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twirlyleafs · 2 months

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”Start of the season-drama” pt2

Max Verstappen x reader

TW: slight angst, raised voices

A/N: thank you sooo much for the support on part one!! doing a lil happy dance because of u xx

~~~~

Max had tried calling you over fifty times the past three days but you refused to answer. You didn’t know if it was because you were still upset with him or because you were just that ashamed, but you couldn’t find it in you to talk to him. You had hope that there was a reasonable explanation for the photos but no matter how hard you tried to come up with one they all ended with you heartbroken. You were terrified Max would confirm any of them.

You read his texts and listened to his voice messages, responding that you’d talk to him when he’d get back. When he threatened to take an early flight, missing the race, you told him he was being dramatic and then you wished him good luck. Max stopped trying to reach you after that.

You had called in sick to work Friday and Saturday, staying home to simultaneously write and watch the qualifying and the race. You weren’t surprised to see Max bring home another win, but you felt bad when you noticed his seemingly bad mood in the post-race interviews. You could just assume you were the reason for the constant frown on his face and the dark circles under his eyes.

Sunday afternoon rolled in and you were restless. The fact that Max would be arriving back home tomorrow was starting to freak you out and you forced yourself to keep busy at all times not to overthink everything more than you already were. Currently you were standing on your tiptoes on one of the bar chairs, dusting the top of the bookshelves that were lining one wall in the living room. It obviously hadn’t been done in years and didn’t necessarily need to be done now either, but it was something to do. You were so caught up in your work that you hadn’t noticed the sound of the front door being unlocked, the bags being dropped on the floor or someone entering the room. Max stopped on the other side of the room, brows furrowed as he took you in. You were wearing one of his shirts, by the look of it one of his oldest ones and he knew you would’ve had to dug deep in the drawers for that one. As you reached the top shelf it rode up enough for him to see that you were wearing a pair of his boxers too and for some reason he melted slightly at the fact that you were dressed all in his clothes.

“Be careful.” You flinched, a gasp leaving your lips as your head spun around to follow the sudden sound. Max eyes widened as you wobbled for a second before regaining your balance and he thanked god he didn’t cause you to fall.

“Max, you’re home already?” You were confused, trying to figure out if your calculations had been wrong. He nodded, having to stop himself from walking over to help you as you climbed down from the chair.

“I took an early flight, left right after the podium.” He paused for a second, feeling the anger he’d felt for the past few days bubbling up again. “Felt a bit stressed to get back here since my girlfriend has been refusing to talk to me.” You bit down on the inside of your cheeks, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Congrats on the win, you were-“ you began, but Max cut you off. He had told himself to keep calm, talk this through, but he felt the plan collapse almost immediately. He couldn’t deny the frustration.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t want a congratulation from you y/n, I want an explanation! I want to know what the fuck happened on Thursday?” His voice was sharp, arms crossed over his chest. You looked away.

“What happened was that I wanted to come see you, but you said no.” You shrugged, the frown on your face deepening.

“I didn’t say no, I said it was unnecessary- that’s not even the issue here. The thing I’m most upset- confused over is you said I had some girl?”

“I saw the pictures Max.” You glared at him, all the hurt and confusion and anger from the past few days coming back. “I saw you with her.“

Max looked even more bewildered than a second ago, flailing his arms out in exasperation. “Who?! What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about your fucking date to the banquet!” You exclaimed, raising your voice to match his. “The girl you snuck away with when you didn’t think anyone would see!” Max just stared at you with wide eyes, lips opening and parting in confusion. You, however, took his silence as a sign of guilt. “I get that you’d want a girl who’s willing to follow you everywhere, who’s willing to give up her own life to be your trophy but fuck, Max, I thought you’d at least give me a heads up.”

”I didn’t bring a fucking date to the banquet, where are you getting this from? What fucking photos?”

Without another word you reached for your phone, searching up the tweet that started this whole mess. Zooming in on the photo where he was cupping her cheeks you handed him the phone, crossing your arms over your chest the second he grabbed it from you. Max stared down at the screen, eyebrows going up before they were pushed together. Slowly he looked up at you again.

“Baby-“ he began with a sigh, the apologetic tone of his voice had you assuming he was about to confess to cheating on you. The anger was quickly replaced with hurt and a shockwave of sadness. Suddenly your vision was watery and you took a step back, wrapping your arms tighter around yourself. Max seemed to understand, quickly shaking his head.

“It’s not what you think, not what it looks like.”

“Oh come on-“ you sniffed, but Max wouldn’t have it.

“No, I get how that sounds but just let me explain. That’s Rebecca, you’ve met her. Tommy’s daughter.” You had to rummaged through your brain for a second before you could place the name. Rebecca was the daughter of one of Redbulls mechanics. You’d met her a few times during races, she was a sweet girl. Your eyes widened slightly.

“Isn’t she like seventeen?”

“Yeah!”

You stared at him, even more chocked than a moment before. Max saw the look on your face and quickly shook his head. A shiver ran up his spine at the realization of what you were thinking.

“God no! Not like that. She was at the banquet with Tommy but something happened, I think someone tried to pressure her into drinking and stuff- I met her when I came from the restroom and she was crying so I brought her out, away from everyone.” Max looked down at the photo again, frowning. “Away from the cameras, I thought. She was hyperventilating and I all could think about is when you’re having a panic attack so I did what I do then, I held her and I forced her to breathe with me.” When he looked back up you were already staring at him, lips slightly parted in chock. Max tossed your phone into the couch, taking a careful step closer to you. “That’s it. That’s all that happened. I did what you taught me.”

“God.” You let out a shaky breath, hiding your face behind your hands. Out of all the scenarios you’d constructed over the past few days, none even came close to this. Max hadn’t cheated, he hadn’t even been close to. He’d helped an innocent girl, doing for her what he always did for you when you suffered from anxiety. The guilt was slowly settling in your stomach. Max watched you softly shake your head before you carefully glanced at him between fingers. “Max I’m so sorry.” You saw him visibly relax when he realized you accepted his explanation and a second later he sunk down in the couch, seemingly exhausted. With a deep breath he leaned back, closing his eyes.

“Fuck.” He sighed, reaching up to rub his forehead. “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I did and why you were so mad and not once did it occur to me that it might’ve been this.” Things were quiet after that. You crawled up on the barstool, pulling your knee to your chest, as Max stayed half laying down in the couch. Leaning your cheek against your knee you watch his chest rise and fall slower and slower. You almost thought he’d fallen asleep when he suddenly spoke again. “Did you think I cheated on you?”

“I don’t know.” You answered honestly, making Max open his eyes to look at you. You felt your heart clench at the sad look on his face. “I love you Max, and I know you love me but-“

“But?” He asked softly, moving to sit up properly. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and watched your through thick lashes. You took a deep breath.

“But sometimes I worry I’m not what you want. I know a lot of the others wife’s and girlfriends come to every race and you know, follow you guys around the world. I would understand if you’d want that too. You’re always talking about how I should quit my job and- well I saw the pictures and I guess all my insecurities came to life and I freaked out. I’m sorry.” You reached up to swiftly wipe away a stray tear and Max frowned. He reached a hand out, waving it as to call you over. You got the hint and slid down from the chair, carefully padding across the floor to him. The second you were within reach he pulled you down in his lap and you could practically feel yourself melt into him. God you’d missed having him close.

“You are everything I want.” Max mumbled against the top of your head and you felt shivers run up your spine. You opened your mouth to answer but quickly shut it again when you felt the lump in your throat, a few tears spilling over as you blinked. Max let his arms snake even tighter around you as he heard you sniff quietly against his chest. “I love how much you value your job and I’m so proud of you for actually being able to handle both studying and working at the same time.” You felt his fingers press softly into your side as he spoke, voice hushed and gentle. “I tell the guys all the time how smart you are, how much I admire you.”

“But I’m never there for you.” You whispered and Max carefully shifted the two of you enough so that he could look down at you. His eyes flickered between yours, hand moving up to wipe your tears.

“You’re always there for me. Maybe not in person, but I always know I have you. Like you always know you have me, right?” He waited for you to nod before he continued. “I can race on my own, just like you work on your own. Whats important to me is that I get to come home to you.” He carefully picked an eyelash from your cheek as you processed his words. When he met your eyes again he offered a small smile, tilting his head slightly. “That being said, if I could I’d spend every second literally glued to your side but apparently that’s not healthy.” You laughed at that and the smile on Maxs face widened. With something between a sigh and a chuckle you dropped your forehead back against his chest.

“I’m sorry again Maxie.” You mumbled against his shirt, feeling it vibrate as he hummed.

“Don’t worry about it schatje.” He pulled you with him to lay down in the couch and it barely took a second before the two of you were comfortably entangled in each other. “Honestly, it was kind of nice seeing you that jealous. It’s an achievement from my part, without even knowing.” He joked, earning another laugh from you as you lifted your head to look at him.

“First place the first two races of the season wasn’t enough achievements for you?”

The grin almost took up Maxs whole face and you giggled at the proud twinkle in his eyes. Before he had time to say something that would have you slap him, you leaned in to press your lips against his instead.

Max was home and everything was alright.

~~~~

Tagging ppl who asked for pt2 <333

@lpab @aexitizen-ln4 @buttfug213 @sxcretricciardo @hadthemapplebottomjeans @sunny44 @phantomxoxo @sunnyfunnydemon

#Max verstappen #max verstappen x reader #verstappen x reader #verstappen #formula 1 imagine #formula 1 #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #redbull #verstappen fanfic #formula one #f1 fanfic #f1

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artist-issues · 5 months

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“At least it's not ferociously attacking God quite as directly as Steven Universe did…”

Not that I’m surprised by this statement, but can you elaborate on this? Kinda intrigued by your thoughts on Steven Universe.

Okie dokie, you’re not the only one who has asked me about this, so I suppose I’ll poke the hornet’s nest. 😅 I haven’t talked about this before because I assumed that everyone who wanted to hear my kinds of opinions on stories wasn’t watching or interested in Steven Universe.

It’s like asking vegetarian if they enjoyed a turkey dinner. The turkey dinner was so obviously not made for vegetarians to enjoy, so why would the vegetarian even bother analyzing the turkey?

But I think if some people are asking me why I think Steven Universe is anti-God (of the Bible) its because maybe they don’t know what the turkey is. Not completely. (Maybe not you, because like you said, you’re not surprised by my comment.) So I’ll explain my thoughts on Steven Universe.

If you’re just following me because you liked some stuff I posted, but didn’t realize that I’m a Bible-believing Christian and don’t want to hear about it, unfollow me now. Because I’m going to talk about some hot button issues here and the trolls will come out.

Steven Universe is really well-done. The jokes are funny, the writing is believable, the characters have great chemistry, great design, the concept is fascinating, the slow build-up and reveal of the plot elements is great. But when you watch the throne room scene in the last episode of Season 5 “Change Your Mind,” it’s alarmingly clear how much the whole show is not just settling for defending and championing the LGBTQ+ worldview—it goes all the way to attacking what Christians believe, on the other side.

Anything that’s pro-LGBTQ+ is doing that by default, but this show goes out of its way to do that.

You have to understand: God created and designed us. Deeper than that; He created and designed romantic relationships, and invented marriage. He didn’t just create love—He is love. So when humans come along and do what we’ve always done since the fall, and say, “I’d rather define what Your thing is and how it works for myself, God,” it’s not only an incredible slap in the face, it’s an attack on God’s actual identity—and it’s destructive for us and the people around us. Like a fish insisting it can breathe oxygen.

But Steven Universe goes beyond that. It knows that the Christian worldview is it’s biggest opposition. It digs right down to the heart of the worldview-battle. LGBTQ+ worldview says, “I should get to love what I want and be who I am, because I’m me. Love is love. (By which I mean, any action or relationship I choose to call love is love, because I’m the one calling it that.)”

Biblical worldview says “No, wait, you shouldn’t base your decisions on you alone; what you want changes day to day, and you’re broken, so you can’t ever be satisfied based on what you want—the Bible says God made you for something, and you rejected that, and it broke you. You’re not how you’re meant to be: even what you want and what you think love is is twisted up and can hurt you and others. But if you submit to God He’ll help you, He’ll fix what’s broken and give you new life by making you how you were supposed to be: He’ll live in you and through you.”

Are we beginning to get the picture?

See, the whole thing with the opposing views between LGBTQ+ and Christian people is as old as time. It’s not a new debate. It’s Satan and Eve in the garden. She says, “This is not how God said things should be,” and Satan says, “Are you sure that’s what He said? He knows if you do this thing, you’ll be like Him. You’ll be god: you’ll get to decide ‘how things should be’ for yourself.”

He lied and said that disobedience would satisfy her. That she knew what her own heart needed better than the God that made it did. That the very act of being imperfect would make her godlike.

And then Steven Universe comes along and says “if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hotdogs.”

And has a cast of created being characters who’s imperfections (Garnet’s forbidden “love,” Pearl’s obsession, Amethyst’s insecurity) are supposedly “the best thing about them; what makes them who they are.”

And has a main character who used to be a part of the god-like creator relationship, but used her power to come down to earth and completely change who she is into a fully different person.

And has a godlike Creator character who claims she “doesn’t need” her created beings (just like the God of the Bible) but they all have a little part of their creator in them so she has to repress their imperfections; she holds them all to a standard that’s impossible to reach called “perfection” and punishes them when they don’t meet it even though it hurts them to try; she expects them all to do what they were created by her for; she fixes them when they can’t meet her standard by shining her light through them and making them extensions of their Creator.

And has a main character who argues, fights back, tries to stop her, and is answered with lines that sound surprisingly like what LGBTQ+ people hear when Christians argue with them: “you’re only making things worse; you’re just deceiving yourself; even while you resist it your actual light can’t help shining through,” etc.

White Diamond just wants everything to be perfect. Like her. She just wants her created beings to “be themselves.” But what she means is, be how she created them to be.

And she’s the bad guy. She’s playing God in this show, and Rebecca Sugar is saying, “If God is telling us that can only be happy by being perfect, as He is perfect, and doing what He created us to do, then He’s wrong. Our imperfections are what make us special—unique—individuals—free—and there is nobody who has the right to take that freedom away from us, not even out creator!”

And you know what?

If God were like White Diamond, like Rebecca Sugar believes Him to be, Steven Universe would be right.

But He is NOT.

God is not a dictator who forces us to conform to a standard of perfection and then smashes us when we don’t meet it. He is a King who made us perfect to begin with, and we rejected him, because He allowed us to do that. He knew that true love was love that had to be chosen, and He wanted us to love Him by choice, so he gave us the option. But Rebecca Sugar doesn’t understand—there was never “Choose God or Choose Yourself.” There was only, “Choose God or Choose Nothing.” There was nothing except God. Then He created everything. There is no version of reality where you have something better than God, or even slightly less good but different, to pick. You’re not jumping from one ship into a smaller one, but at least it’s yours—you’re jumping from one ship into a void, and then complaining that there’s no other ship. That’s humans. That’s not God. / White Diamond didn’t make her creations perfect (Amethyst) and she didn’t make them for love. She made them for power. That’s not the God of the Bible.

Even when we did choose to try and love ourselves instead of God, and therefore warped our ability to perfectly love at all, He didn’t smash us. True, everything fell and was cursed, which is exactly what He warned us would happen if we chose it, but it was a natural consequence of breaking ourselves. And then He didn’t leave us that way. He didn’t give up on us. And He certainly didn’t just zap us, snap His fingers, quick-fix it and turn us all into robots who are extensions of Him, who say they love Him but only because it’s His voice puppeting us to say it.

