#BUT HE LOVES THEM ANYWAY DESPITE THAT!!/&272$ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

goldenkamuyhunting · 3 years

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just read ch. 272

and tsukishima is a whore that was a whore move (he is one of my absolute faves I'm just very upset with what he's done these recent chapters) boy's gotta make those braincells work a little!!! it's frustrating bc it feels like we were close to The Big Break from him and koito but no, they just went right back to where they were before and that makes me so very sad. this is kinda light-hearted, kinda serious I'm in a bit of a shock rn tbh I hope ur having a good day hdhdjdhsj sorry for rambling so much

Sadly...

..it was what we should ahve expect of him if he were placed in this situation. Tsukishima NEVER decided to leave Tsurumi’s side and so of course he would kill whoever were to oppose to Tsurumi.

From the backlash Tsukishima is receiving I get the feeling that after Tsukishima spared Tanigaki there was a part of the fandom who started to believe Tsukishima would never again attempt to harm one of the ‘good guys’.

So let’s look back a little at the whole scene with Tanigaki.

Tsukishima let Tanigaki live because Koito managed to persuade him this would be no harm to Tsurumi’s cause and would bring no gain to them.

It’s noteworthy back then Tsukishima has pointed the harm of letting Tanigaki go.

He had threaten Koito into saying faithful. If he were to let Tanigaki escape Koito could leave as well.

At this Koito said he wouldn’t leave, that even if they were to let Tanigaki go, he would still remain on Tsurumi’s side, albeith this time he wouldn’t do it blindly.

Long story short, both of them decided that, for the time, they were still aligned with Tsurumi. Koito though decided he would draw a line at how far he would go for Tsurumi.

I think the idea is that Koito refuses to harm someone for no good reason.

As in Tanigaki means no harm to their cause and letting him live would cause no harm so they should let him go.

The same though, wouldn’t apply if Tanigaki were to mean harm, for example siding with Hijikata. In that case killing him would be okay.

In fact we see they have no problems remaining behind a door in silence when Tsurumi psychologically tormented Asirpa and then attempted to strangle Sofia.

What Tsurumi is doing benefit their cause so they excuse it.

Who cares if Sofia dies, she’s a Russian revolutionary, she can die.

Who cares if Asirpa remains psychologically scarred and traumatized, she’s just a girl.

Their goal is more important, they’re expendable.

Then Ariko came in, trying to save Asirpa and even pointed his gun at Tsurumi and demanded the skins.

Of course they’ll side with Tsurumi, of course they’ll shoot to protect him because Ariko is a threat to their goal.

They had just heard Tsurumi’s cause is something they approve! Those aren’t the faces of who would betray Tsurumi, those are the faces of who would die for him and his goal.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Noda will have the light in Tsukishima’s eyes appear in this scene in the volume version.

Anyway they probably would have killed Ariko even without this revelation, because this was what was expected of them, but after this revelation... it was kind of a given.

I’ve hoped as well we won’t come to this... but this is the most logical development, as much as I hate it.

Anime and manga has deluded us into thinking that people can turn page easily, that Koito and Tsukishima could just leave Tsurumi because he’s a ‘big bad’.

But Tsurumi isn’t the ‘big bad’ from their perspective, he’s just a man fighting for their cause and they are soldiers, used to kill who oppose to their boss.

We love Ariko. We’re grief striken for Ariko.

But for them he’s just another enemy in the list of people they’ve killed for their goal. His life isn’t more relevant than the one of the guards they attacked and killed in Abashiri.

They are rebels.

They have lost sight of the fact the Army serves to protect people from foreign threats, not to pursue personal targets.

So the worst part of all this is that what Tsukishima did was predictable, it fit perfectly with his arc, with the kind of person Tsukishima is, a soldier, with how Tsukishima has ultimately agreed with Tsurumi’s goal.

And the light in his eyes is clearly not because he has murdered Ariko, no, I’m sure he had felt no joy in it, the light in his eyes is because he has finally found back his hope, his faith in his cause.

He’s among the many characters fighting for a place in which they can be, for happiness.

It’s Tsukishima. It could be anyone else, even Sugimoto killing Shiraishi should Shiraishi betray him, because Noda has said if this were to happen Sugimoto wouldn’t hesitate in killing Shiraishi and it would hurt, it would hurt even more but this is the kind of people we’re dealing with.

Although they aren’t monsters who enjoy killing, as some like to paint them, they don’t also hesitate to kill who gets in their way.

There’s no good here, there’s no people with high morals, even Asirpa said she would kill if it’s to protect Sugimoto and I really pray she would never get to that point.

This is a tale of our world, a tale were Ogata is completely right, everyone can kill everyone else PROVIDED THE RIGHT MOTIVATION.

Tsukishima, sadly, had the right motivation and did it and broke my heart and crushed my hope but it’s not that he went OOC, it’s that the story served him the right setting, when I was hoping the story would refrain to do so.

And a side of me is afraid, afraid because it’s clear Noda isn’t going to make things easy for my poor boys.

He’ll serve them on a silver platter situations that will push them to do terrible things. And I’m not sure any of them will manage to refuse taking a bite.

I’m sad, I’m heartbroken, Ariko was awesome because he managed to make the right choice despite how hard it was and he definitely didn’t deserve this, Ariko was a good person trying to do something good even when Shiraishi said they didn’t know if they could trust him, even if Ariko actually knew nobody trusted him. He did the right thing because it was the right thing, because he was the sort who would help people in need regardless.

Such a person deserved to live, I wanted him to live. We need people like him.

This though, mattered little to who killed him and that chose that pursuing their goal was THE RIGHT THING. And whoever got in the way had to die.

Selfishness versus selflessness.

GK world is cruel and I want to cry because it’s the same as ours, because our world too has plenty of people who would sacrifice someone like Ariko.

And this, this is the worst thing.

Sorry for the depressing answer and thank you for your ask.

#Tsukishima Hajime #Koito Otonoshin #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Ariko Rikimatsu #Tanigaki Genjirou #Oosawa Fusatarou #Sugimoto Saichi #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Ogata Hyakunosuke #Ask

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sarahjkl82-blog · 2 years

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I posted 3,709 times in 2021

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#i know that pedro has that coat bob is wearing too but i couldn’t be bothered to look for a picture of him carrying the tote

My Top Posts in 2021

#9 our first dinner party, with Zach?

To my lovely @tardisfangurl , I am so sorry that you have had to wait so long for this but what with trying to work full time and apparently, I have to parent too (wtf is that about?) BUT IT IS HERE NOW!

Thank you to my beautiful, @yespolkadotkitty for the beta - YOU ARE A TRUE STAR ⭐️

Zach Wellison x Reader (Brothers and Sisters)

Warnings: PTSD, anxiety, food, smut

Zach and the Dinner Party

“C’mon you,” you tug at Zach’s sleeve as he stands by the sink, staring off into the middle distance, obviously at a loss as to where to begin, “Everyone is desperate to get to know you properly. You don’t need to worry because they love me - they will welcome you and you’ll be part of the group before you know it.”

When he turns to face you, you see his khaki t-shirt is trembling from his heart racing. “Yeah, and they’ll see that I’m not good enough for you. A washed up ex- marine doesn’t really offer much.”

“I wish I could open up that head of yours. Take out those thoughts and throw them away as they’re not doing you any good. Just making you feel rubbish and for zero reason,” wrapping your arms around your boyfriend, you squeeze him until he grunts due to the lack of oxygen, “Anyway, this isn’t your granny’s dinner party. This is just friends who work stupid hours, getting together to eat and drink before we put our noses back to the grindstone. It just so happens that you’re here and instead of me feeling like I’m the only one out of my friends who can’t hold down a relationship, I will have you to pass me beers and kisses all night.”

After sucking a sharp, juddery breath and nodding, Zach manages to smile down at you, “I can pass beers. And kisses - I can definitely supply some of those too.”

“That’s not all you’re going to be doing, mister,” you pull rank with your former marine, hauling yourself to your full height, despite your head just reaching his shoulder, “It’s field day, soldier and there’s lots to do.”

“Oorah!”

Throwing a cloth and spray at him that he catches effortlessly, you bend over to unravel the flex from your ancient vacuum cleaner and notice from between your legs that Zach has not started to clean, “Why haven’t you started moving yet, soldier? You waiting for a goddamn invitation from the president?”

“Just admiring the view, ma’am,” you catch Zach’s eyebrow twitches minutismally as he gazes at your butt, that you can’t help but wiggle at him - garnering a sweet chuckle in response.

“The quicker you clean, the quicker I can let you admire the view up close,” you purr, tapping him on the leg with the head of the cleaner.

Putting on some nostalgic rock from the nineties, you turn the volume up as the two of you quickly scrub through your tiny shared space. The beautifully domestic feel of singing out of tune - totally fucking harmonising but somebody doesn’t appreciate your talents - and dancing ironically badly with air guitars as you land on sofa cushions to save your poor old knees, isn’t lost on you. It has only been a short time of knowing Zach, but when you know, you know right?

You first met him whilst he was helping in the kitchens of the VA office where you supported vets to complete their high school education with their maths, reading and writing, find vocational courses or for those who were ready to go further, their college applications. Every time you popped by to grab some food, he’d always sneak you a bit extra so that he could be treated to one of your beautiful smiles that totally eclipse your face, making your eyes disappear.

One day, you put on your big girl panties and leant across the serving hatch to say how much you looked forward to seeing his face every day and that you’d love to take him for a drink after work. Amusingly, you had to repeat yourself several times as he gazed dumbstruck at you - almost as if you’d been speaking in Klingon and had three heads with the level of confusion painted across that poor man’s face.

Later, he owned up that he’d felt like an IED had gone off in his head - that there’d been literal ringing in his ears. That the pretty girl he looked forward to seeing asked him out for a drink. His shock at being asked - genuinely asking if you meant him - had made you roar with laughter as you passed him your number on a serviette.

One date bled into another until three months later, here you were, virtually living together (he totally had moved in but neither of you were ready to own up to that obvious fact) with all your spare time either tangled together across the couch or snuggled up in bed. Tonight would be the night where he met all of your friends at once. He’d met most of them individually and was well liked amongst the crowd, but you knew that the thought of your looming turn of the dinner party was making him tremble with anxiety.

When you’d offered to cancel with your friends, there’d been a flash of anger from him that had ripped through his body like a hurricane - pouring out during his dreams. The anxiety that you thought him weak - not worthy of being around your friends - had left him a sweaty damp mess that night as he woke screaming, flailing - still thinking he was in Afghanistan. He’d tried to push you away when you’d cradled him to your chest but the tears that flowed on him realising that you weren’t going to let go, were the sweetest release he’d felt in a long time.

