#but he is mostly competent and useful asshole

[literaryavenger]

Can I be him?

Summary: When Bucky finds something of yours, he hopes against hope that you feel the same way about him.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Enhanced!Fem!Reader

Warnings: Language cause it's me. Fluff. A lot of angst. Idiots in love. Self-deprecating thoughts, both reader and Bucky. No use of Y/N. My poor attempts at being funny.

Word Count: 4.8K

A/N: It’s 3am where I live, so… Happy 107th Birthday to my favorite Supersoldier! Today I’m posting 2 Bucky fics because my baby deserves it, this one and another one sometime around the afternoon. Hope someone likes it! Thank you to my angels @ordelixx and @mrsbuckybarnes1917 that gave me so many ideas that helped me finish this. I love you🖤

Masterlist

Being an Avenger is not easy.

The long missions, the intense training, the weight of the world on your shoulders…

Everybody on the team has a different way to unwind after a mission: Steve draws, Clint and Natasha compete doing target practice, Thor sleeps, Sam plays video games, Bucky takes motorcycle rides, Tony and Bruce work on side projects in their lab, Loki reads, Peter does his homework and Wanda cooks with Vision.

For you, it’s going to the rose garden behind the Compound.

It’s a bit of a sanctuary for you, Tony allowed you to put tall hedges of roses with a gazebo-like structure in the middle of them facing the lake, only it’s entirely made of vines.

You made it yourself, that’s your power: you can manipulate anything plant-related. 

Everytime you finish a mission the team splits up as soon as the debriefing is over and you walk straight here.

You sit on the bench, also made of vines, take out your diary and start writing.

You write about everything, from details of missions to your feelings about the team. From things you did that you don’t want to forget to things that you want to do after you’re not so tired anymore.

The hedges hide you from view and the only thing you can see when you’re here is the lake.

Sometimes, after a particular difficult mission, you don’t even write. You just sit there and look out into the water, the sunshine or moonlight shining down on you, and you feel at peace.

It helps that nobody else ever comes here. The team understands it’s your safe space, and the agents are mostly scared of your powers ever since you grew a giant carnivorous plant and it bit an agent that squeezed your ass during training. 

The agent got both taken to the medbay and suspended on the same day, and you got the thanks of about a dozen girls that had the same problem with the same asshole.

You walk out of the conference room, the debriefing of the team’s latest mission just wrapped up, and like usual everyone scatters to their own after-mission ritual.

Today, though, you can’t concentrate on anything.

Your feet take you to the rose garden by reflex, but your brain doesn’t even register you’re there until you sit on the bench.

Today’s mission took a lot out of you, not just because of the amount of magic you had to use to get everyone out safely, but also because it was your fault the team was in so much danger in the first place.

You fucked up your task, Natasha had to step in and save your ass, moving away from her post and making her late for her own task and that derailed the entire mission.

At the end, you had to use your powers to take out the hundreds of Hydra agents at the same time, which is no small feat and made you almost pass out.

Everybody told you on the way home not to worry, the mission was successfully accomplished and everyone made it out safely, but you know that if it wasn’t for your screw up the team would’ve gotten in and out of base without so much as a scratch. 

Nobody had fatal injuries, thank God, but Sam got shot in the leg, Clint got stabbed and everyone else had various degrees of injuries because Hydra got the jump on the team.

Because of me.

That was all you kept thinking about. Your brain had a field day making up all kinds of scenarios where your mistake cost someone’s life, a few of them even had the entire team dying because of your stupidity. 

You were so caught up in your head that you didn’t even notice someone following you to the rose garden.

Not that you ever do. 

If there’s one thing Bucky Barnes knows how to do, is move around undetected. He’s a master assassin, he was trained for this for over 50 years, he knows how to be a shadow.

Except now he uses his skills for good during missions and, occasionally, to follow you.

Not in a creepy way, of course, just to check on you. At least that’s the excuse he always uses so he won’t have to admit to himself that what he does is, indeed, a little creepy.

But he can’t help himself, Bucky knew from the moment he saw you that he was fucked. 

The moment you walked into the room to meet the team his heart was yours. You stole it with one simple smile, with one look of your beautiful eyes.

You introduced yourself and shook hands with everyone, but when you looked at Bucky he felt like a light came on and it was just you two.

You shook his hand and he felt like he had to take it off and give it to you, it was yours now. His hand, his arm, his leg, his head, his heart, his soul. Everything he is was now yours, he just knew it.

Then you said his name and he could’ve died right there and then. It was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard, and it was barely two syllables. Every word you said, every laugh and sound that came out of your pretty mouth, Bucky felt like it was all for him. Nobody else mattered.

Bucky knew then he was in love.

But he didn’t know how to approach you. You were like a fairy, like a princess. Growing flowers, always smiling, baking, growing everyone’s favorite flowers and always willing to help, like growing Aloe when Wanda burned herself cooking, or Chamomile to help with Tony’s anxiety, or Valerian roots whenever someone was feeling down. 

You were like sunshine and he was terrified he’d kill your light. But he’d be damned if he’d let the world kill it either, he’d protect you with his life.

So he took to following you, making sure you were safe from a distance.

But it’s not like he never talked to you, the more time you spent with the team the more comfortable Bucky got around you and eventually you became friends.

Bucky knew you could take care of yourself, you were one of the strongest members of the team, but he didn’t like it when you were in your rose garden by yourself. The tall hedges made it impossible to see incoming danger, so he kept an eye on you just to be sure.

For his own piece of mind. And you never saw him.

That was Bucky’s actual way to unwind after a mission.

He’d tell everybody he was going for a ride on his bike, but he’d drive it through the woods around the compound and to the other side of the lake where he’d have a perfect view of you without you knowing. 

Deep down he knew it was a little creepy, he could just ask you if he could join you, but he felt like you needed your time alone without anyone else around, and he knew if he asked you, you’d say yes no matter what you were feeling, because that’s just the kind of person you are.

So Bucky watched you from afar, always careful not to be seen. He watched you write for hours, it relaxed him to see your beautiful face so concentrated.

Sometimes you’d laugh quietly at what you were writing and those were the only times Bucky was grateful for the supersoldier serum that allowed him to hear such a beautiful sound even with so much distance between you.

But it was torture for him when he knew you had a bad day. Sometimes you’d hug your knees and cry, Bucky could tell how much you’d need a hug, and it killed him that he couldn’t just walk up to you and hug you.

Everytime he sees you cry his heart breaks a little and he always tries to make you feel better when you walk back inside. He doesn’t ask you what’s wrong, he just tries to make you laugh. But all he wanted to do was dry your tears.

You did notice Bucky always seemed to act a little goofy when you're feeling down, like he somehow knew, but you never thought much of it.

You knew he was a very observant person, so you assumed he just saw your mood through your behavior better than most.

Bucky loves hanging out with you, even if it’s just as friends. You make fun of him like with everyone else, you don’t treat him like could explode at any moment, never walking on eggshells around him like most people do.

You’ve never been afraid of him, and he’s glad that you don’t treat him like glass. You treat him like everyone else, and it makes him feel normal.

Everytime time he hangs out with you, you take him back to a time where he was unbroken. You make him feel alive again.

And he falls more in love with you by the second because of it. You’re all he wants, he wants to have you and kiss your lips and never let anyone hurt you. That’s all he can think about, but he knows that’s not gonna happen.

He heard you talk to Natasha and Wanda, heard that there’s someone you’d gone on a few dates with. But Bucky knows that guy doesn’t deserve you, nobody does.

Even Bucky himself doesn’t deserve you, you’re too pure for anyone in this world, but if there’s someone that has any chance of making you happy, Bucky prays to God that that someone is him.

Bucky knows today’s mission shook you deeply. He knows you blame yourself, and no amount of reassurance will make you believe that everything is okay.

So today, for the first time, Bucky actually follows you. He can see your unfocused eyes even as you walk and he wants to be near you, just in case.

He almost walks to you when you curl up on the bench and start sobbing quietly, but he holds back not wanting to startle or upset you further.

He just listens to your soft cries until you stop and compose yourself. You sigh and get up, walking back to the Compound to take a much needed relaxing shower.

But you’re still so much in your own head that you don’t even notice you left your diary on the bench in the gazebo. 

Bucky did notice, though.

He’s tempted to call after you and tell you, but something deep down tells him not to. He waits until you’re gone and then walks to the bench, picking up your diary and opening it.

He doesn’t know why, he knows it’s wrong, these are your private thoughts, but he’s just drawn to it for some reason.

When he starts reading he notices you don’t mention any specific names, which makes sense because only you read it, you know who you’re writing about. He reads a page here and there, reading about your missions or lazy days. 

He reads about some memories with the team you wrote about, some he remembers and others he probably wasn’t there for, but seeing all these memories from your point of view does something to him.

It makes him feel connected to you, makes him feel like he’s reading your heart and soul, because he kind of is. Then he reads something that captures his attention completely. 

You write about eyes blue like the ocean and just as troubled, about a smile that could light up the world. You write about someone with a complicated past that never lost his spark, never lost his love for life. 

A man that went through hell, and never once took it out on the world. A man that didn’t ever blame the world, even when he had every right to, choosing instead to protect it. 

You filled pages and pages with everything you admire about this man, everything you love about him that you know he hates. 

And Bucky feels like every word you wrote, you wrote for him. But could this be him? Could he be the one you talk about in all your stories?

He wants to. He wants this to be him. He prays you’re talking about him. He wishes this could be him… Who is he kidding?

Of course it’s not me. 

It’s probably the guy you’ve been dating. Yeah, that’s it. You’re in love with that guy, that much is clear. 

Bucky gets to the page where you write about your dates with the guy, but he can’t read them.

He closes the diary, not knowing that you compared your date to Bucky every step of the way. Not knowing that you granted the guy a second date just to be sure he couldn’t compare to Bucky, and went on a third date at a coffee shop just to let him down gently.

Bucky didn’t read how you know he’s the one for you, he didn’t read his own name written in your handwriting, the only name in your whole diary because he’s the only person you never want to forget, even though you know you never will.

But Bucky didn’t read that.

He puts your diary back where it was on the bench and, with his heart broken and his hope that one day you could be his lost, he goes back inside and to his room.

It’s only when you go back to the rose garden after your shower that you notice you left your diary there, but don’t think much of it. Nobody ever comes here anyway, as far as you know.

After finding out you’re in love with someone else, Bucky can’t stop himself from acting differently towards you, which you don’t fail to notice.

It’s not like he’s mean, but your interactions get shorter, like he tries his best to end the conversation quickly.

He no longer sits close to you, no longer tries to make you laugh when you’re feeling down, doesn’t hang out with you as much during your down time and if he does, it’s never just the two of you anymore.

It’s silly to say, but you miss him.

Bucky knows he’s been distancing himself, he knows you’ve noticed and he can see it’s affecting you, but he’s doing this to protect himself.

He knows it’s only a matter of time before you present your boyfriend to the team, the man you’re in love with and he doesn’t want it to hurt more than necessary.

You decide not to push Bucky, knowing he has his reasons to pull away from you. Maybe he’s just trying to deal with all the stress the team’s been under and you don’t want to add any more to that, so you let him be.

A few weeks later the team’s on their sixth mission in just as many days and everyone is exhausted. You’ve been taking down Hydra base after Hydra base, because waiting too long meant losing your chance to shut down their operations for good before they got the opportunity to leave.

You’ve been dividing in smaller teams to take down the bases while still giving the team a chance to recuperate, but this last one was the biggest and required the whole team together, which sucked for you because you were in the last team with Steve and Bucky that took down a base just yesterday, so the three of you got barely a few hours of sleep while you flew to the last base.

You’ve cleared the base, all that’s left is the agents in the courtyard who are really going down fighting. The whole team is outside now, the Hydra agents giving you a hell of a fight. You’re using your magic against your better judgment, giant vines coming out of your arms like whips, covered in poisonous thorns. One touch of that and anyone would go down immediately, everyone except you.

Or at least that’s what you think.

As you’re fighting you can see an agent trying to sneak up on Bucky who’s fighting near you, so you quickly take care of it for him.

Bucky turns around and sees the agent down and then looks at you with that charming smile you fell in love with and winks at you. “Thank you, doll.”

That’s the friendliest Bucky’s been towards you in weeks and you can’t help but smile back with a small blush.

You can see the last agent standing coming at you from your peripheral vision and you quickly whip him with a vine, taking him down as soon as you can so you can turn back to look at Bucky, still smiling at you.

Bucky’s smile drops quickly, though, as he sees your face draining of any color. You barely have the time to register the sting of your own thorn on your arm that you’re already falling to the ground.

Bucky tries to catch you, but he gets thrown back by your magic that goes into defense mode, creating a wall of thorns to protect your now unconscious body.

The team doesn't know what to do, none of them know enough about plants to be sure that these thorns wouldn’t just kill them all.

The only one that would know that is you, the person that’s passed out, or worse, trapped in the midst of a cocoon of thorns.

“Okay, we need to find a safe way to-” Steve starts but cuts himself off almost immediately. “What are you doing?!”

Bucky doesn’t even turn around to answer, too intent on breaking the thorns around you with his metal arm, not caring that the thorns are ripping his clothes and scratching his face, all he can think about is getting to you.

He finally manages to get through to you, but nobody can follow because your magic regrows the thorns Bucky broke, trapping him with you inside the cocoon.

But Bucky doesn’t care, his eyes never leaving your face as he kneels behind you, running a finger softly along your cheek and shivering when he feels your skin is cold as ice.

His mind goes to the worst possibility, that there’s nothing he can do, but his brain gives him some hope reasoning that your magic wouldn’t be working if you were dead.

Right?

He snaps out of his thoughts when he feels the thorns around you vibrate, he takes you in his arms and shields you with his body from whatever is about to happen.

But the only thing that happens is the shade cast by the thorns gets replaced by sunlight. Bucky looks up and realizes Wanda used her magic to lift the thorn cocoon.

“You couldn’t have done that before?!” Bucky barks at Wanda with a glare while carefully picking you up to take you to the Quinjet.

“She’s not the dumbass that threw himself headfirst in a mess of thorns without even considering another course of action!” Natasha came in Wanda’s defense, though she seemed more amused at Bucky’s antics than annoyed.

As the team heads back home in the jet, Bruce examines you and lets the team know you’re still alive but in a sort of coma.

Their relief is cut short when Bruce makes it known that he has no idea when, or if, you’ll wake up.

As soon as the Quinjet lands you’re taken to the medbay and hooked up to machines, an IV in your arm to keep you hydrated.

Bucky holds your hand through it all, staying all night next to you just in case you wake up. He didn’t want you to be freaked out and alone, he wanted to be the first person to see your beautiful eyes open.

When morning comes, though, you’re still unconscious, but Bucky doesn’t lose hope. You probably need a good sleep.

That’s what he tells himself for two, three, four days.

That’s what he keeps telling himself for a week, two weeks. Never once leaving your side, not eating unless Steve brings him food and makes sure he eats before leaving, and using the bathroom of your room in the medbay.

He barely sleeps and, when he does, he dreams of you.

Everyone was getting worried about him, he refused to leave your side until one day Steve came into your room to tell Bucky there was something wrong with your rose garden.

Bucky was torn between staying with you and seeing what Steve was talking about, but decided that it would kill you if something happened to your roses so he had to make sure everything was okay when you woke up.

Because you’re going to wake up.

Bucky follows Steve to your rose garden, and his eyes widen in horror as soon as he sees it. The roses, the hedges, the vines.

Everything is dying.

Bucky’s heart breaks, only one thought in his mind. If your plants are dying, does that mean you’re slowly dying too?

No. That’s unacceptable. You’re not gonna die, not if Bucky has anything to do with it.

He takes it upon himself to take care of your garden, watering it and doing everything he can to keep the roses and vines alive, fooling himself into believing that this will keep you alive.

He stays on the gazebo day and night, sleeping on the bench, spending every waking moment trying to keep a hold of even the smallest part of you.

But it’s not enough. Nothing is enough.

Bucky loses track of how many days he’s been in your garden, sleeping maybe an hour at a time here and there, watering the roses every few hours and crying the rest of the time.

After all it’s his fault, if he hadn’t distracted you none of this would’ve happened. You’d be in your beautiful garden, probably with your boyfriend, and the only broken thing would be Bucky’s heart.

That he could’ve lived with. 

But how can he live with the knowledge that he caused your end? That he killed your light? That he killed his sunshine, his hope, the love of his life? He can’t live with that.

Not that he has to.

While Bucky’s spiraling while surrounded by dying roses, inside your room in the medbay you’re finally waking up after almost a month.

You open your eyes slowly, looking around you at the hospital-like room. There’s nobody around and, as you look at the window, you can see it’s really late at night.

You sit up and try to make sense of what happened while rubbing your eyes. The last thing you remember is Bucky’s bright smile, and then nothing.

You look down at your arm and see an IV, which you take out while frowning. How long have you been sleeping?

You carefully get off the bed and make your way outside to your rose garden, just to be sure everything’s okay. It’s not like anyone’s gonna stop you anyway.

When you get close, the moonlight shines on the hedges and you gasp at what you see. Your beautiful roses withering away, the gazebo made of vines dying too.

But the most confusing thing is the sobs coming from the bench, although no one’s sitting on it.

You get closer and see Bucky sitting in front of the bench while hugging his knees and crying softly. You frown and get a little closer before stopping, not wanting to startle him.