No. He came to us, chose to give up His life at the exact point on the timeline when Romans, masters in the art of slow, humiliating, torturous death, would be the ones to carry out His crucifixion, and saved us Himself. Through the sacrifice of His own life. And even then, we still have a choice. We get to choose to accept that incredible self-sacrifice when we don’t deserve it, and be given new life and a relationship with the Creator who knows us and loves us better than we can love ourselves or receive love from others—OR we can just keep stubbornly insisting that our slavery to the opposite of what God wants is somehow freedom, and our twisted versions of love are genuine, and we’re not broken, and die like that. Die broken creatures who lived their whole lives stomping their feet and screaming “I’m not a creature, I’m a god!”

White Diamond sacrifices nothing, because Rebecca Sugar doesn’t know the God of the Bible. She just knows her idea of Him. She’s never actually gotten to know Him. If she had, she’d learn how silly and twisted her idea is.

Because you know what, yeah, if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs. But people aren’t pork chops. And hot dogs have flavor (not better than pork chops) but they are awful for you.

Christians aren’t perfect cuts of meat with no individuality or flavor. Just because we all know and love the same God doesn’t mean we have no personalities. It just means we don’t think so freaking much about what we are, or who we get to be, or what we like and want. Jeez, what a self-centered, narcissistic, self-obsessed way to live. She plays Steven like he’s this wonder-child, innocent and full of heart, who encourages his friends to love and keep trying. But honestly?

This is very pretty animation but it’s not real. Steven looks happy hugging Steven but self-love doesn’t ultimately get you that.

That’s all based on the premise that what he’s encouraging them to do is actually good, and will make them happy, and will help them love better. And it just won’t. Not in real life. That’s not how any of this works. Self-love is just self-obsession. And that is a sure-fire way to hurt you, and everyone around you.

You’ll never be free by choosing to run to a worse master. You’ll never be satisfied with your crappy attempts at loving yourself, because you were made to be loved flawlessly and forever by someone who is Love Himself.

And choosing to identify with your imperfections doesn’t make you uniquely you. It just makes you exactly like every other human being marching in the same line since the Fall.

White Diamond’s not relational. She’s up high and distant. That’s not God. He made you to be in relationship with Him. He loves you, totally and perfectly, and He proved it by sacrificing for You.

So yeah. That’s the problem with Steven Universe. Come get me, SU fans.

#Steven universe #su #Pearl #amethyst #garnet #Steven universe fans #change your mind #white Diamond #Christianity #Christian’s #asked #answered #thanks #rattling the cage #Rebecca sugar

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silverflqmes · 1 month

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Do you have any hcs for yandere Sephiroth? 👀

໒⦂ ‘𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄’ 𝐇𝐂𝐒.

notes. hi hi so uh i don’t do yandere stuff, it’s not a topic i’m super comfortable with writing ( as mentioned in my rules ) but i will provide a more subtle, toned down version if that’s okay instead :’)

genre. angst + suggestive

tw. possessive behavior, implied manipulation, jealousy

disclaimer. there is a visible flip in the headcanons from pre nibleheim sephiroth to post — which takes on a darker approach. if it’s not something you are comfortable with reading, then don’t.

sephiroth x gn!reader.

⌗ as a person who dealt with the loss of those he allowed into his life, having brought his walls down for them.. i do think sephiroth might have developed a bit of overprotective behavior — which honestly, is expected..

⌗ he doesn’t want to lose you or for any harm to come your way. whether losing you refers to death.. or to someone else — he doesn’t want any of that to come to fruition.

⌗ everything in life he cherished has been taken from him and you are not about to be one of them..

⌗ normally he’s as cool as a pickle if you’re talking to someone else, but there’s this aura emitting from him.. one look at sephiroth and the innocent bystander is practically shaking in their boots.

⌗ you of course — would be confused as hell on this.. i mean when sephiroth pulls you closer, you just assume he wants proximity..

⌗ until you go home, that is, and he’s just holding you without any means of letting go.. it’s silly, watching that subtle, yet visible pout of his and the furrow to his brows and all is understood

⌗ piece of you by shawn mendes tbh that is where my brain is rn

⌗ sometimes it’s a little more than an inescapable hug and turns into a storm of kisses — perhaps even a mark or few would be left in his wake.. but nothing that makes you uncomfortable cuz he doesn’t want to hurt or force you into anything. consent!!

⌗ while he has selfish desires and would prefer to have you all to himself, he values boundaries and freedom — it’s something he wasn’t given and he isn’t about to take that away from you, too.

⌗ but if you were trying to get a reaction out of him by PURPOSELY trying to make him jealous.. good LUCK walking in the morning are the only words i have for you LMAO

⌗ there is after care tho trust and it’s all part of the plan because he gets to have you stay over and spend time with him<3 which — despite your grumbles — you are more than happy to do<3

⌗ now uh, post nibelheim sephiroth.. he is a different case cuz he’s under the influence of jenova cells — which are obviously making him do some wild stuff..

⌗ following the concept that you would have said cells opens up the opportunity to mess with you a bit, as a means of getting you to execute his whims. kinda like he does with cloud..

⌗ he’s aware you’re trying to take him back and save him from what he’s become, and uses that to his advantage. you would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?

⌗ slowly, he would isolate you from your companions — they want him gone, anyway, but you don’t. you couldn’t sit with the idea of your lover being gone, even in spite of all he had done.

⌗ you told yourself it wasn’t him, and it was true, it wasn’t. for that.. you wished to continue your attempts at saving him, even if it was a descent into madness..

⌗ gradually, you are succumbing to his words, allowing them to reshape the view you had made for yourself.

⌗ he was right, anyway. the humans who blindly believed in shinra- were the ones that gave the company the power and means of further destroying the planet for their glory. sephiroth was right in almost every way to execute the goals he made for himself.

⌗ he only ever appeared briefly to you, his caresses leaving enough of a linger to leave you touch starved — yearning for contact.

⌗ the one winged angel only whispered soon in that velvety tone of his, a reassurance of the reunion that would be upon you both in time.

⌗ but at times, you pressed, pleading for just another second — minute or few of his time.. and with that desperation in your voice, the expression that crosses your features, how could he refuse you?

⌗ he would spare his precious time and entertain you a moment longer, indulging just a bit in you, and himself, of course. but once more leaving you lingering, longing for more.

notes. not one for writing yandere oriented content, so i hope this was okay and fulfilling enough since i watered it down quite a bit :’) just not super comfy associating him with the qualities of a yandere..

↳ return to main masterlist . request rules . send an ask

#— ; 🏹 ) final fantasy vii fics.#sephiroth x y/n #sephiroth x you #sephiroth x reader #sephiroth #sephiroth ff7 #sephiroth ffvii #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #sephiroth headcanons #ffvii #ff7 #final fantasy sephiroth

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rafeandonlyrafe · 6 months

Text

second chance

words: 800

“y/n?” your name brings your nose out of your book, popping your head up to scan the beach, seeing who might have called your name. your eyes stop on a familiar face.

“rafe?” you are surprised to see him for sure. it’s been almost three years. you set your book down on your towel, standing up to meet him halfway. “hey.” you’re not sure if he’s okay with it, but you can’t resist it, you throw your arms around his shoulders in a hug.

you’re relieved when he hugs back. “hey.” he pulls away, taking a good look at your face, giving you time to study his. he’s matured a lot since you last saw him, and he looks more like a man now than the boy that you had a summer fling with.

“how have you been?” you ask. you assume he still lives here in the outer banks, but maybe he’s just home for college. you haven’t had any contact since you left.

“good, good.” he nods, “just helping my dad with the business.” “oh, nice.” you nod. you don’t have many memories of his dad other than that he intimidated you. “i’m back here on vacation, obviously.”

“yeah, i looked for you the past two summers but…”

you duck your head in embarrassment. “we went to um, florida instead.” you’re from michigan, but you spend all summer with your dad, wherever he feels like going that year. it’s always been like that since your parents divorced.

rafe is about to respond when a petite brunette stalks up to you, flinging sand with her stomps. she looks pissed at rafe, and your stomach instantly drops when you realize what was going on.

“rafe, who is this? did you forget you’re supposed to go swimming with your girlfriend?” she asks.

“oh, i’m just an old friend. we were done talking anyways. see you later rafe.” you wave and return to your towel, not wanting to get him in trouble with his girl, even as he sends you multiple glances as he heads towards the water.

you aren’t surprised by the knock on your door later that day. you take a deep breath before opening it. “hey rafe.” “can i come in?” he asks. you nod, letting him into your dads rental home, not that he’s ever actually here. since you turned 16 he took his summers with you as an excuse to let you do whatever you want while he does the same.

you follow him towards the living room, rafe remembering the way from when he spent all of the rainy days that summer inside with you. “i’ve missed you.” he says, sitting down on the couch.

you join him, but put a cushion of space in between you. “missed you too.”

“why didn’t you say goodbye?” rafe asks, hurt flashing over his face before he gets control of his emotions again.

“i just…” you wring your hands out. “it was just a summer fling, right?” you let out a laugh that sounds fake even to your ears.

“was that what it was to you?” rafe asks. when you don’t answer rafe closes the distance, moving closer and taking your hand in his. “because that’s not what it was to me.” “i’m sorry.” you whisper. “i just thought it would be less painful. since we never would have worked.” “why?” rafe presses, “why wouldn’t we have worked?” “because i left to go back to michigan, and we were kids, long distance wouldn’t have worked.”

“i would have been willing to try for you.” rafe says, and it’s all too much. you stand up, needing to put some distance between you again.

“you have a girlfriend.” you remind rafe.

“she means nothing to me.” rafe says, and you snap your head to him.

“you can’t say that.”

“i can if its true. i broke up with her before coming over. i want to try to make this work, please.”

“i’ll just have to leave again at the end of the summer.”

“but you don’t, do you? you’re an adult, you can choose where you live.” it’s crazy. you can’t just move across the summer for a guy you had a brief romance with three years ago. but for once in your life, you feel like indulging in the craziness.

“kiss me.”

rafe looks up at your words. he didn’t expect them, but he moves quickly once they process, cupping his hand around your face as your lips connect, gentle at first before he wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you into his body, deepening the kiss.

you pull away with a smile, having missed the feeling of rightness when you kiss rafe.

“i don’t know what our future looks like, but i’m willing to take this chance with you.”

#obxweek23 #reupload!#rafe fic #rafe fanfic #rafe fanfiction #rafe x reader #rafe cameron fic #rafe cameron fanfic #rafe cameron fanfiction #rafe cameron x reader #rafe cameron x you #rafe cameron imagine #rafe cameron blurb #rafe cameron drabble #rafe cameron one shot

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lily-orchard-gossip-blog · 6 days

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Hello hello again! It's good to have you back for a little while! Unfortunately there is a lot of infighting in the critical sphere right now and it's not very fun to follow. And worse still Lily is as smug as ever. People are too invested in who ripped off what, who's disrespecting this or that, they should just be having fun at Lily's expense. That's what Saiscribbles has done, and you can tell how effective it is because Lily has tried every strategy in the book to prove how not mad she is.

You know what?

I think I would like to poke fun at the whole thing. I mean, it's sounds like she's gotten a bit ridiculous since I've been gone. (Ridiculous sounds like an understatement, thought.)

I've done serious and it's exhausting. You can only take her serious for so long before you realize she doesn't really even know or believe what she's saying.

As for the fighting, well... It's a shame, but let's try to focus on what's at the core of this blog: Gossiping about Lily.

...But I do have one thing I want to get off my chest, so I will mention it here and then move on. It is under the read bar just so those who don't care can ignore it.

I do have one thing to say about the drama, and that's about Ethel.

They are a liar liar pants on fire.

Seriously, I watched Evangeline Skovs video, which was one of the better coverages on the subject and there was no plagiarism. Not even of me, and I was a source!

Never mind that fact that Ethel legit lied about my blog in their rebuttal, claiming that Levi couldn't find anything on my blog about their video, or glade, so Evangeline was lying.

Their proof? Levi used the search bar, used the word minor and glade, and nothing came up except one post...

Fun fact: I'm bad at tagging things, and my search bar is kind of useless because of that.

(Side note: why would I use glade's name? Why would I want to draw attention to someone who I assumed wanted to be left alone? I'm pretty sure that was made clear in the video.)

Anyway, if you used my archive you could easily find TONES of posts from me talking about the video in question with details.

Here's one that Ethel conveniently left out:

And you know what's hilarious about that? They reblogged this take to try and rebuke it on their tumblr. (That they have long since abandoned.)

I decided to ignore it, because obviously I'm not going to try and get in a fight with them, and Ethel was so mad by that they messaged me directly to try and threaten me with legal jargon.

So I blocked them.

But hey, since I'll probably never bother with this again, here are the messages. Enjoy old drama from like...2 years ago:

Image text here:

[Okay, I've put this off for as long as possible, but please, read this case study as right now you are parroting harmful legal advice. Victim testimony not only constitutes evidence, but can be sufficient evidence to convict, a fact that was tested in Commonwealth v Gustavo Gonzalez Santos in Massachusetts.

I’ll highlight two relevant sections in case you don’t have the time to read the entire thing: “The defendant's sole argument on appeal is that the evidence was not sufficient to support his convictions. The defendant asserts that "there were no witnesses to the alleged assaults," "no physical evidence," "no medical or forensic evidence," and "no expert testimony." He argues that "there was absolutely no conclusive evidence presented at trial that suggested the [d]efendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."” And: “Here, the victim testified to facts that constituted each element of the charged offenses. Her testimony, which the jury found to be credible, was sufficient, standing alone, to support a finding beyond a reasonable doubt as to each of the convictions. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Lawrence, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 103, 104 (2007)

("The victim's testimony was sufficient evidence of [indecent assault and battery on a child under age fourteen]"); Commonwealth v. Gonsalves, 23 Mass. App. Ct. 184, 185 (1986) ("The victim's account of what the defendant did to him in the apartment was sufficient to overcome the defendant's motion for a required finding of not guilty of rape"). The idea that long infected our legal system that the victim's testimony in sexual assault and rape cases is less credible than the testimony of victims in cases involving other types of crimes -- an idea that reflected nothing more than sexism and an unwillingness on the part of our courts to treat sexual crimes as the gravely serious matter that they are -- has been rejected both by statute and by common law.”

When you and others continue to parrot the myth that victim testimony does not constitute as valid evidence, you are harming victims of rape and abuse. This is straight up rape culture and, since I’m pushing back any video coverage on the matter until I’ve finished dealing with Lily because I don’t want to muddle things, I need you to stop promoting falsehoods. We have legal members on our team who have passed the bar, Patchie does not, Opal does not, and neither does You Can Eat Hearts. You are causing unnecessary harm to victims by breathing life into myths constructed by rape culture. To be clear, I am not asking for your denouncement of certain people, just for you to please, stop publishing bad legal takes.

This is also the case in Canada, if you're wondering - https://www.accused.ca/evidence.htm

Sorry, I just realized I didn't give you the US case study. Here it is - http://masscases.com/cases/app/100/100massappct1.html#:~:text=The%20jury%20found%20the%20defendant,We%20affirm. ]

Oct 30, 2022 9:16 AM

Whew, you have no idea how long I wanted to spill this tea.

Alright, I've said what I've wanted to say on this topic. I'm now going to focus on laughing at Lily and her horrible incest stories.

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joshslater · 1 year

Text

Delayed Graduation

Repost of an old story that was previously flagged as too risqué for tumblr. Similar stories and bonus material on my Patreon.

- We might have a solution of sorts for you.

I barely registered principal Johnston talking. My world had been shattered, without warning. It all felt unreal, and most of all unfair. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, but there were no witnesses, just my word against hers. She wouldn’t press charges, Johnston had explained. I was almost demanding that she did, so I could clear my name, but thought better of it. If it went to trial all outcomes would be bad, to varying degrees. This way I would just be expelled. I guess I could use the term “drop out” to soften it further. It’s not like the job market is stellar even if you have a degree, but this would firmly pigeon hole me as manual labor.

