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damnslippyplanet · 9 months

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Slippy Watches: Only Friends, Episode 2

Previously on Only Friends: What if a group of queer twenty-somethings were extremely messy?

Now on Only Friends:

We’re picking up right where we left off, with Top making his big public microphone “will you be my boyfriend?” proposition to Mew. Mew says yes, Cheum shrieks, and everyone else makes different flavors of “jfc look at THIS asshole” faces, which are delicious.

And now we’re doing…reality-TV-style confessional interviews? This is so fucking charming. I’m charmed. Sand is the MOST correct with his assessment that making a big public scene is embarrassing and stupid. Anyway the point is Top is smug, Yo is pleased that her bar had something nice happen instead of just drunk people fighting each other, and everyone else is varying degrees of “Well, THAT happened.”

Post-credits, the school project about starting a hostel is apparently still happening. Top is roaming around with his design crew doing vague design things while Cheum tries to get Mew to dish about him. Boston elbows his way in to point out to Mew that Top has never kept a boyfriend more than three months because he gets bored.

Mew immediately gets the most evil little gleam of “Hey, that’s interesting” and muses aloud that he’s curious how long Top would stick around if he’s not getting laid. For a second episode in a row he assures his friends that they really don’t need to worry about the state of his virginity, he can handle himself. I’m really enjoying the way Book is playing this character. What is going ON in his pretty little head. Is he secretly an evil sex mastermind. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS, MEW.

Mew heads out to the back yard to find Ray, who is developing a close personal relationship with his flask of booze.

I love the way Mew’s reaction here tells us so succinctly that this is a known bad sign that Ray’s decompensating. I can be really touchy about how alcoholism plotlines are handled so we’ll see how this goes for me but for now I’m appreciating what the show is laying down.

So Mew’s a little worried, Ray is like “don’t worry about ME, you’ve got a BOYFRIEND to worry about now”, but then goes on to say that he just doesn’t want Mew to rush into anything. He thinks someone nice might come along for Mew someday and he doesn’t want Mew to miss it when it happens.

Ugh. It's killing me that for all Ray has this awful crush, he clearly isn’t hinting that he’s the nice someone. He knows he’s not nice. He knows what he doesn’t deserve, or believes he doesn’t deserve.

RAY. YOU CAN DESERVE NICE THINGS, TOO.

They settle the conversation with an “okay, I hope he makes you happy, but please know I will punch him if he mistreats you” and a hug, and then Top wanders in and drags Mew off with a pointed hand-holding because he is not unaware of Ray’s monster crush.

But we do get confirmation here in passing that Cheum has a girlfriend, so yay for her!

*****

Elsewhere, Sand is doing laundry in his apartment building when he bumps into Mark Pakin, who apparently is an old friend. They establish that Sand needs a roommate and Mark Pakin is looking to move out of his tiny apartment. Convenient!

They do not discuss rent or move-in dates or anything, but they do establish how often they each want to be able to bring randos over to bone. Priorities! Mostly this scene is just about Sand’s pitch-perfect deadpan delivery of a warning that he will be fucking just CONSTANTLY and LOUDLY and EVERYWHERE and Mark Pakin’s going to have to live with that.

Mark Pakin doesn’t particularly seem put off by this, but Sand actually was joking, and they decide to be roommates. Good for them!

*****

Mew and Top have gone to play laser tag for their date. Laser tag is approximately the least fun thing in the world for me and even Top admits he only suggested this date so he could corner Mew alone in a dark place and do inappropriate things to him. On the LASER TAG COURSE or field or whatever we call it? Top, my guy, please. There’s black lights in here. Keep it in your pants.

There’s so much terrible innuendo here about moving fast and aiming what you shoot at and on and on. I can’t.

But Mew gets to hang out by a big DANGER sign for a while and that's fun.

Also he makes Top think he might at least get a kiss out of the situation and then fully shoots him with the laser gun and dances off smirking and triumphant.

And then he gets to stop Top from kissing him so that he can explain that he was embarrassed by the public scene at the bar and he’s not going to fuck Top just because he’s hot and rich. He’s not even sure Top is his type. He’s sending Top back to the beginning to try a bit harder to woo him properly and maybe then he’ll decide if he likes him.

Yeah, Mew is either an evil sex mastermind or a sex savant of some sort just coming into his incubus powers. Either way I’m here for it.

Confessional video again! Mew has a checklist for a good partner. His partner needs to: respect him, love and get along with his friends, and not tell lies. That’s all! He’s pretty low maintenance, really! What could go wrong?

*****

Ray apparently goes to school sometimes besides just checking in to attend his business class, as he’s wandering the halls moping about Mew’s Instagram post about his laser tag date. He needs a distraction. And he finds one in the person of Sand, lurking around campus for all the world looking like Your Local Weed Guy, dispensing mysterious items from his bag in exchange for furtively-handed-over cash.

Ray fully lights up with the excitement of having someone to pick on to distract him from his own misery, and follows Sand out to the parking lot to scold him for dealing drugs and vaguely threaten to turn him in for inappropriate behavior on campus.

Sand, perpetually unimpressed, is like, “Okay but there’s a 60/40 chance you’re drunk right now, I’m pretty sure you’re not a threat to me. Go away.” And he tootles off on his motorcycle.

And now it’s nighttime, and Ray pulls up outside a neon-lit club named Roxie. Ray is hot on his heels because if you’re thinking about the annoying guy from the bar you don’t have to think about the other annoying guy who’s trying to bone your crush.

Sand is clearly known and liked at what turns out to be a gogo club full of attractive semi-dressed women pole-dancing, and gets waved on through, while Ray gets stopped for an ID check. And then several of the hot semi-dressed women descend on Ray because they sense a new customer with fresh blood and maybe a full wallet, but he could not possibly be less interested in whatever form of semi-nude dancing he’s being offered. He basically vaults over three of the dancers to follow Sand behind a curtain. It’s all very normal and heterosexual.

Sand is lying in wait for him and wants to know why Ray is following him and why Ray doesn’t have any actual friends he could be bothering instead of being Like This. They scuffle a bit and end up dropping Ray’s bag, which smashes the little bottles of homebrew plum wine he’s apparently selling around town.

Ray was kind of hoping for something more sordid than moonshine. Sand points out angrily that we can’t all be rich boys and he needs money, and then he says something that will haunt Ray, himself, and me for the rest of time:

Fuck. Show, why are you like this.

The rest of this goes the only way it can - Sand tries to charge Ray for the broken wine and before he knows it he’s negotiating the price for Ray to hire him as a drinking buddy for the night.

Sand: we are literally at a strip club, if you want to buy company, go back in there.

Ray: I will give you so much money to be my drinking buddy

*****

It’s so good. There are such good FACES and also LAYERS. Ray is being a rich asshole but he is also being an incredibly lonely guy clinging to the only thing in his line of sight that is even a little distracting from the black hole of destructiveness he’s circling.

Sand is so annoyed and so aware that he needs the money and he’s not UNaffected by the sexy-enemies chemistry.

Extremely “I can’t believe I’m gonna let this guy hire me,” “You don’t have to,” “No I’m gonna” energy here.

Meanwhile! Boston and Mark Pakin are making out up against a wall under a giant horned antelope kind of deal. It’s very Hannibal.

So Boston sort of chucks Mark Pakin on the bed, which I guess means…is this where Boston lives? He doesn’t strike me as someone who lives in Hannibal skulls-everywhere splendor. But I have no time to think about this because I’m busy watching Boston just absolutely maul and rail Mark Pakin. Bless.

He then immediately rolls out of bed to get dressed despite how absolutely cute Mark Pakin is being, but does offer to take some sexy photos because he has some film left in his camera and *truly* Mark is being very attractive right now.

Mark’s not the most into pictures but he wants as much of Boston’s attention as he can get and also is fully melted by Boston switching into more-intimate-pronoun gear with him and telling him that he only takes photos of his favorite hookups.

Oh no, this FACE. Mark is going to get his life ruined and his heart broken and I’m so sad for him.

Mark does want to see the photos immediately and to decide whether Boston can keep them, so they head into Boston’s darkroom. Which he has in his house. Okay, I take it back, if he has a darkroom he is also a guy who would have skull displays. Probably somewhere in this house is a harpsichord.

So they have a little chat while the film develops about how they both would like to be doing creative things but are instead going to be working in the family businesses. Boston is doing casual post-hookup chitchat but Mark Pakin is fully heart-eyes “we are BONDING”, oh god, it’s like watching the lead-up to a car crash.

But the photo is done and it’s good and sexy, and Mark Pakin abashedly admits that he hates to have his photo taken because as a kid he had really curly hair and everyone made fun of him, and he doesn’t think he’s cute. Boston pats him on the cheek and tells him he wouldn’t have hooked up with him a second time if he weren’t cute. Augh.

*****

Neo is doing such good work in this show but I want to shake his character by the collar.

Speaking of careless rich boys, Ray and Sand have arrived at Ray’s big fancy house to drink the plum wine, which Ray thinks is not bad. A lukewarm endorsement. He drags Sand off to the other room to drink better booze and listen to records, because this was never about the plum wine, it was about being the center of someone’s attention even if he had to buy his way there. Ugh. UGH.

Sand tries to have a normal conversation about the record collection and instantly finds himself in over his head with the discovery that the records were Ray’s dead mom’s.

What if there were a beautiful and terrible boy who bought your attention and then looked at you as if he were drowning and you might be the only thing that could pull him out of the water. What then?

Well, then you might tell him very sincerely that you were sorry for his loss, steer the conversation away from the deep waters, and start making uncomfortable jokes.

And then the beautiful terrible boy might tell you that he just wants you to sit and drink and listen to music with him, because he’s tired of being alone. And you might just stare, and drink, and wonder what you were getting yourself into.

*****

And now, for a complete tonal shift, it’s the next day and Mew and Top and Boston and Cheum and Cheum’s girlfriend April and Ray are, uh. Wakeboarding? I think? I don’t know. Some sort of waterskiing-esque sport involving shirtlessness and being wet.

The point here is that during this wet-boys-doing-sports montage, every time Top and Mew cheer each other on, Boston and Ray continue to make hilariously bitchy faces about their respective crushes. The grapes are SO sour, even though every time someone refers to Top as Mew’s boyfriend Mew clarifies that they are *not* boyfriends, he’s declared a restart to their whole situation.

Also, Boston cannot stop eyefucking Top’s bare torso and Top isn’t exactly unaware, or mad about it.

Cheum falls off her wakeboard and hurts her ankle, and Top pulls her out of the water and fusses around getting her an icepack.

Mew, in his confessional with his little checklist, checks off “loves and respects my friends.”

Apparently the first time they hooked up was in a photo booth (...really?) and the shower stall is reminiscent enough to get Top horny enough to at least consider a re-enactment.

While everyone else sits around having drinks and resting Cheum’s ankle, Top heads off to the showers and Boston follows him. Like, really follows him right into the shower stall to see if Top might be convinced to change his mind about fucking again.

*****

Alas for Boston, just as he’s getting somewhere, Mew appears in the changing room. But by the time he gets to the showers, the boys have scrambled and Top is all alone in his stall, ready to flirt with Mew while Boston hides in the next stall over. Left unclear: Did Boston manage to rescue his swim trunks during the scramble or were they still lying around where Mew could see them?

HM.

So we’re back at Mew’s putting together furniture, which is unironically my idea of a great date. Furniture assembly >> wakeboarding or laser tag.

Mew: I brought you cookies to eat while you build this table for me!

Top: I think you should hand-feed me, I’m so tired from all this table building.

Mew, some sort of virgin sex maniac: New offer: I hold the cookie between my teeth and you bite half of it out of my mouth.

Top: *horny AWOOGA noises like a cartoon character*

Top promptly eats the cookie out of Mew’s mouth and rolls half on top of him in the process.

I’m shocked these aren’t product-placed cookies, this could have rivalled the Kinnporsche sex bread if only the Manager of Thai BL Product Placement had been allowed to work on this scene.

Top tries to go in for a kiss but apparently Mew’s boundaries are currently “you may eat cookies out of my mouth, but no kissing.” Sure! Fine! We love a boundary-holding king.

Top then tries to bargain for another chaste cuddling night in Mew’s bed, but is relegated to the couch. This is so good for me.

*****

Meanwhile: Boston and Mark Pakin, who I’ve actually decided I’m willing to refer to as Nick now because I’m so worried about his fragile little heart, are back in bed. Or no, actually they’re lying next to each other on the floor jerking off together.

Oh. Oh no. Nick tries to start a Defining The Relationship conversation but Boston is fully still fuck-drunk and barely processing this. But he gets it together for…okay. So. You know how sometimes advice about dealing with little kids is about giving them two choices that are both acceptable so they don’t clamor for the third thing you don’t want them to have? That’s fully what happens here. Boston does not want to have the “let’s be boyfriends” conversation so instead he steers very smoothly into a conversation about how they could be EITHER fuck buddies OR friends with benefits, each of which comes with some different terms about how much they hang out when not fucking, and Nick can pick which one he wants!

Or, if Nick is developing actual feelings, they should stop because Boston does not DO feelings or drama. (Boston is a liar. What is drama if not climbing naked into your friend’s semi-boyfriend’s shower stall to try to give him a semi-consensual handjob?)

Nick backpedals as fast as he can to reassure Boston that he doesn’t have FEELINGS, yuck, he was just CURIOUS, so they can keep on being fuck buddies.

Augh. The problem with a show for, by, and about messy queers is it’s so RECOGNIZABLY REALISTIC about the ways people make terrible choices.

*****

SPEAKING OF, Sand is wrapping up a night at YOLO, where he has met a probably perfectly nice young woman named Amm and they’re getting ready to go back to his place for drinks and to see his new monstera. Because he doesn’t have a cat so he has to invite women back to his place by offering to show them his houseplant. Perfect. No notes. I lured my current partner up to my room twenty years ago by offering to show him my housemate’s ferrets so I can’t throw stones at anyone else’s glass house here.

The monstera line is on the verge of working when Ray materializes, wide-eyed with glee at the discovery that Sand has PICKED SOMEONE UP and is trying to GET LAID. He immediately inserts himself into the proceedings by suggesting they both come back to *his* place where the booze and records are better than at Sand’s and there’s a pool.

Oh my god, Ray, you can’t just invite yourself into someone else’s one night stand.

Except Ray thinks maybe he can, at least if he’s willing to give Sand even more money than he did the previous night.

Sand points out that Ray fully passed out drunk last night and didn’t even notice him leaving, what on earth does he want a reprise of that for?

Well. Ray is lonely and horny and pretty pretty please won’t Sand come over and be his paid friend?

So: Sand drives Ray home, and Ray is having SO much fun being a gleeful pest about being chosen over Amm, and questioning Sand about whether as a bar singer he gets picked up a lot, and singing along with the radio. Sand would like to be more annoyed by this than he is, but it’s hard not to be charmed, and he absolutely is reluctantly charmed.

Sand stares at him for a minute and then informs the girl that sorry, he has to take care of his drunk friend. He does NOT invite her to the pool party. RIP Amm, I’m sure you’re lovely but who can compete with Khaotung saying please so sweetly?

*****

At Mew’s place, Top is tossing and turning on the couch. Yes, he DOES have That One Thai BL Gridded-Print Blanket. He gives up and fetches a pill bottle from his shirt and starts popping pills, which is when Mew wanders out in to the living room and wants to know what the pill situation is about.

Apparently it’s the designated episode for tragic backstory, because Top’s story is that he has insomnia and can’t sleep well alone. He’s got PTSD from surviving a late-night house fire as a kid and falling asleep alone sets it off. But he’s seeing a doctor about it, he’s got the meds, it’s fine! He’s fine!

Mew is a li’l skeptical but also thinks all of this honesty deserves a reward, and offers to sleep next to Top after all. Aww.

There is absolutely no reason for them to squeeze onto the couch instead of going back to Mew’s bedroom together, but that is what they do. Mew reminds Top that they are definitely just going to hug and nothing more, Top agrees, and in the confessional video Mew checks “respects me” off his boyfriend checklist.

*****

Darkroom time for Boston again. This time he’s developing photos from the wakeboarding hangout. He lingers over one of the photos of two people but I can’t honestly tell which two it is. It...might be him and Mew? Or Ray and Mew? Unclear. This is mostly just Boston’s contractual one scene where he’s not actively fucking.

*****

Okay, so from now until the end of the episode I am doing feral howling at the moon. Let’s just establish that now so I don’t have to go on about it.

Ray is serving up the good booze back at his place, and Sand is once again poking gingerly around the edges of Ray’s damage - where are his friends from the bar? The guy with the glasses? Ray grumps about his friends being in RELATIONSHIPS.

Sand pokes him one more time about being a sad rich boy who needs new friends but then softens and declares that he’ll be Ray’s friend if he needs one that badly. No hiring needed. They could just…actually be friends.

And now we are once again on a path they’ve set themselves on and couldn’t get out of if they tried, circling around each other and what exactly it is that they want from each other. What *is* Sand’s type? Why *does* Ray’s description of what he wants in a friend sound like he wants a dad? By the way, uh, does Sand’s type ever include men?

(It does. It does sometimes include men. Sand is more vibes-based than gender-based in his attractions. Ray circles a little closer and asks wordlessly for another chance at having Sand light a cigarette for him. Sand lights him up off his own cigarette. We're past the intimacy of a lighter flame and into something else here.)

