#Sir I will not stop until we get a new season

[afewproblems]

Season Two Halloween AU Part Nine

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six Part Seven Part Eight

Synopsis: What if Eddie had been at Tina's Halloween Party in Season Two? Featuring Steve!Whump, Stancy Breakup, and Eddie just trying to keep up with all these new revelations about who King-Steve actually is...

As always, thank you thank you to the lovely Jess @strangersteddierthings for cheering me on, letting me send spoilers, and Steddie screaming with me!

***

Eddie moves, trying to find a comfortable position in the firm plastic hospital chair, letting his legs stretch out into the bulk of the hallway and sliding down the chair. 

He won't be able to stay like this for much longer either, but it's worth it for the irritated looks he can feel from the nurses station.

Eddie hadn't been allowed in the room with Steve while he was being assessed, forcing him to wait outside in the hallway.

He can hear them talking, not bothering to be quiet at four in the morning.

"There's no answer, who isn't home at this time of night?"

"Did you try the secondary number?"

"Yes, it's for a business though and all I get is the answering machine for a Richard Harrington". 

Eddie frowns, silently agreeing with the first nurse, why the hell aren't they here?

That's when he remembers something Steve had mentioned, so casually, Eddie realizes, feeling a little sick, that his parents wouldn't be home until Thanksgiving this year. 

Which is just shy of a month away still, give or take a week.

Just how long have they been gone, he wonders, feeling an anxious pit begin to form in his stomach, and what would that mean for him now?

He's saved from this train of thought for the moment by Hopper appearing at the end of the hall, his heavy step and squeaky boots announcing themselves well before he steps into view. 

He looks exhausted, and a little worse for wear, and Eddie has never been happier to see a cop.

He walks past Eddie, though he does spare him a single nod, and makes his way to the nurses station. 

"Morning," Hopper says gruffly, his voice crackles as though it's either been used too much or too little recently.

"'M'here about the Harrington kid, we have a few questions for him and his injuries and then I'll be taking him home after his statement".

"Sir, that's not--" one of the Nurses tries, only for Hopper to flash his badge and knock his knuckles once on the top of the desk.

"Which room?" He at least has the decency to ask this time, throwing a thumb over his shoulder. 

Eddie hears a long sigh as the other Nurse mutters, '206'; Hopper doesn't even wait for her to finish the word before he's turning on his heel, his boots making a horrible squeak against the linoleum tiles as moves. 

He slows to a stop in front of Eddie, finally looking at him, it's always been nerve wracking having the chiefs full attention on him, though there's a rather big difference between now and the last time, down at the station.

"They check you out?" He grumbles to Eddie, his fingers tap a nervous rhythm on his leg.

Eddie shakes his head, "Steve took the brunt of everything tonight". 

Hopper nods, his gruff face pinched with something close to worry, but it's gone in an instant.

He looks down the hall at something over Eddie's shoulder and lifts his hand in a muted wave before turning back to Eddie.

"You should head home Munson, I took the liberty of getting you a ride".

Eddie frowns at the words and startles slightly as another person sits down beside him, he hadn't even noticed until Wayne was all of a sudden right there.

Eddie blinks, exhaustion and emotion all encompassing; he feels as though he might sink into the floor or tip forward and fall away from the world right then and there, but Wayne reaches out, clasping his shoulder with his firm warm hand. Like he always does.

"Wayne," Eddie says in a tremulous voice, the weight of the night finally crashes over him, the dogs, Billy, the tunnels, it's too much. The image of Steve crumpling to the floor, shards of ceramic in his hair, plays over and over again.

Eddie's face is wet as Wayne pulls him into his arms, he ignores the way the hospital chair digs into his ribs as he moves.

"S'okay Ed," Wayne whispers, letting his hand rub soothing circles on his back, up and down.

Wayne says something above Eddie's head, most likely to Hopper, but he doesn't care, not now. He focuses on the grounding feeling of being held, the warm comfort of knowing that when he needed it, his uncle was there. 

He tries not to think about the fact that it's Hopper in Steve's room rather than his parents. 

***

They don’t talk after. 

It shouldn’t have been surprising really. After the whirlwind in the tunnels, learning that Dustin really had managed to bond with one of the creatures over a mediocre chocolate bar, and finally, finally, getting Steve to the hospital, it was like everything else was put on the back burner. 

The government gives them all NDAs to sign, including Wayne now --how was he not going to tell his uncle after the hospital? The government officials had given Eddie a bit of trouble about it during the debrief about their cover story, until Wayne and Hopper had argued his defense. 

The worst part though, about everything, is the pretending. 

Pretending that everything is normal, like there aren't monsters from an alternate dimension running around Hawkins, like the government didn't know about the real reason so many people, like Mr.Newby, had died. Pretending that small petty things like his late homework assignments, or who was dating who in the wilds of Hawkins High really mattered. 

With that being said, the news that Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers were officially dating now, surged through the school. 

Pretending that that news doesn't make Eddie feel relieved was also difficult.

Well, maybe relieved isn't the right word, but after Eddie's half-assed confession before the tunnels, and the stay in the hospital, Steve has been avoiding him. 

And if it wasn’t because of Nancy….

Well, Eddie tries not to dwell too much on it.

Two weeks after their trip into the Dismal Caverns, Eddie spots, speak of the devil, Nancy Wheeler leaning on his locker.

The last bell has long past so it's only the stragglers now wandering halls, those waiting for Band Practice to start, those just getting out of detention. 

Three guesses which one he's here for. 

Eddie hasn't seen or spoken to Nancy since their government meeting, not that either had been particularly chatty that night, but she had at least sent a grateful smile Eddie's way as one of the officials went through the whole story of that night.

So to see her now sets his teeth on edge and his stomach plummeting into his shoes.

Is it back, did something happen to Will, did another Demodog surface?

Is Steve okay? 

As if Nancy can see the terrified questions swirling around his head, she raises the hand not holding her books to her chest and says lowly, "everyone's fine". 

Eddie lets out the breath he's holding, trying to lower his heart rate, "haven't seen you around these parts Wheeler, don't tell me you need a pick me up?"

He tries for a swarthy smile but it falls flat as the adrenalin from his earlier panic is still running rampant, he runs a sweaty hand through his hair, trying to hide the slight shake.

Nancy rolls her eyes and pushes herself off the locker by her shoulder, tipping her head towards the far back door to the building. 

She says nothing as she leads him out of the school and towards his usual picnic table in the trees.

Eddie tugs his leather jacket around his torso as a harsh November breeze kicks up dead leaves and dust around the school building in small whirls. He wishes in this moment he had found a zip up closure rather than one with button snaps.

Eddie laughs nervously as they enter the treeline, "uh huh, you sure you didn't want something?"

Nancy turns to sit on top of the table, her face impassive, "Mrs. Click was still there, in her room, I don't need to have any meetings with her and my parents because they think I'm being corrupted," she lifts her hands and makes exaggerated quotations with her fingers before rolling her eyes again. 

"We can talk here," she says primly, setting her books down on the table beside her. 

Eddie grins, "you're probably setting yourself up for a meeting with the counselor tomorrow anyway, walking out of the school with me".

He kicks at a bottle cap in the grass and watches as it tumbles a few feet away. When he looks back up, Nancy is staring at him with a pinched brow.

"I'll bite, what's going on?" 

Nancy nods and it's like a switch flips, her spine straightens slightly and her shoulders square before a determined expression smoothes out her face, it's eerie how similar it is to Steve's.

"What is he to you?" Nancy asks, 

"Who?" Eddie stumbles over the word, already knowing exactly who Nancy is asking about.

She looks around now, prompting Eddie to do the same, just in case.

"I know it isn't," she hesitates for a beat as though searching for the word, "safe to talk about it, but," she blinks once, twice, "that's part of why I'm here, asking". 

"I won't see Steve get hurt, not again". 

"So," Nancy stands now, gracefully rising to her feet and stepping off the table, she takes a step closer towards Eddie, "what is he to you?"

He has a good five or six inches on her at least but the fire in her blue eyes makes him feel so much smaller in this moment. 

Eddie feels a snarl build in his chest, the words tumbling out before he can get a chance to really think about them.

"That's fucking rich coming from you, as though you didn't rip his heart out at that stupid Halloween party". 

Nancy's face pales slightly, but there's blood in the water now.

He never really had the heart to ask Steve this question, and he probably never would have been able to actually answer it. 

But Nancy can. 

"Steve is brave, fucking reckless but he's brave, and selfless, and he cares so much --about everything,"

Eddie forces himself to stay where he is, to not move, but his voice climbs in volume, carrying through the trees. 

"You had that and you threw it away Wheeler, and you come in here asking what he is to me?"

He watches as Nancy looks around them frantically watching for people, but Eddie doesn't care, he keeps going.

"He's more than some bullshit you toss in the trash".

There are twin spots of red on the high points of her cheekbones, matching the flush painting her ears, Nancy pins him with a frosty glare as she breathes out slowly through her nose.

"Well, you certainly care, don't you, that's a question answered at least".

She clears her throat and blinks again, and to Eddie's horror, her eyes shine with tears in the afternoon sun. 

"You don't know what it was like after everything last year, how hard it was".

She wipes roughly at one of the tears that rolls down her cheek, cutting it off.

"I wanted to talk about it, I wanted to tell Barb's parents what happened to their daughter, my--"

Nancy swallows roughly, her nostrils flaring, "my best friend, was dead". 

"And Steve wanted to pretend that everything was fine, that it was normal," she clears her throat and wipes at her eyes again, "and I can't do that, I don't have it in me to let it go yet". 

Eddie nods, he gets it.

He didn't understand how everyone was able to just go on like everything in the last week didn't happen, or if he will ever forget the sounds those things made as they screamed in the darkness, that people had died that night. 

He can't pretend either and it's a relief to know he isn't the only one.

Eddie opens his mouth to apologize but Nancy keeps going, her words softer this time.

"I don't really believe that Steve has been able to let it go either if I'm being honest," Nancy says, her eyes searching Eddie's face as she speaks, "he sleeps with the hall lights on, did he tell you? He can't stand the dark anymore". 

"Yeah," Eddie breathes out, "he's said it before, I didn't know about the hall, but.."

He lets the thought trail off, it makes sense. It's not as though he's been sleeping well since everything ended either. Wayne had woken him up that first night to stop his screaming and calm him down, he ended up crawling in with Wayne for the rest of the night, something he hadn't done since he was eight.

Eddie startles slightly at the sudden small hand touching his arm. Nancy pulls back almost immediately at his flinch, regret painting her face.

"Steve needs something that I can't give him,"   and I need more than he can give me, it wasn't meant to last". 

"I didn't mean to hurt him, but that doesn't mean I'm good with Steve getting hurt again and again, he has enough of that with his parents".

Eddie nods again, "have they always been like that?"

Nancy's face darkens for just a moment before smoothing out again.

"In the year we were together, I met them once," she wraps her arms around herself and shivers as another breeze rips through the clearing, "he always made excuses for why they were gone or when they would be back".

She looks up at Eddie now, her wide blue eyes still red rimmed from earlier, "he told me about you, that night". 

Oh. 

Suddenly the weighted looks Nancy had been giving him make more sense. The small conspiratorial smile.

"Yeah well, he's been avoiding me," Eddie admits softly, lifting his hand to snag a lock of hair, "so I wouldn't hold your breath".

Nancy nods and shivers against a rough gust of wind that shifts the trees and swirls the leaves around the table. She looks into the distance suddenly, her eyes catching something behind Eddie as they widen before darting back to his face.

He turns his head to look behind him, only to see Hawkins Middle through the trees.

"Steve's good at pretending, but he doesn't have the same kind of friends around him that would just accept that version of him now, he's got us --well," Nancy stutters momentarily, "he's got you, and the kids, I'm pretty sure Dustin thinks Steve's an action here now".

Eddie snorts, prompting a smile out of Nancy. He takes a small step forward before offering his elbow. Nancy looks from his arm to Eddie's face once before reaching out to curl her hands around it.

"Alright Wheeler," he says with a grin, "how do we do this? I know you've got a plan rolling around that brain of yours and I'm cold as shit so let's move this to the van".

Nancy smiles again, tilting her head towards the Middle School once more, "How do you feel about Dances?"

Tag List: Please Note the List is Officially Closed

@eriquin @luvinthefreaks @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @goodolefashionedloverboi @ellietheasexylibrarian @bambibiest @sadboislovebeans @howincrediblysapphicofyou @coleys-a-nerd @whycantiuseunderscore @airconditioning123 @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @corrodedbisexual @starman-jpg @ilovecupcakesandtea @yoriposts @clumsiluni @pelinelin @phantomcat94 @lololol-1234 @anaibis @steveshairspray @hellfireone @eddielives1986 @sunswathe  @tentativeghost @robin-not-batman @estrellami-1 @manda-panda-monium @tinyplanet95 @perseus-notjackson @queenie-ofthe-void @rainbowsaw @sp0o0kylights @littlebluejane @hi-im-eff  @phantypurple @just-ladyme @thoroughlycollected @justrandomfandomstm @swimmingbirdrunningrock @finntheehumaneater @dynamic-powerm@nightmareglitter @genderless-spoon @zaddipax @thebiblesays @pyrohonk @emly03 @geekymagicalpotato @sidebarre @lemon-astra @cipounette @discreetapple @starlitlakes @saphhicwitchbitch @marvel-ous-m @lingeringmirth @honorarybrit81 @bookbinderbitch @finntheehumaneater  @lololol-1234 @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple @monsterloverforhire @gaydrieeen @starlight-archer @homosexual-having-tea @devondespresso @rennnnon @my-hyperfixations-hell-blog @carlprocastinator1000 @0o-queendean-o0 @emly03 @paintsplatteredandimperfect @louismeds @fruitmix

@lizzicleromance @fairy-princette @eddiethehunted

And a few people I think may be intersted!

@steddierthings @steddie-there @stevesbipanic @henderdads @spooky-brakers

Part Ten Now Up (Final Part)

#season two halloween au #stranger things #stranger things season 2 au #steve harrington #eddie munson #the party #steve and nancy breakup #eddie is having all sorts of complicated feelings about steve here #i will never get tired of halloween party aus #you can pry them from my cold dead fingers #afewproblems writes #pining Eddie #uh oh more problems #poor eddie #poor steve #where is robin when you need her #nancy and eddie need to hang out more #I tried to give nancy some nuance here because I do love her character and I almost never write her #she was a fun challenge #nance scheming with eddie to get her ex a boyfriend #its messy but in the best way

[a3risbaby]

what we whispered in the dark [m]

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 stardew valley : sam x afab!reader (no pronouns)

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 Between the sneaking around and him nearing cumming in his pants from a heated kiss, you don't feel like a pair of twenty-somethings who are three and a half seasons into their relationship. And something about that makes your heart soar. He always finds a way to make you fall in love like it's the first day all over again.

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 smut (minors dni), fluff, established relationship, face-sitting, vaginal fingering (barely), cross-posted on ao3 | 1.9k words

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 my first x reader smut! i was going to continue, but i figured that this was a good stopping place. let me know if you liked it :)

On your first day in Pelican Town, you tried to greet everyone, introducing yourself as the new farmer taking over your grandfather's dilapidated farm. The reactions varied from the gruff Get the fuck out of my face (Shane, your favorite grouch) to the stand off-ish Oh...you're not what I was expecting (Jodi, who's warmed up a little) to the pleasant Nice. I'll see you around (Alex, one of your fastest friends).

And Sam? Sam was sweet, you realized immediately, and your impression hasn't changed since. With his bright hair and even brighter smile, he always passes you with a chipper wave, kicking off on his ever present skateboard, and you find yourself saving all of your fished-up Joja Cans just to see his face light up. Sam is sweet and kind and nice and just a little dumb and funny and currently doing a really shitty job of sneaking out of his house.

"Can you be a little quieter?" you hiss from the bushes, wincing as his knee hits the windowsill for the second time.

You're not worried about Kent. In fact, he's watching the two of you right now from his usual spot underneath the front yard tree, the smallest frown marring his features. The last time you were rushing to avoid the 2AM fine, you made a point of stopping and asking Kent for his blessing. Less because it mattered and more because he often sat here until late, and you weren't sure if you could avoid both his insomniac habits and the town's curfew.

"His mom leaves the house around ten," Kent murmurs. "Make sure to set an alarm before you get distracted with playing your video games."

"No worries, sir, I'm up by sunrise," you say, eyes not leaving your boyfriend. He's finally making his way down the makeshift rope ladder. "Can you please teach him how to sneak out properly next time?"

Over your shoulder, Kent snorts softly. "Sure."

It's been years since either of you were a teenager, but Sam breathes a youthful energy back into you, taking your hand as soon as he hits the ground and running off with one last glance at his dad. You keep up with his long strides, the wind whipping at your straw hat and clothes, and have to suppress a giggle as he nearly trips over a rock. He's really bad at this. You slip an extra glowstone ring onto his thumb.

"That's the first time I actually made it out undetected," he says, a laugh bubbling in his chest. "I need to tell Seb tomorrow."

"How does it usually go?"

"Well, I barely get out the front door—"

See? A little dumb. You bite back a silly comment, shooting him a smile that he returns instead.

The journey from his house to yours isn't far—go past Leah's cozy cabin, take a right at Marnie's expansive ranch, follow the newly laid stone path until you see the telltale stable—but it's long enough for your floating moods to sink into something akin to anticipation. At the stoop, you drop your keys once, then twice. It doesn't help that Sam's trailing his fingers along your sides, dropping kisses along your shoulders.

"You should just leave the door unlocked next time," he suggests when you finally get the key in. You barely managed to pull together the plan for tonight, and he's already talking about next time. "No one's out here this late."

"Except us."

"Except us," he echoes.

You kick your shoes off, but you're not sure where they land because Sam has you pressed against the closed door, lips moving against yours, clumsy in his haste. His hands are tight on your hips as he pulls you into him. You're tempted to lose yourself in the urgency.

"Sam, wait," you manage. He hums in acknowledgement, moving to brush his nose along your jaw. "I need to take a shower first. I've been foraging in Cindersap all day."

"You could be covered in slime goop, and I'd still find you hot," he says with so much sincerity your knees almost buckle.

"Thanks, but it's not a matter of whether or not I'm attractive." You push his shoulders squarely. He yields. "I feel gross. It'll take five, ten minutes tops. You can wait upstairs for me."

"And what if I get lost?" He raises his eyebrows. "I feel like I should follow you to the shower."

