#Ollie literally goes out of his way to show that he’s for the people over the system

[thequiver]

That's nice but Ollie surrendering to the justice system isn't really serving the people. It's conforming to the justice system. Ollie doesn't work for the people as a hero he's a vigilante. He's part of a system and while he criticizes that system he still takes part in it. Ollie is a victim of "all super heroes are cops" and "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism." Which is more the point people try to make.

Imagine coming on here and showing your whole ass about not having read Green Arrow comics like this- couldn’t be me but you do you my dude.

#‘Ollie stands trial for accidentally killing a kid’ - ah but you see he participates in the Justice system so he’s a cop I’m so smart #do you people HEAR YOURSELVES? lmao #ah yes Oliver Queen who is explicitly on page someone who only supports just laws and refuses to punish those who aren’t harming anyone #yes obviously a cop #Ollie literally goes out of his way to show that he’s for the people over the system #that’s like the key ethos of Green Arrow comics you absolute walnut

[bep1erfics]

boysplanet trainees - lalala&okokok trend pt. 1

context 💌

‘lalala’ is the more outgoing, bubbly person while ‘okokok’ is the more laid back and chill one. for example you could even describe them as the talker & the listener!

　　　♪───Ｏ（≧∇≦）Ｏ────♪

over me team ❗️

ricky: okokok 💿

- he’s more quiet & self reserved. LOVES SNACKING ISTG ANYWHERE HE GOES HE CARRIES 193837 snacks in his pockets tysm gyuvin

- when people talk, he listens with open ears

- he’s SO shy skdjdjdb, everytime he makes eye contact he looks the other way AND SHIFTS HIS EYES TOWARDS THE FLOOR 😭 protect this boy at all costs

jeonghyeon: lalala 🎀

- literally is ricky’s other half, GENIUS LEE OOPS omg i love leejeong hes so quirky

- the biggest extrovert ever, cries easily

- radiates the biggest babygirl energy, bffs with all the trainees on boys planet which i think is so cute 😭 i would literally die for jeonghyeon

zhanghao: okokok 💿

- this man is literally the smartest guy ever. he might be cute, but in reality he’s literally so self aware. probs has an iq of 394738

- gives off father vibes. YUJIN & OLLIE are literally his children, if you’re younger than him he’s automatically your dad

- he listens to everyone’s opinions and is the calmest person on the show after ricky 😭

kuanjui: okokok 🎀

- the most extroverted of all extroverts

- CAN LITERALLY BLEND IN WITH ANY FRIENDGROUP, lights everything up with his bubbly and courageous personality

- zhanghao’s bff, they’re like the cutest duo (don’t be mad haobin stan’s i think haobin is cute as well)

jay: okokok 💿

- man’s is an introvert as well

- chill but is SO EASY TO PISS OFF like when ricky missed his highfive on purpose? HE WAS PISSED LMAO

- i feel like he’s a good friend to others though, like he would def comfort you if needed

switch team 🍭

kamden: lalala + okokok 🍰

- HE’S THE AWKWARDEST GUY ON EARTH. you talk to him? he doesn’t listen, he literally spaces out like pou

- you would think he’s introverted but he’s an esfp?! kamden is an EXTROVERT?

- socially awkward and an extrovert… the more you know

keita: lalala 🎀

- CUTEST GUY, he literally also blends in with any friendgroup easily

- you could bicker with him and bc he’s so loud, you would automatically lose in a span of 2 mins. this guy would beat you up with his chatter

- HES CUTE POSITIVE LOUD i love keita

taerae: okokok 💿

- HES APART OF THE GYARUZ but is like the shyest of all shy people….. AFTER HIS TAEEEERRIAAAA HE LITERALLY SHOVED HIS FACE ON HIS BED I CANT DO THIS

- not with those two toned pants. it screams INTROVERTED

- he’s a grandpa. THE GUITAR???????? THE CLOTHES???????????????? he’s so grandpa coded

phanbin: lalala 🎀

- istg he’s such an outgoing person, so funny and talented I LOVE YOU PHANBIN

- YOU PUT HIM WITH JUNHYEON????? a mistake. YOU PUT HIM WITH WOONGGI????? a fight will break out. YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE? he dances like a literal legend

- gaslight gatekeep girl boss vote for phanbin

jongwoo: no comment i’m so sorry i’m not gonna do him… he needs to leave g group alone. the xenophobia IS NOT IT. 😒 sorry

shuaibo: NEITHER????? LALALA??!?!?

- you can tell he’s a really self reserved person, BUT THIS MIGHT BE BC OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER IDK BUT HE LOVES HIS CAT AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS. 🐈

- ITS SO HARD BC mnet didn’t give him enough screentime but he’s a lovely person 😭 evil edits did him DIRTYYYYY, he’s so cute and bubbly but fr he wanted to go home ASAP during episode 11 he was literally sleeping 😅

- #zhangshuaibowewillmissyou

supercharger team 🐥

ollie: lalala 🎀

- cutest person ever (poor guy got e worded)

- loves to tease ricky, always screaming lovelicky (😭)

- he’s a bit introverted, but with the yuehuaz he’s the most cheerful person, chocolate in a human form 🍫

haruto: lalala 🎀

- LOUD, the mood maker of g group, he’s so funny 😭

- honestly has the best humour ever. HIS INSTAGRAM STORIES ARE SO FUNNY ISTG bro even tells us how often he 💩… tmi alert

- haruto is so goofy 😭 but yeah he gets emotional easily, poor guy

woonggi: lalala 🎀

- ANOTHER GOOFBALL. sassiest queen ever like we could be besties

- woonggi, seowon & taerae are literally so sassy i love it

- also can be friends with ANYONE he meets. YOU WALK INTO A ROOM WITH CHA WOONGGI? you walk out of that door twerking, screaming WOONGGI BOYYYY

(ollie was a victim of this.)

seowon: okokok 💿

- seowon is literally the calmer version of woonggi

- looks at everyone so endearingly it makes me sob how he got eliminated

- GYARUZ ON TOP

zihao: okokok 💿

- haruto’s husband, HE WAS THERE FOR HIM WHEN HE WAS FRUSTRATED DURING SUPERCHARGER 😭

- UMMM I HONESTLY DONT KNOW like zihao is all giggles if mnet gave him screentime we could’ve seen his more serious side

- on a side note, zihao seems like the sweetest person ever on boys planet 😭 farewell i’m so mad he got eliminated

takuto: lalala 🎀

- THIS GUY DOES NOT STOP TOYANAGA TAKUTO-ING

- oml he’s so clueless… LIKE YK WHEN HE LIFTED UP HIS SHIRT AND RICKY + SEONGMIN HAD TO HOLD HIM BACK FROM REVEALING HIS nonexistent abs

- he was such a bright person… BUT FR FAREWELL TO SUPERCHARGER TEAM YOU WILL BE MISSED

#boys planet #kpop imagines #boysplanet999 #fanfic #ricky boys planet #keita ciipher #cha woonggi #seowon #lee jeonghyeon #zhang hao #zhanghaoboysplanet #boys planet imagines #toyonaga takuto #shen quanrui #kim gyuvin #zhanghao x reader #boys planet keita #kim taerae

[wormswurld]

hey dude! i love love love your posts! I dont wanna come across as pushy or anything but i loved the ftm oliver headcanons, and i would love to see how felix helps him and such! Not to mention, i know a lot of people love asshole felix, but I physically cannot get over sweet and loving felix oml its amazing!! thank u sm!! 🩷🩷

you're not pushy at all!! i've actually been meaning to write more ftm ollie but ive been so swamped w schoolwork and different asks / projects etc but i got u!! also sweet love-y dovey felix is my fave felix, he is a big sweetie when it comes to his ollie 😇💖 !!!!!!!!!!!

- after felix finds out abt ollie being trans everything goes pretty smoothly! he helps ollie w his t-shots, bandging him up and disposing of the needles in the sharps bin etc,, tho one time ollie forgets to take his t-shot and he gets his period and he feels Awful... absolutely isolating himself from felix and hiding in his room as felix, fairleigh, and venetia enjoy the hot summers sun outside of his window...he just feels too dysphoric to go out of his way to talk to anyone let alone felix (the literal love of his life he came out to yet still feels obligated to keep him uninformed abt the things that happen to him etc...)

- soon enough felix has enough of being shut out by ollie so he goes to confront him but he finds ollie curled in a ball on the bathroom floor :( poor ollie is probably crying as he grips at his stomach his cramps are unbelievably painful and he feels so stupid that he forgot to take his shot,, obviously being worried felix instantly rushes to ollie's side, petting his hair and softly hushing him as he inquires what's wrong..."oh ollie, ollieollieollie what's wrong mate, you okay? you hurt?" and all ollie can do is nod his head as he just clutches his stomach harder curling more and more into himself until he is fully in fetal position..."hey, what is it? what's hurting ollie, can you show me?" and ollie just mutters out the words "period" and felix completely understands,, he's grown up around venetia so hes definitely semi-well versed in this sort of thing

- opening his mouth to then quickly close it felix nods his head in silent agreement "right, right, yeah" he says now rubbing small circles on the small of ollie's back, he's seen his mom do this to venetia all the time whenever she would have her cramps so he figured this could do the trick, at least in this very moment...."okay ollie, im gonna run and get some things from venetia i'll be right back okay? i'll just be a second mate" and felix plants a little kiss atop ollie's head as he quickly sprints out of the bathroom, loud footsteps being heard as he makes his away around the house,, soon after he comes back to the bathroom holding two large boxes of pads & tampons in one arm and 5 different kinds of pain medications in the other. and ollie can do is smile because he's never had anyone care about him like this. "i didn't know which ones you used... o-or if one was better than the other so i just brought the whole cabinet with me" felix chuckles as he sits down, now situating the items he brought with him next to ollie's curled up form

- "i-is this okay? i can always go run back and get-" and felix just gets cut off by ollie throwing his once curled arms around felix's middle holding him as tight as he could as if this might be the last time he'll ever see felix again,, and ollie just starts to cry because his hormones are going crazy but seeing felix so caring and eager to help him makes his heart melt !!!!! hes never experienced love like this before and its so new and foreign to him he doesn't know how to react !!!!! but its as if felix read his mind because he starts to caress ollie's wet cheek, slowly prying him away from his damp shirt so he could hold him in his lap..."ollie, its okay, you're okay with me yeah? this doesn't make me think any less of you alright? you're still my ollie, my boy, and nothing's gonna change that" and felix just brushes ollie's tears away before softly kissing him on the lips.

#wormswurld answers #ask #ask me anything #lgbtqia #saltburn #oliver quick #barry keoghan #saltburn posting #felix catton #cattonquick #felix x oliver #saltburn 2023 #trans oliver quick #ftm!oliver quick #transgender

[cody-paranatural]

I am afraid that Coby is setting himself up to be severely and devastatingly disappointed with his conclusions about his mom.

THAT BOY IS SETTING HIMSELF UP FOR SOOOOOO MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT <3 

I love Cody’s in-universe theory crafting So Much. I love how much he was able to piece together (he’s a clever little guy :] and a schemer. i say that with all the love in my heart btw) and also in the spirit of actual real life theory making how he completely missed the mark on some of his guesses. And it’s understandable!!!! It’s not like he knows his mom is a weird special werewolf that never changes back into a human. Because that’s straight up not how being a werewolf normally works and why would he assume his mom is an exception he doesn’t even know is possible. 

Something going wrong with Cody’s plan was pretty much inevitable the moment we found out about it, and I for one can’t wait to see how things turn out thanks to Cody’s several incorrect assumptions. And I LOVE how extremely confident he sounds about all of it. “The uncertainty was theater; he’d decided he was right.”; “Cody had no doubt in his deductions.”

Cody my boy, some doubt and uncertainty would do you good in the long run I think. It’s not very surprising though, since we see him make the exact same mistake before! Cody is a pretty capable 12 year old and he knows it, and that’s good! It’s good that he knows what his strengths are. The problem is that he gets so sure of himself that he ends up being overconfident and underestimating those around him. Like with hitball for example! 

Cody knows he’s good at this, he’s quite literally supernaturally good at sports. He’s so sure of his abilities that he told Hijeff that he has to go carry the team. And that overconfidence is how Dimitri, Max, RJ and Ollie got him in the end. Because if you look at Dimitri’s plan, how complicated that whole thing is, it becomes clear that Dimitri used Cody’s confidence against him. Like Dimitri was So Sure that Cody would easily dodge all the other throws (and he was right) and that Cody would get so caught up in the fact that he didn’t have much trouble with dodging them, including the one they made to look like their final one, that he would stop paying as much attention to his surroundings (and again. he was right). Which goes to show that this is a quite noticeable quality about Cody (though to be fair, Dimitri is very clever and seems to be quite good at picking up on these things (at least when he’s able to look at things somewhat objectively, Dimitri tends to let his feelings cloud his judgment.)). 

And that’s not even counting his thoughts “I’ll just slip through the cracks” and his little mind monologue from when he was about to get hit with the golden switch. It also ties into something else I really like about Cody, which is how similar he is to his dad and his absolute lack of self-reflection about any of it <3 Cody is obviously nowhere near as bad as Davy, but the similarities are there! And it makes sense since that’s just how kids work, they get influenced by the people around them. Like, Davy’s absolute trust in himself, his extreme confidence, those are things I’ve just discussed about Cody taken to their extremes. And the list goes on! Just look at Cody’s extreme protectiveness over his friends and his tendency to keep them in the dark. Or the fact that both Cody and Davy do the thing where they carefully control conversation in a way that lets them learn as much information as they can (we can see Davy do this on page 1 with Peter Puckett, and Cody mentions doing the same with LB and RB on page 47, Zack even used similar wording to describe what they did). Or their shared love for theatrics. I just find that so interesting and fun to think about! It’s great :] 

Also I am going to change the topic and talk about how EXCITED this update made me about future interactions between Jean and Cody. I had a mighty need to see these two interact ever since I subscribed to the “Shrike is Cody’s mom theory” and seeing that theory confirmed already made that excitement grow tenfold. But now? Now that we know that Shrike was faking her death for like 3-ish years (Zack confirmed on twitter that they were around the same age as in the first chapter 7 flashback, and based on Cody’s age I’m assuming that Jean, Rick and Mina were 13-ish when Shrike faked her death), and was watching him from the shadows. Now that we know that Jean was wrong in chapter 7 when he said “She would have come back for me, she would have!” (I love Paranatural mentor-mentee/parental figure-child relationships I love how adults never fail to let down the kids they’re supposed to be looking after I love how it all either stems from them prioritizing their own problems or pushing everyone away, thinking that keeping them in the dark is the best way to protect them I love how that secrecy just keeps causing problems for everybody. It's so good.), because she left, thinking she was doing the right thing. Like Jean thinks that the only reason she wasn’t with him is because she was stuck as a werewolf ever since whatever accident he was talking about in chapter 7. And we know that’s not true! And talking to Cody would make that Very Clear, since Cody more or less knows the date Shrike actually disappeared for good. Do you all see the vision. It’s gonna be GREAT.

#paranatural #pnat #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK CLUELESS-RARITO #i enjoyed writing all of this so so much! i love talking about cody :] #once again sorry for getting insanely off topic and rambling way too much but once i start talking it's very hard for me to stop

[wannaeatramyeon]

Hi~ I just wanna ask you, how do you think/feel about Eli & Heather's relationship and their 'history'? Like some people said that Heather took advantage of Eli's innocence, some people said that it was Eli's mistake.

Ok anon. I have my thoughts but I reread the arc just to try and articulate them better. Fucking forgot Darius Hong was in this. And no one needs more Darius Hong in their life. Anyway.

Eli Jang/Heather Relationship rambles

In this essay...

Damn. This is rough. Please note I may be the least well informed person to give my thoughts on this. Happy for anyone to disagree.

Sigh. I think a lot of times we think of things in black and white, whereas almost everything is in shades of grey.

Eli Jang & Heather's background

First off, Eli has experienced a lot of trauma when he was first introduced, and clearly going through a lot mentally. He's also stunted in a lot of ways and 'deprived of an education'. Literally everything that he has known was abuse. Ran away from home at the age of 10. And whatever fucked up shit was going on with Tom Lee too.

I cannot stress how clear all of this is.

With Heather, the only real thing we know about her is she's 15. Both parents lawyers and very overbearing.

Eli Jang's 'recovery' from trauma

But by chapter 237: Eli Jang (6) a month passes and they have both met. Eli, from how he is portrayed, has already improved a lot. Healed a lot. Not fully. I think we need to remember that the passing of time and progression differs massively in Lookism than in real life.

If this was real life, nope. Lookism, ehhhh. Literally please suspend your belief.

This is in part a big reason why I don't blame Heather for her actions that night.

The huge fucking question mark over consent

I can also never fully agree with anyone saying that Heather groomed Eli. To me, she acts very much like a 15 year old girl with a crush. Less nefarious than what grooming implies. Could she have been better informed and set boundaries? Hell yeah.

From what we can see in the panels, Eli reciprocates her feelings. Sure there might be other things going on, but if there were insidious intentions I feel like PTJ would show it more front and center.

To me, looking at the storyline and art, it just feels like 2 people with a crush.

At the same time, if we apply real life morals to this, then yeah it's all pretty messed up. This isn't real life though.

(Sex education is a whole other kettle of fish I don't want to get into. Where I'm from, we have free contraceptives, free medical care, sex education. But oops, teenage pregnancies still happen an awful lot.)

Here's where people might disagree because I'm giving consent to people on their behalf - though we're talking about fictional characters here and all we can do is speculate.

My opinions on this are:

If we ask Heather if she believed Eli consented that night, she would fully believe so.

Similarly at the time, Eli would probably say yes he did.

I have little reason shown by PTJ to doubt that he would withdraw his consent present day as well.

As for Eli's mistake?

Uhh. Assuming they are both able to consent, and let's just say yes for the sake of simplicity, then I don't see how the night together is his mistake?

The whole mess afterwards and the poor communication and martyr thing going on I would say is his mostly his fault. Yes, he has his reasons for it. Two things can still be true.

And fucking Olly Wang.