- What? - I said we might have an arrangement that could interest you.

He pulled out a stack of papers from his manila folder and placed them in front of me, and continued.

- We have a little trial project we would like to push ahead with, to see what the full potential is. Coach Andrews would personally take charge of your training to see how far he can take you in a year. Similar to what he managed to do for Shane O’Brian. Since you will be heavily supervised, fully scheduled and not share any classes with your former class mates, she has agreed to allow you complete your studies under these conditions. It’s not that many months until she graduates anyway. Your graduation obviously will have to wait until next year.

Shane of course was the star of the basket team. He was two years below me, so I didn’t know him, but I heard he had basically never touched a ball before he met coach. He must have been active in something else though, with that body. The girls were swooning like crazy. Some of the boys too, as rumor had it.

- Sir, I’m really grateful for this opportunity, but I’m not really made for sports. Just look at me. Tall and thin. Not much track and field around here. - We are not asking for any miracles. Just follow all instructions given and do your best. That’s all we’re asking.

I started to flip through the papers. I was bored just looking at the page numbers.

- Should I bring this home to my parents? - This is a bit time sensitive, so I’d prefer if you make your decision already today. You’re 18. You get to decide this on your own. Why don’t I leave you for a bit? You can have a read through, and then decide what you want to do.

As he left the room I started to go read through the contract properly. Why do they make things so complicated? The contract really just said that I assumed responsibility for the “infraction”, but the school would not disclose it to anyone unless the contract was breached. I would agree to participate in the athletic education study for one year. In return the school would allow me to graduate next year. But written over 26 pages.

I didn’t feel like I had many options. Initials on every page and signature on the last. Then repeated on the second copy of the contract. I was about to leave and find principal Johnston when he returned, followed by coach Andrews.

- Have you made up your mind, or would you like Mr. Andrews to explain it in more detail. - I’ve already signed the papers. - Oh, well then. I’m so happy we could work something out.

Coach Andrews opened the gym bag he was carrying and pulled out a blue singlet and ear guards, and held them for me to take.

- Let’s try this on right away. - Now? Here?

Johnston opened a door to a side room of his office.

- You can change in the conference room here. - But wrestling?! Have you seen me? - As I said, follow all instructions and do your best is all we ask.

It was the first time I even held a singlet in my hands. I’ve never even thought of how to put one on. It wasn’t hard, just step in them like some shorts and then pull the straps over your shoulders, but I never imagined doing it.

I looked ridiculous. I guess size isn’t as important when the fabric is stretchy, but this sure wasn’t my size. The taut straps pulled the fabric in the groin, while at the same time my thin legs didn’t fill out the legs of the singlet. What a mess. I walked back into the office, naked apart from this one single piece of clothing.

- Should I put on the ear guards as well. - No, that isn’t necessary. Here.

Coach opened a small, brown, glass bottle and poured its contents into a white plastic cup from the water cooler, and handed it to me.

- This is the time sensitive part. Drink up.

This day was going from horrendously bad to confusing to weird. I emptied the cup. The liquid tasted like cough syrup. Sickly sweet and with bitter herbs.

- What is.. *cough* *cough* - Here. Take a seat.

It felt like drinking really hot cocoa when you are frozen. It kind of spreads from the chest to the rest of the body. All of me was getting warm, and an uncomfortable feeling or pressure. Everything was off, like I was drunk, or high or something. It was over in a minute, though it is quite possible my mind was playing tricks and it really was longer than that.

- Stand up against the wall, so I can take a photo.

Bewildered, and with unsteady steps, I did as told. He snapped a few pictures with his phone, and then showed me one.

- Don’t tell me this isn’t a great starting point.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was definitely me in the photo, but it was like the aspect ratio was wrong. I must be several inches shorter, but everything, arms, legs, chest, shoulders, neck, was wider. Even my face was altered, if ever so slightly. Where just minutes before, or whatever, I was a lanky gamer, I now was a hunk of muscle.

- How is this... - Don’t worry about the details. We must work quickly now while you are fresh, to get the wrestling technique right. Meet me in my office tomorrow at 7 am.

With that he slapped me on the shoulder and left. Just as he was about to exit the office, he pulled out a pair of shoes from the bag and placed them at a table.

- Oh, I almost forgot these. Your new size. See you tomorrow!

My head was spinning. What had just happened to me, to my body? Starting point? Principal Johnston had his distinct “anything else?” look.

- What about my studies?

My voice was lower than before, I think.

- You’ll be placed in the athlete’s reduced curriculum class. We just need to retest your proficiency levels first. - Why? I don’t understand. - My point exactly.

He didn’t make any sense. I felt tired, slow and almost dizzy trying to understand him.

- What about this body? What happens when I graduate? - You graduate with the body you have, like everyone else. It’s not like we can change it by magic or anything.

He smiled and chuckled to himself.

- Take your old clothes with you as you leave. Something might still fit.

Nothing did.

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kiteblue42 · 6 months

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s2e2 made me think about Mobius / Loki from Mobius point of view - what the heck is going on with him anyway?

Stream of consciousness on S1 -S2ep2 follows….

S1e1 - The one where Mobius goes from manipulative to empathetic.

Mobius has studied all of Loki’s life, he’s actually informed as soon as Loki is brought in (the TVA know about this particular interest of his.) In his own word “lm actually a fan.” This could all be manipulation until last scene where Loki confesses he doesn’t like hurting people. Loki can’t see Mobius expression as he says this - which if he was just manipulating would be triumphant instead Mobius looks full of compassion - so we know this is not just someone using Loki there’s some personal feeling there.

S1 e2 - The one where Mobius loses control of his feelings but doesn’t know it yet.

Renslayer spots this first - pointing out Mobius “soft spot for broken things” which Mobius denies (will we get more on that?). Mobius claims he’d still be able to prune Loki “I’ll prune him myself” and in Roxxcart heavily questions whether Loki is trustworthy. “Why are people you can’t trust always saying trust me.” The last thing he says to Loki before the infamous “divorce scene”.

S1e3 - The one with no Mobius 🙁

doesn’t have enough Mobius for us to judge really I just assume he’s ranting to himself in his head the whole time.

S1e4 The one where Mobius accepts (some of) his feelings.

This episode opens with an obviously very hurt and betrayed Mobius. So now we know that whatever he told Renslayer (about being able to handle his Loki) and he all his very logical cautionary language (about trust) in the end it was nonsense. He’d completely lost his heart at some point in S1e2 and had been in denial about it. He’s also beginning to doubt the TVA mission here and hasn’t been able to process any of that logically. So we see a very emotional Mobius is the interrogation scenes. Its useful for the audience because he straight out tells us he thought Loki was a partner (“I guess you don’t do partners”) and a friend (“… a really bad friend”). (This isn’t necessarily romantic though the “Sylvie with an i or ie” thing certainly raises eyebrows”).

At some point in Ep 4 Mobius pulls himself together enough to do some pretty calculated sleuthing on Renslayer. Then we see a partial coming together of Mobius head and heart in the time jail scene where you can see him acknowledging Loki as a friend, making a conscious decision to trust him. “I got to take the word of 2 Loki’s” “how about the word of a friend”.

The offer here is to help save Sylvie which is something he is doing for Loki (he hasn’t even spoken with her at this point and has very little interaction with her ever as it goes). In fact this will cost him his life (since Renslayer almost immediately prunes him). Given the speed of events there’s only really time for a partial acceptance of whatever messy feeling Mobius has for Loki - it goes from yes we’re friends to now I’m willing to die in the space of three strides.

S1e5 - The one where Sylvie is Mobius’ perfect excuse to ignore his feelings

This is the only episode where Mobius has any extended interaction with Sylvie - though we don’t see that much of it. But it is interesting & crucial as it tells Mobius that Sylvie is interested in Loki. One of the first things she says is that she came to the void to look for Loki. I think that’s important because we see Mobius concede pretty much all ground to Sylvie in the episode. Later Sylvie tells Loki “he cares about you” - so Mobius must have done or said something for her to figure that out - and it’s not a question she’s pretty confident about it. The Loki / Mobius final scene is the long hug beloved by Lokious shippers everywhere. What’s interesting is that Loki says “thank you my friend.” Whereas Mobius deflects and almost hands off the emotion to Sylvie with the “you’re my favourite.” It’s clearly *not true* that Sylvie is his favourite he’s met her for all of five minutes so what is this? It reads as an acceptance / concession that the more important partner for Loki will be Sylvie. Whatever messy feelings Mobius may have he’s doing the “I’m happy for you” thing. Again it’s not necessarily romantic. I don’t think Mobius would know - and now has no reason to even examine it or deal with his feelings which I suspect suits him just fine. Just like when you have a really close friend and they get together with someone you know that chapter of friendship is over - and there’s little point in wondering if it could be more.

S1e6 - The one where eons of friendship mean little

Not much Mobius content and we don’t see them together unless you count the last scene. The most interesting insight probably comes from Mobius / Renslayer scene where Renslayer makes a good point about Mobius choosing Loki over her. Logically there are good reasons Mobius would make that choice the TVA has been morally dubious at best and Renslayer tried to kill him. But what is interesting is Mobius’ emotional reaction - he just seems sad and resigned about what happened between them despite the friendship supposedly lasting eons. Contrast this with his emotions in s1e4 in response to a lesser betrayal by Loki.

S2e1 - The one where Mobius would rather die than talk about it

Given the speed at which things happen in this episode it’s another one where processing feelings is not going to happen.

Mobius opens the season is a different place to the season close - re TVA s1 ends with him declaring he’ll “burn it to the ground”. S2 starts with him questioning what they should do “everything you are doing was wrong and all your gods are dead”.

When Loki & Mobius finally find each other in the war room Mobius instinct is to get the near hysterical Loki out of the room and alone. He asks where Sylvie is almost immediately - hears enough to work out there’s unfinished business there. Partially understands the HWR threat but focuses on the time slipping. It’s worth noting that Loki and Mobius have somehow ended up in the same ambiguous position re the TVA vs Sylvie & B15 who are probably still in the “burn it to the ground frame of mind”. For all Mobius ambiguity this season so far the one thing he does seem clear about is his loyalty to Loki - he trusts everything he says without question and his priority in e1 is to fix the time slipping (this is no one else’s priority not even Loki’s). Note everyone else’s gods might be dead but Mobius god is still alive.

The episode ends with Mobius willing to die horribly to save Loki ( very nearly doing so). I’ll need to rewatch but I’m not sure if Loki actually knows this is a death sentence for Mobius (although maybe it’s obvious that’s what will happen if you lose all your skin). IIRC OB is only clear about “you will die” after Loki time slips to the future. In any case Loki can’t know in advance that Mobius will stay out in the walkway far too long.

Before Loki timeslips we have one of those “what was he going to say” declaration scenes. Very frustrating, but Mobius reaction is interesting he interrupts - which means he’s worried about whatever it’s going to be. Whether it’s going to be sone emotional declaration of love or friendship or a plea to find Sylvie - he does not want to hear it. He’s willing to go and die horribly before dealing with that - very on brand.

S2e2 - the one where Mobius is a silly little man

The meat of this episode (for our purposes) are the interrogation scenes onwards, but it’s worth noting before these that Mobius is not very focused or serious in the earlier scenes. In London he’s cool about stopping for a drink, when they go to see OB he casually declares “he has it all under control”, when they are trying to decode the tempad Loki calls him out to focus. There’s something there about Mobius disassociating from the task at hand. An interesting point is when Loki explains about the Renslayer recording in the past Mobius starts to ask “ when we’re you going to tell …?” But he gets interrupted which does tell us Loki has not given chapter and verse to Mobius yet - and bearing in mind Mobius seems (so far) to have put himself entirely in Loki’s hands this season that may come back to haunt us.

I could say a lot about the interrogation scenes but I’ll pull 3 things from them

(1) More evidence Mobius trusts Loki completely and accepts his dark side - evidenced by the approach to the second interrogation and also not intervening when Brad was taunting Loki in the first one.

2) Mobius doesn’t know what is real anymore

In s1e2 Mobius says of the time keepers “they are real because I believe they are real”. Which is an interesting position and Mobius starting point in life is accepting where he finds himself. So Brads persistent theme of “none of this is real” attacks the very basis which on Mobius operates. He doesn’t know what to believe anymore and does not know therefore what is real.

(3) Mobius does not have a lot of self worth.

This follows from 2 really. Mobius is the sort of person who accepts whats put in front of him and gains meaning from doing the task assigned to him by and for someone else. But now what does that mean - even his name is not his real name. He is “nothing” in Brad’s words (he repeats that later) and when he says “you’re a silly little man” it’s like that’s how he thinks of himself.

The pie scene

At the start of this scene Mobius tries (and fails) to keep up a facade with Loki. It tells you that Mobius gets most of his self worth from doing his job well and thinks he failed. The “heavy keys” line is also revealing - it tells us he would really like to be a match for Loki but his down cast demeanour tells us he doesn’t believe he can be.

Loki handles this all rather well (in general Loki handles Mobius rather well - when he is paying attention - but that’s another sort of post) and gets Mobius to fess up to losing it. We then get the revealing discussion about Mobius “life on the timeline” which as he points out is not his life. He starts with an obvious lie that he is happy with his life and wants to thank the person who put him there (that may have been true once but does not look very true now). Again it goes back to the idea of low self worth - Mobius thinks the alt version of him would be having a good life / doing better than him. That is not a happy thought if you are feeling bad, really bad, about yourself. He does not want that rattling around in his head.

McDonalds to end of episode

Mobius has pulled himself back together by the time we get here. The most revealing comment is probably the “mean girls” style commentary on Loki / Sylvie who both Brad and Mobius assume are having a heart to heart (they aren’t really when you listen to it). It gives us an echo of “Sylvie with an i or ie” from last season & very fun for that. Ultimately it seems pretty clear Mobius expects to lose Loki to Sylvie some point (it doesn’t have to be romantic - you can lose a good friend to a romantic partner because a romantic partner will generally be the priority). Mobius is pretty unreadable (other than sad/ serious) in the end set of sequences. There’s a micro reaction / acknowledgment to Loki’s hand on his shoulder at the finish - possibly he expected Loki to leave with Sylvie. Mentally I think Mobius expects logically that is what will happen, but this is a character who will not be emotionally prepared if it does (at least not yet).

Yes I am over thinking it ofc … 🤣

#loki #mobius #mobius m mobius #loki spoilers #lokius meta #lokius #loki x mobius

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hypnotisedfireflies · 3 months

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I am re-reading Drifter's Dawn and in the chapter when Tess tells Joel the actual story of what actually went down when the outbreak hit with Mike and Nico, I couldn't help but wonder how Joel would react in that situation. (Basically just slotting Joel in for Mike, with Nico)

I think Tess and Joel's near-telepathic sympatico stems from their chemistry but also their circumstances, having to fight for their lives and get very good at it very quickly. So obviously that wouldn't have developed on Outbreak day, but there would still be a strongggg underlying understanding they would have between them.

All this is to say, may I please request a one-shot re-imaginging of that Outbreak moment where Joel and Tess are married and Nico is their son. (Sarah may or may not exist in this universe)

Thank you kindly!

Oof, what an ask, friend! You are requesting my brain to do some seriously tricky rewiring here. And it’ll be kind of weird too, given I’ll be taking the script and changing a character. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. But some mental gymnastics never hurt me so … let’s give this a go!

