#warning: every character in this comic is obnoxious!!!!

[bobthedragon]

Chapter 1, page 1 of Kingsgate is now LIVE (maybe) (we're manually updating the site tbh)

in which egg makes a cameo, and lots of spaghetti (eels) are drawn for the First time! :@!!

link here!!: https://kingsgatecomic.com

[eddiernunson]

Nice to Meet You, Where You Been? | Eddie Munson x f!Reader | 18+

Thank you to @forget-you-morelike-fuck-you for editing, you're the best!

Summary: your college roommate takes you to the annual Harrington Halloween Party, where you expect to do nothing but get drunk and dance for a night. That was...until you turn around to the person dancing against you to Eddie fucking Munson.

Warnings: strangers to lovers, praise/degradation, hook-up at a party, daddy kink, creampie, no protection, slow ish build up, size kink? maybe?, hooking up under the influence

I had a whole ass plan to write for KinkTober but executive dysfunction took over. Hopefully this makes up for it...maybe.

I have another Halloween themed fic from last year, EddiexReader with Steve if anyone is interested

Word Count: 6.1k

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You sit in the backseat of your roommate’s boyfriend’s beater, the music bumping through the stereo as you make your way to what is supposedly the biggest Halloween party of every year. Your roommate spent the beginning of your fall semester hyping up this party as the best place to be on a Halloween night. Her insistence was charming, and you were looking for an excuse to get drunk. So, now you are watching as you pass by Halloween decorations and children dressed in costumes going Trick-or-Treating.

You don't pay much attention to what they're saying, the gist of it reminiscing on the Halloween parties they had attended in the past. Your roommate had made it very clear from the start that this guy, whatever his name was, his Halloween parties were legendary in town. He has only been throwing them for a handful of years, but if you were a young adult in rural Hawkins on Halloween night, chances are you were at this party.

You start to wonder how big this guy’s house must be if a couple hundred people have been attending every year, and it sounded like he even encouraged it.

You can hear the music bumping from the house before you even see it. It's hard to miss, a cluster of cars in the neighborhood, several people walking up the lawn towards the wide-open door. Your roommate’s boyfriend parks down the street, a spot that is probably fine to park overnight due to the nature of the party.

If there is to be a single sober soul at this party, they would be a rare sight.

You tug at your costume as you walk behind the two of them, strutting arm in arm. They’re wearing a matching couple’s costume, as salt and pepper. It’s something they could come up with last minute, him wearing a black shirt for pepper and her a white dress for salt. Their costume is minimal, and certainly they’ll get asked frequently what they’re supposed to be, but when everyone’s intoxicated, you suppose it won’t matter much.

You’re dressed as your favorite iconic Batman villain, Poison Ivy. You loved the character from the DC comics as you grew up and having a year away from your parents and in a different town, you figured it might be a time to try a new daring costume. So here you walk, arms crossed in a small green dress with fake vines pinned across your chest. You opted for some dramatic green eyeshadow and bright red lips, hoping your makeup and costume will sell the look.

Your ears are nearly bursting as you cross the threshold to the front door of the massive house from the loud bumping music. The pop music is a bit obnoxious, but you’re sure you won’t care once some alcohol is in your system.

Your roommate seems to remember you exist, escaping her boyfriend’s arms for the moment and intertwining her arm around yours. She immediately guides you to the kitchen where stacks of red solo cups are sitting, surrounded by bottles of alcohol and soda. “Holy shit.” You mutter.

“I know.” She giggles, handing you a cup and some tequila.

“No thanks.” You push it back, knowing what exactly tequila does to you. “I’ll just do a vodka-sprite.”

As you’re pouring, in waddles a lanky dude with brown curled hair and freckles scattered on his pale skin.  “Oh hey, Mandy!” He greets her, stumbling as he toasts his cup. “Haven’t seen you in a while! How’s that boyfriend of yours?” He asks, spinning the lid of the alcohol he’s holding absentmindedly, causing it to flick off into the distance.  

“Nate’s good, I think he’s taking over your stereo, though.” She says, moving the bottles around to make Nate’s drink, as well.

“As per usual.” He laughs, pouring a large quantity of said tequila into his cup.

Mandy seems to realize something halfway through her sip. “Oh shit!” She sputters out, a drip of alcohol leaving her mouth. “Sorry, I forgot you two don’t know each other, yet. Y/N, this is Steve. Steve, Y/N.”

“Hi.” You greet him shyly, his confidence radiating, but very intimidating.

“Hello. Me casa e su casa, and whatever, whatever. Can I just ask, who are you supposed to be?” He asks you, gesturing to your costume.

“Oh, Poison Ivy.” You explain to him, sipping on your concoction and wincing when you realize you’ve poured way too much.

Steve blinks at you, seemingly trying to make sense of your costume. “You’re—you’re a plant?”

You laugh, not in the mood to explain comic book villains to someone who clearly doesn’t know anything about them. “Yeah, sure.”

“Oh, cool!” Steve laughs, taking a big sip of his drink.

“Hey, Steve, you see much of Munson these days?” Mandy asks him, wiping her face from the excess drink surrounding her mouth.

How wonderful, more people you don’t know. Hawkins is the smallest town you’ve ever seen; everyone seems to know of everyone.

“Eddie? Yeah, he should be here tonight actually. Super dork, dressed as some character from Star Wars. Or at least I think it’s Star Wars.” He mutters, rolling his eyes in obvious affection for his friends. “He’s matching with Henderson and Wheeler.”

They shake their heads together in tandem at their supposedly dorky friends. As a Star Wars fan, however, you were fine, ecstatic even to hear that there were souls brave enough to dress up as dorky characters and that you weren’t the only one.

You follow Mandy into the living room, now bumping with a tape mix that Nate apparently brought to the party. It's a damn blast, everyone in the living room dancing surrounded by sweaty bodies, finally finding some joy as the strong drink makes you lose your inhibitions. As you continue dancing, suddenly you find yourself in a huddle of people, Mandy and Nate both dancing by you, but lost in their own drunken haze. You don’t care about that. However, something in your mind as you tell yourself you don’t care tells you to care about the person who’s been up against your back for God knows how long.

They have a good rhythm, and they weren’t all too touchy so nothing in your head raised any red flags. You turn around to face the stranger, and it’s like you forget how to breathe. One of his hands is placed on your hip, a smile on his face giving way to dimples that make you swoon. “Hi.” He greets you. You can’t quite hear it over the music, but you can certainly read his lips. Isn’t all that hard to decipher.

You smile back to him, letting a forearm rest on his shoulder. Who were you to deny such a pretty person? His wide smile expands even more, adding some pressure to your hip. The weight and size of his hand sends a thrill through you, and there’s a level of horniness that’s coming from you that you didn’t even know you could have.

Your drink is eventually finished, the cup dropped to the floor, forgetting to bother to throw it away. The gorgeous stranger pulls you in closer and closer as you continue to dance with him, his hands never dipping down past your waist, but you can tell by the steadiness of his grip that he knows how to use them. Usually, eye contact this intense would cause you to retract, looking away after that first glance. This eye contact only makes you want him more, his brown eyes exuding a type of lust you’ve never experienced before.

Or…were you just picturing this?

The hand that rested on your hip moves to frame your face, slender fingers brushing your cheek, caressing it for a half a moment. The hand moves down to hook under your chin, his thumb swiping across your bottom lip. His eyes very obviously stare at your lips, silently asking you for permission. When his tongue licks his bottom lip you nod eagerly, one hand moving to his black curls that you have been itching to touch as long as you’ve faced him.

Somehow, your ears muffle out the deafening music in favor of the chuckle that leaves his mouth. Before you could even register your heartbeat loud in your ears, he bends down to kiss you, and for the first time your brain computes how much taller he is than you. Any thought you might’ve had seems to evacuate the moment his soft lips meet yours. He kisses you with an expertise that makes you irrationally jealous of any other person who’s had the opportunity before you. He draws a sharp inhale as you deepen the kiss, offering more slobber and spit for him to wholeheartedly accept.

His hands tangle in your curled hair, thumbs caressing your face on either side. Something you're learning about this stranger is that he kisses with his whole body, and he knows how to do it well. His teeth graze against your bottom lip, tugging on it lightly. You whimper, shoving your tongue down his throat. A deep laugh escapes his throat as he meets your enthusiasm. He kisses the corner of your mouth, your cheek, and down to your collarbone. You barely sigh into it when his lips leave your collarbone, looking at you with remorse.

Uh oh. Not good. Were you the worst kisser and he was going to go find someone else worthy of his magical skills?

“Sorry, gotta piss. Beer’s hittin’ hard.” He shouts over the music, his thumb gesturing toward where you guessed the bathroom was.

“Ok. I’m gonna go get another drink.” You tell him, noting the red lipstick now all over his lips. “You got some uh…some lipstick there…hold on…” You reach out to wipe it for him, but he deflects, ducking from your thumb humorously.

“Uh…no thanks. I wear this shit with pride.” He explains, giving you a wink. “Meet you in the kitchen.”

You nod, suddenly full of nerves. You have been all over this guy for the last…however long, you couldn’t even tell. And now you’re realizing, he might be a decent dude on top of being a fantastic kisser.

Your legs carry you into the kitchen, running into Mandy and Nate. You weren’t sure where they’d been, having been lost in your own little world.

“Hi, babe!” She greets you, alcohol sharp on her breath. Whoa. She has had a lot more than you have. “I missed you, where the hell you been?”

You giggle, deciding to go for the tequila. After all, it was your literal liquid courage. And if you wanted to get that man’s fingers down your panties tonight, you were gonna need some. “Making out with the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my life.” You proudly proclaim, taking a big sip of just straight tequila before adding some Sprite.

“Oh my god!” She squeals, letting go and forgetting about Nate’s existence. “Holy shit, I’m so fucking proud!” Speaking of him…he waltzes into the kitchen, grabbing a cup right by you and winking, apparently unseen by Mandy. “Shit, I’ve been looking for you!” She tells him, drunkenly tapping her hand on his bicep. “Hey, Y/N! This is Eddie. Remember? The dork Steve talked about earlier?”

Ouch. Mandy has no filter, as of course, she's drunk, but she didn’t have to be rude.

At least now you have a name for him. You were starting to feel bad. “Oh, I’m acquainted.” You tell her, sharing a smirk with Eddie.

“Seriously? Cool.” Mandy answers, not getting the hint. You gesture with your eyes alone to Mandy that Eddie was the guy you were talking about just a few moments ago. She gets it, but apparently forgets all about subtlety. “Wait, Eddie Munson is the hottest guy you’ve ever seen in your life?” She asks you incredulously, like it's the most unbelievable thing she's ever heard.

“Thanks, Mandy.” You grit out, teeth clenched.

“Oops.” She grimaces, grabbing Nate's hand. “We’re gonna go find a spot on the couch to make out. Sorry!”

You roll your eyes affectionately, knowing she meant no harm. Did she have to say it, though?

The smirk on Eddie’s face says everything without saying a word. “So, the hottest guy you’ve ever seen, huh?” He asks, looking incredibly proud of the fact.

You knock your tequila back, needing more liquid courage. “Yep. Hottest.”

His eyebrow raises, and he takes a big sip of his own drink. Maybe he needs his own courage. “Well, you’re probably the sexiest damn Poison Ivy I’ve ever seen.” He smirks, leering at you. His eyes blatantly rake up and down your body, giving you a surge in confidence. “You’re like a little sexy nugget of weed.” He laughs, his words slightly slurred.

“Wait, you get that I’m Poison Ivy?” You ask, finally assessing his costume. Oh, he’s Vader without the mask. “I mean I guess you are the dork they talked about earlier.” Eddie seems slightly sunken by this. “Don’t worry,” you tell him theatrically. “I’m a massive dork, myself.”

He perks up, pulling you in by the waist. “What do you say we find a room upstairs?” He asks, taking another big sip of his drink.

You raise your cup back to your lips, knocking the remainder down fast. “I say, lead the way.”

He grabs you by the hand and leads you up the stairs, pushing some people out of the way that were blocking it in the middle of a conversation. As he leads you down the hall, the music somewhat fades out and you can hear him muttering under his breath. “We better find a guest room cause I’m not hooking up in Harrington’s room, and I’ll be damned if I hook up in his parents' room.”

From that, you’re able to assess that he’s over here enough to know which room belongs to whom. He knocks on one of the doors, swearing softly when someone shouts out. He does it twice more, meeting the same result. “Ok.” He sighs, fingers crossed. He knocks twice, no answer. He knocks once more for good measure, and it can be said that there is definitely no one inside. “Thank fuck.”

As soon as you’re through the door he turns the dimmer switches on lightly and locks the door. You take off the vines, letting the pins and fake plants fall to the floor to make it easier for him to climb on you.

He watches you from the four postered bed, still head to toe in what you now noticed was the caped costume that Darth Vader wears. “So, we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, by the way. If you wanna do hand stuff, we’ll do hand stuff.”

Your gut swoops at his consideration and empathy. He seems to truly care about your comfortability rather than him getting off. You walk to him, swiping off all accessories you wore, including your shoes. You straddle his lap, pushing on him lightly so he falls back onto the bed. You attack his lips with your own, attempting to show how much his consideration for you already has you soaked. “I will do” you whisper in between a handful of kisses, “anything you want me to,” you tell him, starting to grind the tent you feel poking past your dress. “Within reason.” You add for good measure, not quite that down for anything. But if he wants to fuck you, you’re down. You’re so down. You’re so down bad.

“Fuck…do that again.” He asks, holding your hips. You comply, grinding your wet heat against him, teasing yourself, but loving the expression on his face. It's ethereal. “Fuck, baby. You barely touched me, and you already have me falling apart.”

This makes you smile with pride. A huff of laughter escapes your lips, sighing deeply as you can feel his erection growing. The fact that this man is as hard as he is when he’s this good looking is the biggest compliment in the world. You wrap his lips in a kiss again, your tongue peeking out to lick across his lip, managing to tug yet another moan out of him. You relish in the tone, the whimper that follows right after it. He really isn’t afraid to tell you how much he is enjoying what the two of you are doing.

As you continue to explore his tequila-scented mouth, both of his hands cup your ass, feeling his limber fingers bunch up the fabric of the bright green dress you’re wearing. He takes his time, giving you every minute to communicate any second thoughts. You moan impatiently, encouraging him to get under there already.

He chuckles, pulling the rest of the material up swiftly. His fingers grab at the skin of your barely covered ass cheeks roughly, the friction burning in the best way. A whimper escapes your throat, your mouth filling with the taste of him as your tongues meet. You’re sure he’s gripping those cheeks hard enough to bruise, not that you mind.

An increasing need has been growing since you first laid eyes on him, the need for him to touch you in the most sinful of ways. While his touch on your ass is electric, you are ready for much more. Your whimpers echo the thought, feeling needy for more of his touch, your hip movements going from fluid and purposeful to rigid and needy.

“What do you need, hmm?” He asks in-between kisses, one hand pushing up your dress to your waist as it caresses your bare hip. “Use your words, beautiful.”

“Need you to touch me,” the thought leaves your lips without your permission. How dare your brain betray you like that?

Eddie starts to kiss at your jaw, switching between nibbles and his tongue deliciously lapping at the skin. “Like how?” He asks in intervals, his voice soft, yet demanding. “Like this?” He grabs harshly at your ass, nails digging into the soft flesh. “Like this?” He asks again, tingles radiating down your skin as he lightly grazes your hip bone. “Or…like this?” His hand that rested on your hip bone flutters down to where heat radiates off your core, getting a feel of your soaked panties. “Oh my god, you’re so fucking wet.” He mutters, putting some pressure at the top of your mound.

Your hips start desperately grinding against his fingers, needing him to touch you. “Can you blame me?” You ask him, breath stuttering through it.

“Are you trying to flatter me?” He asks, pausing his pressure momentarily and backing off to study you. You stutter through an empty response, and he laughs kindly. “Cause flattery works, sweetheart.” His fingers move past the cotton barrier he's been making small circles against, delicately tracing along the wetness of your folds. You’re so slick, it’s like a damn slip and slide. The moment his fingers make contact with you, they’re soaked and in your juices.

“Oh shit—” you stutter, grinding on him helplessly. You can barely focus, your arms weak as you’re suddenly unable to hold your weight as you collapse on him. He's not touching you purposely, but just the feel of him sends a ripple down your spine. “Feels good.”

“Hmm.” He answers, noting the way you’re writhing so beautifully on top of him. He knew he would have you in a mess. In fact, he looked forward to it from the moment he saw you. He meticulously moves you onto your back, taking in your wide-eyed stare with a smirk. “Gonna take these off.” He mutters, fingers moving to the waistband of your panties. “Need a good look at you.”

You’re not entirely sure what he means until you see the look on his face as he stares at your pussy for the first time. His darkened stare, the slack smile he wears as he stares at you. Well not you, just the most vulnerable part of you. You’ve had a bit of experience in high school, but no one ever looked at your pussy like this. Like…it’s…

“Beautiful.” Eddie whispers, licking his lips. You watch him as he takes you in, admiring how wanted he makes you feel. Without a warning he lurches forward in between your legs, his tongue licking one long strip up your slick. Your thighs convulse, the pleasure so red hot, you can’t control the choked-out moan that escapes your lips if you tried. “Oh, you’re shaking, baby.”

His tongue moves more purposely to your clit, sucking on it and tapping with his tongue repeatedly. Your thighs clamp around his face, tensing up as every goddamn nerve is set on fire. You feel a slight huff of laughter against your puffy clit, the breath tickling you, causing you to giggle from the sensation. The giggle leads into a whimper, the small movements of his tongue sending you into overdrive. “Feels so—oh my god—I—” You stutter, unable to finish a single sentence.

He tugs your legs, forcing your knees against your chest to get even closer. A fierce heat starts in your stomach, startling the hell out of you. A great build slowly moves you, pushing you step by step over a high you’ve never reached before. Your stomach has never coiled so tightly, the heat never so intense. “Too much, too much.”

“You’re almost there, sweetheart.” He encourages you, watching every muscle in your legs tighten and feeling your abdomen tighten and release. “Oh, it’s gonna feel so good, baby. Wanna see you cum for me, see you fall apart, hear that pretty little mouth make the prettiest noises.”

Eddie slips a finger in, pumping it slowly at first, building up the speed quickly as he continues sucking. There’s something in you telling you to be embarrassed at how quickly your orgasm has snuck up on you, but from the foreplay of his expert lips and the mind-numbing words, it only makes sense.

“Cl-close…” You manage out, the heat making your way through your body, even making a stop in your head.

“Let me see you come apart, sweetheart.” He tells you, working his fingers at an unmatched rate.

The sensation sends you over the edge, your extremities shaking uncontrollably. Your eyes roll into the back of your head, a near primal moan leaves your mouth, a sound you didn’t even know you had the capability of making.