But Heather was right there. Eli could have cleared the air with her. Said wtf I didn't message you those but he didn't.

Heather lashed out, which I think is a very human response to her situation and the sudden insane amount of pressure placed on her shoulders, however unfair her words are. She didn't have the full story though, whereas Eli did.

So like I said, I place more of the ownership of this situation on Eli even though I can also see where it all stems from.

In Summary

This goes back to what I said before about there are so many shades of grey, and this situation and relationship is absolutely not black and white. To me, anyway.

We can also imply all we want with things happening off-screen during any of the arcs though it's better to stick with what we can see or clearly read between the lines.

Taking in my thoughts above, honestly? I just think it's a tragic story about 2 kids that had unprotected sex one night and then it fucking spiralled. I don't see the blame lying with either one for their actions. Based on my reasons above.

This situation feels too nuanced here for me to say yeah Heather fucked up or Eli fucked up because there are so many details at play here, mostly to do with Eli Jang's background but also to do with the pacing of time and recovery in PTJ-verse.

TL;DR: No-one sucks here. Too many nuances. Sad af situation.

#hopefully this isnt too offensive to anyone #happy to delete if so #please just let me know #holy shit this is more nonsensical than my last one tho #lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism manhwa #eli jang #jang hyun #lookism heather #wannaeatramyeon

[leonscape]

the lelouch domino effect

“meet us by the east gate if you want to go to the festival tonight,” ana told cal.

“okay!” cal enthusiastically said. and with that, the lelouch domino was set in motion. cal wandered over to lawrence, who was just minding his own business, reading his book in the private library. “hey lawrence, do you wanna go out tonight?”

“no,” he answered coldly.

“why not? there’s a festival tonight! we could find a pretty lady for you!” cal teased.

“you’re 13. you’re too young to talk to uncle jin.”

“well, actually he hasn’t said a word to me. i’m just listening hahaha!”

“you’re too young. it’s inappropriate.”

“okay, but you’re 16 so it’s not inappropriate for you. and i’ll be your wingman.”

“i’m too young too.”

“it’s okay, you don’t have to be shy.”

“this is harassment.”

“okay, sounds great, meet us at the east gate!”

cal strode off confidently. isabella peeked out from behind the bookshelf. “what was that all about?”

“i don’t know.” lawrence shrugged.

“i think i will meet them and go with them. there was a book i saw last week, and i would like to purchase it,” isabella said. lawrence only hummed in response. “maybe you should come along as well.”

“i don’t think it would be fun,” lawrence said.

“the choice is yours. but please, do think about it,” isabella said. she exited the library and walked back to her room.

on the way there, isabella ran into zera, the other klein girl. zera wore a frown on her face as she dragged her feet. isabella stopped her in her tracks, “hey would you like to go to the festival tonight?”

“are you really inviting me? or are you just doing it to be nice?” zera questioned.

“i am inviting you,” isabella confirmed.

then cordelia strolled into the corridor. “what’s this about a invitation?”

“callan was saying something about going to the festival tonight. he said to meet them at the east gate,” isabella reported.

“oh yeah, my friend invited me to watch their performance. i’ll be flying the coop too,” delia said.

“then you must come with us,” isabella invited. “zera, you should come too.”

“wait how many people are going? if the whole family’s going out, it’ll cause a ruckus during the festival and sariel’s not gonna be happy,” delia said.

“ohh… well, i am not sure the of the exact number. all i heard was callan inviting lawrence.”

“okay, so if cal invited lawrence, that means ana invited cal, which means that uncle leon is the one sneaking out.”

“what does cal inviting lawrence have anything to do with ana inviting cal?” zera asked.

“those two are always trying to get lawrence out. besides that, when cal goes to make trouble, he doesn’t usually invite anyone because he thinks they will stop him. so to me, it’s most likely that ana invited cal along and cal is asking lawrence to come too,” delia explained.

“whatever, i guess i’ll come. i want to see the art,” zera agreed.

the girls dispersed and went about their day. delia found oliver in the garden, taking a nap. he was in the shade of a big tree with a book laying beside him. “yo… ollie, wake up.” delia shook him awake.

oliver cracked an eye open. “what did i do this time?”

“you didn’t do anything, just wanted to give you a heads up that everyone is going out tonight to go to the festival,” delia told him.

“oh… well i can’t. i gotta finish reading this book, otherwise my tía will be mad at me and she won’t give me bread rolls,” oliver explained. he looked at the book that was laying face down on the ground. he picked it up to find that the pages of the book were bent and folded. “oops. i hope uncle chevie doesn’t open this book…”

“okay but you’re literally sleeping though. so no matter what you choose to do, i don’t think it’ll be done…”

“yeah, you’re right… okay count me in.” oliver laid back down and closed his eyes. “just wake me up when we’re gonna leave, yeah?”

dusk came and cal joined anastasia and leon at the gate. they waited for a bit just in case lawrence was going to come. but instead, isabella showed up.

“eh? what are you doing here?” ana questioned.

“i heard callan inviting lawrence and i have decided i wanted to come as well,” she answered.

“oh! well the more the merrier!” cal laughed.

soon, zera arrived. and after that cordelia and oliver came to the gate too.

“uh, this group is getting uncomfortably big,” ana said. “cal, how many did you invite?”

“just lawrence. why?”

lawrence appeared as soon as cal said his name. everyone’s eyes widened.

“wait… i’m not just seeing things right?” delia asked. “is everyone else seeing lawrence standing there?”

“i knew you’d come!” cal cheered.

“ellis got lost,” lawrence said. the timid kloss boy shyly greeted the group. “he said he overheard the girls talking about it and he wanted to go too.”

leon chimed in, “all right, if that’s everyone, we should probably get going.”

“have fun,” lawrence said.

but cal grabbed his wrist. “no no, you’re coming too!”

“ugh,” lawrence groaned but allowed himself to be dragged along like a rag doll.

tag list (let me know if you’d like to be tagged or untagged): @violettduchess @nightghoul381

#leonscape’s ikemen prince au #ikemen prince #ikepri #ikemen prince fanfiction #ikepri fanfiction #ikemen prince oc #ikepri oc

[benicebefunny]

Ted Lasso, "Pilot" Rewatch

My key takeaway: Ted Lasso is not some country bumpkin too pure to understand (or participate in) social hierarchies.

There's an old feel-good comedy staple where a simple, salt-of-the-earth Hick goes to The City and meets Fancy Cityfolk. Not familiar with their fancy city ways, the Hick doesn't treat people according to this foreign hierarchy. He does things for himself rather than ordering around the butler. (He may even assume the butler is the Master of the House!) He innocently insults the Fancy Cityfolk by violating their social rules. He shakes the men's hands too hard. He invites the stuffiest matron around to go possum huntin'.

The Hick acts without respect to the Cityfolk's social hierarchies, because he doesn't understand them.

In the Pilot, it's clear that Ted is Not That Hick.*

Ted is a keen observer of power dynamics. Unlike the Hick who runs roughshod over social hierarchy out of ignorance, Ted is constantly negotiating social hierarchies. The Hick upends hierarchy. Ted is an active participant and often a beneficiary of hierarchy.

Ted has a brain that won't turn off and a fuckton of social privilege. And, by god, if he doesn't use both in the Pilot.

Example 1: Ollie, the Erstwhile Tour Guide Ted's first interaction on British soil with a British person is a bit of a fake-out. When Ollie (the cab driver presumably sent by Richmond) goes to take Ted and Beard's luggage, they refuse. Ted says no several times in a row, followed by, "We packed 'em, we'll carry 'em." Perhaps, for the briefest moment, we think Ted is That Hick. He doesn't want to be waited on; he doesn't want to watch someone labor on his behalf. He's opting out.

But then Ted immediately says, "Love to make a little pit stop though." After Ollie agrees, it's cut to: Ollie showing Ted and Beard the Tower Bridge. A thing that is very much not Ollie's job. A thing that Richmond is not paying him for. A thing that neither Ted nor Beard tip him for on-screen.

Ted seems uncomfortable with Ollie, a dark-skinned Black man, carrying his bags. He's wary of such a visible marker of class and racial hierarchy. The historical weight cannot be ignored.

However, Ted's fine with asking Ollie to play tour guide--something that literally is not Ollie's job and that he isn't dressed for (Ollie's removed his suit jacket in the sunshine of the water front). Moreover, Ted feels comfortable requesting a delay in their itinerary that could potentially lose Ollie further business with Richmond.

There's a connection between the refusal to let Ollie carry their bags and the request for a tour. It feels like a negotiation. We'll carry our bags; you give us a tour. The fact that Ollie is expected to carry his fares' bags becomes a bargaining chip. It buys Ted the good will necessary to get something he wants. (Which is so fucking Midwestern.)

In this interaction, Ted doesn't opt out of the racial and class hierarchy. He just alters the terms.

Example 2: Nathan and Nate Like Ted, I am also a Midwestern transplant. I understand the impulse for nicknames. Where I grew up, if you didn't have a nickname (preferably something ending with an -y sound), it meant people hated you. Or you were rich. Or both.

It was quite shocking to move to California and meet some Okie who introduced himself as "James."

Among family and friends, coining a nickname can signal affection, warmth, familiarity.

Among people who've just met, a white person inventing a nickname for a person of color is... bad, it's bad. Don't do it. It's wrong. No. I don't get to decide what their name is. Stop.

Nathan introduces himself as Nathan. Ted calls him Nathan a few times. But in their third scene together, Ted has started calling him by the diminutive, "Nate." By the time Nathan is driving out of the Richmond car park, Ted is calling him, "my man, Nate."

If I were in Ted's place, the moment Nathan dropped me off, I would call a cab, board a flight home, and change my own fucking name. I'd enter the Whiteness Protection Program so goddamn fast.

My point is: Ted is overly-familiar with Nathan. He takes liberties with Nathan. He redefines Nathan, shrinking him down into Nate. He exercises authority over Nathan's very identity.

Compare this with how George Cartrick calls Higgins, "Higgy Boy."

Contrast it with how Ted addresses Rebecca. He calls her Ms. Welton. When she corrects him, he believes her.

He doesn't call her Becca or Becky or Bex. He calls her Rebecca.

Because she's his boss.

Which is to say: he knows how power works at work.

Example 3: Tea Time? As a new employee, Ted is deferential to Rebecca. He is careful about staying in her good graces.

Ted initially calls Rupert a "good time" for being surrounded by champagne and groupies (a moment of casual sexism that Nathan would have criticized himself over). When Ted learns that's Rebecca's ex-husband, he immediately backpedals. He tries to save face and avoid offending his new boss.

Famously, Ted hates tea. He's never tried tea, but he hates it. When he receives tea by mistake at a restaurant, he returns it. When Rebecca gives him tea, he at least tries it. He views his rich boss Rebecca differently than the barista at Starbucks.

That last sentence may seem obvious, but it's a concrete example of Ted understanding and negotiating power.

The Hick would reject the tea from Rebecca, the same as at Starbucks. Ted doesn't.

Conclusion Ted is neither above nor oblivious to the flow of power. Ted is not pure in a world of filth. He's in the muck with the rest of us. He's not an innocent; he just has an accent.

In the episodes to come, Ted will use his understanding of power dynamics to create a more cohesive team. In doing so, he becomes complicit in those power dynamics and the harm they cause.

You can't win the game without playing the game.

*A deeper engagement with the Hick Goes to the City trope in other media may reveal that some (many or even most) Hicks are far more agile navigators of hierarchy than we are initially led to believe.

#ted lasso #ted lasso rewatch #meta #my feathers get a little ruffled when it's implied that being from the midwest makes ted #innocent wholesome guileless or un-sophisticated #because you know who else was born and raised in the midwest? #my dad #and he knowingly negotiates power within a variety of contexts #not well perhaps but he exists in a matrix of social relations just like anyone else #and that's an entirely separate thing from him not knowing what pesto is #and ordering it anyway #and being shocked and dismayed when his lasagna comes out green

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

Relationship History Tag Game

Tagged by @authoralexharvey! It was interesting to see a little bit of background on the cast of ASMLP's relationships (or their avoidance of them rather?). I'm sure it's manifesting in all sorts of fascinating ways during the actual story. Well, fascinating for the reader--Nadia, Etienne, and Simone might find it less entertaining.

Rules: briefly (or not) describe what kinds of intimate relationships (platonic, romantic, sexual, or otherwise) your MCs have had PRIOR TO THE BOOK STARTING. Have they had their hearts ripped out before jumping into your fluffy romance? Are they aro/ace and have never been in a long-term relationship before?

I did this for Isaac, Renato, and Dorian last time, so let's hear from Ben, Ollie, and Kinslayer next.

Ben

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up about how you could fill an encyclopedia with all the people he's slept with. But he puts just as much effort into platonic relationships as he does into screwing around. Of course he's close with Desmond, and not just because he's Ben's sire. Desmond was the role model he'd needed since his father and older brother died when he was still a kid (thanks WW I). Desmond showed him that a man could provide with more than just money. That he could fight not just for dominance or honor (whatever that is) or his own anger, but justice, love, and the protection of others. Hanging around Desmond also helped him figure out that he could check off "all of the above" when it came to which genders he was attracted to. That figurative encyclopedia started filling up pretty quick afterwards.

As for Theodore...look, they fight like cats and dogs, but Theo's all right (do not breathe a word of this, got it?). Ben wouldn't say the guy's like an older brother or anything. More like a rival. Micaela likes him anyway, and she's always had a knack for reading people.

Hell, probably because Micaela is good people. She gets a little gloomy sometimes, and maybe wanders off by herself for a decade or two, but she always goes out of her way to help everyone. She's also a crack shot with a rifle, and has a lot of guts in a quieter sort of way. He likes to just lay out by the lake with her sometimes and stare up at the stars.

Same goes with most everyone he lives with in Olympia. They drive him crazy sometimes, but that's kind of how it is with family, whether they're related by blood or not. Well, he is related to them by blood, only in the vampire way, not the--oh, hell, nevermind. You get what he means, right?

Ollie

You're going to make her say it, aren't you? Fine. She loved...loves...feels something for Renato. You don't survive an apocalypse with somebody and just stop caring when you're not dating anymore, okay? Even after you've been broken up for years and you're afraid he'll do something that'll force you to kill him.

Mergus is their father. For all intents and purposes, and through magic if not genetics. They quite literally owe him their lives. So, Renato can have his little rebellion, work out whatever shit he needs to work out, but if it comes down to the two of them...she knows who she'll choose.

As for other relationships, she keeps it simple, no strings attached. Why would she want to try for anything more after she found out she could be replaced by a fucking goldfish?

Kinslayer

They've lived a long, long, looong time, friends. So, for the sake of brevity, they're obviously not going to get around to naming everyone.

Haru gets first mention, though. They've known each other for...well, at least the better part of few hundred years, give or take. Things started out rocky, as they usually do for all their kind. But Kinslayer had grown patient enough over the centuries to not obliterate some scrappy little class three at the first annoyance. And Haru had the sense not just to realize that, but to be curious instead of mistake their disinterest in territorial pissing contests for weakness. Eventually, they took to traveling together sometimes, even settling down and having kids now and then. Haru is, in a nutshell, their partner.

While they haven't forged quite the same bonds with the other ragtag psychic vampire misfits who chose to trail along after them like ducklings at some point, Kinslayer doesn't mind them either. Well. Luxe can go piss up a rope most days. But once in awhile his mouth does come in handy for getting out of a scrape.

On the subject of their kin, if they were capable of regret, not living up to their moniker with Tristan Knox would be their biggest. But they're a mind reader, not a fortune teller. It took some time and doing, but they eventually corrected that misstep. Yessir.

Which brings them to an honorable mention for their little black sheep cousin, Renato. Despair and desperation aren't bravery maybe, but they'll do in a pinch. Kinslayer looks forward to finding out what havoc he'll cause next. And whether he'll figure out how to dig deep enough to find out what he's really made of.

No pressure tags @theimperiumchronicles @k--havok @vacantgodling @korblez @late-to-the-fandom @words-after-midnight & an open tag for anyone who wants to give this a go!

#relationship tag game #dysthanasia #tag games

[cvsmixnaya]

skate nights

pairings: eren x reader

pronouns: she/they

summary: eren and his girlfriend go skateboarding late at night and he teaches them some tricks

a/n: i went skateboarding yesterday and i had sm fun so i got inspired to write this😁 also i bruised my knee badly cause i fell off my board LOL, so next one shot is related to that😇

It was currently 11:30 PM and Y/n was currently getting ready. Why would they get ready at this time of the night? Simple, to go skateboarding with her boyfriend Eren of course.

Y/n and Eren have known each other since they were younger and started skating together 2 years ago. They both are currently 17 and they are pretty good.

Both of them created a bond while skating and they enjoy it when they have each other’s company. Y/n puts her outfit on, grabs her board and quietly sneaks out of the house.

They go outside and wair for Eren to come. Skating late at night is a kinda a ritual you can say for the couple. It’s nice and quiet and no people to bother them.

Yes, they do have friends at the skatepark but it’s nice to be alone once in a while. She sees a glimpse of her boyfriend on his board making his way towards them as a smile creeps up on their face.

He stops his board as he sees Y/n. “Hey babe, looking good as usual.” Eren greets her casually and Y/n shakes her head while letting out a dry chuckle.

“Eren, i’m wearing literally what i wear all the time, this is nothing new.”

“Well, I am your boyfriend, it’s my job to make you feel appreciated.” He shrugs his shoulders.

“Ok, well thank you. I appreciate it, now shall we go?” They ask him.

“Of course, let’s go.” He says and they both take off to the skatepark. Since they live nearby, its easier to just skate to the park. The couple reached and saw it was nicely lit up so they could still see.

They both start skating around the park, doing ollies, shuvits, going up ramps, fakies and many more.

“So any tricks you’ve been working on recently?” Eren asks Y/n and she goes up the ramp and kick turns. They slide now and skate towards him.

“Well, I’ve been trying to do the half casper flip for a while and i’m just not able to land it. I don’t know if it’s the way i’m flipping the board or the way my feet are placed.”

Y/n says with a disappointing voice. She’s been trying for a long time now and can’t seem to get the casper flip.