For this to work, let’s assume all the following are true for the exercise:

Tess and Joel are married and living in Detroit – as you say, just swapping in Joel for Mike (ouch)

Sarah is Tommy’s kid and they’re still in Texas (just to uncomplicate it a little)

Up until now they have lived an ordinary life within their ordinary careers and nothing live-changingly traumatic has happened to them (ie, they have not been tested as they have in Driftersverse) but, as you say, they still have that powerful current of understanding

Let’s not question why any of the above is true and also not hate on Mike too much for what happened in Driftersverse canon :p

I wrote this really fast so I didn’t overthink it, and then proofed it just as fast, so please forgive any errors.

Thank you for the prompt! I hope you like it. <3

Okay ... here's an alternate universe version of the first chapter of Drifter's Dawn:

A low rumble infiltrated Tess’s consciousness. She let it in, let her mind mull over what it might be … and then let it go as the inviting temptation of deeper sleep engulfed her. She turned on her side and took a deep breath. A truck, or someone revving their motor too late into the night. Tess heard it again and thought even less of it now the noise was rationalised. She slid her arm over Joel’s waist and felt him bring her hand up to his chest.

His warmth suddenly lurched from her grasp. Tess blinked in confusion and sat up on an elbow.

“What are you doing?” The words lay thick in her mouth.

Another rumble came as Joel, dressed only in his shorts, raised the blind. The bedroom was cast in acrid honey light and this time, Tess recognised the rumble as too deep, too long for any truck or car. As the blind came up Joel was silhouetted completely by unnatural light.

The next sound was no rumble but an explosion. The boom swallowed them up and Tess heard herself scream, saw Joel duck down and extend his hand out to her to stay back. She could hear the windows rattling. Nico began to cry in the other room.

“Jesus Christ,” Joel moved back from the frame, still in a half-crouch. “Stay there. Stay where you are. I’ll get him.”

“What’s going on out there?”

“Just stay there!”

Tess watched him go with some kind of amazement. In her sleep-addled, scared mind it seemed Joel had somehow done this, or that he had answers that he was denying her. She came up to her knees and leaned toward the window. She could see smoke buffeting up into the sky. Something was gone. What was over that way? Tess flinched as she heard another explosion, further away.

She was still looking toward the window when Nico’s cries drew closer. Joel had him: the baby was bothered enough to be twisting himself about, flinging his arms and legs and making him hard to hold on to. But Joel’s hold was inescapable, and the security began to calm Nico even as Tess watched.

Tess slapped around for the remote control. She extended her arm like a wand to turn the TV on and it came alive across the other side of the room. An explosion that big was surely breaking news. Maybe there’d been a trash crash, or a bad fire …

“What the fuck …” she breathed.

It took Tess a moment to realise that she wasn’t watching a movie. She flipped two channels ahead and then went back again. She was seeing the same kind of footage on every station. People rioting, buildings going up, the army deployed. A police car on fire. People were screaming about rabies and terrorists, but all Tess could see in every single shot was masses of bodies rushing and falling all over each other. She didn’t notice that Nico had gone quiet. They lost track of time as they watched the same news on every channel.

“That’s Chicago,” said Joel.

More cities they recognised played out before them, seized in chaos, dense under thick smoke and the screams – the same screams everywhere, on every channel, on every camera.

“What is this? Joel, are you seeing this? Joel?”

“That was Houston,” he said.

She tore her gaze from the screen. Joel was balancing Nico with one arm against his body – the baby still grizzling – and thumbing the buttons on his Nokia with the other. He pressed it up against his ear, shook his head furiously, and tried again.

“Come on, Tommy. Tommy, pick up.” He finally threw the phone on the bed in disgust. “It’s not connectin’.”

Tess scrambled out of bed and hurried to the dresser, rummaging around for her jeans.

“What are you doing? Tess?”

“Getting dressed.”

“What the fuck is going on, Tess?”

“I don’t know. Get dressed.”

Joel deposited Nico on the bed, where he immediately began to burrow. They pulled on clothes, passing pieces that belonged to one another back and forth, and then were drawn back to the TV like magnets. It was increasingly terrifying – two stations went off-air even as they watched, one of them when the camera itself suddenly careened sideways into the out of focus floor, but the screaming was unmistakable. They discussed what they saw in fractured sentences, trying to make sense of it. But the message from all authorities were the same: stay indoors. Joel kept trying Tommy. He tried his father. Tess, slow to the party, found she was unable to reach anyone when she tried, too.

“Take him.” Joel passed Nico into her arms. He was sleeping now, and didn’t protest.

“What are you doing?” Tess leaned forward, moving Nico to her other shoulder.

Joel was in the wardrobe. He reached up and shifted a few boxes around and it took her way too long to realise what he was doing. He had a handgun which Tess didn’t much like, stored away at the back of the closet. He’d kept it so casually in the drawer for years but once Nico started moving around, Tess had insisted it be put away. She watched him take it out and load it up with ammo from a separate box.

“Joel …” Somehow, this sight was more terrifying than anything else she had seen so far.

“We’re not gonna need it,” he told her. “It’s just in case.”

He stuffed it down the back of his jeans and sat before her. He smoothed his hands through her hair and cradled her face. He kissed her soundly. “It’s just in case.”

A new report on TV caught their attention, and they both turned to watch a terrified woman reporting from the back of a news van, which seemed to be speeding through the night.

Tess stood abruptly. “What the fuck are we doing?”

“What?”

“Joel.”

“Oh, shit.”

It was so surreal, watching the world crumbling on TV. They had been so engrossed in what they could see in the box that they had forgotten it was meant to be everywhere. They stood on either side of the bed and stared across at one another, hardly able to believe they had both missed the obvious. And then a long scream came from somewhere outside, and they ran.

They pounded down the hall. At the top of the stairs Joel grabbed Tess and pulled her to him to make her stop, and then thrust her back.

“Stay up here with him.”

“He’s fine. No. No.”

“Stay up here.”

“No. No, no. No!”

Tess wouldn’t let him go. Every time Joel freed part of himself, Tess grabbed him again, and he eventually had no choice but to take her hand. They went down together, quieter now. Their blinds were already closed. They went to each door and window and checked the locks and then, by silent agreement and pointing, began moving furniture in front of the doors. There was not much they could do about the windows.

“Are we doin’ this wrong? Wait, let’s just think.”

Joel came around the couch they had just lugged into place and grasped her elbows.

“Let’s just think a minute. Should we be goin’ somewhere?”

“… where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go where, Joel?”

“I don’t know!”

Tess pressed her hand to her mouth and took a long, steadying breath.

Think.

They were scared. They’d been woken in the middle of the night to … something, and they didn’t know what was going on. Not really. They didn’t know anything except that it was apparently everywhere and the authorities were saying they needed to stay inside. Now that they were still, Tess could hear other sounds outside, too. Between the screams was the angry hum of traffic, crashes, alarms. Her head was buzzing with it. Tess shook it off.

“This will pass,” Tess told him. “This is crazy. We just need to lay low a minute, and it’ll – burn itself out. Whatever this is.”

Joel was nodding, reassured. “Okay.”

“We wait. We just wait here and – the phones will clear and that’ll stop,” she pointed vaguely outside, “and if we have to leave, then the army will come and evacuate us. Right? That’s what they do.”

“Yeah. That’s what they do.”

“Okay. Let’s – we can wait it out, right?”

“Sure.”

“It’s the right thing?”

Joel pulled her in close. She could feel the tension vibrating in his body. “You’re right. We just wait it out. Let’s – let’s bring up some things, we’ll wait upstairs. Stay good and quiet. Upstairs.”

“Okay. And – and we’ll pack for when the army comes,” Tess added. She could feel the uncanny hysteria trembling at the edges, but a plan helped put it in its place. “One bag each. That’s what they always – that’s right, yeah? We pack one bag each.”

The activity kept Tess sane. They swept up everything they thought they needed from the kitchen (panic shopping – they would make two more trips later in the day) and then packed three small bags. Tess laboured over it for hours. She couldn’t decide what were the most important things they should take. She had visions of their luggage being tossed aside and losing important documents. There was no sentimentality in her packing. She left out Nico’s favourite toys until Joel reminded her that those might be a good idea, and she almost lost it because she’d just gotten everything organised in a way that made sense to her. She snatched the toys and pushed Joel away to repack without his meddling. When she was done, she took them downstairs and placed them by the front door in readiness.

He stayed with Nico. He paced with him or sat up in bed, talking to him like nothing was going on out there. They divided up the duties of parenting and packing without even talking about it. Nico’s bond to Joel was stronger, anyway. Things had been improving for Tess, especially in the last few months as Nico grew older, but in times of distress Nico was better off with Joel. He could calm him ten times faster than she could. Tess had no doubt that were she holding him right now, all her fears would transmit directly to him and he’d be wailing and terrified. His big, brown eyes were uncertain and wet, but he was quiet. His fists were balled in Joel’s shirt. He couldn’t have handed him over Tess even if he wanted to.

She sat with them only when she couldn’t fuss around with the packing any longer. Tess thumbed Nico’s hot cheeks. “We’ll just wait it out, yeah? Little holiday at home, we’ll just wait it out.”

The night passed. All the channels had gone off air and the phones still weren’t working. They kept the blinds down and agreed on silence, regular patrols downstairs to check everything was all right. They thought they recognised some of their neighbours out there and had a quick conversation about whether they should check it out. But when they saw one tackle another at high speed they quashed those plans, and never brought them up again. Sometimes the air was thick with shouts and screams, the squealing of car tyres and crunching metal. Helicopters pounding overhead, explosions near and far. And then it would go eerily silent for awhile and that was worse, waiting to hear something. Then there would be pounding somewhere and breaking glass, more shouts, gunshots. So many gunshots.

“We did the right thing?” Tess asked not long after the power went off.

“Someone will be along,” Joel promised her, but it was hard to believe him. “Why the fuck are all the lines down?”

He tried Tommy again, tried his father. He got nowhere both times and lost his temper, tossing the little phone across the room. It hit the wall and the casing split open.

“God-fuckin’-damnit. Oh shit – no, baby – come on. It’s all right.”

The tantrum had been stewing in Nico for hours, and they had only just managed to keep it under control. Now it unleashed, and he was arching his back and wailing. Tess hurriedly passed him over to her husband but Nico was too far gone, and not even he could bring him around.

And then the pounding started at the back door.

“It’s okay!” Joel held out his hand to Tess. “They’re locked, we – we barricaded them up.”

The pounding began at the front door.

“If they get in, there’s nowhere to go,” Tess said.

She had been unable to contemplate any alternative other than the turmoil dying down or the army coming to get them. Going out in the car was unthinkable. They had no place to go. And all night they’d heard collisions, honking horns, squealing tyres. Maybe if it had been the two of them they would’ve tried going somewhere, but not with Nico.

Who was still bawling.

“They’re not gonna go away,” she added.

They’d seen that play out in the house across the street. People – these possessed, angry people – mobbing around doors until they got inside. It had sometimes gone on for hours.

“Quietly,” Joel said, which was stupid given the noise Nico was making, but she understood.

As they went down the stairs the pounding grew worse. Tess was pacing herself through what was next – the luggage, the garage door, Nico’s seat. Should they even bother with that? She could drive, Joel could hold him. But that wasn’t safe. Was there time, though?

And then windows broke somewhere in the house. One side or another – it was hard to say – but they were shattering inward and Joel was pushing her but Tess could already see it was too late. As they neared the garage door the first of the figures – bloodied and torn from the windows, presumably – lunged toward them.

The gunshot was so loud at Tess’s ear that for a moment she didn’t know what it was. Joel emptied the entire clip into the shapes – there was more than one, how could she not have seen that – and cut them down until they lay strewn on the carpet laid only four months ago. Tess looked back at him.

He seemed more shocked than she was. Nico squalling on his hip, the gun still pointing off into the living room. Tess pushed his arm down and urged him into the kitchen, thinking of the garage and the steps they would need to take to get out.

Another figure threw itself at them. It must have come through the other side. She could see glass in the man’s hair and it tinkled in his wake like fairy dust. Joel tried to shoot but he was out and then it was on him. Joel turned Nico away and threw up his arm.

The kettle was in Tess’s hands before she could think. It was the first thing within reach. She swung it straight at the head – maybe she shouted, maybe not – and it took three tries to crack the exterior and drop the attacker. Springs bounced across the kitchen tile. Tess hit him two, maybe three – maybe ten more times when he was down until she was sure. She might’ve kept going if Joel didn’t grab her.

“Come on!”

“Are you okay?!” She clutched at him, at Nico. He was shocked to silence, gaping at the carnage. Perhaps he was finally, properly scared. “Is he okay?”

“We’re okay! Tess, come on!”

With her free hand, Tess snagged the entire knife block – all seven that had been a wedding gift from Julian – and tucked it under her arm. Joel pushed her into the garage and she had time to grasp just Nico’s bag. They threw it in the back.

“What’s that?!”

“The knives!”

“What?!”

“You’re out of ammo!”

“I got more!”

“I didn’t know! Get the door!”

“His seat – ”

“There’s not time! You’ll have to hold him!”

Sounds inside the house again, a thump against the closed door.

Tess pointed. “Get the door!”

They pulled out of the driveway moments before the kitchen door crashed inward. Tess pulled out and stopped with a jerk when she hit something –

“Letterbox!”

“It’s on the other side!” She cried.

“Just fuckin’ go!”

Tess turned the wheel hard and they sped into madness.

#driftersverse #tlou #tlou fanfic #asks #the last of us #tess servopoulos #joel miller #joel x tess

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vigilskeep · 6 months

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HARKER!!! How do you create and develop your OCs!!!! Your brain is so big!!!!

Whenever I make characters, I have a hard time getting past the surface level and really understanding what makes them tick. WHATS YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS? I am full of admiration.

honoured u think so!!! um Advices

when it comes to viddy game characters. make ur oc a product of the world and centred on the game’s main themes/conflicts. for example, dao has main themes like duty, vengeance, and sacrifice, so those are all good choices for what your character is About. bg3 so far seems to be about agency, bodily autonomy, power, and what it costs to achieve those things, so you want your character to be in dialogue with that. get that done, and congrats: everything in the game is now about your character and their journey personally! all quests & side quests will echo you and your character will have unique perspective on them

don’t be afraid to make the ‘wrong’ choices, or, more specifically, don’t rush into choosing the ‘right’ one. instead of thinking about the objectively best way to resolve a situation from your uninvolved position as the player, let your reactions be personal. your character isn’t always going to say and do the unbiased neutral best thing and that’s good!!

first of all try to think about your character’s frame of reference for it. everyone has a sort of reference library of experiences which they can use to interpret new circumstances. games are your friend and will usually try to help you with this; for example da2, a game in which your characters always has siblings, has a lot of sibling-focused quests that your character will have a unique take on. but it can be much simpler; what does your player character notice about an npc? do they have something in common? is your character physically stronger and bigger or smaller and weaker? what does your character assume about people who talk a certain way? how does any of that make them react to them? etc. etc. keep track in your head of how the location and enemy types make them feel too. my poor hawke had an ongoing anxiety meter to represent his dislike of real danger to his allies especially from darkspawn, and the more overloaded that was, the more rash and aggressively i would let him react. that was a fun way combat could affect other gameplay; for instance i fully killed some npcs that i could’ve let go, specifically because they’d knocked out one of my people in a fight

when getting into backstory try to sort of reverse engineer why they act the way they act? people tend to behave in certain ways because those are the methods that have gotten them through their life. what are the strategies that have helped them survive? being aggressive? being charming? following orders? staying on the sidelines? lying? and then you can sort of create the environment that encouraged them to be that way. (this doesn’t always mean complying with what the environment valued/expected/wanted of them; often defiance is what people needed to do to get through it with their soul intact.) that’s good for getting a little under their skin to see what makes them tick as u say

uhhh what else. try to be aware of their physicality and the way they look and move and how that affects others’ perception of them. how tactile are they and how much do they gesture? basically think about what comes across when you look at a companion talking and figure out what they get when they look at you. for example, i have a very tactile hawke and i typically imagine a lot more of that casual physical contact when i’m doing companion conversations, and a lot more imposing physical aggression when he’s talking to people he doesn’t like. obviously this requires you doing a bit of imaginative work on top of the game visuals but i believe in you. it just makes them come alive a bit

that’s my kind of... standardised method... more generic advice: people don’t have good or bad traits they have traits which are good or bad in extremes and sticking to a trait whether the consequences are good or bad is often fun; don’t be afraid to be bitchy or aggressive when the occasion calls for it, you often get a lot more life out of this and if you can love a companion for it they can still love you; try maintaining “in character” priorities during combat or when just walking around and figuring out what they’re noticing; sometimes making a big decision that seems “out of character” is actually character-defining because you discover what makes them break from their usual nature

i hope that helps?? that’s how i do things anyway :)

#this is a long but you all know me and what to expect

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formulapai · 3 months

Text

DAY SEVENTEEN: FLOWER SHOP AU

CLÉMENT NOVALAK

TAG LIST:

@i-wish-this-was-me

@giada-chan

@havaneselover08

@fangirl125reader

@rheathesimp

@strangemaximoff

@scopeiguess

PAI’S WORDS: as usual when it comes to flower stuff, it’s written based on my work and how my shop is ! 🧡 so sorry for the delay, for those not following me on X, I’ve had some rough patches lately and am only now getting better and motivated again 🫶

The day has been particularly exhausting, stubborn customers and complicated arrangements taking all your time and energy, especially since your colleague and dear friend couldn’t come to work today. Your hands cold and raw, your feet aching as much as your back, you’re almost done with the day and with your commands when the bell’s melody resonates inside the shop, indicating the presence of a new customer. Hiding a sigh and putting your best smile on, you lift your head and greet the newcomer, coming face to face with a charming man dressed in a suit.