You roll your eyes. "Heel, boy. I'll be right there, okay?"

His excitement is endearing. Between the sneaking around and him nearing cumming in his pants from a heated kiss, you don't feel like a pair of twenty-somethings who are three and a half seasons into their relationship. And something about that makes your heart soar. He always finds a way to make you fall in love like it's the first day all over again. As promised, you're done washing off in seven minutes. For a second, you entertain the idea of walking into your bedroom with only a towel, just to gauge his reaction, but you throw on a tank top and shorts instead, foregoing underwear since it'll all be gone anyway.

You find him on the edge of your bed, sorting your mail into two piles on your nightstand. He looks up with a smile.

"JojaMart's having a sale on seeds," he reports. "You can use my employee discount and get a little more off."

"Yeah?" You step between his open legs and brush blond hair away from his forehead. Your beautiful, radiant boyfriend. "How much off?"

"I don't remember. Like 10%, I think?"

"Just ten?" You shimmy your shorts down an inch. He follows their journey like a hawk. "I thought it was more than that."

"Maybe it was twenty, I'm not sure."

"That's all? A shame." You push them down further, exposing your hips, and his eyes light up as he catches on.

He wets his lips and says, voice strained, "No, it was 100%. Definitely completely off."

You let him tug your shorts down, and when they pool around your ankles, you kick them off. His gaze flickers between your exposed skin and your face, impossibly reverent. He doesn't pray to Yoba like his family, but his expression, here and now, is one of a worshiper. Devoted and devout until the end of time.

He pulls you in for a kiss, mouth open to swallow your moans, and falls back onto your sheets. Your legs straddle his hips, and you whimper as he ruts his growing bulge against the apex of your legs. The material of his sweatpants drag against you—you definitely need to throw it in the laundry before he leaves.

"This wet already, baby? The night's barely started," he mumbles against your lips. Under normal circumstances, the stain on his pants would embarrass you, but anticipation thrums in your veins. The hands on your waist force you to still, and it's pathetic how close you are to begging him to keep going. "As much as I love it, I'm not going to last long like this and I want to finish in you tonight. Okay?"

"Okay," you manage, "but you better keep your word."

He laughs. "I always do. Now how much of a discount do I need to promise if I want you to sit on my face?"

.

.

You're a sight that Sam can never tire of. He isn't the wordy kind of person, but if he was, he'd likely wax poetic about how beautiful you look right now. Something about how the crescent moon spills from the open window and falls over your skin like liquid silver.

Huh. That actually wasn't bad. Maybe writing lyrics for the band has made him better at this sort of thing. He settles on the pile of pillows on your bed, murmuring encouragements as you shift forward and straddle his face.

"Are you sure?" you're asking for the third time, and he has to hold back from rolling his eyes.

He tries his best to look you in the face, which is hard considering everything else tempting his gaze. Yoba, this is a perspective that he needs to get more often. "Babe," he says, trailing kisses along your thigh. "Seriously. I already said it before, but this is exactly what I want. You're stunning. Amazing. Perfect. I'd rather die between your legs than anywhere—" And the rest of his argument is lost on his tongue as you finally take a seat and Sam considers quitting his day job at JojaMart to do this forever.

He inhales the dampness of your pussy, flattens his tongue, and basks in the way you keel forward, fingers curling around the headboard to keep steady. A shaky breath from you and he sets out in earnest, one hand digging into your ass, the other skimming its way up your body until it lands on your chest. He's not the type to curse much either, but fuck, your tits are amazing. He grasps at them firmly, just how you like it, until you yank your top over your head and he can finally get a full view.

His hands move again, this time to spread you further apart as his tongue laps at your dripping cunt, and if your growing cries are any indication, he's proud to say that he's gotten good at this lately.

Can you be a little quieter? he's tempted to echo the complaint you had at his house earlier, but he holds back from teasing for two reasons. One, he actually hates it when you bite back your moans. Your volume is exactly why you can't do this at his place, and he relishes in the way your noises go straight to his dick, currently straining to be freed from his sweats. And two, truthfully, he doesn't think he can separate from you long enough to say anything.

So he expresses his pleasure with guttural groans and pants as you grind down into his face, your clit clipping his nose in a way that has you squirming in his hold. You're fucking amazing, and he hopes you know this. He feels like he doesn't tell you that enough.

"So good, a-ah, Sam, fuck...just like that. Keep goi—oh my—"

Your pace stutters when his lips finally suction around your clit, and his name becomes a breathless mantra on your tongue as he unravels you on his. You rock against his face, previous hesitation forgotten as you chase after your high.

"'m so close," you whimper, your hands kneading your chest desperately. "So, so close—Sam, please—almost there."

Without warning, he sinks a finger into you, the metal of his glowstone ring cold against your flushed folds, and it's enough to send you over the edge. A flurry of broken curses spill over as you ride it out, and Sam swears he can drown in your pussy, lapping at your orgasm until you push off of him and slide onto your back.

"You're too good at this for a newbie," you insist, voice petulant as you catch your breath.

He wants to kiss you so bad, make you taste yourself on the slick that runs down his chin, but he cleans himself up and waits beside you patiently until you tug at his hand. A sign that you're ready for him to make good on his promise.

#stardew valley smut #stardew smut #sdv smut #sdv sam smut #stardew sam smut #stardew valley sam smut #a3risbaby.fandom

[lovebeatriceplz]

❥ A Dabi/ Touya Todoroki analysis ( also just some thoughts and telling the difference between fanon and canon). ❥

Few songs that remind me of him:

This one is gonna have a little kick

• Touya todoroki is an interesting one. I think I've always liked his character but it didn't really start to intrigue me until late season 5( cs i haven't read the manga, yet).

• So just like all of the villains in the series he didn't wake up one day and choose mass murder. It was a process, chip by chip, little punches here (metaphorically) a couple kicks there until he starts to crack. The whole idea of being the n.o1 hero, being the best was instilled in him by his father. Parents play a huge huge role on the opinions and morals that kids develop. Then when he can't seem to reach that standard, the one to please his old man, it frustrates him, but he was like what 10?. He didn't give up, he was determined, he didn't care if he hurt himself in the process, once he achieved his goal it would be worth it ( which I'll talk about again).

• So when his father insist that he should stop, he should give up, it's just, so odd, to hear a parent telling their child to give up. Knowing Enji this wasn't just for his child's safety, it was probably also for his image, and because he saw it as a waste of time to train his soilder if he couldn't fight on the battle field. Touya knew this too.

• I've seen on many apps, or maybe even edits saying that if endeavor just went to see his son on seketo ( is that it? ) peak that day, it wouldn't have happened and he'd be 'normal', or somewhere close to. I beg to differ, it would have happened anyways, his sheer will to just outshine whoever his dear, precious father wanted outweighed his concern for his own well being. Especially with shoto being born and the new focus of attention. It was just a matter of time, fate, even.

• I remember TikTok in covid time💀, i was on of those people who had a hugee crush on dabi and tomura (mostly dabi), and i remember i used to say things like "I could fix him" "he's just misunderstood" "he secretly loves the league but just can't show it" no pookie bear that is definitely not the case😭. Fanon dabi is.....cool, but if i actually tried to interact with him he'd just, i don't kill me? I don't think he cares about anyone.

• Definitely not his siblings, he hates them too. He has an almost patronizing look on the women in his family, not doing anything to help or protect him ( not that he wanted it). He hated his little brother, shoto, for stealing his life, the life that he wanted. He hates his father for igniting a spark in him, then abandoning it, causing it to burn him up. He hates natsu, for not understanding and just accepting that they were both failures. His relationship with natsu, based on the little snips that we got give me very bittersweet, angsty vibes that i do want to look into. I digress. But no, Touya cares about no one, not even the league, they're just another tool to get him closer to his goal.

• He doesn't care about himself either as i mentioned earlier. Remember that spark i talked about?, it didn't burn him up completely, left a nasty big scar though. It's still burning, it's just fueled by something else now, a desire, a need to torture and kill Enji Todoroki. He isn't afraid of death, he was at it's doorstep and age 13, he's tasted it. He only puts in effort to preserve his life because his goal isn't complete. If he dies during or after, once he gets what he wants, and sees the look on their faces, he couldn't give a shit about what happens to him.

• Touya is not emotionally constipated. He's fucked up yeah but i believe that he's learnt how to feel his feelings, which are mostly anger, disgust and hatred. He appears nonchalant cause he channels those emotions into his revenge plan.

• I'd like to say he's a typical case of a psychopath, psychologically speaking. It's just that he has a motive to kill, most psychopaths do not (realize i said most) they just kill for the thrill. But other than that he checks off all the boxes. He's killed on multiple occasions, having very very little or non existent remorse for his actions, not very socially inclined, and if you think about it, is kinda selfish.

• Do not believe for one second that touya would see and remember the things he went through and be like "no, I'm above that". You're wrong, he would gladly mirror the behavior that he grew up around if it suited him. Top tier gaslighter and manipulater energy from this man.

• I'm not trying to demonize him, it's not his fault he doesn't care about anyone. It's just that he's never felt it, he doesn't actually know what it is, so he can't give it, you can't give something that you don't have. Some may argue that he had his siblings and rei, not saying they didn't love him but he didn't feel it, or want it, he wanted his father's love which he didn't receive in the slightest.

I didn't go over this so they're might be spelling errors

#Spotify #SoundCloud #character study #this is all over the place geez #anaylsis #mha #my hero academia #bhna #boku no hero academia #dabi #dabi todoroki #dabi touya #touya #touya todoroki #todoroki #enji todoroki #rei todoroki #shoto todoroki #league of villains #anime #young dabi #backstory

[whump-card]

This Death That I Chose: Chapter 1

2507 words

CW: implied past noncon, derogatory language

Masterlist, Next

~~~

“My name is Lark.”

Joshua Tao studied their new captive carefully. The two of them sat opposite each other in the makeshift interrogation room – a back room in the abandoned house the Watch had set up in, the windows boarded closed. The prisoner had shackles on his ankles and wrists, and with his left arm in a cast from elbow to palm and resting in a sling he was forced to hold his right hand up awkwardly to avoid jostling it. Tao was deeply puzzled by him. The Watch had captured him purely by chance: they strayed too far into the ruins during a night patrol due to an over-enthusiastic new member, and spotted a Military transport van moving along an abandoned track. A split-second decision led to the van being stopped, boarded, and overpowered. When the fighting was over, the Watch headed home to their little rebel settlement with four prisoners – until the three captured soldiers cracked open their cyanide teeth and had to be left to rot in the ruins. That left them with one: silent, wide-eyed, with a broken arm, and clearly the transport’s primary passenger. The soldiers had fought wildly to protect him.

The prisoner was no soldier himself, of that Tao was certain. He had a slim build, hardly any muscle at all, clearly revealed by the sleeveless turtleneck he wore. He had pale skin and silky black hair that was too long and well cared for. Neither did he have the age or aura of an officer; the young man had put up no fight, and now stared down at the table between them, refusing to risk antagonizing his captors with eye contact. His face – which looked small penned in by the dark of mop of his hair and the high turtleneck – was ashen and slick with sweat, the result of the hours-long slog through the ruins on a hot summer night. He didn’t seem scared, though. Instead he seemed cold. Detached.

“Your name is Lark.” Tao echoed, drumming his fingers on the holster of his gun. Like the bird? “Okay, ‘Lark.’ What were you doing in a Military transport going through the ruins in the middle of the night?”

“We were returning from the Conservatorium to the Capital.”

Tao wasn’t expecting such a straightforward answer. The young man’s voice was quiet, with a smooth, controlled cadence.

“What were you doing at the Conservatorium?” Tao asked.

“I needed to see a doctor there.”

“For your arm? It doesn’t look bad enough to warrant a trip to the Con.”

“It was… Badly infected.”

Lark’s first hesitation. Tao made a mental note of that, and moved on.

“So you live in the Capital?”

“Yes, sir.”

‘Sir’? He really doesn’t want any trouble.

“What do you do there?”

Another pause. Lark’s eyes darted back and forth, searching the table for the best answer. Tao suppressed a smile.

“I don’t know anything useful to you,” Lark said carefully.

“That’s not what I asked.” Tao leaned forward. “You’re a scientist, aren’t you? Pumping out murder machines, getting top-notch medical treatment when an experiment goes wrong?”

Lark was shaking his head before Tao even finished talking.

“No, sir. I’m not a scientist. I don’t know anything.”

“Sounds like something a scientist would say.”

“I’m not. You shouldn’t keep me here.”

“Woah!” Tao laughed, “Giving orders already? And here I was, thinking you were a pushover.”

“No, sir, what I mean is, people will miss me, in the Capital. They will come looking.”

Emotion was starting to color Lark’s voice for the first time: a hint of desperation.

“They won’t find us,” Tao said.

“You think he doesn’t know you’re out here?” Defiance. And he.

“So you do know things.”

Lark finally looked up from the table, his eyes meeting Tao’s for the first time. They were dark bronze, like late-season honey.

“No, not anything useful, I swear.” Gone was his carefully measured tone and pace. His words flowed quickly and betrayed a slowly rising panic. “If you keep me here you’ll learn nothing from me and the Commander will destroy this place to get me back. You should trade or ransom me for something that’s actually valuable as soon as you can.”

“Aww,” Tao’s voice dripped with fake sympathy, “It almost sounds like you care about us.” He laughed, then grew serious again. “And it sounds like you’re pretty important to the big guy.”

Lark hesitated again before admitting it.

“Yes, sir. I am. In fact -” He gained a second wind of boldness, leaning forward slightly. “In fact, the Commander took a great risk in resources and political standing by sending me through the ruins to the Conservatory for emergency medical care. He has gone through great lengths to ensure my health and safety, and I know he’d be willing to offer you anything you wanted in exchange for my safe return. But… he’s not a patient man. You’d need to act quickly.”

“Well, what I want is my home, my country, and my brother back.” Tao stared Lark down. “I don’t think that’s going to happen, do you?”

Lark was left speechless, his open mouth trembling slightly. Tao stood.

“I’m going to give you some time to think. I’m sure you can come up with something interesting to tell me. If not… We’ll help you out.”

Tao started to leave, but heard chains rattling behind him.

“Um, please, wait!”

Lark’s tone was much different now. He was scared – clearly he hadn’t thought Tao would cut off their conversation so soon. Tao turned back.

“What is it, thought of something already?”

“No, sir, sorry, I – my arm,” Lark gestured weakly to his sling, “It’s not fully healed. I had antibiotics with me on the transport, I need them so that the infection doesn’t… come back. Please.”

Tao nodded slowly.

“We’ll see,” was all he said.

Tao left the room and found himself toe-to-toe with Becca and Vic, who had been listening just outside the door. They said nothing but made expressive faces as Tao mockingly waved them away and bolted the door – the lack of soundproofing went both ways. How Tao wished they had a real interrogation room, with an intercom and a slick one-way window. But buildings like that hardly existed anymore outside of the Commander's hold.

The three of them moved from the small hallway to what had once been someone’s living room, but was now the Watch’s meeting and strategy room. Vic, the Watch’s other leader along with Tao, practically exploded.

“This is crazy. Do you really think he’s a scientist?”

Tao let out a long breath, cracking his knuckles one by one. The whole thing had him more tense than he realized.

“He’s gotta be. I don’t know what else. If he was some kind of laborer or domestic servant, he could’ve just said.”

Becca, the rebel community’s de-facto “mayor,” snapped her fingers to get the two men’s attention.

“Hey. Did I mishear, or did you vaguely threaten him with torture? Because we’re not doing that. Ever.”

“Oh, jeez, no,” Tao put up his hands, “I was just trying to scare him.”

“Aww,” Vic complained, “Can’t we rough him up just a little? He’s part of a fascist regime!”

“No,” Becca insisted, “And Tao, you better track down that medicine he needs. We respect the Geneva Convention in this house.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Vic, how goes the data retrieval from the Military van?” Becca asked.

“It’s going,” Vic nodded, “We should know a lot more about who this guy is very soon.”

“Good. We’ll talk to ‘Lark’ again when we do. Until then,” she pointed to Tao, “Medicine, and,” she turned her finger toward Vic, “Guard him. No funny business.”

Vic gave a lazy salute. “Got it.”

~~~

Tao was going to get the medicine, he really was. But after being out all night and the skirmish over the transport van, he was exhausted, starving, and had a few bumps and scrapes that were begging for attention. Sustenance came first: he left the house that served as the Watch’s headquarters and walked down the cracked and weathered road to the cookhouse.

The little rebel “town” was modest. It was a ragtag collection of survivors that had set up in an abandoned semi-rural neighborhood, guarded and provided for by volunteer Watchmen who scavenged the nearby city ruins. The houses were spaced apart, and there was thick tree coverage that kept them visually shielded from any aerial eyes that didn’t know what they were looking for.

The cookhouse was a home that had been remodeled shortly before the war to sport a modern open floor plan. This made it the largest indoor space, and combined with its state-of-the-art kitchen it was the best mess hall they could manage.

Tao knocked back two cups of instant coffee and some watery eggs, fending off questions from other breakfast-goers about the Watch’s new prisoner. He only just got here. Yeah, yeah, we’ll make an announcement if he spills something juicy. Only the cook on duty cared to ask him how his food was, chuckling out a good-humored “Today is a disaster!” when he couldn’t fake a good enough smile.

Once he had some peace, he rolled the prisoner’s words around in his head. “Lark.” Yeah, right. But…

“You should trade me for something that’s actually valuable.”

The young man hadn’t sounded like he was lying.

~~~

Tao went to the infirmary next. Their doctor, Faye, was a bony old woman with an ornery personality, but she got the job done.

Once Tao had been patched up and downed some ibuprofen he asked her if his crew had dropped anything off for her. She unceremoniously shoved a shoe box of various supplies into his hands.

“I haven’t gone through it yet,” Faye said, “Looks like quality stuff.”

“Yeah, well…” Tao shuffled through the spare sling and packets of bandages to pull out a pill bottle – the antibiotics. “These were for the prisoner we took, and I think he still needs some of it.”

Faye scoffed.

“That’s good medicine, and we’re wasting it on some fash bastard? Tell me you’re not serious.”

Tao shrugged weakly in the face of her ire.

“Geneva convention?”

~~~

Tao escaped the infirmary without any new injuries and made his way back to the HQ with the shoebox tucked under his arm. Inside he found Vic, bouncing on his heels and practically glowing as he scrolled on a tablet.