“You look hot,” Zach rubs his thumb across the beads of sweat collecting like a tiara of hard work upon your forehead as he becomes distracted by you cleaning near him.

“Yeah, I do,” you wink, grabbing his butt so that his hips are flush with yours.

The laugh this brings from Zach is music to your ears as his face crinkles at your cheesiness. Standing so close, you nuzzle his cheek - his sandalwood scented soap making every nerve within you fizz and tingle as you allow your lips to lightly graze his skin. Tilting his head slightly - a smile still playing upon his mouth - he searches for you. With his fingers finding your hair, your heart catches in your throat as his lips brush tenderly against you.

You don’t want this moment to end but as Zach draws back and places a small, loving peck on the tip of your nose, you stick your bottom lip out like a truculent child which elicits another chuckle from him, “C’mon sweetheart, we need to get started on dinner.”

“Can’t believe you are going to have me making pasta from scratch. Did you know - there are places that make it for you so that all you have to do is throw it into boiling salted water,” you grumble sarcastically, brow furrowed.

Zach shakes his head at you - rolling his eyes slightly as he takes your chin between his fingers, “When you cook for people, it’s nurturing them - that’s something everyone needs. For years, all my food was ration packs and eaten quickly as if you take your time, that can make you and your whole squad vulnerable.

“I know I’m not the greatest catch - I can’t offer you everything I want to give you but I can cook. And knowing that my food nourishes you, eases me here,” he taps his chest on the left before bringing his fingers to stroke your cheek, “It’s also great to have the time to enjoy creating something where I’m not at risk of being shot at.”

A brief flutter of guilt at your laziness flickers within your chest as you consider everything Zach has been through before he arrived at your door. You bury your face in his chest to hide your wincing, not feeling worthy of his gaze - breathing the smell of your shared laundry soap and conditioner, and that smell that is just just entirely him. Always immaculately clean and scrubbed, Zach still takes militaristic care with his showers - only ever becoming preoccupied if you decide to join him.

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159 notes • Posted 2021-07-21 20:02:46 GMT

Okay I have an idea for family man Pero

You had wrote that they the dog broke the mom's couch 😂

Were they teens/young adults? If so (& even if they weren't), how would they have reacted to finding out she was pregnant? I imagine it would have been unplanned given the way little Javi was conceived? Lol

@sharkbait77 I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to write this for you. But here is 16.8k words all about your ask because being succinct is not my strong point. In my head, reader is roughly 25 and Pero is about 29- they’re young but not super young. Still a bit of a shock to reader though.

Warnings: Children, babies, childbirth (mentions of blood/ body fluids), breast feeding, anxiety, feet, periods, smut - ABSOLUTELY NO MINORS.

Modern!Pero and the Original Broken Sofa

(Or how little Javi came to be)

You’re a mum.

A mama.

How the fuck did that happen? I mean, you know

it happened but still. Pero looks to be in a similar amount of shock as you turn your head to look at him - the 5 o’clock shadow on his chin prickling your bare shoulder as he rests it there. His lips are slightly parted as he gazes down upon his newborn son, who is cradled tightly to your chest.

This wasn’t meant to happen yet.

✪✪✪✪✪

“Mi cielo, you’re beautiful but you stink,” the twinkle in Pero’s eyes reveals what the rest of his face is desperately trying to hide as he attempts to rub off the stinking mud from your face with one hand, your mum’s new pup - Nana, the fucking Newfoundland - tugging on her lead in his other.

“Are you talking to me, or the bloody dog?” You question, grumpily reaching for your boyfriend’s hand as he tries to one-handedly haul you from the brackish pond. Clumsily clambering out - looking a little like a bog monster with twigs and mud plaited in your hair - you look up sharply on hearing an ill-concealed choke of laughter, “Stop it cabrón, or I’ll push you in there myself and you can smell as bad.”

“Lo siento, mi corazón,” his dimple flashes as he giggles openly - a sound he reserves for you alone, “For someone, who moves so gracefully when they dance, you are incredibly clumsy the rest of the time. I just don’t quite understand how you fell in and Nana didn’t.”

You stick out your bottom lip as you ponder how, having accidentally dropped the dog’s lead and chased after the escaping mutt, you ended up submerged in stinking water, “I think she corners better than me.”

“Four feet good, two feet bad?” Pero laughs before straightening his face as another dog walker walks past the pair of you. Heaven forbid anyone should catch him with a genuine smile upon his face and not a smirk of disgust.

The woodland is like an oasis of paradise despite its little pockets of dank pond water. The fresh air manages to filter out the persistent hum of traffic that punctates it everywhere else, only the distant tower blocks and skyscrapers remind you that you’re still in the city. Here, your mum’s lunatic dog, with her boundless, puppy-like energy, can run free for hours and the two of you can stop working for two minutes to remember how to just be. The sunlight trickles in through the stained glass leaves, letting in a purer light than the exhaust fume stained one you find in Central.

Nearby, on the trunk of an elderly oak tree, there is a woodpecker hunting for insects. You nudge Pero wordlessly, not wanting to break the magical quality of the moment as you watch its brilliant red crest rocking back and forth as it pecks endlessly into the ancient bark. Tiny chips of wood fall into the bed of leaf litter below, the sound swallowed quickly into the mostly empty woodland around.

After that enchanting spot, you try to take your boyfriend’s hand but he spins out of reach quickly. Frowning at him, you try again, and again but he just lurches out of the way each time.

This is war!

“Can I have a kiss?”

Still semi-wrestling Nana to walk in the same direction as you, Pero frowns for a moment before answering, “Maybe later?”

“How long is that later? Are we talking about a rest of the world later or a Spanish mañana?” you quiz him teasingly, knowing full well that he doesn’t want to kiss the walking filth bucket by his side.

“Querida, it’s an international after-a-shower later,” he chuckles, still edging further from you, his feet slightly picking up speed as the path through the woods opens out into an expansive field.

A wicked flash of mischief sparks in your eye, your feet accelerating to mimic his, “Do you not want to kiss me, mi amor?”

Nana loves this slight change in speed from the pedestrian plod she’d been forced to pace at. With a bounce and bark, she bowls forwards. All forty kilos of the daft hound wrench forward, pulling on the lead and Pero’s hand that is attached to it, making him almost fall flat on his face with the sudden movement as he bellows, “Maldito perro! Bloody dog! I swear, all the women in my life gang up on me.”

Still giving chase, you run after him laughing until your lungs hurt, “Cariño, I just want a kiss!”

“Stay away from me, bruja and talk to your mother’s dog,” Pero wheezes out between gasps from the sudden sprint he’s been forced on.

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311 notes • Posted 2021-07-05 20:13:38 GMT

Frankie Blankie

A FRANKIE MORALES X FEM READER ONE-SHOT

Rating: The fluffiest smut you ever did read but if you're under 18, off you pop, little pup.

One reference to Frankie’s coke history.

I have attempted to make this a very blank reader character so you can imagine yourself here snuggling with Frankie. As someone who is curvy and has mixed heritage, it means a lot to me but please feel free to message me with any other suggestions I can make to improve my writing to include everyone.

Wordcount: 1.7K

Dedications: this was written for my lovely Iris- @agirllovespancakes who just needed a Frankie Blankie last night so I hope this keeps her warm tonight. Major thank you to @yespolkadotkitty who yet again sorted my inability to pick a tense and stick with it.

Also a shout out to @astroboots whose Telltale Hearts I keep re-reading as that is the only true Frankie.

Summary: Sometimes you just need a bit of TLC and well, here's Frankie to offer it to you.

Frankie Blankie

A satisfied grunt left your lips as you leaned back in the steaming water of your bath. You shut your eyes tight and allowed the water to erase the tension from your body. It had been such a long day, one of those where the clock never quite managed to move on from the previous time you’d seen. Nothing particularly bad had happened but then, neither had anything particularly good. It was just a day and it had been a week full of them.

Oblivious to all else around you, the bath was your cocoon, your place for relaxation and self-care.You hadn’t noticed the front door going or the door to the bathroom opening. It was only when you felt a gentle, slightly calloused touch on your cheek did your eyes fly open and you near enough jumped out of your skin.

“Holy shit, Francisco Javier Morales-Estrada! Are you trying to kill me?” You shrieked as waves coursed over the sides of the bath from the scare.

“Uh oh, not the full name!” He mock-grimaced, pretending to have been shot, “Sorry querida, you just looked so beautiful and soft, I couldn’t help it. Have you just got in?”

“Yeah,” your heart was still pounding in your mouth as you replied.

“Glass of wine, cup of tea or company?” Your husband gently asked, soothing your racing heart as he stroked some dampened tendrils behind your ear.

“Company, please.”

Frankie remarkably quickly shucked himself free of his T-shirt, jeans and underwear, leaving them piled haphazardly on the bathroom floor.

“What… What are you doing, weirdo?” You giggled as you took in the delicious broad expanse of olive skin.

“Just joining my wife for her bath, she said she wanted company.” He smirked from under his dark lashes at you as he lowered himself into the opposite end of the tub. More water spilled onto the floor, creating tiny tide pools, “Guess we’d better clean those up before the kids wake up and see our mess- hate it when they catch us doing the same things that we chew ‘em out for.”

“Ah, we can just tell them it was the mermaids,” you giggled, remembering the most recent excuse from your youngest as to why the bathroom had been flooded. Again.

You sank back into the water so that your bum was resting against Frankie’s groin, a groan passed your lips when Frankie took one of your feet from the side of the bath and started rubbing the sole with firm circular strokes. Your eyes began to close and that wave of tranquility washed over you again. Frankie noticed your eyes getting heavier and gently placed your foot back in the bath, “C’mon, honey, let’s get you washed and dried and in bed.”

“Is that with innocent or malicious intent, sir?”

“There are always less than innocent thoughts around you, querida, but I prefer it when you can stay awake,” Frankie chuckled as he soaps up a washcloth, dragging it gently from your shoulder around your right arm and to the tips of your fingers before swapping to the left.

With reverence and tenderness he washed away the day’s worries before he knelt between your legs to reach for your cleanser and your crocheted face pads that he’d picked up for you after your eldest had made you feel awful for using cotton wool ones. That was just how Frankie was. Constantly thinking of others and how he could make things easier. Like right now, as he splodged some cleanser onto a pad and slowly rubbed tiny circles around your face.