“Bucky…” You say quietly and his head snaps up, his eyes instantly meeting yours.

For a moment it feels like he’s trying to decide if you’re real, he reaches out and you extend your hand to take his. That seems to convince him and he gasps.

“Doll…” His voice is barely above a whisper, almost as if he thinks if he makes too much noise you’ll disappear.

“What’s wrong?” You ask him while getting a little closer to him, concern clear in your every feature.

It’s only when you get closer that you see his face full of cuts and you frown. Those are not just any scratches, it’s clear to you that they were made by thorns. “D-did… Did I do this to you?” 

You’re kneeling in front of him now, one hand still in his one the other comes up to trace the cuts in his face softly, but he takes your hand in his and kisses your palm.

“I’m okay…” He reassures you.

Just then he realizes, you’re fussing over him when you’re the one that’s been in a coma for a month. “Are you okay? How long have you been awake?” 

“I… I just woke up.” You tell him honestly, then look around at the dying roses and vines before looking back at him. “What happened to me?”

“You got stung by one of your poisonous thorns.” He says quietly, his thumbs rubbing circles on your skin while he refuses to let go of you. “You’ve been unconscious for almost a month.”

“A month?!” You’re shocked at the news, not knowing what to say or do, so you just stay there while letting the information sink in. The silence is broken by Bucky after a minute.

“I’m sorry about your roses… I tried to keep them alive, but…” He looks around with a hopeless expression. “I failed you.”

Your heart breaks a little. Does he really think he failed you?

You take a deep breath, then close your eyes and when you open them again a second later everything’s back to normal. The roses are as beautiful as ever, the gazebo just as majestic. It’s like nothing ever happened.

Bucky looks around in awe when he feels you take his chin and you make him look at you.

“You could never fail me.” You say firmly, wanting him to understand you mean it. You look at the cuts around his face and you can’t help the guilt and pain that you feel deep within you. “I’m sorry…”

“It wasn’t your fault.” It’s like Bucky can read your thoughts, he knows all you can see are your faults, and he wants you to know he doesn’t blame you for anything. “You weren’t even conscious. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I never wanted to be one of the people that hurt you…” Your voice is a whisper as a tear escapes you. “The world hurt you so much already… I never wanted to be part of that. You don’t deserve it.”

Bucky frowns. He feels like he’s heard those words, but where? No, he didn’t hear them. He read them. He read them in your diary, where you wrote about the man you’re in love with. Could it be possible?

Could I be him?

“It’s me…” He says lower than a whisper, his eyes locked on yours, and it’s your time to be confused now.

“What?” You ask him with a frown while wiping your cheeks.

“It’s me you’re in love with.” His voice is a little louder, but firm. He’s not asking you, he’s making a statement.

Your eyes widen in surprise, you almost take your hands away from his but his hold prevents you from doing that.

“I-I… What?” Is all you can bring yourself to say, confused as to why he’s so sure of it. Are you really that transparent?

“I read your diary…” Bucky says, guilt written all over his face, but at least he’s owning up to it. “You wrote about the man you love… and you wrote the same thing you just told me. It’s me, isn’t it? You love me back?” His voice is more hopeful now, his confident demeanor weavering.

“You… You read my diary?” You say, your mind still playing catch up.

It’s only a moment later that you register the ‘love me back’ and you don’t give him a chance to apologize or justify himself before you’re speaking again. “You love me?!” 

Bucky hesitates a moment but nods firmly. “I love you, doll. I’ve loved you since the moment I met you.” 

You feel like someone punched you and all the air has left your body. You have no idea what to say, so you don’t say anything.

Instead you lean in and kiss him.

Bucky wastes no time kissing you back, but a thought pops into his mind and he reluctantly pulls back. “What about your boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” You frown again, having no idea what he’s talking about. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“You don’t?” Bucky feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders and he pulls you to straddle him. “What about the guy you went on a few dates with?”

You narrow your eyes at him but decide to table the conversation about how he knows that for another time, so you smile at him and decide to just be honest with him.

“Do you honestly think that anyone could ever measure up to you? Because if you do, you’re an idiot.” Bucky grins and kisses you again. 

Maybe he is an idiot. But when he’s the idiot you’re in love with, how much of an idiot can he really be?

It looks like he can be him after all.

#bucky barnes #avengers x reader #bucky barnes x you #sam wilson #steve rogers #clint barton #tony stark #peter parker #natasha romanoff #avengers x platonic!reader #bucky barnes au #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x you #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes oneshot #marvel fanfiction #thor odinson #loki laufeyson #bruce banner #wanda maximoff

[deathlieteez]

to be his, chapter 1. the night we met

woosan + yunho x reader

♡ to be his series' masterlist ♡

chapter 1. the night we met: as you remember the night you met wooyoung with a drink in your hand and the certainty that he was cheating on you, someone appears in front of you with the intention of making your night a lot more interesting.

pairing: wooyoung x fembod!reader

appears: wooyoung as ur boyfriend + san as yeosang's friend + yeosang as ur and wooyo friend

genre: angst, a bit of comfort, romance. college au.

warning: alcohol, cheating. tbh the first one is softttt there's anything to worry about (just give me some time)

word count: 3.8k

intentional use of lowercase letter

english is not my mother tongue

it is not meant to be representative of jeong yunho's personality or any ateez or another groups' idols who appeared ♡

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ ♡ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

kim hyunseo was the most stunning girl you had ever seen in your life. she had endless legs, a tiny waist, and tits that you weren't sure were physically possible in such a slim body. she was also gorgeous, and to top it off, was smart and friendly, with those big brown eyes that gave you a warm welcome every time she saw you coming, as if she was really happy to see you. and as if that weren't enough, she came from a wealthy family, but she was a self-made woman who had paid her own way through school and was now working as a lawyer in the same fucking super popular, expensive and prestigious law firm as your boyfriend. and you? well, you worked part-time at a convenience store near your college, which was arts. a nice vocation, sure, but not like you had many job opportunities, to be honest. you hated to admit that felt in constant competition with her, mostly because she was better than you at everything and crushed your confidence to the ground. you couldn't even stand to hear her name, which sucked because your dearest boyfriend had it in his fucking mouth all fucking day.

hyunnie this, hyunnie that, hyunnie, hyunnie, hyunnie. fuck you, hyunnie.

well, wished you could at least hate her, but there wasn't even the slightest hint of rejection towards her in you, not when she was always so overly nice to you.

every time wooyoung had a dinner or company party, that girl made sure to stay by your side all night because she knew your boyfriend too well and he had a tendency to over socialize, over drink and over give himself into the night. she sent you lovely messages on your birthday and even invited you to the mall a couple of times to go shopping together. how could you compete with such white teeth, warm heart and a face that looked like it had just come out of vogue?

you didn't know when the two of them had become friends, only that one day her name appeared five times in the same minute on the screen of his phone, he smiled and you had to ask who she was. you're going to love her. she's incredible.

oh, damn great. so a hottie from his internship is amazing and you are going to love her.

how could it have been two years since that moment? no idea either, but somehow wooyoung had managed to convince you: hyunseo was nothing to worry about because they were just friends and all the closeness and connection they seemed to share was a product of a beautiful friendship.

well, you had agreed to take it, so now you had nothing to complain about. because you didn't want to be a toxic girlfriend and scare away the fucking love of your life. because you loved jung wooyoung since you first met him.

the funny thing is, you met him at a time in your life when the only thing you liked was kang yeosang. your biggest crush ever and your neighbor. it's not that you were a weirdo who used to spy on her neighbor through the window, it's that you were a teenager who spent most of her life studying and in music bands. what about your friends? pretty much the same. thinking that there was no guy in the world who could surpass your favorite artist, and that guys in high school are naturally assholes, you had no choice but to become obsessed with kang yeosang.

he was perfect, from head to toe. the ideal main character for the stories you made up in your head just before you went to sleep, and which were the most interesting things that happened in your life as a perfectly good student. and it was a little frustrating, but fine. you didn't want to get involved with anyone, just to have a good future, where you wouldn't have to depend on anyone but yourself, and could enjoy all the things you loved so much, and which at that moment you had neither money nor time to see or do.

however, everything changed the last summer before you left for college.

maybe it was your hormones or that you had been consuming too many teen movies from the late nineties and the twenties, but your head was torturing you with all the things you had probably missed out on during your teenage years. the concept that study to earn a future was serious and clear, but college was on another fucking level. and if it wasn't at that time when you were living all those things that were so wrong, when would you do them?

parties, sex, alcohol, friends, drugs? well, maybe not drugs but definitely sex sounded great. and it looked even better. that's what you thought when you saw kang yeosang as you contemplated all your life decisions sitting in your window frame. yeosang, who was already in his first year at the art college you yourself were eager to attend - maybe a little influenced by the idea that he would be there - was walking out the side kitchen window of his house, which faced yours.

all those ideas that lately distracted you from studying for your last exam before graduating hit again, and almost drowned in the desire to go with him. so much that you considered stopping him in one fucking hop and force him to take you wherever he went - that, in fact, looked like he shouldn't be. but, making use of your worked mettle and control, instead of your whole body you opted to throw a little ball of paper at him.

"yeo!" it was a whisper, but a loud whisper. something useless to not to disturb the sleeping people, but enough to get his attention.

your relationship with yeosang was, to say something, plain. you were neighbors and he knew you existed, but that's where it ended. considering your quiet life, it was already a success that he would greet you in the street when passed by. but yeosang spent the whole last year at the university and you hardly saw him anymore, so the "relationship" you had was even more non-existent. and that led you to two conclusions: first, that it sucked; second, that you had almost nothing to lose. if he turned you down and made a fool of yourself, you wouldn't have to see him. wouldn't be practically neighbors and the university was too big… could even consider going to another one. but if you succeeded, fuck, would have fulfilled all your frustrated teenage desires at once.

the boy, somewhat lost for the sudden attack, searched for the reason for a moment until he found your figure sticking almost completely out of the window. the confusion could be read on his face even from your distance "what are u doing?" he asked.

"where're u going?" you return another question and he places both hands at his sides.

"i'm trying to do it quietly" he said, a little annoyed because the whispers weren't exactly sneaky. you bit your bottom lip, suddenly a little more nervous than before.

"lemme go with u" you ask, and can see perfectly how his eyes widen. yeosang never thought that you, the girl who watched everything quietly from afar and with a simple, boring but friendly smile, would want to slip away from home with him. what's more, from the way you looked, with giant horn-rimmed glasses and your hair in a messy bun, he'd say you were studying, even though it was saturday night.

the most obvious thing to do would be to laugh at you and leave, but yeosang came as close as he could to your window, climbing the short distance between your room and the ground thanks to a wooden panel that you used so that a climbing vine of pink flowers could reach your window. the surprise was huge, but you weren't going to complain because you heard the slats creaking. the fucking kang yeosang was climbing up to your window dressed in a black leather jacket and freshly dyed jet black. you were the fucking main character of a teen movie from the nineties.

"planning to come like this?" that time the voice was really low, but in your head it sounded almost like he was shouting at you. yeosang was inches away from your face, and you'd swear it was impossible but in the dim light of your lamp, he was even more handsome.

you denied softly, suddenly unable to utter a word as embarrassment drained you. your cheeks showed it, turning a cherry color that made yeosang laugh. when you saw his eyes sparkle, with a cute, shy smile filling his pale face with life, you almost fell on your ass, screaming and puking with excitement. all at once. you could have died from the raging tachycardia that such an angelic image was giving you.

"get dressed and i'll take you with me. i'll wait outside." had to shake your head to clear your mind of the thought of yeosang pushing you into your room, abandoning his intention of partying to devour you, so were able to react as you watched him climb away, careful not to break a leg for the foolish thing he just did.

he himself was a little embarrassed when realized the oddity of the impulse that followed as he climbed up the wooden planks to get a closer look at you. although he had to admit, he found you much more beautiful. no longer looked like a child, which was normal since you were no longer a little girl.

after allowing yourself to panic for a few seconds, for acting brave when you weren't, and for what had just happened, you pulled yourself together and did the best job possible with your outfit from that night, which must not have been that great because you don't even remember it, or maybe there were too many big things going on that night for you to remember that detail. when you were done, thought about imitating him; firstlooked out the window once more to find him down there tapping away on the phone. of course he was very attractive and double of course you wanted to look cool, but weren't stupid either, at least not enough to not break a bone for a guy. so you went down the stairs of your house as quietly as you could and met him under your window.

"how did you…?"

"used the door, yeosang."

he laughed again. probably because you used a sarcastic tone that made him feel a little dumb for the obvious, but you made him laugh for the second time in less than half an hour. it was quite an impressive feat, given that after years of being neighbors, the most you had ever said to him was thank you for opening the trash lid for me.

once in his car - because yes, even got to see him drive - he told you that he was going to, well, you both were going to a party thrown by a college friend of his, yunho or something like that. you were really nervous about showing up at a party with him, who was so amazing and unattainable, and suddenly meeting his college friends when barely knew yeosang himself, but that night had decided to play all your cards.

so, there you were, trying hard to make him laugh again, because his round cheeks and the sound of his laugh were the most beautiful and exciting thing you had ever experienced, not knowing that you were failing miserably and that he was just laughing at your absurd attempt, although he would let you know it a year later when you met him at the open day of your college's clubs. the curious thing is, even though he reminded you of the big fat crush you had on him, it was his way of reaching out to you again, just his way of really befriending you - probably because you were already more than over him thanks to wooyoung, but that's not the point.

without getting ahead of events, that night you gave your best performance in front of yeosang, and seemed like it was going wonderfully well until he left you in the charge of another friend of his, who was soon busy with that yunho guy hosting the party, to meet another girl. it was really too obvious, wasn't it? but you had reasons to feel that things were going well.

just imagine. all dolled up, gorgeous and confident - even yeo even admitted that you had grown up a lot, and looked very pretty that night - sitting in the passenger seat of yeosang's shabby old kia, as if you were cinderella in the pumpkin with your prince charming. yeo was everything anyone could dream of in a man: handsome, athletic, polite, intelligent. he even opened the fucking door for you and held your hand to help you get out of the car. if you didn't know he was exactly that way with everyone, you'd swear he was trying to impress you. even though you were already more than sunk in everything this guy could offer.

anyways, he wasn't into you at all. he thought you were cute and kind, but weren't his target that night. all his attention was focused on that other girl, of course gorgeous and totally out of any league except for yeosang, who also seemed very happy to see him. so you sat on one of the sofas in the house, bitter and alone, watching from below as those two guys talked and laughed with each other to try to distract you from the image of yeosang with this girl. even started to zone out, that's probably why you couldn't realize a shockingly handsome guy approaching your side.

"soooo you're the little weirdo who lives next to my best friend?" those were the first words wooyoung said to you.

okay, maybe you didn't like him from the very very first time you met him. in fact, you looked at him all pissed of, with a kind of funny but certainly disgusting smirk in your face, almost as if looking at the worst person in all of korea, but he didn't wipe that cocky smile off his face and sat down next to you, dropping all of his weight onto the couch at once.

"the fuck did u say?" you were too frustrated and shameless to shut up or cry with grief, so didn't hide how much of an idiot you thought he was. however, neither short nor lazy, wooyoung laughed loud and openly, putting an arm over your shoulders and pointing his finger at yeosang.

"aren't you his neighbor?" you nodded without wiping the uncomfortable grin from your cheeks, "then there's no doubt."

"'bout what?" cocking a eyebrow, crossed your arms in chest.

"u're the weirdo" he responded obviously.

"dude, u must be such an asshole to think u can say that to just anyone."

"don't get me wrong hun. just saw you here alone and wanted to say hello".

"okay, hello you asshole" wooyoung laughed at you again, "also, a weirdo? what's that for?"

"what would you call your snooping neighbor who keeps drooling over your bones?"

"yeosang said that!?" panic colored your face and ears red, but he denied it amusedly.

"of course not, yeo is too kind to call you that. the weirdo thing is my own creation."

"oh my god" you whine, he hummed in a big smile.

"not that bad. he said u were cute though."

"yeah, a cute creepy stalker" you thought aloud, putting both hands to your face, "god, go away. i need to be alone so i can drown in my own shame and u're annoying me"

"come on, u should try to be more gentle. i'm being friendly."

"no, you're not" replied, and you don't know it, but you were really funny to wooyoung, who barely hear you because your hands were shocking your words almost completely.

"yes! listen, just wanna help you out. stop watching him from distance. he's already fucked up with her" wooyoung slowly removed the hands from your face and almost didn't have time to look at his face, which was really close, because you followed the direction his index finger was pointing to you.

yeosang had already managed to get the girl within the same inches of him as when he climbed up to your window. you weren't the main character of any fucking movie, you were stupid to actually think that yeosang could notice his neighbor, who was just a some sort of cute stalker weirdo to him.

"oh, thanks for helping me feel like shit. i can see how friendly u are" turned your face sharply, suddenly noticing how close you and wooyoung were standing. almost on impulse and with an even more annoyed grimace, you flinch to find a spot where you don't have to share oxygen with him.

"stop getting me wrong, pretty! i'm saying you should, no, must focus your attention on someone more… open and at least as handsome as him" you sharpen your offended gaze at him, checking to see if there's even a hint of embarrassment on his face. he raised both eyebrows several times and held out his hand to you "jung wooyoung".

you were about to leave. figured it wasn't worth making a fool of yourself any longer, and that if you hurried, could order a cab without spending every last penny of your already empty wallet. but there was something about the boy's arrogant smile that caught your attention. so when you finally lend your hand, he took it carefully, and from the look on his face you could tell that he was a little surprised about you playing along. at least that's how you remember it. wooyoung assures you every time you both remember that night that he played it safe.

