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rnelodyy · 1 year

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The Owl House And Restorative Justice

At the end of Season 1 of The Owl House, it is revealed that Lilith, the main overarching antagonist of that season, was the one to curse her sister Eda, one of the protagonists, to win a tournament when they were teenagers. This information causes Eda to fly into a screaming rage and attack Lilith, and understandably so.

Eda’s curse is essentially a chronic illness, one that, in Eda’s own words, has ruined her life, being the reason she’s considered a social outcast and why, before meeting King and Luz, she hadn’t gotten close to anyone in years. In season 2, it’s revealed that the curse is why she pushed away her partner Raine to the point that they broke it off with her, and that during a particularly bad flareup, she accidentally maimed her own father, leaving him half blind and with permanent nerve damage to his hands, making him unable to continue working as a Palisman carver. The curse has ruled Eda’s life for decades now, so to Eda, this is the ultimate betrayal.

In the first episode of Season 2, Lilith has defected from the Emperor’s Coven, split the curse between Eda and herself to mitigate the symptoms for her sister, and has moved in with Eda at the Owl House. While Lilith herself still feels guilty and feels she has to make it up to Eda, everyone else, Eda included, has seemingly either forgiven her or chosen to look past it. Eda even makes fun of her for feeling bad about cursing her, and Lilith’s guilt is seemingly absent for the rest of the series.

The response to this was… Less than stellar, shall we say. A lot of people were angry, saying Lilith got away with her crimes without even a slap on the wrist, and that Eda’s forgiveness of her was far too sudden.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of critique. Amity spent years bullying Willow after her parents forced her to break off their friendship, and when she began trying to mend that relationship, the response from fans was that Willow should have been a lot more angry at Amity, and that they went back to being besties far too soon. I’ve even seen this criticism leveled at Hunter for the things he did while working for Belos, at Vee for impersonating Luz for months to trick her mother, and at Luz for hiding the fact that she helped Philip find the Collector from her friends. And it does seem strange for the show to keep tripping on this same point again and again.

Except, it’s not really. Because I think that, when viewing this show from a different angle, those supposed flaws are actually symptoms of something very important to understand – The Owl House operates on a system of crime and punishment that is very different from our world’s.

More specifically, our world mostly utilizes retributive justice. The world of The Owl House utilizes restorative justice.

So first, what do those terms mean? Broadly, they’re two different forms of handling interpersonal disputes, or dealing with crime.

Retributive justice is the one our current justice system uses, where the focus is primarily on punishing the perpetrator. Retributive justice can mean detention, suspension, expulsion, jail time, monetary fines, some kinds of community service, exile, or in more severe cases, corporal punishment or the death penalty. It’s the lens most people view the world through, where if someone hurts you, hurting them back is the correct response.

Restorative justice is a very different approach, where you instead focus on helping the victim recover from what happened, and rehabilitating the perpetrator to prevent this from happening again. Restorative justice can look like verbal or written apologies, monetary compensation for costs and trauma, therapy for both victim and perpetrator, education for the perpetrator, mediation between victim and perpetrator, a restraining order, etc.

When viewed through a retributive lens, The Owl House lets its characters get away with a lot of shit. Lilith cursing Eda, Hunter rounding up Palismen knowing they’ll be killed, Amity tormenting Willow for years, it’s all stuff that, in a retributive environment, they should be punished for, and they’re just not. Eda is only genuinely angry at Lilith for two scenes, Amity and Willow fix their relationship very quickly once Amity starts making amends, and Hunter isn’t punished at all.

However, I believe the story of The Owl House is best viewed not through a retributive lens, but through a restorative lens.

Let’s look at the Lilith-example again. Lilith’s offense was cursing Eda, which she did because she wanted to win a spot in the Emperor’s Coven. Knowing Eda was better than her, she cast a curse on her, thinking it would only last for a day. But when the time came, Eda forfeited the match, soon after which she transformed into the Owl Beast and was pelted with rocks until she ran. The curse turned out to be very permanent, and Lilith spent the next 20 years trying to fix her mistake by working for Belos to try to capture Eda, since he promised to heal her curse.

However, when she finally succeeded, Belos went back on his promise. Instead of healing Eda, he ordered her to be publicly executed. When Lilith protested, Belos essentially told her to shut up, that it was the Titan’s will, and left her there.

So, having realized her method of fixing her mistake has gone real bad, Lilith sneaks down to the Conformatorium to free Eda herself, but arrives too late and finds Luz instead. After a brief fight they end up teaming up, and Lilith leads Luz to the elevator, but they are captured by Belos and Lilith is thrown into the cage with Eda. There, she restores Eda’s partially petrified body, and after fleeing with her, Luz and King, uses a spell to split Eda’s curse evenly between their two bodies.

From a restorative justice point of view, Lilith has done pretty much everything she reasonably could do to fix things. She’s denounced the Emperor’s Coven, returned Owlbert to Luz, helped Luz find the elevator to the execution platform, saved Eda from petrification, apologized to Eda, and while there’s no way for her to cure Eda’s curse entirely, she took on half of the curse at great expense to her own health, in order to ease Eda’s symptoms.

Eda isn’t angry anymore because in her eyes, Lilith has already fixed things with her. Punishing her more at this point is pointless. What more could Lilith do, really? What other lessons could she learn? The only thing that punishment would bring at this point would be more suffering.

Let’s look at another example: Amity and Willow.

Amity’s offense was breaking off her friendship with Willow because she was a late-bloomer, bullying her for years, and allowing her friends to do so too. Willow is left with horrible self-esteem issues because of this, and combined with her failing grades, turned her into a horribly shy and withdrawn wallflower (no pun intended). After she’s moved to the plant track she starts actually getting better, but Amity and Boscha especially continue to torment her. While Amity’s bullying of Willow does peter out over time, Willow is clearly still extremely resentful of her. In an attempt to make Willow forget their friendship, Amity accidentally sets most of Willow’s memories on fire, leaving her confused, amnesiac, and unable to grasp basic concepts like that chairs are for sitting in.

Luz pushed Amity into fixing Willow’s brain by going into her mind together and piecing her memories back together. There, the Inner Willow revealed what happened to Luz and the audience.

At this point, Amity shows her that her parents were actually the ones who forced her to end the friendship because they didn’t think Willow was a suitably powerful or influential friend, threatening to make sure Willow would never get accepted into Hexside if Amity didn’t force her to leave. Amity then apologizes to Willow for going along with it, and for the bullying, and vows to make sure her friends never mess with Willow again.

Willow accepts her apology, but also makes it clear that, while it’s a start, she’s not yet ready to accept Amity in her life again. Restorative justice has not been fully attained, because to Willow, Amity hasn’t fixed everything – Boscha and her squad are still bullying her, and still consider Amity one of them. This changes two episodes later, when Amity tells Boscha to grow the fuck up when she starts bullying Willow again, and joins her and Luz’s Grudgby team despite her personal issues to get Boscha to back off. Willow doesn’t make a grand gesture of forgiveness in this episode, but it is after this point where the two become comfortable around eachother again.

Did Willow forgive Amity too quickly for years of trauma? Maybe. If she had chosen to continue keeping Amity at a distance I certainly wouldn’t have blamed her. But in the end, Amity fixed the mess she caused as best she could, and has proven herself to want to be a better person, to want to be Willow’s friend again. She worked hard to prove herself to be a person worth trusting, and Willow decided to give that trust a chance again.

And while they did become friends again, that friendship was clearly still affected by what happened, which led to bumps that the two of them had to work through. Like in Labyrinth Runners, where Amity’s overprotectiveness over Willow makes Willow feel like Amity thinks she’s incompetent, and still only sees her as the helpless person she used to be.

Willow continuing to be mad at Amity and punishing her for what she did wouldn’t be an unreasonable reaction, but it wouldn’t have fixed anything. It would certainly have an impact on Amity, seeing her former best friend rejecting her attempts to make up for what she did, but the hurt on both sides would have continued festering, because deep down, Willow missed Amity too.

In Hunter’s case, there’s the question of whether he can even be held responsible for his actions. The Palisman-kidnapping in specific was explicitly done under duress – if he failed he would face verbal and physical abuse, and be threatened with his nightmare scenario: getting thrown out of the Emperor’s Coven.

And that’s not an empty threat either. Hunter has no magic, and Belos has drilled it into him that witches without magic have no future. Without the Emperor’s Coven, his only future prospects would be starving to death on the streets or wasting away in prison. Either way, Hunter would be alone, without family or friends, without a job or job prospects, without anyone to turn to for help. Any child would be terrified of that. Hunter wasn’t always acting on direct orders – in fact he defied direct orders to stay in his room in Eclipse Lake to go look for Titan’s Blood, and then again in Hollow Mind to arrest the rebels. But he made those choices based on the idea that Belos wouldn’t want him if he was a failure, and that he needed a chance to prove that he could still be useful.

And contrary to popular belief, Hunter does know right from wrong. He has a very strong moral compass, he’s just been forced to ignore it in favor of doing whatever the Emperor wants. To shut up that little voice telling him he’s doing the wrong thing, he uses what’s called a thought-terminating cliche, a statement that feels so fundamentally true that the argument need not continue. In Hunter’s case, that statement is “It’s for the greater good.” Sure, kidnapping his new friends and abducting Palismen to feed to the Emperor and threatening someone who’s been nothing but kind to him to take the portal key from her girlfriend and justifying terrorism makes his stomach feel like he swallowed a cactus and saying it out loud makes him sound like a horrible person – but it’s for the greater good. He’s doing it to serve Belos, and Belos knows what’s best.

So by the time Hunter is out of active danger and able to rest and recover from what happened to him… what would further punishment accomplish? He already knows that he did fucked up shit while working for the EC, and he’s proven time and time again that while he’s not fighting for Belos’s approval, he’s actually a genuinely kind-hearted kid. Punishing him now would likely cause him to react very poorly, because he’s been at the wrong end of that stick so often that he’s developed severe PTSD because of it.

And if you think restorative justice is still in order – Hunter is currently hyperfixated on making sure Belos can never hurt anyone again, and for the long term, he has expressed that he wants to become a Palisman carver when he grows up. While it won’t bring back the Palismen that were killed, it will help the current Palisman population recover and reintroduce Palismen to witches who may have had to give up theirs.

When viewed through this lens, the writing of The Owl House starts to make more sense. As a show, it is extremely forgiving towards its characters – they’re still held accountable for their actions, but as long as they’re willing to grow and learn and fix the damage they caused, they are very quickly forgiven.

However, I do understand why these writing choices can be… controversial, so to say. Because it doesn’t feel very satisfying, does it? When someone hurts you on purpose, your first impulse would be to try to hurt them back, that’s just how people work.

That’s the hardest thing to come to terms with when you become an advocate for prison abolition for example – you’re not just arguing for freeing a guy who got 5 years because a cop found weed in his pockets, you’re arguing for the release, and most importantly, the humanity of some of the most vile, disgusting people this planet has ever produced. Even now, when someone commits a truly awful crime and gets sent to prison for life, my first thought is “Good, I hope they rot in there.” But that’s not justice. That’s just revenge. And revenge is not something we as a society should want to build our justice system on.

It’s not satisfying to see Lilith go from using Luz as a human shield in her fight against Eda to sleeping on the couch in Eda’s house within 2 episodes. It’s not satisfying to see Willow let Amity back into her life when Amity has hurt her so badly before, or to see Hunter become romantically involved with Willow after he literally abducted her the first time they met. But that satisfaction isn’t really the point. Revenge is satisfying in the moment, but an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and if someone shows a genuine willingness to change, it’s often better to give them a chance to.

However, my final point is about what happens when this approach fails. Because not everyone is willing to change. Some people, when faced with the consequences of their actions, decide to dig their heels in and refuse to admit fault, or blame the victim(s), or use those same thought-terminating cliches that Hunter used to justify their actions, “I was just following orders” being a big one.

And thus, we come to Belos.

If Belos showed a willingness to change, a genuine one, not an attempt at manipulation, should he be given the chance to? That vengeful part of me is VERY empathetically saying no. But logically, reasonably, he should be given that chance, if only because he’s a human being and no human being deserves to be mistreated. That doesn’t mean his victims are obligated to forgive him or be around him again, in fact I think that, for the sake of Hunter’s mental health, Belos should stay as far away from him as humanly possible. But he should be given the chance to start over, to truly better himself and do something good with the rest of his life.

But Belos isn’t willing to change.

Belos is a product of a bad environment and grew up with a cult-like mentality and hatred for witches that he had to adopt for his own safety. It’s hard to break out of that mentality, but not impossible. Case in point: Caleb. The tragedy of Belos’s character to me is that he had so many chances to change, so many people to help him make that leap, but all of the people who offered him that help ended up dead by his hands because he couldn’t handle the idea that he may have been wrong.

At this point, Belos is stuck. Changing would mean not only giving up on his life’s work, but acknowledging to himself that everything he’s done, mutilating his body, killing his brother, slaughtering thousands and installing himself as God-Emperor of a population he despises more than anything in order to facilitate a genocide, was completely pointless.

He can’t admit that to himself. Especially the thing about Caleb’s death. He’s sunk-cost-fallacied himself so far into a corner that all he can really do when faced with opposing viewpoints is dig his heels in even deeper and lash out in a rage at anyone who challenges him. Even now, when his body is literally falling apart at the seams, he’s still trying to commit witch-genocide, because it’s all he has.

Restorative justice doesn’t work in this case, because the perpetrator needs to be receptive to it. Logically you would assume the show would default to retributive justice, and characters like Willow and Camila do take a very vengeful glee in imagining themselves beating the snot out of Belos. But right now, the primary motivation of the Hexsquad and Hunter in particular when it comes to Belos is to end the threat he poses. As long as Belos is alive and free, he will continue to hurt and kill people, and if he can’t be talked down, he needs to be either contained or killed to prevent him from causing more harm.