“You’re never going to believe this!” Vic crowed.

“What is it? You retrieve the van data?” Tao grinned, certain his scientist theory would pay off.

“Yeah we did! And guess who our little friend in there is.”

“Just spit it out, Vic!”

“He’s the Commander’s whore. Listen to this.”

Tao found himself spinning between Vic’s infectious delight and a horrible sinking feeling. He opened his mouth but was cut off by a compressed, crackly recording emitting from Vic’s tablet.

“Home base, this is transport 562, we have departed Conservatory with the fucktoy, en route to home, ETA 07:00, over.

“Transport 562, this is home base, we read you, please be advised to keep your language clean on the coms, over.”

“Yes sir, revise to: we have departed with the… boytoy. Over.”

“…”

“The Commander’s main squeeze? Over.”

“Jeremy I swear to God-”

Vic stopped the recording with a cackle.

“Can you believe it? No wonder he didn’t want to tell us what his job was!”

Vic continued to laugh, slapping his knee, and Tao felt a hollow, automatic chuckle escape his own mouth. Because… it was funny… right?

“Can you imagine what kind of… literal ass-kisser this dude must be?” Vic wheezed, nearly tearing up, “Who in their right mind would fuck that Palpatine-lookin’ motherfucker-”

“Hey, let me see that.” Tao dropped the shoebox of medical supplies on the table and grabbed at the tablet. Vic handed it over, sinking into a chair.

“Oh shit, who fucks who? D’you think -” Vic’s words were consumed by his own laughter as Tao scrolled frantically through the info scraped from the van. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, but he found the Conservatory’s visit summary.

“Lark.” No surname.

Based on his birthdate, he’s… 22. Shit.

“Arrived with compound fractures of both the radius and ulna, and severe infection. Patient reports arm was broken twice and set improperly the first time. Patient is unclear when the infection set in.” …Twice?

“Pain management disregarded upon request of the payee.”

Tao dropped the tablet to the table with a clatter and scrabbled at the shoe box, upturning the contents and spreading them out with shaking hands. Vic stared at him, finally coming down from his hysterics.

“What’re you doing?”

“There’s no pain meds!”

“What?”

Tao grabbed the antibiotics and rushed past Vic towards the back room.

“Woah!” Vic jumped up to follow him, “Shouldn’t we wait for Becca?”

Tao ignored him, unbolting the door and flinging it open.

“Lark-”

Tao choked.

In stark contrast to his stiff, prim, upright posture earlier, Lark now sat slumped over, head on the table.

“Hey!” Tao shouted at him. Vic came in to stand beside him, cursing.

Lark didn’t move.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Tao darted around the table, stuffing the antibiotics into his pocket. He put one hand under Lark’s head and one on his shoulder and tried to lift him up without upsetting the broken arm, only to find it already pulled awkwardly out of the sling by the shackled weight of the boy’s other arm. Luckily the cast was holding strong. Lark’s head lolled back, and his eyelids fluttered. His color was even worse than it was earlier and his forehead was hot and slippery with sweat under Tao’s hand.

“Help me!” Tao waved Vic over, “Undo the shackles!”

“Are you sure-”

“Does he look like he’s going to escape, Vic?! Get your head out of your ass!”

Vic hustled over and Tao eased Lark’s broken arm back into the sling and held it steady as Vic sorted through his key ring and unlocked the shackles. Lark let out a tiny, pained whimper that made Tao want to throw up.

“Shit, okay, we gotta – we gotta get him to Faye!”

Vic kicked the shackles out of the way.

“Are you sure-?”

“Vic, I swear I will explain what I think is happening here, but he needs help first.”

Vic hesitated, but understood that stopping to argue would get them nowhere. He nodded.

“Thank you. Okay, Lark?” Tao placed a hand on Lark’s burning cheek to gently tilt his face towards his own. “We’re gonna help you walk a little ways, can you do that for me?”

Lark’s eyes fluttered open, and his unfocused gaze wandered over Tao’s face. His eyes abruptly filled with tears, and he took in a sharp breath.

“Please,” he whispered, “Please don’t break my arm again.”

Tao looked up and met Vic’s solemn stare. The other man had finally grasped that something was wrong.

