm was missing. You knew Magnus wouldn't go down without a fight so how come there wasn't any proof of his opponent? You knew better, this was an assassination from Decepticons.

"Hey, Ultra noob..." You gently said, hoping that he could hear you through the coma he had fallen into. You used to call him Ultra noob ages ago back in your training days and he hated that name. Maybe calling him with it would bring him back to light. You smiled sadly and took his intact hand and placed it against your sizeable abdomen.

"Can you feel them? Your little sparklings are taking all the space in my tank." You grinned wider, imagining his face if he knew that you were carrying two protoforms in your tank. Not one, but two! He would no doubt be a proud sire.

You checked your internal clock and saw you were running late. You put your lover's hand back to his side and got up to leave, but not without leaving a kiss to your Magnus' cheek. "I'll be right back my love."

You couldn't drive well in your situation so it took you a moment, but you made it into Autobot Council. Everyone turned to look at you and you cursed your luck. They had already started the meeting.

The members like Botanica of the council made way for you in honor and you nodded at her, thanking her silently for letting you take the seat that wouldn't put any more strain on your spinal strut.

You weren't an official member of the council, but in this dark time with Ultra Magnus in a coma, you were given honorary membership in his place. As you took your seat, everyone turned their attention back to the problem at hand. Sentinel Prime.

"I'm telling you old coots, I'm just taking my rightful place as Magnus! I'm his rightful successor!" The blue bot with a huge chin shouted. You grimaced and Alpha Trion copied you. "You have no right in my mind to take over Ultra Magnus' place as Magnus."

"You wouldn't know, you haven't fought against these Decepticons who did this to Magnus in million years! You have grown weak Alpha Trion!"

"If I may say, you haven't exactly been fighting against the Cons either, Sentinel." You jabbed and you took huge pleasure seeing the mech ground his denta in your direction. "What I heard, you were frozen in fear when you first time met a Decepticon!"

Sentinel was mad and with a good reason, but then he grinned and you felt like something bad was about to happen.

"Senators, all due respect I believe carrying has clouded their ability to make such major decisions." He said smugly and you saw red in fury.

"How dare you, Sentinel Prime!?" You screeched, jumping up from your seat and slamming your hands against the table. "My Magnus would never stand so low as you!"

"And what do we really know about them? They just disappeared millions of years ago and suddenly appear on this planet called Earth, where Decepticons had made their headquarters!"

"Decepticons that you overlooked and failed to inform to our Magnus!" You couldn't stop yourself, you were pissed beyond saving. "You know Sentinel, I'm actually happy that the Hammer was stolen because as long as my spark still shines I would never give Magnus Hammer in your incapable hands!"

"See what I mean!? They can't be trusted!"

"You little...!" You growled, but the damage was done. The members of the Council were whispering and talking to each other through commlinks and you weren't included in these conversations. The Alpha Orion turned to look at you apologetically. "I am sorry to inform you, but we must ask you to leave this decision to Autobot High Council."

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. They were actually believing the lies Sentinel was spouting? You were about to start a whole new war, but you felt pain shot in your abdomen. You cried out and doubled over, falling on the ground in pain as you held your abdomen.

The protoforms...! They were early!

Alpha Orion jumped up and immediately ordered you to be taken to medbay and while Sentinel screamed how you were faking it, you were taken to a safe space where your little litter was delivered. You were ordered to bedrest but you wouldn't let them take your little miracles away from you. You let Red Alert check them, but that was it, you wouldn't hand them over to anyone.

The gray little things were smaller than would have been ideal, but it didn't matter to you if they were small for their own good. They were your and your Ultra Magnus' little cuties.

But with you bedridden, you could do nothing to prevent Sentinel from becoming the next Magnus. You had to focus on keeping your sparklings safe. Sentinel would no doubt try to get revenge on you for talking against you and you feared he would try to take away your little sparklings.

Time went by and you nursed your little ones and they were soon taking their own form. They were warm against you as you watched days for them to grow. The older one took on a gray coating and the younger twin turned green and white. What was odd were their optics. They were crimson. You wondered where that coding came from, but you loved your sparklings from the bottom of your spark.

When you heard that Longarm Prime had tried to kill your Conjunx Ultra Magnus, you gave twins to the nurse and rushed to the scene where doctors were hassling over your lover and guards were looking for any evidence of the traitor. You were panting when you got to the scene and you wanted nothing more than to run over Ultra Magnus and hold him close, but security wouldn't let you.

"Give them the space they need to work." Came a scruffy voice and you turned to see an old ambulance standing on the side, much like you. You looked at the bot up and down and you thought he looked familiar. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

"Name's Ratchet. I'm a part of Optimus Prime's group back in Earth."

"Wait...!" You looked at the old mech from up to down. "You're that Ratchet! You're a war hero!"

"Haven't been hero, never was." He grunted and turned to look at the Ultra Magnus, "I chased off Shockwave who was here to kill Ultra Magnus. He shouldn't try that again."

"Chivalrous Ratchet, you have saved my Conjunx's life." You smiled and bowed lightly like you older warriors tended to do to one another.

"You show braveness and honor." You said before you grimaced, "Unlike that backstabbing Sentinel...!"

"Speaking of him..." Ratchet grumbled and hoisted up the Magnus Hammer and offered it to you. "I believe this should belong to you. As Ultra Magnus' Conjunx Endura."

"Magnus Hammer...!" You awed as you gracefully took the hammer offered to you. "But how...?"

"Shockwave had it. I believe that he is also responsible for what happened to Ultra Magnus."

"That sleazy piece of...!" You cursed under your breath and closed your eyes. You wanted to hunt him down and make him pay like you used to do in your younger days back in the war, but you were a carrier now and you had two lovely sparklings waiting for you to return back to them.

"I must stop Sentinel from getting the hammer." You said and pushed the hammer cab into the medic's hands. "Take it with you back to Earth! I will not let that backstabbing Sentinel get it."

"Will do," Ratchet promised, but you couldn't let him return to Earth just yet. You placed your hand over his shoulder plate and smiled. "Please, before you go, I must as you to join me in medbay."

"Gotta be quick. Sentinel is coming back soon."

"Can we be quick because I want to go back to Earth as soon as possible!?" Came an angry man's voice and you blinked in surprise. You looked around but saw no bot around.

"What in the name off-?"

"Down here."

You looked down and you couldn't believe what your old optics were seeing. A human? On Cybertron? You blinked and looked at Ratchet for answers. He grunted. "Captain Fanzone got sucked here and I came to rescue him. He helped to chase off Shockwave."

"Really?" You had trouble understanding what you were hearing. You spent a good while back in Earth, but you never heard a human saving an Autobot. But if it was true then this human was a hero as well. You smiled to little big human and picked him up, much to his dismay.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Captain Fanzone was it? You helped to save my Conjunx' life. I would appreciate it if you joined Ratchet and me in medbay before you leave."

"Alright, but make it quick. I can't stand machines and I have certainly had my fill today."

"I can understand that." You smiled and lead the medic and human to medbay where your little twins were resting in their separated beds. Ratchet's and Captain's optics and eyes widened and the human let out a word that sounded much like a curse.

You smiled and motioned towards the babies. "You two saved my Conjunx's life. It would be an honor for me if you would name our sparklings."

"God. They come as babies now also?" Captain asked and you gave a short laugh. This human was funny. Ratchet took a long look at the green and grey sparklings and pointed at the grey one. "Dominus. A strong name for the son of Ultra Magnus."

"Dominus..." You tried the name and smiled. "I love it. Will you name the younger one sir Fanzone?"

"Well, it sure isn't the smallest machine... But it is the smallest alien machine I've seen..." The man rubbed his chin and looked at you, "How about Minimus?"

"That's...  A fitting name." You smiled and leaned over to wiggle your servos at the newborn. "Hi Dominus! Greetings Minimus! Your carrier and sire love you so much...!"

Your spark skipped in joy when you saw your boys open their optics and look at you. You smiled and kissed them both. You had a feeling things would get better from there. 

[imagine-loki]

Blushing in His Colours, Chapter 3

TITLE: Blushing in His Colours CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 3 AUTHOR: fanficshiddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki being a Daddy Dom, his adores and loves his little, worships the ground she walks on. She has vaginismus, but he couldn’t be more supportive with her. RATING: M

When Loki saw Mia the following day, a blush instantly graced her cheeks, making him grin. He went over to her and kissed her cheek in greeting, making the others around them all ‘oooooo.’ He glared at them in return.

‘The date went well last night then?’ Clint asked with a smirk.

They were in the kitchen having breakfast before starting their day.

‘A gentleman never tells.’ Loki said as he held his head high.

Mia went to sort out her breakfast, unable to stop blushing at being the main focus of the conversation within the team.

‘You’re far from a gentleman.’ Stark snorted.

Loki narrowed his eyes at him and folded his arms over his chest. ‘I’d beg to differ.’

Mia had her back to the group as she poured milk into her cereal. But she did speak up. ‘Loki was the perfect gentleman last night. More than rest of you are, that’s for sure.’

Loki grinned and looked rather smug. The team all laughed.

‘Oh no, his mischievousness is already rubbing off on you.’ Tony said as he put his face in his hands, then he looked at Loki. ‘Do NOT corrupt our sweet and innocent Mia!’

When Mia turned around, she met Loki’s gaze and he winked at her with a mischievous smirk. ‘I am making no promises.’

Because Mia’s job was to keep up their social media appearance, it meant she was often right in the action. Taking pictures of the team ‘behind the scenes’ providing it didn’t compromise any mission, as the fans loved to see what the superheroes got up to at times.

So she found herself in the lab with Loki, Tony, Bruce, Fury and Vision. She was typing some stuff up on her laptop in the corner, Loki kept glancing in her direction, unable to stop looking at her.

‘Oi, stop staring at your new girlfriend and concentrate!’ Tony remarked as he tossed a pen at Loki, but with his quick reflexes Loki was able to catch the pen before it hit him, glaring at Tony.

Mia had heard and she couldn’t help the big smile that spread across her face. She tried to concentrate on her work though, even if she could feel the God’s eyes on her often.

Later on, Mia disappeared to get something to eat from the kitchen. When she returned, she had food and drinks for everyone. Including Loki’s favourite flavour of muffins that she had baked a few days ago. When Loki thought about it, she often went out of her way for other people, especially him. She always seemed to get his favourite drink or food and would always beam happily when he thanked her.

The following day Mia was down on the training floor on the benches, watching Thor, Steve, Natasha and Clint training. She was taking a few pictures and posting onto their media. She was thinking about heading off, but Loki entered the hall and she decided to stick around for a bit. Smiling like mad when he waved at her.

He had his full armour on, like Thor, and jumped in to start training. Everyone knew he was deliberately showing off because Mia was watching, even she knew. But she found it flattering, and was always impressed with his skills.

But he was caught unaware.

He had just tricked the rest of them using his illusions and pinned Thor down with a dagger at his throat. When he got up off Thor, he looked over to Mia. He winked at her and grinned, but that’s when he was blindsided by Natasha getting him in a headlock with her ridiculously strong thighs and knocking him down to the ground with a loud thud.

Thor, Clint and Steve all burst out laughing. Mia laughed too and put her hands over her mouth. Loki got up, rather flustered as he flicked his hair back from his face and wiped the dust from his arms. He looked over at Mia sheepishly.

He wandered over towards her as she gathered her things up and stood to meet him.

‘Impressive.’ She smiled up at him.

Loki chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. ‘Aside from the end.’

‘Still impressive. Not many would be able to get up unscathed from being taken down by Natasha.’

‘True. And I was a little distracted by something rather beautiful.’ Loki reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, then trailed his fingers along her jawline.

‘There’s uhm… the monthly Avengers interview coming up. I was wondering if you fancy doing it?’ She asked, giving him puppy dog eyes.

It was something new she had started doing, Tony was the first one last month. A small five-minute interview that Mia posted. Just to give fans a little personal insight into the team.

‘Of course. Give the fans who they really want.’ Loki smirked.

‘You do have quite the fanbase, actually.’ Mia laughed.

‘I do?’ Loki frowned, but was intrigued.

‘Oh yeah. They call themselves Loki’s army. Quite the army too.’ She grinned.

Loki titled his head, but he did look a little smug. ‘Well, they have good taste… Are you in my army?’ He raised an eyebrow.

Mia smirked, deciding to play a bit. Feeling brave again. ‘I dunno. Maybe I’m team Hulk.’ She shrugged.

Loki’s mouth parted in mock shock. ‘Well, I will need to work harder to get you on my team.’

‘Sooo… Is that a yes for the interview?’

‘Of course. Anything for you.’

-

Mia had asked Loki to meet her before breakfast the next morning in the living room, to do the interview. It would give her time to come up with some good questions.

But Loki decided he wanted to do the interview somewhere more private. So he went along to her room an hour before he was due to meet her.

He knocked and heard Mia call out to just come in. When he entered though, Mia was surprised to see it was Loki.

‘Loki! Hi.’ She stammered quickly, surprised.

Loki was also surprised, she was in her pyjamas. Light blue, with cute baby penguins on them. But his first thought was how adorable she looked, with her messy hair too.

‘Oh gosh! I was expecting Wanda. Sorry, I uh… Let me just get changed real quick.’ She said in fluster, practically sprinting into her bathroom.

Loki smiled and waited until she was dressed. That’s when his eyes were drawn to what she was watching. He was a little confused when he noticed it was on the cartoon channel. But he didn’t think overly much of it, until he then spotted something peeking out from underneath her pillow. Curious, he went over and had a look, it was a colouring book of Disney characters.

His first thought was, did she have a secret child here? But he shook that off, knowing it was ridiculous. He was slightly confused as to why she would have a colouring book. Then he just thought perhaps it was something she enjoyed doing in her down time.

Loki stepped away from her bed, just as Mia emerged from the bathroom. She was looking embarrassed as she stuffed her pyjamas away in a drawer.

‘Sorry… I uhm, should probably check who’s there first.’ She said sheepishly.

‘Not at all. I should’ve said it was me.’ Loki smiled and walked over to her, he rubbed her arm and then leaned down to kiss her on the lips, making her squeak a little and blush so hard. ‘I was rather hoping we could do the interview somewhere private? The others will be a distraction in the living room.’ He chuckled.

‘Yeah, sure. Where would you prefer?’ Mia asked, still slightly flustered from the innocent kiss.

Loki shrugged. ‘Here, if that suits you? Or we could go to my room if you’d rather?’ He asked.

‘Here is good.’ Mia nodded and went over to her desk, clearing some space.

During the interview, Loki couldn’t help but be besotted with her. It was a good excuse for him to be able to just stare at her without being called out on it from the others. He kept his flirting to a minimum, knowing this was going online.  

Mia managed to keep her cool when she asked him questions, she had set up a camera to film him so it was more personal for the fans. They went nuts over the first one with Tony, so she hoped this one would be an even bigger hit.

Once it was uploaded, Mia showed Loki some of the comments. His fangirls were going crazy over it. Especially when Mia had asked him what he thought about having a fanbase. He’d replied in a charming way, saying he appreciated having so much support.

He read one comment: Heck, Loki can rule over me any day! I would kneel for him without being told to!

‘Quite a few say similar. Your, uh, attempt at ruling Earth is all over Tumblr and YouTube. Many have made fan videos out of them.’ Mia said with a laugh.