Sand pauses to draw a neat little line - he isn’t *actually* willing to let Ray hire him for sex even if they’re both enjoying the frisson of considering it. When he fucks people, he does it because he wants to. For free.

And then they’re very abruptly at the still center of all the circling, and all the questions have been asked, and there’s nothing left to do but kiss about it. Or, well, something messy, halfway between shotgunning and a kiss.

Sometimes friendship starts like this, Ray says, and Sand stubs out his cigarette and draws one last desperate “okay but we are DEFINITELY not going to develop feelings about this” line and flings himself across it like an absolute fool.

*****

Shirts come off. Tattoos get kissed. What if an awful beautiful boy who could have anything decided that what he wanted was you.

Final round of confessionals.

Ray, extremely cheerful: Mixing sex and friendships doesn’t have to get weird at all! Hearts and dicks are totally different things! It’s fine!

Sand, completely aware that he’s making some real Choices here: I mean, sure. It can be fine! If you don’t catch The Feelings.

And then he sort of dissociates lightly for a while, so we can cut back to Ray climbing into Sand’s lap so they can have some absolutely strings-free sex that will not involve feelings in any way.

First and Khaotung’s faces should be illegal. That is my final thought on this episode.

#slippy watches things #only friends recap

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generic-fandom-name · 1 year

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My personal take on Andor. Now I don't normally do these kind of things, as I am very much a "You do you" kinda person. But I'm just frustrated I guess with the andor tag and my personal expectations of what I expected this show to be like.

I'll preface first by saying: I enjoyed the show,it's not my favourite but I enjoyed it. I've also not been into star wars very long, I'd say I really got into it about 7 months ago so I have no nostalgia attached to the franchise.

Summing Andor up in 1 word: fine. It was fine. Beautiful cinematography, incredible actors.

The glaring one for me is, that is just felt like "generic Dystopia of earth in the future." Rather than a galaxy far far away, and I'm not referring to the lack of jedi or vader and such. This isn't that story. But it didn't feel like it was in the actual universe. My partner summed it up quite well (he has not connection to star wars) when the fight in Aldani happened and they started shooting. He went "oh, why are they laser guns not bullets?" This is because as beautiful as it was Aldahi felt like a WWII drama.

The story seems to start threads and then drop them as soon as the story no longer finds any use of it. What was the point of giving him a sister if all we are told is to forget about her? What is the point of the flashbacks to show cassian from a small tribe stolen from all he knows by strangers if this action is never bought up?

There is a huge applause for diversity in this series but we need to take a step back and see where this diversity is. Within the Empire...the empire is meant to be a foil to white supremacy. This isn't the fault of andor alone the sequels also have women in high imperial roles. Also if you look beyond the surface Cassian a POC character is almost overshadowed by this white man saviour. Luthen.

Luthen is my biggest gripe to the story. He is a man full of pretty words and very little substance. In my opinion they replaced the importance of Mon Mothma ans Bail organa with luthen. Also something I've seen in the tags is how andor does not bow to fan service and yet his whole shop is filled with Easter eggs. Holocrons, sith holocrons, padme's headdress, a temple guard helmet! The jedi are meant to be completely erased from history and then you have this guy in a high end shop selling jedi goods. It would make sense if we only saw them in the back like back door dealings. Luthen is going to be a former jedi if I had to make a prediction.

Mon mothma's whole character has been reduced to "money and family issues." We only see her in her home. And again I feel her importance to the rebellion has been swept away.

It also felt like everyone was talking in deep statements the whole time and so other speeches or monologues lose their value.

They have made Cassian in this series to be something great and truly the spark of revolutions, so how come he is not known in rogue one by the empire? They have his face they have his details.

I also just feel like the show was treating me like an idiot. It felt like having to explain in details what was happening. A good example is the torture scene, you don't need to tell me how evil you are as an empire.

There was a significant lack of actual alien's in the show which is just personally bit annoying. You're set in space use it. Like even the scene with syril in coruscant Airport not a single alien mingling about. And when we do see them they are the lower levels of coruscant. Why wasn't that explored?

I really has high hopes for syril and the exploration of extremism in the mundane. Was he going to snap and spiral further into the fascist mindset? Or will he see the floors in the empire now? Nope he becomes obsessed with a woman and from the last clip it seems they are building up a romance....so another lady with a romance subplot.

I keep seeing posts of "this is the greatest star wars show ever." And its just not something I agree with personally, I felt not connection to the characters or the world. Yes I have a personal preferences to my favourite show and set of films. But I was so excited to see how this could build upon that.

To me...Andor hasn't done anything that hasn't been done before in the films or the shows I've watched. It's just given it a grimdark filter.

Like I said, I dont normally do these things but the andor tag is just filled with comments kinda being rude about other parts of star wars...and like I get fans are toxic everywhere. But this is really the first time I've seen it so obviously. If you enjoyed the show and think it's incredible that's great! But don't shit on others just to make yourself feel superior.

Like I said I did enjoy andor, but I won't be giving it a rewatch anytime soon..probably Will watch rogue one again though!

#andor #andor critism

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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The sad thing is that Blake's most healthiest option romance wise is someone who gives her space and willing to let her go. Sun fits this description perfectly. But they went with a codependent toxic relationship partially held together by guilt in which one side is clearly submissive and the other too worried and insecure.

Yeah, tbh, the send off to Sun at the start of volume six made me think they would pick up the relationship where it left off eventually for a couple different reasons, but one of them was this reason.

I want to preface this post by saying that A. I don’t really like Bumblebee and I don’t need a reason to dislike it even though I have reason to dislike it, B. I’ve shipped BlackSun from Sun’s first introduction, and C. also I’m coming at this as someone who has been in a co-dependent relationship, so all three of those things means I’m naturally a little biased. I’m not pretending this is all a super objective, impersonal interpretation. This is just me talking honestly about my thoughts towards a ship I don’t like. Bees, I’m sorry if this shows up in your tags, Tumblr is being screwy and I’m not trying to rain on anyone else’s posts. I’m using filterables and putting this under a keep reading to try and make it easier for Bumblebee fans to not see this.

I had - when I saw season six’s opening ep - given the show mad props for writing a romance driven relationship where the partners didn’t have to stay together all the time to still care about each other and be secure. It felt like the perfect move to me to get some distance between their characters while firmly establishing that Sun had never done the things he’d done ‘to win the girl,’ and didn’t consider himself ‘letting Blake go.’ Sun not only being willing to spend this time away from Blake, but to not even need it really said, and to have his own stuff he needed to do as well... All of that felt like a healthy, independent relationship. I don’t mean to get personal on main, but I’ve been in a relationship where I felt partially responsible for my partner’s happiness and he tried to do things like keep me from my friends or guilt me into things. I ignored the red flags because our relationship was important to me, but it made me feel pretty unhappy because I was always worried that if I didn’t do the things he wanted, he would get upset and over-react, and put himself down until I built him back up, and if we didn’t spend the majority of our time together, he would start talking about feeling like I didn’t really care that much about him and how lonely he felt. This was really exhausting to me, especially since I’m an introvert.

Sun always seemed like such a good partner for Blake because he was always so self-possessed, so confident in who he was already, independent and happy and accepting of Blake’s independence. Sun was always there for Blake, but he also was the one usually pushing her towards interacting with others too, they were able to go do separate things and even go on completely different missions with confidence and without drama. For a character who had previously been in a destructive, possessive, controlling, abusive relationship, it had seemed like a scene that clearly established Blake and Sun’s relationship as one where Sun wasn’t expecting Blake to stay with him all the time, respected her goals and her independence, and had his own life and his own friends too. I had kind of just assumed that the choice to have Sun leave the group and go to Vacuo was to further their relationship. Upon rewatching the scene later now that I know that the writers were already starting to try to implement Bumbleby, I can see how the show writers might’ve been intending that scene to be an amiable goodbye where Sun confirms to Neptune that they aren’t actually an item with his ‘it was never about that.’ But I just have to shake my head, because I was giving the writers credit for something they didn’t do.

Instead, they were trying to tie off the relationship between Sun and Blake by having him leave, not cementing Blake’s independence and Sun’s encouragement of that (and they tied it off badly imo because Blake freakin’ kissed the boy lol.) And once they had Sun leave, they started setting Blake up with Yang. I want to clarify that there’s nothing wrong with the writers deciding to go with Blake x Yang, and the ship itself was not a totally baseless one. I’m personally disappointed that one of my favorite RWBY ships isn’t going to be endgame, and I personally don’t like the idea of Blake and Yang as a couple. But my problem isn’t really with the ship itself, it’s with how the show writers have chosen to write the ship in execution.

Getting past the queerbaitery nature of Bumblebee as a ship, the choices surrounding Blake and Yang seem faulty on both sides (which I also think is important to remember. I’ve seen loads of people recognizing that Bumblebee as written in the show is destructive to Blake, but I’ve seen much fewer people talk about how it’s not the best for Yang too.)

Let’s start from the fact that Blake is an abuse victim. She was previously in a relationship with Adam and talks about his destructive and violent behavior. Blake has a really hard time trusting people because of how Adam had acted. He was explosive, manipulative, and he got angry at and hurt Blake specifically for leaving him. The last thing Blake would need is a relationship where she feels personally responsible for the stability of another person. The last thing she needs is to be pressured into staying with someone. The last thing she needs is to be expected to be with that person without the option of ever working with others. The last thing she needs is to be in a relationship where she can’t be apart from someone even temporarily without that person getting anxious and insecure or without having to feel guilty and like she did something wrong.

And yet the show has her in a relationship with someone that has abandonment issues. The show has her promise to stay with Yang in a moment of huge trauma, Blake crying out a desperate denial to the accusations of the abusive ex who had made her life hell, after he tried to again separate her from anyone she loved and she was forced to kill someone she had once deeply cared about. It was also a really weird choice of the writers to have the characters respond to a question over if they’d ever thought about working with other partners with dismissive and cold behavior as if the very idea was somehow wrong (especially since Yang spent quite a bit of time pre-volume six working with Weiss and Blake spent so much of her time working with Sun.) And the writers chose to frame Blake and Yang leaving on temporary separate missions in volume eight to result in insecurity and anxiety from Yang and guilt for Blake. On top of that, Yang is a person with a strong temper and aggressive tendencies. Although she seemed to be trying to work through those problems in seasons four and five, Yang backslid and seems just as controlled by her anger and her insecurities as her volume 2 self now, who had lashed out at Blake and angrily pushed her for not listening in ‘burning the candle.’

As for Yang, she lost her mom when she was very young (Ruby was a toddler,) and her dad temporarily shut down after that. She soon found out her biological mom had left her when she was a baby and spent her whole life wondering why while her uncle spent that time flitting in and out of her life and taking on dangerous missions - the same types of missions that had killed the woman who had raised Yang for the first part of her life. Yang has deep seeded fears of being abandoned and losing her loved ones, and she also has a history of trying to take care of and support the people around her even at her own personal expense. While Yang’s more selfless moments in season five - like giving up her dream of getting answers from Raven to follow and protect Ruby even when she clearly wasn’t wholly healed from her trauma - are admirable, what Yang absolutely doesn’t need in a partner is someone who she feels like she has to protect and save and sacrifice for. What Yang absolutely doesn’t need in a partner is someone she feels like she can’t rely on to be there for her. What she doesn’t need in a partner is someone who can’t give her stability or struggles to trust her. What she doesn’t need in a partner is someone who won’t call her out when she goes a little too far. And yet the writers chose to put Yang with someone who runs on the regular, the only member of their team who thought Yang might be lying about Mercury, someone who needs time and distance when Yang clearly needs someone who is consistent and present. And then the writers made it so that Yang and Blake spend very little time with anyone else. The writers made it so that they can’t be apart without guilt and anxieties.

And you guys, Blake in seasons 6-8 feels so needy. She’s consistently in need of saving, consistently doesn’t stand for herself, seems like she needs a lot of reassurance in her relationship, she’s consistently waiting for other people to make moves, etc. Even when Blake convinces Yang to divulge top secret information to Robyn, when Ironwood confronts them about it, Blake backs up and leaves Yang to explain their actions. In the early seasons, it feels like Yang cares more about their friendship than Blake does and that she’s putting in more effort, which don’t get me wrong, makes total sense since Blake had just gotten out of an abusive relationship and Yang’s clear anger problems (and her using a laser pointer to try and force Blake to talk to her,) might’ve made Blake hesitant to get close to or open up to Yang. But while it no longer feels like Yang cares more, it still feels like Yang puts in more work. Yang is constantly reassuring, protecting, comforting, and stepping up for Blake, while Blake is so passive and acts so dependent that I personally can’t help but feel like Yang must be exhausted. Yang needs stability and reassurance too, Yang needs a partner she can talk to and rely on to be there. When the writers did write Blake as trying to comfort and take care of Yang, it was way too much and had undertones of ableism. And I know, I know they had this ‘we’re taking care of each other’ moment when they were fighting Adam, but that’s just what we were told for one scene, and not what we’ve actually seen in their relationship.

The worst thing is that it didn’t need to be that way. Bumbleby could’ve been a really good ship that built on their foundation. Blake used to be an independent, brave, strong, active character. Blake stood up for herself to Weiss, told Ozpin to his face that he needed to do more for the Faunus, used to have a great, creative fighting style, used to be this sassy girl who’d banter with Sun and with Yang and when she did start opening up to Yang, it was a great way to start evolving their characters to be a strong relationship. In V3 when Blake admitted that she had doubts about Yang due to her past experiences with Adam, but opened herself up and decided to trust Yang anyway when Yang looked her in the eyes and told her sincerely exactly what had happened... That was so great and it really showed off the dynamic the two of them were starting to adapt. CRWBY might’ve immediately separated the two, but A. Seasons four and most of season five had great set up for them to work through their problems and then continue to grow that great dynamic we started seeing in the first three seasons. And B. their respective arcs continued their growth as characters even apart from each other. While I wish that RWBY had let the two work some of this out together, the growth that we were getting did make them more suited for each other. I’ll always ship BlackSun. But Yang getting a hold on her emotions, maturing, starting to work through her abandonment issues, and displaying just what a caring, honest person she was, at the same time that Blake was working through her past and her fears, learning to let people in, strengthening her resolve, and coming into her own as a leader... Come on, those two characters could’ve easily developed a good, healthy, strong, independent relationship and I’m legitimately sad that’s not what we got, especially since we sacrificed so much of Blake’s personality to get a worse ship.

I don’t even know what to say about it, tbh. Idk what else the writers expected us to think with how they wrote things. I’ve heard before that there was probably a cut scene in volume eight that included Yang and Blake fighting (which would then justify Yang and Blake’s reactions when they reunited,) and I do believe that, but the writers chose not to include it, and that made them look worse as a couple. Just like they chose not to include a scene where Blake and Yang work through the problem of Blake having left Yang without a word of explanation at the end of Volume 3. And they didn’t include a scene where Blake explains herself and Yang realizes that maybe she was being a little shortsighted about the trauma Blake had also gone through. And they didn’t include a scene where Blake actually learned that she didn’t have to protect or take care of Yang in volume six. And they haven’t included a scene where Blake puts just as much effort into their relationship as Yang does. And they didn’t include a scene where the two make it clear that they’re fine being apart. If anything, CRWBY has established the opposite, and it isn’t enough to just say that they’re taking care of each other, when they don’t show that to be the case.

Sun being not only willing to let Blake be with others, go her own way, and be her own person, but encouraging of that, made him a very compelling romantic prospect for her. Unfortunately I just don’t see that with Blake and Yang. Their relationship feels co-dependent, and maybe it’s just my personal experience talking and making me chafe, but I personally just don’t like it.

However, fans have been queerbaited long enough. So personal opinions aside, CRWBY give Bumblebee some confirmation you fucking cowards.

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jajanvm-imbi · 4 years

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Headcanons of Krel living on earth because he’s my favorite and I love him and I haven’t seen anyone do this yet so I feel like I have to

^^^^^because of this very moment I love the idea of Mary and Darci befriending Krel.

Since Aja,Vex and Eli went back to Akaridion-5, Mother was destroyed, and Claire was busy with Trollhunting stuff, earth gets pretty lonely. So Mary and Darci adopt him into their friend group.

At first Krel was a little apprehensive to joining their friend group, but he quickly warmed up to it because, he, being Krel, loves the attention.

like I can totally see Mary and Darci taking Krel to like a mall or something and doing those like teen romcom movie shopping montages where he goes into a changing room and the girls judge the outfit until they find the perfect one.

I personally believe Krel would adopt a soft boy look, with like oversized button ups and t shirts tucked into jeans, but thats just me.

anyway, because he’s friends with Mary and Darci, Krel has a new found social popularity in Arcadia.

because of this, Krel would prolly get nominated for Spring Fling king and shit

I would say Krel wouldn’t really care about being nominated, but seeing how he cared so much about the science fair and the Battle of the Bands, he would definitely care

Steve is conflicted because he wants to be Spring Fling King, but he can’t mess with Krel like he did with Jim and Eli cause Krel is his girlfriend’s brother

Krel notices this and takes advantage of it to mess with Steve and actually tries to win.

like Krel would just dominate the contests, and his theme presentation would be the flashiest and most appealing and people would just generally like him, and that would really worry Steve

like Krel, with four arms would be really good at the Touch-a-Truck-athon or whatever its called.