When you reopened your eyes, you were met with soft brown orbs that gazed at you adoringly. The creases around his eyes had deepened, his temples and his patchy beard had greyed considerably but my goodness, your heart swelled when this man looked in your direction even ten years later. Your quiet pilot whose common sense kept everyone grounded, whose soft chuckle could elicit laughter from the coldest heart and whose empanadas were legendary. There had been bumps along the way and some that felt insurmountable at the time, especially when there’d been the risk to his livelihood with the coke charge just before he’d returned from South America - a shell of your husband, with haunted eyes and nightmares.

All of this while you were trying to work out this tiny thing called motherhood. There was too much to lose and so you both fought, fought so hard to regain that trust and intimacy that had been taken for granted.

With a small smile, Frankie stands, grabbing the towel from the warming rack and giving himself a quick dry before tying it around his waist. Grabbing a bath sheet for you, he gestured with a small jerk of his head for you to stand and reverently he started to towel you dry. Softly brushing the cotton against your skin, every droplet of water was absorbed from your skin as with the precision he applies to his work, he now applied to your body.

You caught a mischievous glint in his eye and the slight raise of his dark eyebrow as he straightened out the towel to wrap it around you.

“Mr Morales, what are you about to do… FRANKIE?!!!” Quick as a flash, before you could lift your arms, he wrapped all of you in the tightest burrito towel roll ever. Having hooked one arm behind your knees and keeping the other behind your shoulders, he picked you up bridal style and carried you out of the en-suite, depositing you on your bed unceremoniously before he unrolled you like an old rug.

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400 notes • Posted 2021-04-14 14:07:48 GMT

#4 Trying to buy a new couch, with modern!Pero?

I am so sorry that this has taken so long but here he is in all his soft family man glory!

Warning: Mentions of having children and Tovar with his goddamn breeding kink (he totally has one!) Language and smut so minors, please back off now!

As you walk in through the door, the golden hour has hit, making your hallway burn brightly in the evening light. After shouting a mostly ignored hello, you throw your keys in the pot on the window ledge, kicking off your shoes and dropping your handbag by the door in the cataclysmic dump of school bags and other belongings of your family.

Sticking your head around the front room door, you find your three kids wrestling each other for the best spots on your battered old sofa- stained with spilled drinks and encrusted with child love. A sofa that had originally been bought for two to snuggle upon and now had to squish five ample bottoms. Your kids mostly ignore your presence and wish for them to stop killing each other quite so violently, so you leave them to it - survival of the fittest after all.

Turning into the kitchen, you find a large glass of rioja awaiting you on the table and the heady aroma of garlic, onions, chorizo and red peppers wafting through the air. The mess of dark curls and broad back that constitutes your husband are hunched over your range cooker, preparing what smells like his mother’s paella recipe - a labour of love, sweat and tears, if Pero’s face is anything to go by. Walking over to stand near enough to bump him with your hip, glass in hand, he becomes more aware of your presence.

“¿Cómo estás, mi alma?” your husband softly growls in your ear as he wraps you in his arms and kisses your forehead.

“Todo lo mejor para verte,” All the better for seeing you- you nuzzle into his chest, the worries of your work day evaporating with his touch.

The animated voices from the other room seem to be building to a boiling point - Pero and you share a look, both refusing to entertain what might be taking place in the other room.

“They’ve been like this since I picked them up from school,” Pero huffs irritatedly, turning back to dramatically add the chicken and tomatoes into the pan, “It’s mainly Cici and Maxí trying to outdo each other whilst Javi just wants them both to leave him alone. So, I ran away, to here.”

“Excellent thinking - it’s better for us to hide, drinking good wine. Let’s not fight in some other man’s war,” you laugh, raising your glass.

“Salud!” your husband clinks his glass in total agreement, before taking a large gulp.

CRASH!

You both hold your breath, awaiting tears or screams. When neither arrives, you charge into the living room - half expecting broken bodies - to find three pairs of wide eyes and an utterly destroyed sofa.

“What have you done?!” you growl, eyes flashing at your three - free-to-good-homes- kids as a wave of irritation washes through you.

“Mamí, Papí - I’m so sorry,” Javier’s puppy dog eyes fill with tears.

“Was this you, Javi?” you hear his father ask him calmly, entirely confident that it was not the doing of your eldest boy.

“No, I was just trying to watch the cartoons but Maxí and Cici were arguing over where they wanted to sit and Maxí kept taking up all of the sofa so Cici couldn’t sit down and then Cici body dropped Maxí and that’s when the sofa broke,” the words spat forth from Javi’s mouth in a tearful and snotty machine gun fire.

“Urgh, you’re such a tattletale,” Cici grumbles, rolling her eyes at her oldest brother as she wallops him on the arm.

“Well, I didn’t do it,” Maxí unconvincingly whines to his audience, “I was just sitting on the sofa and then she smashed it and she hurt me!”

“Gah! Kids, will you stop being so hideous to each other and stop treating this house like it’s a WWE arena,” you thunder at the end of your tether, “I have had it up to here with the lot of you!”

Spinning your hip towards the door before you murder any of the children, Pero kisses your forehead before lowly whispering, “Remember, we broke a sofa,” his eyebrow cocks in amusement, “Go take over dinner, I will sort out these payasitos Little clowns.”

Walking away from the destroyed living room and the sound of Pero attempting to broker peace between the warring nations of your household, you head into the kitchen and immediately top up your glass as you stir the calamari and mussels into the paella. Surprisingly quickly, a quiet falls upon the bickering and your husband rejoins you by the cooker.

“Did you murder them?” you ask into the bowl of the wine glass.

“Not this time. Just telling them the story of how we broke your mother’s sofa,” he nuzzles into your neck as you spray wine across dinner.

Whipping around in his arms with the spatula pointing up at him, you squeak, “Pero!”

“Señora, put down your sword. And the wine is meant to be poured in, not spat in,” he teasingly smiles at you before pulling your hips into his, “Relájate, mi amor Relax my love, I told them the same story we told your mother. The dog broke it when we were playing with her.”

As Pero wipes the red wine stain from your lip with the tip of his calloused thumb, you cannot help but giggle at the memory of the horrendous explanation you’d given your mum roughly nine years earlier as to how her sofa had broken when Pero and you had been pet-sitting her now pretty elderly newfoundland. How the three of you had been playing rough and tumble together, rolling around causing the sofa to give up the ghost. It was entirely questionable whether she’d ever bought the excuse and anyway, she was utterly delighted with Javier’s arrival roughly nine months later.

Pulling apart from Pero’s kisses when you notice three small sheepish faces joining you in the kitchen with a plethora of pictures. Before you have a chance to examine the artworks, Cici speaks up first, “I am sorry Mami for breaking the sofa when I elbow dropped Maxi.”

“Thank you for apologising, muñequita dolly,” you smile, pulling your youngest into your arms, “So, chiquitos little ones, what have you been drawing?”

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407 notes • Posted 2021-05-30 21:40:54 GMT

Pretty please with sugar on top can modern!Pero take me out on a date, can we get a babysitter for our four year old and drink cocktails and eat steak?! I would adore you forever. Can he call me cielo?!

You mean this little love taking you out for a night on the town? It would be my pleasure, mi cielito @yespolkadotkitty

Modern!Pero x reader

8.4K words

Warnings: fluffiness, children, food, smut, scarring

An agonised groan arises from Pero as a sharp knock sounds upon your door. Grabbing your chin between his thumb and index finger so that he can look you dead in the eye, he softly growls, “Right, hermosa - the plan of action is that we throw Javi at them and we run, sí?”

“Pero - these are your parents! You have not seen them in three months, they are going to want to see their big boy as much as their littlest one,” you castigate him, shaking your head, “I feel bad going out tonight and leaving Javi with them, when they have quite literally just landed here.”

Another knock. This time, it is even sharper and is followed by a shout through the structure, “¡Por el amor de Dios, abre la puta puerta! For god’s sake, open the bloody door!” comes Pero's mum's voice, “¡Puedo escucharte hablar, idiotas! I can hear you talking, idiots!”

Sheepishly opening the door, the broad expanse of your husband shrinks into a little boy - lifting his right hand to wave at her as he hangs his head, “Hola, Mama. Hola, Papa.”

After tapping his hip - as if he was still living under their rules - his mama pulls him into a massive hug and kiss, and all the grumpiness disappears from his face. Jimena then turns to you - placing her hands on either side of your face, her eyes crinkling kindly, saying, “Mija, go. My son needs to take you out - we will have plenty of time for catch-ups later.”

“You look so tired,” she tuts, “He has obviously not been taking good enough care of you, so go enjoy yourselves. We will see you tomorrow afternoon. I will have a sobremesa ready for when you return.”

“Tomorrow? Tomorrow afternoon?” The panic is written across your face and you spin around to where Pero is embracing his Papa as the two of them silently ask how the other is doing through their series of nods - a language you’ve grown to love learning.

“Si, we are not just going for food but I also got us a suite where we won’t be woken at 6 am for CBeebies and Cap’n Crunch.” With a soft smile upon his face, he reaches out to you, to pull you into his side. “My parents have wanted to do this for us for a while. It’s all booked, I’ve already packed - you don’t have to lift a finger, just come with me and we can pretend we’re not parents for a night.”

The wink and smirk from your husband makes your eyebrow raise, “Yeah? That feels like such a long time ago, I’m not sure I can recollect those times.”

“Let me help you remember, cielo,” his lips dust the sensitive skin of your neck before whispering, “We used to… sleep!”

“Pero - you can’t say that! Not in front of your parents,” you wickedly tease, both standing there chuckling in the hallway of your flat. Javi has long since been swept up in a tornado of kisses from his abuelita and abuelo.

Jimena reappears like the bruja, you are certain she is, “Pssh, how do you think this tonto arrived?” she pinches her son’s cheeks and the look upon his face screams for the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

“Mama, por favor - we were talking of sleep,” Pero pleads, looking as if he is dying a little on the inside.

“Well, that better not be the only thing you do or you’ll have to book a second night too,” she shakes her head, returning to the kitchen with a wave over her shoulder, “Javi will be fine, apart from the terrible Spanglish he is speaking to his Tias Gloria and Elisa via FaceTime with Abuelo in the kitchen. Go, niños - enjoy yourselves.

“Javier - ahora sigues las reglas de la abuela, con muchos besos, azúcar y mimos. Javier - you follow granny's rules now,with lots of kisses, sugar and spoiling.”

A warm, large hand placed in the middle of your back seeks to soothe your worry at leaving your four-year-old baby overnight, the thumb stroking your spine, “Come on, cielo. The night is ours.”