This was going to be a lot more complicated than they thought.

~~~

Masterlist, Next

Taglist: @angst-after-dark, @sunshiline-writes, @flowersarefreetherapy

#whump #whump fic #whump writing #this death that I chose #implied noncon #cw derogatory language #past noncon

[tweedlebugged]

Squinting at the latest dndads episode suspiciously and poking it with a stick. Because on the one hand, it definitely feels like something sus is going on under the surface here and Anthony’s going to pull the rug out any minute now.

On the other, this is a show called Dungeons and Daddies and you kind of have to accept on admission that the characters can and will twist the logical rules of the universe into a pretzel in service of a really good goof. So there’s no way to tell right now what seems a little weird For the Drama and what seems a little weird For the Bit.

Take Jodie. Last season he was this badass demon and objectively the most put together dad, and now he’s this kind of pathetic loser trying to get back with his ex. His ex who he’s definitely been broken up with for over two decades at this point, given that he was already dating Scam during the Church of the Doodler stuff only a few years post season 1. And he was a really involved dad who is obviously disappointed in Nicky for not being part of Taylor’s life, but also he seems totally indifferent toward Hermie and pinches his nose when he has to be near him? It’s weird! And he acts so eager to use these kids and is VERY obviously trying to manipulate them—the whole chosen one thing tbh, and giving scary “secret” information and telling her she smells so super evil when she’s just…not lol—but then gets worried and tries to stop Scary when she does something that will actually hurt her. Officer Foster sir what the fuck is your deal?

But also—Jodie the cringe fail King of Hell is hilarious and Jimmy could just have been leaning into that new persona because it’s good radio. And it was! So who knows!

And Glenn. We know he canonically helped found DADDIES and was working to take down the Doodler (fighting at the Church, putting in the super fast elevator) and Nicky continued to be involved for years after, so clearly the Close/Foster family cared about the Doodler stuff at one point. So how did Glenn end up with the Doodler’s anchor and why is he maiming children to keep them from getting it? Children he should probably recognize and care about at least a little! (Although to be fair Taylor and Link are both still wearing skull masks)

But ALSO—and I say this lovingly—Glenn does have a slight history of being a selfish garbage man, and even though his character grew a lot by the end of season 1 it still wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for him to have looked around after his friends were gone, realized all of his loved ones were actually safe, and decided to fuck off to do cool things in hell instead. Especially after the other kiddads betrayed Nicky. Anthony did say that he’d let the players decide what happened to their characters, and while I don’t know Mr. Frederick Wong personally “fighting 666 demons in mega hell with the love of his life” does have the exact vibe of an ending he’d choose for Glenn.

So is Glenn under the influence of the anchor somehow? Is he actually one of the Likely family in disguise? Or is Freddy taking full advantage of being Glenn again to play out this character to its logical and EXTREMELY funny conclusion? Impossible to say!

And finally Agent Schmegan and the FBI. All that work hunting Nicky to the point that he had to abandon his family and stalking Taylor until they had an opportunity to draw out his dad, all so they could capture Nicky and torture him into letting them into hell. And now suddenly all they needed was text message permission from some random unrelated teenager and they could open a portal themselves? That’s fishy! And they had special weapons designed to take down Nicky, who said if they ever captured him his dads would be dead, but now Jodie can fight them all by himself without much issue? Feels a little like a scam, actually!

BUT ALSO—the 12 soccer players have been tied to the FBI since the FBI was introduced, and it makes sense to play out those stories at the same time. And since you can only go to hell once, bringing the FBI there now could take them out as a threat to Nicky. Which is more a narrative move than a comedy beat but would still be very funny when he loses his excuse to be an absentee dad and has to actually interact with Taylor. And his ex wife. And her new boyfriend.

This post isn’t going anywhere, the episode just reminded me why trying to theorize about Dungeons and Daddies is like trying to connect a conspiracy board with silly string (affectionate)

#I don’t know what’s happening here but I know I’m having fun watching it #dndads #dndaddies #dungeons and daddies #dndads glenn close #dndads jodie foster #nicholas foster #nick close #is there a better tag for him this man has too many names

[hockeywriterrowan]

Road Trip || Cole Caufield x Reader

author's note: first stand alone fic in a while.

summary: Cole and reader head to her brother's lake house for the season, making a couple stops on the way.

pairing: Cole Caufield x hughes!reader

word count: 1.4

warnings: none

The wind flowed through your hair, creating a sense of freedom and adventure, as Cole sped up his car to merge onto the Michigan highway. You had been looking forward to this road trip with Cole for weeks, and the excitement in the air radiated between Cole and you. 

“Slow down there, speed racer,” you teased as Cole playfully swayed to the music. His laughter was infectious, and his smile shone brighter than the sun. You couldn’t help but to join in. It was moments like these that made your friendship special, the joy of sharing simple pleasures and the bond you shared with each passing smile.

As the miles rolled on, you took turn selecting songs, mostly consisting of Taylor Swift and cheesy pop songs from your childhood. Cole would frequently check on you, taking his eyes off the road for a moment until you noticed his looks. 

After a few hours on the road, you pointed out a scenic overlook to stop at to take a break and stretch your legs. 

Cole parked the car, and you both stepped out, the warm sun kissing your tan skin. As you stood at the guardrail, Cole walked up beside you, his arm lightly brushing against yours. You felt a slight tingle in your stomach, suddenly becoming aware of any small movements you made. 

While you started noticing these feelings when you visited Cole in Montreal when he played your twin brother, Jack. Since Cole played with Jack for the USNTDP, the two of you had become friends. A lot of his friends were seemingly too similar to Jack, while Cole brought a new sense of excitement for teenage you. Until this year, you had never felt nervous around Cole. 

Cole shifted and walked back to the car. He was going to grab the sandwiches you packed for the two of you to share. 

“Thank you so much for the sandwich, kind sir,” you joked as the two of you sat on one of the benches. The outlook was fairly stranded, so it was the best spot to view the beautiful outlook.

“Anything for m’lady,” Cole responded, making a small blush rise onto your face as you both shared a laugh.

As you enjoyed your meal, the conversation flowed effortlessly. You talked about everything from all the clients at your job to Cole’s recent failure on the golf course. The more you talked, the more you and Cole grew comfortable together after being apart for several months.

At one point, he leaned in slightly closer, his voice soft, “You know, I’ve been really looking forward to this trip.”

You nodded your head smiling.

“But it isn’t so much about the places I’ll be seeing or that I’ll get to be on the lake once we’re done, it’s about the person I’m riding with,” he admitted.

Your heart skipped a beat, and you felt a rush of warmth. “I feel the same way,” you replied sincerely, your eyes meeting his.

For a moment, time stood still as you gazed at each other, many unspoken words hanging in the air. It was a moment of realization for both you and Cole, marking a subtle shift in your relationship.

As the midday sun started its descent, you packed up the garbage from the sandwiches and headed back to Cole’s car. 

The open road stretched out before the two of you, and the two of you continued on your journey. You and Cole sometimes making eye contact before breaking it awkwardly as you looked at the scenery and he looked back ahead.

As you arrived at a hotel that you both deemed safe enough to stop at, the sky was dark, but happiness still radiated off of both of you. Cole and you came to the front desk of the hotel, asking for a free room.

“We only have rooms with one bed left,” the receptionist stated. 

Cole shrugged, looking back at you, and you did the same.

The two of you went back out to the car and grabbed your bags. You came back into the hotel, and you pulled out the key, unlocking the door and opening the door for Cole who insisted on carrying your extra bag. 

It was then that you realized that it wasn’t a king sized bed but a single queen bed. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal. The two of you had cuddled plenty of times before. But not after you realized your feelings for Cole. He immediately set down the bags and jumped onto the bed as you gently set your bag down on the desk and pulled out your phone charger. 

Then you grabbed clothes to change into after your shower and immediately hopped in.

When you came out of the bathroom, Cole was opening his laptop, preparing to watch a movie. You joined him on the bed, and he clicked on a horror movie. You rolled your eyes, knowing that you guys would just laugh at the stupid characters the whole time. 

As the movie began, the pair shuffled so that the laptop was sat on a pillow draped across their legs as they sat with their backs against the headboard. 

You felt you eyes closing but wanted to stay up to laugh with Cole. Every so often, after your head would fall slightly, you would jerk awake. Cole felt this and the next time that your head fell, he pull you even closer to him and pushed your head onto his shoulder. You felt your heart flutter, and you smiled.

As you closed your eyes, Cole closed the laptop. You matched your breathing to him and he pulled the two down so that you were no longer sitting up. 

-----------

The next morning, your legs were tangled with Cole’s. You smiled and went onto your phone for a couple of minutes until he started to stir. He pulled away slightly but kept his eyes closed. He grinned, and you shook your hand in his brown hair, smiling back.

As he opened his eyes, adjusting to the light, his morning voice shined through, “Hey, early bird.”

You blushed. As long as you guys had been friends, you had never heard his morning voice. He got out of bed to take a shower, and you opened a book to try and at least get some reading time in.

When the two of you were ready, you guys went back to your usual spots in the car for the last leg of your trip to Jack and Quinn’s lake house.

“You know,” Cole leaned in closer while driving, “I can’t stop thinking about that moment at the overlook.”

You turned to him, your eyes meeting his, a playful smirk forming on your lips, “Oh, really? What about it?”

He smirked back, glancing at your, his gaze lingering on your lips for a millisecond, “I don’t know. When you looked at me… it just felt like time stood still. I can’t forget it.”

Your heart raced and you softened, “Yeah. I felt it too.”

The tension grew as you shared stolen glances and smiles. Cole’s hand occasionally brushed against yours, sending shivers down your spine.

As you came into town and stopped at a gas station, he playfully mentioned, “You know, we have always made a pretty good team on the road. Maybe we should go on more adventures together.”

You leaned in closer, feeling brave, your faces inches apart.

“I’d like that,” you replied, your breath mingling with his.

The rest of the journey was filled with similar banter. Each moment brought you slowly closer to the house, anticipation to see your brothers and the other boys electric. 

As you and Cole arrived at your brothers’ lake house, the undeniable chemistry between you two reached a boiling point. The sun was setting, casting a warm, golden glow over the quiet early evening lake.

As you both stepped out of the car and stood in the driveway, Cole felt a magnetic pull towards you. With a sudden burst of courage, he leaned in and gently pressed his lips to yours. You were surprised, and the kiss was so quick you couldn’t even find the time to return the kiss. You felt all the growing emotions that had built up during the road trip and giggled with him, leaning in and hugging Cole to show your regret for the lack of response for the kiss. 

The road trip was only the beginning, but the two of you were ready to continue to develop your friendship into something more as the summer went on.

#cole caufield #cole caufield x reader #cole caufield imagine #hockey fic #montreal canadiens

[earl-of-grey]

Some Hazbin thoughts:

I liked how the first season ended, and while I do think the pacing was sped up to clearly reach this arc’s conclusion (but due to time constraints of course) I think ending it off with the scene showing Sir Pentious in Heaven is the perfect cliff hanger for the show.

Throughout the first season, we see both the characters, their society, us the audience, and even Charlie herself asks, “will this hotel even work?” That was what the pilot, the whole premise of the show centered on: is redemption for sinners even possible?

Of course we the audience already know the answer because then there wouldn’t be much of a message to learn from, much less a story to captivate on. But in this world, in their reality, the characters don’t know that. Charlie doesn’t know either. But she has faith that it does.

And what better way to complete this season’s arc with answering that question from the very beginning: yes, yes it does.

So now, the story can evolve from there. It’s not about proving her theory anymore, Charlie’s got the proof that she needs. Now it’s all a matter of facing the obstacles of those who don’t want it to work.

The Vees will definitely play a big part in season 2, and I’m guessing their motivations to stop the hotel from working would be to both to still gain control of sinners (if the hotel exists as an alternative, then they would lose their audience) and still gain access to specific individuals in the hotel (Valentino with Angel and Vox with Alastor).

And we might get to see Sera’s response to this new revelation. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she leans towards fear, but how far is she willing to go (or maybe how much is she willing to fall) in order to enact to her duties and responsibilities? (And keep in mind, holding onto her fears and encouraging the exterminations may just be the very reason for her Fall.)

And another thing, I can’t wait to see Alastor’s reaction to the news that the hotel works. It’s very ironic how (from what he’s only revealed so far) the main reason he wanted to help in the first place is because he’s betting on Charlie’s ‘passion project’ not working.

He’s made it very clear that he believes that the human condition is innately selfish and malignant (with a few rare exceptions). He says “Why does anyone do anything? Sheer, absolute boredom.” While there are plenty of hints foreshadowing Alastor having ulterior motives for helping the hotel (whether he’s forced to be there or not), that still doesn’t mean what he said ISN’T an extension of what he believes the world to be. He says “the world is a stage, and stage is a world of entertainment.”

Alastor is a performer. To perform means to believe in something you’re fabricating. So what makes Alastor’s situation interesting is that his whole character and predicament is entrenched in two opposing ideals existing at once. Paradoxical truths.

He has to help make the hotel successful in order to prove that it will fail.

He can’t show that he cares about the group because then others will use that against him, but at the same time, he has to show that he cares in order for the group to trust him. (But just enough)

So when that moment of revelation is revealed to the whole group that Charlie’s redemption idea is possible and works, Alastor will have to craft a balancing act of both helping and sabotaging the hotel to ensure that he still has control over the entire thing (even though this new information will shake it all up).

If the world is a stage, then Alastor wants to be the one to build it. He wants to be both producer and critic. But that balancing act could only go so far until the consequences of doing so will eventually bite him back.

And I cannot wait to see it happen.

But those are just my thoughts and predictions for the next season.

I’d love to hear yours as well.

#hazbin hotel #alastor #hazbin charlie #charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel thoughts #hazbin hotel theory #the vees #hazbin hotel sera #just my thoughts #putting my two cents #idk #I’m still wondering #what Alastor #will use that favor for #love death of the ego #characters with big egos #and their downfalls

[critical-hazbin]

Thoughts on Alastor so far? He’s probably my favorite character in HH, but after the poor writing that came from HB episodes 3 and 4, one part of me is worried the crew will ruin him when Hazbin Hotel eventually starts getting episodes.

(This ask was sent in a long time ago, sorry it took me until now to finally answer.)

Spoilers for Season 1 of Hazbin

I was almost certain they were going to mess up Alastor's character horribly. I did not have much faith in the writing for Hazbin. With Alastor specifically, there is a lot of room for error in terms of characterization, and I found personally that he was the trickiest one of the cast to write correctly and consistently. Between fandom woobifying, conflicting information, and a lack of insight into his motivations, Alastor's character has seen many varying interpretations over the years.

Well, now that the show is actually airing, I have to say that I don't think they ruined Alastor's character: they actually did a great job with him. I do understand the perspective of those who disagree with me, and miss the pilot characterization. But as a long-time Alastor fan, I feel the writers gave him surprising depth and found his flaws intriguing.

Pilot Alastor (Ed Bosco and Gabriel Brown) was goofier, more lighthearted, chattier, and more openly affectionate. Nothing really seemed to rattle him, and direct signs of his deviousness were minimal. He had more extensive radio sound effects and was truly a product of the thirties (reflected in dialogue through specific phrases), but had a smaller range of emotional expression as a result of his "radio broadcaster" persona. Husk seemed to owe him a favor, as opposed to Alastor owning his soul outright - "I suppose I could cash in a few favors" - and this was a common fan interpretation, not just a misinterpretation on my part.

Series Alastor (Amir Talai) is more temperamental, prideful, openly intimidating, reserved, and less prone to rambling. The radio effects are minimal unless needed for dramatic effect; his smile is sharper and less genuine. We see a wider range of emotions (frustration, anger, fear) from this Alastor, all with the smile still in place. There's a certain coldness about him, from his demeanor towards Husk (whom he keeps as a pet in an abusive soul contract) and his annoyance at others (Charlie, the Egg Bois, Sir Pentious) that contrasts his superficial warmth from the pilot.

It's a subtle but definitely noticeable set of changes for a character many fans had grown attached to. And yet, I found I liked the new version of Alastor, and felt that the writers added depth to a character who could have easily been a flat, all-powerful "Gary Stu" archetype. We see how these character flaws come back to bite him in the finale and how his limitations imposed by his deal set up his character for other, more interesting developments. Him having a breakdown and then immediately returning to the others with a smile on his face like everything is fine? That's the kind of Alastor that I knew was in there, and it was amazing to actually see it on screen. (I always figured he was a mess beneath the mask. That last scene was not shocking for me the way it was for many others.)

This fascinating characterization hasn't stopped other people from saying they "miss the pilot Alastor" and "wish he was still like that". I get that, I really do. If pilot Alastor was how Alastor wanted to be seen by others, series Alastor shows us who he really is. Unsurprisingly, not everyone is going to like that.

Side note: Ed and Gabriel did a perfect job voicing Alastor. Amir is also doing very nice work. I still miss the pilot voices, even though I like the voice he has now.

#hazbin critical #still not sure if that is the right tag for this? #Hazbin hotel #alastor #pilot alastor #series alastor #responding to criticism #alastor character analysis #alastor analysis #asks

[tc-doherty]

Book One | Chapter Six

Index | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Tag list: @bloodlessheirbyjacques @magefaery @did-i-do-this-write @marrowwife @muddshadow @outpost51 @full-on-sam @bluberimufim @unclear-contributions @talesfromtheunknowable @guessillcallitart @flowerprose

(Ask to be added or removed)

Elizabet had a yawn behind her fan.

"If you find it so distasteful, why bother coming year after year?" Asked Patrice. "Surely handsome young knights are not so interesting as to outweigh your boredom now."

She didn't think her comment was a funny one, but that did not stop the countess from laughing. "To keep track of the pulse of court, my dear." She paused to smooth a wrinkle out of her skirt. "Which ladies support which knights can tell you a great deal, and the feast can tell you even more. Everyone is already sounding out alliances for next season. Only a fool would allow herself to be left behind."

Patrice had to wait a moment for the announcer to finish rattling off the names of the current fighters - a Sir Bruce and Dame Mordecai - before she could continue the conversation. Before she had tried to ignore Elizabet, and that hadn't deterred the woman any. If the woman was determined to talk, at least Patrice might be able to get some relevant information out of her – if she could drag the conversation away from the personal lives of people she had no interest in. It was certain to be more useful than the repetitive jousting down below was interesting.

"What is the season?" She asked again.

"Runeria is disgustingly hot in the summer," Elizabet said, and fanned herself for emphasis. "New Iber even more so, with its close-packed walls. We all flee to the countryside until fall. The season is the time between fall and spring where we live here and important business is taken care of."

Patrice nodded and looked around. Most of the people she could see were engaged in their own private conversations. Only a few seemed to be watching the joust with any interest. If she listened closely, she could hear multiple mentions of the country, summer homes, parties, alliances, and marriages surfacing out of the sea of chatter.

She turned back to Elizabet. "Why did you invite me to go with you?"

"If you are to thrive in court, my dear, you'll need a mentor," the countess said. "Someone to teach you who's who and what's what, what to do and what not to do. I do happen to know all that information. It could be mutually beneficial, you would learn everything you need to learn, and I would be able to keep a much closer eye on current happenings."

Patrice said nothing. At least the old woman was honest about her intentions. That was something. But Patrice had no interest in allowing herself to become bound to this human court and their nonsensical traditions. She wasn't really sure what she did have an interest in, but it certainly wasn't that.

As before, her silence did nothing to dampen Elizabet's spirits. "You'll have to let me know your decision before the party starts," the countess said, then snapped her fan shut and used it to gesture to the far end of the field. "That's your little knight over there, isn't it?"

Patrice followed the motion.

Felisjyta stood at the edge of the sand, leaning on Vasya's saddle as she laughed and joked with the squire carrying her lances. Earlier she had still been dressed in loose trews and tunic. Now she looked just like the Runerian knights, decked in armor over a heavy gambeson. The little mountain mare was turned out in matching caparison and barding, with blue and green ribbons woven into her mane and tail.

Both the knight and mare seemed unconcerned. Felisjyta had not even spared a glance for her opponent, and Vasya was idly lipping the grass that grew at the edge of the sand.