Krel would prolly let Steve win anyway because watching Steve squirm and freak out over prolly losing the crown and not being able to do anything about it cause he's Aja's brother is much better than any highschool dance crown

also the school 100% asks Krel to DJ future dances and events to save money, and Krel absolutely loves it

He would also definitely do the school play. Seeing how much he enjoyed being in Toby and Eli's short film, and again, he loves the attention, he would totally be down

Also it would just be another chance to mess with Steve to be the lead.

Because of this, Ms. Janeth would do another Shakespearean play, but do one of those modern renditions. Like it's the same play just in a modern setting, to take advantage of Krel's Akaridion form like they did with Jim's armor.

If not in the play he would do stage crew/tech.

Like he would create elaborate settings for them using A5 tech and Ms. Janeth would adore it

moving on, because home life is pretty lonely with just the Lucy and Ricky for company, Krel loves to host his friends for parties and sleepovers and whatever

and since Krel lives in the coolest house on the block, they love coming over

He hosts girl’s night every other week with Mary, Darci, and Clarie (becauuse she deserves a fucking break)

since we’ve all agreed that Krel is 100% a gaylien, I love the idea that he casually comes out during a girls night

like Mary would be like “So Krel, are there any girls you like?” and Krel’s just like, “*snort* Girls? Who ever said I like girls?” and the others are like “….....?“ and Krel just rolls his eyes and says "I like boys, ladies” and they’re like “ooooohhhh, okay. Cool.”

So now they spend girls night talking about boys. Claire and Darci about their mans and Mary and Krel about cute boys.

One day the girls give Krel a little rainbow pin and Krel’s just like “what’s this?” And the girls tell him that it’s an earth symbol for the gays and he’s like “theres a symbol for that here? I didnt think it was that big of a deal. On A5 it’s pretty normal” and the girls explain why theres a symbol and he’s like “oh shoot wow, thanks" and he put it on his backpack.

He’s pretty confused the first time someone is homophobic towards him cause like that kind if behavior doesnt happen on A5 and hes just like, “why does this bother you? I hardly know you” and just brushes it off. Its doesnt really bother him, mainly cause he doesnt know the earth insults towards gay people so he doesn’t even realize, but if the girls (or Toby, or even Steve, too) catch anyone being homophobic towards their friend they will attack that asshole on sight. Especially Mary and Steve

Random person on the street: Ha, *slur*

Marry: WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM BITCH???

Krel: Marry its fine, it’s not that big of a dealoHSEKLOSANDGAYLENMARYGETOFFOFHIM

Marry: SAY IT AGAIN ASSHAT, I D A R E YOU

Claire and Darci: *trying to hold Mary back* maRY NO

Steve: THATS MY NINJA KICKING SPACE ANGEL GIRLFRIEND'S BROTHER BUTTSNACK I'LL END YOU

Toby: *now chasing after Steve to stop him* stEVE NO

Mary would 100% find out who the rando is and destroy their life on social media. Like she would leak their job, phone number, email, school/college (if applicable) to her thousands of followers and absolutely ruin them with no remorse. And honestly, good for her

Also whilst on the subject, Krel can not drive or cook for 2 reasons: 1. Hes gay and 2. He’s a prince so he’s never had to do either before

Like he can obviously do math but that’s it.

Proof? That one scene in Wizards when Douxie had him drive the airship. You know the one.

Coach Lawrence refuses to get in a car with him at Drivers Ed after the 3rd day Krel shows up.

Krel gets addicted to sugary coffee shop-esc drinks thanks to Darci. Not coffee cause we saw in 3Below Part 1 that he doesnt like coffee, but refreshers, coolattas, frappuccinos etc…? Definitely.

As for warm drinks, he’s more of a tea person.

Moving on

He face calls Aja everyday because he really misses her

He tells her all about school and his friends and whatever and Aja tells him about the changes she’s making to the A5 government

Thanks to the wormhole they visit each other often. Sometimes Steve tags along cause he misses his ninja kicking space queen angel girlfriend. (And Eli, but that's also for another post)

They take turns housing Luug.

Krel genuinely loves it on earth, but he hates the primitive technology so he begs Aja to send him supplies and materials for his projects.

He would 10000% apply to HexTech for an after school job. Seeing his reaction to HT in Wizards and the fact that “Akaridion tech and magic are so compatible”, he would be the perfect addition to the HT staff.

The Wizards wouldn’t be sure at first but after he shows them A5 tech and Douxie’s email of recommendation about the time loop thing they made together, the wizards are like “oh yeah we definitely keeping this kid. This is going to be so much fun.”

Their inventions become more and more extravagant because Krel can and he's just extra and the wizards love it.

He would definitely find a way to use magic using A5 tech. But he would have to study magic in order to figure out how, so the wizards help him learn all about magic. And since he's learned everything there is to learn about science and technology and whatever, he's super excited to learn about something completely different and interesting. The wizards are happy to teach him. He would be the first Akaridion to learn and use magic

Like he would make his own staff with his serrator and everything. He's like "earn a staff? Nah fuck that going to make my own"

Speaking of which he really likes human swear words. But he doesnt know when it is and isn't inappropriate to say these swear words so he's gotten in trouble a few times for swearing at the wrong time

For example:

Ms. Janeth: excuse me Mr. Tarron?

Krel: what the fuck do you want?

Everyone in the room: krEL NO

Anyway, back to Krel at HT, thanks to Toby, he would definitely have a bowl of candy in his little lab. More like multiple jars of different candy just scattered around the room. Small candy like fun sized chocolate and skittles and jelly beans and whatever

And a mini fridge, of course.

Steve, Toby and Arrrgh come over to the lab alot to mess around.

Toby has a lot of sci-fi requests for Krel to make

Toby: do you think you can make a shrink ray? Laser blasters? Invisible ray? My own hoverboard? My own serrator *gASP* WITH A WARHAMMER SETTING???? WITH SPACE ARMOR TO MATCH???!!!???!

Krel: Toby you already have a warhammer and armor why do you need more?

Toby: I dont have a space warhammer and armor Krel!!!!!!

Going back to school life, I feel like Krel would take an interest in Spanish class. I mean, his human form is latino and in Trollhunters (I'm pretty sure the lightning in a bottle episode) he said "Si" in response to a question someone asked him, so I feel like he would like to learn another human language.

I also feel like he would just like to learn about Latin American culture in general since Mother gave him that form. He'd like to get in touch with his human self.

Claire (when she isnt busy Trollhunting with Jim and the gang) is happy help him learn about Latin American culture and help him with his Spanish.

Krel, being a fast learner, becomes fluent quickly with a perfect accent.

Señor Uhl, who already liked the Tarrons to begin with, would really appreciate this.

Claire's dad would also appreciate this.

Since he has such a fascination with human music, Krel would especially love Latin American music. Specifically reggaeton, since its kind of like techno music in a way and he already likes techno music.

And naturally, he learns to dance. All the styles of latin american dances. And he becomes quite the favorite on the dance floor.

He and Claire become great dance partners cause they both have the natural Latino rhythm and because Jim respects and trusts his girlfriend he doesnt mind them dancing together at parties and stuff

Although, Jim does ask for dance help at some point cause it looks like fun and he wants to dance with his beautiful talented incredible amazing gf and Krel is happy to teach him and anyone else who wants dance help.

GUITAR LESSONS with Douxie cause in 3Below Krel said he really wanted to learn how to play guitar, steals Shannon’s guitar from the bonfire and is seen multiple times strumming it throughout the series. So of course this is included.

Toby introduces Krel to YouTube and Krel instantly makes his own channel.

of course his channel is called DJ Kleb and he posts his tracks and remixes. and maybe even some vlogs

its a little slow at first, only Arcadia Oaks students are subscribed to it but Mary blows it up by posting one of Krel’s tracks on her own social media and now he has thousands of subscribers

he also gained other forms of social media like Instagram and Tiktok, platforms to post his music

At this point every girl in school wants to be friends with Krel but not in the toxic GBF (gay best friend) way, girls just genuinely think he's 10x more interesting than every other boy in Arcadia Oaks

I think that's it for now sorry this is really long I just really love Krel and I had so many ideas. Feel free to add on!!

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wallwriterstuff · 3 years

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Obsession ||Yandere!Alec Volturi x Female Reader|| Part 1

Warnings: Yandere!Alec, obsessive behaviour, unhealthy relationships and implied non-con later on. This is possibly one of the darkest fics I have ever written so please be aware if controlling behaviour, gaslighting etc. If this is triggering to you, do not read this fic. This and posts like this one will be tagged under dark themes so please feel free to block that tag if you do not want to see content like this in the future.

The following link will take you to a Citizen’s Advice Page that have resources regarding Domestic abuse and violence. They detail various organisations offering support, refuge and advice for both women and men in abusive situations, however these only apply to the UK.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/gender-violence/domestic-violence-and-abuse-getting-help/

I am from the UK and therefore am not sure about what resources may be available internationally, however I know many of you are from places outwith the UK. If you have any resources you know of that would be useful or helpful to add here then please do! You can reblog this post with link in or message me a link to have me edit it into the original. I will post this link and any that get added in all three parts of this fic that I post.

Words: 3116

Summary: A request for @tiger-khans-blog Savings your sister’s boyfriend was an act of kindness, something you had done out of the goodness of your heart, but hadn’t they always said the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Alec is aged up to 16 in this fic.

Part 2: When You’re Lost I’ll Leave My Gaslight On

Part 3: These Violent Delights

It had been near constant since you’d entered the room.

His eyes were the most piercing ruby red – until they weren’t. The onyx colour had followed you ever since you’d set foot in the throne room, a sharp inhale being the extent of his communication with you. If he wasn’t so damn creepy he might have been handsome, with his shock of dark hair framing a pale face with all the sharp, angular cheekbones and jawline of a model. He was taller to, definitely taller than you by at least half a head, but his stare was piercing and completely at odds with his otherwise apathetic expression. He showed no emotion at all yet the way he looked at you…it was like the whole world revolved around you and only you. There was hunger and excitement and need and envy and a whole host of other emotions in his eyes. It had made you so uncomfortable you’d gravitated towards Alice as best you could, but the whole plan had gone out of the window when the hulking mass of muscle they called Felix started towards your sister.

Isabella Swan was two years older than yourself, but for most of your life she had been the one taking care of you. Renée hadn’t planned on having a second child but like so many other things in her life, you were a complete accident. As loving as your mother was, she wasn’t necessarily fit to take care of one child, never mind two. Bella was the one who had helped with homework, who had crawled into your bed with you when you had nightmares or were sick. To see Felix coming straight for her was like something straight out of a nightmare and you’d moved without thinking. One minute you were facing the taunting smirk of a mountain man and the next the room had blurred, and your vision was filled with the furious stare of the boy who had been watching you all day.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed. His grip on the tops of your arms tight enough to bruise. You winced, wide eyes filling with tears, and in the next second the boy had released your arms and moved to tenderly cup your face. “Shhh, shhhh sh sh, it’ll all be over soon.” He promised, thumbs stroking your cheeks while you tried to squirm out of his grip. His eyes hardened, clearly unhappy with you trying to escape him. You could only see him, his face the only thing in your vision, but you could hear what sounded like rocks colliding, granite smashing. Your body trembled, anxiety filling you up. It wasn’t clear if the boy was more upset with your trying to get out of his grip than your interference with Bella’s execution, but those coal black eyes never lost their laser focus on you.

“Alec?” the petite blonde beside him sounded thoroughly confused while you fought off a shudder. You hated how his name sounded so appealing. Everything about him was enticing, even his scent, but he terrified you beyond belief with the way he was acting.

“Is it the noise? Would you prefer not to see? To hear?” he asked. In the next second it was all gone, like the world had fallen away around you. You couldn’t see, couldn’t hear; you were left screaming in your own head with absolutely no idea if you were still in that awful, awful room or if your soul had mercifully fled your body before you could feel any pain. There was simultaneously nothing and everything, an endless abyss of silence and the imprecise, ever-shifting image of what you thought you remembered the Volturi’s throne room to look like wavering in your head.

Being left alone with your imagination was somehow worse than seeing the actual thing. In your mind Bella was torn in half, one hand stretched towards you while the other remained in Felix’s grip. Alice was trapped by Demetri, Felix holding Edward by the throat. Then the scene would shift and Bella was limp in his arms with Felix’s mouth attached to her neck, both Cullen’s dead and Alec descending on you with that insane stare of his. There were too many ways to envision what mutilation might have occurred and you were beginning to drive yourself insane with them when suddenly the darkness faded.

You blinked rapidly, unsure if what you were seeing was real since it was so blurred. A gentle hand dabbed rough wool beneath your eye and you realised the world looked so watery because you had been crying. Alec used the sleeves of his jacket to dry your tears. Bella was watching you with horror filled eyes, your trembling body almost giving way as you fought the urge to run – you were sure Alec would just drag you back. You could feel his breath on the side of your face. He clearly didn’t understand the concept of personal space.

“Mesmerising, to see what you have seen before it has happened.” Aro murmured, stroking Alice’s hand before she pulled it back with a clearly forced smile.

“But what will.” She reminded him. He clapped his hands, looking so joyful you were left utterly paralysed with confusion. Did he not understand how terrifying this all was? Had he not seen the sheer crazy that was waiting to burst forth out of the boy holding you back? His behaviour was erratic, completely at odds with the rest of the refined and well disciplined Guard. How could Aro not see?

“Yes, yes it’s quite certain, you are free to leave.” Aro informed them. Your breath escaped you in a rush and you immediately tried to dash for your sister. Bella had opened her arms straight to you and the safe haven was so close, yet so far. Alec didn’t let you take a step, hauling you back against his chest and burying his nose in the crook of your neck, inhaling deeply.

“No you don’t, I’ve waited too long.” He grumbled. You struggled frantically, the tears springing to your eyes again as Caius tried to protest his brother’s decision. You had drawn the attention of most of the Guard and the man you knew to be Marcus by now though, the brunette king looking somewhat sympathetic towards you. For a man with no respect for human life to look at you like that could most certainly not be a good thing.

“What are you doing brother? Let the foolish thing go.” Jane said, reaching for his arm. His head snapped up, a growl rumbling through his chest into your spine. If looks could kill, you had no doubt the petite blonde would have burst into flame then and there, bursting into a thousand pieces with the intensity of the danger in his glare.

“Bella!” you whimpered. His hold was like having an iron beam wrapped around your torso, two strong arms refusing to let you move so much as an inch from his chest. It didn’t make sense, none of it did, why was he so obsessed with keeping you near? Did he want you dead? He couldn’t, he’d had plenty of chance to do so by now and hadn’t taken a single opportunity to hurt you on purpose. So what was his problem with you?

“Alec, dear one, is something the matter?” Aro asked, eyes glistening.

“Aro.” His brother held a hand out to him and the black haired leader flashed towards him while you continued to struggle, your frustration mounting.

“Let me go!” you cried, You stomped on his foot – nothing. You threw your elbow back into his ribs – nothing except a sore elbow for you. You tried to pry his arms away from your body – nothing.

“No.” he hissed. You squeezed your eyes shut.

“Let me go! Please! Let me go!” you begged.

“I said, no.” he repeated, his voice ice cold. Your heart rabbited in your chest, the nausea in your throat rising until you were sure you were on the verge of throwing up. You could barely breathe and it wasn’t just his tight grip that was the problem. There was a panic attack looming on the horizon for you if he kept this up.

“Please, let her go, she’s done nothing wrong. Aro said we were free to go.” Bella tried. She took a step towards you and with one swift jerk he had turned his back on her. You screamed, your limbs fatigued and losing strength with every hit.

“I’m afraid young Y/N will not be going home with you,” Aro’s voice was soft, “To separate them would clearly only cause harm. Alec cannot leave his mate.” You froze in his grip, fingers curling into the fabric of his jacket as you lip trembled. Mate? Mate? What the hell did that even mean? Animals mated, not humans! Was that what he was implying? The boy was so horny for you he wouldn’t let you leave? The fear that gripped you was utterly paralysing as you thought of a thousand different scenarios that made you want to be utterly sick with the horror of them; your choices taken from you, your voice inconsequential as he did things to you you never consented to.

“She’s my sister! Please, I’ve looked after her since she was born, you can’t just-“

“And from this day forth she’ll be looked after by me. She is mine.” Alec snarled quietly. He didn’t seem to notice you’d gone completely rigid in his grip.

“Alec her father will be devastated, she hasn’t even finished school, if you keep her here you’ll just make her unhappy.” Edward tried to reason with him, but he merely tightened his grip on you. You cried out, a sharp pain ripping through your midriff as he almost choked the life from you. The blonde-haired Guard appeared in your line of sight then, his expression somewhat concerned as you struggled to force air into your lungs. If Alec could hear you rasping for air he didn’t show it.

“Alec, old friend look at her,” he coaxed. Alec had done plenty of looking at you, you didn’t want him to look anymore. You shied away from his gaze, head ducking and hair falling between you. Shuddering gasps escaped you as your heart began to roar in your ears, a sure sign there wasn’t enough oxygen getting into your lungs. One arm moved from around your waist but you were too scared to move away from him now, his freezing cold fingers gently brushing your hair back. You flinched.

“She’s mine, Demetri.” He insisted, frowning like a petulant child who was being threatened with their favourite toy being taken from them. Demetri nodded his head.