✪✪✪✪✪

The train ride into the city is a sweet meditation on the sprawling urban landscape with its bright graffiti and soaring buildings, becoming more fervent in their wish to reach the sky, the further into town you go. Normally, Pero would sit opposite, with Javi tightly huddled into his side but today, your husband sits right next to you - thighs pressed against each other, an arm stretched around your shoulder as he absentmindedly fiddles with your hair. Both of you enjoy the quiet electrical hum of the engine, the quiet soundtrack of other commuters and the gentle rocking of the carriage that causes you to sway into each other.

“Are you ok, mi cielo?” your husband tenderly prompts, stroking a tendril of hair away from your neck.

“Yeah. I’m more than ok, mi sol,” you stroke his thigh gently, “I love Javi with all of my heart and soul but when we get time to be just us, that’s pretty fucking special.”

Turning towards Pero, threading your fingers through his hair - his arm now dropping to your hip, his fingers skirting up and down at the base of your spine, “Te quiero mucho. Thank you so much for this.”

Wordlessly responding to the gratitude, your husband tilts his head slightly as he leans forward to place the lightest of kisses upon your lips. How is it that even after all these years, even the smallest touch from him can utterly set every one of yoursenses on fire? Before you have a chance to ponder any further, his arms are encircling you to draw you in deeper to him, the kisses slowly building in their ferocity as you allow him to flood you with his love. In Pero’s arms, you feel swept away upon a surging tide that steals your breath with the warmth of his mouth, washing away every worry of what pertains to adulthood, blurring and replacing them with a swimming giddiness. You drink him in, kissing him back fervently - as if you were back in the swirling lights of that club and it was the first time all over again.

All too soon, the train pulls into the terminal and you have to disentangle yourselves from each other. Pulling apart, you hear a startled gasp from a couple sitting diagonally from you, causing Pero to spin around and glare, “Sorry for the surprise- from the kissing, my wife and I thought you were teenagers.”

Scowling and shaking his head at these words, Pero growls, “I will kiss my wife like this until I am cold and buried.”

The elderly woman winks at you, grinning, “Lucky lady!”

See the full post

598 notes • Posted 2021-06-13 21:38:12 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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funny-that-its-blue · 5 years

Photo

and here are the rest of my ocs, the side characters! they finally got nicer designs, AND a new guy!

info on them under the cut

Kong Jiong > Kong Haili’s and Kong Mao’s father. > Born and raised alongside the imperial family in Luoyang. Eldest of 5 children. Hails from a long lineage of famous imperial warriors--a natural-born fighter. > A very prestigious and talented general, engineer, and guard. He took an oath to never marry into royalty--however, he ended up breaking this oath after falling in love with an imperial woman. Though he knew his reputation would be ruined with the marriage, but he chose to go through it anyways and excommunicated himself to avoid the remainder of family from being punished. > He joined in the Coalition against Dong Zhuo despite not being allied with any particular faction. He wished to restore his name and find a safe leader that would protect his family and village. He was well-known by and on good terms with each warlord. > Dutiful, serious, brave, stern, a natural leader; gentle and loving at heart. A big teddy bear around his children. > ???-196. Was caught in a fire and slain by Lu Bu while trying to defend Xiapi. > 5′11″ (180 cm) > Faction: None > Weapon: Zhanmadao > Theme: OVERWERK - Canon Pt. II > Fun fact: whittles wood as a hobby. He enjoys making little chimes and figurines for his and the village’s children.

Kong Mao > Kong Haili’s older brother. He was adopted after fleeing from a cruel household at 6 years old. > Greatly looked up to his father and trained to fight as well as him since he was a young age. > Very charismatic, bold, brave, passionate, fiery, and loving. Excellent at keeping moral up, giving hope, and making others happy and comfortable. A huge family man. Very compassionate with peasants and villagers, making him quite popular among both soldiers and common folk. > 178-208. Wounds were infected after returning from Chibi. Possibly was injured by Haili when they clashed. He wrote a letter to his sister on his deathbed. > 6′1″ (185 cm) > Faction: Shu > Weapon: Spear-ended battleaxe > Theme: Madeon - Finale > Theme w/ Haili: Okami OST - Reset (English Cover) > Fun fact: Both his and Haili’s existences were never known outside of their village until joining their respective factions.

Song Xingyu > Xu Long’s childhood friend and wife; Haili’s daughter-in-law. > Middle child of 3 siblings. > Has an unusual appearance for one of Asian roots, and is very shy. This led her to be subject to teasing. > Has star-shaped beauty marks under her left eye and light freckles. > Very gentle, timid, compassionate, and nurturing. Gets anxious easily, and can be rather insecure. > Doesn’t fight. Would only ever touch a weapon if there was no way for her to escape from something and she needed to protect her family. > A tailor and designer. She used to work with her family in Shouchun, but later moved her business to Luoyang to support Xu Long. She’s rather popular with the locals for her work. > 212-272. Passes of natural causes. > 5′1″ (155 cm) > Faction: Jin > Theme: Hong Ting - A Bit of Gold > Theme w/ Xu Long: Mindy Gledhill - I Do Adore > Fun fact: Her hair is always in excellent condition. No one really knows how Xingyu does it.

Su Biao > Xu Long’s closest friend, whom he met shortly after joining the army. They see each other as brothers. > Second of 2 children. His older brother became a bandit who fled from the city and was never seen again. > Comes from a criminal family. He joined the army in hopes of clearing their name and making himself a good person. > EXTREMELY temperamental, possibly has anger management issues. Rowdy, reckless, proud, and always getting into fights. Even so, he is a very kind and very generous man who dotes on his friends. He’s surprisingly selfless, and loves to donate time and money to others. Can be a bit of a goof, too. Though feared for his temper, he’s popular for his kindness. > After his parents were convicted and executed by the Sima for their crimes, Su Biao defected to Wu in a fit of rage. > 209-245. Killed by Xu Long after attacking him recklessly on the battlefield. > 5′8″ (173 cm) > Faction: Jin, Wu > Weapon: Meteor hammer > Theme: Steve Aoki (ft. Linkin Park) - Darker Than Blood > Fun fact: Had a massive crush on Xu Long shortly after they met.

#oc #my oc #super soldier | kong jiong #firecracker | kong mao #shooting star | song xingyu #wild card | su biao #arts

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nerdiests · 6 years

Text

Day 5 of Kaminari week!!

Check it out on ao3!

prompt: sparks - first kiss/date/confessions

Having a crush on someone was hard work. Especially if you saw said person every. Single. Day. Denki knew the struggle. Dealing with his crush on class 1-A’s resident pretty boy, Todoroki Shouto, was a struggle and a half. For one, he was just there all the time! Being pretty. Denki and his pansexual self could not handle this boy being that attractive. Well, his classmates in general were pretty attractive, like Midoriya’s freckles were absolutely adorable, and Yaoyorozu was always so cute when she got excited over something… Denki could go on for hours, just listing how each one of his classmates was absolutely amazing. But Todoroki… Man, Denki fell fast and he fell hard.

Denki had arrived surprisingly early to class his first day - maybe it was excitement, maybe nerves, but probably both. Either way, he was half an hour early. There weren’t a ton of people there, like three or four. This one guy with blue hair and glasses greeted him at the door and Denki just smiled and waved. Always worked in the past. There was a tall girl with black hair in a ponytail who Denki shot a grin at as well, and. A quite. Attractive person. He knew from the news he could sometimes read that it was, in fact, Todoroki Shouto and man if the news reports didn’t do him justice. He was so… Pretty. Despite people using “gendered” adjectives, Denki couldn’t find anything more befitting.

And as the semester went on, Denki only fell further. Todoroki was extremely closed off at first, almost never talking to anyone, until his spontaneous declaration at the sports festival to Midoriya that “I will win”. He’d proceeded to ask Denki to join his team for the second round - which Denki still was shocked over because? Todoroki had picked Iida and Yaoyorozu to be on his team and he was important? Denki didn’t get it, but he was grateful nonetheless. Still managed to get knocked out of the game in his first fight, but. Either way. Due to that fortunate circumstance, he managed to get a whopping 272 nominations for his internship, although it was nothing in comparison to Todoroki’s 4000 something. He did have quite the adventure, though.

After the internships, hell even after the sports festival, something had changed with Todoroki’s dynamic with the class. It might’ve been Midoriya’s fight with him at the sports festival when Todoroki used fire - he could make fire and ice, wow - or possibly over the internships. All Denki knew is that Todoroki was opening up more. Maybe he’d get to talk to him more? Hm.

Both finals and the summer camp were an absolute disaster. Denki failed and he couldn’t help when the rest of the class was in crisis. And when it really counted, to go and rescue one of his friends… He chickened out. Hearing afterwards that Kirishima, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, and Todoroki had gone through with the plan left him feeling bad for the rest of the day. They could go through with it, why couldn’t he?

As a result of the disastrous summer camp, everyone had to go into dorms. His parents were glad to get him out of the house, since his older brother had recently moved back in after losing his job. Denki was just happy to be out of the house. He’d finally have his own space. Sort of. At least he’d be seeing Todoroki more? Oh who was he kidding that was a curse in disguise he’d be embarrassing himself all the time!! Which he did, in fact, proceed to do.

The first of these occurred when he managed to yell a long string of curses after dying for the umpteenth time in Geometry Dash right as Todoroki walked into the common room.

“Am I… Interrupting something?” Todoroki asked, brow rising slightly. Denki smiled sheepishly from his spot on the couch, holding up his phone with one hand. The Geometry Dash music quietly played throughout the common room. Todoroki, however, only looked even more confused.

“...What’s that music from?” he asked, and Denki’s eyes widened slightly.

“Geometry Dash?” Denki replied. Todoroki shook his head, and Denki had to keep his jaw from dropping. He waved Todoroki over, patting the cushion next to him.

“Dude, I’ve gotta show you this! It’s a really old game, but I’ve been playing it for a long time. I can show it how it works, if you’d like,” Denki offered. For a moment, Todoroki was still, before walking over to the couch and sitting next to Denki.

“So is it a math oriented game? With a name like Geometry Dash I’d assume so,” Todoroki said. Denki snorted, before beginning to giggle.

“No, it’s not got anything to do with math. Todoroki, not everything’s school-related!! It’s got geometrical figures, though,” Denki said, before going to the easiest level in the game and passing his phone over to Todoroki.

“So you just tap the screen to get your little square pal to jump,” Denki explained. Todoroki nodded.

“I think I’ve got it,” Todoroki said, before pressing start.

Todoroki did not, in fact, get it. He didn’t get it so badly that he couldn’t even get halfway through the easiest level. Denki wasn’t sure how or why, but it was hilarious to see Todoroki slowly getting more and more frustrated. Though when he felt the temperature drop slightly, he began to worry.