‘Really? I thought everyone would have been repulsed by what I did.’

‘Not everyone. I mean, I’d kneel for you.’ Mia said without thinking as she shrugged. Then she realised what it was she had just said. Her eyes widened.

‘Oh, really?’ Loki growled a little, leaning down closer to her as he was stood behind her, while she sat on the chair at her desk.

Mia cleared her throat and tried to ignore the fact she had just openly admitted somewhat a fantasy to Loki and that his breath was hot against her neck.

‘This interview is already a huge hit, more so than Tony’s.’ She said to try and change the subject. But Loki spun her chair around so she had to face him as he put his hands on the arms and trapped her in.

‘No changing the subject, pet.’ He chuckled at her doe in the headlights look.

‘I… wasn’t… really… I just don’t know what to say after that.’ She blurted out nervously, her eyes skittishly moving all over his face, unsure on where to look.

But she was saved by the knock. Wanda had arrived, which Mia was slightly relieved for. Though she had a feeling Loki would try and bring it up again later.

He left the girls to it, heading back to his room.

His mind kept wandering to what he’d found in Mia’s room. Or what he’d seen. He went to his laptop and sat down, after thinking for a moment he went to google to see if he could find some answers.

After some researching, he wasn’t entirely sure how he ended up on a kink site. But there he was, reading all about a Daddy Dom/little dynamic.

Some of the characteristics of a little suited Mia to a T. It really got him wondering if she was in fact a little. He then realised that while thinking of her in this kind of way he was slightly aroused.

He looked through a Daddy Dom’s characteristics and was surprised to find he fit a lot of them. When he thought about it, being in that kind of relationship with Mia was very appealing to him. And he thought how it kind of made sense why one girl actually called him Daddy during sex once… Perhaps he just oozed Daddy Dom appeal, he thought smugly.

But he now had to figure out for certain if Mia was into this kind of thing… or if it was just a coincidence. He could of course just ask her outright, but he didn’t want to scare her off if that wasn’t something she was into. He wasn’t going to lie, now he knew about the subject more and had thought about it, he would be a bit disappointed if she wasn’t…

‘Hmm…’ He tapped his lower lip in thought, deciding how to proceed.

After a lot of mulling it over, he decided that trying to coax it out of her naturally was going to be his best route.

[spnsmile]

Final Monday: Profound Bond

for #SPNstayAtHome Challenge by @helianthus21 @bend-me-shape-me @pray4jensen ❤ with beautiful art from @verobatto-angelxhunter  here!  ❤

When almost everyone—demons included— all but told Dean that his angel is the hottest, most devastatingly handsome angel in the face of the seven seas, he not only believed them, but he’s secretly and most exclusively Cas’ number one fan.

Cas is really the looker and even without all the buzzing acclaims from hell and earth, Dean’s already smitten from the start. Cas’ vessel is naturally attractive and really stands out with that crazy dominant eyebrow, lightning in a bottle blue eyes, cutting jaws and regal high-cheek bones— but more than the vessel, it’s the insane hot angel beneath trench coat that makes his insides swoon.

Dean can’t explain it—every time Castiel just goes all out wrecking doors, walls, even smashing on cars and smite a whole pack of demons and monsters alike in a blink of an eye— now that—that is really hot!

So he doesn’t blame them from noticing his strapping companion, he actually isn’t that surprised when someone approaches them one day to scout Cas to be a model while they are in a middle of a Djinn case.

“Dean is my model,” replies the angel with that dorky side tilt, getting Dean’s stomach to flutter.

“No, Cas he meant uh, you know… they wanna take pictures of you, you posting like Mr. Calendar,”

“Why?” Cas says sharply.

Dean tries his best to explain but at the end of the day, and because they still need to monitor the case on a closer level, they agreed with talent scout to have a screen testing the next day. Dean was also asked but he politely declined. The worse thing he can land himself in as a hunter is to be under the public scrutiny who will follow his every movement.

Cas on the other hand has a lesser risk because Cas doesn’t care. The angel is an enigma and can get himself out of situations with one flap of his wings.

So here they are, just another day with another case inside a studio with Dean trying to focus his attention to any supernatural occurrence around, but really the only supernatural thing happening at the moment will be Castiel half-naked in a setup of white clouds and overcast skies for of a Bruce Almighty segment.

And Cas’ theme?

Angels.

Dean still can’t stop laughing at the irony and kept the hilarity of knowing how no one is capable of cracking any expression from the angel’s stony face.

It was all fun at first when Castiel was dragged away and Dean was hollering when he spoke to Sam over the phone about the developments of the Djinn case preying on dreamers in the modelling agency that has killed two victims so far. He waited for Cas to come out imagining the long white toga the angel would be wearing like one of those pictures of angels with harps. Cas hates those representations and Dean can’t wait to bawl his eyes out laughing.

Meanwhile, Dean smiles and winks at beautiful models passing by and to his credit, they all give him a disgusted look. Oh well. No one likes the police these days.

He was busy ogling at himself in one of those giant reflectors when Castiel’s team came out. Dean was ready to make fun of him imagining Cas finally in proper angel dress— only to get a slap in the face when he sees Castiel stripped off his trench coat and toga—but was wearing a blue tight jean showing a well-shaped round ass and loose white button-down shirt where the barest of holy skin is peeking.

[sexy Cas art here]

Dean gasps, electric shock hitting him straight to Manhattan because holy fuck this isn’t what he was expecting—what the hell happened to the angel theme?

It didn’t help that almost everyone has the same reaction and if the photographer wasn’t there barking his directions, Dean’s sure Castiel will be smothered to death.

“That magazine is going to be sold out.” Says one of the crew guys standing behind the lighting next to Dean, “I’ve never seen anyone so… cute and hot and…” a struggle for the right words then— “divine. How does he do that?”

“Exists?” Dean drawls with arms tightly crossed on his chest. The crew guy beside him snorts.

“He can easily get followers and we need models with huge fan base online, you know, free advertising.”

Dean half-rolled his eyes at the crew member mesmerized by the amateur model. Half an hour later, green eyes following Castiel’s every movement in the middle of a battlefield of flashing cameras and light reflectors, of smothering group of stylists with powders ready at hand and demanding photographers asking for a ridiculous mood board— and what’s with all those hands touching Castiel?

Dean can’t help feeling sour every time the assistant manager runs to Cas’ side just to dust his shoulder, open his collar more or when he simply tilts Castiel’s jaw the right way—Dean is livid—who touches his angel so casually with grubby hands!?

And he’s beyond control when he sees the man opening Castiel’s button-down wider like—just strip them out stop teasing! Dean finds himself shrinking to the wall while murmuring curses and snapping on the phone every time Sam calls. They have work to do and Sam’s been constantly asking for updates while he works the field over the victim’s family for any lead to follow and Dean only has eyes for his angel being instructed by the photographer. Cas was bewildered at first with all the goading and salacious comments, Dean cringing for his friend. Castiel looked miffed at some point, but Dean can’t go to his side yet. If he does, he might grab him and leave the premises and that’s not being professional.

They need to find the Djinn among these people soon.

Standing in the sideline watching his friend try different angle that surprisingly fits him— except the photographer is losing his patience with the dorky angel who doesn’t understand structure and context—

“This is like a dance, move those sexy hips, give me suave look, pout lips— that’s grumpy, baby—give me seduction—yes those blues, seduce me— seduce me, don’t murder me! That’s it, you got this sweetheart, make me melt with that look! Melt me—melt—where are you going—?”

“You said melt you—I” he raises a hand—

Dean nearly jumps from the wall to stop Cas smiting any hollering directors but then—

“Go back in position, sweetheart, don’t make me lose all my hair where you can’t see them—okay, look devious—devious—don’t frown— imagine a blade in your hand. Now that’s fantastic, a tilt of the head? Adorable, now quit that, we’re aiming for sex appeal! Now make me want to have you—pout those sexy lips—pout, pucker them—forward—no, don’t slump forward you’re not Quasimodo’

“I don’t understand that reference.”

“Give me passion—give me something you want so badly!”

Castiel glances at Dean.

“He’s not bad,” Dean grunts to himself as he meets the blue eyes. Castiel pulls back and stares up the sky. Dean doesn’t know what he sees there but the sigh that came out is drawn long.

When the photographer exhaustingly shouted five minutes break, Dean watches Cas get crowded by the stylists to one corner, hearing them praise the angel about not sweating and giving him googly eyes.

Dean leaves the room and heads straight to the vending machine stations. He was just about to push for a coke when two members of the crew stop beside him to use the next vending machine supplying chocolate bars. Dean would have ignored them except one of them says Cas’ fake agent name.

“Wright? Got everything wrong. Yeah, he got the face but he’s so stupid. Giovanni’s giving all the best instructions and the model just stands there like a wall. Doesn’t even bat an eyelid, he’s like a hammer, at least a hammer is lethal, that Wright guy doesn’t know any instructions.”

“You know what they say about pretty faces, they lack a brain.” says his companion. They snicker and press for chocolate bars.

Dean remains silent as two cokes slide down the port with clanking sounds. He bends to take them quietly.

“The bar is stuck,” says one of the crew members.

“Don’t add to my shit day, it’s a long day already with that useless model—” A loud crashing sound breaks in the corridor as Dean slams his fist on the metal side of the machine. The chocolate bars fall on the slot with the crew’s mouth hanging open.

“Your bars.” He says, walking away but not without leaving a huge dent on the corner of the machine. He hears the whispers after him, the comments about the public property but Dean doesn’t care. He could easily smash their faces but he’s not that violent.

He gotta get Cas out of there.

Speaking of the angel, Cas is immediately in his space the moment Dean returns in the studio.

“Dean,” he says in his usual gravely voice, “where did you go? Are you okay?”

“Hey, how’s the pretty model?” Dean dismisses him as he let his eyes roam the model’s gorgeous new look as he hands Cas his coke. “You don’t look bad, Cas, you’re killing it there.” Actually, killing them, he adds thoughtfully.

Castiel raises a hand to reach the refreshment, but he ends up pulling Dean’s other hand.

“Thank you, now why is your hand hurt?” blue eyes stare at him dead in the eyes. That kind that really goes straight to your soul.

Dean swallows hard. He can never understand why Castiel cares so much. He’s spent years without anyone watching his back and now he’s got his own angel. Dean really doesn’t know who to thank for that.

“Nothing,” Dean tries to pull his hand to no avail, “The vending machine was broken, had to get my money’s worth,”

“I don’t think that is a good displace of a public officer,” Castiel raises it closer to his lips and kisses the pain away.

“An angel would know, huh?” Dean sighs upon feeling Castiel’s grace smoothen the slight tingling pain and pulls his hand back once Castiel lets him. Castiel’s eyes are still intent on him.

“What’s the development with the Djinn?”

“Uh… yeah, Sam’s on it and since you’re playing the sexy bait—”

“I don’t think any Djinn would find me appealing,” Castiel confesses and it’s too adorable not to take the chance to tease so Dean grins.

“Oh, come on, who knows? You might marry one someday?”

“Angels don’t marry.”

“Sure, they don’t, they also don’t do modelling,”

 “Well, I’m not attracting them right now as I am anyone in this place, I’m failing you, Dean, I’m sorry.”

“Are you kidding? You’re like hot captain garrison out there—very good mood play with the face, it’s so uh—angelically unreadable, and nice button toss,” Dean reaches a hand to Castiel’s collar and in swift movements, because his hands have been itching, he buttons it all the way up Castiel’s throat. “Let’s just not show too much when your off-duty.”

“Off-duty?”

“Off—like uh turn off the sense responsibility?”

“I see,” Castiel narrows his eyes. “The basic human response when feeling lethargic. Indifference to things that do not directly harm them. I am not that. I am feeling quite fit, in fact, even when my thighs can’t freely move from this…  suffocating jeans,”

They both look down the angel’s thighs and Dean licks his lips. When opportunity just presents itself, who is he to deny himself the pleasure? But then—

“It’s impossible to get in that dress alone—Cas did they—?”

“I ripped two pairs,” Castiel says quietly. Dean stops, eyes wide.

“W-what?”

“I tried putting them on my own, they won’t fit. I tore them to shreds whenever I pull it up, so they had to help me,”

Dean makes a face, “Yep, dorky Hercules,”

“I don’t understand that reference.”

“Sam ripped his jeans once too,” Dean smiles from ear to ear, “We were digging and he’s so tall and his jeans are frigging tight and he bents down and—" he makes a tearing sound which makes Castiel slowly smile.

“That I understand.”

Dean laughs.

“You do. Look, Cas, I know the photographer’s being a hard dick on you…but it’s not your fault you can’t understand the references because we’re the ones not adjusting to you… now look here, buddy… you can’t trick a fish to climb a tree so it’s okay to just be you…um… you get what I mean?”

Castiel is still smiling softly. “I understand you are trying to comfort me,”

Dean shrugs. “Is it working?”

Castiel tips his head, “Have you been a model, Dean?”

“I’ve been everywhere,” Dean tells him mysteriously and gives his friend a pat on the shoulders, “So later you’ll go get em, little tiger,”

Castiel nods

“Excuse me, Mr Wright?” they both turn to a young lady in a black crew shirt with a clipboard is standing behind the angel. “We need to set up your wings for the next op,”

“Set up my wings?” Castiel quickly turns at Dean and if that doesn’t get the hunter to act quickly, nothing will. He immediately holds Castiel’s shoulder and tightened his grip so his friend doesn’t interrupt.

“Where is it? I’m going to help him,”

“There’s really no need, we have plenty of staff—"

“I insist,” Dean gives her his most brilliant flashing smile and she quickly points the direction of the props room. Dean drags Castiel there.

Dean picks up a fake white wing with wires and holsters and shows it to Cas who easily frowns who presses it back to Dean’s hands.

“I have wings,”

“Yeah, not like you can let people see the shadow flip-flap thing, okay?”

“Flip flap thing?” Castiel repeats uncertainly, eyebrows raising. Dean shrugs.

“You know, making your ginormous shadow show in the flashing lights—you can’t do that. They want a model and yeah, they need to do marketing, but not that kind. No flip-flap of wings,” Dean throws the wings back at the table.

“I will use my wings I just have to contain my power so it doesn’t break into its real form.”

“You can do that?”

“I can do anything.” Castiel’s eyes suddenly glow without warning and Dean steps back as Castiel raises his magnificent wings with the cracking sparks of fluorescent lamp and there is Castiel, the angel of the lord, in all his glory and dorkiness included max out—Dean’s eyes reflect and behold its beauty. Until the power steadily holds and shrinks down to a fitting one enough at least to make him fit a door.

The power in the air subsides and Dean realizes how he is holding his breath. The beauty of his friend did not strike him in its real essence until now—where Castiel is actually bare in front of him with his black wings’ appearance. He exhales and stands next to the angel where he can see his wings.

It strikes Dean yet again how Castiel is an angel. But every time he looks at his friend, in this form, in this vessel, he's just ultimately... Cas. 

"That's fucking hot, Cas,"

Castiel smiles all gummily. "Thank you, Dean."

“Can mortal eyes see this now?”

“Yes,"

Dean whistles. Then there's that question that's been itching to be said, a question Dean knows won't leave him in peace if he doesn't ask now. Because it's now or never.

“Uh...Cas...can I touch it?”

Castiel's glance is an automatic sharp look that Dean can describe as a shock, but then the angel nods slightly without looking at him. He doesn’t reach. Something about Castiel’s reaction is bugging him.