“She is, and yet she flinches from you. You are scaring her Alec, and she will most definitely bruise if you keep holding her so tight, that’s I she doesn’t suffocate first. Do you want that for your mate? Do you wish to hurt her? To make her fear you?” he questioned. Alec gave a soft wince, immediately loosening his grip.

“I’ve hurt you?” he asked, looking a lot like a wounded puppy now. You swallowed past the lump in your throat, not trusting your voice to remain steady and simply nodding in response. His eyes were still wide with conflicting emotion, but Demetri seemed to be getting through to him at least. You were grateful, and pleaded with your eyes for the man to keep going.

“You cannot simply claim her Alec, she is so young still, would you not prefer her to live a full life and come to you willingly?” Demetri wondered. You felt your stomach drop as Alec’s expression hardened.

“You’re trying to take her from me to.” he growled.

“Alec you are-“

“She, is, not, leaving!” he snarled, a sea of black exploding around him. Your eyes widened, a cool mist swirling about your legs as you finally managed to stumble away from him. Only Bella was still standing, the others having crumpled to the floor until only he, you and Bella remained conscious.

“Y/N!” she cried out. He didn’t stop you running to her this time. You stumbled into her arms, sobbing and shaking. She held you tight to her, her fingers pressing harshly into her skin. It felt like butterfly wings caressing your flesh compared to Alec’s vice like grip. “It’s okay, we’ll figure this out, it’ll be okay, you just have to-“

“Make this quick, say goodbye to your sister. That’s what you want isn’t it? A proper goodbye?” Alec asked, mist still pouring from his hands as his black eyes followed your every move. You shook your head frantically.

“I don’t want to say goodbye, I want to go home! Let me go home!” you begged. Alec hissed.

“What don’t you understand? You are my mate! I’ve waited a thousand years for you, you are mine and you cannot walk away from me!” he snapped. Bella tried to hush you, stroking your hair gently as you collapsed into her.

“Please don’t let him keep me here.” You cried. Bella remained silent, horribly, startlingly silent. Her hands shook as she held you close. Alec approached you, the mist seemingly absorbing back into his body as he walked. The room was in an uproar as soon as everyone was on their feet again, Felix and Demetri forcing him to his knees with furious expressions. He still never took his eyes off of you, his expression devoid of any and all emotion suddenly.

“Are you insane Alec? Using your gift on us? We’re trying to help you!”

“How could you brother? You broke our promise and for a human no less!”

“What insolence is this? Need we remind you of your place boy!”

Alec didn’t respond to any of the accusations, his neck straining so he could keep his eyes on you. Aro only had to touch his hand to know his intentions for you, but you didn’t dare look anymore, choosing instead to bury your face in your sister’s neck as you struggled to calm your breathing and sobbing.

“I would advise you leave now.” Felix huffed.

“We can’t,” Edward’s voice was quiet, apologetic, “Y/N, if we take you, he’ll destroy us all.” Your chest constricted, you felt like you could barely breathe as a lead weight settled in your gut. Destroy them? Alec was a killer, if the red eyes hadn’t told you so then his actions just now had. It wasn’t difficult at all to believe he’d go so far as to kill anyone who stood between you both, but what hurt even more was that you didn’t trust him to be good to you if you stayed either. Why did it have to be you? You’d come to Volterra to do something good, to save someone’s life! So why were you losing yours?

“You ought think on your actions Alec, your mate will be here waiting for you, but for now you need some time to reflect on your position. I think two weeks in the dungeons ought to suffice.” Aro’s voice was ice cold, his fury obvious. Clearly, he had never thought one of his own guard would dare use his powers against him.

“You monster! You fucking monster! Edward I can’t leave her here, she’s my baby sister!” Bella protested. You tightened your grip on her shirt, eyes itchy red and cheeks wet as the terrible weight of hopelessness sank down on your chest. There was no way out. Even if they had tricked Alec and let you leave what then? Did you run from him for the rest of your life? Did you just wait for him to find you? Maybe the dungeon might mellow him out some? It was a bit of a relief really, when the stress just shut your brain and body down, even if the moment of relief was as brief as blinking.

You could almost pretend nothing had ever happened, that perhaps you were at home, as your consciousness dripped back into you. You were on soft sheets, your pillow cradling your head, and you wanted to just burrow away in them. The only thing was, you could feel sunlight warming your skin, and that addictive, woodsy smell was not the lavender your laundry usually came out smelling like. You felt awfully nauseous for a moment when you opened your eyes, your body readjusting to having your brain in control once more, but the red eyes that met yours were far kinder this time than Alec’s aggressively territorial stare. The chestnut brown hair and angular face was familiar to you, and you warily sat up to lean back against the headboard. Demetri let you put the distance between you with an aura of calm that tempted you to relax to. He was alone, no Felix or Jane by his side, but that didn’t mean he was any less dangerous.

“Where’s Bella?” you whispered. She had to be somewhere nearby. Maybe she was in the bathroom? Or had gone to find food and drink? How long had you even been out? Whose room was this?

“She and the Cullen’s departed for their return flight to America not an hour ago.” Demetri informed you. Your stomach dropped, your nausea rising and face paling.

“No…no she – she didn’t leave me here, she didn’t….you’re lying!” Knees curling to your chest, you gripped tightly at your jeans until your knuckles turned as white as your face.

“Not without protest,” he assured you, his voice softer now with sympathy, “But it seems Alec has become unpredictable. His reaction to the mate pull unnerved us all, you are not alone in your fear, though perhaps we fear different things.” His voice was soothing in a way not much else to you was right now. Thoughts swirled in your mind, the bitterness at your abandonment only outweighed by terror at being left behind.

“What is he going to do to me?” you asked, your voice barely more audible than a whisper. Demetri’s head tilted.

“And that is why I am afraid…I truly cannot tell you.” He murmured. He didn’t exactly comfort you when the tears came again, your eyes beyond irritated with all the crying you’d done today, but he didn’t stop you from letting your emotions run away from you instead. He remained close enough to remind you you weren’t alone, but Demetri didn’t hold you as Bella would, or stroke your hair or do anything remotely soothing. His greatest gift to you in that moment was to simply let you be human.

You didn’t know how long that would last.

#twilight #twilight fanfiction #yandere alec #alec volturi #alec volturi x female reader #demetri volturi #felix volturi #jane volturi #request #volturi #dark themes

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scintillatingshortgirl19 · 3 years

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Loki Episode 2 Thoughts (Finally)

I’m extremely late here but wanted to post this anyway - just some thoughts and reactions I had while watching episode 2.

I loved how playful he is when he's trying to hit Miss Minutes with the magazine - he does that look over his shoulder to make sure no one's watching, and I ADORE the little excited thing his eyes do when he's trying to swat her - there's something kind of cat-chasing-a-laser about it. Very, very cute.

Magic nerd Loki! Gotta love a confirmed headcanon.

And I like that this episode also confirmed my headcanons that Loki might slack off when he's not engaged or interested, or considers something unimportant (didn't watch all the propaganda training vids, wasn't interested in Miss Minutes' questions), but is an incredibly focused and hard worker when he's invested in what he's doing.

Tom has talked a lot in interviews about Loki's initial motivation being to find out what's going on, to understand the TVA and how it works, and just generally satisfy his curiosity. It was cool to see that play out and I love Loki's overall curious attitude.

I do like that they're being open about the fact that Mobius is using Loki, and not pretending that Mobius is some kind of perfect angel - Mobius talked about the two options for to explain why he's sticking his neck out for Loki (feeling sympathy for a scared little boy or saying whatever he needs to to get Loki to help him) and it absolutely seems like it's both. I like the way their relationship is developing so far.

Tears again! Not as much as in episode 1, but still good. Two episodes in and we've gotten tears in both - let's keep up this momentum guys (tears in every episode would be lovely, please and thank you)

Is...is someone going to tell Loki that he actually saved a whole bunch of Asgardians?? That his destroying Asgard was a heroic moment and not a villainous one? Did he read about that in the file or does he think he just up and destroyed his home planet a few years after he attacked New York? I just want him to know that that was a heroic moment for him and not a villainous one.

If Loki doesn't get to try candy and Mobius doesn't get to ride a jetski, I'm going to be very disappointed (I mean seriously the jetski thing did feel like foreshadowing, and I just NEED confirmation of Loki's sweet tooth. I NEED IT). And somebody please show Casey a fish.

Speaking of which, I was rather disappointed by the lack of Casey. As fun as the brief exchange was, I was really hoping for another actual scene with the two of them, even a short one. Maybe in a future episode?

Loki being an absolute dork while demonstrating with Mobius' salad was adorable. He’s so proud of himself and I love him.

Still not a fan of the “stabbed people in the back 50 times” line, but something I do really like comes a few seconds later - Mobius’ laugh. I get the feeling people aren't usually amused by Loki. If they're laughing during a conversation with him it's probably at him and not with him - but when Mobius laughs in this scene, it’s because he seemed to genuinely find Loki amusing and endearing.

At first I thought the way Loki acted in Pompeii was ooc, and while it is pretty over the top, I feel like that can be explained by a combination of it being a performance (he's trying to be as dramatic as possible in order to test his theory) and the fact that he's trying to distract himself from finding out about Ragnarok. And I loved Loki's frustration with Mobius’ suggestion to make bird noises. In terms of Loki’s behavior/attitude in that scene, a lot of how I feel was explained in this post by @iamanartichoke.

Sleeping Loki!!! Outstanding, beautiful, 10000/10

I loved how proud Loki was of doing a good job. Please give my boy all the validation.

And I love that this episode showcases how smart Loki is! Not just mentions it, but actually shows Loki being the one to figure things out and solve problems.

LET MY BOY HAVE HIS KNIVES

Multiple hair flips! Excellent!

I genuinely don't know what Loki's actual plans are at this point - obviously he wants to be free of the TVA and not get erased from existence, but I don’t know if he was telling Sylvie the truth about specifically wanting to overthrow the TVA, or he was lying, or if (most likely) it's some combination of those.

Sylvie seems cool but I’m really hoping she’s the enchantress and not Lady Loki, partly because I am just really really not into the idea of any version of Loki being blonde. Why.

It'll be really interesting to see what the tone of episode 3 is like. With the way this episode ended, I imagine the next one will be a little less lighthearted.

I think I’ll make a separate post about this, but I thought it was good that they verbally mentioned Loki being Jotun. This tells me they're at least not forgetting about it, but it also makes me worried that this is as far as they’re going to go. I’m going to be disappointed if they don't at least do a tiny bit to address Loki's internalized racism. Especially with the cast and crew talking about how the theme of the show is identity, it would fit incredibly well from a story perspective and would be a strange thing to leave out, considering how central it is to Loki's identity and how it’s one of the parts of him that has had the greatest impact on his life.

Tagging a few people since I’m posting this so long after the episode aired: @delyth88 @thelightofthingshopedfor @iamanartichoke

#loki tv series #loki spoilers #the variant

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thesnowinthemountains · 4 years

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NCT 127’s First Time Saying I Love You

(a/n: 1. i wrote a good half of these drunk, so apologies for the excessive fluff 2. i didnt know i was whipped for mark until i wrote that okay im sorry 3. i nearly threw my laptop out the window trying to post this please love it)

Taeil

You were sitting across from each other at the small dinner table in your apartment’s kitchen - the only one you could afford for the time being. There was barely enough space for two plates and glasses, but neither of you seemed to mind the proximity, and Taeil kept staring at you, which distracted you anyway. “What is it?” You asked for the millionth time. “Nothing, nothing,” he replied calmly, going back to his food, but just pushing it around his plate. Not a minute passed before he did it again. You swallowed a bite of food, sighed, and calmly put your fork down. “Taeil, what?” You asked, sharper this time. He smiled to himself and took a second before looking at you. “Your eyes are a really nice color.” He said, failing to hide a mocking smile. You frowned. “Why are you laughing?” You were just confused at this point. “I don’t know how to do this, just-” he breathed, gathering himself. “I love you.” Now you blushed, looking down. “I love you too,” you mumbled.

Johnny

You came home from a long day of work, swearing to yourself you were going to quit. You needed to, your current job was starting to get to your head and affect your moods. You slammed the door on your way in, tossed your bag aside and launched yourself into the couch. You let out a long groan and a few seconds later, Johnny’s voice came from the hallway. “Long day?” he laughed, settling himself in the space next to you so you could lay your head in his lap. “God, you have no idea,” you sighed. You sat together quietly for a while, him playing with your hair until you were almost asleep in his lap. He let out a pensive hum. “What?” You murmured, eyes closed. “I love you,” he said simply, like it was a fact he just read online. “You just made my day,” you laughed softly.

Taeyong

You couldn’t remember what you had said, but he had smiled, his eyes bright, and you just knew. It was easy. He was so easy to fall in love with, easy to be around, your whole relationship was easy and fun. You were in a perfect space. He got excited about ducklings, and made little noises to himself when he cooked. He cooked. He liked big sweaters, and you liked borrowing them; they smelled like him. You liked to sleep in his bed, too, liked waking up surrounded with everything that was him and about him. It was a little while later and you couldn’t hold it in any longer, afraid your heart might just burst if you did. “I love you,” you said it heavily, like it had been weighing on you and just the mere action of putting it out into the world would heal you of all your ailments. “I love you too,” he smiled over the pot on the stove in front of him. You revelled in the domesticity of it, ready to pause this moment and never let it go.

Yuta

You and Yuta had met through mutual friends, ones he played soccer with, and ones you were in various classes with. You were at a study group with them one evening, going over notes from the past week’s classes, trying to gather information for an upcoming midterm essay you were dreading. One of their phones rang. “Hey, Yuta, what’s up?” You didn’t want to eavesdrop on the conversation, but your ears perked up on their own. “Study group. Yeah, she’s here, you wanna talk to her?” Your friend now looked at you from across the desk. He handed you his phone, but mumbled a quick: “Keep it short.” “Hey,” you spoke into the phone after pulling your tongue at your friend. “Hey, I was just thinking about you.” You heard the smile in Yuta’s voice. You smiled in return. “Oh?” “Yeah, I was just thinking I love you. You know, if you’re, uh... into that.” You could hear him shuffling with something on his end, and he was not a nervous person, but you could tell he was trying hard to be casual. “I see,” you decided to toy with him. “Well, then.” “Well, what?” The shuffling stopped. You hummed loudly, like you were thinking something over. He sighed. “Fine, fine, I love you too,” you smiled down at your notes before your friend snatched his phone back from your hand. “That’s enough of that,” he spoke into the phone, but looked at you, addressing you both. You pouted at him but a smile quickly crept back on your face.

Doyoung

This was to be the dinner during which you would introduce Doyoung to some friends of yours to test the waters, see how he would get along, see if they liked him. It was a work dinner, relatively casual, where some of your favorite coworkers were joking among themselves, and poking fun at other people around the table. You were in the younger ones, the newer hires, so you, Doyoung, and a handful of work friends sat at the farthest edge of the table. Doyoung was chatting away with a girl he didn’t seem to realize was in fact a close friend of yours. He looked away for a moment and she flashed you a thumbs up, and an impressed look. You smiled to yourself, happy to have the stamp of approval. “What’s so funny?” Doyoung focused all his attention on you now. You laughed to yourself quietly before meeting his eyes. “I love you,” you cocked your head. He blushed, but grabbed your hand under the table. “I love you too,” he kissed the side of your head, going back to his conversation. There was no helping your lovestruck smile, and a friend of yours across the table made fun of you for it, but you couldn’t be bothered to care.

Jaehyun

You were getting ready for bed, brushing your teeth, washing your face, doing all the final things of the day, when Jaehyun leaned into the bathroom’s door frame. He was just watching you, and when you eventually looked back at him, he looked down. You went back to what you were doing, and he walked up behind you, moving your hair out of the way to kiss your neck. “What’s up?” You giggled. “I love you,” he mumbled against your neck before looking at you through the mirror again. Eyes wide, you turned to face him. He looked down at you, not saying anything. “Well, I love you too, then.” You laughed, pulling him into a kiss.

Winwin

It was late, you knew it, but you and Winwin were huddled together under a big cozy blanket on the couch watching episode after episode of your current favorite show. You had noticed him dozing off time and again, waking himself up with a start each time. You didn’t want to disrupt him, but there was an important scene involving his favorite character, so you lightly shook him awake, his head coming up from your chest and his eyes opening slowly. He looked somehow like both a puppy and an angel and you couldn’t believe you got to see him in moments like these. At that point, you had forgotten why you had woken him up in the first place, and the television was just background noise. “I love you,” you breathed, and your heartbeat sped up almost instantly. He smiled a small, happy smile. “I love you too,” he whispered, laying his head back on your chest, eyes closed.

Jungwoo

You were taking a walk around the neighbourhood. It was a perfect day, the sun shining but just enough of a chill to entice you to wear your favorite sweater. He was commenting on the surroundings, making silly jokes and getting giggles out of you. In the midst of his narration of your environment - the houses and cars and the little lives of the little people in all of them, their fun names and jobs and hobbies - he cut himself off. “I love you,” he said hurriedly before going back to his antics. “What?” You laughed. “What?” He looked at you innocently. “Oh, what, the “I love you”? Yeah.” He shrugged. “Is that a big surprise?” “No, I guess not,” you acquiesced, “I love you too, though.” You elbowed him playfully. “Well, good, I hope so! You’d better!” He exclaimed, then smiled to himself.