"pretty name, just as her owner" he mumbled without letting go of your grip, and then, as if a light bulb went on in your head - like his flirty ass wasn't being crystal clear about his intentions -, you could read what his eyes and, in fact, his entire body language were trying to say.

"are u flirting with me?" he let out a small chuckle and nodded, "wasn't i a weirdo?"

he shrugged and kissed the skin of your hand, "so i am".

it was right then and there, when his lips touched your skin for the first time, as if signing the most beautiful promise in the world, that you swore and swore that you began to love him. heart shrank in your chest, even told him yourself that day, late at night at the door of your house, after leaving the party together and spent hours driving around seoul in his car. in the end, it felt like a movie, and from then on, you spent your days loving wooyoung with purpose. although you might have lost a little bit of yourself along the way.

that's probably the reason why, two years later, you're absolutely sure that wooyoung fooled you so he could take hyunseo and her friends out alone, pushing you to a fucking university party with yeosang, whom you had lost an hour and a half ago, and instead of going to where that motherfucker is, kicking his ass and taking away the key to your apartment, you remain sitting in the same chair where you read the message - picture included - in which hyunseo confirmed that he wasn't answering you, because he was partying with her. it was almost hilarious that the first thing that came to your mind was that damned night when wooyoung had all his attention focused only on you, and made you feel really alive for the first time.

felt a horrible urge to cry, along with a great feeling of sorrow for yourself that were beginning to find familiar. if you weren't going to face it, you should at least try to find yeo and get out of there, but since you're too stupid to look out for yourself, just order two shots of vodka and take them one after the other, but evidently it wasn't enough to drown the pain away, so you order a third one. and you were about to drink it, when a hand touches your shoulder, causing you to turn your face to meet the one to blame for you not continuing your task of forgetting your sorrow with alcohol.

"long time no see!" it was a tall boy, black hair covering his forehead and eyes practically closed as he gave you a big smile. your face remained almost blank, in an nearly unconscious attempt not to give free rein to your tears "don't remember me?" you denied, he laughed "i'm san. we met about, what, two years ago? you were with yeosang, kang yeosang" you looked away for a second, as if the answer was somewhere else in the room, but strangely it worked. what a fucking coincidence, you thought.

"oh, yeah. u were with another guy…" you end up turning your body completely on the stool, which allowed you to be at his height thanks to how high your seat was to face the bar "minho was his name?" another laugh falls from his lips as he denies, taking the free stool next to you and sitting down. now he had the height advantage that belonged to him, and you realized he was a little taller than wooyoung.

"yunho" he reminds and you nod. you took a big breath of air, feeling bad beforehand about what were going to say to him.

"san, right?" he nodded this time "don't wanna be rude, but i'm not in a good time. don't feel like talking" his face went slightly off, biting his lower lip for a couple of seconds before speaking.

"sorry. just saw u here alone and wanted to say hello" as you hear those words leave his lips, closed your eyes slightly as you are overcome with a huge sense of deja vu. however, you focus on the sorrow that seems to reflect his tone of voice.

"it's fine. just not my day."

"maybe i can help? if you focus your attention on something different…. maybe, u'll feel better" you sigh, knowing that there is little you can do about what you are feeling right now, because you have been dealing with similar situations for quite some time now and are aware that right now, you feel like fucking shit.

averting your gaze from san once more, hugging the small glass full of vodka with your hands, you said "doubt there's anything you can do".

"c'mon, i'm sure there's something i can do to cheer you up. a pretty face like yours shouldn't be this sad" you look up at him suddenly, finding a sweet smile on his face.

"are u flirting with me?" you asked, he nodded with a small chuckle and held out his hand to you.

"see, since u didn't recognized me, let's start again. choi san" his grin turned pretty cocky, and shivers flowed down your skin as you give your hand to him too, and telling him your name. at this point, you knew that the deja vu wasn't just a feeling, but san almost made your jaw drop to the floor when he kissed the skin of your hand. nevertheless, san said "enchanted to meet u again".

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ ♡ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

this fic had been in my drafts for a long time, but i really wanted to post something about woosan (and my yunho moment is hitting hard, so he must appear) >.< hope you like it a lot and enjoy reading it. all the loveeeee ♡

☆ tags list ☆ @stolasisyourparent @yeosangsbbg

p.s. also, if u wanna be tagged, just let me know ♡

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez oneshot #ateez smut #ateez x reader #kpop smut #ateez fanfic #ateez scenarios #ateez fic #woosan #wooyoung fluff #wooyoung smut #wooyoung icons #wooyoung angst #wooyoung x reader #ateez angst #wooyoung fic #yunho x reader #san x reader #kim hongjoong #park seonghwa #jeong yunho #song mingi #choi san #kang yeosang #jung wooyoung #choi jongho #ateez yunho #ateez hongjoong #ateez icons

[daisynik7]

“Into you” by Fabolous for Connie Springer- smut + fluff

(S4 connie ofc)

Into You

I think you’re truly something special, just what my dreams are really made of

Pairing: Connie Springer x f!reader

Rating: Explicit – MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Word Count: ~2.4k

cw: super fluffy, kinda cheesy, college au, modern day au, lots of basketball terms (applies specifically to NCAA and NBA), explicit language, smut – PIV sex (cowgirl position), implied creampie

Summary: You and Connie Springer have been close since childhood, growing up as next-door neighbors and best friends. The bond the two of you share is undeniable, but you’ve never been able to admit how deep your feelings are, either to yourself or to him. You continue to support him as his friend while he pursues his career as a basketball player, trying to get drafted into the NBA. Though the journey has its ups and downs, one thing is for certain: The two of you will always have each other, forever and ever. 

Author’s Notes: Hi anon! Thanks so much for requesting this song for the y2k karaoke party because it’s one of my FAVORITES! It really gives me Love & Basketball vibes, another favorite of mine that also happens to be a classic in the y2k era. This little fic is very loosely based off of that, so I hope you enjoy! Also, all the basketball/NBA tidbits are mostly from being with my boyfriend, who is a huge NBA fan, so yeah, sorry if any details are inaccurate lol. Likes, reblogs, and/or comments are always appreciated, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! MDNI banner credit to @/cafekitsune. Header image from Pinterest (Slam Dunk manga).

“You have to pinky promise, okay?” Connie sticks his tiny finger out, wiggling it in front of your face, sucking on his cherry-flavored lollipop, lips and tongue-stained red. You’re both five years old, sitting cross-legged in the front of his yard, taking a break from playing hide-and-seek.

“What am I pinky promising?” you ask, voice squeaky and curious.

“That we’ll be best friends forever and ever! No matter what!” he exclaims, beaming at you with his eyes wide, twinkling earnestly. 

You only need to think for a few seconds before you’re hooking your pinky with his, committing to this promise for the rest of your lives. 

~~~

Ten years later, Connie makes it on the varsity basketball team in your high school. It’s rare for a freshman to make it to varsity at Ragako; the coaches must have seen that spark in him that you and his family have witnessed since he started playing at ten-years-old. You used to shoot around with him out in his driveway, where his father set up a little hoop. Eventually, the little one got upgraded to a real one, where the height was adjusted appropriately as Connie grew. You became his practice partner, no longer able to compete with him. Instead, you passed him the ball, watching in awe as he made shot after shot, sometimes deep from the street. He’d pick you up and spin you around, the two of you cheering together, impressed by his skills.

Year after year, he only improved. The way he handled the ball, expertly dribbling it between his legs, behind his back, one-handed, without looking. Or the way his feet gracefully shuffled along the court, the distinct squeak from his shoes echoing off the walls as you watch him on the bleachers, playing three-on-three against some of his buddies at the gym. One time, his friend Jean teases you. “You know, you should stop hanging around here or else people might think you’re his groupie.”

Before you can think of a smart comeback, Connie interjects, shoving Jean hard in the arm. “Hey! Leave her alone. I want her here. I only play like this when she’s around. And she’s not a groupie. She’s my best friend.” He wraps his arm around your shoulders, leading you towards the exit while Jean sputters apologies that go ignored. “Sorry about that,” he whispers to you. “Jean is an asshole. I want you around, got it? Forever and ever.”

You smile, leaning into him. “Forever and ever.”

~~~

It’s at the championship game during senior year that you realize that you’re in love with Connie.

Scouts have already contacted him about full-ride scholarships to university, recruiting him for their team. He’s the most celebrated point-guard in your school’s history, his average points and assists per game breaking records. Ever since he joined, your school has made it in the final round each year, last year resulting in a win, this year leading to a second. 

With seconds left on the shot clock, tie game, Ragako with possession, Connie makes his move. He inbounds the ball to his teammate, quickly taking position at the right wing, his sweet spot. As quickly as it leaves his hands, the ball is passed back to him. He shoots it, and as it flies out from his fingers into the air, the buzzer rings, and he makes it. The crowd goes wild; one side of the bleachers erupting into a frenzy, jumping up and down with excitement. Connie’s parents hug each other first, then surround you in their arms, elated. You don’t expect him to celebrate the win with you, not with his entire team huddling around him, splashing water on his head, cheering his name. Not with all the cheerleaders and fans gravitating toward him, eager to be in the presence of a sure-to-be star in the making. So, it surprises you when you see him maneuver his way through the crowd, heading straight towards you. He pounces on you, giving you the biggest, sweatiest hug with tears streaming down his face. It’s a split second where the surrounding noise goes blank and it’s just the two of you there, basking in each other’s warmth. Soon, his parents join you, also crying happily, and it’s in this moment that you realize this is where you want to be: with him. Forever and ever.

~~~

It's no surprise that the two of you attend the same college together. Most people will see it as you following him, but in actuality, Connie agrees to go wherever you go. Lucky for you both, your top choice is a D1 university where he’s offered a scholarship to play for their basketball team. It works out perfectly, as if it were meant to be. 

He’s busy from the get-go, practicing every day until the season starts in November. You become preoccupied with classes, and naturally, the two of you travel your different paths, meeting in the middle whenever you can. When the season official starts, you attend all his home games, cheering for him from the sidelines surrounded by the other students also chanting his name. Weeknights, he’s often too tired to hang out, retreating to his dorm room to fall asleep, only to repeat his busy schedule again the next day. He grows close with his teammates, spending most of his time with them instead of you, which is to be expected. After all, you and Connie are just friends. Sure, you’re completely and madly in love with him, but he’ll never know that. So, you watch from afar as he pursues his career without you in the way. It’s the way it has to be. 

By the time spring semester rolls around, you and Connie barely see each other. You’ll still text, sometimes video chat or talk on the phone. He mostly vents to you about teammates or coaches that have gotten on his nerves that day. He’ll catch you up on the other schools they’ve defeated or the ones that they’ve lost to. Your school’s record is quite good thanks to Connie, who’s only gotten better since high school. If they continue at this rate, they will win the conference tournament, meaning a trip to March Madness, the most prestigious competition in college basketball. Most importantly, it’s one step closer to the NBA.

As expected, the team does win the conference tournament. That night, the entire campus is lively with students buzzing in school spirit, ready to party the rest of the weekend. All you think about is calling Connie to congratulate him, hear his voice and tell him that you’re so proud of him. You debate with yourself for nearly fifteen minutes, staring at his name on your screen, fingers so close to dialing his number. You decide not to go through with it, certain that he’s too busy with his team, too busy with his fans. He’s not thinking about you, not when his whole world is about to change. And you can’t blame him; you’re just friends, and this is the way it has to be.

The following night, your school organizes an impromptu homecoming for the basketball team, welcoming them as they arrive on the bus, fresh from their championship win. They have a  couple days of rest before they leave for the NCAA tournament, but you’re sure they’ll be busy with press and practice until then. You’re not there to greet them when they step off the bus; instead, you’re sulking in your room, buried under the covers, feeling sorry for yourself for ever falling in love with Connie Springer. It’s a sad, pathetic sight, but at least you’re alone for the weekend to do it while your roommate is out visiting her boyfriend out of town. 

You’re surprised to see Connie’s name flash on your phone a few hours later. You let it ring twice before answering. “Hello?”

“Where are you?” he asks. There’s shuffling in the background, as if he’s walking outside. 

“I’m in my room.”

“I’m coming over now.” He hangs up, not giving you any time to respond. You sigh, mentally preparing yourself for what’s to come.

When you open the door to let him in, he wraps his arms around you in a snug embrace. “I missed you.” He pulls off to hold you by the arms, glaring. “Why didn’t you greet me off the bus?”

“I…” you start, unsure how to respond. 

“I was looking for you and you weren’t there. Where were you?”

“I was studying in the library.” This might be the first time you’ve ever lied to him. You feel guilty and gross. 

“Oh,” he says sadly, still staring at you. 

“Congratulations, by the way. It was an amazing win.” You give him a weak smile, blinking away the tears welling in your eyes. You don’t even know why you’re crying; Connie did nothing wrong. You’re letting your emotions get the best of you, and you can’t help but crumble in front of the only person who knows you better than you know yourself. 

“I don’t care about that right now. I care about you. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, Connie, I promise.”

“Don’t promise me shit like that. I know you’re upset. Tell me. Please.” His eyes search yours, desperate for an answer. 

You look at his feet, fixating on his shoes, scuffed on the sides from playing. Tears start to drop from your face and on the carpet. “I just…I missed you too. I miss you, Connie. I…I love you.” The confession slips from your mouth in a sniffle, and you’re so upset with yourself for letting it slide in this crucial moment. Neither of you needs the drama of your unrequited love right now. Not you, knowing he’ll be leaving again soon, and especially not him, who has bigger and better things to focus on. 

He gapes at you, stuttering, “You love me?”

You nod, biting your lip.

“Like, love love? Or love like a friend?”

You’re tempted to lie, just to make it easier. But you owe it to Connie to be honest with him. “Love love.”

His mouth is open, eyes bugging out, completely shocked by your admission. Before he can respond, you add, “I’m sorry, Connie. I shouldn’t have told you this right before the tournament, but…I don’t know. It just came out. I’m sorry.”

He stammers, “You’re sorry? This is the best fucking thing I’ve heard in my entire life.” He breaks into a smile, laughing hysterically, an even more bizarre reaction. 

You cross your arms, getting impatient with his ridiculous behavior, eventually grabbing his shoulders to shake him out of his fit. “Connie, what the hell?!”

He wipes his eyes, crying from giggling, beaming at you. “I’ve been in love with since we were kids. Been dreaming of hearing you say that since we were five-years-old.” He hugs you tightly, nuzzling his nose to the top of your head. “I love you and I want to be with you. Forever and ever, right?”

You nestle into his chest, inhaling the familiar scent you missed since he’s been gone. “Forever and ever.” 

~~~

The two of you spend the night together, making love for the first time. His lips are soft against yours, and you smile into his kiss, remembering the day you pinky promised that you’ll be best friends forever and ever, no matter what. His lips were stained red with cherry-flavored candy, looking sickly sweet as he smiled at you. And as you kiss him now, he tastes just as sweet as you imagined he’d be after all these years. 

You kiss him sloppy as you ride his lap, his cock buried deep in your pussy, filling you up to the brim. He moans your name into your mouth as he laps at the saliva collecting on your tongue, slurping your spit, swallowing it thickly. “Fuck,” he groans, hands gripped to your hips, rocking you back and forth on his thighs. “I’ve dreamed about this for so long, baby. So long.”

“Me too,” you whisper, starting to bounce on him, close to your climax. 

“What would you think about? Tell me,” he demands, thumb pressed to your clit, rubbing it raw.

You whine from his touch, increasing your pace, resting your head on his shoulder. “You and me, just like this,” you huff, short of breath. 

“Yeah? You thought about me deep inside you, huh? Fucking this sweet pussy until you come all over my cock, huh?” He thrusts up into you, grip tightening, fingers digging into your flesh. He’s close too, you can feel it.

You moan into his skin, sweat beading on your forehead, throwing your ass back against him in tandem with each pump of his cock. A few more strokes and the two of you come together, the mess spilling onto the sheets as soon as he pulls out. 

He wipes you down with tissues and baby wipes you have handy on your bedside drawer. As soon as you’re both clean, he cradles you in his arms, spooning you from behind. 

“I know this is going to sound super cheesy, but I truly feel like a winner now,” he says, kissing the nape of your neck. 

You chuckle, squeezing his hand in yours. “Wait until you win March Madness. Then you’ll really be a champ.”

“Even if I lose, I’ll still have you. And that’s been my dream all this time.” 

You shift your body to face him, gazing into his eyes. “I thought your dream was to make it into the NBA?”

He smiles, booping you on the nose. “It’s part of the dream, sure. But I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am now if it wasn’t for you. You kept me going all these years. Knowing you were always on my side gave me the strength I needed to get here. As long as I have you, I’ll be living the dream.” He kisses you on the forehead. “I’m going to love you for the rest of our lives.”

“Forever and ever?”