“Can you show what you’re able to do? I can help then since I’m able to do it.” He suggests.

“Ya sure” They agree and adjust the board and their feet into the half casper flip position. She does the flip but while landing she falls but didn’t get hurt if Eren didn’t save them.

“Woah! careful there. I can see why you can’t land it, it’s your foot position. The way you flip it and everything else is perfect. The only thing is your foot placement.” Eren explains to her.

“Here I’ll show you how to place your feet.” He comes over and shows Y/n how her feet should be placed and they follow along.

“Is that better?” Y/n asks him and he nods in approval. “It’s better than before. Are you ready to try it now?” Eren asks them.

“Ya i think so. Ok here goes nothing.”

They did the flip and almost got it. “Damn it.” She mutters.

“Hey, it’s ok. You almost got it and that’s good. How about I hold your hands while doing it? That way you’ll have a little support and then you can do it on your own. Does that sound good?”

He proposed and Y/n thought about it for a second. “Ok done. Lets do it.” They make their way towards Eren and adjust the board once again to the position.

She grabs his hands and places her feet exactly how Eren told them to. “You can do it. I know you can, just believe in yourself.” He encourages his girlfriend and she takes a deep breath.

She flips the board and lands it. The pair gasp in shock as they look at each other with wide eyes. “W-wait, do it again but without my help.” He tells Y/n and lets go of her hand.

Y/n does the flip and lands it all on her own. They scream in excitement and start jumping around.

“Eren oh my fucking god I did it! I fucking did it!” They yell with so much happiness and excitement, the whole neighbourhood could wake up.

“I know and I’m so so proud of you! I told you you could do it, now come here!” Eren says as he pulls Y/n into a tight hug and kisses her. It was soft and sweet.

“I can’t believe I did it. I still can’t believe it oh shit Eren please pinch me.” Y/n says and they pull away. “This is real babe, I swear.” He reassures them.

“Come on lets skate a bit and then head back. We still have school tomorrow.”

“Yeah ok, we can come back here after school and meet the others.” Y/n agrees.

They skate around the park for a while and decided they should go back. Eren decided he should go with Y/n so she gets home safe.

They skate to her house. “Well, this is it. I’ll see you in school tomorrow morning.” Y/n says.

“Ya, I’ll see you tomorrow. Also babe.” He calls out to them.

“Yeah?”

“I’m proud of you, you did great out there.” This made Y/n’s cheeks red. A smile crept up on their face.

“Thank you Eren. Really, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t make it. I’ll see you later.” They thank him and make their way to give me a last kiss before heading inside.

Now Eren was the blushing mess.

#aot #aot imagines #aot x reader #snk x reader #eren x reader #eren yeager x reader #eren x you #eren yaeger aot #eren yeager #modern au #aot modern au #i love him sm #skater eren has my fucking heart

[codenamed-queenie]

#BatsInQuarantine

I am going insane. So I poured my restlessness into one long and very detailed post and got super into it. Please enjoy this hot mess.

The Justice League, being the well-meaning virus-proof Super Friends that they are, took one good look at the news, one good look at their non-powered friends Ollie, Bruce, and their families, and collectively decided that these normal humans must be Protected At All Costs.

Now, keep in mind, Bruce is never one to roll over when it comes to being benched. 

However, he understands the importance of social distancing. He knows he needs to set a good example for his kids, and keep up appearances as Gotham’s Most Responsible Multi-Billionaire. 

So. Quarantine it is. 

But how are his kids handling it?

Dick - 

100% on board in the beginning. Gotta do the Responsible Thing. Gotta set a Good Example. Besides, guys, this is gonna be Fun. Quality Family Time is always a Must.

He lasted 2 days. 

Then he started to get twitchy. 

And as everyone knows? A Trapped Dick Grayson is a Feral Dick Grayson.

He bounces off the walls.

Literally.

“I have to climb.” 

“Dick, no.”  

“I have to climb everything.”

Has scaled the manor 16 times already. Has climbed the chandelier. The banister. Bruce. The roof. The Cave. Anything in the house that’s been bolted down and especially anything that hasn’t. 

Duke found him clinging to the wall 10 ft off the ground like Spiderman and screamed so loud it shattered glass. 

Desperate for news of the outside. 

He thrives off of it like a starving man. 

Was the one to suggest he and Barbara take a break to Social Distance from each other (”Sorry, babe, kissing spreads germs”) and experienced Instant Regret(TM) approximately 5 minutes after. 

The Family has labelled him a Flight Risk Level 1 (Most likely to say f**k it and make a break for the outside world)

Jason - 

Accidentally got trapped inside the manor with the others when Bruce called Shutdown. If he had his way, he’d be chilling in his favorite safe-house right now, binging The Witcher with Roy and Artemis, and not worrying about finding a stray brother in his sock drawer.

But he’s nothing if not an opportunist. 

The way he sees it, Jason has 3 options:

Self Improvement

Self Isolation (See Duke, Cass, and Damian)

Descension Into Madness (See Dick and Steph)

And, well, he always wanted to try a few things. Now he’s got the free time to do it.

So he settles on baking. 

Alfred’s got enough food and raw ingredients stored up to feed an army. (Not because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder in times like these. But because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder all the time. Just try feeding 11+ teenagers sometime.)

Uses recipes he finds off Google.

His first few attempts are, in a word, ‘tragic’.

Alfred slips him a few of his recipe cards, and Jason suddenly starts seeing Results. 

Turns out he’s pretty good at this baking thing once he gets the hang of it. 

Hope everyone’s okay eating nothing but pie, macaroons, biscuits, and whatever else Jason whips up. 

Cause that’s gonna be the only food left by the time he’s done. 

Barbara - 

Self-quarantined with her dad. 

They’ve been binge-watching classic black and white movies together.

It’s a fun time, but she’s started to get a little antsy. Loving her dad and wanting to be around him 24/7 are, understandably, mutually exclusive. 

Calls the manor to video-chat every day.

For her sanity just as much as theirs. 

Gives everyone little challenges to film on their phones and send in. She makes compilations of everyone’s submissions so they can all watch and laugh together. 

Bonus points for Creativity

One comp shows the family trying to drop Mentos into coke bottles. 

Dick did a handstand, and dropped his Mento from the second story balcony. 

Tim did it wearing the Batman cowl. The soda exploded into his face, and the rest of the video is just Bruce’s Shrieking.

Stephanie tried it, but the bottle tipped. Everyone on camera screamed as the bottle rocketed through the front window. 

She spends most of her calls having one-on-one convos with Dick.

They’ve come up with little code phrases so they can be Cheesy even with family members lurking in the background. 

She thinks the way he clings to the monitor is cute. 

Almost like he’s giving her a hug through the screen. 

(It’s easier than letting herself worry about his mental state, at least)

Tim -

Oh this boy.

Freaked out for the first five minutes before he decided ‘hey wait, Bruce is letting me stay in my pajamas all day? Noice.’ 

Now he’s just vibing.

The rest of his family is Low-Key shielding him.

He Has No Spleen, you see.

Steph: “Someone could cough on him and he could die!”

He just goes about his day, playing Animal Crossing like there’s no tomorrow, tinkering on projects, taking naps, etc. Living his best life.

Meanwhile there’s always someone lurking behind him, keeping watch, keeping him safe. 

Dick sneezed within 5 feet of Tim once (the fact that he was on top of the dusty bookshelf Tim was perusing is irrelevant)

Jason still full-body tackled him the second Tim’s back was turned. 

No one with any symptoms--

Like, any symptoms. They don’t even have to be Corona-related.

--is allowed within 10 feet of Tim. 

Tim has been wandering the manor for weeks, now, without seeing another human being. 

(He sees Dick on the ceiling sometimes, but that doesn’t really count)

He’s been trying increasingly drastic pranks and shenanigans to draw someone, anyone, out. 

But it doesn’t matter how many times he steals Damian’s sword, or sets fire to Jason’s brownie bites.

Nobody wants to risk it. 

Cass - 

No one has seen her since quarantine started.

Everyone is approximately 87% sure she’s somewhere in the manor though

Because she does eat the meals Alfred leaves out for her.

Or at least someone does, at any rate. 

(Jason and Santa top the running suspects list)

Santa was Steph’s suggestion. For some reason it snowballed. 

It’s assumed that Cass misunderstood the meaning of ‘social distancing’ and took it too far. 

But no one knows for sure. 

She is Tim’s Guardian Angel. 

People who so much as clear their throats a little too loudly anywhere near him suddenly wake up on a different floor of the house four hours later. 

Duke came closest to spotting her while he was up in the attic. 

Either that, or there’s another Creepy Sister everyone forgot to tell him about living up there.

She is silent, and watchful, sticking to the shadows, but she does leave the occasional note out to brighten her siblings’ day. 

Things like ‘helo i love u’ and ‘hop u ar ok’  mostly. 

She is bound and determined to protect her family from this invisible threat, no matter the cost. 

Steph - 

Like Dick, she was Super Pumped at first. 

(Just kind of showed up at Wayne Manor before quarantine was enacted. The original purpose of her visit is unclear, but regardless, she’s Trapped.)

Also Like Dick, her descent into madness was swift.

She is impossible to pin down. 

Not like Cass or Damian, who’ve stayed off the grid, and are therefore Untraceable. 

No. She’s impossible to pin down, because she never stops moving. 

Switches seamlessly between Zumba on top of the Giant Dinosaur in the Batcave, and furiously knitting Alfred (the Cat) a sweater with a pair of Tim’s used chopsticks. 

Braided everyone’s hair while they were asleep.

Even Bruce’s. 

She tried to do Tim’s, but somehow blacked out and regained consciousness in the attic. 

When she woke up with a scream and a furiously twitching eye, she startled Duke out of his Makeshift Fort he built out of old cardboard boxes and antique furniture. He’s had to resort to finding a new hiding place. 

Sometimes, on the rare occasions she does sit still, staring off into the distance, she’ll suddenly start laughing hysterically. This may last between thirty seconds and thirty minutes, depending entirely on how long it’s been since she’s knitted a cat sweater or done cartwheels through every room in the house.

Blew up the greenhouse out back, somehow.

Everyone has agreed not to talk about it.

Some people were built to handle prolonged time inside their homes.

Stephanie Brown is not that way.

Damian - 

Damian Wayne Cannot Be Contained.

At least not inside the house. 

He took off thirty-six hours into quarantine. 

Thanks to the security equipment around the borders of the Wayne Estate, he can’t escape the grounds. 

(He’s tried and failed multiple times. Jason and Bruce have a running bet on how many times the perimeter alarms will go off per day.)

(Jason is winning.)

He wanders the grounds with Titus as his only companion. 

The two of them run laps, practice drills, and find ways to occupy their time. 

No one’s entirely sure what those ways are. 

In fact, nobody knows exactly where Damian is at any given time. 

Only that he is Out There. 

And he’s the best security system Wayne Manor’s ever had. 

So far, he’s stopped five groups of civilians scaling the perimeter walls before the lasers and electric nets even have a chance to deploy.

They were trying to break in and steal supplies. 

(Even ones they already had in surplus. Like Toilet Paper.)

He’s also stopped Dick from escaping twelve (12) times.

Drags him back by his shirt collar and deposits him on the welcome mat. 

Usually with a note for Alfred/Jason, requesting more fruit tarts. 

Duke - 

Did not leave the attic for two weeks. 

Then Steph discovered his hiding spot (read: was dumped there by Cassandra) which forced him to relocate to the basement. 

Yes, it turns out Wayne Manor does have a basement. 

This was a surprise to Duke, who always thought that the Batcave was Bruce Wayne’s basement. 

Alfred keeps him supplied with all the necessities:

i.e. food, magazines, assorted pastries from Jason’s latest batch, usually straight out of the oven.

Duke also snagged the Manor’s Alexa. 

She has become a sort of ‘Wilson’ to Duke’s ‘Chuck Noland’.

She is his only comfort. His only ally. 

He’s determined to wait out this quarantine, doing his best to avoid the others. 

Duke has seen these people under pressure. 

He knows exactly what he’s dealing with. 

Duke: “Alexa is the only motherf****r in this madhouse I ever respected.”

*offended butler noises from the other room*

Duke: “And also Alfred.”

#batfam #dc #batfamily #bruce wayne #batman #dick grayson #nightwing #barbara gordon #oracle #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #stephanie brown #spoiler #cassandra cain #batgirl #duke thomas #signal #damian wayne #robin #alfred pennyworth #comment your fav #or don't #maybe ill do one for the arrow fam #idk #im beginning to Lose It guys #quarantinelife #batsinquarantine

[jmoriarty-221b]

So I saw somewhere a post that talked about how some fictional characters just have a divorce vibe going on, like, at no point in time were they ever married but they just give off that feeling that they got divorced

And now I can only think of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor having that vibe

And I spent close to an hour talking about this to my sibling and how it would be a good idea for a new DC show like, you can make so much money off of just the main Batfam alone and there are literally so many people in there that it’s just an amazing idea to have them all in a show together but kind of like a Good Luck Charlie kinda thing because there’s more than enough angst in the world

But in the case of not having enough of a budget for so many characters in one show I turned to the Superfam (Batfam is Huge like, I don’t even know half of the extended family version and that’s like at least ten characters so I could see why it wouldn’t be entirely feasible to have a show that included everyone while still being good with nice character development without having a billion dollars for the budget)

The Superfam, in my personal experience, is composed of Ma & Pa Kent (farm vibes plus I refuse to have either of them die in my AU), Clark Kent (main Superman), Lois Lane (Lana? was Smallville Lois i guess??? But idk enough about her so she’s not here), Jon Kent (Superboi II), Kara Danvers (Supergirl) & Conner Kent (Superboi I)

Now I’ve stopped watching CW shows like, forever ago??? But my brother kinda keeps up with them and basically the gist is that the ratings of every other show suck Except for the Superman & Lois show (because it’s 💫new💫) and I saw the cover of the poster like “Ah, the werewolf dude. . . mmmhhmmm that’s Lois yes, yes that’s Johnny boi, and um is that???? Nooooo, they wouldn’t do that to Conner right???? Please tell me they didn’t make Conner blonde” and I was informed that the blonde teen is Chris???? Like

Whoms’t do ye speak of

I’m not even joking but the only way I even know of Chris is from a random fanfic I read where Dick Grayson gets his own super from an alternate reality named Chris, that’s my only point of reference for this character

But let’s talk about how Conner Kent (OG Superboi) was excluded

Now I haven’t seen any episodes of this and I probably never will (no hate I’m just really unmotivated to start new shows at all) so idk if they might mention Conner or even allude to him in one scene or something

But this was my main motivator as to my new Superfam TV Show Idea

Have Lex Luthor not be a Superman villain, he’s mainly a successful businessman, a little shady but who isn’t, and he doesn’t want to Kill Superman, he just wants to be able to have some sort of viable protection against a Kryptonian in case of an invasion (see Man of Steel + CW’s Supergirl) or suddenly having a mind controlled Superman on their hands (see Justice League series or just look up what Red Krytonite does) so he makes it like his side thing to figure out ways to neutralize or hold back a Kryptonian, Clark totally thinks that Lex is obsessed with finding a way to kill Superman because they had a bad end to their friendship in high school so he’s always suspicious of Lex, Lex hasn’t really ever tried to kill him though because 1. It’s not that deep Clark ok? And 2. He’s a busy busy man with a very important job position and a company to run so does he look like he has time to harbor an obsession over someone who rejected him back in high school??? You’re more of a constant side quest Clark, so stop trying to put him on the JL watchlist ( btw ik about Lena Luthor, haven’t forgotten her but she doesn’t really play a part in this AU so let’s just have her and Kara off to the side doing their own thing ok? Ok)

Lex, Bruce & Oliver all knew each other when they were kids and went to the same school, this is just an extra detail I wanted to happen because Lex and Ollie definitely know Bruce is Batman and absolutely HATE having to deal with Brucie Wayne because “I know you’re just doing this to irritate me Bruce, you just want to see if you can make a vein throb in my forehead but I will valiantly ignore your dumbassery because I know you hate being Brucie just as much as we hate having to put up with Brucie so suck on that you petty bitch” because they bonded in ye olden days, childhood friends so to speak

Anyway so Cadmus tries to get Lex to make an investment in their company, seeing as Cadmus is shadier than Gotham when it rains Lex is basically like ‘no ❤️’ and doesn’t make a deal with them, Cadmus gets mad at not having Lexcorp financially backing them so Lex has an ‘accident’ and they steal his DNA, then they steal Superman’s DNA somehow and *boom* a Superboi is formed

Because I don’t know much about how the Core Four became friends in the first place (Robin Tim Drake, Impulse Bart Allen, Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark & Superboy Conner Kent) I’m just gonna go with what happens in the show Young Justice except it’s the Core Four becoming the Core Four when they liberated Conner (who at this point believes himself to be a clone of Superman and has only been given Superboy as a name) from Cadmus, same shit goes down meaning that Clark is just straight up NOT vibing with Conner, Conner just wants a mentor please, and the Bats kinda give Clark a passive aggressive treatment for not taking Superboy under his wing or at least agreeing to teach him how to control his powers, especially Tim because that’s his Bestie so yes

Anyway, YJ saves ppl and is on the news or whatever and Lex finds out about Superboy’s existence that way, so he researches this new super on his free time, finds out that he came from Cadmus and claims to be a clone of Superman, yet doesn’t have the whole power set Superman has??? Wait, didn’t Lex reject Cadmus’ proposal and the got into a mysterious accident??? Long story short Lex goes connecting the dots, hacks into Cadmus’ files, finds out he technically has a son with Superman and decides to take Superboy under his wing (I’ll go more in depth as to why Lex would want to do this in this AU later but the abridged version would be that he wants a kid but doesn’t have the time nor interest in finding a wife??? Also the radiation that made him bald as a kid also affected his reproductive system so while it’s not impossible for him to conceive kids he would have a very hard time actually getting to father a kid)

Him and Conner, who still goes by Superboy at this point in time, meet up and Conner finds out that here is a parent figure that is both available and actively wants to be a part of his life, so he agrees to get to know Lex and the series would focus on them becoming a family, with a special episode when Conner asks Lex for help in choosing a name for himself and it ends up with him agreeing to become Conner Luthor, it would be heartwarming and Mercy would make sure it happens within a day (Mercy is Lex’s bodyguard/PA but they’re also besties and she becomes the Responsible yet Chaotic Aunt as Lex and Conner’s father-son relationship progresses)

Obviously Clark becomes super suspicious of Lex getting close to his ‘clone’ and when Conner decides to go public as Lex’s son he’s like *GASP* and calls up Bruce because we need to get on this Bruce, Lex is a villain and blah blah blah but Bruce would be over Clark’s shit and hit him with that “actually, Lex was also an unwilling genetic donor to Superboy, who actually is not your clone either, and has agreed to take him in, I’ve been on this shit since they first met and the kid is doing just fine so if you keep poking your nose in their business then that’s your problem but you better be ready to pay child support bitch . . . have a good day ❤️”

The series would just focus on Conner getting to have a good parent figure in Lex and go more into their civilian lives rather than focusing on the superhero thing, Conner, Bart, Tim & Cassie have a sleepover at Lex’s house at one point, Lex totally Knows what’s up but it’s all good because these are his baby’s friends and they’re good people who are more than willing to prank Superman for rejecting his kid and giving his baby self worth issues (Mercy supports them)

Anyway, that’s basically the idea for a new Superhero Show

#humor #superfamily #that’s new #focusing on Conner (the OG Superboy) #because they are always excluding him #so now Lex Luthor is a caring father to him #because yes #give this boy some love #conner kent #lex luthor #clark kent #bruce wayne #tim drake #superman #superboy #cassie sandsmark #bart allen #the Core Four is here too #Lex isn’t really a villain #he’s not evil either #finding ways to neutralize Superman is just like a side quest #because yes Superman is a paragon of good and Justice #but mind control exists #so pardon Lex for wanting to be able to protect himself from an out of control Superman #Clark totally thinks that Lex is obsessed with stopping him #because they had a bad friendship ending back in high school #but Lex isn’t aware of this ‘rivalry’ he’s supposed to be a part of #so it’s just Clark being suspicious of Lex and Lex not having a clue about this #or just not giving a shit because he’s a busy businessman trying to run a huge company #just a new idea for a new DC show focusing on the Supers

[kaesnpoint-art]

This is my art account but I really want to talk about this and most my JRWI stuff is here so here’s a ramble about Chip’s character:

You know I’m planning on doing a storyboard on episode 41 of riptide and I’m just listening to the audio over and over and the bit where Ollie goes

“Yeah my mother would not recognize me.”

