#why does everyone else have a proper romance

[fatuismooches]

More Neuvillette thoughts, as requested by people in my inbox.

He is a traditional man, and he wants to court you in the proper way that someone as lovely as you deserve. The only problem is that he isn't actually sure of the way humans do so. Sure, he's seen other people do so, but sometimes it ends up in failure and rejection. And he sure does not want to ever see a dissatisfied look from you directed towards him. So Monsieur Neuvillette will head to the library to borrow a book regarding the principles of courtship. (Everyone is sworn to secrecy if they happen to see. Though the Melusines already know who the lucky person is.) He will genuinely start to worry if you don't show signs of reciprocation or happiness so please indulge him, he's trying his best.

Taking him diving. This doesn't really seem like a Neuvillette thing to do but when he's in love with you I believe he will actually consider your suggestions just to please you even if they seem a bit ridiculous. Why diving specifically you ask? Because he looks like an otter and you also want to show him those cute otters in the ocean to prove it. Even before the romance stage, you are probably Neuvillette's first real friend. No one else has the courage to speak to him as openly as you do. And he does not find it disrespectful, no, he realizes that he quite enjoys it. He doesn't realize how lonely he is without you until a mere day passes without seeing you.

Being besties with Furina. If you manage to catch the attention of the grand Chief Justice, you are sure to get the same treatment from the great Archon herself. You may be nervous at first but if you can deal with Neuvillette you can probably see her confidence isn't all that real and something she uses to hide her fears. Regardless just be her friend because Neuvillette is tired of dealing with her. She confides in and trusts the two of you very much. Furina will also let you in on some secrets of the Chief Justice, don't tell him though.

Expect to be spoiled with riches. I mean he is probably really wealthy and you are his lover so isn't it natural for him to treat you to expensive things? Though if you feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Mora that he's spending on you just tell him and he will dial it back a bit (just reassure him that you really do love his gifts because he'll probably be a bit nervous that they're not good enough.)

Taking the Melusines out on dates with you and Neuvillette. Both of you are like parental figures to them. It goes from a table for two or a table for a few. It's really cute to see how they eat with their tiny hands, and see how Neuvillette listens to their stories with the utmost seriousness. They will also ask you the questions Neuvillette wants to ask you so he doesn't have to. Also, gently biting and nomming on his pointy ears. Just do it. He's really confused at first (is this what humans do?) but he won't stop you. Moving onto his horns. They are very smooth but I don't think they're hard. You could move and bend them pretty easily which makes it super hard for the judge to keep a straight face. Give them a little kiss too.

Everyone knows this by now but he is an emotional man who keeps his sadness and solitude to himself. Neuvillette doesn't rely on anyone to cheer him up but as time goes on he realizes even the smallest things you do makes him feel better so nowadays you'll have a visitor outside your house in the pouring rain.

[cleo-fox]

Fic Preview: Overtime

Full fic now posted

@sarahscribbles convinced me to post a preview of my TVA office romance fic. It doesn’t have a proper summary yet, but the text of the preview is kind of a good summation of the setup.

Warnings: None in this excerpt. There will be smut in the full fic.

You don’t think that Mobius intended to keep Loki’s desk behind yours.

“It’s temporary,” he tells you apologetically. “He just needs somewhere to go for now, until I figure out what to do with him.”

“You’re talking about him like he’s a stray cat that you found,” you say.

“You won’t even know he’s there, I promise.”

“You’re still doing it.”

Mobius sighs and puts on his most sincere, earnest expression—the one that he always uses when he’s about to ask you for a stupidly massive favor.

And it’s only because you almost never, ever see this look from him that you back down.

“Okay, fine,” you say. “But he’d better be on his best behavior.”

Mobius puts his palms together and tips them toward you. “Thank you. You will not regret this, I promise.”

You sigh and shake your head. “Just remember this next time you’re budgeting for raises.”

But then—in a move that you certainly don’t expect—Loki ends up sticking around. And, in the subtle way that the stray you’ve been feeding slowly turns into your cat, Loki’s temporary desk becomes his permanent desk. And strangely enough, Mobius’ assurances turn out to be more correct than not: Loki does a lot of fieldwork and is often away; when he is at his desk, it tends to be because he is working on more complicated missions, the ones that require poring over mountains of files looking for patterns and trying to untangle the slippery mess of time itself.

Your work is decidedly less glamorous than Loki’s—almost no fieldwork, lots of files. Endless files. Some days you feel as though you must have seen every file in the TVA’s extensive library and then you’re immediately proven wrong by another wing of filing cabinets that you swear wasn’t even there before.

Although he is generally well-behaved as your desk neighbor, Loki’s presence has a way of distracting you. Even if you didn’t know who he was, your gaze would still naturally drift his way, lingering on those regal cheekbones, that ink black hair, that cunning smirk. The way that the fabric of his dress pants clings to his thighs certainly doesn’t help, to say nothing of how his forearms look with his shirtsleeves rolled up. He can make your heart start to race with no more than a casual glance in your direction and god help you if he gives you one of those devastating smiles.

Luckily, you don’t think he takes that much notice of you. You have the sort of pleasantly dull exchanges of coworkers who don’t really know each other and he is almost painfully polite to you. It’s a strong departure from the way he interacts with others—with others, he is bold, charming, sarcastic, talkative, a far cry from the more subdued, almost courtly tone he strikes with you. It’s a difference that is so stark that you can’t help but attribute it to some sort of negative feeling on his end.

“How’s it going with Loki?” Mobius asks you during a one-on-one meeting a couple of months after Loki’s temporary desk becomes his permanent desk. “He’s behaving himself, right?”

“It’s been fine,” you say, “though truthfully, I don’t think he likes me all that much.”

“What? Of course he likes you,” Mobius says. “Why wouldn’t he like you? You’re lovely.”

You shrug. “I dunno, he’s just different with me than he is with everyone else. Like…overly polite. It’s like he thinks I’m going to send him to the principal’s office or something.”

“Let me get this straight,” says Mobius. “First you were worried that he wouldn’t behave himself and now you’re worried that he’s too well-behaved?”

Privately, you realize he has a point. Outwardly, though, you’re not going to admit it. The sardonic tilt of Mobius’ mouth suggests that he knows this.

“No, I just…I don’t think he likes me all that much,” you say. “And he’s entitled to that. People don’t like each other all the time, it’s not a big deal.”

This is also a little bit of a lie—you do wish he liked you. Loki is so magnetic it’s hard not to want his attention. And with the matter of your silly little crush, well…that doesn’t help either.

Mobius sighs. “I think you’re overthinking this. He likes you, sometimes it just takes him a little time to warm up. He’s a bit of a prickly guy.”

You bite down the urge to point out that you’ve seen him warm to other people almost immediately. This conversation has already gone on longer than you want and you are edging dangerously close to having to admit that you care so much because you have a big stupid crush on him, which is obviously unacceptable.

“Well, the point is that it’s fine,” you say quickly, trying to project an aura of cool confidence. “I don’t have any complaints, he seems like he’s settling in, so let’s move on. Did you have any feedback on my recent report?”

The furrow between Mobius’ eyebrows deepens just slightly, the only indication that he doesn’t fully believe you. But for whatever reason, he decides to let it go and follows your change in topic without further comment.

This is one of the reasons you like Mobius as much as you do: he always seems to know the right moment to push and the right moment to bend.

You’re not sure if your relationship with Loki would have changed had it not been for the problem of Charles Berlitz.

The joke around the office is that after Mobius convinced Loki to work for the TVA, he needed something new to obsess over and Charles Berlitz was the next best option. It’s hard to say exactly who Berlitz is, as he has a tendency of showing up, well…everywhere. He is quite literally in every timeline, at least as far as anyone can tell. Sometimes he is an author, penning serious, scholarly essays on outlandish theories like the Bermuda Triangle and the Philadelphia Experiment. He seems to have a fondness for all manner of schemes—he was responsible for introducing both homeopathy and multi-level marketing to no fewer than sixty different timelines. His ability to peddle bullshit naturally led him to politics—pick any rebellion, coup, or campaign on any given timeline and there’s a good chance you’ll also find Charles Berlitz.

Scammers and con artists are not atypical in your line of work, but what makes Charles Berlitz an enduring mystery is that he has never been found. You can have reputable documentary evidence that Berlitz was present at a certain time and location, but if you show up to investigate, he is never there. There have been some glimpses over the years—a shadowy face in the back of a crowd, the hem of a cloak disappearing behind the building—but nothing concrete or substantive.

“Our ghost in the timeline,” Mobius had said in one of his more poetic moments at an all staff meeting, his voice overly hushed and dramatic. You had seen Loki roll his eyes and you had to fake a coughing fit to hide your laugh.

Time moves differently at the TVA, so it’s hard to say how long Mobius has been working on this case when he makes a breakthrough, but it’s not terribly long after your conversation about Loki. A campaign button had been found in an apartment that Berlitz had rented for two years in the French Quarter. That particular campaign button could only have existed in one specific timeline and its distribution was limited. You aren’t entirely clear on all of the details, but Mobius seems to have a plan.

And unfortunately, that plan involves you giving up most of your weekend to work.

It’s near quitting time on what passes for a Friday at the TVA. Loki has been in today and you can hear him starting to pack up. Technically, he’s got twenty minutes of work left, but you’re not about to tell him that.

You doodle absently on your notepad. Technically, you’ve also got twenty minutes of work left, but realistically: nothing is happening.

“Oh, great, you’re both still here.”

In general, this phrase has never meant good news for you and when you look up, you see Mobius with a sizable armful of files.

Also not a great sign.

Mobius plunks the stack of files directly on your desk. “There’s been a development with Berlitz. I need you both to review these now.”

“It’s Friday,” says Loki, affronted. “Surely it can wait until Monday.”