“Forever and ever.”

~~~

In an upset, your school loses in the Final Four. It’s the furthest they’ve gotten in university history, and a large part of that is due to Connie and his extraordinary performance as their point guard. His efforts do not go unnoticed; his coaches and many prospective agents have contacted him, encouraging him to apply for the NBA draft. 

June of the same year, Connie Springer is drafted tenth in the first round and you’re sitting right beside him with his parents, cheering for him. Just as you have throughout all these years, and just as you will for the rest of your lives. Forever and ever. 

#connie springer #connie springer smut #connie springer x reader #connie springer x you #connie springer x y/n #Connie springer fluff #connie smut #connie x reader #Connie x you #aot smut #aot fluff #attack on titan fluff #attack on titan smut #y2k karaoke party #milestone event

[theggning]

Oh god look she’s talking about Godot again- YEAH I AM, because nobody talks about Godot’s actual strategy and mechanics as a prosecutor!

Because in canon he only does 4 cases (4 of which he loses and one of which... ahem) Godot has the reputation of being a “bad” prosecutor or inept at his job. But I call bullshit! Players are just used to 2 games where every prosecutor is either Manfred Von Karma or a disciple of his (Payne who??). Godot’s prosecution style is totally unique, and very distinct in ways that make him an absolutely perfect “final boss” prosecutor for the original trilogy.

- Chiefly, and unlike the VK prosecutor club, Godot does not care about winning. Sure, he doesn’t want to lose, but it has nothing to do with his “record.” Though he states his desire to defeat Phoenix, he later specifies he’s actually “testing” him and his worthiness to the legal legacy he’s inherited. And for all the flack Godot gets for his winless record, Phoenix really lucked out in all of these cases. Godot actually would have won State vs. DeLite 1, State vs. DeLite 2, and State vs. Byrde had one witness in each not made a stupid mistake at the finish line.

- To that point, and often unacknowledged, there is a specific moment in each case where Godot stops arguing his case and either gives leeway to or actually assists the defense. (EX: He helps verbally reason out Phoenix’s arguments, agrees to Mia’s request to cross-examine Atmey, personally subpoenas and “tames” Furio Tigre, etc.) This usually comes once it’s been proven beyond a doubt that Phoenix’s client is innocent. Godot remains an unrelenting asshole to Phoenix personally and eggs him on about how competently he can prove his point, but he’s clearly not looking to send innocents to jail to stick it to him.

(Hmm. Who else cares about a client’s guilt or innocence and the truth ahead of “winning...”)

- He infamously has never prosecuted a case before 3-2, but multiple characters remark that he’s obviously not an amateur in the courtroom. Gumshoe in particular notes that Godot has skill and confidence to back up his arrogance (via a series of Top Gun jokes) and he’s not just a rookie floundering around behind the bench.

- Also unlike the VK prosecutor club, Godot mostly plays fair. He doesn’t prep or coach witnesses, doesn’t instruct them to lie. He never does anything as cheap as the infamous “updated autopsy report,” or Franziska’s blatantly illegal detention room photo stunt from 2-2. Obviously there’s a few below-the-belt moments (and he clearly enjoys when he can catch Phoenix flatfooted) but those are mostly the result of this goofball legal system being massively stacked for the prosecution anyway.

- The one questionable quirk of his is the fact he tends to take evidence from the crime scene. In 3-2, he kept DeMasque’s brooch to himself without telling the police he’d found it. Gumshoe and the Judge are both appalled at this but Godot thinks nothing of it, remarking that it’s a “rule” of his that “the safest place for evidence is in my pocket.”

(Hmm, which other legal professional we know tends to pocket evidence from the crime scene without telling the police? And what job does he have?)

- Godot’s style with his witnesses is completely different than the other prosecutors. Rather than coaching them or telling them what and what not to say, he tends to let them speak their minds on the stand. For all his cryptic douchebaggery he does have a way with people, keeping his cool with hostile witnesses (Tigre) and building friendly rapport with others (Ron and Kudo especially come to mind here.) 

(Hmmm, which other legal professional is used to building a strong rapport and trusting a witness to give testimony...?)

- He’s a world class bullshitter. Like even putting aside the unparseable metaphors and non sequiturs, when his back’s against the wall he throws out some absolutely wild arguments, blatantly ridiculous notions, whatever he can think of, trying to make it stick until the evidence decisively rips it down. The whole mirror testimony in 3-3 is a prime example of this... just blatantly stupid, but he allows it because it forces Phoenix to prove something.

(Hmmm... which other legal professional do we know is a constant bullshitter, desperately throwing outrageous theories to see what sticks...?) 

Notice a pattern at all?

This incredibly funny post by @franbamm and @palant1r is 100% accurate and is one of the best takes I’ve ever seen. Why does Godot’s prosecution feel so strange, so off? Because he prosecutes like a defense attorney. Not just any defense attorney either, but a certain defense attorney, the protege of his own protege, the man he crawled back from hell to do battle with. He’s the best possible “final boss” prosecutor for Phoenix because he’s his foil, both characterization and courtroom-wise.

In order to truly prove himself, Phoenix will have to proverbially beat himself: an inwardly honorable but near-incoherent bullshitting weirdo, constantly flying by the seat of his pants.

#ace attorney #ace attorney meta #godot #phoenix wright #godot's style is weird but it all clicks when you realize why it's weird #I LEARNED IT FROM YOU TRITE #or i guess it's indirectly the other way around huh #that post is great though #the two astronauts with a rock thing is just quintessential 100% pure godot #i fucking love this guy

[spooky-hazbin-fan]

I kinda love the development of Fizz. Okay more than kinda. Hear me out.

Spoilers for the latest episode!! Also this is long.

When we first see him, he's cocky, super confident, and immediately starts shitting on Blitz and just going off on him. And I loved that, ngl. But yeah! Bold, confident, bit of an asshole.

When we next see him, we get a few sides of him:

We see him in private with his boyfriend. He's still cocky and shit, but he's also a little softer towards his lover. We also see that he clearly prefers to just avoid things he's anxious about. He doesn't want to bring up the newspaper article. He skirts around the issue of him going out without bodyguards.

We see him in private with Blitzo. We see him holding a grudge. He's angry, so lashes out, but also when Blitzo starts explaining his side to him, we can see confusion and hurt. As he relaxes around Blitzo, he becomes a bit more like he is with Ozzie: cocky, but doesn't handle anxiety well.

We see him in tricky situations. He acts confident, but he's clearly scared, and alternates between exaggerating his behaviour to hide it, and being clearly panicked. He also clearly cannot handle as much as he pretends.

By the end of this episode, we can see that his first appearance wasn't entirely who he is. He is a cocky lil shit, and that's great. But he's also not great in high stress situations. On stage he can call out his ex-best-friend-almost-boyfriend and laugh about it, because it's low stress. But put him in a hostage situation? Yeah, no, that's high stress.

This also relates to his childhood. He was a clown, and a well liked (and apparently well known) performer. He can handle a stage performance. But then he went through the massive fucking trauma of the fire and a life altering injury. It kinda doesn't shock me that he might have some anxiety problems, and be prone to panic in high stress situations.

Then there's the latest episode! We see so much of him here and I love it. Some key elements.

Him as a performer again. On stage, although we can see he's uncomfortable and nervous, he's in his natural element. He assumes the over the top persona, he interacts with the fans (although as with his first appearance, is not okay with the creepy ones.) And importantly...

He's nervous specifically because this time he's up against competition. That's a big difference between him now vs him in his first appearance. He's comfortable on stage, yes, and he's confident in his skills. He knows he's good. But in this competition, being good isn't enough. He has to be the best. And as an artist, I can relate here. I am good at art, but if I judge myself against others, or am judged against others, I fear I will fall short, because I'm good, but I'm not the best.

Him and Ozzie is interesting to me here. Yes the relationship is sweet lol. But also, it's the dynamic. Ozzie is a prince of hell. And it's very clear, imo, that Fizz typically does not need to worry about being messed with because his boyfriend will come to his rescue. But this episode, and the previous one? He's separated from him. He's held hostage, just hoping his boyfriend helps him before he's hurt. And then Ozzie can't be with him, so he's dealing with Mammon and creepy fans and the anxiety of competing all on his own. It's hard to be confident when you're on your own. Notably, whilst Blitz definitely imo plays a role, it's after he receives encouragement from Ozzie in that environment, that specifically gets to the root of the issue, that he's able to stand up to himself.

And obviously, him and Mammon. A very clear exploitative and abusive relationship there. Fizz feels he can't leave, and there's a whole mix of reasons there, but mostly the emotional part. He feels he owes Mammon, and Mammon clearly gets threatening when you try to go against him.

So where does this leave us with his character?

Fizzarolli has grown up on stage. He's confident in his performing skills, and knows just how good he is. He has a cocky persona, but as we see with the deaf fan, he does have a softer side for non-creepy fans.

Despite this confidence, he's not confident that he holds up in comparison to others. This seems to be a mix of his innate self and Mammon's abuse. On top of this, he knows that for all his skill in performing, he's not so skilled at actually looking after himself. He fails to protect himself from those who want to hurt him, he's easily exploited, and if not for dating a prince of hell, he'd probably be a lot worse off tbh.

All of that means that he's actually a fairly anxious guy, and prone to panic when things go wrong. I imagine some of his childhood might be at play here. Someone mentioned the golden child and scapegoat dynamic between him and Blitzo and...yeah. Growing up knowing that the guy who messes up on stage is all but disowned by his dad is going to make you nervous about messing up, even if you're great.

And despite it all, he also genuinely cares for others. He cares about the non-creepy fans, he loves his boyfriend very much, he forgives Blitzo pretty easily, and doesn't seem to hold grudges easily. Like to hold a grudge against Blitzo he had to sustain severe injuries resulting in the complete amputation of all four limbs and the loss of his horns!

He's outwardly confident, he's sarcastic and good humoured, if a bit of an asshole. He has a soft side in private around his loved ones, that sometimes shows publicly when he's not on stage acting the part. He's got a lot of understandable anxiety about being compared to others, and he flourishes best with the support of those he cares about. He's not just his performer persona, but he's also not just soft and anxious. There's a lot of duality in him and I love that.

#helluva boss #helluva boss fizzarolli #fizzarolli #fizzaroli helluva boss #helluva boss character analysis

[gabessquishytum]

Okay okay so i know i JUST sent that pervy hob creeping on waiter dream ask but i came up w more bc im not well.

Dream doesnt want anyone but his supervisor Lucienne to know hes Morpheus Endless bc hes 19 and everything is a catastrophic level of embarrassment at the age of 19 also hes afraid he might get picked on or hazed or something. Hes shy and most of the summer employees are his age but everyone is either nice or neutral but not mean. He gets invited to a few staff bonfires and kinda sits at the edge and keeps to himself bc hes never done this or been allowed to have friends before but its pleasant and sometimes someone will come over and make small talk to help him feel included. The Corinthian is a poolboy, he makes jokes about it constantly saying how hes trying to have as much gay sex as possible and being poolboy seemed the best bet. Hes charming and isnt weird about dream being sorta gender neutral/fluid and dream Likes him. The Corinthian saw hob slap dreams ass that first time and matthew told dream he had to physically hold the Corinthian back so he didn't go beat a guest up. Dream sits with the Corinthian on the dock and thanks him for his gallantry and the Corinthian is shy being alone w him all like "well,, i didnt do it for anything other than selfish reasons im hoping to get some nepo points when you go back home" and dream is all shook and worried now but the Corinthian laughs like "yeah you should've chose a different nickname if you didnt want to be associated with the god of SLEEP" but he doesn't tell anyone and even catches on to dreams vague rambling explanations of being Into hob which he only teases him a LITLLE for which is very generous in his opinion. Things get hot and heavy in both directions and its a proper YA summer romance love triangle. The Corinthian is kinda worried when dream texts him to come to hobs suite but hes kinda looking to get into it w this asshole anyway but when he shows up its hob who answers and dream is a blushy blissed out mess in the sheets and hob explains how dream was going to go to the Corinthian first and now hob wants to see what the Corinthian would have done to his darling now that his virginity is already taken now:) they have a really hot really psychosexual threesome and dream gets to take both of them in one night and go to bed pressed up between them❤️

-🔪

AHH yeah here's a link to the last resort au we talked about.

I always love the idea of Hob and Cori competing over Dream, and this is a really nice way for it happen. The love triangle is so tense and sexy.

Hob is still giving all his attention to Dream - flirting, touching, teasing him all day long. But there are moments when Dream actually has to do his job for half a moment instead of just being a toy for Hob to enjoy. When Dream is off folding towels or helping in the dining room, Hob takes the opportunity to pounce on Cori.

And Cori doesn't just accept it like Dream does. He calls Hob a dirty old man, threatens to report him, even holds the knife he was using to slice fruit to Hob’s throat at one point. Mostly its because he doesn't want to steal Dream’s man when he knows there's feelings there. But also, he's really enjoying the thrill of the chase.

So when he's invited to Hob’s suite, it's fair to say that the sexual tension is heavy. Cori pretends to be all focused on Dream (and he is!! Absolutely thrilled to get between Dream’s legs finally) but he's glancing at Hob the whole time, daring him to do something. Hob is only too happy to oblige.

Cori finally gets to fuck Dream (having Hob’s sloppy seconds is more of turn on than he'll ever admit). All while Hob tongue-fucks Cori's hole. Cori has never been rimmed like that before and he has to admit that Hob is talented. He barely lasts any time before coming inside Dream, but he can't even begin to care. This is the gay sex he was hoping for.

Cori is definitely getting those nepo points for making Dream cum. And don't tell anyone, but he totally sucked Hob’s dick. He had to do something to make sure that he's invited back for more!!

#🔪 anon #the sandman #dreamling #hobrinthian #hobrintheus #nsft #cw age gap

[cryingatships]

Royalty au KimKenta keeps plaguing my waking moments but I don't have any time to write an actual fic, so here's some random thoughts-

Tony's an asshole king who has a legitimate son Kenta (along with multiple illegitimate ones), who is supposed to be the crown prince, but turned out to be an omega and is hence struck out from the line of succession.

Tony plans on holding a tournament beckoning all the brave and worthy from his kingdom (and also from other kingdoms) to duel for the Prince's hand, hoping to secure himself a powerful warrior or a wealthy noble house as an ally. This is partly because he's aware that the peasant of his kingdom will protest soon and maybe even overturn his rule, unless he has some strong/filthy rich friends to repel the attack, and partly cause he's an evil evil man who would not hesitate to auction his son off just to get rid of him from the line of succession safely.

He plans to make Way his next successor, but also considers Babe, his two illegitimate sons, and encourages them to compete in politics, duels etc except Way and Babe grew up together as unfavoured illegitimate children in a backwater caste far, far away from the royal palace and is thus very good friends who would rather help e/o out of Tony's wrath than fight for the throne.

Also Way is in love with the leader of the rebel peasants Pete and is not too eager for the throne anyway, and Babe would rather ride off as an adventurer into the horizon with a puppy-like, loyal page he met into the palace called Charlie. (Way is a lil jealous that Charlie becomes closer to Babe and takes his place as Babe's closest confidant, but he's busy planning Tony's downfall with Pete to pay it much mind.)

Anyway, as the tournament is arranged, knights and nobles rush in from diff corners of the kingdom, eager for the hand of omega who used to be the crown prince and was set to be the next king. Knights also come from far-away lands, and with them comes Kim, a very average and inconspicuous beta in his brown horse and the lack of finely crafted details in his armour.

In the opening day of the tournament, Tony greets the competing knights and nobles from a high podium, with three sons at his side, basically showing off his two strong successors—one enigma and one alpha, both his special powers—and the prize of the tournament, the 'beautiful' omega prince Kenta.

Kenta has the most frightening scowl, mastered from years of experience in attending council meetings with wily old coots from the nobility, as he hears Tony's words. He knows he has none of the so-called 'lovely omegan qualities' of docility, soft words and gentleness, and he certainly had not stayed cloistered inside the walls of the palace all his life like a proper little omega. He knows it, Tony knows it, and everyone in or below the podium knows it, but the all keep quiet and smile cause there are wayy too many benefits in winning the hand of the sole omega prince of the royal family.

As Tony is going on and on in his speech about the kingdom's fertile lands and it's military strength (and taking not a world about the starving population and the discontent brewing underneath), Kenta meets the eyes of an unassuming knight standing at the very back of the crowd—Kim. He feels a zap through his mind, the world stops, they both get lost in e/o's eyes etc etc, but then Tony's speech is over and the tournament is set to begin.

Kenta and Kim's eyes hardly stray from e/o and even Babe and Way makes note of Kenta's sudden strangeness, even though Kenta is mostly quiet all the time.

Kim wins through the initial rounds of the tournament, rising from an unknown little knight from the wilderness to one of the favourites to win the prince's hand. (Yes, there are bets going on about who's gonna be the prince's groom, you think Tony will let go of such a lucrative source of income?).

Kenta does not get to attend every single day of the competition because Tony is busy which means Babe and Way are also busy, extra busy in fact, but he makes sure to know the results of each day's duels well. He used to be the crown prince, he's got connections.

Kenta also gets flowers and an intricately curved dagger that looks like an heirloom and a few trinkets that look handmade and some delicacies that he has never seen before (and he was the crown prince with access to every delicacy in the kingdom) in his windowsill every day, but his rooms are on the second floor of the palace's most well guarded section so that def makes him raise his brows.

While all this is happening, while strolling in the palace gardens one day, Kenta comes across Way and Babe talking together behind a particularly high hedge in one of the less well-kept, semi-abandoned parts of the garden. This also makes him raise his brows, because while he knew Way and Babe grew up in the same palace, he (and everyone else) were under the impression that they were never close, and after coming back to the palace they have been separates even more by Tony's ploys and essentially turned into enemies fighting for the throne.

So why were they huddled so close together?