The Owl House provides, in my opinion, a very nuanced take on restorative justice. It shows how it works in action, how different situations impact what it looks like, and what happens when it’s simply not an option. It’s not the most satisfying story to tell your audience, because when someone hurts our babies we want them to suffer, no matter how sorry they say they are. But in this case, I think that sacrificing that bit of audience comfort is worth it to tell the story like this.

#the owl house #the owl house meta #toh meta #toh lilith #toh amity #toh hunter #toh belos

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snowfll · 5 months

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Daylight; Tom Blyth

paring - Tom Blyth x famous!reader summary - your life wasn’t easy, hurting those who loved you and being hurt by those you loved — until you met Tom words - 1.29k note - lowkey hate this, but you all voted for it so im publishing it anyway!! hope you guys like it ^-^ With finals coming up, I might not be as active, but once break starts I will be back!!

Growing up as a nepo baby, people took advantage of you, only becoming your friend for the fame that came along. You learned to deal with it but after so many people started to use you, you had to leave them.

In LA, it was hard to tell what people’s true intentions were, but they said they loved you, so you believed them. You were friends with people with all types of wrong to them. Now that you lived in New York, no one could be trusted, you learned your lesson after being naive one too many times.

The moment you encountered Tom, things were never the same. He was your literal knight in shining armor.

As you walked down the carpet of another premiere your manager forced you to attend, you couldn’t help but notice all the fake smiles from everyone you knew— including yourself. Being famous had its ups and downs, many loved your work but they did not appreciate who you were associated with.

Paparazzi continued to take your photos, commanding you to pose or asking you questions. With all the flashing from the cameras, everyone put on their best faces, but you can guarantee everyone looked worse in the light.

Once you reached the end of the carpet, your face dropped, of all people, your ex-boyfriend was standing there.

You had broken up with him almost a year ago, right before you moved out to New York. He was the main reason you couldn’t trust anyone. He brought you to parties, clubs, bars — the whole LA experience. That is where you had gotten into drugs, most people encouraged you including him.

Your ex had walked over to you and tried to make conversation with you. As he begged you to take him back, you tried to leave, not in the mood to deal with him. He didn’t get the hint as he continued to stand next to you.

Telling him to leave you alone, you turned to walk away but he grabbed your wrist and pulled you back towards him. You tried to break free from his grasp but his grip on your wrist tightened. Fortunately, someone had noticed what was happening and approached the two of you.

“Is this man hurting you, love?” the voice intervened, getting in between you and your ex. You did not know who this man was but you were thankful for him either way. Nodding your head, you shyly stood behind him. “I’m pretty sure my girlfriend told you to leave her alone.”

His eyes widened as he looked up at the man protecting you. This mystery man was at least 6’0, 5 inches taller than your ex, who stood at 5’7. Intimidated, he ran off, most likely back to the people he came with.

“Thank you, sir,” you acknowledged his heroic actions as he turned around to face you.

“Anytime dear, I wouldn’t want a pretty lady like you to be treated so horribly.” You couldn’t help but blush at his words. Before you could reply, he got dragged away by what looked like to be his friend. You weren’t able to get his name or the reason he was there. Later that night, you found out that he played the main character in the movie for the premiere.

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From that day, Tom reached out to you on Instagram, asking to see you again, but this time under proper circumstances. At first, you were hesitant, you didn’t know anything about him — what if he was just like the others?

He didn’t give up, telling you that meeting up with him was completely up to you. He wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable or feel unsafe.

Either way, you agreed, you hated to admit it but ever since you saw him on the night of the premiere, you didn’t want to look at anything else. You couldn’t stop thinking about him and you didn’t want to think about anything else.

The more the two of you hung out, the more you realized how genuine he truly was. Taking you on dates to places you’ve only dreamed of going. On one occasion he surprised you with a cute rooftop garden in the heart of New York City.

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“Where are you taking me?” You questioned as you rode on the back of his motorcycle. He had randomly shown up at your apartment door and told you to get ready.

“You will see when we get there.” He spoke, refusing to give you any hints as to what you were going to do. Throughout the ride, you watched as you sped past all the cars and took in the view of New York City at night.

As you arrived at what you believed to be the destination, Tom dragged you into the building and straight into the elevator— pushing the button for the roof. Reaching the top, you opened to door to see a beautiful garden, the skyline sparkled with city lights.

In a cozy corner of the roof, a picnic blanket sat with an array of your favorite snacks and drinks. The music playing in the background displayed his thoughtfulness as he carefully curated the playlist based on your time together.

The night was filled with laughter, shared dreams, and stolen glances under the starlight sky. It truly was a night to remember— the way it ended left you over the mean.

The evening was coming to a close as you were lying in his lap, a comfortable silence filling the air. It had been quiet for a while, the only thing heard was Tom humming along to the songs.

You were content with the night, the quietness was a huge contrast to your old life in LA. Instead of being at a party filled with people who didn’t give a shit about you, here you were, on a date with a man who proved he was worthy of your trust.

Interrupting the silence, Tom finally spoke up, what came out of his mouth changed your views on love. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to speak to you about.” You could tell he was nervous as one of his hands fiddled with your hair.

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is perfect— you’re perfect.” Your eyes widened at the last part of his sentence. By now, you were sitting up facing him with your hands in your lap.

“I have enjoyed the past few months with you, ever since I met you at that premiere I knew I had to know you, whether it be just as friends— I wanted you in my life.” His admission hung in the air, and you felt a rush of emotions. The sincerity of his words resonated deeply and you couldn’t help but smile.

He continued. “I’ve never met someone so genuine. I care about you in a way I’ve never felt before. I know you don’t want to get hurt again but if you let me, I want to make you the happiest girl in the world.”

As he spoke, your heart fluttered, realizing that the connection you shared was reciprocated in a way that went beyond friendship. The vulnerability in his confession melted away any doubts you had about him.

“You have brought so much light into my life, Tom. I never thought I would find anyone who truly cares, who sees beyond the surface.” your voice was filled with sincerity, “I want this— I want us.”

Before him, you were miserable — feeling like you were sleeping in a 20-year dark night. For the entirety of your life, you closed yourself off from the world. Tom brought you out of that state, you were wide awake. With him, the only thing you see is daylight.

#tom blyth #tom blyth x you #tom blyth imagine #tom blyth x reader #coriolanus snow fanfiction #coriolanus x reader #coriolanus snow x fem!reader #coriolanus x you #tbosbas #hunger games #fluff #imagine #onehsot #taylor swift #lover #daylight #fem!reader #confession #the ballad of songbirds and snakes

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gayassbish · 6 months

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Genshin Siblings’ Reactions to Their Sister Having a Girlfriend!

Genre: Fluff, slight crack, (minor Angst in Jean and Barbara’s part)

Reader: Female*

Characters: Ayato & Thoma with Ayaka, Lyney & Freminet with Lynnett, Jean with Barbara, and Extra! Aether with Lumine

Ayato & Thoma-

On a typical evening when Ayato was finishing his daily quota and Thoma was doing his last rounds around the residence, Ayaka boldly enters in, hand in hand with you.

Ayato immediately takes notice, wondering ‘who tf is this bitc-‘ Kidding, he’s just like ‘who are you?’ in his head. And Thoma smirks, as if he already knows something.

The thing is, Ayaka decided to come out to Ayato when she would eventually have a girlfriend to introduce to him.

So when Ayaka asks if the four of you could have dinner together, with her new “friend,” Ayato instantly thinks something is up. His main suspicions are that you ran away from home with your raggedy looking- But he is worried you’re either homeless or in danger. Not really thinking Ayaka wants to introduce a friend, not even taking notice of the way Ayaka looks at you, and not noting your body language around her.

After introductions, the four of y’all are sat around the square table (Kotatsu). Thoma brings a cake with writing saying, ‘Yay! You’re Gay,’ in frosting but it slips pass Ayato as he doesn’t take his eyes off you two.

Once Thoma sits down, Ayaka clears her throat and breaks the big news. “Okay… big brother please don’t be mad. I know you wanted me to remain single for the rest of my life and be lonely till the ends of time-“

Ayato interrupts, not happy with the accusation that is thrown at him. “What? What nonsense why would I want you to be alone? They would just have to be a sensible guy-“

“Ugh! would you let me finish?” Ayaka rolls her eye and interrupts her big brother back. Thoma gives you a soft smile, mouthing the words ‘You better get used to this.’ “Anyways.. like I was saying. I found someone and they’re not a guy so-” Ayaka turns to look at you and Ayato’s jaw drops.

“You’re not homeless?” Ayato exclaims, shock and surprise written on his face. Evidently, the news for Ayaka and you together hasn’t hit him yet.

“Ayato!” Thoma and Ayaka yell simultaneously, while you laugh. Ayato almost looks embarrassed at his words, but you chime in before he can say anything else stupid.

“No, but I am your sisters girlfriend if you’re okay with that…” You look to Ayaka and give her hand a squeeze. She’s been pretty nervous about this whole meeting and stressing about how her overprotective brother would take it. Therefore she came out to Thoma before hand and asked if he would be willing to help break the news to him.

Ayaka and Thoma eagerly eat up Ayato’s reaction. “So.. you won’t be pregnant right?”Ayato nods to himself. And everyone but him deadpans. “Yea, I’m okay with this. Why wouldn’t I be?” He smiles at y’all and watches how his sister gleams.

Ayaka runs over the table to give her brother a hugeee hug. “Oh my god! Ugh I can’t believe I was scared to tell you!.” Ayato gives his sister a hug back and she sits back down.

“Wait.. Thoma?” Ayato looks to the blonde who’s already laughing. “Did you-?”

“Know? Yea… look at the cake I made buddy.” Thoma points to the clearly rainbow colored cake. “It’s a fruit cake. To celebrate this fruity day.” Thoma explains all excited and quite proud of his work.

“Well I see that now.. gosh.” Ayato mumbles and digs in. He slices different pieces for everyone.

The rest of dinner ends in laughter and more of Ayato’s dumb questions. Like “how do women fu-“Where did you guys meet,” and “Who confessed first,” as both Ayato and Thoma anxiously hear your story.

P.S. Ayato’s biggest fear is that Ayaka would get swept up by some dead beat guy and boom hed become an uncle one day, so he’s really happy you’re here to prevent that hypothetical nonsense.

Lyney & Freminet-

When Lynnett calls her brothers out for a cup of tea, they immediately think something must be wrong.

After all, Lynnett never plans meetings. She doesn’t have too since they all live in the same house.

So they conspire with one another for the reason for this meeting on the way to the cafe. And when they enter the building and see their shy Lynnett laughing and giggling, sat next to someone… Lyney’s first thought is, ‘who is this clone of Lynnett?’ And Freminent looks as if he’s lost his marbles. After all, everyone that Lynnett knows, the brothers already know… well almost everyone, until you stringed along.

They both know that their sister likes women. So you being a girl is no surprise. Mainly because Lynnett’s not the most discrete about her likings. If she likes something, they’ll find herself in her own world staring at the object of her desire or find herself obsessed with it, like tea. (Actually I think that’s just a bRiTisH thing.)

Anywho, neither of the siblings have EVER seen Lynnett like this and their eyes immediately trace to the cause of her giddy behavior. You.

Lyney hesitates a minute before asking,“Uhhh Lynnett?” Lynnett turns to look at her twin, who wears a nervous smile. Lyney swears he feels a shiver down his spine, still not fully convinced the girl, who looks like an identical copy of him, is his sister. “Who that?” He points to you, so shocked he forgot his manners.

“Lyney! Don’t be rude! This is Y/N.” She turns to you, “my girlfriend.” Freminent’s shock didn’t show on his face until now, and Lyney is still in confusion. “I called the two of you here to introduce you guys since Y/N will be around more often.” She takes a sip of her cup of tea, “But that was it, so you guys can leave now.” She smiles and was about to continue talking to you as Lyney and Freminent both immediately pull up a chair.

“Waiter, two cinnamon teas please!” Lyney gets the worker’s attentions and turns back to Lynnett, “Oh we are soo here to stay.” Freminent nods vigorously in agreement and Lynnett sighs.

“Exactly! You can’t just introduce her to us and not tells us anything!” Freminent exclaims, crossing his arms over his chest as he huffs.

Lynnett warned you that they might not take the news too well. It’s been the three of them for god knows how long, and she didn’t think they’d be ready to see her get onto the next phase in her life with you.

But you told her this meeting would be good for the both of you. She wouldn’t have to be so cautious with you around the city anymore and could finally get rid of the rope she used for you climb through her window and meet her. Plus it was about high time her siblings knew about the two of y’all together.

“They have a point Lynnett. How can they accept us if they barley know me?” You look at her and she frowns. She just didn’t want to put you through the trouble of her brothers eating at your head :(. “Please,” You ask her earnestly and she sighs.

“Fine. Out with it you two. What do you want to know?” Lynnett glares at them, communicating with her eyes to not ask anything rude. “You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to.” She whispers to you and you squeeze her hand in reassurance.

“Oh me first!” Lynnett raises his hand to beat Freminent who slides back into his seat. “Why do you love my sister?” He analyzes you, preparing what he will say if you give him a bad answer.

“Well..” The brothers lean in to hear your answer. “What’s there not to love?” You say with a small chuckle. “But if I had to pick some of my favorite things about her it would have to be… how she looks at me… and how she tries to make sure I’m always okay in her own way. But I think the thing I love the most about her… is her independence.” You look to Lynnett who’s already blushing.

Freminent and Lyney look at eachother and it’s as if they come to an understanding that maybe you really are right for her. They usually aren’t so quick to trust someone at face value with some words, but they know. Lynnett has a wall around people and doesn’t let it down around just anyone. They trust that their sister is good at figuring out people’s good intentions from wrong, and if she’s opened her heart to you. Then they trust her. They trust her judgement of you.

“Well, I’ll admit thats not a bad answer.” Lyney rumbles, rubbing his neck, not so happy with his defeat.

“But I have one last question.” Freminent asks and the attention turns to boy who’s remained mostly quiet throughout this discussion. “It’s a really important one.” He looks to both Lyney and Lynnett, and it’s as if they both already know what he’s about to ask.