“No can do. I need this done by Sunday at the latest,” says Mobius. “This is an all hands on deck situation.”

Loki glances pointedly at the office around you, which has already started emptying out for the weekend.

“All hands on deck, but most hands are already in the field,” Mobius concedes. “Which is why I need time two of you—” He points to you. “You because you’re good—” He gestures to Loki. “And you because you’ve got desk duty.”

“I beg your pardon—” begins Loki.

“He’s grounded,” Mobius says to you in an exaggerated stage whisper.

This is not surprising to you: you had heard a rumor last week about an incident that had occurred on a mission to the inauguration of Richard Nixon and you suspect that these two events are likely connected.

You look at the pile of paperwork on your desk. You could probably get through it on your own in a couple of hours, but if Loki’s helping, maybe you still have a shot at having Saturday to yourself. You bite back a sigh. “What do you need me to find?”

“Anything that mentions anyone from the Lucchese crime family or Nero Variant N2815,” says Mobius. “I’ll go get the rest.”

Your heart sinks. Farewell, Saturday. “There’s more?” you say.

“It’ll be triple overtime, I already got it approved!” he calls over his shoulder

You sigh and glance at Loki who is scowling at the pile of files as though they’d wronged him personally.

There’s a long moment of silence before you speak. “Is there any truth to the rumor I’ve been hearing about the Nixon inauguration?” you ask.

“If it involved a hot air balloon, then yes,” he says rather tonelessly.

“Well.” You pause as you stare at the pile of papers. “At least it was worth it.”

That at least earns you a hint of a smile.

*

Full fic now posted

[thefiery-phoenix]

YANDERE HITOSHI SHINSOU HEADCANNONS

Lol, this purple haired insomniac was MADE to be a yandere. As it is he never used to get proper sleep and when he met YOU, that's when his sleep schedule literally went right out of the window and down a drain, no joke. In fact, the reason he keeps having those dark circles beneath his eyes is because he always loses sleep thinking and fretting about you every second of the day. Are you safe? Are you all right? Have you eaten properly? He doesn't want you to neglect your health

He's always deeply worried and concerned for you but negative thoughts always cloud his mind and make him lose his sanity. You were a beautiful sweet innocent little angel. Why the HECK would someone so cute and sweet like you fall in love with someone who has such a villainous quirk? You could never love him the way he's OBSESSED and INFATUATED with you since he's a creepy weirdo (Is it bad I laughed while writing this?)

One day you made the mistake of praising him for using his quirk on Mineta after he tried touching you inappropriately. You clung to him like your life depended on it and YOU of all people actually PRAISED him for his quirk and you even called him your 'hero'. By now he was on cloud INFINITY and you just added more fuel to his crazy little fantasies he has of the 2 of you in his head along with his delusional psychotic thoughts about you 2

One hand, Shinsou just WANTS to use his quirk on you desperately to find out whether you actually like him or not, but part of him tells him not to or else you're gonna hate him till time exists. Surely you'd reject him if he ever asks you out and he's no professor in the romance department nor is he a flirty Romeo. Eventually, he'll turn to Aizawa for help but it's gonna turn out to be useless as hell since even HE'S clueless ASF. Lol, poor souls) but most of all, he's afraid of what sort of monster he might become and what he'll do to YOU if you don't reciprocate his feelings back 

If you accept them, well and good. You might have a stable and strong relationship and you have similar interests. But he will kidnap you eventually but ONLY if he ever gets insecure and scared that you're gonna leave him (Someone pls give this boi a hug!) And if you don't accept his feelings, you're STILL gonna get kidnapped in either case, you're gonna be toast....

He just wants to use his quirk on you SO BAD to make things much simpler and easier for both of you but he knows that if he does so, he's gonna be no more than some sort of sick psychopathic villain, like everyone always tells him. You told him he was a HERO, YOUR HERO and heroes wouldn't do something like that AT ALL. He's deeply conflicted now and he doesn't want to betray your trust 

He might stalk you whenever you go somewhere (Secretly, of course) just to make sure that you're gonna be safe. As each day passes, your presence to him is like oxygen. So, he'll resort to breaking into your room at night and try stealing some of your possessions that you won't bother about because of his overwhelming desire for you 

Like stated before, if Shinsou ever kidnaps you, it'll be a frantic act of him being an insecure scardey pants. He'll be apologizing so many times and asks you so nicely as to not hate him 

He'll give you your space. He knows how conflicting this whole kidnapping drama fest is for you and he'll let you cry, scream and sob all your anger and feelings out. He'll try reasoning with you in a sick and twisted way trying to convince you that it's for your own good and ensures he'll NEVER hurt you at all. He will NEVER use his quirk on you to make you do things you aren't comfortable with so you're safe with him 

He'll try his best to make you comfortable (As comfortable one can be while they're chained to a headboard of a bed) and he'll give you whatever you want. He'll let you roam around the house after the first week or so since he doesn't like seeing you tied up (As much as he secretly enjoys it). If you're being stubborn with him by refusing to talk to him or even acknowledge his presence, well... if you're testing his water levels of patience, you better know how to SWIM in them. He isn't really THAT patient and hence, he'll isolate you by just giving you basic necessities like food and water and warm clothes and leaving abruptly after that 

If you're STILL stubborn with him, THEN he'll use his quirk on you but just for simple stuff like hugging him and burying your head in his chest while he holds you like you're the most precious thing in the world. This was ALL he ever wanted from you, was that TOO MUCH to ask? When you realize he used his quirk on you, you'll be terrified of him for sure, and you'll hate him and it'll be a very long time for you to love him back but if you go back to square one and ignore him like you did before, he won't hesitate to use his quirk on you for more... dark and dire things

''Need I remind you what happened the LAST time you ignored me Kitty cat"

Just play your cards right and in time, you'll see his really soft side for you. He cares about you ALOT, he really does. But if you push him over the edge, he'll make you do all sorts of unsatisfactory things that you won't have a fun time doing. When it comes to rivals and enemies, he'll just use his quirk on them and make it look like some sort of suicide or accident

Loves to spoil you every now and then and he might even get you a pet cat so you both can take care of him

If Shinsou can't convince you to love him, he'll just have to FORCE you to......

[happy74827]

Contagiously Human.

[Brian Moser x Female!Reader]

Synopsis: Killing was always the easiest part for him, but this… you… well, as fate would have it, that created a new problem for him. {GIF Creds: brothermoser}

WC: 1881

Category: Plot-Driven, Maybe Some Fluff/Angst…?

Someone asked me if I’d ever thought about writing Biney… and well, I decided to put my thought into actual words 🤷‍♀️

Just for some minor clarification, this is pretty much a “what if” fic in which Dexter does not end his life. This being said, I picture this taking place around season 5-6 ish.

『••✎••』

Hesitation.

The thing that makes or breaks a killer. The line that separates predator from prey. It's the pause between life and death, the time a man takes to make the decision, and whether he'll live to regret it or not.

He’s never had hesitation. Not once. In fact, he relishes in it; he finds peace in knowing that he can decide one way or another and be content with either outcome. It makes him a dangerous man, unpredictable, a ticking time bomb.

His baby brother, his blood, had the disease. The disease of being too much of a good person, feeling guilt, having morals, a sense of what's right and wrong. He was weak, he hesitated, and he wasn’t even aware of how much the disease was eating him alive until that Trinity Killer came around.

He was supposed to protect his brother, save him from himself, and show him the proper way of things. The way of survival. Of the hunt. But no, Brian wasn’t there to catch him. To stop him.

So, as all good brothers do, he’s here to fix him. To set him straight and rid him of the disease. Forever.

It's an easy task, really. His little brother is so trusting and caring that he'd do anything for the ones he loved. Why not start by showing him why he shouldn't?

Because clearly, the loss of his apparent wife wasn’t enough. He needed to understand, truly and absolutely, that the world would only disappoint him. It's a harsh lesson but a necessary one.

So, that led him to you. His brother’s friend from school. The woman, aside from Dexter’s poor excuse for a sister, that his brother actually cared about.

Just like him, you were naive. Trusting, too. Friendly to everyone, completely unaware of the monsters that hid in the shadows. His brother included.

You might’ve never killed someone, but with everything else, it was clear why his brother was so interested in you. He always loved the innocent ones.

So, the question was, how would he go about it? He could take you somewhere, but the element of surprise was an important factor. You had to believe you were safe and comfortable before he could make his move.

A Debra repeat? Or a more... Unique approach. He'd think about it, plan it out, and strike at the perfect moment.

He wouldn’t hesitate, after all.

When the day presented itself, the stars had aligned, and everything was just right; he made his move. It was noon, a warm Sunday.

You were in your little bookshop, reading one of the books in your free time. Business had been slow today, as most people were enjoying the weather.

You never saw him coming. He was the type to blend into the crowd, the type that you'd see once and forget about. The type you'd pass on the street without a second thought.

He had his ways, of course, and his way was simple. A simple, kind greeting. One that had your eyes lighting up as if you'd never seen another person before.

He was charming, handsome, the perfect man to lure you in. You didn’t stand a chance.

That's what led him here, picking up your fallen book and handing it to you, watching the smile that graced your lips.

A romance novel, of course. How ironic.

"Oh, uh, thank you. That’s very kind."

You smiled, a hint of blush dusting your cheeks. Far more tame than that Debra woman, thankfully. He didn’t have to fight back the urge to roll his eyes.

"Tea and romance? Can’t say I blame you." He pulled a gentle grin, one that had you blushing further, more so of embarrassment this time.

"It's the first of a series. A favorite, actually, I’ve been rereading it." You explained, holding the book to your chest. He didn’t miss the way your thumb rubbed over the spine, fond and gentle.

Just from that, he knew. He was going to have fun with you. “Believe it or not, I read the first one too. A few months ago, actually. It was quite the page-turner. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, I swear."