“Are you sure I can?”

“Yes, please."

Dean takes him to his word and runs his fingers on the wings, his fingers sinking on the soft feathers like it’s made of cloud. Castiel trembles under his touch with a slight moan escaping his lips. Dean stares and sees the tip of Castiel’s ears are red.

"It's beautiful..." Dean licks his lips, "Cas... you... you're truly magnificent, have I told you that?"

"Not in so many words," Castiel doesn't look at him.

Dean just knows he is also having a mental breakdown.

“C-Cas?”

“It’s fine,” the angel whispers, head bent. “Just a little… it’s never been touched by human hands.”

Dean wavers on the spot and takes steps back in shock.

“Y-you mean—I’m the first one—I’m your first?!”

Castiel glances over his shoulder, his eyes leveled. He nods. "What's mine is yours, Dean. I'm yours."

Dean Winchester's head is a puddle melted and stirred by none other than the hottest angel in the garrison. He wants to tell Castiel never to say something like that- not when they are in a room alone because Dean is only a man- instead, he pulls Cas into a deep kiss. It's unexpected and truly catching them both in surprise, but when Castiel doesn't pull, Dean sighs and holds Castiel's shoulders steady. He doesn't know if he can tell Castiel that, but Cas is one of the best kissers he knows attributed to the pizzaman. 

To Dean's delight, Castiel kisses him back. It's swift and lingering when Cas bites his bottom lip and runs their tongue together in a dance. He never thought he'd be kissing Cas like this. Then there's the noise Cas makes, especially when Dean runs his palms on the smooth surface of his chest. Dean pulls only to breathe because angels don't do that, the moment he does, Castiel is there capturing his mouth in another heated kiss and Dean drowns in him.

Castiel is absurdly hot. All the bumps and contours his palm lands into, Dean can't help getting electrified. He knows he is getting hard and there's only one thing left to do- he slips his right knee between Castiel's legs and grinds his steadily hardening groin on Castiel's thighs. The sensation is instantaneous and Castiel doesn't let up. The angel kisses him between the soft moan and sighs that all can Dean do is cling tight on the angel's hipbones. He wants to do many things to Cas aside from pressing hard on him with hands roaming all sacred places that make Cas catch his breath too. He wants to tell Cas to take them away but the thought of his brother facing a Djinn stops all his thoughts.

But he promises himself he will take this. He and Cas, later, tonight, they will have this.

Dean pulls back knowing anyone can come to get the model and when he did, Castiel flaps his wings demandingly, frowning at Dean's withdrawal. Dean doesn't know what to say to that so instead, he soothes the angel by running his hands on the smooth surface of the wings. He sees Castiel's eyes droop, sees the contortion of eyebrows leaving the heavenly forehead, knows that Cas is relaxing under his care. There's a long sigh when Dean is done and he stares at his shaking hands next.

“Dean, can you stay beside me,” Castiel says looking slightly put out and Dean quickly steps right into his space and stares Castiel in the eyes. Castiel doesn't even question the kiss. Dean thinks they still need to talk about it later. For now...

“What’s up?”

“I don’t want anyone else touching it,” Castiel says deadly serious. Dean is about to point to himself but the angel holds his gaze and adds, “Except you.”

Dean wants to hide his face somewhere.

“Dean, are you okay? Your face is red—Dean?” Dean turns away from the angel, body reaching boiling point if he thinks more about what else Castiel is allowing him to do when his phone rings. Still a little shaken, he answers softly only to be greeted by his impatient brother—

“Dammit, Dean! I’ve been trying to reach you for a full ten minutes! I got the Djinn in the warehouse—you may want to help me out! And stop making a pass at Cas! Now is not that time!”

So the kiss was only ten minutes?

“I’m not making a pass, give me the location, bitch,” Dean listens carefully and once he’s done, he turns to the angel apologetically. Castiel’s expression turns serious.

“I understand, we are here for a case, after all, I am sorry my job is in your way.”

Dean stares at him in awe.

“Cas, you’re not a real model, we’re ditching this job!”

There’s a beat.

“Oh.”

They were just about to leave the building when Castiel remembers to get his trench coat. Making a side trip back to the changing areas, Dean meets Sam halfway who informs him the Djinn has been taken care of no thanks to Dean daydreaming about his model boyfriend.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Anyway, where’s Cas?”

There’s a scream from the changing room.

The Winchesters exchanged glances and together they run inside to find Castiel standing in the middle of the room wings spread out and on his hands is the talent scout they’ve spoken to yesterday. Dean’s mind reels—is this another Djinn?

No, that’s human!

“Hey, Cas—no, no we don’t smite talent scouts!” Dean hurries beside the angel, firm grasp on his arm as he tugs it back, causing the talent scout to fall on the floor coughing. Sam is beside him at once while Dean deals with the hot-headed-angel. “Cas, what the hell!”

“He says he wants you,” Castiel growls back, pure anger hatred in his eyes.

“What?”

“He says he wants to take you and you have given me permission to defend myself

Dean throws the talent scout a dirty look. “What exactly did you say to him?

“I said I wanted to recruit you, okay?”

“Not your exact words,” Dean narrows his eyes. The talent scout grimaces.

“I said I want you, that’s it, is it hard to understand? I want him too,” the talent points at Sam while massaging his throat, “You brothers would make the best boxer models,”

Dean blinks at Sam who stares back in disgust.

“No, thanks,” his brother says, “not my dream come true.”

“Might be mine,” Dean turns to the agent, “Okay, dude, here’s the thing—we’re done being models and frankly, it’s not even the safest job. Now leave Cas alone too, he’s cut for it, but not for us...”

“What made you choose him anyway?” Sam wants to know. Dean throws his brother an incredulous look.

“The man was smiling like a real angel when I saw him, of course, I’d recruit him.”

And Dean looks back to when it was before the scout approached them, he and Castiel standing side by side and talking about the most mundane things Dean has done that day. It’s weird because not once has Castiel said about not understanding reference when the topic is about Dean.

Castiel gets him. Dean is his reference. It makes sense.

Sliding an arm around Castiel’s shoulder, he pulls him closer and smiles.

“Come on, Cas, time to go home.”

Castiel slowly looks at him, really looks deep inside his soul, and the angel smiles—and Dean’s glad he can crack that from such a handsome face.

“Yes, Dean.”❤

-end- ao3- ❤

Thank you for giving us this escape during quarantine! We enjoyed it! :)

[janetbrown711]

❝You are the only one who really understands me, so please—don’t go.❞ Dewey webby Delong with issues of webby leaving with Louie growing up and married and Dewey having issues and separation problems and aaahgavckfmgkf

Webby knew Louie was out of his damn mind when he swore that he’d be able to fix the whole Dewey being drunk out of his mind with Dante, Huey being anxious, and whatever spat Della and Daisy had gotten themselves into all before the rehearsal dinner started, but Webby did nothing to stop him. She was honestly quite interested in just how he would attempt it all, and just how spectacularly it would fail. That was why, despite her granny’s concern, she let Louie to it. 

However, her concern started to edge her when the dinner was starting in five minutes and there wasn’t a sign of Louie, Dewey, Dante, or Daisy anywhere. She figured Louie would probably try to fix everything last minute, as was often a technique of his (though weaker than his others). Sighing, she told Lena she’d be back in a moment and went to search for her fiancée. 

However, when she heard a loud thud, she was diverted from her path and rushed to assist whoever had fallen. To her surprise, it was Dewey, who didn’t appear even the slightest bit soberer than before. Whatever Louie had attempted, it didn’t work. 

“Dewey, are you okay? Why are you alone? Where’s Dante?” Webby asked, looking up and down the empty hallway. 

“Gone,” Dewey mumbled, his breath reeking of alcohol.

“Are you okay? You totally fell,” Webby asked, looking him up and down to check for any possible injuries. 

“Head’s fine. Made of solid rock,” Dewey grinned cheekily, knocking on his head a few times. 

“You’re coming with me mister,” Webby rolled her eyes at his slurred speech, wrapping an arm around him and helping him up, taking him to the kitchen.

“Where we goin’ Websssss?” Dewey asked. “Party’s thata way.”

“We are going to sober you up for Louie because he clearly doesn’t know how to do this,” Webby snarked. 

“True dat,” Dewey nodded. 

“So where’s Dante if you’re alone?” Webby asked again. 

“Dante’s... Dante’s... mm...” Dewey tried to think but couldn’t come to a conclusion. “Dewster’s all alone tonight.”

“Did he say that? Why?” Webby raised an eyebrow. She knew Dante, he was better than just abandoning Dewey like that. 

“Dewster’s aloneee tonight baby, no reason other than my brain,” He answered. Unfortunately, that did nothing to clarify the situation. 

“What about Huey? Louie said he was going to sober you,” Webby questioned. 

“Dante an’ Hubert got in a squabble,” Dewey shrugged.

“Well he better show up soon if this doesn’t work,” Webby sighed. 

“What we gon’ try?” Dewey asked. 

“That’s a surprise,” Webby said, so Dewey wouldn’t run away. It was going to be the tried and true method of dunking his head in ice-cold water until he could stand on his own. 

“Alllll by myseeeeEeelffffffff,” Dewey had begun to drunkenly sing to himself, as was his habit. No matter what situation they were in, if Dewey was drunk, he was singing somehow. 

“Dewey, you aren’t by yourself, I’m here,” Webby rolled her eyes. 

“Not for long,” he muttered. This caused Webby to stop. 

“What do you mean by that?” Webby frowned. 

“I mean...” Dewey’s face flushed and he looked to the ground. It seemed for a moment he would answer when suddenly vomited on a fake tree in the hall. Webby sighed. 

“We need to get you to the kitchen. I’m sure you can explain there,” She sighed and practically carried him to the kitchen, and he luckily didn’t vomit after that. 

Eventually, they reached the kitchen and Webby made her request for a big bucket of ice water, and the sobering began. She had to dunk his face in a total of five times before he demanded she stop and she knew he came back to his senses. 

“Tell me what happened,” Webby sat Dewey down and crossed her arms. 

“What do you mean?” Dewey rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Where’s Huey or Dante? How did you end up alone and wandering the halls of the hotel?” She clarified. 

“Right. That,” Dewey sighed. “Huey found me with Dante, Dante got snappy at Huey, Huey got snappy back, Dante left angry, Huey tried to get me to come back to save his ass so he wouldn’t have to give his speech, I got mad for him getting mad at Dante and stormed off, telling him not to follow,” he explained. 

“How long were you wandering around? And how did Huey lose track of you?” Webby raised an eyebrow. 

“I don’t know everything, okay? It’s foggy,” he shrugged. Webby nodded slowly. 

“I see,” She said. “What about all that alone talk? When I said you aren’t alone you said ‘not for long’. What do you mean?” 

Dewey went silent for a moment. 

“Webby... I-i feel like you’re the only one who understands me...” 

“Dewey, you promised-”

“I know what I promised,” he closed his eyes. “But...”

“Dewey, I know what you want to say but you cannot do this to me. The wedding is tomorrow, you cannot do this to me,” Webby looked away. 

“I wasn’t going to say any of that, I would never do that to you or Louie,” Dewey clarified sharply. Webby took in a deep breath and let him continue. 

“What I meant is... you’re my best friend. Huey’s off in college with a fancy girlfriend, Louie’s getting married, Lena has a girlfriend, heck, even Violet of all people has a girlfriend, meanwhile... I feel like I’m all alone,” he slumped. “I feel like once you get married I’m just going to be... alone; that you won’t want to hang out with me anymore...”

“Lena isn’t dating anyone,” Webby suggested softly. 

“She doesn’t count,” Dewey rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I know, I’m sorry...” she sighed.

“Dewey, you’re a very good friend to me too. Trust me when I say, I don’t want to lose this friendship either. I care a lot about you, and I won’t leave you. I promise you’ll never be alone. Plus, you have Dante right?” She put a hand on his shoulder. He nodded. 

“I do,” he sniffled. 

“C’mon dummy, we need to get to the dinner. We’re already late,” Webby punched him in the shoulder, to which he winced and they left back to the dining hall. 

In all honesty, when Webby walked into the dining hall she half-expected everything to be on fire and a huge disaster, with Louie trying to fix it all in the middle. Instead, she was greeted by Louie with the smuggest and calmest face she’s ever seen in her life. 

“Well, well, well... look who’s late,” he grinned.

“Har har. You didn’t sober Dewey, so you didn’t win,” Webby pointed out. Louie rolled his eyes. 

“Well, I did everything else, including showing up on time, soooooooooo...” He winked.

“I get your hoodie for one month,” Webby rolled her eyes. Louie accepted this, holding out his arm for her, which she accepted and all of them took their seats. 

After that, everything seemed to go on without a hitch. Webby looked around the room and saw Daisy and Della were getting along just fine, leaving Donald much happier and more comfortable than before, Huey being relaxed and talking to Violet about things, and Launchpad was having a nice conversation with the person whose car he crashed into. In short, all was well. Webby was genuinely surprised. Then again, she had always known Louie for having a way with words and people. 

However, when Dewey began to hit his fork against his champagne glass (which wasn’t missing a single drop), Webby began to worry about what it was he was going to say. 

“Ladies, gentlemen, and other honored guests, let me be the first to toast to my brother and my best friend’s soon to be marriage,” he raised his glass. 

“I’ve known my little brother my whole life, minus forty-five minutes, and let me tell you he is quite the character. He’s selfish, lazy, and yet somehow the most caring and loving person I know. His schemes may get him in trouble a lot, but hey, I know they’ve saved my butt on multiple occasions,” he joked, which made the whole room laugh. 

“Without him, I’m sure everyone in this room would probably have found themselves in a bit more trouble than they are right now,” he said, to which several people nodded in agreement. 

“Now, Webby is fierce, sweet, and one of the kindest and yet also one of the scariest people I’ve also ever met,” he looked at her. “I couldn’t imagine someone better for my little punk of a brother.”

“So I raise a glass to their soon to be unity. Here’s to Louie and Webby; may their marriage be happy, may it be lengthy, and may it be filled with laughter and good times.” He raised his glass and everyone cheered and drank as he sat back down. 

“That wasn’t terrible Dewey,” Louie elbowed his brother and laughed. 

“I try,” Dewey rolled his eyes and smiled as he took a sip of his water. 

“I thought it was very thoughtful. He doesn’t have your way with words but it was from the heart, be nice,” Webby elbowed Louie. 

“He’s my brother, I have my rights,” Louie teased further. Webby chuckled and rolled her eyes. 

“Thanks,” Dewey said to her. 

“No problem,” She gave him a short and sweet smile and the night continued.

After the toast, everything continued normally, and without a hitch (unless you were Huey, Violet and Lena though, as they still had their bets going on, which they all took quite seriously). The dinner ended, and soon everyone headed off to their room to prepare for what tomorrow held. 

However, just as Webby was going to kiss Louie goodnight before he would disappear until the wedding, a certain uninvited someone burst through the door of the hotel and checked in out of nowhere. Once Webby caught word of it, she and Louie went down to the front desk to see who on earth would check into a wedding like that, and the night before of all times. 

However, the moment the figure opened their mouth a lot of those questions answered themselves. 

“Hello there Sharpy, happy to see me?”

Goldie. 