“Of course. Ask anything. I’m an open book.” You say with a calm smile.

Freminent takes a deep breath, “If you want to be a part of this family then… do you promise that no matter what you hear… or what you learn.. you’ll try to see things from our side?” All three of them look eagerly towards you.

Lynnett has told you seldom about her life outside of magic, but you know in your heart that no matter what, Lynnett will always be someone you cannot live without.

“We all have a story don’t we? …When you trust me enough to tell me yours, I know that no matter what I hear or see… I will wait for however long it takes to hear that story before coming to any sort of judgement.” You say softly, looking at them all and see the brothers tense figures lighten. When you turn back to Lynnett, her eyes tell you everything you need to know and how touched she is.

“Well shit.” Lyney says. “Welcome to the family.” He exclaims, and their drinks have arrived. The rest of the lunch continues with the exchanging of stories from embarrassing moments Lynnett’s had as a child to great epic moments of the high time in their careers. Though they don’t talk anymore about their past, you know when the time is right the occasion will come. :)

P.S. POV: You actually infiltrated their family to learn their magic tricks >:)

Jean-

When Jean patrols Mondstat’s forests for any lurking danger, she sees her sister sitting next to someone on dock of the lake. Their legs dangling and feet touching the water. She was about to walk up to say hi until she sees her sister kiss the person next to her.

Jean drops her sword and a loud thud startles both you and Barbara as the two of you turn around to look at the cause of the sound, only to find the shocked expression of the Acting Grand Master.

“Sister!” Barbara looks as if she’s seen a ghost and gets up to run to her.

“Wait Barbara your shoes-“ You get cut off by Jean running away and Barbra chasing after her.

You sigh, grabbing Barbara’s shoes and wearing yours, while following the shouting of the ladies. You even pick up Jean’s sword that she’s left on the floor.

You and Barbara haven’t been together for very long, but you’re both serious about each other. However, every time you would mention if it’s time to introduce each other to one another’s family, Barbara would avoid the topic. You later learned it was cause Barbara’s sister is extremely overprotective of her.

And it makes sense after all. Barbara has been known to have stalkers and crazy fans (IFHY ALBERT). You yourself know how naive Barbara can be at times and how she doesn’t really take the best care of herself. After all, most of the time you’re picking up after her.

You find the sisters deep into the forest. Barbara sitting down on a rock, her pale feet covered in mud and gunk. And Jean pacing back and forth with a hand messing up her pony tail.

“I can’t believe you went behind my back!” Jean shouts. “A girlfriend? Seriously Barbara? Do you think you’re mature enough to be in a relationship? Do you think that girl is trustworthy?” Jean turns to her sister.

“How dare you! Y/N is a great partner and we’re doing really good! And I’ve learned so much being with her than I have before!…Gosh I knew you were going to react like this so I hid it from you.” Barbara continues the shouting, but then starts to weep and Jean sighs. Jean hates it when her sister cries. And she hates it even more when she’s the one who makes her sister cry.

“Oh Barbara, please don’t cry-“ Jean kneels down, about to wipe her tears.

“Tell me, is it just a thing in your family to leave your stuff everywhere?” You interrupt, and the stark difference in their reactions almost makes you laugh.

Barbara exclaims your name and runs up to give you a hug, while Jean stands back up and crosses her arms over her chest. She wears a furrowed brow on her face to match the tense body language.

“You got mud all over you.” You tell Barbara softly and Barbara giggles. Once she lets go of the hug, you kneel down to clean her feet with a cloth. You put her shoes on her as well, and when you stand back up, you’re met with a distraught look on Jean’s face. “Here. Your sword.” When you walked to her to hand it back to her, Jean looks even more lost.

Jean, for the past years, has been the one taking care of her sister all the time. And though what you did just now might seem small, Jean didn’t even notice her sister was walking around barefoot. ‘What if Barbara got a thron stuck in her foot and her whole leg got infected?’ She beats herself up about not noticing sooner.

“Thank you,” Jean speaks very softly. Almost as if she’s trying to counteract for her shouting earlier.

“Don’t mention it,” You give her a genuine smile. You get where the older sister is coming from after all. “Now, how do we resolve this?” You look at both the sisters.

Barbara walks closer to where you and Jean stand. “Jean… I know I’m asking a lot from you to accept us given how bad I can be at judging people… but I swear. I swear on Barbatos that Y/N is a good person.” She looks at you and you smile. You can’t help yourself but to pat her head.

“Jean, I know how worried you must be. You’ve just seen your little sister being affectionate with some random stranger… but I promise you that this random stranger.. will take even better care of Barbara than you have over the years.” You make a challenge to yourself at Jean and she finally loosens up.

Jean exhales deeply. And shakes her head at how she jumped to conclusions about you.“I will take you up on that.” She looks at Barbara and then at you and noticed how she hasn’t really seen Barbara this happy and free in a while. Being stressed AF runs in the their family and she tells herself that maybe you’re good for her Barbara. And that maybe it’s time to let her sister experience the world for herself, without Jean’s watchful eye. “But.. I think we’re all do for a shower and a proper dinner after. I have many questions.” You and Barbara agree, sticky from the lake and the humid air as the three you guys walk back.

But this time instead of someone running away from another, someone shouting, and someone crying, you guys walk together. This marks the new beginning of getting to know each other and the rest of your lives.

P.S. Even if Jean ended up accidentally slaying your ass out of anger, C6 Barbara would’ve brought you back <3

A/N: I did a Barbara version where Jean introduces you as her girlfriend but I second guessed myself thinking that might be weird after I did the Jean version… (._.)

Aether-

Aether doesn’t believe his sister got a partner before he did. Questions his rizz. The end ;)

Kidding, he doesn’t even know his sister has a girlfriend because he hasn’t found her-

A/N: How do people write traveller?? What even is their personality, like are they pretty? Yes. Do they speak? No. What do you guys go off of?? [・_・?]

11/08/2023

499 notes · View notes

screaminglygay · 27 days

Text

Burning match

pairings: kate bishop x fem!reader

summary: shutting off your feeling is not the best idea, but talking about them hurts too much.

warnings: swearing, character gets badly hurt, mentions of injuries, men, reader being stubborn, some angst with happy ending:)

word count: 5.5k

an: this one is little longer, but i didnt feel like cutting it in halfway, hehe, hope you´ll like it!:)

part one | part two

!MDNI!

"Come on, try again." Natasha says as she hold the lap for you to hit it.

The past few weeks, you´ve been trying to keep yourself busy. Small missions. Paper work. Training with Natasha. Spending time with MJ and Peter in Queens. Everything to keep Kate away. Everyone realized that something is wrong, that´s the main reason, why Fury didn´t give you a long or a hard missions. He couldn´t risk you being reckless, but he also didn´t want to keep you out of the game.

"I´m trying!" You yell as you hit the boxing paw, but you didn´t cover your face, so Natasha hits you back.

"Your mind is somewhere else. I need you to be here with me." The redhead put her hand back up, for you to try again. "If we would be on the field, you´d be dead by now." She states, hoping it will motivate you, but it did the exact opossite.

"That would be great, actually." You try to hit her paw, but she put her hands down.

"(Y/N)…" Natasha looks at you and takes off the paws.

"What are you doing?" You are supposed to train for another fifty minutes.

"We´re having a break. Sit down." You sit down, taking off your gloves. "Are you gonna talk to me, or just pretend like everything is great?" Natasha sits down as well.

You shrug. "It's complicated, Nat. I don't even know where to start."

"Start at the beginning. I'm here to listen." She looks at you.

"It's about feelings. Complicated feelings," you admit, fidgeting with the edge of your gloves.

"Remember when I used to have a crush on Wanda? Well, it turns out those feelings are just exchanged with a different feelings.. with different someone…"

Natasha nods, her expression encouraging you to continue.

"It´s Kate," you continue, the weight of the unspoken emotions settling between you. "I never expected to feel this way again, but it's there. And I can't face her. I can't face anyone, really."

Natasha's eyes reflect empathy as she absorbs your words. "Feelings are messy, (Y/N), but running from them won't make them disappear. You've got to confront them, understand them, and then decide what to do next."

You look down at your hands, the moment feeling like a barrier between you and the vulnerability of your emotions. "I already decided, I don´t want to confront them at all. It´s just… overwhelming."

Natasha reaches over, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder. "You don't have to figure it all out at once. Take it one step at a time. Talk to Kate. See where it goes. And remember, I'm here for you, no matter what. And like with Wanda it either will go away or you will figure it out."

You sigh. "It was different with Wanda. In many ways. I don´t think it will be the same. They are both totally different people." You say as you think about that time of your life.

"What was different? Having a bro code with Pietro?" Natasha asks, without missing a beat and that makes you smile and roll your eyes.

The door swings open, your gaze lifts, only to meet the eyes of the archer you've been succesfully avoiding. Instantly, your posture tenses, a reflexive response to the presence.

Kate walks in, but stops as she notices you´re with Natasha, "can I have a minute with (Y/N)?"

Natasha looks at you and you just nod. Which makes Natasha stand up and leave the room.

"So…" Kate starst, but she is actually not really sure how to start at all.

"So…" You look at her and she sits down next to you."You had a sparing session with Natasha?" Kate asks, looking at the gloves on the ground.

"Um- yeah, yeah, I had." You nod as well as Kate.

The room holds an unspoken tension. Kate breaks the silence with a question that cuts through the charged atmosphere.

"Am I too annoying?" Kate's gaze is probing, searching for confirmation in your eyes.

Your response is quick, "What? No! Of course not!"

Kate interrupts, her tone cutting, "You've been off. So what's your problem?"

"I don´t have a problem." You shrug.

"You don´t? Well even Mike thinks you´re kinda off…" Kate states.

A scoff escapes your lips involuntarily, and you mutter mockingly, "oh Mike thinks that.."

The archer looks at you and raise her eyebrow, "what´s that supposed to mean?"

"Forget it, nothing." You look away, already feeling like you gonna explode.

"Say it." You can feel that the atmosphere didn´t clear out at all.

"No, it´s nothing important." You look back at her.

"(Y/N), say it!" Kate is on the verge of exploding too, you can feel it and even see it.

"Okay, fine! Your boyfriend, he´s a dick." Okay, that slipped out. Shit, that shouldn´t have slipped out.

Oh god.

You succesfully shocked the archer, she is completly stunned. "What's your problem with Mike?" Kate's voice rises, defensive and confrontational.

"It's this something about him." you take a deep breath, the tension escalating. "You deserve better." There it is, you finally said it. Maybe a little differently then you wanted, but you did.

The declaration becomes a spark igniting an unexpected blaze. Kate's eyes narrow, a mixture of frustration and anger surfacing. "You don't know him like I do. You don't get to judge my choices. Who do you think you are to say these things?!"

The argument escalates, a collision of conflicting emotions, and before you know it, the room becomes a battleground once again. Before you could find your words, trying to save it, she speaks once again.

"I don't need this. I thought we could talk, but clearly, I was wrong."

And with that, Kate storms out, leaving you alone in the sparring room, the echoes of the confrontation lingering in the air like a haunting melody.

Fuck.

...

After the heated confrontation with Kate, the sparring room feels like a vacuum, the lingering echoes of the argument still resonating in the air. Hours pass, marked by the ticking clock and the persistent sound of rain against the windows. Eventually, you decide to venture back to the living room, a sense of emptiness accompanying each step.

As you enter the living room, you open the fridge in hopes that you will find a fresh icy cold water bottle. Finally you have a little luck in your life and there it is. As you take few sips from it you speak out. "Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y., have you seen Kate around?" you inquire, your voice betraying a hint of sadness.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. responds with a measured tone, "Miss Bishop is currently on a mission with Mr. Rogers and Miss Belova. They left a forty minutes ago."

A pang of regret tightens your chest. The opportunity to apologize and mend things with Kate slips through your fingers, replaced by a sense of longing and missed chances.

"Alright, thanks, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," you mutter, retreating to a corner of the living room. The rain outside matches the melancholy mood within, creating a backdrop for the emotional storm you find yourself caught in.

...

You find solace in the embrace of your bed, its comfort offering a temporary refuge from the emotional turmoil that swirls within. The room, dimly lit by the glow of the bedside lamp, becomes a sanctuary where you can confront the tangled web of feelings.

Wrapped in the warmth of blankets, you replay the events in your mind, analyzing each word and gesture. Regret sticks with you, and the longing to bridge the gap between you and Kate grows with each passing moment. The desire to apologize, to untangle the knots of misunderstanding, becomes a persistent ache that refuses to dissipate.

But was it a misunderstanding? Or just something you held in yourself for a really long time?

As the rain continues its rhythmic dance against the window, time seems to stretch, each moment weighed down by the emotional heaviness. The glow of the bedside clock ticks away, a constant reminder of the day slipping through your fingers.

Messages from MJ and Peter light up your phone, concerned inquiries that you choose to ignore for now. You will answer them later. Maybe.

The dim glow of the bedside clock casts a faint light in the room as your phone incessantly lights up with notifications. Ignoring it initially, you think it´s MJ or Peter again. However, the persistent buzzing becomes too insistent to ignore, pulling you back to the harsh reality beyond the cocoon of your thoughts.

A new notification pops up, catching your attention. It's from Yelena, and the message sends a shiver down your spine. "Kate got into an accident. We're at the hospital."

The words hang in the air, a chilling realization that transcends the emotional turmoil you've been grappling with. The cocoon of solitude suddenly feels fragile, the threads unraveling in the face of an unforeseen crisis.

Before you can fully process the gravity of the situation, your phone vibrates with an incoming call from Natasha. With a sense of foreboding, you answer, your voice catching in your throat.

"(Y/N), it's about Kate. There's been an accident," Natasha's voice is steady but laced with an underlying tension. "They're at the St.Nicholas. Steve said it's serious. You need to come, but please drive carefuly." Natasha´s voice cracks and that makes your stomach drops even lower.