“Hey uh. Could I have my phone back?” Denki asked, slightly worried. Todoroki paused, looking at the blue cube on screen run into a triangle and explode. Denki swiftly reached over and pressed the pause button.

“You can get the game on your own phone, if you want to play it more?” Denki suggested. Todoroki nodded, seemingly to himself, before reaching into his pants pocket and pulling his phone out. Presumably to download Geometry Dash on his own phone. Oh, this boy was so. Adorable.

The next week, Denki was sitting with the “Bakusquad” at Their Table, when Todoroki just approached the table in the middle of lunch and looked right at him.

“What’s up?” Denki asked, baffled slightly. Didn’t he eat lunch with Midoriya and his other friends? Why was he over here?

“I beat the first level of Geometry Dash, just now,” Todoroki said, and Denki noticed a small smile on his face. Oh gee, that was. Cute. Denki blinked to clear his mind quickly, and grinned in reply.

“That’s awesome! I believed in you the whole time, man,” Denki said encouragingly, while the rest of his table looked on, confused.

“You mind, Icyhot?” Bakugou cut in, taking another bite of his spicy curry. Todoroki blinked, before nodding once. He turned to leave, but Denki spoke up.

“I’ll… Talk to you later?” Denki asked. Todoroki looked back at Denki, before nodding once again.

“Yeah.” As Todoroki walked away, he smiled slightly.

“That was adorable,” he muttered to himself. Luckily for him, he hadn’t said that very loudly. Unluckily for him, he was sitting next to Sero, and Sero could hear him fairly well.

“Did you just call Todoroki adorable?” Sero asked, and Denki’s cheeks went slightly pink.

“No!” he protested, and Ashido gasped.

“You did!! You wouldn’t be blushing if you didn’t!” Ashido declared. Denki shook his head rapidly.

“I didn’t!!” he stated, and Ashido grinned.

“You did!!” she repeated, while Kirishima turned towards Denki.

“Nothing wrong with admitting to a crush, Kaminari! Admitting your feelings is manly, bro!” Kirishima said enthusiastically, and Denki’s blush grew deeper.

“I don’t have a crush on Todoroki!! I don’t!” Denki protested yet again, before picking up his phone and opening up… No Geometry Dash now, maybe… Cookie Run would be better.

The next embarrassing thing Denki managed to do happened in front of the rest of the class, so. It was infinitely more embarrassing than swearing when no one else was around. Somehow, he’d managed to call Present Mic “dad”. Which he’d seen a few times with other teachers back in America, and he’d always chuckled when it happened. It was definitely more embarrassing to be on the receiving end of all the giggles.

His third embarrassing situation was. Less than ideal. He’d been hanging with Sero and Kirishima in Sero’s room, playing some Mario Kart. Winning some, losing a lot more, the works. They were in the middle of the final lap, and Denki was in… Third place. Better than normal. Sero was trying to throw him off his game, as was the usual.

“You’re not gonna get me out of my solid third place spot, Sero!” Denki exclaimed triumphantly, narrowly avoiding crashing into the barrier of the track. Sero glanced at Denki, then his wall, before smirking.

“Just like you’re not going to get out of your solid spot of not talking to Todoroki about your crush on him?” Sero retorted, and Denki froze. That moment was all Sero needed to get past him, along with half of the CPUs. He lost. Horribly. Denki turned to Sero after the match, who was grinning like the cat that got the canary.

“Dude,” Denki said, and Sero only quirked an eyebrow.

“Yeah?” Sero asked. Denki sighed.

“You called me out to win a game of Mario Kart. That’s… No,” Denki said, setting the Wii remote down. Kirishima looked between the two of them. He opened his mouth to speak, when Sero spoke.

“All’s fair in love and Mario Kart.” For a moment it was quiet.

“You don’t bring up a dude’s crush to win Mario Kart,” Kirishima said solemnly, and Denki nodded.

“Sorry,” Sero apologized. Denki shrugged.

“Just don’t do it again. Please,” Denki said, and Sero nodded.

Not much longer afterwards, Denki left Sero and Kirishima to play Mario Party 8 - which Denki had never enjoyed. It was late anyways, like… 9? Well, late if he wanted to get any of his work done. All he needed to work on was his English, thankfully, which would be a breeze… Considering English was his first language, at least. It’d be so simple. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts about schoolwork he didn’t notice a door open, and he managed to not only run into someone but knock the both of them over.

“Oh my god, I’m so sor-” Denki managed to cut himself off mid-word once he’d noticed who he’d knocked over. Todoroki. The aforementioned teen blinked up at Denki from his place on the floor. Denki’s face turned red very quickly, and he quickly scooted away from Todoroki.

“Uhm, uh. I’m. Uh. Sorry!” Denki said quickly. Todoroki stayed in his spot on the floor for a moment, before pushing himself off the floor. Denki followed suit, standing in the hallway awkwardly for a moment. Todoroki looked at Denki, eyes narrowing the slightest bit.

“Are you… Okay?” Todoroki asked. Denki didn’t even pause to think about his answer because, as it was almost all the time, his mouth was a full fifteen seconds ahead of his brain.

“Okay? No! I knocked over the guy that I’ve had a crush on for six months, how do you think that would feel?? I’m embarrassed as all hell, Todoroki!” Denki exclaimed, throwing his hands up slightly. Todoroki blinked, before his face went slightly pink.

“Uh. What?” Todoroki asked, dumbfounded by what Denki had said. Then Denki’s brain caught up with the words he’d said. Oh fuck.

“Oh nooooo,” Denki said quietly, looking anywhere that Todoroki was.

“What did you mean by that, exactly?” Todoroki asked, the slight pink darkening. Denki’s eyes drifted about, avoiding looking in front of him.

“I, uh. I’ve had a…” Denki trailed off, his gaze settling on his shoes. He couldn’t. Spit the words out.

“Had a what?” Todoroki asked, confused. Did. Did Todoroki not understand what he meant?

“I’ve had a crush on you since the third day of school!” Denki blurted out. The blush on his face grew redder, while Todoroki’s eyes had widened and his mouth was slightly open. Denki took advantage of Todoroki’s confusion to bolt for the stairs and dash down to the third floor. Oh god, he wouldn’t be able to work on his homework now! Todoroki would probably laugh about this once Denki was out of earshot - wait, no, he was too nice for that. He’d just think Denki was silly, or stupid or something. Todoroki’s out of his league, why would he even consider liking him? Denki’s. A mess.

He walked out of the stairwell and headed right for his room. After closing his door, he beelined for his desk, sat down, and began to let his head repeatedly thud against the wooden surface. Denki made sure to avoid smacking his head on his keyboard, because knowing him, he’d forget to edit it out of the Art History essay he’d finished writing the day prior. As he was about to let his head fall back onto his desk again, there was a knock at the door. Who…? Denki got up from his desk and walked over to the door, opening it.

“Whaddya want?” Denki asked, not processing who was standing in front of him for a moment. Then he blinked. Todoroki. Oh. Oh. Oh shit.

“Uh.” Denki said. Eloquent, Denki. A+.

“I didn’t get a chance to. Reply…? If that’s what you’d intended earlier, at least,” Todoroki said, eyes darting away from Denki and looking at the door frame. Denki paused. There was a slight dusting of pink on Todoroki’s cheeks, and he was avoiding eye contact. Was he… Nervous? Todoroki reached up to tuck his hair behind his ear, which only moved back to framing his face, before tearing his eyes away from the doorframe and looking back at Denki.

“I… Like you too…” Todoroki said quietly. Denki could barely make it out, but he did. He froze for a moment. This. What?

“I. Oh wow,” Denki muttered, looking down at his shoes. Todoroki seemed to take that as some sort of negative comment, and Denki felt a hand on his shoulder. His head whipped up, and he was looking Todoroki directly in the eye. He couldn’t break that, it was. Too intense. Todoroki took his hand off Denki’s shoulder, moving it back to his side.

“I do, really! It’s… Taken a while to realize. I didn’t really know what having romantic feelings for someone else felt like, really, until about a month and a half ago, or so.” Todoroki paused. That was… Right around the time Todoroki’d walked in on him swearing at Geometry Dash in the common room.

“I had this fluttery feeling every time you were around, and it was always nice getting to see you. I smiled more, thinking about you. But I didn’t have a name for it, until I brought it up to Midoriya and Uraraka. They… Cleared it up for me,” Todoroki continued, glancing down and fidgeting with his shirt’s hem for a moment. Denki was quiet.

“It was just. Hard trying to find a way to bring it up. I wasn’t sure if you’d reject me or not, and I wasn’t sure if I could really. Handle that well. So I’ve uh. Been meaning to tell you for about a week, but I couldn’t find the right environment to tell you, so. I guess this is how I’ll say it?” Todoroki paused yet again, and took a deep breath. Denki was stock-still, afraid to move because this could be a dream, and if he moved he’d wake up.

“Kaminari… I like you. A lot. Would you like to, uh…” Todoroki bit his lip, pausing. Denki held his breath in trepidation. This. He hoped this wasn’t a dream, he really did.

“Um. Would you like to go on a date sometime?” Todoroki asked quickly. Denki was frozen for a moment.

“I really hope this isn’t a dream,” Denki said quietly, glancing down for the slightest of moments. Then he locked eyes with Todoroki again. Not trusting his voice to not fail him, he nodded once. Todoroki’s eyes brightened, and he smiled slightly.

“Great! Um. I can give you my phone number so we can schedule that?” Todoroki asked, and Denki nodded, quickly walking over to his desk and grabbing his phone. He opened up a new contact as he walked back over.

“Here you go. I’ve got a new contact open, so you can just put your number in and I can text you!” Denki said, with a slight smile. Todoroki smiled in reply as he took Denki’s phone and plugged his number in, handing it back quickly.

“Nice,” Denki said quietly, glancing down at the contact information. He had Todoroki’s phone number. Oh gee.

“I’ve gotta go. To sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Todoroki asked. Denki nodded enthusiastically, grinning.

“Yeah, I’ve gotta get that English essay written really quick,” Denki replied. Todoroki nodded, before walking off towards the elevator and waving over his shoulder as he did. Denki stood in his open doorway for a moment, before closing the door and fist pumping.

“I’m gonna go on a date with Todoroki!” Denki exclaimed with a grin on his face. Then he looked at his computer. Right. He had an essay to write, and Todoroki to text afterwards.