Patrice frowned. Her end of the field held a high-strung dark bay courser. The gelding pranced and tossed his head, and danced sideways when his knight tried to mount. Felisjyta swung easily into Vasya's saddle and put her helm on before taking the field.

"Serzeks really don't produce much in the way of knights, do they?" Countess Elizabet asked.

"She looks a knight to me," said Patrice, unamused.

"Of course, dear, of course."

The announcer spoke, saving Patrice from having to make a reply. "An interesting development," he said. "Sir Braiden Collens, fighting for Lady Suzan Greenheld. Dame Felisjyta of Fellveer, fighting for Lady Patrice Drake."

A titter of surprise ran through the crowd. A few nobles in the box turned to stare, but Patrice ignored them. After a moment of silence, scattered applause began. It grew stronger as it went on, but not as strong as it had been before the other matches.

"So you see," said Countess Elizabet punctuating her words with waves of her fan, "breaking tradition is no way to make friends at court."

Patrice had just about enough of this. "Dragons," she said," do as they please."

As Elizabet opened her mouth to speak, the announcer lowered his arm and called out the order to start. The joust gave Patrice a very convenient reason to ignore the countess.

Both horses began to move, jumping directly to a gallop that sped them towards their opponent. Patrice held her breath as they drew closer to one another. Already she had seen one knight carried off the field bleeding when a match went badly, and Felisjyta was much smaller than her opponent.

Lance met shield with a crash.

Both knights wobbled but kept their seats. Vasya came to a stop on her own, but Braiden had to jerk his gelding back around. Neither lance was broken, but each knight took a fresh one before regaining their spot. They charged a second time.

Lances lowered.

Patrice watched with bated breath and clenched hands.

On the third pass, Braiden's lance hit the upper half of Felisjyta's shield. She wavered under the force of the hit. Her own strike went wild, sliding off the shield to hit him on the left side of his chest. Braiden reeled too – and fell.

The crowd cheered wildly, no longer concerned about anything except the action in the arena.

Patrice let out the breath she'd been holding and began to clap as well. On the field the two knights bowed to one another. Felisjyta rode off, Braiden led his horse away on foot.

Compelled by the twin desires to gloat and defend Felisjyta's honor, Patrice turned to the countess. "See, she's not nearly so bad a knight as you imply."

Elizabet clapped politely. "So it seems. The Serzek duchess arrived a year ago, but her knights have always kept to themselves in practice. Your Felicity is the first one we've ever seen in a tournament."

"My Felisjyta? I would not think I had any claim to her success. She's the knight after all," Patrice said. She did not look at the countess as she said it. She was examining her gown. She hadn't realized her temperature was up, but the dress now had two lines of scorch marks on it where she had rested her arms. She wouldn't be able to wear this one again. Maria would be quite cross with her.

Elizabet laughed. "Oh come now, she's fighting under your favor, so she accepts you as her inspiration, so to speak."

Patrice shrugged and ran her palm over the ruined fabric. "She was only doing me a favor." She turned away from the other woman, determined to ignore the countess once and for all. She had no intention of getting dragged into court politics!

Patrice found the tournament to be enjoyable, much to her surprise. She began to appreciate the jousting, or at least watching certain knights progress farther and farther to the top. She could understand why people would wager great sums of money on such a sport – as she heard them do all around her – and she still found the duels to be strangely beautiful. Although, the more of the tournament she watched, the more she could see just how much Johan and Rothert had altered their performances. Most of the duels that she saw lasted less than two minutes, with the fastest one being over in fifteen seconds. Nothing at all like the extended sword fight the two of them had performed.

The jousts stopped at noon for a two hour break during the hottest part of the day. Maria came to fetch Patrice from the stands. The maid tsked over the state Patrice's dress, and whisked her off to the city of tents to do some shopping.

Patrice could only follow along behind, bemused. Maria knew more about fabric and color and fashion than she did, so she merely stood by while the maid haggled and bargained with her money and came away with armful after armful of fabric to be sent to the castle.

"Am I really going to need so much?" Patrice asked.

"You will if you keep destroying your gowns like that!" Maria scolded. "Dragons probably can't help being hot-blooded but please try to control yourself." She held up a roll of red silk to inspect. "You'll also need gowns if you intend to join the court to a greater degree. Ladies tend to frown on wearing the same four dresses to every occasion."

"But-"

Maria put down the red silk and pulled out a roll of dark violet instead. "We'll have to find a way to spruce them up a bit. A little embroidery here and there, maybe with pearls and semi precious stones. And we'll have to get you some more jewelry as well."

"But-"

"I know you prefer simple clothing but they won't let you get away with it, even if you are a dragon." Maria set down a roll of gold mirrored silk next to the purple and gave the vendor measurements to cut.

Patrice gave this particular battle up for lost. "If you insist," she said with a sigh. "But if I'm to let you and the others dress me up in this ridiculous frippery, I demand that you also purchase me some boots, or at least shoes like yours. I hate wearing these things."

It was Maria's turn to sigh, but she didn't even look up; she had already moved on to studying another type of fabric in a deep blue. "Fine, fine. I'll see what I can do. But you'll need to have a proper gown matching Dame Felicity's colors for the feast at the end of the festival. With Anna and Elaine helping me, we ought to be able to come up with something. As long as you agree to actually wear it."

"A bargain is a bargain. If you keep your end, I'll keep mine. Dragons are creatures of their word, after all." Patrice turned and began to watch the crowd instead, a chaotic sea of colors and sound whirling from booth to booth. All around were men and women just like Maria – shopping and gossiping and talking about the court. There was no one there who did not look utterly thrilled to be there, save for the occasional protesting child. Patrice folded her arms and tried to contain her impatience.

Maria must've read something in her body language. The maid shook her head. "Why don't you go visit with Felicity? I can work here by myself as long as you trust me."

"You're the only one here who understands all these confounded rules, you'll make far better choices than I would," Patrice said, relief evident in her voice. She left Maria alone and made her way towards the northwest corner of the estate.

Patrice was not surprised to find Felisjyta tending to her horse. The Serzek knight had stripped out of her armor and gambeson. Vasya too was temporarily divested of armor. Sweat plastered Felisjyta's hair to her head and turned the mare's coat from gray to black.

Patrice slowed as she neared the pair, but this time the mare did nothing more than flick one ear forward in interest as she approached. Encouraged, Patrice walked right up and stroked Vasya's damp neck.

Felisjyta looked up from where she was brushing the mare's flank. "Back again?"

"I wanted to congratulate you," said Patrice, "and also to escape from shopping. Maria is determined to spend as much of my money as possible."

"I didn't realize you were as well-off as that," Felisjyta said. She ran a wooden comb across Vasya's back with long, even strokes.

Patrice shrugged. "When I first came here, the court steward returned to me all of my mother's gold which had been stolen. They also gave me custody of the land in the Old Kingdom – though as far as dragons are concerned, land and treasures both are up for grabs so long as no one is there to defend them."

"Humans see things differently," Felisjyta said. "No one here seems to have much interest in the Old Kingdom, they say it's cursed. So it didn't cost them much to give it back to you. They were probably just hoping that doing such a thing would appease your anger." She shrugged, then switched topics. "Are you going to stay and watch the rest of the tournament?"

"Do you think you'll win?" Patrice asked.

The knight laughed. "Win? Who knows. I'd like to." She tossed the wooden brush down onto the grass and tapped the mare's shoulders. Vasya followed her to a water trough in the middle of camp, where several other horses were drinking.

Patrice followed them, careful to keep her distance from the other animals.

Only after Vasya had begun to drink did Felisjyta speak again. "I'm doing my best. Rozhalea wants at least one of us in the finals, so we're all trying for it."

Vasya pulled her head out of the water and wandered off toward the patch of grass next to the blue and green tent. Felisjyta let her go. She scooped up a bucket of water and doused herself down, causing her loose linen clothing to stick to her body.

"Would you like to sit in the shade?" Patrice asked.

Felisjyta grinned and wiped water off her face. "That obvious? You look cool enough."

"I am a dragon, after all," Patrice said. “The Great Dragon in the Sun does not turn his fangs on us.” She walked back to Felisjyta's tent and settled down on the far side, where the nearby trees caused a large patch of shade.

The knight followed. "Our legends say that we're descended from dragons," she said, "though I think we'd handle the heat better if that was true. In any case, we've long thought of dragons as good luck symbols."

"I didn't know humans would think such a thing. Is that why you agreed to accept my favor?"

Felisjyta gave Patrice a look that the dragon couldn't even begin to interpret. "The fact that you gave me your favor heartened my fellow knights, and I'm hardly immune from the feeling myself. But I accepted it because you offered, and because I'd like to think that we might be friends."

"I see," Patrice said. She wasn't really sure what to say about that. She'd never had any friends before other than her mother, and she had never really thought about wanting any either. She glanced around the camp looking for inspiration. "I noticed that almost everybody in Runeria wears their hair long, and your hair is quite short. But looking around the camp, the other Serzek knights also have much longer hair than you. Why?"

Felisjyta laughed. "You're a bit of a strange one are you?" She asked, and ran a hand through her wet hair. "Some lessons are hard learned. I cut my hair off to remind myself not to get involved with people who want more than I can give them. I've been growing it back out since then. It was about two years ago."

The explanation made sense to Patrice, but Felisjyta's comment did not. "I don't see why it's so strange. Maria and everyone else here always say that I can't do this or that because it goes against human customs, and human customs are what they are, and everyone follows them. So naturally I'd be curious."

Felisjyta laughed and leaned back on her hands. "There are a lot of people like that in Serze too. Rather more of them, I'd say. People in Runeria might be concerned with appearances and always being at the very height of fashion, always fitting in with their equals and betters, but their culture progresses much faster than ours. It's the only thing I admire about them. Times are changing, but the systems that we have in place in Serze don't change easily."

"The wisdom of dragons is that things always change around us, and we change with them," said Patrice. Her mother had reminded her that, just a few short weeks ago. "Even so, I don't think dragons change as much as we think. We are always creatures who value freedom over everything. All of this," she gestured around, "is a lot. Humans-"

"-are complicated," the knight finished her statement. "Although you are quite good at complicating things yourself."

Patrice huffed and crossed her arms. "Only because humans do so many things that don't make sense."

Felisjyta laughed again. "I agree. How old are you anyway? Sometimes you seem quite young."

Patrice thought she probably could've taken that as an insult, and graciously decided not to. "Dragons don't measure things in years the way humans do," she said. She spoke a word in the dragon language, and groped for human words to describe it. "I think you would call this 'little unwise bright scales' in your language."

"Little unwise?"

Patrice couldn't help but smile at the sound, and the concept. It made sense in dragon, but sounded ridiculous translated to human tongue. "It means I'm old enough to breed, but shouldn't, because I'm not full-grown yet," she explained.

"I see." Felisjyta nodded. "I'm twenty-three. Certainly much younger than you, but in terms of physical maturity you're the younger."

"Perhaps." Such things didn't really matter to her.

In the distance, a trumpet sounded. It was almost time for the jousting to begin again. Felisjyta stood up and offered Patrice a hand to do the same.

Patrice elected to stand up on her own. "I will stay for the rest of the tournament today," she said. "Good luck."

Felisjyta gave her a mocking bow. "I will do my best not to disappoint you, my lady." She laughed when Patrice rolled her eyes.

It was such a silly thing, but Patrice decided to play along with it. "You should always endeavor to not disappoint a dragon. I might just decide to eat you up."

Felisjyta shook her head and walked over to Vasya. Patrice left them to it, and made her way back to the stands.

Index | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Want to read more? Check us out on Patreon for early access!

#writeblr #writing #tc's writing #dragon's daughter #femslash #queer fantasy #fantasy novels #authors on tumblr

[bitchinbarzal]

can you elaborate on y/n getting robbed at gunpoint from Barzy and Ivy's story? how Mat reacted to the news at the time etc?

trigger warning; discussion of the use of g*ns! & miscarriage

-

Mat was at home after the game when he got a call from Nico.

Nico told him that you’d been hurt on the train and that you were at hospital in Jersey, he had been called down and ask that he come straight away.

Mat’s heart was in his throat as he made his way to the hospital.

When he arrived they took him straight to your room. You were hooked up to multiple machines aiding you to breathe.

Mat gasped lowly and sat at your bedside.

“Mr Barzal” a voice came from the doorway. He turned to see a police officer urging him to come out.

Mat stood and walked to him, hands rubbing on his jeans.

“What happened?!” Mat asked, looking at the notebook the police officier held.

“Your wife, she was robbed on the train this evening. The robbers held her at gunpoint while they searched through her purse and bags witnesses say. We have been led to believe that it was your wife specifically chosen due to her wedding ring which we managed to recover and you’ll be able to get that back in twenty-five days after processing”

Mat swallowed hard and nodded “Did you catch the guy?”

“We did, sir and we will get your wife down to the station when she’s fit to do so and give a little further detail”

“Thanks officer”

When the police left the doctor found Mathew and stopped him

“How’s my wife?”

“Your wife is going to be fine sir” she affirmed and he let out a breath of relief before she continued “However I do have to let you know that your wife’s pregnancy did not survive the trauma and she is currently going through a miscarriage. We will have someone in shortly to discuss with you both the next steps and any support available”

Mat stumbled back, feeling the wind being knocked out of him. He gripped onto the wall next to him for support while he tried to regulate his breathing.

You’d just found out last week that you were having a little girl at a gender reveal that Sydney insisted on throwing you. You were so excited to become a mom. You were bickering about names and now that was all gone.

Mat sat at your bedside for the night, holding your hand. At some point around three in the morning you woke and Mathew alerted the nurses who took out your breathing tubes.

Mat held your hand and stroked your cheek “My girl, god I thought I’d lost you”

“can’t get rid of me that easy” you joked “how’s the… how’s our girl? huh? did they do a scan to check everything was ok?”

mat’s eyes softened “the baby… honey, they said she doesn’t have a heartbeat”

“No.. no!” You mumbled, ripping your hands away from him.

“Babe…”

“No! No.. mat no!”

Tears began running down both of your faces

“our baby girl” you mumbled, voice breaking.

Mat held you, rocking you back and forth “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry my love”

The news completely rocked your world for months. You didn’t go back to work for the devils for the rest of the season and Mat took time off to take care of you.

You moved home, refusing to step foot in the room you’d decorated as her bedroom.

You didn’t think you’d ever want kids any longer. Until one day in the off season you were in Vancouver and you approached Mat

“I think I’m ready to try again”

#life with ivy #life of ivy #mat and mama

[luci-in-the-stars]

Tea Time || Luci and Alistair

TIMING: December LOCATION: The Sugar Pot PARTIES:  Luci (@luci-in-the-stars) & Alistair @deathsplaything SUMMARY: Luci goes to find a new place to study. Alistair and Melody meet another spellcaster CONTENT WARNINGS: None!

It was another slow day for The Sugar Pot. He could hear Melody sorting the inventory around the shop, facing some items and restocking low products. It was the middle of the day, so now was a good time to get things done. “Mail, 217 unread emails.” The voiceover on his phone informed him as he opened it. “Instagram, double tap to open.” No, not that one, either. “News. Double tap to open,” the phone informed him. Alistair double-tapped the screen, and it began reading news headlines from local news. Something about hand turkeys from Thanksgiving began to read, talking about how they had violent tendencies. Yikes. He tapped to the following article, discussing statues with googly eyes. Yep, nothing in this town was ever expected. He turned off the voiceover on his phone, then shoved said phone back into his pocket. 

As soon as the phone was tucked away, the bell attached to the door jingled, signifying a customer. “Welcome to the Sugar Pot!” Alistair spoke in a customer-service voice, complete with a smile. He didn’t bother turning to look in the direction of the noise, hearing the footsteps of the person moving in his direction. They were light, which led him to believe that it was someone smaller in stature. “What can I do for you?” As he finished his question, Brutus, the ever-faithful guide dog, walked over to his side, ready to help him move around.

He heard the familiar footfalls of Melody, his business partner, walking in his direction, the steps reaching his direction until they stopped when they reached the side unoccupied by his dog. Alistair got around well enough between Brutus as his eyes and Melody as his glasses.

Luci loved her brother, and even liked Felix a lot - but she knew that sitting in the apartment all day with them would probably end up with her annoying them. After all, she was at once too much and not structured enough to actually be able to not be odd at any one point. Surely that had to be annoying. So, she had taken to continuing her exploration of the small town writing down what she found as well as generally getting work done. Parts were actual school work or things Vera gave her, but mostly it was her own research. 

It was what led her to the tea shop - her curiosity of the place noting it as a place she should explore. Her arms holding two notebooks and a book she’d just rented from the library her fingers tapping across the edge of them out of habit . At the greeting she startled for a second, settling down when she realized it must be the owner going closer and said, “ Hello. Nice to meet you, Sir. Oh - I don’t actually know what to get yet. Do you have a favorite tea or I guess one that you wish more people would try?” She was, after all, going to get a cup or pot if she was going to hide out here for most of the day. “Also is it free seating?” 

Alistair’s head went skyward as he thought for a moment about what he would recommend. “Well, we just brought back our seasonal flavors.” He spoke, gesturing to the menu that featured holiday hits such as Sleigh Ride: Fruity and lightly spiced, with a hint of naturally sweet beetroot and toasty popped rice. Candy Cane Dream: Rich and creamy, with a sweet white chocolate flavor and an icy-cool peppermint finish. Latke Love: Delicate notes of warm cinnamon and not-too-sweet apples. Elf-Help: Smooth citrus, festive cranberry, and creamy coconut that tastes like a fruitcake that doesn’t suck.

“If you’re not into any of those, I’m partial to the lavender earl grey.” He then added on, leaning against the counter with a friendly smile. “Seating’s free, feel free to make yourself at home.” He answered with a nod of his head. There were people scattered around the shop typing away at laptops and working on paperwork. He’d decided long ago that if he wanted to compete with Latte to Love at all, he’d need to let people stay around as long as they wanted. And it had worked, he’d gained a lot of loyal customers that way.

At the gesture Luci got closer to the menu looking carefully at all the interesting names, and descriptions. Most of her wanted to ask questions about how a tea could get chocolate flavoring in it - if it was actually a hot chocolate. She also briefly wondered if she could change bits of it if she didn’t like the flavor after a while. Sometimes she found tastes overwhelming, especially when she was trying to concentrate. She never really messed around with food - cooking already being a process within itself - but it would be interesting to start on teas. 

Still, she thought that might be rude.After all, the people here had made them specifically and her magically changing it would probably be seen as a slight. Still at the idea of lavender earl grey - that did sound perfect. “Awesome. Thank you, Mister.  I think I’d go with your recommendation if that’s okay. I really like lavender,” She said with a smile looking back at the other. 

Alistair nodded to the girl with a smile. “Of course! It’s my favorite for a reason, it smells and tastes great.” He turned his head in the direction of Melody, who had already begun to prepare the drink. Since that was covered, he turned his attention back to the register in front of him and entered in the total. “Anything else or will that be all for you today?” He asked, that same customer service-friendly smile plastered on his face. 

“I’m guessing your a student at the local university?” He asked, referring to her asking if she’d be able to spend time in the shop today. Alistair got his fair share of university students that came in to study. It had nothing on Latte to Love, but he’d done his best to try and keep up with the local youth. Alistair tilted his head to the side as he listened to the plunk of a cup next to him, Melody had delivered the drink onto the counter for the girl. “That’ll be 4.60.” He spoke with a nod of his head.

Luci nodded excited at the prospect and then realized - rather suddenly he couldn’t see. It had taken her a moment, and her face flushed. “Okay, thank you. Oh no I don’t think I need anything else.” 

There was something odd though now that she was looking at the glasses. Something curious in the way they gleaned that made her step closer examining them. He probably wouldn’t notice if she did right? Getting closer she looked at the rims, wondering if it was similar to what Vera would have done. “Oh - Yeah I’m a student at the university,” she said distractedly as she glanced over to the pup she’d excitedly noticed. A flash going through her brain as she realized something. 

Taking the drink from Melody she gave the woman a smile and pushed over a ten intending the rest to be a tip before glancing back at the man. “Say - Mister, can I ask you a question?” Luci said softly not wanting others to hear her as dots were connecting hands holding her drink. “I don’t want to be rude, so I won’t ask if you don’t want me too.” 

Taking the bill, Alistair entered it into a machine that told him what denomination it was, then slid it into the cash register and began to make out the change. “Good for you, education is important.” He spoke with a polite smile before closing the register and placing the change back onto the counter and sliding it toward her. Melody smiled back, but kept silent as Alistair went about the transaction. She opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it and went to cleaning up the mess she had made in the process of making the tea. 