It takes you a minute to recover, Eddie working you through your whole orgasm and gently kissing your thighs until you come back to. He’s patient, waiting until your breathing slows down, kissing his way up your half-dressed torso. Eddie rests his body on yours, the tent in his pants meeting the heat of your center as his forearms support his weight on either side of your head. His thumbs sway at your temple, slowly watching as your eyes lose their glaze.

Your vision finally focuses back on him, his soft smile on his face welcoming as he watches you. His legs tense up, his muscles spasming as he resists thrusting into your heat. It’s teasing you, your hips accidentally moving upwards to meet the now wet stain on his polyester costume. “You’re wearing too much.” You tell him, whining softly.

“I’m sorry, should I take these off?” He asks, kissing you rapidly on the face right after. “Or if you’re done, I don’t blame you.”

“Done?” You ask incredulously. “Oh no, I’m not even close to done.” You tell him, giggling when he gives you a smirk.

“Just checking, sweetheart.” Eddie replies, kissing you rapidly again.

You’re finally back on earth, your hands reaching around him to look for where his costume opens. You had a feeling it would open from the back. You pull each Velcro apart one by one, your hands telling you as you move down that he’s not wearing anything underneath. You don't know if it's odd or the hottest thing in the world. Both, definitely both.

Your nails scratch at his skin at the last one, finally taking the shoulders off. You gasp as he helps you take out each arm awkwardly, only because you could finally see all the tattoos that his costume has covered up. “Holy shit.” You mutter, hands reaching out to palm at each one.

As he mouths at your neck, you push the rest of his costume down, figuring out it was a one piece. Ok. Steve might’ve been right about calling him a dork. But with his cunnilingus skills, who fucking cares? “You wanna fuck?” He asks, making his way down your neck, one hickey at a time.

You wrap your legs around his waist, tugging him down so the thin fabric meets your soaked pussy even harder. “Please?”

“When you ask so nicely, how could I deny?” He answers, leaving one last final nibble on your shoulder. He gets up without a warning, and you whine pathetically. “Jus’ takin off my pants sweetheart. Can’t put my dick in you if it’s still covered.”

You watch him pull down his pants, teasing you as it makes its way down his torso, his treasure trail, the v-line, you start drooling the moment his cock pops out. You figured he was big from his bulge pressed against you, but the material was apparently holding him back from his true length. You spend a good minute staring at it, how pink the head is, how thick he looks, it made you nearly feral.

“Enjoying the show?” Eddie asks. You glance back up at his face, heating up when you realize you've stared a lot longer than planned.

“Mmmhmm.” You tell him, not seeing any need to deny.

He lurches forward onto the bed, yanking giggles out of you. His hands roughly move up your torso to take your dress off, moving it over your head. He throws it over his shoulder, eyes raking in your tits like they’re in the Louvre. Hell, he’d take a polaroid and hang it there, despite the risk of security arresting and escorting him out immediately after.

“You are fucking gorgeous, baby.” He mutters, leaning into one of your tits mouthing at the nipple delicately, grazing it with his teeth, turning the mound into a shade of purple.

You can’t help yourself, reaching down to grab his cock. “Need you in me.” You urge him, smiling when he lets out a surprised whimper.

“Fucking—” he stutters out, biting on his lip. “Yeah, yeah, okay. I can do that.” He laughs, and before you have a moment to admire how adorable that was, you feel him line himself up. “Shit, you’re fucking tight.”

You can feel exactly what he means, the head barely pushing in. Even with how wet you are, Eddie's having difficulty pushing into you. Your mouth drops open, panting through it at the blinding pain and pleasure. He pauses, giving you a moment to adjust. “Feels so goddamn good, Ed.” You gasp, blindly reaching for him.

Blindly, because your eyes are unable to stay open from the sheer pleasure that has taken over your body.

“I know, baby I know.” He whispers, holding one hand to your face.

“Ok.”

He pushes in more, eliciting a high-pitched whine out of you. “You have any idea how fucking hot those little noises that you make are?” He asks, his voice husky and strained.

You laugh at his successful attempt at flattery, causing him to whine at the way your pussy tightens around him in sync. “Keep going.”

He pushes in a little bit more, your legs tensing around his torso as the noise caught in your throat is even louder. “You’re taking me so well, baby, what a good girl.” You tighten up at his praise, provoking Eddie to get the idea that praise is something that you desire. “Oh, you liked that, didn’t you, my good girl?” You tighten around him again, Eddie twitching in you as a response.

“More.” You manage out, your voice guttural. He pushes in just a little bit more. “Oh my god, you’re in my fucking stomach, so fucking deep!” You whine, eyes closed as you pulse around him.

“Just a little bit more, baby. You’re doing so well, such a good girl.”

“More.”

He pushes the rest of his cock in, finally able to rest his body on yours. You take your time adjusting to his size, inhaling, and exhaling with purpose as the pain subsides. “That’s a girl, take your time.” He mutters, watching you carefully.

“Kiss me please.” You whisper, opening your eyes to face the intensity radiating from his chocolate brown ones. He leans in for a lush kiss, your legs wrapping around him to pull him in tightly. His hand moves to your tit, playing with the nipple between two of his fingers. Your tongues meet, somehow knowing exactly what the other needs. “You can move now.” You whisper in between kisses.

Eddie, apparently a master at multitasking, lifts his hips without so much as stuttering in the kiss. You expected him to stop, but the new mix of sensation throws you off intensely. His first thrust causes you to shout directly into his mouth. You’re much more prepared for the second thrust, however unprepared for the force behind it. “Yeah?” He asks, pulling back and staring into your eyes.

You nod enthusiastically. “So good. Cock feels…so good.” You whine to him, legs unable to continue holding onto him as tight as they were. Now they’re floating in the air aimlessly, unable to focus on much except for how good and how deep he is. “How…this good?” The question you meant to ask was how he was so good at fucking like this, but your mouth was unable to form a single coherent sentence.

“Barely been in you for a minute, and you’re already cock-drunk, huh?” He borderline mocks you, fucking you faster with each thrust.

You grunt in response, fully accepting the label of cock drunk. “So…good, Eddie!” It’s just…fucking true, which is the only rational thought in your brain for the moment. Others are So Hot, and Big Ass Cock, and finally, Gorgeous fucking body.

“Your pretty pussy is so tight, baby, bein’ such a good girl for me.” Eddie sits up, pulling your ass down to where he can fuck you in a better position where he can hit your g-spot. He rests a hand sideways on your lower tummy, putting slight pressure on it. This sends a blinding hot pleasure into you as he repeatedly hits that spot.

“F-fuck, get-getting cl-close…” you stutter, feeling your tits bounce at the sheer force he's fucking you with.

“This is fucking embarrassing, but so am I, baby.” He mutters, starting to go at a faster rate, which you would've deemed impossible a few seconds ago. “Your pussy is so fucking good, can’t fuckin’ help myself.”

You half giggle, half moan at the flattery, not minding for one moment that he would cum so quickly. After all, he spent the first half paying most of his attention to you, so you understand if he's been pent up. While that is the reality of why, you can’t help but feel like hot shit for making someone as fantastic as Eddie cum so fast. His stamina and willingness to give on top of how gorgeous he is does nothing but boost your ego.

“Cum with me.” You beg him, also on the edge. “Cum in me.”

“Oh my god—” you make his hips stutter, and you smile with pride. “You sure, baby?” He asks, trying to make sure he covers his tracks.

“Cum in me, please, daddy!” It leaves your mouth before you’re unable to stop it, the daddy kink not quite something you break out on the first fuck most of the time.

Eddie, however, is a different breed. He meets the unexpected outburst with a growl, and you swear his cock twitches inside of you. “Of course, baby girl, whatever you want.” He grunts out. “Daddy is gonna fill you the fuck up.” He lurches forward so he’s skin on skin with you again so he can whisper in your ear. “When we go back downstairs, I’m gonna keep your panties, and you're gonna dance with my cum dripping down your fucking legs.” You tighten up around him, telling Eddie this is exactly what you wanted from him. The sweet mixture of praise and degradation makes your head spin with need. “You like that, huh? Of course, you’d like that you fucking slut.” His hips rut harshly against yours and at a stupid crazy speed. “If I catch you trying to clean yourself up, you’re gonna fucking hear about it, got it?”

You nod, entirely thrilled about this.

“Didn’t fuckin hear you, slut.”

“Got it, daddy.” You answer, right on the edge.

“You gonna cum with me, baby girl?” He asks, his voice strained.

“Mmhmm. Waiting for you.”

“Good fucking girl. I’m so close…fuck…gonna—” Eddie is interrupted by his own orgasm, which sends you over the edge with him. It’s not as intense as your last one, so you’re able to pay extra attention to the look on his face. His mouth half open, a deep moan leaving his throat.  Oh god, you’ll definitely be remembering this next time it’s only you and your imagination.

He collapses on you, his chest and forehead covered in sweat. The only sound in the air is you and Eddie catching your breath together. Your breath is finally back in your lungs, but your heart is still racing against his chest. He suddenly sits himself back on his forearms, petting at your forehead and hair gently. “Fuck, please go out with me on Saturday.” He whispers, quietly assessing the expression you wear on your face.

“Huh?” You ask him, unsure you heard him correctly.

“Go out with me on Saturday. Please, I can’t fuck a pussy this good and not take you out on a hot date.” He mutters softly, placing the gentlest of kisses on your lips.

“If you think I’m letting you go after this, you’re fucking insane.” You whisper back, framing his face to grab it for another lush kiss.

Eddie sighs, petting your hair. “Thank fucking god.” He pulls out of you, tugging a whimper out of you. He gives one last kiss, before moving down your torso. You almost ask what he was doing, when you feel two of his fingers push inside you quickly.

Your head jerks up, wondering what in the ever-living hell he's doing.

“Just helping by pushing the cum back in you, baby. Wanted to give you at least a fighting chance before it starts dripping down these stunning thighs of yours.” He places a wet kiss on your thigh, one last quiver radiating through it. “You good to stand up?”

“Hope so.” You laugh, scooching your ass down the plain comforter. Eddie tosses you your dress and gets dressed back into his cheap costume himself.

You assess Eddie, fixing his hair so he doesn’t look so disheveled. “You realize my lipstick is all over your neck and face, right?” You ask him, assessing him in all his post-nut glory. How the fuck is anyone this hot?

“Didn't I tell you earlier that I'm gonna wear this shit with pride, darlin?” He asks you, giving you a smile that makes you melt. “Wanna go downstairs and make-out on Steve's dad’s stupid chair?”

“If we make out I might wanna blow you.” You admit, the effects of the alcohol and the level of his hotness has still completely taken over your brain.

Eddie groans, and you swear his pupils dilate. “Fuck, I’ll take you into the nearest hallway closet if that happens, then you can get on your knees and suck my cock off like a good girl. You just tell me, yeah?”

You giggle as he opens the door and you nod enthusiastically, pretty much already in your head that hooking up with Eddie is nowhere near done.

When you reach the bottom of the steps, Eddie tugs on your hand straight to the leather chair in the corner, having you sit across his lap as his tongue makes its way down your throat again.

Eventually, after a mere ten minutes of teasing, Eddie has to lead you to a hallway closet, where yes, you worship him on your knees with his treasure trail meeting your nose.

That was the best fucking Halloween, ever.

-

Thank you so much for reading! I love to read your comments, replies, and reblogs. As always, reblogging is the best way to support your fic writers on tumblr.

Taglist: @pinkcowracing @yourthebrokengirl @skrzydlak @thirddeadlysin @sammararaven @bebe07011 @prettylovley @josephquinnschesthair @forget-you-morelike-fuck-you @names-were-taken @oddussy420

[jooillusion]

I was watching a drunk scene in a movie, and my brain went to you being at a friend's apartment party with Seungmin.

Both of you are way too drunk and decide it would be a good idea to try to soober up in the bathroom. After almost flooding the place, you both end up sitting on the ground with your faces way too close to each other and many hands.

Everything that might happen next will be blamed on the alcohol when the topic of why the bathroom was locked comes up the following morning ✋️

( I'm sorry if this is too specific, I've been thinking about this since I saw the movie, and tipsy seungmin seems to be funny )

drunkfessions with seungmin <3

warnings: alcohol consumption, an unholy amount of cursing, making out, suggestive(?) kinda

pairings: o.de x reader ft. jungsu

don’t be sorry if it was too specific, it helps me think better love :) also what movie was it because now I’m curious!

“dude, trust me I saw it on the internet.” seungmin slurs over his words, the seriousness in his eyes comical. he holds up a shot of sink water way too close to your mouth. your face scrunches up in disgust, pushing away the tiny cup. “cmon, I already took my shot.” he’s pouting now. his voice is loud, booming over the music that plays outside of the door. you don’t even know why you let him drag you to the bathroom, ignoring your instinct to run after he closed the door behind you. he saw you sitting on the couch, head in hands as the headache started to develop in your head. he told you to follow him out of the kindness of his drunk heart.

when your neighbor jungsu invited you to his party, you thought it would only have a few people due to the size of his apartment. oh boy were you wrong. the apartment was crowded with people. you knew he would’ve invited seungmin, which is one of the reasons why you came.

however you were familiar with seungmin but not drunk seungmin. he was sweet, honest, and overall chill. but you should’ve known not to follow him inside of the bathroom judging by the way he downed almost half a bottle of alcohol by himself, his sloppy dance moves that you had to witness due to a sudden dance circle surrounding him, and the way his voice shouted damn near every three minutes to get the party hype. but you can’t turn back the times now that you’re here.

“okay well there’s another method I read.” he says, pushing the pop up drain down to stop further water from entering the drainage underneath. he watches as the water slowly fills up the sink.

“where are you even getting this information from?” you cross your arms and raise an eyebrow.

“you ever heard of reddit?” his attention leaves the running water to turn towards you laughing your ass off. he doesn’t care though, only trying to defend his case. “if you put your head under cold water it help! seriously!”

“you actually believe that shit?” tears of laughter start to prickle at the corners of your eyes. he shoots an offended glare towards you, watching you wipe your tears.

“you’re fucking telling me slenderman didn’t have you shitting your pants when you were at least ten?” though he’s drunk, he’s terrifyingly serious, only making the situation more amusing.

“and who the fuck is that?”

seungmin sighs, his hand pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighs. he explains the ridiculous character that sounds made up from his first sentence. you’re biting your lip to keep yourself from laughing, especially when he says that he had to sleep with his mom for days after he found out.

“dude I’m serious! he could still be out here creeping outside this house and we’ll never know…” he puts his arms around his biceps, shivering dramatically. you roll your eyes at his shenanigans, finding him obnoxious but cute at the same time. he’s about to explain another story, but the sound of water dripping onto the floor catches both of yours attention—well yours as seungmin pays it no mind, still trying to get his point across. you’re reacting fast out of panic, grabbing the decorative towels that sit on the counter, pushing seungmin out of the way.

“what the fuck- oh…” his eyes widen at the filled sink and he’s following right behind you quickly. you turn the sink off, trying to clean up the water from the counters so you wouldn’t have to face the guilt destroying somebody else’s belongings. seungmin is trying to be kind enough to help, but the alcohol in his system doesn’t help his situation at all, only making him slip and fall on the small pool of water on the floor. the panic hits harder watching him land on the floor.

“holy shit! are you alright-” and you’re slipping right after him. you try to catch yourself, flailing your arms but it’s no use, bracing yourself for the impact of the hard floor and the embarrassment that’ll definitely creep up when you leave the bathroom.

the floor isn’t what you land on though. a groan is forced out of sengmin’s mouth as your body lands on top of his. and he saw it coming, his arms wrapping around your body in an attempt to catch you, the impact of it all coming down harder than he expected. you’re laying onto his chest, your cheeks burning in embarrassment especially since his arms aren’t unwrapping you. you hear his heartbeat speed up, your head lifting up to meet his eyes. he’s just as affected.

his eyes are too busy admiring you up close, his eyes trailing down to your lips, parted trying to steady your breath. reality hits him when he realizes he’s been staring for too long, almost pushing you off of him when he sits up. you catch your body from being rolled over, sitting up looking at seungmin. you’re unable to tell if the blush on his cheeks are from the alcohol or the moment you two just accidentally shared. the silence in the air is as thick as the tension, seungmin clearing his throat to kill it.

“hey um…I’m sorry if I made y-you uncomfortable,” he awkwardly scratches the back of his head, his eyes meeting yours. “I didn’t want you to hurt yourself y’know?” you’re just watching him speak and he’s waiting from a response from you.

“I was just trying to help you out. If you don’t want to be around me I understan-” you’re cutting him off, finally listening to your instincts to shut him up with a kiss. he’s almost immediately reacting, as if he was waiting for you to shut him up, his hand coming up to your cheek to stroke the soft flesh. the alcohol in your system only encourages you to be bolder, straddling his hips.

“you talk too damn much.” you say between kisses. his lips curve into a smile, his hands pulling the jacket off of his shoulders and tossing it next to him. he pulls away once the air starts to give out. you reach up behind him to twist the lock on the door, placing your index fingers between your lips and signaling him to be quiet.

he nods and immediately dives back into your lips. you’re getting bolder by the second, tongue sliding between his lips and licking inside of his mouth. seungmin is not complaining at all though, being just as hungry as you as the kiss turns sloppy, his warm hands running underneath your shirt to massage your hips. you’re both too far gone and too busy with each others lips, the party long forgotten.

the sound of knocks on your door pull you away from your sleep. you figured that you’d ignore it, but it becomes too annoying when the person seems to not give up until you answered. you sigh out of frustration, walking to the door and being greeted by jungsu with an equally sleepy seungmin next to him.

“the fuck do you want?”

“well good morning to you too, sleeping beauty.” jungsu laughs, his grip on seungmin’s arm signals that he dragged him here out of his sleep. “care to explain why you two disappeared for a while,”

your eyes suddenly widen. seungmin looks at you with the same look. the thoughts of yesterday slowly started to make their way back into your mind. you both look like your hands were caught in the cookie jar and you’re eyeing jungsu, your mouth ready to come up with an excuse but his mouth speaks faster than yours.

“and why my bathroom door was fucking locked for almost an hour? and I know it wasn’t because of reddit.”

I’m not sure if I did this correctly but I wrote this within two hours before work so sorry if this feels rushed </3

please remember that this is a pure work of fiction.

[cant-get-enough-btr-forever]

Big Time Hot Take #5

**spoilers**

*slams down keyboard* *cracks knuckles* This one is a bit of an essay, folks. You have been warned.

I wish the show hadn't become so goofy. Obviously, as time went on, the target demographic became younger. Hence the slapstick comedy, sound effects every two seconds, and weaker character development.

Ah yes, the weaker character development. Let's analyze it, shall we?

Kendall Knight. The sarcastic, doesn't-take-crap-from-anybody "Bad Boy" of season one. We never saw him again after this season. He no longer incessantly snarked back at Gustavo or orchestrated risky stunts (e.g. soaking the girls' field hockey team, or having 2J sneakily renovated).