Chip so broken, so barely holding on by a thread, so shaky just goes

“Yeah—no—I, uh...”

The way he’s wracked with guilt over all of this stuff and after listening to him talk about Arlin and being on the Black Rose Ship merely seconds before, part of my brain latched onto something that I don’t think Bizly intended but...

Man hearing Ollie talk about his mother who he hasn’t seen in so long and how she wouldn’t recognize what he looks like now. Can’t help but imagine Chip thinking about what Arlin would think of him now or if he would even recognize him.

Chip then thinking about how his only familial member also went fucking missing and he is still looking for him to this day. He’s able to sympathize so much more with Ollie’s mother, a woman he has never even met than Ollie in that moment and he pulls him into a hug because he calls this boy his son, he is wracked with guilt for doing what he did to him (I could get into how the compass being trusted to Ollie is like the coin being trusted to Chip when he was younger but I’m not gonna do that rn).

Chip is so critically aware in that moment of how much of a screw up he is. He realizes that he is not the type of person that people look up like he did with Arlin, at least in his own eyes. He is not nearly close to the image in his head of what it means to be a pirate and it’s clear from his interactions with Lizzie but Ollie just goes far enough to show it.

But the one line from that episode that HAUNTS ME that I’ve seen maybe one person talk about:

“I’m not a good captain I’m barely even a good person!”

This scene is such a good pivotal moment for Chip’s character and I haven’t said anything about it because I wanted to see how Bizly was gonna handle Chip from that point forward and so far I love it.

Chip is surrounded by Jay, a navy girl that he helped escape her shitty familial situation to help rebel against the navy and everything. She tags along with things he does for certain but also calls him out on his bullshit behavior which is something he brushes off most the time but also he goes back to Jay to almost have her call him out on his bullshit, seeing how far he can push until she tells him to quit it or just even better, stops caring about what he’s doing.

Then there’s Gillion Tidestrider, the pinnacle of goodness and heroics. Gil has challenged Chip from the start in a lot of different ways but definitely ideologically. They are always butting heads on what boundaries to cross and what not to, the way they handle enemies is the clearest definition of this. His good natured fishman who literally almost killed him wasn’t enough to have him take a look at his behavior completely though.

It takes this child being affected by HIS actions and recklessness, EXCLUSIVELY to finally say something he knew for a long time out loud.

But moving forward I love that Chip has been trying to play into more good things because deep down he IS A GOOD PERSON! He doesn’t like killing people, when thieving it is to ensure the least amount of damage to those less fortunate, he wants to help people who are hurt or sick. He is a good person at the end of the day but he FINALLY wants to try to lean into it.

The scene of him on the ship checking in on the sick in episode 42 I think it is melts my heart because he tries he really tries, when they make it to the city of steam and he immediately talks about stealing from the rich in order to help the orphanage because DUH chip is gonna care about kids. It makes me so happy that Chip is just being himself after seeing Elizabeth after so long and potentially irreversibly messing up Ollie.

I just appreciate the way Chip’s character is growing and how he’s getting better at being a captain and friend to Gil and Jay. All of the characters are coming to their own, Jay’s decisiveness is great too in recent sessions and Gillion kind of leaning into more mischievous activities are amazing things to see!!

Anyway I very much appreciate the growth and rp these boys are providing!

#jrwi riptide #jrwi Chip #jrwi show #character analysis #not art #long post

[jq37]

The Case File – Mice and Murder Ep 2

The Case of the Dismal Dinner

Summary

Welcome back to our flashback/Tisch fight already in progress where we learn what Daisy and Sly’s shared look was about while Rekha and Grant go for the proverbial jugular emotionally. It’s 12 years ago and Sylvester is tracking down a stolen diadem, the very same diadem that he sees Daisy swipe off the thief who has it (a jackal named Roscoe McCoy in case that matters). Sly swipes it back from her and, when she notices, she sniffs it down to his train car where he is sitting in the dark, waiting for her. He doesn’t turn the lights on, opting instead to dramatically strike a match to light his pipe, illuminating himself sitting in a big chair, holding the stolen item.

Daisy tries to bluff like she’s Virginia Chase, the owner of the diadem, but Sly knows that’s not true because he was hired by the real Virginia to track it down. Daisy is usually a better liar than this but she is insta-smitten by this figurative and literal fox and it’s throwing her off her game. But before they can continue their little tete-a-tete, they hear a gunshot ring out from Daisy’s room and know Roscoe and his guys are coming after her. Sly stuffs Daisy in a trunk before the boys show up and they actually seem a little impressed to meet him, him being a famous detective and all, but a Nat 1 deception means they hear Daisy being huffy in the chest and a fight/escape scene that Brennan takes over narration for ensues. 

After that, Sly and Daisy become close really quickly and partners in both senses of the word. Daisy tells him she’s an American PI and they work together on cases, travel the world, and become engaged within the year. But, the day before the wedding, when Sly is alone, he discovers all the documentation proving that Daisy lied about who she is, is actually a criminal, and has been using their partnership to sell information to other criminals.

She shows up and tries to pretend like she’s being set up but he replies, “You being duped is the only lie you’ve told I can’t believe.” He says that being with her changed him. He didn’t think he had it in him to actually love another person. He forgives her. He still wants to get married. Daisy is thrown by this reaction. She tells him she’s not gonna change for him and he might as well leave her. She’s being all unapologetic femme fatale about it but he gets the sense that under her bravado she’s low key pleading with him to give up on her. He doesn’t want to. He can’t. He still shows up the next day in his wedding tux. Daisy is nowhere to be seen. When he goes home, there’s a deerstalker cap on his porch and a note that just reads “-D”.

And we snap back to the present where Daisy is trying to figure out if she can take advantage of Lucretia’s fascination with the occult and all the rich vulnerable people present to make some money. Meanwhile, Sly has been totally rocked by seeing Daisy and is drowning his sorrows at the bar with Ollie, the otter bartender. Squire Badger (which is what I’ll be calling William) shows up and, in not so many words, threatens Sly for having not solved the case and making a fool of him. He says, “You’re not gonna rub my nose in this.” Move your nose then bitch, says Sly on a dirty 20 intimidation check. He’s sad about girl problems, not you! Squire Badger is scared off, but he looks like he knows something that Sly doesn’t. That someone is coming for him. 

Buckster (and Ian too btw) clocked the above conversation and sidles up to Sly at the bar. See, not only does Buckster know about Sly and Daisy’s history, he knew it was happening *while* it was happening. Sly used up all his cool swagger on the Squire so by the time Buckster shows up he’s a whole mess over Daisy. Buckster starts implying that maybe they can help each other out since they both dislike the Squire and with Sly’s Nat 20 Insight, they can totally clock each other’s double meanings perfectly. It’s a very cool game thing where Sly and Buckster are having an innocuous conversation about the weather or whatever but Grant and Sam are just saying what they mean. It’s like they’re having a telepathic conversation. Sly agrees that the enemy of his enemy is his friend and he’ll go along with Buck’s plans as long as he can keep his hands clean, even if he doesn’t really care for Buck himself. 

At the same time Gangie is in the kitchens getting fed (see the notes for a full list of kitchen staffers and other NPCs) and after the staff leaves, Gangie is told by Ambrose Harding (the Squire’s turtle valet) that there’s is business for him to attend to after dinner. 

Buckster talks to Lawrence Longfoot--the rabbit photographer from last ep who we learn runs a trash newspaper. He and Buck bond over being trash and he gets a pic of Sly and Buck together. 

Vicar Ian goes to talk to the Squire and basically tries to (openly) suss out whether the money was a bribe or a setup or what? Like, people are fully there (including the Lady Fawnbrook and her gossipy cat wife Tabitha). They snipe at each other a bit and then the Squire reveals that he’s talked him up to the Cardinal and the Cardinal agreed that he’s such a good vicar, he should be moved to Siberia. The decision has already been made and Ian doesn’t have the pull in the church to do anything about it. Yikes. 

Before dinner, the rat butler catches Buck and asks if he has time to talk to Squire Badger. Buck agrees to go with him and he’s taken to the billiards room where the Squire is along with Harding and James Hawkins, Squire’s Hawk war buddy (a literal war hawk). Buck immediately puts his foot in his mouth by messing up the Squire’s title with his American ignorance of British peerage rules which annoys him, the elitism of it all. The Squire’s friends leave and then Buck starts talking about PR and how this whole situation has been bad PR for the Squire and it would be a shame if his PR got even worse. The suggestion of blackmail sends the Squire into a full honey badger don’t care style rage and he knocks TF out of Buck, flips the pool table, and then catches himself and scurries off. Daisy, Sly, and Gangie all hear this conversation from their positions in the house via the pipes running through the manor. Buck picks himself up and, on a 25, realizes that two of the mouse maids were hiding behind a curtain, hearing the whole thing (specifically, Edwina Thimble and Carolyn Dickory--oh like hickory dickory doc, BRENNAN) . They were playing hooky so he flips them a coin each and they all agree that no one saw or heard anything. “Two blind mice, see how they run,” he quips as they leave (sidenote, what a morbid nursery rhyme to exist in that world--to be fair, it’s pretty morbid as is).

Lucretia decides to turn the séance into a post dinner séance but still brings Daisy and Lars to see her occult room which is full of crap from, as Rekha said, “1800s Party City”. Lucretia does a hilariously vague read on Daisy and says that there’s something happening with her involving a man she knew or maybe still knows but she’s in her feelings about Sly so it kinda shakes her up. She tries to get Lucretia to charge for her “””incredible gift””” (so she can skim off the top of course) but Lucretia thinks it would be a misuse of her ~talents~. She does give Daisy an incredibly broad as to be useless even if magic exists blessing before she leaves. 

Once she does, Daisy scopes out the room (which she realizes must have been retrofitted for Lucretia and wasn’t previously a séance room) and sees that the one thing in the room that doesn’t really match the aesthetic is a giant portrait of one of the previous squire badgers. On a 24 she notices two things: (1) the painting has recently been restored with new paint and (2) the frame is bolted to the wall. She wants to check it out but Lars is right there so she makes a note to check it out later and leaves. 

Lars, being a very ride or die friend for Sly, bounds after her and basically calls her trash and tries to tempt her with garbage so she’ll lose composure and start chowing down. She drools at the sight but keeps it together and leaves. Lars runs off to tell Sly that they were a good good dog and gives him a full play by play. 

Gangie meanwhile is watching a small argument between the butler and Harding in the servant’s quarters hallway and he realizes that he’s being talked about in veiled language. The butler is questioning Gangie’s employment and Harding says that, as servants, they shouldn’t question their master and that Gangie is employed for reasons that Squire Badger is aware of and reasons he is not. Hmm. Gangie realizes that Harding knows about his past which is weird because Gangie’s criminal record doesn’t follow him. There’s no internet. So what reason would this guy have to know about him?

Gangie doesn’t like this and decides to dip and steal some silverware on the way out. Mrs. Molesley (who I’ll be calling Mrs. M from now on) helps him (lol I’m not entirely sure if she didn’t know what he was doing or if she’s just down with stealing) and says that she’s been working there since Squire Badger was in diapers (she was his nanny) and if anyone bullies Gangie, she’ll take care of them. She also offers to make him a sweater so he doesn’t get cold and she’s just so nice that Gangie has to say yes. He looks to make sure no one is around and gives her a dandelion he picked. Cute!!!

And now it’s time for dinner and our very first box of doom roll for the most terrifying encounter of all: how close you have to sit next to your bitter ex! This is of course for Sly and Daisy with higher than a 15 meaning they don’t have to sit next to each other and anything lower meaning they have to sit pretty close. It is the first BOD roll I’ve ever wanted them to fail (mmm, except maybe Adaine’s werewolf roll but that’s a different conversation). 

It’s in the 6-10 bracket which means they’re sitting across from each other (below that would have been them next to each other). Everyone is seated based on how on Squire Badger’s shitlist they are. So you have Ian at the absolute back. Sly to his right and Daisy on his left. The Buckster and Lars to the right and left after that. Then Armond (armadillo lawyer guy) and a snail guy because Brennan is a madman who cannot be stopped. Constance (Squire’s daughter) makes a toast to her dad wishing him well even though they haven’t always seen eye to eye (hmmm).

Buckster fills in Daisy on his confrontation with the Squire quietly enough that no one else hears. Daisy then turns to Sly and says she hopes they can be civil. Sly is like, “Sure Ms. DUMPSTER.” They’re the kind of exes who know exactly how to hurt each other but are also super open to being hurt. Emotional glass cannons is how Brennan describes it. 

Buckster is given a note by Harding from Squire Badger and, once dinner is over, he takes Daisy off to the side to read it. Gangie follows, unseen. Ian, who recently prayed to God and got not super clear results goes to talk to Luecretia to see if maybe ghosts can help him instead. She is, as usual, not super helpful but does rush out to get her very necessary ritual dagger and declares to everyone that if anyone sees a ghost they have to tell her. As she says this, there is a flash of lightning and, through the window, Sylvester sees just for a moment the form of his nemesis, Fletcher Cottonbotton (who is by the docks).

Anyway, Buckster reads the note. It’s a document from the Squire selling his interest in BB Industries (Buck’s oil company) to Hazel Hogswallop who is another small shareholder in BB Industries. But, in doing so, it names Josiah Jackrabbit (one of his competitors) her proxy which means he’ll be able to vote on things (and with a lot of power with all that stock).  The contract was written in fresh ink which means (1) it was probably written after their fight and (2) hasn’t been mailed yet (I smell a heist attempt). Buck rolls insight on the writing (mastermind rogue ability) and with a 27 senses that the Squire has gone off his rocker. This isn’t going to make him any money. Josiah doesn’t have enough liquid cash to pay him what this is worth. And the thing with Hazel would have taken time to set up. This has been in the works for a while and he’s been sitting on it until the time was right. And he senses, like Sly and Gangie did earlier, that someone besides the Squire is pulling the strings. 

Then Gangie suddenly hears Constance’s distressed voice through the pipes from upstairs: “Father you’re possessed! You’re a mad man! This will never work. Speak of this to me never again.” And she slams the door (Buck, Daisy, and Gangie all hear). Constance comes downstairs and Squire Badger follows, looking upset. Mrs. M checks in on him too see if he’s eaten and he kind of gruffly has her follow him (along with Mr. Harding) into the drawing room.

There is a scream. Something drops. Silence. Footsteps. A door opens. Then a voice, “My God!”

Everyone rolls initiative. Ian moves first and, upon hearing all the commotion, gathers everyone together to go towards the sound (interesting choice but sure). Daisy recognizes that the scream heard was Mrs. M but barely knows who she is. She goes towards the commotion anyway. Gangie also goes towards the scream. Buckster grabs his gun (well he says “weapon”, but it’s gotta be a gun, right?) and makes like he’s following her but actually hides. Lars and Sylvester go towards the scream. 

With everyone gathered, Ambrose opens the door. Inside they see Mrs. M, her hands covered in blood (my guess? From trying to stop the bleeding), kneeling on the ground over the dead body of the Squire. The room is a mess and stuff is scattered everywhere. There is a bloody knife in the Squire’s hand and a stab wound over his heart. Ms. M, who is distressed as hell, says there was something wrong with him. There was a flash, and she looked down and he was stabbing himself. Everyone thinks this is suspicious as hell. She was the only one in the room. Everyone looks to Sly, the famous detective who is not in the presence of a murder case in progress. What does Sly say? “Lady Lucretia. I’ve seen a ghost.”

Case Notes

I have to acknowledge how ON FIRE Grant was this episode. Like everyone was. Buck was great with the Squire. Daisy and Lars sniping at each other was fun. But man Grant had so many good lines. The “move your nose”. The heartbreak with Daisy (ugh, so sad!) And that blackout line!!! I am biased towards foxes as you can see from my avatar so I am very here for this great fox rep.