Mark

You had found that loving Mark came in stages. First, you picked up little habits he had - none too specific, but you took notice and would smile to yourself. Then, you would go out of your way to make him laugh, because the sun shone in his eyes when he did. It went on like this until you finally admitted to yourself that you were in love with him, this cute dorky guy with the weird ears and sweet smile. You never said anything, and you figured if you ever did, things would get awkward and eventually your friendship might phase out, which was worse than pretending you felt nothing at all. One night, though, the two of you were in the middle of playing video games when you made a joke that had him doubled over in laughter. “Fuck, I love you!” He exclaimed through his laughter before getting very serious very fast. “Oh, I- I mean the- the- I- uh...” he stammered on like this until he noticed the look on your face. “What?” He eventually asked, startled by his own words and your wide eyes. “I wouldn’t be mad if you did,” you said quietly, in what was probably the most serious tone you’d ever used around him. “Love me, I mean.” He stared at you, giggled, and got this big, stupid grin on his face. You thanked all your lucky stars and every light in the universe for allowing him into existence, into your life, and allowing him to feel for you as you did for him.

Haechan

You had gone to laser tag with friends, and you had made him swear he wouldn’t somehow cheat, or eliminate you in some snide way. Ultimately, you knew perfectly well that he was the sort of boy who played dirty or not at all, so when he snuck up behind you and you heard the loud sounds of your elimination, you were mildly annoyed, but not surprised. You turned to stare at him, mouth open in mock offense. “Haechan!” You cried. “It’s the game, don’t blame the player,” he held his hands up innocently. You fumed, sticking your tongue in your cheek to stop from snapping back. You moved to catch him and he ran away. “I love you?” he called back, his laughter echoing, while you sighed and returned to your team’s home base.

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gumnut-logic · 4 years

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youtube

Coffee

This is @godsliltippy ‘s fault because she was so kind to me and posted Pocket Virgil to help me through the day. Above is the original three clips, of which Pocket Virgil is part of Clip Two. After watching Pocket Virgil try again and again with no success, I kinda wanted to help him, so this fic happened.

Total meta crack, that really didn’t go anywhere, but hopefully will be fun nonetheless. Certain laws of both physics and worldbuilding were totally ignored, so there may be some brain frying concept-wise.

This is for Thunderfam and for all the kindness you continue to bestow upon me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You guys are amazing. ::hugs you all::

Leave sense at the door. I hope you enjoy it :D

-o-o-o-

Virgil Tracy was grumpy.

He knew this idea was good an all and he fully supported Lady Penelope when she suggested they document some of their rescues for the general public.

But not once...not once! Did she mention that he would be dragged out of bed before the sun, thrown on a set to perform, and the only coffee they would provide would be thimble-sized, consequently cold and allocated to break times.

At the moment, ‘break’ was definitely a keyword. Sans coffee, Virgil Tracy was quite ready to do something of the kind to the director.

“Now, Virgil, I know you’re tired, but you are the calm brother, the respected peacemaker of the family. Snarling at the camera isn’t quite in character.”

In character? He was playing himself, for goodness sake. He was in character, character sans coffee! Across the studio, he eyed the Tracy villa swimming pool and wondered if there was a possibility of filling it with coffee.

“Can we try again?”

Virgil grunted at the director. Bet he had had his coffee. Bet he was allowed to access that wondrous machine up so high on that shelf. Bet he hadn’t given one thought to how his precious Tracys might feel about the matter.

Yeah, Virgil Tracy was not in a very good mood at all.

The director stood up from the set and stepped away to be half hidden by the camera again.

Virgil lowered Two’s hatch and climbed aboard. All prepared to launch Two with a smile.

He grit his teeth.

Backing her up into her hangar again, he closed the cliff face and waited for the call.

“Action!”

Practised fingers went through their motions and Two cruised out onto her runway under the fake sunlight.

A poke at a control and the palm trees moved aside...not quite the way they did at home, but well enough...and Two taxied towards her ramp.

“Cut!”

Oh, for the love of...what now?!

“Virgil, you are grinding your teeth. I would say we could mute it in post, but you look like you want to kill someone. You’re the valiant hero, the gentle giant, not Hannibal Lecter daydreaming about dinner!” Virgil stared up at him through the windows. Usually, Virgil would be mortified, but it was barely past 7am, he had been up late for a real rescue last night, hadn’t slept well, and there was no damned coffee!

The director stared at him a moment longer before throwing up his hands. “Okay, you know what? Take fifteen, go find some coffee, for all our sakes.” He ended that with a glare and turned away calling the crew to a halt.

Virgil sat there staring at the replica of his ‘bird’s controls. He had been in the real thing last night. Saved sixteen lives.

He was just tired and not really being fair to anyone, including himself.

He just wanted coffee. Please, I just need coffee.

If his inner voice sounded like a dehydrated man in a desert pleading for water, it was just being honest.

The thing was that the crew had coffee. In that machine on the shelf. Sure, the cup was bigger than he was, but it might be just enough to put his brain to rights.

But he couldn’t reach the button to activate it. In fact, the one time he had tried, some smart ass on set had filmed him jumping up, trying to reach it. It had made the rounds until it hit Gordon, who then promptly made sure the rest of the world had the opportunity to enjoy laughing at his brother.

But then Gordon still didn’t know who poured dye in his pool...while he was in it.

The full body make-up his brother had to wear that day to hide the purple was almost worth it.

But coffee...god, he needed coffee. If only he could extend his reach. If only he could grip the cup...

Virgil blinked.

The solution was obvious. Oh my god. He felt like kicking himself for not thinking of it before. You idiot!

There was one piece of equipment he had brought on set that wasn’t fake.

It was here for two reasons. The first was that it was built for Virgil, only he could wear it and it was cheaper to just wear the real thing than to build a poorly functional duplicate. Secondly, Virgil preferred to have one on hand as often as possible, just in case, and since they had been spending so much time in Aotearoa on set, he had stashed one with the lead model maker for safe keeping.

He exited the fake Two and leapt out onto the runway. The fact that one of the set hands saw him and immediately made herself scarce was kind of depressing. He had been a grumpy bear this morning.

But that was all about to be solved.

He eyed the director and, making sure the man wasn’t looking, grabbed one of the discarded thimble-sized coffee cups and slipped away towards prop storage.

It was a hike and he had to dodge wheels and staff who didn’t see him. Those who did all immediately looked at their watches and, just like the set hand earlier, hurried out of his sight.

Maybe he was beginning to get a reputation.

Serve them right for not giving him coffee!

He found his helmet and his exosuit exactly where he expected them to be. Some neurotic librarian type had attached a huge name tag with a barcode onto it.

Virgil’s shoulder mounted laser took care of that.

It was almost comforting to slide on the equipment. The surety of its strength settling on his shoulders, its weight snug at his hips and ankles.

He sighed.

Of course, that one moment of relaxation was interrupted by Steven, the lead model maker, suddenly bursting into the room.

“I don’t know, Scott. That sounds kind of dangerous. The real Thunderbird One might be able to handle you surfing it, but I’m not too sure of the mockups.”

“I’ll talk to Brains. We’ll make it happen.”

“Why are you feeling the need to surf on the outside anyway?”

“Because it looks cool?” Scott cleared his throat. “Ah, because that is what happened during the incident we are portraying and accuracy is important.”

Virgil hunched down behind a scarily accurate model of that moon buggy Scott was always raving about. He dared not move because the wheeze of the suit’s hydraulics was far too familiar a sound to hide from his brother.

But then, since Scott was buzzing around at Steven’s eye height thanks to one of his jetpacks, his older brother really didn’t have a single leg to stand on.

Mostly because he apparently didn’t need them.

Virgil found himself grinding his teeth again.

He really needed coffee.

“You actually surfed on the outside of Thunderbird One?”

“Well, yeah.”

“That is so cool, man.”

“That’s what I said!”

Steven reached past Virgil’s hiding spot and picked up one of the fake explorer pods and Virgil remembered that he was supposed to clamber up the side of an equally fake mountain later in the morning.

Hell, coffee was mandatory.

Fortunately, Steven appeared to have everything he needed and both he and Scott left almost immediately after that, Scott coming as close to raving as Virgil had ever heard him, babbling about surfing on One.

Sounded about right. Scott and Alan might as well have been twins if it wasn’t for their age difference.

They both gave Virgil grey hair.

But then so did Gordon.

John was easier, cool and calm and sensible most of the time. But that just meant that when he did slide off the rails, he did a proper job of it, likely taking most of them with him.

Hmmm, must remember to grab some more hair dye on the way home tonight.

With the coast clear, he secured his thimble cup to his suit and made a run for it.

He made it across the floor to the blessed coffee machine without interruption this time, though he had to admit, his suit was much noisier than he had realised. But a good percentage of the crew were focused on that scene Scott was filming.

He could still hear his brother declaring that he knew his stunts better than any stunt man.

Virgil had to agree. If anyone was capable of surfing Thunderbird One, it was Scott.

The idiot.

Now, not only was he doing stupid stunts to save people, but now just to show off.

Virgil had a good mind to kick his ass. He was as bad as Alan.

No, correction. Alan wasn’t that stupid.

Virgil found himself taking a step in his big brother’s direction and it was only the wheeze of his suit that made him realise exactly what he was doing.

Coffee, goddamnit, he needed coffee!

Without a second thought, he fired a grapple line up to the bench top and was gratified it secured with a thunk. Pulling himself up with the right equipment was so much more efficient than the equivalent pseudo rock climbing he had had to do last time.

Before he knew it, he was up there standing next to the huge dispenser of coffee. He gazed up at it for a moment and blessed its existence.

But unfortunately, Sadie who had been kind enough to set it up for him last time wasn’t available.

Hell, if his assistant hadn’t been called away at the last minute, he would have gotten his coffee that day. As it was, the director had found out about the incident when Virgil arrived late on set and had given Sadie a dressing down that involved images of Tracy brothers falling into giant vats of coffee and being boiled alive.

As if Virgil would be that stupid.

Boiling himself would be such a waste of good coffee.

But there were no more attempts at giant coffees for Virgil Tracy from that point on. It was banned.

So, this time, he had to set it up himself.

He was consequently reassured that yes, he was really good with his tools. The suit hummed in appreciation as he made it do what he needed it to do and despite dropping coffee granules all over himself at one point – he was considering eating them off the counter, but then considered that a caffeine overdose wasn’t wise – he set up the machine ready to dispense some black heaven.

The teacup he had used last time had been pushed away to one side, but his exosuit made it a simple job to manipulate it into position so he could stand on it.

With the extension of his claw, he easily reached up and hit the green button.

It was a pleasure just to hear the coffee machine start up.

He was seriously tempted to take off his helmet and breathe in the gloriousness that was the scent of brewing coffee, but he still had to get that coffee cup into a position from which it would be safe for him to drink.

He may be coffee and sleep deprived but he wasn’t an idiot.

So, he stood there watching the coffee machine make the drink of the gods.

It was a little mesmerising.

And then the process was complete. The machinery quietened and the coffee cup sat waiting for him.

He didn’t hesitate.

It took both claws and a secure grapple to the shelf above the bench for stability, but he manoeuvred the cup down onto the bench top.

Steam fogged up his helmet as he looked down from atop the upturned teacup, so finally, he broke the seals and lifted it off his head.

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

He almost melted on the spot.

The smell was heady, intoxicating. Drowning in the dark liquid no longer seemed a bad idea.

He leant over a little further.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, it was just too good.

“Virgil! What the hell do you think you are doing?!”

It was Scott’s voice. Unmistakeable.

He would want to take away his coffee.

No.

No!

Not his precious coffee!

His brother flew up onto the bench and alighted without a sound. “Virgil!”

Virgil hissed at him. “Go away.”

That earned him a worried frown. “That’s not safe.”

Screw safe, he wanted coffee. He unhooked his thimble cup from his waist and reaching down, scooped up some blessed, steaming liquid manna.

It was hot.

It was delicious.

He poured it down his throat.

Oh, god, yessssss.

Another scoop and he sculled some more. His tongue scalded a little, but he didn’t care.

More.

He was guzzling like a dying man at water filled oasis.

“Virgil?”

“Virgil!”

And suddenly the coffee cup disappeared.

No, no, no, no, no, no!

He over balanced and would have fallen if it wasn’t for a sudden thunk of a grapple on the back of his suit.

He looked up to find Scott securing his grapple line to a coffee cup hook underneath the overhead shelf as Virgil teetered on the edge of his teacup, barely prevented from falling by the cable’s connection to his suit.

And there was no more coffee.

No.

Please.

“I need coffee.”

Scott floated down to Virgil’s eye level and Virgil realised exactly who had taken the coffee cup away.

The director was standing behind his big brother.

Virgil was in so much shit.

Damnit.

“I just want coffee.”

Scott was frowning at him. “Are you okay, Virgil?”

“DO I LOOK OKAY?!”

Um, that may have come out a little bit louder than intended. But then he was hanging partly suspended from an empty coffee cup hook.

Much quieter. “I just need coffee.”

Scott’s eyes were wide. “I think you’ve had enough coffee.”

No, he needed more. Buckets more. “Please, Scott.”

“Uh, no. We’re going home.”

Virgil blinked. “What?”

But Scott had turned away and was talking quietly to the director.

Virgil caught a glimpse of something shiny out the corner of his eye and turned to find a single drop of deep brown gold suspended from the coffee dispenser.

Coffee!

Without thought he leapt for it.

Perhaps it was a good thing that Scott actually did think, because a yank on that grapple line probably prevented Virgil from being scalded.

“What the hell, Virg?!”

He blinked as he hung fully suspended by his brother’s grapple line, swinging slowly back and forth, one very unhappy commander glaring at him.

Umm, yeah, maybe that was taking it a step too far.

Scott’s words were firm. “Shed the suit and go and sit in the car.”

“Sco-“

“Now.” Blue fire lasered him where he hung.

Virgil gave in with a single nod.

Scott lowered him to the bench top and Virgil dropped the suit with a clatter. He stomped off in a huff as Sadie was called over the PA system to come and assist him.

He only wanted a decent coffee, for crying out loud.

After all, Gordon did get that massive hot dog the other day, and John had slept in his bagel, for goodness sake.

Why couldn’t he have his coffee?

It just wasn’t fair.

-o-o-o-

FIN.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Virgil Tracy #Scott Tracy #crazy meta #meta crack #meta #nutty is nuts #he just wants coffee

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liyuesbian · 3 years

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AAAA kokomi quest time :>

same here I thought it was a pretty solid quest overall!! agree that the first half was kinda eh because she just felt too Nice about everything, a little too willing to help people instead of saying "i have some stuff to prepare and am not available rn" (when the Watatsumi citizens were crowding around Traveler and her, I had flashbacks to Barbara's hangout event rip). but the second half got better thankfully. I think even though there's no morally gray kokomi, they still gave her character some flair that's different from before? like you said, the thing where she's forced by heritage to be the divine priestess but doesn't actually want to; i quite liked that, since although she's emotionally drained from her job, she's not like Jean or other characters that sacrifice themselves because they truly like their job and want to help people in that way. kokomi helps people out of obligation and would much rather be doing military strategizing and i love that for her. I want her to be a bit more selfish too, even if it's not in a villainous kind of way; perhaps a scenario where she pulls a xingqiu and just becomes a military strategist/general instead of the job she inherited (actually her and xq would be really interesting together, even if xingqiu doesn't reveal that he's the legend of sword author lol). somehow she gives me only child vibes hahsdjfs

agree!! when she said "it would be so nice if all my work could do itself" I Felt that :') her moments of childishness are very endearing 😌

YEAH the war was finally addressed in some capacity and the Not All Is Well mood, especially the mixed opinions in Watatsumi among both civilians and the soldiers. also agree that the npc opinions were very good and it's nice that some of them are dissatisfied for different reasons, like that old woman you mentioned talking about Watatsumi's god vs the soldier's grievances against the Tenryou Commission! It's not just quietly resolved and that's way better than how the ei quest went hsdfjs. I also loved kokomi's and sara's scene hsdjfsd I was surprised but thankful they actually showed them negotiating the treaty terms instead of just doing a cutscene and illustrating that kokomi (and sara) are good diplomats and know their stuff. they need to put their brains on display more. the quest is also warming me up to kokosara lol

it's fine villain kokomi lives on in our hearts (or in aus lmao)

also expand on kokomi and hu tao? o-o they sound interesting

-mystic

OH YEAH i forgot about barbara's hangout event !

mhm my thoughts exactly. omg i never thought about that.. her and xingqiu would make such great friends! the indirect interaction through his book ties everything together well too :O i'm thinking the whole author-book lover dynamic ajiodfsfiadjn kokomi gushing over her favourite author, [xingqiu's pseudonym]. OR maybe a modern au where kkm is xq's editor?! OR her as a super fan and beta reader?! honestly, kkm and xq are one of my favourite characters so far and it'd rly make me happy to see them interacting 😭 OH did u happen to see this fanart of the hydro gang in a book club? (while i was trying to find the link to the post, i also found this gem! AHHH they're both so cute!)

they rly are!

yep yep haha O I FORGOT 2 TALK ABT THAT KOKOSARA MOMENT !!! i agree, that scene showed us all that kkm is very much capable in doing her job despite it not being her first choice in career.

yes (!!! hmm this is giving me ideas for kokosara angst hc.. after the negotiations are over and peace has somewhat returned between both sides, kkm stabs them in the back, sara hurt by the betrayal and kkm seemingly cold-hearted and stern-faced, unaffected by the situation saying it was all necessary as the divine priestess, the current heiress of sanganomiya, to carry out the will of her ancestors and to sustain the protection of her people in watatsumi but deep down she knows she doesn't want to do this (the same canon wanting to stray away from her lineage). either way, it is too late now. the destruction of the shogun's govt and her vision of eternity was always meant to happen in due time.)

as for kokotao, i think what initially attracted me to their ship is similar to what first drew me to kokosara...

right off the bat, their clashing visuals/aesthetics HAHAHA

hu tao would totally be down to read kkm books as she falls asleep, kkm would do the same too! (if she can get ht to sleep that is lol)

their clashing personalities and way of thinking, ht's chaotic mindset and kkm's well-planned and tactician-like abilities... even their food preferences differ too! (god, reading their voice lines for kkm's least/ht's fave food srsly makes me think they were made for each other)

i think in a modern au (and in genshin too i guess), they'd be great "business" partners. as in, they kind of make up for what the other lacks (in both a domestic and working way) - kkm's strategic skills could be used to bring more customers in for hu tao and hu tao would be able to deal with the social side of kkm's job (just thinking about it makes me swoon, they'd be so in love)

let's be real here, i think kkm would be p easy to tease and ht would have tons of fun pranking her and telling her jokes etc.

in a gameplay perspective, ht loses hp and kkm is a healer !! (aww only true gfs fight alongside each other)

in the same way hydro puts out pyro, kkm can reign ht in when it get's a little too much (but not in a way where she's stopping ht from being who she is if ygm) and vice versa for ht being able to "give" kkm a bit of her own energy

I THINK THEY'D MAKE A FORMIDABLE DUO WHEN PLAYING FPS GAMES (AND LASER TAG/PAINTBALL TOO)

there's probably a lot more but those are my reasons for now haha

#oh no this was kinda long...#AIUSASAJSC why does it #look like i RAMBLED about kokotao :OOO #anyways.........#phi rambles #answered

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random-mha-thoughts · 4 years

Text

Smile (Shinsou x Reader)

Pairing: Shinsou x Reader

For anon (request)

Genre: Slight angst to fluff

Summary: Shinsou has a crush on someone in 1-B and works up the courage to ask them on a date.