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

[hero-philia]

Hey I am a little scared to ask this but can I request a headcanon for Shinsou where the reader is Porphyrophobic, which means having a huge fear of the color purple. Maybe add some angst but happy ending because this boy deserves it. Love your writing!!

First of all, thank you so much for trusting me with this request!! I’ve done a bit of research to understand what porphyrophobia is about and what the symptoms are. Please tell me, if I’ve portrayed something in a wrong way because I’ll make sure to chance it >.< 

Remember guys: This is a safe place for everyone! So don't be scared to send me requests of all kind :)

I DID NOT PROOF-READ THIS, AAAAAAH! 

-----

The Fear of Being Misunderstood | Shinsou x fem!Reader

-> Reader suffering from porphyrophobia, the fear of the color purple

1386 words

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With a groan Shinsou opened his heavy eyes only to be faced with darkness. Starring at the ceiling he recapped how often he had turned around to find a comfy position already and how many times he had nearly drifted off to dreamland before reality had pulled him back. Another sign of displeasure escaped his mouth when he found himself thinking about the same thing all over again. 

„God“, he sighed as he finally decided to sit up. 

His hands buried in his wild hair, he got a grim reminder for what was keeping him awake tonight. 

„Oh, Shinsou! I didn’t expect to meet you here“, Kendou said in her usually cheerful tone. „I was out shopping with a friend. Speaking of friend, this is (Y/N). (Y/N), this is my classmate Shinsou!“

But the girl that had been introduced to him as (Y/N) had just looked at him with wide eyes like she was facing a lion. The longer she had done so, the more irregular her breath had gotten until the girl had finally dropped her shopping bag to run off into the crowd. 

No matter how much he tried to recap the events, he couldn’t find a decent explanation for her behaviour. Since Kendou had left to chase after her with her dropped errands, the boy had found himself all alone yet again. Meanwhile with his feet on the ground, Shinsou buried his face in his hands. 

The way the poor girl had starred at him, pure fear in her eyes. Her body stiff with tension in every single muscle. He had no idea why, but (Y/N) really hated him. Or worse, feared him more than anything else on this planet. 

Maybe someone else had told her rumours about his past, like the bullies in elementary school and middle school had decided to do. Who knew what horrendous stories she had heard about the first year with the brainwashing quirk. Most likely she had suffered from the same state as all the others - Imagining the nightmares of what Shinsou had done with his ability before. Torture, manipulation, ruling like a demon king.

„I’m really sorry, (Y/N)“, Shinsou whispered into the dark.

Just the stars and the moon managed to bring a little bit of light into the room. If only he had been fast enough to explain himself to her. But now this chance was long gone and the simple ‚what if‘ kept him from sleeping. 

~

The next morning, a more than welcomed Sunday without classes, Shinsou basically hypnotised his cereals while fighting the urge to drop his head into the milk in order to give in to his tiredness. Normally he hated the intensity of several of his classmates, such a Tetsutetsu or Monoma this early in the morning - Before lunch to be specific. 

Reconsidering the circumstances that the image of the girl from yesterday was still ghosting around in his mind, he would love to have someone by his side to at least be annoyed from. May that be a non-stop enthusiastic Tetsutetsu or a non-stop bragging an 1-A hating Monoma. 

Back in his room he shut the door behind him before sitting down at the desk with his neatly organised study materials on it. 

In between the halfway finished homework for hero history and the stack of school book in alphabetical order his phone was charging. What finally caught his eye was the blue light, which blinked every few seconds, in the upper left corner of the display. Someone must have texted him, probably a new meme in the group chat of 1-B or Aizawa to reschedule tomorrow’s morning practice for the sake of the both of them.

He proceeded to wipe his face with his hand before he unlocked his phone. That was when his heart jumped to his throat. 

Two new messages from Kendou, a voice message and a text, the latter including the name (Y/N). 

Faster than his worries could take over his brain, he opened the chat room. Thanks to his eyes rushing way too much, he had to read the text three times until he understood what it was saying: Basically that you had wanted to send him a message, but hadn’t been brave enough because of his profile picture.

„Well, you know, it’s a selfie and therefore … purple“, Kendou had texted him. 

What on earth? This didn’t even make sense at all. So he clicked on the voice message, expecting to hear the familiar voice of his classmate while she would explain the situation and give more details. 

Hello Shinsou, this is (Y/N). The girl you’ve met yesterday in the company of Itsuka. 

Luckily the phone was laying safely on the desk as Shinsou’s head snapped into the direct of it. Chances were high that he would have dropped the device, if he had it in his heads now. Your voice echoed through his room as the voice message went on.

My behaviour was really rude when we ran into you. Itsuka has told me a bit about you and I think that you are a nice person, Shinsou. So I hope that you don’t hate me because of what happened. Though I will totally understand, if you do.

His jaw metaphorically dropped at your words. When he had obviously been the reason for your way of acting, he couldn’t be mad at you. How? There were plenty of options to choose from in order to find an explanation to be scared of him. Starting with his grumpy face, ending with his reputation.

You don’t have to listen to it, but I want to let you know what was going on. Seriously, I would have loved to talk to you. But … your hair and your eyes … N-Not that they are ugly or anything! They are totally not! Still … they are purple. I have a condition called porphyrophobia. This means that I’m afraid of the color purple.

For a second the boy didn’t know what to think of it. On the other hand you had absolutely no motivation to make up something like this and since you had already recorded this message for him, it had to be true. 

The way your voice had changed from being a tad bit excited and nervous at the same time to being filled with seriousness once you had begun to explain your burden, it got his attention like nothing else had recently.

When I faced you yesterday, the anxiety inside of me took over. I didn’t mean to treat you like this and I’m really sorry. Since we will most likely never meet again, please let me tell you one last thing. Though I haven’t seen it in action, your quirk sounds pretty amazing. You will definitely become a pro hero one day. I’m rooting for you! Good luck.

With this announcement the message ended. Your voice died, but it continued to replay in his head over and over again. Especially the last words had put him in a state of disbelieve.

You, a complete stranger, that had been so afraid of him, was having high hopes for his future. Even though you knew that he was attending class 1-B and therefore not the hero course yet, you believed in him with such optimism that it paralysed him for a moment. 

A few minutes later he replied to Kendou’s original text with more than his usual Thanks. 

Kendou herself tilted her head at the new message in the chat room as it differed a lot from what she had seen coming. But then she counted two and two together before answering her classmate: This is her number […] and no, there is absolutely no purple in your profile anymore.

Instead of Shinsou’s selfie a cat looked at her in his profile, which she identified as one of the strays from the park a few streets away. The formerly purple letters of his name were now changed to a casual black. Whatever he was intending to do, he had thought it through. Itsuka smiled as she sent her reply.

He didn’t exactly know why he was doing all of this. Nevertheless he was certain to find a way to thank you for being brave enough to send that voice message. 

You deserved it. 

-----

(A/N) - I’m seriously considering a part 2 of this! Shinsou needs more appreciation on my blog >.<

-----

Posted: April 7th 2020 | Requests: Open | Match-ups: Closed

[seb-owns-these-tatas]

The Shrill (1/?) (Sci-fi)

Characters: Henry Cavill x small! innocent female reader (AU)

Summary: Something was haunting the whole world. A trial to test everybody's will power to live that an unspecified sound could make humanity turn into a death zone with four factors to describe them once they've feel the attacks. You've thought everyone was considered safe in the black mansion you were living in because nobody has reacted to the Shrill for a long time. Until now...

Warnings: Murder. Blood. Angst. Choking. (Not in a sexual way, bb's. *wink wink nudge nudge* The sexual part will be on the next) Aggressive Henry but also sweet. 

Words: 2,500+

A/N: This kept me up all night. It's all in my head and I tried to sleep it off until it reached to a smut and I was like..Ooooh. OOOOooooOOOH. I NEED TO WRITE IT OUT! Hehehe. Here you have it! 💕💕 You'll have your mad Cavill smut on part 2! Btw, I’ve written a body type, If it isn’t your body type then feel free to imagine yours instead. I couldn’t put “*your body type*” because I didn’t like the look of it in the overall imagine. Also, a certain scene was inspired by Divergent! Thank you! 

REBLOG, COMMENT OR GIVE IT A LIKE, IF YOU’RE LIKING THIS SHORT SERIES! THANK YOU! TAGLIST IS OPENED IF YA WANNA BE TAGGED BY THE SMUT PART--I MEAN NEXT PART. OKAY? 😍😘

Taglist: @vikingsbifrost @sofiebstar​

Disclaimer: PNG's used in edits are not mine even the GIF's too. However, the edits and oneshots/fics are definitely from moi.

MY WORKS ARE NOT TO BE POSTED ON ANY OTHER WEBSITES. My official username in Wattpad is “TATATHEPOTATO” and that’s the only other site I have aside from Tumblr. Thank you, Tater tots!

Fifteen different people in one huge mansion. A black mansion to be specific. The world has created and experienced chaos and madness as the entirety of humanity was now suffering from a wide unearthly signal that could get certain people to act berserk.

Nobody knew why. Nobody understands the reason and where does it come from, but the people who were living in the huge Mediterranean mansion that you were in were completely free from the violent reactions that may cause.

With violent reactions that can be considered brutal for a kill.

Everyone was laughing in joy, some even had alcohol wrapped around their fingers as they try to blur out all what was happening around the world.

You and Henry were sure that everyone was safe; until one person who had reacted on the sound.

There it was. That certain sound; a high pitched signal. Everyone looked at each other, sensing who were reacting towards the shrill. The effects were truly indistinguishable, you wouldn't know who and what will hit them when the signal can be heard. But, there were contingencies you've felt and heard while everyone was quarantined in the mansion.

There were four factors as to how you would react towards the sound. You've witnessed the most horrifying reaction which was Brute. Your own father has managed to terminate every single one of your family except for you. He was also included in the brutal murder as he aimed the gun to his head. You didn't know if it was intentional or not but he neglected you from the massacre and you didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

You've had hypothetical presentiments as to why they've reacted that way. Facts which are considered sixty-five percent accurate based on how you've been observing everyone's actions. The reason why they've began to violently react to the signal was because they never had committed any wicked sin and actually had a good heart.

Second was altruism. Some people have reacted towards the signal with goodwill and compassion. However, those people were thoroughly godawful in their lives. Committing such abysmal sins which can be considered unlawful to the law and especially to the eyes of God. They suddenly become all incorruptible and law-abiding after the shrill that they don't remember what happened nor do they remember who they were and have been.

Third was The Hushed. Humanity has given these people lemons and not bread. These people were the ill-tormented. They were given the affliction of never having to get to speak what their heart says no matter what happens.  All their lives they have lived in agony and now they were receiving such curse into not having to talk nor having the fate on reacting towards their environment. They were completely the epitome of a coma. Their souls and mind were still living on earth but they were forbidden to move nor react towards their environment.

Last, but not the least as your current observations weren't fully factful; was the Unbalanced. They were the combination of every factors that has been said. They all have their days, it's either you react with brute, altruism or become the Hushed in every other day. They were the unstable ones, the people who you couldn't read when they are attacked by the shrill. To know that they are considered the Unbalance start from acting like a demented person until they were acting normal one day then not on some.

The one that you couldn't get the bottom of is why specific people weren't being attacked by the chime and you couldn't comprehend why you haven't been passively reacting towards the problem at hand and nobody could answer that question for you.

Thus, this ill-fated moment was the most terrifying memory you can ever decipher as the love of your life have caused you a busted lip and a frightening gun in between your forehead.

"Listen to me and I hope you take this into consideration, Nugget." Henry skeptically started; voice all calm and soothing, standing completely tall and jacked before you. Your height differences thoroughly sweeping to the eyes of everyone maybe even cute to some as you stood five foot one before him with big bones; wide hips and small chest. Technically, a bottom hourglass with those stomach flab hidden behind the hoodie of your boyfriend that reached your thighs. An imperfect interpretation of how humanly you were, unlike your love who seemed to be utter perfection.

The latter crossed his burly arms across his prominent chest, combing a hand through his curly locks and sighing deeply to himself like he was trying to understand what his thoughts has been telling him, he licked his lips before peering down at you, giving you that worried gaze he would give whenever his thoughts get the best of him.

You gave him a reassuring smile after he pulled you away from the group of people who were bonding all together. At first, you were questioning why he'd held your wrist, pulling you away from them. But, now you understood his actions.

Despite of sounding confident all the time, today the walls began to break as you've seen your powerful looking man so scared for what he could do to the people around him if he was attacked by the Shrill.

He'd languidly taken the gun latched in between his belt. A frown etched upon his features as his stubble was growing longer. Henry checked the black pistol in his hand, clicking the chambers open to see how many rounds it could take before shutting the clip back and handling the grip to you with a small, glum smile.

You've stared back at him with incredulity. The gun on your palm without knowing what to do with it. Your lower lips wanting to pop out because of what the message actually sounded like. A shake of your head was the only reply you could muster as you felt your heart being grabbed by a claw at a rickety future that was bound to happen because nobody knows how this trial would take.

"If...If I somehow react to it and be a part of the Brute," he trailed off, stepping closer to you and reaching out for the side of your jaw; his rough, calloused fingers dancing across the nape of your neck as he subtly gave a smooth caress. Beautiful ocean blue eyes with tiny specks of brown on his left eye, gazing down at you with a look you've seen since the moment you've manage to develop feelings with each other when the nightmare happened; utter love and respect, "---and if you must shoot me before I cause chaos to everyone, do it. Understand?"

Another shallow shake of your head, repeatedly doing so with a begrudging heart, "Henry," you pleaded, not wanting to do it as the action will fall on your hands. The responsibility of shooting him would be your nightmare forever. "N-No, I--I don't even know how to shoot a gun. I--I won't ever forgive myself if that ever happens. Ask me anything, but that!" the tremble of your voice was evident. You shook your head once more, objecting at his wishes and never submitting.

"Panic will consume you and once it does, you're surprised you've already shot me to death, Y/N."  Henry tried to lighten the mood as he managed to get out a toothy grin. Though, you knew his heart was shaking at the painful truth he could decipher, "I'd rather accept that you shoot me. I'd rather see your face before I die,"

You could feel your eyebrows in a tight knot, your heart beat ceasing at the responsibility on your hands. The soft cookie in you coming out with tears forming around your eyes. Henry stared you down with a tender beam, entirely leaning down to plant a kiss on the side of your eyes to stop you from weeping out.

"Love can be a bloody brute, and I mean that literally, Nugget." the latter whispered, finally pecking your temples before the ones in between your eyebrows.

You've felt his warm breath that you wished not for it to turn cold. He was the only who you could depend. The shoulder whom you cry on and a person who you've loved to the fullest and killing him won't ever be the best idea for you.

Once the soft pillows of his lips left your forehead, he had lean his forehead with yours. Eyes fluttering closed as he took in everything. Your warmth, scent and soul like he wouldn't get to reach for them ever again. "Don't hesitate, okay? Just shoot."

The shiny metal barrel was now aimed between your head. A bloody lip and a wound on the end of your eyebrow have been given to you by your own boyfriend as he'd reacted very different with you. From the moment he was tightly closing his eyes as the shrill went on and on. You knew he was next.

At that, you've managed to speak your heart and tried getting his attention before he could even hurt the people around you who eventually became your friends.

You've rather let him hurt you than see him hurt others or even himself.