Season One Kendall wouldn't have accepted Jo's schedule interfering with their relationship, just like he hadn't accepted her fake boyfriend "Travis." Season One Kendall wouldn't have allowed himself, or his friends, to get roped into a reality show. Season One Kendall would not have allowed himself to be "Swifted" by Lucy. Just like he had shut down Mercedes Griffin, he would have marched in and shut 'em all down. And he would have devised a sly plan to do so.

Logan Mitchell. At the start, he was the nerdy Only Sane Man who rattled off calculations and facts. He was the "Big Time Brain" (thank you, Kendall) who used his intellect to solve their problems.

Over the course of the show, he was dumbed down. Severely. One example of this is "Big Time Rides." Season One Logan would've never obsessed over a wagon like that—he would've been stressing over all the ways it could cause bodily harm. By season four, Camille was the sensible one in their relationship (just watch "Big Time Bonus").

James Diamond. He began as an extremely ambitious pop star wannabe. His only fault was being overly preoccupied with his looks. Despite being so fame-driven, he still cared about his friends. Even when a girl came into the picture (like Jo), he was able to step aside and give his friends a chance.

But he slowly became...well...more obnoxious. "Big Time Contest" illustrates this. So do "Big Time Returns" and "Big Time Breakout." And don't get me started on his stalkerish obsession with Lucy. Seriously, why did the writers make him so weird around her?

Carlos Garcia. I think Carlos pretty much stayed the same throughout the show. Of course he became goofier, just like the rest of them. But it didn't matter, because he had always been The Goofball. This is both good and bad.

Good, because Carlos is such a sweet and funny character. Bad, because he was stuck with the same role: The comic relief who was just there to be funny, not to get the girl. The writers never gave him a consistent girlfriend, and that just seems unfair. Instead, they tossed Alexa in at the last minute.

Look, don't get me wrong: The show and its characters are funny as heck, all the way up until the last season. Since it is a kids' show, goofy caricatures are inevitable. But I'll always love the drier, more "mature" jokes/characters of season one.

Me after typing all that:

[popculturebuffet]

More Than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Shadowplay (Issues 9 through 11) (Patreon review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back to my look at more than meets the eye, long delayed due to a lot of scheduling delays, a draining move, and general shenanigans. But it's finally time for us to take a look at Shadowplay.

Shadowplay is easily one of the most important arcs of MTMTE, not only seting up a lot of character backstory, but also fully establishing Roberts vision of Cybertron past that he dabbled with back in Chaos Theory, a place where the senate is corrupt, the Decepticons are slowly planning a coup that will sadly turn from righteous rebellion into nightmarish dictatorship not unlike what they replaced, and functionism lingers in the background. And at the first time I read this arc..

While I liked it well enough, being a tense story that characterized Optimus well and gave him spotlight at a time when he wasn't in any of the comics on a regular basis, it still felt a bit like a neat side tangent.

I've come around since then for a number of reasons: The first is, especially on re-read this arc is REALLY good and in a continuity where Optimus didn't get to shine that often, it's another character piece that makes me sad he never joined the lost light. He got to lead but this really gets to who he is as a character and shows him at his best. It also has plenty of nice depths for the autobots featured, and seeing who they were pre-war really adds some layers and shows just what the war did to each and every one. The other is simple: I was reading the story for the first time. And sometimes something extraneous at the time ends up being important. In this case both how cybertron used to be is vital to the future of those who left it behind. So with that's lets do a little shadowplay and see how the past will ultimately nearly destroy the future...

Content Warning: Self Harm and Suicide Is Discussed

We open in pre war cybertron, some time after the last time we saw it in chaos theory. The Decpticon movement in in full swing, and two bots are discussing the recent clampdown, basically a bunch of curfews and othe rnonsense to try and fight back against them. But one of these bots, Nightbeat isn't remotely convinced this will work while his buddy Quark

Sadly not that one, is paranoid about it and assumes they'll force Alt Mode Changes when they get in power. While they'll do much worse, remember this idea. It'll be important next season. As will Nightbeat.

For now though Quark's casually day drinking is interupted by some blood.. from a corpse hung above

Cut to present day at Swerves where Ratchet joins a group consisting of Rewind, Chromedome, Tailgate, Whirl, Skids, Drift and of course the man himself. Swerve. As for why.... well as put in the page image THEIR GONNA FIX RUNGS BRAIN. After everyone gets a chance to react in shock and disgust and this stupid stupid joke , (Minus swerve who isn't shown reacting and likely helped Rewind set him up), we find out it's not AS obnoxious as it sounds: Swerve is still comotose and Rewind brought them all here to try and fix that on Chromedome's advice. See Domey's figured out why our Psychatrist pal's still in his coma: His body is starting to function but he can't fully heal till his mind does. Hence this exercise: The group gathered here isn't random as it seems: most were involved in a story in cybertron's past, the same one from the cold open, each crossing paths with a certain future robot space jesus. Rewind himself wasn't, but has both archival footage and has talked to some involved, so he can fill in the gaps. As for Tailgate and Swerve.. well Tailgate is just a nice guy and was likely let along so he can learn more autobot history, and Swerve owns the only place they could do this session nice and quiet, only needing a closed sign. (The bar has been reopened it turns out. ). And frankly it's swerve: you think he'd miss anything where he'd have a chance to talk and crack jokes?

So here's where we are: Nominus Prime, one of the senators, was nearly assainated and has vanished since while the corrupt senate we saw last time is only getting more and more strained as the citizens, paticuarlly the aformentioned decipticons, are pushing back more and more.

It's here the first of our familiar faces enters: Chromedome. Dome was working in Mechaforensics, even had a diffrent name but for clarity's sake Rewind is having him use his current one. He's working with Prowl

Who while not as awful as present, still has a rod wedged up someplace uncomfortable, possibly a cybertronian voltzwagon. The plan has all the hallmarks of a decipticon: i'ts pointed straight at the functionist council building, their graffiti is on the back. It's bad. we then get a nice diversion as Skids wants to know Prowl more, as he's going to be a recurring character and all and we get Swerve naturally hurling a ton of insults at the asshole and as for Rewind..

I love how Roberts not only embraced Prowl's tantrum becoming a meme, but decided to just make it a character trait. I also like how both of them can recognize the exact sound he makes It's then time for Drift's story.. which is good because Rodimus is getting antsy. At the time Drift was a drug addict, plugging boosters into his head. Ratchet makes sure to emphasis WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS.. mostly because Tailgate's present. At any rate he gets hassled by two random dipshits... and stopped by Optimus, aka orion pax at the time, who then procedes to badassily take them both out in seconds. With Drift, known as roller then, comotose Optimus takes him to Ratchet... .. and then procedes to play with him by having the known atheist say adaptus be praised. The two wrestle a bit and Chromedome sidesteps this foreplay by pointing out this dosen't make sense: Apparently Ratchet was already cheif physician> Turns out though Ratchet was also unfufilled, so when Optimus, being optimus, suggested a secret center for addicts since the council , like most goverments, cares not one iota off a shit if people with a serious addiction die horribly, he gladly took it up. It also fits well with his character: Ratchet is older so of course he's already even further into his career, he likes helping and he likes a challenge.

Once he saves the future Drift, he encourages him to make something of his life.. while Drift plans to simply go to a refurbishment clinic and donate his body instead. The present day drift then has to go before Hot Rod tries to rebuke his amnesty.. and that's only half a joke as Drift geninely isn't sure if he can do that and isn't keane to find out. As for what the clinics were, Rewind helpfully explains for Tailgate, who nicely serves as an audience surrogate here. He even has a helpful ad

I also love the repacaging of something most older transformers fans like Roberts would be familiar with and fond of, the g1 manuals, into something fucked up, i.e. an add for cheap and nasty body tourisim. We don't know where it lead but we'll find out later. For now though once Drift leaves... Ratchet finds out there's bigger worries to deal with. Pax gestures to the news, something Ratchet dosen't like already for being state propoganda.. but likes even less finding out Nominus has offically been declared dead. More disturbingly Ratchet realizes their cause of death.. has to be wrong. It's said to be a rusted fuel pump, and the rust spreading to his spark casing.. but his fuel pump was pristine when Ratchet examined him post attack.. and with Optimus already theorizing to ratchet in a past conversation that the attack was a false flag attack from the senate itself Ratchet concludes not only is the senate behind this.. but they now have the matrix of leadership, all thanks to sentinel prime who no matter the reality is apparently just the biggest dick in existance.

Optimus reassures Ratchet he's not crazy or paranoid: they did clearly do this.. and he has a friend he wants him to meet

On that note we're back to Chromedome and Prowl. And we get another lovely toy based sight gag

Before the results tell prowl their going to Transluctna Heights next, the cybertronian beverley hills. Silciate Palm Trees and energon pools.

We then cut to Ratchet and Optimus who are meeting with the Senator, the same one from the end of Chaos Theory. This still works even if you had'nt read that story, as to me reading this comic the first time I assumed he and optimus had met previously and simply had a history.. and they do as seen with Chaos Theory he's the one who was convinced our hero could one day be a prime. Ratchet is mostly here to throw off suspiscion, since the senator already used most of his captial saving optimus from certain death at the end of chaos theory. That added context will be important in a bit but for now the Senator confirms that yup they killed Nominus for having a fake matrix. The only reason the senator isn't doing anything is because he's smarter than that and knows having a seat is way more useful than wringing Sentinels scrawny tickish neck. Speaking of which, The Senator is genuinely scared of what's going on. Also if you were curious where Megatron was during all of this he is alive, they simply have him on an asteroid mining as killing him would make him a martyr. His mining assignment is, once again, naturally important for later.. just not this storyline.

For this one we close the main story with Chromedome and Prowl investigating the swanky, richest of the rich only district of cybertron.. only to get a body thrown at them.

While we close the issue starting our b-plot for this three pater as we find out WHY Rodimus was so antsy for drift to get there NOW.

Yup... and honestly... this is the rare case where I genuinely DON'T know what happened here. We'll get an explination shortly and I THINK that's what indeed happened.. but I can't be sure for a number of reasons I don't want to spoil. The point is Red Alert's dead and Hot Rod thinks Cyclonus did it.

We see a lot of blurbs and what not on the news. The most important two are Senator Sherma, whose trying to pass a decipticon regestration act.. and if you've ever read x-men you'll know that's a pretty terrible idea and prejudice to boot, while we also get a hint against ratioisim, which I THINK is supposed to be some form of functionisim. For those wondering , Functionisim is basically determining your worth based on your alt mode and what purpose it serves. And if that idea sounds shady, racist and classist, you can see why the decipticons exist.

I also really like Roberts adding these shades to the decpticons existnace: Their still bad people mostly, but I love the idea they sprouted from a genuinely good place. From an opressed working class lorded over by a corrupt senate. It's an exploration of the idea a movement can easily be corrputed. YOu only have to look at say communisim: It's not a horrible idea on it's surface and modled right it can be done well.. and when molded wrong under someone like stalin it becomes an opressive facist state, just as democracy can be molded into one just the same when , as seen with the cybertronian senate, a few powerful folks wield said power regardless of the people's actions. As we've seen with Optimus , Nightbeat and Ratchet there are PLENTY of autobots who fully agree with their message.. they just won't agree with what that message becomes. It's one thing when the message is "take down the corrupt police state we all hate", it's another when the message becomes "Peace through tyranny"... a message really not that diffrent from the senate. The only diffrence.. is Megatron just comes out and admits he's going to rule over you as a dictator while the senate lies and says things are fair while constantly stacking the deck however they like. It makes me really wish Roberts had gotten to full on write the reboot when it happened, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Back with the cop plot, Chromedome is chasing around one of the perps on a flying bike. I wonder if you can play card games on it? For now the chase dosen't take much effort as the idiot he's chasing goes into a narrow garage.. that turns out ot be a no fly zone, complete with the cybertronian equilveant of saftey glass.. and being cybertronian that means anything speeding blows up real good. Prowl is already doing what he does best: casing the room and being mildly dimissive. Being an authortarian cockballon comes a little later but joining the police is a good start. That said we see how diffrent he was.. as he ACTUALLY APOLOGIZES

Yes when he finds out about the glass he genuinely apologizes and hopes Chromedome is okay. In the apartment they find both red alert and a decepticon manfesto and shrine. The senator was a secret deciptcion.. and given what else we know it's obvious the senate is trying to clean house of anyone that would oppose them.

Back in the present, Rodimus has turned Perciptor's lab into a makeshift inergation room. And it turns out.. he's taken in Cyclonus for no other reason than he's Decipticon adjacent. That's it. This is pure profling.. and it also provides a really intresting role reversal. Usually when these two talk Magnus is a stick in the mud doomsayer who follows regulations as his one true religion, while Rodimus, hot mess he may be, tends to give people chances and think outside the box. It's essentially a wackier version of Kirk and Spock.

Here though that same adherence to order and regulation that often makes Magnus the butt of the joke.. makes him the reasonable one for a change.

He does.. but only because Drift is unlawfly interogating him. Rodimus is just rashly assuming because decipticon, while Magnus rightly sees he's bungled this whole investigation by unlawfully arresting someone who did nothing wrong, they have no reason to bring in. Drift isn't much better as we see a nastier side to him. While he's a former decpitcon himself he treats Cyclonus hostile and subtly threatens him.. and gets driven into the table in response. While Magnus DOES hold Cyclonus back... if you look at the panel bellow he's not hurting him or anything. He's only holding him to prevent a fight that would only make this more of a farce. And Cyclonus speech makes it VERY clear how much of a farce this is and is honestly CHILLING with the recknoning in police we've been going through as what Rodders did.. is really what MOST police did and many still do

It's a damming speech and shows what Roberts has masterfully done so far and will continue to do: Show that the Autobots, while the good guys.. aren't flawless. We've seen it in how human they are and how goofy they can be... but we wee here the less endearing sides of their humanity, the judgmental side and tencndy to fly off the handle. Cyclonus also makes a valid point: they think winning the war makes them absolute victors.. but Cyclonus, while not impartial, is a mostly outside observer: he AGREES with the decipticon cause, but really isn't one. He can see the self righteousness and tendency to see themselves as absolute right the autobots are devleoping, something festering even worse back home, and he sees the same system that required the decipticons in the first place slowly reforming. And we've seen this cycle: the senate replaces a corrupt mad man, they become corrupt authorarians. MEgatron replaces them, he becomes a power mad dictator. While the autobots have a leg up on booth..there's no guarantee they can't fall just as hard or fast , and this book will more than prove that.

At anyr ate Cyclonus is absolved as First Aid thinks he has it.

Back at the crime scene, Chromedome and Prowl are backed against the wall. Prowl hasn't fought yet so he's scared shitless, Chromedome is enjoying that but it's not really helping the situation.. but someone arrives who does

If you ever find yourself wondering why optimus is in charge.. well it's mostly on the heart and sense of conviction, but if your wondering how he stayed in charge and stayed alive.. this is why.

Prowl then.. yells at Optimus, not only assuming he's a citzen but just being a dick. Optimus then flashes his badge and is disapointed what he heard about Prowl was exagerated. Yes even OPTIMUS FRIKKIN PRIME, PRE PRIME CANNOT STAND PROWL SOMETIMES. Optimus casualy says that Prowls report on all this will just get lost, and Prowl hopes "i'll never be as cynical as you orion pax"... bud.. your already.. so much worse.

Prime plans to follow up but he's wanted ON THE MOON... and I love a job where I get to say that. He's wanted at prison, as it's time for whirl to enter the story. Whirl also gets defnsive when ratchet rightly points out why he's arrested when he tries to blame optimus: He tried to murder a prisoner in his cell. The fact Megatron is evil later.. dosen't really justify it at all, as we saw. The senate were using him as a pawn to get away with worse stuff.

But the fact is by this point Whirl has realized the senate used him, and took away his hands, with a really crushing panel of him admitting why he's brought optimus here beyond REVENGE

They took everything he was from him and he can't do anything to them, as i'm sure many like him can't either. But he can tell optimus there's a plan for a large bombing, a false flag attack.. and to catch the Senator in the crossfire. We also see IMpactor getting introduced as Whirl's cellmate. Naturally for the wreckers there first meeting.. is impactor beating his head in.

One of my faviorite lines in the comic.

Anyways we get back to Prowl and Chromedome , and we get a really intresting bit: Chromedome can tell SOMETHING'S going to give and wonders if they'll survivie it, and while prowl denies it at first.. it turns out as much as he likes to bury his head in the sand at this point in his life, he hasn't buried it straight up his ass like his present day self.

Yeah I kick myself in hindsight for not only not noticing Chromedome and Rewind were a thing, but that PROWL and chromedome were in the past. I"m still shocked how oblivious I was, especially since I picked this one specifically because LIndsay Ellis had mentioned the idw transformers comics had gotten queer. I've gotten better at picking up on gay subtext, intentional or otherwise, but it's still hilariously tone deaf. It's also weird to see Prowl.. actually be romantic. Roberts does the legwork the other book simply dosen't seem to care to do in making Prowl a tragic figure: Sure he's absolutely the worst and Roberts makes no real attempts to prove that. If anything he shows the potetial was there.. but this arc really hammers in that Prowl before the war.. was a far better person. He still was entirley by the book, but he opened up to Chromedome, his partner in both senses, didn't want a war, and generally had good in him. I made a cop joke before.. but Dome IS trying to be good police. He belivies way too much in a corrupt system.. but contrast that to the Prowl we saw in issue 1 and will see again when the crossover comes: an authoratian nightmare who sees his boyfriend trying to get a measure of peace.. and sees it as a waste. Who sees the end of a years long war as just a lull in combat. Who in his own book is carrying out black ops bullshit and stoking tensions between autobots and decipticons. Prowl had the potetial to be what he is now always sure, but he wasn't etched in that. Becoming an autobot made somes lives better.. but for Prowl it just caused him to double down on his worse traits and become an outright monster.

The fight is also just.. sad. Instead of talking through their issue.s. rewind just snaps. He just can't face Rewind's history with Prowl or see that there WAS good in the man whose caused his partner such pain.. but also can't healthily cope with it. Then again as we'll learn heathily coping is not something Rewind's really EVER done.

Back with the plot , Prowl finds out to his fury that Flatfoot, his superior officer despite the name, has leaked his report, proving what Optimus said. Things only get more suspcious when they meet Trepan, the head of the clinic.. and after Chromedome sense ssomething shady, the sinister needle hands are a giveaway, Domey incapcitates the guy and our unambgiously gay duo find the insittute: tons of robtos removing brain moduls, rewiring... even before he became a mnemosurgeon, Domey was already intrested in the science and thus can recognize it. Trepan escapes but our heroes take their valuable intel to Optimus, who had Ratchet and some others round up the good senator from his school for gifted autobots.