#nerdiwrites #denkiweek2018 #kaminari denki #todoroki shouto #todokami #bnha #kaminari!!#i like writing cute things okay #let me have this

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spaceshipkat · 6 years

Note

Another anon about Sam Cortland. Spoilers ahead, I hope you don't mind them :)) I personally always liked Sam the best out of all the love interests bc, to me, he seemed the most decent male character Mess has ever written. He had no magic powers, no royal lineage and was the descendant of no god. He was polite with Lysandra and other courtesans, he'd worked his ass off to become one of Arobynn's best assassins and was treated like shit by Sardines for years. (1/4)

I can believe that he’d been in love with her for years as he claimed in Assassin’s Blade (tho for the life of me I can’t see why), but what pisses me off is that as soon as he confesses his feelings for her, she’s suddenly into him too?? Even tho she’s been a bitch to him until then?? And they spend like a month together at her apartment before he dies and then in QoS Alien is all like “I’ve never loved anyone more than Sam, not even Chaol” even tho she barely thinks of him until then. (2/4)

Mmm okay if you say so…. The thing is that I SHIPPED them despite their romance being too quick and unfounded for my tastes, but it could have worked imo if Mess developed their relationship more after they got together bc they had common experiences, similar upbringings and struggles and goals when it came to their profession, but NO Mess had to kill him in the worst possible way. (¾)

i kid you not, the scene when we’re shown his tortured body on a table is the ONLY scene Mess has ever written that had me bawling my eyes out, i will never get over it. He and Chaol were the only love interests I liked, but now we’re stuck with bland grandpa Rowboat who’s centuries old and acts like a horny 15 yo. As for Dorian, their romance was always too much infatuation imo and it never made sense for Alien and him to get together if she was gonna dump him anyway bc she knew she’d win (4/4)

i don’t mind spoilers!! when it comes to books, i actually actively seek them out more often than not. 😏 not sure why though tbh.

but yeah it definitely seems as though sardines never loved sam as much as she claims. i mean, if someone like me, who hasn’t read the novellas, can’t see the love sardines supposedly has for sam, then i think it’s 1) pretty telling about just how deep her supposed feelings go, and 2) yet another example of sj/m’s mediocre writing. if sam was a motivator or something for sardines to succeed in the competition, that’d be a different story (iirc, he isn’t her motivator to win, right?) and i could buy into it.

(it also goes hand in hand with what i predict will happen in cres/cent city since bryce is supposedly out to avenge her best friend’s murder when that’s just gonna be a catalyst to introduce her to the love interest who will provide the porn, but i digress 😁)

this kinda also exemplifies what sj/m thinks a novella should do, as with ac0fas. the purpose of a novella is typically to give backstory (which i guess it could for tab? i’m iffy on that), to provide explanations, to bridge stories (which is the reason ac0fas was published, though imo it wasn’t necessary), that sort of thing. but what’s also key about a novella is that it should not be vital to read them to understand what’s going on in a book. so in the case of tab to t0g, sj/m did all right, but she should have summarized the information from the novella more within t0g’s storyline. otherwise we hear about this character who meant so much to sardines and is the reason she’s in the salt mines, but he doesn’t play a key role in her character arc. (like i said above, if she was competing for sam, it’d be another story. a better story, too, imo.)

likewise with ac0fas. from the summaries i’ve read of it, it seems pretty pointless. it was just another way for sj/m and bloomsbury to get more money out of her readers (and provide antis with more snark, so i guess that’s a win!). the info contained in ac0fas could have easily been summarized in subsequent novels. hell, the way nesta is treated could be the beginning of her story, say chapters 1-3, and then the actual plot could begin: her being sent to the illyrian war camps with cassian (and don’t get me wrong, i abhor this plot point. the only way mess could redeem herself with this is if nesta goes to the camps, joins up with the poor female fae who suffered FGM, falls in love with one of them bc nesta deserves a beautiful wife, and together nesta and the other female fae overthrow the fuckbois). there was no reason for ac0fas to exist in order to bridge the gap between the original trilogy and the new books. kirkus said it quite nicely:

kirkus also explained everything that sj/m supposedly needed 272 pages (according to amazon) to tell in just a few words:

this novella is just another perfect example of sj/m’s misguided understanding of what constitutes a story, although she apparently did know, once upon a time, what the length of a novella should be. but this was about sam and tab, not ac0fas, so i’ll stop rambling about that.

y’know what’s funny about sam? i remember that when chaol was the predicted endgame love interest, stans were up in arms about how precious sam was, that sj/m needed to bring him back to life, that he should’ve survived so he and sardines could be together forever. now with rowboat in the picture? no one cares (at least that i’ve seen!). in fact, i’d be willing to bet that were sam to return the stans would go apeshit bc he would threaten the survival of ratalien. and that right there is the reason that i don’t think sam will ever return. he wasn’t a fae, nor did he have magic, so he’s all but meaningless. le sigh.

#ask #anonymous #anti sjm

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fyeahfantasticfour · 6 years

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Can you tell me the backstory behind Nathaniel Richards(Reed's father) and if possible maybe Franklin Storm(Sue and Johnny's father) as well?

Sure! First Franklin Storm because he appears in significantly fewer comics and is less complicated than the time-traveling lothario who is Nathaniel Richards.

Franklin was a famous neurosurgeon whose life fell apart after his wife died in a tragic car accident. He performed the surgery on her and failed to save her life, and of course blamed himself for all of it. (I suspect the sliding timescale would erase the surgery part at the very least – there’s no way that anyone nowadays would allow a man to operate on his own wife, especially if he’d just survived a terrible car accident.)

After his wife died, he began to drink heavily and gambled away his family’s entire fortune, leaving Johnny and Sue penniless, and, when a loan shark showed up to collect on one of his debts and pulled a gun, Franklin attacked him. The gun went off while they were struggling over it, the man died, and Franklin was sent to prison for murder, partially because he was too despondent to try to defend himself.

Sue told Johnny their father died, and they were sent to live with their Aunt Marygay Jewel Dinkins. Sue kept lying to Johnny for YEARS about their father’s death, which is, uh, pretty messed up. There was never any real emotional fallout between Johnny and Sue over the revelation that she’d been lying to him for so long, even though there should have been.

Cut for length.

This is the backstory we get in Fantastic Four v1 #32:

How old Johnny and Sue were when their mother died and father went to jail has varied significantly over time as canon has shifted, but Johnny was likely extremely young at the time.

But, honestly, Franklin Storm checked out of being an actual father to Sue and Johnny long before he was stuck in a jail cell – even before his wife died. In Fantastic Four v1 #528, Reed speculates that Sue’s invisibility may have been a byproduct of feeling neglected by her bickering, indifferent parents:

He was never a good father.

In Fantastic Four v1 #31, Sue sees a newspaper headline saying her father escaped from jail – apparently, however, no one in the press had connected the dots between her and Johnny and their father:

Sue doesn’t mention any of this to Johnny because he still thinks his father is dead.

We’re never given an explanation for why he escaped, but when Sue’s badly injured, he shows up at the hospital and operates on her, thus saving her life and sort of, supposedly, redeeming himself for failing to save his wife. This, by the way, is how Johnny finds out his father is still alive.

Franklin operates on Sue, saves her life, and immediately gets carted back off to prison, where he’s attacked and replaced by the Super Skrull, who then escapes and goes around masquerading as him, dressed as a guy called the Invincible Man. The FF, of course, are sent to take him down, but Johnny and Sue don’t know what to do because they don’t want to hurt their father:

Reed figures out he’s an impostor, so he contacts the Skrulls and arranges a prisoner exchange – the Super Skrull for Franklin. When Franklin is teleported home in the Super Skrull’s place, however, he warns them all to stand back, rolls over, and thus shields them all from the bomb that’d been strapped to his chest. Somehow, he lives long enough to give a dying speech to his children about how he always loved them and how he hopes this all redeems him for having been a terrible father:

So, yeah, that’s the story of how Johnny and Sue had to watch their father die.

I also wonder how much of Johnny’s personality was influenced by his dad – when he’s hurting, he drinks and parties, the sacrifice play is his go-to…and, look, I’m not convinced that there isn’t a lengthy history of chronic depression in Johnny’s family that Johnny inherited.

On to Nathaniel!

Nathaniel Richards began working, in the 1950s, as a member of the Brotherhood of the Shield alongside Howard Stark. They were told that they had to abandon their families and both agreed. Howard had no qualms whatsoever, even arranging to have his death faked, but Nathaniel swore he’d come back to his son someday. Given the fact that Howard says “them,” I’m assuming Nathaniel’s wife, Evelyn, was still alive, meaning Reed had to have been younger than seven at the time, since that’s how old he was when she died. This means also that Nathaniel was likely gone a lot during Reed’s childhood.

This is from S.H.I.E.L.D. v1 #5:

….I’m beginning to wonder if Nathaniel was even around when Evelyn died. Nathaniel’s basically the guy who chose science and the greater good over family – i.e., everything Reed haters accuse Reed of being when he isn’t, and that’s in direct reaction to his father. Reed tries so hard to be a good, present father because his father wasn’t.

We know that when Nathaniel visited Reed in college a few years later, Nathaniel acted as though he hadn’t seen Reed since Reed was a child – probably since he began working for the Brotherhood. This is from Hickman’s run – Fantastic Four v1 #581:

We find out in Fantastic Four v1 #271 that Nathaniel disappeared for good about three years before the spaceflight crash and left Reed two billion dollars, which Reed used up to fund his rocket. Reed hadn’t seen him at all since then.

He clearly knew he was going to be gone for a while.

Reed and the FF find Nathaniel’s time platform in his lab at the Richards family estate, and Reed realizes that his father’s blueprints are incorrect and that he must have been shunted off into an alternate universe, so they go to rescue him. In Fantastic Four v1 #272, they discover that there’s a cruel warlord who has taken over the alternate Earth, who Reed realizes, much to his dismay, is his father.

Yeah, this account of Reed’s childhood doesn’t entirely match up with what later writers did with Nathaniel.

But anyways, it turns out Nathaniel’s been fooled by his wife, who is actually the warlord and had been using Nathaniel’s scientific knowledge to conquer the planet. Nathaniel eventually decides to stay on this parallel world and try to make amends, and also raise his baby son, Reed’s half-brother. It turns out at the end of this issue – which is expanded upon in Avengers v1 #269 – that this reality is actually the one Kang the Conqueror is from, and that Kang, whose real name is Nathaniel Richards, is actually Nathaniel’s descendant and/or son, and thus distantly related to Reed or his half-brother.

So Nathaniel basically went to an alternate world and started a new family, away from Reed.