“- Hi, how can I help you ?

- Hello, I came looking for.. well flowers ?

- Well, you’ve come to the right place, no doubt about it.”

The man in front of you chuckles and sends a sheepish smile your way, his dimples appearing at the same time as a warm feeling in your guts. You tie the bouquet you were making before walking to him, guiding the customer towards all the cut flowers you have and watching as he takes it all in, eyes stopping on some of them.

“- So, what’s the occasion ? A date, maybe ?

- Oh no, none of that. It’s for a friend.

- Sorry for assuming, it’s just that usually, when customers come in dressed as sharp as this, their intentions are pretty clear.

- Trust me, that’s what everyone tells me as well. I mean, being overdressed is not a crime, is it ?

- It surely isn’t. About that friend of yours, do you know their favorite color ? Or a color they often wear, the main color in their home, whatever.

- Um, not really know. Purple, maybe ? She does wear that quite often.

- Alright. And for the budget ? I can work around pretty much anything, but the bouquet will obviously vary in size.

- Oh, well, I don’t really know about that. I don’t buy flowers that often so I’m pretty.. clueless about prices.

- It’s fine ! We can choose flowers and foliages together and I’ll tell you the price as we go ?

- Yes, perfect, thanks !”

His dimples appears once again as he sends you a grateful smile, letting you guide him through the flowers.

“- As for now, the only purple flowers we have are clematis, aster and iris. Oh, some hydrangeas too, and gerberas. We can mix them with white and pink flowers for a softer, more feminine look, or use orange and yellow to create bright contrast, that depends on what you’re looking for. It’s for a friend, right ? Is there any special occasion ? A celebration, a birthday ?

- Actually, it’s not really a friend. I mean, she’s not a friend of mine, not really I guess. See, we have an.. emission, a podcast, with two of my friends, and she’s invited today. So I know her and, well, appreciate her, but it’s.. like a work context ?”

You giggle softly at the obvious fluster taking over him, watch as he stumbles on his words and frown as he wonders about the situation. Your gaze falls towards the racks of flowers as you listen to him explain what he knows about the woman, Lissie as you’ve learned, and her job and known passions. She seems lively and passionate about what she’s doing, as much as the man in front of you is at least, so you carefully pluck a yellow Calla Lily, putting it next to the clematis in your hand.

“- So, what we can do is have some strong flowers, like the yellow calla lily here, and build around them with simpler, smaller purple flowers like the clematis here. Calla Lilies stand straight and create a lot of volume when well-paired, and clematis create some movement with how they fall. See ? They naturally are more frail and “floaty” and will add color without it being too blunt. I can pair them with some hydrangeas for volume, no more than two or three to not throw the balance off, and some iris. Maybe add some mimosa stems in between to add more yellow.

- That.. seems perfect, really.”

A proud grin falls on your lips as you pluck the flowers you’ll need, creating the bouquet as you go. Foliages are not counted in the price as your shop offers them, something not that uncommon but that still surprises customers not used to it. You decide to go for eucalyptus, giving the bouquet more volume but also more fluidity and lightness, creating a less strict, more simple looking composition. As you go, you never forget to calculate and enunciate the price, making sure to check in with the man in front of you who seems purely in awe as he observes your hands work carefully around the flowers, delicate fingers adorned with little cuts and callouses. You place the last flower where it’s supposed to go, checking on different angles to make sure it’s evenly distributed before showing it off.

“- Ans that’s how it looks, is it what you had in mind ? If not, I can replace some flowers and such, don’t hesitate to tell me.

- No, no it’s really pretty, thank you ! I didn’t even have something as gorgeous as this in mind, to be fair. You have a way with flowers, trust me.”

He compliments you excitedly as you laugh, taking a ribbon out of your apron to tie the creation before making your way to the checkout, followed closely by the young man you find quite interesting. Your hands quickly work as you cut the stems at the same level and wrap the bouquet in yellow colored paper, placing a simple light purple around it and making a bow. All the while, you explain how his friend should take care of the flowers, insisting on the “cutting them every two days” part and a sweet smile grows on your face as you note how meticulous he seems, nodding in a determined way and asking questions about some parts. You staple your shop’s cars on the wrapping paper before handing it to you, your hands brushing his as he oh so carefully takes it and profusely thanks you, making his way towards the exit.

“- Oh, I’m sorry ! But you’ve said you have a podcast, right ? May I know the name ? I don’t know much about cars and, sports in general, but I’d like to learn more.

- Yeah, sure ! It’s called Screaming Meals, and well, my name’s Clement. It was nice meeting you, Y/N.”

You stare at his back as he walks out with a frown and a gaping mouth, only realizing much later, as you’re making dinner, that your name is written on your apron. The podcast accompany your dinner and you shyly subscribe to the channel, grinning as Lissie compliments the bouquet and laughing as Clement brags about it, not missing the soft look in his eyes.

#clement novalak fluff #clement novalak imagine #clement novalak x reader #clement novalak #elms #f2 fluff #f2 #f2 x reader #f2 imagine

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chrisevansredbelt · 2 years

Text

Small World

pairing: steve rogers x reader

warnings: angst. a bit of arguing. mention of the 2016 paris attack. reader being kind of lonely. i guess civil war and ultron spoilers hahahah hopefully everyone has already seen the films tho... but just in case. tbh… maybe a smidgen of like size kink hahahahhaha i’m such a whore. mention of torture, mentions of hydra.

summary: the arrival.

wk: 5.8k

a/n: ahhhhhh, one of the three series im focusing on! probably my fav tbh 😍... bit of a spoiler... some proper steve smut

i have also twisted SOME parts and some canon parts of the original storyline! so if there’s something like chronologically wrong then just close ur eyes xx it’s probably just a hallucination

series masterlist here!

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*･ﾟ☆

Your heart drops a little as the echo of the knock sounds throughout your house. Until you remember you’re safe. You’re far away and safe and no one bad would ever find you here.

You quickly realise that it’s also Sunday morning and it was probably just the milkman reminding you yet again to put your bottles out. You always forgot. But he was nice about it.

Grabbing your empty milk glasses from their upside down place on the drying rack, you hold them cautiously as you near the front door.

You don’t even hesitate pulling the front door wide open- assuming it actually was the milkman and that he was on a time crunch and you were only slowing him down.

Which was why, when you were in fact not met with the milkman and rather four nervous faces… you froze in your spot.

Your eyes immediately land on one particular face in your effort to scan all of them. Steve.

You were surprised you even recognised him that quick. He looked so different. Different from when you last saw him anyway. He had a beard and his hair was much longer. He looked bigger too, more muscular. He looked nice.

You quickly realise you’re staring and move on to the next person- however quite literally gasp in fear as you recognise the woman.

You drop one milk bottle and step backwards, shielding yourself with the door and uncaring to the glass bottle that rolls to their feet.

“It’s okay!” Sam holds his hands out, grabbing the bottle that rolled to his feet. You look from her to him to Steve and back to him with hesitant eyes, “She’s good now. She’s with us.”

You eye her from behind the door. Well… if she wanted to kill you- or any of them, she would’ve done so by now. Your first initial thought was that she was a hostage, but she looked pretty close to Steve. Maybe… maybe they’re together?

As you widen up the door again and take the bottle from Sam’s extended hand, you look down in embarrassment, avoiding Steve and Wanda’s eyes the best you can.

“We’re sorry to turn up so unannounced, but it’s an emergency.” Sam starts. Your eyes flicker up to his when he says the word ‘emergency’. What kind of emergency? Are they safe? Is someone after them? Is someone after me? So many questions, “Can we please come in?” He asks tentatively with pleading eyes.

You obviously weren’t aware of much. But with the way Sam was begging with his eyes, Natasha keeping quiet and seemingly alert and Steve sporting a full beard, you assumed something wasn’t right and they needed some kind of help.

You nod almost immediately, “Y-Yeah, of course.” Though your voice doesn’t sound so confident as you step to the side and let them in to your home. Heavy, dirty boots litter your wooden floor but you don’t find it in you to care that much. Once Steve- who was at the back of the pack, enters, you shut the door behind them and lock it for safe measures, before turning back to them and asking, “How did you guys even find me?”

You try not to acknowledge the close proximity to Steve now as you look among the group.

“Oh, uh- we…” Sam stutters, glancing at the others and you guess, silently debating whether to tell the truth or lie… he decides on the truth, “We followed you- from the market,” You furrow your brows curiously, prompting him to continue, “We were staying in that abandoned house near the town and Natasha said she saw you so we followed your car.”

You weren’t mad or freaked out by any means. It was actually kind of funny to think about, “Small world.” You hum. Of all the places they could’ve stayed, they’re in your home town? A bunch of farmland and cottages in the middle of nowhere? “Is everything okay? Why are you staying in abandoned houses?”

They all look to each other with semi-furrowed brows, before Sam is speaking again, “I’m guessing you haven’t been watching the news.”

You blink at him, glancing to your TV through the doorway that leads to your living room area, “No, I-“ They follow your gaze to the tiny box of a TV. It is literally encased in a wooden box- they would all be surprised if it even worked, “It was left here by the last owner.” You explain, fiddling with your fingers- also a little embarrassed by it all of a sudden as they look to you with raised brows, “But it only plays old, black and white French movies and France news... So, unless you had something to do with the attack then-“

Sam shakes his head. Not that you actually thought that they did- well, you really didn’t know what to think. The last time you saw all of them was in Iowa. Speaking of, where are the others?

There’s a thick, almost confused silence in the air as you continue to look up at them all unknowingly. You really had no idea. Not only had you cut yourself off from the team... you had cut yourself off from the entire world.

“We uh-“ Steve starts and you’re a little embarassed by how quick you are to turn to look at him now. It was the first time he’d spoken since he got here- and the first time he’s spoken to you in years. You missed his voice... it sounded deeper, “We’re on the run.” He briefly explains and you open your mouth a little, “Natasha and I broke the others out of prison and now we’re all fugitives.”

You look to Natasha, then to Sam and Wanda, before back to Steve, “Prison?”

“We better sit down for this,” Sam sighs.

And so, you take them further into your house so you’re not all lingered in the foyer. You sat them all down in your large kitchen, letting them take their bags off and giving them all a cup of either ice water or orange juice.

Once everyone was settled, you took a seat at the dinner table, waiting for them to start.

They told you everything. Everything you had missed after you had left New York and effectively shut yourself off from the rest of the world.

The whole civil war between Steve and Tony, Zemo, the Sokovian accords, Vienna, how Wanda joined them, Bucky, Clint and some Scott guy who’s an ant? The Siberian facility. The raft? Steve and Bucky going to Wakanda and only Steve coming back. Then joining with Sam, Nat and Wanda on the run as fugitives.

“And that leads us to now.” Sam finalises, taking a much needed drink of his water that had condensed all over his coaster.

There’s a comfortable silence as everyone allows you to take in all this new information. You hadn’t asked a single question or barely even spoke a word except for your incessant nodding to show that you were following along.

Once you’ve pieced together all of the events in your head, you inhale, “Good thing I left when I did.” Is all you thought of to say.

It works to lighten the mood a little as everyone smiles softly. Well, Steve small smile lasts about a millisecond before he’s frowning, memories and emotions hitting him like a truck as he’s reminded of your lack of presence during it all.

It’s silent again, but this time a bit of a collective, nervous silence. But you know how to fix it. Now that you know why they’re here.

“You can all stay here for as long as you need.” You nod. They all seem to deflate. In a good way! Relax. You could literally see it if you looked around the table, their muscles weren’t so tensed, their jaws weren’t locked and their senses weren’t so alert.

“Thank you.” Sam rubs your arm and you nod with a small smile.

The company would be nice. Perhaps you needed this more than they did.

And so, you help them settle in to your home. You had a heap of spare bedrooms, however, they were filled with clutter, coated with dust and cobwebs so they weren’t exactly usable. But it was okay, apparently, they figured if they slept in the living room on mattresses, it would make a quick getaway if they needed to. And if they’ve learnt anything about being on the run, its to stick together.

Which is why they’re helping you take out all the mattresses you can find and bringing them downstairs to the living room. The living room is also, probably the biggest room in the house- the study room a close second, but it too is littered with clutter and books and large oil paintings left by the last owner.

While the others move your furniture around to make extra space for their beds, you’re in the laundry room finding enough bedsheets and blankets to keep them all warm. And Wanda was kind enough to give you a hand.

“I’m sorry I gave you a fright.” She says as stacks a few piles of sheets into a washing basket with wheels.

You shake your head, folding a large blanket to top the pile, “No, I’m sorry for reacting like that.” You apologise, extremely embarrassed for 1. being so dramatic and 2. probably humiliating her and making her feel like a threat to you, “Just- the last time I saw you you were…” You trail off, not wanting to come off offensive in anyway and eventually just shaking your head again and holding out your hand, “Start over?”

She smiles down at your hand before shaking it with her own, “I’m Wanda.”

“Y/N.” You laugh softly, glad she matched your energy.

“Thank you for your hospitality, by the way.” She says as she grabs a blanket to fold and add to the pile, “You didn’t even know me and you barely hesitated.”

You just shrug, “It’s actually really nice to have some company.”

It’s also really nice to see Steve again. He was yet to talk to you one-on-one. He hardly looked at you. There weren’t enough mattresses so he was taking the pull out couch in the study room. He didn’t mind at all, and the study room was right across from the living room so they weren’t entirely split up.

You would have gladly offered him the spot next to you in your bed- No. No.

You aren’t together anymore. He didn’t love you like he loved him. He probably likes Wanda now.

“Oh-” Wanda squeaks, breaking you out of your thoughts. You stare at her worriedly, waiting for her to finish what she was saying or say what was wrong... But she stops herself and just offers you an uneasy smile, “These sheets smell like my old house.” She quickly lies.