Optimus puts all the pieces together while Prowl bitches in the background: Domey and PRowl found a list at the clinic, that turns out to be a list of decipticons regestered as a polictical party. Turns out while Senator Sherma wanted it to LOOK like decipticon attack.. but not blame them right away, getting more cons to register.. then inittating ANOTHER false flag to make it look like the deciptcons betrayed them. As for how.. the how is utterly horrifying: they plan to BLOW UP nominus' corpse with a fake rigged matrix. Optimus' only recourse? They ahve to steal it We're onto the final issue and naturally Prowl thinks this is madness, wants nothing to do with it and is a right asshole as he flees, telling him not to let DOme go on the mission

Dome went to gather some of the senators pupils. I.. .wasn't remotely joking about the x-men comparison: Since the functionists obviously are baffled and apalled by beings who have extra talents beyond their alt modes, the Senator has been shielding them in his building for gifted autobots and brought a few to help: Skids himself is a super learner, able to learn anything in record time, which seems useless until you realize this means he can pick up any skill as fast as the flash and retain it unlike said flash. The others are windcharger, who has telekensis Kyle and Gltich, whose design I like a lot and who can mess up machinery. So in otherwords, Progidy, Hellion and Shadowcat. Got it.

We then break for a second as Ratchet examines rung and Swerve brings some old fashioned nightmare fuel to the party, which this being the comic that it is, is entirely real and requires gloves. When Chromedome worries about this eating up their insides, Swerve reveals this isn't rewind's FIRST session. It's not even his second. It makes sense though: this is a complex prospect and it's not unlikely every autobot here met Optimus at some point.. nor that unlikely that it'd fall apart, hence attempt 3 here. We also get an intresting fact about Rung that will be VITALLY important way down the line

We return to the story to find out this is what likely broke the two up for good, as Prowl, being prowl, just left with no explanation. They still need a full plan but skids having a mini matrix on his face, a religious thing back then the comic dosen't go into gives Optimus an idea: He spends Domey to talk to our good buddy ironfist, pre horrible tragic death. Being a massive fanboy even back then, he's more than willing ot help in exchange for getting his life sized model of Delta Magnus

So now our hero have a fake to swap for the fake. Before they leave on the heist though Ratchet and Optimus' Friend Roller Roller Da

An old friend of Optimus' on the force we just meet here but , say it with me "WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER". This arc could've easily been called "TRUST ME ALL OF THIS HAS A PAYOFF. ALL. OF. THISSSSSSSS. " And it does. One benefit of having to go over these issues with a finer tooth comb than my usual lagomorph lenth attention span allows is I catch just HOW well crafted this story is.

Anyways Roller hacked the system and finds out there's some weird stuff about the guy, a few charges, as you'd expect.. but also the fact Optimus isn't the ONLY person he's been grooming for this roll. Optimus.. dosen't care. He's not naive, he gets the senator likely has backups, and is with the guy not because he's truly buying what the man's selling on "being the next prime" and all that.. but becauase he's a good man in a broken system whose trying his damndest to fix it. A bit creepy sure, but someone he trusts enough to do this. if he didn't they woudln't of gone this far.

We get back to the present.. and it's one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the comic so far. And you KNOW that's already saying something. We find out what happened to Red Alert.. and it was suicide. Granted i'm still not sure it was entirely suicide or if the very least he wasn't pushed further by the knowledge of what was going on and the pressure of his already bad paranoia being kicked into overdrive. I won't know till he comes back. It's handled incredibly well.. including the fact that even now Rodimus makes it about him.. but in a way that just.. punches you in the heart. Rodimus takes it personally, feeling that if one of his crew is suicidal.. he shoudl've noticed. But the sad truth with mental illness is sometimes.. someone is just suffering so bad till they break. As someone who has had suicidal throughts... sometimes you just keep those to yourself till your already on the edge of it. What's worse is while they DID save him... Magnus suggests not putting him back on line just yet. He's understandibly worried given all the trauma it'll just happen again and plans to revivie him whent he misions over or at the very least when they have the time to help him. The results.. are just.. pure pain

Normally when rodimus asks this, it's clear he just wants a second opinon that will likely agree with him.. but here it's very clear from what happens next.. he just DESPERATLEY wants any othe roption, anything but this... and ultimately it's best for red to take a nap till they can help him... rodimus left utterly destroyed. Just the pannleing here is perfect.. it's clear Rodimus feels he failed... and the failures will only add up as the journey goes on. For now though we're back to the finale of our main story: So naturally for a heist the place their breaking into, the Primal Basicla, is super well guarded: any plane that tries to fly by deactivates, pressure plates along the floor to alert the guards, and said guards are trigger happy monsters with the orders to "take alive """IF POSSIBLE""""" which is code for

Thankfully thanks to said no flyzone the top is unguarded so they simply get to work: Windcharger lowers them down, Glitch shuts off the force beams, at great personal pain, and Swerve uh... uses his grappling hook to lower optimus mission impossible style. Hey at least it's a vital job. Problem is the things rigged. WOrse problems are back at base. For reasons unknown, Optimus decided to honor Prowl's wishes and Chromedome was left on sercurity with Roller Roller Da. The Senator assumes Optimus was being paranoid.. when who would it be at the door but hired goons

Who just burned down The Senator's institute for gifted autobots. Back at the heist, Optimus calls on Ratchet, whose roll now becomes clear beyond "Map guy": He was Optimus' backup plan: since he can't disarm the locks he uses reverse psychology on ratchet telling him he coudln't POSSIBLY unlock it in time. Ratchet knows he' splaying him.. but he's wrong and Ratchet does. He almost drops the matrix.. but thankfully Windcharger got bored and uses his telekensisis kyle to lift ratchet back up.

With the heist a success Windcharger starts slowly taking them back.. but Optimus, being twitchy that Roller hasn't contacted him JUMPS OFF THE FREAKING SKY THING AND INTO THE STREETS FAR BELLOW to go after him. Good thing too as he gets there before they can murder the senator. Sadly.. there's no happy ending here. Prequel and all that. The hired goons hold Roller Hostage.. and the Senator being who he is, agrees to go peacefully. The goons TRY to leave a guy for optimus to fight.. but optimus still has the bomb of leadership, hurls it and the senate covers it up the same way they covered up the academy. Gas leak. the silent killer. What's worse is while Optimus and Domey head for the instutitute.. it's already cleaned out.. and Domey also has a horrifying realization about the name: it's called that.. so people THINK there's only one. As he explains in narration, there turned out ot be one under EVERY refurbishment clinic.

So with that... it's all over. For now. There's no real happy ending... in the past. in the present though as the defcon klaxons ring... RUNG SPEAKS. This whole plan worked. Back in the past though we get one final coda as some creepy assholes plan to do the oepration on the senator, a complete personality swap.. a turn to logic.. and iwth that we find out just who this guy is.. and it's one of the most chilling, brilliant and tearjerking moments in the entire comic

Yup one of the nicest bots in transformers.. becomes a cold murder machine who will soon, or likely sometime next year for our purposes, nearly destroy all of cybertron. Someone who might of created a better future as Cybertron's greatest hero.. has become it's greatest monster. My jaw dropped when I read this and now having read dark cybertorn and knowing how the other side of this story plays out for him overal.. it's just an utter gutpunch. Even when I wasn't a fan of this story, I LOVED this ending.

As for shadowplay itself.. it's excellent. It's still not relaly one of my faviorite arcs, as it's one of the heavier ones, but the heist in the third act is great, there's some nice backstory shading and like I said that final twist is fucking phenominal. I'ts a story that only gets better as you see every piece it sets up for the rest of the comic fall into place, and on reread the red alert subplot fucking broke me. It's a great story Next Time: .. is in september, as I was SUPPOSED to take the summer off to do Beetlemania, which is now too far ahead to not do, but mtmte returns in september for an annual as Magnus takes the spotlight and a lot of stuff sure does happen. Thanks for reading.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU FNAF 4, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 1

Pages 0-29

Holy shit remember when I said there were "Side comics"

Lmfao yeah they go more in depth.

We're starting with FNAF 4 because as of rn it's the first in the timeline of comics I've made. SL will be next and imo has the shittiest art because I was hurting myself with every page of that damn thing.

Content warnings I guess: bad things happen to fictional kids because this is fnaf lmfao.

I forgot wtf the faded words say but I'm pretty sure they're all written from William except one which is from Josh. Fuck if I remember which tho XDDDDDD

They're all talking vaguely about the incident.

So I'm going off the bold assumption you've seen the over explains for the main AU and will be talking about FNAF 4 from that perspective: Honestly the biggest hurdles in the Creations AU over explained is just how much I dump about the games, the AU as a whole, spoilers what to AVOID spoiling ex.

(Like...What I FEEL should be common knowledge I sometimes say, but then I realized: Holy fuck most of my current tumblr followers are ZELDA people who might just be reading cause they like my stuff in general and have ZERO Fnaf knowledge lmfao I'm very sorry if I don't always communicate things from the games specifically well.)

If you're here from the Creations AU MAIN comic over explained:

We are all to aware Elizabeth is dead and Cody has SEEN said incident, which gives a lot of insight into his character going forward in this comic.

This is based on the fan theory crying child saw Elizabeth die. I honestly dunno how much merit that actually has in CANNON but it's a fun story idea for Creations at least lol.

Circus Baby, the animatronic pictured was the one that did the deed.

So funny story: I actually like Josh as a character MORE after drawing FNAF 4 X'D and I will get into why. He's been the butt of the "I hate this character" joke for a long time but now the script has flipped because I actually like him a lot from a character standpoint but the audience couldn't stand his ass. (Reasonably he's awful lmfao) I didn't HATE him in SL I mostly hyped up how much I "Disliked" him If I hated him, I wouldn't draw him lmfao but I find he's 100xs more interesting as a person in FNAF 4 because he's WAY more flawed and his vulnerabilities are on full ass display here.

So dialogue wise: Josh goes on an absolute anger filled tirade on Cody merely taking a look into his presumed dead sister's room.

Their mother is out of the house under false pretenses, and beats Josh. She doesn't do this to Cody apparently which is clearly causing resentment. We can already make some assumptions about Josh's behavior due to his mother's abuse. Being, he repeats said cycle of abuse onto his younger brother.

He's a bad person lmfao and I won't justify his shit but I can completely understand why he's acting this way. Bro should not be in this situation.

William's "Checked out". Presumably not emotionally available or even physically considering Josh is looking after his brother.

He's being FORCED to basically parent his younger sibling who he dislikes STRONGLY, which uh. Makes older siblings carry a LOT of baggage later in life and in the moment is clearly doing NO ONE favors. He's also VERY CLEARLY not emotionally capable of dealing with a child. Which is just irresponsible as hell on his parents ends. That is a recipe for a complete trainwreck as we will very soon see.

Oh. The bear talks.

Hide and seek with high stakes. I got nothing much to say about the scenes directly tied/based to the minigames as they mostly speak for themselves.

Josh is a dick, that's evident.

Some of yall might not like it but I'm going on both Josh and Cody's perspectives here lmao. Deal with it

I would also lose my patience with a screaming child throwing an absolute tantrum. But on Cody's end, I wouldn't wanna go to Freddy's/Fredbear's either considering HE SAW HIS SISTER DIE THERE.

Josh's reasoning for bringing Cody makes sense though: Their dad is here and he can spend time with his friends. Josh's friend Lucas points out they're technically "Banned" from Freddy's. And she's cheating. According to Josh. Which just makes her leaving her son with his abusive older brother to cheat even more insulting/disgusting. Oliver Blondie with the green shirt is disturbed by Josh trauma dumping lmao. Richard cracks jokes about Josh's mom's affairs. Josh like Michael and William are British which Richard not so elegantly makes fun of. You'll notice a significant LACK of Michael here. More details: All four of these boys indulge in bad habits. Like smoking.

I WONDER WHY. Sarcasm aside, it's almost like abusing your kids results in them lashing out in horrible ways, mostly self destructive...

As we know Richard's dad is a freak who sleeps with married women and Josh's mother's known for infidelity. And all four smoke except Lucas apparently.

The "Josh you of all people would know I don't smoke" line is a play on the fact they're in a relationship and kiss, because Lucas and Josh's relationship is not subtle at all.

I find it amusing they all blame each other for Richard's stolen cigarettes as it's clear Josh and Oliver are behind it but MOSTLY Josh.

Well, he did the bare minimum of leaving him in a place he THINKS is safe, with a way to get back to the house?

Josh this is still shitty as hell. X'D

Lucas continues to be the only one in this friend group with a brain, also I do like how he nags his boyfriend and his shitty parenting choices for his brother lmfao.

He won't DO anything about it but he'll point it out.

Fredbear we can see this.

HAH SCARY.

Haha trauma.

Not now son Daddy's helping people into fur suits.

Yeah closing the door doesn't help this situation. Poor kiddo.

My bro wanted him to fall lmao. That would have been funny but nah.

Josh is playing on a 3DS because it's funny.

He at least fed his brother. Bare minimum parenting there buddy.

Not Josh getting annoyed because Cody says something scary he didn't personally tell him. X'D

He gives a half hearted attempt at advice...? Comfort? idk what you'd call that lmao.

And okay fr from Josh's perspective his brother is just acting like a ungrateful cowardly brat. X'D That doesn't make what he does right but like: Would YOU Believe him if he told you he "Saw" someone get eaten by a robot lmfao????

Children lie or misunderstand things. And Josh is old enough to know how these things work. He knows they're people in costumes or just lifeless things on the stage. Or at least they're SUPOSED to be.

Josh amusingly telling Cody he can walk is funny when you think he carried him TO Fredbear's last time.

Because Josh is a dick.

I don't have a lot to say about Cody's behavior because it's self explanatory. He saw his sister die here, his fear is justified and has an obvious reason. He's failed by the people around him ESPECIALLY his parents.

This is just more NPC dialogue in the minigames. Not much to say.

[showtoonzfan]

TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE, ADDICTION AND ASSAULT

As much as I dislike to admit it, Angel Dust is NOT a one note character. It’s clear he has layers to him, there’s been so much information on him personality wise and as a character over time, and his deeper side is something that Viv wants to explore in the show.

However, yes this is going to sound petty, but I really hope someone ESLE writes him because the way Viv handles his character is not for me. Like I’ve said before, I’ve restrained myself from talking about Angel since he’s a hefty subject (and the most popular in the fandom and I don’t want rabid fans at my neck) but I still would like the take the time to discuss his issues just a tad, though this’ll be short. The truth is I don’t think Viv can handle someone as deep as he seems to be. He’s a character who’s abused, an addict, a murdering psychopath with a twisted sense of humor, a character who doesn’t show his deep feelings to others, a person who while loves his work, the fame and attention he has, he feels trapped it seems at the same time, there’s just.....a LOT to him. While I think Viv overcompensates him WAAAAY too much, he still deseves to be written well, especially since a lot of people look up to him for being a gay man struggling. The issue is simply that he’s written by Viv. In the pilot, he’s an annoying, obnoxious, unlikable hyper sexual douchebag who spouts sex jokes every second, and every time I see him I want to get the raid and spray it till the damn can is empty. He seems to be treated as a joke and not at the same time, but for the pilot, it’s definitely a joke. As someone who’s followed Viv for a long time and seen her livestreams, she clearly thinks liking dick is funny, and spouting sex jokes is peak comedy. It seems she takes how Angel acts regularly as a pawn, making him the comic relief character but also this predatory hyper sexual dude and it’s disgusting. And no, not that he’s in HELL it’s disgusting, it’s disgusting because he’s gay and portrayed as someone making sex jokes every 5 seconds and it doesn’t make me like him, it makes me annoyed. Like I said, Angel has layers and there’s more to him as seen in the pilot, but the persona he puts on is still that of a stereotype. She’ll use him as a joke and then suddenly tell us to get serious because he has a pimp who physically and sexually abuses him, and it’s just all done sloppily. Like all of this is happening to him and yet we have to laugh when he flirts with other characters and cracks sex jokes? And then we’re supposed to feel bad for him when he’s clearly a horrible person with barley any redeeming qualities? Because I’m sorry, I don’t feel bad for him, or at least I can’t sympathize with him fully because of how shitty he acts. Not to mention all the fan service that doesn’t even collide with what she’s trying to get across with his character. One moment he’s a deep troubled character, then he’s an UWU hot boy who likes sex so laugh and drool at him please. It’s just so much, I don’t even think Viv knows what she WANTS his character to be because he seems to flip flop all the time.

But for now, that’s all I’m saying. I just hope someone else will write him, someone who knows how to write characters with trauma, complex characters, and especially GAY characters, because not every gay person talks about how much they like dick every 5 seconds. You can feel free to disagree with me, I’m not going to argue but please do NOT harass me in the comments. You can feel free to voice your opinion on Angel Dust though, thank you.

[isfjmel-phleg]

@lady-merian replied to your post: I read a book I really enjoyed (a new TSG...

No, give us the rant!

Okay, you asked for it!

Fair warning: I am going to be yelling about superheroes again. Also the topic of sexual abuse/harassment, specifically as it applies to male characters as victims. I'm going to have to explain a lot, but I promise there's a point to all this eventually.

So I've been reading a lot of comics from the 1990s/early 2000s about the younger DC heroes, mostly Robin (Tim Drake), Impulse (Bart Allen), and Superboy (Kon-El/Conner Kent). And something I've been ranting to poor @brown-little-robin a lot about is how these comics handle these boys' love lives. Bart is mostly oblivious to romance, and Tim is very self-controlled (Stephanie Brown jokingly calls him "Boy Virgin"), but Kon...things start to get problematic there.

Kon is a clone, created by a shady genetic engineering project to be their mind-controlled replacement for Superman, who had recently died. He was supposed to be developed to maturity but escaped early, while physically about sixteen. His creators implanted him with memories of things someone of that age would know (education, pop culture, etc.), but he doesn't have a lot of real-world experience, and thus he's pretty naïve.

He's also a major flirt. Desperate for female attention. Hits on pretty much every woman or girl he meets. It's rather obnoxious. This is chalked up to his age and immaturity, or possibly to traits inherited from his human DNA donor, but I tend to suspect his creators wanted a clone who would really, really want to reproduce and pass those superpowered genes to more people for them to control. But whatever the case, this trait of his exists. And it has been repeatedly taken advantage of to put him in situations where he is vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Multiple grown women, who are fully aware that he is physically sixteen and chronologically much, much younger (one of them calls him "Kid," another refers to him as "jailbait"), see him as a romantic/sexual prospect and take advantage of his naivete and desire for romantic attention. Things happen to him that nowadays would be considered sexual assault of a minor, but in the 1990s apparently were seen as totally okay, even enviable--a teenager so attractive that even adult women are into him! If things were reversed, if he were a teenage girl receiving such attention from older men, this might be seen as creepy and predatory, but because he's male and therefore "wants it" this is all perfectly fine.

It's not. There are no adults looking out for him, he has no parental figures, no one to teach him about appropriate relationships and behavior with the opposite sex or point out to him that this isn't okay, so most of the time he doesn't question it, because it's his normal. But he does get hurt, and when he tries to talk about it, he gets shut down. One of his friends is actually rather judgmental toward him after an incident where he was being mind-controlled by a female supervillain. He is being abused, and the only way the narrative knows how to address it is to applaud it as admirable or blame him for the problem.