Nathaniel doesn’t return until Fantastic Four v1 #375, but when he does it’s just to cause trouble. This is the characterization of Nathaniel that’s stuck. He cares about his family, but he’s almost ruthlessly practical when it comes to protecting the timestream, and he’ll lie, manipulate, and deceive his family to make that happen. Reed and Sue discover that in Fantastic Four v1 #376, when Nathaniel kidnaps his grandson in order to prevent some apocalyptic future from occurring.

Franklin returns moments later…but instead of a 5yo, he’s a teenager, raised in the future by his grandfather. Reed and Sue discover they’ve missed his entire childhood, and Sue, for one, is livid and refuses to believe it.

The FF, understandably, have a very difficult time forgiving Nathaniel for this. They mostly think of him as manipulative, self-serving, and largely uninterested in his family.

When Reed is seemingly killed in action, Nathaniel shows up for the reading of his will…and Ben clearly despises and distrusts him. From Fantastic Four: Unplugged #2:

Despite Nathaniel’s mistreatment of Reed, Reed keeps seeking his approval and love, but Nathaniel consistently denies it to him. We see this in Marvel Knights 4 #18, when Reed begs his father to stick around and actually be a parent, and Nathaniel just…leaves.

Reed always sees the best in everyone….even if it’s difficult.

We discover too that Nathaniel has been posing as Doom because he is searching for his son, who is destined to become the absolute ruler of Latveria. Sue at first assumes he means Doom, but it turns out he was talking about Kristoff, Doom’s adopted son, who is thus Nathaniel’s biological son and Reed’s half-brother.

In Fantastic Four v1 #581, we find out that an explosion that occurred while Nathaniel was working for the Brotherhood left him potentially immortal and with the ability to travel through time. Also, that it affected every Nathaniel in every universe, and that they were all ordered by Immortus and the Time Variance Authority to hunt each other down and kill each other until there’s only one left. Nathaniel gets Reed, Ben, and Victor to help him murder the final one. I am…so impressed by Nathaniel’s parenting skills. What kind of parent wouldn’t disappear for YEARS and then reappear only to ask their college-aged kid and his friends to help them murder their alternate self?

He is so bad at parenting. It’s really a wonder Reed turned out so well.

Hope that helped!

#tenaciousarcadeexpert #asks #mod: lamujerarana #nathaniel richards #franklin storm

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hogwarts-houses-as · 7 years

Text

First Mission

Hello! I love your blog and I love my house (Ravenclaw). So, I would like to submit this one shot I did. Hope you like it!

Word Count: 2811

Author: notyourregularfangirl

Requested by: @fioretz

Rating: K

Summary: Spider-Man goes on his first mission with the Avengers, but not everything goes as planned, bringing out an unusual facet of Iron Man

Warnings: Angst

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the the Marvel characters or plot lines. Neither do I own David Bowie’s song.

Amy’s notes: I put in a ‘read more’ so that this doesn’t take up too much space on people’s dashes, but idk if it’ll work. Anyway, this is some good writing! I’ll give you 25 points for it, tying Ravenclaw with Hufflepuff for first with 272 points.

At first, they thought it had only been some remnant of the Chitauri technology that had been left behind after the battle, yielded unknowingly by some unaware citizen. The Avengers were wrong. However, only partly. It was the artifacts they had feared, but no any citizen had used it. It was one of Vulture’s followers that, apparently, possessed an enemy in one of the apartments of the building and wished revenge, so he attacked the poor man inside his home.

The job of the vindictive young man had only started a small amount of time before Vulture was captured, as so, his knowledge on said technology was limited and he didn’t only miss his target, but he also destabilized the whole apartment complex. After his attempted escape, the building started falling. The Avengers arrived, just in time to save most of the inhabitants before the building collapsed completely and to give Vision enough time to chase down and catch the perpetrator.

“The rubble is too unstable now, moving one piece might crash the people left inside, and the crevices are too small for any of us to fit in.” Iron Man announced, using the thermal camera in his suit to analyze the location of the trapped. Two people. One child.

Scarlet Witch and Black Widow had been sent abroad for a special mission, obviously, leaving only the males of the Avengers group. Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Hawkeye looked around. Up above, in one of the neighboring constructions, something caught Cap’s eye.

He turned to Tony, “I think there is someone that will definitely fit.”

At first, Iron Man thought Steve was looking at the Hulk, and was about to go along in the joke when he noticed the red spot.

“No way, Cap.”

Thor was as confused as when they told him there was a thing other than magic that could make two people swap faces in a phone. Hulk was faster to catch on.

“Stupid Iron Head will let kid do the job.” The green humanoid ordered.

“Language.” Iron Man said out of reflex. With his head down, he contemplated his options.

One of the rocks slid and there was a loud rumble. “Hardly the time for that, Stark.” Hawkeye signaled.

The panic was evident in Captain America’s voice, “You know he’s ready and we have to be quick.”

Iron Man sighed and shook his head. Yes, he had been personally training the Queens’ teen for a while now; and yes, protecting the little people had made him humbler and even stronger than he had once been, but, he was still too young for these sort of missions, especially after the whole Vulture fiasco. He had faith in the kid, but he wouldn’t be able to have something happen to him. Nevertheless, there were civilians in danger and their main duty was with them. “Fine.” with a sigh, he called Peter’s suit. “Come on down, kid, quick.” There was a sound that resembled a squeal of unmasked joy and the red and blue clad teen was right next to him in a matter of seconds.

“Spider-Man reporting for service,” Iron Man rolled his eyes and explained the situation quickly to the boy. After a firm nod of the head Peter tentatively examined the hollow spaces and chose the most suitable one to go into. The space was very small and he wasn’t a very big fan of the complete darkness that engulfed him suddenly. So, he used his new suit’s advanced and enhanced features to make it less dark and localize the people. There was a young girl first, about six years old.

“Hello?” Peter called out. There were two answers. One was the sobs of the little girl that were interrupted with a hiccupped, weak ‘help me’. The other one was a man, somewhere from 10 to 15 feet away farther than the child:

“Please, get her out of here. Save her, just save her.” The man’s rough voice begged.

He must be his daughter, the hero thought to himself.

The girl’s crying got louder. “No, no! Save my daddy, too!” She cried and mumbled uncomprehendingly until she gasped for air and spoke in a tone barely above a whisper, “I need him.”

Peter Parker’s heart plummeted to his stomach. He knew the feeling of needing a parent, of being helpless, and worst of all: of losing a parent. He was not going to let that little girl go through what he experienced.

“Don’t worry,” He said as calmly as he could, “I am going to get both of you out of here.”

There was another crackling on the debris above him and a few pebbles and dust sprinkled down. The sound made the girl cry louder.

“We’re going to die! I don’t want to die!”

Peter analyzed his surroundings. Some rocks were so close to falling that the girl’s weeping could topple the whole thing over. “No, no. You’re going to be fine. I promise.” That didn’t calm her down. “However, if I want to save you, we need to be calm and not cry so we don’t make the rocks angry.”

At this point, the girl continued crying, but more softly and quietly and her dad decided to step in, “We wouldn’t want to make the rocks angry, now, would we, Bowie?”

She sniffed. “No.”

“You like rocks, Bowie?”

“A lot, I have a huge collection back at home.” As soon as the words left her mouth Spiderman flinched. “I had a huge collection.” And the bawling continued, only louder.

Peter was in trouble. “Uh-uh-Your name’s Bowie. Like David Bowie?”

Bowie nodded and once she realized the man couldn’t possibly see her, she said yes.

“I love his songs.” Peter smiled because he was saying the truth, and he got some flashbacks to when he and Ned started humming Under Pressure right before a Physics’ final and the whole class joined in to the point where even the teacher crooned the tone herself, after administering everyone detention, of course. “How about we sing one now?”

The girl sniffed, “The Man Who Sold the World is my favorite.”

“Well, that is just perfect because that is also my favorite song of his.” Peter smiled despite himself. “How about we sing the song together and I promise you that by the time we finish the song you and your father will be out of here, together.”

“You pinky promise?”

Peter Parker felt unease: The structure was getting weaker by the second, there were more people to take into account, and the song was almost four minutes long. Peter Parker was scared.

Spider-man, on the other hand, was so confident. Probably a lot more than he should have been. He was going to jam to this song as he saved people, just like in the movies. He was going to save the two people that were trapped. He was not going to be scared as the darkness enveloped him and when there were sharp edges of objects sticking out at him from every direction, and when the lives of five people, total strangers, were literally hanging on his hands. Spider-man knew no fear because…simply because he was Spider-man.

He finally made it to the small hollow where the girl was perched hugging her legs and rocking herself in the tiny amount of space there was to spare.

He took her in his arms and, with the sincerely least scared face he could muster, he asked her to start singing the song.

Bowie sang shakily at first, evidence of her still not completely tearless state,

“We passed upon the stair we spoke of was and when Although I wasn’t there He said I was his friend”

The girl sang just like Peter imagined angels would. Contrary to her petite, babyish body, her voice was huge, soft and sweet, but demanding and resounding. Even if he was buried in yards of dirt, an ethereal feeling confined him, along with the renewed need to save that little person, because, holy crap, did the world need to listen to her voice.

“Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes I thought you died alone a long long time ago”, Spider-man sang back, “The next part together.”

“Oh no, not me” Just another left turn and he would be back outside. “I never lost control you’re face to face With the man who sold the world”

Bowie finally stopped sniffing and lightly whimpering, changing her expression to a more tranquil one. With her eyes closed and even breathing, she relaxed into her savior’s chest and prayed and prayed that very soon her father would hold her like this, like he always did.

“I laughed and shook his hand and made my way back home I searched for form and land for years and years I roamed” Finally, Spider-man laid Bowie onto Captain America’s arms.

Spider-man booped her nose, “Keep on singing, kiddo. Your dad is next,” She scrunched her nose and nodded.

“I gazed a gazeless stare at all the millions here I must have died alone A long, long time ago”

He advanced faster now because of having memorized the way already. As he got to Bowie’s dad, he heard her starting the second-to-last chorus.

“Is Bowie okay?” The man asked as soon as Spider-man came into his field of view.

“She is safe and sound outside with my colleagues, sir.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.”

“You are very welcome. Now, if you would kindly jump on my arms since I promised your daughter I would get you back safely before the song ended, and I am not about to break a promise to someone with such an amazing taste in music despite her young age.”

The father did as told, although tentatively due to his insecurity about having the lanky hero carry his quite bigger, heavier frame through such a tight tunnel. His worries were put to bed as he laid on his arms, since the teenager was way sturdier than he seemed.

It wasn’t as easy carrying a man that was probably twice his age as it was to carry someone that was ten years younger than him, but he prevailed and advanced at an even pace. Almost synchronized with the tune.