Way and Babe also see him and Babe grit his teeth and pull out the dagger strapped to his waist, which in turn makes Kenta grip the dagger hidden inside his clothes, the one he got on his windowsill, since Tony had confusticated all his weapons after his came out as omega under the guise of omegas needing to be soft and gentle and helpless. (the truth is that Tony was afraid Kenta will harm his face and bring down his value in the marriage market, or try to kill himself outright.) Kenta knows he has accidentally stumbled onto some secret between the two would-be crown princes, and would now be killed to keep his silence. He's ready to fight to death and take someone, or both, down with him. (he sort of also hates Way and Babe for taking away his position and his secure life, even though deep in his heart he knows that Tony's the real culprit.)

But Way holds Babe's waist and stops him and to Kenta's surprise, Prince Babe, well knows for his brash, aggressive, I-listen-to-no-one-not-even-the-king personality, listens and relents.

Way calls him closer, and then holds a knife to Kenta's throat saying that since Kenta has chanced upon their secret he will now know it all, and threatens Kenta to keep his silence because their plan will succeed, even if they need to die for it, and that he has the resources and the will to drag Kenta along to hell with him if Kenta spills it out.

Then they tell Kenta. Mostly Way tells him, while Babe glowers at him in silence. Apparently, Way is in cahoots with the peasant leader Pete (Kenta does not miss the stars in Way's eyes as he speaks the name. He meets Babe's eyes and they both know what it means and swiftly look away, knowing better than to bring it up), and the peasant rebels are all ready to kill Tony and are much, much more powerful than Kenta had ever known even with his extensive information network within the kingdom. Pete is also a son of a

Way: You were not supposed to know but as your step brothers it's our duty to keep you safe, so we told you everything. Hope this gives you enough time to make your own plans and escape with your little suitor, brother. Now stay quiet abt this or I swear upon heavens I WILL kill you, brothers or not. Kenta: Wait suitor?? Babe: You think we don't know that someone keeps putting courting gifts on your windowsill? We may be new here in the palace, but we got networks, y'know. Kenta: *panicking tho he tells himself it's cause he doesn't want an innocent man to die and not because he likes the person leaving them or anything* Then.... Tony...??? Babe: What, you think that incompetent fool knows anything other than to raise taxes, hear flattery, and get a new mistress every season? Kenta: ....Then who is it? Way: *winking* that's for us to know and you to find out.

I have MUCH THOUGHTS still, maybe i'll write them in another post sometime

#pit babe the series #pit babe fanfic #kimkenta #kentakim #ma fic

[therealtsk]

What is the Brown family pre-Flashpoint characterization vs post-?

hoo boy. So, disclaimers, while I've read a LOT of comics, I have not in fact read all of the ones where a member of the Brown Family appears (mostly because I just don't have the heart to put myself through Batman and Robin Eternal, along with some of Dixon's notoriously sexist writing in his Robin run), but I think I've read enough to make a decently informative post on this. Let's go by characters.

Stephanie Brown.

Probably the one that most people noticed, Stephanie Brown in her pre-Flashpoint characterization is one that has (right up until a certain...event...) a lot of grit to her. While she's still the victim of Dixon's notorious attitudes towards women, she's still allowed to be competent, holding her own in a fight quite handily, especially in her own Batgirl run, where she's able to take on League of Assassin members without too much trouble at all.

Her major, I would argue defining characteristic, is that she does not give up. Ever. Her dad tells her to quit. Tim Drake tells her to quit. Fucking Batman tells her to quit. Multiple times!

Stephanie Brown does not give up. Ever. When the going gets tough, she shrugs, puts on her eggplant outfit, and kicks ass.

Post-Flashpoint? Stephanie is constantly made out to be unreliable, unable to handle herself, constantly needing other people to pull her out of trouble. She loses fights she simply wouldn't have before (although to be entirely fair, this is a problem literally every batfam member has from N52 onward but that's another post) But worse than that, post-Flashpoint Stephanie gives up. 

This scene is genuinely insulting- it's definitive proof that DC's writers from N52 onwards have never understood Stephanie Brown, and never plan to (yes, I know she does come back later, but the fact this happened at all is the point.) This is utterly antithetical to Stephanie Brown as a character, and spits in the face of everything she stands for.

Crystal Brown This is actually the main reason I decided to start writing sins of the father (working on chapter two in conjunction with this), because the treatment of Crystal Brown in Post-Flashpoint DC comics is just insulting- and a major disservice to Steph! Her relationship with her mom is essential to her arc. Crystal Brown starts out as a woman who's got a supervillain as a husband. She's struggling with him, with near-poverty, and with a drug addiction that seriously impedes her ability to be a good mom.

But like daughter, she doesn't give up. In fact, Crystal Brown kicks Arthur Brown out of her life and picks herself up, manages to quit her habits, and becomes a well-respected nurse at Gotham City West Mercy Hospital. Her defining characteristic is that she loves her daughter, even if it took some time for her to get her act together.

Post-Flashpoint Crystal Brown is not that. Hell, she's barely a character. When Steph calls her, desperate, afraid of her newly-learned-of criminal father, Crystal’s response is to lie to her daughter, and then call her husband and tell him Stephanie knows about his plan. 

Sure, she doesn't want him to kill her, but this is so wildly out of character for Crystal that this is basically an entirely different person. And it leaves Stephanie without a single parent who cares about her, since Bruce sure has hell hasn't stepped up in Rebirth. Steph doesn't have any positive role models in her life in Rebirth, leaving her bereft of really any consistent form of love and encouragement outside of maybe Cass, but even that relationship is a hollow shell of what it was previously. 

Arthur Brown. 

So Arthur’s the one who’s arguably changed the least, because abusive asshole is hard to get wrong, but he does feel like he’s lost all consistency in Rebirth. Before, he's a smug, arrogant asshole who doesn't give a damn about his family beyond how he can use them.

In Batman Eternal he’s…well, fine, but in Batgirls he’s…nearly unrecognizable, even from his characterization in the previous issues. 

Like seriously, what was going on here? Arthur's never given a single damn about Steph aside from literally using her as part of a plan to get rich. But anyway. TLDR; All three lost nuance, Steph used to be more competent and had an actual character arc, Crystal used to have an actual character and was an inspiring story of overcoming addiction, and Arthur used to feel like a consistent villain instead of a one-off whack job.

#DC #DC Comics #Stephanie Brown #Crystal Brown #Arthur Brown #ask submission #DC Meta #DC Comics Meta #Stephanie Brown Meta #as you might tell #i really don't like most of dc comic's decisions post flashpoint

[marquisegallery]

This took me. So long. To finish. I had hoped to finish it sometime in February, but now here we are. :u

Anyways! Much like the Devil Theory headcanons post I did a long while ago, this is a headcanons post for DOT EXE! All frickin' 8 of them!! Suffice to say this is going to be incredibly long, so keep that in mind before you jump into the Read More. You have been warned!! :P

(Also much like with Devil Theory, some of this might be based on stuff in the game, but a lot of it will just be "I personally think this would be neat!!")

There are going to be very many sections here, so I'm splitting them up to keep things organized and easier to follow. :u

The Overall Crew:

First and foremost, names! Plus heights, because I finally decided on heights for the individual members now :P

2 = Twoson (172 cm / 5’ 8")

4 = Fourside (173 cm / 5’ 8")

5 = Cinco (186 cm / 6’ 1")

8 = 8-ball (192 cm / 6’ 4")

9 = Neun (182 cm / 6’)

10 = Jūrō (178 cm / 5’ 10")

14 = Quatorze (196 cm / 6’ 5")

And then the cue ball member is just… Cueball, lol. He is 190 cm / 6’ 3". I was originally going to make him more-or-less the median height of the crew, but changed my mind later.

I know the 10 and 14 members found in the code aren't "official" members, especially since they seem to be just extra palettes for a potential playable 8-ball. But you know what, I made characters out of them anyways!! :P

Starting off with DOT EXE in general:

As mentioned in the game, they’re a group of full-cyber writers and breakdancers!! They also have a bit of a reputation as hackers, though truthfully it’s only some of them, specifically 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. They’re the ones who came up with the name too, they just wanted something computer-y. It was originally just the three of them, and the others joined over time. In order, Quatorze and Jūrō were asked by 8-ball to join, then Twoson and Fourside asked to join after they went full-cyber, and then Cueball was the last to join.

Their writer aliases/street names are of course based on the billiard number shown on their screen faces. Which person gets which number was originally based on the actual number of letters in their real given name, but that doesn’t apply to Cueball, Twoson, or Fourside.

They have a reputation of being pretentious and stuck-up assholes (though at least not violent assholes like Devil Theory). They basically look down on most other crews as noobs, about the only writers they respect are DJ Cyber, Felix, and eventually BRC in general after the end of the game.

Of the current big crews in New Amsterdam, they’ve been operating the longest (with varying number of members of course), for about 2 decades at this point! However, them being an actual “big name” crew has only really happened in the past couple of years. They mostly stick to their own territory in Millennium Mall.

On that note! They literally own the mall. All of it. They collect rent from the various stores and companies operating in the mall. They keep the rent super low for local businesses so they can afford to compete with the big brands (especially huge international ones) that set up shop here. Meanwhile, said big brands are charged like five times more in rent. Of course, they’re never actually told that’s the case! Those companies even assume it must be the same for everyone else in the mall. The way DOT EXE spin it to them is along the lines of, “C’mon, don’t you want the prestige of having a store in the one and only Millennium Mall?!” Basically I imagine the Millennium Mall is a huge deal in that way, hence why the big companies don’t suspect anything’s off. :P

So yeah, DOT EXE make money that way. Even after taking out whatever has to be used for proper maintenance of the mall itself, for the most part they end up with a lot more than any of them need (especially since, being full-cyber, they don’t have to worry about food and stuff, just electricity and occasional maintenance/repairs). A lot of the money is saved for emergencies and fun stuff (like hobbies), and then they donate the rest to local charities.

The local businesses are aware of DOT EXE being the owners of the mall, and honestly don’t mind them being writers either! DOT EXE are also more reliable than the police when it comes to asking for help with a problem. In the case of shoplifters in particular, DOT EXE don’t even really punish the thieves, they’ll pay for whatever was stolen and ask if they need additional help (like if they only stole because they didn’t have a job and need help, etc).

The crew hate that the police can intervene at the mall, especially with the helicopters and walking tanks, not to mention the police tube things. They’ve tried to complain to the local government about it, but have been shot down every time. Now they will at the least sabotage the tubes and turrets whenever they can.

The mall is so big that there’s basically a huge solar panel farm on top. Whatever electricity doesn’t get used up by the mall ends up redirected to other parts of New Amsterdam that need it.

There’s also a whole community greenhouse up there! A rather illegal one actually, with New Amsterdam (currently) having some very strict regulations on larger-scale gardens and such (given there’s only one tree in the actual game, and it’s been dug up from Old Amsterdam). DOT EXE do not give a fuck about that clearly, and keep it operational. Especially since it’s a great source of food for a lot of people! DOT EXE managed to hack the local government offices to give the mall’s greenhouse an “official exception”, so the police have to (very begrudgingly) leave it be. Half the crew like the greenhouse since it’s such a great benefit for others, and the other half like it because they know it annoys the cops.

Their hideout is a small part of the mall that’s been sort of sectioned off just for them. Basically behind some pulled-down grates, a bunch of the stores behind said grates have been converted into rooms for them, and is collectively their hideout! There is an actual part of the mall in the game that looks like this, see below:

The rooms of the hideout are as follows: a main meeting/living room area (which also has a disused kitchen, since they don’t need to eat), a main rec area with a ton of custom arcade cabinets and hacked game consoles, a storage room, and then 4 personal rooms for the members, shared between a few of them. One for Cinco and Neun, another for Twoson and Fourside, another for Jūrō and Quatorze, and the last for 8-ball and Cueball. Though since 8-ball was killed, it’s been Cueball’s room by himself.

So yeah, they all live there, whereas pretty much every other crew has their hideout but then individual members (usually) live elsewhere.

They actually aren’t all the same age as the Oldheads, it’s just a cover so people don’t try and figure out any personal info about them. Specific ages/age ranges will be mentioned in individual sections, but really only 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco are around the Oldheads’ ages. Quatorze and Jūrō are actually a good chunk older than them, while Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside are all much younger.

Cueball in particular will always hide his real age, since part of it is related to how he went full-cyber. He will lie to most people and saying he's around the same age as 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. He hates the pity he gets from people otherwise (more on this later!!).

Twoson and Foruside don't lie about their ages when asked, but would just say they were inspired by 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco to go full-cyber to keep being good dancers and writers. Meanwhile, Quatorze and Jūrō are pretty honest about why they actually did it (again, more on this later!!).

Their voice, outfits, and billiard screens are also covers for their identities!

For the voice, the idea is that there's a "default" voice all the DOT EXE folks use in public, but they still have their own voices based on how they sound from before going full-cyber (Twoson and Fourside are technically exceptions to this, but yeah, more on that later). Their actual voices are only used when they’re going around as “civilians” rather than writers, or otherwise in private at their hideout.

The tracksuits are basically just their costumes, similar to the costumes the other crews wear. So they do wear clothes besides the tracksuits. Sure, they don't really need to, but they like to! Especially when they're not out doing writer stuff, makes it easier for the cops to not suspect something. Each of them has their own personal style, which will be noted in the individual sections!

The screen face can be changed to different images. When they're out and about as "civilians", they tend to change their screens to sort of robotic faces, kinda similar to what non-screen cyberheads have. Those specific faces will be shown in the individual characters’ sections, with their "DOT EXE face" on the left and their individual faces on the right.

Combined with the difference in clothing and voices, it does a good job of actually hiding who they are from the cops!

Note that Cueball is an exception on the voice and screen thing, but I’ll get into that more in his section!

They are all gamers to some degree, otherwise why else would they have a rec room with so many games? They each have their own favorite genres, but overall play a wide variety of them. They’ll play by themselves or with each other depending on the game. The whole crew can get pretty competitive about high scores too, especially on the arcade cabinets!

They also each have their own hobbies outside of gaming, but again, another thing to mention in their own sections.

They all have the capability to communicate wirelessly like computers and phones, i.e. send messages directly to one another instead of to their phones. However, they don’t do that anymore. Mainly because the one time they tried to use it more often, Twoson, Fourside, and Cueball spammed so many memes to Neun that it caused him to crash. Hence why they still rely on text and calls like full-flesh writers, though some of them still do direct wireless messages to one another sometimes. Basically equivalent to whispering to someone so other people don’t hear them.

As full-cyber people, they all have sensors all over their bodies which can act the same as nerves. Detecting damage/pain, temperature, pressure/being touched, and even textures to a degree. The only difference is that these can be turned on or off, or even set to varying “levels” of sensing in between. Usually they turn down the pain/temperature detecting part of the sensors while they’re out (especially while doing writer stuff; basically just detecting damage/temperature without causing actual pain to them). They only turn them fully back on once they’re safe at their hideout.

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8-ball, Cinco, and Neun in general:

They are basically the only ones that went full-cyber to be able to dance better for the most part, though they also did it to be able to get better as writers. None of them were particularly good at either of those before then, though they all clearly wanted to improve at it.

All three of them met and became friends via a transhumanism forum online, hence them going full-cyber together. The actual process is finished up around their 30s or 40s, and they're in their 60s by the time of the game.

Cinco is from Honduras and Neun is from Germany (or so he claims...). Meanwhile 8-ball was born and raised in New Amsterdam, though his father (who he shares with Cueball) had long since moved away to somewhere in the United States.

Both Neun and Cinco did writer stuff in their respective home cities, but 8-ball talked to them a lot about the writer scene in New Amsterdam, especially a lot of the big name writers at the time. That influenced all of them to want to get better at being writers, no matter what.

Once Neun and Cinco moved to New Amsterdam, 8-ball and them formed DOT EXE! They were all full-cyber by then, and practiced together to improve their skills, eventually becoming fairly big names like the other crews.

All three of them act (or acted in 8-ball’s case) as the IT people for the whole mall.

Them getting into hacking and computer stuff mostly started after they all went full-cyber, especially since all their augmentations made it a hell of a lot easier to do.

All three of them love rhythm games, but also have other genres they particularly like. They had rhythm game competitions between the three of them, and even with 8-ball gone, Neun and Cinco still do that from time to time.

On that note, yeah, in my ideas/AU/whatever you want to call it, 8-ball’s death is very much permanent. See this post with some further details on why that is, in particular how, just because his mind’s been digitized, doesn’t mean it’d be any easier to recover.

8-ball specifically:

8-ball refers to Cueball as his bro in the game, and I like to think they’re actual brothers and not just brothers-in-a-friend-way. For my headcanons, they’re actually half-brothers, but refer to each other as brothers anyways. 8-ball is the older of the two!

He’s a bit egotistical. Just a bit.

Kind of a daredevil too, compared to the others. He was like that before going full-cyber, but then after the conversion, being “effectively” invincible just made him more reckless. Dangerous stunts! Tagging more and more high up heaven spots! Getting heat up just to be able to fight the police! So on and so forth.

He is the one who designed the team’s graffiti in-universe, hence why their small tag is more related to him that the team overall. Like I said, bit of an ego on this guy!

He is the one who managed to get ownership of the whole mall, and then just splits the management and collected rent with the others. He actually managed to win ownership of the mall in a (very) risky game of poker. And he didn’t just made that up to sound cool, Cinco and Neun were actually there to witness it!