Without a second thought, you spring into action, a surge of adrenaline propelling you out of the room and into the stormy night. The rain outside mirrors the tempest within as you navigate the path to the hospital, the glow of your phone lighting the way with messages that now hold a newfound urgency.

The rain-drenched streets blur as you rush towards the hospital, heart pounding in your chest. The vivid lights of the emergency room entrance greet you as you finally arrive, breathless and soaked. Your gaze scans the room, finding Natasha, Steve, and Yelena huddled together, their faces etched with worry.

Ignoring the pull of exhaustion, you hurry towards them, relief and anxiety warring within you. Natasha, noticing your arrival, steps forward, her eyes reflecting a mix of concern and understanding.

"(Y/N), she's stable now," Natasha says softly, her hand resting reassuringly on yours as she stops you from coming into the room. "But they won't let us visit her just yet."

A mix of emotions floods over you – relief that Kate is stable, yet a lingering unease at the unknown extent of her injuries. The hospital's sterile ambiance amplifies the tension in the air as Steve steps forward, his usually stoic expression betraying a deep concern.

"There was a room filled with explosive material, and it detonated while she was near it," Steve explains, the weight of the situation evident in his voice. "She's lucky to be alive."

As Steve explains, you feel a knot tighten in your stomach. The image of Kate, caught in the blast, flashes in your mind. The once trivial disagreements now seem insignificant, overshadowed by the reality of Kate's perilous situation.

Yelena remains silent, her eyes revealing the worry she can't put into words. The waiting room becomes a space suspended in time, a limbo between the fear of the unknown and the hope for Kate's recovery.

For now, the only option is to wait – to wait for news, for permission to visit Kate, and, above all, for a sign that she will pull through.

...

Time seems to stretch as the group anxiously awaits news about Kate. The sterile waiting room is filled with hushed conversations and the rhythmic beeping of medical equipment. The air is thick with anticipation until finally, a doctor emerges, breaking the tense silence.

"Miss Bishop is stable. She's going to be okay," the doctor announces, a collective sigh of relief escaping from those gathered. "However, she needs time to recover. The explosion caused many injuries, and she's currently sleeping."

Steve, Yelena, and Natasha exchange grateful glances, and a sense of gratitude washes over them. The doctor continues, "You can visit her. We'll keep you updated on her progress."

As the trio heads toward Kate's room, you hesitate. The relief is palpable, but an overwhelming desire to be close to Kate prevails. Determined, you follow them into the room.

Kate lies peacefully on the hospital bed, surrounded by the sterile white walls. Machines softly hum, monitoring her vital signs. You can hear Yelena talk in russian, which you don´t understand at all.

Natasha places a gentle hand on Yelena´s shoulder, exchanging a few quiet words with her and Steve before leading them out, leaving you alone with your friend.

The room is dimly lit, the soft glow of monitors casting a gentle light on Kate's sleeping form. The exhaustion from the events of the day catches up with you, but an unwavering need to be there for Kate keeps you by her side.

You pull a chair close to the bed, taking Kate's hand in yours. The rhythmic beeping of the machines becomes a soothing backdrop as you sit there, unmoving, lost in the quiet vigil.

"I´m really sorry, Katie." You whisper, so much regret in those words. Hours pass, marked by the steady rise and fall of Kate's chest. Your mind is a tempest of emotions – relief, worry, gratitude. The ordeal has left you physically and emotionally drained. The chair feels uncomfortable, but you can't bring yourself to leave Kate's side.

As the night wears on, fatigue sets in. The hospital room becomes your bedroom now, interrupted only by the soft sounds of medical equipment. Unable to resist the heaviness of your eyelids, you lean against the chair and finally fall asleep too.

...

Morning light filters through the hospital room's window, casting a soft glow on the still figure of Kate. The rhythmic sounds of medical equipment persist, a constant reminder of the fragile balance between recovery and the unknown. You wake up, the stiffness in your muscles a testament to the night spent in the uncomfortable chair.

The door creaks open, and Natasha enters, holding a small tray with a cup of water and a plate of food. Her eyes, though tired, hold a reassuring warmth.

"Hey," Natasha says softly, offering a small smile. "I thought you might need this."

Tears well up in your eyes as you take in the caring gesture. "Thanks, Nat."

Natasha places the tray on the table and pulls a chair closer. "How are you holding up?"

You shrug and glance at Kate, her peaceful slumber giving you a momentary respite. "The last time we talked, we had a fight," you confess, your voice choked with emotion.

Natasha leans forward, a comforting presence. "(Y/N), these things happen, especially in our line of work. What's important now is that she's going to be okay."

"I was too blind to let her be happy," you admit, the weight of regret settling in. "I should have never said anything."

Natasha reaches out, squeezing your hand gently. "You care about her, and that's what matters. The rest can be worked out later." She encourages you to eat and drink, a gentle reminder of the need to take care of yourself. The food feels tasteless, but with Natasha's support, each bite becomes a small triumph.

"Kate is strong, and she's going to pull through. You being here for her matters more than you realize," Natasha reassures, offering a comforting presence in the quiet hospital room.

Her words are stuck in your head. You are here. You are. Where is Mike?

"He's still not here, hasn't even bothered to check in," you mutter to Natasha, a sense of frustration coloring your tone.

Natasha furrows her brow, sensing the underlying tension. "Mike? Maybe he's just dealing with things in his own way."

"So if you had the love of your life in a hospital you wouldn´t care to find them?" You are once again getting angry, even though you are strongly agaisnt the man, maybe you are overreacting. Or maybe you are right the whole time. Thoughts are running in and out of your head. Too much things at the moment.

"(Y/N), people react differently in situations like these. Give him some time."

But the silence from Mike speaks louder than any explanation Natasha could offer. The realization stirs a mix of emotions — frustration, disappointment, and a strange sense of feeling you couldn´t name yet.

Natasha leaves the hospital room, offering a reassuring smile as she heads to the cafeteria to check up on Steve and Yelena. The door closes behind her, leaving you alone with your thoughts and sleeping Kate.

After some time, Natasha returns with Yelena, her expression serious. "Steve's heading back to the compound to take care of some calls and paperwork. He'll be back soon," she informs you.

The hospital room feels both empty and crowded, a paradoxical mix of solitude and shared concern. Yelena, seated by the window, looks up as Natasha speaks. "We´ll stay here with you for a while," Nat offers.

Grateful for the company, you nod, and Natasha takes a seat in the corner, while Yelena sits by Kate's bedside. The atmosphere in the room becomes more subdued, the weight of the events settling in.

After a little bit you step out to get some fresh air, a knot of tension lingers. The hallway outside is quiet, and you take a moment to collect your thoughts. As you turn to the bathrooms, you notice someone standing a little way down the corridor — Mike, Kate's boyfriend.

His presence catches you off guard, and a mixture of emotions surges within. The frustration from the previous thoughts intensifies, and a sense of unease accompanies the realization that he's here, yet the silence persists.

Mike looks up from his phone, noticing you. His expression is a mix of surprise and discomfort. The air between you is thick with unspoken words and unresolved tensions. It's a moment frozen in time, the hospital hallway becoming a silent arena for a confrontation that has been brewing beneath the surface.

Yelena and Natasha remain inside the room, unaware of the encounter in the hallway. The decision of whether to address the situation or let it linger hangs in the air, and as you lock eyes with Mike. You know Kate would not want you to go up to him and start a fight, but you can´t help it.

The air in the hospital hallway thickens as you approach Mike, who seems taken aback by your presence. A mix of frustration and anger simmers beneath the surface, waiting to erupt.

"It took you a while to finally arrive," you say, the words laced with a mixture of scoff and irritation.

Mike doesn't respond with an apology or explanation. Instead, he meets your challenging gaze and, with a dismissive tone, retorts, "Why do you care?"

The confrontation escalates, each word becoming a verbal jab as the tension between you intensifies. Mike, rather than showing concern for Kate or acknowledging the gravity of the situation, responds with rudeness and indifference.

"Why do I care?!" There it is, the sharp exchange of words. "If she was my girlfriend, I would call, text—I would run into every hospital, until I would find her!" you shout, your frustration boiling over. But Mike remains unmoved, his calm demeanor only fueling the fire.

"But she's not," he speaks with an unsettling calmness.

The words hang in the air, a harsh reality that slaps you in the face. "What?" you stammer, caught off guard by the bluntness of his statement.

"You've said it yourself, if. She is not your girlfriend," Mike replies, his words cutting through the emotional turmoil like a knife.

The realization hits hard, the vulnerability beneath your anger exposed. The hurt, disappointment, and frustration converge into a surge of raw emotion.

Natasha, hearing the escalating confrontation, steps in, grabbing your hand to stop you from saying or doing anything impulsive. "You won't help her by this, (Y/N)," she says calmly, her grip a grounding force amid the tempest of emotions.

The hospital hallway becomes a silent witness to the tangled threads of relationships, the fractures laid bare in the harsh light of truth. As Natasha intervenes, you take a deep breath, grappling with the storm of emotions within. The focus shifts from the confrontation to the shared concern for Kate's well-being, a reminder that in the face of adversity, unity is more crucial than discord.

Natasha makes you take a few deep breaths, trying to diffuse the tension. Frustration still simmers within you, and you can't shake off the urge to do something impulsive. Your words to Natasha echo your volatile emotions.

"He's being an arrogant idiot," you mutter to Natasha, your anger palpable. "I swear, if I didn't care about Kate, I'd punch him."

Mike, unfazed, wears an arrogant smile as if reveling in the chaos he has incited. The atmosphere in the hospital corridor remains charged, the unspoken conflict simmering beneath the surface. With a frustrated scoff you finally manage to go to the bathroom, to freshen up a little bit, or at least calm the anger burning inside you.

In the midst of the tension, a weak voice cuts through the air. Kate stirs in her hospital bed, her gaze flickering around the room as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. Her eyes land on Yelena, who is engrossed in a magazine.

"What the hell was that?" Kate asks, her voice a mix of confusion and concern.

"Kate! You´re awake! Oh and that? (Y/N)." Yelena puts the magazine down.

"Is she okay?" Kate asks without a beat.

Yelena hesitates for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "She's… okay."

The ambiguity in Yelena's response doesn't escape Kate's notice. "Whats that supposed to mean?" Kate´s voice still very raspy from just waking up.

"Well curently she´s cursing at your boy for being a dick." The blonde chuckles, as she´s rooting for your win.

"She is?" Kate's eyes widen with a mix of surprise and concern.

"Yeah… I heard Natasha step in, too sad I wanted to see (Y/N) throw some fists, she could take him.." Yelena looks at Kate, "what? I´m just stating the facts."

Kate tries to sit up and leave the bed, but Yelena immedietly notices and tries to keep her in bed. "No, Kate, stay." But that doesn´t stop the injured archer.

Ignoring Yelena's attempts to keep her in bed, Kate go out the room, trying to piece together the events that led her here until her gaze finally lands on Natasha, a silent guardian in the midst of the unfolding drama. Mike´s back is facing Kate as she somehow walked out of her hospital room.

"You all are crazy, who do you think you guys are? Mighty heroes?" He laughs "At least Kate will realize how useless her bow and arrow is…"

"Mike…" Natasha tries as she meets Kate´s blue eyes. Her posture softens a little bit with relief as she notices that Kate is awake.

"If her dad was around maybe she would get some sences knocked into her, this is ridicilous. Pretending to be a hero." Kate barerly stands there, she hopes this is just a big hallucination from the pills they gave her. "And who is your inspiration, hm? A- a- hooker mixed with Lara Croft?"

Natasha steps forward with a slight smile on her face, "If I was you, I would choose your words more wisely."

"What did you just said?" Kate jumps in with a question, her voice cracking up a little bit.

Mike turns around, completly shifting his body language, "oh babe! You are awake!" He rushes to her side but Yelena is quick to walk out of the room and push him away.

"Возьми ее за руки, и я сломаю тебе все кости в твоем чертовом теле." Yelena is really ready to strike.

(translation: Get your fucking hands on her and I´ll break all of your bones in your god damn body.)

"Leave me alone, she is my girlfriend!" The guy states. "Mine, understand?!" He tries to fight off the Widow, but if anything it was more of a sad try on his side.

The dismissive tone and lack of accountability in Mike's words infuriate Kate. Her face contorts with anger as she delivers a stern message. "You need to leave, Mike. I don't want to see you."

"Babe-" Mike's another attempt at a protest is met with a stern gaze from Kate, cutting him off. "Go home, Mike. I need some space."

"It´s because of your freak friend, right? That poor (Y/N)…" He somehow gets Yelena´s hands off of him and adjust his jacket.

Kate's eyes narrow at the mention of your name, and a wave of frustration washes over her. "Go."

Before Mike can respond Natasha is leading him out of the sight, while Yelena helps Kate back to her bed.

Kate nods, a mix of gratitude and relief in her eyes. "Thanks, guys. Now, can someone fill me in on everything that happened?"

As Yelena explains everything from the mission to this moment, Natasha, with her keen sense of observation, follows the emotional trail to find you in the bathroom. The tension and frustration from the earlier confrontation still linger, and she approaches you with a steady but understanding gaze.

"Kate is awake," Natasha announces, her words breaking through the quiet reflection in the bathroom.

The news propels you into action. Without a second thought, you practically sprint back to the hospital room where Kate is, your heart racing with a mix of anxienty and relief.

With Yelena and Natasha giving you some privacy, the atmosphere in the hospital room becomes more intimate. Kate looks at you with a mixture of gratitude and curiosity, and you can sense the unspoken questions lingering in the air.

"You really went to fight for me out there," Kate says, breaking the silence. Her voice is soft, filled with appreciation.

You give her a small smile. "Of course, Kate. He´s such an- anytime."

Kate chuckles at your words, "I appreciate it. More than you know." You find yourself sit next to her side once again. "I just couldn't stand by and let him hurt you. You mean a lot to me."

Kate's expression softens, and she reaches out to take your hand. "You mean a lot to me too. I didn't expect anyone to stand up for me like that."