“Who knows? Not me We never lost control”

“She does, doesn’t she? She got that from her mother. As well as her voice.” He sighed, probably reminiscing about old times.

“So her mother got out of the building before it fell?”

The man looked down at his hands, “Yes, long before. She died three years ago.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“Don’t worry, kid. You couldn’t have known.”

“Well, then, I believe you’ve done a great job raising Bowie. She seems like a very sweet child.”

He smiled sweetly, “That she is. Sometimes I believe she can be too sweet for her own good,” He shook his head even though he smiled. “This is a cruel word, even more for the kind, innocent people. But God knows I love her more than all that there is in this world. And I have to protect her from all that.”

Peter said nothing and showed no sign of answering.

“I’m sorry, I’m venting. You must know what it’s like, loving someone, having children.”

Peter laughed. “Oh no, I don’t have children. I’m barely 16, but I do know what it’s like to love someone,” He sighed and felt an awful knot lodging itself in his throat. “And I’m also familiar with loss.”

“You’re face to face With the man who sold the world”

“May I ask why?”

“My parents died when I was younger than Bowie even.”

“I’m very sorry.” The light at the end of the tunnel was already visible and Bowie’s voice could be heard again.

“Who knows? Not me”

“No need to. My aunt and uncle took me in and they love me very dearly.” Peter winced as he remembered he couldn’t say that truthfully anymore. He only had his aunt now.

“We never lost control”

Above them, there was a falling pebble. Of course, they didn’t notice that.

“You’re face to face”

“I’m glad you had that support.” He cleaned his nose of some dirt that had dusted down. “You know, we’ve been through all this and I don’t even know your name.”

Peter smiled, “I’m Spider-man, sir.” He started walking with his back to the exit.

“Thank you very much, Spider-man.” He patted the boy’s shoulder and Spider-man had few times felt as proud as he did in that moment.

They both saw the huge grin on Bowie’s face as they almost stepped out of the crevice.

The child finished singing, “With the man who sold the world”

And then the whole thing came down.

It must have been days since he started crying. It sure felt like it, even if it had only been a few hours. His lungs felt as if they had been filled with rocks. Rocks the size of fists with jagged ends for fingers. Just like the ones that were left sticking out of the passage. That wretched passage. His fingers trembled, probably exhausted from all the wiping of his nose and tears.

The images kept repeating themselves in his mind’s eye.

He hated himself for it. He had been the one closer to the exit. He shouldn’t have been. He should have put the man down on the ground safely before himself. He should have reacted quicker. He shouldn’t have let him go, even if it was an involuntary reaction.

He would never be able to forget Bowie’s screams. They would hunt him forever.

“You promised, you liar! You said you’d save both of us!”

She was right. He was liar, but above all, a murderer.

There was someone at the door knocking, but he didn’t look up. The memories were so much louder than any knock would ever be. The guilt even more as it screamed inside every part of him in little Bowie’s voice.

“I brought you some hot chocolate.” It was Mr. Stark, but Peter wasn’t in the mood to please anyone. He wasn’t in the mood for anything. “I know it’s the middle of summer, but Cap said it was a comforting beverage and he insisted so much I just did it to shut him up.”

The teen did not respond.

“Can I sit?” It was stupid of him to ask. They were in the Avengers’ headquarters, in a room they set aside for him whenever he went to train and it was too late for him to go back, so he practically and literally owned the place.

Nothing. So the millionaire sat.

“It was a good mission.”

“How can you say that?” Peter shrieked at him. “He died! A man died because of me. I killed him!”

“You did not kill him,” Tony set the mug on the floor.

“Of course I did. I let him go, I was about to go out first.”

“With him on your arms.” Iron Man interrupted.

“It would have been better if I hadn’t carried him at all.” Peter looked down at his lap again.

“He could have been injured when the structure collapsed, you did what was right.”

“If I had done what was right my suit wouldn’t be stained with an innocent man’s blood and that girl would not be an orphan.”

Tony arranged himself so he could be looking directly at Peter. “Hey, look at me.” Peter raised his head slowly. “You did what you thought would solve the problem. You used logic and you calmed both of them. Yes, you were about to get him out, but sometimes that’s just how things work. There was a reason bigger than all of us for that man dying and you and the girl being the ones that survived. Maybe because you’re young with a life ahead. We will never know. But this was your first mission, Parker. You assessed the situation and saved a life today.”

The Spider-Man in him made him stop crying so he could listen to his mentor. “I didn’t fulfill the mission.”

“The way I see it, you did save both of them. You fulfilled the mission. It’s just God, or destiny or whatever you want to call it that got in the way of a happy ending. It happens to the best of us, believe me.” Tony’s face contorted to a pained expression during his last sentence.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” He grabbed the mug from the floor. “But I would like to be alone for another moment.”

“Sure thing, kid.” The older man made his way back to the door. Peter took a sip of the hot beverage, along with a few tears that ran down his cheeks. “And remember, I’m proud of you. If that means anything.”

It meant a lot.

#house cup #submission

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courtneysbookblog · 5 years

Photo

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Okay this has taken me waaay too long to write. I finished The Cabin at the End of the World in early February. Anyway. Here’s my very late review.

ALSO!!!! There are going to be spoilers.. Sorry, but there’s things I have to Talk About. Skip to the TL;DR of the “Bad” section to avoid the spoilers.

Synopsis

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world." Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined.

My Rating: 3/5

The Bad

One issue I had with this book was that it felt like it dragged on in spots... The story takes place over a short amount of time (about two days) and it’s only 272 pages long, but it felt a lot longer than that, even though I finished it relatively quickly.

There was a lot of suspense and tension, but at times I felt like I just wanted the author to Get To The Point. I think this book would have made a better short story or novella, to be honest. I also think it would make a really good horror movie too.

So here’s the spoilers I need to discuss to get to why I didn’t like the ending.

These weird people show up at the cabin that the family is staying at, and they claim they’re there to help the Dads stop the apocalypse. In order to do so, they have to sacrifice one of their own. As in, one of the dads will have to kill the other. And it has to be WILLING.

Technically, they could kill their seven year old daughter if she was “willing,” but literally no one even remotely considers that an option, not even the weird apocalypse people. So it’s between the dads.

Naturally, the dads don’t believe them and think these people are crazy doomsday cult people. Or maybe homophobic and religious cult people.

When the dads fail to make the sacrifice by the first “deadline,” the cult people ritualistically sacrifice one of their own... by putting a white mesh mask over one guy’s head and bludgeoning him to death in front of the dads and their daughter... It’s very graphically described and was actually pretty disturbing to read.

After the bludgeoning, they turn on the news to see that the first apocalyptic prophecy has come true. A powerful earthquake triggered a huge tsunami on the west coast, wiping out many coastal cities. The Doomsday People had said that first “the cities would flood” (or something like that.)

And so it goes on, with the dads refusing to willingly make the sacrifice, and the Doomsday People killing one of their own as a result, then the next “prophecy” comes true in some way.

The thing is, while each apocalyptic event does occur after each sacrifice, none of them seem THAT crazy, or THAT apocalyptic. There’s a tsunami, a flu pandemic, and several planes “fall out of the sky” at once. None of which are good, obviously, but considering the total population of the world... they’re not that devastating...

ANYWAY. There’s a lot of build-up that makes the reader wonder who is right. Are the dads right? Are the Doomsday People, who claim they all received “visions” from God (or someone or something,) showing them what was to come and what they had to do, are they crazy? Are the “apocalyptic events” just coincidences? OR...

Is it all real? Are the Doomsday people right? Are they telling the truth?

WHO KNOWS???

Not me because it’s never actually fully explained.... lmao....

In the end, all the Doomsday People have died one way or another, and despite one of the dads coming very close to believing them, they decide not to make the sacrifice, whether the apocalypse really is nigh or not.

After all the suspense and the build up and the questions... I wanted to know if it was real!!! WERE THE DOOMSDAY PEOPLE RIGHT... I wanted a definitive answer, but where the book ended, I didn’t get one. Don’t Like That.

Also, and this is a MAJOR SPOILER..... the death of the daughter was tough to read... I truly did not see it coming. My jaw literally dropped when it happened lmao. I didn’t want it to be true. It was so fucked up!!! And her death “didn’t count” as the sacrifice because it wasn’t willing... The dads lose it after she dies, and their grief was really Heart Wrenching.

Another thing I didn’t like about this book was that the chapters were extremely long, which kind of gets back to the whole “dragging on” in parts thing. I really think this would have made a better short story/novella. I think if it was a bit shorter/smaller in scope I would have been more okay with the Open-Ended ending.

TL;DR

dragged on in places

very long chapters (personally i prefer shorter chapters in books)

a lot of unanswered questions

inconclusive ending

The Good

Despite my rant above, I did enjoy this book overall. It was a good horror story, and just the kind I like. I love the creepy and disturbing... I like apocalypse fiction... I even like some graphic gore/violence, if it suits the narrative.

This book was really well written, and I enjoyed how the intensity built and built to a point where I had to set it down and take some breaks to get away from the Tension, lol.

I really loved the family. Eric, Andrew, Wen... as a reader you get attached to all of them, so it’s hard to keep reading when shit really hits the fan. You want them all to escape and have a happily ever after, but this is a horror novel, so... that doesn’t exactly happen.

The antagonists, the Doomsday People, as I’ve called them, were also written very well. Leonard’s character in particular is equally interesting as he is frustrating. He presents himself as a Good Guy, and at times that’s what he genuinely seems to be, but his actions in the story call that into question.

The action scenes draw you in, and I could easily picture what was happening in my mind. I said earlier that I think this book could make a great horror movie, and this is one reason why. It gets intense AF.

This is the first Paul Tremblay book I’ve read, and although I didn’t like how this one ended, I may read other works of his because I love horror and if this novel is any indication of his style, he does not hold back from tormenting his characters, which I love (and hate, lol.)

TL;DR

creepy/disturbing horror

very intense and vividly described action scenes

main characters you get attached to early on

gay dads!

well written antagonists

would love to see this as a movie. someone make it pls.

Conclusion

Even with the disappointing ending, I liked this book. I think horror is difficult to write (not that I’ve ever attempted it myself... yet). Horror fans have always seemed hard to please to me, and I guess I’m not exception here lol.

I don’t think I can even say this book had a “bad” ending necessarily, but for me personally, I really don’t like inconclusive/open-ended endings. After all the suspense and the questions posed... I NEED answers.

Anyway, if you like horror and don’t mind endings that leave you with more questions than answers, I’d recommend this book.

#the cabin at the end of the world #horror #horror novel #book review #book blog

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