Tags: @wwwwyamd @yuki-osaki @liviitehe @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog @bunnythepipsqueak

Word count: 1,680

a/n: Ah, I missed writing for my tired purple boy. I just miss him in general, when I was searching for fanarts to post, I really was like “Damn I really miss Shinsou.” How many of you agree?

So this is a request that some of you have seen already, but I don’t quite want to spoil anything for anyone who’s new, so I’ll post it at the end. I'm glad I was able to extend this longer than I was planning, because I really only had just the one scene from the request in mind vividly and the rest I wrote as I went along.

I have 3 more requests, but I'm gonna take a break from them so I can write some of my own original ideas before starting those up again, so look forward to that! Enjoy this one!

(Also gender neutral pronouns they/them coming through!)

Buy me a coffee?

Shinsou first saw his crush at the beginning of the first semester. He was taken by their quirk, a pretty flashy light quirk. From what he overheard while they were telling their 1-B friend - he was totally not stalking, Shinsou doesn't stalk people - they can control the color of the light to do different things.

"Red light is a heat laser, green light heals, yellow warms things, blue cools things," they explained, the proudest smile on their face. "I'd say it's pretty versatile. And the more saturated the colors are, the more powerful they work!"

Shinsou was already intrigued by their quirk, but seeing their face light up was like icing on an already delicious cake. The sparkle in their hazel eyes, adorably smaller form that's the right right height for him to kiss their head, a smile he already decided he wanted to protect. If only he could go over there and ask them to tell him more about their quirk, but he was afraid that his intimidating figure would scare them away. Discouraged, he walked back to his own class to mope. Crushes and him never worked out in the past anyway; once they found out about his quirk, they would either run for the hills or try to abuse him.

However, he still longed to be with them. He found himself naturally searching through a crowd to find them. Each time, they would have the most brilliant smile on their face as they chatted with their friends. It always put a smile on Shinsou's face that they were happy being in the company of good friends. More and more, he found himself craving them to smile at something he said, to pat their head to greet them, just to hold them in his arms for a warm hug. It became less of a want and more of a need, but he held himself back for his heart's sake.

After the Sports Festival came and went, Shinsou had a change of heart. He's not a villain, he will only appear that way if he comes off like that. He won't let his quirk define him, and he'll make a much more pleasant impression so they wouldn't think of him as dark. He took the opportunity to work on himself as a person, gain more confidence in himself so he can put his best foot forward. He's won't let himself lack in any department, he'll only show the best parts of himself and present himself to them in a new-and-improved form.

After training with Aizawa for a while - not to mention bulking up quite a bit to improve his chances - Shinsou decides on the right time to face them. The purple haired boy practically shakes with anticipation the entire day. During his last class, he rehearses the words he's wanted to say since he first saw them.

"You're such a bright, shining person. To me, you stand out among everyone else. I'd like to get to know you better, would you mind going out with me?"

He second guesses every word and intonation, convinced that even the slightest error would throw the entire mood off and send the whole thing crashing down. He won't let that happen.

The final bell rings and Shinsou's practically the first person to jump from him seat, throw his belongings haphazardly into his bag, and rush out the door of the school building. Stationing himself at a nearby bench, he waits for them to come out, tapping his foot impatiently while still trying to look casual shoving his hands in his pockets.

Scanning the crowd of exiting students like a human radar, he searches for that smile he adores. His heart practically beats out of his chest when he locks onto them, homing in on them without paying any mind to the surrounding students. He collects himself and breathes, keeping in step behind them. They're talking to a friend of their's, going on about hero training and homework. He could listen to them talk indefinitely if he wanted, but then he wouldn't have the chance to confess his feelings.

Just you practiced big guy, go on. Do it for that precious smile. Shinsou gathers his wits and approaches just a bit closer. Do I say "hey?'" "Hi?" "Yo?" Damn it, just do what's natural! Calm down! He bites the bullet. "Hey." He's proud that it sounds casual enough.

The apple of his eye turns around curiously, their smile just faltering slightly from their conversation with their friend.

Take it away big guy. "Hey, I noticed you around. I think you're-"

It's then he notices. The way their eyes widen, the smile drops completely from their face, their skin turns pale, and Shinsou isn't sure why. He's sure he didn't say anything wrong, he's barely said anything. "Is-"

They let out a yelp and hide behind their friend, squeezing their eyes shut and quivering. Beyond bewilderment, Shinsou's chest hurts as his world darkens. The one person he wanted to smile at him and lighten his life plunged him into despairing blackness. All his fear of people hating him for his quirk and being frightened of him resurfaced. He feels naked, vulnerable, and ashamed all at once standing there frozen.

"You have to forgive them, it's not your fault." The friend offers a sympathetic smile.

"Did I do something wrong?" The entire ego he's spent the last few months popped in two seconds flat.

"No, it's not you, trust me." The girl pats the frightened soul behind her on the had to comfort them. "You see, they have a deathly fear of purple."

It almost sounds like some twisted joke, a prank the universe was playing on him for some unknown reason. "Oh. I see." That's all Shinsou manages to say in response. At least he's doing his best not to show how heartbroken he is.

"Sorry about that," the girl flashes another sheepish smile in half-comfort while his crush drags her away by the arm to escape what anyone from the outside would think is a monster.

And the monster is him.

Shinsou is way past disgruntled once he gets home. He doesn't know what to do now, what can he do now. Giving up would be the easiest thing to do, especially with how dejected he feels. The thing that hurts him the most is his sunshine who he never saw without their smile didn't smile when they were around him, all because of something else about him that he can't change.

He swiftly sits up from his laying position as an idea strikes him. Or can he?

Two weeks later, Shinsou shows up to school so people barely recognize him. He'd bought one of those hair coloring conditioners in black and washed his hair with it last night, and the brown colored contacts arrived shortly after he placed his order online. Shinsou isn't the type of guy to give up that easily, and for someone he really wants to get to know, he'll make it work. If he can temporarily change his appearance just to get to know them first, maybe he can be the one to help them get over their fear little by little.

Shinsou brushes away all the comments about his drastic appearance change; he's doing it for them and that's all that matters. He decides this time to just approach them at lunchtime, no dramatic openers or well-timed moments; a friendly conversation is just as good an introduction as he can get now.

He approaches them while throwing away their lunch alone, tapping their shoulder. "Hey." He holds his breath when they turn around again, eyes scanning his figure for recognition. "You don't know me, I'm in 1-C, we haven't spoken before."

A friendly grin spreads on their face. "Oh, it's good to meet you!"

The boy inwardly cheers in victory. "I'm Shinsou, your name is?"

"(Y/n)."

He rubs the back of his neck. He wants to be honest, but doesn't know how they'll take it. "I tried to talk to you a few weeks ago, but you were startled and ran off before I could say anything."

Their hazel eyes widen slightly before guilt morphs into their features. "Oh, you're that guy. I'm really sorry I did that to you, I must've made you feel awful." They groan, a sound Shinsou admittedly finds cute, red color rushing to their cheeks, "And you even changed your hair color and everything, I'm really sorry!"

"Hey, it's okay." Shinsou offers empathetically, "You shouldn't feel bad about things that you have no control over." He knows that feeling all too well. "I put the effort in because I want to get to know you better, it's not something you should feel bad about. I think you're cool, from what I've seen. We should hang out."

The boy can tell how taken back but grateful they are, a deep rooted appreciation shines from their eyes and more color saturating their cheeks. "I'm not that special, but I think you're a cool guy for doing this for me."

Shinsou's heart can't help but feel captured once again by their vulnerability. "It's what's on the inside that matters, I guess. Can I join you for the rest of lunch?"

And finally, he's rewarded with what he's wanted to see: His bright light shows him a beaming, toothy grin that crinkles up their eyes and puffs out their cheeks; it's a smile that's directed straight at him. As his heart thumps wildly in his chest, the boy thinks he can die happily in this very moment. "Of course! Let's go sit."

It takes him a moment and a cough to clear his throat before he's back on Earth, nodding and following them back to their table. As they walk next to him, he steals a few glances down, hoping that nothing else goes wrong. Even if they do, he knows he'll have to find a way to work around them. With that battery-charging smile, he knows he can figure out the solution to any problem.

So the full request from Anon was: “Hey you could take ALL the time at this but it wouldn't be sad if Shinsou's crush, the reader, is porphyrophobic. That means the reader is scared of the color purple. Have a good day!"

I hope I did it justice, it was originally gonna be just full angst, but it would only be drabble length, so I took it a step further. I hope it made you guys feel all warm inside :3

#Shinsou x reader #shinsou angst #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #shinsou hitoshi #angst to fluff #gender neutral reader #request #shinsou imagine #shinsou scenario #mha shinsou #bnha shinsou #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfiction

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deancaskiss · 4 years

Text

I Still Get Jealous

My second entry for the DeanCas #SPNStayAtHome event hosted by @bend-me-shape-me @helianthus21 @pray4jensen :)

Also posted to ao3 if anyone is interested in reading it there!

As per requested, tagging @baby-in-a-trenchcoat7 who wanted to be tagged when it was posted!

Monday 2: Gentleman

I Still Get Jealous

Dean plopped himself down onto the stale stained seat at the empty bar, tilting his head to the side slightly to cast his eyes over to Sam, who had just slid into a garish red booth with their potential target; an alluring witch in her mid-thirties hexing young men in the town to explode their girlfriends. Ensuring Sam was safe and hadn’t given the signal to make a move, he darted his eyes to the other side of the dimly lit bar where Cas was casually sitting on his own, watching over a young man in a K-State sweatshirt who was the next victim on the witch’s hit list.

Dean undoubtedly had the easiest job of the night; watch the scene from afar, and jump in if his brother or his boyfriend gave the signal. Unless Sam was right about the other part of the plan, then he’d have a little more work to do, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. Either way, it didn’t stop him from being on high alert; his gun tucked conveniently in the back of his waistband and his eyes canvassing the place every few seconds.

They’d only been in the bar for a total of ten minutes and Dean was starting to get antsy, his knee bouncing as he looked over at Sam again. His brother seemed calm and collected, reaching out to touch the woman’s hand and smiling at her brightly. Good. At least that part of the plan was working. All Sam needed to do was get the details of where she was taking the victims to put them under her spell, as one of the young men was still missing, and if he took her out afterwards, Dean was more than happy with that result.

Just as Dean was about to glance over to Cas again, someone bumped his shoulder casually. “For someone sitting alone, you sure do look fidgety. Mind if I buy’ya a drink?”

Glancing up, Dean locked eyes with a gentleman about his age; dark black curly hair with bright green eyes and a lazy smirk. Bingo. The witch’s apprentice.

God, Dean was never going to hear the end of it after betting Sam that there was no way this guy would show and take the bait so easily.

‘You’re just his type,’ Sam had cackled in their motel room earlier that evening, batting his eyes and smirking at Dean. Cas had growled at that, the pencil in his hands cracking at the implication, but neither Dean nor Sam had heard him, too busy making a bet over if the apprentice would show.

Time to turn on the charm. Dean cocked his head to the side, sliding his tongue over his lower lip and darting his eyes up and down the man in front of him, lingering over the man’s waist. “Depends. You got plans later?”

Dean chanced a brief look over to Cas, who’s shoulders had suddenly tensed up and was laser focused on him. From the way he was hunched forward, his fingers itching towards his sleeve, Dean knew things could go bad very quickly if he didn’t intervene.

He gave a quick shake of his head, trying to tell Cas to stand down. ‘It’s fine,’ he mouthed at Cas, trying everything in his power to ease Cas’ worry without being able to reach out and touch him. It ached in Dean’s chest. He wanted to grab Cas by the lapels and kiss him firmly, reassuring him that he only had eyes for Cas. But right now, he had a job to do, and several people’s lives, including Sam’s, could be on the line if he didn’t play his cards right. So he silently prayed to Cas, reminding him of who had his heart as he broke eye contact with his angel and looked back to the man in front of him.

The man grinned, nodding his head to the bartender and holding up two fingers. “I might do. Might change those plans if your offer is better. Whatcha got in mind, sweetheart?”

“I got a bottle of whiskey in my motel room that would look real nice dripping down your chest,” Dean said, flashing the man a dirty smirk, slipping into the role he needed to play.

The man chuckled darkly, reaching out to squeeze Dean’s thigh. “Well, ain’t that just a tempting offer. Far more entertaining than my previous commitments.”

“Is that so?” Dean asked, forcing himself to hold still and not shove the hand away despite every alarm bell in his head going off at a hand that wasn’t Cas’ touching him. Taking a deep breath, he leaned into the man’s space. At this angle, he couldn’t see Sam, but he was able to dart his eyes over to Cas in hopes that if he needed to make a move, Cas would let him know. But when his eyes locked with Cas’ again, he felt the air in his lungs leave in a sharp gasp.

Cas was almost radiating, a hazy pulsating glow hovering around the angel. His eyes were dark and piercing; his lips pulled back in a snarl. Spiderweb cracks crawled up the bottle in his left hand, and the wooden table seemed to be bending inwards on itself under the grip of Cas’ other hand. It was terrifying and slightly intoxicating, and Dean wasn’t sure whether to be on high alert or turned on by Cas’ display.

Dean tried to shoot Cas a stern look, raising his eyebrows and mouthing ‘calm down’. He could see Cas starting to bristle, the tip of his angel blade pressing into his wrist as if it knew how strongly Cas wanted to use it on the man in front of Dean. Before he could see Cas’ full reaction, the man cleared his throat, and Dean flickered his eyes back to the man in front of him, making sure to let his gaze linger on the man’s lips before making eye contact again.

“You got a name?” the man asked, pushing a glass of amber liquid into Dean’s hand.

“Ethan.” Swirling the liquid in the glass, Dean lifted it to his mouth and drained the shot, licking his lips slowly. He was going to need to be way more drunk than he currently was if he was ever going to be able to get past his revulsion to fake interest and arousal for the man in front of him.

The man smirked, signalling the bartender for another round. “Liam,” the man said, tipping his glass towards Dean in silent cheers before downing his own drink.

“Well then, Liam, what other offers you got on the table tonight?” Dean asked, reaching out to trail his own hand up Liam’s inner thigh, shoving down the bright flash of disgust that burned his stomach.

Flicking his gaze back to Cas had been a dangerous move. The angel was pure fury, the hazy fog turning into something dark and lethal. Maybe it was just his connection to Cas, but Dean could swear he could see the faint outline of black wings crawling out of Cas’ back, as if he was losing control of his hold on his angel powers. That sent a thrill down Dean’s spine, and a small part of his brain short circuited at the idea of Cas pouncing and claiming Dean right there against the bar. ‘Cas,’ he mouthed. A warning. A plea. A dark desire.

Liam laughed darkly- snapping Dean’s attention away from Cas- and shifted in his seat to splay his legs open further. “My boss is working on a case tonight. I’m supposed to be helping seal the deal, bring the young guy in and give him what he needs.”

Taking a deep breath to steady his fraying nerves, Dean casually glanced over to Sam, checking that he wasn’t in any immediate danger before skittering his eyes around the rest of the bar as if he was just checking out the scenery. “You gonna ditch that boss of yours then?”

“Depends on how much of a good time you’re offering, Ethan,” Liam said, reaching a hand out to rest on the nape of Dean’s neck.