Based on the way their staredown went last ep I kinda thought Daisy was the wronged party but ugh. Slyyyyyyy. He forgave herrrrrrr. And he still went to the alter. Daisy how you could youuuuuuu?

Also, sigh, Fox and the Hound. I keep getting hit with these after the fact. 

I loved Rekha’s “Of the Chase Sapphire’s?” improv.

That racoon/mink line was so sleazy. Weird compliment but Brennan is good at being animal-racist. Sidenote, Daisy makes a comment about being careful being a fox in England which I presume is a ref to fox hunting and like the implication of that are como se dice troubling. 

Here are all the new NPCs for this ep and here’s a full NPC guide that also includes the list of names Gangie gave Buck which Buck shares with Daisy this ep.

And on that topic I can’t get over the concept of a married couple named Millie Molton and Mollie Milton. Like, did they get married solely for the bit???

The best Ian-ism of the ep was him talking about getting rejected from Siberia. Poor guy.

Fave OOC moment was everyone at the table getting aggressively patriotic in response to the Squire being dismissive to Buck. There is nothing funnier than someone singing a purposefully overwrought version of I’m Proud to Be An American. 

“It’s 2020 for us bitch!”

The moment Mrs. M said she was gonna make Gangie a sweater I was scared for her. Sweaters take a long time to get made. I was like oh no. The plot is gonna stop you from making that sweater isn’t it. I’m willing to be proven wrong (Brennan loves his maids with secrets, see: Cathilda) but she seems super sweet and if anything happens to her I’m going to be upset. 

What’s behind the painting Brennan. I know there’s a door. I know this house is full of secret tunnels and revolving bookshelves and all that. Let me see it!

One great little moment was when there was a flash of lightning and the minis for Sly and Lars like stop motion moved to look at it. Just great attention to detail. The work that gets put into this show is incredible.

Edit: A note I forgot to mention. There’s gotta be a secret door in the room where it happened, right? Like, creep in, flash of light to mess up her vision, do some shenanigans, peace out.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #mice and murder #mice and murder spoilers #the case file #(just under the wire! I had a busy week guys.)

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

(Un)Wanted Part 3

Read on Ao3 

(Un)Wanted Masterlist

A child that sees demons in every dark corner is not a child that is wanted.

A child that cries and freezes and mumbles of terrible things is not a child that is wanted.

A child that jumps and startles and hisses is not a child that is wanted.

Unwanted things are purged from the Earth.

So Virgil runs.

In other words: Virgil is an outcast, ostracized and shunned for how he was born, forced to flee an angry mob only to stumble right into a fae garden.

Pairings: LAMP, DLAMP, DLAMPR, can be platonic or romantic you decide

Warnings: Implied/Referenced torture, child abuse, and self-harm, nothing super explicit. Sympathetic Deceit and Remus. Panic attacks, anxiety attacks.

Word Count: 7,040

Words are fucking stupid if you ask Remus.

Mortals have no idea what they’re doing with them and half the time they just make shit up and expect everyone else to go along with it. They don’t know what words are supposed to mean and half the time they try and pin down something that can’t be made into a single word into one and it’s just a big mess. There is one exception.

 Feral.

 Remus isn’t quite sure what gave mortals this one stroke of genius but he’s grateful for it. Feral. Even the word sounds like chaos. Which is just Remus’s cup of snail intestines.

 Feral, or more accurately, going feral, is the closest thing a fae gets to absolute bat-shit. Which, in fairness, by mortal standards, isn’t that bat-shit. Oh, yeah, sure mortals don’t have nearly the firepower of the fae, but let’s be real, here folks, mortals perfected the clockwork of murder far better than any fae could hope to.

 Going feral means what little hold a fae has on this fucking stupid temporal plane is tenuous at best. It means that bits of their aura manifest in ways that quickly go beyond the pitiful visible spectrum that mortals can tolerate. It means shapes and colors and energies that aren’t meant to be seen by mortal eyes, all barely held together by a flexible container of mostly water. A body, if you prefer the un-fun definition.

 Going feral is the fine line between creation and destruction.

 Remus is the one who goes feral the most often, even though it’s not why you think. It’s not directly tied to emotion, not really. If it was, Patton would be going feral every two seconds. It’s not even tied to sheer raw power. As much as Remus hates to admit it, that’s probably Snakey, even if it is only through his role as Gatekeeper.

 No no no. It’s much worse than that.

 Sir Nerd-A-Lot was right when he said that each of their ‘rooms’ is a slightly different layer of reality, something mortals can’t understand because of the way they’re made in this world. Although Remus’s way of understanding it wasn’t some tender touching of hands or soft words of explanation.

 The rooms are different ways to see.

 L’s room is like a normal pair of glasses. Makes things sharper, easier to understand, clearer. Less ambiguity.

 J’s room is like looking through mist or fog. More gray areas, easier to twist the truth to what you want to see, easier to let your mind play tricks on you. Less easy to figure out exactly what’s going on.

 Patton’s room is like always being in that weird soft stage mortals always say they have when they’re really sleepy. Not tired, because of course not, words are stupid. Sleepy is soft yawns and smiles and too-long sleeves and adorable smiles that make Remus want to pinch their cheeks until they fall off. Tired is squinty eyes and muttered complaints and downing that mysterious brown liquid. Patton’s room is being sleepy, everything a little softer, sweet enough to make Remus’s teeth ache.

 His brother’s room is, uh, well. Remus really doesn’t know what makes his brother’s room that different from his when you get right down to it. It’s like…it’s like looking in two different mirrors. Princey’s room is like that mirror that always shows you what you’d like to see. It’s the one that makes your hair do whatever the fuck you want it to do or makes your eyes glimmer like whatever the fuck you want them to glimmer like. It’s dreamy and it’s whatever and Princey seems to like it. And yeah, okay, Remus isn’t too big to admit that his brother’s good at what he does, even if it’s a little boring for his taste.

 Remus’s room is like looking into a mirror and the mirror looking back into you.

 Remus doesn’t really give a shit about what mortals would rather tell themselves about what it is they really want or don’t want. He’s with Snakey on that one; mortals don’t really know what it is they want, and if they do, they rarely say it out loud. That’s okay. Remus can do that.

 Remus lurks in the darkness, where mortals would rather not look. He delights in the twisted little things that straggle across their brains. It’s so much more interesting, looking at the absolutely horrible things that drift through their little minds and how much it makes them squirm. He’ll never understand why they try so hard to pretend they don’t exist, they make things so much more interesting.

 And that’s the problem.

 Remus is tied to those dark little things and sometimes…sometimes those dark little things don’t stay so dark and little.

 Sometimes they come out and they’re darker in the daylight. Sometimes they take that darkness and force it somewhere it should never go. Sometimes they try and pretend that their darkness is other people’s fault.

 That pisses Remus off.

 Mortals hurt each other. That’s what they do. Sure, they also do a whole lot of other things but mortals feel. That’s what they’re built to do. So it’s inevitable that they’ll get hurt. But the darkness it takes to blame someone or something else for your darkness? That type of darkness makes Remus’s stomach curl.

 Literally. He can feel it squirming around in there.

 Or maybe that’s just the tentacles.

 Listen, mortal forms and mortal-like forms are so stupid, okay? There’s no place to put anything and Remus has to make do.

 When he goes feral, well…different story.

 Remus hasn’t gone feral in a while. Not really. Not like this.

 Not like the agony that was pushed into him by the snake, not like the ants that crawled around in his bones, not like the way it stripped him of himself, layer by layer, until he could only smile until his cheeks ached.

 There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain.

 Then he’d showed up in the garden and seen. Seen this tiny tiny mortal that should never have this much pain. Seen the lines drawn in burned wood in its head, seen the fear that clung to the little thing like water clings to a dead leaf, seen the marks.

 And then they had been so cold.

 Mortals aren’t supposed to be cold. They’re fiery little beasties, even the prissy ones. Their blood runs hot and their little heads like to run themselves silly and they have an awful tendency to burn themselves up with just the slightest push.

 V shivered. V shook. V trembled and his skin had been so icy Remus had been teetering on the edge of going feral before he learned that other mortals did this to V.

 He hadn’t really tried to stop it after that.

 When he had V in his arms, it was better. He could feel V’s darkness scrabbling around inside his head, had been able to wrap his arms around it, hold it tight, feel so much and try and make it settle down.

 Double-edged sword, that was.

 Here’s the thing. Here’s the fucking problem.

 V’s carrying around darkness that isn’t his.

 Whatever monsters did this to him—he shouldn’t fucking call them monsters, monsters were better than this—made him carry around their darkness. Not his. Remus doesn’t even fucking know what darkness is V’s and what darkness has been made V’s. It’s like they picked one person, one person, and made them responsible for everyone’s darkness.

 Mortals don’t like darkness.

 Remus can’t imagine what they must have done if they gave their darkness a singular, corporeal, punishable form.

 Well, no. He can imagine. That’s the fucking problem.

 That’s the main reason why he pulled V aside and told him that, uh, maybe going to his room wasn’t the best idea. Don’t get him wrong, if V wants to Remus will sure as hell take him, that’s cool, but uh…might be a bad time. Thankfully, V didn’t seem too bothered by it, well…not more bothered. Remus wasn’t about to look a gift gulper eel in the mouth.

 Seriously. Uma likes to eat some weird shit.

 The lake is Remus’s favorite part of the forest, just because it’s the only place he really gets to work with his brother. Princey’s great at making everything else but like…it gets boring. Plus, they work better together anyway, even when they don’t agree all the time.

 V’s got a much better appreciation for his stuff anyway.

 Speaking of V, he’s sitting at the edge of the lake, knees tucked up to his chest, idly toying with a branch that drifted over to the shore. Remus paddles over, using his tentacles to keep him afloat as he cocks his head.

 “Find something interesting?”

 V shrugs. “It’s just a stick.”

 …yeah, but like…it could be something else.

 “Wanna play with it?”

 V’s brow wrinkles. “How do you play with a stick?”

 Ignoring the rush of what fucking mortal child doesn’t know how to play with anything and everything, Remus grins and whistles. A few seconds later the water’s surface stirs as something big trundles up to the surface.

 “Ollie!”

 The kraken burbles, wrapping Remus in an arm and giving him a light squeeze. Then it notices V, curled up on the shore, and hums, the water rippling all around it, as it moves toward the edge.

 “Be careful,” Remus scolds as it pulls him with, “don’t beach yourself.”

 Oliver protests lightly, before huffing and reaching out to lay one tentacle in the shallows. V smiles—Remus is so fucking happy V’s smiling now, okay? It’s so good—and waves. Oliver pokes the end of the tentacle out of the water and waves back.

 “Your name is Ollie?”

 “I call him Oliver,” Remus says, patting the tentacle still around his waist.

 “Hi, Oliver,” V says softly, “it’s nice to meet you.”

 The kraken rumbles happily, reaching out for V.

 “Hey!” Remus lightly smacks the tentacle. “Ask first!”

 “A-ask what?”

 “He wants to hug you.” Sure enough, the tentacle near V twitches slightly, water pouring off the sides as it raises out of the lake. V watches it move warily. “he won’t hurt you, V, he’s sweet.”

 Oliver burbles again.

 “You don’t gotta,” Remus says quickly, “if you don’t wanna.”

 V reaches out one hand, trembling slightly as the kraken reaches out to meet him. He pats the arm. Remus grins as Oliver gently taps him back.

 “You wanna play with him?”

 “How?”

 “Throw the stick.”

 “L-like a dog?”

 “You throw dogs?” At V’s horrified face, Remus bursts out laughing. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Yeah, V. Ollie likes playing fetch.”

 V’s brow wrinkles adorably. “Really?”

 Remus grins. “Ollie!” The kraken turns its head to look up at him. “Toss!”

 The kraken rears back the arm and hurls Remus across the lake.

 “Wheee!”

 There’s nothing quite like being flung through the air and splashing down into a nice big body of water. Using his own tentacles to propel him back over to the other side, Oliver trills and reaches for him again.

 “Ask,” Remus chides lightly, only to giggle and pat the arm that curls around his waist again. “You just want to hug? Okay.”

 He turns to V, whose mouth is wide open. “See? Fetch.”

 “That…that’s not normally how fetch works.”

 Remus shrugs. “Ollie likes it.”

 “Do..do you like it?”

 “Yeah, I like it. It’s fun!”

 Oliver reaches out slowly for V, laying the arm next to him on the shore. V glances at Remus before carefully reaching for the stick and nervously offering it to Oliver. Oliver takes it and passes it to Remus who grins.

 “Ready?”

 V nods.

 “Ollie, toss!”

 This time, as Oliver hurls him across the lake, Remus chucks the stick as hard as he can away from him, laughing when Oliver trills and dives after it. As Remus swims back, he sees V scramble to his feet, peering anxiously into the distance.

 “Don’t worry,” Remus calls, treading water, “he’ll find it and come back. He always does.”

 Sure enough, not a few seconds later, and the water parts, revealing a very pleased Oliver and a stick clutched delicately in one of his arms. V’s eyes widen as Oliver holds it out, taking the proffered stick carefully.

 “See?” Remus beams. “Fetch.”

 “Fetch,” V echoes breathlessly, “good job, Oliver.”

 “You wanna do it again?” V nods. “Great. Chuck the stick at me.”

 “Wait, but...what if it hits you?”

 “I’m a fucking fae, V, and it’s a fucking stick. Chuck it at me.”

 Remus catches the stick even if he has to lift himself out of the water to do it. Oliver burbles and Remus nods, letting Oliver curl around his waist again.

 “V,” he calls, “you wanna tell him this time?”

 Glancing back and forth between the two of them, V nods. “Toss!”

 Oliver launches Remus with more enthusiasm than he has in a while. So much so that Remus laughs the whole way across the lake and the whole way back.

 “I think he’s trying to impress you,” he remarks when Oliver zips back and forth faster and faster.

 “I’m impressed.”

 Oliver lays the stick on the grass and reaches out for V. V pats the arm only for his eyes to widen when Oliver reaches further and rumbles.

 “He wants to pick you up, V,” Remus explains.

 “D-does he want to throw me?”

 “I’m sure he’d love it if you let him,” Remus says, quickly continuing when V balks, “but I think right now he really just wants to hold you.”

 V still looks unsure. Remus taps his fingers against the arm around his waist, thinking.

  Hmmm…

  Oh hey wait I’ve fucking got it.

 “V?”

 “Y-yeah?”

 “You wanna ride?”

 V’s eyes widen. “Ride?”

 “Yeah.” Remus gestures around. “Lake’s fucking huge, and there’s cool shit everywhere. Plus, Ollie likes you a lot and he’d be real happy to give you a ride if you wanted.”

 Oliver trills in agreement.

 “…okay,” V mumbles eventually, “can I…can I have a ride?”

 “Sure you can. You wanna swim out and let me help you up or you want Ollie to set you on his head?”

 “I—I can do it.”

 “Cool.” Oliver sets Remus on his head and Remus shifts around a bit, trying to work out where the most secure place for V to sit would be. He glances up when V carefully steps into the water, having removed his boots. Oliver shifts around slowly, arranging his tentacles into stairs that V can use to get up.

 “D-duke?”

 “Yeah?”

 “H-how do I get up?”

 “You can climb, climb his arms.”

 V tilts his head. “What if I hurt him?”

 It makes Remus chuckle. “V, you’re tiny. You’re small and light and you’re a mortal. You probably couldn’t hurt him if you tried, and he sure as hell wouldn’t be doing this if it was gonna hurt. You’re all good, climb up.”

 V climbs, slowly and carefully, always wary about where he’s putting his hands or his feet, until he steps onto Oliver’s head and sinks down next to Remus.

 “Good job!” Remus shuffles a little closer. “Ollie’ll go slow for you, but if you wanna hang onto something, you just lemme know, okay?”

 V nods. Remus pats the head under them.

 “Okay! You be nice, yeah? You’re carrying precious cargo here.”

 Remus bites back a laugh at V’s nervous squeak when Oliver rumbles, starting to move. He scrabbles a little for a handhold.

 “Here,” Remus suggests, flopping onto his stomach, “get low. Less chance of falling off.”

 V just curls into himself, trying to hold onto something. Remus frowns, then carefully sits up as Oliver finishes turning toward the rest of the lake.

 “You can hang onto me if you want,” he offers, “I’m not going anywhere.”

 “Can I?”

 “Mhm.” Remus shifts a little closer, opening his arms. “Or I can hang onto you.”

 Nothing feels better than the satisfaction of having V crawl into his lap, letting Remus cuddle him with his back against Remus’s chest, tentacles hanging onto Oliver. Oliver rumbles happily, lazily swimming around the edge of the lake. As they go, he can feel V start to relax, some of the tension seeping out as he slumps against Remus. Remus smiles, closing his eyes to just feel V not being so afraid, for once, feel that pain start to lessen, even if it’s just the smallest bit. Let a little bit of the darkness be chased away.

 By the time they’re back to the familiar shore, Oliver eases gingerly into the shallows and hums. Remus chuckles.

 “Good workout today, huh, buddy?”

 Another rumble.

 “Come on,” he mutters to V, “you want me to help you down or you got it?”

 “I got it.”

 Remus opens his arms and watches V climb back down just as gingerly, giving Oliver one last pat before sitting on the shore. An arm wraps around Remus’s waist and squeezes.

 “Yeah, yeah, I had fun too, buddy. You go eat something?”

 Oliver gives one last rumble and disappears below the surface of the lake. Remus hauls himself out and flops down on the grass beside V, stretching lazily. Snakey’s got a point with this whole sun-warmed surface thing. He can feel himself relaxing.

 “Thank you.”

 At V’s mumble, Remus opens one eye. “Sure, you’re welcome. You have fun?”

 “Mhm.”

 “I’m glad.”

 There’s another stretch of silence. Remus sits up, looking at how V stares at the lake. It’s one of the only times V’s brow isn’t furrowed. Remus decides he likes it better than way.

 “I like the lake,” V confesses quietly, almost too quiet for Remus to hear. “It’s nice.”