"Well, get used to it," you say with a playful grin. "I've got your back. And now more than ever, miss walking into a room with explossives." You playfully tease her.

Kate just laughs, even though it hurts her a little bit.

"So, what did you do in the hallway, before Nat stepped in?"

You can't help but chuckle, the tension dissipating. "Oh nothing, just me telling off to your not-so-charming boyfriend."

Kate raises an eyebrow wanting to say something totally different then the thing she left out. "Hm, alright then."

"You should get some rest," you smile as you put the blanket over her. "I´m fine, actually I don´t feel much pain." Kate says as she visible fights off the sleepiness.

"That´s because you´re high, Bishop." You chuckle.

"Hm… interesting, I didn´t though about it." She opens her eyes. "You´re so high."

"Yup. Probably, I mean… this stuff is good. It got the kick." She smiles as she shifts a little bit in her bed and she finally drift off.

...

As the days pass, you continue to be by Kate's side, offering support and companionship during her recovery in the hospital. Your presence becomes a source of comfort, and together, you navigate the challenges of rehabilitation. Feeling like you two are even closer than before, feeling so good around her as she does. You feel complete again.

Not a signle thought about Mike in yours or Kate´s head.

Finally, the day arrives when Kate is well enough to leave the hospital. You assist her in the wheelchair, wheeling her out of the hospital room and through the corridors. As you approach the compound, the familiar faces of the Avengers greet both of you with smiles and cheers. They've organized a "Welcome Back" party for Kate, a celebration of her recovery and return.

With the wheelchair parked in the midst of the festive atmosphere, Kate insists, "I can handle the wheelchair on my own, you know." You respond with a playful grin, "I like to push you around."

The words carry a lighthearted warmth, an acknowledgment of the bond that has grown stronger during these trying times. Kate chuckles, appreciating the sentiment behind your words.

Throughout the party, you continue to take care of Kate, ensuring she's comfortable and included in the festivities. The Avengers express their relief and happiness at seeing Kate back on her feet, and the atmosphere is one of shared joy and camaraderie.

As the night progresses, the two of you find a quiet corner to sit and talk. The glow of the party surrounds you, but in that moment, it's the connection between you and Kate that shines the brightest.

"You've been a real friend through all of this," Kate says, sincerity in her eyes.

"I just wanted to be here for you," you reply, a soft smile on your face. After a little you look back at her. "I had this crazy idea. Do you trust me, Bishop?" you ask, a playful smile on your face.

Kate looks at you with a mix of curiosity and a hint of nervous anticipation. "Do I have a choice?" she replies, a playful smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Not really," you admit, your eyes dancing with excitement. "Fine, fine. I trust you." Kate nods.

"Okay, then get ready, because we´re going for a ride!" You say as you help her get back on the wheelchair. "It took me a little bit to figure it out, but I watched some youtube tutorials and I think it should work." You ramble to Kate, who still have zero idea what you´re talking about.

"Close your eyes, please,"you instruct, and Kate, now used to your playful antics, complies with a smirk.

As she close her eyes shut, you push the wheelchair, outside. Little cold breeze hitting the both of you. You push her infront of the homemade ramp, you made couple nights ago, thanks to some random guy on YouTube.

"Alright, open your eyes," you announce, stepping back to reveal your creation.

Kate opens her eyes, and her gaze shifts from you to the makeshift ramp. A mixture of surprise and excitement lights up her face. "What's all this? You won´t push me off, right?" she asks, with a giggle.

"I thought we could use a change of scenery," you say with a grin.

"And since our favorite place is the rooftop, I figured, why not bring it to you?" You smile, being really pround of what you´ve build. Deep down still hoping it won´t break as soon as Kate´s wheelchair will go on it.

"You built this?" Kate's eyes widen with appreciation as she takes in the effort you've put into creating a way for her to join you on the rooftop. You just nod at her question.

"This is amazing," Kate says, her voice filled with gratitude. "To the roof and beyond!" If this wouldn´t be Kate, you would find this quote use very cheesy, but since it´s Kate, you had to let out a chuckle.

With careful precision, you guide Kate up the improvised ramp, ensuring her safety as she rides to the rooftop. Once you both reach the top, a breathtaking view of the city awaits, and the sounds of the party below are replaced by the serene hum of the night.

Seated together on the rooftop, surrounded by the city lights, you and Kate share a moment of quiet companionship. The homemade ramp, a symbol of your dedication and the uniqueness of your connection, becomes a testament to the lengths you're willing to go to make each other happy.

As you sit side by side, overlooking the cityscape, Kate breaks the silence with a sincere look in her eyes. "I'm sorry about not listening to you."

You meet her gaze, the connection between you deepening. "I'm sorry about being right about your boy," you say with a playful laugh. Kate chuckles. "Well, I think it's good to burst out the bubble. He's not my boy anymore."

"What?" The shock in your voice is palpable.

"Yeah. I broke up with him, and he replied with a thumbs up and a 'You weren't even worth it.' So…"

"Oh my god, Kate, I'm so sorry-" You instinctively reach for her hand.

"No, you're not," she interrupts with a reassuring smile.

"Not about him, but… you don't deserve that. Who does he think he is? Oh my god, I'll tell him-" Now it's Kate's turn to take your hand. "Okay, Rambo, calm down," Kate teases. "I'm fine, really. And he´s the one not worth it."

"So he wasn´t the chosen one?" You tease.

"Oh that´t a low blow, (Y/L/N)" She roll her eyes, but laugh along with you.

As the night unfolds, the atmosphere between you two is not just warm; it's a comforting embrace that you don´t want ever lose again, even if it means being just friends with the archer.

Thank you for reading!!!

#adele writes #kate bishop x fem!reader #kate bishop x reader #kate bishop #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic #marvel #wlw fanfic

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physalian · 21 days

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What No One Tells You About Writing #5

Part 4

Part 3

Part 2

Shorter list this time, but longer points. I expect this one to be more divisive, but it is what it is, and this is what ‘no one tells you’ about writing, after all. This one’s all about feedback and how to take it, and give it.

1. Not everyone will like your book, no matter how good it is

I’ve said this before, granted, but sometimes you can have very arbitrary reasons for not liking an otherwise great story. For example: I refuse to watch Hamilton. Why? Because everyone I knew and their dog was trying to cram it down my throat when it came out and I still don’t really like musicals, and didn’t appreciate the bombardment of insisting I’ll like it simply because everyone else does. I’m sure it’s great! I’m just not watching it until I want to watch it.

It can be other reasons, too. I won’t read fanfic that’s written in first person, doesn’t matter how good it is. Someone might not watch a TV show because the primary cast is white or not-white. Someone might not watch a movie because an actor they despise is in it, even if the role is fantastic. Someone might not watch or read a story that’s too heavy on the romance, or not enough, or too explicit. I went looking for beta readers and came across one who wouldn’t touch a book where the romance came secondary in a sci-fi or fantasy novel. Kept on scrolling.

Someone can just think your side character is unfunny and doesn’t hear the same music as everyone else. Someone can just not like your writing style with either too much or not enough fluff, or too much personality in the main narrator. Or they have triggers that prevent them from enjoying it the way you intend.

How someone expresses that refusal is not your job to manage. You cannot force someone to like your work and pushing too hard will just make it worse. Some people just won’t like it, end of story.

2. Criticism takes a very long time to take well

Some people are just naturally better at taking constructive criticism, some have a thick skin, some just have a natural confidence that beats back whatever jabs the average reader or professional editor can give. If you’re like me, you might’ve physically struggled at first to actually read the feedback and insisted that your beta readers color-coded the positive from the negative.

It can be a very steep climb up the mountain until you reach a point where you know you’re good enough, and fully appreciate that it is actually “constructive” and anything that isn’t, isn’t worth your time.

The biggest hurdle I had to climb was this: A criticism of my work is not a criticism of me as a person.

Yes, my characters are built with pieces of my personality and worldview and dreams and ideals, but the people giving you feedback should be people who either already know you as a person and are just trying to help, or are people you pay to be unbiased and only focus on what’s on the page.

Some decisions, like a concerning moral of your story, is inadvertently a criticism of your own beliefs—like when I left feedback that anxiety can’t just be loved away and believing so is a flawed philosophy. I did that with intent to help, not because I thought the writer incompetent or that they wrote it in bad faith.

I’m sure it wasn’t a fun experience reading what I had to say, either. It’s not fun when I get told a character I love and lost sleep over getting right isn’t getting the same reception with my betas. But they’re all doing it (or at least they all should be doing it) from a place of just wanting to help, not to insult your writing ability. Even if your writing objectively sucks, you’re still doing a lot more just by putting words on paper than so many people who can’t bring themselves to even try.

As with all mediums subjects to critique, one need not be an author to still give valuable feedback. I’m not a screenwriter, but from an audience’s standpoint, I can tell you what I think works. Non-authors giving you pointers on the writing process? You can probably ignore that. Non-authors giving you pointers on how your character lands? Then, yeah, they might have an opinion worth considering.

3. Parsing out the “constructive” from the criticism isn’t easy

This goes for people giving it as well. Saying things like “this book sucks” is an obviously useless one. Saying “I didn’t like this story because it was confusing and uncompelling” is better. “I think this story was confusing and uncompelling because of X, and I have some suggestions here that I think can make it better.”

Now we’re talking.

Everyone’s writing style is different. Some writers like a lot of fluff and poetic prose to immerse you in the details and the setting, well beyond what you need to understand the scene or the plot. Their goal is to make this world come alive and help you picture the scene exactly the way they see it in their minds.

There’s writers who are very light on the sensory fluff and poetry, trying to give you the impression of what the scene should look and feel like and letting you fill in the missing pieces with your own vision.

Or there’s stories that take a long time to get anywhere, spending many pages on the small otherwise insignificant slice-of-life details as opposed to laser-precision on the plot, and those who trim off all the fat for a fast-paced rollercoaster.

None of these are inherently bad or wrong, but audiences do have their preferences.

The keyword in “constructive criticism” is “construct”. As in, your advice is useless if you can’t explain why you think an element needs work. “It’s just bad” isn’t helpful to anyone.

When trying to decide if feedback has merit, try to look at whatever the critic gives you and explain what they said to yourself in your own words. If you think changing the piece in question will enhance your story or better convey what you’re trying to say, it’s probably solid advice.

Sometimes you just have to throw the whole character out, or the whole scene, whole plot line and side quest. Figuring out what you can salvage just takes time, and practice.

4. Just when you think you’re done, there’s more

There’s a quote out there that may or may not belong to Da Vinci that goes “art is never finished, only abandoned.” Even when you think your book is as good as it can be, you can still sleep on it and second-guess yourself and wonder if something about it could have been done better or differently.

There is such a thing as too much editing.

But it also takes a long time to get there. Only 10-15% of writing is actually penning the story. The rest is editing, agonizing over editing, re-editing, and staring at the same few lines of dialogue that just aren't working to the point that you dream about your characters.

It can get demoralizing fast when you think you’ve fixed a scene, get the stamp of approval from one reader, only for the next one to come back with valid feedback neither of you considered before. So you fix it again. And then there’s another problem you didn’t consider. And then you’re juggling all these scene bits and moments you thought were perfect, only for it to keep collapsing.

It will get there. You will have a manuscript you’re proud of, even if it’s not the one you thought you were going to write. My newest book isn’t what I set out to write, but if I stuck to that original idea, I never would have let it become the work that it is.

5. “[Writing advice] is more like guidelines than actual rules.”

Personally, I think there’s very few universal, blanket pieces of writing advice that fit every book, no exceptions, no conditions, no questions asked. Aside from: Don’t sacrifice a clear story for what you think is cool, but horribly confusing.

For example, I’m American, but I like watching foreign films from time to time. The pacing and story structure of European films can break so many American rules it’s astonishing. Pacing? What pacing? It’s ~fancy~. It wants to hang on a shot of a random wall for fifteen seconds with no music and no point because it’s ~artsy~. Or there is no actual plot, or arc, it’s just following these characters around for 90 minutes while they do a thing. The entire movie is basically filler. Or the ending is deeply unsatisfying because the hoity-toity filmmaker believes in suffering for art or… something.

That doesn’t fly with mainstream American audiences. We live, breathe, and die on the Hero’s Journey and expect a three-act-structure with few novel exceptions.

That does not mean your totally unique or subversive plot structure is wrong. So much writing advice I’ve found is solid advice, sure, but it doesn’t often help me with the story I’m writing. I don’t write romance like the typical romance you’d expect (especially when it comes to monster allegories). There’s some character archetypes I just can’t write and refuse to include–like the sad, abusive, angsty, 8-pack abs love interest, or the comedic relief.

Beyond making sure your audience can actually understand what you’re trying to say, both because you want your message to be received, and you don’t want your readers to quit reading, there is an audience for everything, and exceptions to nearly every rule, even when it comes to writing foundations like grammar and syntax.

You don’t even have to put dialogue in quotes. (Be advised, though, that the more ~unique~ your story is, the more likely you are to only find success in a niche audience).

Lots of writing advice is useful. Lots of it is contradictory. Lots of it is outdated because audience expectations are changing constantly. There is a balance between what you *should* do as said by other writers, and what you think is right for your story, regardless of what anyone else says.

Just don’t make it confusing.

—

I just dropped my cover art and summary for my debut novel. Go check it out and let me know what you think!

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #editing #constructive criticism #what no one tells you about writing

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respectthepetty · 4 months

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Wild Ass Theory - Who is the Second Killer?

@anotherblblog asked about the colors in Dead Friend Forever as a response to my Phi is Sus AF post where I listed the reasons I think Phi is in on the kills since they think White is sus too, but I cannot answer questions about White/colors because . . .

Who the fuck is this?!

Freeze frame: Is this Tee?!

Well, it sure isn't Non (Barcode) taking off the mask!

In the original film the boys were shooting and the one played at the party, Non was the killer who unmasked himself.

But apparently, Non wasn't the only one playing a killer.

There were two killers.