The mere image of you being violently hurt by a huge, brawny man wasn't completely pleasing to the eye. Everybody were scattered in the large living room where tables and chairs were ruined with troubled gazes in their eyes. They were stuck to their feet as they watched the scene unfold.

Irith, a police woman who lived in the same mansion as you do; snatched her gun out of her holster, quickly aiming the firearm at Henry who'd grabbed onto you, tackling you down the floor and in between you with his hand gripping your neck in a choke hold. The gun he'd given was taken away from you; maybe because you've technically given him the opportunity to do so and it was now in his palms.

"He's going to kill you, Y/N! You’re gonna die!"

Irith clicked the safety off her pistol and you've heard it. Your boyfriend's fingers wrapped around your neck as tight as he could with an apathetic gaze like your Henry wasn't even there at all. "No-No-No! He’s not! Please! Don't do a-a-anything! Don't hurt him! Move away!"

You croaked out and pleaded with a cough; forcibly clawing out to get his fingers away from you. To no avail, Henry was very much stronger than you and getting out of his hold was like asking the heavens to show you the pot of gold on the end of the rainbow.

"H-Henry," another croak before he tightened his hold around your neck. The air seeming to be cut off better than before. You've stared into his eyes, trying to find him in there but all you could see was a person whom you didn't know. A complete utter murderer who just wanted you dead.

You've stopped struggling against his hold, tasting the blood in your mouth as he breathed deep above you, his thick thighs on either side of you as he pinned you down. Irith didn't know what to do and dropped her aim. Panic settling her nerves as she watched you get choked by your boyfriend who'd been anything but violent to you before it even happened.

Your fingers left his, mind flying at the thought to fight him off. Shaky fingers reaching out to touch the side of his face which ignited a feral growl out of him once he'd felt your cold, trembling fingers. The other hand of yours nervously gripping onto the barrel, aiming it better between your forehead as Henry's face morphed into a painful wince.

You can't let him go that yet. No. Deep inside, you know he was still in there.

"Shoot...me," you whispered in between gasps and heaving breaths. The air soon cutting your lungs shut. "I-It's okay, lo-love. Y-You can shoot...shoot me,"

All the response he has ever did was a loud groan, his finger on the trigger but never flicking. He stared you down with that wavering gaze, like he has been struck by lightning. Your thumb reaching out for his lip, soothingly caressing with a firm will as you spoke out loud with a slowing heart, "It's...It's okay...I love you...Always..will,"

Something was shutting off inside him. All he could see was that you were a target he should eliminate because you were part of the humanity who tries to ruin the world because of their irresponsible actions. Yet, your voice. It was echoing inside his head, like a soothing one which could calm that certain switch and the nerves sending inside his brain for the kill.

The veins on the side of his head were popping out and you could see him struggling with something. His lips shaking as you felt it on your thumb. He tightly shut his eyes closed, hardly breathing out of his nose as he was whimpering like something was hurting him.

It was. His head was hurting because he was fighting it off.

You've caught his attention again, slowly caressing your fingers across the apples of his cheeks like a touch to reassure him to just do it and end his pain instead. You stared into his tightly shut eyes and gave a solemn smile, "Y-You're...the best I've ever had...D-Don't...worry, I-It's okay,"

Your pleading was like an ambulance being sent to rescue him. He snapped his head away from you, breath completely labored as he was wrestling with those small voices whispering inside his head; telling him to just pull the trigger and end his misery. But, the other echo screaming at him that pulling the trigger will just add more misery and probably even guilt and utter madness for himself.

"F-Fuck!" He lividly cussed out loud. Snapping his eyes open and you've seen the most grief-stricken picture. His eyes rheumy and dewy like he was on the verge of crying.

Then, you've heard the safety click back. His fingers shaking a lot more as he does so before falling on the floor, rolling away from you with a maddened groan.

He was in luck and also for you because you were close to having your breath taken away from you before he even managed to stop himself. You breathed in deep, like you were trying to catch your breath again and mewling at how free it was to feel your air back in your lungs.

Yet, you were about to reach out for him in the midst that you were still in a haze from being choked out. You've blinked your eyes open to see him scurrying away, feeling as if your heart was ceasing again. He stood on his feet, avoiding the terrified looks on everybody's faces. Though, the most painful part of everything that happened was not his aggressive action towards you. But, from how he bypassed your hold on his hand and thoroughly shunned away like you were disgusting.

Hence, you knew he was mad at himself and probably for you because you let it happen. The guilt beginning to eat him alive just before you even knew it.

MARSHALL LOOKS SO SO CUDDLY. I WANT PAPA BEAR TO JUST HUG ME ALL NIGHT. 😪😣😍😍

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

[smash-64]

Ok so I typed up a super long review of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and I spared nothing in what you might call a scathing review. It’s below the cut, but if you’d like the TL;DR part, I’d summarize it as follows:

The Starfox stuff is fun, but the rest isn’t. 5/10

Starlink Battle for Atlas review

Being a huge fan of Starfox, I’ve had my eye on this game for a very long time. However, the whole “toys as games” thing was a huge turnoff, coupled with the fact that apparently even getting the physical version meant you needed to devote 15GB of storage space to the game, which makes no sense to me. 

Anyway, I watched the reception closely, and it was pretty lukewarm, at best. People generally had very little to say about the game, so I only ever occasionally looked into whether it was on sale or not. Luckily for me, I got my hands on a 400GB microSD card for my Switch at the same time that the digital version went on super sale at 70% off, so I decided the time was right to try it out.

The Good

The Starfox team is at their graphical best in this game, by far. They looked great in Starfox Zero, but they look exactly how I pictured they would in my most fantastical dreams from when I was little. They all move smoothly, have perfect fur and feathers, emotive expressions, and they just fit so well with all the other characters in Starlink. There is a wide variety of allies and NPCs in this game, and they all have just as wide a variety of races and species. One guy looks like he should be a grass type Pokemon. I really think the character design is fantastic in this game. The fact that the entire inclusion of Starfox was an afterthought, yet they all fit in so perfectly is really a huge victory for Starlink. 

In addition to how they look, the Starfox team also sounds great. They got the original voice actors back for Fox and Slippy (and I do mean the originals from Nintendo 64!), and the rest of the squad, plus Wolf, came back from the 2011 remaster of Starfox 64 for the 3DS. That game was a great remaster, and the voice work was phenomenal. The characters and their personalities all shine through just as you expect them. They banter slightly less than on the N64, but part of that might just be because sound bytes were at a premium on that system, so they had to pick and choose what lines to include more carefully. So, I don’t think you can really count that against Starlink, which is a game that can include just about as many lines of dialogue as it wants. Fox, for one, has a TON of dialogue and I loved every bit of it. I kind of wish I lived in the Seattle area so I could hear Mike West’s radio show (and hear Fox’s voice all the time), which is how Nintendo discovered him for the original voice of Fox McCloud way back in 1997. Another great piece of work here.

In what very well might have been the source of the “Star Fox Grand Prix” fake leak a few years ago, there is a planet called the Crimson Moon where you can take part in what is essentially pod racing with your Arwing. Now, I really did not enjoy the pod race scene of Star Wars Episode I, and aside from Mario Kart 64, I really don’t find racing games very rewarding. However, these racing levels are actually pretty fun. There are hidden shortcuts you can take, plenty of obstacles, and the computer racers are actually fairly difficult. I honestly found myself getting really into these races. The only downside is, there aren’t very many of them. They’re also kind of long, which is no problem for a veteran of N64’s Rainbow Road, but I was a bit surprised at the length of some of the courses.

The Meh

The music, which I have come to believe might be the element of games that really determines whether I just like a game, or love it, is fairly generic. It sounds like your average Marvel movie soundtrack, except without any real bangers. The Corneria remix is too short and not often played, and the Star Wolf theme is the same deal. That’s just about it for Starfox music, and the rest of it is just so generic that I can’t even comment any further. A real letdown for me, although it doesn’t particularly take away from the game or produce any grating tracks.

The difficulty was a mixed bag as well. I played about 70% of the game on Hard mode because I’m very experienced with Ace Combat and Starfox games, so I thought I’d be fine with the air/space combat. But, the difficulty slider didn’t really make the game more difficult, it just made it take a lot longer. I guess that could be seen as a good thing for people who get upset about dying really quickly on harder difficulties, but it felt like a way to cheat at padding the game’s playtime. I ended up lowering the difficulty just so I could finish faster.

The Starlink characters are a really big missed opportunity. They all have very distinct personalities, but I was shocked at how little content actually featured them. They each have a backstory cutscene that highlights them, but those scenes are so short that it’s more of a 30 second elevator pitch than anything else. None of the characters have more than a sentence or two to comment about said cutscenes, and none of them ever show any growth. Even the “main” character of Mason is basically the same by the end of the game. Although, I do think their designs are excellent and their personalities stand out from one another well enough.

The Bad

Spoilers ahead for the next three paragraphs! The story itself is pretty crappy. I’m still not really sure what was going on or why the Equinox (the main ship) was where it was. In more than one of the character-specific backstory cutscenes I already mentioned, they talk about Earth. So, ok, we understand that almost everyone on the Equinox is human, that’s fine. But...how exactly did they get here and why do they want to recapture the solar system of Atlas? As you play, you essentially claim territory in the name of Atlas, but it’s not clear at all who that exactly is. Does that mean the Equinox is in charge? Is there a government somewhere? Military affiliations or alliances? Because plenty of territory seems to be independent, in addition to enemy-controlled territory. Maybe there was a single line of dialogue I missed somewhere.

But, ok, we just want to fly spaceships and shoot stuff, who cares about politics! Well, there are still issues with the story because I honestly could scarcely care less about any of the plot in this game, which makes it tough to get into any of the battles or things at stake. The entire Starlink team was so unimportant that I literally never used ANY of them even one time, and the game never encouraged me too, either. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the unparalleled writing and character development of the Kiseki series of JRPGs, or maybe I just really don’t like the storytelling methods and style of western RPGs, but I feel like the story should make you WANT to learn more about characters. Instead, I was just constantly asking questions like “Why does any of this matter?” 

Now, that would be a totally unimportant question if the game was all about space battles and explosions and pew pews, but it pretends to have this really deep, engrossing story with characters wracked over the (spoiler!) kidnapping and death of their leader and captain. We barely even get to know who this dude is before he’s kidnapped, and then the rest of the story is so bare-bones that most of what we’re “supposed” to be feeling has to be completely assumed under the guise of “Well, I guess he was the captain so we’re supposed to feel bad, right?” He did apparently act like a father figure for many of the Starlink pilots, but we are only briefly told that in those previously mentioned 30 second elevator pitches. We never actually see it.

Ok spoilers done, but I’m not. The enemies that you fight in this game are also horribly boring and repetitive. We get about 10 enemies in total throughout the entire game, and most of those only have very slight variations. They try to spice it up a bit by adding in “elements,” but about 70% of what I fought ended up always being the fire type anyway. Sure, we get five or so “boss” type enemies, but they’re not particularly special, either. Most of these enemies are copy-pasted all over the planets you visit to give the impression of a planet full of activity, but really it’s just the same things over and over. 

The real issue here is how the Big Bad, a bird guy named Grax, is supposed to be really feared but we only get like two cutscenes about him. His army is completely faceless. It’s really shocking that we got significantly more development from the Star Wolf team almost 25 years ago on the Nintendo 64, and all of that was delivered in five second one-liners spread through only a couple levels! 

All I’m going to say about the “toys as games” thing is that it’s stupid and clunky and should never be used, especially the way they make you mount the ship onto your controller. What an absolutely idiotic method. I can understand having a portal like they did with Skylanders. Still not a fan, but you can toss something onto it and it doesn’t weigh down your controller. If it was required to play, I would have never even tried this game.

Gameplay is supposed to be the real winning point here, with an honestly unbelievable amount of content available for each planet you visit. I think there were six or seven planets you could visit, so there was actually a ton to do. But I can’t imagine beating my head against the wall so many times on each planet to complete any of it. If you really enjoy grinding, monotonous, pointless gameplay, then by all means, try this game.

Conclusion

I mean, if you like Starfox, I think you’ll have at least some fun with it. The Starfox levels are fun, and it feels like legitimate Starfox content. It also shows that Starfox could branch out into something different, but I’m not sure I’d be a big fan of it going such a repetitive route with regards to gameplay. If a game like this were fully devoted to a Starfox story, and not just including Starfox as an afterthought, then I do think it could be a good game. But as it stands, Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an example of something that looks and sounds great, but revels in gameplay mediocrity and fails at story-telling. 5/10. If there was no Starfox content, it’s honestly a 3/10.

[the-trashy-phoenix]

Supernatural season 6 review (part 1)

Link to part 2:

At the beginning of the sixth season we have the chance to see and appreciate a new side of Dean: as he had promised Sam, he came back with Lisa (who seems to have accepted him straight away, because, even after all those years, she realises he’s the only man she’s ever loved) and lives in a proper family, behaving as Ben’s, Lisa’s son, father. Of course he still thinks about Sam, but he seems to be happy for the first time in his life, as he now has everything he’s always dreamed of since when he was a child. He’s a good dad to Ben, he’s so careful to avoid becoming like John and he’s also really faithful to Lisa. His life as a hunter clearly made him understand the advantages of having a quiet life and a “normal” family, so that he appreciates them a lot more than anyone could do. At first I thought Dean was not cut out for being a dad, and that Sam would surely make a better one, but these episodes proved me wrong, especially considering what Sam has now become. We already know (from the last episode of season five) that Sam is alive, so that’s not a big surprise, but we still have questions on what happened, the same ones Dean has when he meets him. As a matter of fact, he finds out he’s been alive for a very long time, hunting with his new family, the Campbells, led by their mother’s dad, Samuel, who’s been brought back to life with Sam, even though they both don’t know who did it. Dean is at first angry with Sam (but we’re used to it at this point) because he didn’t tell him he was alive, but Sam’s intentions were good, as he wanted Dean to maintain his happy family life. This dream of letting Dean out of hunting appears to be utopic, because being a hunter is far from being just Dean’s job, it’s part of his soul and now that he knows his brother is alive he can’t ignore anymore the continuous impulse of starting hunting again he constantly feels. Dean is deeply in doubt about what he has and wants to do, because he can’t bear either to lose Sam or Lisa and Ben: a sort of compromise is proposed by Lisa, and Dean accepts. He’ll start to hunt again with Sam and he’ll come and visit his family whenever he can. I really loved Lisa’s comprehensive attitude towards Dean, which testifies she loves and knows him so much she understands he could never give up on his life as a hunter and accepts to adapt to whatever makes Dean happy. That’s rare considering the people Dean can count on are few. However, what Lisa and Dean haven’t fully considered at first is that Ben and her will automatically become one of Dean’s weak points and that could put them in danger.

About Castiel, he’s a little absent in the Winchester’s hunts (but he always somehow finds time to help them when they need it, and that shows how much he loves them and cares about them) because he’s fighting in Paradise against Raphael who wants to take power. By the way neither Castiel knows how Sam was saved. One of the main plots of the season is the loss of some weapons from Paradise, which are now on earth and are improperly used by people. As always is Sam and Dean’s job to avoid a catastrophe caused by angels and recollect those weapons, while fighting ordinary demons and other monsters. It comes out that an angel, Balthazar, owns some of those weapons: he’s quite of an ambiguous character, as angels sometimes are in this show, and seems to be just indifferent to what happens both in Paradise and on earth. He’s surely not a completely good angel, as Castiel, but sometimes helps the boys in hunts and in their personal issues. I think he could be compared to another weird (but very interesting) character we’ve met in the last season and we get to know better in this one: Crowley. As Balthazar is an angel, Crowley is a demon, and we’ve learnt that in Supernatural there’s not a big difference between the two. I think what makes them similar is the fact that they keep fighting the Winchesters and pretend to dislike them, but they never actually harm them and seem even to quite like the brothers.