 The note of childish wonder in his voice makes Remus feel…weird. It’s not a bad weird, it’s not necessarily a good weird either though. It’s just…weird. Like there’s something fluffy in his chest, something that really wants to make V always sound like this.

 “Good.” Remus shifts a little closer. “What do you like about it?”

 V thinks for a moment, tucking his knees up to his chest. “I like the water.”

 “The water?”

 A small nod. “Water is good.”

 Something changes.  A little darkness colors V’s tone and Remus sits up a little straighter.

 “…’good?’” He tests the word out on his tongue. “Why is water good, V?”

 “Because it isn’t fire.” V curls in on himself. “Fire is bad.”

 The fluff is gone.

  Pain pain pain pain there’s flames rising higher and higher as the crowd grows more and more restless there are sparks and smoke and the wood burns slowly so slowly so slowly the flames creep higher and higher and the man holds a torch aloft and it burns it burns it burns it’s getting closer no please not now—

 “Duke! Duke!”

 Remus growls, the power seeping through him. How dare they, how fucking dare they, the darkness rolls off in waves, crashing, building, flowing higher and higher and higher and—

 “Shh, shh, you stay behind me, okay?”

 It runs deeper. Pushes. Pulls. Opens his mouth. Tilts his head back. The tentacles writhe. The lake trembles. So much. So much.

 “Duke, duke, I need you to listen to me.”

 …Princey?

 What’s Princey doing here?

 “Duke. Duke. You need to stop, you’re scaring V.”

  V.

 Remus growls again, closing his eyes and swallowing the darkness. It sinks into a pit in his chest and he swallows, pushing it back into the depths and away from him. Away from V.

 He growls, curling in on himself, willing the mass of tentacles to behave, settle down, holding himself tightly and trying to dissipate the extra energy.

 “Good…that’s it. Both of you just have a breather, okay?”

 Remus opens his eyes. He’s by the lake. There’s no one here to hurt anyone. He’s alright. They’re alright. He takes one more breath and the last of the mania settles.

  V.

 He looks over and regret burns a hole in his chest. The prince stands there, having pulled V behind him, one hand held out towards Remus, the other hovering protectively over V. V’s curled in on himself so tightly he can barely see him behind the prince.

 Fuck. He fucked up. Did he…

 “…is he blind?” Remus manages, unable to tear his eyes away from this poor poor thing.

 “No,” the prince says softly, “he’s not.”

 “Fuck.”

 “Yeah.” The prince looks at him with a soft fury. “Come on, Re, you know better.”

 “It hurts, Ro,” Remus mutters, unable to stop himself from slipping into the nickname, “it…it’s fucking painful.”

 “Does it hurt still?”

 “Like maggots crawling under my skin.”

 The prince winces sympathetically. “How do you think it is for V?”

 “I know,” Remus mutters angrily, “I’m pissed about that too.”

 They both stop, looking at V huddled on the ground, shaking and mumbling something. Fuck. Fuck, what has Remus done?

 They just fucking got him feeling safe, he just got comfortable asking for things, hell he’s just started being able to sleep in his room…did Remus fuck all of that up?

 “…ke.”

 Remus blinks, straining to hear. The prince does too, turning his head to look down at V. Neither speaks.

 “…ke…d…ke…”

 Remus’s chest clenches.

 “…duke…duke…”

 The prince drops to one knee, reaching out to gather V close. “It’s alright, V, breathe…shh, you’re alright, sweetheart, no one’s hurt.”

 “Duke…”

 “He’s alright, sweetheart, he’s okay.”

 “Duke.”

 The way V’s voice cracks hurts almost as much as going feral did. Remus watches helplessly as V rocks himself back and forth, his arms wrapped so tightly around himself that he can hardly see where one ends and the other begins. He keeps shaking his head, mumbling ‘duke’ over and over.

 The prince glances at Remus then back to V. “…do you want the duke, sweetheart?”

 “…d-duke…”

 Remus swallows. Please, please let this be right.

 “...V?”

 V keens, one of his hands slowly reaching out. Remus scrambles forward, almost knocking his brother out of the way. The prince merely huffs. Remus stares at V, hoping, hoping…

 “V, can you hear me?”

 “Duke?”

 “Yeah, V, it’s me, I’m—I’m sorry.”

 “Duke.”

 “Can I—“

 Remus doesn’t get to finish his sentence. V doesn’t quite throw himself into Remus, but it’s close. Remus wraps around him immediately, tentacles and all, curling in on V as V clings to him, tighter, tighter, tighter.

 “Oh, you two,” he hears the prince murmur distantly, “what will we do with you?”

 Remus doesn’t much care what his brother thinks right now. All he cares about is having V safe in his arms and alive and warm, holding onto him tightly. V keeps sobbing out ‘duke,’ over and over, slowly growing less and less frantic. The prince sits there, gently stroking his hand through Remus’s hair.

 It takes a while—much fucking longer than Remus would like—to finally get everyone to settle down. They slump there, on the ground, still curled around each other. The prince huffs a laugh, ruffling Remus’s hair before standing up.

 “I think you two,” he murmurs, “should talk, hmm?”

 Remus nods, still holding V tightly. The prince gives him a nod and vanishes back into the forest.

 “…V?”

 V shifts a little. “Mm?”

 “Can we talk about, uh, what just happened?”

 A few seconds pass and V scoots further into Remus’s lap. “…can we stay like this?”

 “Of course,” Remus says instantly, “we can stay like this. I, uh, I wanna apologize.”

 “For what?”

 Remus swallows. “Going feral. Scaring you. Almost blinding you.”

 There’s a moment of silence.

 “…I’m not mad at you.”

 “You’re not?”

 He feels V’s head shake against his neck. “It—I—mmphf.”

 “Take your time,” Remus says quickly, “I’m not gonna let go if you don’t want.”

 “Don’t…”

 He squeezes. “I won’t.”

 V is the perfect little weight in his lap. Soft, not too heavy, just this side of too warm, cuddling into him with the persistence of a snuggle-deprived jellyfish.

 Oh, V should totally meet the school of jellyfish. He’d love them.

 “…no one’s ever done that before.”

 V’s voice is so quiet that for a moment, Remus isn’t even sure he’s spoken. Then he shifts again.

 “No one’s ever done that for me.”

 “…go feral?”

 V shakes his head. “…be protective.”

 Oh, this is not the time to be making such broken, heartfelt confessions because Remus can and will get pissed all over again at everything and everyone that made V think he wasn’t worth protecting.

 “…oh, little monster…”

 If V doesn’t like the pet name, he gives no indication. In fact…V almost burrows into him. Remus tightens his grip again, rocking V back and forth the way he remembers Patton doing.

 “I—I’ve never had—“ V gasps against his shoulder— “I don’t know how—it—I—“

 “Shh, little monster,” Remus burbles, trying really really fucking hard to remember how to do this, “you, uh, you just breathe, okay? I’m right here. You don’t have to know things.”

 “—I don’t wanna be afraid,” V manages, “I don’t wanna be afraid.”

 “You don’t have to be, little monster, you don’t.”

 “Y-you—“

 “Hang on, little monster,” Remus interrupts gently when V’s breaths start to get faster again, “you gotta slow down, come on…”

 They breathe together.

 “…yeah?”

 “You make me feel safe,” V blurts, “and—and I don’t wanna…I don’t wanna not.”

 His fingers tap out an anxious rhythm on Remus’s back.

 “Feral is scary.”

 “Feral is scary,” Remus murmurs in agreement, “and, uh, I’m trying not to do it.”

 He pulls back and gently nuzzles into V’s hair.

 “Don’t wanna scare you.”

 “No one’s ever been angry for me before,” V whispers, “it’s…it’s nice.”

 “Well, I’m not gonna stop being angry at them,” Remus mutters, “but I will get better at not scaring you.”

 “I-it’s okay.”

 “No, it’s not, little monster,” Remus corrects gently, “the others are right. I could hurt you going feral way more than I would hurt anyone who deserves it. So I gotta be better about that. For you.”

 “For me?”

 Remus clutches him tighter. “For you.”

 He’s being serious. Absolute fucking stone right now. This cinched it. He could’ve hurt V really fucking bad by going feral right then. He knows he can’t risk that happening again, so he’s gotta figure his shit out real fast.

 There’s one person he knows will be able to help him.

 L raises an eyebrow when Remus appears next to his desk. “Well, this certainly is unexpected. Is something the matter?”

 “Yeah.” Remus shuffles. L’s room makes him feel like sandpaper. “I need your help not going feral.”

 L blinks. “Well, that’s not what I was expecting. I must highlight the fact that suppressing your nature is not a long-term solution.”

 “I’m not trying to stop it permanently. I just…” Remus twists his hands together. “I fucked up earlier.”

 L sits. “Tell me?”

 Remus explains what happened, from the fetch to the ride to learning that one of the reasons that fucking hurt so much was that they burned—

 “I see,” L interrupts stiffly, his own hands starting to clench, “and I am…proud of you, Duke.”

 Remus blinks. “Wait, what? Why?”

 “Of your restraint,” L mutters, “and of the fact that you recognized that this was a problem and you have come to try and find a solution.”

 Rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, Remus gnaws on his bottom lip, trying to relieve the extra energy. Going feral twice in one day is not a good idea.

 “Don’t do that,” L says.

 “Do what?”

 “Bite.” L taps the side of his mouth. “Not healthy.”

 Remus rolls his eyes. “it’s not like I’m gonna bleed out, L.”

 “No, you won’t,” L says, “but it’s still not a healthy coping mechanism.”

 “So?”

 “So—“ L crosses his arms— “you’re trying to be better for V. V will very much be hurt by something like that.”

 Ah.

 Fuck, that’s a good reason.

 “Okay,” Remus mutters, “okay. What can I do?”

 “What helps you calm down normally,” L asks, “when you go feral?”

 “Fuck, I don’t know,” Remus sighs, “I don’t—it’s not—it’s not like it’s happened recently!”

 “It’s V, isn’t it?”

 “What?”

 “V.” L motions for Remus to sit down, folding his hands in his lap. “V has…a lot of emotional trauma. You are perhaps the most linked with emotional trauma.”

 “Isn’t that Pat-Pat’s job?”

 L shakes his head. “Pat works with emotion, what is currently being experienced. You, however, and your brother, are more closely tied to memory.”

 “So…”

 “So you, more than any of us, even your brother, are being affected by this change.”

 “But it’s not his fault.”

 “No, and neither is it yours. It simply is.” Remus buries his face in his hands. “Not the answer you were looking for, I’m sure.”

 “Really fucking wasn’t.”

 “You didn’t answer my question,” L prompts, “what normally helps you calm down?”

 “Fuck, I don’t know! Calming down isn’t really my strong suit. That’s my birthday suit.”

 L pinches the bridge of his nose. “Focus, please.”

 Remus sits back in the chair. What helps him calm down?

 Well…

 “…safe,” Remus mumbles, “safe makes me calm down.”

 “When you feel safe?”

 He shakes his head. “When V is safe.”

 L makes a noise of understanding. “Your ‘going feral’ is caused by the pain you experience when V is under stress, caused by his past trauma. Thus whenever you can remind yourself that he is safe, and no longer in danger, it helps you snap out of it.”

 “But now I’m the danger.”

 “Are you trying to hurt V?”

 “What?” Remus leaps to his feet, the air crackling. L sits, impassive as always. “No!”

 “Are you willingly putting V in situations where you know he will be upset?”

 “What the fuck is—“

 “Are you?”

 “No!”

 “When you are in a place where you could hurt V,” L continues, still smooth as fucking glass in his chair, “do you try and distance yourself so you do not?”

 Oh. Remus gets it now.

 “…yeah.”

 “Then,” L says firmly, “you are not the danger you believe yourself to be.”

 Remus sits back in the chair slowly. “…said I make him feel safe.”

 “You do,” L says, “more than most of us do, I would guess. I imagine that…having someone be as protective as you are is something quite foreign to V.”

 “Shouldn’t be.”

 “No. It shouldn’t.”

 Remus scrubs his hands over his face, wishing that this was fucking easy, that they could just…wipe them all out. Make the fear go away. Make the scars disappear.

 But they can’t.

 “What can I do, then,” Remus mumbles, “it—it wasn’t so bad today because Princey showed up.”

 “Having another person helped?”

 “No, well, kind of.” Remus twists his hands together again. “…made sure he pulled V outta the way.”

 “Mm.”

 There’s a few moments of silence while L thinks, idly tapping a finger against his wrist.

 “I have noticed,” he says after a while, “that the times when you are most likely to ‘go feral,’ so to speak, coincide with times when V is experiencing particularly high levels of stress.”

 Remus nods.

 “You have also stated that when V feels safe, and perhaps when you are able to make him feel safe, you’re able to calm down faster.”

 Another nod. L’s fucking good at problem-solving.

 “Do you think, then,” L says, “that if we were to help you get better at calming V down, you would, in turn, be able to calm yourself faster?”

 “L, you’re a fucking genius.”

 L blushes too, did you know that? “Well, I…”

 “So what do I do?”

 “Right.” L adjusts his tie. “What do you know already?”

 Remus thinks. “He, uh, he likes to be asked before anything happens, including being moved or touched.”

 “Good. What else?”

 “…he doesn’t like loud noises, or bright lights.”

 “Good.”

 “No fire.”

 “Mm.”

 “He likes the lake?”

 “Does it help him calm down?”

 “…dunno.”

 L nods. “Anything else?”

 Remus thinks. What else, what else…

 “Having his eyes closed,” he says carefully, “helped before, didn’t it? Stopped him from getting super overwhelmed?”

 “That is possible,” L says, “but it is unlikely to be something you try first, as it would require a decent amount of cognitive awareness or physical contact to achieve, both of which are not frequent in times of high stress.”

 “What can I do, then?”

 “How likely do you think it is that you will be able to speak calmly?”

 Remus snorts. The corner of L’s mouth quirks up.

 “Mm. Then it might be better to try something else, then.”

 “Something else?”

 L tilts his head, looking at Remus with that stare that makes him feel like L can see through him. “I have also noticed that with you, V does not seem as…averse to physical contact.”

 Wait, what?

 “When you held him in the garden, when he first arrived,” L says, “and when you rubbed his back. He was not afraid of you, no more than he was startled. Admittedly, this was during a prolonged period of high stress.”

 “W-wait, you’re right, earlier, he—“ Remus wraps his arms around himself— “by the lake, he…he asked for me. He…”

 “He initiated contact?”

 “…yeah.”

 A soft smile comes over L’s face. “I’m pleased.”

 “Why?”

 “Because you, perhaps more than the rest of us,” L continues, “are very eager to protect V. So much so that it leads to…”

 “Going feral.”

 “Indeed. And if V chooses to seek comfort from you…” L raises his eyebrows pointedly.

 “…then…then I can do it that way.”

 “Correct.”

 L gets up, reaching for a glass of water. He holds it out to Remus who takes it carefully.

 “Why’s this so fucking hard?”

 “Because nothing like this is easy, Duke,” L answers, fetching a glass for himself, “for anyone involved. I, for one, am impressed.”

 “…by?”

 “You.”

 “Me?”

 “Yes,” L says, “and how much you have…decided to change your approach.”

 Ah. Yeah.

 Yeah, the last time they found a mortal that had been…mistreated—apparently, Pat-Pat had an issue with Remus calling it ‘super fucked up’ even though it was—they’d died just on the outskirts of the garden.

 “Not with V,” Remus mumbles, “I want V to stay. They were already gone.”

 A few moments of silence pass, then there’s a soft whoosh.

 L sighs. “You can come out, J.”

 J strides out of the shadows, part of Remus’s mind trying valiantly to convince him that he’s been there the whole time. He hasn’t, Remus fucking knows he hasn’t, but still.

 “Where’s V?”

 “With Pat,” J answers smoothly, “eating.”

 “Good,” L says, “difficult emotional experiences should be followed by food.”

 Remus winces. He can almost feel the fucking room get colder. J’s head tilts.

 “I’m sure I know exactly what you’re referring to,” he says softly, “and I wouldn’t appreciate an explanation.”

 L, the asshole, just looks at Remus. Remus sighs and explains again.

 J takes one deep breath and lets it out slowly. Remus bows his head, waiting. Then he feels gloved fingers carding through it and he shudders.

 “Did you need something?” he hears L ask.

 “I was out for a walk,” J says, still stroking Remus’s hair, “by the lake. Something felt…off. So I tried to find the duke.”

 “‘M here.”

 “I can see that.”

 “Needed L’s help.”

 “And did you get it?” Remus nods, not wanting to jar J’s hand loose. “Good.”

 “We do just have the theory, however,” L muses, “and no practice.”

 “I may be able to help with that.”

 Remus looks up when J’s fingers leave his hair. “I’m listening.”

 It’s later, much later, when Remus finally leaves L’s room. The forest is twinkling, his brother sitting crosslegged on his favorite stump. Remus hugs him tightly, thanks him for being there earlier.

 “Of course, Re,” his brother murmurs, “and thank you for being there.”

 “I will be,” Remus says, “I will be.”

 It’s not much later when Remus is walking back to the clearing and a scream rips through the air.

  V.

 The door is locked. It’s locked tight. Remus can’t push. He can’t push. He can’t ruin this.

 The scream keeps going.

 “V! V!”

  Keeps going.

 It aches. It aches and the longer it goes, the longer it hurts, the harder it gets for Remus to keep from breaking the door down. Then a flurry of footsteps and—

 “V!”

 Remus catches V as he barrels out of his room, barely having enough time to open his arms and catch his balance. V’s eyes, wide with panic, settle on Remus’s face.

 “V,” Remus repeats softly, “V.”

 “…duke?”

 “Yeah. Yeah, little monster, it’s Duke.”

 “…duke.”

 Remus eases them to the ground, keeping his arms firmly around V. He draws him gently into his lap, closing his eyes and burying his face in V’s hair, feeling V curl up in his lap, still shaking, still shivering. A bolt of pain shoots through his chest when he feels the raw cry against his throat and his arms tighten around V, trying in vain to take some of that pain and push it into himself. V so desperately needs to stay mortal, to stay V, to feel. The last thing he wants is for this to destroy V beyond repair.