Dean shuddered, not from the touch of the man sitting next to him, but from the way he could feel the waves of rage radiating off of Cas as he shot daggers their way. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say Cas had ripped his angel blade from his sleeve and thrown it straight into the other man’s back. He didn’t have to turn around to feel the heavy weight of Cas’ eyes on them; could almost feel Cas’ jealousy burning through his own veins. He willed Cas to look away, praying internally for Cas to focus on the college kid and not on him.

“Aren’t you lucky then, because I’m willing to offer the best fuck of your life,” Dean said, gritting his teeth at the sudden wave of nausea snaking up his throat. This would have been so much easier back in the day; back when Dean didn’t give a fuck who he flirted with if it meant solving the case and saving people.

“Best fuck of my life, huh? What makes you think you’re that good?” Liam’s hand moved from his thigh, inching closer to his crotch.

Dean’s back stiffened. Things were about to go sideways really fucking fast if Sam didn’t make his move on the witch.

“I’m- uh… I’m-” Dean started to say, his mind racing as the situation started slipping through his fingers.

“Speechless, huh? Bet you’re gonna be struggling for words when I’m pounding into you, too,” Liam said, closing the distance between them to place his lips on Dean’s neck.

And that was the final straw. Almost the same second Dean felt the touch on his neck, there was a loud crack and pieces of wood from Cas’ table burst into the air. One second the man was plastered to his side, and the next he was gone, Castiel hurling the man over the bar and into the wall of bottles. The bottles exploded, liquor spraying everywhere and glass shattering across the floor.

Screams echoed through the bar as the patrons scattered, ducking under tables and running out of the door.

There was a distant shrill shriek, and Dean had his hand on his gun and was aiming towards the garish red booth before he could even process what he was doing. Sam had a blade stabbed through the witches hand, but the second it took him to grab his gun was too long and the witch threw him across the room with a flick of her other hand.

Dean lurched forward, casting his eyes to Sam for a brief moment to ensure he was still breathing before aiming at the witch and sending three shots off in quick succession.

There was another ear-splitting screech, and the witch tore off, tables flying towards Dean with another flick of the witches hand as she made her break for the door. Dropping to the floor, Dean ducked the flying furniture and fired another shot. It clipped the witch in the shoulder, and she stumbled for a half second before ripping the door open and darting out.

Sam was back up, pushing through the rubble and chasing after the witch as she fled the bar. “I got her! Help Cas,” Sam yelled over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

Dean stumbled, taking a half step to instinctively follow Sam before he looked over to the bar and saw Cas cornering Liam, his moves predatory as he finally pulled his angel blade from his sleeve. “You touched what belongs to me,” Cas hissed, slashing out with the blade and catching Liam across the forearm. Liam screamed out in pain, lashing out and attempting to punch Cas. The angel easily dodged, instead hurling his weight into Liam and sending him crashing into the wall with a loud thunk.

“Cas!” Dean shouted. “We need him alive until Sam’s got the witch.”

The growl that slipped from Cas’ throat was so loud Dean heard it halfway across the room. The feral sound sent a shudder down Dean’s spine, and the sudden urge to have Cas’ lips on his raced through his body. There was something so darkly seductive about Cas being that possessive, and it filled Dean with primal need to have Cas right then and there.

In a flash, Cas lashed out, stabbing the blade through Liam’s shoulder and into the wall behind him, effectively trapping him as the man screamed in agony. “Stay,” Cas hissed. “Be grateful. If it were up to me, you’d be dead right now.” He turned away with a flap of his trenchcoat, crunching over broken glass as he moved towards Dean.

“Sam took off after the witch. I should probably…” Dean trailed off, pointing with his thumb in the general direction of the door.

Cas nodded stiffly, and Dean took half a step backwards before Cas reached out, his hand snatching Dean’s waist and pulling him closer. “Mine,” Cas growled, tugging Dean down into a bruising kiss.

It only lasted a few seconds before Cas pulled away, leaving Dean dazed and swaying on his feet. He nodded weakly, the world spinning as he tried to catch his breath. “Yeah, Cas. I’m yours.”

Those words seemed to cause something to snap in Cas, because one second they were standing there, breathing in each other’s space, and the next Cas had Dean pinned to the wall, teeth clashing as they kissed. Dean reached up, fingers latching onto Cas’ hair as he yanked him even closer, shoving his tongue into Cas’ mouth and lapping up every deep throated growl Cas was making. Cas arched into Dean’s touch, fingernails digging into Dean’s waist as their tongues wrapped around each other and they kissed and kissed. Dean pulled away, his lungs burning as he gasped for air. Cas trailed his lips down, sucking a kiss to the underside of Dean’s jaw.

“Cas,” Dean gasped out, his eyes fluttering shut as he struggled to control the swirling thoughts in his head.

Cas groaned, nipping Dean’s skin before pulling away. “Go help Sam,” he said, forcing himself to let Dean go as he took a step back.

With a sharp nod, Dean ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “This isn’t over,” he said, eyes lingering on Cas’ swollen lips as another pang of desire sparked in Dean’s stomach. Shaking his head to force his thoughts back to the case, Dean bottled the emotions and took off after Sam. They had a witch to kill.

It wasn’t until they were back in their motel room hours later- after they’d tracked down the witch and taken care of her and the apprentice, and the captured young man and the man in the college sweatshirt were both safe- that Dean cornered Cas, pressing the angel up against the wall with his hip.

“What the hell was that all about earlier?” Dean asked.

Cas’ expression immediately darkened, an almost feral look glinting in his eyes. “That man had his hands and mouth all over you, Dean.”

“Yes, I was well aware. And I hated every second of it. But the case came first. You knew that it was all fake flirting. It wasn’t like I was actually going to bring him back to the motel and let him fuck me. Nor would I have let him kiss me. I would have shoved him off.”

“But you didn’t!”

“Because you went full angel fury the millisecond it happened. Cas, look at me.” Dean paused, waiting for Cas’ eyes to lock with his. “I wouldn’t have let it happen. And I sure as hell wouldn’t have gone off with some gentleman in a bar for a good time in the sack. C’mon, Cas, you know me better than that. After all this time, have I ever once given you a reason to doubt me? Have I ever once flirted with anyone else in the last few years and actually meant it?”

Cas sagged back against the wall, the fight draining from him. “No, you haven’t.”

“Trust me, the ruse would have been over very quickly when he discovered I couldn’t even remotely get it up for him.” Dean leaned forward, nosing along Cas’ jaw and up behind his ear. “Although, I do gotta admit, you’re sexy as fuck when you’re jealous,” Dean murmured, rolling his hips slightly into Cas’.

Cas hissed, feeling the press of Dean’s bulge against his thigh.

“When you slammed me up against the wall and kissed me earlier… I don’t think I’ve ever been so turned on in my life,” Dean confessed, his lips ghosting over Cas’ jaw before he lurched forward and kissed Cas, long and deep and biting.

Cas quickly took control of the kiss, biting at Dean’s lower lip and causing both of them to moan. Cas pulled back, panting, his eyes blown wide. “Angel fury is a turn on now, is it?”

“Fuck yes,” Dean said, eyes darting back down to Cas’ mouth.

Cas took the hint, looping his fingers into Dean’s belt loops and drawing him even closer before they were kissing again, wet and hot and desperate. Dean slotted his thigh between Cas’ legs and they both gasped as Dean rolled their hips together, creating a delicious burn of friction.

“C’mon angel, take me to bed and show me who I really belong to.”

Cas groaned, arching up and catching Dean’s mouth in another frantic kiss. He was more than happy to take Dean up on that offer.

#SPNStayAtHome #deancas #destiel #supernatural #spn #writing #ficlet #light angst #jealousy #casdean #castiel #dean winchester #flirting #fake flirting #established relationship #case #case fic #destiel fic #bex writing

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watchathon · 4 years

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Stitch Day Special: Lilo & Stitch

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watch-a-Thon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a show every one-to-two days, with a short blog post where I give my thoughts on what I’ve just seen. Each new point starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so.

But today? Well, today I’ve got an extra-special post in the wings about a movie, one of my favorite Disney movies, starring my absolute favorite Disney character: Lilo & Stitch!

- I like the variation on the Disney logo. That is the kind of stuff that they just couldn’t do with their new big fancy CGI logo.

- No clue why Jumba tried to deny that he created an experiment. I don’t much mind since it led to a funny joke, but c’mon, evil genius, you should be smart enough to plead guilty.

- “I would never, ever... make more than one.” *glances meaningfully in the direction of the series*

- “What is that monstrosity...?” He’s a cute widdle fluffball, that’s what he is!

- “Meega nala kweesta!” Canonically, this translates to “I want to destroy”, but that seems a little lukewarm for the reaction he got. Maybe a looser translation is in order...

There could be an entire aristocrats joke in those three words. The whole script to Batman v Superman. The opening notes to “Never Gonna Give You Up”...

Or maybe just “bitch”.

- Blood work is a lot different in space...

- Weird to imagine given the rest of the franchise, but Gantu was once a respected captain of the galactic federation.

- It’s easy to perceive Stitch as a dumb brute, but he’s pretty smart. He connected the dots all on his own, within minutes of his imprisonment, that if the guns are locked onto his DNA, he can use his saliva to trick them. Jumba wasn’t kidding when he boasted of his experiment’s intelligence.

- And not only was Gantu a captain, Pleakley was an expert on the planet Earth. Weird, innit...?

- “Are [humans] intelligent?” “No.” An exchange that only hurts more with every year.

- Love the implication that Pleakley was just suggesting several different relatives to assist with the capture of Stitch from when they were on the deck up until they got to the prison where Jumba was held.

- Now this is what we (or rather TVTropes) call an establishing character moment. A fish floats by holding a sandwich in its mouth, implying (soon confirming) that Lilo was the one to give it the sandwich, before rushing to the hula practice that she was late for, stopping to take a picture of a tourist along the way.

- And then after she arrives at hula practice, she explains that she had to give Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich because he controls the weather.

- No clue why the other girls are disgusted by Scrump. I always wanted a Scrump when I was a little lass.

- “Did you ever kill anyone?” Lilo asks the right questions.

- Nani, y’could’ve avoided this if you’d given a thumbs up instead...

- I don’t get the glare Cobra gives Nani after Lilo says that her friends need to be punished. Voodoo isn’t a failure of parenting. In many cases, at least...

- Licking Nani, growling after her capture, Lilo already has a lot in common with Stitch.

- Lucky that Lilo is such a quirky kid. The scene (semi-)explaining why she takes pictures of tourists was deleted, but it doesn’t feel like anything is missing because she already has a few habits that just plain inexplicable, like feeding Pudge, practicing voodoo with a pickle jar...

- Lilo wishing for an angel because of how lonely she is, that’s a sad moment. But also kinda funny in hindsight after she sarcastically names Stitch’s love interest Angel in the series.

- Lord give me the undisturbed...ness, of that frog who watched Stitch get run over by several trucks and only tilted its head.

- If they thought Stitch was dead, why did they keep it in the shelter? I mean, Lilo would probably adopt a dead dog, but she’s the outlier.

- I like how Jumba programmed, as part of Stitch’s destructive tendencies, an urge to steal everybody’s left shoe.

- You can just about pinpoint the moment where Stitch’s heart drops at learning that he’s on an island with no major cities.

- Just occurred to me that the badness level is red, and Stitch’s evil counterparts in the series (627 and Leroy) are both red.

- Ah, David. One of the best Disney love interests, mostly because he isn’t entirely a love interest. There is a mutual attraction, but Nani just isn’t ready for that with everything going on in her life, and David respects that and is happy to be a friend.

- I like how everyone except Lilo heavily suspects that Stitch isn’t a dog.

- Ohhh, the thought of Stitch having drank coffee. I mean, I’d love to see it, but it’d be Hell for Nani.

- Stitch looks just plain adorable with a lei.

- Well, Lilo, you did tell Stitch he should create something. And he did, he just destroyed his creation afterward.

- Pleakley is a gender-nonconforming icon.

- The first time we see Stitch doing something without even the intention of destroying anything is when he finds the book about the Ugly Duckling. It’s clear that he’s fascinated just by looking at it. And when Lilo explains the story? It resonates with him. Or, well, perhaps he wants it to resonate with him.

- I wish I had an evil koala dog that played records.

- Are we sure that “Meega nala kweesta” means “I want to destroy”? Maybe it means “I was born to dance”, ‘cause Stitch learns about dancing and in less than a minute he’s already an expert.

- I imagine this montage, or slightly earlier, would be when that deleted scene of Lilo trolling the obnoxious racist tourists originally came into play. And I like this scene, but, I do wish that scene hadn’t gotten cut. And I wish that they fully animated it and inserted it into the movie like Warner Bros did with The Iron Giant.

- Nothing cheers me up more than this scene of Stitch and his newfound family going surfing. And especially since Stitch is aquaphobic. He’s very much aware that he cannot swim, and likely wouldn’t survive if he fell off the board into the ocean. But even he eventually gets into the spirit of it, asks Lilo himself to go surfing, and enjoys a nice bonding moment with his family. And David.

- Of course Jumba and Pleakley had to ruin a perfectly sweet moment.

- And so we transition from a heartwarming wholesome moment, to a heartbreaking tearful moment. You can just see Nani holding back tears as she says that she needs to take Lilo home.

As for Stitch, David probably didn’t even realize that Stitch could understand him when he said that Lilo and Nani had a chance until Stitch came along. But Stitch did understand, and he’s visibly hurt by the idea. He always wanted to destroy, but in this moment, he’s ashamed of how he might have destroyed Lilo’s family.

- And the Ugly Ducking metaphor comes back, when in this moment, as Stitch is coming back to a family that he fears he may have ruined, he sees a lone duck... before that duck is followed by a big family of ducklings.

- Lilo says that Stitch cries at night. So, it would seem that even before he completely learned how to be nice, Stitch wasn’t entirely emotionless.

- This whole act of the film is heart-wrenching. First Nani gets confirmation that she and Lilo will be separated, then Stitch starts to fear that he may have caused it. Then because of that? Stitch leaves, taking only the Ugly Duckling book with him. And he can only see in himself the page of the Duckling, lost and crying.

- Then Jumba tells Stitch, who’s already in a bad place emotionally, that he was made to destroy, has no family, and could never have one.

- I don’t want to think about what happened to that chainsaw.

- There’s a certain feeling that comes up in the middle of this fight scene, where you realize that a house is being destroyed, a house belonging to a family that was very much at risk of separation. And you realize that this will only hurt their case beyond any repair.

- If the past day hadn’t been bad enough, Stitch is told by his best friend Lilo that he ruined everything, and to get away.

- And so Nani really does have her sister taken away. Now, taken away by aliens is a lot different than taken away by social services. It’s worse. This way Nani knows that Lilo definitely won’t get a loving family, and Nani will definitely never see her again.

- The confusion is visible on Jumba and Pleakley when Stitch goes and comforts Nani with a quote about family. All they know about Stitch is that he was made to destroy. And then, once he’s captured, he does just about the opposite.

- “Ih.” To this day I sometimes say Ih on reflex when asked a yes-or-no question. Guess I watched this movie way too many times as a kid, huh? ...I regret nothing.

- Originally, the big red plane-looking thing was supposed to just be a plane, and it would’ve flown through a city. And it was changed because it was too soon after 9/11. But me personally, I think the big red thing is real cool, and I like it flying through the valleys.

- “Stitch is unconscious.” I like that Jumba calls Stitch by his name here. In the series, he always calls Stitch “626″ but his name is Stitch. And I like the rare occasion when that’s respected by the mad genius who created him.

- I want to believe that Stitch dodged that laser for the sake of the frog he was holding more than for his own sake. Stitch is strong enough that a few moments later, he survives an explosion of a whole truck that he’s lying on top of.

- Stitch proudly calling himself “cute and fluffy” is another thing I just love. Might be reading too much into it, but I like that he can call himself by those descriptors and still have total confidence in his ability to kick Gantu’s patookie.

- My favorite scene in the movie, and the scene I took the picture from.

Stitch corrects the Grand Councilwoman about his name. And when he’s told that he needs to go in the ship (the implication being that he’ll be punished like he was meant to be at the beginning), he doesn’t rebel or try to escape. He only politely asks that he be allowed to say goodbye.

He explains that his family is “little and broken, but still good”, both explaining it to the councilwoman and reassuring Lilo and Nani.

This is the ultimate display of how Stitch has grown. And he grew because, despite what Jumba said, Stitch could find, and did find, the one true place he belonged: With a good, loving family.

- The Grand Councilwoman is clearly remorseful that they’ll have to separate Stitch from his family, but she can’t bend the law for this one case. And she doesn’t, but it just so happens that, legally speaking, Lilo owns Stitch. And, well, what self-respecting Grand Councilwoman would steal a child’s property?

- A lot of people (including middle-school me) say that the stuff with Stitch and the aliens get in the way of the story of Lilo and Nani. I disagree. These two stories are intertwined, both about people wanting to stay with the family where they know they belong. I just couldn’t, at all, imagine one without the other.

- Now this is the kind of ending I love. It’s become common for animated movies, sequels in particular, to end on the two main characters getting separated. But here? Stitch is now a definitive part of the family, and won’t be separated from them anytime soon. Anime? What anime?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I guess I’ll be doing this on the rare occasion I cover movies...?