“Oh,” You smile, bringing up the sheets to your noise and slightly grimacing at the strange smell, “Yeah, I bet. This place is so old.” She just laughs, thankful you didn't catch on to her as you finish folding one last blanket.

Alright, a blanket and sheet for everyone. Now to find some pillows.

You shut the fridge with your hip, both hands occupied with the two cans of soda in your hands.

Heading towards the back door, you nudge it open, catching the attention of Sam who has found the comfortable spot of your red and white striped swing chair.

You smile at him warmly, holding up the two cans of soda before plopping down next to him on the chair- making the chair swing even harder for a moment and Sam snickers.

He takes the can from your hand gratefully and cracks it open. You pull your feet up and get comfortable, resting your muscles after running around the house for the past few hours making sure everyone had everything they needed.

You sigh once you’re comfortable enough and lean against Sam’s big shoulder.

“Nice place.” He breaks the silence and you snort, rolling your eyes.

“It’s rundown, I know.” Your house definitely wasn’t a five star hotel. It needed a lot of work, it creaked, it flickered, it leaked. But it was home.

It was warm, quiet and big. What more could you really ask for? Maybe a few friends or family. A dog even.

“No, it’s nice. Adds to the character.” He beams, “It’s bigger than Clint’s house.”

Your heart pangs a little as you look over the horizon at the setting sun, “I wouldn’t know.”

It’s only then that Sam realises what he’s said. What that place meant for you- the memories it brought back- or lack thereof.

He looks over at you and purses his lips, “Sorry.”

You just shake your head, “No, it’s okay.” You look down at your soda can, “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should’ve said something-“

“It wouldn’t have mattered. He wouldn’t have listened.” You curse yourself for lashing out a little, your anger… resentment evident in your tone.

But Sam understands. That was the best part about Sam. He understood.

He lets you cool off by staying silent, letting you sort out your thoughts and emotions. Once you take a sip from your can, he knows you’re okay again.

“You should talk to him.” He suggests tentatively. You turn tk him with a raised brow and an expression that doesn’t know whether he’s joking or not, “I know he wants to talk to you.”

You scoff, looking down at your toes, “Isn’t he dating Wanda?”

“What? No-“ Sam is quick to shut down your allegation, “No, they’re just- he-“ He looks behind you, over to the large, opened window that leads to the living room where- sure enough! Wanda and Steve are sitting side by side talking. You turn back around to Sam with a quirked brow, “They’re not together.” You raise your brow higher- genuine concern as to whether he saw what you just saw in that window, “They’re just good friends.”

You look back over at the window and stare shamelessly at the two. Steve talks to her- it looks like something important and she listens intently. That used to be you- until he stopped talking to you. Wanda nudges his side and he smiles brightly for the first time that day- the first time you’ve seen his smile for a long, long time. As Wanda turns to look out the window, you whip back around and slump in your spot on the chair, “I-I don’t even know what to say.”

Sam hums, “Maybe you don’t have to say anything to make up.” He looks down at you and wiggles his brows.

“You wanna sleep outside?”

“Alright, alright.” He throws his hands up in defeat. But still, you can’t help the small smile that grows on your face. If you were asked, you couldn’t give an exact reason as to why you were smiling. It just felt nice. You felt normal again. Like you had dreamed the last year and a half of your life and everything was actually all okay and you hadn’t run away from all your friends.

“Showers all yours, Wan,” Natasha emerges from down the large staircase, hair still dripping wet as she towel dries it in one of the fluffy towels Y/N had let them use.

Wanda beams at the thought of a nice, hot shower and smiles softly at Steve before heading up the stairs. As Natasha heads for the kitchen, Steve is left alone in the living room.

Leaning his back against the window, he shuts his eyes momentarily, basking in the comfort of peace and… serenity. Of course, he’s still on edge- on edge that they’ll find them here and possibly even hurt you in the process. But for now, they’re safe.

Upon hearing the familiar sound of your hearty laugh outside, he whips his head around to glance outside the window. He sees you and Sam, sitting on some swing chair as you both watch the sun go down.

Steve just purses his lips, wishing it was him sitting next to you, watching the evening turn into night, drinking whatever overly sweet, sugary soda you’d give him.

He would never admit it to you, but the raspberry fanta was always his favourite- no matter how much you joked about how the only reason he didn’t like it was because it would probably give him a heart attack.

And maybe he was just being… hopeful, maybe it was all in his head, but Wanda asking him so many questions about you made him curious. What did she know that he didn’t? What did she want to know so bad? What kind of puzzle was she piecing together?

Ah, it was probably all in his head.

You try not to let your head swell too big with the sight before you. The whole, family, last supper feast you had cooked for your visitors was being absolutely demolished.

There was a point where the table had gone completely silent because everyone was just so… focused on eating and filling their seemingly empty stomachs.

I mean, you knew they were on the run, but you didn’t think they were nomadic! You thought surely they were able to buy the foods they needed in order to stay… alive!

Sam is the first to put down his knife and fork, leaning back in his chair as it creaks and place his hands over his bloated stomach, “I can’t remember the last time I had a home cooked meal.”

Natasha seconds Sam with a hum, mouth full of food and you giggle.

“I can’t remember the last time I ate with company,” You counter, sipping on your drink.

Most nights you quite literally would eat dinner at the table all alone. Maybe you’d have a crossword in front of you or a book or a puzzle. The one off chances you felt like watching some French TV you would sit in the living room until you got bored and went back to your book.

You did a lot of reading. Surprisingly, the last owner also had a lot of books- in English too, thank God. Many of them were classics you had never read before either: Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice.

It sounds unrealistic, you knew that. If you had been told years ago that that’s how you would be spending possibly the rest of your life, you probably would’ve laughed.

But it wasn’t all bad. If you weren’t reading, you were gardening, if you weren’t gardening you were cooking, if you weren’t cooking you were napping, if you weren’t napping you were cleaning, if you weren’t cleaning you were reading. Simple as that really.

A weekly trip to the market, a one-off interaction with the milk man if you forgot to put your bottles out and a wave to the postman. That was it.

You watched, one by one, as they all leaned back in their creaky wooden chairs, bloated beyond belief and plates practically licked clean.

Then, as they finally took sips of their beers and wines, that was when things got interesting. Sam was definitely the loudest, to which Natasha wittily countered… to which spring out an argument about who was the loudest out of the two.

You just laughed with the rest as you collected everyone’s plates for washing up.

As soon as Steve saw, however, he had abruptly stood from his chair, the legs screeching against your floorboards. He then started picking up the plates in the middle of the table, helping you out.

You smiled softly at him but kept your head down the rest of the way through.

He followed behind you as you entered the kitchen and placed the plates into the sink. He followed suit, placing his pile next to yours. As you turn on the sink, you both reach for the dish sponge and he grabs it before you can and you look up at him curiously, “I got it.”

God, he’s so tall. Was he always so tall? You literally have to crane your neck up to look at him. His beard is nice.

When you realise you’re staring, you panic. You really hoped he didn’t notice or, if he did notice, that he wouldn’t be so weirded out by it. So all you do is just nod with a soft, grateful smile and a small, “Thank you.”

God, why was that so painful?

Turning off all of the unused lights and doing your ritual rounds of ensuring all the doors and windows were sealed and locked, you returned to the living room where everyone was settling into their mattresses.

You had profusely apologised for not having a TV, figuring they could probably use a bit of entertainment. But they assured you it was okay and that your multitude of board games and puzzles were enough. Steve and Wanda sit in the corner of the room, where her bed is by the window- they’re playing Uno. And Sam and Natasha are by the fireplace solving arguing over a puzzle.

“Is everyone warm enough?” You ask tiredly, scanning the room and almost giggling at how reminiscent this all was. It looked like one big sleepover- well it was. They all give you verbal and non-verbal confirmations, along with small thank you’s. You stifle a yawn to smile softly at them all, “Goodnight.” You bid to them as you begin climbing up the stairs.

You’re surprised how tired you are- in a sense that, you feel like you should be way more tired. You quite literally just took on the role of a mother, preparing beds, cooking, cleaning. You usually took a nap on Sunday’s, but obviously today you didn’t. Yet, you still felt as tired as normal. Strange.

Either way, you know that a few minutes after your head hits the pillow, you’ll drift asleep, so there’s not much complaining.

You showered after dinner, after everyone else had showered before you. You were a little disappointed with the little amount of hot water left but you made do. These guys probably haven’t had a nice, hot shower in months, it was what they needed more than you. Besides, lukewarm water still got the job done.

So, all you needed to do to go to bed was to brush your teeth and moisturise. You were almost running out of toothpaste after everyone had borrowed some. You made a mental note to go on a shopping spree tomorrow and stock up on everything. You’d probably have to go into town, town. Like not to the market with all the homemade stuff- but the big supermarket they had recently built. That way you wouldn’t look so suspicious buying your seemingly end of world supplies.

As you finish with the bathroom, you turn off the light- in the process, colliding with a hard chest and almost- almost having a genuine heart attack.

“Jesus, Steve-“ You don’t know how you knew it was Steve before you even looked up at the chest you had made contact with. But you guessed having slept on the very chest every night for two years might’ve helped.

He holds both of your arms so you don’t stumble backwards, and you’re extremely close to him as he practically holds you against his chest. Your hand that flew over your heart slowly feeling your heart rate go back down.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He apologises and loosens his grip on your arms when you not-so-subtly eye his hands. But you internally frown at the lack of contact.

Swallowing thickly, you wave a hand, “It’s- It’s fine.” You quickly assure him, “Are you okay? What do you need?”

He sighs, hoping you would’ve known exactly why he was standing right in front of you, “I just wanted to talk.”

You lead him into your room after rationalising that standing in the hallway, so close to the stairs where the others could hear probably wouldn’t have been the best idea. Also, your legs were very tired and you couldn’t bare the thought of standing for another second.

As you enter your room and switch on the light, Steve takes a moment to take it all in.

He had only told Wanda this, not wanting to give Sam the satisfaction of being right after being teased the whole day that your house was like a time machine for him. It looked like something straight out of the 40’s. The TV, the piano, the goddamn milk bottles.

Stepping into your bedroom, it made Steve feel like… Made him feel like it was the 40’s… and he finally did get the luck of finding a girl who loved him enough to let him into her house after meeting her parents.

And maybe that’s why you chose it. Maybe you thought it would bring Steve back to you- or someone like Steve.

He quickly shakes those thoughts off as the sound of you pulling the curtains shut rip through the room.

“Thanks for letting us stay. Really, I- I don’t know what we would do without you.” He starts off, totally off topic from what he wants to talk about but he figures he’s the last person of the group to have thanked you… and it’s an icebreaker.

You avoid eye contact, laughing softly as you undo your neat bed, “I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for the beard, I don’t know if I would’ve believed you guys.” You joke and Steve feels a tense weight lifted off his shoulders at your playfulness. Okay, you’re joking around- maybe this won’t be as awkward as he imagined.

He smiles and brings his hand up to his jaw, stroking his beard, “You don’t like it?”

You squint your eyes at him, tilting your head, “It’s very…” You choose you word carefully, “Nomadic.” Steve doesn’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment… but it is the truth, “It’s neat, I’ll give you that. I can buy some razors tomorrow when I go shopping if you like?”

“I don’t know, I think I might keep it.” He says, still rubbing his beard. He liked the beard. He felt like a different person with it. It was very fitting, he was no longer the clean-shaven, star spangled icon. He was the fugitive, on the run from the law. You just nod, opting to sit at the edge of your bed, in front of Steve now, “Thank you, though.” He says again, “Really, Y/N, I can’t thank you enough for all you’re doing for us.”

You just shrug. No matter how many times you had been thanked today, you still had no clue what the proper response was, “The company is nice.” You nod. There’s a silence then and you hate it and opt to fill it immediately, “Is this all you wanted to talk to me about?”

You hoped that didn’t come off so rude. You were just genuinely curious. And if that really was all he wanted to talk about, you would be fine with it! It’s nice to talk. But you know there’s much more that you need to be talking about with Steve-

“Why did you leave?” He asks, arms now crossed over his chest as he leans against your chest of drawers across from you.

You furrow your brows, looking at him incredulously as you replay the question in your head, but come up short with what exactly he’s talking about, “What?” You ask, the tone and the ambience between you two having totally shifted now, “Why did I leave?” You ask again, and Steve remains in nodding, like nothing he had said was factually incorrect. You take a moment to fully comprehend what he’s asking, or if he’s pulling your leg. Anger bottles up inside you and you know it’s not long before it overflows, “You… forced me to leave. You left me-”

“But you still left Manhattan… after Ultron.” He cuts you off. God, you hated when he did that.

“Because I would’ve died if I stayed, waiting for you.” You raise your voice a little now and Steve dips his head down, though he’s a little confused as to how you would’ve died? “But even if I stayed in Manhattan, I wouldn’t have been waiting for you, because you were done with me before we even went to Iowa.” The subconscious, more kinder part of you that’s getting overpowered by your anger is cursing you for being so… hurtful. You can see in Steve’s face that you’re hurting him… but that anger inside you is glad. Hurt him like he hurt you! “Because when she made you see things and tried to hurt you in the worst way possible, it had nothing to do with me.” You know he knows who you’re talking about. Wanda. Scarlet witch. If this was any other circumstance you would’ve referred to her as a much more horrible name. Steve grimaces at the memory of it all. Fighting Wanda, what she made him see… “You saw Peggy and forgot all about me.” Steve lifts his head at the quiver of your voice and his heart shatters at the glossiness of your eyes.

This wasn’t how this talk was supposed to go. Wanda told him the things to say and he went off track.

“Y/N-“

“No, you shut me out. You wouldn’t even look at me… Like it was my fault that she-“ You cut yourself off before you can say something you can’t come back from- if possible. A tear escapes you and you’re quick to wipe it away. No- he can’t see your weakness, “And when we flew back home, when we got to Iowa, you stopped me from getting off that jet.” You point at him, “You sent me back to New York and I left to stay alive, because I-“ You cut yourself off yet again, realising you had slipped up.

You blink at Steve, mouth opening and closing as you watch him relay your words, “Because what?” He asks, standing away from the dresser now to get closer to you.

“Nothing.” You whisper, eyes trained to the ground so he wouldn’t catch your bluff, “Because I was an avenger, public enemy-“

“No, you said you could’ve died.”

“Yeah, a lot of people wanted us to pay, Steve-“

“They wouldn’t have killed you.” He rolls his eyes, getting a little annoyed now at whatever it is you’re hiding from him, “You’re hiding something from me.”

“I’m not.”

“You are!” Steve raises his own voice now, “You are. Or else you’re admitting to leaving solely because you wanted to and no one was forcing you.” You look up at him, staring daggers. He knew how to get under your skin and get you to talk, you’ll give him that.

You stand from your spot on the bed, pointing mercilessly up at him, “When you sent me back, you put a fucking bounty on my head!” You heave, “HYDRA showed up at my shitty apartment and tortured me into where you were and where the scepter was.” You finally reveal and you hate how much of a weight it is lifted off your shoulders to finally tell someone. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell them anything. I’m not as vengeful as some people.”

Steve let’s the insult fly over his head, more concerned over the fact that… if you didn’t tell them… what did they do to you?

Since the day it happened, you had kept your mouth shut and moved as far away as you could. You didn’t even talk to police. You didn’t even go to the hospital. You painfully stitched up the stab wound yourself and turned the burned skin of an H on your back into a window. Of course, that required you to burn yourself even more, but with a rag in your mouth and loud music to cover the screams, it was over with much faster than you’d thought.