So...with all that in mind, I was going through issues of Kon's solo comic last night, screenshotting relevant panels for my own reference. And one of the issues was the second of a two-parter, a crossover with the Green Lantern comic that was running at that same time. So I tracked down that issue and got introduced to Kyle Rayner, self-described "anxious artist." He seems to be fairly young (early twenties?) and is struggling to find work, and the issue I read opens with his meeting with a potential agent, a middle-aged woman. He feels uncomfortable around her because she's got a reputation for preying on male clients. He's worrying that everything she says is a double entendre but berates himself for having "a dirty mind" and shrugs it off. But his instincts are correct; she ends their meeting by touching him inappropriately (while calling him "kid"). He does not respond to this, he takes the much-needed job she offers him, and it's never brought up again.

Really creepy. But he's male, and therefore the narrative can't acknowledge how messed up this is. So it's interesting to me that this issue goes on to have him pair up with Kon and briefly take on an almost older-brotherly role with him. Even so, Kyle's response to hearing that Kon has been recently dumped by his twenty-three-year-old girlfriend because she couldn't stand his immaturity any longer is...to agree that she had a point in doing so because this kid really is immature? Rather than pointing out that a twenty-three-year-old should not have been dating him in the first place! Here's someone who has first-hand experience with predatory older women, who could be in a position to empathize and advise, but he can't recognize that this situation is wrong...because he's had to normalize such things in his own life in order to survive. It's all incredibly messed up, and the narrative doesn't acknowledge it.

Apparently quite a few male heroes in this 'verse have been victims of sexual abuse. Dick Grayson (at age sixteen!). Wally West, I think. Even Bruce Wayne himself, depending on which version of the circumstances of Damian's conception you consider canon. As far as I can tell, their trauma goes unacknowledged by the narrative. And that really disturbs me.

Especially in the cases of boys.

[littleturtle95]

This OC-tober I’ll share some snippets from ‘Un ragazzo sotto l’albero’, the book of mine that’s going to be published this Christmas. I’ll use @hahahax30 prompt list, I’ll leave it here for whoever wants to do it.

I warn you – it’s a silly and cheesy book. The snippets will be silly and cheesy as well.

It’s a Christmas romcom that features Marco, a boy who develops a huge crush on Federico, his sister’s boyfriend who is living in his house for the holidays to get to know the parents.

It’s light-hearted but not too much. Silly but not stupid. And it has a lot of Christmas vibes to get in the right mood.

The book will be published in Italian, I made these translations into English myself and I swear it is better in the original language 👌🏻

I will not post every day, there are at least five days that I will leave blank. And most of the snippets I chose are very short. That is because I don’t want to give too much away, but just to tease you a bit.

Now I’ll introduce you to the characters briefly, because I haven’t talked about them a lot here and you most likely don’t know them.

Marco is the main character. He is 26 years old, works in retail and hates it, and he still lives with his parents because his job doesn’t provide him enough money to live alone. He supports the Bologna Football Team (read it as ‘Baloney’ and istg I’m gonna slaughter you), he likes anime, reads Marvel Comics (especially Fantastic 4), has a collection of Funko Pops and he smokes even if he knows it’s bad for his health.

Federico is the love interest. He’s 19 years old and he’s in college, graduating in African Studies and particularly the Swahili language. His family does not know about his bisexuality but his friends and girlfriend do. He watches anime, hates all kinds of sports, likes drinking, and he is what it’s commonly called a tombeur des femmes. He likes to flirt, and girls love to flirt with him. He has a lot of exes and is an extrovert.

Alice is Marco’s sister and Federico’s girlfriend. She’s 19 years old. She met Federico in college abroad, and invited him home for the holidays to make him meet his family. She’s graduating in Oriental Studies, particularly the Chinese language. She is chatty, the typical obnoxious little sister, likes cuddles, hates all nerdy things, is a party animal and Marco does not know if she supports him or not when he fights with his parents for his sexuality because she does not comment on it.

Raffaele and Isabella are Marco and Alice’s parents. They’re 54 and 52 years old. They don’t even try to hide the fact that they like Alice more, and they often ask Marco why he can’t be more like his sister. They often ask him why he never introduces them to a girlfriend of his, no matter how many times he explains them he has no interest in dating girls, and they hate the fact he puts on nail polish.

Edoardo is Marco’s best friend since elementary school. He’s 26 years old. Marco had a huge crush on him during the years of high school, but now he loves him just as a friend. He is the captain of the town’s football club, likes music, works as a manager in his father’s factory and is very supportive of every one of Marco’s choices, even when questionable.

These are the characters of ‘Un ragazzo sotto l’albero’, ebook and paperback out this Christmas ☃️ 🎄 I hope you’ll enjoy the snippets and that I’ll make you a tiny bit curious! We’ll start on October 1st, let me know if you want to be in a tag list 🥰

[house-of-cards-and-crime]

new pinned post cause i need one

hey!

fandoms i'm involved in: DSMP, hermitcraft, Good Omens, sally face, Scott Pilgrim (comics/anime, not the movie)

characters i'm particularly fond of: c!tommy (dsmp), c!quackity (dsmp), c!grian (hermitcraft), crowley (GO), sal fisher (sally face), wallace (SP)

fandoms i write for: DSMP, Scott Pilgrim (just starting)

my ao3: crime_house

current WIP: Archivist c!Tubbo Fic (untitled) (IN THE PLANNING STAGE)

i have no specified DNI but block for my own comfort, and i am very neurodivergent so please use tone tags! (i do not support cc!wilbur. i will most likely block you if you do)

my tag directory can be found here!

and my userbox directory can be found here!

that's all, welcome in!

(i have some of my own userboxes under the cut! i have a ton so i cycle them out every so often) (there's kind of an obnoxious amount down there, be warned)

[allyouneedisbuck]

i don’t wanna do this (i don’t wanna lose this)

eighteen plus blog minors dni

summary -> it’s all fake, every piece of it scripted and perfected for the camera, even the upcoming break-up you pretend doesn’t break your heart.

words -> 2.5k

warnings -> fake relationship, use of name (bucky calls the reader by her character’s name, lucia, once) nickname uses (baby, sweetheart) co-workers/friends to lovers, no smut, not beta’d

notes -> this is for the lovely maera’s ( @ambrosiase ) hotel indigo writing challenge i absolutely love this idea mae and am so appreciative that you created this challenge, it really pushed me out of my comfort zone and i got to explore an entirely new au.  

room & service -> business meets pleasure with celebrity bucky barnes -> bucky and reader are co-stars in a fake relationship in a hotel for their final comic-con together.

— ➶ —

Bucky has been doing interviews with Sam all day today. 

You’ve been working together for six seasons and have both been to too many comic-cons to count. Every single one of them you and Bucky had been paired up to do interviews and photo-ops together. 

A scripted piece of a scripted relationship. Agreed upon when your characters romance began to pick up popularity and designed to look perfect until the end.

Tomorrow an article with be released ‘leaking’ the details of your perfect break-up too. A source close to the both of you will comment that wrapping of the show and being forced to go long distance just wasn’t working for you two. The writer will supply photos of today, the two of you avoiding sitting near one another and not speaking. They’ll write that their source confirmed this convention is actually the first time you’ve seen each other in months. 

Even more articles have already been planted periodically questioning whether the two of you were still together, generating buzz around the show and what happens between your characters. It’s a brilliant job, honestly.

Except, you and Bucky had been in a fake relationship for so long, it had begun to feel real. This distance between you two felt purposeful in a way that hurt you more than it ever should have. 

Your assistant is supposed to go through your instagram soon and begin archiving posts and pieces of your fake life with Bucky. He’s been glaringly absent from your social media recently and it makes your heart ache at the idea of him being nonexistent.

Your fans have noticed too. You read comment after comment all asking the same thing; What happened to you and Bucky? 

“Oh, Lucia! My dear, Lucia.” You bite down a grin at the sound of Bucky’s voice through your door. His words were filtered by the wall between you and a little slurred from the drinks he had no doubt consumed at the hotel bar. “Open the door, please.” 

You lock your phone and lay it on the bed beside you. “I’m busy, Bucky! Go bother Sam.” You call back despite already walking towards the door. 

“Bother Sam? On our last night together?” You can see Bucky smile teasingly though the peephole. Despite his joking tone the words hurt. “Four years together and this is how things end? Through a hotel room door?” 

His fist comes up to bang against the door and a hand comes up to his heart. He’s putting on a show for you, fully away of your eye watching carefully through the peephole. “How much have you had to drink, Bucky Barnes?” You ask as the door remains closed. 

Bucky holds his fingers up in a pinch too small to be true. “Not much.” When his hand falls back to his side he smiles up at the peephole. “Let me in, sweetheart. I’ve missed you.” 

You melt, becoming putty in his hand as you quickly move to unlatch the door. “I’ve missed you too.” You admit to him, face to face, as you lean against the door jam. 

A smirk replaces Bucky’s sweet smile as his hands reach out to grip your hips. “This break-up is tough on me, baby.” He pushes you into the room, kicking the door shut behind him. “One more night. One last time. You and me.” 

“Shut up!” You force his hands off of you and turn towards the mini bar in your room. “You’re such a dweeb. I’m glad we’re breaking up.” You pull out the miniature bottle of wine and twist the top off. 

Bucky’s hand slams across his chest as he falls against the wall in dramatic fashion. “You’re… Glad? My frail heart can’t take it,” he falls to his knees, “Please. Tell my mother, I loved her.”

You watch, unamused, as Bucky falls to the floor in front of you. “You’re obnoxious.” A beaming smile breaks out onto Bucky’s face that makes you grin.

“I was serious, about missing you.” Bucky moves to sit up with his back against the edge of your bed. You move to sit beside him on the floor. “These junkets and photos just aren’t the same without you by my side, cracking jokes in my ear.”

You rest your head against his shoulder. “Me too. I love Wanda, but it’s just not the same.” You admit quietly.

There’s so much that you want to say to him. What if this wasn’t fake? What if we didn’t go through with the break-up plan? “Did they send you our social media plan?” Bucky asks quietly.

“Yeah,” You swallow thickly, “I have my assistant going through my account for me soon. We’re supposed to start untagging and deleting photos of each other this week.”

Bucky snorts. “How fucking sweet. Four years together and they have us untag each other to confirm a break up.” His fingers tap against his thigh as the two of you sit on the carpeted floor together.

“Has it really been four years?” You ask quietly. It’s more of a question to yourself, but Bucky answers it with a nod anyways.

“My longest relationship ever and it was fake.” Bucky’s awkward laugh makes the air tense as he stares down at his hands. “I’ve wasted so much of my life. So many chances gone.”

You know the words aren’t said with ill intent, but that doesn’t stop the crack from forming in your heart. You can’t fathom the idea of all your time together, fake or not, being a waste.

Your eyes cut away from him in embarrassment. “Was it really all a waste?” You ask quietly. The words are unintentional, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re out in the air.

“What?” You can feel his eyes settle on you in an attempt to read your face or body language, but a career in acting comes in handy. Your back is ramrod straight and your face turned away perfectly to hide the emotions in your eyes. “It was fake when we could have had something real with people we actually cared about.”

It’s a knife to your broken heart. “People we actually care about?”

“You know, like, other girls and guys who we wanted to pursue but couldn’t because of the contract.” Bucky reaches out to wrap a hand around yours, but you pull away. “I don’t understand what’s wrong here.”

You shake your head, the regret of your words settling over you. “Nothing. I’m just… It’s been a long day.” You use the edge of the bed to help you stand while Bucky remains on the floor, watching you in confusion. “I’m tired, you should go.”

“Woah. What’s this one-eighty?” Bucky stands too and follows you as you move around to gather your toothbrush and skincare. “Two seconds ago we were joking about a fake break-up and now you’re all quiet and weird? You expect me to just leave?”

“Please.” You plead. The last thing you want to do is dump all your feelings out to Bucky, on the last day you two were officially contracted to each other, and make him feel guilty for feeling free. “I just need to be alone, Buck.”

You move to push past him towards your bathroom, but Bucky’s hand wraps around your wrist. “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t do this closing yourself off thing.”

“I’m not.” You say stubbornly. “I’m tired.” You try again to move past him, but his grip only tightens as he forces you to actually face him. “Buck-“

“You can tell me, you know?” He says quietly as his grip slackens. Your eyes meet his, pools of blue staring back at you with something akin to hurt. “You can trust me. We’re best friends, right? You’re my-“

“You don’t have to lie to me, Bucky. Pretend to care. You can go back to the bar and…” You pull your hand from him and cross your arms over your chest. “And tomorrow we can start being with people we actually care about.”

Bucky’s eyes squeeze shut as his own words are repeated back and left out in the open between you two. “That’s not what I…”

“What did you mean then?” You cut him off. You want to sound angry, but your tone is sad and tired. “Enlighten me, please.”

“I just meant… I meant we could date who we wanted to date, I didn’t mean for it to sound so awful.” He answers quietly. “I care about you a lot. We’ve been friends for over half a decade, of course I care about you.”

You swallow thickly. “What if I don’t want to date anyone else?” You force yourself to ask. If not now, then when? Ten years from now at a reunion of your show? You couldn’t live with this what if.

“What?” Bucky’s hand falls from your wrist as he takes a step back like your words have burned him.

You push through the thundering of your heart and ringing in your ears to ask, “haven’t you ever thought about it? I mean, four years of just us, all those dates and premieres, was it really all just work for you?”

“I don’t know… I mean…” Bucky rubs a hand over his jaw as you stare at him expectantly. “Have you?”

“I asked the question I think that would imply…” You trail off as his answer weighs down on your mind. It feels like a no. No. No. No. It’s on repeat in your mind as you move to sit down on your bed. “After a while the dates and photos and sappy posts didn’t feel all that forced anymore.” You admit quietly.

Bucky paces silently in front of you. You’re unsure of what’s going through his mind as he does it and it’s all you can do to not tap anxiously as you watch.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He finally asks when he finally pauses in front of you. You look up at him unsure of what to say. “I mean… When did you start…” He trails off like he doesn’t want the answer.

You look down at your hands in your lap. Despite your worries in telling Bucky you guess you had never truly thought of this conversation ending up this way. All these questions felt like Bucky preparing for a gentle rejection.

“I don’t know. After our second anniversary?” You keep your answer to him vague despite you being fully aware of when you started seeing Bucky differently. “That post you wrote for me that day. All the ones after. All of those words were fake?”

Your mind drifts to his words that day. The sweet and short caption had made butterflies erupt as you scrolled through the photos he had posted with it. Despite you both being required to post something, the photos he had chosen had been entirely genuine.

Pictures the two of you had taken together on set, selfies during your fake dates, and even a sweet set of photo booth pictures from your first premiere together.

You had stared at the post far too long as emotions rushed through you. Your heart raced at the idea of Bucky taking his time to pick photos that meant something to the both of you.

“I think that..” You shake your head in an attempt to rid yourself of the painful reminders. “I think you should go.” You stand up suddenly, your hands pushing gently at his chest.

Bucky’s eyes widen as his hands come up grip your arms in an attempt to stop you. “Woah. Let’s talk about this. I’m just trying to figure everything out.”

“Figure it out? What is there to figure out, Bucky?” You cry out, shoving harder. “If you don’t know how you feel then you should figure it out on your own.” You move past him to open the door.

Bucky follows after you hastily. “Sweetheart, wait, please. I just need a moment.” You grip his forearms tightly using Bucky’s own momentum against him as you guide him to the hallway outside your room. “I wasn’t expecting this. We have articles and photos and interviews planned about a break-up tomorrow.”

“I shouldn’t have said anything, Bucky.” The two of you are back where your night began. Opposite sides of the door as you stare, unsure of what to say. “Let’s just pretend this never happened, okay? The article will be published and we’ll confirm it and life will move on.”

The door slams shut in his face without warning, not giving him a chance to say anything else. You stare blankly at the ugly, green shade its painted in silence as you remind yourself; It was all fake. A script you had been given and followed to a tee. One you had gotten too caught up in.

You’re feelings don’t change the ending.

There’s a slow knock on your door. You suck in a breath as you move to open it an apology on the tip of your tongue.

“Bucky.” You’re cut off as his hands come up to rest on your cheeks and he pulls you towards him. Anything you had to say dissipates as his lips meet yours in a bruising kiss.

Your hands come up to grip his t-shirt tightly as you kiss him back your tongue slipping into his mouth while he pulls you flush against his body.

An arm wraps around your waist and Bucky pushes you back into your room, his foot kicking your door closed harshly.

The back of your knees hit the edge of your bed and you finally pull away to look at Bucky, but he speaks before you can say anything.

“Of course I’ve thought about it.” He breathes out. His eyes are wide with nerves and his cheeks flushed red. The sight of it mixed with his kiss makes your heart pound. “I’ve thought about kissing you for real, not in a room filled with crew and cameras. About what it would be like to be on a date where paparazzi hasn’t been tipped off. Baby,” his hands rest on your cheeks again as he forces your eyes to meet his, “I’ve thought about it all. What it would be like to be with you, to really be with you in every way. Sometimes it’s all I think about when we’re together.”

You take pause, your eyes widening and hands freezing in place as you listen to what he’s saying. “Why didn’t you say anything then? Why’d you just pace and ask me all those questions?”

“Because I’m an idiot.” He smiles brightly when you giggle. “Because I couldn’t believe you actually felt the same way. I was in shock.” He presses a gentle kiss to your lips.

You smile up at him softly. “What do we do about the article tomorrow?” You whisper your question.

You feel giddy with excitement as Bucky’s hands land on your hips to hold you in place, flush against him. “We deny it.”

“What about our managers?” Your smile doesn’t fade even as stress over the situation arises. “And…And our separate interviews tomorrow?”

“What are they gonna do? Fire us?” Bucky smiles. “We’ll tell them all about how in love we still are. That the source in the article was a dud and we’ve just been private recently as the show wraps.”

“We will?” You ask quietly. Your heart racing at his words. “You want to say all that?”

Bucky nods his head. “I do.”

You don’t say anything else he leans in for another kiss, you could worry tomorrow.

Bonus -> The Next Day

liked by buckybarnes, samwilson and 134,759 others

yourinstagram the final season of our show premieres this weekend and we’re so excited for you all to see how it ends. the first photo is from tonight and the second from our first season! the past six years has brought me so much joy and i’m so grateful for everything this show has given me. most importantly though, i’m thankful for you, bucky barnes. my adrian to my lucia. my best friend. my lover. thanks for making this show so fun.

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samwilson we made a great show. love you guys.

buckyfan thought y’all were a pr stunt lmao

yourinstagram apparently you’re not supposed to really fall in love for those to work…

buckybarnes i am most grateful for you. you made work worth it every god damn day.

yourfan my favorite couple on and off the screen.

— ➶ —

notes -> this is my first ever time joining a writing challenge, it really pushed me to work through block and focus on this instead of letting is die out like i have with other projects despite liking them so much!