You laughed, soft and airy, and for a moment, he found himself smiling genuinely. His lie was working, and he couldn’t believe it was that easy.

"I've only heard mixed reviews on it.” You spoke, moving to place the book back on the shelf. "I'm glad to hear you liked it. Marienne’s death was hard, wasn't it?"

"Very." He agreed though it was a lie. He had to pretend he cared. "It was a shame; I really enjoyed the character."

"You did?" You raised a brow, surprised. “Most people didn’t. Given that she doesn’t even exist.”

Shit.

He cleared his throat, a slight pause. He was so blinded by the idea of finally getting to his brother that he'd forgotten.

You were a reader, an author; of course, you would know the ins and outs of the story. The characters, the plot, and every little detail. Why would you not?

First rule of hunting. Don’t get cocky.

"Alright, I admit. I've been caught." He gave a small shrug, his voice holding a hint of sheepishness. Maybe you’d fall for it. “I couldn’t help myself; I figured you wouldn’t appreciate my love for fantasy books."

"Fantasy?" You tilted your head, and he knew. You bought it. You were a sucker for fantasy; you didn't like it when others looked down on them.

"I'm a bit of a nerd. Guilty pleasure."

"I didn’t peg you for the fantasy type…” You raised your eyebrow, though a smile still rested on your lips—a look of amusement.

"Really? Most people can't seem to look past the collared shirt.

"No, it's not that. It's your aura." You shook your head, and now, it was his turn to raise his brow. What the hell did that mean?

"My aura?"

"Those books in your hands..” You nodded towards his bag, a small smirk pulling at the corner of your lips. "You're definitely not a casual reader. My guess is everything in there is a throwaway.”

"And that means...?"

"You're bullshit through and through. You don't like romance or fantasy. In fact, I think you absolutely hate it."

Oh. Oh, you clever thing. Now, he truly understood why his brother connected with you so much. You'd figured him out, and yet, you had no clue. You were clever, smarter than you let on.

"Alright,” He held his hands up in mock surrender. He was enjoying this; for once, someone could see through his façade. See his true self. It was a rush.

“If you’re so smart, what do I like then?"

"Hmm, let's see...” And just like that, you were off with him in tow. You were taking him along on a trip through the shelves, looking through the genres, searching and searching.

He was intrigued, his eyes locked on you, his ears drinking in the sound of your hums and contemplation. Your mind was running, spinning, thinking. You were truly in your element.

"Well, let's start with what I know. You like horror." You said, turning towards the horror section and picking up a book. "You seem like the type who enjoys the dark side of humanity and likes to see the bad guy win."

Damn.

He was almost impressed. Almost.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Eyes. They tell the most about a person. You’ve seen a lot, and it shows. I could tell just by looking at you. Your eyes are... Cold. Empty." You said, and it was then that he realized you were more observant than you appeared. Naivety might’ve not been a part of your personality, but trust was. You trusted a lot. Too much. “Are you a cop, by chance? You've got the whole detective thing going on."

"Prosthetist, actually." He answered, his hand reaching out and picking up a book at random. He wasn't a fan of fiction, not really. He preferred nonfiction; it was more realistic—less pointless details.

"Oh, wow, I was completely off. I didn’t expect that." You mused, looking up at him with those eyes. You had such an expressive face; it was amazing how easy you were to read. He could practically see the gears turning. How could he use this?

"Expected an axe murderer, did you?" He joked, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Maybe. Wouldn’t that be a twist?" You grinned a glint of amusement in your eye. “Speaking of, that’s probably what you like. Thrillers. Those kinds of stories are full of twists and turns. No one is who they appear to be. Kinda like you, hm?"

"Ouch."

"Sorry, am I being too honest?"

"No, I like it. Keep going." He was having fun. With Debra, it was exhausting. She was so stubborn, so headstrong, she never listened. It took him about three coffees just to have enough patience to deal with her sob story.

But with you, you were a breath of fresh air. He didn’t have to force himself awake or hide his boredom. He could just enjoy it, relish in the moment, and the fact that you were so easy to play with.

You pulled out three books: two thrillers and one horror. A classic and a new one. "These are what I recommend. Start with Primal Fear; that’s the one I believe you'll like the most. The first one might take you a while, but if you stick with it, the sequel will be worth it.

He reached forward, his hand brushing over yours, his touch lingering as he took the book. He purposely brushed his thumb against the back of your hand, just enough for a spark to go through your veins.

He saw the way your breath hitched, and he smirked. This was too easy.

"Thank you, you've been a great help."

"One more thing before you go." You spoke, stopping him. His eyes moved up from the book to your own, and there he saw something that made him falter.

Something that made him freeze longer than he should have.

You had a fire behind those eyes. A flame that burned with a passion, a curiosity that threatened to eat him alive. A want, a need, to get into his head. To peel him open and look inside.

Your eyes weren't cold or empty like his. They were alive. Full of life.

"Books don’t impress women,” Your voice was low, a secret, something meant only for him to hear. “It’s the passion that opens their hearts. You have nothing if you can't show it."

"I think I've misjudged you." He spoke, his hand resting on the shelf above your head. He had no choice but to lean closer, and he felt the way your breath fanned across his skin.

"Oh?"

"Yes. You're a lot more than you appear, aren’t you?"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

The question was left unanswered. He didn't give a response because, in truth, he didn't know.

He left that day not with his brother’s cure or even the thought of him. He left with three books.

Three books and the disease he believed to be immune to…

Hesitation.

[@numetalnerd2007] Since you asked, I figured this would automatically mean you were interested. At least I hope you were 💀

That being said, please be nice to me for this one since it’s my first time writing for Biney here (and I haven’t rewatched season 1 in forever), so his character probably isn’t 100% solid. It’s a work in progress 🙏✨

Also, for all my Joe Goldberg fans out there, did you catch the reference I made? I see a slight resemblance between Brian and Joe, so I wanted to sneak it in a little something. I think it’s the hair, honestly.

[onestopfanficshop]

dating carmy berzatto pt. 2

warnings: language, here's a few nsfw things in here so watch out for that 👀 mdni

author's note: after forever i'm back lol 😭 i started school again and lowkey lost motivation to write so this has been in the works for weeks lol! enjoy <3

gif not mine!

you can count on one hand how many times carmy has called you by your real name. his go-to pet names are honey (he would say hon most often), baby (when he's trying to persuade you, when he’s whining about something, or when he feels guilty), and sweetheart (when he's feeling extra romantic and lovey-dovey). even when you two are fighting or on the very rare occasion that his anger's directed at you, he rarely uses your name

one time when you had stayed over, you left your shampoo at carm's place and he made mistake of using it just to try it out because the next day richie noticed

"did you rob a fuckin' hair salon, cousin?"

"what the fuck do you mean, richie?"

"the fuck do you mean? what is this shit, herbal essences?" richie says, sniffing carmy's hair.

poor boy would turn red from head to toe and never touch your anything of yours ever again

this one's sad but like- it's kinda important i think

obviously mike's death really fucked carmy up. you see him pushing away, detaching himself from the people who love him (just like mikey did). but you coming into his life really forces him to wake the fuck up. family is forever but you're something in carmy's life that isn't guaranteed and that he genuinely has to work for if he wants you around long-term

and he's so terrified to fuck it up but after you assure him over and over again that you don't intend to go anywhere he starts to loosen up a tiny bit and let you in

his family and everyone else at the restaurant can see the effect you're having on him, and even though they were a little apprehensive at first, they're so glad that carmy has you in his life

okay enough emotional stuff :,)

i know we don't see him read in the show but something in me tells me that he'd love a good library date. he raids the cookbook section, you clear out half of the romance section, and then you'd have a picnic in a park after and read each other's books and swap ideas

carmy dog-ears the pages of the borrowed cookbooks to make note of later. even though you've scolded him a thousand times not to fold the pages, he just can't help but forget, okay? old habits die hard

"look, baby, it's not my intention to hurt the book, okay? i swear. this is just easier than using a bookmark"

his favorite fruits are plums (with the skin on) or granny smith apples (also with the skin on)

would 1000% name a dish after you

keeps his hand in yours or on your thigh while he drives with the other hand

he has to set his alarm at least half an hour before he actually needs to get up so he can hit snooze 3 times

speaking of sleep we all know this poor man barely gets any so on the rare occasion that he does he can be out for hours at a time no joke

when you first started sleeping over at his place more, sometimes it would scare when he woke up and saw you sound asleep next to him because you seemed too good to be real :,)

one time he was teaching you proper knife technique before you were officially together; he put his hand over yours on the knife and even though he looked calm on the outside, he was freaking the FUCK out on the inside but for the life of him he couldn't tell why (it's called a crush carmy look it up)

i know it's hard to imagine carmy having a least favorite food because he is a chef, but idk; i feel like it would be cornbread 😭 something abt it just makes no sense to him. he thought maybe it was because he's had bad cornbread, so he made it for himself once and still didn't like it. who would put corn in bread? what was the reason?!

he always keeps you on the innermost part of the sidewalk whenever you're walking together

this isn't even a headcanon bc we all saw it on the show but 😭 this man's EYE CONTACT. good lord. the best (and worst) part is he isn't even aware of the power it holds on you; he would literally stare at you whenever you would talk and you'd get all flustered and he would just be completely clueless as to why

he LOVES it when you grip onto his arms while you’re fucking and he constantly teases you for being so obsessed with them 👀 any time he feels like skipping a workout he just thinks about that and boom he’s motivated

“you sure you wanna go out to eat? i can just make us somethin’ real quick”

would definitely get a tattoo for you once you guys got serious! something cute and simple (idk much abt tattoos lol); would love it if you had a matching one on you in a place that only he could see 👀

neck kisses are his absolute favorite. especially from behind when he gets to completely bury his face in your neck and kiss it into oblivion

literally ever since i saw carm take those jeans out of the oven my brain has been stuck on the idea that has an odd but endearing obsession with vintage levis lol 😭 one time, after the bear had opened up and completely taken off, he stayed up all night on ebay and scored a vintage type ii trucker jacket after furiously bidding on it for over an hour like a mad man

this man's always using his hands so i can totally picture his fingers doing all sorts of weird things to fidget. absentmindedly drumming his fingers on your thighs, rubbing strands of hair between his thumb and pointer finger-- literally anything to keep his hands occupied

“is this too spicy or no?”

always insists that you don't have to come to the restaurant to help but is secretly over-the-moon when you do. seeing you help with the dishes, or scold richie, or laugh with tina just makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside (and makes him wanna start a family with you oops)

if he sees you he has to give you a full hug. he’s not a side hug kind of guy when it comes you. even if he has to drop what he’s doing in the kitchen and wipe his hands! he always gives you an all-encompassing bear hug and kisses you on the forehead and the lips- it’s his signature greeting :,)

[asimplevampire]

so thanks to angelapleasant's take on Buzz in Something Wicked (brilliantly written btw), I've been thinking about how I want to do the Grunts, because I was never satisfied with how I was writing them. If I ever bring back my modern uberhood (I have the canon URL!) or if I want to play them in medieval PV or what have you. and well.