Anyway, this is a great movie. A modern classic. And one of very few things that doesn’t just hold up from when I was a kid, it gets better. When I was a tiny kid, I was only interested in the space aliens. When I was in my early teens, I thought the aliens were kiddy stuff.

But nowadays, I can truly appreciate it. I can appreciate how both aspects are vital to the movie. Lilo and Stitch are both equally important. You can’t have one without the other.

And most of all, I can appreciate the story of Stitch (as well as Jumba and Pleakley) finding a family, and Lilo (as well as Nani) saving theirs from being torn apart.

Lilo & Stitch brings me to tears of both joy and sadness every time I watch it. And I guarantee I’ll be watching it many more times in the future.

...Does it still count as a Stitch Day special if I’m posting after midnight? No, probably not. I thought I’d only take two hours, then I took four and a half. Guess that means I had more thoughts than I thought I did!

#Lilo and Stitch #Lilo & Stitch #language #Jumba Jookiba #Stitch #Experiment 626 #Captain Gantu #Wendy Pleakley #Lilo Pelekai #Scrump #Nani Pelekai #Cobra Bubbles #David Kawena #Grand Councilwoman #long post #my new best post yet #Movie

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stellahibernis · 4 years

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Lan Wangji: Simply Blue

AKA Lan Wangji’s costumes in the Untamed, part 5/9

Now it’s the turn of the second mainly blue costume, which is the simplest of all the outfits Lan Wangji wears during the series. Bit of a blessing, since it was really hard getting good screencaps that show the outfit, but the simplicity means I didn’t need that many😉. On the other hand, I have several sad faces in my folder because of reasons.

He wears this outfit in episodes 25 to 29, and as always, I’ll first talk about the costume and then the context.

The Costume

This second blue costume is the least elaborate out of all his costumes in both shape and detail. Gorgeous fabrics are used once again, but they’re not textured the way his three earlier outfits had.

(Sidenote, it was impossible to get a capture where you could see the full outfit from front clearly in a neutral lighting 😤)

As we see, the silhouette is as basic as it gets, a robe closed with a sash, and the cuffs with the criss-crossing bands are one of Lan Wangji’s basics. It feels a lot more casual than any of his other outfits, with minimal tailoring and more loose and relaxed at the top.

Far as I can tell, the top robe is made of two layers of fabric; the fairly lightweight blue one, and a bit sturdier silvery one underneath. It seems they’re only stitched together at the collar and front down to waist, because we see the blue and silver fabrics move independently as he walks at the front and side slits. The layer underneath is unsurprisingly a white robe.

Coming to the details, first we might note that the cloud embroidery is present but relatively understated in this outfit, it’s at its usual place on his lapels but runs down only part of the way and in a narrow row, not covering the whole lapels. Second, even his sash is simpler than usual. Usually it’s been wider, with the layers of fabric crossing over each other, but this narrower blue one is just very simply wrapped around his waist.

I’ve pointed out previously how his outfits tend to especially shine during some of his key scenes. Often it has been in darkness, which makes sense since white is pretty great to light in those conditions, but they’ve also enhanced the effect with fabric choices (the matte white in the cave that was great with the warm fire, and the shiny white of his Sunshot campaign outfit which meant he basically glowed under the moonlight when they sat on the roof). Especially great with this particular outfit is that different aspects of it are enhanced by different lighting.

On top of this post is the daytime scene on Phoenix mountain, and under the sun the blue is at its best, giving LWJ a softer appearance than his more common whites do, especially combined with the simple and loose cut. And above, during the rainy night scene the silver next to the blue is absolutely gorgeous.

He also came with an accessory once again, an umbrella. Surely it’s just a coincidence that the black pattern on it looks much like the resentful energy Wei Wuxian summons with his flute.

The Context

Lan Wangji actually doesn’t care a bit about your hunting event, Jin Guangshao.

It’s so funny to me, when everyone last saw him, there was an actual war going on and he was wearing a super elaborate outfit that was so pristine white that anyone who looked at him probably saw afterimages, and now that it’s an event designed for showing off he comes in the least detailed outfit he can get away with. The thing is though, he doesn’t care about politics or the general showing off, he’s laser focused on one thing (one person, that is):

(Yes, it was absolutely necessary to have two images from this scene.)

Again, a blue outfit is an outward symbol of his priorities swinging toward Wei Wuxian rather than his sect, and this time it’s much more pronounced than during their search for the Yin Iron. It makes narrative sense for LWJ to dress simply, because it’s as big a difference compared to his previous outfit as he can have and still keep to the Lan Sect dress code. After WWX came back, even though they made up and got along well enough together, they still didn’t manage to fully connect, there was still a wall between them, and now LWJ is trying a different strategy. Now that the war is over and his sect safe as ever, he can with a good conscience (albeit probably not in the eyes of his uncle) take a visible distance to his identity as the Second Jade of Lan and try to signal his priorities to WWX.

It’s very obvious from the start of the hunting event; as soon as they leave for the forest, LWJ doesn’t stay with his own sect but goes looking for WWX. It’s obvious in the way he asks, who he is to WWX, and affirming that he doesn’t consider their connection a thing of the past. He’s holding a door open, and it almost works, too. We see WWX contemplate his flute, as if deciding whether to confide in LWJ, and I think he even might have, had they not been interrupted. It’s very characteristic to all of their interactions while LWJ is in this outfit, there’s always a turn for worse, something of an outside influence or they meet an internal barrier they just can’t breach.

While LWJ is very persistently trying to reach WWX, he’s also perhaps the most conflicted during these episodes. His upbringing is waging a war against what his heart wants, and during this time frame he can’t resolve that battle. When WWX distances himself from the norms of the cultivation world, the conflict just gets more difficult for LWJ. It’s impossible for him to let go of WWX, but it’s equally impossible for him to leave his family and what he’s been brought up to be, and at this point in time he also doesn’t see any way to resolve the problem that would allow him to fulfill both those needs, and so he’s left in between.

At this point in the story it’s very visible how the difference in their upbringing affects the choices of LWJ and WWX. In principle, they agree that the way the Wens are treated is wrong, but LWJ has been brought up to rely on the rules rather than on his heart, to rely on the established structures of the world and to think of them as the right, and we know his uncle was and is extremely strict about it too. At the time, he’s still a teenager, and it would be practically impossible for him to let go of all that, when the only thing telling him different is his heart that he’s always been taught to not rely on, lest he become like his father. Meanwhile, WWX spent his first years with rogue cultivators and after that some time alone on the street, and those experiences most likely left him very little will to trust the establishment. Even after he’d been brought into Jiang Sect, he was still allowed to question and to not follow the rules, and so for him it’s the natural choice to follow the voice of his heart and his consciousness, even though it means breaking a promise to his sect brother.

And here is the last we see of this outfit, LWJ kneeling for a long time. I’m pretty confident in saying that no matter how long, it doesn’t really work as a punishment since he doesn’t actually regret going to Yiling.

Next we get to my favorite outfit, and more heartbreak on the side. I’m still undecided what the title for that part should be, I’m currently leaning on “everything is awful but at least he looks good,” or is that too long?

You can read the other parts of this series on my blog’s “lwj costume series” tag, and there is also a link on my blog contents page. I’d put a link here but we know how this site is with those.

#the untamed #the untamed meta #cql #cql meta #lan wangji #costume design #lwj costume series #cql rambles

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ahiddenpath · 4 years

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My Current Thoughts on Writing Fanfics

I’m so glad I’ve had this bloggity since 2012, because I can see how much my approach to writing has changed! I wanted to touch base on where I am now, plus answer the most common questions I receive about writing fanfics beneath the cut.

Obligatory disclaimer: I’m a hobbyist writer, this is meant to be taken as opinion/reflection, not advice, different approaches work for different people, annnnd also check out my digimon fanfics (FFN and AO3).

How do I develop a regular writing habit?

I’d start by setting aside 15 minutes a day to write. Don’t focus on word count- writing x number of words can be intimidating, but most people can sit for 15 minutes and get something down. If you’re writing on a computer, turn off the internet and place your phone out of reach

Gradually increase the session length.

Never worry about the quality of your writing while you’re drafting. That’s what editing and subsequent drafts are for. I have a post on utilizing successive drafts to combat writing paralysis here, but the tl;dr is that the pressure to write a perfect story in the first draft often turns writing into an agonizing trial instead of creative play.

Your first draft is bad, period, at least compared to what it will be. In the kindest way possible, get over it. Your value as a writer- or as a human!- isn’t tied into your questionable first draft. Please explore your story in the earliest stages with enthusiasm, not criticism! You’re going to make it so much better by the time you’re finished!

How do you write so much?

See, here’s one of the biggest changes in my mindset compared to my early days as ahiddenpath. I used to think that doing all of this writing was like... extra credit, like a stretch goal I pushed myself to achieve.

I learned in therapy starting in 2018 that the reason I keep writing is because I have to. I have general anxiety disorder, and my brain... Have you seen an old-timey cartoon with a boiler? They are drawn swollen, metal distorting with steam pressure, rivets groaning and popping free. That’s how I feel if I don’t write. Don’t ask me why or how, but writing is like turning a valve to release the pressure.

(Quick PSA- my therapist calls creative outlets “coping skills.” If you feel like you have boiler brain, make time for your hobbies, no matter how tired you are.)

For me, writing is challenging play. Although I’m often conveying messages that matter to me or exploring ideas I want to work through, and I try to make the best product I can... I don’t take it seriously, and I don’t sweat over it. I’m here to wander, play, and take care of myself.

So basically, I think the recipe for producing lots of writing is: regularity/habit (do it every day, even for just a little while), minimizing distractions, separating the processes of drafting and editing, turning off criticism in the early stages of drafting, and writing for yourself and your own needs.

Do you feel embarrassed about writing fanfic?

Nope. I write for my mental health/because it’s fun, period. However, I also don’t tell people IRL that I write fanfic! But I’m a private person (I don’t tell people IRL that I’m asexual, for example, and I only tell them I have anxiety if I freeze up in front of them).

Do you feel embarrassed about writing OCs/fakemon?

Hahahaha! Look, I know there are lots of people who won’t read OCs and fakemon. I know there are probably people who wish I would stick to more canon stuff (both in terms of OCs and my strong preference for AUs).

But I’m here to write what I want, and while it makes me happy when people read and enjoy my work... It’s no skin off my back if they don’t. I already fulfilled my goal of taking care of myself.

Don’t you want to get published and make money for your writing?

No, not at this time. For everyone who has said that I have the writing skill to be published, thank you so very much. That’s so kind, and I truly appreciate it!

But... The United States has the enormous capitalistic attitude problem that endeavors are only worthwhile if they generate capital. I can’t even begin to tell you how damaging this concept is- literally, I’m not equipped with the sociopolitical educational background.

Sometimes I think I’d like to become a published novelist? But sometimes I recall that I have a dope research gig, and I wanna play around with writing in my free time.

To be clear, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pursue your creative career dreams!!! And, who knows, maybe some day I’ll get tired of research and want to try swapping to the hobby/skill I’ve spent so much time refining. Just... Never stop doing something fun and harmless you enjoy because “it doesn’t make money.”

I’m not gonna sit here acting like I know what the purpose of life is, but I think having fun and meeting your needs is pivotal.

Okay, so how can I support my favorite fandom content creators?

Bless you, f’real. The easiest way is to comment on their stuff. For meta writers, leave comments, engage, ask questions. For fanfiction writers, leave reviews. I have so many lovely folks who chat with me over Tumblr or discord after reading my stuff, which is so great. But it’s hard to find those sweet messages later. I can always click on reviews any time I need a little positive reinforcement/boost. So, even if you’re going to talk to the writer later... Leave that review!

If the content producer uses social media, reblog their stuff to give them more exposure. Likes are for you, so you can find a post later. Reblogs are for the creators, so other people can see their work.

Things like fanart, fanfic of fanfic, cosplays, and other... fan content of fan content make our year, I promise! We love that so stinkin’ much!

Some fan content producers have a ko-fi and/or a patreon, so sometimes there are monetary ways to show appreciation.

If you’re intimated by a content producer, please remember that we are all massive dorkasauruses. I absolutely guarantee it.

How do you have so many ideas?!

Ah, I have a Future Projects page on my blog- I don’t think pages work on mobile.

But here’s the secret: ideas are the easy part. They are literally a dime a dozen. Heck, there are AU generators! Just pick characters out of a hat and use an AU generator and bam, you’re off! And even then, you don’t need a real idea to start writing! I launched Four Years on the thought of, “hahaha, wouldn’t it be a mess if the Chosen went to college together?!”

We’re writing fanfic; we’re here to play. There’s no need to crush yourself with the expectation that you must write the next hit thriller plot.

In my opinion, the much better question is: how do you manage your projects such that you complete them?

So, uh, how do you manage your projects?

I’ve established that I write fanfic to play and to take care of myself, but I do want to grow as a writer along the way. And the best way to learn how to craft narratives is to practice completing them. If you launch stories over and over and only write roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the story... All you’re practicing is how to start a story.

When I first started writing as ahiddenpath, I did exactly zero planning (see the Four Years reference above). I ended up with longfics stretching as long as 400K+ words- that’s over six novels (based on the average adult fiction novel length)!!!!! It is so daunting to work on longfics, because you feel like the ending is nowhere to be seen.

SO most of my pointers circle around always writing towards your ending, even before you start!

-Decide what you want to say with your story before you start writing.

First, “what you want to say” doesn’t have to be a big, grand theme. It can be as big as “how the trauma of their adventures impacted them after” or as small as “I think these dorks would have a good time at laser tag.”

I’m not talking about a detailed outline (in fact, I personally hate outlines). Just know what your story is about and make sure what you write points to it. If you can make the structure of your story mimic your theme, even better! But no worries if that doesn’t work out, it’s not always possible.

-Write linearly

The best way to keep moving along in your story is just to... keep writing it in order. This helps achieve regular updates, and prevents you from potentially “losing” material if you change your mind about the plot before reaching the bit you wrote already. This happened to me so frequently that I stopped writing ahead of myself. If I have an idea, I write it down, but I don’t draft future scenes. In my experience, they often never see the light of day.

I’m told people often write the bit of the story they most want to write first? If you have a single scene that you’re really longing to write, but you don’t know how to get there/don’t want to write the rest... May I suggest that you... don’t write the rest? If your scene works as a oneshot, write that oneshot! Don’t torture yourself with a lot of writing you don’t want to do. Most often, people end up forcing their way through 1-4 chapters, then stalling before ever reaching the Good Bit.

A moment of silence for all of the unwritten Good Bits out there. Now, some Enya.

If you can’t reduce Good Bit setup to a oneshot, reduce as much as possible. I think that sometimes, people underestimate the incredible advantages of writing fanfiction? Everyone knows your characters already, and maybe even the setting, if you keep it canon. You can cut out the setup and dive right into what you want to do with the characters!

-Think about the structure of your story before you start

Considering the structure of your story is a fantastic way to estimate how long it will be/ensure that there is an ending in sight from the start. For example, in Voices, I covered a single school year in Japan, writing a diary entry for a different Chosen every day, so I knew that I would write the story for roughly a year. After August had one chapter per Chosen, so each child could help Taichi deal with his post Adventure trauma in their own way, plus an opening and closing chapter. My Tri story, Tri: Integrity Lens, is written and posted in installments covering each Tri movie.

It’s fine if no particular structure strikes you. I could see forced structure turning into a gimmick, you know? But if it naturally works out, it’s a great way to have a solid idea of how much story is ahead of you before you start, and where the story will end. And being cognizant of how and when a story ends from chapter one yields a tighter, shorter fic, one that you’re more likely to complete.

-Consider writing in batches/sections before posting

So lately, I’ve been experimenting with how I deliver fanfic updates. I mentioned that my Tri fic follows the Tri movies. Each movie is covered with a few 3,000-6,000 word updates that I post every other week. I cover an entire movie before posting any of it, and then I plan to take a break in between movies to work on either the next movie or a different fic.

AND THIS IS SO GREAT! Having large chunks of my story written is such a fantastic way to do things! I keep thinking of little details I can add/things I should mention and noticing inconsistencies I can fix before posting. Giving myself a larger picture and time to mull over it by spreading out updates is making a huge difference for me.

Plus, giving yourself little breaks between installments can help keep you fresh and motivated, while leaving your audience waiting at a nice, natural stopping point. Plus, this way they know that you haven’t just... up an vanished or dropped a story. You’re just taking an announced break.

How do you plan stories?

I believe I mentioned hating outlines. I personally respond best to “structured freedom.” I focus on things like: what are my themes/what do I want to say, how will the characters grow or regress, how is this story structured or formatted, what is the overall tone and mood. Other than that, I keep things fluid... Which is why it’s so important for me to enforce some kind of ending point before I begin.

Basically, for me, too much planning = a boring slog where I can’t inject the moods and ideas of the day into my work without derailing meticulous plans. Too little planning = longfic hell. I’m guessing that everyone has to decide for themselves where they land on this continuum! Exploration is vital.

Okay, I am out of steam for today. If you have any other writing/fanfic questions you’d like answered, please let me know! Here are some other resources I’ve made.

-Combating writing paralysis with successive drafts

-Dishing with an artist

-Tips for Fanfic Authors

-More Tips for Fanfic Authors

-Tips for Winning Nanowrimo

-Resources/Advice for Digimon Adventure Fanfic Writers

#writing talk #writing fanfics #writing fanfiction #writing fics

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