You still have nightmares about it. Dreams and sometimes even visions of Rumlow. In the first few weeks that you’d bought the house, you were weary of the milkman. You thought it was some sort of trick, that one day Brock would show up in the outfit and kill you.

But the day never came. And you quickly realised they probably didn’t care about you that much anymore. You weren’t worth the hassle of killing and Captain America clearly didn’t care for you as much as they thought- so killing you wouldn’t matter to anyone except for yourself… and what were you to them?

“What did they do-“

“It doesn’t matter.” You shake your head, attempting to wipe the flow of tears that stream down your face.

Steve doesn’t know what else to say. He feels like… like a failure. He failed to protect you- not only as your boyfriend, but as your Captain. When he stopped you from getting off the jet, he ignored Tony’s advice to stick together. He put you in danger simply because he was too emotional to make a rational decision.

You could’ve died because of him.

And here he is, in your house. You grant him safety, food, water, hot water, a bed and a roof over his head after everything he’s done to you? And now he’s in your room, after you’ve quite literally slashed away for them all, and he’s making you remember all the horrible things that he caused in your life.

You swallow and then inhale quickly, before taking a seat on your side of the bed, refusing to even look in his direction- let alone at him, “I think… you should go back downstairs.”

Steve doesn’t immediately move. He knows he should fix it, he knows he should stay and admit his wrongs and do everything in his power to make things right again. But he also knows you clearly need space.

Though his heart tells him to stay and comfort you, his body knows it’s best to just do what you say and leave you alone.

He leaves your room, shutting the door behind him and sighing heavily.

He needs a moment to collect himself, replaying everything you had said and piecing together the pieces.

However, when his heightened senses pick up the faint sound of you sobbing behind the door, he can’t bare to listen to what he’s so evidently caused and walks away.

As he reaches the staircase, in the darkness he spots all three of his friends huddled on the last step, offering him timid smiles. Wanda in particular looks a little more empathetic.

Steve mostly ignores them as he walks down the stairs and tells them goodnight as he hurries off into his seperate sleeping area in the study room on the pullout couch.

He really hated himself right about now.

˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*･ﾟ☆

series masterlist here, next chapter

EOWWWWWW i am so excited for this.

idk if u can tell i’m like such a sucker for steve angst

i hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this series!!! 🫶

#steve rogers x you #steve rogers #captain america #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers angst #steve rogers smut #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers series #steve rogers imagine

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hannahssimblr · 4 months

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“Ticks?” My mother shrieks, “Ticks? Are you joking me? And what are you doing sitting on the sofa? Get up. Up!”

I spring up with my hands out in surrender as she pushes past me to swipe at the seat cushions with frantic hands, then she shouts at me again; “Go stand over there, away from the furniture.”

“What’s going on now?” Dad comes out of the bathroom after his morning shower and adopts a disapproving stance despite not actually knowing what is going on yet.

“Jude found a tick on his arm.”

“Are you kidding me? Jude, you have ticks now?”

“I don’t ‘have ticks now’, dad, I have a tick, one tick. What, do you think this is a new personality trait of mine or something? Do you think I want to have a fucking ticks on me?”

“Watch your mouth!” Mom snaps.

Dad spears his fingers into his hair in a display of utter despair, “How did you get ticks?”

“One tick,” I reiterate, “and I assume it was from the woods, I don’t know.”

“See this is why I didn’t want you to go camping. This is the kind of thing that happens, and now with a busy morning we have to try and work through this as a family.”

I groan, “Can you stop that please? Why is your language so overdramatic, huh? It’s a bug. I’ll just pick it out.”

Mom stabs a finger in my direction, “Not in here you won’t! Go outside to get that thing off you.”

“Obviously.”

“And you’ll have to go to the doctor too, just in case you have Lyme disease or God knows what.”

Ivy’s bedroom door opens and she emerges rubbing her eyes, “Is Jude sick?”

“No, Ivy, I’m fine.”

“But… Didn’t mom say that you have a disease?”

“No, I just have to go to the doctor for something. Something small. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh,” Her hair is sticking up all over the place, and her pyjama leg has migrated up to her knee, “Shall I come?”

Mom physically restrains her from coming any closer. “Jude will go on his own, we need to get you ready for the kids club.”

Her eyes are big blue pools of concern, “Are you sure? I think I should come.” Ivy hates the doctor, she finds it terrifying and seems to assume that I do too, and it’s sweet that she’s offered but I really don’t think that I need the accompaniment of a seven year old child to the local GP.

“No, it’s okay, you’ll have more fun at the kids club.”

“What is it that’s wrong?” She wonders, and as we try to explain to her about the bug, and how the bug might be diseased, and if so that means I’ll need to get special medicine for it, Jen slips out of her bedroom like a shadow, sprints upstairs and out the front door.

“Excuse me,” I say to my family. I follow her.

I hurry out the door and to the deck, then up the wooden steps to the road where I find her lighting a cigarette on the wall. “Oi,” I say, “What you running away from?”

She smirks, “You know, you and your family fight almost as much as Michelle and her mother. Another reason I think you two would get along.”

“Ah, so you’re a coward, hiding from conflict.”

“Have you followed me out here to bring more to me, hm? Not done being mad at me over abandoning you at the campsite?”

“I can't stay mad at you, Jenny, it’s inconvenient.”

She snickers and shoves me, but then quickly recoils and stares at her hand, “I shouldn’t have done that, should I? I might have ticks now.”

“Ah, so you heard that bit.”

“Colette was literally screaming ‘TICKS!’. It’s what woke me up actually.” She looks me up and down and gives me a tiny shrug, “Congratulations.”

“You sure you don’t have them too, hm?”

“Oh, how would I have ticks? That’s just not in my personality. That’s not the kind of thing I’d get involved with.”

“Is that so? Well, have you checked?”

“Don’t need to.”

“We were in the same woods…”

“Yeah but you were the one rolling around on the ground with Clóda, I think your chances are a pinch higher.”

The memory of the grains of sand floats to the surface of my mind and a horrified shudder rips through me, “Well if you don’t check then you’ll be sorry… like, if my mom finds out there’s a tick infestation in the guest room then she’s not gonna be pleased…”

“Oh, Christ sake. Look,” She holds out her arms, then her legs to me. She searches between her fingers, behind her knees, and even pokes around in her armpits. “See? Nothing. Where else could they be hiding?”

“Apparently they love to get cosy behind your ears. Did you know that?”

She scoffs and runs a finger behind her ear, and I watch as her face falls and horror takes over . We stare at each other for a long moment.

“What?” I say, “Did you find one?” And then I burst out laughing, “No way, no fucking way!”

“Shut up!” She says with rising panic and throws her cigarette into a drain, “Just shut up! Take me to the doctor with you.”

Beginning // Prev // Next

#lucky boy #TICKS #yikes #tw: smoking

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cinnajun · 2 years

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ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗: if we were in a drama | pjs

summary | as always, you and your friend, jisung, plan a sleepover to begin a new drama together. and, as always, you have to pause halfway through the second episode so you can go through your new-drama-ritual.

genre | park jisung x reader, friends-but-not-friends in the romantic way, fluff

wc | 1.1k

a/n: rn i’m really into the whole you’re more than friends but not dating trope…also does anyone else do this when they watch dramas

GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY, you were sure Jisung would kill you right now. He would rip your phone out of your hands, throw it against the wall, and push you off his seventh-story balcony.

“Googling it spoils it for me too, you know!” he exclaimed, reaching for your phone as best he could. You jerked your hand back, rolling over onto your stomach and half-dangling off the bed. With a sigh, he gave up on his conquest, but that didn’t cease his complaining. “I mean, come on, who googles the first-kiss episode every single time they watch a drama?”

“Me, I do,” you said, frantically typing ‘when do they kiss’ into the search bar, followed by the name of the drama. Instantly, several YouTube videos and articles popped up, each with ‘kiss scene’ in the title. “Aha! Episode—”

“Shut up!” Jisung exclaimed, wrapping his arms around your waist. With a tug, you were sitting up on the bed again, pressed up against his chest. You mumbled a string of incoherencies, wrenching yourself from his grasp and turning to face him.

“I don’t see your issue. I mean, it’s not like the kiss episode spoils the plot or anything, so why lose your mind? It’s setting a precedent, a goal to achieve before we stop watching and go to bed,” you argued, frowning. He gave you an unimpressed look, rolling his eyes. You scoffed, crossing your arms. “Plus, the timing of the kiss scene is important. I mean, nobody wants to see one two episodes in, but nobody wants to wait for ten episodes. Right?”

“Right, okay, but wouldn’t you rather be surprised?”

“No, because I’ll be disappointed when the perfect-kiss-threshold passes and no kissing has happened yet. I need to know if this’ll be worth my time.”

“Oh yeah? When’s the perfect-kiss-threshold?”

“End of episode six to episode eight, obviously. Any earlier and things are no fun, and any later and things are boring,” you replied, talking as if this was some sort of scholarly information and that everybody should know your opinions on the pacing of dramas.

Jisung stared at you for a moment, a small smile forming on his face. His cheeks began to tinge a red color, and his ears were bright red, but that didn’t stop him from reaching for his goal.

“So, if we were in a drama, when would our kiss scene be?”

Ignoring the implications of the question, mostly for the sake of avoiding melting into a puddle of lovey-dovey-ness, you took it more seriously and genuinely contemplated it.

“Well, assuming you’d ever measure up to be the main male lead,” you mused, tapping your chin a couple of times. “I think we’d pass the threshold. God, we probably wouldn’t kiss until, like, eleven or twelve. We’d have a terribly boring drama.”

Jisung seemed appalled at your answer, maybe even a bit offended. “Seriously? What gives you that impression?”

Before you could stop yourself, you answered, “I mean, look at our relationship now.”

“What about it?”

“Are you kidding me? We’ve done just about every couple thing other than kiss. We go grocery shopping together, we hold hands whenever we walk anywhere together, we watch dramas and cuddle up together for hours at a time. We’d be the drama couple that goes fast but doesn’t want to admit it. The type to act like a married couple before we even called each other boyfriend and girlfriend.”

God, you wished you could keep your mouth shut. The moment you finished your tangent, you could feel your cheeks burning up, and you could see Jisung blushing even worse than before. He reached up and scratched his neck as if he was unsure how to respond to your slightly-too-real analysis of your relationship.

He shuffled around on the bed, returning to his position under the covers with his back against pillows propped up by the headboard. You stared at him for a second, loathing the silence between you before you did the same, feeling a sudden awkwardness with being near him.

“I mean, did you want to be boyfriend and girlfriend? Because, like, I’m not opposed, but…”

“I dunno, it’s kinda fun just being us, labelless and happy. Right? A couple of friends, pretending like they do normal friend things on a daily basis.”

Jisung slung an arm over your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. You leaned your head on his shoulder, cuddling up against his side and feeling comfortable in his warmth. “I mean, a kiss carries a lot of meaning. A lot of commitment.”

“No, you’re right. We’d have to be, like, really sure if we were gonna go that far,” Jisung agreed, flinching slightly when you wrapped your hands around his waist. There was something nice about not being in a relationship but still being romantically involved with one another. Especially since you were tied up in the same friend group and would be teased to high heaven if things became official.

It made you happy, being with him and living in the moment. Never rushing, never going too fast, just being wrapped up in your togetherness.

“I think we’d make a bad drama,” you finally said, focusing on the soft-yet-nervous pattern of Jisung’s breathing. “It’d be too indecisive and slow.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” he agreed, picking up the remote that he’d put down on his bedside table. “So, what episode do they kiss?”

“Seven. Right in the middle of the threshold,” you said, a deep sense of satisfaction pooling in your stomach. You could’ve giggled out of happiness for your current situation if you were brave enough. “I think we could make it by three in the morning if we played our cards right. It’s, what, 10? Yeah, three in the morning.”

“Is that factoring in differing episode lengths?”

“No, just rough estimates.”

“Well, let’s promise that we’ll go to sleep at three,” he suggested, leaning his head atop your own. “And we’ll forget about this ever happening. Deal?”

“Absolute deal.”

Jisung pressed play on the episode, but you weren’t lost on him turning his head ever-so-slightly, planting a small kiss on your forehead to signify just a little bit of commitment. To plant a little hope that, one day, you’ll reach your episode twelve and take the full leap. But, for now, you’d watch your drama and be happy as “friends.”

thank you for reading!

#cinna.nct #nct dream x reader #nct x reader #nct dream fluff #nct dream scenario #nct dream imagine #park jisung x reader #jisung x reader #jisung x you #jisung fluff #jisung scenarios #jisung imagines #nct scenarios #nct imagines #req

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pinchinschlimbah · 7 months

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My current thoughts on the whole RB situation as it pertains to Noel based on the information we have right now (obviously subject to change as things progress):

[general TW for mentions of SA and abuse]

Ok so first of all I absolutely believe the allegations against Russell, he’s utter trash and should be locked up and left to rot. End of story.

However, I’m very nervous with the amount of people I’m seeing immediately jumping to assuming, with no other evidence than because the two of them were friendly during that period, that Noel was complicit in what was taking place or worse a predator himself.

I understand where these concerns initially stem from, with the allegations discussing Russell’s behavior on the sets of tv shows and gigs and at parties with friends, and knowing that Noel was likely present to some extent given what we publicly know about their interactions, but I think it’s important to remember that we don’t actually know how much time the two of them were spending together off screen, how much Noel actually knew about what was going on, and how much of a position he was in at the time to do anything about it if so.

Guilty by association is a very slippery slope and very often does more harm than good.

A little personal story for y’all- once upon a time, I was friendly with members of a specific social group within a close knit community. The person who was at the center of this group was then accused of rape and emotional abuse by their ex (who was part of a different subcircle within the same community), and the community exploded. Immediately, anyone who was still associating with the accused at the time these third-party spectators heard the news was branded a rape/abuse apologist, unfriended, blocked, and shunned from the community, which in many cases happened before the people in question knew what was going on- since the accused didn’t interpret what happened with their ex to be rape, they hadn’t told anyone about what had happened so their close friends were finding out this information at the same time or later than the people trying to remove them from the community, and the circle spreading the allegations wasn’t talking to anyone associated with the accused but instead transmitting the news via DMs or friends-only vagueposts. What this didn’t take into account was that these people who were given no warning or support for navigating the fact that the person they were associating with was dangerous and instead demonized and shunned for being close with them before knowing the reasons why, were the people who were most at risk for further manipulation and abuse from this person. It’s been years since the initial news came out but most of the people associated with the accused, who have since realized how toxic their relationship was with that person and distanced from them, have still found it difficult to reconnect with others in the community because the vague branding of “apologist” still follows them despite them ultimately being additional victims of the accused’s manipulation and abusive behavior. The only thing this kind of extended assumptive accusatory action did is make the third-party spectators feel better about themselves and the work they’ve done to “keep the community safe” by pushing out anyone they deemed guilty by association, when in reality they led to more harm being done to people who were already in a vulnerable position with the accused and were now cut off from all other surrounding support. Since then I’ve been much more cautious about assuming who knows what’s going on and how they feel about it before pointing fingers.

That’s not to say with any confidence that Noel is a victim of Russell’s (although have you taken a good look at most of the photos of them together? I’m not here to weave new conspiracy theories so I won’t speculate further but in a lot of their images the vibes of their body language are objectively rancid as hell and show a clear physical assertion of power from Russell, examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) BUT I do think it’s incredibly dangerous to assume that just because they were in each others’ lives means that Noel is also complicit or guilty in all of this.