I do like the fanon more than she does, but I also want it to be more. complicated. tastier. a bit less... teenage. and seeing angelapleasant's depiction of Buzz and Tank made it click, the exact dynamic I want.

so in order to make this work we first need to accept a postulate: all the Grunt boys are neurodivergent. yes, all. None of them will ever get a proper diagnosis while they're living under Buzz's roof. But...

Buzz is the kind of middle-aged white guy who yells at everyone if he can't keep to his strict routine, and only eats three foods, and has Strong Opinions about sportsball statistics. He's very invested in Looking Like The Right Kind Of Person-- he's constantly masking, honestly-- and very invested in Being Normal. (Incidentally, this is why Buzz hates PT- not aliens in general, PT and the Smiths. He can't stand that someone so Weird is better at Being Normal than his family.)

Tank takes after his dad, and also has the profound misfortune of Taking Ideas Seriously. When Tank believes in something, he genuinely believes it with his whole chest. This is a rarer quality to have than one might think. It is also a deeply unfortunate quality to have in a place like Strangetown.

Ripp doesn't like routines. Or being told what to do. Or having to focus on anything but the, like, three things he cares about. And none of those things are Normal- he likes art and music and writing terribad romance novels. He's also flamingly bi, and since he's a Romance sim, he's not very good at keeping it under wraps. He started talking about having crushes on boys in kindergarten.

Buck has exactly one interest (pet fashion!), is also an incredibly picky eater, doesn't like loud noises or crowds, and can't tie his shoes or tell time on an analog clock. He talks a lot with family and friends, but completely clams up around strangers.

And so we've got this family dynamic where...

Buzz is harder on Ripp than he is on either of his other children. Buzz desperately wants Ripp to be Normal, for both selfless and selfish reasons. The world's a cruel place to be Not Normal, after all... and it's a cruel place if your kids reflect Weird back on you.

Perhaps a bit too hard. Perhaps pushing into the realm of "asking Ripp to do the unwise or impossible". Perhaps getting worse and more unreasonable the older (and surlier) Ripp gets.

Ripp resents this, ofc, and pushes back. They've got a vicious cycle going where Ripp rebels harder every time the General puts more expectations on him, which makes the General push back harder with more expectations, which makes Ripp rebel...

Tank has been watching this horrible cycle his entire life. And no one bothered to tell him that the expectations Buzz puts on Ripp are not the same expectations that Buzz wants him to live under.

And Tank takes ideas seriously.

So Tank is desperately struggling to live up to this impossible ideal that no one asked or expected of him. He's trying to be the perfect soldier, get perfect grades, be perfect at his job, keep his room perfectly tidy, be Better At Being A Good Normal Person than anyone else in the family, hate the people the General wants him to hate...

If Buzz knew what Tank has internalized, at this point, he'd be horrified. He mostly just wants his kids to do their best... and mayyyybe not publicly embarrass the family.

Buzz is also easier on Buck than either of his other children, because he's the baby and you just kind of ... instinctively want to take care of him. It doesn't hurt that Buck looks more like Lyla than either of the other kids...

So Tank is desperately struggling to live up to an impossible ideal that no one asked him to live up to; Ripp is desperately kicking against the pricks of an impossible ideal that everyone seems to want him to live up to; and Buck is alternating between Getting Forgotten and Getting Spoiled Rotten.

You've got this horrible, horrible family dynamic, that could probably be resolved with, like, three honest conversations and some honest renegotiation around expectations. But all of these men (except maybe Buck?) are incredibly emotionally constipated and Will Not Talk To Each Other without some severe goading from an outside force.

idk, that's just where I'm at at this point, and I don't think I've seen anyone else with this specific headcanon. especially not neurodivergent!Buzz.

[shysublimecoffee]

Don't take it so personally; it's just someone's opinion. Remember, this is a fictional story, so there's no need to get upset. I don't wanna starts fights.

I don't think sasusaku relationship means much tbh and arguing over who the superior ship whether it be between hina or sakura is like weak you know because they both equally suck why fight over what's the better plain bread. You'd be better off reading proper romance manga because Sasusaku and Naruhina ain't it.

This manga messaging at the end is kinda fucked when you think about it how many people who read the story might interpret it and take it afterwards having the MC condone genocide and just backtrack his promise to Nagato who must be spitting and rolling in his grave and having our deuteragonist be a shell of his former self and come home to a place that eviscerated and massacred and erased his own people. Many fans are just so infatuated with Itachi that his brother is held as a martyr, stating that he was just a kid with no choice, and that he sacrificed when in reality, he sacrificed others' lives and was willing to force Sasuke autonomy into submission for the village's . It's disturbing that some view this as admirable, considering it involved betraying his own blood.

Why is Sasuke labeled as the abuser, the terrorist, the madman? Consider this for a moment. Throughout the Naruto series, Sasuke's refusal to accept the fate of his people is incredibly known. He's portrayed as if he's lost his mind, yet nobody seems to care about the circumstances that led him to this point. The people who claim to care for Sasuke don't question why his people are gone; they simply continue to act as the "good shinobi" they are. It's disturbingly makes sense logically that only someone as "crazy" as Sasuke would seek justice against Danzo, as no one else would hold him accountable for the crimes against the Uchiha clan. They don't give a single flippity-fuck?

As an reader, I do admire Kishimoto for his handling of Sasuke's character and his insightful portrayal of how real-life genocides. However, I find it disappointing that despite the careful way Sasuke was connected to his people, this story took a disturbing turn in that it just ended in a sick note.

Kishimoto wrote himself into a corner with this one. If Konoha is depicted as a place built on warmongering and exploitation, then what does that say about Naruto, who has aspired to be the face of the village as Hokage from the start? If we acknowledge that the Uchiha Massacre was unjust and undeserved, then wouldn't Sasuke be justified, putting him in the moral high ground that he's the hero? In that case, wouldn't everyone supporting Konoha and the shinobi system, including our protagonist Naruto, be morally and ethically in the wrong? This would flip our perception of the cast. We've seen stories where the protagonist is the villain, but the narrative is aware of their wrongdoing. Kishimoto would have had to completely overhaul the manga to make the story work otherwise.The Curse of Hatred to me comes off an an excuse to me as a reader nothing more which is made-up bull that is propaganda to demonize the Uchiha.

I'm so surprised that like he's the one hated how many of us read revenge stories what makes Sasuke different is it because he doesn't succumb to Naruto that easily? He's so hated vocally by the fanbase as if he was the one who killed their loved ones is it a case of jealousy and resentment towards him or is it that they disagree with his views because if so that says a lot?

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

Finally finished Team Pretentious (affectionate, and also not actually sdnkfdgsd) for the Royal!Legacy AU, and you can prolly see why they took longer than these guys :V

Lloyd is the High Central Prince, only son to the Emperor and Empress of the Central Kingdom. Their Province is supposed to be dedicated to communications and maintaining stable connections with the other kingdoms, given their perfect geographical positioning for the job, but his father has overly ambitious plans to expand their territory and unite all the kingdoms under one rule instead, which...Lloyd doesn’t entirely agree with. Does his best to maintain good relations with everyone despite his father pushing him to “prove that they’re superior”, and genuinely just doesn’t want to start trouble. He...doesn’t actually that big of a role in the romance side of things (or really at all) but I didn’t want to leave him out ;w;)/ 

Zane is the grandson of the elusive ruler of the Northern Kingdom, a Province that thrives on tactical strategy and battle maneuvers...but doesn’t actually use any of it, instead putting more efforts into just making sure everyone else leaves them alone. But with his grandfather and his father both recently passed, the current Ice Queen realizes that Zane is becoming quite lonely, and to mend the disconnect with the others kingdoms they embark to attend the Western Kingdom’s Spring Festival for the first time in decades...thus, it’s understandable that they may have gotten a little lost along the way. 

Harumi is the adopted Imperial Jade Princess of the East, torn between thriving on her power and despising the expectations that come with it. She believes in the High Emperor���s ambitions for uniting the kingdoms under his name (primarily because she believes it will dissolve the rest of the royals of any proper responsibility, and thus end the obsession with upholding old traditions/keeping up appearances), blind to exactly what the High Emperor would actually do. In the meantime, she’s known for studying up on Deception Magic, and winds up using it to assist Jesse in his pursuits for Cole (mostly to shake everything up a little, but who knows, maybe all the crazy people she gets involved with just might grow on her). 