It was silent for a moment, and then the girl spoke up again. Alistair had an idea of what she was going to ask, it didn’t take a lot to figure out. He was blind, it was going to be something of that vein. It always was. He raised his brows and quirked his head to the side. “We cannot learn if we do not ask.” He spoke simply, shrugging his shoulders. At this point, he’d be surprised if it wasn’t related to his vision.

Luci put the change into the tip jar still curious about the man looking between him and the dog for a moment wanting to figure out how to phrase this in a way she could backtrack if she needed too. Taking out her notebook and carefully placing the tea on the counter she wrote the words carefully showing the page to the dog while looking at the man. 

Can you see this then? Through the dog's eyes? Pretty cool enchantment if so. I’ve never seen anything quite like that.

Her eyes flickered back to the man trying to see if his face changed as she did it. “Your glasses are pretty cool. Where’d you get them?”  Luci was trying to get him to speak, to either notice that she did, or if she was wrong to be able to walk away from this without too much trouble. 

Brutus was a smart dog, always had been. That’s why he had been chosen to be the one to guide the necromancer around. Not just any dog would have worked. No, Alistair had been terribly picky upon choosing. Upon the note being put in the dog’s face, Brutus thumped his tail on the ground, an alert that called Alistair’s attention immediately, causing the spell caster to peer through his familiar’s eyes. 

After reading the note, a slow smile crept up onto Alistair’s face. “You can speak freely about it, Melody and I are both spellcasters.” He said plainly, putting both his hands onto the countertop. “And it’s not…” he trailed off, trying to formulate the correct words. “The glasses are an enchantment, but not for that.” He decided to say. “The enchantment is covering up something unsightly, where my ability to see through Brutus’s eyes is a channeling spell.” He shrugged his shoulders, as if admitting the purpose of his glasses didn’t bother him. Young spellcasters should know how things work, he thought.

“Name’s Alistair,” he introduced with the dip of his head in greeting. “Don’t tell me that the university has a secret spellcasting major.” He suddenly spoke, face twisting in distaste at the idea of a hidden sect within the school.

Luci tilted her head trying to figure it out, her eyes going to the dog again trying to figure out how it worked. She didn’t know what the enchantment was - she had assumed incorrectly on that it seemed. 

Still she pulled her notebook back to herself writing down what she did think it did. “Nodding a little she didn’t bother hiding it anymore. I thought I could be wrong, about 45% chance,” she said softly. “I just noticed the rim of your glasses. Vera’s got a pair for sale that have something like that on them. I haven’t gotten to touch them yet - I didn’t know what those did. I figured it might be something - but I’m sorry for just guessing.” She flickered back to Brutus knowing that spell. It had just been odd luck that she’d been right. She frowned at that. She hated that honestly.

At his name Luci blinked wondering if that meant she should give hers. “I’m Luci. I don’t think there’s anything like that.” Well if she was honest she wouldn’t be a biochemistry major if she didn’t need to be to learn alchemy better. It was helpful for her anyway, if she was honest. “I just happen to be in university is all.” She moved to get her cup back and sipped at it. “The enchantment you have is good though. If I hadn’t been looking I wouldn’t have noticed.”  

Alistair couldn’t knock the girl’s curiosity. He had it himself when he was her age, in fact. “Very perceptive of you.” He responded with a knowing nod. “It hides the cause of my vision impairment,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulder. “There’s no fault for guessing, it was a good one, and I understand curiosity. I encourage any and all questions, especially regarding things of that nature.” He tapped a finger to his sunglasses with a smirk. 

“Oh, good.” He then spoke before letting out a puff of breath. “The last thing we need is a college with secrets. Everything else in this bloody town is full of secrets.” The redhead rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “I’ve had the enchantment for eight years now, you’re the first person to look close enough to notice it. It’s impressive, really. Most people don’t go around looking for those sorts of things.” 

Melody took that moment to turn around and look at the girl curiously. “What branch of magic do you specialize in?” She asked, grey eyes searching the young girl. Alistair turned his head toward Melody, shooting her a look. “What, we just go around asking people that now?” He asked her with a raised brow. “Color me equally curious,” she shot back with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

Luci nodded thinking it made sense. After all, she hadn’t realized he couldn’t see partially because of the glasses. Still there was a bit of a frown on her face. “It’s not good to guess. I could have been wrong and offended you a lot.” That, and she normally was good at picking up things. Maybe truly, that only was because she so rarely interacted with the things she was studying. It was a bit of a startling idea, but she didn’t let that show much. She was curious of the two now, but she also felt a little embarrassed. 

It didn’t seem to last long as she looked curiously between them. “I mean the town is fascinating, but I don’t think there’s all that many secrets. At least not so many. Well, I mean I think if you look hard enough at them they wouldn’t stick you know?.” She tapped at her notebook with her finger at that idea that she had noticed and other people didn’t. “I’m always looking for things like that. I like those types of things.” She wanted to ask if she could look closer, but she was pretty sure that was very rude. 

It was in her nature though, to look closely at things and try to understand it. There were rules and as soon as you learned them you could understand it. Now that she knew it was an enchantment she knew the limitations of it, and she could guess much of what it was. 

At the question Luci was a little startled, most people in her life had never asked her. Then again she didn’t know many other spellcasters outside of her family. “Oh - uh I’m an alchemist. I mean I’m not quite one of those yet, but I study alchemy,” she said simply figuring that the two might now know all the information that they needed to about why she had figured it out. She didn’t know if she could ask the same question to the two looking between them. After all, Alistair had seemed like he didn’t particularly like the question. 

Alistair tilted his head to the side, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I suppose so, but what’s done is done, and you were right.” He removed his glasses, revealing the burn scar that covered the top half of his face. “No harm done.” He shrugged his shoulders and put his sunglasses back on, and the scarring disappeared. “That’s what my sunglasses do.” He explained, not feeling embarrassed about showing off the scar. Scars happened, and he had learned to accept it, even if it did bring up painful memories from time to time.

“Really? The town isn’t as fascinating as the sky literally screaming? Alistair quirked a brow that rose from atop his glasses. “Though I quite draw the line at magic schools.” He decided with a harrumph. “Though you’re right, some of the secrets are more lackluster than others.” He waved a hand, as if dismissing the thought.

His disinterest suddenly turned to interest as the girl mentioned alchemy. Out of all the branches of magic, Alistair wished that could of been what he studied. But no, individuality among the McKenzie family was strongly discouraged. “Always been fascinated by alchemy.” He found himself admitting with a grin. “Good on you for studying it, you’ll have to show me what you learn.” He looked over to Melody’s direction. “She’s a master at mental magic, and I… well.” He frowned, rubbing his face and then sighing. “Necromancer.” He finally said, a look of apprehension on his face. 

Luci didn’t startle seeing the scars the older man had. If anything part of her wanted to go closer to see what they looked like - but figured that was a bit too rude. Instead she nodded and said softly, “Thank you for letting me see. The charm is really quite good. Whoever you got it from should be proud of it.” 

Luci shrugged at the question and said, “ I never said it wasn’t fascinating, just everything is pretty explainable.” It was something that she held pretty close to herself that even magic could be explained. Maybe she wouldn’t understand it personally - but that was hardly a fault of magic. “I also don’t think there are any secret magic schools. Who would want to go to one of those.” Well, maybe when she was little she hoped that she could have friends who were spellcasters - but she did in the form of her siblings. That had always been enough for her. 

Luci tilted her head a little and said, “Really? Most people don’t find it particularly fascinating. I haven’t heard anyone wanting to be an alchemist.” She had plenty of people wanting her to help them - either strengthening or amplifying objects mostly - but with the same interest people gave IT. Still she laughed and said, “Sure I’d be happy too. I can’t say it always works though - experimentation and such.” There was a hesitancy there as she knew her magic was probably broken. She didn’t really know if she could show either of them anything. Luz did listen carefully however when they decided to tell their own and she nodded writing them down. “Fascinating. I don’t know anyone who does either of those - or at least that I know of.” She wanted to ask questions about both fields but she bit her lip instead knowing that would be overwhelming. 

“I got it from someone in New York City. Real big shot, I’m sure they know their work is good.” Alistair waved a hand, not thinking much of the person who gave it to him. It was so long ago, that the name was all but a faded smudge on a paper long forgotten. She thanked him for letting her see, and that struck him. “You’re welcome,” he grumbled before grabbing the wash rag and wiping down the counter for an excuse for something to occupy his hands.

Alistair smirked, a girl who spoke like a true scientist. He could respect it. “Everything can be explained, just that sometimes the answers don’t match our initial hypothesis.” He responded with a sage nod of his head. He remembered all the times he had to write those lab reports, all the countless hours spent in labs, older than everyone else in the class. He didn’t regret it. He loved pharmacy and prepharmacy school. He loved helping people in a way that he could, even if it wasn’t as impressive as being a medical doctor, he was still a doctor. “Haven’t done a scientific study in a while, I’ll be honest with you.”

“Of course it’s fascinating! Transmuting objects? That’s far cooler than what I do. Very mad scientist of you, I think.” A half smile appeared on his face as he stopped wiping the counter. “You should be proud of what you do. You’re a spellcaster who’s trying to master their craft, that’s something to be proud of. Even if you’re not quite there yet. You’re young. You have time.”

“Well if you ever have questions, we’re two resources that you can certainly use.” He answered as she expressed her own interest in their respective fields. “Necromancy is seen as a very taboo area of practice. It’s not something I talk about much. But for the sake of scientific discovery,” he quirked a smile, “I’d be happy to.”

“It is fascinating,” Luci said, deciding that she probably shouldn’t ask a lot of questions. After all, if there was alchemist in New York City she wondered if they knew her Tia. She also wondered if they would want to help her, and while she wasn’t sure about it she wanted to learn from as many people as she could. 

Luci nodded, and then remembering the other couldn’t see said, “Yes. Exactly - just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s not correct. Magic to regular humans is just science that isn’t explained yet. Our type of magic is just - a different set of rules.” Rules she thought she knew, and rules it turns out she might not know very well. 

Luz chuckled at the idea, “I mean I don’t know if I’m a mad scientist but - I guess yes I want to be an alchemist.” It really was the only thing that she knew she wanted to be, everything else seemed nebulous outside of her control and often frightening. “Thank you. I know it’ll take a lot of years before I get really good, but I’m willing to work on it.” 

Her eyes gleamed at the idea looking between Melody and Alistair “Oh! I’d love to pick your brains on things if you two don’t mind. I’ve always been interested in magic, and that’s okay. If you don’t want to answer a question I’m very good about not pushing the issue. I just find that alchemy ends up touching every other magic in some way and - well I’m a naturally curious person.” It wasn’t a secret after all as Luz looked a little more excited. “It was really nice to meet you two.” 

____________________________________________________________________________

Alistair couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, nodding his head. “I’d be happy to answer anything you have questions on.” He told her, not wanting to speak for Melody, who simply nodded her head with a soft smile. Alistair felt a kindred spirit in the young girl, and wanted to do whatever she needed to thrive, to be a better spellcaster. Do something that he never got to do, which was follow a field of magic that he actually liked. “Nice to meet you as well, please don’t be a stranger.” He insisted, thrusting a finger in Luz’s direction. “I want to hear what you’re up to, what you’re studying. I’m sure I can help in my own way.” He shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what help he could really be to an alchemist. 

“Take care of yourself, okay?” He urged, feeling a need to protect the young girl. “Don’t transmute something you can’t explain away, et cetera, et cetera.” He waved a hand dismissively, an impish grin crawling across his features. A curious mind that wanted to know for the sake of knowing, and not judge someone based on the cards they were dealt. Yes, he had much he could teach the girl.

#Para: Alistair #a dangerous disposition; para

[signor-signor]

June 27, 2023 - 7 Years Later

And now a TED Talk-type presentation (a DET Discussion) by Lord Hater.

Attention, fans of Wander Over Yonder (and Lord Hater, #1 superstar), I'm reaching out to you today to give you the current status of our show and explain why you need to pull yourselves together and pull your own weight in acknowledging the show's need for one more season! For those who are completely clueless, Wander Over Yonder is a sci-fi comedy cartoon show created by veteran cartoonist Craig McCracken, and it debuted in 2013 on Disney Channel before being moved to Disney XD. It ran for two seasons, but one more season was planned and probably primed for production.

Seven years ago, the second season showcasing our lives came to an end, in which I single-handedly stopped Lord Dominator, who, by the way, nearly destroyed the entire galaxy and spurned my affections for her. HOWEVER, because of the uncalled-for cancellation that was decided by the "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses," the majority of the world keeps calling this event the... ssseries... finale... oh, it's painful to call it that... and frankly, I'm really, really sick of it. So let me tell you this...

Our show is NOT dead! It's just left in limbo! Two seasons were NOT enough! The End of the Galaxy is NOT the true series finale and I have the information to prove it!

As you can plainly see, the people who worked on our show NEVER planned on stopping after two seasons. The show itself even has some details pertaining to the plans for our third season, which was pitched back in early 2015.

For instance, in The Waste of Time, there were two images that briefly appeared during the final time travel sequence: one of an orbble-powered ship called the Star Nomad, where, according to Craig McCracken, I'd have to bunk with Wander (shudder), another is one of what fans are speculating to be me in a past life as a space ape. I can see the resemblance, but the facts remain to be known and proven true. Nevertheless, neither of them appeared anywhere else in the first season or the second.

Another telltale sign of our show's unfinished business is the absence of the other villains, including Emperor Awesome. Last time I saw them on the show, they were still on Suburbon V; oddly, they never reappeared when Dominator seemingly destroyed every planet except the one Wander and Sylvia found. As a result, after I defeated Dominator, I was unable to brag about it to the villains!

(EMPEROR AWESOME (off stage): Dude, just because I wasn't in that episode doesn't mean I don't know what happened!)

Anyway, another reason our show is not finished is this: In Craig's Tumblr post announcing that gropforsaken cancellation and concession, he told the readers, and I quote, "We had plans for new characters, the return of old characters, and even a bit of backstory!" Back in 2015 at Comic-Con, just a couple of weeks before our second season premiered, he confirmed he had an origin story planned out for me; the second season only revealed that Major Threat's evil deeds inspired me to take up villainy, but no origin story explaining how I, Lord Hater, came to be!

(MAJOR THREAT (off stage): I'd sure love to hear all about it, man, but for reasons beyond my understanding, we have to keep it in the vault until the big cheese himself gives Craig the okay.)

Yes, Jeff, I get it. Just so you know, you were planned to be a recurring character. Now, in the case of the new characters, I heard they would include a team of space cops called Star Forcement Forcen Force.

(COMMANDER PEEPERS (off stage): It's Star Force Enforcement Force, sir.)

Whatever. Apparently, these new characters were set to be introduced in the third season we were denied years ago, and because we don't have that third season, they have to hide themselves under question marked sheets and we're not able to say their names, like [NAME REDACTED], [NAME REDACTED], or [NAME REDACTED]. AAHH! It's so annoying!

And don't get me started on how Craig ended his post with some of the words from a song Wander sang to cheer me up, or rather, reignite my ire. Believe me when I say his post will ignite your ire when you read all the way to the end, unless, of course, you're a hardcore fan of some overrated show that gets so much attention. I'm talkin' to you, blue cat boy.

Moving right along, in the finale of one of Disney's underappreciated shows, Future-Worm, the titular invertibrate and his companion Danny warped to various universes, including the alternate version of the one in which our show takes place. And guess what they saw when they arrived in it... Wander and Sylvia aboard the Star Nomad! Remember when I said I'd have to share a room with Wander on the ship? This is the very ship, the same one you saw in The Waste of Time, and if there's something I know about it, it's that it started out as a regular airship seen in The Secret Planet, and Wander and Sylvia would use it as their new mode of transportation to bring any refugees remaining on the planet I saved back to their home planets. You know, the planets I wanted to conquer as soon as I saved the galaxy. The point is, this ship was planned to play a BIG role in Season 3, and while I'm thankful for not bunking with Wander at this time, I'm still determined to know more about it.

(WANDER (off stage): Hey, Hater, if you wanna know more about the Star Nomad, you can join me at Underappreciated Cartoons Anonymous and Fyootch and I will be more than happy to tell you all about it.)

No thank you, and I'm still not your buddy. Oh, that's another reason our show's not finished: Wander has not yet befriended me. Even if he did, I'd still keep my distance from him, but I digress.

Now, what else is there? Waste of Time images... absence of other villains... origin story... new characters... Future-Worm cameo... Oh yes.

Fans, I have saved the most obvious reason for the show's total lack of closure for last... A DOWNED SPACE CAPSULE WITH GREEN LIGHTNING AND MONKEY-LIKE SCREECHING FADING INTO MY EVIL LAUGHTER! Words alone cannot describe how serious this is for a show that got canceled prematurely. If you look up "cliffhanger" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of that space capsule. To add insult to injury, Disney kept shunning us and continued to show more love for that strange Oregon town show, which the Internet never seems to stop talking about even though it already ended perfectly, and that anime-influenced show about a naïve princess with a powerful, cutesy-wutesy wand that got not three seasons, but FOUR seasons! Honest to Grop, I'm really fed up with their popularity. They ALWAYS outrank us!

(Clears throat) Thankfully, the SaveWOY campaign was flourishing since the day Craig made that dreadful announcement, but as the years went by, most supporters simply gave up and moved on, almost as if they were telling us that we can't reason with those "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses." It’s pathetic. You know what I say to that? Giving up is quitting, and quitters never win! Don't make those bosses think they were in the right when they canceled the show. Not doing anything gives them the impression that you're giving in to their demands. If a show has more to tell, THEY should be giving in to YOUR demands. And if you dare to discourage the curious fans from fighting for a proper conclusion, consider yourself likely to be struck by lightning.

Don't forget, our show is currently accessible on Hulu and Disney+, but with Disney being focused on the present, the future, and the shows that are hard to surpass in popularity, like that one about the school girls and cold-blooded critters and that one show about a Hispanic girl in a fantasy world, saving the show has become more impossible than difficult. Seriously, what has an entertainment conglomerate got against shows with guys as main protagonists? What does it have against a show that doesn’t feature Earth? And for that matter, why is it still not swayed by the SaveWOY campaign? How are they not comprehending what the fans have been trying to communicate on social media? We’re in the 21st century, for crying out loud!

After seven grueling years, the SaveWOY campaign's efforts to save the show have been absolutely futile, leaving the public perpetually in the dark about the plans for Season 3. That's why I, Lord Hater, propose we start up an entirely new campaign where fans old and new come together to meet a common goal: FinishWOY! Instead of begging Disney to bring back the show, we can make it our mission to collect the missing details, put the pieces together, and create that third season in the cheapest format possible! In doing so, we can spare Disney the trouble of getting the crew back together and spending tons of money to make it. At this time, Craig is back at his alma mater working on that Powerpuffed Girls revival and the Foster’s preschool retooling for Imaginated Friends, and he said that "movement, music, and McBrayer” would do our show’s third season justice. However, in these difficult economic times when he can't be bothered to spill the beans, the crew is already scattered, most of the world fails to acknowledge our existence, and the bosses don't give a zbornak’s pajamas about the show's unfinished business, it's probably best if we make it ourselves, and if it has to be relegated to web comic form, I'm willing to take it as it is!

In conclusion, if a show is suggested to be incomplete, it would be totally foolish to say it ended and even more foolish to leave it ignored. If you do that, you push it further into obscurity and let it bite the dust. If that third season bites the dust, everything planned for it bites the dust as well... my origin story... that orbble ship... Star Forks and Forks Galore... and most important... MY CHANCE TO CONQUER THE REBORN GALAXY! Yes, we may be lucky enough to have two seasons and that instance where I defeated Dominator and won, but it’s hard to be happy about it when there is CLEARLY a space primate in peril! There are people who know all that was planned for Season 3, but they pledged to never share everything they know about it to anyone in any instance for any reason, whether that’d be their children, their neighbors, or at a convention center. Now, if you want to see me back in action, stop lamenting on "what could have been" and start ruminating on "what there could be." Why wait for Disney to make Season 3 a reality when you fans can simply do it yourselves? You don’t need their permission. Nothing's gonna stop you. You've probably watched Seasons 1 and 2 multiple times, and we have just enough information to get an idea of what might happen, so make that third season and the show will be revived, at least in your imagination. Or if the bosses finally decide to revive the show themselves for one more season, that would be a miracle. Either way, this wrong is still waiting to be righted, and I’m not gonna wait another seven years for that to happen. Tag and support "Finish Wander Over Yonder" and I shall resume upholding my reputation as THE GREATEST IN ALL THE GALAXY! Hater out!