Through an involving episode based on Bobby’s point of view, the fourth, we understand more deeply what he does on a typical day apart from helping Sam and Dean. His routine is very stressful, so that we can justify him for being a bit rude and actually feel more than ever like the Winchesters take him for granted and never thank him enough, which they finally do after a small fight at the end of the episode. This change in perspective was quite unexpected, in a show were the main and only focus are Sam and Dean, but it was really appreciated as it gives the chance to see the story and past plots under a new light. Speaking of Crowley and Bobby, the old man is smart enough (even if he’s so busy giving Rufus and the brothers his precious help) to find out the demon’s real name and a way to make him change the terms of the contract: he’ll live his life without being persecuted in ten years and will as well keep his legs.

At this point I have to mention episode five, which constitutes a turning point for a lot of reasons (by the way, I also loved the reference to Twilight, first of all because I really appreciate how Supernatural refers and quotes other real shows or movies, but also because, I have to admit, some years ago I was a huge fan of the saga). As I was saying, this vampire episode is interesting because Dean himself is transformed. This fact marks a deep change in his relationship with Lisa and Ben: Dean, convinced he’s going to die soon, goes and visits his family but can’t control his vampire instinct and accidentally harms Ben, and as a result Lisa banishes him from their lives. At that moment Dean has the last proof he can’t maintain his bond with them, which will lead him and Lisa to fall apart without even clarifying the situation after Dean turns human. As I said loads of time regarding his relationship with his brother, one of the Dean’s features I hate the most is the fact he’s never able to talk with his loved ones straightforwardly about serious stuff, and that’s why problems always grow bigger. At the end of the season, the story of Lisa and Dean brutally comes to an end, since Ben and her are captured by Crowley’s demons and Lisa gets severely injured: that’s the point where Dean understands definitively they can’t have this kind of relationship for their own good and asks Castiel to erase their memories about him. This is one of the saddest parts of the entire season, because we know well what Lisa and Ben meant to Dean and we also know that they were his last hope for happiness, which is irremediably gone.

Talking about Sam, here it is the second shocking scene of episode five: Sam sees Dean’s transformation happening under his eyes without doing anything. When Dean recalls it, he gets mad, of course without asking Sam for some explanation, as the two are not able to solve their conflicts in a civil way simply by talking, and adds this episode to the list of Sam’s weird behaviours, which makes him think there’s something wrong with him. As Dean is the person who knows Sam better, he’s sure his brother is not okay, even though everyone, including Sam himself, thinks he’s exaggerating. He asks help from the only one person he can really trust (apart from Bobby), Castiel, who reveals to him the shocking truth: Sam’s soul is gone, and was probably left in hell in the cage with Lucifer. That explains Sam’s recent behaviour, far from the kindness and humanity we’ve learnt to love about him. I was really worried about him in finding out why he had behaved so badly and he had at times preferred Samuel (with whom he hunted a lot in the past year and did some regrettable things, as we learn from some flashbacks), also because both Cas and Crowley are convinced Sam’s soul is lost forever and irretrievably damaged by the devil, but part of me was relieved the Sam we had seen so far in the season was not the real Sam. However, I think there was a kind of contradiction in the way the authors depicted soulless Sam, as he sometimes seems to actually have feelings left, for example when he doesn’t show up with Dean to let him go on with his happy family life, in the first episode, but that could just be an isolated moment of awakening, moved by his huge love for his brother.

From that moment on, a new phase in the storyline is opened, as Sam has to depend completely on Dean who tries to teach him a sort of morality and at the same time looks for a way to restore Sam’s soul. Dean even has to convince his brother he has to want his soul back, because he cannot trust him without it, while Sam seems to feel better and stronger without. As if all that soul thing wasn’t enough, they have to face the Campbells: Samuel proves himself untrustworthy, and Dean decides to follow him to his secret hideout. He finds out Samuel is hiding some creatures he said he had killed and that he’s looking for a place Dean had no idea existed, Purgatory, and he’s doing it working for Crowley. Dean never really trusted his granddad and the Campbells, but could never imagine not only that they were working for a demon, and a very powerful one (even if Samuel did it because Crowley promised to resuscitate Mary). Also, Samuel said nothing about the fact that he and Sam were brought back by Crowley to help him find Purgatory and extend his power. Moreover Crowley, ambiguous as always, says he can restore Sam’s soul and cunningly obliges the Winchesters to hunt for him. Sam, who is way more rational because of the lack of soul, knows it’s their only choice, while Dean accepts more recklessly. As a matter of fact, this situation doesn’t last as they decide to break their subjugation and find another way to save Sam, with the help of another quite ambiguous character, which appears and disappears both to kill and help the brothers, Meg. This time she helps them fight Crowley and at the end they (a strange group formed by the Winchesters, Cas and Meg) manage to kill him. Therefore, we find ourselves at the middle of the season with Dean basically at the beginning of his research for Sam’s soul. Luckily, he finds really soon a way; unfortunately, it implies a deal with a quite dangerous character, Death: he will restore Sam’s soul if Dean will live a day in his shoes. What I appreciated of the personification of Death is that he isn’t properly evil in the show, just as the evil connotation mankind gives to death is merely arbitrary: Death is nothing more than a natural phenomenon which must happen necessarily in each human life, and Dean is given the chance to understand that deeply and reconsider his thoughts about it.

After a long and painful period of time passed in the panic room, Sam wakes up for the first time in a year with his soul, protected by a wall which is aimed to hide all that’s happened from when he fell in the hole with Lucifer and Raphael, because hell memories could kill him (and he’s already been through a lot). It was a joy to see our good little Sammy back, we (and Dean) had missed his gentle and cute attitude so much! He’s been through so much with demons and psychic things Dean keeps thinking any problem could be too much for him and he will explode, but somehow Sam is always able to bear them, while Dean always tries, in vain most of the time, to protect him. This time, as Sam doesn’t remember a thing from his soulless year, Dean hides him the truth (at this point of the show we know him so well he is completely predictable and the pattern of the brothers not telling each other important facts is the exact repetition of some other episodes), but it ends better than other times because Cas reveals Sam everything without knowing he didn’t know and Sam seems to understands Dean’s motives (after all, they’re brothers).

Before moving to the finale, I can’t but mention the metanarrative episode of this season, the 15th, in my opinion the most mind blowing of this type: Dean and Sam find themselves trapped on the Supernatural set where they’re actors and of course known by their real names. This episode gifts us with the most funny scenes of Castiel, whose real name is Misha, posting tweet all the time about the most stupid things and of Ruby/Genevieve, married with Jared in real life and also in this episode: that’s where reality seems to be weirder and funnier than the show itself.

After Rufus’ death, another really good character left on the way, and the defeat of the “Mother of all things”, the main villain of the season who’s killed quite easily through phoenix ashes collected back in 1861 by Sam and Dean themselves –nothing strange-, we find out the last shocking fact of the season: the alliance between Castiel and Crowley (who’s still alive) to find Purgatory. I was quite surprised because I couldn’t believe the naïve angel would cooperate with a demon and, even worse, without ever telling the Winchesters. I don’t think they would be happy about their deal, but at least they could’ve honestly known what their friend was up to: this way he cheated them so badly they couldn’t even believe it until the very last moment. That’s no excuse that Cas allied with Crowley just to take on some soul from Purgatory, gain more power to finally defeat Raphael and win the war in Paradise, and also that he made the demon promise the Winchesters and Bobby would be safe, because to reach his purpose he spied and lied to his friends the whole time. He should’ve known the brothers have very few people they can trust and losing them is extremely painful. Castiel himself has no real friends apart from Sam and Dean, but he seems to think they’re expendable for a higher purpose and doesn’t seem to realise how guilty he will feel after betraying them and how it will hurt to lose them.

We are now at the last episode, and we’re given a new reason to be mad at Castiel: he breaks Sam’s mental wall, letting him recall all his memories from hell. Not satisfied with all that mess he’s already made, he manages to open the Purgatory and take all the power on him, refusing to give Crowley his part of the deal. I really can’t figure out what’s wrong with end-of-sixth-season Castiel, I guess the perspective of having a huge power and becoming a sort of god went to his head, but still I think his behaviour is so incoherent. I couldn’t believe it when he told his old friends to worship him as their god if they didn’t want to get killed… Like, for real Cas? I don’t know what’ll happen in season seven, I just know I want dear old Castiel back.

- Irene 💕

[kwrittink]

Wrong - ABISM

Pairing: F!Reader x AdoptedBrother!Jungkook

Genre: Fluff/Angst

Warnings: language, a tiny bit of belittling

<FISSURE                                                             EARTHQUAKE>

It had been two- no, three - years since you last saw him. Your brother... If you could even call him that. No visits, no calls, not even a letter. He'd be completely out of your life, wasn't for his inevitable successful life, which caused people to talk about him once in a while, not aware of your past. Why would you even tell people you once were Jeon - after he took back his real name and career as the famous missing heir of the family's huge company - JungKook's relative when by that point you were nothing more than a complete stranger?

"Y/N, is the sketch finished already? Boss Min has been waiting for it since you arrived," Mou, secretary of said boss - your boss, precisely - asked, walking up to you and snatching your attention back to reality, the screen of the tablet showcasing an ad of some beauty product under Jeon's name. That's why your mind was wandering off. 

"I have the final version already, I'm just waiting for TaeH-"

"I'm here, I'm here!" Kim TaeHyung, TI trainee and probably the best boy you've ever met in your entire life came rushing in, almost knocking stressed Mou out of his way, the art printed into a small poster. "Our printers were all malfunctioning, so I had to go to the copy place- Hope I'm not too late," he breathed out finally, strands of hair glued to his forehead as he tried to catch his breath. You chuckled at him, grabbing the page with one hand and patting the top of his slightly bowed head as you stood up. 

"Don't worry, you were just doing me a favor, Tae. I'll pay you a coffee later, 'kay?" You reassured the newbie, then made your way towards your boss' office, happy that the whole printout was exactly the way you imagined it would be. Those sleepless nights wouldn't be wasted, it seemed. 

"You know, sometimes it's a little painful to watch him," Mou started, by your side. You had barely noticed she was walking with you and snapped your head towards her startled, what she might have read as a confused look. "The new intern. TaeHyung, I mean." 

"What about him?" You asked, now truthfully confused. Mou scoffed, rolling her eyes. 

"I'm sure you're not that blind, Y/N... The boy obviously has a crush on you." She whispered, giggling as your eyes widened in surprise. 

"Wait TaeHyung? No, he's just really nice. And I'm his mentor, he just wants to please." You waved it off, shaking your head in dismissal. There was no way that a guy like Kim TaeHyung was interested in you. He was really nice to you, but obviously, he was still a youngster, if the gossip was any indication. 

Mou snickered, pushing the black glass door that separated the firm's director Min YoonGi from the rest of the world. "Whatever you say then. But keep that in mind when you have your coffee with him today." She advised, and it was your turn to roll your eyes at her before she announced your arrival. 

Min YoonGi was someone really easy to deal with, once you did your job. The meeting was short, he had really liked your work and even had asked you to help in the presentation the company would have to the hirer - which meant he wanted you to talk about it. It was good to know your job was recognized, but you've been working hard for a while and was about to ask for a break before you collapsed. Sigh. Maybe after the deal was made. 

"Hey, you don't seem so well," a voice came from your right, a small box of doughnut holes from that famous bakery on the building's street appearing into your sight. A smile was immediately plastered on your lips when you turned your face and met the dimpled cheeks of Kim NamJoon - not blood related to earlier mentioned Kim Taehyung -, thick glasses hiding his eye smile. 

"You're water for the thirsty men sir," you sighed, picking one treat from the box and practically moaning at the simple yet tasteful ball of happiness. "Also, I can't believe you went to Jin's without me!"

"If you had answered my texts you'd know I was going," he quipped back, shrugging teasingly. You squinted at him, grabbing your phone and seeing that, for it was on silent the whole weekend you had let slip NamJoon's invite for this morning. Tsking, you put it away, snatching the box from his hands.

"Not an excuse mister, you have full access to my house," you countered, and he had the nerve to look coy, looking away in defeat. But in that motion you were able to see the badly hidden hickey painted on the side of his neck, giving you an idea why he didn't invade your apartment that morning. You'd tease him for that later, after figuring out who he had a date with.

"Anyway, be glad there's still some left, I ate most of it on my way here, I was starving,"

"I know you since we were children, you owe me this." Yes. Kim NamJoon, head of TI and the clumsiest guy to walk on earth was your childhood best friend and the only one in your current circle that knew about your past. Even more, JungKook used to admire NamJoon from a young age, and though you two were glued at the hip since even before your brother joined the family, JungKook warmed up pretty well to him. But when JungKook left, he had cut all ties with everyone from his past, embracing the new life presented to him, and leaving an equally devastated NamJoon missing a younger brother. That you couldn't forgive him for. 

You got back to your desk, followed by NamJoon that was still after the doughnut holes even after having half a portion. He was stressed with the end of the month, where deadlines piled up and everyone was at each other's throats to get stuff done. You couldn't do much to ease his burden, too piled with your own work to try and help him with his. Besides, you were shit at programming. 

"Oh I knew I smelled something familiar- Wait, you went to that patisserie down the street?" A cheerful face peeked from the other cubicle and revealed a handsome man eyeing your food. You quirked an eyebrow at Jung Hoseok, one of your other co-workers and part of said circle of friends. Not that you had that many people you truly enjoy talking to but you liked to live by the company's motto: quality is better than quantity. And that was also why the number of employees was so much less than others in the same area because Min YoonGi liked to hire only the best ones - and because he didn't want to waste time firing people later, you were aware. 

For example, Jung Hoseok was an amazing designer, perfectionist and hard-working, even if he looked aloof and happy-go-lucky most of the time. But there was a reason for that, and because he expected from himself only the best, Hoseok - or Hobi, how he was called endearingly - also expected near perfection from his colleagues. 

Unconsciously he had put himself in charge of keeping everyone in the line. And if anyone thought he wouldn't impose respect with his light demeanor, better change their mind quickly. The man was sharp and ruthless when disappointed, flipping his entire mood in a matter of seconds. It wasn't a point of him being bipolar or anything, he was just the type of parental figure that you wanted to only be on his good side. 

"Not me, NamJoon fetched those before arriving at work. Want one?" Extending the bag at him, you saw how Hobi's eyes twinkled as he fetched a couple of sweets from the bag and chuckled to yourself, thinking he was cute, even if a couple of years older than you. 

"Thanks, man I really needed this- Wow that's a hickey, if I've ever seen one," Hoseok was quick to notice as he turned to NamJoon, voice getting louder as he couldn't get a hold of his surprise. Your best friend's eyes widened greatly, apparently not aware that either the bruise was showing or that it was there at all while pulling his collar up. "Sorry dude, I couldn't help it, just... Sorry." Hoseok winced again, retreating to his desk while NamJoon glanced around in a panic to access who had heard the announcement. Apparently no one, but the crew had a sharp ear, you were aware. You just hoped Mou - who had a massive crush on him since he joined but never had the courage to tell him - hadn't heard it too.