Skylor is the Princess of the Archipelago, a kingdom that’s had bad blood with the Southern Kingdom in the past. Despite that, they’re also a nation of trade and export, even moreso than the South, leading Skylor’s father to amass a large amount of wealth via the economy + him marrying into royalty, and loves to flaunt it when he can...even by decorating his own daughter to the nines, shoving her off to the latest royal get-together, and hoping she’ll catch the eye of someone equally as influential and powerful. And, if not, he’ll probably send her off to the highest bidder. Too bad she’s already caught the eye of the current heir of the Southern Kingdom, although forced to keep their relationship secret...but, perhaps once she’s inspired by the other royals and one gardener, maybe she’ll make a move to change things?

[sitp-recs]

Reparo by amalin

Harry/Draco (2008, Explicit, 85k)

Voldemort's final defeat does not mean Harry Potter's troubles are over; far from it. In the aftermath of war, he returns to a Hogwarts that is fractured and divided, but this is no break that can be fixed with a spell. New owls, fading scars, surprising alliances—and along the way, the hardest task of all, to live with it.

'I'm just saying, it's a good thing I never switched to your side,' Malfoy added, sounding more than a little delirious from the pain. 'Never could produce a Patronus. Wouldn't have made the cut.'

I’ve mentioned this fic on a few reclists before but I hadn’t been able to reread it and write a proper rec until now. For those who enjoy old school Drarry, this is excellent 8th year food - quirky, fun, with vivid settings, organic slow burn and fabulous characterization. I reckon unredeemed Draco is not everyone’s jam but for those who enjoy him let me tell you, his proud and pathetic Malfoy voice is an absolute delight. He’s pretty insufferable, prejudiced, arrogant, holds grudges and has that annoying dramatic flair colouring his every interaction. It’s rare to see him embarrassed or caught off guard from Harry’s pov which is why blushing moments feels like a victory for both Harry and us. From bullied Death Eater to the Slytherin champion to Harry’s fuck buddy, he’s complex and fascinating and so deliciously in character I can’t help but lmao at his awful personality. I like this take because it makes me remember that people don’t change that much, or that quickly, especially when they’re so young.

This fic is an 8th year romance with brilliant Gen vibes for the most part, which I love. The Hogwarts routine feels so familiar and I’ve had a blast with their early interactions, all that cute snarling banter and fantastic dialogue keeping me amused and engaged at all times. There are moments that made me pause and appreciate the supporting cast, like the Christmas scene with Andi and Narcissa, or Slughorn’s party - his aloof voice is so on point it feels like he’s jumping out of the books, and Harry soothing Ron’s insecurities about his relationship with Hermione was a very nice touch.

Speaking of characters, I can’t not mention Draco since this is his party, but the Golden Trio is also a delight: this perceptive Hermione (“you got a Malfoy look, you start to look sort of confused and wistful and eager all at once”) who takes notes for inexistent surprise exams + this feisty Ron who instead of exploding just celebrates that his cock is bigger than Draco’s are just perfect. And young Harry has my whole heart - he’s snarky, impulsive and classically oblivious, drawn to Draco in ways he’s not able or willing to explain, and he never disappoints in his classic “do first, ask later” philosophy 😂 his fire and sass complement Draco’s brilliantly, it’s hilarious how he quickly learns how to read and handle him.

The fuck buddies dynamics are as awkward and intense as you’d expect from two horny, traumatized and inexperienced 18 year olds. They butt heads and go for it, never talking it out but finding more about themselves in the process. Despite being so different (and boy do they argue about it) Harry and Draco somehow click together emotionally and physically, with their skinny, scarred, imperfect bodies. Harry can be his true self with Draco and gives back just as good as he gets; they’d be in the middle of an argument then quotes such as “the color of the sky reminded him of Malfoy, a bruised, determined gray” come and take your breath away!

If for nothing else, go read this if you’re looking for a different 8th year vibe, where no character is traditionally nice or easy to love. They’re all both light and dark, sweet but sharp around the edges, and we learn to care for them despite (or maybe because of) their flaws. This story leaves me nostalgic over those good old Hogwarts fics with lots of sneaking around and no heart-to-heart moment, which rings true for two lost boys figuring out who they are and what they want in the post-war. It’s messy, confusing, awkward and dramatic, but also very relatable and real, their future together left open and full of possibilities. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

[panigamermauser]

Cut stuff thought part 4

Halsin and Minthara. Ending stuff(getting on the soapbox there to scream). Plus various smaller quests, gods options for clerics and paladins etc.

I very appreciate them adding Halsin as companion at all, so I am very forgiving of him having less content than others. But knowing he was supposed to have Druid Circle quest in Act3 makes me sad it was cut. 

First, it would tie into his ingame wishes to bring more of nature/civilization balance to Baldur's Gate. Also, that was probably where you could develop his romance. 

I am _personally_ fine with him not being committed to long-term relationship despite his big romantic words. I have a deep fear of commitment myself, no matter how in love I am. You talk marriage - I run off. So I feel seen, and I get how he feels in his current version. But for very same reason I am keenly aware how frustrating it can be to be with someone like me. 

So if his quest is restored, I really hope his romance gets more fulfilling and just as developed as others.

Speaking of others... What happened to Minthara is a crime. I do not even have her, and will never have her (because I - as a player - like tieflings too much to ever side against them). And still I feel she was done dirty. Cannot imagine how people who have her and love her feel.

This is just like Karlach situation. It should have been restored in Patch 1 already. Especially since she was there from Early Access, not a late addition like Halsin and Karlach. She should have been as polished as other primary companions. No words just indignation.

Not to mention that from meta perspective it would be so interesting to see a romanciable character who is already pregnant with someone else's child. That is a unique story. And makes her actual literal MILF too 😏 And the salt from gamer bros... Can you even imagine?! 🤣🤣🤣

Justice for Minthara NOW!!!

Withers revealed as Jergal is a small thing. Like, EVERYONE who knows dnd gods knows who he is anyways. But it would be a nice thing for new people to learn/look into.

And naturally all of the cut post-game stuff should not only be restored, but also expanded. 

Post-campaign discussion is a very important part of dnd. DM should tell you how you affected the state of the world in great detail. You should discuss what happens to your characters with other players. In case of BG3 the game is our DM and companions are our co-players. 

That last talking post-game session is so very important for the campaign. Headcanons are good and all, but they are nothing compared to a good post-game discussion. 

It should have been it's own epilogue setpiece. At least prologue-sized in scope. One last walk around. You can just limit it to Wyrm Rock castle if necessary. Not just companions, but all of your allies gathered there too. Or some cool space shit for Illithid ending😁

Right now it feels like the group fell apart at the very end. And this is an unironic tragedy. Realistic? Sure(most groups fall apart long before campaign ends). But it does not have to be! 

They showed with Act 1 and Act 2 endings and some other stories (Astarion, Shadowheart, House of Hope, Bhaal stuff for Dark Urge) that they both KNOW how to give closure and CAN do it. So why not apply the same for actual game ending? 

Probably they just ran out of time.

One tiny bit of me hopes that they removed it because they plan to restore cut content, and it will be easier to make one proper ending that accounts for all those variables instead of making ending with current available choices and then tweak it for added stuff.

But realist in me says it's just a time issue, and not much more.

Onto smaller stuff that does not call for its own post, so I'll stick it there.

Hag Coven sounds very interesting. I get why it was cut - it has nothing to do with the main plot, so if they had to cut something, it makes sense to cut this subplot. Still, hags are awesome enemies, and if Larian decides to make DLC with extra adventures (I'll make a separate post about my DLC wishlist) - it will be a welcome addition.

Raven Queen plot line. Same as hags. Shame it was cut tho. I am very thirsty for He Who Was. But it explains why his quest felt so random and weird. Just your basic fetch quest. Which is generally not a thing in BG3. Now it makes sense. It was a beginning of its own subplot. Again, not a necessity, but would be nice to see it restored.

Idk what that Halfling Werewolf thing even refers too. But the concept is awesome, and I'd love to see it!

Shar, Myrkil, Bhaal and Bane as cleric/paladin gods.

On one hand it would add cool 'No, _I_ am the Chosen One moments in Shadowheart, Gortash, Ketheric and Orin (in case of Durge, literally!) convos.

In case of Shadowheart it could have been heartbreaking besties-to-deadly rivals over who gets to kill Nightsong too.

But... it would be applicable to only two classes. So if they had to cut something, it made sense to cut this. Most classes would never see those options anyways, so it's not that big of a loss. But it would be a very neat addition for Definitive Edition for sure.

They already have voice lines for Durge to claim the brain in dad's name. So they could easily reuse it. Just change name/pronoun.

[kudzuoath]

I'm embarrassed to not be anon for this but I want to try and write some Gale fic and I'm just in awe over how well you've captured his "voice" in your work. Do you have any tips for that? Either Gale in particular or just in general?

Thanks!!

Asdfghjkl anon you have no idea how flattered I am to hear this. Gale kind of comes easily to me because. Well. I too am someone with a big vocabulary that just. Uses it. That said, I’ll try to string together some tips!

1) if you can say it with more words, or more “complex” words, you should. Though be careful of using the thesaurus tool— some similar words have very different meanings!

For example instead of saying “your dog ate my shoes” go with something like “it would seem our canine companion has developed a rather unfortunate taste for footwear — mine in particular!”

(His habit of using ten words where three will do is particularly funny given how annoyed he is with Elminster for doing the same thing. Albeit more archaically.)

2) related to the above but use metaphors and go purple with his dialogue. He’s a self confessed poet who has thousands of books. He’s probably read all of them. Gale is often using metaphors (and something else.. similes? The proper term escapes me) in conversation. For example in his romance scene in act two he says something like “the weary sun makes its nightly dive into the sea”.