(hoping you guys don’t hate the extra instagram idea, i just felt it fit in!)

hopefully you enjoyed and if you did, reblogs are greatly appreciated!

[lovelybarnes]

pebbles- b. barnes

pairings: bucky barnes x reader, mentions of other characters

warnings: broken glass, language, i can’t remember anything else?

about: based off of this

he is aware of how dumb this is- too aware of how stupid he looks, standing outside of the apartment you’d gotten for situations specifically like this: when you were mad and knew how little bucky had to do to get you to forgive him, even when you didn’t particularly want to yet.

the most relevant- and the reason he’s standing in front of your apartment with an obnoxiously large boombox over his shoulders- was his forgetting a date. a date that wouldn’t have been a big deal if you hadn’t constantly talked about it for months, considering your excitement for planning a date “he deserved,” in your words. it took months to set up, thanks to the authentic vintage items you ordered for him. he felt horrible about it, and his heart fell into the pit of his stomach when his eyes fell on your decorated room, candles blown out and the food you spent hours making deep in the trash can. the grin he wore from his night out dropped like the hair you twisted delicately into the intricate hairstyle after ripping out the stunning hair clips you had bought two weeks before.

he had barely been able to see you for a minute before you shook your head with glossy eyes, murmuring that it was fine when it clearly wasn’t, and he was nearly too caught up to notice how marvelous you looked, the ghost of the makeup you carefully applied, with red lips and shiny silver nails, tiny constellations of stars hanging off your ears. he was left to stare at the trail of disappointment you left when you walked away, and then finger the dress he remembered seeing on pretty girls at dances that could never compare to you. he squeezed his eyes shut in frustration at himself, smelling your perfume on the dress that he’d probably never see on you- and it was his fault.

he had let sam convince him that you needed space and left you alone for all of twenty- three hours and fifty minutes before calling you every ten minutes to apologize profusely. he called until your voicemail was full and natasha was jamming a finger in his chest because she had actually gotten through to you, which meant she knew exactly what happened (and she was angry, understandably). at least he now knew your phone wasn’t broken, although he never truly thought it was; he wasn’t stupid enough to believe so.

now, he was regretting ever talking to steve, and now pondering how he ever thought asking steve-never-had-a-girlfriend-rogers for relationship advice was a good idea. but it was either him or sam, who would absolutely push him into a lake if he had the chance. steve’s advice was obvious, something along the lines of incorporate your sorry into something she likes, which was confusing, but bucky figured it out (contrary to the current situation, he really wasn’t that stupid).

so at the moment, he was trying to figure out how a boombox worked. he was from the forties, and he had barely figured out how to work a cell phone- thanks to you.

muttering a curse under his breath, he jammed his flesh finger on one of the comically large buttons continuously, flinching when it suddenly began to ring out a song at an unreasonable ear- piercing volume.

why did you have to be so obsessed with rom coms, and why did they have to be so ridiculous?

he hoisted it on his shoulders and waited, calling out your name. after a minute of his ears begging him to stop, he grunted, unsure if the reason you hadn’t made your way over to your window was because you hadn’t heard him or because you had.

putting the huge thing down, he remembered a scene from one of the movies you’d made him watch a few weeks ago. he raised an eyebrow and picked up a small rock, contemplating where this was a good idea or not, and decided fuck it- what’s the worse that can happen?

breaking your window, he realizes soon after, is the worst thing that could happen, but he consoles himself by remembering it could’ve hit you, but that doesn’t help much when he hears your startled yell. he cringes for underestimating his super soldier strength, glancing at the metal palm where the pebble had once laid.

“what the fu-” he hears soon after, a string of curses following, and your wild form running to your window with a gun grasped in your hand, “what was- bucky?” you ask, putting the weapon down and squinting at him.

he honestly doesn’t know what to say, and the sounds of the song from the boombox are still loud and right next to him. “i’m sorry! i’m trying to apologize!”

“you’re trying to- you broke my window!” you yell, pointing at the shattered glass.

he winces, “i- i was trying to be romantic? like in the movies!”

you shake your head and cut him off with a hand on his chest, “it’s okay, i was really angry at you and i still am, but the- this whole thing- it’s the sweetest thing anyone has done for me. you owe me a window, but i forgive you, you big dumb idiot.”

you look at him, and he’s surprised when he hears you laugh, your head tilted back. “wait for me down there!” you request, and he does, staying in the same, sheepish position when you come down.

“doll, i am so sorry for- for everything. the date and the window- which i will pay for-”

bucky’s chest rumbles underneath your fingers when he laughs, and his arms pull you closer, pressing kisses to the crown of your head. the song is still playing when you pull away and you push at the box with your feet, “how do you turn this off?” you ask, and bucky hesitates.

“i… think we’re going to need to call shuri for that.”

[divine-mistake]

The Cracks in Our Reality (1)

Summary: Loki hates the Executive Manager of the Avengers Tower because she’s too loud and too sarcastic and too kind and too soft, especially to him, who really doesn’t deserve it.

Characters: Loki/Plus-sized (f)Reader

Warnings: 18+ (no smut), language, violence

A/N: Thanks for reading my first ever fanfiction! Updates weekly on Saturday.

Series Masterlist | AO3 | Playlist

The first time he hears her voice, it is shrill and shrieking and about his brother, so of course he hates it.

“Thor’s here?” Loki hears as they walk down the hallway. When he gambles and glances to his side, Thor’s lips are split with the biggest grin Loki’s seen him wear since they touched down in Midgard. Vacantly, he guesses it’s a fangirl who’s waiting for his brother—how typical.

It’s always like this.

And as they approach the room from which the light is bleeding into the hallway, Thor’s fangirl shouts again, “Why didn’t you tell me? Where the hell is he?”

Thor crosses the threshold into Loki’s new world in three long strides. Unlike his brother, Loki sticks to the shadows, only moving close enough to see what is awaiting him past the corner of the corridor. It’s all one big blur of motion, really, as Thor strides through the Avengers Tower and scoops a young woman off her feet, into his arms, and Loki’s reflex is to curl his lip in sneer. 

He looks away and ignores the girlish giggles, choosing to survey his new surroundings instead. With one wide sweep of the room, he indexes four familiar faces.

Stark, who's watching his brother and the fangirl, shoulders drawn up and tight in defense.

Rogers, America’s Golden Boy, with his biceps bulging from where his arms are crossed.

Banner. He smiles and Loki feels a mixture of fear and guilt swirl viciously inside him.

And Romanoff, who’s staring right at him, her eyes narrowed, a twitch in her index finger. Evidently she’s not forgiven his sins either. Not that it matters—as quickly as she could pull the handgun strapped to her thigh on him, he could vanish in half that.

There’s only one person Loki can’t catalogue, can’t connect her face to a name, and it’s the fangirl Thor is spinning around the room with, her legs swinging wildly in the air.

She shouts his brother’s name jubilantly, the loudest sound in the room, their laughs mingling together like the sweet and spice of mead.

“My lady!” Thor squeezes her to his body in a tight grip once they stop twirling in place, and then she’s kicking her feet until her polished black heels slide off and hit the floor, fists pounding on his shoulder.

Well, a fangirl surely wouldn’t do that.

“Put me down you big puppy man, you obnoxious God, you are killing me—” The woman is wheezing even as she yells, quite dramatically really, and Loki’s sneer starts to turn into a frown. Who is she to talk to the King of Asgard with such disrespect? As much as Loki loves to see Thor ridiculed, her casual relationship with his brother irritates him more than he anticipated.

Thor drops her onto her bare feet with a delicate softness Loki’s never witnessed before, and the woman settles herself, pulling her dress down and brushing imaginary dust from the fabric, and then she turns up to look at his brother and she wears the most gorgeous smile on her face Loki might ever have witnessed.

“Welcome back to Earth,” she quips, her voice much gentler now, and Loki decides right then and there that he doesn’t just hate her voice.

He hates her.

“It’s good to be back, my lady. Have you been well?”

She opens her mouth to speak, but Stark cuts her off immediately.

“Pleasantries later, ” he says, taking a step toward Loki’s direction. “Reindeer Games is lurking in the shadows over there and it’s making me second guess this whole shebang.”

That’s his cue. Loki slinks out from the corridor and into the light of the common room, and all eyes are on him. He basks in the attention like a cat basks in the sun. This is the first time in a long time he's been on Midgard without chains seizing his hands and feet—his mouth is free of a muzzle and he’s going to use it.

“Stark,” he purrs, but his eyes flit around the room, passing over every single Avenger that’s now standing defensively. “Always a pleasure to be in your presence.”

Vaguely, he’s aware of how the woman has taken to Thor’s side, where his brother is sheltering her under his arm, but he doesn’t break Stark’s stare to look at her. What care does he have for one of Thor’s fangirls anyway?

“You brought your brother here?” she asks, and Loki relishes in the hint of fear hiding itself within the confusion in her voice.

“Did they not tell you?” Thor sounds increasingly worried.

“No,” she hisses, “they did not. What the fuck is going on, Tony?”

Rogers moves closer now, and Loki lends his gaze to the way the super soldier’s hand falls upon the woman’s shoulder, swallowing it. She bristles slightly at his touch and it amuses him for a moment. Maybe she dislikes America’s Golden Boy just as much as he does.

“We meant to tell you, sweetheart,” Rogers says, his voice gentle. 

Disgusting. Is she everyone’s fangirl in this cursed tower? 

“It slipped my mind after the mission a few nights ago. I’m sorry we didn’t warn you.”

She shrugs Rogers’ hand off her shoulder, but Thor holds onto her tightly. Loki feels like his eyes will burn out of his head from how long he’s been staring, how rigid his body, how much he wants to be anywhere but here right now.

“Are you serious?” Loki isn’t sure he’s seeing the same woman who was just looking at his brother like he was the sun, what with the way she’s glaring at Stark now. “Was I the last to know about this? Is there a room ready for him? Does the press—oh god, the fucking press doesn’t know about him, do they? Tony, I’m going to have to call a press conference. I’m going to have to rebook all the schedules. Are you shitting me?”

Then, she whirls on him, slipping out from beneath Thor’s arm and marching up to him like he isn’t the crazed man who tried to subjugate New York a few years prior. As if he isn’t a God. As if he couldn’t crush her frail body beneath the nail of his smallest finger.

He doesn’t know whether to be impressed or frightened, so Loki settles for the burning hatred that’s been crawling over his skin since he entered the Tower.

She juts out a hip, places her hand on it, and looks straight up at him. “Do you even want to be here?”

No. Of course not.

But no one ever bothers to ask Loki what he wants, and now this puny Midgardian has done so within the first five minutes of even knowing him, and he doesn’t even know her name but there is so much heat searing through him and he hates her.

She isn’t much, really. She’s small in stature, her head barely grazing his brother’s shoulders, forcing her to crane her neck as she addresses Loki. If she were to kneel at his feet now, she’d be the perfect height for him to take his pleasure. He quickly rips the thought away and throws it to the fire growing in his veins.

But she is curvy, that much is sure. She is much thicker than the slim Midgardian women he’s seen on his journeys here, much softer than the Asgardian warriors who are built with muscle alone. Loki can’t keep staring at her, he can’t. Her eyes are narrowed, but bright in the lighting of the common room. Her lips, painted a brilliant shade of red, are twisted into some sort of puckered frown that makes him wonder how well she’d fare when he played tricks on her.

He scoffs at her, rolling his eyes and looking away, because Norns, what is he supposed to say?

The truth?

“Banner, why don’t you walk Rabbit to her room?” Stark calls, and when Loki looks back at him, they’re locked in another stare. Loki feels a wave of something new, something bordering on shame, something that has him grasping for a scepter not in his hand and eyeing the bright blue beam of light in Stark’s chest. He still remembers what it felt like, that day he invaded New York.

It doesn’t feel good to remember, so like with all things, he pushes it to the back of his mind and replaces it with a smirk.

“What?” The woman—Rabbit, her name, perhaps—turns her glare on Stark once again. “You can’t just drop an Asgardian in the middle of my living room, ruin all my carefully crafted schedules for the next month and a half, and then tell me to go to my room like a child!”

“Run along now, little girl,” Loki mocks, and when she recoils at his words and takes a step back like she’s shocked, the heat that’s been building in his blood is suddenly ice. Her face is different now, brows drawn in anger, and her whole body stiffens and Loki feels like he does when he changes back into his native form.

Until she draws up a finger at him, storming toward him, ire flashing in her eyes with every step she takes, and Loki is alive again. His tongue is sharp, ready to meet her shrill demands, but Thor reaches out and grabs her with one sweep of his arm. She’s tugged back into his brother’s grasp, held closely to the broad expanse of Thor’s chest, and Loki stamps out his rising excitement. His brother ruins everything.

“My lady,” Thor says, “my brother lacks tact around pretty women, but he is harmless, I assure you.”

Loki lets his eyes drag from the top of her head down to the tips of her bare toes, still twisting against the floor as if she’s trying to break away from Thor’s hold, their lacquer catching the shine of the light. She painted them pink. Loki doesn’t think she’s all that pretty—he’s seen better in Midgard alone.

But then she mumbles something under her breath that sounds wickedly similar to “He’ll be harmless once I maim him with my shoe,” and Loki has to swallow back the laugh threatening at his lips.

The woman rips herself out of Thor’s grasp, shoving him away. Comically, Thor pretends as though her strength is enough to move him, feigning a stumble backward. Then, she picks up her heels from where they dropped to the floor and slips them onto her feet, and suddenly Loki could press his nose into the top of her head at this height.

“C’mon then, Bruce.” Without looking, she begins to stride toward the hallway, brushing past Loki. “We’ll let the boys pretend they have their shit under control.”

As she speaks, her eyes cut back to Loki, gaze burning. He isn’t sure a woman has ever looked at him with this much contempt before and gotten away with it. Banner quickly follows her and Loki listens to the rhythmic click of her heels all the way down the corridor until the elevator dings, and then she’s gone for good.

Her scent, floral and clean, clings to his nose for the rest of the night. He hates it.

“They call it community service here in Midgard!” Thor says, beaming. Loki wants to tear his brother's lips from his face, to burn that smile off his visage.

“You say that as if I should be proud,” Loki snarls back.

His room in the Tower is quaint. It’s more than Stark should offer him, that’s for sure, but Loki guesses it’s only more than a prison cell for the sole reason that it’s connected to Thor’s apartment and they don’t want the brothers to be separated. At the very least, it’s furnished. The bed is soft and big enough to share with a partner. He has a bathroom en suite. A walk-in closet to fill with clothes he doesn’t own.

Loki doesn’t own anything. Not even himself, now that he’s doing this community service on a planet he’s tried to conquer. Community service as a probationary Avenger in the stead of eternal damnation.

Thor only claps him on the back. “‘Tis better than serving a jail sentence, is it not?”

He raises a brow. “As if it isn’t imprisonment itself.”

“You should be thankful, Loki. Stark has been very cooperative with allowing you to stay here as an Avenger—”

“As a prisoner,” he interjects.

“—without threat of cells or cages or even chains.”

“And yet I am not allowed to leave the Tower.”

Thor frowns. “You tried to subjugate New York.”

Loki peruses this for a moment. He could say anything, but would it ever matter? It isn’t as if Thor’s ever understood. He didn’t understand when Loki let go and fell from the Bifrost and he sure didn’t understand when Thanos forced Loki to destroy New York. He never understands.

So instead of saying anything, Loki rolls his eyes, stalks into his room, and slams the door shut. He hopes it’ll make Thor finally leave him alone.

But Thor just stands on the other side of the door, shouting through the wood.

“This is your chance, brother. This is your chance at redemption. Do not let it go lightly, and I beg you, do not screw it up.”

Redemption—what a joke. If Odin taught Loki anything, it was that there was never going to be any redemption for him. He was lost. Irredeemable. A cold monster in the warm skin of an Asgardian. A snake who spoke in tongues, in lies and misery. Loki was nothing more than a puppet who didn’t see how his strings connected him to his master.

Loki waits until he hears Thor stomp away, until he hears the slam of the door across from his own, before he conjures an image of his mother in the palm of his hand.

He doesn’t know how long he spends looking at her, a vision spread against his fingers. The only sign that she isn’t real is the shimmering edges of Loki’s illusion. Once upon a time, when there was so much blood and sweat and tears running into his eyes, he wasn’t able to tell what was real and what was magic. Illusory images are only illusory to those of a sound mind—something Loki hasn’t always been.

Even he, the God of Lies, has a reality that can be broken. A truth that can be muddled by pain and fear until it shows what he wishes, what he would beg, the truth to look like.

A knock at the door almost sends him into a panic, flashes of the monster who haunts his nightmares creating new colors behind the back of his eyes. The illusion of Frigga dissipates into the air. Loki throws himself to his feet, flies from his bed to the door in a handful of steps, anger like a hot knife through the parts of his brain the terror hasn’t yet eaten through.

“Leave me be!” he roars at Thor from this side of the door. His hand twitches to conjure a dagger. If he opened the door, would the Mad Titan be on the other side? No. It’s only Thor. The Mad Titan is dead. 

But Loki never saw him die—how can he be sure he is truly gone?

He cannot. His reality has been bent and broken and shattered a thousand times by the Mad Titan and Loki cannot remember what is real and what is false anymore.

With a dagger in hand, Loki throws the door open, prepared to see anything—Thor, Thanos, the father he slaughtered without a thought—and yet he is still surprised by what he sees standing just outside his room.

The dagger disappears from his white-knuckled grip. The Midgardian woman’s eyes are wide, like moons, the depth of color in her irises the crevices and craters. She takes a step back and Loki sees her hands trembling.

His lips part to apologize. Pride seizes in his chest and he closes his mouth. His breathing is labored, chest heavy with the rise and fall of every tight contracting of his lungs. She’s holding something in her arms. A tray is set beside her on the floor, a few scattered plates of Midgardian food sitting atop it.

The silence between them is deafening.

In a moment all too soon, her eyes narrow into slits and she rolls her shoulders back, straightening her spine and drawing up to her full height. Loki reminds himself that he can crush her. He could kill her with one strike of his boot. She is nothing, and the ice that is making a slow crawl up every disc in his back isn’t guilt, it’s caution.

How dare a mortal as small as she look at him like that? He is the Prince of Asgard, the Rightful King of—

“Fuck you,” she spits, and it’s Loki’s turn to recoil. Instantly, the edges of his vision turn red and he hopes, shamefully, that his eyes are flashing the same dreadful, savage color as a means to scare her into submission.

His nostrils flare with his indignation. “How dare you—” he starts, but she throws whatever she had been holding at his chest and Loki instinctively grabs it. It’s soft against his cold hands.

“I thought you might be hungry,” she hisses, venom dripping from every word. “I thought you might need some extra fucking blankets. Excuse me for being nice, Your Highness.”

The way the word rolls off her tongue makes his fingers tighten in the downy fabric she’s given him. He should feel good. In fact, he tips his chin upward to look down upon her from the slope of his nose. But he doesn’t feel good.