That’s right, FinishWOY is a brand new campaign where we fans get the facts we have about Season 3 (SFEF, “Monkeyboy,” the Star Nomad, etcetera) and figure out the overall plot. It’s just like Team Sea3on, who are responsible for giving Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) the third season it was never given back in the ‘90s, but the animation is totally optional.

Mind you, this is entirely a suggestion. If you endorse the idea, though, then welcome to the club!

#Lord Hater #Wander Over Yonder #SaveWOY #FinishWOY #WOY Season 3 #Never give up #Long Read #Sketch #My Art

[mrcarmenile]

okay HI

MY THOUGHTS ON THE FINALE!!

HAZBIN HOTEL FINALE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

holy fucking god do i have words to say

here’s some INCREDIBLY unorganized thoughts:

alastor losing his filter temporarily made my heart DROP dude. also is it just me or did he lose his accent too? like it just kind of sounded like amir to me lmao

angel with his “charlie said to live tonight however we wanted” JUMPSCARED ME and then when he said “so pour me a fresh one” i was like Oh

adam said some real knee slappers this episode i was laughing so hard. “SUCK MY HOLY LIGHT FUCKERS” “chill lute. fuck” “wow i didn’t see this giant fucking shield in front of me YOU DUMB BITCH NO SHIT” are my favorites

the whole “now i’m going to fuck you” gag had me ROLLING (angel’s little 🤨 and valentino’s “well this just got interesting” got me dude)

ALSO LUCIFER FUCKED EVE????? HUH?????

vox screaming at the tv also had me choking from laughter, especially the “NOOO FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!! PUSSY!!!” (that is absolutely me yelling at the tv ur not alone vox 🙏)

the “these fucking angels won’t stop coming” “HA!” scene was weirdly cute and i love it

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT EVERYONE’S OUTFITS???? CHARLIE’S DRESS WAS FUCKING ADORABLE AND VAGGIE’S SUIT THING WAS BADASS AND ANGEL SERVED CUNT WITH THAT LOOK AND DON’T GET ME STARTED WITH CHERRI BOMB so many halloween costumes to choose from man

also lucifer’s hot

alastor and niffty was the cutest thing i love them so much why are they wholesome ☹️☹️ “i dub thee - king roach!!” and the little crown 🥺

LMAO THE SIR PENTIOUS AND CHERRI BOMB KISS WAS EPIC AND COMEDIC AS FUCK (“that was kinda hot..” had me rolling)

the last song nearly had me crying like i SCREECHED when lucifer started singing to the tune of happy day in hell and the fucking vox and val duet???? and velvette filming them dancing??? the vees are terrible fucking people why was that scene wholesome LET ME HATE THEM STOP GIVING VILLAINS DEPTH AND EMOTIONS AND REAL BONDS PLEASEEEE (/nsrs obviously well written villains are peak but I WANNA HATE THEM SO BAD) also alastor’s part gave me fr chills like. “great alastor, altruist, died for his friends” THE WAY AMIR TALAI SANG THAT LIKE HE WAS ON THE VERGE OF SNAPPING. ROUND OF FUCKING APPLAUSE. and the new hotel looks fucking fire i can’t wait to see the interior!!!

the end of the last song nearly brought me to tears it was such a perfect ending note

SPEAAAAKING OF SONGS. HOOLY SHIT. THE MORE THAN ANYTHING REPRISE??? shit made me shed a tear like. AND THE KISS???? finally we get the goddamn lesbians god bless 🙏🙏🙏

also can i just say vox and val making out with tongue at the end for 0.5 seconds SENT ME. i was caught so off guard that i laughed until i choked dude like that shit fr got me

“how’s mercy taste ya little bitch” is officially one of my favorite hazbin quotes cuz the way jeremy jordan said it was fucking hilarious

oh and the battle scenes were fucking crazy i can see where half the budget went lmfao the fight scenes ATE

also wtf lilith was in heaven this whole time? just chilling? idk what to think or say about thing honestly

and if lucifer fucked eve is she in hell too???? is SHE the one who has alastor on a leash?? what is her relation to lilith??? are they working together or are they enemies or is eve pretending to be lilith or do they have nothing to do with each other??? why did lilith leave hell??? why did they let her leave hell??? what did lute mean by “your deal is done”???? i need answers bro

ALSO I WONDER WHERE EVERYTHING’S GONNA GO NOW THAT PENTIOUS PROVED SOULS CAN BE REDEEMED. now that they’ve proved it is the main plot going to be actually redeeming people? or is heaven gonna hide it from them??? can angel dust be redeemed when valentino owns his soul??? does angel dust truly WANT to be redeemed? once they know that you have to die to be redeemed are they gonna be able to take that risk?? now that i think of it wtf will be the main focus of season 2?? we know the vees play a big role so maybe they’ll try to prevent souls from leaving (maybe valentino will make it really hard for angel to leave and that’ll be a big part?) idk i got a lot of questions man

and it seems like they’re setting alastor up to be the main villain at the end. it seems although his mysterious deal isn’t allowing him to unleash his full power, so when he’s free of the deal i can only imagine how feral he could go. (my guess is that he uses the favor charlie promised to help release him from the deal and then charlie regrets it later when he goes crazy)

anyways all in all the finale is crazy good and i will NOT be getting over it any time soon and i am not ready to wait another few years 🥲

#hazbin hotel #hellaverse #hazbin hotel finale #hazbin hotel episode 8 #hazbin hotel season 1 #hazbin hotel season finale #hazbin hotel spoilers #hazbin hotel the show must go on #the show must go on #hazbin hotel theory #hazbin hotel thoughts #hazbin

[thornbushrose]

Thanks for the tag! I'm intrigued by DD03 After The Blip! Tell me more *does grabby hands at you, but politely :D*

Well, my first two Matt/Birdie stories take place during Season 3 and then during the Blip, so I didn't get to write Foggy and Karen except for brief cameos. So I wanted to write them coming back from the Blip and trying to fit back into Matt's life after he moved on.

Here's an excerpt:

On the street, Karen and Foggy could hear the strange tenor of the crowd. Not just the people on the streets, but people inside buildings were throwing windows open and shouting in joy. A uniformed cop hurried down the street past them, and Foggy tried to flag him down. “Excuse me, officer?”

The officer turned, holding up both hands placatingly. “Sir, we’re asking everyone to stay where you are until a friend or family member comes for you. Trust me, someone remembers where you were when you died.” He continued jogging down the sidewalk.

“Died?” Foggy gasped. “Karen–are we ghosts?”

She punched him, hard, in the upper arm.

“Ow!”

“Nope.”

“Thanks. I think.” He rubbed his arm. “Well, what should we do?”

Just then, someone on the corner held up a wireless speaker with the volume turned all the way up. A voice that was clearly a trained news announcer said, “...Correspondents reporting this is a worldwide event. Can you believe it, Justin?”

Karen and Foggy, along with most of the people on the street, drifted closer to the speaker.

“No, Lindsay, it’s incredible, but the truth is undeniable: they did it. Somehow, the Avengers have reversed the Snap, which means that four billion people have returned to earth, five years after Thanos turned them to dust!”

Karen stopped listening. What the hell had happened? She turned and scanned over the crowd that had gathered around the speaker. 

Which is why she happened to be looking in the right direction to see Matt dash out of a nearby alley. He was wearing different clothes than he had just a few minutes ago, and his usual stubble had grown out to a short, close-trimmed beard. He was wearing his red glasses and he had his white cane in his hand, though he wasn’t even pretending to use it.

Karen put a hand on Foggy’s arm. “Look! There he is!”

Foggy turned just as Matt barrelled into him, nearly knocking him off his feet. Matt crushed him in a hug – which was weird in itself; Matt loved hugs but never initiated them – and his momentum carried Foggy several steps backwards. Karen reached out to Foggy to steady him, but instead Matt caught her arm and jerked her into the hug as well.

Matt was shaking, crying and laughing and gasping something like, “It’s you! It’s you! It’s you!” over and over. 

“We’re glad to see you too.” Karen couldn’t help but grin at Matt’s enthusiasm.

“Hey, I feel like something crazy has just happened,” Foggy said from somewhere under Matt’s arm, “and it would be a shame if you smothered us before we figured out what the hell it was.”

* * *

#daredevil fan fiction #writing #matt murdock #matt murdock/oc #karen page #foggy nelson

[therewasatale]

numbers

On Ao3.

Note: Based on prompt.

Numbers, numbers, numbers.

For the last few years people just would not stop talking about numbers.

Oh, he knew that some numbers were very important; statistics, the number of views, and most importantly the numbers that ended up before the $. But he still knew they shouldn't be more important than the soul, should they?

There were always ups and downs, right? A lot of people still enjoyed the show, kids still learned how to be a friendly neighbour.

Then why won't people stop nagging him about deficits?

Like the man who was standing at the other side of his desk just. He came about 30 minutes ago, rambled on about a lot of numbers, trying to sound very professional.

Al Gerzwald never liked people who tried to act professional. When forced professionalism have become an ugly mask; it makes a peoples think they were better than others. Sure, a little bit of composure wasn’t bad, that was the way to improv, to get better, but people who wanted to act professional mostly cared about numbers, and forgot about everything else.

Thomas Blackgrave was an all-right college, not really an overly friendly one, he mostly avoided the puppets. On the other hand, he seemed to love to worry about the view numbers, and the show's budget. So far, Al let him work in his own place and peace, and listened to his worried, fretting reports.

But this time, it was different. Even the channel started to bother him about the neighbourhood and those damned numbers. Now they wanted to tell him what should he do with his own show.

Blackgrave cleared his throat, it seemed like he was finally able to compose his thoughts. "I think it would be in your best interest to give in and listen to me, sir. The numbers are telling the truth, the publics interests in the show are decreasing. Maybe if the episodes gets a bit more serious, just to make sure the older generations likes it as well. Maybe put some jokes in for the adults at first, the kids won’t understand."

"I'd rather eat a lemon."

There was a very confused pause between the two of them.

"I-, what?"

"You heard me." Al raised one of his thin eyebrows.

"But, Mr. Gerzwald-"

"You did good, Thomas, but enough with the numbers, I feel like I'm back at school, learning math again." Gerzwald stood up and with three steps walked towards to the still confused man.

"The channel-"

"The channel can wait a bit, I'm sure the new season coming out soon people will flock back to watch our friendly puppets again." He patted Blackgrave on the shoulder and gently but firmly he started to walk the man out from his office. "Ups and downs, Thomas. Even in business you have to deal with the downs but it's not the end of the world."

"I-, I'm not sure, we may have to cut a few corners."

"Do it then, I don't mind if my pay check is a little thinner," Al waved it off and opened the door. "We will talk about this later, I have a lot to do, count my favourite numbers. Have a good night, Thomas." And with that he closed the door at the man.

He waited until he heard the steps getting further away, and finally let out a tired sigh.

"The channel leadership can wait, it has to wait." He slowly drummed a tiny rhythm on the door. A persistent habit he probably got from his father, and had no way of getting rid of. "The Hell with all those numbers!" He mumbled under his nose as he got back to his desk.

He knew damn well how badly their last two season performed, how the critics didn't like the last movie they made. And sometimes even Al felt like they were telling the same stories.

Maybe they should change and make their episodes more mature, but that also meant to teach about the worlds to the puppets. How could he do that to them? How could Goblette, or Junebug, or Martin understand what war means? Or what is like to slowly losing your inner happiness over the years because of economical reasons? Who could teach them about death or sickness? Where to start and when to stop?

There were questions that even Al couldn't answer.

He thought about those questions, and the consequents of those questions every night, but he could never answer them.

It was too high price to pay to break those innocent puppets, they didn't deserve to be poisoned by the world. They had to stay the friendly neighbourhood for the children's and for the city's sake.

Slowly, he sank back down to his chair, and somehow felt exhausted, this wasn't new however. For months now he was losing sleep, as stress started bury itself deep into his chest.

With his right hand he opened one of the drawers of the desk and then swept aside the papers in it.

It was late, and Blackgrave was the last to have an appointment with him, which meant he was finally free for the night.

"Where on Earth-" he shuffled the papers left, then right, then he meticulously looked trough it, but he still couldn't find the key. "I know, I put it here, somewhere."

Finally, he heard a small noise that came from a pipe secured on a wall not too far away. They snaked through the entire building sometimes tying into knots deep in the floor. And one end led to his office, right on the edge of one of the sofas.

"I know you're in there. Come out, Ricky."

There was a sigh and slowly the sock-puppet slid out. "You got me, Al."

"It wasn't so hard when you were noisy." Gerzwald smiled.

"I'm not noisy, and I was just looking around the buildings, making sure that everyone is fine."

"How much have you heard?" Gerzwald tried to ignore the tightening inside his chest.

"Some stuff about numbers, that Thomas guy can be soooo boring, I almost fell asleep, actually." Ricky glanced around the room and slowly shook his head.

"So, everything then." The human stood up and walked towards the puppet. "But why the eavesdropping?"

"I didn't want bother?" Ricky glanced up, he realised his lies wouldn't work on Al. "All right, because I know something is up, all right? The humans are more jittery, smile less, there are times when I see them whispering but as soon as they see me, they make this, fake-smile. I don't like fake-smiles."

"I know, Ricky."

"So, this is why, I saw Thomas taking the elevator up here and followed him." The sock-puppet looked right into the human's eyes. "What's wrong, Al?"

The question was enough to make his stomach sank. Because there were so many things wrong in this world, but he couldn't tell him, nor to the other puppets. Where he could even start to explain? How could be sure that they won’t change forever? What could they do with a mental ill puppet?

He didn't even realise that he had to swallow.

"Numbers, Ricky," Gerzwald waved it off, "the channel worried about their money, and Thomas worries about other numbers, but nothing too serious." He glanced at his desk to avoid Ricky's eyes. "My turn to ask, do you happen to know where did the key vanished from my desk?"

"Maybe?" Ricky let out a fake-cough.

"Ricky?"

The sock-puppet also glanced away from the human.

"Come on, Ricky. Where is the key?"

"You shouldn't drink that thing."

"What? How do you even know what do I have in my desk?"

"Oh, please, Al," Ricky gave him a meaningful look, "I have access to most of the place and I know you're poisoning yourself when you're alone."

"Poising?" The human scoffed. "Where did you hear that?"

"Jackie told me, from maintenance."

"So, she was the chatterbox," Gerzwald rolled his eyes. "Where is the key, Ricky?"

The sock-puppet stared at him and tried to slide back to his pipe, but he wasn't fast enough.

"Oh no, no, no, don't even think that you can run away now, Ricky!" Al moved fast and were able to catch him at the last second. He tried to pull the puppet out from his pipe. "Give me the key!"

"I can't let you poison yourself, Al!" The sock-puppet did everything to prevent him to get out up to and including taking deep breaths to be bigger and get more stuck in.

"It’s whisky! Not poison!"

"Brain poison!"

"Ricky!"

With one final big pull he was able to get the sock-puppet out and both of them fell on the couch next to the pipe.

"That was mean!" Ricky gave him a serious look.

"Stealing my desk's key was mean." Al answered and look him in the puppet's unsymmetrical eyes. He couldn't help but chuckle. "All right. I can’t be mad at you, just give me the key."

"But-," Ricky let out a sigh and nodded. "You really shouldn't drink something like that." And without waiting for an answer, he coughed once and twice, then a small key felt out from his mouth, right into Gerzwald's hand.

"Thank you, and I know, but sometimes humans do things that are bad for their health." He let the puppet crawl up on his arm to his shoulder.

"Liking drinking poison."

"Yes-yes," Al walled back to his desk and crouching down opened the bottom drawer.

"And not sleeping enough." Ricky mumbled his eyes fixed on the human with an almost serious expression.

"I should close up that pipe," Al scoffed and took out a bottle of whisky and a glass. "But I know you would find other ways into my office anyways." He poured out a glass of alcohol.

"How does it taste?"

"Bad," he chuckled and drunk down the whisky with one gulp, letting it to burn his throat and fill his belly with fire. The warmth almost immediately started to spread inside him.

"I will never understand humans," Ricky shook his head with a weary sigh.

"Me neither, believe me," Al gently patted the puppet's head. He poured another glass and this time sipped from the whisky.

"Al?"

He felt the sock-puppet's eyes on him. "Yes?"

"Are you all right?"

He hummed and drummed a short rhythm on the glass. Any other time, for any other human he would have shaken off the question easily. This time, the words didn't want to come out. He didn't want to lie to Ricky. But of course, he couldn't tell the whole truth either.

"I'm just tired, the last couple of weeks took out from me a bit too much. I'm not a young lad anymore even if I seem to forget that sometimes." His smile didn't reach his eyes. "I think, I should get some sleep."

"That would be the best," Ricky nodded so deeply he almost fell off his shoulder. "Get something to eat too, you've became thinner over the last months, Al."

"I have, haven't I?" He put down the glass. "Maybe you're right. All right, let's get you back to your place and I'm pulling down the curtains for tonight."

"Good idea, but, what if we walk down to the entrance? Just to make sure you actually go home. You know instead of checking the buildings again just to make sure that everything is fine and then you end up here, on the couch."

Al gently scoffed, but almost immediately went silent as Ricky leaned against his head.

"Sure thing, Ricky, let's do that then." He put back the cap on the bottle, and sank the key inside his pocket. "Just to making sure that it won't disappear again." A tiny smile played on his lips as he began walking out from his office. The door closed behind him with a soft click.

"Al?"

"Yes?"

"Everything will be all right, right?"

The answer came after a short pause. "Of course, Ricky. I promise you that everything will be all right." Instead of the tiny pang of guilt he tried to focus on the sock-puppet, who leaned closer to his head.

He needed to make sure that all of them would be all right.

#my friendly neighborhood #ricky #ricky my friendly neighborhood #Al Gerzwald #copper

[shiftingparadise]

hi! can i ask for an angsty levi x reader!w hanahaki disease? ㅜ_ㅜ u can decide for happy or sad ending :)

Thank you so much for your request! I've never written a story about the Hanahaki disease before, so I hope I've done alright (if not, please let me know! I want to improve my fics as much as possible 🥺).

Anyway, hope you're having a great day and enjoy reading!🤍✨

Word count: 5301

‘P-please’, you wrapped your fingers around the cold bars of your cell, ‘We are cooks, we can make delicious food for everyone’. 

You could hear Nicollo sighing behind you. You’d been locked up in this cell ever since they captured the two of you during the Exploration Battalion. 

‘How do we know we can trust you?’ 

The woman named Hange was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Next to her was, what seemed like, her right hand. You knew that the man’s name was Levi, but he never spoke that much. 

‘W-we don’t think you’re devils, right ‘Collo?’, you looked over your shoulder at your friend. ‘No, but they won’t let us out of this cell Y/N, stop trying’. ‘W-why?’, you turned your back towards the bars, ‘I can at least try to be friends with them, right? Why can’t we try to gain their trust, ‘Collo?’.

 You knew your voice sounded desperate, filled with worry, but you didn’t care. You had to try to show them that they could trust you. 

‘Let them out’, ‘Huh? You sure Levi?’. 

You widened your eyes when you could hear the man behind you talk. His voice sending goosebumps down your back. 

‘Ai’, you could hear keys clinging against each other, ‘We should give them a chance. I don’t think they want to hurt us’. 

--- 

‘S-sasha, wait!’, you tried to get back the lobster you had placed on a table, ’It still needs some seasoning!’. ‘Collo, do something’, you tried to hold her back, but it was no use. ‘Collo!’, you looked at your friend, wondering why he didn’t help you. 

You lowered your eyes, slowly letting go of the brown-haired girl. You could see that your friend was smitten with her. The way his eyes were looking at her, cheeks blushing with joy… Even though he tried to hide his smile, you could see it all in his eyes. 

‘She’s always like this’, Jean sighed, softly shaking his head, ‘B-but to be honest, I’m kind of curious too. W-we’ve never eaten anything like this’. 

You noticed he felt embarrassed at the lack of knowledge they had compared to you. 

‘Here’, you smiled while offering him a piece of the salmon you were cooking, ‘Try it, it’s really good’. Jean looked at it, eyes filled with distrust. ‘Don’t worry, look’, you took a bite from it before holding it back out towards him. ‘Sorry’, he lowered his eyes, hand stroking the back of his neck before he carefully took the piece from you. 

A confused look appeared on his face while sniffing the piece of lobster you gave him. Everything that felt so normal to you, what was part of your daily life, was completely new to them. 

‘I-it’s delicious’, you could see him widen his eyes in surprise, ‘Oi Connie, taste this!’. 

You smiled when you could see them enjoying the food Nicollo and you had prepared for them. 

‘Tch, what’s this?’. 

Your body froze when you could hear the cold voice of their Captain. You didn’t notice he was there too until he was standing next to you.

‘I-it’s a kind of shellfish, sir’, you shyly replied before grabbing a fork and giving it to him, ‘Y-you can try, it’s really good’. 

At this point, you were already done with lying to yourself. Over the past few weeks, you’d grown to like him. Not because he was handsome, which he certainly was, but because he was gentle and forgiving. He was the one that decided to trust you, to give you a chance. No one else did. The short conversations you had with him always ended up with you blushing and finding an excuse to walk away from him. 

‘It smells’, he held the fork in front of his eyes, inspecting the strange color. ‘A-ai, it does’, you nervously let out a giggle, ‘B-but I promise that it’s really good’. 

‘Hm’, the corner of his lips curled upwards, ‘You were right, it’s delicious’. 

---

‘Sir?’, you softly knocked on the door to his office. 

It was already late, probably around 10 PM, but you couldn’t stop yourself from cooking him some dinner when you noticed he didn’t show up earlier. He must’ve been hungry, right? Niccolo sighed when you told him you were going to cook something for their Captain, saying it was pointless, but he helped you either way. 