3) while this man seems to think he’s better off dead, he often projects an air of self confidence capability and knowledge. He can definitely be catty, even if it’s a stealthy kind of catty! And he will make his opinions known.

4) “cat owner” voice. The infamous “stop licking the damn thing!” Line. I don’t know why this helps me but it does. Another line/moment that helps me keep things sorted is that if you break up with him, he legit cries. But says “I seem to have gotten some dust from the road in my eyes” or something to that effect.

5) Gale has a sort of blasé “whelp, everything has gone wrong, must keep going” air as a baseline. Which isn’t to say he doesn’t care, just that he seems like the sort distance himself from painful things. And he’s canonically spent at least a year isolating himself from everyone except his cat.

And that’s all I got! Other than just listening to his lines in game. I find if I can mentally hear a character, it helps me keep things in line. This is helpful for ALL characters, even ocs. At least for me. A voice claim helps me keep my dialogue consistent to itself, and unique to whoever is speaking.

Good luck!! If you write a thing, send it to me and I’ll read it! :D

[goofygoldengirl]

How I Would Reorganize The Agreste Plotline If Miraculous Ladybug Were For An Older Audience

NOTE: Contains Season 5 Spoilers, Leak References, and Discussion of Mature Topics

I say reorganize instead of rewrite since I’m working with canon and embellish only on a few plot points that haven’t fully been touched upon yet. If you want to see how I reorganize the agreste plot for the show as is check out this post.

Season 1

Show in universe that everyone is aware of Emilie’s disappearance. In Origins, passing news blurb that it has been X amount of days and there are no leads into the Agreste case. This in turn, affects how his peers at school treat him, with some fawning over him like we see in the show, and the more sensitive ones reluctant to approach him due to his situation.

Ladybug is Adrien’s first ever crush. Show instead of implying on twitter that he takes romance hints from anime.

Plagg is aware of Adrien’s situation with wanting more independence and about mom’s disappearance. While he displays a lazy, go lucky attitude, he worries over Adrien. He encourages him to find himself as Chat Noir.

Show that even before Gabriel starts using the butterfly miraculous to get his wife back, he has unhealthy coping mechanisms. In the first few weeks after Emilie falls into a coma, he turns to drinking. Nathalie frequently joins him on his binges since she harbors guilt about Emilie’s illness. One night, they both get drunk and share a heated kiss.

Due to the kiss, and the stress of losing Emilie, there is a heavy tension between them. One day Nathalie snaps.

“What else could we have done? Emilie is gone! There’s no way we can bring her back! And if there was a possibly that we could, she’d hate us for it! Especially if she found out---I’m sorry I should have never brought that up. I’ll be on my way sir.”

Show that both Nathalie and The Gorilla care about Adrien despite their cold exteriors. With the next couple of seasons, he begins to open up to them, and they in turn.

Have Hawkmoth’s reveal that he is Gabriel take place at end of season 1 instead of beginning of season 2 in ML proper 

Flashback 1: It is 2014 and Adrien is six years old. He asks his mother why he can’t go out and play with other kids and go to school like his cousin Felix and Chloe. Emile smiles, cradles his face, and tells him that he can’t because he is a very special boy.

Season 2

Introduce Kagami and Adrien’s crush on her. Tease Ms. Tusguri and Gabriel Agreste’s connection earlier than presented in ML Proper with a business call.

The in universe news about Emilie’s disappearance dies down due to a lack of leads.

Show how Adrien is still naive when it comes to interacting with the world, and why he may not pick up on the fact that Marinette has a crush on him due to the fact that everyone fawns over him.

Show one of Master Fu’s tutoring sessions with Adrien post Syren. Master Fu plants a seed of doubt in Adrien’s head that all is well with his family.

Highlight early on that while Gabriel does love his son, he loves the idea of Adrien the perfect, obedient child more than Adrien the trying adolescent. Make it clear that Adrien is Emilie’s child and that Gabriel found it difficult to connect to Adrien even before Emilie’s disappearance.

Start of Gabriel’s slippery slope into madness due to the constant losses.

Nathalie’s infatuation with Gabriel is teased early on in season 2, then confirmed with the events of Style Queen. She becomes more bold with her feelings. At the end of season 2, they almost kiss but Gabriel hesitates.

The events of Heroes Day play out like in ML proper . However, have Gabriel explicitly mention that it was the peacock miraculous that made Emilie ill. 

Flashback 2: Takes place post Emilie’s “disappearance” but prior to season 1. Amelie and Felix visit. Amelie asks Gabriel for the Graham de Vanilly ring. Adrien and Felix interact. Felix has a mean streak. He asks how Adrien can deal “with such insufferable people.”

Season 3

Adrien and Kagami get together earlier. As a result their break up plays out a season earlier.

Nathalie takes up her role as Mayura. Her health worsens. Gabriel worries, and their relationship deepens to the point where they begin an affair. Gabriel is shown to feel guilty at first, but as he becomes more hellbent on being Hawkmoth, that guilt subsides.

Introduce sentimonsters like in ML proper. Place a hint that Adrien could be one.

Adrien mentions to Plagg that his mother used to have dizzy spells/ coughing fits like Nathalie. Plagg asks what disease she had. Adrien doesn’t know. He then asks Gabriel what type of illness Emilie had. Gabriel tells Adrien to mind his own business.

People drop hints that Marinette likes Adrien. Show that Adrien is in denial of his own feelings for her because of his feelings for Ladybug.

Show how Adrien gets stressed because of his modeling job. He is exposed to the underbelly of the fashion industry where his modeling peers have eating disorders, have drug/alcohol addictions, or are sexually preyed upon or exploited by their managers. Adrien wants out. He pleads with his father to stop modeling but is denied.

Introduce Felix like in ML proper. Show that Felix is knowledgeable about the miraculouses. Have him eye Gabriel’s brooch before leaving.

Have Chat Blanc and Ephemeral take place in this season. Keep plot and outcomes the same.

Gabriel starts to act more like Hawkmoth in real life and less like himself.

Flashback 3: Takes place when Gabriel, Emilie, and Nathalie are twenty years old. In the summer of 2000, they travel the world, in search of adventures and the miraculouses. The three of them have a close but complicated relationship due to the fact that Gabriel and Emilie are dating, Nathalie has feelings for him, and that she is friends with them both. This tension accumulates one night where they engage in a menage a tois. It is an event they vow to never speak of again. At the end of the summer, they have not found any miraculouses. Gabriel reaffirms his feelings for Emilie and rejects Nathalie completely.

Season 4

Love Square reversal. Adrien falls for Marinette. Slowly, they become closer and start dating. Gabriel finds out about Adrien’s feelings for Marinette. He forbids them to date, but they defy him. Gabriel tries to push Kagami onto Adrien.

Keep Felix’s discovery of Emlie’s body in Gabriel Agreste and trade with Gabriel at end of season 4 the same as ML proper.

Have Gabriel’s moral horizon event take place here along with Evolution in ML season 5 proper.

Nathalie and Gabriel’s relationship begins to crumble as he dives headfirst into madness and when she begins to question his decisions. The breaking point is when he does not leave the USB drive in the past like in ML Evolution. Nathalie declares that she will no longer help him, and states that she did everything for him because she loved him.

Adrien starts to look into his mother’s disappearance with Plagg and Ladybug’s encouragement. He discovers that his mother knew about the miraculouses.

The hints that Adrien could be a sentimonster intensify.

At the end of the season the alias rings are introduced.

Gabriel allows Adrien to stop modeling.

Flashback 4: Flashback of Gabriel and Emilie falling in love. Amelie and Colton’s rocky marriage. Same as the leaks. In 2006, Nathalie and Gabriel meet again. He says that he wants to try to find the miraculouses again, in particular the peacock miraculous. When Nathalie asks why, Gabriel answers “because it can create life”.

Season 5 

The cataclysm happens. Gabriel’s subsequent illness is explicitly shown. He loses weight due a loss of appetite and vomiting. His skin becomes pale and gangrened sores on his arm weeps black pus. By the end of the season, he has to rely on IV fluids to keep him alive.

Nathalie actively goes against Gabriel and helps Adrien in any way she can.

Felix is Argos. Events of Emotion take place. It is made clear that he is a sentimonster. It is only hinted that Kagami is one too. In addition, he leads Adrien to Emilie’s body.

Adrien find out his father is Hawkmoth,that his mother is dead, then the final truth that he himself is not human. He wrestles with the guilt of catacylsming his father. However, he does not fall into despair as predicted in Chat Blanc and Ephemeral.

Adrien makes his stand against Gabriel. Gabriel is forced to confront the fact that Adrien is no longer his perfect child.

The final battle and the reveal happens. During the final battle, Adrien pleads with his father to see reason. Gabriel is too far gone and tries to kill Adrien. Gabriel uses the miraculouses to make his wish. As mentioned in the leaks, Nathalie is sacrificed. Gabriel is shocked. This forces him to come to terms that due to his selfishness, he has lost the two most important women in his life. He makes one final wish: to sacrifice himself to bring back balance. He dies. Emilie is still dead, but Nathalie lives.

Adrien obtains his amok. Completely orphaned, he faces an uncertain future.

Flashback 5: It is 2007, Emilie has gone through three years of fertility treatments that have brought nothing but disappointment. Clinging onto her last hope, she, Gabriel, and Nathalie travel to Tibet to find the miraculouses one last time. They find the peacock and butterfly miraculous and find out that in order to create a fully functional human sentimonster, a piece of the wearer’s DNA must be bound to the amok. Emilie allows Amelie to test out the peacock miraculous first with Colt. Their son, Felix, is born healthy. Emilie binds a piece of her hair to a photograph of herself as a baby for the amok, and creates the sentibryo that will become Adrien. She magically implants it in herself to carry out a natural pregnancy. However not long after, she begins to miscarry. Desperate, she dons the peacock miraculous. The power she uses saves the pregnancy, but causes the miraculous to become damaged. Adrien is born in 2008. As the years pass, Emilie grows ill and falls into a coma.