Also important to note that something that kept coming up over and over in the allegations was people, both victims and witnesses, expressing that they were terrified to speak up because they thought either Russell had enough power of his own to ruin their careers, or that association with him if this info was made public would ruin their careers. Assuming Noel did know what was going on (which again, we do NOT know to be the case) and knowing that Noel already had his own reputation for being a slut around town, rumored by the tabloids to be engaging in some questionable behaviors himself (while both he and Pixie have denied those rumors and there’s been no real substantial evidence or firsthand testimony to suggest that it was real, the rumors have remained pervasive and damaging), and during this period was at the height of his substance abuse that may have affected his ability to accurately perceive and confidently recall how events played out as well as his assumed credibility to others, you can maybe start to see why he might not have wanted to be the one to take that info public.

And again, we have no idea what may or may not have happened behind the scenes.

We do know that Noel seems to have distanced himself from Russell in recent years. I think it’s safe to assume that whether it’s this or the conspiracy bullshit or whatever else, there’s a good fucking reason they’re no longer close like they were back then.

I saw this interview mentioned recently elsewhere, where the bassist of the Lostprophets discusses how when their lead singer Ian was exposed to be the worst kind of sex offender, people started blaming the rest of the band for it when they had absolutely no idea it was happening and were learning what was going on and reacting to it in real time the same as everyone else. He talks about how while the rest of the band immediately cut ties with Ian upon hearing the news, they still ended up permanently losing a lot of friendships and supporters because people refused to believe that there wasn’t more the rest of the band could have done even though behind the scenes they were barely friends with Ian, let alone close confidants and were completely in the dark about that side of him. So I think it’s very dangerous to assume with the info we currently have that there’s no way Noel could have not known.

Additionally, I think it’s very important to remember that abusive and manipulative people are masters at being able to mask that side of themself when needed and can be monsters to their victims while being the most charming person in the world to people who they want to keep on their good side, so what may seem obvious in hindsight knowing how bad things actually were, may not have been as apparent in the moment to the people involved. For example, in the documentary Russell’s personal assistant and radio cohost both go on record as saying while they knew him to be highly promiscuous and overly sexual, they assumed that was the whole of it because of how many people they saw willingly clamoring to hook up with him and had no idea things were veering into nonconsensual territory. Russell’s version of the story is that all of the relations in question were consensual, so I highly doubt he’d be casually admitting to the people around him that actually he’d on multiple occasions committed terrible crimes although I do believe the theory that he’s spent the past several years surrounding himself with media-critical conspiracy theorists who would question and fight anything published about him in the mainstream, knowing this shoe would drop eventually.

None of this is to say I unwaveringly believe Noel is fully innocent and can do no wrong, just that we don’t currently have enough information to justifiably condemn him as guilty and I urge everyone to use caution and wait for more conclusive information before pulling out the pitchforks on someone who could very well be entirely uninvolved and just as horrified as we are. So for now, I’m still here.

On the other hand, it may be the case that further details emerge which more directly implicate him in these horrors or god forbid he steps up in support of Russell, in which case I’m outta here no further questions asked. We’ll just have to wait and see.

[edit: more thoughts here]

#shouts into void #long post #sorry this is so long and rambly I had a bunch of separate thoughts bouncing around in my head that I wanted to get out

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iamafanofcartoons · 1 year

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Rabbit Debunks Hbomberguy’s “RWBY is Disappointing Video” and explains why the Critics are wrong about RWBY. Part 1 of 2

Making a thread reacting to the hbomberguy RWBY is Disappointing video.

Mostly as a refresher and also because there’s been a lot of dissension regarding it so why not.

Intro Calls it R (Rue) By lmaoo.

You’re not supposed to pronounce the W So the gist of it, is that he feels like it has great concept that could be interesting, but fails to execute it in any meaningful way???

Like overall it’s bad but there’s few good glimpses-

Of what could be a great show.

I guess for now I guess I can give it the benefit of the doubt and assume good intentions so far.

No words on the History of Monty Oum and RT history.

I mean it pretty much all checks out

Though immediately admitting your bias against the show takes the validity of some of your criticisms away ngl.

So he loves the Red Trailer but brings up the views it gained and then brings up the views of the episodes (Vol 1 ep 1 and 2) as a sort of gotcha like “oh see the trailer is more popular than the episode like look at the 15M to (episode 2) 6.8M ratio!!!”

Like those are two- Wildly different things my guy

But what’s up with that “Red Like Roses Part 1 is the best composed music Jess has ever done” take?????

That’s wild asF fr.

Like no way you listened to the soundtracks of V1-3 and still have that opinion.

Like it’s amazing but????

“Does she get the scar from the fight or from something else, oooo mysterious”.

Is this a bit????

She so obviously gets the scar from the fight so I hope it’s just a bit lmao.

Also the complaint about Adam is so weird?

“He’s so obviously a bad guy that it doesn’t make sense”

“Since there’s already wolves set up as the baddies in the series”

Like, it’s not word for word what he said but that’s the gist of it?

It’s a bad and very nitpicky complaint since there are many series with more than 1 antagonist and antagonistic force.

I don’t know.

Saying “it’s coming from a well meaning place” but then saying it’s extremely bad, followed up by an intro song saying that RWBY is lame and it sucks all while dedicating it to Monty is…. So disgusting??? And very disingenuous???

Using the ending of Vol 2 as a point in your “they don’t know their story” when Ruby is laying down all the things that they have yet to solve (leading into the new volume and this laying down the groundwork for it)

It’s obviously in your face my dude.

Ah damn, a little out of order, but is there instances where Miles or Kerry acknowledges good faith criticism? Panels? Deleted tweets? Anything?

Mainly just curious if it’s true that they haven’t and he just didn’t do the research by saying he “has a hard time finding any”

Another thing. Forgot to mention.

Really wish he prefaced his complaints about the voice acting and writing that he understood that the studio itself was amateurish and small with not a lot of budget to work with. (Unless that’s true) not that there isn’t criticism but that- There are TANGIBLE reasons why it’s the way that it is.

Where Do We Even Start?

Uhhh they never dropped the Dust Theft plot line????

Volume 2 was literally the culmination of the dust theft and the reason is because of Cinder’s plans.

Another thing that’s in your face but just, weirdly you gloss over???

“The intro doesn’t set up the story properly… leaves out the fragile peace between the nations…. Leaves out faunus… leaves out semblances…”

Quite literally, the intro talks about things that weren’t even revealed until Vol 4 to 9. The intro is good and sets up what it NEEDS-

Like sure you can say “oh but it’s only added till later when they got the story that they wanted to tell straight”

Mate, a pro tip for a lot of writers renowned/acclaimed have admitted that some of their works or some of their best writing decisions were made by the seat- Of their pants.

You think Naruto, one of the most iconic and popular anime of all time would have spun into how it is just off the intro of the first episode?

What about Bleach?

ATLA?

One Piece???

There are so many instances where the intro just isn’t all encompassing bc- That just isn’t how story writing goes.

You can have the best most rigid outline in the whole world, but at times you’re gonna go off script because there’s something you want to expand upon more or explore.

Ends off this segment by saying that RWBY’s story is interesting and it has neat ideas (backahandedly by adding “to write a wiki about”) but the storytelling only gets worse.

Which, I sort of disagree with???

It’s not stellar by any means, but I chalk that up with them- Not having the sort of resources available.

However from what they managed TO put together it was coherent enough to convey what they were meaning to portray.

Though I do have my gripes with certain aspects of the first two volumes.

But from V3 on? It’s only gotten- Stronger.

Yes I harp on V5 a LOT and it’s still one of the weaker volumes, but the conversations and character dynamics where stronger than they’ve been.

It was mainly the animation in the last few episodes of the giant fight that I just, wasn’t vibing with at all.

Worldbuilding and Conveyance

So next he talks about how aura was explained.

Bringing up both Harry Potter and ATLA and how they tell it as an example.

Following it up by making a rwby edit to make it seem as if it was mundane and boring.

Which isnt the case at all.

If you- Actually take the time to watch the scene.

It's about 1:20 long and while the explanation of what Aura does is being told to the viewer, it shows Ren taking down the King Taijitu with his aura.

It's another valid form of story telling because it's not just two characters talking on screen.

it's also giving us an insight of how it would be put into action.

"No one just happens to have full on speeches prepared in case anyone is to ask"

Uhhh, have you met Weiss?

Even the examples you gave literally is Hermione and Katara.

"Why does Jaune not know about this?

When he came from a long line of hero's and monster Hunters."

Idk, how does Naruto not know about Chakra despite 8 years as a academy student.

He probably just skipped out on it or didn't take it seriously enough.

He never went to- A prep school like Signal either.

His transcripts were faked, so you could easily say he went to Beacon with nothing more than a Dime, A old Rickety sword and a dream lol.

Also Pyrrha is super smart and also a really great battle tactician.

Of course she would be able to- recite what Aura does word for word.

It's not mischaracterization.

You just want to twist that narrative against her.

And not just that, I feel a strong mischaracterization of Jaune.

If Jaune is played off as an idiot for jokes, that's cool. But if he's shown to just not- Understand or doesn't know about the world at large, then that could hint at the fact that Jaune is more than just an idiot.

He's probably born in the sticks/boonies.

A country bumpkin if you will where Hunters aren't all that well known nor pop culture.

It doesn't dumb down the other characters.

Because Weiss is frustrated herself that someone so famous isn't recognizable by anyone and everyone in the world.

Same thing with her and the SDC

For Christ sakes, he only knew Pyrrha from a cereal box be fr

Well he brings up the Jaundice thing and yeah that's fair, a lot of people have gripes with that (i'm not one of them) and brings up how Pyrrha is only really a character for Jaune's development as a fighter and romance option but not much else on her own.

Which... Yeah I kinda- get that too.

Like, I liked Pyrrha too, but I do wish she had more to do in V1 and 2.

But in V3 is where she shines.

Hell there were so many people who did cry and got shocked by the end of Vol 3 even with the amount of screentime she gets.

"Praise RWBY for being feminist and progessive cause most of the mcs are women... But Jaune has 4 episodes dedicated to him, and has the coolest girl in school flirting and helping him become a stronger warrior."

Jaune isn't the main character.

How I've always viewed RWBY and JNPR has always been: RWBY as the protagonist and JNPR as the deuteragonist.

They hold about the same amount of importance because of how close their teams are.

So of course you're going to want to give the deuteragonist development and screentime to.

And yes Jaune had Jaundice.

RWBY still has an ABSURD amount of episodes dedicated to them as well so the balance/ration will always be in RWBY's favor regardless of how you feel about Jaune as a character and Jaune's importance to the story.

Same goes for the rest of NPR

"The writer's dont know what Yang's semblance is.

It goes from her being angry, to it being her taking hits and she transfers that energy back to them by hitting them again, and then temper tantrums, and then re-xeplain it as a redirection of energy stored from hits."-

Uhh, no.

Her semblance has always been about redirection of stored energy from attacks and aiming them back at the opponent.

Every single time we see her use it, it's always after she's taken several hits.

It's probably still possible to use it without taking hits, but its more than- likely less powerful.

He goes on to talk about how semblances are abstract and only gets mentioned 14 episodes later.

Which sure ok, but the gist of them and how they work are still easily within the story.

Could they have expanded upon it more earlier on? Yeah they could.

But to sit there and say, "When Pyrrha used her abilities and Ruby and Weiss look at her like she was weird and surprised and confused she has powers too"

no no no no no, that is grossly misreading the scene.

Pyrrha has kept her semblance a secret from anyone and everyone.

No one knows what it is or if she even had one.

They were just confused by what she did, why her hand glowed black, and why her hand was out.

It had nothing to do with them being confused about why someone else had a semblance, but more so they never knew what Pyrrha's was.

and also, the reading of Semblance = magic is both meh and eh.

Like if you looked at any and every single semblance that exists in RWBY, every single one of them have to do with concepts that has nothing to do with earth, wind, fire, and water.

Whereas Magic in the series- has Maidens throwing storms, lightning bolts, fire, ice, etc. at any enemy they choose.

That's the major difference between magic and semblance.

Magic is divine, naturalistic. Semblances are more man made if that makes sense.

Man he really does not like how semblances are portrayed/exposited.

Like it's been just as long as he harped on for Pyrrha expositing the aura scene.

like the exaggeration that he's going to, to explain this is kinda crazy

It's not a semi complicated concept at all, like he said it was.

It's very easy to follow and very easy to understand. he brings up Emerald and Cinder knowing about it, but doesn't bring up the fact that Pyrrha had to have put it in her application for Beacon or her personal- record that only Beacon has track of.

A record that they broke into with the helps of Watts, but not just that.

But Mercury also figured it out because he's an intelligent fighter just like Pyrrha is.

You can just say that Pyrrha's opponents were all just dumb for not figuring it out.

But no, it's just bad writing I guess.

Brings up WoR as an example of not being able to tell the story completely and labels it as homework.

It's not necessarily out of the norm though.

There are lots of character guides, extra material that expands on characters, worlds-

nd ideas that you can't really put the time in the show to do.

Like let's look at the first 3 volumes and how most episodes where 12-15 minutes long.

And even then they were still trying to get the hang of writing for something so massive as RWBY.

Having extra material so readers can get a better understanding of the world around them isn't bad. because even then, most everyone knows who Faunus are.

How Aura works, what a semblance is. all of these on a surface level.

If you want to dig deep, thats what WoR is for.

Unless you just wanna insult the show and embrace ignorance?

Some Positive Examples

Such a nothing complaint really.

Just Miles and Kerry's writing vs Monty's character acting (in terms of how he conveys the four in a team fight (example being Team RWBY vs Mecha Roman)).

I mean, I dont know what to really say here.

"The writers are so busy writing drama and wacky skits to explain why they're friends while Monty is putting in the REAL work with the fight scenes and showing how close they are and how far ruby has come at becoming a leader."

Yeah... Cause that's what writers and animators do

Briefly touches on Ships and how Monty, Kerry, and Miles referenced them in the fight. (also decided to call it creepy since Ruby is 15 and the other girls are 17...

Which isn't that bad??

Like Sophomore and Senior in High School really).

Wasn't Ichigo Kurosaki 15 and Naruto not even 13?

Also says they didn't make a name- for Ruby and Yang because of the certain fans that ship those two together so they avoided that one altogether

.... Which yeah??? Did you want them too lol??

I can't seem to see his point of bringing this up because on one hand it feels like he's admonishing them for it, but on the other hand he seems... like he's a little upset that they dont have a team attack name?

Maybe just at the inconsistency of it. Which i can understand.

I would have maybe came up with one that isn't fandom made so they can have a cool SISTERS team attack, like Rose Dragon!

Ends off this segment talking about more Miles and Kerry vs Monty (with Shawn being added in).

Another example of writing vs character expositing through animation by using the Pyrrha vs Mercury fight as well as the exposition between Emerald, Cinder, and Mercury.

Lots of talk about animation being weird and how he's seen worse animation but the stories were good enough to overlook it.

I'd be a broken record by stating this again and again.

But just look at what they had to work with. Look at how divided the writing and the animation- really were with Monty coming up with new characters that the team had to shove in last minute.

Look at Poser even and how the engine was something really only Monty and Shane (oops I made a mistake in that other post) could work to the level that they did.

Look at RT and even CRWBY at the time.

And now look where they are now.

You can't tell me that they've gone downhill when most of your gripes that you've complained about are/have been fixed in the later seasons.

Gonna end it here and make it a 2 parter. This thread is-

Long enough and I'm tired extremely lol.

I'll do a QRT tomorrow and start it back up.

If anyone has more to add or correct me on, feel free to QRT anything you feel i didnt do a good job of explaining or just missed in general.

Any help is appreciated.

https://twitter.com/PhonyMangaka/status/1653898140678856704

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby is enjoyable #rwby is a good show #rwby is good #just give rwby a chance #all we're saying is give rwby a chance #give rwby a chance #phonymangaka

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