Sighing, you got up your chair, grabbing NamJoon's hand and your purse in the other, meeting his lost puppy eyes. "C'mon, I'll fix this up. But you owe me an explanation, mister." You demanded while dragging him to the unisex room. 

Your only regret was leaving the doughnut holes on top of your table, easy prey for all the wolves in the section. 

The meeting was first thing in the morning, so you arrived an hour earlier to avoid any accidents and had a spare outfit in your bag if anything - NamJoon and his clumsy ass - were to happened to the cute but professional outdo you had put together so carefully. Mou was the first to greet you in the morning, her smile not quite reaching her eyes - maybe she had heard Hoseok's outburst the day before after all - as she handed you a cup with coffee and the keys to the meeting room.  

You sighed. It was a tiring job the one you had, but it was at the same time fulfilling and well-paid. Min Yoongi was strict as he did expect everyone to work hard, but he was extremely fair when it came to paychecks. Every single extra thing the employees did was taken into account and correctly inserted into your account - including that one presentation you were to do for him. 

"You're early today huh?" As if by summoning, a sleepy toned voice echoed through the room while you arranged your things - jolt of surprise barely concealed, and you could hear his quiet snicker when he noticed - and Min YoonGi entered the room. "Wouldn't expect any less of you." 

You turned to him with a small smile, acknowledging his compliment, and waiting for what he had to say. YoonGi wouldn't show up before the meeting for no reason at all, you were aware. "So, I'm sure you read about our employers and are well-prepared for this but," He started, and suddenly your blood started to run cold. But? That's never good. He's going to make my life difficult, I feel it! 

"The thing is, that company was recently bought by another one - don't look so scared, nothing has changed technically - and now you're going to be meeting the new owners, so just wanted to give you a heads up." The way he spoke was clearly as if he was casually mentioning that he had coffee in the morning and had an easy trip to the job today, but his words still couldn't avoid your internal panicking. Still, you nodded, swallowing the nervous lump in your throat, because you were a good designer, but could handle so much pressure. At least the whole ordeal wouldn't be changed. You breathed out. 

"Okay boss, I'll handle this to the best of my abilities," you assured him, trying to put a brave face to the man that had hired you but was usually treating you like a sister/daughter he kept at arm's length. Even the satisfying glint of his eyes wasn't unnoticed by you, a sign of trust in your words. 

"Good. Now, they have arrived earlier than expected, you think we can start or should make them stick to the schedule?" At that point Min YoonGi was definitely taunting you, corner of his mouth twitching slightly with undisclosed humor. You rolled your eyes. 

"Send them in, I'm ready." Was what you answered, but minutes later you would regret that sentence immensely. Maybe you should have trusted your gut for once, as it told you that something was not right the moment your boss stepped outside the meeting room to get the new employers. 

Because your smile faltered upon seeing that the man following your boss back inside was no less than - and that for some reason wasn't unexpected - Jeon JungKook.

--

So this is the layout we had and the whole process our team worked on with the previous employer - Mr. Park right here can confirm," you smiled warmly at the man who was accompanying the new owner for the meeting, glad of his reassuring and soothing presence. "But we are completely open to discussion and suggestions if the idea isn't to Mr. Jeon's interest." You tried to keep smiling as you glanced at the man who once had been part of your family now standing at the other side of the table with a completely unreadable expression while glaring at you. 

"Well, I think we don't think that much different right?" Park Jimin, later owner - now co-owner of the 'ARMY' clothing line - nudged JungKook's arm to snap him back from staring at you so blatantly. YoonGi cleared his throat softly by the end of the table. 

"Yes, we'll discuss some more of this project in the future, but for now it's fine," he said, and you had to restrain from quirking at eyebrow at him, though you could feel droplets of sweat trickling down your neck. Fine? "Next time though, I'd like to hold a meeting on my grounds, if that's okay with you?" And then he fucking turned to your boss, as if you weren't the one busting your ass in the last half hour explaining a project almost set to happen all over again. 

"I think you should ask Miss Y/L/N, she's the one responsible for this," JiMin piped up again, and you were so glad he did, but not as how that forced the arrogant face of that other man to look back at you as if he was too tired to repeat his question.

"Won't be a problem, sir. We'll-"

"We? Weren't you the head of this project alone?" A frown creased deep between JungKook's eyebrows, as he looked down to his phone - probably checking his schedule -, already up and ready to leave. JiMin got up as well, seems to be confused by his partner's behavior, and you bit the side of your cheek in anger. 

"Of course Miss Y/L/N is the prime creator of this whole entrepreneur," this time it was Min YoonGi's time to sprout into the conversation, and you were thankful he did before you said something insolent. "But to avoid being persuaded for any side whatsoever, she will be taking one from the team with her to the meeting - having in mind that Mr. JiMin will also be attending to keep it balanced." 

For some reason, it looked like Jeon was taken by surprise, for his eyes widened for a moment before glancing at your boss. He wouldn't think we'd meet completely alone now, would he? 

"Right, exactly. Mr. Park and I will be the only ones present, so it's only fair. I shall then talk to your secretary? I have a few days available." 

"N-no JungKook, I think this you'll have to discuss with Miss Y/N, she's the one that's going to meet us there..." And just like that JungKook seemed to have lost his pose of nonchalant, seeming exasperated to leave the room but needing to face you one more time before doing so. 

"Next Tuesday at 8 am at the north building?" What was he trying to do, set a romantic date or a professional one? Because either the case, he was failing miserably. You grabbed your mobile from the table, expression still stern and serene. 

"I'll put it on the schedule. It's okay with you if I take Kim TaeHyung with me, boss?" You slightly turned to the man that looked as amused as someone would be while watching a drama unfold. He was only missing a snack. 

"Sure, though he's a trainee..." The little squint your boss gave you was enough to tell you he was onto something about this whole thing - and if you could bet, you'd say he was thinking of something along the lines of ex-lovers or some other cheesy crap he secretly loved so much. 

Thought it was much, much more complicated than that.

"It's good for him to learn on the job, plus his skills will help me, I'm sure." You explained, receiving a shrug in response from your boss. That was that then. 

"We're all set then, I'm glad!" Park JiMin chirped, extending his hand at you. "It was really nice seeing you again Miss. Y/N, keep a great job!" He complimented after you shook his hand back with a small bow and a smile. Jeon's hand also appeared in front of you, for grasping. 

"Till we meet again, Miss. Y/L/N." He said as you did the same to him, after a beat of hesitancy. It was somehow hurtful the way he said your family name in such an easy, detached way. As if he never was under it in the past, for so many years. 

And it was in that way you realized the abysm between the two of you, the gap that separated your worlds definitely and clearly. He was no one to you, and you were no one to him. 

________________________ masterlist

[meangirlsx]

The End You Meant for Me (Part 2)

Pairing: Lydia Deetz x reader Word count: 2758 Warning(s): None Request: “Okay so like Lydia and her girlfriend spending a second christmas together and reader gets everyone in the house a gift, even beetlejuice! Lydia sees this as a huge step in their relationship because she sees how much her girlfriend has changed in a year considering she was very nervous, felt bad only getting Lydia a gift. To how shes more open and friendly with Charles and Delia, how she pokes fun at Beetlejuice, and how close she is to Adam and Barbara. Lyds is just head over heels in love.” and “Would you mind doing a Lydia x Reader (or Cady x Reader if you still write for Mean Girls) during the holidays? Christmas perhaps?” Note: MAJOR thank you shoutout to @sophiascaruso​ for coming up with literally all of the gifts the reader gives (including input on the gifts to Lydia) and talking through thoughts with me as I wrote this. She is magical and very possibly a modern-day muse in disguise.

And a special thank you to @spooky-scary-lesbian for sending a request that prompted my brain to produce way too many words that I’m way too excited about. Very excited to share the words with you all.

Part 1  Part 3

——

It felt like forever for Christmas to come, and somehow like no time had passed, too. But finally, it was here.

You got up so you had enough time to run out before meeting Lydia. You wanted to visit Emily.

Lydia had told you she was going in the morning, and you thought about asking to join her, but you thought it might be nice for her to have the time just between her and her mom. She had also told you that she had to finish wrapping presents between visiting her mom and coming over to your place, which gave you a good idea of when Lydia would be back at her apartment.

So you bundled up and headed out.

You weren’t the only one at the cemetery, which didn’t really surprise you. A lot of people probably wanted to visit loved ones on Christmas.

It felt strange walking up to Emily’s grave alone. You’d only ever gone with Lydia before.

You saw two bouquets of flowers lying there. One was from Lydia, you knew. The other was probably from Charles.

“Merry Christmas, Emily,” you said. “I brought you something. It’s not flowers, but…”

You pulled out two ticket stubs from a horror movie you and Lydia had seen around Halloween.

“It’s not quite the same as your haunted houses in summer, but I’m doing my best…” You placed the ticket stubs against her headstone. “I always do my best to take care of her. Look out for her. Celebrate Halloween to the fullest extent. In your honor.”

You took another breath to calm your nerves. You knew you had no reason to be nervous, but that didn’t stop you from feeling it.

“Charles gave me your locket to give to her. He probably told you that. It means everything to me. She means everything to me. It’s an honor to be part of such a special family tradition. I’m going to give it to her tonight.”

You took a moment and breathed in the cold air.

“I’m also going to propose to her tonight. Charles probably told you that, too. But I wanted you to hear it from me. And you know? I’m nervous. We’ve talked about it before, of course. It’s not like I’ll be springing the idea on her. I know she wants to get married. I kind of still can’t believe it when I think about it. I’m just so in awe of her. Every day.”

Your mind drifted to all the stories Lydia and Charles had told you about Emily over the years. The things Lydia said she learned from her mom. The ways Charles told you Lydia was like her.

“And it sounds like there’s so much of you in her. I can’t imagine how proud you must be of her.”

You sighed and watched your breath turn to fog.

“I know you’ll be with us tonight. I won’t really see you then, but… Thank you for welcoming me into your family.”

You had nothing else to say, but you weren’t quite ready to walk away, so you stood there for another minute before heading home.

Back at your apartment, you finished getting ready and cleaned up some until Lydia arrived. She helped you bring the cookies you’d made together and your presents for her family out and pack them in the car with hers.

“I’m so excited to be with your family for Christmas again,” you told Lydia as you rearranged some presents in the trunk. “It was so nice of them to invite me last year when I didn’t know them that well. I know I didn’t know them well enough to, but I still feel bad I didn’t have presents for them. I’m so ready to change that this year.”

When she didn’t respond, you picked up your head to see that she had stopped packing the backseat and instead started staring at you.

“What?” you asked.

She glanced at the presents piled up in the backseat, then back at you. “It’s just such a change from last year. You were so nervous. And you won everyone over right away. Not that I expected them to react any differently.” She smiled at you. “I knew they’d love you as much as I do. But you’re so close to them, now. My dad asks about you all the time. I’m still convinced Delia thinks you’re secretly a god. I’m pretty sure Barbara and Adam would adopt you if they got the chance. BJ always asks where you are when I visit on my own. Even Big Sandy gets excited when you come over with me.”

You smiled at her.

“I’m just really happy. And that catches me a little off-guard sometimes. My fifteen-year-old self would hardly believe this is where she would end up.”

You couldn’t help but think about how far she had come, too. You knew her fifteen-year-old self wouldn’t have been comfortable saying all of that, either.

“Well, I’m glad you’re happy.” You crossed to her and took her hand. “I’m happy, too.”

She gave you a quick kiss, then climbed into the driver’s seat.

When you arrived, the greetings were the same as at Thanksgiving. And as two weeks ago when you and Lydia had come over again.

Charles, however, seemed especially happy to see you. Truth be told, you felt the same way.

Beetlejuice had already started updating Lydia on an adventure he’d had since the last time he saw her, so Charles hugged you and whispered, “Are you still…?”

“I am. After presents. If I can get her away for a minute.”

He placed his hands firmly on your arms and gave a squeeze.

“The house looks beautiful,” you said, looking around at all the directions.

“Thank you. It has a little bit of everyone in it.”

He was right. There were some classic decorations, which you figured were his. Some were sparkly and more eccentric, which screamed Delia. Some were cutesy and dorky in the best way that could only be Barbara and Adam’s doing. A handful of decorations had a very specific color scheme of green and purple, from Beetlejuice, you figured. And some looked almost more like Halloween decorations.

Charles noticed your confusion and laughed.

“Lydia insisted we get them our first Christmas in the house. We haven’t put them up since she went to college, but she found them again this year and we had to put them up.”

“I love them. None of it really goes together, and somehow they blend perfectly.”

It wasn’t long before you all ended up in the kitchen to help cook. Beetlejuice didn’t touch any food, which was probably for the best, you thought. He proudly proclaimed that he would be moral support instead.

Barbara and Adam truly seemed in their element, rattling off recipes and sharing tips. They seemed thrilled. Really, everyone did.

Everything with the family was an adventure, even cooking and eating, and you kind of loved that.

After dinner and cleaning up, you all gathered in the living room. Charles and Delia made themselves comfortable on the couch. Barbara and Adam pulled up chairs from the table even though they didn’t really need them. Beetlejuice happily hovered between the two couples. There was still room on the couch, but you and Lydia sat on the floor by the fire.

You loved seeing everyone’s reactions as they opened their gifts from each other. You especially loved being part of it this year.

For Beetlejuice, you had gotten a pair of Crocs with one in purple and one in green, a shirt with the phrase “Give me a BJ,” and bugs, which had prompted a handful of questions from the saleswoman at the pet store about what kind of reptile you had. He reacted with a gasp, a hand over his chest, and a “You get me.”

For Adam, you had gotten a couple pairs of jean shorts and a couple pairs of white socks. You thought he was going to scream, he looked so excited. “I think I just leveled up in Dad! Oh, I can wear these with my Birkenstocks!”

“I thought you were kidding when you said you got him jorts,” Lydia said softly to you.

You just laughed.

For Barbara, you had gotten an assortment of seeds for her garden, gardening gloves for sentimental reasons even though she didn’t really need them, and a sun dress. She gave you the biggest hug. “I can’t wait to see how these little babies grow!” she said. “And this dress is gorgeous. I’m going to wear it tomorrow. Thank you.”

For Delia, you got a pair of sunglasses and a faux fur coat she’d tried on when you went shopping together but told herself she didn’t need. Unlike Adam, she did scream. “Oh! You remembered! I’m so glad because I’ve been thinking about them and I really do need these.” She immediately put them on, chucked her phone at you, and struck a pose. “Will you take my picture? Do I look like a celebrity?” You took a long string of photos as she moved through pose after pose. Everyone assured her she did look like a celebrity. And she really did.

For Charles, you got a tie, a bottle of whiskey, and a pair of tickets to the opera for him and Delia. Of course his reaction was more subdued than the rest of the family’s, but it was just as sincere. “I can wear this tie to my business dinner next week. I was going to get a new one for it. And this is my favorite whiskey, but it’s hard to come by. How on Earth did you find it?”

Delia grabbed his arm. “I can wear my new coat to the opera!”

“I actually also got something for Big Sandy,” you said.

Beetlejuice looked touched, and so did Lydia.

You picked up her gift and headed outside. You didn’t intend on it, but everyone stood in the doorway to watch.