[alj4890]

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

(Maxwell Beaumont x Olivia Nevrakis) in a Choices The Royal Romance Crackship AU

Masterlist

Song Inspiration for Series: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You by Lauryn Hill

Song Inspiration for Maxwell: Dance Alone by Blanks

Prologue

July twenty-fourth.

That date would always be special. Frankly, there was no better day of the year save for Christmas and New Year's. Maybe a birthday, but nah. July twenty-fourth was the day to celebrate.

At least, that was what Maxwell Beaumont thought.

Ever since he was a little boy, that particular day of the year was the event of his life. It was the one day where he used all his boldness and wild planning to shoot his shot. It was the one chance he took to win what had become the Holy Grail of Women.

He used that particular date each year to get Olivia Nevrakis to realize he was her true love.

It really was all her fault. He'd been a little boy, minding his own business, when she'd done something so incredibly awesome that he couldn't help but fall head over heels for her.

She, the coolest swords woman he'd ever seen in his seven years on this earth, gave him a sword.

Granted it was wooden, because who in their right mind would give a seven year old a real one, no matter how badly he longed for the ones at Ramsford? But still, she gave it to him. Not Liam. Not Drake. Him. Maxwell Percival Beaumont received a sword similar to her own Zenobia.

"Whoa!" He held it as if she'd handed him something incredibly precious. "Does it have a name like yours, Libby?"

"Uh huh." She beamed at him for knowing that swords should. "It's called Diavolos. He was Zenobia's brother.''

"Cool." He breathed, giving it a few practice swings.

She then placed her little hand over his to help guide him in a proper form.

Maxwell hadn't thought anything about her doing so. After all, she was his friend. They touched all the time playing together. But, Drake had seen them and began to taunt them.

"You'll get cooties, Max!" He shouted while running past. "Don't let her touch you!"

Olivia glared at him. Her sword trembled in her fist as she jerked her hand from Maxwell's. Color bloomed on her cheeks over being caught touching a boy of all things.

"Come on." She ordered, stomping further into the hedge maze. "We can practice over here."

In what would become a way of life for him, Maxwell eagerly followed her all while ignoring what anyone else said or thought about it.

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

Five years later...

"Effulgent?" Liam tilted his head as he read all that Maxwell had written.

"Yeah! Her smile is radiant! It always makes me feel like I'm glowing." Maxwell told him.

"Who is this for?" Liam asked.

"Oh." Maxwell's face flushed a bright red from the tips of his ears down to his neck. "Just um, someone."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Liam added.

"No, it isn't that I don't want to. It's just, well, she's special to me." Maxwell admitted.

"She must be." Liam flipped through the pages of poetry his friend had created.

"Do you think she'll like it?" Maxwell asked.

Liam glanced up at his friend's hopeful expression. "I don't see why she wouldn't. Most girls seem to love poetry."

"She isn't like most girls." Maxwell muttered. "She isn't like any of them."

He fought against his doubts. It was July twenty-fourth, after all. This was the day to give her something special he'd spent weeks on. That poem would show her that his heart was not only true, but also hers.

Liam handed it back to him. "Good luck."

"Thanks!" Maxwell beamed at him. "I'll let you know if it works!"

He dashed out of the prince's chambers and hurried off to find Olivia.

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

Thirteen years after that poem...

Maxwell took a long, deep breath then slowly released it.

"This is the year."

"You are correct." Bertrand grumbled. "This is the year everyone finds out that we are ruined."

"That's not what I meant." Maxwell grinned at him. "Good things are going to happen this year for us. I can feel it!"

Bertrand humphed. He couldn't feel anything but dread over the world finding out what a failure he'd been as a duke.

"Lady Bethany called. She refused our sponsorship."

Maxwell shrugged. "We'll find someone."

"How?! The season starts in three days! We won't find any decent woman to represent House Beaumont!" Bertrand shouted.

"Maybe we'll find someone indecent." Maxwell teased.

"Maxwell!" Bertrand pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few deep breaths. "I don't have time for your foolishness."

"Look. We'll be fine." Maxwell wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulders. "I promise we'll find a way out of this. Besides, Liam already has more women than he knows what to do with."

"I'm not as worried about Liam as I am our reputation." Bertrand grumbled. "I have no doubt with all the ladies taking part in this that he'll find the perfect queen. What will people think about us not having a suitable option for him?"

"Hold up." Maxwell's eyes widened. "All the ladies of the Court are participating in this?"

"Everyone that's single." Bertrand's brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing." Maxwell slumped down into a chair. "Just my whole world and future crumbling right before my eyes."

"Your whole world? What are you talking about?" Bertrand demanded.

"It's no big deal." Maxwell got to his feet. "I um, I have to go call Drake. We plan on taking Liam out for a bachelor party before all the craziness commences. Want to come along? It'll be like old times."

"No thank you." Bertrand began to head towards his study. "I've got some things here that require my attention."

Maxwell waited until the door was shut before he fell back in his chair. His mind whirled with the possibility of Olivia not only being a choice for Liam but in her actually being chosen.

"Who wouldn't pick her?" He mumbled to himself.

He rubbed his hands over his face. His only hope was that Liam would fall in love with someone. There was a good chance he might, especially if some new ladies were added to the mix. Then once the prince chose someone else, the field would be wide open once more for Maxwell to try again.

He usually waited until the twenty-fourth to go big.

Maybe I should mix it up this year. Instead of throwing everything I got on that one day, why don't I do something each day that makes her notice me.

They would be stuck together at all the upcoming events. Though she'd be there for Liam, it didn't mean that she couldn't have her attention stolen away from the prince every now and then.

Maxwell had never once been subtle with his crush. He thought Olivia appreciated blunt honesty, and maybe she did. Maybe if he wasn't overtly professing his undying love, it might shake her up some and want to know why he wasn't pursuing her like crazy.

He grinned to himself as a plan began to take tentative shape.

This is it! This is the year where she'll finally admit I am her perfect match.

[thecompany-if]

-> Demo (TBA)

-> Character Appearances

-> Vibe Playlist

"Work starts at 6 am and ends in 9 in the afternoon."

That's how it always went in The Company.

It's always chore to "hire" or "fire" Employees (anomalies), seeing that.

After coming back a mission that cost you your arm a few weeks ago and physical therapy, your boss decides to hand you a new task, an easier one, he says. The task is watching over a team of rowdy Junior Agents. Two are teenagers, respectfully 19 and 17 years old, and a pair of twin Employee Agents. You question why your boss demoted you to babysitter, but you've been instead thrusted into a situation where you have to "hire" or "fire" the increase of Employees that are spread around Burnwood.

Gods, you need coffee after this.

Make that two, after a literal angel comes down, declaring that your boss requested for her assistance. Does your boss think so little of you for not being able to handle four Agents under your wing. Well, with your lack of experience to guiding Juniors, then yes, yes he does. Just make sure not to get any of them killed on their first proper mission, because whether you like it or not, they're your responsibility now.

~•~•~

*Content Warnings will be updated when needed

The Company is an urban sci-fi, thriller, mystery, supernatural, and horror IF that is set in the modern age in the fictional country of Burnwood. This IF will have NO romance and mainly focuses on queer platonic love and found family tropes, and will be written in Twine. This IF is rated 18+ for heavy themes such as: heavy and descriptive gore (dismemberment, gutting, botched and unethical surgeries), violence, blood, killing, body horror, eldritch horror, heavy amount of Scopophobia (fear of being stared at), gun use, adult jokes, alcohol use, mentions and talks about death, bugs and insects

Customize your agent—gender, hair, skin color, etc.!

Hone your skills as an agent—fancy techno guns are your friends in this workplace

Step up as a senior, mentor, role model, and as a parental figure

Don't get your Juniors killed for the love of the gods

Form bonds with everyone & make this dysfunctional family work

Keep The Company under wraps

Also try not to break your prosthetic. That thing's expensive to repair

▷ Z.I.L Serio [19 || He/Him (FtM)]

One of the Juniors assigned to you. A young college student with an eyepatch that started working in The Company a few months ago for reasons he won't share. What's under his eyepatch is a mystery as well. Closed off, easy to anger, and a bit of a lone wolf, though a very great marksman.

~•~•~

▷ Thalia "Tally" Agbayani [17 || She/Her (Demigirl)]

The other Junior assigned to you. Self-declared younger sister of Zil, a senior highschool student that joined The Company with Zil. If you ask her why she joined she'll simply say, "Because it looked like fun". Loud, reckless, and a bit of a degenerate with all of the adult jokes and cursing, but knows how to quickly kill a target.

~•~•~

▷ Jeanette "Jane" Doe [20~25 || She/Her (Cis)]

One of the Employee Agents that's assigned to your team with her twin. Her appearance and age isn't the same to each person, which makes her a great scout and intel gatherer. Calm, stern, and a bit exasperated from the Juniors, she may come off as rude at times for her straightforwardness.

~•~•~

▷ Jonathan "John" Doe [20~25 || He/Him (Cis)]

Twin brother to Jane, and the other Employee Agent that's assigned to your team. Like Jane, John's appearance and age isn't the same to each person. A scout and intel gatherer as well, but more of the latter. Aloof, calm like Jane, and a bit of an introvert, he only talks to Jane and rarely anyone else.

~•~•~

▷ Ariel "Ari" Meir [??? || She/Her (Cis)]

The angel sent down from Zion to aid you in your missions. Called by your boss to assist you, you didn't expect this soft-hearted woman to be the General Archangel of Strength. Mellow, understanding, and a patient woman, just make sure you don't anger her or you'll most likely get impaled by her glaive.