“I don’t need anything from you, little girl,” he sneers. “I have no business with you.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, jutting out that damn hip again.

“Actually, you’ll have much more business with me from now on, Your Highness.” With a grace he wasn’t sure she had, she draws up a hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, eyes never leaving his. “I’m the Executive Manager of the Avengers Tower. You’ll be seeing much more of me, and unfortunately, I’ll be seeing much more of you.”

Loki scoffs. “A mortal such as yourself could hardly provide me with anything satisfactory.”

He glances, almost imperceptibly, at the dinner tray she’s brought up to him. Loki swallows a lump in his throat.

She shrugs. “Whatever. You can be an asshole if you want. I’ll still do my job whether you like it or not because I’m a professional and I’m damn good at what I do.”

Her eyes flash with something dangerous, and then she’s taken two steps forward and is craning her neck up to look at him, on her tiptoes in an attempt to match his height. Her pointer finger is just below his chin.

It brings him an exhilaration he hasn’t felt in centuries, a thrill trembling through his nerves.

“But if you ever draw a knife on me again, you’ll regret it.”

He laughs, flashing her a predatory grin, but she doesn’t back down.

“I sincerely doubt that,” he says, his tone mocking.

Her lips peel back to reveal a set of pearly teeth, and though her mouth softens, her eyes are as sharp as the blade of his dagger.

“I do the bidding of every Avenger in this tower,” she tells him. “You, included. Every single person in this entire building owes me a favor. I’m not beneath calling on every one of them to knock you down a peg, Your Highness.”

Loki watches as she lowers herself back down, rolling off the balls of her feet. He’s gripping the door frame so hard he can feel the wood giving beneath his fingers. There is something so vexatious about this woman that he can’t discern.

“If you need anything, you can ask FRIDAY to let me know. You can call me Rabbit—it’s what everyone else here calls me, and Tony’s annoyingly programmed the AI to call me that, too. Enjoy your lonesome night, Your Highness.”

She turns on her heel before he has a chance to reply, strutting out of his apartment and disappearing around a corner. He hears the quiet ding of the elevator, just as he did earlier, signaling her departure.

Loki looks down at the tray of food she’s left behind. With one angry breath, a wave of magic bursts forth from his body, sending the plates crashing against the walls of the apartment. Food smears down every surface. Ceramic and glass mingle in shattered pieces. It’s immature. It’s childish. He knows this, but he can’t stop himself. Fury pulses at his fingertips, hot like the burn of ice.

He hates her.

Next Chapter

Taglist: @poetic-fiasco @suffocatinglypositive @melancholic-metanoia 

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 13 first part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Endeavors) 

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Don’t Have a Leg to Stand on

Wei Wuxian starts off asking Lan Wangji to let him help, citing, not for the first time, "all we've been through together" as a reason they should share their troubles. Later, all they go through apart will make it even harder for them to share their troubles. 

Using paperman, Wei Wuxian asks Wen Qing for help, and she calls for a rest stop. Lan Wangji sits down and Wei Wuxian goes to get him some water.

Wei Wuxian stupidly bows to Wen Qing to thank her, causing her to contemplate what a terrible spy he would be. She avoids talking to him while he looks at her with deep friend-yearning, in a moment of blatant het baiting.

Overly-dramatic backache guy is my hero. His back and shoulders are trashed after a stroll on a smooth path. Same, backache guy, same.

Jiang Cheng comes along to tell Wei Wuxian not to pay attention to Wen Qing.

Also, don't pay attention to Lan Wangji. Do you sense the theme here, bro?

(more after the cut)

Wei Wuxian actually takes the hint and cuddle-walks with Jiang Cheng for a bit, gossiping about Wen Chao and his girlfriend.

Jiang Cheng drops a seemingly-insignificant bit of information about swords requiring spiritual power. 

He will not think of this later when his brother starts wielding a flute.

Talisman Magic

After looking around a wide open beach area, the cultivators are unable to find the hidden cave, and are ready to give up. Wei Wuxian decides that's a good time for him to start looking.

Jiang Cheng continues his hopeless quest to get Wei Wuxian to stop doing stuff. Wei Wuxian decides to help Wen Chao find his "murder all the clan heirs" cave, locating it with hardly any effort.

Is Wei Wuxian the only cultivator who uses talismans at this point?  Seeing all the baby Lans using them in Episode 1 makes it seem like they're not unusual, but he seems to be the only one in this generation.

This makes a strong impression on a lot of people. Jiang Chang isn't happy about it, and walks away from his brother.

Side note: these two are the literal worst, and yet they have...kind of great chemistry? I want to see these actors as the secondary, comic-relief couple in a modern light-hearted romance. 

It's hard to tell from this look exactly what Lan Wangji thinks about Wei Wuxian's cave-finding, but from this point on, they are walking together, and Lan Wangji is letting Wei Wuxian hold his arm to help him. 

Wanting to fight monsters is kind of high on their list of shared interests, and every time they go questing, they get closer to each other.

Spelunking

The cave filming location is freaking awesome, with apparently real bats.

Sure, give torches to the two most dangerous prisoners, great thinking, Wen Chao. 

MianMian, who has been a perfectly sensible and competent cultivator up until this point, suddenly becomes clumsy and helpless, which is probably just as annoying for her as it is for the people who are used to relying on her. Everyone's entitled to a bad day, but jeez, writers.

Lan Wangji has stopped worrying about his busted leg and is super eager to find the monster. 

Wei Wuxian unwisely points out that they can’t see what’s at the bottom of the cave, which inspires Wen Chao to play a quick round of Fuck/Marry/Cliff with him. 

Reactions to seeing Wei Wuxian yeeted off a cliff are varied.

Down at the bottom of the cave, the cultivators stand around helplessly until Wei Wuxian uses a talisman to light up the back of the cave. Seriously, what do these wankers do on their night hunts? They’re hopeless at hunting. 

None of them remarks on the strangely turtle-shaped rock in front of them. To be fair, I don't think Wen Chao told them what sort of monster they're looking for.

Picking on Mian Mian Some More

Wen Chao wants to bleed someone in order to draw out the monster. Instead of just asking everyone to cough up some blood, which any c-drama character can do on command, he wants to cut someone up. 

His girlfriend is a nasty jealous person, so she wants to use MianMian as bait. Wei Wuxian starts to move to protect her and Lan Wangji beats him to it.

HEY HEY HEY now! I never noticed before, but Wei Wuxian isn’t actually an idiot for thinking Lan Wangji likes MianMian!

Lan Wangji might have leaped to protect her because he’s chivalrous--protecting the weak and so forth--or he might have done it to keep Wei Wuxian safe. 

*We* know he definitely didn’t do it because of a crush on her. When Lan Wangji has a crush on someone, he shows it by trying to stab them to death. But it’s not unreasonable for Wei Wuxian to interpret this as “man protects pretty girl he likes.”

Wei Wuxian breaks the terrible news to Jiang Cheng that they might have to actually help their friends to, like, not die.

Fight Fight Fight

Sure enough, fighting breaks out, and the three heirs and Wei Wuxian immediately grab swords away from their opponents and start kicking their asses. Feudalism really does bring the best quality people to the top!

After casually cutting a Wen dude’s throat, probably with that dude’s own sword, Wei Wuxian brings out his most lethal weapon, going verbal on Wen Chao. Initially this comes off like WWX being obnoxious and hassling an enemy when he should be focusing on sword fighting. But he's actually making a strategic move here to win the fight. 

Through the power of talking, and having actually done his homework, Wei Wuxian gets Wen Chao to insult his own ancestor. This is rude and hugely unlucky, and is also specifically against the Wen clan rules. In fact, it carries the death penalty, which Wei Wuxian gleefully taunts Wen Chao about.

Wen Zhuliu, who is a better Wen than Wen Chao, is super embarrassed by his junior boss's dumbfuckery...which distracts him.

As this goes on, Wei Wuxian’s companions become more and more aware that he’s about to make a move. Jin Zixuan has been on the receiving end of this play himself. 

Wen Chao is a really weak fighter, and always relies on Wen Zhuliu, carefully keeping himself out of danger whenever fighting happens. But Wei Wuxian's goading gets to him and he rushes forward. 

Wei Wuxian instantly disarms him and takes him hostage, while Jiang Cheng leaps into battle with the only really dangerous opponent in the room.

Jiang Cheng takes a scary but not core-crushing hand strike to the chest, but the battle stops when Wei Wuxian threatens Wen Chao's life.

He talks directly to Wen Zhuliu, who knows a killer when he sees one. Long before visiting the burial mounds, Wei Wuxian is entirely ruthless when necessary. Here he goes from whimsical to deadly in a heartbeat. 

This is a part of him that Lan Wangji doesn't really acknowledge...yet. 

Everyone drops their weapons. Unfortunately Wei Wuxian decided to stand on the turtle shaped rock, so this advantage won’t last.

Part Two coming soon!

[undercoverwizardfanfiction]

Drowning Chapter 1:

No Good Deed

Summary: “Are you ok?” Donnie calls. “If you’re dead let me know. I have dibs on your comics if something happens to you.”

Characters: Leo and Donnie

Pairings: [sitting in rocking chair] Ya know, in mah day we didn’t ship ever living breathing thing.

“Yes they did Charmy you were just in denial-“

“SHUT UP DENNIS IM BEING OLD AND WISE!”

warning: slight injury and blood and feral writer

Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

“-then put out fire by peeing no get invited back.”

Leo was grateful he had paused in eating his popcorn out of his backwards hoodie hood as he snorted loudly letting out a loud laugh that no one on earth would think was likable. “Chandler you so get me,” he says, readjusting his position on the armchair and watching the shenanigans continue. The living room was covered in empty soda cans and popcorn he had been trying to trick shot into his mouth (his track record was less than impressive) his blanket gave out a crunching noise every time he shifted around. “Chandler you are a treasure this world does not deserve.” He reaches for another soda only to come up empty. He frowns as he rolls over and looks into his cooler to find his supply had dwindled, “Awww.” He presses pause on the tv and rolls onto the floor. His butt is so numb that he isn’t sure he had one anymore. But he finally manages to climb to his feet and make his way through the too quiet lair. But his arduous journey revealed that all the sodas he had bought had mysteriously disappeared.

The red slider turtle throws his head back and wails in despair, “DONNNNNIEEE!!!!” With all the dramatics of a theatre mom he fumbles and flails his way into his brother’s room, lit only by his computer screen. “Donnie didn’t you hear me?!?!?!”

“I did and I ignored you,” Donnie responds only by looking at his other monitor, “Obviously.”

“But Donnnieieee I’m thirssttttty and there’s no more ‘Jalapeño Oh No' soda in the fridge!!!” he drapes himself over his brother like a dramatic blanket. “Go buy me sooooome.”

“Ummm.” Don makes a show of thinking. “No? I’m going with no.”

Leo puffs up his cheeks. He knew there was very little chance of Donnie doing as he wanted but it still hurt. Instead, he turns his attention to Don’s screens. “Blue prints? Are you finally getting your revenge on Webster’s headquarters for changing the spelling of theater?”

“No, that’s next week.” Don scoots his seat back and at first Leo isn’t sure what he’s doing then realizes he’s giving him room to see the screen. “This is the power grid I have set up around the sewers. It controls the security, intercepts anything that could be given to the city, and warns me of any overflow.” He taps the screen over the darkened area that, judging by Leo’s estimate, takes over at least ten blocks. “This is interference. I need to get down there and figure out what’s going on. Unfortunately, it has to wait till Raph and Dad get back.”

“What why?” This was almost better than tv, this was something to do. “You need a spotter right? I’ll go with you!”

Donnie throws his head back with a loud obnoxious laugh. “Ha HA no, you’re the worst spotter ever. Last time you made me play ‘what am I sliding down your shell?’“

“I won't do that this time!” Probably. Leo couldn’t help the pout that escapes him as he crosses his arms. But Donnie has already turned back to his computer to try to remotely fix it from his location. Leo, not having the energy to go back to the living room, pulls over one of Don’s spare chairs and sits down. Though he plays on his phone, he keeps glancing at Donnie to make sure he knew that he was annoyed. But after a few minutes Don’s phone went off with Raph’s name on the caller ID.

Leo snatches the phone up first and puts on his best Donnie impression, ”You are conversing with Dorkatellosaurous-“ but suddenly he feels Donnie pinch him on his arm. The sudden pain makes him drop the phone with a more than dramatic yelp. Donnie easily catches the phone out of the air, ”THIS is Donatello, that was just our most annoying brother ever,” he says twisting in his seat long enough to kick out at him. But the red slider dodges with a maniacal giggle as he slides out of range of further violence.

Leo can’t hear the other side of the conversation. But Don’s brow furrows. “What still? I told you, if you want Mikey to get a tetanus shot willingly you have to bribe him. I don’t care how many times he bit you- he bit Draxum too?” Donnie shakes his head, slapping at Leo as he snorts. Leo had always thought he was the worst one when it came to getting shots. Except the sight of a needle always seemed to bring out Mikeys most animalistic instincts. “Ok, so get a broom, chase him out from the chimney and get home.” Donnie hangs up his phone with a sigh as he leans back in his seat. Leo scoots his chair closer again with his fists both tucks under his chin with a big grin. Donnie peers at him from between his fingers before giving out a loud sigh.

——————-

“-So apparently Ross’s lesbian ex-wife, by the way good for her, is pregnant with his son. And Ross doesn’t get along with her new partner. What was her name?” Leo thinks hard (almost as hard as Donnie is trying to ignore him) as he side-steps a puddle barely illuminated by the swinging light that lines the sewer tunnel. “Sally??Sarah-“

“Susan,” Donnie says without looking up from his tech gauntlet.

“Suzan!” Leo snapped his fingers. ”Knew I’d remember it!! Wait, is it a Suzan with a Z or Susan with as s-“ he is so enraptured he didn’t notice Donnie reaching over and flicking him hard on the side of the head. “Ow! What??”

“I know you’re excited to watch a sitcom literally everyone has seen, but I need you to focus on what you’re doing. You can info dump on me when we get back I promise.”

“I am, I ammmm! I’m just having fun! I think Ross is my favorite character so far.”

“I.” Donnie blinks and stops walking,” Ross? Monica’s older brother Ross?”

“Yeah, I mean you don’t? He’s a – a- palllytollygist-“-“

“-A paleontologist, you could not have says that more wrong-“

“-HE likes dinosaurs just like you do! You’ve seen every Jurassic Park, World AND Land Before Time movie twenty times a year.”

Donnie raises his head and opens his mouth like wants to say something before shaking his head as though deciding against it. “Nope, gotta find out for yourself.” He returns to his gauntlet even as Leo glared at him. Which probably meant that Donnie was debating spoiling the series for him right then and there, not that it would be the first time (they had a bad habit of ‘spoil revenging’ each other and it was definitely Donnies turn). “Ok Leo we’ll get this done so you can get back to your twenty seven year old sitcom.” Ah, so the villain was going to wait till Leo had something he wanted and hold his spoilers hostage? Leo couldn’t lie, he’d do the same thing.

“And I am sorry I pulled you away, I would have done this alone except the last time I did both Dad and Raph lectured me for two hours.” Donnie rolls his eyes tiredly. “And since they're both at Draxum’s trying to give Mikey a tetanus shot I really had no choice in the matter.”

“Eh, it’s ok bud. My butt was getting numb anyway.” Leo says with a wide grin. He knew just as well as Donnie how important it was to have a spotter when out doing maintenance in the sewers.

Ever since they were tots Splinter had lectured over and over again about the dangers of the sewers (sometimes with facts, sometimes with sock puppets; once in song). But it was a danger they had to eventually learn how to live with so there were certain rules. One of the biggest ones was to never venture in the sewers alone. This was the rule Don broke more than anyone else, more so because of all the sensors and security he had set up around the sewers to help keep their lair safe from the dangers of over-flooding and discovery. So in a way Leo was proud Donnie had actually gotten him rather than rolled his eyes and gone out on his own.

They came to a fork in the path when Donnie stopped walking, looking from the left and right tunnel to his gauntlet, tapping it lightly with the side of his fist. “See? that’s the problem,” Donnie explaines, “When the wires get corrupted it's not as easy to follow the path.” Leo had been about to ask what they should do when the lights in the left tunnel flicker. “There we go, that’s what we’re looking for.” He gestures for Leo to follow before a stick with a light on the end lights up the darkening tunnel. Leo follows close to his brother’s shell. Don, without looking at him, pats him on the hand. “It’s ok. In and out. Once we get the power fixed the lights will be back on.”

“Right.” He knows that. It wasn’t that Leo was afraid of the dark, but was more afraid of what the dark held. Alligators, mutant gold fish, realtors. They finally reached an opening. In the dark Leo could see something sparking from the wall that had to be the source of Donnie’s problem. It overlooks a large tunnel not unlike that one they tubed down except this one was dry. And it had a rusty metal railing to keep someone from falling down. Overall, it wasn’t the best kept tunnel. Donnie taps his gauntlet a few times and a moment later the power box finally stops sparking leaving the only visible light coming from Donnie’s battle shell, at first Leo worries it wouldn’t be enough before the light begins to swell again.

“There we go.” Donnie pulls out a static pen from his bag. “Now you stand there, don’t touch anything, and when Raph and Dad get back vouch for me ok?”

“No prob, bud,” Leo says with a mock salute. “But couldn’t you have just done this from the lair?”

“I wish. I probably could have at some point but eventually the damage became so bad that I couldn’t even get a reading let alone redirect anything.” From his tone Leo could tell that his brother regretted putting it off so long. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was the oozequitos crisis or the shredder crisis that kept him from down here. Donnie opens the rusty power box with ease. The fact the hinges were in good shape told Leo he had been maintaining it at some-point. After a few seconds of poking Donnie steps back and taps his gauntlet again. The room lights up fully. “There we go. That’s one problem solved,” he says before disappearing behind the panel again.

Soon all there is, is the sound of the soldering pen hissing against the wires. After a bit, Donnie reaches into his battle shell and pulls out a few cables, hooking them into the power box, not offering Leo an explanation. Without the dark to occupy his unfounded fears, it didn’t take long for boredom to take over. With a groan he walks over and leans on the railing and pulls out his phone. Puffing up his cheek in irritation when he lacks a signal to do little more than use his calculator app. “Don’t you have a signal booster in your battle shell?”

“Not this one. It won't take long, just be patient,” Donnie says.

Damn it, so much for getting to the season one finale. He’s about to start his favorite nonmobile game, ‘see how long it takes to annoy Donnie,’ when a rumbling fills the air, trembling the stone beneath his feet. “OK, wow.” Leo looks around. “That was you right? Or is Raph really really hungry?”

“Yes, don’t worry, it wasn’t the alligator real estate agent.” Well, that shows Leo for telling him about his nightmares. “I’ll be done in a sec.”

“OK, cool. Do you want to order pizza when we get-“ Leo puts his hand on the railing to stand up when there’s a snapping of metal and his support suddenly disappears. He flails his arms with a shriek before he falls over the edge, rolling down the rounded wall and coming to a stop at the bottom with his face on the ground.