 “It’s alright, little monster, I got you, you’re safe, I’m not going to let anything hurt you, shh, just keep breathing for me.”

 He keeps up the litany of calm reassurances and comforting noises, rocking V back and forth on the ground. V’s shuddering breaths echo in the still clearing. His hands and arms tremble violently against Remus’s back and he can’t tell whether it’s because they’re holding onto him so tightly that his muscles are shaking or if he’s panicking so much he can’t stop shaking. The monster growling inside Remus’s chest starts snarling when V shudders harder.

  No. Not now. He’s safe. Keep him safe.

 Remus breathes. Tells the beastie in his chest to pipe the fuck down. Wraps himself around V and holds him close.

  Safe. Safe. Safe.

  They’re safe.

 “...V?”

 V mumbles, burying his cold nose in Remus’s neck.

 “Hey, V,” Remus murmurs, “can we, uh, can we get you out of the forest? It’s gonna get cold before too long, little monster.”

 V nods, not moving.

 “…can I carry you then, little monster?”

 Another nod.

 Scooping V gingerly into his arms, Remus hesitates. He doesn’t want to take V into his room, not now, but he also doesn’t want to push V too far, to push his way into V’s room.

 “V? Little monster?” V moves a little bit. “Can we go into your room?”

 “…stay?”

 “Yeah, V, I’ll stay with you, little monster.”

 Remus carries him inside, gently sitting on the floor with V still in his lap when he flinches at the noise the bed makes. He uses his tentacles to hold them slightly off the floor. He keeps rocking them slowly back and forth, murmuring safe, safe, safe.

 “…safe?”

 “Yeah, V.” Remus swallows. “We’re safe.”

 “You promise?”

 “I promise.” He adjusts his grip. “…you wanna talk about it? It’s okay if you don’t.”

 V mumbles something.

 “I can’t hear you, little monster,” Remus murmurs, shifting a little, “can you say it again?”

 “…just names.”

 “Names?”

 V clutches Remus’s arms tightly. “…names they used to call me.”

 “Like what? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he adds hastily.

 V hooks his chin over Remus’s shoulder, still breathing hard. Remus glances around.

 “Can I get you something to drink?” V nods. “Still want me to keep hold of you?”

 “…please?”

 “Sure.”

 Tentacles are useful things. When V has a glass of water in his hands, Remus lets him sit back a little, drinking carefully as Remus runs his hands over V’s back. V’s eyes drift closed and he lets out a tired mumble.

 “Sleepy?”

 “Mm.”

 Remus hums, letting V collapse a little bit more into his lap. He turns V slightly so that he can keep hold of the water.

 “…said I was a demon.”

 “What?”

 “The…others,” V mumbles, fear and weariness warring in his tone, “said I was a demon. That I was…cursed.”

 Words are so fucking stupid.

 Mortals are so fucking stupid.

 “You’re not cursed, V,” Remus says firmly, “promise. We’d be able to tell if you were.”

 “…really?”

 “What the hell made them say you were cursed?”

 V hesitates, little ripples appearing in the water. Remus tugs him closer, murmuring safe, safe, safe.

 “…my eyes,” V whispers, “they said my eyes showed I was…evil.”

 Now that.

 That is truly the fucking stupidest thing Remus has ever heard.

 V giggles softly when Remus says as much, letting Remus stroke a hand through his hair and wrap his other arm firmly around his waist. He slips a hand slowly under V’s tunic, pressing against his tummy and rubbing.

 “Mm,” V hums, “…warm.”

 “Good,” Remus says, “good, V.”

 He shakes his head. So fucking stupid.

 “You’re not cursed, V. You’re not evil. You’re not a demon. Words are fucking stupid and mortals are stupid too.”

 “…they are?”

 “In big groups? Absolutely.” Remus sets his chin protectively on top of V’s head. “You are a smart one. And that’s good.”

 “I’m good?”

 The vulnerable shake in V’s voice coaxes Remus to guide V’s gaze upward.

 “You are,” he says firmly, brushing the hair out of V’s violet, violet eyes. “And your eyes are fucking stunning.”

 He chuckles when V flushes, trying to hide his face in Remus’s neck again.

 “Princey must’ve had fun with you, hmm?”

 “Still is,” comes the mumble.

 “He’s not hurting you, is he?”

 “…no, I’m just…not used to it.”

 Remus hums, closing his eyes. The arm around V’s waist squeezes tightly. At the breath that sounds almost torn out of him, V relaxes.

 “…is that what Oliver’s hugs feel like?”

 Grinning, Remus squeezes him tighter. “You want to find out tomorrow?”

 “…please?”

 “Of course, little monster.”

 V’s not cursed.

V’s not a demon.

 And V’s eyes are gorgeous.

 Words are just fucking stupid.

Taglist: @cali-the-dreamer @frxgprince @potereregina @reddstardust @gattonero17 @iamhereforthegayshit @thefingergunsgirl @awkwardandanxiousfander @princemesscharming @marshmallow-fluffy @creative-lampd-liberties @djpurple3 @winterswrandomness @cohesiveanxiety @sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes @iminyourfandom @arodynamic-enby @meandmacats @the-sunshine-dims @whydoifeeltheneedtoorganizestuff @sweet-hibiscus-tea-art @bullet-tothefeels @frida0043 @mk-wastebin @full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind @such-a-dumbass @demoniccheese83 @pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious  @firefinch-ember @fandomssaremysoul

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#sanders sides #fic #dragonbabbles #virgil sanders #remus sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #janus sanders #deceit sanders #fae au #lamp #dlamp #dlampr #platonic lamp #platonic dlamp #platonic dlampr #sympathetic remus #sympathetic deceit #sympathetic light sides

[awesome-cookies-and-cream]

Reki and Langa’s dynamic

It’s speculation at my part and a shameless rant on what i like about sk8 just to get it off my chest I’ve been so fixated help

it’s 5am I’m at uni and i have a shit ton to do, am I really gonna make an essay about sk8 instead? yes abso-fucking-lutely. strap on to your metaphorical skateboards kids. this is going to be long ride

this isn’t to call out anyone lol so in case you get that impression I’m sorry. I understand everyone is out to interpret media in whatever they like and that’s fine, but sometimes i feel like either some missed some points of the story? anyway here are my thoughts tho

alright so what i absolutely love about sk8 is how they didn’t make anyone into a genius.Genius is a mockery of the hardships everyone does to attain that level of skills. And no Langa is not a genius or a prodigy which I will explain later. I’ve seen enough shounen animes back in the day and usually it’s ‘annoying heart of gold beginner vs. calm and collected genius’ they usually hate each other’s guts and bicker all the time though secretly, deep down care for each other but would rather die than admit it dynamic. While I’m glad we’re moving past that, I really thought Reki and Langa would be like that so....

imagine my surprise when Langa was the ‘beginner’ in skating. He has the potential to be a second sasuke here lol. (blue, handsome, cool) but no he isn’t. he’s an adorable idiot, an airhead, head empty only skating dude and i love it. 

Reki as well. He could have been the usual protagonist. (sucks at his sport, loud, hardworking, and by the power of friendship he suddenly beats everyone else which i think is pretty overused at this point, don’t you think?) some people complain how Reki despite being the MC isn’t given screentime and hasn’t won a single beef. (and sure that’s true. he should have won some and langa lose some but we only have 12 eps so lol) but he’s not the usual protagonist you know? and sk8 isn’t about winning. if it was, I think they would have focused on the techniques. the hows and the what to do.

Idk if you noticed, but sports anime with winning in its goal would often explain in detail certain techniques. (see haikyuu) but shows like Free and Yuri on Ice isn’t exactly talking about how to win that seriously as Haikyuu did. It’s more focusing on the feelings and how their lives are affected with their passion for this sport. it’s about the character development!!! and i think SK8 is something like that too. It explores the character’s feelings rather than sport. (like what i tell my sister, they use the sport as a character device if that makes sense?)

this was literally in the opening lol. it’s really about the feelings you know?

so anyway it’s been pointed out several times that Reki was already feeling insecure about his skills in skating since ep 1 way before Langa came. But he still likes to skate and despite feeling never enough, he still enjoyed it. (some also pointed out that Reki’s reason of going into a beef against Shadow has been because he insulted his way of skating not because he wanted to be the best) so the show from the get go was already hinting at his self esteem issues.

this also implies that Reki has always been feeling like this in a while, added with his tendencies to bottle things up, it makes sense that he’ll blow up at some point and he’ll need to release all of those feelings. (so yeah i think this is just the right amount of eps for their fall out. i see some people complaining shush. otherwise it would also feel too rushed. this is years weighing him)

and i guess it’s also implied in here he’s had days like these too in the past! seriously it’s an ongoing problem he’s been carrying. i think 3 eps is pretty good enough pace to internalize it

so point: Reki was already down way before Langa came. langa just added to that. And don’t go blaming Langa cause the boy did nothing wrong.

Consider that Langa just lost his dad (i think we need more backstory on this though. please sdsjkdksl i need little Langa and his dad interactions) he just moved countries, and the only connection to his dad (snowboarding) is gone cause it doesn’t snow in OKinawa

though one also argues that Langa hasn’t been snowboarding since his dad was gone.

so for Langa, Reki introducing skating to him was revolutionary. You’re someone grieving over the death of what is probably the most important person in your life, the thing you love the most no longer gives you joy (as was shown in the flashbacks and basically Langa going ‘it’s the same’) and you’re in a new country with a language you barely are fluent. you can’t even read or write, and you barely have friends granted you don’t have much back in the day. it’s horrible.

and then this guy you barely know talks to you, befriends you, helps you get a job, and teaches you something you thought you’ve lost and through that you made more friends??

yeah you see why Langa likes Reki. You also see why he’s obsessed with skating. It’s kind of like a coping, a fixation. plus he’s bad with social cues i guess? the interview says he’s likely to get dumped for being too inattentive lmao and that’s what makes him interesting!

also the thing that really surprised me when they first interacted was how supportive Reki is to Langa. it also got to me with how much Langa thinks highly of Reki. Again a deviation to the ‘i say i hate you but deep down i care for you’ trope. they’re full on supportive and protective. i like that. it’s fresh to me. I thought Reki was going to the tsundere ‘hmph that’s not a big deal’ route at the start of ep 2 but he’s really amazed. (kinda also says he’s been very desperate for someone to share skating with but that’s another topic)

so Reki teaches Langa how to skate. and Langa sucks. Which was interesting to me because I thought Langa would be some flawless prince-like character. But nah. He trips and faints at his own blood lol. He’s so uncool and i love it.

Some people say Langa is over powered with a thick ass plot armor which gets him to win (which is why i see people saying he should have won against Joe and I actually agree that Langa should lose some beefs but again only 12 eps, so little time)

but I still wanna talk about it anyway so it’s revealed Langa was snowboarding since 2. That’s 15 years. I think that should be around the same time Joe and Cherry should be skating. and i think if you start earlier as a kid, your body develops differently. (should Langa, “an amateur” win against Joe a pro? the question falls more on whether you can classify Langa as an amateur) i think it’s like Langa being very used to motorcycle tricks from age 2 then suddenly he’s using a regular bicycle, and sure the feeling is mostly the same but there’s just something off. Your body doesn’t easily forget what you know, especially if it did it for 15 years. and so Reki customizes a board for Langa so it’ll feel exactly like snowboarding

So Langa has a customized board that he needed to get used to before he went pro. He really sucked the first few eps lmao. but that’s more of him getting used to the new rules. he pretty much told Reki in ep 2 that he can’t do a skateboard ollie, but he can do a snowboard one bec it’s attached to his feet.

(i may just want to add that one thing i also like about sk8 is that it really doesn’t care what you need for accommodation? if that’s how you do it best, then go for it. When Langa says to Reki he can’t do the ollie without the board attached to his feet, Reki immediately goes his way to accommodate him. usually people in real life might say ‘it’s not real skateboarding if you need a modification etc. but look at Cherry with a freaking AI board and people are like yeah whatever do what you want man. whatever rolls your board.)

so anyway Langa vs. Joe with Langa winning despite being an amateur? if you can even call him an amateur that is. Plus all his tricks are snowboarding tricks lol. everything he’s done is testament to his 15 years of snowboarding?? We don’t even know how good Langa is in snowboarding. Someone make a post about how difficult the snowboarding equivalent of those tricks Langa has done just to show people it means he’s pretty pro (I’ll even argue maybe Langa’s real talent is his creative ways of going around things which kind of why Adam is highkey obsessed, and calls Cherry who calculates everything to the last second boring but that’s a different can of worms I’m opening later) plus Langa barely won against Joe so there’s not much difference in level i think. Should Langa have lost though?

I think some have missed the point of that beef in Reki’s pov. and if the Renga reconciliation is done well, it would be worth it.

that beef got Reki to realize he what he really wants! that it’ll kill him if he can’t skate anymore! that he doesn’t wanna only cheer on for others and be a support! THAT HE WANTS TO SKATE BY LANGA’S SIDE WHICH IS THE REASON FOR ALL THIS INSECURITIES if Langa lost, that cathartic realization might not have happened. He might have gone to Langa and cheered him up, brushed off his insecurities and, made up with Langa halfheartedly without addressing his problems

I’m going to go back to Reki’s insecurities. In ep 6 he’s been afraid of being left behind, and sure Langa came back for him but he still forgot until midway. (will that parallel how Langa got too excited with the idea of skating, the same feeling he thought he lost forever. The same thing that he thinks connects him with his dad, and might have left Reki behind, but later remembers and goes back to chase him? hopefully) in ep 4 it’s obvious he’s afraid of the near death experience Adam gave him, and he’s just realized how different their skills were. in ep 5 he worries about Langa, enough to get nightmares about it. mixed with his friend getting hurt. it’s obvious the feelings are very very muddled there.

So he begs Langa not to skate with Adam.

And what did Langa do? say that he wanted to skate with Adam. (again he’s not the most attentive. he probably thinks he’s just skating with his best friend, all is good then boom. Reki leaves. as a person shit with dealing with other people, i don’t blame him at all) he’s trying to fix it though, but his bond with Reki primarily revolves around skating! how else was he going to warm up with Reki? He also doesn’t know that Reki has self esteem issues that’s always been there since the beginning. He probably doesn’t understand it too because he holds Reki up highly. in ep 6 when Reki was going over his board, Langa thinks he’s pretty cool. he didn’t hear what other said to Reki. He’s earnestly having fun with his friend

We should also note that Reki was never angry at Langa’s skills, he wasn’t resentful that Langa was far ahead. Again he’s been nothing but supportive. He doesn’t want to pull Langa down. He wasn’t like Miya’s friends that lashed out at Miya for being better. in ep 7 he tries his best to follow Langa

it feels like he’s mostly regretful that he can’t catch up. he doesn’t want Langa to slow down, he wants to go faster and meet him where he was. So it makes the realization that all he wants to do was be in equal with Langa more frustrating because he thinks he can’t keep up. (and this only ever started when he heard he’s like Langa’s plus one. there’s that daunting feeling about being pulled around. not being his equal) 

if you need further proof, when Langa and Joe were having a beef, he wasn’t aggressively hoping Langa would lose. in fact he encouraged him. He worries deeply He calls him out when he was doing badly. Still very supportive as ever. So really the frustration isn’t to Langa, again, it’s all internal. He wants to be better

so he’s feeling shit and Langa goes to him in the middle of the rain, bless langa for trying, thinking talking about skating (what he thinks Reki loves and would probably cheer him up, not knowing that’s exactly his problem) tells him

which is probably the worst he could say.

THAT’S what got Reki mad, not really Reki being insecure though that’s part of it, that’s what they’re fighting about, Reki is angry he’s breaking his promise. He thinks Langa doesn’t care about Reki, that he’ll easily break a promise between them that Reki obviously cares about just so he can go skate with Adam who is way better than him. It blows to the self esteem. Reki probably also think that if only he was better, langa wouldn’t bother skating with someone that dangerous. it doesn’t help at all.

but langa doesn’t know this. he doesn’t see all this. Langa might have been too up the high of skating like in ep 6, he sorta left Reki behind again.

it kinda makes Langa’s mom’s words hit harder though

and he did just that. he got too engrossed.

It parallels adam, cherry and joe’s friendship then probably tadahsi’s too but who knows? reki and langa, and tadashi and adam might parallel too, the master and the student thingy Adam might have gotten too obsessed. So Joe trying his best to make sure Reki and Langa won’t end up like them hits a little harder in my chest ;’)

but Langa won’t be to engrossed i think

because unlike Adam who’s aggressively looking for his ‘equal’, Langa is just looking for someone who makes his heart beat, to make him feel like he’s skating with his dad again, someone he loves dearly. (there’s a parallel about loves here too between Adam’s and Langa’s. but I can’t write it now) and he probably already thinks Reki is his equal anyway. He just wants to have fun. he doesn’t think much about the skills.

maybe at first he does. that’s why he’s drawn to Adam but from ep 9, it was pretty much shown that skills really doesn’t matter from when he skated against Joe

if Adam easily discarded his friends because he think they’re boring (which was why the whole skateboard to the face thing with Cherry), langa doesn’t think like that

if anything Reki is important to Langa because he only has fun skating with Reki, who taught him how to skate and made his board. (his board that was customized to fit his style btw, and arguably the only reason he could skate that well. without it, he might as well be a beginner once again.) so without reki, langa is left with nothing. especially with his broken board

no fun in skating, no way of skating. He’s only manage to get this far because of Reki and he knows that now. All of it would be pointless if he doesn’t have Reki (and either he gets so obsessed in chasing that feeling again, or he stops completely) but in case you haven’t noticed it, Langa’s motivation revolves around having fun with skating no matter the skill or place. And he’s having most fun with Reki.