~•~•~

▷ Zelek Gurin [??? || He/Him (Demiboy)]

Your boss. Reasons why he founded The Company is unknown, all you know is that he's a lower demon in the demon aristocracy in the Western regions of Gehenna. Always grumbling and mumbling, and posh, you sometimes wonder what kind of abilities does he have.

▷ Dr. Athena Lanyon [27 || She/Her (MtF)]

One of the many medical doctors in The Company. A transfer from Bellhollow's branch alongside another staff member. You come to her when you need a check up, or to get patched up from a mission. Just for the love of the gods, don't touch her medical equipment. Just don't.

~•~•~

▷ Dr. Henry Jekyll [26 || He/Him (Cis)]

One of the researchers in The Company. A transfer from Bellhollow's branch with Dr. Lanyon. A bit of a mad scientist when doing experiments on foreign chemicals handed over from researchers and fellow agents. Also, that orange juice in a vial isn't orange juice. Don't drink it.

~•~•~

▷ Ellington "Elly" Roux [32 || (currently) They/Them (Genderfluid)]

Your team's assigned engineer. A generous provider of "the goods" aka guns, gadgets, and some miscellaneous things that you can request them to make for you. They're also the one responsible for making your prosthetic arm. How kind of them.

~•~•~

▷ Melise Papillon [28 || She/Her (Cis)]

A transfered therapist from the Rosedale branch. She's the same therapist who helped you get through your trauma of losing an arm. Now, she's back to help your team with theirs. Subdued, frank, and direct, there is always an air of something more underneath her professional façade.

▷ Lorraine Dennise [19 || She/Her (Cis)]

~•~•~

▷ Caspian Rothchild [33 || He/Him (Cis)]

A fellow Senior Agent from the Investigations Department. Always a complainer with his sunglasses on, but very good with his job. Laidback, calm, and a bit of a nihilist, you know you can rely on him to get much needed information in such a short span.

~•~•~

S̵̜͕̪͎̣̰̰̱̼̠͂͋̆̄̏̀́͑ĥ̷͎̠͖̲̫̩̝͆̿̿̈́̓̈͐ȩ̴͚͉̫̗̼̦̙̼̓͆͐̾̄̾̿͘ͅ ̴̱̠̣̮̂͋̋́̀̓͊͘͠ḑ̷̣͔͍̗̈́̐̊̈́͊̈̑͋̄͝o̷̳̼̱̮̞͚͇͐̆e̵̯̻̦̣̳̳̞̹͋ͅs̷̨̜̯̬̦̙̺̊͌̔͛́͐͗̔͜͠͠ǹ̸̡̆͝'̴͎̻̯̜͍̠̫́̌̆̑̌͘t̶͎͛̑̃̚͝ͅ ̷̨̠̩̥͍̙̰̬͙̑̍͝ͅẅ̵͔̩́͛̇ą̶͉̯̗̭̳̟̹̈̄̓̎̿͝n̷̨̰̹͖̙͖̘̹̫̳͂̄͋̈́̎͛̉͘t̴̢̙͇͇̩̤͂̒͗ ̸̹̾̌̑̎͋t̷̪͕̫̼͎̤̻͔̂̆̅͐̎̀̈́̀ớ̷̧̡̻̰̝͉̫̥͓͆̓͋͘͝ ̸̰̹̩̠̟͓̹́́̀b̷̮͒͌̊͌̈́̂̾̚͝ę̴̮͍̻͖̺̭͂̌̔̃̒̓͛͜͠͝͝ ̵͎̈͜ȟ̷͙̲̟̪̺̲e̵̪̮̗̳̪̺̻̤̗͗̿́̒̔͒̎̾͜r̵͓̄ế̴̡̄̀̀̓̈́͂̓͜.̵̧̟̼͓͇̩͑̈́

[no-gorms]

Post EG AU-Steve and Bruce having a commiserate off, where at first Steve was trying to boost up Bruce, who just wants to wallow on his tropical island for a bit thanks, and Steve ends up being like, fuck it! and joins in

And while they off just voicing their frustrations it almost becomes a light hearted contest (like oohhh you worry you’ll outlive your friends? I’m probably going to outlive the end of the world, etc). And when they get to their live life Bruce is all, the first woman I fell in love with was the daughter of the man obsessed with locking me up and my most recent romance ended all weird and idk what’s happening now. And Steve’s like well, I made the love of my life/soulmate hate my guts thru my own choices and now barely talks to me unless it’s 100% necessary and I gotta live with that soooo

And Bruce is like, wait what? Peggy hated…? And Steve’s like, not Peggy. And changes the subject. And eventually Bruce relays this fact to Nat (as we’ve learned on She Hulk Bruce is a terrible gossip) because he’s so confused and then more Avengers get involved and they are trying to suss out who Steve is talking about until the shoe drops and they realize that it’s Tony

(Bonus for Tony being part of the huddle after a bit and does NOT catch on that it’s about him thanks to his Steve related emotional blinders and is like, why did everyone stop talking? What did we figure out???)

----

Hohohoh, wouldn't be the first time that friendly banter got out of hand!

In the Avengers huddle when the penny drops, everyone falls into awkward silence and look at each other instead of Tony who gets increasingly annoyed that he missed the memo that APPARENTLY everyone got immediately, because it figures that all the OTHER Avengers know Steve better than Tony ever did or does, but what else is new?

Tony seethes to himself. He's a genius, he can figure this out, even if he doesn't really know who Steve's friends are outside of this superhero circle, let alone who Steve might've shown interest in romantically (more evidence that he and Steve weren't proper friends, ugh) and then oh, he remembers that one SHIELD agent, what was her name? Steve lost contact with her after she helped him with the Accords thing, right? Ha, no wonder she's pissed at him.

Feeling very pleased with himself for figuring it out, Tony says, "Well, if Steve wants to feel sorry for himself instead putting on his big boy pants and making things right, then that's his loss. Did he even try?"

"Uh," Bruce says. "I don't know?"

"Pathetic," Tony says. "Steve, backing down from a challenge? That's sad on multiple fronts, and he should be ashamed of himself."

"Tony, you're brilliant," Natasha says. "See, if any of us gave him a pep talk? Steve will just brush it off. A pep talk from you, though, that'd help."

"The hell would I do that?"

"He listens to you now," Clint says. "You have noticed."

"Yeah, I guess," says Tony, who kinda did but hasn't wanted to think about that too closely.

"You should tell him exactly that," Natasha says.

"What, that he's pathetic?" Tony asks.

"Yes!"

"Actually, that might not--" Bruce starts to say, but he's immediately shushed.

(follow up)

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I know the ZKs were mad when Mike confirmed on the podcast that there was nothing romantic between Katara and Zuko in the crossroads of destiny. That it was just empathy 😂

And it's not like we needed anyone to confirm something that obvious.

The one time they were not hostile with each other before Crossroads was when the Gaang + Zuko and Iroh teamed up against Azula. And even though Katara did something really nice when she showed compassion and offered to heal Iroh after Azula blasted fire at him, Zuko was NOT moved by her compassion, and in fact lashed out at her and her friends just for being near him and Iroh - aka the one person there he actually gave a shit about and had not been fighting side by side with just because it was convenient.

Crossroads happen, it's a nice moment - that also included Katara saying that up until that point she had pictured "the enemy's face" as Zuko's face, which makes perfect sense considering he has been trying to kidnap her best friend, and put her, her brother, their tribe, and a bunch of innocent people in danger. For fucks sake, before they both let their guards down a bit, Katara calls him a horrible person and she 100% means it. Why wouldn't she? We saw Zuko do kind things and show remorse/doubt, she did not.

And after such a meaninfull moment what does Zuko do? Immediately teams up with Azula, his sister/rival/enemy, and helps her capture Ba Sing Se for their father - who disfigured and banished him, and whom we later find out in The Day Of Black Sun that Zuko legit thought might have killed his mom. Even that guy meant more to Zuko than Katara did.

And who does Zuko repeatedly mention, visit, and eventually begs to forgive him after his betrayal? Iroh. Again.

And whose kind words of "we could have been friends" does Zuko explicitly bring up when he tries to join the Gaang? Aang. The guy his story is constantly a parallel to. The actual first person to trust him and give him a chance.

And, of course, after his "romantic moment" (according to Zutarians) with Katara, the next episode shows Zuko in a relationship with Mai. And once he is forced to leave her, yeah, he was kind of a douche by breaking up with her through a letter BUT he did feel the need to explain himself to her, to give her a proper goodbye, he even says "I'm sorry, Mai", and looks like a dumbass in love when he brings her up during a conversation with Sokka.

What was the one time he seemed to even remember Katara's existence before joining the Gaang? Oh yeah, when he remembered the water from the oasis and realizes she could have used it to save Aang - meaning Ozai would be mad at him. Even the ONE time that interaction with Katara crosses his mind without someone else mentioning it to him, it is still all about his feelings for a completely different person.

As for Katara, she also didn't bring Zuko up once. She was busy talking things out with her dad, travelling and getting into trouble with her friends, and worrying about the war - ya know, the one Zuko pretty much helped his father win, and yet she didn't mention him at all.

And when he joins the group? She naturally doesn't trust him in the slightest, and says that she will make him pay if he hurts AANG again. Pretty much stating that her anger at him is not because they had any kind of deep, meaningful bond (be it romantic or platonic) but because he was responsible for her nearly losing someone she loved - much like his nation took her mother from her, something she explicitly told him about, which must have only twisted the knife further.

Because of all of this, I wouldn't give a damn if Mike and literally everyone else involved in creating the show had said that the scene in Crossroads was meant to be romantic - the actual story and characters clearly show that was NOT the case.

Zutarians can cry about it all they want, but Zuko and Katara's bond starts in the second half of book 3, and it's clearly platonic. Any romance, or even friendship, that claim existed before that was only in their heads, not in the actual story.