This is why we see Jin and Non running in the opening scene because they are being chased by the second killer in the film.

So who is the second killer?

Just like with the original film, the second killer isn't some magical ninth person, but someone already in the group, and in the recreated scene, there is a person missing.

Tan!

Tan and Phi didn't come into the friend group until 12th grade, and White is the baby of the group, so he was too young to hang out with the core friend group until he started dating Tee (way to already start pissing off Tee by holding his man's hand, Phi).

So Phi, Tan, and White are new to all of this and weren't part of the original incident that happened in the 11th grade, but White is now playing Non's part in the film by running away from the masked killer with Jin. Yes? Yes!

From the trailer, we got this scene. Phi, Tee, and Tan are all standing in a bloody room that has hanging signs stating "He Must Die" in Thai with a fourth person, who could either be White or Jin.

And we got the scene of Phi keeping Jin quiet in a box as the killer lurks around them.

So it seems like the final girl boy in the "He Must Die" scene is Jin and not White based on the jacket he is wearing, and

Because Jin is the target.

He is the main character.

And he is about to leave. For. Ev. Er.

Which is something Tan throws out when agreeing with Phi to reshoot the film.

And White is the final push for Tee to agree to it.

From the trailer, we know Non had feelings for Jin, and those feelings seemed mutual.

But Tee is the worst.

And somehow convinced everyone that Non was creepy and should be bullied.

So if Jin was the main character and Tee was possibly the second killer and main bully, it makes sense why they would be saved for last since Non wrote this story,

Yet Por, the first one attacked, is the one credited as writing it, so by reshooting it, the killers are going to correct the wrongs and follow the script the way Non originally wrote it.

Which is why I thought White was the other killer since he is now playing Non's part and Phi asked Tan if he brought his inhaler while he was smoking, which seems like a quick way to kill him in the future, BUT . . .

It doesn't seem like White was supposed to be on this trip in the first place. Tee brought him because he thought White "would be obedient" but he doesn't want White involved in what is happening, and it seems neither do the killers.

When all hell broke loose, Phi went with Jin to look for a saw and sent White and Tan to call for help ensuring that Jin was under his watchful eye and that White and Tan, two people who weren't involved in the original incident, were out of the woods, literally and metaphorically. But Tan seemed surprised that White got the walkie talkie working, while White was confused because all he did was charge it.

The conversation is odd in multiple ways but mostly because Tan is smiling the entire time knowing that their dear friend Por is still out in the woods with a tree limb sticking out of his stomach. But then again, Tan is closer to Phi than anyone else, which is why Jin told Phi to go have sex with Tan.

Which is why I fully believe, after one whole episode, that Tan and Phi are just friends . . .

who plot murders together.

#dead friend forever #dead friend forever the series #please don't disappoint me #I need another good thriller #I know the rules #and these boys already lost #there are two of them #never just one #I don't think this is supernatural #this is personal

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stayteezdreams · 6 months

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I'll Keep You Safe

Plot: When staying in a cabin with the boys, you get scared after some scary stories are told. But no worries! Yunho is here to comfort you (and tease you).

Pairing: Jeong Yunho x Gn!Reader

Prompt: 'Telling scary stories around a campfire' Requested by: @tumbleboof

Warnings: Creepy vibes. Somewhat suggestive content.

Words: 2.2k

You should have known going camping with the guys would lead to something like this. Sitting around a campfire in the middle of some woods as Jongho told a scary story. It was exactly what you should expect, but you hated it anyways.

Too many noises in the woods around you were reaching your ears. While the others were focused on Jongho's story, you couldn't help but focus on not only his words, but what was around you as well.

It was as if the woods were reflecting his story. Or maybe your mind was just tricking you.

He'd mention the man in black stalking toward the unsuspecting main character. And you swore you heard footsteps just beyond the trees.

"The whisper's sounded as though they were coming from every direction."

As if on queue you heard a whistling wind in the branches making goosebumps crawl up your arms.

While your focus bounced between all of the things creeping you out, someone else's focus was on you. From beside you, Yunho peered over at you. He could see the light bouncing of your leg as you anxiously rung your hands.

Your eyes were on the darkened woods behind the others, and you clearly looked spooked.

As soon as the others started telling scary stories, he felt you stiffen beside him. He thought the fact you got so easily scared was both cute and endearing, but he also felt a bit bad.

Taking the opportunity, he casually move closer to you, until his leg pressed against yours. He felt you stop shaking your leg, as it seemed to bring you out of whatever over-thinking trance you had been in. Moving his hand to his knee, his moved his pinky finger as he gently caressed your leg, comforting you and reminding you of his presence.

Yunho new his intention was to comfort you, but even he knew the action was almost romantic.

You had the same thought as you were pulled back to reality at his close proximity. You couldn't help the anxious fluttering of your heart increasing at his movements.

You knew he was trying to comfort you, as he always did. He would tease you and drive you crazy, but he was always there for you. But in this moment, as his finger began gently rubbing your leg, sending shock-waves through you, you couldn't help but wish he would let you suffer.

You and Yunho were close, best-friends even, but sometimes he would do things that made it seem like you were dating. The others often found themselves confused as to whether or not you were, and just hiding it from them. But they stopped asking eventually when they figured out neither of you really had an answer either.

You and Yunho were just that. You and Yunho.

Your thoughts were brought back from wandering when Jongho suddenly stood up with a yell, making all of you jump back in surprise. You had let out a soft yelp as you jumped leaning into Yunho who automatically wrapped his arm around your shoulder. Laughing as his own adrenaline coursed through him.

He looked over at you and grinned, squeezing your shoulder a bit. You caught his eye and saw the teasing gleam.

You shook your head and whispered "Shut up" before he could say anything, making him laugh again as he pulled you closer to him momentarily before letting you go.

Just as you finally really had enough of the scary stories, Hongjoong announced that it was getting late and everyone should head to bed. You felt relief wash over you and you shot a look of thanks to Hongjoong. Noticing, he smiled before starting to help Seonghwa put out the fire.

You stood up and stretched, looking towards the darkened path back towards the cabin. You were not looking forward to that walk. You knew you had to make sure you didn't get left to walk it alone.

Yunho of course, was not going to allow this anyway. After the fire was out and all but you, Yunho, San and Seonghwa were left. You and Yunho began heading back, as Seonghwa and San folded up and stacked the chairs.

As tired as you were, you were on guard as you and Yunho walked back to the cabin. Every shaking branch or fluttering bush sent a jolt through you.

Yunho noticed it every time, and repressed a laugh. The way you moved to walk closer to him made his heart skip as he grinned to himself.

As your presence scared a bird, sending it into a fluttering flight, you gasped softly before letting out an annoyed laugh. You really hated how jumpy you could get.

Yunho chuckled as he reached out and took your hand in his. You looked over at him as your heart jumped.

"Don't worry I'll keep you safe."

You glared playfully at him and he laughed.

"You're so jumpy. You'd be a rabbit if you were an animal."

You pouted and stuck you tongue out at him, knowing his statement was accurate enough. You glanced down at his hand as it wrapped completely around yours.

Yunho glanced over at you, seeing you stare down at your intertwined hands, and he felt his chest clench. Were you thinking and feeling the same things as him?

Hearing a yell come back from the campfire site you jumped with a soft gasp before you groaned as you heard Seonghwa and San laughing.

Yunho laughed as he tugged you closer to him. "They're just messing around back there, don't worry."

You sighed, "I know."

Your heart was hammering in your chest, and though you knew it was partially because of the creepy forest and adrenaline inducing night, you also knew it was because of being alone with Yunho.

As the cabin came into view, you walked faster, tugging Yunho along with you.

"Come on I don't wanna be out here any longer."

Yunho followed you, grinning happily as his own heart fluttered.

Letting out a sigh of relief as you made it back into the cabin, you made your way to your room, aware that Yunho was still following you. Turning towards him as you got to your door, he smiled down at you and you felt butterflies swirl in your stomach.

"You gonna be okay now?"

You rolled your eyes and ignored the growing warmth in your chest. "Yes Yunho. The stories may have creeped me out, but I'm not a child."

He took a step closer to you as he peered down into your eyes, you felt your heartbeat pick up as he leaned closer. He stared into your eyes with a small smirk.

"If you insist. But, if you happen to get scared, you know where to find me."

You rolled your eyes, barely able to repress the smile on your face. "I'll be fine."

He giggled softy before placing a soft kiss to your forehead. "I'll leave my door unlocked."

You rolled your eyes again as he walked off with a smirk. Heading into your room, you let out a deep breath. Why did he get so much enjoyment out of teasing you?

Even if it was a joke, it wasn't long before you were considering Yunho's offer. As the cabin grew quiet, and everyone lied down to sleep, the wind outside picked up, and the atmosphere of the cabin seemed to change.

Every noise sounded like whispers or footsteps. The creaking of the floors made your eyes snap open as you stared at your door. The tree branches against the windows made shadows across the room that scared you more than once.

You knew you were safe, but you couldn't calm yourself enough to fall asleep. You blamed Jongho and his stupid stories.

Knowing the teasing from Yunho would be relentless if you actually went to his room, you sat up and turned on your light instead. You stared out at the window, trying to focus on each noise and remind yourself of their true nature.

The creaks in the hallway was the aging house swaying with the wind, the shadows were the tree branches, the whispers weren't whispers, but actually the wind creeping in through the window sill.

Hearing another creak in the hallway, your breath hitched for a second.

The creaks in the hallway is just the old house.

You heard another creak, a bit closer.

Or maybe someone going to the bathroom.

Another creak.

You swallowed as you told yourself, the ghost stories were just stories. No one said anything about this place being haunted. It was fine. It was nothing.

Another creak, and a tap on your door.

Your heart seemed to stop as you held your breath. Was that a knock? You couldn't tell if it had purpose to it or not.

"Y/n?"

You felt all the tension in your body wash away as you let out the breath you had been holding. Getting up, you walked over to the door before pulling it open to reveal Yunho.

"Yunho you scared the shit out of me, why are you creeping around?"

He repressed a laugh, trying to keep his voice down. "I'm sorry. I just went to the bathroom and saw your light was on. I wanted to see if you were okay. Even I gotta admit the cabin is a bit creepy."

You smiled as you felt butterflies again. He just wanted to check in on you.

You smiled a bit wider and he rose his brow. "Wasn't I the one who was supposed to come to you if I got scared?"

He continue to whisper but his tone was firm. "I'm not scared!"

"Oh?"

He chuckled under his breath. "I really just wanted to see if you were okay."

As much as you wanted to continue to tease him, you gave in.

You shook your head. "I'm totally creeped out."

He chuckled as he pushed your door open a bit and walked in. You watched him, a bit confused as he looked around your room. He walked over to the window and nodded his head,

"You're room is creepier than mine."

"Oh great, good to know."

As he walked over to your bed, you watched with growing bewilderment as he pulled the covers back.

"But you got the bigger bed."

He groaned softly as he climbed into your bed, and you blinked a few times.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting comfortable."

"What, am I supposed to go to your room because it's less creepy?" You asked softly as you walked over to the bed.

He smiled up at you before grabbing your hand and pulling you into the bed.

You let out a soft grunt from the sudden impact on the bed.

"No."

You let out a bewildered laugh as he covered you with the blankets and pulled you into his chest.

"I'll just stay with you tonight."

Trying to ignore the intense beating of your heart and the nervousness filling you, you teased him.

"Are you sure you're not the one who got scared?"

He squeezed you closer to him in retaliation and you groaned before pinching him. "Yunho!"

Your muffled voice caused him to chuckle and release you enough so you could look up at him, you felt you breath hitch as you found him staring down at you with a fond smile.

"Maybe it's just an excuse."

"What is?"

"Sleeping in your bed so you aren't scared." His tone become soft and serious and you could feel his heavy beating heart in his chest as he held you close.

"And what is it an excuse for?"

He moved his arms from your shoulders to your waist as he lowered himself so his face was aligned with yours. His eyes studied your face, lingering on your lips for a moment before he met your eyes again.

"Wanting to be with you. And wanting to hold you."

You bit the inside of your lip as you tried to control your breathing. Gently you played with the collar of his shirt and he smiled softly at the action.

"You don't need an excuse to do that."

Your words made Yunho's heart leap as he repressed a grin.

"I don't?"

You shook your head softly and he chuckled, pressing his forehead against yours, making you grin.

As your eyes met and locked in an intense knowing gaze, Yunho slowly leaned forward, before his lips met yours. The kiss was soft and sweet, and brief.

When he pulled away he met your eyes again as if making sure it was alright. As you smiled bashfully at him, he leaned in again, kissing you a bit harder and pulling you closer to him. One of his hands cupped your cheek as he deepened the kiss.

You let your body sink into his as you kissed him back, your hand clenching his shirt tighter.

As a hard gust of wind caused the window pane to bang against the window sill, you and Yunho jumped in surprise, pulling away from each other.

You locked eyes and laughed as your hearts raced. Yunho reached across you and turned off the light before he got comfortable again, pulling you into his chest after he pressed another soft kiss to your lips.

You rested your head against his chest before whispering, "I'm not scared anymore. You make me feel safe."

Feeling the way his heart beat changed at your words you grinned.

He wrapped his arms around you a bit tighter before pressing a kiss to your head. "I'll always keep you safe."

"Even from ghosts?" You asked suddenly and he chuckled.

"Yeah, even from ghosts."

xx End xx

Got a bit carried away with the second half and forgot it was supposed to be a Halloween story lmao.

General Taglist: @otsilliak, @brattybunfornct, @bahng-chrizz, @otakutrash669

Ateez Taglist: @soso59love-blog, @thunderous-wolf

#jeong yunho x reader #yunho x reader #jeong yunho/reader #yunho/reader #ateez x reader #ateez/reader #yunho imagine #ateez imagine #13 days of halloween #ateez halloween #yunho halloween fic #yunho fic #yunho fanfic #ateez fanfic #ateez halloween fic #yunho fluff #ateez fluff

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amysgiantbees · 5 months

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I LOVE Wyll and I understand why they did the rewrites I think he's a wonderful character and wouldn't dream to trade him for his EA counterpart. However, since they chose to rewrite him the lack of material does a disservice to his character.