‘Who’s there?’, his disinterested voice called out to you, ‘Y/N, sir’. ‘Ai, what’s wrong?’, you could see the door opening. 

It already felt like a stupid idea. He was a grown man; he didn’t need you to bring him dinner. You wanted to run away, to disappear, but before you could, his cold eyes were on the plate you were holding.  

‘I-I noticed you didn’t show up for dinner and I thought you might be hungry, so I cooked you some salmon with a stuffed potato’, you looked at the ground, holding out the plate towards him. ‘I’m not hungry’, he replied coldly before slamming the door shut. 

You stood there for a minute, trying to understand what just happened. Levi never acted so bluntly towards others, was it because you were a Marleyan? Maybe he saw you as a devil. You could feel your heart break at the thought. You were in love with someone who thought you were a monster. 

‘Leave’, you could hear his muffled voice coming from the other side. You dropped the plate, startled, and embarrassed that he knew you were still standing in the same spot. You could your heart racing. Without thinking or cleaning up the plate, you ran towards your room as quickly as you could. 

Levi let out a sigh when he heard your footsteps disappearing. He slowly opened the door, looking at the shattered plate. 

He noticed the way you stared at him, the way your aura picked up his presence immediately. Levi did find you attractive, he probably never met a more caring person than you, but he couldn't spoil your soft heart with his broken one. Levi was a broken man, irreparably broken. Afraid that he would only hurt you, afraid that he would take the light out of your eyes once you realized what a monster he was, he decided to keep as much distance from you as possible. He didn't want to give you hope if there wasn't any.

---

‘We should start cooking’, you sighed, placing your head against the cold wall behind you. 

For days now, you felt embarrassed, trying to avoid Levi as much as possible. You were always busy doing something, trying to keep your mind away from him. It was clear he didn’t feel the same, and you were stupid to think he ever would. 

‘What should we cook today?’, Nicollo stroked through his blonde hair while walking to the kitchen, ‘Sasha would love some pork’. 

For some reason, you envied him. The way he smiled when he talked about her, the way she hugged him every time he brought her plate, … Sasha was just as smitten with Nicollo. Levi never looked at you like that, always a cold gaze on his face. Your chest started to ache at the thought.

--- 

‘Ai, you’re welcome’, you smiled at Hange while placing the plate in front of her. ‘H-hey Hange?’, you lowered your eyes, afraid you would step out of place. ‘Ai?’, she smiled while taking a bite of her food, ‘W-where’s Levi?’. Hange closed her eye, slowly lowering her fork, ‘In his office’. ‘Oh okay’, disappointment flowed through your veins, ‘Enjoy your food’. You smiled at her before walking back into the kitchen. 

--- 

‘Shit’, you grunted out while leaning on the back of your hand. 

You’d been trying to make tea for hours now, not realizing it was 2 AM. 

‘How does Levi get it so tasty? Does he use some secret herbs? I don’t get it’, you grunted out. The only reason you wanted to master it was so that he’d be impressed, but you were going crazy. You’d tried different blends of herbs, different temperatures of the water, and even different teapots, but the flavor was never there. 

‘That’s because you let it sit too long’. 

You widened your eyes when you could hear his disinterested voice. 

‘Black tea is only supposed to steep in the water for about 5 minutes’. 

You closed your eyes, fist resting against the bridge of your nose at your stupidity. Of course, anyone knows that black tea tastes bitter when you let it soak for 10 minutes. How could you forget?

‘Right, sorry’, you quickly got up from the table, making your way towards the door. ‘I can teach you? If you want’. 

‘Huh?’, you stopped walking, cheeks burning. ‘It would be helpful if you could bring me my tea in the morning. That way I don't lose so much time making it’. ‘Y-you want me to bring your tea?’, you said softly, insecurities taking over, ‘A Marleyan? Aren’t you afraid I’m going to poison you?’. 

Levi raised an eyebrow at your question. He never doubted your intentions, you should know that when he decided to let you out of your cell. 

‘No’, he sighed, ‘Follow me’. ‘W-wait!’, you quickly turned around before running towards him, ‘Where are you going?’. ‘To my private collection of herbs’, he smirked., ‘The ones you get from the courier aren’t as good as the ones I grow myself’. 

You couldn’t help but smile, of course, he grew the herbs himself. What else did you expect from him? 

---

‘Sir?’, softly knocked on the door to his room the next morning, eyes burning from the lack of sleep, ‘I-I’ve got your tea’. ‘Ai, come in’. 

You slowly opened the door with shaking hands, causing drops of tea to spill onto the floor. 

‘Tch’, he scoffed at your clumsiness, ‘You can place it on that table’, ‘A-ai sir’. You carefully placed it on the table, ‘I hope you like it’. ‘Thanks kid’, he replied while you could hear him sitting down on his bed. You finally looked at him, wondering if he ever slept in it. 

You wish you didn’t look; you wish you would’ve just left. He was sitting on his bed, a towel hanging around his shoulder, hair still wet from the shower he had just taken. 

‘You’re creeping me out’, he sighed while letting his head fall back, ‘I’m sure you Marleyans have seen people without a shirt or is that ‘not done’ where you’re from?’. ‘N-no! I-I mean yes.. S-sorry!’, you quickly looked at your shoes, ‘I-I didn’t mean to stare’. ‘Just leave’, Levi got up from his bed, ‘I have a meeting’. ‘R-right sir, goodnight. I-I mean good morning –‘. 

You closed your eyes while taking a deep breath. Was it that hard not to make a fool of yourself for once? 

Levi tried to hide his smile as much as possible. You were so cute, standing in his room, cheeks burning red… But he couldn’t let you notice, so he put on his disinterested mask and sighed when you closed his door behind you. 

---

Months passed and when Nicollo lost Sasha, everything changed. You hated the way your friend didn’t smile anymore, the way he lost all interest in food… His heart was completely shattered into pieces. 

‘I’m sorry ‘Collo’, you lowered your eyes to her gravestone, softly intertwining your hand with his. ‘S-she shouldn’t have died’, Nicollo’s voice was shaking, ‘No, she shouldn’t have’, you replied, trying to hold back your tears.

‘Oi, what are you scum doing here?’.

You closed your eyes. It wasn’t the first time people scolded the two of you for visiting her grave. The people blamed you for the war, the deaths, … You’ve gotten used to it by now. 

‘Sorry sir, we were just visiting a friend’, you said softly, pulling Nicollo behind you as you passed the man. ‘A friend? No one is friends with you devils’, the man grabbed Nicollo’s arm, forcing him to break away from your grip. ‘Hey, leave him!’, you yelled when you could see the stranger punching Nicollo.  

You tried to get him off your friend, but he pushed you onto the ground with one swift motion. You weren’t a strong, trained soldier like Mikasa, you were a cook. There was nothing you could do. 

‘Pl-please stop’, tears streamed down your cheeks, ‘Please’. 

The man was sitting on top of Nicollo, heavy breaths left his mouth. He didn’t stop punching until he could see the boy underneath him was unconscious. 

‘W-we haven’t done anything! We’re just as caught up in this war as you!’, desperate screams left your lungs, ‘Shut up’. 

The man’s voice was shaking when he slowly got up, gaze fixated on your frail body. 

‘Shut up! You did this to us!’, he pointed at you, making you feel like some kind of monster. ‘W-we didn’t do anything!’, you snapped at him before crawling towards your friend, softly stroking his cheek. ‘Collo?’, a soft whimper was the only thing you managed to let out, ‘Collo, wake up please’. ‘I’m not done’, you could feel the man pulling on your hair before kicking into your ribs. You tried to catch your breath, to ignore the dull, lingering pain, but it got harder with every kick. 

‘Touch her again, and I’ll kill you’, a cold voice struck the man’s attention. ‘C-captain Levi?’’. 

The dynamic shifted completely. The stranger's voice was now laced with fear. 

‘B-but they’re monsters, th-, ‘They’re part of the Corps, part of Paradis’, Levi replied before taking a step towards the man, ‘They make sure the soldiers don't starve; cook a delicious meal for us before we go on a mission. They make sure we at least have a decent last meal if we have to give our lives to protect pigs like you’.

You stopped listening to the conversation minutes ago, softly crawling towards your friend. 

‘Collo? Are you okay?’, you gently placed his head on your lap, now taking in the bruises and blood on his face. ‘Collo, say something please’, you softly sobbed while your thumb stroked his cheek.

‘He’ll be fine, don’t worry’. 

You gritted your teeth, looking up at the man who just saved you from a beating. 

‘W-why do people blame us? W-we didn’t want this’, ‘The world is a cruel place, get over it’. ‘He loves her, you know that, right? They were in love, and he can’t even visit her grave-‘, ‘You’re bleeding’, Levi interrupted you before sitting down on one knee, softly wiping away the blood in the corner of your mouth. ‘Are you okay?.  

You widened your eyes when you could feel him placing his hand underneath your chin. For once, a soft gaze met your eyes. 

‘I-I’m fine’, you whispered while looking at the ground, cheeks burning again. ‘Let’s get him to Hange’, he sighed while looking at the blonde before picking him up.

---

‘You’ll be fine’, Hange smiled at Nicollo, ‘Just get some rest and let the wounds heal, okay?’. ‘Ai, thank you’. 

‘Wait’, Levi stopped Hange before she left the room, ‘Take a look at her too, please’. ‘O-oh no, I’m fine’, you smiled at her. ‘I don’t care’, Levi looked disinterested at you, ‘I saw him kicking you, can’t risk losing the person that brings me my tea in the morning’. 

You could feel your cheeks blushing again at his remark. You nodded and seated yourself on the table so Hange could examine you. She slowly lifted your shirt, so she could examine the wounds.

‘W-wait, did he do that?’, you could see Nicollo widen his eyes when he saw the bruises on your ribs. ‘Oh, it looks worse than it feels like, really’, you lied. You didn’t want him to worry about you. 

‘Tch’. 

‘H-huh?’, you looked at Levi, noticing how his nails were digging into the soft skin of his hands. Without any warning, he left the room, slamming the door behind him. ‘What’s gotten into him?’, Nicollo looked confused at the door, ‘Who knows’, Hange shrugged her shoulders, ‘He’s a complicated man, don’t worry about him’. 

Hange knew exactly what was going on. She knew you were special to Levi, but she also knew Levi would never acknowledge his feelings. He probably didn’t understand them anyway.

Hange rubbed some ointment on your wounds before wrapping them in some bandage, ‘Just some bruised ribs, you’ll be fine Y/N’. ‘Ai, thank you’, you bowed your head. ‘Here, I’ll help you’, Nicollo quickly made his way to you, holding out his arm for you to grab. ‘You’re hurt too ‘Collo’, you smiled at him. ‘So? I care about you, can’t stand to see you like this’. 

Hange smiled at how quickly Nicollo stood up to lend you a hand. 

‘So, what’s for dinner?’, she grabbed you both by the shoulders, forcing her in between the two of you, ‘I’m starving’. 

---

‘Collo?’, you grunted while getting out of bed when you heard someone knocking. ‘It’s Levi’, he slowly opened the door, ‘Just wanted to see how you were doing’. ‘W-wait!’, you blurted out, ‘I’m only wearing a shirt’. 

You didn’t care if Nicollo saw you like this, but Levi couldn’t. The shirt barely covered your underwear. 

‘W-wait please’, you scanned the room for your pants, ‘Tch, do you really think I’m some kind of pervert?’, he closed the door behind him, forcing himself not to let his eyes wander over your body. ‘No, of course not!’, you turned around to look at him, ‘W-what’s wrong?’. ‘Wanted to see how you were doing, that’s all’, he leaned against the wall, arms crossed. ‘I’m fine, thank you’. 

You tried to stand up straight, but your body was pushed to its limits, especially after your shift in the kitchen. Without any warning, you could feel your legs give up underneath you. 

‘You’re okay, huh?’, Levi caught you just in time.

You slowly blinked, trying to understand what just happened. Adrenaline shot through your veins when you could feel his arms around you. 

‘No’, he said coldly when he noticed you wanted to stand up, ‘You’re exhausted’. He tightened his grip around you before picking you up. ‘Here’, he gently placed you on your bed before sitting next to you. 

‘Please stay’. 

You widened your eyes when you realized what you just said. You didn’t want to say something like that. Was your body so tired that you couldn’t control yourself anymore? 

Levi didn’t reply. He wanted to say yes, to stay and hold you, but he couldn’t. 

‘P-please’, you whispered after a minute, vision getting blurry. ‘Don’t do this’, he said softly, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’. ‘B-but’, you tried to protest, but Levi interrupted you again, ‘You Marleyans are something else. You think I want you because I’m being kind to you?’. 

You tried to swallow, but the lump in your throat made it impossible, leaving a dry, unpleasant feeling in your mouth. 

‘Tch’, he stood up from your bed, ‘If you thought I would ever get into the same bed with someone from Marley, you’re crazy. I’m being kind because I pity you, I pity how stupid and naïve you are Y/N’. ‘Please stop’, your fingers dug into the soft fabric underneath you. ‘Why? Do I hurt your feelings? You’ve no idea what your people did to us. How many people  I’ve lost because of you’, Levi raised his voice, hoping it would be enough for you to hate him. ‘I-I didn’t do anything!’, you cried out, tears now streaming down your cheek. ‘You’re one of them, Y/N. I despise you, never forget that’. 

And just like that, he left, not even bothering to close your door. You couldn’t help but break down, to cry.

You placed a hand on your mouth, trying to quiet down your sobs while stumbling to the door, quickly closing it. His words cut through you like a knife. You never felt lonelier. 

Your back was pressed against the cold door of your room, a certain ache appeared in your chest. 

You grunted out in pain, desperately tucking at the fabric of your shirt. Without any warning, you started coughing uncontrollably, each time a searing pain floated through you. 

‘W-what’, you widened your eyes, hands shaking when you could see a flower petal covered in blood inside the palm of your hand. ‘W-where did it come from?’. 

You looked around the room. Did Levi bring flowers with him? No, you would’ve noticed if he brought any. You tried to get up, but another coughing fit made you incapable of doing so. 

‘N-no, this can’t be’, you opened your hand, only to find more petals inside. You could feel everything start to spin. Were you dreaming? Were you so tired that you’d started hallucinating? 

You got on your hands and knees, feeling sick in your stomach from all the anxiety that flooded over you. 

A stinging sensation formed inside your throat, nails digging into the skin of your neck to find some form of relief, but it only got worse, leading you to throw up. Within an hour, your entire room was covered in petals soaked with blood. 

Eventually, you fell asleep from exhaustion, only to wake up in the morning in a room covered with wilted petals. 

--- 

You’d been coughing up petals for weeks now, and your body felt more tired each day. Over the last few days, it seemed to have gotten worse. Now coughing up flower buds while the pain in your throat got unbearable. Today was the first time you’d thrown up blood. You were worried, but you couldn’t tell anyone. If you did, they would certainly think you were a daughter of the devil, a demon. 

---

‘Y/N?’, you could hear Nicollo’s worried voice when he opened your door to find you shaking on the ground. ‘Where do all these petals come from?’. ‘Go away’, your voice sounded raspy, hurt. ‘You’ve been coughing for weeks now, I’m worried’, ‘Please go away ‘Collo, I’m fine’. ‘You’re not fine’, he hurried towards you when he could see the puddle of blood appearing from under your body. 

He carefully picked you up, a horrified look on his face when he could still see the blood dripping from your mouth. 

‘What happened? Did someone poison you?’, ‘I-I’m fine ‘Collo’, a forced smile appeared on your face before you started coughing again, clots of blood mixed with the white shirt your friend was wearing. 

‘Y/N?’, Nicollo cried out your name when he could see you slowly lost consciousness, ‘N-no, don’t-. Stay with me, please’. 

He ran as fast as he could to Hange’s office, holding your body as close as possible. 

‘Nicollo? What’s wrong with her?’, Jean looked in shock at the state you were in.

Jean was standing in front of Hange’s office, obviously waiting before he could enter, but Nicollo didn’t care. He may be from Marley, people may think he was a monster, but he wasn’t going to let anything happen to you. 

‘Hange, please’, the blonde opened the door, eyes filled with tears, ‘Help her, do something. I can’t lose her, please. I-I’ll do anything’. He fell to his knees, holding your broken body close to him, ‘Please Hange’. 

He didn’t pay attention to the fact that Levi was standing in Hange’s office, he didn’t care that he interrupted a meeting. 

‘What happened to her?’, Jean entered the room, looking at the blood on your shirt, ‘I-is she hurt? Did she fall?’, ‘I-I don’t know. I found her like this in her room’. 

‘Jean, get some water’, Hange looked sternly at her cadet before hurrying over to you. ‘What happened to you Y/N?’, she lowered her eyes, gently stroking away strands of hair that got stuck in some blood. ‘H-her room was covered in petals and flower buds, maybe she’s been poisoned?’. 

Levi wanted to do something, to say something, but he couldn’t. He was frozen against the wall, looking at you. You were pale, dark circles underneath your eyes, lips chapped, both of your hands covered in blood… You were like a ghost of your former self. Even though Levi had seen so many deaths and injuries, it never failed to make him shiver. 

‘Levi, what do you think?’, Hange looked up from the ground to her friend.

‘Levi?’, she repeated herself when she noticed he didn’t hear her. ‘Seems some kind of internal bleeding’, he snapped out of it, quickly taking you away from the blonde. ‘W-wait, where are you taking her?’, Nicollo ran behind the dark-haired man, ‘To the hospital. She’s losing too much blood’. 

Levi didn’t care about the clots of blood that spilled over his clean clothes every time you started coughing again, or how wet your clothes felt from all the cold sweat that was dripping from your back. He just needed you to be okay. 

--- 

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her’, the nurse sighed into the palms of her hands, ‘She’s coughing up entire flower buds, I-I’ve never seen anything like it’. ‘What?’, Levi widened his eyes. He was standing outside your room, talking to the nurse. Hange already headed back to headquarters, trying to cover for the chaos that the loss of 2 cooks caused. 

Nicollo was sitting next to your bed, firmly holding your small hand in his. By now, you’d lost your consciousness. The high fever caused you to hallucinate, putting you in a dream state. 

‘I need you to pull through this’, Nicollo softly whispered while he let his head rest on top of his hand, trying to warm your cold hand in between his. ‘I can’t lose you too Y/N. I’ve known you since we were kids… You’re like family to me. Please don’t leave me on my own, please’. 

‘I-I’ll make your tea, don’t worry’, you grunted out, a smile on your face. ‘T-tea?’, Nicollo widened his eyes. ‘Y-you really think I would forget to bring you your tea?’. ‘It’s me, Nic-‘, he tightened his grip around your hand. ‘Collo? H-he’s like a brother to me. I would give my life for him’. ‘Then stay with me’, Nicollo raised his voice. ‘Of course, I’ll stay with you Levi, I love you’. 

Nicollo quickly looked behind him when he could hear something drop on the ground. 

‘Sorry’, Levi said uncomfortably while picking up the flowers he was holding, ‘Thought she might like these-‘. ‘You did this to her’, Nicollo closed his eyes, ‘She loves and adores you, and you hurt her more than anyone ever could’.

Nicollo slowly let go of your hand, facing the dark-haired man. 

‘How could you tell her that you despised her because she’s a Marleyan? We’ve done nothing else but help you, to show us we can be trusted, and you crushed her heart into a million pieces’. ‘I didn’t mean-‘, ‘Do you know how lucky you are to be in love with someone alive? With someone that can still give you the world? ‘. Levi pressed his lips together, his heart aching at the thought of Sasha. ‘I wish I would’ve told Sasha what I felt for her sooner. I could’ve spent so more days holding her hand, taking in the scent of her hair… And you just wasted the time you could’ve spent with Y/N!’. 

‘Shit’, Levi hurried over to you when he could hear you coughing again, ignoring the blonde. ‘Grab a bucket’, he tried to help you sit straight, so you wouldn’t choke in your vomit and flower buds that flooded from your mouth.

Nicollo ran outside the room, quickly looking for a nurse. 

‘L-levi?’, you tried to open your eyes when you could feel an arm behind your back, ‘Hm, I’m here’. 

His voice sounded so soft and fragile. It almost made you doubt if it was really him. 

‘Why are you here?’, you covered your mouth with your arm, afraid you’d cough up blood on him, ‘You hate me’. ‘I don’t hate you kid’, his crescent-shaped eyes looked into yours, ‘I didn’t mean anything I said that night’. ‘You don’t need to lie because I’m dying’, you smiled at him, a tear rolling down your cheek. ‘I’m not’, his thumb stroked the tear away, ‘I just wanted to push you away. I want you to be happy, want you to be with someone who can give you the world’. ‘But I want you’, more tears started flowing from your eyes. ‘I can’t give you the life you deserve Y/N, Nicollo can’. ‘Collo?’, you chuckled, ‘You can’t be serious’. ‘He would give his life for you’. 

Levi knew you didn’t feel anything like that for the blonde, but he couldn’t help but see how much Nicollo cared for you.

‘So would you’, you replied with a smile. ‘Kid, I can’t give you what you’re asking for’, ‘How would you know? You’ve never asked me what I wa-‘. 

You couldn’t finish your sentence, another coughing fit took over your air pipe. Levi felt sick to his stomach. He felt so powerless, so scared to lose you. He robbed himself of your love, so that you could live a happy life, but now you were dying. Nicollo’s words rang in the back of his head; ‘You’ve wasted all this time’. He did, he wasted so much time, and he hated himself for it. 

‘I’m scared Levi’, you grunted out in pain, trying to ignore the stinging sensation inside your throat, ‘I don’t want to die’. 

You could feel yourself slipping into slumber again, wondering if this was the last time you would look into his gray eyes. 

‘I won’t let you die’, Levi placed a strand of hair behind your ear when he noticed your eyes were falling shut, ‘I need you to bring me my tea in the morning’. 

He placed a soft kiss on your lips, not caring about the metallic taste of blood. 

‘Because I love you too Y/N, I really do’, he placed his forehead against yours, ‘You can’t leave me, or Nicollo’. 

--- 

‘She’s getting better’, the nurse smiled at Nicollo, ‘I don’t know what kind of illness she suffered from, but she seems stable now’. 

Nicollo let out a sigh of relief, thanking the nurse for her hard work, before he slowly opened your door, trying to see if you were sleeping. 

‘Stop teasing me!’, you jokingly pushed Levi’s hand away from your leg, ‘My tea’s not that bad’. ‘It is kid, I always throw it away in the bushes outside my window’. ‘That’s just mean!’, you pouted. ‘Be glad I let you waste my tea leaves, and all because your pretty face is the first thing I want to see in the morning’. ‘Can’t believe you fooled me like that’, you shook your head. ‘I’ll make it up to you, I promise’, Levi smiled before placing a soft kiss on your lips. 

Both of you didn’t seem to notice Nicollo, so he softly closed the door behind him, not wanting to spoil the moment you two had.

A smile rested on his face when he saw how happy you were. He couldn’t remember the last time you smiled like that. There was a small part inside him that envied the two of you, wishing he could see Sasha smiling like that again, but he was happy for you. He was happy, knowing you would get the chance to grow old with the person you loved. 

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