“Are you ok?” Donnie calls. “If you’re dead let me know. I have dibs on your comics if something happens to you.”

After a few seconds of blinking, he lets out a weak laugh, “Y-yeah I'm good.”

“Ah hell. I mean great!” the soft shell says in a way that’s clearly for Leo's amusement. The red slider grins, though still dazed from the fall, rises up on his knees, and goes to stand up when he suddenly feels a tug on his right ankle. He looks down to see it in a large crack in the ground. “Uhhh.” He pulls again. “Donnie? Buddy? I’m stuck.”

“Of for the love of-really?” Donnie’s face appears over the edge, leaning over as much as his battle shell (still connected to the panel) allows him and frowns. “Ok, hold on tight klutz. Let me finish this up and I’ll-“ a red flashing light suddenly reflects off the back of Donnie’s head that catches his attention. He looks over towards the panel before he disappears from sight. The sound of typing fills the air before pausing. “Oh f-“

“Donnie?” Leo crouches down, trying to find a weak point to pull his ankle away. But the sharp rocks had already torn through his spats and were now dangerously close to tearing his skin. Another rumbling sound fills the air followed by a new beeping sound coming from where Donnie was.

“Leo, get out of there now.” Donnie appears at the edge again, pulling hard against the cords. “NOW.”

“I-I can’t, I told you!” Leo makes a show of yanking again. “I’m stuck-“ Another rumbling fills the air, loud enough to drown the beeping that Leo now realizes are alarms. This time the sound didn’t fade and instead begins to echo around him. It took a long terrifying moment for him to realize the echoing was coming from the tunnel he was now in. The loose pebbles on the ground trembling from the force-

Donnie appears by his side, kneeling down, also grabbing a hold of Leo’s ankle. “It’s ok, Leo. It’s ok,” he promises yanking on it. Leo tries to pull on his leg but it only results in a splitting pain going up his ankle.

“OW!” he snaps. Donnie looks to him desperately before pulling out his bo staff and slamming it hard on the ground by the crack trying to loosen the grip before he looks back towards the rumbling.

“I’m going to blast it,” he says as his staff flips around to a pronged mode Leo didn’t recognize that began to hum and let off a light between the points.

“Don’t!” Leo begs, “You’ll break my leg-“

“Would you rather have a broken leg or a-“ Don’s eyes look past Leo and widen in terror. Leo looks back in time to see a giant wave of water twist around the corner of the tunnel and come crashing towards them. A perfect vision of his oldest nightmare that freezes his body. Before he can think of making a noise or crying out, he feels an arm wrap tightly around his chest and another cover his mouth and nose.

The water crashes over them, knocking all sense and logic out of him along with a stabbing pain shooting up his hip. The water pulls on him and his caught ankle like a balloon in a strong storm. The water is darker than Leo’s worst fears, burning his eyes, and for a moment he wonders if the burning is from the water or his tears joining it-

The grip around his chest tightens and suddenly he remembers he’s not alone. A light shoots past his sight and he feels the crack around his ankle explode, finally releasing it. He instinctively tries to kick it when the pain returns and his tears redouble. But the arm around his chest pulls him upward. He wants to twist around to see his brother, but the water is too strong and he worries how Donnie is able to swim against such a strong current, before remembering hearing Donnie brag about how soft shell turtles were natural swimmers.

It’s only when they break the surface does the hand over Leo’s mouth and nose disappear and he’s heaved onto the pathwy. The red slider quickly rolls away from the water’s edge. He can barely hear his own coughing over the gushing wave slowly calming down. He feels hands pulling him up into a sitting position and he’s held tightly to Donnie’s chest. The water has already robbed them both of any warmth but he clings to his brother. “It’s ok. It’s ok, bud. I got you.” Donnie says. Leo hides his face in Don’s shoulder, a mixture of coughing out the dead air in his lungs and his sobs of terror, gripping Donnie’s bicep for dear life as the soft shell strokes the back of his head and rocks him. After a few minutes when his trembling and breathing start calming down, he feels Donnie reach into Leo’s pack and pull away long enough to open it, unfolding a thin emergency blanket, and wrapping it around Leo’s shoulders. “You’re OK? You didn’t get any water in your lungs did you?”

Unable to do more than cough and sob, Leo shakes his head, holding the blanket tightly around him. Donnie moves down and looks at his ankle. Despite his gentle touch, pain shoots up his sluggishly bleeding ankle and makes him flinch. “I know it hurts. I’m sorry, but this needs to be cleaned as quickly as possible.” He cleans up the wound with a few wipes, pulls at a can of antiseptic and sprays it over the cut. Leo does his best to stay still despite the stinging that somehow seems worse than the cut itself.

“A-are you ok?” Leo asks in a weak trembling voice that feels like it doesn’t belong to him. The warm smile Donnie gives him somehow feels warmer than the blanket.

“Don’t worry about me, I wasn’t hurt.” Leo nods and lets out a slow trembling breath watching Donnie wrap his ankle. “That’ll work till we get back home.” Donnie says standing up, reaching towards him, “Let’s see if you can stand on it.“ Leo nods and takes his hands, using him to pull himself up. He puts a little weight on his ankle, only to have pain shoot up it and his hip and nearly causes his legs to fold underneath him. Donnie thankfully catches him by the arms. His brother ducks underneath his arm and lets him put his weight on him, his arm over the blanket still wrapped around Leo to keep him from losing any warmth. It’s only when Leo puts his arm around Donnie’s shoulder that he notices his battle shell is missing. He looks over his shoulder to see it laying on the ground still connected to the electric box which is now torn in half hanging from the wall. He wonders how hard Donnie had pulled against it to try and get to him before giving up and leaving it behind. Despite himself, he rests his head on his brother’s shoulder as the two start making their slow pace back towards home, grateful more than ever for Donnie.

He’s so grateful in fact, he doesn’t notice the weak rasp in Donnie’s breath.

Part 1

Part 2 >

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

[popculturebuffet]

Courage the Cowardly Dog: The Mask Review (Comission for WeirdKev27)

I’m back all you happy people! Not for a full week this week, as i’m still on vacation but for reasons I won’t get into we ended up back in town after my family drove 11 hours to where we were going... and why yes we did have to drive back another 11 hours and why YES it was like living in a living nightmare. Point is I had some extra space so in addition to covering the new Owl House later today as I figured “Why wait a few extra days when i’m here already and this way doing that one as well as Saturday’s episode?” i’m doing this one for Kev. So with all that out of the way let’s talk about Courage the Cowardly Dog. 

Courage the Cowardly Dog.. is one of my faviorite shows and one I need to rewatch more often. While it took me a long ass time to really get into horror films, first going through comics then finally dipping in my toes after seeing IT, still a great film sequel sucks don’t watch it, I still didn’t mind spooky cartoons and absoultely loved Courage as a kid> It scared the shit out of me sure but the hilaroius, horrifying, and sometimes just plain weird tales of a constantly terrified but courageous purple dog, his sweet and gullible owner, and her stupid, obnoxious, and often LITERALLY too dumb to live husband as they ran into all sorts of nasty’s ranging from a cat turning people into furniture, a french duck conman, a zombie film director hoping to kill them, THE MAN IN GAUZE THE MAN IN GAUZE KING RAMSEEEYYY, a roach asking courage to get “his stuff”, a living germ, a weevil that butters people up by serving them while serving up their brains to himself, a goose god, a storm goddess, a tornado that reverses age, a hair growth formula that makes the user explode, a vodoo snake, a gerbil that runs a kitschy amusment park and sucks people up in vacums to do weird shit... ANYTHING and everything could happen and the show could tilt from silly surrealness to utter nightmare in an instant while never loosing i’ts charm or style. It’s a one of a kind almost perfect show.. and I only say ALMOST because for whatever reason their only recurring POC characters.. are an Indian and Chinsese sterotype, the latter of whic his a massive jerk. 

Yeah I don’t expect to see Vindaloo and Di Lung in the Scooby Doo crossover or any full revivial spinning out it. 

But yeah as you can tell this series is simply precious to me and I intended to do this one last month for Pride but my schedule simply overwhelmed me. It’s why i’m cutting back from 6 to 5 reviews a week when I come back in full next week. But since I had space I offered Kev part of it, and he accepted and choose this one. And really with the series making at least a one time come back, and hopefully more, with  aformentoined crossover, I thought this was a perfect time to cover it. By the way for those curious i’m really excited for said crossover, even without series creator John R Dilworth involved, as the writer DID write Bravo Dooby Doo and for mystery inc and does seem to have a good grasp of courage judging from the trailer, and they did get both suriviving cast members of the main trio back for this. As a side note i’m also watching through EVERY Scooby Doo film I haven’t seen leading up to this with my good friend @jess-the-vampire​ for fun after watching a few with her last week. I’ve got 20 to go, with three more planned for tonight, so I shoudl be all caught up by the time SON releases in September. Might do something with that at some point. 

So why this episode? Well besides being gay as hell, it’s also one of my faviorites, and as a kid it was a close tie between this and Hunchback of Nowhere. It just had so much emotion and depth to it and that was even with me never realizing it was an allegory for abuse or involved two characters who were as gay as they could possibly let two characters be in the early 2000′s without saying it. it’s a truly great episode i’m glad to present to you under the cut, so join me won’t you?

Content warning: This review talks about domestic violence for a portion. So if this is a trigger for you, please avoid this review. 

We open in the middle of Nowhere.... which is oddly fun to say. Muriel is working in the Chicken Coop and Courage is just outside it just minding his own buisness when the latest weirdo to disrupt his quite life and try to murder him shows up. 

In this case it’s...

My nightmare for the last few weeks. Yeah something I can always give the series is character design: The monsters always have a unique and intresting look from them: a floating brain with organs and eyes, a monster made out of jelly, a uniquely retro robot, a giant weevil who uses politness as a way to get away with sucking the life out of his clients, a giant roach grifter, a three headed space duck, a roasted space duck, a bayoo snake, a gerbil, and THE MAN IN GAUZE SANTA CLASUSSS. Every villian felt fresh and exciting evne the ones that were direct homages to things. So Kitty here is no exception. 

Unlike most villians though Kitty dosen’t seem to have a clear plan apart from “Beat courage senseless with a kitchen sink because she thinks “Dogs are evilllll”. It’s a nice combo of funny, because her methods of tormeting our hero are slapstick, and disturbing as they leave real welts and bruises on our hero and she’s projecting her anger, continuting the chain of harm by hurting someone who did NOTHING wrong and blaming all of Dog Kind for it. 

So naturally Muriel.. misses Courage’s beating, ignores Kitty saying “Dogs are evillll” which is so much her catchphrase it wouldn’t look out of place on a bart simpson t-shirt

And invites her in for Dinner assuming her to be Courage’s friend because apparently all of courage’s friends nearly beat him to death. Look the woman has a heart of an especially kind whale and the self preservation instincts god gave an especially dim schnauser. The fact Kitty isn’t an elder god, a living germ,  a supernatural serial killer or Le Quack but in a wig means this is one of her better days.

So our heroes, sympathetic antagonist and Eustace all have dinner where Kitty reveals why she’s here and why she hates Dogs so much: She’s “best friends” with Bunny, a cockatoo.. no of course it’s a rabbit. She clearly is in love with her but Bunny got caught up with Mad Dog, a domestic abusing literal and metaphorical dog who threatned to murder Kitty if he smelled her around. So now Kitty’s miserable bereft of the love of her life and taking it out on all dogs.. and on Eustace and Muriel as she airs their dirty laundry, Eustace being unable to fix jack shit and  Muriel’s tendency to night snack. 

You’d THINK the fact Eustace has tried to sell Muriel on more than one occasoin would be the bigger scandal here but hey. We then get some more slapstick animal on animal abuse as Kitty continues to tourture Courage via a fish then using him to unclog the toilet, the latter leading to Eustace walking in and then awkwardly leaving. 

Not only that Kitty is staying in Courage’s attic, meaning he can’t go to his computer for help, a nice way to keep him out of the plot since otherwise Computer would break it in half. Courage then spies the most horrible thing imaginable.. Kitty.. IS A CAT. 

Well okay not bill, this week, bu tstill the sight terrifies him and he tries to portray her as a monster and warn Eustace and Muriel worried Kitty’s going to try and kill them. Muriel is of course unworried and is sympathetic to the poor girls plight even with how she’s acted, getting that Kitty.. is just lashing out. Also Courage might be racist towards Cats.. then again the only one we’ve seen in series is Katz, so like Kitty’s own hatred it’s understandable if something they should both work to ending. Hating an entire race because one member did you wrong is NEVER a good look. 

That being said while Courage being paranoid because she’s a cat is a bit please don’t be racist bud, him being paranoid in general isn’t. At this point in the series our main trio has been attacked or targeted by a Chicken from Outer Space, twice, a Cajun Fox, A Con Artist Duck (Thrice), A Weremole, Two Alien Ducks (Who while well meaning still kidnapped muriel), a Roma Chihaua (Whose also helped the multiple times, god Bless Shirley), a Goose God, a giant sapient cockroach who tried to get Courage to do somnething illegal, probably,  sell coke, a gerbil doctor, Eustace as a Kangaroo Monster, Bullfrogs, A Giant Vulture, A Fishonarry, Beavers, A Sand Whale, A Deer, and a goat. And that’s JUST the other animals. And only like a third of those are sympathetic if that. So yeah it’s kind of undrestandable to think the latest random animal to try and ruin his life who hate shim specifically wants to kill his owner and the guy who lives with her Courage keeps alive so she dosen’t die of grief. 

So Courage locks them in their room and Kitty in hers, steals a Mouse kitty owned and sets off to find some way to stop her. His plan is to go to the police which itself is bad idea but he dosen’t have other options and is convinced Kitty will be some sort of criminal. Again given that rap sheet above, it’s not as bad a plan as it sounds. 

To save time Eustace and Muriel have a subplot about getting out, Snipe at each other, eustace escapes and tries using his tools, Muriel eventually bobby pins her way out because she has to pee real bad (the reason they need to get out in the firs tplace) while eustace tries to free kitty with all his tools before trying to blow up the door real good. it actually leads to a sweet moment where Muriel helps him and convinces hi he can fix things. Kitty is gone by this point as she noticed the  Mouse was gone and decides to .. get on a train ...

Back at the actual plot courage goes to a Diner run by his friend CHARLIE!

If you don’t know who that is it’s fair as his name only comes up in this one. He’s the giant horrifying looking mouse who shows up to help courage aka

Courage: Thanks Mr Mouse! Charlie: No Prob. 

I just love him: the fact he’s courage’s friend when the dog BADLY needs some more, the fact they have a weird unexplained history that means Charlie will help Couarage whenever he gets it, or the fact he’s this big grotesque rodent.. whose easily the fourth nicest person in the series as a whole behind, in order, Muriel, Courage himself, and the Hunchback. He also has a Diner in this one which I think is his last apprance and makes me feel like he has an arc: he started out with no real job, next showed up working for a shipping company and now owns his own Diner. Or maybe he does both jobs at once. Warner has not yet greenlit a Charlie spinofff show and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. 

Charlie explains Kitty’s backstory: She and Bunny were lesbians, Mad Dog got jealous, Kitty was miserable and Bunny’s still being abused. Courage realizes that while he may still fear Kitty, and for the rest of the episode still fantasies about Kitty murdering Muriel (he dosen’t care Eustace also dies because why should he), it’s clear part of it is just him just gathering up the will to keep going: he KNOWS he’s doing the right thing but he needs to keep pushing himself.. and in most scenarios.. Muriel IS his motivatoin. This kind, sweet, naive woman adopted him, raised him and protects him whenever she notices Eustace is abusing him. SHe only BROUGHT Kitty in because she’s so nice, and if she dies it will only be because she was too kind, like it always would be if Courage wasnt’ there to save her. So even when Muriel clearly probably isn’t in danger.. he uses her anyway because that’s how he does, because that’s how his brain works.. and because if she knew what he was trying to do.. it’s what sh’ed WANT from him. It feels less like Courage is still afraid of Kitty and more he’s tryign to convince himself to keep going. 

And the odds as always are against him as he heads to the wrong side of the tracks, literally. Love a good pun, and finds Bunny unhappy with Mad Dog, clearly abbused and the portrayal of abuse.. disturbingly accurate. Mad Dog tries to portay himsef as reasonable, flies into a rage about kitty, and Bunny TRIES to escape hooking his collar onto a nearbye hook.. only to find Mad Dogs goons waiting and then doing SOMETHING to her. What is never established apart from it ending with her in a flower pot, but the fact we don’t know and poor Courage witnesses it and is powerless to do anything, much like many watching abuse as you can only do so much and Courage would loose in a straight up fight with them, only makes it worse. 

Thankfully Courage CAN help and part of the reason I love him so much is.. he always will: no matter what a foe has done to him personally if their not some grim murderous monster.. he’ll help them. If their just a person whose a bit messed up, whose family pressured them into building dams, or enslaving humanity, or are simply some orphans trying to surivive, or a sasquatch who got lost, or an ownder missing her dog.. he’ll help. Because at the end of the day Courage’s real weapon isn’t his bravery or pain tolerance... but his heart. His heart and love for muriel drive him.. how could he turn his back on someone else who just wants to be loved and not abused? 

So he naturally breaks in, digs her out and outwits Mad Dog’s goons in a great gag, simply turning out the lights and then pummeling them. He then escapes with Bunny and takes off towards the train tracks. Mad Dog then persues though in his car and our heroes are ssemingly screwed.. only for Courage to pull a bad ass, utterly heroic movie as he’ swont to do: he JUMPS into the car, steers it towards the oncoming train, and clearly isn’t ure if he’ll get out in time. He does, and mad dog is smashed into it, ending his tyranny and freeing Bunny from the chains of abuse. 

Kitty then shows up having been on the train ...

And reunites with her love, Courage happily basking in it and Kitty thanking him realizing her hatred.. was wrong. Not all dogs ar ebad and she shoudln’t pidgenhole an entire race because of one bad experince. With that Courage returns home, our heroes ar ehappy and Mad Dog is fucking dead now so all in all one of the happiest endings of the entire series. Also Eustace is using Kitty’s mask as a saftey mask. Heh. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is excellent. It has deeper meanings than I realized as a kid an dhandles abuse in a real stark and horrifying way, with Mad Dog’s only fantastical element being that he IS a dog. That’s it. Sure he gets smashed by a train but still, the fact the villian isn’t some form of literal monster, just a musecly metaphorical one makes the abuse that much more impactful, and thus Bunny’s liberation at the end and reunion with Kitty that much sweeter. thi sis an excellent episode and I highly recommend watching it. It’s on HBO Max and i’ts well worth your time, for the represntation and for the sheer quality. I’m still amazed they managed to sneak a gay couple into this show, and did so in a way that utterly holds up. Still one of my faviorites and still worth your time. See you at the next rainbow.