I love Gale and Astarion and would not change their stories for the world but they aren't really integral to the main plot. Wyll is though and yet Astarion especially has SO much dialogue he comments on EVERYTHING and Wyll barely has anything to say even on the stuff that's important to him, like Gortash's coronation.

It's just so heart braking that Theo, his voice actor, is so passionate about and loved doing his romance scenes so much but Wyll has the least amount of hours dedicated to it.

Scenes I would have liked:

Wyll talking to a child or an innocent post Karlach and he either gets hugged and gets to be surprised that people still see him as heroic. Or he's a bit too smug about it if he killed Karlach.

Wyll meeting up with a member of the flaming fist he used to know in Act 3- maybe they were trainees together when they were teens - and getting to talk about the old days like Karlach and her friend.

Wyll getting to be really surprised Florrick still wants his help in Moonrise after he's been transformed and she puts 2 and 2 together at his reaction and asks if this is why he left Balder's Gate and he tells her that his father asked him to leave. Florrick says that's BS and can become a pseudo parental figure.

The companions dialogue reaction to him braking his pact is fixed so everyone is more like how they react to Shadowheart killing her parents and aren't instead jumping down his throat like he's a power hungry maniac. It's clearly leftovers from EA Wyll when he was more power hungry but it throws his whole character off because clearly this version doesn't struggle with selflessness, he is nothing but! He needs to put himself first over his shitty dad for once in his life. Like the only one I even kind of like is Halsin's dialogue about how a plant sometimes need to strangle a tree to find it's own light. I'm wondering if that isn't something to do with Halsin being expanded upon later in development so it was easier to match it to the new Wyll. Like Wyll damning himself for eternity is satisfying if he's been selfish, but at present it's just him risking himself again and not even for someone we know yet (or *spoilers* someone useful like all the dragon tip does is give us a bit more info about the Emperor and give Wyll some confidence).

I think it's VERY bold of Ravengaurd to say he WILL make it up to Wyll. Not that he'll try but that he knows he can make it up to him. Despite throwing out the sweetest teen on earth even though he was clearly trying to tell him something. Despite likely hearing about the Blade of Fronteir's exploits and never reaching out. Even after being rescued by him to just be still so full of bitterness and hatred. Despite all his failings as a father and always putting his reputation and Baulder's Gate above his son he really thinks it'll all be water under the bridge soon. So, I would like it if your TAV was able to challenge this assumption.

I would like it rewritten so Wyll actually has it out with his Dad instead of tadpoling him what has happened post rescue. Let them actually talk finally. Wyll lacks so much agency and could really use a dramatic moment like everyone else get's in Act 3 to shine.

I would love if your approval is high enough or you're romancing him for you to be able to see his walls come down once. I think it would be so powerful if after this whole journey he's been so composed and careful and then whatever happens with the contract in Act 3 he lets you see how he really feels for once. Like you still have your talk and he's all composed and tells you he just needs some time. However, later that night when you've gone for a long rest you catch him on the roof of the Elfsong or something. He could be crying, or praying to Tyr to save his father, or screaming, summoning dark tendrils of magic and yelling about how he resents his power.

Also Florrick should not show up if you break the contract unless the Duke is dead. It screws up Mizora's dialogue and brakes it a bit. Like if Florrick didn't show up till after you killed Orin that would probably work because if you kill Orin first you probably aren't going to kill Gortash or go down to the Iron Throne. Or at least give it a long rest or two before she shows up.

There's also just dialogue that does not fit that's leftovers from EA I believe. Like after braking the pact TAV being able to tell Wyll he shouldn't be a duke because he's too power hungry. Or even the companion dialogue where Wyll is a bit of a playboy and flirts with Lazel and then Shadowheart immediately afterwards - it totally goes against his hopeless romantic nature. Not that I want them to take even more content away from him.

#wyll #wyll ravengard #bg3 wyll #baldurs gate wyll #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #balders gate 3 #larian #duke rave #ulder ravengard #bg3 #myanalysis #bg3 meta #larian critical #larian pls #larian studios

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tbposting · 7 months

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Thoughts on them meshing the Acrane and League lore? I am really unhappy with the decision because it means some of my favorite champions will be completely reworked. I honestly just wished they kept the two separate. I also think it's a horrible move on a story telling front, too, because now the Arcane team will be restricted by canon which is what made Arcane so fun and good in the first place. They got to experiment and explore characters and I am terrified for the future of Arcane after this decision.

Overall, I think it was a horrible decision and I can only hope they decide to go back on it, but I highly doubt it. Apparently Riot just really hates its writers and it's lore community lmao

It is a really, really bad decision, yeah. Arcane's greatest strength was arguably that it could tell good and interesting stories about its characters entirely unburdened by 13 years of shambolic canon MESS from the main game. Its version of Viktor simply could not ever have happened if Arcane had to respect canon, it could NEVER have done what it did with Singed or Heimerdinger or the Void.

The way they're trying to solve that is by saying "okay, ARCANE represents the canon now, and we'll change THE MAIN GAME to suit it" but that just creates exactly the same problem the other way around. Now the canon of the main game (and Legends of Runeterra and the Forge games) is going to be completely fucked by being forced to be shackled to whatever Arcane wants to do.

Arcane is predicated, it is a huge and important central part of its canon that magic is rare, that it is incredibly special and unusual, and that spellcasters and sorcerers are essentially fucking cryptids to the rest of the world. That is WHY being able to harness magic through Hextech is such a revolutionary technology, because it makes magical power accessible not just to the very few, but to the world.

But hang on a fucking second, the premise of DEMACIA AS A REGION is that magic is common, that it is normal and abundant and plentiful enough that the magical population of the country can launch a full scale insurrection to claim their rights.

The Demacian storyline requires it to be true that mages are commonly born into ordinary families, that everyone in the country knows someone who's a mage or someone whose kid or cousin is a mage, and that mages and magicians are commonly understood to be living in various states of hiding all throughout the country as a normal part of their communities.

And before anyone goes "yes but Piltover was founded to get away from the destruction of the Rune Wars so..." remember, so was Demacia, and it was founded inside a forest of magic-suppressing petricite trees.

Which means if Arcane is the central fount of canon now, Demacia... simply cannot exist in that universe. Not in any way that we would recognize it. And neither can any of the other regions, really. If magic is rare, mysterious and unknown to the vast majority of ordinary people, then Shurima doesn't work. Bilgewater doesn't work. The Freljord doesn't work. Not as they exist currently.

So either the main canon gets CATASTROPHICALLY retconned to hell to suit Arcane, or else Arcane has to very awkwardly retcon its own foundational premise to be like "uuuuh actually magic is normal and common in far away places in the world and everyone there is totally chill about it, and it's JUST Piltover that happens to randomly be founded in a place where mages don't get born and also they never travel to Piltover and also nobody from Piltover ever travels to places where mages are common."

Like, there simply is not a good way to merge the world state of Arcane with the world state of Runeterra as a whole without completely destroying important parts of either, and what gets me is there isn't even any real benefit to fucking doing it.

Seriously! What's the benefit? What does anyone get out of doing this? The only actual tangible benefit is that it will eventually (after like five years of constant retcons) be slightly easier for people who watched Arcane to understand what's happening on Summoner's Rift, which... who cares? The whole point of Arcane is that it expanded the reach of Runeterra to people who don't give a shit what League of Legends is! People who watched Arcane aren't going to tune in to Worlds and be like "oh my god that's Viktor getting a pentakill! That's the blorbo from my show, hooray, I am going to buy SKT T1 merch about it!"

This decision reeks from a million miles away of executive bullshit. It reeks of some bro in a graphic tee under a suit jacket wearing ugly $1000 sneakers being like "we should totally unify our brand appeal under a single consolidated IP umbrella to maximize audience engagement metrics" without any creative understanding of why different storytelling works for different mediums and you can't just find-replace a few keywords to turn 13 years of MOBA canon into TV show canon.

It's such a fundamental failure to understand that there is POWER in telling different stories in different mediums. Fucking Disney+-ass MCU-brained brand thinking is what it is.

#tb answers #arcane #league of legends

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zoe-oneesama · 1 year

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Saw your post about Andre

What do u think about Zoe, then?

As a character, she's not bringing anything worth getting excited about. Personality wise, she's just Marinette-Pre-Origins: sweet and eager for friends, but ultimately letting her fear of Chloe rule her behavior until someone else reaches out, and now she suddenly has a spine. And I'm all for the idea of Marinette taking the lessons she learned in Origins about standing up for herself and not sitting by and letting injustices happen, and then turning around and inspiring someone else to do the same, so on paper, Marinette being that person for Zoe would be sweet and make sense. Except we have a full class of kids that she could've and should've already been that inspiration for, so this feel very Too Little Too Late.

And the few things they did to try and make Zoe unique didn't have enough thought or effort put into them so they fall flat.

So she got bullied out of her old school because she "was playing a part; being someone else" and when she dropped the act, "everyone turned against me". Um, yeah, if I found out my friend who'd I'd been confiding in and getting close to lied and faked their entire personality, I wouldn't want to be friends with them anymore either. I wouldn't go so far as to put cockroaches in their locker, but I can't blame Zoe's old "friends" for feeling betrayed.

(And let's be real, the writers definitely HAD to throw in the cockroaches thing so that Zoe actually had examples of being bullied instead of "no one wanted to be my friend anymore when they found out I was a totally different person")

So she's an actress, putting on different faces to please the people around her (clearly, she learned nothing from her previous experience - it's reasonable that people didn't like you because you lied, not because they didn't like who you really are). But then they didn't even keep up this 'acting' thing for more than one episode! Sure, she dusts it off in "Gabriel Agreste", but that entire aspect of Zoe's story is resolved as soon as it's introduced.

(Though it's obvious that the show is trying to convince you that her old friends DID turn on her JUST because they didn't like her as a goody-two shoes nice girl).

With Zoe putting on a fake persona, there could've been intrigue over the episode, or even the season, about who Zoe really is. Like, Marinette is SURE that Zoe is faking being like Chloe, but she has no way to know Zoe wasn't faking being nice to her when they first met. Why not show Zoe putting on different personas than just those two? Have Zoe interact with Juleka by being low energy and stand offish, then swapping to bubbly and energetic around Rose? Have Marinette be confused and that becomes part of the Mystery of Zoe?

And how about that contrivance, that Marinette met "nice" Zoe first and so is SOOOOO sure that Zoe is faking being "mean"? And because Marinette declares this To Be So, all of her friends just believe Marinette and are willing to give Zoe a chance. (despite not believing her about other things *cough* Lila *cough*) This is the same Marinette who's canonically declared her hatred of "liars" more than once, so even if Zoe is only "pretending" to be mean, why is Marinette giving her a pass? I'll tell you why - because we need to seamlessly integrate Zoe into the main friend group so we can speed run her taking over as the new Bee.

Because that's the main problem with Zoe - it's so blatantly obvious what the writers are trying to get out of her, because they don't even TRY to hide it. Don't get it twisted, I don't care that Zoe is brought in to replace Queen Bee, Queen Bee deserves to be replaced. I care how Zoe was brought in to replace Queen Bee. If the writers had taken enough time and care to ACTUALLY seamlessly integrate Zoe, instead of just shoving her in and bending the characters to accept her with no hesitation, then Zoe wouldn't come across as such a Mary Sue-Diet Marinette.

We already have a pretty full cast, so making the audience care about this new character that they've neither hinted at or bothered to build up to in Season 4 was already a big ask. Which is why I believe they should've stretched her "faking personas" story over several episodes. Have Marinette be as wary about Zoe as she was about Lila, esPECIALLY since she's Chloe's sister, but then have Zoe showcase her range of "personas" to throw Marinette off guard. Then you can have scenes of Zoe's mask slipping, like small acts of heroism where there's no time to think: pulling someone out of the way of an akuma attack, distracting the akuma if it gets too close to Ladybug, or even using her acting to help someone else get out of trouble despite Zoe getting nothing in return. Show the REAL Zoe through her actions DESPITE her acting, which then justifies Marinette being sure that "mean" Zoe isn't the real one.

Could've even had Chloe notice that Zoe's slipping and isn't acting very much "like a Bourgeois" and make it CHLOE who digs up that Zoe was bullied, make it CHLOE who airs out all the things that were done to Zoe. I mean, who better to call out a poser than Chloe? Especially since the rest of the class would more willing to take Zoe's side against Chloe (you would think) and it helps with the whole Zoe vs Chloe thing with the Bee Miraculous. Plus, having that information aired out when Zoe didn't want it to could've been a better reason to be akumatized than just "I'm giving in to playing the role I was already determined to play and putting my shoes in this hole with my dreams." Just saying.

But they didn't want to take the time. They didn't want to try. They didn't want to put in the effort to make Zoe someone to care about, both for the audience and for the characters. They shoved her in, gave her an exposition dump, and suddenly everyone was totally cool with her, No Questions Asked. In fairness, they didn't actually have Zoe be mean to anyone other than Marinette One Time in front of Chloe, so there wasn't much to overcome. But that's just another check in the "wow, you didn't even try" column.

I can't bring myself to care about Zoe because she's just a tool. She was brought in with the sole purpose of putting in nearly no effort to become friends with everyone and use the Bee Miraculous, as quickly as possible and as effortlessly as possible. Never mind that such a thing probably should have been earned. I just hate it when I can see the writer's intentions so blatantly.

But I get it, the Bee Miraculous is seriously OP and it'd be a shame not to use it just because Queen Bee was benched. Too bad Ladybug can't just merge Miraculouses and use it hersel- ohhhh, wait.