For his normal fashion style as a civilian, basically he just focuses on looking “cool”, in particular with cool jackets. This usually means jean jackets or leather biker jackets. Also tends to wear jean pants, and shirts with cool designs on them. Which is often stuff like sharks, wolves, dragons, volcanoes, lighting bolts, tornadoes, etc. Also cool shoes of course!

For his personal favorite video game genre, he likes playing shooters, but moreso arcade style shooters and SHMUPs instead of FPSs. Still kinda ironic, given what happened to him…

Real name Frederik Visser. He mainly got into transhumanism just because he thought it was cool, and eventually took it seriously and ended up on the forum where he met Neun and Cinco.

Cinco specifically:

From Cueball’s point of view, he’s the fun uncle!

Fluent in Spanish, speaks it with a Honduran accent. Sometimes uses Spanish words when talking casually, usually terms of endearment for others. Or insults/swears, because he finds it more satisfying to do so in Spanish, lol

Knows a ton of jokes, including puns, in several languages.

A charming guy, very outgoing and friendly with just about everyone!

Also a “he has your back when you need it” kind of pal to DOT EXE in general, but especially 8-ball and Neun. After 8-ball died, he got a bit more protective of Cueball too.

For his fashion style, he likes wearing patterned button-down shirts and sports shorts. For the shirts, of course that includes what’s called Hawaiian shirts, but really anything that has some sort of fancy/detailed patterned will catch his eye. Also tends to wear sandals/flipflops, or crocs.

He really likes racing games, also sports games in general!

Cinco was a bit of a jock type before going full-cyber on that note, playing a lot of sports back then too. He tried to get into various professional sports but never got very far. He’s good at whatever he plays, but evidently just not one of the best for it. Also doesn’t help that he never tried focusing on one particular sport at a time, to the point where he stretched himself thin after a while.

Occasionally plays basketball with the Franks, he’s actually good pals with them because of it!

Likes sports and muscle cars, though mostly driving them and not the maintenance part. He may or may not participate in drag races using stolen cars. Not that it’s hard to steal a car in New Amsterdam, there’s a lot of rich people with “smart” cars who don’t change the default passwords…

Real name César Hugo Raúl Garcia-Flores. On both sides of his family there’s histories of genetic illnesses, and after a certain point he was starting to show some early signs of them. This of course started affecting his health, and with his focus on sports and also wanting to get better as a writer/dancer, he ended up on the transhumanism forum to hopefully find a way to handle all that.

He genuinely didn’t intended to go full-cyber, just wanted to look into “less intensive” cybernetics. However, becoming friends with 8-ball and Neun and going over what they were planning themselves basically led Cinco to decide, “You know what? Might as well go all the way with this myself!”

A note on his full name, if people ask about it: he’ll say his parents couldn’t decide between the two middle names, and just gave him both. Meanwhile, neither parent was backing down about giving him one family name or the other, so they decided to just hyphenate it. But then they had an argument over the order (Garcia-Flores or Flores-Garcia), so they flipped a coin on it… that all being said, Cinco always says this like it’s another joke, so no one’s entirely sure if it’s the real story or not.

He had a boyfriend before going full-cyber. They broke up because of him hiding the fact he was planning to go full-cyber at all. Then again, them breaking up over that was inevitable anyways, because said boyfriend was the type of person to see cybernetics (especially full-cyber stuff) as something unnatural and disgusting. By the time of the game, Cinco has long since gotten over it (for the most part).

May or may not end up dating Escher, hee hee

Neun specifically:

From Cueball’s point of view, he’s basically the stern uncle lol

Has a bit of a “neutral” accent when speaking in his actual voice. It’s clear he’s hiding whatever his “real” accent is supposed to be, but no one knows what he naturally sounds like, not even 8-ball and Cinco. His voice gets shockingly deep when he’s angry, which is very rare.

Fluent in German and Spanish, having grown up speaking both languages. Claims to be from Germany. Though, he’s only ever spoken Spanish with Cinco in private “for some reason”...

… The reason being that he’s actually Argentinian (of German descent, hence him learning that language) and very much has the accent when speaking Spanish. Cinco clocked him as such when listening to him speak Spanish one time. Neun doesn’t want people to know that about him, so he’s sworn Cinco to never speak of it to anyone, even 8-ball. More on why later...

When in public, he basically puts up a front and acts the same kind of “dudebro” kind of way the rest of the members act. Outside of that, overall he’s a very serious and kinda cold guy, but he does genuinely care about his friends (and eventually the rest of the crew, though it took him a while to get there).

Between him, 8-ball, and Cinco, Neun is basically the “friend in charge of the one collective brain cell” kind of guy. It’s also why he’s second-in-command of DOT EXE, becoming the leader once 8-ball is killed.

Also the crew’s accountant, mostly in charge of sorting out collecting rent from the businesses in the mall. He gives a lot of leeway for local businesses if they’re late on rent, but gives no such mercy to the bigger brands in the mall.

Likes to stay organized. He will pick up after the others if they leave a mess, but will also complain and berate them while doing so.

Not exactly a fan of jokes or pranks. He dislikes puns in particular and finds them genuinely annoying (not in a “Damn it, I wish I thought of that myself!!” kind of way). He makes an exception for Cinco’s jokes, but mostly out of politeness as a friend. And even then it’s not like Neun will laugh, he’ll just politely stay quiet and shake his head.

For his normal fashion outside of the tracksuits, well, Neun can be described as looking like a stereotypical nerd. This means collar shirts and khaki pants, lol

Neun likes playing RPGs and strategy games, though he’s very old school and picky about what he plays. If it doesn’t have some sort of hard mode, at the very least a hard mode that can be modded in, he won’t bother with it. Just as an example, he likes playing Pokemon games but only with modded super hard modes and with Smogon-style strategies and team builds.

Claims his real name is Sebastian Jäger. He was originally just on the transhumanism forum out of curiosity, not really taking it seriously. However, at one point he had a mid-life crisis related to mortality, especially after having to deal with a string of family deaths around the same time. With him wanting to be a better writer and breakdancer, at that point he felt like he had limited time to even live at all, let alone enough time to improve at either of those.

Hence why he started being more active on the forum and looking into full-cyber conversion in particular, and that eventually led to him becoming friends with 8-ball and Cinco. He’ll never admit to this though.

He’ll also never admit that he accidentally crossed the wrong people on his journey to both go full-cyber and move to New Amsterdam. He’s convinced they’re still looking for him, even if the chances are incredibly slim. Thus why he’s hiding at least part of his origins...

His actual real name is Sebastián Montero, but again, he’s basically in hiding right now. "Jäger" was apparently the family name of an ancestor of his.

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Quatorze and Jūrō in general:

Quatorze is French, and Jūrō is of Japanese descent, both born and raised in France. Both can of course speak French, with their real speaking voices having a Parisian French accent. Jūrō is also fluent in Japanese.

They were both big time writers in their youth, with stories about them being what inspired 8-ball to become a writer in the first place! Then him talking about them to Cinco and Neun is what collectively pushed all three of them to want to get better at being writers.

They are a married couple and still consider themselves married as wife and husband, even after going full-cyber together (technically they are considered legally dead and thus no longer married, but screw the laws man).

On that note, surprise, Quatorze is actually a woman! Thanks to the default voice for the crew and the tracksuits, everyone just assumes she’s a man without hearing her real voice. That’s intentional, I’ll get into it a bit more in her specific section.

They are very, very loving to each other. Think Gomez and Morticia Addams, just without a morbid humor angle. Jūrō basically praises and is encouraging of everything Quatorze does, and Quatorze love to compliment him for anything he does too. Though sometimes it does get on her nerves, and he apologizes when she asks him to dial it back a bit. But also they have the mushiest pet names for each other.

They are both willing to kill and be killed for the sake of their spouse, but of course each of them would prefer that the other not going that far.

They see 8-ball, Cinco, and Neun as their peers. Meanwhile, both of them dote on Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside like their actual kids/grandkids. Cueball finds it annoying but secretly likes it, meanwhile Twoson and Fourside outright call them Granny and Granpy respectively.

Real names Marie-Madeleine Lucille Perrault, and Maximilien Théodore Perrault, respectively. Their backstory of how they went full-cyber is connected, so I’ll just go over it here: Tragically, in their 70s, Quatorze got cancer at some point, a kind that was unfortunately very hard to treat. She had the option to go full-cyber instead of continuing risky treatment just to potentially die due to being weakened by said treatment. And her husband Jūrō also went full-cyber to be able to stay with her!

Unfortunately, their kids were not happy with that. For some of them, there was confusion about how inheritance would work (eventually finding out that Quatorze and Jūrō would be considered legally dead anyways, so it was “fine”). For others, it’s moreso that they had already accepted that their mom will die, only for her to choose to keep living in the most “selfish” and “unnatural” way possible.

Suffice to say, Quatorze and Jūrō have not spoken to their kids since then, and they haven’t seen their grandkids since then either. They’re more torn up about not seeing their grandkids (they weren’t exactly happy with their kids fighting over inheritance and criticizing their parents’ decision on how to keep living). For the most part they’ve come to accept they’ll never see them again, but Jūrō is secretly holding onto hope they might see their grandkids again someday…

After the two of them went full-cyber, sometime later 8-ball reached out to them, having heard about what happened to them. He was basically like, "Hey you guys were big inspirations to us as writers! Wanna join our new full-cyber crew??" (at that point it was just him, Cinco, and Neun). They responded, "Well, we're not sure how to spend our retirement now, so sure! :)" So by the time of the game’s events, they’re in their 80s.

Quatorze specifically:

She’s basically the team mom! Very caring towards everyone in the crew, but also more than willing to put her foot down to get them to behave when needed.

Before going full-cyber, she was an actress. Her pretending to be a man when out and about as a writer is mainly to hide her identity. She was fairly famous at her peak, so even with her being “legally” dead, she doesn’t want people to find and bother her, especially not any overzealous fans. She does look back on her past work with fondness though, some of her favorite roles was getting to play as hammy, over-the-top villains in cartoons, animated movies, and live action movies.

Though as an actress, her pretending to be a man while in public as DOT EXE (including using the default voice the same as the others) is also just another role for her. She finds it a lot of fun!

She knits, as well as crocheting, weaving, and other crafts involving threads and such. She will knit you a sweater/scarf/hat if you ask politely!

For her civilian fashion, she likes wearing sweaters and long skirts. Sometimes she wears sundresses with a nice sunhat during the summer months, even if it’s not really necessary as a full-cyber person. She has fancier dresses she wears for date nights with Jūrō.

Her favorite kinds of video games are puzzle games and ‘slow’ platformers, mainly things along the lines of Klonoa, Kirby, Mario, and Banjo-Kazooie.

Jūrō specifically:

He’s basically the team dad! Very supportive of his crew mates. He leaves being the “stern parent” to Quatorze though, especially since Jūrō tends to be too soft on someone if they messed up or started issues with the rest of the crew. It was the same when they were full-flesh with their kids and grandkids, he’s mainly just afraid of seeming too “mean”.

Unfortunately he can’t do dad jokes, but at least Cinco has that covered, lol

He worked as an accountant, but didn’t like the work very much. He was able to be a stay-at-home dad once Quartorze’s acting career really took off!

He likes to garden, and he’s the one that works the most on the mall’s greenhouse.

For his civilian fashion, usually wears nice pants (like the kind for suits) + long button-down shirts. Also wears sweater vests that his wife makes for him! He has full suits and waistcoats for date nights with Quatorze.

His favorite kinds of video games are life sim games, such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley (“If only growing plants were this easy in real life!”). He also likes idle games, especially ones that don’t demand his attention too much.

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Twoson and Fourside in general:

Yes, their names are references to the Earthbound towns of the same name. They picked out their own billiard numbers to specifically make that reference, lol

Twoson is agender (they/he) and Fourside is nonbinary (also they/he). Note that they were like this long before going full-cyber, since some people may assume it happened because of the transition.

For their voices, they actually only use their real voices when they’re alone together in private, and no one else knows what they “really” sound like. When out as civilians or in private with their crewmates, they use different synthesized voices from the one used for DOT EXE. Their specific synthesized voices will be noted in their individual sections.

For their civilian screen faces, these two will actually change them to express certain emotions, usually with very anime-esque stuff (eye shines, exaggerated evil grins, etc). Other members will just keep their faces static and express themselves through their voice and hand/body movement.

They are both pranksters, they love to cause mischief and mayhem! Not even their own crewmates are safe.

They get along with Cueball in a sort of sibling way. Sometimes getting along great, other times being at each others’ throats (i.e. Cueball vs. Twoson and Fourside, the two of them are deep friends and have never really fought each other).

Jūrō has taught both of them Japanese. He insisted on it after hearing them talk (or rather, trying to talk) in Japanese once, they were really horrible at it before his lessons. They both also know a bit of Spanish from Cinco.

Between the two of them, they have a huge anime and manga collection! I will mention some of their individual favorite genres for that in their respective sections.

They make video games! Just as a hobby, so all the games they make are free. Said games are mostly in the form of super hard ROM Hacks, or weird/eccentric/trippy games (think along the lines of Yume Nikki, OFF, Hylics, Space Funeral, Goblet Grotto, LSD Dream Emulator, etc.). Neither of them can code very well, so they usually convince/force Cueball into helping them with their various projects. What they provide for said projects themselves is mostly the ideas (both of them), music (Twoson specifically), and art assets (Fourside specifically).

Suffice to say, the games they make are not ones that any of the other DOT EXE members normally play. Neun has played some of the ROM hacks they’ve made for RPGs though, mostly because of the ridiculous challenges they put in.

They both have similar tastes in music, usually stuff that is fairly “eccentric” compared to mainstream music. Basically along the lines of Caravan Palace, Will Wood, Lemon Demon, Jack Stauber, GHOST and Pals, Vane, and R.I.P.. Also enjoy a lot of Vocaloid and Synthysizer V songs, especially the more creepy and macabre stuff.

On that note, they’ve definitely hijacked the mall’s sound systems to play their favorite songs as pranks on people more than once.

They both really like horror games. With poorly made ones, they only play them to riff on them and make fun of their game design. They may or may not have a YouTube channel dedicated to this. They may or may not also do streams as vTubers on that note…

Honestly they like horror content in general. Movies, novels, games, anime, manga, comics, TV shows, art… they’d probably get along great with Daishō!

Real names are Beau Driessen and Robin Zaal respectively. Like with Quatorze and Jūrō, Twoson and Fourside’s backstories are connected. Twoson was severely injured in what was ruled an “accident”, to the point of only having two options: go full-cyber, or just stay bedridden for the rest of their life. Meanwhile, Fourside went full-cyber in order to bury their old identity, after having taken care of the people who caused the “accident”. Both of them going full-cyber happened in their late 20s, they're both about 35 now.

They were both writers before going full-cyber, and the “accident” was caused by some rivals they had to deal with. After the conversion, they heard about DOT EXE as a full-cyber crew, and decided to join up with them.

They are very protective of one another. Fourside in particular will get very vicious against anyone who tries to hurt Twoson, even if it’s another DOT EXE member.

They’re also the type to use insults to show affection to each other, “You nerd!”, “You’re such a dork!”, etc. Towards anyone else, it’s genuine insults.

Twoson specifically:

The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the higher side.

Twoson is the nicer of the two, for what it’s worth, but still tends to be obnoxious at times. They also like to be fakely sweet sometimes, especially when trying to get a favor out of someone else.

For fashion, Twoson likes wearing a jean vest covered in a ton of buttons. They also like to wear skirts over cargo capris, tie-dye shirts, chokers/collars, and headbands which have been modified to fit over their head.

They like to do craft stuff sometimes, like origami, needle felting, papercraft, and clay sculptures. They also make the buttons and tie-dye shirts that both themself and Fourside wear.

They make music! The best way to describe it is very weird and also sometimes creepy. Basically ranging from quirky digital/midi music, to dreamy but still unnerving drones and tones, to Silent Hill 1 industrial scary noises.

Besides horror video games, they really like dating sims and visual novels. They have a whole menagerie of what they call their fictional spouses.

Twoson likes the magical girl genre in particular for anime and manga. They actually really hate shows like Puella Magi Madoka Magica that try to subvert the genre or otherwise do an intentionally “edgy” take on it. A lot of magical girl series already have dark themes anyways!

Fourside specifically:

The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the lower side.

Fourside is the meaner of the two, for what it’s worth. They’re more quick to genuinely insult people and use a lot of sarcasm. However, they will be respectful when it counts, usually only for other DOT EXE members.

For fashion, Fourside also likes wearing a jean vest with tons of buttons and tie-dye shirts, like Twoson does. They also wear a skirt over skinny jeans, lots of bracelets, and beanies that Quatorze has made for them.

On that note, Quatorze made some of the thread/string bracelets that Fourside wears, and she showed them how to make bracelets on their own too. So the rest are the ones Fourside made! You can tell which ones were from when they first started out, and which ones are more recent and thus better quality. They’ve also made some of the collars/chokers that Twoson wears.

Fourside does digital art in the form of 3D models and complex MS Paint stuff. They mainly do this just to make weird stuff and put it out their for people to enjoy. A lot of it is very abstract and weird, with a sort of “old-school Internet” vibe a la ENA/Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou/Disillusion ST/Hylics/etc.

Besides horror video games, they really love beat ‘em ups and fighting games! Do not challenge them to some of the big ones (Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros, etc.) unless you want to lose.