Big Sandy approached you as soon as you stepped out of the house.

“Hey, girl,” you said with a smile. “Merry Christmas.”

She ripped the package with her teeth to reveal a hat and scarf. She let out a sound that sounded like a mix between a shriek and a chirp.

“I’m glad you like it,” you said with a laugh.

You helped her put them on, and she nuzzled into you.

Now the last gifts to be exchanged were between you and Lydia. You hadn’t planned it that way, but the way the adults had sort of steered the gifts up until then, you realized they had planned it.

“I want to go first,” Lydia said. “I’m really excited about your gift. But also a little nervous.”

That confused you. “I’d love anything you got me. It’s from you.”

She smiled and handed you the gift. It was a small box, nicely wrapped and even complete with a bow.

You placed the bow off to the side and unwrapped and opened the box carefully.

“A key?” you asked, looking back up at her.

“We’ve been talking about finding an apartment together, and I didn’t want to do it without you, but I came across one that was perfect. It has everything we’ve been talking about. And it’s even close to here… So I got it.”

“You got us an apartment?” you asked, almost in disbelief.

“I did.” She did look nervous, and now you understood. She was worried you might be upset that she had chosen a place without you.

You threw your arms around her. “You got us an apartment! Oh my God.”

Her arms wrapped around you in turn. “Also…”

“Also?” You pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes again.

“The building accepts cats. So I called the shelter, and they said the black cat we saw last week is still there, so if you want to get her…”

“Yes!” You hugged her again. “I absolutely want to get her.”

You felt Lydia tighten her grip on you.

“A cat,” you said. “In our own apartment.”

Lydia laughed, and you finally let go.

The moment had felt as if you and Lydia were alone, but you were suddenly very aware of the fact that you were not. You looked out at the rest of the room. Beetlejuice had his arms crossed like he was at ease, but he was smiling and shaking his head as if he were saying, “Took you long enough.” Barbara’s hands were clasped together in front of her chest. Adam had his hand on her knee, grinning. Delia’s hands were pressed together against her mouth. And Charles’s entire face was just lit up. He looked proud and happy and impressed all at the same time.

You turned back to Lydia. “Thank you. I can’t wait to see the apartment.” You smiled again. “I can’t wait to live there.”

“I have pictures on my phone,” she said. “Do you want to see?”

“Of course!”

“Me, too!” Delia said.

“You guys haven’t seen?” you asked.

“Oh, no, we have. I just want to see them again.”

You and Lydia laughed, and everyone gathered behind the two of you to watch as Lydia swiped through the photos.

It really did look perfect. It was beautiful. It had all the features you were hoping for. And you did love that it was close to her family.

“It looks amazing, Lyds,��� you said.

She smiled at you, then tapped on her phone quickly to text the pictures to you.

“Okay,” you said. You picked up your gift and handed it to her.

“Also a small box,” she said. “Don’t tell me you got us an apartment, too.” She laughed, and it almost sounded nervous, but she continued to unwrap your gift.

When she removed the lid from the box, she froze. Her eyes went wide. The entire room felt like it went still.

“Isn’t this…?” her voice trailed off.

“Yes,” Charles said.

She turned to look at him. “I thought it got lost in the move?”

“It did. At least, I thought it did. But I found it just before Thanksgiving.”

“And you gave it to Y/N.” She faced you again. She looked like she had more to say, but instead, she threw herself at you with such strong force that you had to stabilize yourself with one arm. The second you knew you were stable enough to keep both of you upright, you were holding her tightly with absolutely no intention of letting go until she did.

After what seemed like maybe a full minute, you parted.

She looked at the locket again. “I wish my mom had gotten the chance to meet you. She would’ve loved you.”

“I’m sure I would’ve loved her.”

“She would have been delighted to see the two of you together,” Charles said.

Lydia glanced up and around the room. “She is. She might not be with us, but she’s watching. I have no doubt.” She paused, then added, “It’s Christmas.”

Charles gave her a gentle smile. “You’re absolutely right. And I believe she’s thrilled to know Y/N is the one to help carry on the tradition.”

Lydia reached out to run her thumb across the back of your hand. “Me, too.” Then she tugged on your hand and stood up. “I want to go put it on and see how it looks.”

You knew the tug meant she wanted you to go with her. That would be time alone with her you didn’t have to manufacture yourself. It was a little sooner than you’d expected, but all the presents had been opened, and you were about ready to start thinking of reasons to ask her to show you her old room or sit on the back porch with you even though you were there to spend the holiday with her family.

You could feel everyone’s eyes on you as Lydia made her way to the staircase. You knew they were all thinking the exact same thing as you.

If she had just wanted to see the necklace in a mirror, she could’ve gone to the bathroom on the main floor, you realized. But she was heading upstairs to her old room, and she wanted you to go with her. She didn’t know you were going to propose, but she was creating a moment for the two of you just the same.

So you grabbed your purse and followed Lydia up the stairs.

——

Part 3  (linked at the top, too, but also here for convenience)

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Arrow 8x09 Brain Dump

It was...not all bad. I really want to like this. I love Mia, William and FTA. I want to enjoy BS like I did in S7. I want to see Dinah written consistently with any kind of actual character. Well, at least my love for FTA is still intact 😂😂

Mia

Kat was brilliant in this episode. Her leading lady really jumped out 😂😂 Her emotional moments hit the mark, and I think she juggled her post-Crisis new life with her old memories brilliantly.

We opened on her waking up in the Queen mansion(!), with a very yummy Diggle Jr in her bed, only it’s JJ not Connor 😱😱 She’s also surrounded by adorable family photos, showing that Oliver got his wish of her and William growing up together (and confirmation that the Olicity Love Cabin still existed!) Basically, she’s living the best life that Oliver could have wished for her, without him in it, of course 😭

Probably the most notable change in ‘new Mia’ (other than her being infinitely happier and living in a crime-free city) was her social poise. She’s been brought up in Oliver Queen’s old world, and is quite the socialite, only without any of the haughty frivolity that one might expect (I imagine we have Felicity for that 😍). She loves her life and her friends, and she defends them, especially in the face of Laurel, who seemingly does nothing but scoff at her lifestyle for the whole episode 😒 I loved her addressing the press!! That was pure Queen! Maybe the influence of a certain Aunt Thea?

Source: feilcityqueen

More below the cut…

Basically this Mia is smart and loving and happy, and Oliver gave her a warm and otherwise full life, save for finding her true purpose (which is gonna be vigilanteing, of course). So of course BS and Dinah rock up and upend it all 😂 I really liked how they made the returning of Mia’s memories a source of conflict, as well they should. It was so brutal to just return them with no preamble, to destroy what happiness Oliver had given back to her, just because, what? BS couldn’t complete her own fucking mission? (More of that later lol) Then Mia standing up to BS when she went as far as to mock Mia’s new world, just gave me life!!!

Anyway, with her memories restored, and bad guys to track down, of course Mia couldn’t resist her heroic calling and suited up, then proceeded to be the epic badass that we have grown to love.

Source: kathmcnamara

I loved seeing her struggle with her memories returning, and the guilt that they brought with them of not living up to Oliver’s legacy. At the same time, she appreciates what Oliver did for her, that all he wanted for his family and the city was to be safe and happy. She ultimately decides to remain the Green Arrow, taking up the guard of her city in her father’s memory, to protect the new world that he sacrificed himself to create.

Source: felicityqueen

We’d seen she’d developed her ‘street smarts’ in the flash-forwards, so I think she’ll end up bringing these together with her new social skills, and badass moves, and be an unstoppable force!! Hopefully that will include her old FTA team as well, and not just the two feathered ones 🙄

FTA/JJ

God this needed more FTA.

We got a small amount of William, more of JJ, what with him being Mia’s fiance (!!), and little more than fleeting glances of Zoe (!) and Connor. The disrespect!! 😂

William (who even knows his surname in this new life?) continues to hold my whole heart in his hands 😍😍

Source: oliverxfelicity

LOOK AT HIM!!!!💗💗💗

He seems to have been least affected in terms of his character, post-crisis. It’s implied that he’s running Smoak Tech, and that he and Mia grew up together and are basically each others’ ride-or-dies 😭😍😭 

I truly hope if the show is picked up, that they increase the William content by a solid 1000% 😂 He brings so much heart and a certain humour and lightness, just like Felicity brought to Arrow, and Ben is such an amazing actor. The new show will need a William. BADLY. He really seems to have his shit together (in the very limited time we have seen him of course 😒), but I’m hoping that that doesn’t lead to Mia keeping her memories from him for long (although remembering who their Dad is, I’m guessing she could take a while 😂😂).

So JJ proposes to Mia at the beginning of the episode!!!! Apparently they are the love of each others lives here. Dig clearly learned from what Connor told him, and steered JJ away from becoming a murdering gangster...YAY! Although it seems that in doing so, our darling boy Connor ran into a few issues of his own 😫😫 It looks like there is no love lost between him and Mia, that he has been in and out of rehab, and is now somewhat of a bad boy 😏😏 But when they first lock eyes there is still definite history and heat there and, just HJJHDFVGDFK 🔥 BACKSTORY IS NEEDED!! Then at the end, JJ has his memories restored by scary-dude-in-cloak (who I was totally hoping would be Dig or Oliver tbh 😂), so I’m super interested to see how he copes with his dual memories!! So now Mia loves JJ, but knows he was evil and killed Zoe, and she hated Connor, but now remembers they had feelings for each other and that he is a beautiful soul, and all the shit is gonna hit the fan!!! I usually hate love triangles, but this is so exciting, with the good boy/bad boy switch up, and then the opposite memories being returned...YAAAAASSSS!! Although I’d like to make it clear that, whilst I’m going to enjoy the drama getting there, I am firmly in the SmoaknHawke end game camp!! 

And as excited as I just got, all of this took up just about 5 mins of screen time 😫😫 It reminds me of what Arrow was lacking in its early episodes...heart and hope. They lucked into it with Felicity/Emily, but they have it here, ready and waiting, and are so far not using it.

Kat knows what’s what. This is the show we deserve. 

Birds

There was a lot of bird action. Apparently in shaping a perfect future, Oliver saw fit that Mia never met BS or Dinah...this is why we stan 😂😂 Dinah has also seemingly been erased from the history books 😬, waking up after Oliver’s funeral (😒😭) 20 years in the future, so naturally becomes a bohemian, opens a bar and sings a lot. Cool, I’d probably do the same 😂😂 Laurel, it seems, went off to spend time with Sara, and has apparently become a solo time-traveller, trying to stop 2041 from becoming a really bad year. Righto. 

Dinah was actually ok in this episode, if not hugely out of character, but that in itself has been inconsistent throughout the show, so here’s hoping that the zen-filled peacemaker that she was in this episode continues! Dinah’s new-found peace and bearability seemingly comes at the cost of Laurel being utterly awful. She rocked up in the future like Billy Big Bollocks with a huge chip on her shoulder, just sneering her way through the episode. She had such bitterness, disdain and anger directed towards Mia (and Dinah, at times) for no apparent reason, when they seemed to have somewhat bonded previously?! She spent the majority of the episode sauntering around looking down on everyone, portraying a bitchy-tomboy type, deeming anything vaguely typically feminine or not hard-moody-’badass’ as beneath her. This is not #girlpower. Fuck off.

Then we have that clusterfuck of a scene at the exhibition 🙈🙈 where BS tries to tell Mia that she used to date her Dad, before quickly correcting herself to “some version of him, anyway”, as if they were one and the same 🙄 Laurel’s continual need to imply that she knows, or has history with our Oliver is infuriating as hell. E2 Oliver died on the Gambit in his early 20s. Even if he was similar in character to E1 Oliver up until then, that person bears no likeness to the man he became. Her past with her ‘Ollie’ is entirely irrelevant to the man that was Mia’s father, who she barely even got to know at all save for a couple of episodes in S8. And not only the implication that she knew him, but then to actually try to trash him as well, to his kid?! All to push her idea that all versions of people are the same (which was refuted when JJ doesn’t even turn out to be behind the Deathstroke mask anyhow)? NO! At least Dinah and Mia were cringing along with us 😂

It’s just astounding, the turnaround they’ve managed with Laurel/BS. They already did the unthinkable in S7 and got a lot of people from this side of the fandom to empathise and warm to her, without pissing off her existing fans. I really did grow to like her in S7 (check my reviews, I still can’t believe it 😂), she was snarky, but not bitchy, and showed some heart and vulnerability. So it’s mind-blowing how they took all that growth and just obliterated it this season, and then even more so in this episode where she is just plain nasty and unlikeable. 

I do think, however, that giving BS and Mia a tempestuous relationship from the off was a good idea, cos let’s face it, you can tell there is no love lost between them. But they could have made them clash in a better way than BS just being an arsehole to Mia for most of the episode. My best guess is her anger comes from Mia coming out of Crisis with a life untouched by violence, whilst her earth was still lost? (Was it? I can’t actually remember if E2 came back.) She can’t complete her self-appointed mission on her own and knows she needs Mia’s help to do it?? I don’t know. She had a lot to say about JJ supposedly being a ‘homicidal manic’...pot, kettle much?! She also seemed to find the notion of Mia initially wanting to just appreciate the peaceful life she had been given and not becoming a vigilante reprehensible, but why? BS is the one that needs to atone for past sins. Mia does not. 

Stray thoughts

That cliffhanger!!! WHO TOOK OUR WILLIAM?!?!?!

The music was...not good. Especially during the fight scenes. Arrow was always so on-point with its score. I don’t understand how this can be so bad?! I did like hearing Mia’s theme in there, though, that was a nice tie-in the old flash-forwards.

Who is this Kevin that cheated on William? He must be destroyed!😡

Some of that future make-up was really something 😬😬 2040 is all about the severe/dead and unblended looks, apparently. The fashion was fabulous though!

The dialogue in the action scenes was soooo hammy.

Who is the mysterious, villainous “she”???

“Frack you!” and “I’m not interested in joining your Canary club” YAASS MIA 😂

William and Mia’s “pet rock” talk was super cute 😍 

Oliver’s statue!! 😭😭😭

Hopes for the future, if series gets picked up:

Increased focus on Mia/FTA. We have such a fresh, interesting, diverse cast, with intertwined back stories ready to go for this show here already, waiting to be used. USE THEM.

A deadly outbreak of avian flu 😂🙊

Failing said outbreak...keep the birds in the background or MAKE THEM LIKEABLE. This is a chance for a clean slate!

I wanna see Papa Dig so bad. David had said we’d get to see 2040 Dig in Arrow, but looks like that isn’t going to happen now, and I’d just love to see how he is. I can also imagine David being entirely done, and not wanting to be a part of this, however, but a cheeky little cameo would be amazing 😂

SmoaknHawke to RISE 🔥🔥🔥

As it stands, I’ll watch if it goes to series, but for how long remains in question. I just know I cannot get on board with the faux feminist “heart/vulnerability/girly is ‘weak’! Let’s be hard/edgy/angry badasses and fight men and show the world we’re strong pow pow pow” narrative that BS in particular, but also the general tone of the show overall, is trying to portray. I really think that if the show is picked up that they should look to see what is working and what is falling flat on its arse. It’s in dire need of more heart and fewer birds imo, but we can have both, if they’d just write them as better people.

Thank you to the beautiful gif-makers 😘 Any uncredited gifs are mine.

💗💗💗