#it doesn't escape my notice that Vesperia seems to have more screen time than Zoe just saying #she's a tool she's a vessel so they can just use 'Venom' without having to bring in Queen Bee #WHO SHOULDN'T BE BROUGHT IN SO I'M NOT MAD ABOUT THAT PART #it's just like...try? Could they have tried?#Also it could've been a good way to confront Marinette's hatred of 'liars' to have Zoe pull off the 'Lila' thing #but doing so in order to protect herself instead of to gain favors and praise #zoe salt #writing salt #ml salt #my opinion #an essay by zoe

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liesmyth · 19 days

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Anon with the friend who's reading tlt on the reverse order: Yes, he knows he's being a lab rat, he doesn't keep motes on the books because he's very much a casual reader (and thus perfect for the experiment) and so far we have only done Nona The Ninth and The Unwanted Guest, plus some chapters of HTN & Doctor Sex. There's the slight chance of osmosis corruption because I occasionally reblog modern au memes on my main blog, which I think is how he got Palamedes' whole deal.

There's not much he guessed, and even less he guessed correctly. He did call the fact Crown and Ianthe are related a pleasant plot twist, and he initially thought John was Varun.

The most interesting guess he had, which he arrived through flawed means, was Paul's existence, and the fact Pyrrha had some sort of connection to Gideon The Ninth — mostly because he guessed the average Lyctorhood to be Camilla and Palamedes', and with the reference of Gideon and G1deon as 1) permanently dead, in a setting where he's aware necromancy exists and he thought zombies to be actual resurrected people 2) connected to Pyrrha, and 3) the fact Pyrrha had "some weird vibes" (he refused to elaborate) led him to thinking Pyrrha was half Gideon, half someone else, and the reason Kiriona was vaguely off-putting to people was because she didn't have a full soul. Anyways he did think the same would happen to Palamedes and Camilla, which it did, and that Kiriona was pissed at Pyrrha because of an ambiguous degree of relationship

We have paused rn, as the labrat experiment is in return for me reading a webcomic per book

Oh yeah also im doing this because i either dreamt a post proposing it up or actually saw it, and honestly i wanted to see how much biases and previous narrative impacted the relationship of the reader with tlt characters, their relationships, and worldbuilding, as i absorbed tlt by osmosis as an agender aroace. so yeah giving a gay guy tlt without previous context in the reverse order to complete the trifecta (lesbian woman reading it in the correct order, aroace agender getting to know it by osmosis and figuring out the plot best I could before reading it, gay guy reading it in reverse)

ANON THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK! @mayasaura and everyone who wanted a follow-up to the first part.

"Thought John was Varun at first" is soooo big brained actually! I'm always thinking about John's more RB-like traits. I'm also very amused that he cast Pyrrha as the zombie puppeteer, I bet he's going to love tiny Harrow walking around her dead parent's bodies for a decade.

I also feel like the worldbuilding in NtN is veeery different from the general #vibe of the first two books — it feels like an "anime filler arc" kind of sidequest plot — and I'm very curious if going from NtN to HtN is going to make the settings vibe changes feel stronger or weaker than reading it normally would.

Anyway, I love that you decided to do this, and please let us know what he thinks about HtN! I hope you enjoy the webcomic :D

#Anonymous #ask #elle tlt posting

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ramhaiba · 1 month

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𝖧𝖺𝗎𝗇𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖵𝗈𝗐𝗌 (𝖸𝖺𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋𝖾 𝖯𝗋𝗂𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝖬𝖾𝗀𝗎𝗆𝗂 𝗑 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋)

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕚𝕩, 𝕀𝕟𝕠𝕞𝕟𝕚𝕒

No actual warning in this chapter- however MINOR DO NOT INTERACT SERIES TW: Violence, Sexual themes, major character death,tba

previous chapter

At least once a week, You, Nobara, and Yuuji meet up in your bedroom when everyone else in the manor is asleep. Yuuji likes to call these get-togethers the 'Anti-Zenin club meetings.' As expected, the main topic talked about during these 'club meetings' is either new information on the Zenin family or how your trials went. In some messed up way- scheming against a whole family late at night reminds you of the sleepovers you used to share with your friends when you were younger.

"I smell new jewelry. Is this from 'lover boy?' It's not so bad to look at" Nobara teased, her finger grazing the pendant on your necklace given by Megumi.

"He gave it to me on his birthday, it use to belong to his mom" you explained.

"So he gave you his late mother's necklace?" Nobara questioned, her glance bouncing off of you to Yuuji, giving him the most devious smile. "Looks like someone has a crush on Y/n, Kugisaki" Yuuji teased, covering his mischievous smile with his palm. "Careful Y/n, he might actually mean 'I do' at the wedding" Nobara added.

"Shut up- both of you" you huffed, cheeks burning with embarrassment, throwing a pillow at Nobara- only for her to catch it with the same delinquent smile.

"But he did tell you it was possible for him to love you- romantically, right?" Yuuji questioned, his tone more serious than it was five minutes ago. "Yeah but he was weird about it- he said something about 'not knowing how to love someone the right way.' Whatever that means" you explained.

Yuuji took a moment to think of his words, debating in his mind if this were the right moment. "Maybe there is another way for these trials to stop" Yuuji uttered, his voice with a hint of embarrassment.

"Which is?" you asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Well...No one wants to hurt someone they're in love with right?" Yuuji confessed, his eyes glued to a wall, too nervous to look at your reaction.

"Excuse me- You're kidding- tell me you're kidding. Nobara, please tell Yuuji that he's crazy for thinking that I seduce the son of the Zenin family- so he may or may not spare me from tests, that I have been passing" you argued. To your disappointment, Nobara remained silence. "Don't tell me you agree-" you laughed in disbelief.

"You've only finished two out of ten tests, Y/n. I mean- what if you're biting off more than your chew?" Nobara explained. "What if he makes them even harder?" you argued.

"Why would he do that if he was in love with you" Nobara countered, slightly raising her voice.

"I know- I'm just worried. During my last trial- he was very adamant that I wouldn't want to be loved by him for some reason " you sighed, in defeat.

"Think about it this way, Y/n" Yuuji spoke up, walking over to you, sitting next to you on your bed, thighs almost touching.

"Wouldn't revenge on the Zenin family hurt Megumi even more if he came from the women he loved?" Yuuji suggested, his tone lingering in your ear. With that simple realization, all the fears inside your head formed into one solo thought,

You must find a way to make Megumi Fushiguro to fall in love with you.

---

It's been at least a week since you had a trial- or even seen Megumi. While you're grateful that you're not having to go through deadly tests, you're getting worried about whether he's scheming.

You feel much safer when you know what he's doing- rather than him being stuck in his room. You have no idea what's going on in his mind this past week... Well, it's not like you ever had a clue what goes on in his brain.

According to the servant's gossip, he's been coup up in his room, not allowing anyone to enter, daring to raise his voice if a servant even dares to step foot into his room to ask if he'd like tea. So this week has just been servants leaving his breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a spotless silver platter in front of his door.

You asked Maki if she had a clue on what was going on behind his doors.

"When Megumi likes this it's best to let him be. Besides, if it was really important he was smart enough to let me know" Maki sighed, crossing her arms.

You really tried to leave him alone, waiting for his phase to pass. But you're losing sleep at night, dreading if he's planning some sick trial.

It was the middle of the night, you were lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, hands clutching your blanket, your body exhausted but your mind refusing to sleep.

God- it's time to put an end to this madness.

You got up, not bothering to change out of your nightgown as you made your way to Megumi's bed chambers. You paused in front of his door, there was no way in hell he wasn't going to be upset with you.

But do you care? Eh- he's done worse.

Not bothering to knock, you slowly opened the door, a lingering creek sound from it, making you cringe. There you saw Megumi, instantly sitting up from his bed due to the noise, chest heaving, body sweaty, cheeks red, hair damp, the damp towel falling off his forehead.

"Oh- it's you" Megumi panted, his voice hoarse, falling back down on his bed.

"Get out" he mumbled, waving you off. "I'm only here to check up on you- I haven't seen you for a week. Are you unwell...I mean- you look ill" you questioned.

"I'm fine. Go back to bed, it's late" Megumi uttered before erupting into a coughing fit, causing you to rush towards him.

"You're not fine. You're burning up" you argued, laying the back of your hand on his forehead, only for him to swat away like an annoyed cat.

"It's nothing I can't handle, Y/n. Go back to your room" Megumi sighed. "What did you tell me before your birthday dinner... Oh right, 'I'm your fiancé. You can't hide these types of things from me.' So let me help you" you quoted, using Megumi's words against him, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"It would be a pain if you'd get sick as well, especially if it were my fault" Megumi mumbled, slightly embarrassed as he pulled his comforter tighter around him.

"Well, unlike you- I don't mind people helping me if I get sick, so I'll be fine" you replied.

"Now stay here, I'll make you some tea" you advised.

"It's not like I could got anywhere else to go" Megumi grumbled.

---

You helped Megumi sit up, carefully placing the white floral tea cup into his hands and then stepping away.

"ᵀʰᵃⁿᵏ ʸᵒᵘ" he mumbled.

"What was that?" you teased

"Thank you, Y/n" Megumi huffed, blowing air to cool his tea. "Oh, it's nothing. I couldn't just let a person who's sick take care of themselves" you explained.

Yeah- but you also can't exactly pass a opportunity like this...not when you're desperately trying to get on his good side so you can get a 'get out of jail' card for that fucked up family tradition.

"I'm usually very capable of taking care of myself when I'm unwell. I guess this time is different because of I've been more stressed lately" Megumi confessed, reveling in the warmth of the cup filled with hot tea.

"You're capable of nursing yourself back to health? Is that because Zenins are 'oh so strong and powerful?" you teased. "I have experience, my sister- Tsumiki. She was often sick during most of our childhood" Megumi answered, tone strangely monotone for a person who confessed to having a sickly sister-acting as if it was normal situation to be in.

"I didn't know you had a sister like that" you commented, voice traced with pity. Megumi looked over at you, a subtle smile on his lips, "She's not dead, Y/n. She's not my biological sister either. She just came with the package when my dad decided to marry her mom. After they split, I don't really see her much. I heard from my old man that she's staying at an institution where they can monitor her health" Megumi explained.

"Sorry- you just made her sound...well dead" you replied.

Before Megumi could utter a word, a yawn released from your mouth, the lack of sleep from your anxieties finally catching up with you. "You're tired" he commented. "Yeah- I've been having some trouble sleeping lately. I should get back to bed now" you replied, getting up to walk towards the door.

"Don't," Megumi muttered, leaning over, holding your forearm, stopping you in your tracks.

"Is something wrong?" you asked, slight anxiety lingering in your voice,

"It's my fault you haven't been getting sleep. I should have personally assigned you a quieter room in the castle- "

"What are you trying to say here?" you questioned.

"You're not getting sleep because it's easier to hear the forest noises in your bedroom. Why else would you not be getting sleep? "Megumi explained, narrowing his eyes in confusion. You hesitated before replying to Megumi...because you can't exactly say

'Oh no- you're wrong. I haven't gotten any sleep because I thought you were planning this crazy death trap that would be probably hurt me in ways more painful than death. But yeah I guess I could hear an occasional wolf howl every other night.'

Because if you said that any sentimental in this conversation- even if it was little - would probably be destroyed. So instead, you said "I have- but it's no big deal. I'm getting use to it."

"If you can't sleep in your room, I rather you sleep in mine."

And with those simple words, your face boiled in embarrassment, mind being filled with every dirty thought imaginable. Megumi's face turned a sudden red as he took in realization on what his words have done to do.

"I'm not planning to have sex with you- Y/n. D-do you really think so low of me?" Megumi huffed, adverting his eyes from yours.

"Beside the Zenin family highly against sex before marriage. I get enough shit for being a bastard child" Megumi added, somewhat easing your concerns. "Swear " you uttered.

"Swear what?" Megumi questioned.

"Swear you're not going to touch me" you added, embarrassed at your own words. "Would you prefer if my hands were tied up while you sleep?" Megumi replied, sarcastically.

He turned to his side, "I swear, I will not lay a finger on you" he mumbled. You hesitated before turning off the gas lamp at his night table, slowly easing onto his bed, his back facing you. You didn't dare to fall asleep before he did, so you stay awake till you knew it were impossible for him to still be awake as well.

You heart almost stopped as you watched him turn in his sleep, his closed eyes scrunched as he shifted to face towards you.

Shamefully there was one thought that appeared in your head,

You could kill him right now by getting on top of him, wrapping your hands around his pretty throat and not go through the trials anymore. You could wake up Nobara and Yuuji and just run away-

But you're not a killer, Y/n. So you closed your eyes, and Megumi was right- his room was much quieter than your room, only taking a few minutes for your body to ease into a deep sleep.

You woke up, a strange warmness on your body, you tilted your head and there was Megumi, his chin resting on the top of your head, legs tangled with yours, arm laying around your waist, peacefully sleeping. Your mind instantly went into a internal panic,

God if Nobara or Yuuji was here they'd never let you live this down.

You slowly pulled yourself away from Megumi, thankful that he didn't wake up, only grumbling in his sleep. You tiptoed out of his room, carefully opening the door and slipping out.

You walked down the hall, trying to get back into your room to change out of your nightgown, only to be interrupted by a sudden force bumping into you, causing you to fall on your bottom. You looked up to see the culprit of your fall, a slightly messy dark hair, sleepy eyed boy in the same knight uniform as Yuuji.

"I am so sorry, are you okay?" the man asked, lending you his hand to help you stand up. You dusted your nightgown, "I'm alright" you replied.

The man took a good look at you, noticing the expensive material of your nightgown, "Yo-you're princess Y/n, right?" he asked, his voice stuttering as he realized the value of his mistake.

"That's correct" you laughed, amused by his behavior. "I-I'm so sorry, your majesty. I didn't mean to bump into you- you see I'm actually a new knight and I haven't exactly learned my way around the castle. So I got distracted and I wasn't looking-" The knight rambled on.

"It's okay, you're forgiven- uh... I'm sorry I don't know your name" you replied, slightly embarrassed at your realization. "Oh- it's Yuta."

"Yuta Okkotsu"

next chapter

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