But Reki obviously doesn't know Langa’s feelings. He thinks Langa was forever looking for someone better. So he’s still caught up in the idea that Langa won’t want to skate with him (even though Langa has never shown this) and he left S entirely, thinking what he wants is impossible. fucking just talk you two motherfucker

(I also wanna point out that Reki has always been shown from episode one to be good at making boards. And that’s amazing? We need some support recognition and appreciation, seriously) I think maybe most who find problem with Reki not winning beefs like the usual shounen protags aren’t used to the nuance and perspective of being someone ‘ordinary’. Reki’s character is relatable because most of us feel ordinary, never enough, surrounded by geniuses, ‘inferior’. And if we’re being realistic since a lot are saying joe should have won because langa winning is unrealistic and you want realism so bad no I’m not salty at all there will always be someone better than you. ALWAYS. but what’s important is for you to have fun in what you love! in what makes you happy! AND even if you’re not good at one thing (in Reki’s part, skating) he’s also good at other things (making boards) so does he need to stop one for the other? no. He’s shown to enjoy skating with Langa, he doesn’t wanna stop it hurts him so much he quit. But he can also hone his skills in making boards as well as skate. He’s equal with Langa in a way he doesn’t even notice when he made that board for Langa, but even Reki’s presence alone makes Langa enjoy skating the way Reki also wants Langa by his side.

So I think the next ep is the best time to confront all these feelings. And how it happens might be what’s tricky. Like romantic or not, i personally can read it both ways though i prefer if they do become canon. (idk if it’s queerbaiting. i guess friends can care as deeply as that but ngl, these shounen bestfriends having deep connections that are written off as friends while also giving us bland af hetero love interests who did nothing but exist and be straight really is messing with my perception of romantic and platonic love irl) anyway their talk better be done really well, or else all those episodes of tension would be for nothing

It’s a nice perspective to give a shounen protagonist this time. It’s new, it’s fresh. How many incarnations of underdog turned the best at their craft can you take? variety is nice! and if you don’t like it, there are always a dozen other animes like that for you to turn to. to conclude, IT ALL GOES BACK TO THE START: WHAT IS YOUR HAPPINESS???! AND FOR THEM IT’S THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP BUT IN A VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. FRIENDSHIP DOESN’T  SUDDENLY GET YOU TO LEVEL 100000000000 TO DEFEAT THE FINAL BOSS. FRIENDSHIP IS WHAT MAKES DEFEATING THE FINAL BOSS WORTHWHILE

Anyway tldr; maybe the real Eve is the friends we made along the way :D  and idk if I’m making sense but obviously I’m head empty only sk8. Renga needs to talk, i can’t believe they have the audacity to make a recap episode as if i wasn’t head empty only sk8 since february, and if there’s more emotional edging to come, i will burn some of the palm trees outside my house

#sk8 the infinity #sk8 anime #sk8 infinity #sk8 the infinity meta #sk8 meta #reki kyan #langa hasegawa #sk8 reki #sk8 langa #renga #reki x langa #just my thoughts #it's a long ass essay who am i kidding #i have 99 problems and renga is half of them #I'd like more characterizations though but it's like adam's story is the main focus of this thing #how fucked can you get that 3 people has issues with you directly? #3 indirectly? #while shadow is just there vibing #lmaoo #anyway long ass rant #this meta is for me anyway for when i start writing fics for this fandom #you're all just welcome to read it if you want #sk8 joe #Sk8 cherry #sk8 adam #kaoru sakurayashiki #kojiro nanjo #shindo ainosuke #tadashi kikuchi

[leafs-lover]

Because Two People Got Drunk: 12

Series Masterlist

Summary:  You take your first trip away without Oliver, and explore your relationship with Fred

Warnings: Angst, smut, male and female oral sex, swearing,

Word Count: 3400

Chapter 12

February 16, 2022

There is a knock on the door at about 9:30am, you’re still in your sweats, hair in a loose messy bun as you hold Oliver. If your being honest you likely have spit up somewhere on you. You open and see Sid and Kathy on the other side letting them in.

Fred walks up behind you “hey guys” he is dressed in jeans and a Nike hoodie with a ball cap. So casual yet, all you can think about is what’s underneath that sweater. The last couple weeks there have been glances, and grazes that you originally told yourself was an accident but now you aren’t so sure. “Thanks for watching Ollie.”

“Watching Ollie?” you question. Based on your clothes you clearly had no idea you were going anywhere.

“Yeah it’s all-star break, so we’re watching little man while you and Fred take a trip. You leave at noon” Kathy says.

You stare at Fred “go get ready, I’ll pack up Oliver’s things” he says grabbing Oliver from you. You try to protest but Fred basically pushes you in the bathroom forcing you to get ready. After showering and doing your hair and makeup you head to your room to pack and get dressed. Although you have no idea what to wear or pack because you have no idea where you are going.

Kathy sees you walking down the hall; since your room doesn’t have an ensuite, and she follows you heading to the closet. She begins pulling some items “does everything in here fit?” she questions as you nod.

She grabs a couple different outfit choices mostly casual choices. Some jeans, a few light sweaters, a pair of track pants. You wander off to get your makeup and hair supplies and return as she is zipping everything up.

“Where is he taking me?”

“He just wants to show you he appreciates you, and thought you deserved some time away” she shrugs zipping the suitcase up.

“If Oliver’s basinet is here, where is his clothes and stuff?” she questions noticing the room is full of your belongings.

“Well I obviously have a lot of clothes leaving no space for his stuff. So his dresser and closet are in the room that will eventually be his once we move him into his crib, we just aren’t ready for that yet. He’s only 3 months"

“So he sleeps here and you take him to another room every day to get dressed?”

“Well if I had space for his clothes in here I would, I barely fit all my stuff in here.” 

“Have you been looking at apartments?”

“I’ve looked online at some but I’m not really seeing something the size I want within like 20 minutes of here. Not a whole lot out there.” There is a silence before she finally asks what you feel like she has been holding back.

“He told me about the date, said he thought it ended pretty bad. You want to talk about it?”

“Not much to say. He was a douche, spent the whole time talking about himself, was rude to the staff, and when he found out I was only here for a short time he made multiple comments about hooking up. When I took my jacket off and he saw my dress he actually said damn. Just wasn’t a good time, but also made me realize I’m not ready for something right now.”

“Maybe you just need the right person” she says wheeling your bag out to the door.

You look over Ollie’s pile of stuff “Fred did you pack -"

“Yes I packed every single item he needs. And I gave them a key in case I forgot something or he runs out. They are capable adults and Oliver is going to have a great time just like us.”

You pick up Oliver. “This is literally the first time one of us isn’t with him, and we are going for a night too, like not just a couple hours an entire night!” you say tears forming.

Fred pulls you both in tight stroking your hair. “Come on (Y/N/N) you can do this. But the longer you put this off the harder this will be."

Finally you say goodbye and climb in the car as Fred loads your suitcase “geez what did you pack?”

“Nothing Kathy did it all" you say lightly as tears roll down your cheek. Fred climbs in the car and cups your face in his large hands, wiping your tears with his thumb. “You’re fine (Y/N). You’re an amazing mother but you deserve some time without him to recharge your batteries. This will be good yeah?” you nod as he kisses the top of your head. “Oh it’s not one night, were going for two" he says as he puts the car in drive before you can object about leaving Oliver that long.

3 hours later you arrive at Glendorn lodge, it is a large property set on the border of the Allegheny National Forest. They have a few winter activities including snow shoeing and cross country skiing along the trails. You can only imagine the experience in the summer out of the beautiful lake. They have an amazing chef onsite with in room dining options available.

Fred has booked a 4 bedroom cabin with its own fireplace, pool table and games room. It’s a little further from the main resort providing you with privacy throughout your stay. He takes your bag to the master, even though his room also has a king sized bed, yours is slightly larger.

You start unpacking and realize that when you walked away Kathy replaced some of your clothes with some tighter more revealing options. Options you hadn’t worn since before you started breasfeeding, since before you had Oliver. And she also packed some lingerie, like 5 different options as well as revealing matching underwear sets. You groan in disapproval “what was she thinking” you mumble to yourself. After unpacking you venture out and find Fred in the game room “wanna play" he asks nodding to the pool table.

Your first turn you line up the pool cue and connect with the white ball, it goes bouncing off the table “if you expect me to let you win you have to at least try" he jokes picking up the ball. He places it back in the same spot “you get one redo."

You start to line yourself again as you feel Fred come behind you helping you stand and bending your elbow properly. As you follow his directions you rub your ass against his cock “yeah just like that” he chokes out stepping back; definitely haven’t been imagining things you think to yourself.

You connect with the ball ultimately sinking it before missing your next one. You move out of the way as Fred walks up to the table, he lines himself up with the ball and gets into position. You stare at his muscular form as it stretches over the table before connecting his cue to the ball, his shirt rising up slightly in the process. His ass is beautifully on display as he leans forward causing your mouth to water. Fred ends up winning the game, but not until he had a few scratches. You think he was trying to delay the game to give you a chance to win.

After the next game you order dinner to be delivered and you head to change. You decide to wear one of the dresses, not that you really had a choice because of Kathy. You opt for the black chiffon dress with lace sleeves. The dress is short stopping a few inches above your knees and is very low cut, too low cut for a bra. You pair it with your red stilettos loosely pull your curls back, then you make your way to the living where you see your dinner waiting on the table.The lights are off, the only thing illuminating the room is the fire Fred just started in the fireplace.

He hears your heels and turns around “Jesus fuck" you hear him whisper. “Kathy swapped a bunch of my clothes while I left the room” you explain “so I basically only have dresses.”

“You look stunning” he says as you smile.

“You look pretty good too” you respond.

He is wearing a white long sleeve that accentuates his muscles. And a pair of grey jeans that are just tight enough for you to remember his thick thighs underneath them. “No I am wildly underdressed compared to you."

You smile as you walk further into the room. When you walk by Fred he grabs your hand to stop you and places a light kiss on your cheek.

Dinner goes smoothly and you move over to the couch sitting beside Fred, his arm draped over the back of the couch as you face him.

“How do you think he’s doing?” you ask.

“Nope. We aren’t going down that road. Stop feeling guilty for doing something for yourself. Everyone needs a break.”

“I just miss him. He is an amazing kid” you sigh.

“Yeah he really is. I never thanked you.”

“For what?”

“Making me a dad. It’s my single greatest accomplishment. Like nothing else in my life will matter or compare because I have him. He is the best.”

You don’t respond but a smile comes across your face. Fred’s hand moves to rub the back of your neck, a soft moan leaving your lips.

Fred sits up setting both your glasses down on the table “turn around" he says softly. He brings his hands up and begins massaging your neck and shoulders.

“Fuck you’re so tight.”

You laugh “not the first time you’ve said that.” Fred laughs.

He slides his hands under the back of your dress as best as he can while he dives in deeper pushing on your knots. You lean forward from the pressure and put your hands down at your sides seeking something  to grip, something to hold yourself steady, grabbing a hold of his thigh. You hear him exhale before continuing for a few more minutes.

You keep your hand locked on his thigh until he stops and removes his hands from your neck. You become aware of the situation around you, and the path it is heading. “I should get to bed” you say lightly before retreating to your room.

You undress and step into the shower, trying to cool yourself down from that interaction. You become aware that a cold shower isn’t going to be enough and slip your fingers down into your folds.

The next morning you get ready and put on a pair of skinny Jeans with a black low cut sweater. You would normally wear a shirt under it but Kathy didn’t pack one so your boobs are practically exploding from it. Fred tries to not stare, but he does a very bad job as he holds your coat out for you. “After breakfast we’re going to explore the grounds” he explains.

“Ooh I’m excited it’s so pretty here"

After exploring he takes you on a quick drive to a nearby spa for a couples massage. You strip out of your clothes and cover yourself in a robe, you walk into the room and see Fred sitting in his boxers, looking at diagram on the wall. He hears the door and looks to you a smile crosses his face. He watches as you walk to the other side of the room, your back now to him, as you pull your robe off leaving you in only your purple thong. He turns his head to give you some privacy as you make your way to your table, but you still feel him looking from the corner of his eyes. Once you are under your sheets Fred stands, you stare at his abs and his V that leads below his boxers. You are practically drooling while you watch him slide under the sheets.

“That massage was amazing, I haven’t had one since you last took me” you say hanging your coat up in the cabin.

“Seriously, you should go more.”

“I know I really should” you reply. “I’m going to take a nap though, massages always make me sleepy.”

“Okay, dinner will be here at 8.”

When you wake up you shower and do your makeup routine but add a little extra to make your eyes pop as you loosely curl your hair. You head to your closet and decide on a royal blue skinny strap dress . It has a v neck and stops above your knee, with an asymmetrical hem. You pair it with some black heels before making your way downstairs. Fred has the fire lit and blankets set up in front on it with some pillows, soft music plays. The food is waiting on a tray on the floor.  You see him in a pair of grey dress pants with a button up shirt tucked in; he purposely left the top button undone, you gulp at the sight of him.

“Wow" you say causing him to look up, his eyes go large as he takes you in “that’s supposed to be my line" he says smiling “you look amazing”. After dinner Fred clean the plates and returns back to the blankets sitting close to you. You sit there drinking and laughing, you don’t realize how much you’ve had until you pour the remainder of the 3rd bottle into your glass.

“Wow, been a while since we drank this much” he jokes.

“Yeah last time was when we made Oliver” you laugh. You look into his eyes as he hesitantly leans in pressing a light kiss to your lips. You feel his lips gently brushing yours as you give in, wrapping your hands in his hair. He quickly deepens the kiss, as your mouth allows entry for his tongue. He makes quick work of your dress, pulling it off of you revealing your matching strapless black lace bra and thong.

He smirks as he stares at you “I really like what Kathy packed" he says as you both laugh lightly as he kisses your neck. He pushes you onto your back and licks a stripe between your breasts and begins placing kisses on you as you hastily unbutton his shirt.

He unclasps your bra and dives in sucking on your nipple while rolling the other in his hand “mmmm" you moan as your back arches. He slides down peppering kisses down your stomach. When he reaches your thong he kisses your core through the fabric. He bites it and pulls it down to your thighs with his teeth before allowing his hands to pull it the rest of the way. He returns his mouth to where you need him most and licks up your slit feeling your wetness he says “you really did need this eh babe?”

You nod barely able to form words as he licks your folds then begins sucking on your clit. He brings two fingers down and spreads your folds open before thrusting them in you.

You bite your bottom lip as he looks up at you “no baby I need to hear you" you let go and begin moaning his name. He brings your legs on top of his shoulders as he breathes on you. His tongue begins sucking on your clit before he dives lower his tongue licking the inside of your walls. Your hands reach down to grab his hair “Freddie” you groan out as he continues to lick inside you. His other hand comes up to play with your nipples, pinching it as he continues to pump in and out of you slowly.

Your orgasm begins to build as Fred’s pace doesn’t stop, when he recognizes the signs; your thighs tighten around his head. He continues to lick the inside of your walls as your orgasm comes, you grip his hair tighter as you feel yourself spasm around him, filthy sounds leaving your mouth. He doesn’t pull back until you are done, he climbs up you and you see your juices glistening on his lips and beard. He locks your lips into a kiss where you can taste yourself.

“Mmm Fred” you moan. You push him onto his back and straddle him, leaning in to give him a deep passionate kiss. His thumbs rest on your thighs as you see his bulge pressed against his pants as you undo his belt and zipper. You slide his pants and boxers down allowing his hard cock to spring free and slap against his stomach. You use your thumb spreading the precum around before bringing your lips down. You lick the underside as he throws his head back before you finally wrap your lips around him.

It’s been a while since you’ve had him in your mouth, the first few times you bob you gag slightly before getting reacquainted with his size. You set a steady pace, Fred’s hands come to your hair wrapping them in a makeshift ponytail as you pick up your pace. You swirl your tongue around rising up almost completely before you drop your mouth taking him completely in. You bring a hand to massage his balls as you deep throat him “fuck I’m gonna" he pulls you off of him before he can finish. He pulls you up to him and pulls you in for a deep kiss before rolling on top of you.

He pulls away “do I need a condom?”

“I’m on birth control” you state.

“Yeah I heard that before" you both laugh.

“I’m on a different method, one that is more effective with no human error.” He nods before leaning back down kissing your neck. He behind to line himself up when you place your hand on his chest to stop him.

“Do we need one for…” you trail off as he looks at you questioningly “have you been with anyone else?”

A light smile crosses his face, “not since before I met you.” He takes his hard member and teases your slit, stroking up and down it capturing some of your juices.

“Please don’t tease me" you whine as he pushes into you gently, not going all the way. He takes a minute and kisses your shoulder and nips below your ear as you gasp.

“You okay?” he questions and you nod “yeah, just been a bit. I’m okay” you answer as he pulls back and gently pushes into you again. Your legs wrap around his wide hips as your back lifts slightly.

He keeps the pace each thrust going a little bit deeper but never all the way in “I’m not going to break” you whisper. He stares at you “I promise”

“First time since a kid, everything had to readjust in there. Just don’t want to hurt you.”

“You aren’t, if that changes I’ll let you know. Please” you whimper

He pulls back and pushes in bottoming out inside you as he does it again. He reaches to grab one of your legs hooking his arm under your knee.

“Fuck my skat" he says “you feel so good.” He says continuing to thrust inside you.

He looks down, releasing your leg and kisses you deeply. You groan into the kiss as he thrusts into you. He looks into your eyes and continues his pace, a gentle passionate pace.

You feel your orgasm approaching as you rake your hands down his biceps “I’m close" you whisper as Fred brings a hand to your nipple and begins to pinch it between his thumb and index finger. You remove one hand from his arm and slide it down your body to your sensitive bud and begin rubbing it.

“Kom nu skat" he whispers in your ear as you begin to clench as your walls tighten. He rides you through your second orgasm of the night, as you come down he pulls out spilling his load on your stomach. Fred collapses beside you for a moment before standing to put on his boxers. He hands you a damp wash cloth as he turns to leave.

“Wha?” you begin to question.

He stops and looks at you “I’m just getting my toothbrush I’ll be right back” and he smiles. He returns and finds you in the bathroom brushing your teeth in his shirt. You reach up to grab a cup to rinse with and he sees your thong slightly showing. His hand slides over to your ass and grabs it as you turns into his chest. He kisses your temple as you saunter off to bed. He slides in beside you and pulls you in close, you immediately doze off.

Night One Outift:

Night Two Outfit: 

Next Chapter

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