Fourside has no particular favorite genre for anime/manga, but tends to like series that end up categorized as shōnen. Also really enjoys superhero tokusatsu shows and movies (i.e. stuff like Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, etc).

Cueball

He’s the lovable goofball basically. Lots of joking around and teasing people, especially his friends! That’s basically how he shows affection a lot of the time.

Though he’s also fiercely loyal to his friends and crew. Mostly because despite being friendly and outgoing, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends outside of DOT EXE. Eventually that changes once he joins BRC, but he still cares about and hangs out with his old crewmates.

He’s from the United States, and 8-ball helped him with moving to New Amsterdam.

He loves cats! Before he went full-cyber, he was very allergic to cats and wasn’t allowed to have any because of that. After going full-cyber, he eventually realized he didn’t have to worry about allergies anymore. And so he set out to adopt ALL the cats, lol. It got bad enough to be a hoarding situation, and the rest of DOT EXE at the time (8-ball, Cinco, and Neun, this being before any of the other and Cueball himself joining) had to step in for an intervention. They got the cats rehomed or put in adoption centers/cat shelters, and Cueball decided to just volunteer at those shelters to help out. A much better situation for everyone involved, especially the cats!

Cueball owns a ton of blankets and pillows, and likes to make his own pillow forts and stuff in his room for Extra Comfort. Also sometimes throws them in a clothes dryer to make them warm. With the thing about body sensors for full-cyber people I mentioned earlier, Cueball is of course the one that takes full advantage of the sensors whenever he can!

Quatorze has made whole blankets for Cueball. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he does appreciate those blankets, they’re very comfy.

His favorite kinds of video games are action, action-adventure, and search action (a.k.a “Metroidvania”).

Cueball hates his real voice for the most part, and he’s the only one who will keep using the default DOT EXE voice even when alone with the rest of the crew. They do know what he sounded like before he used that default voice (he only started using it all the time after he joined DOT EXE), but it’s been so long that most of them have forgotten it by now.

When it comes to fashion, Cueball’s “style” is more about comfort than anything else. Hoodies! Sweatpants! Sweaters! Oversized t-shirts! Comfy socks! Super comfy sneakers! Sometimes various winter hats if he can find any that will fit over his head lol. He has a ton of stuff that Quartoze has made for him, though he feels embarrassed to actually wear them outside of the hideout.

As mentioned previously, he doesn’t bother changing his screen face to a different one from his billiards face. Though he will change the red triangle in the middle to different emojis or reaction images/gifs for expressions. Or otherwise to mess with people.

So Cueball is the only one who doesn't bother with the voice changing nor face changing. The only thing different is his clothes. If a cop suspects he's the same Cueball from DOT EXE, he basically goes, "Oh? You think I look like a criminal just because I'm full-cyber too? Prejudice much?!" and that actually gets them to back down most of the time lol

He used to do programming and other computer related tasks (including messing with servers and hardware) as a job after going full-cyber and before eventually joining DOT EXE. He’s still good at those things too! But at least now he keeps up with those more as a hobby, which he honestly prefers. He thus tends to refuse to help with the IT stuff for the mall, he’s sick of doing that kind of thing for work.

He wanted in on the crew mostly because he was sick of feeling “left behind” by everyone else whenever they’d go out to do writer stuff. By the time he joined, Quatorze, Jūrō, Twoson, and Fourside had already become part of the crew.

He’s the only DOT EXE member with no prior experience as a writer (especially before going full-cyber), and so he’s had to put in a lot of practice with the rest of the crew. Due to his lack of skills, he was only really allowed to join because his older brother 8-ball let him join, and even then only after Cueball begged him about it a lot.

On that note, and as mentioned in 8-ball’s section, Cueball and 8-ball are specifically half-brothers. They cared about each other, and 8-ball very much tried to help out his little brother whenever he could. Back when the two of them were still full-flesh, they weren’t too close, but at least kept in touch via email and sometimes actual postcards despite the age difference between them. Mostly 8-ball wanted to be sure Cueball had another adult he could turn to if he was in trouble, because he knows how their dad is.

After moving to New Amsterdam, they did get a little closer as brothers. Cueball has a lot of admiration for his older brother because of his writer activities, though sometimes Cueball would be annoyed or even hate 8-ball for (in his eyes) “babying” him when 8-ball was just trying to keep him safe. Eventually, sometime after 8-ball died, Cueball mostly just regrets not really knowing 8-ball that well in the end.

Cueball starts trying to get into rhythm games after 8-ball’s death, and he even tries to join in on the rhythm game competitions with Cinco and Neun. He’s getting pretty good at it!

He does a lot of pranks with Twoson and Fourside. Also prank wars between the three of them! Neun makes a point to have plans outside of New Amsterdam for the weeks surrounding April Fools Day, while the rest of the crew just roll with it.

Besides Twoson and Fourside, Cueball gets along fairly well with Cinco, Jūrō, and Quatorze. For the last one, he has accidentally called her mom once, and he had her swear to never tell anyone else what happened.

He’s dating Bō! Cueball is really big on physical touch as a show of affection. He is thus incredibly cuddly and big on handholding and hugs! He also cuts back on the jokes and teasing just for Bō (for the most part).

He used to do a lot of cooking and baking before he went full-cyber. Once he started dating Bō, he actually go back into cooking to be able to cook stuff for his boyfriend! He still remembers all of the recipes he tried out, plus reads up on new ones to try. Unfortunately, due to of course having no sense of taste now, he has to either use recipes that don’t need tasting in between steps, stick with recipes that he already knows Bō likes, or otherwise make sure Bō is around for taste-testing.

Bō is the only one who knows what Cueball’s real voice sounds like, and even then Cueball only uses it when they’re alone together in private.

Real name Ernesto Alberto Visser. Cueball got Covid when he was about 15. The resulting long Covid was bad enough that, in his early 20s, he decided to just go full-cyber instead of continuing to suffer. His older brother 8-ball helped him out with that. At first it was just helping him move to New Amsterdam to get better medical treatment (and to get away from their dad and Cueball’s mom for that matter) once Cueball turned 18. Eventually that lead to helping Cueball with going full-cyber once the treatments proved ineffective. He did so sometime after 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco went full-cyber themselves. Cueball is about 43 during the time of the game.

Cueball originally had plans to become a chef or at least a baker, but when he got sick, part of the problems from his Covid infection was that his sense of taste got completely messed up. He was originally going to do programming as a hobby thing. But once he went full-cyber, he did programming as a full time job since he didn’t have anything else going for him, until eventually joining DOT EXE many years later.

Because of why he went full-cyber, he is distrustful of doctors (due to both the quack doctors his parents forced him to see to pretend that his Covid symptoms “weren’t that bad”, and the actual doctors later on who knew how serious his condition was but couldn’t do much for him anyways). He insists on accompanying his full-flesh friends to their doctor appointments to make sure they’re safe!!

#bomb rush cyberfunk #bomb rush cyberfunk headcanons #brc headcanons #brc dot exe #dot exe OCs #they might as well be OCs at this rate yeesh!! #kinda like what happened with Devil Theory :u #fan art

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for having people compete in a competition show

I (don't-remember-anymore M) have a computer that can create small planets. It's really weird and hard to figure out, but where I live is pretty lonely so I use it a lot to pass the time. One of the things you can do is teleport objects from other worlds onto whatever planet is plugged in. This starts when I teleported a bunch of people onto a planet I was working on.

Once they were on the planet they all got pretty scared, so the best thing I could think of was to say it was a show; they would do challenges to get eliminated, and one would win. It sounded fun, but I didn't get very far. After the first contestant was eliminated I told them the next challenge was to throw your rock as far as you can, when I dropped the first one it crushed the whole planet and the contestants were killed, too. At the time I didn't know how to respawn any of them so it just ended the competition there. I spent the next few years making sure the next competition would be better, 'cause was fun and I wanted to do it again.

After around a decade I got everything ready and found the people I wanted to be the next competitors, and eventually got them onto the planet. They're good contestants I think, they don't sometimes want to do the challenges but they always do them eventually. I did get yelled at a lot but that's mostly stopped now. So far I'd say I'm doing a pretty good job :-)

Here's where I may be the asshole though. One of my old contestants B (adult M) found me and started yelling at me to send everyone back, which I couldn't do because by then there were 6 eliminations left. And I also didn't want to. He got really angry but I think he's calmed down now? He also gave me back my cassette player, which I lost while hosting the second season. Only after I promised to send everyone back though.

B also later attacked me when he found out I was planning season 3, but he broke his leg so right now he's resting in my cabin. My contestants also are starting to yell at me again. I did promise to send them all back....

I guess I'm just wondering if I messed up somewhere because everyone is mad at me and I don't really know why. Hosting ONE (my show) is the only reason I can think of but I'm not sure why everyone is so angry about it

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[noroi1000]

"Don't Shout" Yandere Gojo x reader chapter 13

"Why are you so curious about those who are in school in Kyoto?" the white-haired one asked as you were standing by the window in the classroom and looking at the main entrance of the school.

"Senpai, I knew there was another school like this, but I've never met anyone from there. Besides, I want to see someone to compete with." You said, turning to him for a moment to see the expression on his face.

He had a very slightly furrowed brow.

"Are you mad at something?" you asked.

"No, I'm not angry.... I just can't understand why you want to meet someone so badly."

"It's just curiosity -"

"I'm not enough for you?"

You looked at him even more surprised.

He's been acting a little weird lately.

But now he spends more and more time with you. You're not complaining because you're not sitting anywhere alone. But you've noticed that he sometimes acts like a child trying to get your attention.

He pushes everyone else away from you so he has perfect access.

Your senpai is cute, but sometimes his slight possessiveness scares you.

"Wait, you said you wanted to see who you'd have to compete with? You're a freshman, (y/n)..." he said interrupting this slightly tense conversation.

"We're allowed. It's mostly about the number of people. After all, Shoko-san doesn't fight. So one less person."

He suddenly got up and slowly walked over to you.

"You know this is something to be taken seriously? If you're going to be part of this, you're not leaving my side. Anything can happen in this competition. You can even be attacked and seriously injured, you understand?"

"Senpai, I am not a child for you to take care of me."

"And which of us is older?" he smiled triumphantly.

"But I'm not a little kid. I can take care of myself."

"Yes, yes. I don't doubt it, but you're coming with me anyway." he laughed and waved his hand.

Suddenly, he leaned down slightly, looking into your eyes, bringing his face to the same level as yours.

"If you still disagree, I'll strap you to my back and carry you like a baby in a baby carrier."

You looked away in embarrassment. You imagined it.

You don't want to admit that you'd like to be carried by him, but not like this.

After all, Gojo-senpai is tall, muscular, and comfortable to sit or lie on.

But you don't want him to carry you around like a baby.

"So what's it gonna be, (y/n)-chan? Do you want your Senpai to carry you like a little girl, will you listen and kindly agree to stay close to me tomorrow?"

His smile widened as he already knew your answer.

"... Fine..." I groaned crossing my arms over my chest.

You continued to look into his eyes.

You wondered about it for the rustling sound.

You couldn't look down because his face was so close to yours and he was looking at you.

"Will you repeat what you said?"

"I said okay." You said then looking away.

He really loves to hear that he's right. And also, as in this case, he likes to hear that someone agrees with him.

"Good Girl." He patted you on the head with one hand and lifted the other to your lips.

He pushed your favorite lollipop gently between your lips and pulled away.

"You wanted to see who's coming. They're coming now." he said grabbing your arms to turn you around.

You looked out the window at the group of people walking by.

The white haired man looked at you and put his hand on your head.

"Do you know anyone?" He asked.

"No, nobody." You muttered as you twisted a candy on a stick in your mouth.

"That one is Zenin. Hit him if you want. I don't like Zenins, and he's almost the same as his father. I guess." He chuckled.

"I prefer not to think too quickly. Before I judge him, I'd rather get to know him first."

"Just be careful. One misstep by him, and he'll regret getting too close to you."

"Why?"

"I don't want anyone to hurt my little kouhai. I will be with you as long as I can."

You laughed.

"Senpai, I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm not a babysitter." raised one finger. "I just don't want some asshole to ruin your life at some point."

You looked at him, real concern in his voice.

You rested the back of your head on his shoulder, and when he looked at you, you smiled at him.

"Okay Senpai. I'm counting on you."

He smiled again before going back to staring out the window.

"Oh, look! Utahime came too."

"Who is this?" you asked.

"You'll see soon." He grabbed the handle to open the window. He stuck his head out with a smile. "Hey Utahime!" he shouted laughing.

You saw everyone stop and look at you.

"Gojo, Fuck off!" The woman screamed.

You widened your eyes upon hearing that.

"I'm glad to see you too!"

"Fuck off you damn idiot!"

She's gone, out of your sight.

"What was that, senpai?" you asked looking at him as he laughed.

"She really hates me. But it's funny when he calls me like that."

"You don't feel bad about her calling you that?"

"Nope. But if you called me names like that, then I'd be sad."

Read more on Wattpad and Ao3

#yandere gojo satoru #yandere #yandere gojo #gojo x reader #gojou satoru x you #gojo fanfic

[churchofthecomet]

I haven't watched Leverage in a while, see my last complaint post about their Stuxnet episode. But in the meantime I've been consuming other media, and it just struck me how equal the dynamic is between all of the Leverage characters.

Every character in this show is competent. They each have Their Thing that They Do, and if one of them is absent for an episode, the rest of the team suffers until they get back. I complain about them short-changing Hardison by making the tech stuff unrealistic and incomprehensible (so you can't get a feel for how good he is at it, like you can with Eliot punching people -- although if I knew more about fighting I'm sure I'd be complaining about Eliot's scenes too). But at least within the narrative he is really good at his job, and the other team members know it. Likewise for Eliot, Parker, Nate, and Sophie -- they're each at the top of their respective classes. They have separate specialties and they're amazing at those specialties.

And what's more, the interpersonal dynamics reflect this. Nate is an asshole to the rest of them, but there are FOUR OF THEM so it balances him out -- they can commiserate with each other, sit him down and have a talk with him, threaten to strike, whatever, and their side of the relationship is treated with importance because the team couldn't function without them.

Hardison and Eliot's sniping is just friendly banter, and they know it. Everyone is so supportive of Parker's social problems. Sophie is the one with the most traditionally-feminine skillset, something which might be demeaned in another show (and I have some complaints with Leverage's treatment of her), but she's taken seriously both in-universe and by the show itself. They all work wonderfully together. They balance each other out, and they become more than the sum of their parts.

Contrast this with the dynamics in a bunch of other modern media. Let's grab my favorite punching bag of late, BBC Sherlock. Sherlock is far and away the more useful member of the Sherlock-and-John team. The narrative places incredible weight on his intelligence, and John is stuck in a support role. Sherlock is also mean to John, and since John is one person (without much of a spine for standing up to Sherlock!) it feels utterly abusive. The "friendly banter" isn't banter. The "aww look they really DO care about each other" moments were enough for me when I was 13 or 14, but now it just feels like a cycle of abuse. The dynamic is fundamentally not equal. If I'm watching a TV show and I start to think "man character A really needs like 6 months of therapy to stop hating themself and they NEED to leave character B," when the show's message is "character A and character B are a match made in heaven you guys," the show has failed.

See also Our Flag Means Death season 2 with the relationship between... honestly Ed and the rest of the crew, but mostly Ed and Stede. Ed is the best pirate anyone's ever seen -- the rest of them are pretty good but no match for him. The one guy who had a chance of standing up to Ed and equalizing things got killed off at the end of the season, and Stede (as we've seen) lacks a spine to stand up to Ed. Controversial take but Good Omens might be heading in this direction? They defanged Aziraphale and made him into way more of a softie than the book or Season 1 imply. Meanwhile Crowley is Competent and Right About Everything by comparison. The general pattern here is that couples (or whatever the fuck was going on with BBC Sherlock and John) are worse off. I don't know if it's lasting heteronormativity or "two-person dynamics are hard," but the urge to make sunshine-and-stormcloud pairings where the stormcloud acts like shit towards the sunshine is just... too strong.

Leverage is this rare show that refuses to shit on any of its protagonists. Everyone's in the loop, everyone sees some character development, and it fucking RULES. I wish they could make more TV shows like this in 2024.

#leverage #ofmd critical #bbc sherlock critical #good omens critical #(only slightly) #found families #i need leverage but with like even better politics pleaseeee #i think Firefly is also good at this #or maybe i just thought Mal and Wash were hot? can't tell #i should go rewatch it

[the-ace-with-spades]

just wanted to say i would 100% read any hangster omegaverse you write there is not enough of it out there tbh. and also like truly whatever combo/dynamic you feel would be amazing but i would frankly die for some omega bradley cause i never see people take that route and it's such an interesting take on his character to me BUT ANYWAY like i said follow your heart and i'm sure it would be glorious if you do decide to write it

Hi! Thank you for the ask, I'm absolutely flattered ✨ I'm also happy to say that my cliche omega Bradley/alpha Jake mpreg fic has been planned out already - hope you don't mind me using this ask to ramble about it a bit 👉👈

As for the dynamics, we're going with:

omega Bradley and alpha Jake

alpha Mav and alpha Ice

(only mentioned but ) omega Goose and alpha Carole

so Bradley was raised mostly by alphas

omega Phoenix, beta Bob, beta Coyote

scent-wise, they're both on suppressants the majority of the time but when they aren't, they both smell like fuel and dust (Bradley loses it when he stops flying), but Jake's natural scent is dry, earthy one, kinda like straw and hot air on a sweaty day, and Bradley's is honey and vanilla/cinnamon; Mav smells like leather and jet fuel and Ice like cool mint and old paper

Not sure whether this is going to be written in my typical non-linear scene format (alternating past & present povs) just because I'm aiming to try and fit in 40-50k but the backstory/premise/whatever is well, this:

Bradley's experience growing up as a male omega was different than what most expected — most of his family didn't care about what the society said about designations and what was proper and what not. He was very much a stereotypical 'sensitive/soft' omega but he never thought that would hold him back, he literally was taught he could be anything and anyone he wanted. His mom was an alpha that choose to stay home, his dad was one of the first omegas allowed into combat, and after they both passed away, he was taken in by Mav and Ice, two alphas that by society's standards couldn't work out together, but did so better than most couples, and who tried to raise him to be his own person, not a designation. So he had plenty of ‘unconventional’ examples as a child.

That's why it hurt it so much when Mav said he wasn't ready and pulled his papers — it's like all he was taught about being whoever he wanted to be was a lie. Obviously, Bradley reacted by shaming himself out of being soft (to the outside world anyway).

Bradley and Jake met in flight school. They were only supposed to be something out of convenience, to spend heats and ruts together and nothing else. But then they were placed in the same squad after training and things continued and escalated and before they knew it, they were living together, they were each other's emergency contacts, they were each other's official heat/rut partners, on paper.

Jake'd never made him feel like any less because he was an omega and never doubted he was competent enough to be where he was in life — he was an asshole to him the say way he was to others, which was better than being undermined or coddled. Bradley felt like maybe he wasn't confident enough to be himself without care, yet, around Jake, but one day he would.

It was an unspoken thing on base — Bradley was Jake's omega and vice versa.  Unspoken because despite eight years together, they never bonded.

Bradley still has issues, about being an omega, that mostly strive from Mav's you aren't ready and the general opinions about omegas in the Navy. He was okay without all the usual stuff omegas wanted from alphas — couldn't be scented much because of scent neutralisers and suppressants he had to wear at work, couldn't make nests since they spend a lot of their time on deployments or trainings away on different bases and ships, he liked touch but it was both unprofessional at work and very omegian of Bradley at group outings (and he didn’t want the guys he worked with to think too much about him being an omega). 

At home, behind closed doors and in their own bubble, Jake didn't have a problem with giving him those things — what Bradley asked for, he got. Affection, nests, scenting, praises. In private, Jake never hesitated to fulfil whatever stereotypically omegian thing Bradley wanted and never held it against him. Jake’s family didn’t know about them, but given that Bradley wasn’t ready for bonding, that was probably for the best — he knew people could be nosy about when will you get bonded or married, when will you have kids, should you keep working in the Navy after bonding, etc. It bothered him a bit, especially when he had to leave their place and stay with Nat whenever Jake’s family showed up in town or stayed alone over holidays, but well, he never asked Jake for any of it to change and Jake never made the first move.

So Bradley hoped he wouldn't mind giving it all to him when Bradley finally did ask for it.

Then they just came back from deployment, after months on heavy duty suppressants, and his heat and Jake's rut synced up — something that happens only after bonding or after big big stressors — and then he found out he was pregnant.

He took a few to process everything and decided that he wanted it more than he was afraid of how it’d change their life and how people would see him, and he was going to ask for more from Jake and tell him.

Then he comes home and his nest is dismantled and Jake’s got two cans of scent neutralizer on the kitchen table and the first thing he tells Bradley is, “My sister is visiting for a week, gotta be fast because she’s going to be here tomorrow.” And Bradley isn’t so sure anymore.

(probably not the actual dialogue but the gist of what happens) "It's just going to be a few days and everything will go back to normal." "What if I don't want it to go back to normal?" “Look, you’re not exactly the type my family expects—” “So, how do you see us, in the future? Do you not want to get bonded, get married or—or have kids? Or are we just going to do all those things while sneaking around your family forever?” "We have a good thing, why change it? It’d all just be so inconvenient with our lives—”

And Bradley makes a decision again. Packs his stuff, tells him he isn’t comining back and leaves. He was fine alone, he’ll be fine alone again. He just needs some help first.

(gonna get short now, just not to spoil too much) Bradley goes to the only person he can think of — Ice. He moves in with Mav and Ice for the time being, things are awkward so Mav moves out to the hangar and Ice schemes so his two dumbasses talk and they forgive each other.

Fast forward, he’s six months in and the Top Gun recall happens, Bradley is currently Cyclone’s flag lieutenant, and ThingsTM hit the fan.

Scenes the dialogue is written down for (no promises on actual inclusion in the fic):

Jake being a dumbass and calling Bradley fat the minute they see each other in San Diego

The snow scene from the mission but with Mav and Jake arguing about who needs to come back home more

The beach scene with Bradley sitting around with Penny on the patio, drinking mocktails and being thirsty (the other kind)

Jake finally telling his mom

Bradley and Mav getting tricked into going to a doc appointment together (by Ice)

Bradley teaching (or ordering him around, more like) Jake how to do the flooring in the nursery while he sits on a bean bag and eats a whole box of strawberries

It's gonna be a while before I post the first chapter because I want to have at least dialogue written for the whole thing and will shuffle around scenes and plot points, but it's coming!

Thank you to you, anon, and to anyone who helped me figure out some stuff about this au fic 💙

#im shutting up now #hangster #hangster a/b/o au #asks #tw mpreg #tw omegaverse #my fics

[unloneliest]

hello leverage fandom. i’d like to post thoughts about eliot spencer, but i’ve spent Some Years thinking about the show without being in the right space to post, so there’s a lot of prerequisites to the current eliot meta rumbling around in my brain (mostly having to do with my analytical framework for the show as a whole) that i’ll need to get out there first. 

since there’s no way everyone’s operating from the same set of assumptions as me, i’d like to at least be able to point people who’re confused by what i’m saying in the direction of posts that outline where i’m coming from.

here’s the inroad to the tangle of thoughts i’ve been having: nate ford is not a reliable narrator, and the show’s a lot more interesting when you account for that. 

we’re all familiar with the ghostfacers effect, right? within the text of supernatural it’s canonized that there’s a discrepancy between the lived experiences of the characters and what we see onscreen. we’re seeing the shadows cast upon a wall, and interpreting what casts those shadows is up to the viewer. and it’s in the interpreting, in the space left behind by that discrepancy, where fandom flourishes. 

leverage is not supernatural. that could be an essay in and of itself, but i’ll leave it at this: supernatural’s contempt for its own fans is distasteful at best and leverage feels like a love letter to fandom. this is not entirely on topic, though not entirely off topic, and i’ll now get back to the point by starting at a different one entirely. 

for a long time i blamed every gripe i have with leverage on the fact that nate ford is the perspective character, though this was done in jest. i do not like him. my dislike of nate ford is entirely genuine, but also a genuine part of my enjoyment of the show. complaining done right is fun, being a hater is fun, and i’m not going to be an asshole online to people who like him. there’s no downside to any of this.

at some point, however, scapegoating nate shifted for me from a hyperbolic joke to an interesting way of analyzing the show, and i know what initiated that shift: revisiting the rashomon job. 

again: leverage is not supernatural. there’s nothing as extreme as the ghostfacer effect going on here. but the rashomon job textualizes both that a) the show is from nate’s perspective and that b) he’s far from an objective narrator. 

we see from the rest of the team’s perspective for the first time as they each recount their version of the night’s events; that’s what textualizes nate’s point of view as what we’re used to. 

what textualizes his unreliability is his depiction of coswell. he paints the man as bumbling, incompetant, and smitten with sophie—while the rest of the team saw him as a reasonably competent adversary. nate may have had access to more facts about what happened to the dagger, but that doesn’t make him impartial or the most right about what happened that night. the truth of things is likely somewhere between all 5 recollections. 

some difference in memory is understandable without jumping to the conclusion that nate is exaggerating. for thieves, any head of security is someone to be wary of, no matter how competent or incompetent. and nate was not a thief at the time—he was someone whose job was frequently made more difficult when he had to work with others, including heads of security like coswell. 

it would be strange if there was no variation between the team's recollections and nate's. but ultimately, nate seems as objective about the gallery’s head of security as the rest of the team was when teasing sophie about her accent. 

so why would he emphasize such an incompetant portrayal of coswell? because earlier in the episode, sophie said that coswell could be smarter than nate is—and nate's ego couldn't let that go. diminishing coswell's capability serves to both remove coswell as competition and re-affirm nate's expertise in his role. i also think he characterized coswell the way he did to flirt with sophie—similarly to sophie flirting with nate by having him help with her dress's zipper in the flashback. 

why talk about this? 

because as i said earlier: the fun lives in a story’s negative spaces. and because nate’s unreliability as a narrator is something i’ve never seen discussed in this fandom. nate is very convinced that he’s an objective, outside authority. and the show is from his perspective; it’s very easy to roll with this supposition. but understanding him as an unreliable narrator opens the door to a much richer universe of analysis, and i'd love for people to join me here.

(if you’d like me to tag you in meta posts i make, let me know & i’ll do so)

#leverage #leverage meta #nate ford #the rashomon job #leverage posting #jam posts #l101 #related thoughts i have to this: #parker as the main character #the team in general lying in s1 #eliot performing masculinity around nate #follow up to my post a bout the inside job + the long goodbye job #this one will wait til i finish my s3 rewatch but #my thoughts on the rashomon job + the big bang job 🔪

[professoruber]

Nimona Quick Thoughts/Review (Netflix 2023 Spoilers!)

So, having just gotten finished watching Nimona I wanted to dot down some quick thoughts while they’re still fresh on my tired should probably be alseep mind.

Be mindful of spoilers below cause this is a brand new movie which came out like a few hours ago. Okay? Okay! (Also spoilers for the graphic novel )

First of all. I thought it was good! I read the graphic novel leading up to the movie’s release cause I heard good things about it over on Discord, and I really liked the graphic novel. As far as adaptions go this was one with a decent number of differences, but still kept a pretty general settings and characters and themes all pretty intact. Villainising those different from the ‘norm’ as ‘monsters’ is bad, and there is corruption amongst those who are meant to protect us from said ‘monsters’.

The movie definitely does play much more into the whole ‘pseudo-medieval futurism’ thing the graphic novel has going on. Cyberpunk! But with knights! I thought it was pretty good and I like how they incorporated it all together, like the flying carriages.

Ballister Blackheart, or rather Boldheart here, was also pretty good. Even if he was perhaps more inexperienced compared to the graphic novel. Which is a result of the movie having events take part over a shorter time period. Ballister is no longer an established villain of some time but rather fresh fro  the academy and forced into the role upon his knighting. Rather than taking on the role to act as a sort of ‘heel’ to the Institution’s ‘face’ cause the Institution were some ableist assholes…. Which kinda brings me to some of my criticisms of the movie.

in the movie the director was seemingly acting alone. Stuff such as the institution (technically it’s institute in the movie) experimenting with jaderoot, experimenting on Nimona two seperate occasions, kicking out a competent and loyal knight cause of ableism, or attacking protestors were zapping weapons are all excluded from this adaption. Despite Nimona’s claims of the whole system being corrupt… the movie institute seems genuine besides some jerks and the only real bad egg is the director, who was acting alone and has to tread carefully to prevent her underlings from turning against her cause of her crimes. Also I may be misremembering but wasn’t it implied the graphic novel director was homophonic? So there’s that as well. Ambrosius is also more heroic in the movie, cutting off Ballister’s arm to disarm a queen killing weapon rather than during the aftermath of a joust. He may not have intentionally done it in the graphic novel, but he still knew something was suspicious about the sudden misfire of his weapon and how he was specifically given it, and yet still continue supporting the institution and never apologised for it until much later.

I don’t know, I get they have to condense things in adaption but it still to me kind of feels like undermining some of the themes perhaps. Hm. On another note, not the biggest fan of Ambrosius being made a descendant of Glorath…  mostly cause little was actually done with it. They had the whole classism thing but that seemed under-explored to me at least, especially with the scenes of institution knights attacking protestors and the director openly prioritising the safety of nobles were both removed. Ambrosius being specifically Glorath’s descendent doesn’t seem to add much to his story or arc and is only focused on a few times, doesn’t even lead to any interesting interactions between him and Nimona despite this movie establishing her as being close friends with Glorath.

I guess it can be argued it removes a bit of tension and complexity to the relationship, and give Ambrosius less to atone for. Also I thought the original backstory of the two of them being from the same orphanage as really cute.

Also they removed Meredith Blitzmeyer. Granted, her role of providing exposition and hinting at Nimona’s past was fulfilled by Nimona and the director. And her anti-magic thing was replaced by the cannon. And her backstory of travelling behind the mountains messes with the movie Kingdom being kinda North Korea. But on the other hand I really liked her so am kinda disappointed she was left out.

Overall I liked the movie though despite my last few paragraphs of complaints. Covers much the same themes even with the changes, although I do feel some of those themes were done somewhat weaker due to the changes. It was an enjoyable watch though, and it’s nice to see some well made animated LGBT+ representation! Ballister and Ambrosius OTP! Plus the whole thing with Nimona and her shapeshifitng and dislike of being inserted into a box. The growing friendship between Nimona and Ballister was also really nice and I love that it looks like they reunited by the end (even if the bittersweet note of the graphic novel of Ballister not being sure where she is was also good as well).

#Nimona #Nimona netflix #nimona 2023 #nimona spoilers #ballister boldheart #ballister blackheart #ambrosius goldenloin #the director #netflix #spoilers #professoruber reviews stuff #Meredith blitzmeyer #Movie criticism #Movie review #animation #cartoon

[mangoshorthand]

five has set my standards high for men 🫢 and i’m going to hold out for a partner like him.

It depends on what precisely about Five you would want to match your real life partner to, but in general I would advise against this. I was going to answer this simply but then I went into a full blown ramble so I'm sorry

Being fictional is Five's biggest allure...

Five is not real and that's a biiiigggg point in his favour. You will idealise him to the point that no real man could ever match up. Imagine a man saying that some super smart and sexy anime girl was his standard for IRL women. We'd rightly tell him that it was an unfair expectation.

If Five was a real flesh and blood man, tied to corporeal form and subject to the curse of existence, I promise you he would not live up to the standards set by the Five in your head. The truth is, Five can never fart on you in bed. He can never have that really irritating habit that makes you want to punt him through a wall, and he will never accidentally hurt you with a clumsy word or leave the dishes in the sink or whatever. He'll never criticise you for any of your bad habits either. Real men do all those things because they're human. They deserve your love and consideration. Don't hold out for a fantasy.

...but if he weren't fictional, he'd be a one man communist uprising considering all those red flags

We romanticize Five partly because he is an asshole. His sarcasm is amusing and acerbic tongue is attractive, mostly because we know there's tenderness underneath it. We have a uniquely intimate insight into his life, past and personality by virtue of him being a fictional character who we have seen when he thinks nobody is watching. We don't have that with real men. Romanticising assholes is something patriarchy has taught us. Just look at the Beauty and the Beast myth that replays itself in our culture again and again ("I can change him! He's different when we're alone, I swear!"). We like to imagine that Five would begin by being a dick to us like he does everyone else, but gradually we would end up being the special person who would bring out all the tenderness we know he has underneath. This is fine when it's a fictional character who we know for sure has all that tenderness underneath, but with a real man whose soul we can never know like we know Five's? No way. I can promise you that you should run a mile from a real man who sarcastically insults people and use their intelligence to put others down. A similar point to Five's violence. This is a character trait you should not excuse in real men. In real life, men who are violent to others will almost certainly be violent to their romantic partners. This is another bonus Five gets for being fictional: he lives in a fictional reality where his violence is justified and nbd because it's a world of comic-book morality.

Alright Mango, you fuckin' killjoy, what can I hold out for then?

Having said all this, I think Five does have some qualities you can admire in IRL men. I've said on this blog many times before that I think I find Five hot because he reminds me of my partner in terms of personality as well as looks. So this is what I think you wouldn't be unwise to look for in a man: 1. Someone with intelligence and competence. There is nothing sexier than someone who has faith in their own abilities and wields that knowledge with confidence, like Five does.

2. Someone with leadership skills without needing to dominate: Five sometimes falls foul of the latter but is usually pretty good at taking control of a situation whilst also hearing everyone out and using the knowledge of the entire room.

3. Someone with a sense of humour. Five's cynical little comments and charming phraseologies (e.g. "Chatty Cathies," "A nap and a schvitz, what more does a man need?") would be adorable in any man.

4. Someone with a mature outlook. Five is just happy living a comfortable life. He likes his creature comforts but he takes pleasure in the simple things. He isn't really competitive anymore because he truly doesn't feel like he has to prove anything. This is partly a result of his age, I think, so I would forgive a younger man for not having this outlook.

5. Someone who cares about his appearance: Five isn't vain, but he dresses carefully and intentionally for the occasion. It not only looks sexy, it shows that he has self-respect.

6. Someone who speaks to you the way Five speaks to Dolores: Five treats his (ex)partner with respect and fondness. He clearly worshipped Dolores when they were together but he didn't patronise her either. He spoke to her like an equal. And after the relationship ended, he never let anybody speak badly about her.

Ok, I'll shut up now.

#number 5 imagine #five hargreeves imagine #number five imagine #fictional men #fictional men are better #fictional men can't fart #let men fart